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Malayalam is a Dravidian language with about 38 million speakers, spoken mainly in the south west of India, particularly in Kerala,and in the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry. (Dravidian is a gorgeously cool word that simply means the family of languages spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka, or the peoples who speak them!) Did you know? The name Keralam (Kerala) is believed to ...

Maltese is the official language of the islands of Malta, nestling between Sicily and the North African coast, along with its other official language - English. The history of Malta is linked to a succession of rulers including the Romans, Moors, Knights of Saint John, French and British, with ancient sites dating back to @ 4000 B.C. Not surprising that its language has gobbled up lots of yummy ...

The language of Estonia has a history of ancient song and rhymes, preserved down the ages verbally from generation to generation. Spoken by just 1m people in Estonia, they have one of the biggest collections of folk songs in the world, with written records of about 133,000 folk songs. The most famous local singers throughout history were able to recall up to 20,000 rhymes, earning the title 'Se...

Flemish is one of three official languages in Belgium. The word Flemish used to refer to the language spoken in Flanders, but these days is often used to refer to all varieties of Dutch spoken in Belgium. Learn the language of the famous Flemish painters, such as Reubens, Breugel and the Van Eycks. The colour and logic of the language is a mirror of this awesome art – vibrant with amazing tec...

Galician is one of Spain’s 5 official languages, spoken by about 3 million people in Galicia (the northwest corner of Spain). Santiago de Compostela is one of Galicia’s most famous cities, the final stop on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail. It’s also known for its rías, 1200 km of coastal estuaries, with seafood being a major part of the Galician culture and language. Galician ...

Greenlandic belongs to the Eskimo family of languages, and therefore it is a 'polysynthetic' language. Long word, which is very appropriate as one word in Greenlandic can mean a whole sentence in other languages. ('Polysynthetic' means words are made with a root, one or more affixes and a suffix.). So you can say a lot in one word in this beautiful language of the land of the ice caps. The cult...

Hungarian is a unique language that stands out as very different from its Germanic and Slavic neighbors, due to its historic connection with the Magyars from thousands of years ago. The Seven chieftains of the Magyars (or Hungarians) were the leaders of the seven tribes at the time of their arrival in the Carpathian Basin in 895 AD. As a result, Hungary is known as the nation of horsemen. This ...

The Igbo (pronounced EE-bo) are the second largest group of people living in southern Nigeria. Although they live in scattered groups of villages, they all speak one language, despite their social and cultural diversity. The high and low tones of their musical language is mirrored in their love of wind and string instruments, such as the ugene (clay whistle) and ubaw-akwala (triangular wooden g...

Gaeilge or Irish is the national and first official language of Ireland. Although everyone in Ireland speaks English, there are regions (the Gaeltacht) where Irish is absolutely the everyday language of communication. So as a courtesy, you really should be able to speak a few words of the Gaeilge! The Irish culture is as rich as its language, with its mystical myths and magical legends, and tra...

Latvian is like a box of chocolates, layered with different flavors as a result of being part of Germany and then Russia, with a tribal past at its center. As a famous ancient trading point, Latvia has a rich cultural history full of folklore and folk songs, with over 30,000 different recorded melodies passed on. Did you know? Latvia’s 500k coast used to be an ancient hot spot for amber...