The Portuguese word 'saudade' describes a nostalgic longing for something loved and lost — it has no direct English equivalent.

Ancient Egyptians distinguished between the spoken language and written hieroglyphics — they used a separate everyday script.

Babies can distinguish phonemes from any language at birth but lose this ability by 12 months.

Social grooming in primates was replaced in humans by conversation — language evolved partly as a social bonding tool.

The word 'set' has the most definitions in the English language — over 430 in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Body language accounts for 55% of communication impact, tone for 38%, and actual words for only 7%.

The word 'nerd' was first used in a Dr. Seuss book in 1950.

Languages with no future tense have speakers who save more money — possibly because they don't distinguish future from present as strongly.

Apes can learn sign language.