In 1799 French soldiers discovered a large stone near the town of Rosetta. Egyptian
priests created the stone in 196 BC to honor their pharaoh. The writing on the stone appeared in
two languages and three scripts and was instrumental in unlocking the key to ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphics. The stone became known as the Rosetta Stone.
According to the Inupiat Eskimo Dictionary by Webster and Zibell, the Inupiat have
32 words that describe types of snow or snow conditions. For example: ayak: snow on clothes,
kannik: snowflake, nutagak: powder snow.
Afrikaans is one of eleven official languages of South Africa. At about 90 years
old, it is one of the world's youngest. A mixture of Dutch, German, and other languages, it is
spoken by descendants of Dutch settlers.
Here’s a sentence containing nine ways the combination "ough" can be pronounced: A
rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after
falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.
"Uncopyrightable" is the longest English word with no repeated letters.
In 1945 a computer at Harvard malfunctioned and Grace Hopper, who was working on
the computer, investigated, found a moth in one of the circuits and removed it. Ever since, when
something goes wrong with a computer, it is said to have a bug in it.
“Freelance” comes from a knight whose lance was free for hire, i.e. not pledged to
one master.
Mandarin is the official language of China, and is based on the language spoken in
Beijing. It is the home language of people in northern China and Sichuan. It is written in simplified
Chinese characters, introduced in 1950 under Chairman Mao Zedong to increase literacy.
It has five tones:
1. high level (55)
2. high rising (45)
3. low falling-rising (213)
4. high falling (52)
5. neutral tone
Arabic is the Semitic language spoken across North Africa and the Middle East. It is
the fourth most spoken in the world, and one of six official languages used at the United Nations. It
is the holy language of Islam and the Qur'an.
Corn has been cultivated in Mexico since the year 7000 B.C., more than 4,500 years
before the Chinese had begun to develop a national cuisine. Many of the most popular Mexican dishes
date from long before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1521, making Mexico the country with the
longest tradition of a national cuisine.
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