The word 'assassin' comes from the Arabic 'hashishin,' a term for a secretive Islamic sect.

The first novel ever written in English is generally considered to be 'Robinson Crusoe' by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719.

Sign language grammar differs from spoken language grammar — word order and facial expression serve different grammatical roles.

Urdu and Hindi are mutually intelligible in speech but written in completely different scripts.

Dogs can learn over 1,000 words and gestures, similar to the vocabulary of a young child.

English has the largest vocabulary of any language — the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 600,000 words.

Linguistic relativity experiments show speakers of languages with more color words distinguish shades faster.

There are no true synonyms — words with similar meanings always differ in connotation, register, or use.

About 7,000 languages are spoken in the world today — one dies roughly every two weeks.