Interesting facts about the word number. Interesting facts about numbers

Most difficult languages

The largest number of verb forms (about 6000) exist in the language of the North American Chippewa Indians; another North American native language, Haida, uses 70 prefixes; Tabasaran (Dagestan) has 48 noun cases, while Eskimo has 63 present tenses and simple nouns in this language have 252 inflections.

In a 40 volume dictionary Chinese"Zhong - wen dajidian" contains 49.905 hieroglyphs. The phoneme "i" in the 4th tone has 84 meanings, for example, such as "clothes", "hiccups", "lousy". In the written language, there are 92 characters for the syllable "i" in the 4th tone. The most complex is the hieroglyph "se" - "talkative", consisting of 64 lines. Of the currently used characters, the most complex is the hieroglyph "nan". It contains 36 strokes and means "stuffy nose".

Irregular Verbs

In Turkish, one irregular verb is olmak ("to be"). There are 283 of them in English, but none in Esperanto.

Rare and common sounds

The rarest sound is ržš in Czech, which occurs only in very few languages ​​and is the last sound that Czech children learn.

There is a click sound in the southern Bushman languages. On the letter, he is depicted with a special sign. The sound "l" in the Arabic word "Allah" in some contexts is pronounced in a way that is unique to this language. The most common is the vowel "a". There is no language that does not have this vowel.

Great polyglots

(experts in foreign languages)

The greatest polyglots in history are the Italian Cardinal Mezzofanti (1774-1849), who spoke 26 or 27 languages, Professor Raek (1787-1832) from Denmark, Sir John Bowring (1792-1872) and Dr. Harold Williams from New Zealand (1876-1928) who spoke 28 languages ​​each.

Powell Alexander Janulus (b. 1939), who served in the court of the Canadian province of British Columbia, used 41 languages. In the second half of the 20th century in the UK, George Campbell (born August 9, 1912) worked with 54 languages ​​on BBC radio.

The oldest alphabet

The earliest example of alphabetic writing was found in Ugarit (now Ras Sharma, Syria). It dates from approximately 1450 BC. and is a clay tablet with 32 cuneiform letters applied to it.

The oldest letter

The most ancient letter "o" remained unchanged in the same form in which it was adopted in the Phoenician alphabet (about 1300 BC). There are currently 65 alphabets in use.

The longest and shortest alphabets

The largest number of letters - 72 - is contained in the Khmer alphabet, the smallest - 10 (a, b, e, g, i, k, o, p, t, u) - in the Rotokas language from the island of Bougainville (Papua New Guinea). The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters.

The greatest and least amount consonants

The largest number of consonants (80-85) is contained in the Ubykh language (the Abkhaz-Adyghe group of the Caucasian family), the smallest - 6 - in the Rotokas language.

Most and least number of vowels

The largest number of vowels (55) is found in the Sedang language (Central Vietnam), the smallest is in Abkhaz, which has only 2 vowels.

The largest letters

The largest in the world are the 183-meter letters that form the inscription READYMIX (“ready-made concrete”), laid out on the ground in East Balladonia (Western Australia) in December 1971. The famous letters on the slopes of American Hollywood also attract attention.

Did you know that...

The most capacious word on Earth is “mamihlapinatana”, which means “looking at each other in the hope that someone will agree to do what both parties want, but do not want to do”;

There are 28 letters in Arabic that are written differently at the end of a word than in the middle; in Hebrew - 5 such letters, in Greek - one, and in other European languages ​​there are no such letters;

The inhabitants of Papua New Guinea speak almost 700 languages ​​(this is approximately 15 percent of all languages ​​in the world). Among these languages, there are many local dialects used for human communication between villages;

The names of the signs of the Zodiac in Latin, translated into Russian, sound like this: Aquarius - Aquarius, Pisces - Pisces, Aries - Aries, Taurus - Taurus, Gemini - Gemini, Cancer - Cancer, Leo - Leo, Virgo - Virgo, Libra - Libra, Scorpio - Scorpius, Sagittarius - Sagittarius, Capricorn - Capricornus;

There are more than 1,000 different languages ​​on the African continent. And the Berber language of North Africa doesn't even have a written form;

The names of the days of the week among the Negroes of the Akan tribe are pronounced as (respectively): Judah, Beneda, Munuda, Yauda, ​​Fida, Meneneda and Kvasida;

The word "talentlessness" was introduced into the Russian language by the poet Igor Severyanin;

IN Ancient Egypt the apricot was called the "sun egg";

In Filipino, "hello" would be "mabuhai";

How are the words "rocket" and "racket" etymologically related?

