language

language

n.

1. A means of communication

   speech, dialect, voice, utterance, expression, vocalization, phonation, native tongue, mother tongue, articulation, meta-language, object language, sense-datum language, thing-language, physical language; language of diplomacy, language of chemistry, language of flowers, etc.; accent, word, sign, signal, pantomime, gesture, facial gesture, vocabulary, diction, idiom, local speech, broken English, pidgin English, lingo, brogue, polyglot, patois, vernacular, lingua franca, trade language, jargon, gibberish, debased speech, inscription, picture writing, hieroglyphics, cuneiform, printing, writing, poetry, prose, song, style, phraseology, lingo*; see also communication 1, conversation, speech 2.

2. The study of language, sense 1

   morphology, phonology, phonemics, morphemics, morphophonemics, phonics, phonetics, semantics, semasiology, criticism, letters, linguistic studies, history of language, etymology, dialectology, linguistic geography, anthropological linguistics, sociolinguistics, lexicostatistics, glottochronology, structural linguistics, descriptive linguistics, taxonomic linguistics, historical linguistics, diachronic linguistics, comparative linguistics, synchronic linguistics, contrastive grammar, descriptive grammar, prescriptive grammar, phrase-structure grammar, PS grammar, generative grammar, immediate-constituent grammar, IC grammar, transformational grammar, tagmemics, stratificational grammar, glossematics, Prague school of linguistics, London school of linguistics, Firthian school of linguistics; see also anthropology, etymology, grammar, linguistics, literature 1.

   Types of languages include: synthetic, inflectional, analytic, isolating, distributive, incorporating, symbolic, fusional, polytonic, agglutinative, computer, artificial, polysynthetic.

3. Families of language include: Indo-European, Finno-Ugric, Altaic, Caucasian, Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, Khoisan, Malayo-Polynesian, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, Sino-Tibetan, Kadai, Eskimo-Aleut, Athabaskan, Algonquian, Mosan, Iroquoian, Natchez-Muskogean, Siouan, Penutian, Hokan, Uto-Aztecan, Mayan.

4. Indo-European languages include --- Greek: Modern Greek; Celtic: Breton, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic; Italic: Latin, Romanian, Italian, Rhaeto-Romanic, French, Provençal, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese; Germanic: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Modern High German, Yiddish, Afrikaans, Dutch, Flemish, Modern Low German, Frisian, English; Slavic: Polish, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, Ukrainian, Russian; Baltic: Latvian, Lithuanian; Iranian: Persian, Pashto; Indo-Aryan: Bengali, Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Gujarati, Romany, Dard.

5. Other Eurasian languages include --- Uralic: Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, Samoyed; Altaic: Turkish, Mongolian; Georgian; Abkhasian, Kabardian, Chechen; Basque; Etruscan.

6. African and Asian languages include --- Afro-Asiatic or Hamito-Semitic: Akkadian, Assyro-Babylonian, Aramaic, Syriac, Phoenician, Talmudic, Hebrew, Arabic, Amharic, Egyptian, Coptic, Tuareg, Somali, Hausa; Sumerian; Niger-Congo: Wolof, Mande, Ewe, Yoruba, Ibo, Efik, Tiv, Swahili, Kikuyu, Rwanda, Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Venda; Nilo-Saharan: Songhai, Kanuri, Nilotic, Dinka, Nuer, Masai; Khoisan: Sandawe, Hatsa, Bushman-Hottentot.

7. Asian and Malayo-Polynesian languages include --- Japanese, Ryukyu; Korean; Sino-Tibetan: Burmese, Tibetan, Mandarin, Cantonese; Kadai: Thai, Siamese, Laotian, Lao; Miao-Yao; Malayo-Polynesian: Malay, Indonesian, Javanese, Balinese, Tagalog, Filipino, Malagasy, Micronesian, Hawaiian, Tahitian, Samoan, Maori, Fijian; Papuan, Australian; Tasmanian; Dravidian: Telegu, Tamil, Kanerese, Kannada, Malayalam; Austro-Asiatic: Santali, Palaung, Mon-Khmer, Vietnamese.

8. North, Central, and South American languages include --- Algonquian: Massachusetts, Delaware, Mohegan, Penobscot, Pasamaquoddy, Fox-Sauk-Kickapoo, Cree, Menomini, Shawnee, Blackfoot, Arapaho, Cheyenne; Wiyot, Yurok; Kutenai; Salishan: Tillamook, Lillooet; Wakashan: Nootka, Kwakiutl; Muskogean: Creek, Choctaw-Chickasaw, Seminole; Natchez, Chitimacha; Iroquoian: Cherokee, Huron, Wayondot, Erie, Oneida, Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Susquehanna, Conestoga; Siouan: Biloxi, Dakota, Mandan, Winnebago, Hidatsa, Crow; Caddoan: Caddo, Wichita, Pawnee; Yuchi; Aleut, Eskimo; Penutian: Tsimshian, Maidu, Miwok, Klamath-Modoc; Zuni; Hokan: Karok, Shasta, Washo, Pomo; Subtiaba-Tlapanec, Tequistlatec, Jicaque; Comecrudo, Tonkawa; Mayan: Kekchi, Quiche, Tseltal-Tsotzil, Tojolabal, Yucatec; Totonac; Mixe, Zoque, Vera Cruz; Huave; Zapotec, Chatino; Mixtec; Pueblo, Popoluca; Otomi, Pame; Tarascan; Uto-Aztecan: Tubatulabal, Luiseño, Tepehuan, Pima-Papago, Hopi, Huichol, Nahuatl, Aztec, Northern Paiute, Paviotso, Mono, Shoshoni-Comanche, Southern Paiute-Ute, Chemehuevi; Kiowa-Tanoan; Keresan; Na-Dené: Haida, Tlingit, Athabaskan, Chipewyan, Apachean, Navaho, Hupa; Yukian; Quechua; Aymara; Araucanian.

speak the same language