X-Nico

100 unusual facts about english language


2006 State of the Union Address

Newly elected Governor of Virginia Tim Kaine gave the Democratic response in English and Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa did so in Spanish.

938LIVE

938LIVE (formerly known as NewsRadio 938 before 2005) is an English radio station of MediaCorp in Singapore.

Adler Volmar

Not yet fluent in English, he misunderstood and thought that he was obligated to serve in the military.

Ahmed F. Mehalba

Mehalba received a medical discharge from the Army in May 2001 and was later hired a San Diego defense contractor, Titan Corporation, to be an Arabic-English translator at Guantanamo Bay.

Albatros C.II

The unusual tail structure used an open frame structure with a conventional fin and rudder and gave rise to the nickname Gitterschwanz (en: lattice tail).

Amit Offir

On 2013 Amit's books were translated to other languages such as English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and many more.

Amor Artificial

Amor Artificial (English: Artificial Love) is the 6th studio album made by Costa Rican rock band, "Evolución".

Amphibola crenata

Amphibola crenata (titiko in the Māori language or mud-flat snail in English) is a species of air breathing snail with an operculum, a pulmonate gastropod mollusc which lives in a habitat that is intermediate between the land and the sea, not entirely terrestrial and not entirely marine.

Anna Terruwe

Dr. Baars discovered her work and went on to translate some of her work into English and further the work on "Emotional Deprivation Disorder" and the repressive disorders.

Arpan Sharma

Arpan Sharma (born 1997) is a British polyglot who at the age of 10 could speak 11 languages: English, Hindi, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Tamil, Swahili, Polish, Thai, Welsh and Sanskrit.

Bering Strait crossing

The TKM-World Link (Russian: ТрансКонтинентальная магистраль, English: Transcontinental Railway) also called ICL-World Link (Intercontinental link) is a planned 6,000-kilometer link between Siberia and Alaska providing oil, natural gas, electricity, and railroad passengers to the United States from Russia.

Castra

In English, the terms "Roman fortress", "Roman fort" and "Roman camp" are commonly used for the castra.

CBPD-FM

CBPD-FM is a Weatheradio Canada station which broadcasts weather information and alerts on a frequency of 103.7 FM in Port Hardy, British Columbia, Canada, in both English and French.

Central fm

Central FM is by far the largest and longest serving English commercial radio station broadcasting in Southern Spain.

CIQA-FM

CIQA-FM is a Weatheradio Canada station which broadcasts weather information and alerts on a frequency of 93.3 FM in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, in English, French and Inuktitut.

CJLD-FM

On February 22, 2012, Mark Tamagi, on behalf of Blackgold Broadcasting Inc, received Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to operate a new English language FM radio station in Leduc.

Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior

The Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior (or São Paulo Youth Football Cup, in English), also known as Copa São Paulo de Juniores (São Paulo Youth Cup) and Copinha (Little Cup), is a cup competition played by 88 Brazilian under-20 football teams (until the 2006 edition, it was contested by under-21 teams), most of them from São Paulo state.

Core ontology

Most applicable to teaching, e.g. the Longmans defining dictionary of the simplest meanings of 2,000 English words is used to define the 4,000 most basic English idioms -- this is a core glossary of the English language, which permits access to the core ontology (the idioms).

Czesław Piątas

He is interested in military history and tennis; speaks fluently Polish, Russian and English.

D. Quentin Miller

Quentin Miller (born 1967) is a professor of the English language and literature at Suffolk University in Boston.

Delta Warp

Delta Warp was released only in Japan but features English text menus and the simple gameplay style means it can be played by non-Japanese readers.

Dercongal Abbey

For this reason the abbot of Dercongal also became known as the abbot "de Sacro Nemore" (="of the Holy Wood"), becoming "Holywood" in English.

Dr. Syed Gulam Farooq Mirranay

Dr. Mirranay is the official spokesperson for the Afghan Mellat Party and speaks both official Afghanistan languages, Pashto and Dari, as well as English.

