Tonal languages like Mandarin and Vietnamese use pitch to distinguish word meaning — the same syllable can have different meanings depending on tone.
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English has the largest vocabulary of any language — the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 600,000 words.
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The word 'disaster' comes from Greek for 'bad star' — a reflection of ancient belief in astrological influence.
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The Hawaiian language has only 13 letters — 5 vowels and 8 consonants.
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The grammar of most languages encodes social hierarchy — languages like Korean have distinct speech levels for different relationships.
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The word 'assassin' derives from the Arabic 'hashishin' — a medieval Islamic sect's name.
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'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' contains every letter of the English alphabet.
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English has the most borrowed words of any language — absorbing vocabulary from over 350 languages.
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The word 'treacle' once referred to an antidote to poison — it now means molasses.
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