With well over seven thousand languages existing in the world and several more dialects (though the exact differentiation between language and dialect is currently quite blurry), plus many more lost in time or secluded to a very limited use like Latin, human language has gone through tons of years of evolution, adaptation, renewal and acceptance. Through this immense journey, some developed unique quirks which to foreigners can be absolute oddities but for native speakers is as common as a pencil.

In Spanish, which by the way it's the second-most spoken native language only behind Mandarin Chinese as well as the most widely spoken Romance language (descending directly from the colloquial form of Latin spoken in the Roman Empire), the main quirk is the unique 15th letter of our alphabet, the letter Ñ.

This letter evolved from a Latin digraph, which eventually got its own letter. This goes in contrast with the other Romance languages which developed its own digraph to replace it, for example France and Italy developed the GN digraph whereas Portuguese developed the NH digraph. Spain, however, developed an entirely new letter which has since become an icon of our language.

The letter has been adopted by many regional dialects which evolved from Spanish all over the world. While the unique sound it represents is present in many languages (not in English, though), some others adapted it upon the creation of this letter, in specific cases just to represent a different way of pronouncing a vowel.

The fact it's part of our alphabet means it's present in keyboards, and I actually have had a few happy accidents where I type this letter instead of the neighboring L. So, if you ever set your phone to Spanish or buy a Spanish-located keyboard, you'll find this additional key for a sound your mother language probably doesn't even have.

This string of happy accidents, as well as the unique quirks of a few languages and dialects spoken within my extended family circle, made me wonder what other oddities may exist in the many languages that exist worldwide. And since this forum was specifically created for subjects beyond English matters, it's the perfect place to showcase these oddities.