Eala Frya Fresena

According to 16th century sources, it was spoken at the Upstalsboom in Aurich where Frisian judges meet on Pentecost and it is traditionally answered with Lever dood as Slaav, or in English, rather dead than slaves.

Elisabeth Eybers

Her poetry was mainly in Afrikaans, although she has translated some of her own work (and those of others) into English.

Eng Leong Medallic Industries

ELM credits much of the company’s growth over the past 41 years to Singapore’s geographical advantage with English being the primary medium for industry.

Enrique Badía Romero

Enrique Badía Romero (who signs his work simply Romero) is a Spanish comics artist, best known to English-speaking audiences for his work on Modesty Blaise.

Erdenechimeg Luvsannorov

Dr. Erdenechimeg has written 15 musicological and ethno-musicological books in Mongolian, several of which are also published in Chinese, Russian and English.

Estoc

The French estoc or English "tuck" was a type of European sword in use from the 14th to 17th centuries.

Étangs Noirs/Zwarte Vijvers metro station

It was opened in 1981 and its name translates into English as the "Black Ponds".

French Road Cycling Cup

The French Road Cycling Cup (English for Coupe de France de cyclisme sur route) is a road bicycle racing competition under the Fédération Francaise de Cyclisme (French Cycling Federation) each year since 1992.

Furby

They are programmed, however, to speak less and less Furbish and more and more English as they "grow".

Gaus

A Gau is an administrative division formerly used in Germany, the plural of which is Gaue (though often rendered in English as Gaus).

Geronimo Goeloe

He has a bachelor's degree in physical education learning and teaching, at this point conducting a master's degree course in English as a second language.

Glow-Worm Caves Tamborine Mountain

Tours consist of a seven minute DVD (available in English, Mandarin, Japanese and Korean), photo opportunities in front of the stalactites and stalagmites, and finally a 15 minute tour through "glow worm alley".

Grasellenbach

The Ellen part of the name most likely comes from the word Elm, which had the same meaning in German as it still has in English (although the current German word is Ulme).

Gregory Mair

She came to Jamaica to study English and married his father, founder and owner of the Desmond G. Mair insurance brokerage.

Hagai Shaham

By shear luck the manuscripts have been saved from disposal and arrived in the Hebrew University (see more in the CD's elaborated notes, in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish).

Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron

The aircrew will then attempt to convince the boat crew to stop through the use of sirens, loud speakers, visual hand signals, and radio communications in both English and Spanish.

Henry Alfred Todd

In 1910, with Raymond Weeks and other scholars, he founded the Romanic Review, the first learned review in English devoted entirely to the Romance languages.

Hrvatska poštanska banka

Hrvatska poštanska banka (English: Croatian Postal Bank) or HPB is the largest Croatian-owned bank in the country and ranks 7th in Croatia in term of total assets, worth around HRK 15.0 billion.

Hugo Schiltz

During World War II Schiltz was a member of the Nationaal-Socialistische Jeugd Vlaanderen (English: National Socialist Youth Flanders).

Hydrocotyle umbellata

Its English common name is manyflower marsh pennywort or dollarweed.

Itopride

This may explain the apparent lack of patient information available in English compared to other similar classes of medication.

Jeunesse Populaire Française

Jeunesse Populaire Française (JPF, English: French Popular Youth) was a fascist youth movement created by Jacques Doriot and connected to his Parti Populaire Français.

John J. McClellan

In the 1985 English edition of the LDS hymnal, the music for "Sweet Is the Work" (hymn #147) was composed by McClellan.

John Rumbiak

Born in Biak he began English studies at Cenderawasih University (Abepura) in 1982 and worked as a coordinator and field researcher at the Rural Community Development Foundation (YPMD) in Abepura.

Johnny Moses

In addition to speaking English, Moses is fluent in eight native languages and can also tell stories in traditional sign language.

