WORD FACTS
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TASK - Take notes on important and not-so-important aspects of our English language.

WORD FACTS - Here are a few word facts that you might find fun…

            A. Basic word info

1. Shortest words –

2. Longest word –
 

3. Only English word with no vowels and no "y" -

4. Most common words –

5. First spelling book -

6. Number of words the average English speaker recognizes:

7. Dictionary facts:

  • Number of words in Oxford English Dictionary:
  • Number of words in largest German Dictionary:
  • Number of words in Russian Dictionary:
    •

    8. Spoken languages facts:

  • Number of languages spoken in the world
  • Number of languages in danger of becoming extinct over the next century:
    Number of people who speak Eyak:
    •

    9. "Word families"

  • Example of words belonging to the same family:
  • Matar = Sanskit mater = Latin mutter = German
  • Moder= Swedish modir= Icelandic moeder = Dutch
  • Madre = Italian madre = Spanish mere = French
    •

    B. English - A living language – 5,000 new words are added to the dictionary every year. For example:

    1. 1940’s: atom bomb, baby-sit, barf, cheeseburger
    2. 1950’s: aerospace, car wash, meter maid, d0-it-yourself
    3. 1960’s: area code, biohazard, disco, glitch
    4. 1970’s; airhead, deadbeat dad, junk food
    5. 1980’s: AIDS, caller ID, dis, wannabe
    6. 1990’s: bad hair day, carjacking, PIN, World Wide Web, bummed
    7. 1999: dot-com (dot.com), sky surfing, 24-7, senior moment
    8. 2000's: hottie, big box...

    C. The Umingmagtormiut Eskimoes have over 100 words for snow:

    9. Wind-driven snow -
    10. Snow stop ice –
    11. Soft snow-
    12. Wet spring snow-

    D. Some brand names in other countries may strike us as odd:

    13. Tuna from Portugal –
    14. French cereal-
    15. German toilet paper-
    16. Scandinavian chocolate-
    17. Lemonade from Germany-

    E. Palindrones can be fun:

    18. Anna – Hannah – Dad – Mom – Wow – Eve- eye – ewe- ere - eke
    19. A man, a plan, a canal – Panama.
    20. "Pupils!" I say as I slip up.
    21. Never odd or even.

    F. Medical terms - 6000 have been standardized…

    22. cubitus =
    23. zygomas =
    24. laryngeal prominence =

    G. Eponyms - If you invent something, you could have a word named after you.

    25. Louis Braille=
    26. Henry Shrapnel=
    27. Earl of Cardigan=
    28. Julius Caesar=

    H. The "BOWWOW" theory of language- words originated as imitations of natural sounds.

    29. Dog - bow wow (Eng) guau guau (Arg) wang wang (Japanese) huahua (Finnish)

                      30. Rooster - Cock a doodle do (Eng) cocorico (Fr) kiquerique (Sp)

    31. Duck - Quack quack (Eng) gab gab (Thai) coin coin (Fr) cua cua (Sp

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