Portal:Language

Introduction

Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing. Human language is characterized by its cultural and historical diversity, with significant variations observed between cultures and across time. Human languages possess the properties of productivity and displacement, which enable the creation of an infinite number of sentences, and the ability to refer to objects, events, and ideas that are not immediately present in the discourse. The use of human language relies on social convention and is acquired through learning.

Estimates of the number of human languages in the world vary between 5,000 and 7,000. Precise estimates depend on an arbitrary distinction (dichotomy) established between languages and dialects. Natural languages are spoken, signed, or both; however, any language can be encoded into secondary media using auditory, visual, or tactile stimuli – for example, writing, whistling, signing, or braille. In other words, human language is modality-independent, but written or signed language is the way to inscribe or encode the natural human speech or gestures.

Depending on philosophical perspectives regarding the definition of language and meaning, when used as a general concept, "language" may refer to the cognitive ability to learn and use systems of complex communication, or to describe the set of rules that makes up these systems, or the set of utterances that can be produced from those rules. All languages rely on the process of semiosis to relate signs to particular meanings. Oral, manual and tactile languages contain a phonological system that governs how symbols are used to form sequences known as words or morphemes, and a syntactic system that governs how words and morphemes are combined to form phrases and utterances.

The scientific study of language is called linguistics. Critical examinations of languages, such as philosophy of language, the relationships between language and thought, how words represent experience, etc., have been debated at least since Gorgias and Plato in ancient Greek civilization. Thinkers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) have argued that language originated from emotions, while others like Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) have argued that languages originated from rational and logical thought. Twentieth century philosophers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) argued that philosophy is really the study of language itself. Major figures in contemporary linguistics include Ferdinand de Saussure and Noam Chomsky. (Full article...)

Outline of linguistics • Index of language articles

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Swedish (endonym: svenska [ˈsvɛ̂nːska] ^ⓘ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family, spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, making it the fourth most spoken Germanic language, and the first among its type in the Nordic countries overall.

Swedish, like the other Nordic languages, is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Age. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, although the degree of mutual intelligibility is dependent on the dialect and accent of the speaker. (Full article...)

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... that a historian lamented the lack of English-language translations for the work of Aracy Amaral despite it being "a vital reference for the study of art history in Brazil"?
... that Nazi Party member Adalbert Baumann created Oiropa'pitshn, a language based on Yiddish?
... that Eritrean poet Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu was imprisoned for six years without trial, and later published poems in Tigrinya based on her experience?
... that the Japanese-language children's show Kikaida, popularized in Hawaii by a Honolulu TV station, beat Sesame Street in the local ratings?
... that an erroneous claim that the neural language model LaMDA is sentient has generated conversations on the efficacy of the Turing test?
... that Indian singer Sudakshina Sarma sang in Assamese as Mahatma Gandhi's ashes were immersed in the Brahmaputra River?

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...that we know about Latin profanity from both graffiti at Pompeii, and from the poems of Martial, Catullus, and Horace?
...that virtually all Italian-speakers in Albania have learnt the language by watching Italian television and not through reading textbooks?
...that the indigenous Nambikwara language of Brazil has a special implosive consonant used only by elderly people?
...that Venetian, spoken in and around Venice, Italy, is not a dialect of Italian?

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The Global Language Monitor (GLM) is a company based in Austin, Texas, that analyzes trends in the English language. (Full article...)

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Credit: © Hans Hillewaert

The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek.