Portal:Language

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Welcome to the Language Portal

Introduction

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

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

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

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 of these times include Ferdinand de Saussure and Noam Chomsky. (Full article...
)

Location of the Basque provinces within Spain and France

Erromintxela (Basque pronunciation: [eromintʃela] ) is the distinctive language of a group of Romani living in the Basque Country, who also go by the name Erromintxela. It is sometimes called Basque Caló or Errumantxela in English; caló vasco, romaní vasco, or errominchela in Spanish; and euskado-rromani or euskado-romani in French. Although detailed accounts of the language date to the end of the 19th century, linguistic research began only in the 1990s.

The Erromintxela are the descendants of a 15th-century wave of Kalderash Roma, who entered the Basque Country via France. Both ethnically and linguistically, they are distinct from the Caló-speaking Romani people in Spain and the Cascarot Romani people of the Northern Basque Country. Erromintxela is a mixed language (referred to as Para-Romani in Romani linguistics), deriving most of its vocabulary from Kalderash Romani but using Basque grammar, similar to the way the Angloromani language of the Roma in England mixes Romani vocabulary and English grammar. The development of the mixed language was facilitated by the unusually deep integration of the Erromintxela people into Basque society and the resultant bilingualism in Basque. The language is in decline; most of the perhaps 1000 remaining speakers live on the coast of Labourd and in the mountainous regions of Soule, Navarre, Gipuzkoa and Biscay. (Full article...)

Did you know (auto-generated)

More did you know - show different entries

Categories

Linguistics: Computational linguisticsGrammarHistorical linguisticsMorphologyPhoneticsPhonologyPragmaticsReadingSemanticsSociolinguisticsSyntaxWriting

Languages: Language familiesPidgins and creolesSign languages

Linguists: By nationalityHistorical linguistsMorphologistsPhoneticiansPhonologistsSociolinguistsSyntacticiansTranslators

Stubs: Constructed languagesLanguagesLinguistsPidgins and creolesTypographyVocabulary and usageWriting systems

Full Language category tree
Select [►] to view subcategories

Related portals

Selected topic - show another

Satsugū dialect area (orange)
The Satsugū dialect (薩隅方言, Satsugū Hōgen), often referred to as the
Kyūshū. (Full article...
)
List of selected topics

Selected picture - show another

Credit: Public domain

Maryada Patral letter of conduct written by

Rajasthani language

More...

Language News

25 April 2024 – International reactions to the Israel–Hamas war
The Arabic language spokesperson of the United States Department of State resigns in opposition to U.S. Gaza policy. (Reuters)
1 January 2024 – Public Domain Day
The animated short film Steamboat Willie, the German-language version of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, and other works published in 1928 enter the public domain in the United States. (Mashable)
Language news from Wikinews...

Topics

Languages of the world

Languages of Africa:

more...

Languages of the Americas:

Languages of Asia:

more...

Languages of Austronesia:

Languages of Europe:

more...

Constructed languages:

more...


Language types


See also: List of linguists


more...

Other writing systems:

See also: History of the alphabet, Script

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Find a language

Enter an ISO 639 code to find the corresponding language article
Discover Wikipedia using portals