April 23 - English Language Day
The event was established by the United Nations in 2010 seeking "to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all of its official working languages". The date for is traditionally observed as the birthday of William Shakespeare.
Top 10 interesting facts about the English language:
- Contrary to the popular belief, English is not the most popular language in the world - it comes third after Chinese and Spanish.
- The shortest complete sentence in English consists of three letters - "I am" or "I do".
- Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (a lung disease) and Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (a lake in Michigan) are two longest words in English.
- The word "Goodbye" derives from an old English phrase "God be with ye"
- There are only 4 words in English that don't have a rhyme - month, orange, silver, purple.
- A new word is added to the dictionary every two hours.
- Try reading this sentence: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed". Did you get all the "-ough" correct?
- The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" includes all letters of the English alphabet.
- 70% of webpages on the Internet are in English.
- The official language of Illinois state is American, it is illigal to speak English there!
Therefore, be careful celebrating English Language Day in Chicago ;)
