Book and author´s rights day is also Language day, because of the anniversay of the deaths of both Shakespeare and Cervantes, fathers of English and Spanish literature. 1. There’s a language only 8 people speak
Talk about exclusive! The unclassified Busuu language is spoken in the Southern Bantoid of Cameroon – but only by eight people. In fact, when they checked in 1986, there were eight Busuu speakers and in 2005, only three, making it an endangered language.
2. Chinese Mandarin is considered the hardest language to learn
When considering that the Chinese Mandarin alphabet is made up entirely of symbols, this fact is not surprising. The average Chinese local is estimated to be familiar with over 8000 symbols and 3000 is the minimum to be able to read the newspaper. There are also four different tones for pronunciation to differentiate between words as many characters have the same sound.
3. English is the language with the most words
English takes the cake in this category at a proud 750’000 words, with new ones being added all the time. In fact, it’s estimated that about 5’400 new English words are created annually, although only around a thousand of these will be incorporated into the vocabulary of the general public.
4. William Shakespeare invented 1700 words
On the subject of new words, our man William Shakespeare came up with a pretty large collection of novel terms. He did this through a combination of changing nouns to verbs, verbs to adjectives, combining words, adding prefixes and suffixes as well as just straight up inventing brand new ones.
5. The US has no official language
While English is the most commonly used language in the United States, there actually isn’t an official language there. Over 300 languages are spoken within the country, making it both a culturally and linguistically diverse place – it’s no wonder it’s tricky to appoint just one official language!
6. Learning a second language can boost your brain
Speaking more than one language comes with a whole host of benefits, one of which being that it challenges your brain in ways that studies have shown could make you smarter. Learning another language can even slow down the brain’s ageing process and keep your mind sharper as you grow older.
7. The shortest grammatically correct sentence is “GO!”
The English language is the proud winner of the award for the shortest grammatically correct sentence. The command “GO!” instructs a person to take action – here the subject isn’t written or spoken, yet it is immediately understood.
Source: 10 more fantastic facts about languages ‹ EF GO Blog | EF Global Site (English)
