The IDEA

We begin the new series on facts on fact sources. These fact collection for the 31 days is my own work and is partly based on the very base of the factorium. The facts in this series will be more of articles than facts... so brace yourselves!

My inspiration for the very idea was on my hobby... that of collecting the facts pages that used to be there at the end of every classmate notebook. This coupled up with competition from other classmates to collect the most number of pages prompted me and made me think, "There has to be a better way to know, dig and put up facts! I then thought of making a blog with a catchy name. As I could not come up with something better, I thought a portmanteau would be a good choice!

Turning to the facts behind the Classmate notebooks, they are presented in a very user friendly way, with a lot of humor and less content. In contrast, the facts in this blog have been presented in a degree of detailedness. My friends have a collection of about 55 pages from the classmate notebooks, and I will try to post the facts behind the notebooks on this blog in the next few days.

This, I believe will be a very unique compilation second to none, as not many people bother to collect the facts, leave aside compiling them and posting them on the internet. I have asked my friends to help me out, and I will present the facts to the Visitors!

The Happening Month that WAS

I know it is a bit late... but anyways... heres the monthly report for August.

We have an accelerated graph of the visitors here!! I hope all of you love the blog!!! For the last month, I did not pay much attention to the blog due to my co-curriculars, so the facts were not that stupendous, but this month, we have a series called "Classmate Facts" which promises to be my best work ever... where I will be posting facts printed behind Classmate Notebooks from my own little collection.

So let us continue in our quest for more facts!!!

@@J

Languanologue # 16

Today is the last day for our series, let us end it by facting on dead languages.

By contrast to an extinct language which no longer has any speakers, a dead language may remain in use for scientific or legal functions. Sanskrit (India) Language is an example. There has been language revival in the case of Sanskrit and it is still spoken by everyone in Mathoor Village (Karnataka), India. Recently, another Indian language, the Aka-Bo language became extinct when its last known speaker, Boa Sr. died on Indian Republic Day, 2010. The Red Book of Endangered Languages was published by UNESCO and collected a comprehensive list of the world's languages currently facing extinction. It has been replaced by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

See ya later... Let us close the pages of the Languanologue until next time...

Languanologue # 15

Today is the penultimate post for this month and for this series. For the next 2 days, we will see something on Extinct Languages of the world and dead languages.

In very simple terms, An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers. Extinct languages may be contrasted with dead languages, which are no longer spoken by anyone as his or her native language. Normally the transition from a dead to an extinct language occurs when a language undergoes language death while being directly replaced by a different one, as we saw in earlier posts. Language extinction may also occur when a language evolves into a new language or family of languages. An example of this was Old English, the previous version of Modern English.

More tomorrow...

Languanologue # 14

Up for today is more on endangered languages.

The SIL Ethnologue lists 516 out of 6,912 living languages inventorized (7.5%) as "nearly extinct", indicating cases where "only a few elderly speakers are still living". This includes 210 Pacific languages, 170 American languages, 78 Asian languages, 46 African languages and 12 European languages. Another interesting fact about endangered languages is in order to judge if a language is endangered, the number of speakers is less important than the age distribution; An example of this can be seen in Indonesia where it is reported that there are languages with as many as two million native speakers alive now, but all of advancing age, with little or no transmission to the young. So here, the young, the children matter the most and the transmission of a language on to the next generation is very important. Experts predict that even in a conservative scenario, about half of today's languages will go extinct within the next fifty to one hundred years.

From tomorrow for the last 2 days we will see something on extinct languages of the world.

Languanologue # 13

Today we will see something more on endangered languages of the world. Specifically, we will also see on a phenomenon called Language Death, feared by linguists all over the world.

Language Death is a gradual process where the given number of fluent or native speakers of any language or dialect is decreased, eventually resulting in no native speakers of that variety. The most common process leading to language death is one in which a community of speakers of one language becomes bilingual in another language. A language is often declared to be dead even before the last native speaker of the language has died as there are only a few elderly speakers of a language remaining, and they no longer use that language for communication, then the language is effectively dead.

Languanologue # 12

Only 5 days are left for the month to end... these 5 days will see facts on Endangered and Extinct languages in the world. We will start off with Endangered languages, then move on to Extinct Languages and see some examples of these, along with minor statistical facts.

