Curated playlist
Subject–verb–object languages
- Polish languageThe oldest known Polish sentence is a monk's note about grinding grain. It was written around 1280 in a monastery book.
- Czech languageRevivalists used a German-language grammar of Old Czech to help bring Czech back.
- Danish languageDanish once shaped the placenames of Yorkshire. Today even Swedes and Norwegians often struggle to follow it.
- Norwegian languageNorway has two official written forms of Norwegian. Students must study the one that isn't their own.
- Finnish languageFinnish can pack a whole sentence into one word, istahtaisinkohankaan.
- Thai languageThai once had three tones, and now it has five. The change came from lost voiced consonant sounds.
- Swedish languageSwedish changed how strangers address each other within just a few years. The du reform ended titles like herr and fru.
- Ukrainian languageIn 1863 a Russian minister declared that the Ukrainian language never existed. It became the state language in 1991.
- Italian languageIn 1861, only 2.5% of Italians could properly speak standard Italian. Most spoke their own city tongues instead.
- Portuguese languageVietnamese is written with help from Portuguese spelling. A 1651 dictionary built its modern writing on Portuguese.
- Russian languageRussian is one of only two languages spoken aboard the International Space Station.
- French languageFrench is growing fastest in sub-Saharan Africa, not in Paris. Population growth and new schools drive it.
- Icelandic languageModern Icelandic speakers can read manuscripts written eight hundred years ago with only modest effort.
- Occitan languageOccitan is a Romance language named after one small word, òc, which means yes. The Italian poet Dante used that word to sketch a map of European languages. In his Latin treatise De vulgari eloquentia he wrote: "nam alii oc, alii si, alii…
- Spanish languageThe country with the most native Spanish speakers is not Spain. It is Mexico.
- ArabicArabic builds whole families of words from three bare consonants. The root k-t-b gives book, writer, desk and library.
- Catalan languageCatalan, the Romance language its speakers call català, was once the target of an order that officials were told to carry out quietly. Secret instructions went to local officials known as corregidores in Catalan territory. They "will take…
- Faroese languageFaroese went unwritten for roughly 300 years after the Reformation.
- YiddishThe oldest surviving literary document in Yiddish is a short rhyme tucked into a prayer book for the High Holy Days from the medieval city of Worms. It dates to 1272. The rhyme wishes a good day to whoever carries the book into the…
- English languageThe words they, them and their in English came from Norse. They pushed out the Anglo-Saxon forms hie, him and hera.
- Coptic languageCoptic has no native speakers, yet it is heard in churches every week. It is the final form of the Egyptian language.
- Greek languageGreek has been written for at least 3,400 years. A Messenia clay tablet makes it the oldest recorded living language.