And it was determined that the weirdest language, spoken by a total population of 6,000 people worldwide, is Chalcatongo Mixtec. Chalcatongo Mixtec is spoken mainly in Oaxaca, Mexico, and is considered the weirdest language because it is the most unique when compared to the other languages spoken throughout the world.
The accompanying article goes on to describe that, much like Chinese, Pirahã uses different tones to communicate different words. For instance, the Pirahã word for friend and enemy is the same, but spoken with different tones. Of course, vowels and consonants are important, but the tone makes all the difference.
English sounds strange to non-native speakers because it has more phonemes than many other languages. Phonemes are unique speech sounds, and depending on which dialect of English is spoken, it can have around 44—the majority of languages have around 25 to 30.
Unlike most languages, English is a polyglot. It is a sponge that has readily soaked up words, meanings, structures, and pronunciations from Norman, Norse, Germanic, Briton, Latin and who knows how many other languages. It is highly malleable, dropping unused words, and adding hundreds of new words yearly.
English has two consonants that are unusual among languages. These are the 'th' sounds, as in 'thunder' or 'think'. Of the world's languages, only 8% have 'th' sounds. Historically, 'th' sounds often come from 't' or 'd' sounds.
Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.
What are the origins of Australian English? As with all other English-speaking countries, the origin of English is connected to colonialism. England took control of countries and people and imposed language, laws, education and culture. Settlers from the UK arrived in 1788.
'Innit? ' is a contraction of the tag question 'Isn't it? ' and people use it to prompt a response from the listener. So if someone says 'Nice weather, innit?
Where words like saw and idea come before a vowel, there's an increasing tendency among speakers of British English to insert an 'r' sound, so that law and order becomes law-r and order and china animals becomes china-r animals. Linguists call this 'intrusive r' because the 'r' was never historically part of the word.
1. English (1,452 million speakers) According to Ethnologue, English is the most-spoken language in the world including native and non-native speakers. Like Latin or Greek at the time, English has become the world's common language.
Ithkuil is an experimental constructed language created by John Quijada. It is designed to express more profound levels of human cognition briefly yet overtly and clearly, particularly about human categorization. It is a cross between an a priori philosophical and a logical language.
Modern IPA: ɑjdɪ́ː Traditional IPA: aɪˈdɪə 2 syllables: "eye" + "DEER"
We also can insert an /r/ sound when linking 2 words when two vowel sounds occur consecutively. We call this intrusive or epenthic /r/. As a result you may be able to hear the /r/ sound falling between these two words (and others) sometimes even though there is no “r” letter present : saw it /sɔːrət/.
Why do British pronounce "saw" as "sawr" or/and "sore"? E.g., "I saw it" is pronounced "I sore/sawr it." Not all British accents do this, and some American accents do this. and it's tied to how rhotic the accent is.
What does it mean? Another word for friend. Common in Britain as well, but used even more enthusiastically by Aussies, who pepper the ends of their sentences with a longer, stretched out “maaaaate” that conveys friendliness and establishes a relaxed bond between the speakers.
The Australian National Dictionary explains that the Australian usages of mate derive from the British word 'mate' meaning 'a habitual companion, an associate, fellow, comrade; a fellow-worker or partner', and that in British English it is now only in working-class use.
(UK, Australia slang, as a tag question) Contraction of isn't it. That's what I said, innit? (UK, Australia slang) Used as a replacement for any negative tag question, irrespective of person, number, and verb.
Australian English can be described as a new dialect that developed as a result of contact between people who spoke different, mutually intelligible, varieties of English. The very early form of Australian English would have been first spoken by the children of the colonists born into the early colony in Sydney.
Australian English arose from a dialectal melting pot created by the intermingling of early settlers who were from a variety of dialectal regions of Great Britain and Ireland, though its most significant influences were the dialects of Southeast England.
Besides working as herding animals, Aussies serve as police dogs, narcotics detectors and competitors in obedience trials. They also make great family pets. They are a recent addition to the AKC herding group; some Aussie breeders fear AKC recognition may create undue emphasis on appearance over ability.
Bludger. (Noun) A lazy person. “I'm running around like a headless chook organising this bloody barbie, and Johnno's just sitting there like a bludger!”