They speak what? Where?

Do you know where the biggest Welsh-speaking community outside Wales is?

Image: Towfiqu barbhuiya

Migrations, trade, and other historical events have contributed to the spread of languages to regions far from their origins. But sometimes, we arrive at a new location expecting to hear a particular language, only to be surprised by the use of a language we wouldn’t expect. Here are 10 places in the world where an unsuspected language is spoken daily.

Image: Catrin Ellis

Welsh is the sort of language one wouldn’t expect to hear outside Wales, so its presence in southern Argentina often comes as a shock. During the 19th century, a group of Welsh people sailed across the Atlantic looking for a place where they could preserve their culture, which was threatened by English colonial rule. They arrived in Patagonia and founded Y Wladfa, or ‘the colony.’ Despite the harsh weather conditions, the colony subsisted and expanded, maintaining the Welsh language and traditions. Today, Argentina has the highest number of Welsh speakers outside Wales.

Image: Miikka Luotio

Italian is the official language of Italy, but most regions have their own distinct languages. Venetian is spoken in the north-east region of Veneto, but also in the Mexican town of Chipilo, a place that received an influx of migrants from a Venetian town called Segusino. These people spoke Venetian rather than Italian, a language that they were able to maintain thanks to Chipilo being somewhat isolated from other towns. Nowadays, Chipileño is a distinct dialect within the Venetian language.

Image: Josh Reid

Gimli, located north of Winnipeg, the capital of the Canadian province of Manitoba, was established by Icelandic settlers. It is the largest Icelandic community outside Iceland, and it has preserved many Icelandic customs and traditions. While the Icelandic language is still used and taught in Gimli, its fluency is sadly declining.

Image: ibmoon Kim

The island of Sakhalin is part of the Russian Federation, but its control has changed hands multiple times in history, having been disputed by Russia, China, and Japan. After the Russo-Japanese War, Russia ceded the southern part of the island to Japan, which brought workers from one of its colonies, Korea, to work in the coal mines. When the Soviet Union recovered Sakhalin after WWII, the Korean population was around 50,000 people. Nowadays, only a fraction of their descendants are fluent in Sakhalin Korean, which follows the North Korean standard in writing, but the Seoul dialect in speech.

Image: Lucas Gallone

Before Italy became a unified country in the 19th century, many of its regions were part of different empires or kingdoms. During the Middle Ages, the island of Sardinia was part of the Kingdom of Aragon, which later became part of the Spanish Empire. Revolts during Aragonese rule led to the arrival of Catalan settlers, and the Catalan language became widespread. Although it was later replaced by other languages in much of Sardinia, it was preserved in the city of Alghero, where it is still spoken today.

Image: Marie Martin

At the start of the 20th century, Mennonite groups looking for a place where they wouldn’t be forced to abandon their way of life relocated to the Boquerón department in Paraguay. They established several communities and transformed the arid territory into farmland. Though these groups came from different places, most of them spoke Plautdietsch, or Low German, a language that they still use in daily life. The Mennonite population in Paraguay is estimated at around 40,000.

Image: Rafaela Biazi

Portuguese is widely spoken in many Asian countries due to colonization, but this is not the case. More than 100,000 Lebanese emigrated to Brazil in the 19th and 20th centuries, where there are now more than 7 million people of Lebanese descent. While many immigrants decided to permanently stay in South America, others returned home, carrying Portuguese with them. Today, around 10,000 people in the Beqaa Valley speak Portuguese daily.

Image: Roberta Guillen

Heritage languages in the U.S. tend to disappear after a few generations, but Texas German was once the exception. Spoken by thousands of descendants of German immigrants across Texas, and markedly distinct from Standard German, Texas German was at one point granted official recognition comparable to Spanish. Sadly, as a consequence of the First and Second World Wars, the language was suppressed, and its number of speakers has since declined.

Image: FlyD

The fact that the largest Japanese community outside Japan is in South America may come as a surprise, but it is true. Japanese immigrants settled in several South American countries, but especially in Brazil, where nearly two million people are of Japanese descent. Most of them reside in the state of São Paulo. While not all Brazilian Nikkei are fluent in Japanese, it is estimated that there are between 400,000 to 450,000 speakers.

Image: Mathieu Ramus

What are the odds of Thai being spoken by 10% of the population of an archipelago in the Arctic? Quite high, if we consider that those kinds of regions are not densely populated. But how did a Southeast Asian language manage to get there? In the 1970s, many Norwegian miners from Svalbard married Thai women, who in turn became the link for other Thais who migrated looking for work. While there are only about 200 Thai speakers, this represents a sizable portion of Svalbard’s population of roughly 2,500.

