Fascinating language facts you didn't know

[jw5]

Ambigrams -

Ambigrams are words that look the same from different angles. For example, the word "swims" will look the same even when upside down. Similarly with "suns."

 

[jw5]

Japanese has no distinction for singular and plural words -

Plural words are not individual words, but a combination of the word plus a number before it. In some cases, repetition of kanji indicates plurality.

 

[jw5]

Spanish is the second most spoken language -

After Mandarin, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world. In total, 21 countries have Spanish as their official language.

 

[jw5]

Hindi didn’t become the official language of India until 1950 -

In 1950, the Indian constitution declared Hindi as the official language of the union. Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the use of English for official purposes was to cease 15 years after the constitution came into effect.

 

[jw5]

South Africa has the most official languages -

South Africa's constitution recognizes 11 official languages: Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, and isiZulu.

 

[jw5]

Japanese uses three different writing systems - Japanese has three completely separate sets of characters, called kanji, hiragana, and katakana, that are used in reading and writing.

 

[jw5]

Over 300 languages are spoken in London alone -

The largest number of community languages in Europe can be found in London. Some of the most established are Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Hokkien.

 

[jw5]

There’s a language that consists entirely of whistles -

Known as the Gomeran whistle, it's used by inhabitants of La Gomera, on the Canary Islands, to communicate across the deep ravines and narrow valleys of the island.

 

[Singapore Dancing Spirit]

View attachment 173313

People don't use many words - On average, people only use a few hundred words in daily conversation, while most languages have more than 50,000 words.

"Most languages have more than 50,000 words."
HAHA

LAND OF CECA got 400 languages
and each language/dialects got 50000000000 words but no use as they use it while raping.

but I just don't want to hear them in SG trains, malls, trains, buses, beaches and public places
They are talkin' too much and too much louder too

 

[Charlie99]

View attachment 173984

Hindi didn’t become the official language of India until 1950 -

In 1950, the Indian constitution declared Hindi as the official language of the union. Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the use of English for official purposes was to cease 15 years after the constitution came into effect.

What is the current language for official communications?

 

[jw5]

What is the current language for official communications?

I believe they are Hindi and English.

 

[jw5]

"Most languages have more than 50,000 words."
HAHA

LAND OF CECA got 400 languages
and each language/dialects got 50000000000 words but no use as they use it while raping.

but I just don't want to hear them in SG trains, malls, trains, buses, beaches and public places
They are talkin' too much and too much louder too

People who talk too loudly in public should be told to STFU.

 

[jw5]

The Pope tweets in nine languages -

Pope Francis tweets in nine languages, but it's his Spanish-language account that has the most followers. The pontiff also tweets in English, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Latin, French, German, and Arabic

 

[jw5]

The United States has no official language -

The US has no official language; most people just assume it’s English. It's also the country with the second highest number of Spanish speakers, after Mexico.

 

[jw5]

Rotokas has the smallest alphabet -

The Papuan language of Rotokas has only 11 letters, making it the smallest alphabet in the world. It’s spoken by around 4,000 people in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.

 

[jw5]

The English language contains the most words -

Based solely on dictionary entries, English is among the largest languages by word count. It has more than 250,000 words.

 

[Singapore Dancing Spirit]

View attachment 174294

The English language contains the most words -

Based solely on dictionary entries, English is among the largest languages by word count. It has more than 250,000 words.

Not really. English is one of the compact languages I have found.
Tamil is the language with the greatest number of alphabets. It has 247 letters in total.
I believe, Tamil must be the largest language in the world.

English got only 26 alphabets with 5 vowels
Tamil got 247 alphabets with 12 vowels.

I have given the chart below with all the 247 alphabets

Though Tamil is one of the most complex languages, it is one of the administrative languages in Singapore. It is about 3500 years old in history. Out of all Indian languages, Tamil is the oldest language in India.

Though my father was a Postgraduate during British Colony era, he gained an advanced scholar known as Pandit. Even my mom gained the same scholar in Tamil literature. Such degree is NO LONGER available in any universities. Very affluent in the Tamil language. To gain such a level, they need to study 5 years.

Recently I found Japanese language especially Hiragana and Tamil language are somewhat interrelated vocally. I will do some research and list the similarities in the future. Japanese Kanji and Chinese and Korean are using related characters. As I am multilingual myself, I do not get an opportunity to use the Tamil language in the world stage as, the current generation of Tamil folks in Singapore, Malaysia and India do NOT know how to really make use of the language. I have seen locals having difficulties making to make the best out of this language yet.

To give you a more insights, Tamil was widespread all over India in the past. However due to some restrictions when Iranians migrate to India, Tamilans migrated to the South, in fact the ancient Indus Valley Civilization belongs to Tamil Civilization. However, it still in the early stage to prove this historically and chronologically.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_of_the_Indus_Valley_Civilization
Hope that clarifies

 

[jw5]

Not really. English is one of the compact languages I have found.
Tamil is the language with the greatest number of alphabets. It has 247 letters in total.
I believe, Tamil must be the largest language in the world.

English got only 26 alphabets with 5 vowels
Tamil got 247 alphabets with 12 vowels.

I have given the chart below with all the 247 alphabets

View attachment 174311
Though Tamil is one of the most complex languages, it is one of the administrative languages in Singapore. It is about 3500 years old in history. Out of all Indian languages, Tamil is the oldest language in India.

Though my father was a Postgraduate during British Colony era, he gained an advanced scholar known as Pandit. Even my mom gained the same scholar in Tamil literature. Such degree is NO LONGER available in any universities. Very affluent in the Tamil language. To gain such a level, they need to study 5 years.

Recently I found Japanese language especially Hiragana and Tamil language are somewhat interrelated vocally. I will do some research and list the similarities in the future. Japanese Kanji and Chinese and Korean are using related characters. As I am multilingual myself, I do not get an opportunity to use the Tamil language in the world stage as, the current generation of Tamil folks in Singapore, Malaysia and India do NOT know how to really make use of the language. I have seen locals having difficulties making to make the best out of this language yet.

To give you a more insights, Tamil was widespread all over India in the past. However due to some restrictions when Iranians migrate to India, Tamilans migrated to the South, in fact the ancient Indus Valley Civilization belongs to Tamil Civilization. However, it still in the early stage to prove this historically and chronologically.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_of_the_Indus_Valley_Civilization
Hope that clarifies

Thank you for the info.