The words "rocket" and "racquet" are etymologically unrelated. "Rocket" appeared in Russian under Peter I from German, and in German, in turn, from the Italian "rosshetta", which means "spindle". This is due to the fact that cracker rockets resembled a spindle appearance. But the “racquet” came from the French language, where it was borrowed from the Arabic “r??at” - “palm”.

Where does the word miniature come from?

The word "miniature" comes from the Latin name for red paint "minium" and in the original refers to ancient or medieval paintings in the genre of illuminated manuscript. Due to the small size of these paintings and the presence of the prefix "mini" in the word, an etymological metamorphosis later occurred, as a result of which any small drawings, especially portrait miniatures, began to be called miniatures. From painting, the term also penetrated into literature, where it refers to works of a small format.

What was called subbotnik before the advent of Soviet power?

Before the advent of Soviet power, the word "subbotnik" had a different meaning. So the high school students called the collective flogging, which was arranged for them by the authorities for misconduct committed during the school week. Corporal punishment itself was used in Russian schools until the second half of the 19th century.

Why is the word "untalented" misused today?

The word "untalented" today is mainly used in the sense of "talentless", having no talent. However, it is based on the Turkic word "talan", which means "happiness, prey". Thus, the word "untalented" in the original simply meant "unhappy" and initially had nothing to do with talent, and the modern meaning arose due to confusion and confusion with the word "untalented".

Where did the word "silhouette" come from?

In 1759, French minister Étienne de Silhouette imposed severe economic restrictions due to the financial crisis caused by the Seven Years' War. It was from his last name that the name of the silhouettes - portraits cut out of black paper - came from, since, firstly, they were much cheaper than paintings, and secondly, the minister himself was fond of making such portraits.

Where did the English word guy come from?

In 1605, a group of English Catholics tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament - these events were called the Gunpowder Plot, and Guy Fawkes became its most famous participant. He was instructed to light the fuse, but failed to do so, and Fox himself was arrested. His name was immortalized in the festivities dedicated to the salvation of the king - first, the word guy began to be called an effigy burned on the anniversary of the conspiracy, then a effigy in general, then a poorly dressed person. Now in colloquial American English, any man can be called this word.

Why did the creative elite get the name "bohemia"?

In the Middle Ages, a lot of gypsies lived on the territory of modern Bohemia in the region of Bohemia, and the gypsies who got to France began to be called Bohemians. Their way of life became the basis for comparison with the gypsies of the creative elite, leading an equally chaotic and eccentric life. That is why such a layer of society was called "bohemian".

Where did the word "fuck" come from and what was its original meaning?

In the Old Russian alphabet, the letter X was called "kher". From here came the word "fuck" in the meaning of "cross something on paper with a cross." And only later did this word acquire its modern meaning: “spoil”, “lose”.

How was the word "Internet" translated into the language of the Eskimos?

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Eskimos got acquainted with the Internet, and this term needed to be translated into their language. The experts chose the word "ikiaqqivik" - "journey through the layers". Previously, this word was used to describe the actions of a shaman who, in order to find an answer to any question, "traveled" through time and space.

Where did the expression "quiet glanders" come from?

The word sape means "hoe" in French. In the 16th-19th centuries, the term "sapa" meant a way to open a trench, ditch or tunnel to approach the fortifications. Gunpowder bombs were sometimes planted in the tunnels to the castle walls, and the specialists trained to do this were called sappers. And from the covert digging of tunnels came the expression "quiet glanders", which today is used to denote cautious and inconspicuous actions.

Where did the word "humor" come from?

The word "humor" comes from ancient Greece, but there it was used in a medical sense. Ancient doctors believed that a person's condition consisted of the ratio of fluids in his body - blood, lymph, yellow and black bile. Each such liquid was called "humor". If all four humors were in perfect balance, the person could be considered healthy and happy.

Why do football fans shout: “Shai-boo! Shai-boo!"?

The cry of the fans: “Shai-bu! Shai-boo! can be heard both on hockey and on football matches. This happened thanks to the famous hockey player Boris Mayorov, who loved to play football and even took part in the matches of the USSR Major League for Spartak. When the ball hit Mayorov on the football field, the fans began to cheer him up with the usual hockey chant.

Why is a Mitsubishi Pajero car sold in Spain under the Montero brand?

The Mitsubishi Pajero car was introduced to the Spanish market as the Mitsubishi Montero, because in the local slang the word "pajero" (read "pajero") means "masturbator".