Julie Barlow

Julie Barlow is a Canadian journalist, author and conference speaker who writes and publishes both in English and French.

Juvelen

Jonas Pettersson better known as Juvelen (English: The Jewel), born July 15, 1976, is an electro-pop singer from Stockholm, Sweden.

Kaleohano

For the lyrics, and the English translation of the song, please visit reference #2.

Kalokairino Randevou me ton Saki Tour

The Kalokairino Randevou me ton Saki tour (Greek: Καλοκαιρινό Ραντεβού με τον Σάκη; English: Summer Fling with Sakis) was a small-scale Greek and Cypriot tour performed by Greek pop-rock musician Sakis Rouvas following his large-scale North American & Australian Tour with Antonis Remos.

Kantheesangal

Kantheesangal or Qadishangal are the two of the many common Malayalam (and its English) renderings of a Syriac term meaning 'the holy ones'.

Karjalan Liitto

Karjalan Liitto (in English: Karelian Association) is an interest group for Karelian evacuees.

King's English

Received Pronunciation, a form of English language pronunciation sometimes known as the Queen's English or the King's English

Kotzen

Since one English translation of the German verb "kotzen" is "to vomit" therefore the town was jokingly (?) incorrectly referred to in Ripley's Believe-It-or-Not under the title "Barfburg".

Law of Hong Kong

The Law Drafting Division is responsible for drafting all legislation, including subsidiary legislation, in Chinese and English, and assists in steering legislation through the Executive and Legislative Councils.

Liberature

In the works where Nowakowski provides the reader with three versions of the text – Polish, English and Esperanto – one could observe certain differences in the rendition of the same topic, the technique which contributes to the further differentiation of the book’s meaning.

Louis George Alexander

A British author of EFL course books, Louis Alexander was born in London and educated at Godalming Grammar School and the University of London, he taught English in Germany (1954–56) and Greece (1956–65) where he was head of English at the Protypon Lykeion, Athens (what is now the Scholi Moraïti).

Mac Yasuda

He started off running an English language school in Kobe, Japan, in the 1970s and eventually became one of the largest vintage guitar dealers/collectors in the United States and an executive in the organization of Akira Tsumura, the heir to the Japanese Tsumura Corporation built on their bath salt "basukurin" which is a household name over there and who was disgraced in an abuse of corporate office scandal in 1997.

Malietoa Talavou Tonumaipe’a

Talavou was a keen student and statesman who was highly respected by resident Europeans on account of his dignified and friendly demeanor, not to mention his impressive command of both the English and Samoan languages.

Metamorfosi, Laconia

Of particular interest is the cave "Trypa tou Voria" (English: Hole of the North) which was discovered by the Italian Speleological Group "SPARVIERE" in the late 1990s.

Mike Naumenko

Some of Naumenko's songs are more or less faithful translations or remakes of English language source material (the notions of copyright and plagiarism being hardly established in the Soviet Union, especially as regards works created on the other side of the Iron Curtain).

Miles Kington

It was during this time, in the late 1970s, that he began writing his Franglais columns written in a comical mixture of English and French.

Name of Joan of Arc

In the English language her first name has been repeated as Joan since the fifteenth century because that was the only English equivalent for the feminine form of John during her lifetime.

Nancy Ezer

In addition to her native Hebrew, she is also fluent in English and Arabic and also has working knowledge of French and Yiddish.

Naval Hospital Yokosuka Japan

Education is conducted English and focuses on a Western approach to medical care.

Oleg Kuvaev

He studied first at a school specializing in the English language, then at school majoring in physics and mathematics.

Orang Asal

However, all languages are in danger of being lost as the children in the tribes learn Malay and English.

Ottawa Fringe Festival

Because Ottawa is a bilingual city, both English and French productions are presented at the Fringe, though a small number of productions in past years have been bilingual.

Peruvian Connection

Today, the company has about 200 employees in the United States, South America and the U.K. Peruvian Connection catalogs are printed in English with prices in dollars or pounds sterling, and in German with pricing in Euros.

