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language

By Richard Nordquist, About.com Guide

Filed In:

1. Grammar & Rhetoric Glossary


2. > Identification - Lower Case

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Definition:

A human system of communication that uses arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds,
gestures, or written symbols. The study of language is called linguistics.

See also:

• What Is Language?
• Common Myths About Language
• Speech
• Writing

• Anti-Language
• Biased Language
• Bilingualism
• Block Language
• Code Switching
• Contact Language
• Creole
• Dialect
• Discourse
• English Language
• Figurative Language
• Home Language
• Language Acquisition
• Language Death
• Language Family
• Language Maven
• Langue
• Lexicon
• Lingua Franca
• Linguicism
• Linguistic Insecurity
• Metalanguage
• Natural Language
• Parole
• Pidgin
• Register
• Sexist Language
• Taboo Language
• Vernacular

Etymology:

From the Latin, "tongue"

Observations:

• "Would I had phrases that are not known, utterances that are strange, in new
language that has not been used, free from repetition, not an utterance which has
grown stale, which men of old have spoken."
(ancient Egyptian inscription)

• "Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary makers,


but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, of
long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the
ground."
(Walt Whitman)
• "A language can be compared to a sheet of paper. Thought is one side of the
sheet and sound the reverse side. Just as it is impossible to take a pair of scissors
and cut one side of the paper without at the same time cutting the other, so it is
impossible in a language to isolate sound from thought, or thought from sound."
(French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure)

• "Language is the mother of thought, not its handmaiden."


(Karl Kraus)

• "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."


(Ludwig Wittgenstein)

• "But behavior in the human being is sometimes a defense, a way of concealing


motives and thoughts, as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and
preventing communication."
(Abraham Maslow)

• "All words, in every language, are metaphors."


(Marshall McLuhan)

• "Now, our language, Tiger, our language. Hundreds of thousands of available


words, frillions of legitimate new ideas. Hm? So that I can say the following
sentence and be utterly sure that nobody has ever said it before in the history of
human communication: 'Hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly
milk will countermand my trousers.'"
(Stephen Fry, A Bit of Fry and Laurie)

Pronunciation: LANG-gwij

Related Terms

• Grammar
• Syntax
• Diction
The English Language

• Anthony Burgess on the English Language


• Soft Language
• Introduction to Etymology: Word Histories

The Lighter Side of Language

• The Spell Checker Poem


• Homer Simpson's Figures of Speech
• Phony Rules of Writing

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• What Is Language? - Quotations on Language - Language Metaphors,


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