Portal:Language

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Introduction

A mural in Teotihuacan, Mexico (c. 2nd century) depicting a person emitting a speech scroll from his mouth, symbolizing speech

Braille writing, a tactile variant of a writing system

Cuneiform is the first known form of written language, but spoken language predates writing by at least tens of thousands of years.

Two girls learning American Sign Language

A language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means of communication of humans, and can be conveyed through speech (spoken language), sign, or writing. Many languages, including the most widely-spoken ones, have writing systems that enable sounds or signs to be recorded for later reactivation. Human language is unique among the known systems of animal communication in that it is not dependent on a single mode of transmission (sight, sound, etc.), is highly variable between cultures and across time, and affords a much wider range of expression than other systems.

Human languages have the properties of productivity and displacement, and rely on social convention and 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) being 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. (Full article...)

Outline of linguistics • Index of language articles

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Old Gutnish or Old Gotlandic was a North Germanic language spoken on the Baltic island of Gotland. It shows sufficient differences from the Old West Norse and Old East Norse dialects that it is considered to be a separate branch. While vastly divergent from Old Gutnish and closer to Modern Swedish, a modern version of Gutnish is still spoken in some parts of Gotland and the adjoining island of Fårö.

The root Gut is identical to Goth, and it is often remarked that the language has similarities with the Gothic language. These similarities have led scholars such as Elias Wessén and Dietrich Hofmann to suggest that it is most closely related to Gothic. The best known example of such a similarity is that Gothic and Gutnish called both adult and young sheep lamb. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Indian writer Malayanil was a pioneer of modern short-story writing in the Gujarati language?
... that Mohammad Tabrani first proposed the term "bahasa Indonesia" for the national language of Indonesia?
... that KEVT, the first Spanish-language radio station in Tucson, offered English lessons from a University of Arizona professor?
... that Kosala by Bhalchandra Nemade is regarded as the first existentialist novel in the Marathi language?
... that in Indonesian, a language featuring pronoun avoidance, a common polite way to address someone else is "father" or "mother", instead of "you"?
... that the species name of the frog Boophis haingana is derived from the Malagasy word for 'fast'?

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...that Bambaiya Hindi, a pidgin used in Mumbai, is a combination of English, Marathi, Gujarati and several other languages?
...that famous epic poems like Beowulf and Judith were written in Late West Saxon?
...that the Inuktun language, spoken by 1000 Inughuit people around Qaanaaq in northern Greenland, is related to Canadian Inuit languages?
...that most Russian-speakers in the United States are Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union?

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"Vegetables and fruits" shop sign in Haifa in Russian and Hebrew.

The Russian language is spoken natively by a large proportion of the population of Israel, reaching about 20 percent of the total population by 1989, mostly by immigrants who came from the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s and later years. It is a major foreign language in the country, and is used in many aspects of life. Russian is the predominant non-official native language in Israel. The government and businesses often provide information in Russian, and it is semi-official in some areas with high concentration of Russian Jewish immigrants. The Russian-speaking population of Israel is the world's third-largest population of Russian native-speakers living outside the former Soviet Union territories after Germany and the United States, and the highest as a proportion of the population. As of 2013, 1,231,003 residents of the Post-Soviet states have immigrated to Israel since the fall of the Soviet Union. As of 2017, there are up to 1.5 million Russian-speaking Israelis out of total population of 8,700,000 (17.25%). (Full article...)

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Credit: Phoenix7777 and Bnwwf91

Geographical distribution of the preferential use of the terms castellano (Castilian), in red, vs. español (Spanish), in blue, to refer to the Spanish language

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Language News

16 February 2022 –

Cristina Calderón, the last full-blooded Yahgan and last native speaker of the Yahgan language, dies in Chile. (France 24)

2 February 2022 – Human rights in Chechnya, Corruption in Russia

Mass government-organized protests against the Yangulbayev family occur in the Russian city of Grozny, Chechnya. The Chechen government claimed that protests were spontaneous and gathered 400,000 men, "not counting women," though the total population of Grozny is 325,000 people. [1] Despite the COVID-19 restrictions, Rospotrebnadzor did nothing because they "couldn't find protest organizers."[2] Earlier a member of the Russian State Duma, Adam Delimkhanov, stated that he will rip the heads off of Yangulbayevs and those who translate his speech from the Chechen language to Russian.[3][4]

1 February 2022 – Russo-Ukrainian War