Peter King, 1st Baron King

He was also the author of the Act (4 Geo. II. c. 26) by virtue of which English superseded Latin as the language of the courts.

Physalis pubescens

Physalis pubescens is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family known by many common names, including husk tomato and hairy groundcherry in English, and muyaca and capulí in Spanish.

Physalis viscosa

Physalis viscosa is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family known by many common names, including starhair groundcherry and grape groundcherry in English, and arrebenta-cavalo, balãozinho, and camambú in Portuguese.

Points classification in the Giro d'Italia

The Azzurri d'Italia classification (English: Azure or Sky Blue Italy) is an award in the Giro d'Italia in which points are awarded for the top three stage finishers (4, 2 and 1 point).

Polish passport

The data page/information page is printed in Polish, English and French, whilst translation of this information into other official languages of the European Union can be found elsewhere in the document.

Professor Palmboom

While all the books are available in Dutch, the main three albums have also been translated into French, but not into English.

Rahmatullah Kairanawi

The main Muslim debater was Kairanawi, being assisted by English-speaking Dr. Muhammad Wazîr Khân.

Remi Raji

Aderemi Raji-Oyelade is a Nigerian poet, writing in English.

Robert Alwyn Hughes

The family’s first language at home was Welsh until young Robert began attending the Dowlais Central School at five years old (when he began using English).

Roberto Jordan

Many of his songs were covers of English-language rock and pop songs, with arrangements provided by music teachers and producers Enrique Okamura and Eduardo Magallanes.

Salim Idris

He has a PhD in "electronic radars" and speaks five languages, including English.

Shettleston railway station

In 2010, Shettleston station received bilingual name boards, in English and Gaelic, the Gaelic reading "Baile Nighean Sheadna".

St. Catharines Black Hawks

Besides the strong rivalry between Anglophone and Francophone hockey teams and Canadian citizens in general, there was unfinished business between Marcel Dionne and the Remparts coach Maurice Filion.

Star designation

In addition to the traditional names, a small number of stars that are "interesting" can have modern English names.

Stuart Cavilla

Being a native Gibraltarian, Cavilla is naturally bilingual in English and Spanish as well as speaking Llanito when among other Gibraltarians.

Suma Kanakala

Apart from Malayalam and Telugu, she is also fluent in Hindi, English, and Tamil.

Taça Belo Horizonte de Juniores

The Taça Belo Horizonte de Juniores (or Belo Horizonte Youth Cup, in English), also known as Taça Belo Horizonte de Futebol Júnior is a cup competition usually played by 36 Brazilian under-20 football teams, most of them from Minas Gerais state.

Thé Au Harem D'Archimède

The album's French title, which translates into English as "Tea in the Harem of Archimedes," is a reference to the Mehdi Charef book Tea in the Harem (French title: Thé au Harem d'Archimède), as well as a pun on the French phrase "Théorème d'Archimède", the title of the album's fourth track.

Thomas Whythorne

Thomas Whythorne (1528–1595) was an English composer who wrote what some consider to be the earliest surviving autobiography in English.

Tony Connor

From 1971 until he retired in 1999 Connor was professor of English at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

TraXX FM

TraXX FM (formerly known as Blue Network, Radio 4 and Radio Malaysia Saluran 4 (English: Radio Malaysia Channel 4)) is an English radio station operated by Radio Televisyen Malaysia.

Tsvi C. Nussbaum

Initially, he did not speak English; but having a talent for science, he later studied medicine and became an otolaryngologist in New York City.

Wasserstein metric

Most English-language publications use the German spelling "Wasserstein" (attributed to the name "Vasershtein" being of Germanic origin).

William Lilly

This was the first of its kind to be printed in the English language rather than Latin, and is said to have tutored "a nation in crisis in the language of the stars".

WMYA-TV

For two weeks after that, it broadcast a "nightlight" service in the form of a continuously repeating short program about installing digital television converter boxes, alternating between English and Spanish versions, before finally shutting down its analog signal completely.

