We know for a fact that language and culture are intricately intertwined that one influences the other in tremendous, and sometimes amazing, ways. It is this intertwining that makes translations from one language to another extremely difficult. You can only translate words and concepts that exist in both cultures. Cultural subtleties that are not shared […]
30 Untranslatable Words From Other Languages (Illustrated). Read More »
Every language has a list of rarely used words that very few people know. They are not commonly known because they are rarely needed. Why bother learning something that you will not use..right? But for us, language nerds, that’s what gives meaning to our lives. Tracking down words and what they mean satisfies a curiosity
30 English Words That Are Rarely Known To Most People. Read More »
A lot of thought goes into designing a sign. Companies want their signs to reflect their brands, so they have to look clean and error-free. But this is in a perfect world. External factors, such as dust, rust, lights going out, etc., will mess up your sign and the resulting sign fails can be hilarious. The
One of the things that make the United States special is its diverse and varied linguistic background. You might think people speak the same English you and I know, but that’s not actually the case. The number of different accents spoken in the US and the degree of lexical variation are just fascinating. Language variation
20 Maps That Show How Americans Speak English Totally Differently From One Another. Read More »
A dad joke is a short joke, typically a pun, presented as a one-liner or a question and answer, but not a narrative. What makes a dad joke great is the creative wordplay combined with the one-liner, usually unexpected, response. Not all dad jokes are funny, though. Some of them are so bad they make
41 Dad Jokes and Puns That Require A Little Bit Of Wit To Understand. Read More »
You know..that little space, that dot-shaped thing, or that stuff you find when you pop the other stuff!! Or the whatchamacallit. We’ve all had moments when we couldn’t name a certain thing and we knew there should be a word for it. Well, you’re right, there is. Here is a list of words people don’t
There are approximately 7000 languages spoken in the world today, the majority of which are spoken by very tiny populations. About 60% of the world’s population, approximately 4 billion people, speak one of the few languages listed below. In fact, only 40 languages are spoken by more than 30 million native speakers. These most spoken languages are
The languages with more than 30 million native speakers. Read More »
Sometimes, it’s the minor details that offer the most intriguing insights when exploring a new language and culture. I’m still amazed by how the Hebrew term for potato directly translates to “Earth apple,” or how in Dutch, a glove is referred to as a “hand-shoe.” Additionally, the diverse expressions used across different cultures regarding how
Have you ever watched someone follow instructions so literally that the outcome was absolutely hilarious? From unforgettable instruction fails to funny misunderstandings that could have been avoided with a little common sense, these moments never fail to make us laugh. Whether it’s assembling furniture the wrong way, misreading a recipe, or taking everyday directions at
Change is constant, and that is especially the case for languages. They evolve, they melt into other languages, and sometimes they even dissolve into oblivion. With the advent of written history, some aspects of languages could finally be preserved. And with that, we could know, with some precision, how old a language is or how
These are the Oldest Words in The English language, According to Science. Read More »
