by Olly RichardsIf you think you know everything amazing there is to know about languages, think again.
I bet there are at least 17 language facts here that you never saw coming, so grab a pen and start tallying up your wins!
Pro Tip
By the way, if you want to learn a new language fast, my top recommendation is StoryLearning®, a fun and effective method that gets you fluent thanks to stories, not rules. Find out more and claim your free 7-day trial of the course of your choice.
By the way, if you prefer watching videos to reading, hit play on the video version of this post below. Otherwise keep reading to discover these 33 odd language facts.
1. There Are More Than 7000 known Languages In The World
The exact number, as I write this, is 7, 117 – but that could change tomorrow… any idea why?
6000 of these are indigenous languages, and 90% have fewer than 100,000 speakers.
But there’s no telling how many UNKNOWN languages there are, since some places are a little scary to walk into… !
2. Half Of Planet Earth’s Population Speaks Only 23 Languages
That’s right! Here are the top 20:
- English
- Mandarin Chinese
- Hindi
- Spainsh
- French
- Arabic
- Bengali
- Russian
- Portuguese
- Urdu
- Indonesian
- German
- Japanese
- Nigerian Pidgin
- Marathi
- Telugu
- Turkish
- Tamil
- Yue Chinese
- Vietnamese
It gets worse…
Half of the 7000 languages are doomed – firstly because no children speak them, secondly because they have no written form, so who's recording them??
Third, UNESCO says those indigenous languages I mentioned are in big trouble because the speakers are losing their natural homes.
Not pointing fingers, but… Food for thought!
3. Japanese Has 3 Different Ways Of Writing
And you have to use all three to make sense!
If you’re curious, here’s a cool post all about the Japanese alphabet.
4. The First Language Spoken In Outer Space Was Russian
And this was the very brave Yuri Gagarin – first man in space!
Speaking of space, here's how astronauts learn language fast.
5. The City With The Most Languages Is New York City
Surprised? Well, it’s a city of immigrants and the most linguistically diverse city in the world, with over 800 languages.
But how's this for amazing: Cities like NYC sometimes become strongholds for languages that have since gone extinct in their mother countries!
6. This Language Has No Numbers
Not only don’t they have words for numbers, they also have no words for colours!
So to describe red they’ll say “bloodlike”, and for black they’ll say “dirty blood”.
In 1980 someone decided to teach them how to count.
8 months later, no-one could even add 1 plus 1, and they all flunked.
Lesson: the concept of counting is best learned early on…
And if your language has no numbers, forget about it – go fishing!
7. The Hopi Language Has No Words To Express Time
And no words even for past, present or future.
So how on earth do they know what’s going on?!
This is so cool… and kind of mind-bending…
The Hopi don’t see time the way we do – on a timeline.
To them, there’s only the experienced and the yet-to-be-experienced.
Imagine if you couldn’t separate time into Junes and Septembers?
“Hey guys, we have a Norwegian language course starting when it's hot and humid. Uhh… at least in Arizona!”
Hah, maybe I should try that.
Well, turns out our mother tongue influences our thoughts
FAR more than we realise…
And before I plunge into THAT gigantic rabbit hole, here’s number 8!
8. THIS Language Has So Many Clicks That Everyone Eventually Grows A Lump On Their Larynx
They call it humanity’s most complex language and if you fancy learning it, I’m afraid I can’t help you this time!
It’s an ancient language spoken by about 3,000 semi-nomadic people of Botswana and eastern Namibia.
82% of the basic vocabulary starts with a click!!
But it’s not just the clicks;
There’s an astonishing array of unusual sounds…
It has the most consonants of any language on the planet, and depending on the dialect, There are 58 consonants, 31 vowels, and four tones, or 87 consonants, 20 vowels, and two tones…
Or is it 130 consonants… Argh, I give up!
9. Natural Vocabulary Growth Stops At Middle Age
But you have a choice, so don’t let that stop you! Go do the exact opposite!!