World Scrabble Championship 2003

This was the first time that a player won the WSC while representing a country for which English is not the first language.

Wrist

The English word "wrist" is etymologically derived from the ancient German word wristiz from which are derived modern German rist ("instep", "wrist") and modern Swedish vrist ("instep", "ankle").

Zamboanga City Council

Composed of 18 members, with 16 councilors elected from Zamboanga City's two legislative districts and two members composed of the President of the Liga ng mga Barangay ng Lungsod ng Zamboanga (English: League of Barangays of the City of Zamboanga) and the President of the Pederasyon ng Sangguniang Kabataan (English: Federation of Youth Councils).

Zulkifli Abdhir

According to the FBI, he is 5 feet 6 inches tall and 120 lbs and can speak Malaysian, Tagalog, English, and Arabic.


2012 Bucharest hair salon shooting

At around 17:40 EET, Vlădan entered the hairdressing salon Perla (English language: Pearl), located at the intersection between Dorobanti and Iancu de Hunedoara Blvd. in Bucharest, armed with a 9 mm Glock semi-automatic pistol with a magazine capacity of 19 rounds.

7th Wonder

"7th Wonder" (occasionally rendered as "Seventh Wonder") was the Maltese entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002, performed in English by Ira Losco.

Amor Artificial

# "Quevoasaber" (Spelled as colloquial pronunciation for Que voy a saber) English: How Would I Know? or, more loosely, I Have No Clue

Anguish Languish

Anguish Languish, an ersatz language constructed from English language words, was created by Howard L. Chace, who collected his stories and poems in the book Anguish Languish (Prentice-Hall, 1956).

Asrary school riyadh

Asrary School, Riyadh is a school that teaches English, Arabic, and French from KG1 till 12th grade.

Benjamin Blackledge

He was the first teacher of English language in Closter, New Jersey, and rose to become "the most prominent man in the northern part of Bergen County".

Christoph Peters

It was followed by a collection of short stories in 2001, and, in 2007, his first novel to be published in English, The Fabric of Night (Random House).

Demographics of Suriname

Dutch (official), Sranan Tongo (Surinamese, sometimes called Taki-Taki, is native language of Creoles and much of the younger population), Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu), Javanese, English (widely spoken), French due to cultural influence from French Guiana, Portuguese and Spanish.

Director of Education

In Ontario, the Director of Education is an individual who has executive oversight and administration rights, usually within an educational entity or organization representing 72 District School Boards in Ontario of the anglophone and francophone publicly funded secular and separate school boards.

Dorcas Cochran

Her English language lyric for "Under the Bridges of Paris" was recorded by both Eartha Kitt and Dean Martin for United Kingdom chart hits in 1955, although they failed to chart in the United States, and Frankie Laine's recording of her song, "In the Beginning" similarly charted in the UK but not in the US that year.

Eben Dönges High School

Eben Dönges High School (Hoërskool Eben Dönges) is a government-funded, Afrikaans-medium high school in Kraaifontein, Western Cape, South Africa.

Garfield in Paradise

They meet the tribal chief who explains that the villagers learned English "from watching a lot of beach movies", and that the car was originally owned by the Cruiser, a James Dean/Fonzie-styled legend who drove his car into the village in 1957 and introduced the people to the 1950s pop culture.

Hazrat Jandaha

Hindi and English newspapers are easily available in the city, including Dainik Jagran, Hindustan, Prabhat Khabar, The Daily Telegraph and The Times of India.

Heckler v. Campbell

Ms. Campbell had been born in Panama, and though she had limited ability to speak and write English, she could read and understand English fairly well.

HPItv

HPItv (Horseplayer Interactive Television) is a Canadian English language Category B specialty network owned by Woodbine Entertainment Group.

Indiana School for the Deaf

The Bilingual/Bicultural Philosophy provides language acquisition and facilitates proficiency in two languages, American Sign Language (ASL), and English.

