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Language is a system of gestures, grammar, signs, sounds, symbols, or words, which is used to represent and communicate concepts, ideas, meanings, and thoughts. It can be thought of as a "semantics code". The study of language as such a code is called linguistics, an academic discipline introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure. Those who speak or otherwise use a language are deemed (by the self-appointed linguists) to be part of that language's theoretical linguistic community.
Making a principled distinction between one language and another is usually impossible. For example, the boundaries between named language groups are in effect arbitrary due to blending between populations (the dialect continuum). For instance, there are dialects of German very similar to Dutch which are not mutually intelligible with other dialects of (what Germans call) German.
Some like to make parallels to biology, where it is not always possible to make a well-defined distinction between one species and the next. In either case, the ultimate difficulty may stem from the interactions between languages and populations. (See Dialect or August Schleicher for a longer discussion.)
The concepts of Ausbausprache, Abstandsprache, and Dachsprache are used to make finer distinctions about the degree of difference between languages or dialects.
Main article: Origins of language
Scientists do not yet agree on when language was first used by humans (or their ancestors). Estimates range from about two million years ago, during the time of Homo habilis, to as recently as forty thousand years ago, during the time of Cro-Magnon man.
Main article: Linguistics
Linguistics examines different theoretical perspectives on human language in detail. The Linguistics article is a useful introductory article about language.
Main article: Language families and languages
The world languages have been be grouped into families of languages which have similarities. Some of the major groupings are the Indo-European languages, the Afro-Asiatic languages, and the Sino-Tibetan languages.
Main article: Constructed language
One prominent artificial language, called Esperanto, was created by L. L. Zamenhof. It was a compilation of various elements of different languages, which was intended to be an easy-to-learn language.
Other writers, such as J. R. R. Tolkien, have created fantasy languages, for literary, linguistic, or personal reasons. One of Tolkien's languages is called Quenya, which is a form of Elvish. It includes its own alphabet and its phonology and syntax are modelled after Finnish.
Main article: Animal language
While the term animal languages is widely used, most researchers agree that they are not as complex or expressive as the human language. Some researchers argue that there are significant differences separating human language from the communication of other animals, and that the underlying principles are not related.
Other researchers argue that a continuum exists among the communication methods of all animals. Almost all researchers agree that human language is more complex than communication between other animals.
Main article: Formal languages
Mathematics and computer science use artificial entities called formal languages (including programming languages and markup languages). These often take the form of character strings, produced by some combination of formal grammar and semantics of arbitrary complexity.
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