Communication is definitely a way of life. And, language being the mode to communicate, it plays an important role in our life. We all learn the languages that we listen to more often and tend to speak those languages only.  But have you ever wondered how many languages are actually spoken in this world? There are about 7,000 languages in this world. And there are oodles of interesting facts about these languages most of us never knew. So here are some amusing facts you need to know.

1. There are some 2,200 languages spoken only in the Asia.

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

3. 231 languages are now completely extinct.

4. One language dies about every 14 days.

5. There are 12 imaginary languages in Lord of The Rings.

6. There are 24 working languages of the EU.

7. There are 6 official UN languages.

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

9. The US has no official language.

10. 12.44% of the world’s population speaks Mandarin as their first language.

While these were few numbers we didn’t know, there are some really intriguing facts about the English language that you must know.

1. “I am” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

2. A pangram sentence is one that contains every letter in the language. For example, the sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is a pangram.

3. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is NOT the longest word in English. Yes, you read it right. This word is no longer the longest, but the longest word is- Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is a type of lung disease caused by inhaling ash and dust.

4. There are “ghost words” that mean nothing. Believe it or not, there are some words that appeared in the dictionary because of printing errors. The nonexistent word “dord” appeared in the dictionary for eight years in the mid-20th century. It became known as a “ghost word.”

5. The shortest, oldest, and most commonly used word is “I.” Medieval manuscripts reveal that some of the oldest words in English are “I,” “we,” “two,” and “three.” This makes “I” one of the shortest and oldest words in the English language. It is also the most commonly used word in English conversations.

6. A new word is added to the dictionary every two hours. Between now and your next meal, a new word will be put into the dictionary. During the course of the year, almost 4,000 new words are added!

7. There’s a name for words that we repeat often. Words we always use even though they add no meaning or value to a sentence are called crutch words. For example, in the sentence “Then I was like, OMG, then like, he went there, and like…” it is pretty obvious that “like” is the crutch word. “Actually,” “honestly,” and “basically” are also commonly used as crutch words.

8. Swims will be swims even when turned upside down. Such words are called ambigrams.

9. English is the language of the air. This means that all pilots have to identify themselves and speak in English while flying, regardless of their origin.

10. The word “girl” was not initially used to refer to a specific gender. It used to mean “child” or “young person” regardless of the gender.

The complicated yet simple language has so much to offer and so much to teach, you will always have something new to learn from it.
 
Facts Source: Grammarly.

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