As promised, I will be soon remodeling the Factorium step by step...

An endangered language, as the name suggests is any language rapidly falling out of use. The total number of exact endangered languages in the world is not known. Michael Krauss, a linguist defines languages as safe if children will probably be speaking them in 100 years; endangered if children will probably not be speaking them in 100 years; and "moribund" if children are not speaking them now. He estimates 15-30% (or 900-1800) of languages are moribund.The criteria for a language to become endangered is based on 3 factors: The number of speakers currently living, the mean age of native and/or fluent speakers and the percentage of the youngest generation acquiring fluency with the language in question. Once a language is determined to be endangered, there are two basic steps that need to be taken in order to stabilize or rescue the language. The first is language documentation and the second is language revitalisation. Tomorrow we shall see more on this topic.

Languanologue # 11

Today we have the last day of facts on the Linguasphere Observatory.

Today we will see something about the Linguasphere Language Code and about Language codes in general.

A language code is a code that assigns letters or numbers as identifiers for languages. These codes are often used to organize library collections, to choose the correct localizations and translations in computing, and as a shorthand designation for forms.

The Linguasphere Language Code consists of three parts. The first part of the Linguaspere code is a decimal classification consisting of two numerals from 00 to 99 and this part is fixed and systematic. The second numeral is used to represent the zone into which each sector is divided. The second section of the Linguasphere language code consists of three capital letters: from AAA to ZZZ. The third and final part of the code consists of up to three lowercase letters used to identify a language or dialect with precision: from aaa to zzz.

Languanologue # 10

For the past three days, we saw about the Ethnologue, now we will see about another similar source, the Linguasphere Observatory.

The Linguasphere Observatory is an international language research network created in Quebec, Canada in 1983. Its current headquarters are based in Wales, UK. In 1999/2000, the Linguasphere Observatory published David Dalby's 2-volume Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities (LSR1). Since 2006, the Observatory has concentrated on the preparation of the updated second edition of the Linguasphere Register (LSR2). It has come up with an innovative language code too. The Linguasphere language code is a reference system for world languages used by the Linguasphere Observatory and published in its Linguasphere Register. It is an expansive, flexible system that relates each language or dialect with another.

Languanologue # 9

Today is the last day for the Ethnologue subseries of facts. We will see a short statistic on the language families listed by the Ethnologue.

Among the common languages, the Ethnologue lists 1 artificial language or constructed langauge, 82 creoles, 17 pidgins, 130 deaf sign languages, 23 mixed languages, 50 language isolates and 73 unclassified languages. We have already seen the top ten most spoken languages in the world and the top ten families with the most number of languages. All this data was from the Ethnologue: Languages of the World. For the next 2 days we will see facts on the other source Linguasphere Observatory. And the next 5 days will see facts on Endangered Languages of the World and Extinct Languages of the World.

More facts tomorrow....

Languanologue # 8

Today we will see something more on the Ethnologue. Today we will see something about the controversies the Ethnologue has created, in contrast to the common facts that we saw yesterday. Some of this information is from the Ethnologue website and the rest is from Wikipedia...

The Ethnologue has a spot of controversy too. Some accuse the Ethnologue of dividing languages, preferring to call the different varieties "dialects". In other cases, the Ethnologue has been accused of lumping together different languages as "dialects" of single languages. As the preface says, "Not all scholars share the same set of criteria for what constitutes a 'language' and what features define a 'dialect.'"In 1984, the Ethnologue released a three-letter coding system, called a SIL code, to identify each language that it describes. In addition to choosing a primary name for the language, it also gives some of the names by which a language is called by different people and bodies. Errors are fixed in every edition.

Tomorrow we will see about the language families listed by the Ethnologue.

Languanologue # 7

Today we will see some information on the main source... this is my source for the 15 days of this series. It is the Ethnologue - Languages of the World. For the next three days, we will see random facts and information on the Ethnologue.

Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian Linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, primarily to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language. The Ethnologue contains statistics for 7,358 languages in the 16th edition, released in 2009 (up from 6,912 in the 15th edition, released 2005 and 6,809 in the 14th edition, released 2000). It gives the number of speakers, location, dialects, linguistic affiliations and is thus currently the most comprehensive existing language inventory, along with the Linguasphere Observatory Register. Tomorrow we will see more on the Ethnologue and beyond it too.

