Language

"Language" is also a: user

created by mikeneko
(idea) by rafial (?) (print)   (I like it!) Sat Nov 13 1999 at 8:40:00

A system of symbols developed to communticate ideas between intelligent entities.

Natural languages are used (so far as we know) only by humans, but computers are starting to be able to understand them, albeit imperfectly.

Formal languages, such as programming languages are created to express ideas in a more rigid, but also less ambiguous way. They are used in Mathematics, Computer Science and many other scientific disciplines.

(idea) by redhog (6.6 y) (print)   (I like it!) Sat Nov 13 1999 at 8:40:01
A formal language is a set of strings (which are in the language). A string is any concatenation of a string and a symbol. The empty string is a string, too. Formal languages are divided up into four classes; regular languages,&context-free languages, context sensitive languages and free languages, each one a super-class of the previous one.
(idea) by stash (3.5 wk) (print)   (I like it!) Thu Jul 20 2000 at 21:15:37
All software is composed of language. A computer is thus a language machine because it is based entirely on a symbolic system. By this same token, your mind is purely a linguistic system because it is composed of a voice in your head using symbolic words. For more details and my wacky conclusions see You are language and language is a virus.

Terence McKenna thinks that language will soon evolve into visible language. Maybe as soon as December 21, 2012.

(idea) by jandradt (3.4 y) (print)   (I like it!) 1 C! Thu Jan 18 2001 at 13:03:14
Language electrifies me. There is a power to the interplay, crush and tumble, of words that provides me with a satisfaction and a transcendence nothing else (praise, chocolate, sex) can give me. In those moments when I am alone with the linguistic elements that define language, alone to concentrate on the tempo, the tone, the way one sound melts into another in the transmutation of one idea to another, I feel filled with a power almost physical, a current that runs through my body. It is as though the appendages through which I use language (my hands, my mouth) are the outlets and I am the generator, churning away, electromagnets energizing, that converts the energy.

I am both the omnipotent wielder of this power and the leaf fluttering tenuously under the barrage of its currents. Because the possibility inherent in this discrete combinatorial system--phonemes, listemes, words, sentences, and ever larger structures, from paragraphs and pages to books and treatises--is limitless, that created by those who use it, too, is limitless. As a user of words, I can express any idea, whether witnessed or imaginary, to as extensive a detail as I wish. I can make anything happen. To someone like me (okay, I'm not so great at sports or lifting heavy things and opening the tops of jars) this ability is a treasure. To realize that I can bend and shape the current of energy to express whatever I want is like winning the lottery. Suddenly, I am able.

Yet, at the same time, being open to the phenomenon of language, whether it is instinct or acquired knowledge or both, as it most likely is, means not only that I can effect changes with the combinations I create but that I can be affected by the combinations of words that others create, sometimes profoundly. It is a sort of danger of being short-circuited. A hurtful phrase, a mesmerizing book, a catchy lyric: all of these can, in a sense, disrupt my ability to function. A well-constructed phrase is a joy, enjoyed both by the organic side of me, who appreciates its aesthetic attributes and by the intellectual side, who admires its logical structure, but I can be so caught up in it, in the rhythms and cadences of someone else's use of syntax and sound, that I am paralyzed; I cannot free myself to string together my own words.

In the end, it is a matter of choice. I may choose to be open to this uniquely human mode of communication, complete with benefits and risks, or I may choose to bury my head, read little, write less. It is just like the very basic gift of existence. I have found that I can step out the door most mornings and, in the distance between my dorm and the main building of the school, be so bombarded with sensory stimulation that I am overwhelmed; the wildly improbable has happened, life thrives, and I am here to make sense of it all.

(thing) by Sylvar (2 mon) (print)   (I like it!) 1 C! Sat Jul 28 2001 at 16:55:17
The distinction between a language and a dialect is somewhat ambiguous. Suzette Haden Elgin wrote that while she would consider Navajo (Diné) and Apache to be dialects of the same language, she feels sure that no native speaker of either language would agree. Similarly, Laotian and Thai seem like dialects to outsiders, but for various reasons are thought of as separate languages by their native speakers.

Linguists often say, attributing the idea to Max Weinreich, that the difference is that

a language is a dialect with its own army and navy.

Of course, this would exclude many landlocked languages from the definition. On a less literal level, however, it rings true. Nationalism can contribute strongly to a sense of linguistic identity.

SOURCE: Suzette Haden Elgin, "The Language Imperative"

(idea) by dmd (1.1 mon) (print)   (I like it!) 1 C! Wed Jan 24 2001 at 15:21:23
This is a work in progress; please /msg me with comments/additions.

