50 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Languages

[New World Explorer]

Did You Know?

• There are about 7,000 languages in the world.

There are 50,000 characters in the Chinese language. You’ll need to know about 2,000 to read a newspaper.

12.44% of the world’s population speaks Mandarin as their first language.

There are about 2,200 languages in Asia.

1/4 of the world’s population speaks at least some English.

50% of educational time in Luxembourg devoted to learning English, German, and French.

There are 13 ways to spell the ‘o’ sound in French.

There is a language in Botswana that consists of mainly 5 types of clicks.

There are 2,400 languages classified as being ‘endangered’.

231 languages are now completely extinct.

One language dies about every 14 days.

Eastern Siberia, Northwest Pacific Plateau of North America, And Northern Australia are hotspots for endangered languages.

There are 12 imaginary languages in Lord of The Rings.

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.

There are 24 working languages of the EU.

There are 6 official UN languages.

The bible is available in 2454 languages.

The oldest written language was believed to be written in about 4500 BC.

South Africa has 11 official languages – the most for a single country.

The pope tweets in 9 languages.

The US has no official language.

You can us an ATM in Latin in Vatican City.

http://www.edudemic.com/language-quiz/

[carlos]

• 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.

 

During the twenties, when Esperanto was at its peak, the organization distributed some publications in that language (yb90 p. 158). Today no efforts are being made to translate any of our publications in Esperanto, since it has no native speakers.

[New World Explorer]

During the twenties, when Esperanto was at its peak, the organization distributed some publications in that language (yb90 p. 158). Today no efforts are being made to translate any of our publications in Esperanto, since it has no native speakers

Yep, I can understand this due to the fact that all people who attempt to learn Esperanto know already mother language .. It makes sense ..

Edited November 25, 2014 by Dismal_Bliss
Fixed quote tag formatting

[dilip kumar]

I speak 4 languages English

Hindi

Sindhi(mother tongue)

Tamil.

And I can understand little Malayalam (wife's language)

So I don't know only 6996 languages of the world.:rolleyes:

Sent from my LG-E988

[New World Explorer]

I speak 4 languages English

Hindi

Sindhi(mother tongue)

Tamil.

And I can understand little Malayalam (wife's language)

So I don't know only 6996 languages of the world.:rolleyes:

Sent from my LG-E988

You are on track ! just 6996 to go !  not bad ! if you learn 1 language per year ..you only need almost 7000 years to accomplish your goal !

[dilip kumar]

Thank god Jehovah decided to use one language in the future.otherwise we all would to spend around 7000 years in learning languages and forgetting them and confusing them and blabbering and and and and.....

Sent from my LG-E988

[friend]

wow, didn't know 49 of those facts except the one about south africa, because, i'm from south africa!

 

also the image is killer. *Laughing for days* . hahahahahahaha...                             

[Pallen]

I have tried to learn spanish a s second language as i have a desire to learn another but my feeble brain was not able to get its logic.  I am learning some Esperanto at lernu! it is still slow for me but it is fun to learn. It will not be the one language we all speak in the new system, but is a very logical language to learn.   My wife is learning some too.  Anyone else here ever learn it as a second language in your country?

 

UPDATE August 21,2015: I am now level 10 at Duolingo.com learning Eperanto. (Note: Level 10 shows no proficiency on my part, it just shows That I stuck with it.  Level 11 currently finishes the course)

 

My studying Brother is also learning it with us. (Currently Level 5)

Edited August 21, 2015 by Pallen

[carlos]

I have tried to learn spanish a s second language as i have a desire to learn another but my feeble was not able to get its logic.  I am learning some Esperanto at lernu! it is still slow for me but it is fun to learn. It will not be the one language we all speak in the new system, but is a very logical language to learn.   My wife is learning some too.  Anyone else here ever learn it as a second language in your country?

 

I learnt some Esperanto many years ago, and that helped me find a job as translator at the time.   The company manager was quite a peculiar guy and interviewed me in Esperanto. He said they had too many translators that knew only Spanish and English (well actually I spoke only Spanish and English at the time, but the little Esperanto I knew got me the job ). Anyway all that I may have known then is long-forgotten now. Not an easy language to find someone to converse in with.

