Considering the things people have said in English lately, I think I may take up a less aggressive language, like Klingon.

How many of these facts about world languages did you know?

1. There are at least 7,000 languages spoken in the world. Which continent has the fewest languages?
   
   • Europe (Slowpokes.)
2. Which language has the most native speakers?
   
   • Arabic (Yes, Chinese has more.)
3. Which country has the highest language diversity – the greatest likelihood that any two people picked at random have a different native language?
   
   • Papua New Guinea (Jobs for interpreters?)
4. Which of these languages is spoken in the most different countries?
   
   • English (Can you say 'British Empire'?)
5. The 1200 people who live in the Russian town of Archib on the Caspian Sea speak a rare language called Archi. What is this language most noted for?
   
   • Its 1.5 million verb conjugations (That's more than a million for every man, woman, and child. . . )
6. Why can't you learn Sentinelese at the Berlitz School?
   
   • Its native speakers have a nasty habit of shooting at visitors. (With bows and arrows. It's hard to have language lessons that way. You probably only learn, 'Hey, nasty foreigner! Go away!')
7. The European language of Silbo is unusual because it is. . .
   
   • entirely whistled. (It's used in a mountainous part of Spain.)
8. The Pirahã language of Brazil has only 10-12 phonemes. How do Pirahã speakers indicate quantity?
   
   • They specify only 'a few' and 'a lot'. ('Few' and 'a lot' being relative, and entirely up to the speaker's personal judgement, you understand. We want these people as maths teachers.)
9. What will cause a Rotokas speaker to make mock of you?
   
   • Using a nasal sound (Big time. Their language has no nasal sounds. They can do it, they just think it sounds gross.)
10. Which Earth language has the most phonemes?
    
    • !Xóõ (Not spoken by Darth Vader. It's a Khoisan language, and of course it means 'language of human beings.')

Doesn't that make you feel smarter? Now you know something.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

28.11.16 Front Page

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