What languages ​​have words without vowels?

Serbian and Croatian have words without vowels. For example, in the Adriatic Sea there is the island of Krk. It is even more difficult in this regard for the Czechs and Slovaks. Their longest word without vowels is ?tvrthrst, which means "a quarter of a handful." Moreover, sentences can be formed from such words, for example Str? prst skrz krk - "put your finger through your throat."

Where did the word "coin" come from?

The Roman goddess Juno had the title Moneta, which in Latin means "warning" or "adviser". Near the temple of Juno on the Capitol there were workshops where metal money was minted. That is why we call them coins, and in English language from this title came the general name of money - "money". By the way, the original meaning of the word "coin" comes into play when we toss it for advice.

Which vegetable's name comes from the word "unripe"?

The word "cucumber" is borrowed from the Greek language, in which it was formed from a word meaning "unripe". The reason for this is that cucumbers are eaten unripe.

Where did the word "bug" in the meaning of "malfunction" come from?

On September 9, 1947, engineers at Harvard University discovered the cause of a malfunction of the Mark II computer - a moth stuck between the relay contacts. One of them documented an incident called "First Bug Discovery" (in English, bug means insect). However, the word "bug" for technical malfunctions began to be used long before that, for example, it is found in Edison's diary. The word "debugging" in the sense of "debugging, correcting errors" also arose earlier - the Oxford Dictionary of 1945 described it in relation to the repair of aircraft engines.

What holiday decorations were originally sweet and edible?

Since ancient times, there has been a tradition to shower participants in balls, carnivals, weddings with sweets. They got the name "confetti" from the Italian word for "candied" (hence the candy also got its name). Later, they came up with the idea of ​​replacing sweets with small pieces of paper, but the word for them - confetti - remained the same.

What name of the armor was borrowed from the Mongols and ennobled?

Mongolian warriors wore armor called "khuyag". During the wars of Russia with the Golden Horde, this word penetrated into the Russian language, but in an ennobled form - oriental armor of the brigantine type began to be called "kuyak"

What is the blue ball spinning overhead in the popular song?

In a popular song that sounded in the 1934 film Maxim's Youth, there are lines: "The blue ball is spinning, spinning, spinning overhead." The obvious illogicality of the text (what kind of ball can spin overhead?) is easily explained. In the original version of this song, which arose back in the middle of the 19th century, it was not “ball”, but “scarf” that was sung. But since the letter "f" at the junction of words at a fast pace was very difficult to sing, it was subsequently reduced.

How many nouns of Russian origin are there that begin with the letter "a"?

Almost all Russian words that begin with the letter "a" are borrowed. There are very few nouns of Russian origin with "a" in modern speech - these are the words "alphabet", "az" and "maybe".

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Suddenly: words bull And bee- single root. Words starting with a letter Y, in our language as many as 74. And in the Guinness Book of Records, a word is recorded with a length of 35 letters.

website never ceases to be amazed at the complexity and richness of the Russian language and presents 20 interesting and unexpected facts that you probably did not know:

