“Huh?” is a humble expression, often a near-involuntary linguistic response, but behind this simple interrogatory palindrome is an extraordinary truth — it’s also universal. According to research conducted in 2013 by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands, a version of the word can be found in nearly every language on Earth. Researchers analyzed 31 languages, including Spanish, Mandarin, Icelandic, and Indigenous tongues, and what they found was that every one included a word similar in both sound and function to the English “huh?” For example, in Mandarin it’s a?, Spanish e?, Lao a?, and in Dutch he? No matter the language, the word includes a relaxed tongue and rising pitch, and if there’s a sound before the vowel, it’s an “h” or a glottal stop (a consonant sound made by closing the glottis, the space between the vocal folds). Although there is some variation in pronunciation, the word shows staggeringly little difference among languages compared to what might be expected.

Greek is the oldest European language.

fact

FIB

Ready to reveal?

Confirm your email to play the next question?

sign up!

Please enter valid email.

Sign up

Oops, incorrect!

It's a fib

Although the Basque region is located in both Spain and France, its native tongue, Euskara — the oldest European language — shares no origins with either language. No one is entirely sure how Euskara, which is still spoken, originated; it’s one of the great linguistic mysteries.

This raises the question: Is “huh?” even a word at all? Perhaps it’s an innate interjection like a scream or a sneeze, or a nonlexical conversational sound like “ummm” or “aaaah.” Yet the researchers noted several factors that point to “huh?” being a full-fledged word. For one, it’s learned (as opposed to animal sounds like grunts), and children don’t use the word until they’ve started speaking. And even languages without an “h” sound still create a close approximation of the word “huh?” The researchers chock this linguistic similarity up to “convergent cultural evolution.” In the animal kingdom, convergent evolution occurs when two animals develop the same traits due to their similar environment (for example, how sharks and dolphins have a similar streamlined look). In a linguistic sense, convergent evolution occurs when pressures in human conversation — like a lack of information that necessitates a need for clarification — create a universal requirement for a word that is quick and easy to pronounce. In time, all languages naturally arrived at more or less the same response to this need: “Huh?”

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Email

Like a lot of masterpieces from centuries past, “The Last Supper” has undergone significant changes since it first saw the light of day. Perhaps most significantly, Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous work not named “Mona Lisa” originally included Jesus’ feet. That particular detail was lost in 1652, when the installation of a doorway on the refectory where the mural was painted led to removing the portion that included Jesus’ sandals. Efforts to digitally restore “The Last Supper” to its original form after centuries of decay have recently made it possible to see not only Jesus’ feet in detail but also the spilled salt shaker on the table (which has been widely interpreted as foretelling doom) as well as Judas’ coin purse.

“The Last Supper” is a fresco.

fact

FIB

Ready to reveal?

Confirm your email to play the next question?

sign up!

Please enter valid email.

Sign up

Oops, incorrect!

It's a fib

Frescoes are painted on wet plaster, which requires painters to finish before it dries. Not wanting to do that, Leonardo instead used dry plaster — which means the masterpiece technically doesn't count as a fresco.

If you’d like to see the work today, you won’t be traveling to a regular museum. “The Last Supper” remains in Milan’s Santa Maria delle Grazie, on whose walls it was originally painted (probably between 1495 and 1498), and the convent wasn’t exactly built with large crowds in mind. Small groups are allowed in every 15 minutes, and visitors are advised to make reservations as early as possible — a limited number of people are allowed to see “The Last Supper” each day.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Email

Every teacher has rolled their eyes at the “my dog ate my homework” excuse, but it really happened to one of America’s most revered authors. In 1936, John Steinbeck’s dog Toby, an Irish setter, turned the first draft of Of Mice and Men into a snack. In a letter dated May 27 of that year, the future Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner wrote that he “was pretty mad, but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically.”

Steinbeck disavowed the movie he wrote for Alfred Hitchcock.

fact

FIB

Ready to reveal?

Confirm your email to play the next question?

sign up!

Please enter valid email.

Sign up

Oops, incorrect!

It's a fact

Steinbeck wrote the novella “Lifeboat” at Hitchcock’s request, but asked the studio to remove his name from the 1944 film adaptation due to its “slurs against organized labor” and stereotypical portrayal of a Black character Steinbeck wrote as a “thoughtful and intelligent seaman.”

Steinbeck estimated that Toby making “confetti” of the manuscript would set him back by about two months, but it may have been worth it: Steinbeck’s short, tragic tale of two migrant workers eking out a humble existence in California during the Depression is among the author’s most moving and accomplished works, which is saying something for the man responsible for both East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck, a lifelong dog-lover, later wrote a travelogue featuring his poodle called Travels With Charley.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Email