Itanglese

Itanglese, also known as Anglitaliano, refers to the blend (at different degrees) of Italian and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live.

Klingon Language Institute

Speers is known for having undertaken the endeavour to raise his child bilingually in English and Klingon; Speers spoke in Klingon and his wife in English.

La Jalousie

The title of its English editions is Jealousy, but this fails to capture the ambiguity of the French title: "la jalousie" can be translated as "jealousy", but also as "the jalousie window".

Las Supremas de Móstoles

Las Supremas de Móstoles (or The Supremes of Móstoles, in English) is a Spanish pop band made up of three sisters, Susi, Vicky and Luisi (two of them are twins).

Luboš Blaha

"Back to Marx?" is currently translated into English and there are some plans to translate the book into Russian.

Lucha film

When American producer K. Gordon Murray bought the rights to three of Santo’s lucha libre films, he dubbed them into English for domestic release and changed the name of the wrestling hero to "Samson".

Mount Susitna

The mountain's Dena'ina name is Dghelishla, meaning "Little Mountain"; in English it was simply named for the Susitna River which means Sandy River.

Nancy Ward

Nanyehi (Cherokee: ᎾᏅᏰᎯ: "One who goes about"), known in English as Nancy Ward (ca. 1738–1822 or 1824) was a Beloved Woman of the Cherokee, which means that she was allowed to sit in councils and to make decisions, along with the chiefs and other Beloved Women.

Northern Wheatear

Its English name has nothing to do with wheat or ears, but is an altered (perhaps bowdlerised) form of white-arse, which refers to its prominent white rump.

Operation Lobster I

Tributh and Gärtner were both students and neither spoke English well.

Phijigee Mani

Phijigee Mani (English: The Only Jewel; also written as Phijigi Mani) is a 2011 Manipuri drama film directed by Oinam Gautam Singh, co-written and produced by Takhelchangbam Ongbi and Medha Sharmi, and starring an ensemble cast including Gurumayum Bonny Sharma, Elangbam Abenao and Leishangthem Tonthoingambi Devi.

Primera Fila: Sasha Benny Erik

Primera Fila: Sasha Benny Erik (English: Front row: Sasha Benny Erik) is the first album by Mexican pop trio Sasha, Benny y Erik released on November 6, 2012 by Sony Music Latin.

Radio Bulgaria

In 2004, Radio Bulgaria broadcasts to Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America on short and medium wave in Bulgarian, English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Serbian, Greek, Albanian and Turkish.

Renault Avantime

The name combines the French word "Avant" (meaning "ahead") and the English word "time", with the latter using the English (tīm) rather than French pronunciation (tēm).

Sabras Radio

Although the majority of the schedule is presented in Hindi and English - there are speciality shows broadcasting in Bengali, Gujarati and Punjabi.

Slip End

The name of Slip End possibly has a connection with the brickworks, Slip is an old English word for clay and End is quite common in Bedfordshire and not unknown in other counties.

Syed Ali Akbar

He was the Chief editor of the well-known English language quarterly Islamic Culture and President of Idara Adabiat Urdu which published monthly magazine Sub Rus for 20 years.

Takalani Sesame

It incorporates all of South Africa's 11 national languages, including Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Ndebele, Sesotho, Northern Sotho, Tsonga, Tswana and Venda.

Toma Sik

The International Institute of Social History keeps a vast collection of papers from Toma Sik in several languages, such as Hebrew, Hungarian, and English.

Ts'ao Yung-ho

Ts'ao has studied a number of languages in pursuit of his understanding of early Taiwanese history, meaning he can now make use of ten languages: Taiwanese, Japanese, English, German, Mandarin Chinese, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin.

Under the Bridges of Paris

"Under the Bridges of Paris" is a 1914 popular song with music written by Vincent Scotto, the original French lyrics (entitled "Sous les ponts de Paris") by Jean Rodor (1914), and English lyrics by Dorcas Cochran (1952).