  • Most words with a letter F in Russian - borrowed. Pushkin was proud that in The Tale of Tsar Saltan there was only one word with this letter - fleet.
  • There are only 74 words in Russian that begin with the letter Y. But most of us only remember iodine, yoga And Yoshkar-Olu.
  • Russian has words for S. These are the names of Russian cities and rivers: Ygyatta, Ylymakh, Ynakhsyt, Ynykchansky, Ytyk-kyul.
  • The only words in Russian with three letters E in a row is long-necked(and others on - neck: for example, crooked-, short-).
  • There is a word in Russian with a prefix unique to the language co- - nook and cranny.
  • The only word in the Russian language that does not have a root is take out. It is believed that in this word the so-called zero root, which is in alternation with the root - them- (take out). Previously, until about the 17th century, this verb looked like take out, and it had a material root, the same as in take off, embrace, understand(cf. take, hug, understand), but subsequently the root - nya- was reinterpreted as a suffix - well- (how in poke, puff).
  • The only one-syllable adjective in Russian is evil.
  • There are words in Russian with prefixes unique to the language And- (total, total) And but- (maybe; obsolete "but no luck") formed from unions And And but.
  • Words bull And bee- single root. In the works of ancient Russian literature, the word bee spelled like bchela. Vowel alternation b / s explained by the origin of both sounds from one Indo-European sound u. If you remember the dialect verb thrash, meaning "roar", "buzz", "buzz" and etymologically related to the words bee, bug And bull, then it becomes clear what was the general meaning of these words.
  • Dahl suggested replacing a foreign word atmosphere into Russian colosemia or mycoholic.
  • Until the 14th century in Russia, all indecent words were called "absurd verbs."
  • In the 1993 Guinness Book of Records, the longest word in the Russian language is X-ray electrocardiographic, in the 2003 edition - highly contemplative.
  • In the Grammar Dictionary of the Russian Language by A. A. Zaliznyak, 2003 edition, the longest (in letters) common noun in the dictionary form is an adjective private enterprise. Consists of 25 letters.
  • The longest verbs - be re-examined, to be substantiveized And internationalize(all - 24 letters; word forms -permanent And -becoming- 25 letters each).
  • The longest nouns - misanthropy And excellency(24 letters each; word forms -ami- 26 letters, however, misanthropy practically not used in the plural. h.).
  • The longest animate nouns are eleventh grader And clerk(by 21 letters, word forms -ami- 23 letters each).
  • The longest adverb in the dictionary is unsatisfactory(19 letters). However, it should be noted that the vast majority quality adjectives on the th / -th adverbs are formed -about / -e, which are not always fixed by the dictionary.
  • The longest interjection included in the Grammar Dictionary is physical education hello(15 or 14 letters depending on the status of the hyphen).
  • Word respectively is the longest sentence. It consists of 14 letters. The longest particle exclusively- a letter shorter.
  • There are so-called insufficient verbs in Russian. Sometimes the verb does not have any form, and this is due to the laws of euphony. For example: win. He will win, you win i... win? I will run? victory? Philologists suggest using replacement constructions "I will win" or "I will be the winner". Since there is no 1st person singular form, the verb is "insufficient".
  • The English use the mnemonic "yellow-blue bus" to successfully master the difficult phrase "I love you".
  1. The Russian language belongs to the group of Indo-European languages, which directly links it with Greek and Latin.
  2. The closest relatives of the Russian language are the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages.
  3. The languages ​​of the Germanic group - German and English - had a strong influence on the Russian language. Although at first glance, they have nothing in common.
  4. The Russian language is considered one of the most difficult languages ​​in the world. We Russians are always surprised by this, why is it so difficult. And you try to explain to a foreigner the quatrain:

I love river banks and braids

I love it when spit meadows ring

But I love my favorite braid

You do not look askance at this weakness

  1. Russian is one of the working languages ​​of the UN. There are 6 working languages ​​in the UN.
  2. In Russian, in addition to 16 countries of the former USSR, large communities in Israel, the USA, and others freely communicate.
  3. It is believed that more than 200 million people around the world are native speakers of the Russian language. This is about 3% of the world's population.
  4. In total, more than 300 million people in the world speak Russian.
  5. In some territories of the US state of New York, all official documents must be translated into Russian without fail.
  6. Russian is the only state language in one state - Russia.
  7. In many countries of the former USSR, Russian is the state language on a par with the national language of these states.
  8. The Russian language is in 8th place in terms of the number of people who consider it their native language.
  9. In addition to Russia, most people consider Russian as their native language in Ukraine - 38 million people.
  10. Most of the native speakers of Russian who consider Russian as their native language in countries other than the countries of the former USSR are in the United States. More than 700,000 people here consider Russian as their native language.
  11. Among the languages ​​into which books are most often translated, Russian takes 7th place in the world.
  12. Among the languages ​​from which books are most often translated, Russian takes the 4th place in the world.
  13. The Russian language is officially recognized as the “language of science”, and is the official language of communication for scientists from all over the world.
  14. The Russian language is one of the languages ​​of storage of universal knowledge.
  15. As of 2013, the Russian language ranks second in the world among the most popular Internet languages.
  16. During the heyday of the USSR, the Russian language was studied in more than 90 countries of the world.
  17. At the peak of the popularity of the Russian language, more than 25 million schoolchildren all over the world studied it.
  18. At the end of the 20th century, the Russian language began to rapidly lose popularity in the world.
  19. Surzhik is a special form of the Russian language, which has become widespread in the central regions of Ukraine.
  20. The Russian language has a large number of dialects and dialects. This is due to the large territory of our country.
  21. Linguists count more than 20 varieties of dialects of the Russian language.
  22. The modern Russian alphabet was adopted in 1918 and is still in use today.
  23. Historians of the Russian language distinguish three main periods in the development of the language - Old Russian, Old Russian and the period of the national language.
  24. In Russian, depending on the meaning of the word, the stress can be on different syllables.
  25. In the very big dictionary Russian language more than 253,000 lexical units.
  26. The most famous dictionary of the Russian language, the Dahl Dictionary, contains more than 200,000 lexical units.
  27. “Ridiculous verbs” in Russian were called obscene and indecent words.
  28. Do not say this to schoolchildren: scientists consider the words bull and bee to be the same root words.
  29. The Russian alphabet has its oddities. Some letters are written and sound like letters of the Latin alphabet. And some letters are written as in the Latin alphabet, but they sound differently.
  30. Only two letters of our alphabet have no sounds. These are hard and soft signs.
  31. There are 74 words in Russian that begin with the letter Y.
  32. In Russian, there are words that begin with the letter "Y". These words denote geographical names. Basically, these geographical objects are located in Siberia and in the north of Russia.
  33. The youngest letter of the Russian alphabet is the letter "Ё". She was born in 1873.
  34. As a sign of respect for the letter “Yo”, several monuments to this letter have been erected in Russia.
  35. Point of wonder. So in Russian they used to call the exclamation point.
  36. In Russian, two words claim to be the longest word in the Russian language. X-ray electrocardiographic (33 letters) and highly contemplative (35 letters).
  37. The scientist did not come to a consensus on the issue of the emergence of the Russian language. According to one version, the ancestor of the Russian language is Sanskrit.
  38. The first mention of the letters of the Russian language dates back to 863.
  39. The first rules of the Russian language appeared at the end of the 15th century.
  40. Schoolchildren learn 6 cases of the Russian language. Actually there are 10 of them.
  41. It is believed that in no other language of the world there are so many obscene and abusive words. This speaks of the richness and diversity of the Russian language.
  42. Russian, along with French and English, for its melodiousness, is considered the best language for writing songs.

