The English language is the most widely used language in the world, but it is also a language that is full of fun facts and anomalies. It seems quite simple to understand, speak and write English in comparison to the other languages used across the globe. However, most people are unaware of the misinterpretations, the strange words present in it and the crazy inventions associated etc.
English Language: Interesting Fun Facts
Some of the most interesting fun facts of the English language as of now are:
- We know “I am” as the shortest yet absolutely complete sentence in the English language. It conveys a variety of expressions and emotions. This sentence is not only grammatically correct but also gets extensively used.
- “I” is the oldest and the shortest word, the most commonly and popularly used in conversations worldwide. References to “I” are also present in the oldest medieval manuscripts. Thereby, providing ample proof that it is the oldest word of the English language ever used.
Ambigrams, Pangrams, Ghost Words
- An English dictionary is a weird place since it consists of several “ghost words”. Their appearance is a result of printing errors and the first such “ghost-word” or non-existent word to appear in the dictionary was “dord”.
- There are certain sentences in the English language which may contain all the 26 alphabets of the language. The sentence; “The brown fox quickly jumps over a lazy dog” is an excellent example of the same. We know these types of sentences as “Pangrams”.
- Ambigrams are words that read the same irrespective of whether we view them from the normal angle or upside down. The word “SWIMS” is a classic example of the same.
Language of Pilots & Air
- We know English as the language of pilots or of air since each and every pilot across the world has to essentially identify themselves in English, irrespective of what their origin or mother tongue is.
Other fun facts
- In about every 2 seconds, existing English dictionary gets a new word.
- The English language is full of crutch words like “actually”, basically, honestly, etc. These words have their use in the formation of English sentences yet they add no value or meaning to the sentences that they are present in.
- While most believe that “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is the longest word present in an English dictionary, it is not actually so. This word is popular just because of its use in the popular yesteryear movie “Mary Pop pins”. The longest word actually is the name of certain lung disease type which occurs from long time inhalation of dust and ash. This name happens to be “Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis”.
- Initially, the word “Girl” had its use to refer to a child or to someone young, irrespective of the gender they belonged to. It became gender-specific only later on.
The presence of these weird but fun facts is probably the factor that makes English language popular and interesting.
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