Language
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
Some people have tried to explain 'language' in many ways. for example:
- a way of telling about things, actions, and ideas
- a set of meanings common to different people
- a form of thinking
- symbols implying actions or inactions
- any way of communicating
but human language is the key meaning of 'language'.
Some people speak of 'animal languages', but others do not agree and say these 'animal languages' are not clear or meaningful enough to be 'true' languages. It depends on the definition of "language".
Mathematics and computer science use made-up languages called formal languages (like computer programming languages), but these may or may not be 'true' languages. Mathematics itself is considered a language by many theorists.
A person who is able to speak and understand words from several different languages (tongues) is said to be multilingual.
Gestures (through hand signals) are a way people can try to make themselves understood when they cannot speak in the same language. There is also sign language, used to speak to people who cannot hear words. Chinese is the language with the most speakers in the world. English is called the international language.
[edit] Information about language on Wikipedia
- List of languages
- Language families and languages - more information on some languages and their connections to one another
- common phrases in different languages - interesting information for travelers
[edit] See also
- Basic English
- E Prime
- English as a foreign language
- Essential World English
- Special English
- Computer assisted language learning (a historical perspective)
- the Ethnologue gives a complete list of all languages, places, people, and groups.
- General semantics
- Language education
- Naming
- Orthography
- Philology and Historical_Linguistics
- Philosophy of language
- Phonology
- Profanity
- Psycholinguistics
- Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
- Mother tongue
- Second language
- Semantics
- Speech therapy
- Tongue-twister
[edit] External links
- Mark Rosenfelder's Metaverse gives a useful list of 4000 languages and dialects (grouped by their relationships), where you can find the words for the numbers 'one' to 'ten' in other languages
- Museum of Languages
- LingoTeach, GPL tool to learn languages
