Speakers of the indigenous Australian language Dyirbal switch to a completely different dialect in the presence of their mother-in-law.
languages
The Icelandic language was…
The Icelandic language was kept isolated for so long that modern speakers can still read and understand texts written in Old Norse, the language of the original viking settlers from Scandinavia that settled the Island over 1000 years ago.
US: Most common language spoken at home rather than English or Spanish
“This map shows the most commonly spoken language in every US state, excluding English and Spanish”, by Andy Kiersz and Ivan De Luce, Business Insider (1/18/20)
There is a Canadian TV anchor…
There is a Canadian TV anchor who translates all the English news into Inuktitut live on air. Igalaaq is the only Inuktitut supper hour TV program in the whole country where unilingual Inuktitut speakers have this one chance, for 30 minutes, to see someone speaking their language.
A man from New Zealand memorized…
A man from New Zealand memorized every french word in the french scrabble dictionary and won the French Scrabble Championship. He still doesn’t speak any french.
Navajo was once in danger of losing…
Navajo was once in danger of losing a lot of speakers, but the Navajo nation set up programs to teach the language as well as many bilingual schools. Now there are even institutes, community colleges, and technical universities with classes in the Navajo language.
Indians are relearning Sanskrit…
Indians are relearning Sanskrit and reviving the ancient language, with 10,000 new speakers in 2010 alone.
The Ket people is an isolated population…
The Ket people is an isolated population of 1200 in Siberia. Their language is strikingly similar in structure to the Native North American languages, and they are one of the last true hunter and gatherer societies on Earth.
Italian is attractive to the ear because it…
Italian is attractive to the ear because it benefits from a very high number of words that end in vowels, and few words with many consonants in a row, creating an open sound that makes it perfect for singing.
Iceland is extremely protective of their language…
Iceland is extremely protective of their language, instead of loaning words from other languages they repurpose old ones, telephone is ‘simi’, meaning thread, jet plane is ‘thota’, meaning to zoom and the word for computer, ‘tölva’ translates to number priestess or numbers witch.