Languages Facts for Kids
Weird and wonderful language facts
If you look at all the world's languages, subject-verb-object word order (like English: 'The cat chased the mouse') is the most common, used by about 45% of languages. Subject-object-verb order (like Japanese and Turkish: 'The cat the mouse chased') is second most common. Languages with verb-subject-object order (like Classical Arabic) are rarer. Word order is one of the most fundamental ways languages differ.
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics remained undeciphered for over 1,400 years after the script fell out of use. The Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, contained the same text in hieroglyphics, Demotic script, and ancient Greek. French scholar Jean-François Champollion finally cracked the hieroglyphic code in 1822, opening up 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian texts to modern understanding.
Swear words are processed differently in the brain from regular words. Studies show that swearing is often associated with deeper emotional brain structures, which may explain why people with certain types of aphasia (language disorders from brain injury) sometimes lose the ability to produce normal speech but can still swear. Swearing has also been shown to increase pain tolerance — people can withstand more pain while swearing than while saying a neutral word.
Written Chinese (using Chinese characters) can be read and understood by all literate Chinese people, even though the spoken dialects — Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, and others — are so different that speakers cannot understand each other. This is because the characters represent meanings, not sounds. Written Chinese has served as a unifying force across China's diverse linguistic landscape for thousands of years.
Despite being called 'Arabic numerals,' the number system using 0-9 was actually invented in India and brought to Europe through Arab scholars and traders. The Indian mathematician Brahmagupta formalized the system in the 7th century, and Arab scholars like Al-Khwarizmi spread it westward. European scholars adopted the 'Arabic' numerals to replace the cumbersome Roman numeral system during the Medieval period.
Research suggests that people who speak two or more languages throughout their lives may develop symptoms of dementia up to 4 to 5 years later than monolingual people. Scientists believe that managing two language systems exercises the brain's executive control functions, building up what researchers call 'cognitive reserve.' This protective effect has been documented even in people with limited formal education.
Before modern communications, many cultures developed ways to transmit language over long distances using drums, whistles, or horns. West African talking drums can transmit messages by mimicking the tonal patterns of speech. The drum language of the Lokele people of Congo allows messages to travel 100 miles in under an hour — far faster than a human messenger.
A language is considered extinct when its last native speaker dies. Linguists estimate that a language dies approximately every two weeks. The world loses each dead language forever unless it has been recorded. Cornish, a Celtic language of southwest England, was declared extinct in 1777 when its last native speaker died, but revival efforts have brought it back to about 600 speakers today.
English has an unusual abundance of synonyms because it is a hybrid of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Norman French, and Latin origins. English often has three different words for the same concept: a common word from Old English (ask), a slightly formal one from French (inquire), and a formal one from Latin (interrogate). This layering gives English writers an exceptionally rich palette of tones and registers.
What a language has many words for can reveal a culture's priorities and environment. Arabic reportedly has over 100 words for camel and its states and types. Indigenous languages of the Arctic have numerous words distinguishing different types of snow relevant to survival. English has an extensive vocabulary for computer and technology concepts. Language both reflects and shapes what speakers pay attention to.