Russian is the ancestor of many other languages, but at the same time it is considered one of the most difficult to learn. He is really beautiful and to be convinced of this it is enough to read the works of outstanding writers such as Chekhov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy and many others. Many literary experts believe that if these authors wrote their works in English, German, French or any other language, the result would be completely opposite. And it's hard to disagree with that.

We present to your attention some very interesting facts about the Russian language.

The most interesting facts about the Russian language for children and adults

1. We all know very well that the Old Russian alphabet differed from the modern one. Most of the letters in it have retained their original appearance to this day, but their sound has changed. So, for example, the letter "X" sounded like "Dick".

2. A very large number of Russian words cannot be translated into foreign languages. One such example is the word "hangover".

3. Have you ever met in Russian words that have three letters "E" in their composition? And they are - it's "serpentine" and "long-necked".

5. Do you still think that there are no words in Russian that are written with a capital letter “Y”? And they are, and these are the names of settlements and rivers, namely Yllimakh, Ygyatta, Ynakhsyt, Ynykchansky, Ytyk-kuyol.

6. Without exception, all cosmonauts are required to learn Russian, since there are some names on the ISS made in our native language.



7. "High Excellency" is the longest noun in Russian, which consists of 24 letters. There is also another unusual word "take out" in Russian - its peculiarity lies in the fact that it is the only one of its kind that does not have a root.

8. Most of the words that begin with the letters "F" and "A" are borrowed from foreign languages. This was also emphasized by the outstanding Russian writer Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin - he was proud that in The Tale of Tsar Saltan there is only one word, the capital letter of which is "F" - the word "fleet".

9. The word "zakulok" is also unique to the Russian language - it has the prefix "KO", which is absent from any other Russian word. Also in Russian there is another very interesting word “vzbzdnul” - after reading it, you noticed that it has six consonants in a row.

10. In Ancient Russia before the 14th century, indecent words were called "absurd verbs", and there were many of them then and now.

11. About 7 billion people live in the world, and 200 million of them speak Russian. It is also worth noting that linguists classified Russian as an Indo-European language. It is one of the four most advanced languages ​​in the world and is also one of the six official languages ​​of the UN.

12. Another interesting fact from the history of the Russian language: it is believed that the writer Karamzin is the "parent" of the letter "Yo".



13. The word "exclusively" - is considered the longest particle in the Russian language. But the leader in length between interjections is the word "physical education-hello."

14. World-famous linguists note that the Russian language is considered one of the most difficult. Foreigners spend a lot of time learning it, especially with regard to writing.

15. The most interesting fact about verbs: the word "to be" is not used in the plural.

16. In Russian, you can use an infinite number of prefixes.

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