10 Most Surprising Language Facts

As we have already seen in our article about the most spoken languages in the world, there are over 7000 different languages spoken globally, each one with its unique history and peculiarities.

We often take language for granted, but its richness and diversity are truly mind-blowing.  This is why we decided to gather some of the most interesting facts about language:

1. More than 50% of the world population is bilingual or multilingual;
2. The country with the highest number of languages is Papua New Guinea, with an incredible 850 different local languages. Despite that, only three of those are official languages: English, Tok Pisin, and Hiri Motu.
3. There are two official forms of written Norwegian: Bokmål (literally “book tongue”) and Nynorsk (“new Norwegian”). The first is the preferred form by around 80% of Norwegians. However, in some municipalities, Nynorsk is adopted as the first language.
4. Basque, the language spoken in the Basque Country, between southwestern France and northern Spain, is not related to any other European language. In fact, it is called a language isolate, as it shows no clear common traits with any other language in the world.
5. A child utters his first words at around 1, while they can use complex phrases when 3. A 5-year-old child already knows thousands of words.
6. Languages influence each other: nowadays many languages are influenced by English words, while in the past English vocabulary had been influenced by other languages (such as French).
7. Speaking two or more languages not only promotes cultural exchange but can also be beneficial from an economic standpoint: bilinguals can find work more easily and multilingual companies are more competitive on the market.
8. Arabic is one of the most diffused languages in the world, with over 422 million speakers worldwide. It is also the official language of 22 countries.
9. Cryptophasia is when twins develop a language that only they can understand. The word literally means “secret speech”, and it derives from Greek.
10. Fictional languages such as Dothraki from Game of Thrones and Elvish from The Lord of The Rings are constructed with complete grammar and phonology and can be learned just like any foreign language.

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