Cuneiform was the first known form of written language, but spoken language is believed to predate writing by tens of thousands of years at least. A written language is the representation of a Language by means of a Writing system.

A language is a dynamic set of visual, auditory, or tactile symbols of communication and the elements used to manipulate them. The musical instrument is spelled Cymbal. A symbol is something --- such as an object, Picture, written word a sound a piece Communication is the process of conveying information from a sender to a receiver with the use of a medium in which the communicated information is understood the same way Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon. A phenomenon (from Greek φαινόμενoν, pl φαινόμενα - phenomena) is any observable occurrence Language is considered to be an exclusively human mode of communication; although animals make use of quite sophisticated communicative systems none of these are known to make use of all of the properties that linguists use to define language.

Properties of language

A set of agreed-upon symbols is only one feature of written language; all languages must define the structural relationships between these symbols in a system of grammar. Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. Rules of grammar are what distinguish language from other forms of communication. They allow a finite set of symbols to be manipulated to create a potentially infinite number of grammatical utterances.

Another property of language is that the symbols used are arbitrary. For the concept of arbitrariness in trademark law see Trademark distinctiveness. Any concept or grammatical rule can be mapped onto a symbol. Most languages make use of sound, but the combinations of sounds used do not have any inherent meaning - they are merely an agreed-upon convention to represent a certain thing by users of that language. For instance, there is nothing about the Spanish word nada itself that forces Spanish speakers to use it to mean "nothing". A word is a unit of Language that carries meaning and consists of one or more Morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together and has a Phonetic Another set of sounds - for example, English nothing - could equally be used to represent the same concept. Nevertheless, all Spanish speakers have acquired or learned that meaning for that sound pattern. But for Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian/Kosovan or Bosnian speakers, nada means "hope". Slovene or Slovenian ( slovenski jezik or slovenščina, not to be confused with Slovenčina) is a South Slavic language Croatian language ( hrvatski jezik) is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina in neighbouring Serbian (sr-Cyrl српски језик sr-Latn ''srpski jezik'' is a South Slavic language, Bosnian language (Bosnian bosanski jezik) sometimes referred as Bosniak language or Bosniac language is a South Slavic language native

The study of language

Main article: Linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics approaches language through meaning, discourse, semiotics (or social signification), as well as through existing narrative and grammatical structures. Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields This article is about meaning as it is studied in the discipline of linguistics Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Discourse, which views language as a form of social practice and focuses on the ways social Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of sign processes (semiosis or signification and communication signs and Symbols both Narratology is the theory and study of Narrative and Narrative structure and the ways they affect our perception Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. The recent study of semiotics and discourse have introduced linguistics to the more metaphysical and sociological perspectives available today, making it open to a wide range of inter-disciplinary subjects and approaches within the realm of the human sciences. Linguistics explores lingual trends and social constructs. It explores histories to arrive at universals, and it examines the aesthetics of various styles in these literary and cultural discourses. Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called It also attempts to account for the development of specific words and utterances through the way they have been used.

Discourse provides an understanding of language on the basis of how it has actually been used. Semiotics is the study of the relationship between signs and what they signify. Narrative studies works on the theory of the narrative, or narratology. The study of narratives might help us to understand how the narratives and structures, that texts are based on, shape our social visions and perspectives. Semantics is the study of meaning: It attempts to understand the meaning behind texts, utterances, usages and words. Semantics is the study of meaning in communication The word derives from Greek σημαντικός ( semantikos) "significant" from

Theoretical linguistics is most concerned with developing models of linguistic knowledge. Theoretical linguistics is the branch of Linguistics that is most concerned with developing models of linguistic knowledge The fields that are generally considered the core of theoretical linguistics are syntax, phonology, morphology, and semantics. In Linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek grc συν- syn-, "together" and grc τάξις táxis, "arrangement" is the Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning Morphology is the field of Linguistics that studies the internal structure of words Semantics is the study of meaning in communication The word derives from Greek σημαντικός ( semantikos) "significant" from Applied linguistics attempts to put linguistic theories into practice through areas like translation, stylistics, literary criticism and theory, discourse analysis, speech therapy, speech pathology and foreign language teaching. Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies investigates and offers solutions to language-related real life problems Translation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text likewise called a " translation Stylistics is the study of varieties of Language whose properties position that language in context. Literary criticism is the study discussion evaluation and interpretation of Literature. Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of Literature and of the methods for analyzing literature Discourse analysis (DA or discourse studies, is a general term for a number of approaches to analyzing written spoken or signed language use Speech-language pathology is the study of disorders that affect a person's Speech, Language, cognition voice swallowing ( Dysphagia) and the rehabilitative Second language acquisition is the process by which people learn a second language in addition to their native language(s.