Don’t get lost in translation

Is reading a horse right? 10 Danish expressions decoded!

Image: Markus Winkler

Easy or difficult to learn, every language is rich and full of cultural aspects. They are one of the best tools to learn about a country, their culture, and their people. And of course, the Danish language is not the exception. Coming from the Indo-European language family, the Danish has some funny idiomatic expressions. For example, "reading a horse" is actually a thing and it describes a passion for reading, did you know that? Continue reading to learn 10 Danish expressions and their meaning translated!

Image: Anton Darius

When life gets a bit hard, we all need some reassurance, someone to tell us that everything will be okay and that there’s nothing to worry about.

Funny enough, the Danish language has an expression that goes ingen ko på isen, which translates to "no cow on the ice." This is actually an abbreviation of a longer phrase which is der er ingen ko på isen, så længe rumpen er i land, that is, "there is no cow on the ice as long as the buttock is on land." We have never seen a cow on ice, but it’s probably not the safest place for the poor animal, is it?

Image: Nathan Walker

Sayings are indeed a curious thing, and their power goes without saying. That is, who wouldn’t get up early with the prospect of getting a worm? But fun as they are, they are cultural too, and according to the Danish saying, you won’t get a worm, you’ll beat the devil. Let us show you!

In Danish, you don’t simply say "Oh! You woke up rather early!" No, you say før fanden får sko på which literally translates to "you woke up before the devil put his shoes on." If the worm wasn’t enough encouragement, outrunning the Devil will surely convince you!

Image: Chris

Efficiency and creativity are praised qualities in most cultures. Who doesn’t try to maximize outcomes with minimal effort? That way, one can slå to fluer med et smæk. Can’t you guess what it means? Well, this Danish expression translates to "hit two flies with one swat."

If the translation rings all your bells, that’s because it means the same as our saying "to kill two birds with one stone." Resourcefulness finds its way through idioms in every language!

Image: Oklahoma Academy Publishing

Is your house full of books from ground to ceiling because you love reading? Have you got a never-ending list of books to be read? Well, in Danish, you’re læsehest: you’re reading a horse. A horse? Here’s the explanation.

We don’t know what it is about books and animals, but this phrase is the Danish equivalent of being a bookworm, that is, someone who is always reading and enjoys a good book. Are you one of those people?

Image: Anthony Tran

Sadness and low spirits resort to all kinds of metaphors to make it a less gloomy business than it already is. Blue has nothing to do with sadness, but that has never stopped anyone from feeling a bit down before, right?

But for the Danish, the expression takes a different turn. In that case, you don’t just feel sad or depressed, yo gået ned med flaget. And if you didn’t get that from context, the translation is: "You’ve gone down with the flag," which ultimately means your spirits could use a lift.

Image: Daiga Ellaby

Picture someone nervous and stressed because they have a test ahead, what do they do? They usually bite their nails, right? But in the Danish language, biting or eating one’s nails has nothing to do with being nervous.

There’s one expression that goes du må have spist søm, which translates to "you must have eaten nails." Now, without context, it can be a bit obscure, but the meaning is quite simple: It means, "no way!"

Image: Isabella Fischer

Fruits are no dessert, we’ve already settled that. However, nobody can say no to a bright red juicy apple. What a disappointment when you take a bite only to discover it’s sour and mealy, right?

In Danish, there is an expression that perfectly describes this feeling of talking about something you don’t want to do. The phrase is bide i det sure æble and it means "to bite into the sour apple." Who would want to do that?

Image: Enis Yavuz

On the opposite end, there is an expression that describes that eagerness or determination to accomplish something, although its literal translation is a bit of a bloody business.

When you want to try something new and are as determined as possible, you say få blod på tanden which literally translates to "get blood on your teeth" as a metaphor for how willing you are to fight for what you want.

Image: Ricardo Gomez Angel

Regardless of where or who we deposit our faith in, wherever we feel lost or we are in trouble, we pray something up there has our back, don’t we? Sighs of relief usually call upon the same figure.

But in the Danish language, people don’t say "Oh, God!" or "Jesus Christ!" The Danish say: milde Moses, which literally translates to "gentle Moses." Isn’t that cute?

Image: Richard Lee

Who hasn’t experienced eerie scenarios, suspicious situations, and some things "fishy." Or, in Danish, der er ugler i mosen.

The last expression in our article is to suggest keeping an eye on or being cautious about a situation. Translated into English, it means "there are owls in the bog," and it refers to how unusual it is to see owls in that particular place, hinting that there might be more going on than meets the eye.