 

EDIT: I can confirm Esperanto is much more logical and easier than Spanish!

Edited December 28, 2014 by cvillarrubia

[Pallen]

I learnt some Esperanto many years ago, and that helped me find a job as translator at the time.   The company manager was quite a peculiar guy and interviewed me in Esperanto. He said they had too many translators that knew only Spanish and English (well actually I spoke only Spanish and English at the time, but the little Esperanto I knew got me the job ). Anyway all that I may have known then is long-forgotten now. Not an easy language to find someone to converse in with.

 

EDIT: I can confirm Esperanto is much more logical and easier than Spanish!

I wanted to learn Spanish to converse with some local Brothers but by pea brain just could not do it.  I am getting much further along and quicker with Esperanto.  My Wife has also wanted to learn another language. She wanted to learn Russian or Japanese as these interested her but had to give up on those languages.  She has seen how easy Esperanto is and has been picking up words as I have been learning them. She will probably likely  pass me up with her quick brain she has. 

Edited December 28, 2014 by Pallen

[carlos]

I wanted to learn Spanish to converse with some local Brothers but by pea brain just could not do it.  I am getting much further along and quicker with Esperanto.  My Wife has also wanted to learn another language. She wanted to learn Russian or Japanese as these interested her but had to give up on those languages.  She has seen how easy Esperanto is and has been picking up words as I have been learning them. She will probably likely  pass me up with her quick brain she has. 

 

So now you just need some local brothers who speak Esperanto.

 

Don't worry about your wife passing you. Women are usually better than us at languages.

[Pallen]

   Yep sure do, care to start a thread? No I am not serious because of moderation issues.  I am not counting on to many locally deciding to take it on.  Most that have the knack for learning a language will choose another one that they have the possibility to catch a local meeting on.  I however need an easy language to learn that has real rules and keeps to them.

 

  I like the logic and order of Esperanto and may have a chance at success with it, and that would be very good for me.  It will not be Esperanto, but I look forward to such an organized language in the new system, a real worldwide language that is assured to success.  Meanwhile learning Esperanto will be a good winter project for me while I am stuck in the house on these dark rainy days.  

 

   My Dad heard of Esperanto when he was in school but has forgotten what little he was exposed too.  But maybe I can throw a few words his way once in a while too.   

Edited August 21, 2015 by Pallen

[Pallen]

So now you just need some local brothers who speak Esperanto.

Don't worry about your wife passing you. Women are usually better than us at languages. 

 

I am now level 10 at Duolingo.com learning Esperanto. 

(Note: Level 10 shows no proficiency on my part, it just shows that I stuck with it.  Level 11 currently finishes the course)

 

My Wife has not been able to spend much time on EO, keeping up with publications is enough for her.  But, my now studying Brother   is also learning it with us and is currently Level 5. Another young Brother in the hall has joined Duolingo with us (L2) and we greet each other in Esperanto. That is as far as our conversation is able to go for now.  

 

I have found for me, that a new language harder to put into practice than it is in the course. Thats ok, I expected that.

As I progress some further I would love to converse in Esperanto some with you Carlos.  Duolingo is a good place to see what you remember if you choose.  My username is: Pa11en

[bohemian]

I have been trying to learn Czech for goodness knows how long, but rarely nowadays have opportunity to speak it very often in England.  This summer I went to Prague for the regional convention and found that I understood the gist of what was being said, but not everthing.

However, it has spurred me on to greater efforts, although it is very much an exercise to keep my mind active, rather that a ministry-oriented goal as it was originally.

 

I found that I love the language, and really want to speak it well.  I am often congratulated on my pronunciation, which apparently sounds like a native czech rather than a foreigner, but the grammar lets me down.

 

My heart failure is causing me some inactivity physically at the moment, so I have good opportunities for study.

