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Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 165 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display.
Frequently Asked Questions & Answers
- There are 30 user-asked question matches ( goto )
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Languages
| Wouldn't you know it, only a few hours out of Australia, the pilot had engine trouble. We made an emergency landing on the eastern tip of the island of Timor Lorosae and luckily we were rescued. Unluckily we were thrown in gaol and did not get released until we learnt ______? | My Disaster Trip with Languages (exit10) |
Fataluku. The official language of Timor is Portuguese, but there are a number of languages spoken in various locations on the island. Maybe it's their way of preserving the language. Urdu is spoken in Pakistan and other countries, Papiamentu is spoken in the Netherlands Antilles and Mapundungun is spoken in Chile.
| Which Romance language was the predecessor to Portuguese? | Romance Languages Trivia (Beatka) |
Galician. Galician and Portuguese are very close to each other. Galician is the official language of the Spanish province of Galicia.
| Which one of the languages below is widely used in Canada after English? | World's Most Widely Spoken Languages (murali_86) |
French. French is widely used in Europe and in many former French colonies in Africa and Asia. It is the 10th most widely spoken language in the world. It is spoken by 72 million speakers as mother tongue.
| Which number is this: zwei, zwee, and tsvei (German, Luxembourgeois, and Yiddish, respectively)? Hint: when translating from other IE languages, forget the vowels, and try replacing 'z' with 't' or 'd'. | Indo-European Languages (savichal) |
2. If you replace 'z' with 't' you get 'zwei'...'twei'...'two.'
| Which number is this: zene, zing, and das (Central Bavarian, Luxembourgeois, Hindi)? | Indo-European Languages (savichal) |
10. You could have gone from 'zene' to 'tene' to 'ten', or you could have noticed the similarity between 'das' and the Latin root 'dec' as is 'decimal.'
| Which number is this: pumpe, pempe, pet (Umbrian, Gaulish, Bulgarian)? | Indo-European Languages (savichal) |
5. This was a little harder. Hopefully, you saw the similarity to the Greek 'pente' as in 'pentagon.' There is also another possibility. When in doubt, you can sometimes replace 'p' with 'f' and you can often replace 'm' with 'n'. 'Pumpe'...'fumfe'...'funf', which is German for 'five'.
| Which number is this: pendz, panc, panch (Ormuri, Kashmiri, Nepali)? | Indo-European Languages (savichal) |
5. Again, there is similarity to the Greek 'pente'. Incidentally, we get the word 'punch' from the Hindi word for 'five'.
| Which number is this: oans, aon, un (Central Bavarian, Scots, Welsh)? | Indo-European Languages (savichal) |
1. That's all. I hope, if nothing else, you learned something about how similar the IE languages are.
| Which number is this: naw, neu, novi (Kashmiri, Auvergnat, Sicilian)? | Indo-European Languages (savichal) |
9. For some reason, a lot of languages have similar words for 'nine' and 'new.' For instance, French 'neuf' and 'neuf'. I can't figure it out, but I'd love to hear from any of you that knows the reason.
| Which number is this: kat, ceathair, and keturi (Picard, Irish, Lithuanian)? Hint: try replacing 'k' with 'qu' | Indo-European Languages (savichal) |
4. Replacing 'k' with 'qu' you get 'kat'...'quat'...'quad' as in 'quadrangle'...'four.'
| Which number is this: fiif, vijf, and vyf (Frisian, Dutch, Afrikaans)? | Indo-European Languages (savichal) |
5. 'F' and 'v' are interchangeable. E.g. 'vyf'...'fyv'...'five'. There's a joke - what's between fear and sex? Answer: fuenf (German speakers will get this).
| Which number is this: dez, dos, dos (Portuguese, Parachi, Mayang)? | Indo-European Languages (savichal) |
10. Again, I hope you saw the similarity with the Latin 'dec.' I hope you weren't thrown by the similarity with the Spanish 'dos.'
| Which number is this: acht, otte, okto (German, Danish, Proto-Indo-European)? | Indo-European Languages (savichal) |
8. From the root 'oct' as in 'octagon'.
| Which name is not of Hebrew origin? | World Languages (marcgarellek) |
Peter. Peter comes from the Greek word for 'stone'.
| Which Latin case is said to be "instrumentative"? | World Languages (marcgarellek) |
Ablative. The ablative case is used to say 'with what' and other variations.
| Which language puts the definite article ('the') at the end of the noun? | World Languages (marcgarellek) |
Swedish. It is a characteristic of the Scandinavian languages (and some others) that the definite article is placed at the end of the noun.
| Which language is not spoken in South Africa? | World Languages (marcgarellek) |
Swahili. Swahili is spoken in Central Africa, in countries such as Tanzania.
| Which language is considered the most conservative of all Romance languages?
| Romance Languages Trivia (Beatka) |
Sardinian. Sardinian (Sardu) is the main language spoken in the island of Sardinia, Italy. Sardinia was practically isolated from the Continent for thousands of years, that's why this language resisted linguistic invasions or influences.
| Which language is believed by some to be the most similar to English? | World Languages (marcgarellek) |
Frisian. Frisian is spoken in the Dutch province of Friesland and on the Frisian islands, which belong to Germany and the Netherlands.