Origins of linguistics

The historical record of linguistics begins in India with Pāṇini, the 5th century BCE grammarian who formulated 3,959 rules of Sanskrit morphology, known as the Aṣṭādhyāyī (अष्टाध्यायी) and with Tolkāppiyar, the 3rd century BCE grammarian of the Tamil work Tolkāppiyam. Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Pāṇini ( IAST: Pāṇini Dēvanāgarī: sa पाणिनि a Patronymic meaning "descendant of {{IAST|Paṇi}} " was an ancient The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 BC. Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical Morphology is the field of Linguistics that studies the internal structure of words Pāṇini ( IAST: Pāṇini Dēvanāgarī: sa पाणिनि a Patronymic meaning "descendant of {{IAST|Paṇi}} " was an ancient The Tolkāppiyam (தொல்காப்பியம் is a work on the Grammar of the Tamil language and the earliest extant work of Tamil The 3rd century BC started the first day of 300 BC and ended the last day of 201 BC Tamil (ta தமிழ்; t̪əmɨɻ is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. The Tolkāppiyam (தொல்காப்பியம் is a work on the Grammar of the Tamil language and the earliest extant work of Tamil Pāṇini’s grammar is highly systematized and technical. Inherent in its analytic approach are the concepts of the phoneme, the morpheme, and the root; Western linguists only recognized the phoneme some two millennia later. The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. The root is the primary lexical unit of a Word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents Tolkāppiyar's work is perhaps the first to describe articulatory phonetics for a language. The field of articulatory phonetics is a subfield of Phonetics. Its classification of the alphabet into consonants and vowels, and elements like nouns, verbs, vowels, and consonants, which he put into classes, were also breakthroughs at the time. In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract In the Middle East, the Persian linguist Sibawayh (سیبویه) made a detailed and professional description of Arabic in 760 CE in his monumental work, Al-kitab fi al-nahw (الكتاب في النحو, The Book on Grammar), bringing many linguistic aspects of language to light. The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia Sibawayh ( Sibuyeh in Persian, سيبويه Sîbawayh in Arabic, سیبویه was a linguist of Persian origin born Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields In his book, he distinguished phonetics from phonology. Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning

Later in the West, the success of science, mathematics, and other formal systems in the 20th century led many to attempt a formalization of the study of language as a "semantic code". Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and In formal logic, a formal system (also called a logical system, a logistic system, or simply a logic Formal systems in mathematics consist This resulted in the academic discipline of linguistics, the founding of which is attributed to Ferdinand de Saussure. An academic discipline or field of study is a branch of Knowledge which is taught or Researched at the college or university level Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields Ferdinand de Saussure (fɛʁdinɑ̃ də soˈsyːʁ ( November 26, 1857 – February 22, 1913) was a Swiss linguist In the 20th century, substantial contributions to the understanding of language came from Ferdinand de Saussure, Hjelmslev, Émile Benveniste and Roman Jakobson,^[1] which are characterized as being highly systematic. Ferdinand de Saussure (fɛʁdinɑ̃ də soˈsyːʁ ( November 26, 1857 – February 22, 1913) was a Swiss linguist Louis Hjelmslev ( October 3, 1899  &ndash May 30, 1965) was a Danish linguist whose ideas formed the basis of the Émile Benveniste (1902 Aleppo (Syria – 1976 was a French structural linguist, an apprentice of A Roman Osipovich Jakobson, (Russian Роман Осипович Якобсон) ( 11 October 1896 – 18 July 1982) was a Russian Systematic was a Hard rock band from San Jose California. The band was one of the first signings to Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich 's ^[1]

Human languages

Main article: Natural language

Some of the areas of the brain involved in language processing: Broca's area, Wernicke's area, Supramarginal gyrus, Angular gyrus, Primary Auditory Cortex

Human languages are usually referred to as natural languages, and the science of studying them is linguistics. In the Philosophy of language, a natural language (or ordinary language) is a Language that is spoken or written in phonemic-alphabetic or phonemically-related Broca's area is a section of the human brain that is involved in Language processing, speech or sign production and comprehension Wernicke's area is a part of the Human cerebrum that forms part of the cortex, on the posterior section of the Superior temporal gyrus, encircling the Brodmann area 40, or BA40 is part of the parietal[[cerebral cortex | cortex]] in the Human brain. The angular gyrus is a region of the Brain in the Parietal lobe, that lies near the superior edge of the Temporal lobe, and immediately posterior to the The primary auditory cortex is the region of the Brain that is responsible for processing of auditory ( Sound) information Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields A common progression for natural languages is that they are first spoken, then written, and then an understanding and explanation of their grammar (according to speech) is attempted.

