Tata India at 15:38, 21 March 2022

2022-03-21T15:38:16Z

New page

'''Language''' is the normal way [[human]]s [[communication|communicate]].<ref name="Oxford">''Concise Oxford dictionary''. p764</ref> Only [[human]]s use language, though other animals communicate through other means.

Human language has [[syntax]], a set of [[rule]]s for connecting [[word]]s together to make [[Proposition|statements]] and [[question]]s. Language can also be changed, by adding new words, for example, to describe new things. Other animals may inherit a set of calls which have pre-set functions.

Language may be done by [[speech]] or by [[writing]] or by moving the hands to make [[Sign language|signs]]. It follows that language is ''not'' just any way of communicating. Even some human communication is not language: see [[non-verbal communication]]. Humans also use language for [[thought|thinking]].

When people use the word ''language'', they can also mean:
# the language of a [[community]] or [[country]]
# the ability of [[speech]]
# [[formal language]] in [[mathematics]], [[logic]] and [[computing]]
# [[sign language]] for deaf people (people who cannot hear)
# a type of [[school]] subject

[[UNESCO]] says that 2,500 languages are at risk of becoming [[extinction|extinct]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/guide/languages.shtml | title=BBC Languages | publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation | accessdate=February 4, 2012}}</ref>

== Universals of language ==
All languages share certain things which separate them from all other kinds of communication.<ref>Scalise, Sergio; Magni, Elisabetta; Bisetto, Antonietta (eds) 2009. ''Universals of language today''. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, vol 76. Springer Verlag.</ref><ref name="Chao">Yuan Ren Chao 1968. ''Language and symbolic systems''. Cambridge.</ref>
# A language has rules which are shared by a community.
# All human languages are based on [[sound]] and [[hearing]], or in the case of [[sign language]], [[Sight|vision]]. All the basic sound units, or [[phoneme]]s, have this in common: they can be spoken by the human [[voice]], and heard by the human [[ear]].
# The sounds come out in a [[sequence]], not all at once. This is mimicked in writing, where the marks are put on the paper or screen in the same sequence.
# The stream of sounds have little gaps between them, and come in bigger packages. We call the bigger packets [[sentence]]s or [[question]]s or replies or comments.
# In most languages, [[English language|English]] being one, the [[syntax]] or order of the words can change the meaning: "the cat sat on the man" is different from "the man sat on the cat".
# [[Word]]s (which may be made up of more than one phoneme) divide up into two classes: content and non-content. Content words have [[semantics|meaning]]: nouns, verbs, adjectives, [[Et cetera|etc.]]. Non-content words are there to make the language work: ''and'', ''not'', ''in'', ''out'', ''what'', etc. [[Grammar]] consists of studying how words fit together to mean something.
# All languages have:
## sentences with two types of expression: [[noun]]s and [[verb]]s: ''Jill is'' here.
## [[adjective]]s to modify nouns: ''good'' food.
## ways of linking: sink ''or'' swim.
## dummy elements: Jill likes to swim, ''so'' do I.
## devices to order or ask questions: Get up! Are you ill?
# Most of the languages have a [[writing system|written form]]. Before the invention of audio recording, the writing system was the only way to keep track of spoken information.
# All languages constantly evolve. New words appear, new forms of saying things, new accents.
There are many more things in common between languages.<ref>Greenberg J.H. (ed) 1966. ''Universals of language''. 2nd ed, MIT Press.</ref>

=== Inheritance ===
The capacity to learn and use language is [[Heredity|inherited]]. Normally, all humans are born with this capability. ''Which'' language is learned by a child depends on which language is spoken by the child's community. The ''capacity'' is inherited, but the particular language is learned.

Children have a special period, from about 18 months to about four years, which is critical for learning the language. If this is seriously disrupted, then their language skills will be damaged. Older people learn differently, so they seldom learn a [[second language]] as well as they learn their native language.

== Types of language ==
[[Mathematics]] and [[computer science]] use created languages called [[formal language]]s (like computer [[programming language]]s), but these may or may not be 'true' languages. Mathematics itself is seen as a language by many. Some people consider [[musical notation]] to be a way of writing the musical language.

[[Chinese language|Chinese]] is the language with the most native speakers in the world, but Chinese is not really a language. It is a close family of [[dialect]]s, some of which are as different as [[Romance languages]] are from one another.

English is often called "the international language", or [[lingua franca]]. It is the main second language of the world and the international language of [[science]], [[travel]], [[technology]], [[business]], [[diplomacy]], and [[entertainment]]. [[French language|French]] had a similar status until the 20th century, and other languages had it at other times.
:* '''English''' as a first language: 380 million.<ref>Crystal, David 1995. ''The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language''. Cambridge.</ref><sup>p108</sup>
:* English as an official second language: up to 300 million.
:* English taught as a second language, but with no official status: anyone's guess, up to 1000 million/1 billion.
:* '''Chinese''' (Mandarin): 390 million native speakers.<ref name="Chao"/><sup>p96</sup><ref>850 million claimed by English Wikipedia ([[Chinese language]]) but without specific reference.</ref>
Some languages are made up so that a lot of people around the world can learn them, without the new languages being tied to any specific country or place. These are called [[constructed language]]s. One of the most popular of these languages is [[Esperanto]], which is sometimes called "La Internacia Lingvo," or "The International Language." Another of these languages is called [[Volapük]], which was popular about a hundred years ago but is much less popular now. It has mostly been replaced by languages like [[Esperanto]], [[Interlingua]], and [[Ido]].

Part of the reason that [[Volapük]] became unpopular is that some sounds are hard to say for people who speak [[Spanish language|Spanish]] or English, two of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

== Related pages ==
{{wiktionary}}
{{commonscat}}
* [[Alphabet]]
* [[Basic English]]
* [[English as a foreign language]]
* [[English language]]
* [[Historical linguistics]]
* [[Language education]]
* [[Language families and languages]]
* [[Linguistics]]
* [[List of languages]]
* [[Orthography]]
* [[Phonology]]
* [[Second language]]
* [[Semantics]]
* [[Speech therapy]]

== Sources ==
{{Reflist}}

== Other websites ==

* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Language_(general) Language (general)] -Citizendium

{{Languages of Countries}}

[[Category:Language| ]]

{{simple-Wikipedia}}

Language - Revision history

Tata India at 15:38, 21 March 2022