| Which language has the most vowel sounds? | Random World Languages (thejazzkickazz) |
Sedang. Sedang is a language spoken by a minority group in Vietnam. It has 50 vowel sounds.
| Which language has the longest alphabet? | Random World Languages (thejazzkickazz) |
Cambodian. The Cambodian alphabet has 76 letters!
| Which language has most native speakers? | World's Most Widely Spoken Languages (murali_86) |
Mandarin. Mandarin is spoken by more people than any other language. Spoken by 850 million speakers as mother tongue, it is commonly used in northern China and by Chinese minorities across South-east Asia.
| Which is not an official language of Switzerland? | World Languages (marcgarellek) |
English. Switzerland has an additional language, Italian, spoken in the south.
| What's the name of the Celtic language that was spoken on the Isle of Man? | A World of Languages (flem-ish) |
Manx. Mancunian is what you call an inhabitant of Manchester.
| What was the revised version of Esperanto introduced in 1907 called? | Random World Languages (thejazzkickazz) |
Ido. Ido is supposed to be a simplified version of Esperanto, but unfortunately all languages are complex. Some learners report that Ido is equally difficult to learn. The name 'Ido' means 'offspring'.
| What mood is the phrase 'If I were you' in? | World Languages (marcgarellek) |
Subjunctive. The increasingly-unpopular subjunctive is a mood describing wishes and desires. 'Long live the king!' and 'If music be the food of love' are both in the subjunctive mood.
| What language is widely used in the former republics of USSR? | World's Most Widely Spoken Languages (murali_86) |
Russian. Russian is the 7th most widely spoken language in the world. It is widely spoken by 170 million speakers as mother tongue in the former republics of USSR and as well as in Russia.
| What language is Basque most related to? | Random World Languages (thejazzkickazz) |
None. Experts have been able to find no linguistic connections between Basque and other modern languages.
| What language group is usually divided in Goidelic and Brythonic? | A World of Languages (flem-ish) |
Celtic. East Slavic comprehends Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian. - Within the Indo-Aryan group you can find Hindi and Urdu. - Celtic had a third group which has been long extinct: Continental Celtic or Gaulish.
| What is/are the official language(s) of the Republic of China (Taiwan)? | Official Languages II (lujia) |
Mandarin Chinese. Although Mandarin Chinese is the official language of the Republic of China many local languages are spoken in the country. The local dialect, known as Minnan (Taiwanese), is related to the Minbei dialect of mainland China's Fujian province and is widely spoken across Taiwan. Taiwanese aboriginals speak their own indigenous tongues though many can now speak Mandarin. Since the island was once a Japanese colony many older Taiwanese can speak Japanese.
| What is/are the official language(s) of Kyrgyzstan? | Official Languages II (lujia) |
Kyrgyz and Russian. After their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Kyrgyz authorities tried to reduce the Russian influence in the country. As a result Kyrgyz was the only official language. However, this also meant outmigration of ethnic Russians, who possessed most of the skills needed for economic development. Thus the legislature reinstated Russian as an official language with equal status to Kyrgyz in 2001.
 Frequently Asked Questions about Languages
- What are the "Romance" languages? ( goto )
- How many different languages are there? ( goto )
- Are Japanese and Korean related languages? ( goto )
- What is the country with the most official languages? ( goto )
- How many different languages are there in the world? ( goto )
- What languages do they speak in England? ( goto )
- What product can be found in 80 countries and in 26 languages? ( goto )
- What word is spelled the same in 9 different languages? ( goto )
- How many languages are spoken on Earth today? ( goto )
- What word is spelled the same in nine languages? ( goto )
- What are the two primary languages of Puerto Rico? ( goto )
- Are both Swedish and Finnish official languages of Sweden? ( goto )
- What are the three most spoken languages worldwide?
( goto )
- Worldwide, what are the five languages most commonly taught to students as foreign languages and where do these five rank among the world's most spoken languages? ( goto )
- The great linguist Harold Williams was said to have spoken 58 languages. Is there somewhere that lists all the languages he spoke? Were his abilities limited to only European based languages, or also included Asian or African languages? ( goto )
- What word is spelled the same way in 9 different languages? ( goto )
- Including the ancient ones, how many languages exist? ( goto )
- Which language or group of languages has the shortest alphabet? ( goto )
- Of the Galiec languages, which one is currently spoken the most? ( goto )
- Currently, how many Native American languages are spoken? ( goto )
- Is sign language the same in languages other than English? ( goto )
- What is the maximum number of languages that a person can speak? ( goto )
- What are all the countries with three or more official languages?
( goto )
- How similar are the Celtic languages: Welsh, Galeic, Manx, and others? ( goto )
- CNN is available in how many {languages---Two;Five} OR Nine? ( goto )
- How many official languages does South Africa have? ( goto )
- Into how many languages has the whole Bible been translated?
( goto )
- Which is generally the most concise of the world's languages and which is the wordiest? ( goto )
- What do all Latin based languages have in common?
( goto )
- Mandarin and English are the two most widely spoken languages but what is the third? ( goto )
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