Languages live, die, move from place to place, and change with time. Any language that ceases to change or develop is categorized as a dead language. According to some definitions an extinct language is a Language which no longer has any speakers, whereas a dead language is a language which is no longer spoken Conversely, any language that is a living language, that is, it is in a continuous state of change, is known as a modern language. A modern language is any Human Language that is currently in use

Making a principled distinction between one language and another is usually impossible. ^[2] For instance, there are a few dialects of German similar to some dialects of Dutch. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname The transition between languages within the same language family is sometimes gradual (see dialect continuum). List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family A dialect continuum is a range of Dialects spoken across a large geographical area differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close and gradually decreasing

Some like to make parallels with biology, where it is not possible to make a well-defined distinction between one species and the next. Foundations of modern biology There are five unifying principles In either case, the ultimate difficulty may stem from the interactions between languages and populations. Interaction is a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an Effect upon one another In Biology a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular Species; in Sociology (See Dialect or August Schleicher for a longer discussion. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of August Schleicher ( February 19, 1821 – December 6, 1868) was a German linguist born in Meiningen ( Duchy )

The concepts of Ausbausprache, Abstandsprache and Dachsprache are used to make finer distinctions about the degrees of difference between languages or dialects. The Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache ( framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analysing and categorising the status of language varieties

Artificial languages

Constructed languages

Main article: Constructed language

Some individuals and groups have constructed their own artificial languages, for practical, experimental, personal, or ideological reasons. A constructed or artificial language known colloquially or informally as a conlang is a Language whose Phonology, Grammar International auxiliary languages are generally constructed languages that strive to be easier to learn than natural languages; other constructed languages strive to be more logical ("loglangs") than natural languages; a prominent example of this is Lojban. Lojban (ˈloʒban is a constructed, syntactically unambiguous human language based on Predicate logic.

Some writers, such as J. R. R. Tolkien, have created fantasy languages, for literary, artistic or personal reasons. An artistic language ( artlang) is a Constructed language designed for aesthetic pleasure The fantasy language of the Klingon race has in recent years been developed by fans of the Star Trek series, including a vocabulary and grammar. Klingons ( Klingon: tlhIngan; Pronunciation /ˈt͡ɬɪŋɑn/ are a warrior race in the fictional Star Trek universe

Constructed languages are not necessarily restricted to the properties shared by natural languages.

This part of ISO 639 also includes identifiers that denote constructed (or artificial) languages. In order to qualify for inclusion the language must have a literature and it must be designed for the purpose of human communication. Specifically excluded are reconstructed languages and computer programming languages.

International auxiliary languages

Main article: International auxiliary language

Some languages, most constructed, are meant specifically for communication between people of different nationalities or language groups as an easy-to-learn second language. An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) or interlanguage is a Language meant for communication between people from Several of these languages have been constructed by individuals or groups. Natural, pre-existing languages may also be used in this way - their developers merely catalogued and standardized their vocabulary and identified their grammatical rules. These languages are called naturalistic. One such language, Latino Sine Flexione, is a simplified form of Latin. Latino sine flexione ( Latin without Inflections is an Auxiliary language invented by the Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano (1858 - 1932 Two others, Occidental and Novial, were drawn from several Western languages. The Language Occidental, later Interlingue, is a planned language created by the Balto-German naval officer and teacher Edgar de Wahl Novial ("new" + ''IAL International Auxiliary Language'' is a constructed International auxiliary language (IAL intended to facilitate international

To date, the most successful auxiliary language is Esperanto, invented by Polish ophthalmologist Zamenhof. is by far the most widely spoken constructed International auxiliary language in the world Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof (ˈzɑːmɨnhɒf in English born Eliezer Samenhof December 15 1859 &ndash April 14 1917 was an ophthalmologist, Philologist It has a relatively large community roughly estimated at about 2 million speakers worldwide, with a large body of literature, songs, and is the only known constructed language to have native speakers, such as the Hungarian-born American businessman George Soros. Native Esperanto speakers (in Esperanto denaskuloj) are born into families in which Esperanto (and usually other languages is spoken George Soros (ˈsɔroʊs or /ˈsɔrəs/ Hungarian ˈʃoroʃ (born August 12, 1930, in Budapest, Hungary, as György Schwartz) is Other auxiliary languages with a relatively large number of speakers and literature are Interlingua and Ido. Interlingua is an International auxiliary language (IAL developed between 1937 and 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA Ido (ˈiːdoʊ is a Constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier

