51+ Language Facts [Unique + Interesting]

Did you know?

During the age of modern homo sapiens, language first evolved around 50,000–150,000 years ago and since then, there are around 7,111 spoken languages that have been established in the world today.

Also, are you aware of the fact that the word ‘ language’ is derived from the Latin word ‘lingua’.

There are many more interesting facts related to language that will blow your mind. (And even help you understand what are the different types of you can consider enjoying the essential benefits of translation.)

Looking for more language tidbits? Keep reading!

Unique & Interesting Language Facts You Need to Know

Here are some facts about the language that will amaze you:

1- Most widely spoken language

Chinese mandarin is the most commonly spoken language across the world with over 1.4 billion speakers. However, these are native speakers in large numbers and the language isn’t properly adopted in the world.

2- Half of the world’s population speaks 23 languages

There are 23 languages only that more than half of the world’s population speaks. This in comparison to over 7000 languages is interesting.

3- Single country comprises over 800 languages

Papua New Guinea is the only country that comprises a wide number of languages in the entire world. It owns 841 languages, out of which 40 languages are going to get extinct, as per some predictions made.

If your target market is Papua New Guinea, make sure you effectively translate website into German language, as German is one of the languages that is spoken after English.

4- The US has no official language

Although there are several languages in the US, this country has no official language. Few people think it’s English, but unfortunately, it’s not.

5- There is a language that only 8 people speak

The Busuu language is the one that is only spoken by the people in the entire world!

Busuu is the language of the Southern Bantoid of Cameroon. In 1986, there were only 8 speakers and in 2005, there were only 3.

6- The United States has more than 300 languages widely spoken

The United States is declared among the most diverse nations in the world. Many unique settlers here had an issue selecting the suitable official language while making laws by the continental congress.

Because a large number of companies in the US are marketing their products & services through Internet, increasing engagements of local markets with different businesses has led to the growing huge importance of advertising translation.

7- Some spoken languages got extinct

When there is no one to speak a particular language, it gets extinct. Keeping this in mind, there are approximately 241 languages that have now become extinct.

8- Half of the world’s population is bilingual

Out of 7.7 billion people, half the world speaks two languages. Bilingual individuals also tend to be bi-cultural.

9- Every language in the world has been influenced by another language

Languages have never remained static, they keep changing because of diversity as well as the immigration of masses in various places in the world.

10- French is the language of love

Today, French is known as the love language. The reason behind this is that France and Italy are the most loved places and this language happens to be highly dominant in such nations.

The tourism sector has reached great heights by including the French language as a part of it. Many travel companies are investing in genuine French translation solutions to get their website localized for French speakers.

11- Bible is the world’s most widely translated document

Bible has been translated into over 3350 languages. The Old Testament is in around 700 languages whereas the New Testament is in over 2000 languages! This book is truly a record-breaking in the world.

12- Smallest alphabet

Rotokas alphabet is the smallest alphabet in use today with only 12 letters of the basic Latin alphabet without diacritics.

13- Oldest written language

Sumerian is the oldest written language in existence dating back to 3500 BC followed by another language Egyptian dating back to 3300BC. The Chinese language dates back to 1250BC.

14- Basque is considered an “isolate language”

It is widely spoken by French and Spanish speakers, but the people here didn’t get much out of it because it does not correlate with any other language.

15- Highly dominant language

Although, it’s not the most widely spoken language in the entire world, English is the most dominant one. The demand for premium English Translation for firm is also increasing because this language is easily adopted by the people in the world.

16- English is the language of the aviation

Since the 1950s, English has been the language of air travel due to its growing dominance in the world. Be it the pilot or his crew, everyone speaks English fluently.

17- Most official languages

Zimbabwe has around 16 languages as the official languages. The country also has recorded its name in the Guinness Book of Record as among the nations with the largest number of official languages.

18- English is the most diverse language

The English language comprises diverse and dominant qualities because of the British empire and iPhone. England had various territories as well as colonies and they had no option left other than to adopt the English language.

As English is the universal language, excellent communication is essential. To ensure this, companies are putting their resources into exceptional English interpretation to communicate with their clients in the long run.

19- The language of War

Russian is one of the most amazing languages to learn. Also, it’s considered the language of war by most people. This is because average Russians always look angry and the language doesn’t make their mood better.

20- Fastest spoken language

Japanese is the fastest recorded language in comparison to other languages. It has a rate of 7.84 syllables per second.

21- First printed language

German is the first language to be printed. However, it wasn’t the first written language, but it was the language of the first printed book.

22- Hardest language to learn

Chinese Mandarin is one of the hardest language to learn in the world. This is due to the lack of alphabets. As it’s not a phonetic language, it is quite tough to learn and write the words.

Chinese speakers are huge consumers online and even search for e-learning courses. That’s why there’s an increasing demand for niche-relevant localization for e-learning industry in the Chinese language.

23- Most popular languages

French and English are the most widely and popularly used languages on the internet. Both languages are widely taught in the entire world with few nations adopting them as their official national languages.

