The world's fastest text message — 17 words in 18.44 seconds — was typed on a touchscreen by Marcel Fernandes.

The word 'silly' once meant 'blessed' or 'happy' in Old English.

The concept of a 'dead language' is complex — Latin died as a spoken tongue but gave birth to French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian.

Shakespeare's works have been translated into over 100 languages and are performed more than any other playwright.

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

Some languages have words for concepts with no equivalent in English — the Japanese 'komorebi' means sunlight filtering through leaves.

Morse code is still in use in aviation and amateur radio today.

The Phoenicians created the world's first alphabetic writing system, the ancestor of most modern alphabets.

Inuit languages do not have unusually many words for snow — this is a persistent linguistic myth.