10. The Last Language To Go Extinct Was On The 5th Of May 2023
I am not joking!
But if you can pronounce this language, you win.
I’m gonna stick with the easy version: Columbia-Moses, or WeNATCHee.
It’s a Southern Interior Salish language of Idaho, in the US, and the last living speaker was a lovely 96-year-old lady. So sad.
11. Hawaiian Has At Least 200 Words For Rain
But what about rainbow?
Amazing! Hawaiian has words for Earth-clinging rainbows, standing rainbows, double rainbows, misty rainbows, moonbows…
All very fitting, of course, because Hawai’i is also where you’ll see the best rainbows on planet earth!
12. Zimbabwe Has The Most Official Languages – Sixteen!
But some feel it depends on what you call official, and there’s a bit of controversy here!
A country can have as many official languages as it wants.
Zimbabwe has 16, but most people are Shona and only 3 languages are very widely used.
India has 22 official languages, but the Constitution only recognizes them at regional level, giving Zimbabwe the edge.
How about Bolivia, though? They have 37 “official” languages that are official at regional level, but some are extinct, so… ?!?
As for South Africa, their 11 official languages are ALL used officially, and are considered equally important.
So glad I’m not the one deciding!
13. The World's Youngest Language Is Afrikaans
Seven million South Africans speak it, and officially it’s only 100 years old!
Afrikaans was derived from 17th-Century Dutch, with influences from Malay, Portuguese, French, German, English and [KOY-KOY] languages.
It was declared an official language on 8 May 1925…
No longer a dialect of Dutch, but its own thing!
The birth of Afrikaans is considered a remarkable feat, ‘cause it started off as a pidgin, and became a complete language –
And one they fiercely fight for!
14: The Longest Word In English Takes 3 Hours To Pronounce
But here it is at super speed…
Okay, okay, we get the point!
It’s the largest protein ever discovered… But what to call it?
There’s a rule for this – of course there is. To name a protein, you have to name every single atom in it –
Even if it has 34,350 different atoms per molecule!
A name with *this many* letters? Meh, let’s just call it titin [TIE-tin].
15. There Are About 70 Whistle Languages In The World
In the BC days, clever people living in mountainous regions thought of a great way to gossip with the neighbours…
If you were good, your whistle could be heard 10km away!
You still get these whistle languages in some remote places,
And every one of them is based on the local spoken language…
My question is: what happens when you start losing your teeth?
16. The Aymara Language Flips Past And Future Around
What!? OK, so you know how we map the future as if it were in front of us, and the past in the back of us?
Most languages and cultures of the world do this, but not the Aymara, who live in the Amazon…
If you’re an insomniac, I apologise in advance…
The Aymara see time the other way around! Why? It’s complicated.
Quickest explanation: The past is something you’ve actually seen, so it should be in front of you.
The future is something you’ve never seen, so…
Get behind me, future!!
17. The Average Native English Speaker Knows 20-30,000 Words
But you’re probably AWARE of about 42,000 words, you just don’t know how to use them all!
Before we feel too clever, ever tried to count the words in a dictionary?
Counting ALL of the forms, and ALL of the slang, he might be right.
So don’t put that dictionary away just yet.
18. At Least Half Of The World Is Bilingual
How does that make you feel? Are YOU bilingual yet?
Better get learning!
19. Papua New Guinea Has 840 Languages
The oldest ones are called Papuan languages, but get this…they don’t even share a single root!
They’re split into dozens of unrelated families, and they’re the least-documented languages of the world, so lots of excitement waiting to happen!
And then you get the Austronesian languages, which are completely different.
How did this crazy beautiful diversity happen?
Well, it’s the world’s most rural country, and not all of these jungles, swamps and mountains have been explored!
20. There’s A Language With Only 12 Letters
12 letters, but only 11 sounds, because two letters have the same sound.
Anyone know what language comes next with only 13 letters?
Here’s a clue: They have lots of rainbows!
