What do deaf people who meet in international settings such as the Deaflympics sign when they want to communicate? International sign language of course! Also referred to as Gesunto or International Sign Pidgin, this sign language with about 1,500 gestures has been developed and used since the 1970s. Besides the large number of regional sign languages which have been made, for example in Sri Lanka each school teaches a specific version of their own sign language, the main sign languages used widely today can be divided into four main trees: BANZSL (from Old British Sign Language), Danish, French, and Swedish.ĭid you know that American Sign Language is a child of Old French Sign Language? Now you do. Their development is complex and several have family-like lineages. Today there are around 300 sign languages used worldwide. There are around 300 sign languages in the worldĭid you know that American Sign Language is a child of Old French Sign Language? - Shutterstock The editors of the dictionary noticed the ghost word in 1939 but it wasn’t until 1947 that it was completely removed. It came into existence after a misinterpretation of the editor-in-chief’s slip that read “D or d, cont./density”, whose first part was mistaken for a single word. This ghost word was accidentally added to the dictionary in 1934 and defined as a synonym for density used in physics and chemistry:ĭord (dôrd), n. The word dord was a mistake in what is now known as the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The word “dord” was accidentally added to the English dictionary The runner-up is Indonesia with over 700 languages, and Nigeria is the third with over 530 languages in use.

There are about 7,000 languages spoken today, out of which about 840 are spoken in only one country - Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea has the most languages in useĪ large proportion of Papua New Guinea’s population lives in the mountainous interior of the country - Shutterstock

Here is our pick of fun language facts that you may have never heard of. In today’s world, it’s challenging to get by without the use of language, be it on social media, at work, or while traveling. Languages are a fascinating thing - fun, playful, and highly complex. The longest alphabet? The most common English letter? And what is a dord?

World language trivia