Language

Language is a way people share ideas and feelings. It uses grammar and vocabulary to give meaning. Humans use language by talking, signing, or writing. Every language has its own rules and words, but they can all make many sentences and talk about things far away.

There are thousands of languages in the world. These can be spoken, signed, or written, like using braille. The study of language is called linguistics. It looks at how languages work and how they change over time.

Languages sometimes come from the same root and form groups called language families. Some languages might not be used much anymore, but many people work to keep them alive.

Definitions

Main article: Theory of language

The word language comes from old words meaning "tongue" or "speech." It talks about many ways we share ideas, but this article looks at natural human languages studied in linguistics.

Language can mean two things: the general idea of language, or a specific language like French. People have talked about how language works and where it comes from for a long time. Some think language starts from feelings, while others think it helps us think clearly.

One way to think about language is as a special skill of the human mind. All children learn to speak without being taught, showing that humans are naturally good at language. Even when people grow up together without a common language, they can make new ones.

Another view sees language as a system of rules. Just like building blocks fit together in certain ways, languages have rules that help us make words and sentences.

Finally, language is a tool for sharing ideas and connecting with others. It helps us talk about what we need, our feelings, and the world around us. This view looks at how people use language every day.

Main articles: Animal language and Great ape language

Origin

Main articles: Origin of language and Origin of speech

See also: Proto-Human language

Humans have always wondered how language began. Many cultures have their own stories about this, such as the Biblical myth of the Tower of Babel.

Scholars have different ideas about how language started. Some believe it developed slowly from ways our ancient ancestors communicated. Others think it appeared suddenly as a special ability only humans have. Some researchers think language may have come from animal communication or even from music. Because language began so long ago, before humans could write, we can only guess how it developed by looking at early human fossils and comparing them to animals.

Study

Main articles: Linguistics and History of linguistics

The study of language is called linguistics. It has become a science over many years. It started more than 2000 years ago in India. Today, linguistics looks at language from many angles.

Linguists study single languages. They look at how languages change over time. They also see how people use language in social groups. They study how the brain works with language. They make computer models to understand language. They also find the rules that all human languages share.

Physiological and neural architecture of language and speech

Speaking is the main way people with hearing talk to each other. To speak, we need to move our lips, tongue, and other parts of our vocal system. We also need to know the sounds of speech and have a brain that can learn and use language.

The brain controls all language activities. It helps us understand and speak language. Scientists have found two main areas of the brain that are important for language. One area helps us understand language, while the other helps us speak clearly. With new technology, scientists can study how the brain works in people without language problems.

Speaking uses our lungs, voice box, and the parts of our upper body we use to make sounds. By controlling these parts, we can make many different sounds. These sounds can be simple pieces called segments or larger pieces that give extra meaning, like stress and tone. Segments include vowels and consonants, which combine to make syllables and words. Vowels are sounds made without blocking airflow, while consonants are made by blocking airflow in different ways. Together, these sounds let us speak many languages.

Main articles: Speech production, Phonetics, and Articulatory phonetics

Modality

Human languages can be expressed in two main ways: spoken words and signed gestures. People often use both at the same time. For example, some cultures use sign language when telling stories along with spoken words. In daily conversations, people might use hand gestures to add more detail.

There are also other ways to communicate language, such as writing, which includes braille, or using whistling and drumming. Some special codes like semaphore and Morse code are used to send messages.

Main article: Mouthing Main articles: Plains Indian Sign Language, Australian Aboriginal sign languages Main article: Case Main article: Iwaidja Main article: Damin Main articles: Writing, Braille, Manually coded language Main articles: Whistling, Drumming Main articles: Semaphore, Morse code, Spelling alphabets

Structure

Language is a way to talk and share ideas. It uses signs like sounds, gestures, letters, or symbols. These signs can be put together to make words and sentences that have meaning.

Human language is special. There is no natural reason why the word "dog" means the animal it does. Languages can make complicated ideas from simple parts, like how sounds become words and words become sentences. Every language has a set number of small parts that can be used in many ways.

Rules decide how signs become words and sentences. These rules are called syntax or grammar. The meaning of signs, words, and sentences is called semantics. We can study language by looking at its vocabulary, the sounds it uses, and the rules for making sentences. Languages may put words in different orders, but they all have ways to talk about who does what to whom.

Social contexts of use and transmission

Humans learn language by growing up where others use it. Children learn from older people and friends, and later they teach their own children. Languages help people communicate and solve problems together. Over time, languages change and become different from each other, sometimes becoming more similar when people with different languages meet.

Languages are not just about words; they also depend on the situation. For example, the word "I" means the person speaking, and "now" means the moment they are speaking. The study of how situations change meaning is called pragmatics. Language can also be used to do things, like giving a name or declaring someone married. These actions, called speech acts, can affect the real world.

All healthy children learn to use language, whether it is a sign language or spoken. They start by making sounds, then begin to form words and simple sentences. By age three to five, their speech or signing becomes more like that of adults. Learning a second language is possible at any age, though children often speak it more easily than adults.

Linguistic diversity

See also: Lists of languages and List of languages by total number of speakers

SIL Ethnologue helps us learn about languages spoken around the world. Today, there are about 7,170 living languages. Some languages, like the Danish language, can sound different depending on who is speaking it.

Many languages have lots of speakers. About 389 languages have more than a million people speaking them. These big languages are used by most of the world’s people. But there are also many smaller languages spoken by just a few people.

Languages and dialects

Main article: Dialect § Dialect or language

It can be tricky to know when something is a language or a dialect. For example, Hakka, Cantonese, and Mandarin are all types of Chinese. Even though they sound different, they are often called dialects. Sometimes, what counts as a language or a dialect depends on history and politics, not just how different the sounds are.

Language families of the world

Languages can be grouped into families that share a common history. The biggest family is the Indo-European languages, which includes languages like English, Spanish, French, and Russian. Another big family is the Sino-Tibetan languages, which includes Mandarin Chinese. There are also many smaller families all over the world, especially in places like Papua New Guinea and West Africa.

Language endangerment

Many smaller languages are in danger of disappearing. This happens when fewer people speak them, especially when young people use bigger, more common languages instead. Many projects work to help save these languages by teaching them in schools and using them in communities.