Languanologue # 6

Today we have the second list of he largest language families in terms of number of languages are the following. Some families are controversial, and in many the language count varies between researchers:

1. Niger-Congo (1532 languages)

2. Austronesian (1257 languages)

3. Trans–New Guinea (477 languages)

4. Sino-Tibetan (449 languages)

5. Indo-European (439 languages)

6. Afro-Asiatic (374 languages)

7. Nilo-Saharan (205 languages) [controversial]

8. Pama-Nyungan (178 languages)

9. Oto-Manguean (177 languages) {controversial]

10. Austro-Asiatic (169 languages)

Languanologue # 5

Today we have a list of the top ten families with wide recognition, in terms of numbers of native speakers as a proportion of world population, listed with their core geographic areas:

1. Indo-European Languages - 46% (Europe, Southwest to South Asia, America, Oceania)

2. Sino-Tibetan Languages - 21% (East Asia)

3. Niger-Congo Languages - 6.4% (Sub Saharan Africa)

4. Afro-Asiatic Languages - 6% (North Africa, Southwest Asia)

5. Austronesian languages - 5.9% (Oceania, Madagascar, maritime Southeast Asia)

6. Dravidian languages - 3.7% (South Asia)

7. Altaic languages - 2.3% (Central Asia, Northern Asia, Anatolia, Siberia)

8. Japonic languages - 2.1% (Japan)

9. Austro-Asiatic languages - 1.7% (mainland Southeast Asia)

10. Tai-Kadai languages - 1.3% (Southeast Asia)

Languanologue # 4

In this series, we will now look at facts on Language Families for the next 3 days Today we will start with a short fact on Language Families.

There are about 300 or more (it is disputed) language families in the world, classified and distributed in a very big list in a complicated way. As of early 2009, SIL Ethonologue catalogued 6,909 living human languages. Languages can be Living, Dead, Distinct from dead or simply, Extinct. I have made an attempt to simplify language classification in this short subseries of 3 days. Every level of language relationship is commonly called a Language family, to simplify matters a "Language Family" is a group of languages related by descent from an ancestor. Without complicating matters, for the next 2 days of this series we will simply see 2 lists of the top ten families in terms of numbers of native speakers as a proportion of world population and the largest language families in terms of number of languages. More on languages tomorrow.....

Languanologue # 3

Today we will have a list of the 5 most-widely spoken languages in the world sorted by the number of countries in which the language is spoken. I will consider the languages only if it has been deemed to be spoken in a country if it is the official language of that country or is spoken natively as a first language by a majority of that country's inhabitants.

1. English - English dominates this list and can is also said to be a global language, spoken in about 57 countries all over the world.

2. French - It is spoken in 31 countries, mostly in European and African countries.

3. Spanish - It is spoken in 26 countries and comes in as 3rd in our list, mostly spoken in European and SOuth American countries.

4. Arabic - Spoken in 24 Middle East and African countries.

5. Russian - It is spoken in 11 countries and comes in our list at number 5.

Tomorrow we will go deep down, opening more of the pages of Factorium's "The Languanologue"!!

Languanologue # 2

Today, continuing our Languanologue series, we have the remainder of the list of 20-widely spoken languages around the world. We will continue the list from the number 6, as we saw the top 5 languages yesterday.

6. Arabic - 265 Million speakers

7. Malay - 250 Million speakers

8. Portuguese - 240 Million speakers

9. Bengali - 193 Million speakers

10. Russian - 144 Million speakers

11. Japanese - 122 Million speakers

12. German - 101 Million speakers

13. Punjabi - 89 Million speakers

14. Javanese - 75.5 Million speakers

15. Telugu - 70 Million speakers

16. Marathi - 68 Million speakers

17. Vietnamese - 67.4 Million speakers

18. Korean - 67 Million speakers

19. Tamil - 66 Million speakers

20. Italian - 65.5 Million speakers

All data for the last 2 days' facts was world according to the Ethonologue, a widely cited reference for languages around the world.

Languanologue # 1

In this broad 15 day series, we will focus on statistics with Language, the spoken form of conversation ubiquitous among Mankind. Today we will see about the most spoken languages in the world.

