Over 350 languages are spoken in the US

There are between 350 and 430 languages spoken in the United States of America, making it one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. While there is not an official language at the federal level, many states have adopted English and other indigenous languages as official.

Japanese is the fastest language in the world

Language speed is measured in syllables spoken per second or minute. The fastest language identified in a survey puts Japanese in first place with their motor-mouth speakers who pump out syllables at a blistering rate of 7.84 per second. Try saying “methyldihydromorphine” ten times in ten seconds to imagine how fast that is!

On the other end of the scale, Mandarin and German are two of the slowest spoken languages, clocking in at a leisurely 5.18 and 5.97 syllables per second, respectively.

Basque is a mystery language

Spoken by around 700,000 people in the Basque Country in Spain, this language is so unique and unrelated to any other language that experts still aren’t sure where it comes from. It even has its own numbering system. Basque stands truly alone; what linguists call a ‘language isolate.’ This uniqueness is a source of pride among the Basque speakers.

William Shakespeare introduced over 1700 words

Shakespeare coined over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives, combining words not used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and composing original words.

Eight-year-old author becomes a local hit

An Idaho library said a book written and illustrated by an eight-year-old boy, who personally placed it on the facility’s shelves, now had a waiting list of 135 people hoping to check it out.

Alex and Susan Helbig of Boise said their son, Dillon, 8, told the family in November that he had written a book and secretly placed it in the stacks at Lake Hazel Branch of the Ada Community Library.

Dillon had often written five- to 10-page comic books, before completing an 88-page tome titled The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis, with the author credited as “Dillon His Self.”

The library staff added the book to the facility’s catalogue and also made Dillon the first recipient of The Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist. The book follows Dillon’s adventures as he deals with an exploding Christmas tree topper and travels in time to events.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 19th, 2022