26 September: European Day of Languages

Today is European Day of Languages - so here are ten interesting facts about languages.

1. How many languages are there in the world? Somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000. There are about 225 languages spoken in Europe.
2. Not to mention any number of fake languages created for films and TV, such as Klingon. The Lord of the Rings films feature 12 made up languages.
3. The language which has the most native speakers is Chinese. 1.2 billion people have Chinese as their first language. In Europe, the most widely spoken native language is German.
4. Some languages have over 50,000 words, but most people only ever use a few hundred of the words in their language.
5. Over half the people in the world are bilingual, which means they speak two or more languages fluently.
6. Languages borrow words from each other - English has many words and expressions which have their roots in other tongues. Equally, other languages borrow words from English. "Le weekend" springs to mind here.
7. The book which has been translated into the most languages is, not surprisingly, the Bible. The Little Prince and Pinocchio are the most translated non-religious books.
8. The alphabet of the Cambodian language Khmer has 74 letters. At the other end of the scale, Rotokas, a language spoken in Papua New Guinea, has just 12. Chinese uses characters rather than letters, and has 50,000 of them. However, you only need to know about 2,000 of them in order to read a newspaper.
9. There are people in the Patagonian region of Argentina who speak Welsh.
10. People using sign language have accents, just as people using spoken languages do. People who have used sign language from birth can tell whether another signer is deaf or not, and if they are new to signing. People in New York sign faster than most.

NEW!

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

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