1. Mandarin - 1,205 Million speakers, also Mandarin is spoken by at least 5 % of 5 countries' population natively.

2. Spanish - 429 Million speakers, spoken widely in about 25 countries.

3. English - 428 Million speakers, considered the global language as it is spoken ubiquitously around the world.

4. Hindi - 382 Million speakers, spoken dominantly in India, it is also spoken in parts of 7 other countries.

5. French - 300 Million speakers in about 40 countries.

Tomorrow we will have a list of other languages included in the top-20 list.

I Day # 15

Today is the last day of the series and is also the Independence Day of India. The Factorium extends its hearty wishes all Indian and the readers a VERY VERY Happy Independence Day!! Jai Hind!!!!

September: Qatar and San Marino celebrate their independence days on the 3rd of September, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua celebrate their independence days on 5th September, Mexico and Guatamela on the 16th of September and Beliza and Malta on the21st of September.

October: Iran and Vietnam celebrate their independence day together on the 16th of October.

November: Panama and Dominica share their independence days on the 3rd of November, Angola and Poland on the 11th of November, Saudi Arabia and Comoros on the 12th of November and Albania and Mauritiana on the 28th of November.

December: According to my source, there is no country sharing its independence day with another in the month of December.

I Day # 14

Today we have the countries sharing their independence day in the months from May-August.

May: Argentina and Jordan share their independence day on the 25th of May.

June: Croatia and Mozambique celebrate their independece day on the 25th of June and Democratic Republic of Congo celebrate their independence day on the 30th of June.

July: Burundi, Canada, Rwanda and Somalia celebrate their independence day on the 1st of July, France and Iraq celebrate it on the 14th of July, Egypt and Ethiopia on 23 July and Liberia and Maldives on 26th July.

August: India, South Korea, North Korea, Bahrain and the Republic of the Congo celebrate their independence day together on 15th August, Gabon and Indonesia celebrate it on 17th of August and Trinidad and Tobago and Malaysia on the 31st of August.

I Day # 13

We switch on to a new subseires today, the countries celebrating their independence days together, or countries sharing their independence days.

Let me go monthwise, so first we have the months from Jan-Apr followed by May-Aug and then by Sept-Dec for the 3 days.

January: Cameroon, Haiti, Western Samoa and Sudan celebrate their independence day on 1st January.

February: According to my source, there are no such countries sharing their I-Days in February.

March: According to my source, there are no such countries sharing their I-Days in February.

April: Hungary and Senegal celebrate their independence day on the 4th of April and Austria, Seirra-Leone and Togo celebrate their independence day on the 27th of April.

More I Day tomorrow.....

I Day # 12

Today we have the last in the first subseries of the countries celebrating their independence days in December.

Thailand - December 5
Finland - December 6
Tanzania - December 9
Kenya - December 12
Niger - December 18
Nepal - December 21

I Day # 11

Today up is the month of November.

Algeria - November 1
Panama - November 3
Dominica - November 3
Cambodia - November 9
Angola - November 11
Poland - November 11
Saudi Arabia - November 12
Comoros - November 12
Monaco - November 19
Lebanon - November 22
Suriname - November 25
Albania - November 28
Mauritania - November 28
Barbados - November 30

I Day # 10

Today we will see about the independence days of the countries in the month of October.

People's Republic of China - October 1
Nigeria - October 1
Guinea - October 2
Lesotho October 4
Fiji - October 7
Germany - October 3
Uganda - October 9
Republic of China/Taiwan - October 10
Spain - October 12
Zambia - October 24
Iran - October 26
South Vietnam - October 26
St Vincent and Grenadines - October 27
Turkey - October 29

I Day # 9

Today we have the month of September lined up.

Libya - September 1
Vietnam - September 2
Qatar - September 3
San Marino - September 3
Swaziland - September 6
Brazil - September 7
Andorra - September 8
North Korea - September 9
Bulgaria - September 9
Costa Rica - September 15
El Salvador - September 15
Guatemala - September 15
Honduras - September 15
Nicaragua - September 15
Mexico - September 16
Papua New Guinea - September 16
Chile - September 18
Belize - September 21
Malta - September 21
Mali - September 22
Saudi Arabia - September 23
Yemen - September 26
Botswana - September 30