24- English Dialects

There are over 24 English dialects in the US alone. A native speaker can easily recognize people from Boston, California, New York, and different places that sound different.

25- The word “Mortgage” means “Death Pledge”

Because the English language has been highly influenced by different languages, the word mortgage widely used in English is the Old French word which means death pledge.

26- The United States comprises a large number of English speakers

The United States has a large number of English speakers approximately 316 billion in comparison to Nigeria and India.

Because of this, according to the survey, 59 % of U.S. people said that they would like to watch foreign-language films rightly dubbed into English. This is why standard film dubbing solutions are highly preferred by the entertainment industry.

27- English dominates the digital world

Of all the information available on the internet in the world, 80% is in English. When it comes to communicating online, it’s the only language of choice.

28- The language of symbols

Apart from alphabets, the Chinese mandarin language also has symbols. These represent various letters and are even written quite differently.

29- Longest alphabet

The Khmer alphabet (the official language of Cambodia) is the longest more than 74 characters. Also, it is the hardest language to learn by yourself.

30- Alphabet is a Greek word

Alphabet is an English term that originated from Greek. The initial two letters of the Greek alphabet are alpha and beta which formed the word “alphabet.”

31- More than 200 fake languages exist

These are the languages that came into existence from TV, books, or film. Klingon is one such language.

32- Asia has a large number of languages

Asia has more than 2300 languages spoken closely followed by Africa with around 2138 languages.

33- English is the highly evolving language

Every year, 4000 new words are added to the English dictionary. This is due to the diversity in the language as well as technology which has resulted in the replacement of older words.

To ensure proper creativity in translation, English translator keeps their vocabulary to use the right word in the right place.

34- English owns the shortest grammatically correct sentence

And that is – “GO!” This is a sentence or command that instructs individuals to do something.

35- Chinese and Japanese are not related

Japanese and Chinese are neither related nor influenced by each other. There are 3 writing systems in Japanese, whereas in Chinese there is only one.

36- There is no guiding institution for English

Among the top ten widely spoken languages, English is the one language with no institution making language standards. Professionals can easily dictate the language rules but hardly have decisive powers.

37- The English alphabet gets smaller

As time goes by, the English alphabet has turned smaller. Initially, there were 28 letters, but now there are 26 letters.

38- The British and English royalty have a motto

These two are the mother of the English language. Shockingly, the motto is written in the French language. Also, the Order of the Garter’s motto is UK’s third most highly prestigious honour that is likewise written in French.

Even the successful translation company in Mumbai knows the importance of translating documents into the English language when it comes to an engaging global audience.

39- English did not have its roots in England

The English language did not originate in England. The language is a West Germanic language, which has its roots in Germany from Angles.

40- Ghost words

The ghost word “ Dord” in the English dictionary appeared in the dictionary for over 7 years prior to it being spotted and eliminated.

41- Kinshasa is the second-largest French-speaking city

After Paris, Kinshasa is the 2nd largest capital city of Congo which has the highest number of French speakers.

42- London has over 300 different language speakers.

Being the most cosmopolitan city in Europe, this beautiful and popular place has more than 300 different language speakers. You can easily find anyone speaking your language.

Did you know?

London is an abode to various industries large industries like legal, pharmaceutical, education, etc. Thus to communicate with the diverse population that speaks over 300 different languages, companies here prefer to take the great advantages of good translation service.

43- English is influenced by the French language

At least 30% of the English vocabulary is straightaway taken from French. Words like “joyful,” “prince,” and “beef” originated from the French language.

44- Italian is not the official language of Italy

Italy chose Florentine as their official language. Most places here speak their own dialects.

45- South Korea and North Korea speak various languages.

Both of them share the same language i.e. Korean. But, both of them have distinct vocabularies and grammatical rules.

46- German comprises three genders

While other languages have either masculine or feminine, German has masculine, feminine, and neuter.

47- Half brain

When you communicate as well as understand English, you use only the left side of the brain while when you speak Chinese, you basically use both sides of the brain.

48- The primary language in outer space

Russian was the primary spoken language in outer space and not English as several people believe.

49- Most words

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, The English language has more than 200,000 words.

For credible book translation or to translate any medical or legal, a good translator always keep checking the dictionary to pick the right word while translating.

50- Air and Water

In Indonesian, the phonetic pronunciation of the word “air” is “water”. Shocking but interesting.

51- The pope is fluent in many languages

Pope does speak Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, German, Ukrainian, and the biblical dialects, approximate eight languages. The Spanish language has a large number of followers.

52- A new word is created every 98 minutes.

According to GLM, a new word is created every 98 minutes (around 14.7 new words every day). Every year, an estimated 800 to 1,000 neologisms are included in English language dictionaries.

Conclusion

Did these fascinating language facts leave you speechless and inspired? In today’s fast-moving world, it has become important for businesses to not limit themselves to a specific, but go global and for this, they need to make their content, products & services open to multilingual audiences.

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