Groups:

Languages:

Other:

(idea) by SharQ (6.4 d) (print)   (I like it!) 1 C! Sun Mar 24 2002 at 2:39:30

The most spoken languages

 1. Chinese, (Mandarin)

Spoken in Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand

Spoken by 885 million people

 2. Spanish

Spoken in Andorra, Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay, United States,Venezuela

Spoken by 332 million people

 3. English

Spoken in Australia, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Guyana, India, Ireland, Israel, Lesotho, Liberia, Malaysia, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Tonga, United Kingdom, United states, Vanuatu, Zimbabwe

Spoken by 322 million people.

 4. Bengali

Spoken in Bangladesh, India, Singapore

Spoken by 189 million people

 5. Hindi

Spoken in India, Nepal, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda

Spoken by 182 million people

 6. Portuguese

Spoken in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, France, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal

Spoken by 170 million people

 7. Russian

Spoken in China, Israel, Mongolia, Russia

Spoken by 170 million people

 8. Japanese

Spoken in Japan, Singapore, Taiwan

Spoken by 125 million people

 9. German

Spoken in Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Paraguay, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland

Spoken by 98 million people.

10. Chinese, (Wu)

Spoken in China

Spoken by 77.2 million people.

  1. Javanese - 75.5 million people
  2. Korean - 75.0 million people
  3. French - 72.0 million people
  4. Vietnamese - 67.7 million people
  5. Telugu - 66.0 million people
  6. Marathi - 64.8 million people
  7. Tamil - 63.1 million people
  8. Turkish - 59.0 million people
  9. Urdu - 58.0 million people
  10. Chinese, (Min Nan) - 49.0 million people
  11. Chinese, (Jinyu) - 45.0 million people
  12. Gujarati - 44.0 million people
  13. Polish - 44.0 million people
  14. Arabic - 42.5 million people
  15. Ukrainian - 41.0 million people
  16. Italian - 37.0 million people
  17. Chinese (Xiang) - 36.0 million people
  18. Malayalam - 34.0 million people
  19. Chinese, (Hakka) - 34.0 million people
  20. Kannada - 33.8 million people

The next few languages in line include western and eastern Panjabi, Sunda, Romanian, Bhojpuri, Azerbaijani, Hausa, Algerian Arabic, Burmese, Serbo-Croatian, Awadhi, Thai and Dutch

this list was made by doing extensive database and spreadsheet work, with a variety of original sources, but mainly an Introduction to Linguistics textbook, and an ethnology database made by one of the professors at my former university. Enjoy!
(definition) by Webster 1913 (print) 1 C! Wed Dec 22 1999 at 0:48:06

Lan"guage (?), n. [OE. langage, F. langage, fr. L. lingua the tongue, hence speech, language; akin to E. tongue. See Tongue, cf. Lingual.]

1.

Any means of conveying or communicating ideas; specifically, human speech; the expression of ideas by the voice; sounds, expressive of thought, articulated by the organs of the throat and mouth.

Language consists in the oral utterance of sounds which usage has made the representatives of ideas. When two or more persons customarily annex the same sounds to the same ideas, the expression of these sounds by one person communicates his ideas to another. This is the primary sense of language, the use of which is to communicate the thoughts of one person to another through the organs of hearing. Articulate sounds are represented to the eye by letters, marks, or characters, which form words.

2.

The expression of ideas by writing, or any other instrumentality.

3.

The forms of speech, or the methods of expressing ideas, peculiar to a particular nation.

4.

The characteristic mode of arranging words, peculiar to an individual speaker or writer; manner of expression; style.

Others for language all their care express. Pope.

5.

The inarticulate sounds by which animals inferior to man express their feelings or their wants.

6.

The suggestion, by objects, actions, or conditions, of ideas associated therewith; as, the language of flowers.

There was . . . language in their very gesture. Shak.

7.

The vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art or department of knowledge; as, medical language; the language of chemistry or theology.

8.

A race, as distinguished by its speech.

[R.]

All the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshiped the golden image. Dan. iii. 7.

Language master, a teacher of languages.[Obs.]

Syn. -- Speech; tongue; idiom; dialect; phraseology; diction; discourse; conversation; talk. -- Language, Speech, Tongue, Idiom, Dialect. Language is generic, denoting, in its most extended use, any mode of conveying ideas; speech is the language of articulate sounds; tongue is the Anglo-Saxon tern for language, esp. for spoken language; as, the English tongue. Idiom denotes the forms of construction peculiar to a particular language; dialects are varieties if expression which spring up in different parts of a country among people speaking substantially the same language.

 

© Webster 1913.

Lan"guage, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Languaged (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Languaging (?).]

To communicate by language; to express in language.

Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense. Fuller.

 

© Webster 1913.

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