FUN FACTS ABOUT LANGUAGE!

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FUN FACTS ABOUT LANGUAGE!
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FACT At this moment at least 2,796 separate
languages are being spoken on our planet
according to a calculation by the Academie
Francaise, whose decisions are the last word
There may well be, in remote forests and jungles,
other languages that have not yet been discovered.
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FACT The German language has three genders for
their nouns masculine, feminine, and neuter
(der, die, and das). Child is understandably
neuter in German, but the word for girl
Maedchen is paradoxically neuter, and so is
wife Weib a word also used for female
or woman. As Mark Twain said In German, a
young lady has no sex, but a turnip has (die
Ruebe) In French, the word for the
female organ is masculine le vagin
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FACT In Mexico, the Mazateco have developed a
private male language of long and short whistles
which correspond to the syllables of certain
words. Mazateco women are therefore unable to
understand what the men are talking about and, so
far, no male has apparently betrayed the secret!
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FACT German almost became the official language
of the United States of America. The Continental
Congress, convened in Philadelphia during the
Revolution, at one time considered adopting a new
language for the future of the United States,
with the aim of cutting off all ties with
England. Among the languages suggested were
German, Hebrew and French. When it finally came
to a vote, English narrowly one by one vote!
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FACT Verdampt! (damned) and Donnerwetter!
(thunder weather) are German examples of mild
swear words which can be intensified to
earthshaking proportions when combined with other
words. The following example combines Lord
God the Cross and intensifiers to create an
enormous explosion HERRGOTTKREUZVERDAMPTERDONNER
WETTERNOCHMAL
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FACT Sometimes an entire English sentence sounds
like a basic expression in another language.
Americans visiting Japan who would ordinarily
experience some difficulty in remembering the
Japanese term for youre welcome (doo
itashimashite) have solved the problem simply
by answering the Japanese thankyou (arigato)
with dont touch my mustache. Said quickly,
this is close enough to be an acceptable answer!
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FACT A single word in Chinese may have several
dozen different meanings, depending on the tone
used to say the word. For example, the word
chiang can mean shall, to command, a general, a
river, soy sauce, mechanic, to drop, to descend,
or to surrender. In Chinese, the repetition of ma
four times with different tones signifies Mother
scolds the horse (ma-ma-ma-ma). If you add the
questioning ma at the end, you then have
ma-ma-ma-ma-ma, which means
Is mother scolding the horse?
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FACT Tongue twisters in various languages tend
to emphasize letter combinations peculiar to the
language which are difficult for non-native
speakers to say quickly English She sells
seashells by the seashore French Combien de
sous sont ces saucissons-ci? Ces saucissons-ci
sont six sous. Spanish Que rapido corren los
carros, cargados de azucar, del
ferrocarril! German Zwei schwartze schleimige
Schlangen sitzen zwischen zwei spitzigen Steinen
und zischen.
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FACT In most languages there are language
tricks, perhaps first developed as conversational
scramblers in prisons to confuse guards. Most are
easy to understand. English the initial letter
is changed to a position at the end of the word
and followed by ay Lets go Etslay
ogay! French an av is inserted before vowels
Paris Pavaravis German repeats every syllable
a second time but changes the first letter of the
repeated syllable to b Kindergarten
Kindbinderbergarbartenben
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Submitted by Brady Sherard, Floor
Coordinator Lister Centre University of Alberta
Campus Resource Native Tongues by Charles
Berlitz