Languages Facts for Kids
Weird and wonderful language facts
The difference between a 'language' and a 'dialect' is often political rather than purely linguistic. The linguist Max Weinreich famously said, 'A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.'
In Thai, speakers add a polite particle at the end of sentences — men say 'khrap' and women say 'kha'. Leaving out these particles can sound rude, even in casual conversation.
Most ancient writing systems began as pictographs — simple drawings of objects. Over thousands of years, these pictures became more abstract and eventually developed into the letters and characters used in modern writing.
Persian, also known as Farsi, has an incredibly rich tradition of poetry stretching back over a thousand years. Poets like Rumi and Hafez are still widely read today, and their verses are often quoted in everyday conversation in Iran.
Research suggests that speaking two or more languages throughout your life may help delay the onset of dementia by several years. The mental effort of switching between languages keeps the brain active and resilient.
Igbo is spoken by around 44 million people in south-eastern Nigeria and is one of the country's three most widely spoken languages. It has a distinctive tonal system where the pitch of a word changes its meaning.
Cuneiform, the world's first writing system, was created by pressing a reed stylus into wet clay tablets. Ancient Sumerians used it to keep records of trade, laws, and stories more than 5,000 years ago.
Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh and one of the most widely spoken languages in India, with around 230 million native speakers worldwide. The Bangla script is also used to write the Assamese language in north-east India.
Every language has tongue twisters — phrases that are deliberately difficult to say quickly because they repeat similar sounds. They are often used by actors and singers to warm up and sharpen their pronunciation.
Akkadian, spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, served as an international diplomatic language for hundreds of years in the ancient Middle East. Letters between Egyptian pharaohs and foreign kings were written in Akkadian cuneiform.