 

If the opportunity arose, my wife and I would move to Prague in a heartbeat (no pun intended) as we are both retired, but we need the stability of a secure place to live, and we will not have the financial ability to do that.  But we dream of helping czechs we may meet to learn the truth.

 

Language is a really worthwhile skill to acquire especially as the scene of this world is changing rapidly in the movement of people around the world.

[kejedo]

Glad you started this thread, Brother. When I was teaching ESL, I found that most of my students from India already knew several languages. I remember an article in our literature of Witnessing in Calcutta and how many languages the friends were acquainted with. I didn't look up the article, but I recall it mentioned that brothers and sisters carried multiple Bibles around. I hope they all have digital devices now.  I picked up a few phrases in quite a number of languages, and last night we had a new brother at our hall whose background is Korean. (I think he was born in the USA.) Of course, I said, 

" An-yŏng-ha-se-yo.   안녕하세요

and told him my guess is that his family is from South Korea, which I was right, as this is the obvious conclusion. While we were talking, I mentioned that I have never met anyone from North Korea, and he told me there is a sister in his previous cong from North Korea. )'>  Can you believe how busy those angels are? Me neither.  

Edited August 21, 2015 by kejedo

[kejedo]

Objective pronoun or noun? This is something I happened to notice when walking my dog, and when listening to conversations in public. If a female adult is talking to her baby or young child, she generally says, "Come over here to mom." - (noun)  If a male is talking to his young child, he generally says, "Come over, here to me."- object pronoun. I've noticed the same distinction when listening to others (and myself) while out dog walking. This maybe a bit OT, (surprise) but I am always fascinated with communication. This is specifically about North American English, as I have only been around speakers of different languages when I was teaching ESL, and have not had occasion to hear others in similar situations. Has anyone else noticed this quirk?  Truth be told, if I exchanged time here on JW talk with serious Spanish study, I would be further along my quest for fluency. Verdad,es no verdad?  

[comtemplate]

I think that's pretty neat that you have the capability of analyzing the native speakers while you too are a native speaker. (I've always found that to be difficult personally)

 

I live in the Dominican Republic and I need two languages daily to interact with others. Haitian Creole and Spanish 

I also speak Tagalog and Korean and enough French to watch movies. 

 

I like most about languages is the different ways of thinking that are needed to express your thoughts ... each language forces you to think in a different way Example in English my mother tongue, we are very specific with family members we have words like 1st cousin, 3rd cousin... great great grandmother etc.

 

Whereas in some languages every person of a certain age is called general titles .. and some languages have no gender I was always asking in one language what is the gender of a baby in it's mother's stomach ... non one had answers they'd look at me as if I was crazy ... that matters to some but in some cultures gender doesn't matter they'd use a word equivalent of the word child or baby.

I love languages.

[kejedo]

I think that's pretty neat that you have the capability of analyzing the native speakers while you too are a native speaker. (I've always found that to be difficult personally)

 

I live in the Dominican Republic and I need two languages daily to interact with others. Haitian Creole and Spanish 

I also speak Tagalog and Korean and enough French to watch movies. 

 

I like most about languages is the different ways of thinking that are needed to express your thoughts ... each language forces you to think in a different way Example in English my mother tongue, we are very specific with family members we have words like 1st cousin, 3rd cousin... great great grandmother etc.

 

Whereas in some languages every person of a certain age is called general titles .. and some languages have no gender I was always asking in one language what is the gender of a baby in it's mother's stomach ... non one had answers they'd look at me as if I was crazy ... that matters to some but in some cultures gender doesn't matter they'd use a word equivalent of the word child or baby.

I love languages.

So exciting to be able to communicate in several languages. It really does require complete rethinking. I remember studying Latin in Middle school and realized that the subject and gender were frequently found in the verb formation. The city where I lived then was the smallest, the poorest, and most corrupt in the State of MASS, USA. (Both the school Department and the City government went into receivership, the first time in the Nation.) Yet, I, a deeply impoverished project, girl had the opportunity to study Latin. Wish I studied Geek. Your Senora Sister,pauline

Edited November 22, 2015 by kejedo