what is hte record for the most numbrer of languages sspoken?

Answer 1

56 (now 58 claimed on the Portuguese webpage)

"Fazah was born in Liberia but while still an infant moved with his Lebanese parents to Beirut. "By the time I was 17, I spoke 54 languages," Fazah said during an interview at his small, dark apartment in the middle-class neighborhood of Flamengo. Aside from his mother tongue of Arabic, and French and English which he learned at school, Fazah taught himself all the languages. He began with German and moved on to such Far Eastern tongues as Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese and Japanese."

Answer 2

Ziad Fazah may have the record for the current living person speaking the most languages, however you can find a list of hyperpolygots who could speak even more languages at this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_noted_polyglots

However, since it's Wikipedia, not all of the facts are verified. For example, Hans Conon von der Gabelentz was not fluent in 80 languages as listed; according to Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, he was could speak 80 and was fluent in 30. A reposted NYT article confirms that Francis Sommer was fluent in 94 languages as recognized by the Linguistic Society of America.

"Each vocation or avocation has its Babe Ruths and
Baryshnikovs, and so it is with the Linguistic Society of America.
The champion is Francis Sommer, fluent in 94 languages."

"Strangely, linguists say, they know of no one who has made a
scientific study of master linguists like Sommer or
Harold Williams, a New Zealand journalist who died in 1928 and
is listed (incorrectly) in the Guinness Book of Records as
the world's greatest linguist, though Somers mastered almost twice as many languages."

(The Guinness Book of World Records online has no record for this question.)

Answer 3

one person knew over 190 languages very fluently