21. There Are More Than 200 Artificial Languages
Elvish, Klingon, Esperanto… Help me out here, guys?
Artificial languages were invented – they didn’t happen naturally.
Most were invented for books or movies… and some weird attempts at world peace…
And in theory, anyone can invent an artificial language.
Getting people to care that you did it is another story!!
22. This Language Has No Words For Direction
It's an ancient Australian language that the Aboriginals have been speaking for 1000s of years, and it was the first aboriginal language ever written down.
So you know you refer to where a thing is from the point of view of where YOU are?
My camera is in front of me. The door is behind me.
These are ego-centric directions – normal for most languages.
Well, these guys don’t see it that way.
They use cardinal directions for everything.
My camera is north, my door is south – that kinda thing.
Wait… IS that south? I’m not sure!!
23. 50% Of Twins Have A Secret Language Called Cryptophasia…
Remember this one when we get to 26!
Twin languages are usually based on their parent’s language, with lots of mispronunciation, wobbly grammar, and sound effects thrown in.
But it turns into something secret only they can understand because they constantly imitate and reinforce each other…
And in rare cases, twins have invented entire languages!
24. The First Language Ever Written Was Sumerian
It was almost 5500 years ago in Mesopotamia.
It started off more like pictures, but by 2900 BC, Sumerians were writing words in wet clay with a reed.
But Egyptian hieroglyphs aren’t far off – they appeared on small ivory tablets in about 3200 BC…
And the first INK writing was found in Egypt. Cool, huh?
25. Cambodian Has The Longest Alphabet, With 74 Letters
That’s 33 consonants and 41 vowels.
It descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India, and it is complicated to learn, so let’s tackle that another day!
26. Your Personal Way Of Speaking Is Called An Idiolect
If you put your idiolect with a bunch of other people’s idiolects that sound similar to yours, you get a dialect…
And a dialect is just one version of one language.
So are you special? Of course you are! Unless you have a twin…
27. In Polish Scrabble, The Fifth Most Common Tile Is Z…
No surprise that Polish Z is only worth one point!
But there are also extra Z’s with diacritics, so… what if we count those?
If you ever play Polish Scrabble, let me know!
Polish words are NOTORIOUS for having so few vowels.
28. The Taki-Taki Language Only Has 340 Words
If you want to hear it, buy a ticket to Suriname!
Suriname is the only country in South America where the official language is not a Latin language… It's Dutch.
But Dutch is just one of the 14 local languages.
There’s Javanese, Hindustani, Chinese…
But don’t panic – you can just speak Taki Taki.
Taki-Taki is an English-based creole that supposedly only has 340 words – at least according to the Guiness book of records.
OKay… we don’t believe a word of it! Here’s a truer fact…
29. You Can Never Know How Many Words Are In A Language
After all, What counts as a word? This'll keep you guessing!
30. About 46 Languages Only Have A Single Speaker
And these speakers are all old. What should we do about this?
Keep learning languages, of course!
31. Basque Is A Mystery Language
Basque has nothing in common with any other language on Earth.
Nobody knows where it came from, but it’s very ancient –the oldest living language in Europe, in fact.
Basque is actually a modern version of a pre-Indo European language called Aquitanian – how crazy is that?
People speak it in the far north of Spain…so how on earth did it never mix with Spanish or French?!
32. 1000 Years From Now, English Will Sound Completely Different
Languages are constantly evolving and English has changed a lot since 1000 years ago.
Plus every single non-English country speaks English differently…
English is doomed to evolve, I'm afraid!
If you don’t like this idea, stop using the lazy words; use the good ones!
33. And Finally… Nobody Knows Where Language Came From
Not a clue!
Yet we somehow know that languages have existed since 100,000 BC…
But there are at least 6 theories on the origins of language.
Language Facts
So there you have it – 33 strange language facts. Is your mind blown yet?
Olly Richards
Creator of the StoryLearning® Method
Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.
Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.
When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.
