February 21 the day celebrated as the International Mother Language Day worldwide every year tends to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and encourage multilingualism.
From the exotic sounds of Japanese to the romantic expressions of French the world is full of diverse and unique languages. Language is a medium for communication, exchanging ideas, understand the feelings of others, and for the expansion of the living on this planet.
For nearly 20 years UNESCO has been celebrating International Mother Language Day and aims to promote mother tongue-based multilingual education.
Ever thought about, how many languages are spoken throughout the world? Or how many words are in the English language? When did the writing evolve?
How every one of these languages originated is often debated. The language that a person speaks represents his/her character. Let’s take you to some of the facts regarding language around the world which you didn’t know existed before this.
1. There are around 7,000 languages and dialects in the world.
2. Chinese is the most spoken language in the world with 1.2 billion speakers.
3. Cambodian has the longest alphabet with 74 characters. Try making that into an alphabet song!
4. 2,400 of the world’s languages are in danger of becoming extinct and about one language becomes extinct every two weeks.
5. The most linguistically diverse country in the world is Papua New Guinea, where around 840 languages are spoken.
6. Around 50% of English words come from French.
7. People using sign language also have accents.
8. In Spain, there’s a language made up entirely of whistling called Silbo Gomero.
9. There are 46 different alphabets used in the world.
10. There are 50,000 characters in the Chinese language, but you only need to know 2,000 of them to read a newspaper.
11. In Sinhalese, the word ayubowan means good morning, good afternoon, good evening, goodnight and goodbye.
12. Only 23 languages account for more than half of the world’s population!
13. About ⅔ of all languages are from Asia and Africa.
14. Over half the population is bilingual.
15. Other than English, French is the only language taught in every country.
16. The United States has no “official language.” Most people just assume it’s English.
17. Spanish contains about 4,000 Arabic words.
18. Over 300 languages are spoken in London alone. No matter what, you have a pretty good chance of finding someone to speak with!
19. People who speak and understand Chinese use both sides of the brain, whereas English only uses the left side.
20. Hindi didn’t become the official language of India until 1965.
21. The most translated book is the Bible at 2,454 known languages
22. The Silbo language of La Gomera off the coast of Spain consists entirely of whistles.
23. Elephants can tell the difference between human languages and know which languages belong to their enemies, i.e., people with a history of hurting elephants.
24. “Huh?” is a universal word and is found in roughly the same form and function in spoken languages across the globe.
25. About 2,400 languages are classified as endangered.
26. Sanskrit, Sumerian, Hebrew, and Basque are among the oldest languages in the world.
27. There is a language in Mexico with only 2 speakers…and they don’t talk to each other.
28. South Africa has the most official languages of any other country.
Being multilingual opens up many doors and helps an individual to grow his personality. Let it be from travel opportunities to friendships or even to new careers, languages break the barriers of challenges. It also helps to enhance creative thinking and problem-solving skills.
