It’s All Greek (or Chinese or Spanish or…) to Me

In English, there’s an idiom that notes confusion: “It’s all Greek to me.” Other languages have similar sayings, but they don’t use Greek as their point of confusion, and of course — there’s a Wikipedia page for that. Mark Liberman graphed the relationships several years ago, but the table on Wikipedia references more languages now. So I messed around with it a bit.

“Chinese” is the leading point of confusion, then Spanish and Greek, and then you just move out from there. Languages with lighter border and towards the edges don’t have any other languages that point to them.

Obviously the Wikipedia page isn’t comprehensive, but hey, it was fun to poke at.

Become a member. Support an independent site. Get extra visualization goodness.

See What You Get

Favorites

Who is Older and Younger than You

Here’s a chart to show you how long you have until you start to feel your age.

Cuisine Ingredients

What are the ingredients that make each cuisine? I looked at 40,000 recipes spanning 20 cuisines and 6,714 ingredients to see what makes food taste different.

How We Spend Our Money, a Breakdown

We know spending changes when you have more money. Here’s by how much.

Famous Movie Quotes as Charts

In celebration of their 100-year anniversary, the American Film Institute …