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Star Trek

Star Trek nerds make a big deal about making utterances in Klingon, but did you know that there are at least twenty-seven known languages in the Star Trek universe? The ‘Federation Standard’ is (conveniently) American English, but others speak languages including: Tamarian, which relies heavily on metaphor and allegory; Vulcan, whose writing system resembles musical notations on earth, and Ferengi, from the wet, humid planet of Ferenginar, in which there are said to be 178 words for rain. 

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Baby Jumping Festival

The baby-jumping festival takes place in Sasamón in the Spanish province of Burgos, where it’s been celebrated since the early 1600s. Babies born over the previous twelve months are lain on mattresses in the street, and men dressed as devils and carrying whips and castanets jump over them. According to tradition, the ‘devils’ carry away the babies’ original sin. 

While nobody takes the festival very seriously, Pope Benedict XVI instructed Spanish priests to distance themselves from the tradition, citing the Church’s teaching that original sin is cleansed by baptism.

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Smurf Language

You’re probably familiar with the fictional Smurf community invented by Belgian cartoonist Pejo in the 1950s and the subject of many filmed adaptations, but perhaps you are unaware of a raging linguistic debate between two rival camps of the mostly-male, all-blue society. 

Smurf language is characterised by the use of the word ‘smurf’ in place of many common nouns and verbs. For example, one smurf might say to another: ‘Let’s go smurfing in the smurf,’ and the other will, apparently, understand. Context means everything. 

However, in what might or might not be a parody of tensions between French- and Flemish-speaking communities in Belgium, a 1972 publication, Smurf Versus Smurf, revealed that residents in the north of the village and those in the south frequently argue over precisely how the term ‘smurf’ should be used in language, claiming not to understand one another’s usage. 

Linguistics is truly everywhere!

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Backwards Language

Speaking backwards has been associated at various times with witchcraft and other nefarious purposes: spells often incorporate words uttered backwards. 

In an area of Argentina and Uruguay, locals use a type of slang called Lunfardo, which uses backwards words from the various languages spoken by immigrants to the country. These are used in tango lyrics and in everyday speech and can be utilised in creative writing to evoke the atmosphere of the street. Similar slangs are found in other countries, including France, where speaking backwards is known as “Verlan”.  In San Cristóbal de la Laguna in the Canaries, enthusiasts campaign to have their local version of speaking backwards recognised by UNESCO as an example of “intangible cultural heritage of humanity.”

Yrev gnitseretni!

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Hair-freezing contest

Every year, the community of Whitehorse in Canada’s Yukon Territory holds a hair-freezing contest. Competitors sit in a hot spring in cold ambient temperatures and sculpt their hair as it freezes in the gelid air. Hair freezes in about a minute, and the shape competitors’ hair takes comprises their entry. 

With substantial cash prizes for the winners, there are always plenty of contenders!

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Amurdak

Amurdak is an Aboriginal language from the area of the Van Diemen Gulf, in Australia’s Northern Territory. 

In 2007, only one person, a man called Charlie Mungulda, was recorded as still speaking Amurdak. He worked with Australian linguists to record his tongue, which was featured in a documentary about endangered languages. 

At the time of writing, official documentation does not record whether or not Charlie has passed away, so it’s not yet clear whether the language is completely extinct. 

Amurdak is one of many Australian languages that have either died out, or are critically endangered. 

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Gurning Festival

Numerous activities take place at the Egremont Crab Fair, which has been held in England’s Lake District since 1267. One of them is the Gurning Festival, in which people compete to see who can pull the most hideous faces. Contestants place their face through a horse-collar and make the most awful faces they can. There are women’s and men’s events, and the competition is fierce!

Photo Source:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/41282197

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Rusyn

Rusyn is an East Slavic language spoken by the Rusyn people in parts of Central and Eastern Europe, and written in the Cyrillic script. Rusyns live in several different countries, including Poland, Hungary, Croatia, and Romania.

Rusyn is recognised as a minority language in most countries where it exists, but this sparked a linguistic controversy, as some linguists consider it a language and others a dialect of Ukrainian, with which it is largely mutually comprehensible, while others again consider it a variant of Russian.

One example among hundreds, if not thousands, of cases where the boundaries between dialects and languages are wafer-thin!

Photo Source: https://ie.pinterest.com/pin/336644140866057229/

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Cheese-rolling Festival

The annual cheese-rolling festival at Cooper’s Hill near Gloucester, England has been held since at least the early nineteenth century but possibly dates back six hundred years or more. Competitors race down a hill chasing a wheel of Double Gloucester Cheese, a local delicacy. The first person to cross the finish line at the bottom of the hill wins the cheese. 

Cheese-rolling might sound like a fairly benign pastime, but injuries are common. In 2023, six competitors were injured so badly they had to be transported to hospital by ambulance and a competitor in the woman’s event finished unconscious and only learned of her victory when she woke up under medical treatment!

Photo Source: https://www.mashed.com/889886/why-britains-cheese-rolling-contest-just-made-history/

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La Tomatina

Ever fancied joining a massive tomato fight in the streets of Spain? 

La Tomatina is a festival celebrated in the small town of Buñol, Spain since the 1940s. Every year on the last Wednesday of August, it attracts thousands of participants who throw tomatoes at one another until everyone is wallowing in a red tide of tomato pulp. 

Briefly banned by General Franco during the fascist period because of its lack of religious significance, La Tomatina is now a wildly popular event and tourist attraction, so successful that some other communities in tomato-producing regions around the world have started holding their own tomato-throwing festivities! 

Olé!

Photo Source : https://www.travelturtle.world/blog/paint-it-red-at-la-tomatina-festival/