Languages and nationalities
Which languages Angelina understands and speaks, and to what extent, is a matter of some debate. It is obvious that she speaks both Norwegian and English at a native or near-native level. It is less obvious how much Swedish, Japanese, and Persian she knows, although it is commonly believed that she is familiar with these languages to varying extents, mainly due to the reported nationalities of certain family members.
Norwegian
Angelina was born in Oslo, Norway. She is regularly described as being Norwegian, as is her mother. It is widely assumed that Norwegian is her (Angelina's) native language, and there seems to be no evidence that this is not the case.
English
Angelina has been singing in English since she was (reporedly) 18 months old.[1] Presumably she was also starting to speak English around that time, although the earliest video evidence we have of that is from when she was (around?) three years old.[2]
Swedish
Angelina's father is Swedish. She has also been interviewed in Swedish, although she answered in Norwegian.[3] (Swedish and Norwegian are very closely realted languages and have a high degree of mutual intelligibility↗.)
Japanese
Angelina's maternal grandfather is Japanese. It is known that her mother and uncle grew up in Japan and speak Japanese. The extent to which Angelina was spoken to in Japanese as she was growing up is unknown.
She has also sung in Japanese (with the aid of written lyrics).
When asked to record a message to a Japanese fan when she was 14, she chose to do so in English.[4] This seems highly significant: if she can speak Japanese well, presumably she would have recorded the message in Japanese. So, it seems that she is, at the very least, not "fluent" in Japanese.
Persian
Angelina's maternal grandmother is Iranian and speaks Persian (a.k.a. Farsi). She and Angelina are very close, so it is assumed that they can speak Persian with each other. However, direct evidence of this seems to be hard to come by.
Other languages
Angelina has been interviewed in German and (Brazilian) Portuguese, and probably other languages, as well, but she used an interpreter in these cases and did not speak these languages. Whether she showed any evidence of understanding the languages at all is a matter of personal opinion.
She has also sung in French.
References
- ↑ Angelina Jordan - News feature in Norwegian TV2 from 2014 (eng sub)↗. YouTube. Accessed 2021-01-10.
- ↑ Spoken to in English: Film of Angelina Jordan when 3 years old in U.S.A↗. YouTube. Accessed 2020-11-22.
Speaking English: Angelina Jordan with one of her birds called Jordan it's very very funny and super cute↗. YouTube. Accessed 2020-09-29. - ↑ Angelina Jordan concert in Sweden (exclusive)↗. YouTube. Accessed 2021-01-16.
- ↑ Angelina Jordan on Japanese FUJI TV Surprise Actor Fumiyo Kohinataアンジェリーナ ジョーダン 小日向 文世 CC↗. YouTube. Accessed 2021-01-15.
