Communication takes place every second. If you have a brand, the best thing you can do to promote it is get your message out to as many people as possible. Yet in all the hustle and bustle of social media, advertisements and website promotion, did you ever just stop to think about language? Language, the very basic thing that allows us to communicate with each other, is often taken for granted!
So, in a tribute to the importance of language, we’ve compiled 15 very interesting (and fun) facts you might not have known about it:
- 7000. This enormous number stands for the approximate number of languages spoken throughout the world today.
- Although English is the most used language in the United States, the country actually doesn’t have a national official language. Typically throughout the world, the language that a government conducts business in is the official language of the country.
- The oldest written language ever found on Earth was found on Yangshao culture pottery in China. It dates back to 4500 BC.
- What country has the greatest amount of official languages? South Africa. It has 11 official languages: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu.
- The language with the largest alphabet is Khmer, which is the official language of Cambodia. It’s comprised of 74 letters. And you thought teaching your child the ABC’s was hard!
- The world’s most translated document is the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It’s been published in 300 different languages.
- A quarter of the world speaks or understands some English. English is also the language with the greatest number of non-native speakers.
- There are many African languages that include a “click” sound.
- English is the official language spoken when it comes to flying a plane. Even on international flights, all pilots speak English.
- 2400 languages are actually on the brink of going extinct! They include Irish Gaelic, Maori, Berber, Guernesiais, Welsh, Scots Gaelic and Manx.
- Vatican City has ATM machines that use the Latin language.
- The most widely spoken languages in the world are Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, German and French.
- Spanish is the official language of 22 countries.
- The German language is known for its very long words. Some words are even over 60 letters long!
- Even American Sign Language has accents. Many signers can easily tell if other signers are native, interpreting or post-lingual. They can also tell if other signers are hearing or deaf.