I think languages are pretty interesting. For example, did you ever think about how we ended up with so many languages in the world? Well, there's a story that tells us how this came about. It's called the Tower of Babel. Here it is:
At one time all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words. As the people migrated to the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylon and settled there. They began saying to each other, "Let's make bricks and harden them with fire." (In this region bricks were used instead of stone, and tar was used for mortar.) Then they said, "Come, let's build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world."
But the LORD came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. "Look!" he said. "The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! Come, let's go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won't be able to understand each other."
In that way, the LORD scattered them all over the world, and they stopped building the city. That is why the city was called Babel, because that is where the LORD confused the people with different languages." (Gen. 11:1-9)
And from Babel we get the word 'babble', which is what a baby does. Now you don't have to believe that story, but you have to admit it's interesting. Of course, it's from the bible - Genesis to be exact.
There are lots of other words, like babble, that we use every day without realizing that they have pretty interesting histories also. Take trivia for example.
The word "trivia" comes from the Latin "trivium". It was the place where roads met, forming a public square. People would gather there and talk about all sorts of 'trivial' stuff.
How about the medical name for the part of the brain associated with teenage sulking? It's called the "superior temporal sulcus".
And did you know that Q is the only letter in the alphabet that doesn't appear in the name of any of the United States?
Or that Karoke means 'empty orchestra' in Japanese? And how about Papaphobia? It means the fear of Popes.
And did you know that Pogonophobia is the fear of beards...or that Dr. Seuss in first coined the word 'nerd' 'If I ran the Zoo'?
And how about this one: hundreds of years ago, clans that wanted to get rid of their unwanted folk without killing them would burn their houses down. That's where we get the expression "to get fired."
So, some interesting stuff about words and language. Now if you are considering learning a new language you might consider either Spanish or one of the Chinese dialects. They are two of the fastest growing in the world. Take Spanish for example. After Chinese and English it's the most commonly spoken language in the world. It's the official language in 21 countries and is expected to be the first language of 50% of the United States within 50 years.
So in North America, Spanish would be a great language to learn, not only for social reasons, but for business reasons as well. Latin American countries are experiencing good economic growth and are becoming more important as trading partners.
Tony Hendriks |
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