It’s estimated that there are up to 7000 different languages spoken around the world. 90% of these languages are used by less than 100,000 people. 2,200 of the world’s languages can be found in Asia while only 260 can be found in Europe. via BBC
The United Nations uses six official languages to conduct business: English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and Arabic. via BBC
More than half of the world’s population is bilingual or plurilingual. via ECML
Though many languages have 50,000 words or more in their entire vocabulary, most people in their everyday speech only use the same few hundred words. via ECML
You can use an ATM in Latin in the Vatican. Also, the Pope tweets in 9 languages. via UIC London/HuffPo
12.44% of the world’s population speaks Mandarin as their first language. via UIC London/HuffPo
One language dies about every 14 days. via UIC London/HuffPo
Esperanto is an artificial language, but is spoken by about 500,000 to 2,000,000 people, and 2 feature films have been done in the language. via UIC London/HuffPo
South Africa has 11 official languages – the most for a single country. via UIC London/HuffPo
All pilots on international flights identify themselves in English. via FactMonster
After Latin, the language that has had the biggest historic influence on the Spanish language is Arabic. Today, English exerts the most influence on Spanish. via Speaking Latino
In Germany, Rice Crispies don’t go ‘snap, crackle and pop’ – they go ‘Knisper! Knasper! Knusper!’ In France, they go ‘Cric! Crac! Croc!’ And in Spain, they go ‘Cris! Cras! Cros!’ via Buzzfeed
The Finnish language has three of the world’s longest palindromic words : ‘saippuakivikauppias’ – a soapstone seller, ‘saippuakuppinippukauppias’ – a soapstone trader and ‘solutomaattimittaamotulos’ – the result from a measurement laboratory for tomatoes. via Buzzfeed
The little dot above lower case ‘i’s and ‘j’s is called a tittle. via Buzzfeed
“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo” is a grammatical correct sentence in American English, used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated linguistic constructs. The sentence uses three meanings of the word buffalo: the city of Buffalo, New York, the somewhat uncommon verb “to buffalo” (meaning “to bully or intimidate”), and the animal buffalo (presumably bison as Buffalo is in North America). via Wikipedia
In a study that looked at words for colors in different languages, a pattern was observed that though words for colors appeared in stages, across all cultures, the word for blue always comes last. via Radiolab
‘Bel hevi’ (Tok Pisin, Papua New Guinea) describes the sinking feeling that accompanies sadness, literally translating as ‘belly heavy.’ via Buzzfeed
‘Mamihlapinatapei’ (Fuegian language from Chile) describes the shared look of longing between two lovers, where both know the score but neither is willing to make the first move. via Buzzfeed
In Albanian there are 27 words for ‘moustache’ including ‘dirs ur’ – meaning the newly sprouted moustache of an adolescent. via Buzzfeed
‘Achaplinarse’ is a Spanish (Central American Spanish) word which means to hesitate and then run away in the style of Charlie Chaplin. via Buzzfeed
‘Tuqburni’ (Arabic) translates literally into “You bury me,” referring to a love so deep you can’t imagine living life without your partner. via thedatereport
In Japanese, ‘komorebi’ refers to the interplay between light and leaves when sunlight shines through trees. via Huffington Post
An untranslatable word, ‘Han’ (Korean) is described as a collective feeling of oppression and isolation. Los Angeles Times: “it’s as amorphous a notion as love or hate: intensely personal, yet carried around collectively, a national torch, a badge of suffering tempered by a sense of resiliency.” via Huffington Post
‘Waldeinsamkeit’ (German) means the feeling experienced while alone in the woods, connecting with nature. via Huffington Post
‘Psithurism’ (Greek) translate into “the sound of leaves rustling in the wind.” via Huffington Post
This word would be useful in English. ‘Shemomedjamo’ (Georgian) is the word that describes when you continue to eat an entire meal in spite of feeling full. via Huffington Post
Korean is often called by experts the most “scientific” language in the world for its very intentional and scientific creation process. via Han-style, Mental Floss
J.R.R. Tolkien created more than 20 languages, many for his fictional universe, Middle-Earth. via Wikipedia
In most languages, sounds can be re-arranged into any number of combinations. Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language may be the only language whose words are not made from smaller, meaningless units. via Nautilus
Sign language is the fourth most-used language in the US. via BYUI
