Languages Facts for Kids
Weird and wonderful language facts
Basque, spoken in the border region between Spain and France, is a 'language isolate' — it is not related to any other known language in the world. Its origins remain a mystery to linguists.
Emojis are sometimes described as a modern visual language understood across many cultures, though their exact meanings can vary from country to country. The word 'emoji' comes from Japanese, meaning 'picture character'.
The Indo-European language family is the largest in the world, including languages as different as English, Hindi, Russian, Greek, and Persian. Linguists believe they all descended from a single ancient language spoken thousands of years ago.
Hebrew is the only example in history of a language that was 'dead' — used only in religious texts — being successfully revived as an everyday spoken language. Today, around 9 million people speak Modern Hebrew in Israel and around the world.
Tagalog, one of the major languages of the Philippines, contains many Spanish words borrowed during the period of Spanish colonial rule. 'Guwapo' (handsome), 'kutsara' (spoon), and 'kotse' (car) all come from Spanish.
Afrikaans, spoken mainly in South Africa and Namibia, is one of the world's youngest languages, having developed from 17th-century Dutch. It became an official language of South Africa in 1925.
Onomatopoeia words sound like the things they describe — like 'buzz', 'splash', and 'crackle' in English. Interestingly, different languages often use different sounds for the same thing: a dog says 'woof' in English but 'guau' in Spanish.
Creole languages develop when communities who speak different languages need to communicate and create a new, fully formed language over time. Haitian Creole, spoken in Haiti, is a creole that developed from French and African languages.
Tibetan is spoken by around 7 million people across the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding regions in China, India, and Nepal. It has a rich literary tradition going back over 1,300 years, largely connected to Buddhist texts.
Scientists have discovered that music and language are processed in overlapping areas of the brain, which may explain why learning a musical instrument can help children learn to read and understand language more easily.