Boudicca would have spoken an indigenous Celtic dialect, its closest surviving relative being the Welsh language. Unfortunately, we have no record telling us the language she spoke. She was a member of the Iceni tribe who lived in the East of England, particularly East Anglia, … Read more
Catalan and Castilian Spanish are the two official languages of Barcelona, Spain. Because Barcelona is popular among immigrants, it is a polyglot city with over 300 languages spoken by various immigrant groups. Most of Barcelona’s residents are at least bilingual. Barcelona is the second biggest … Read more
English is the most common language spoken in England. Outside of immigrant populations, there is virtually no other language that is widely spoken by English born people. Immigrant populations do represent a significant portion of languages spoken, such as Polish, Punjabi and Bengali. The Celtic … Read more
Afghanistan has two nationally recognized official languages: Pashto and Dari Persian. Dari Persian is the most common language, with 78% of people in Afghanistan able to speak the language. Pashto is second, with 35% of Afghans speaking the language. A country ridden with wars and … Read more
Buddha is believed to have spoken a language called Magadhi Prakrit. This was an ancient Indian vernacular spoken in what is now eastern India, Bangladesh and Nepal. We don’t know for certain what language the Buddha spoke, as we have no direct writings from his … Read more
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the most prolific and famous composers to have ever lived. He was born in Austria in 1756 and continued to live there for the majority of his life up until his death in 1791. As such, he spoke German … Read more
There are at least 11 different languages spoken by parts of its population making South Africa a polyglot nation of many languages. The main languages by population are Zulu, Xhosa, and Afrikaans. English is widely understood and is the language of the media and government. … Read more
Ludwig van Beethoven, one of history’s greatest composers, was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770 and died in Vienna, Austria in 1826. Naturally, Beethoven’s mother tongue was German. Since German is also the language spoken in Austria, Beethoven would have spoken it throughout his life. … Read more
Pocahontas would have spoken the Powhatan language, an Eastern Algonquian language group comprising several languages in the broader Algonquian group. Not very much is known about this language, and Pocahontas would have spoken English later in life as she travelled outside of America. We know … Read more
Anne Frank predominantly spoke Dutch. She was a German native and so spoke German, but spent the majority of her life in the Netherlands, so was much better at Dutch. This was the language most of her diaries were written in. She also wrote in … Read more