Controlled languages

Main article: Controlled natural language

Controlled natural languages are subsets of natural languages whose grammars and dictionaries have been restricted in order to reduce or eliminate both ambiguity and complexity. Controlled natural languages (CNLs are subsets of natural languages obtained byrestricting the grammar and vocabulary in orderto reduce or eliminate Ambiguity and complexity The purpose behind the development and implementation of a controlled natural language typically is to aid non-native speakers of a natural language in understanding it, or to ease computer processing of a natural language. An example of a widely used controlled natural language is Simplified English, which was originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. Simplified English is a controlled language originally developed for Aerospace industry maintenance manuals This article is about the field of research and industry for the corporation see The Aerospace Corporation Aerospace comprises the

Formal languages

Main article: Formal language

Mathematics and computer science use artificial entities called formal languages (including programming languages and markup languages, and some that are more theoretical in nature). A formal language is a set of words, ie finite strings of letters, or symbols. Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Computer science (or computing science) is the study and the Science of the theoretical foundations of Information and Computation and their A programming language is an Artificial language that can be used to write programs which control the behavior of a machine particularly a Computer. A markup language is an Artificial language using a set of annotations to text that give instructions regarding the structure of text or how it is to be displayed These often take the form of character strings, produced by a combination of formal grammar and semantics of arbitrary complexity. In Computer programming and some branches of Mathematics, a string is an ordered Sequence of Symbols. In Formal semantics, Computer science and Linguistics, a formal grammar (also called formation rules) is a precise description of a Formal

Programming languages

Main article: Programming language

A programming language is an extreme case of a formal language that can be used to control the behavior of a machine, particularly a computer, to perform specific tasks. A programming language is an Artificial language that can be used to write programs which control the behavior of a machine particularly a Computer. ^[3] Programming languages are defined using syntactic and semantic rules, to determine structure and meaning respectively.

Programming languages are used to facilitate communication about the task of organizing and manipulating information, and to express algorithms precisely. Some authors restrict the term "programming language" to those languages that can express all possible algorithms; sometimes the term "computer language" is used for artificial languages that are more limited.

Animal communication

Main article: Animal language

The term "animal languages" is often used for nonhuman languages. Animal language is the modeling of human language in non human animal systems Animal language is the modeling of human language in non human animal systems Linguists do not consider these to be language, but describe them as animal communication, because the interaction between animals in such communication is fundamentally different in its underlying principles from true language, which has been found in humans only. Animal communication is any Behaviour on the part of one Animal that has an effect on the current or future behaviour of another animal Karl von Frisch received the Nobel Prize in 1973 for his proof of the language and dialects of the bees. ^[4] Recent research demonstrates that every sign-use in communication processes follows syntactic, pragmatic and semantic rules. Signs may be signals or symbols. signals in bacteria-, fungi- or plant-communication are chemical molecules ("semiochemicals"). In contrast to the analog signaling of honey bees of the southern hemisphere Karl von Frisch demonstrated that the variety of bee dances function as symbolic code for distance and direction of nutrient availability.

In several publicized instances, nonhuman animals have been taught to understand certain features of human language. Chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans have been taught hand signs based on American Sign Language; however, they have never been successfully taught grammar. Chimpanzee (often shortened to chimp) is the common name for the two extant Species of Apes in the Genus Pan. Gorillas, the largest of the living Primates are ground-dwelling Herbivores that inhabit the Forests of Africa. The orangutans are two Species of great apes known for their intelligence long arms and reddish-brown hair American Sign Language (or ASL Ameslan is the dominant Sign language of the Deaf community in the United States, in the English-speaking parts In 2003, a saved Bonobo ape named Kanzi allegedly independently created some words to convey certain concepts, however the careful examination of other apes raised in a similar manner (Washoe, Koko, and Nim Chimpsky) shows a greater degree of anthropomorphism and selective observation on the part of trainers and a lack of initiative and high levels of simple imitative behavior with the subjects. The Bonobo (bə'noʊboʊ Pan paniscus) until recently usually called the Pygmy Chimpanzee (and less often the Dwarf or Gracile Chimpanzee Kanzi (born October 28, 1980) is a male Bonobo who has been featured in several studies on Great ape language. Washoe (c September 1965 – October 30, 2007) was a chimpanzee who was the first non-human to learn to use a human language that of American Koko (born July 4, 1971, in San Francisco California) is a Lowland gorilla who according to Francine 'Penny' Patterson, is able --> Nim Chimpsky ( November 19, 1973 – March 10, 2000) was The African Grey Parrot, which possesses the ability to mimic human speech with a high degree of accuracy, is suspected of having sufficient intelligence to comprehend some of the speech it mimics. The African Grey Parrot ( Psittacus erithacus) is a medium-sized Parrot of the Genus Psittacus, endemic to primary and secondary Rainforest Most species of parrot, despite expert mimicry, are believed to have no linguistic comprehension at all. Parrots are birds of the roughly 350 Species in 85 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes, found in most warm and tropical regions

