Daniel Paul Tammet (born 31 January 1979) is a writer with high-functioning autistic savant syndrome.
Language abilities
Tammet can learn new languages very quickly. To prove this for a documentary film, Tammet was challenged to learn Icelandic in one week. Seven days later he appeared on Icelandic television conversing in Icelandic, with his Icelandic language instructor saying it was "not human" and "genius!". Segments of the interview showing Tammet responding to questions in Icelandic were televised on the 28 January 2007 edition of the CBS news magazine, 60 Minutes.
Tammet states in Born On A Blue Day that he speaks ten languages including: English, French, Finnish, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Romanian, Icelandic, Welsh, and Esperanto.
He particularly likes Estonian, because it is rich in vowels.
