The average educated English speaker knows about 40,000–50,000 words but uses only 5,000–10,000 in everyday speech.

Languages evolve continuously — Shakespeare's English is dramatically different from today's just 400 years later.

The word 'quarantine' comes from Italian — quarantina means 40 days, the waiting period for plague-exposed ships.

The word 'muscle' comes from Latin 'musculus' meaning little mouse — the movement of muscles under skin resembled a mouse moving.

The English word 'war' derives from the Old High German 'werra,' meaning strife or confusion.

Sign languages are full natural languages with their own grammar and syntax, not just manual versions of spoken language.

The average educated English speaker knows about 40,000–50,000 words but uses only 5,000–10,000 in everyday speech.

The dot over the letters i and j has a name — it's called a tittle.

Tonal languages like Mandarin use pitch to distinguish meaning — Cantonese has 6–9 tones.