Romance languages
The only Romance language developed in Eastern Europe
“What is Romanian?”
The most commonly spoken first language in Europe
“What is Russian?” ~ 120 million native speakers.
Language with the largest quantity of similar sounding words. (ex. Principal and Principle)
“What is Chinese?”
The language spoken by the most people
“What is Mandarin?” ~ 1.1 billion speakers.
The two romance languages with the highest percentage of lexical similarity
“What are French and Italian?” or “What are Portuguese and Spanish?” ˜ Both groups have about an 89% lexical similarity
The second most spoken first language in Europe
“What is German?” ~ German is the primary language of approximately 13.3% of European people. It is the official language of Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg
Has the most dialects
“What is Chinese?” ~ There are 266 dialects of Chinese.
English and Spanish are the two most spoken languages on the Internet. This is the third most spoken
“What is Japanese?” ~ Japanese speakers make up almost 10% of Internet users.
The two Romance languages that incorporate nasal vowels
“What are French and Portuguese?”
The closest major language to English
“What is Dutch?” ~ Even though Scots is the closest language to English - although many consider Scots to be more of a dialect of English - Dutch is the closest major language.
The least used letter in the English alphabet
“What is Z?” ~ Z is the least used letter, followed by Q then J.
The fastest spoken language (syllables/second)
“What is Japanese?” ~ Japanese is spoken at about 7.84 syllables per second. English is spoken around 6.19 syllables per second. Spanish is 7.82.
The only minority European language that is not currently endangered
“What is Catalan?”
The official languages are: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish (??)
“What is the United Nations?”
The oldest written language
“What is Sumerian?” ~ This written language dates back to at least 3500 years BC.
Language with an “alphabet” consisting of only consonants
“What is Arabic?” ~ Arabic technically doesn’t use an alphabet but an ajbad which is a system where each letter stands for a consonant and not a vowel. Vowel use special marking and are often not included at all in writings.
The continent containing the country with most official languages.
“What is Africa?” ~ Zimbabwe has 16 official languages including English and sign language.
The least spoken language
“What is Dumi?” ~ Dumi is spoken in the tiny kingdom of Nepal in the Himalayas. As of 2007, eight people spoke the language. Few parents encourage their children to speak Dumi, says Ethnologue.
Has the most languages spoken in the country
“What is Papua New Guinea?” ~ There are 820 languages spoken on this island.
The oldest living language
“What is Tamil?” By order of appearance, Tamil would be considered the world's oldest language as it is over 5,000 years old, having made its first appearance in 3,000 BC.