The Native Academy

Did you know this?

Buck, the slang term for an American dollar comes from the fact that on the American frontier deerskins were used as units of commerce. #LFT

Nightmare comes from an old English word "mare" that refers to a demon who suffocates you in your sleep. #LanguageFactTuesday #LFT

There are 13 ways to spell the "o" sound in French. #LanguageFactTuesday #LFT

"Mortgage" comes from the French expression meaning "death pledge". It does feel like you are signing your life away when you get one. #LFT

In 1977 NASA placed the recording of the word "Hello" in 55 languages on the Voyager spacecraft. #LanguageFactTuesday #ETPhoneHome #LFT

Lukewarm is actually a redundant. Luke meant "warm" in Middle English so lukewarm technically would mean "warm warm". #LanguageFactTuesday

Happy New Year everyone!

Lunatic is derived from the Latin word "luna"(moon). It originated from the belief that insanity is caused by changes in the moon. #LFT

Happy Holidays! From The Native Academy family to yours!

Everyone has an accent, including people using sign language. Imagine a New York accent in sign language :) #LanguageFactTuesday #LFT

Pamphlet comes from the title of a Latin love poem called Pamphilus that was supposedly passed from person to person. #LanguageFactTuesday

The Taki Taki language of Suriname only has 340 words. Can you imagine only having 340 words to express yourself? #LanguageFactTuesday #LFT

The word "nice" comes from from Latin word "nescius" meaning "ignorant". Don't be a nice person! Be a great person! :) #LanguageFactTuesday

Happy Thanksgiving! Tells us what you are thankful for this year.

English has the largest lexicon of any language coming in at over 250,000 words. #LanguageFactTuesday #LFT

Disaster comes from the Greek "dis" meaning bad, and "aster" meaning star. The Greeks used to blame calamities on planetary positions. #LFT

Birthday means the day you were born...Happy Birthday to our friend Alex Bort! #41

The Rotokas language has the shortest alphabet at only 12 letters. #LanguageFactTuesday #LFT

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