While proponents of animal communication systems have debated levels of semantics, these systems have not been found to have anything approaching human language syntax. Semantics is the study of meaning in communication The word derives from Greek σημαντικός ( semantikos) "significant" from In Linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek grc συν- syn-, "together" and grc τάξις táxis, "arrangement" is the The situation with dolphins and whales presents a special case in that there is some evidence that spontaneous development of complex vocal language is occurring, but it certainly has not been proven.

Some researchers argue that a continuum exists among the communication methods of all social animals, pointing to the fundamental requirements of group behavior and the existence of mirror neurons in primates. A mirror neuron is a Neuron which fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another (especially Conspecific A primate is a member of the biological order Primates ( Latin: "prime first rank" the group that contains Lemurs the Aye-aye This, however, is still a scientific question. Most researchers agree that, although human and more primitive languages have analogous features, they are not homologous. Analogy is both the cognitive process of transferring Information from a particular subject (the analogue or source to another particular subject (the target and .

See also

See also (Lists)

• Category:Lists of languages
• Ethnologue - list of languages, locations, population and genetic affiliation
• List of basic linguistics topics
• List of language academies
• List of languages
• List of official languages

Notes

References

• Crystal, David (1997). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Crystal, David (2001). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Chakrabarti, Byomkes (1994). Dr Byomkes Chakrabarti (also spelled Byomkesh Chakraborty or Byomkesh Chakrabarty) (1923–1981 was a Bengali A comparative study of Santali and Bengali. Calcutta: K. P. Bagchi & Co. ISBN 8170741289
• Gode, Alexander (1951). Interlingua-English Dictionary. The Interlingua-English Dictionary (IED developed by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA under the direction of Alexander Gode and published New York, Frederick Ungar Publishing Company.
• Kandel ER, Schwartz JH, Jessell TM. Eric Richard Kandel (born November 7, 1929) is a Psychiatrist, a neuroscientist and Professor of Biochemistry Principles of Neural Science, fourth edition, 1173 pages. First published in 1981 by Elsevier, Principles of Neural Science is a Neuroscience Textbook edited by Eric R McGraw-Hill, New York (2000). ISBN 0-8385-7701-6
• Katzner, K. (1999). The Languages of the World. New York, Routledge.
• Holquist, Michael. (1981) Introduction to Mikhail Bakhtin's The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin ( Russian: Михаил Михайлович Бахти́н mʲɪxʌˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪʨ bʌxˈtʲin ( November 17, 1895 Austin and London: University of Texas Press. xv-xxxiv
• McArthur, T. (1996). The Concise Companion to the English Language. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Further reading

• Berger, Ruth: Warum der Mensch spricht: Eine Naturgeschichte der Sprache. (Eichborn, Frankfurt 2008 - a comprehensive survey of the field covering the latest research both in linguistics and anthropology, unfortunately in German).
• Deacon, Terrence. 1997. The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain. Norton.
• Witzany, Guenther. 1993. Natur der Sprache - Sprache der Natur. Sprachpragmatische Philosophie der Biologie. Koenigshausen und Neumann. Würzburg.
• International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (Frawley 2003)
• The World's Major Languages (Comrie 1987)
• The Atlas of Languages (Comrie, Matthews, & Polinsky 1997)

External links

• Language, Writing and Alphabet: An Interview with Christophe Rico Damqatum 3 (2007)
• Distribution of languages on the Internet (2002)
• Top Languages in the world Internet usage population and penetration report (Nov 2007)
• Languages in Latin America
• The impact of language in a globalised world - Goethe-Institut
• Talk about the languages with other persons
• World Atlas of Language Structures