Portal:Language Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Language

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Introduction

A mural in Teotihuacan, Mexico (c. 2nd century) depicting a person emitting a speech scroll from his mouth, symbolizing speech

Braille writing, a tactile variant of a writing system

Cuneiform is the first known form of written language, but spoken language predates writing by at least tens of thousands of years.

Two girls learning American Sign Language

A language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means of communication of humans, and can be conveyed through speech (spoken language), sign, or writing. Many languages, including the most widely-spoken ones, have writing systems that enable sounds or signs to be recorded for later reactivation. Human language is unique among the known systems of animal communication in that it is not dependent on a single mode of transmission (sight, sound, etc.), is highly variable between cultures and across time, and affords a much wider range of expression than other systems.

Human languages have the properties of productivity and displacement, and rely on social convention and learning.

Estimates of the number of human languages in the world vary between 5,000 and 7,000. Precise estimates depend on an arbitrary distinction (dichotomy) being established between languages and dialects. Natural languages are spoken, signed, or both; however, any language can be encoded into secondary media using auditory, visual, or tactile stimuli – for example, writing, whistling, signing, or braille. In other words, human language is modality-independent, but written or signed language is the way to inscribe or encode the natural human speech or gestures.

Depending on philosophical perspectives regarding the definition of language and meaning, when used as a general concept, "language" may refer to the cognitive ability to learn and use systems of complex communication, or to describe the set of rules that makes up these systems, or the set of utterances that can be produced from those rules. All languages rely on the process of semiosis to relate signs to particular meanings. Oral, manual and tactile languages contain a phonological system that governs how symbols are used to form sequences known as words or morphemes, and a syntactic system that governs how words and morphemes are combined to form phrases and utterances. (Full article...)

Outline of linguistics • Index of language articles

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Hawaiian is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Hawaiian (ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, pronounced [ʔoːˈlɛlo həˈvɐjʔi]) is a Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family that takes its name from Hawaiʻi, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the US state of Hawaii. King Kamehameha III established the first Hawaiian-language constitution in 1839 and 1840.

For various reasons, including territorial legislation establishing English as the official language in schools, the number of native speakers of Hawaiian gradually decreased during the period from the 1830s to the 1950s. Hawaiian was essentially displaced by English on six of seven inhabited islands. In 2001, native speakers of Hawaiian amounted to less than 0.1% of the statewide population. Linguists were unsure if Hawaiian and other endangered languages would survive. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that the novel Dreams of Trespass, which portrays the patriarchy as un-Islamic, was translated into more than 20 languages?
... that Albert William Bailey translated the Gospel of John into the Mbunda language in 1916?
... that the name of Malaysia's Kalabakan District comes from the words "can eat" in a local language?
... that although author Lao She declared his satirical novel Cat Country a failure, it has been translated into at least six languages?
... that Mahatma Gandhi praised the Gujarati-language poem "Amar Asha" ('Immortal Hope'), saying that both Hindus and Muslims "should be proud of it"?
... that the 1989 film Begotten was made to resemble what the director called "a time that predates spoken language"?

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...that the totem pole (pictured) which welcomes visitors to the British Museum was documented for the museum by Rev. John Henry Keen years before it was purchased?
...that Missouri French is a nearly extinct dialect of French that developed in what is now the midwestern United States during the colonial period?
...that Hindi, Bengali, and Portuguese were all proposed as official languages of the United Nations?
...that the Vedda language is a Creole based on Sinhalese of Sri Lanka instead of a dialect?

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Articles 4 and 114 of the Constitution of Latvia form the foundation for language policy in Latvia, declaring Latvian to be the official state language and affirming the rights of ethnic minorities to preserve and develop their languages. Livonian language is recognized as "the language of the indigenous (autochthon) population" in the Official Language Law, but Latgalian written language is protected as "a historic variant of Latvian." All other languages are considered foreign by the Law on State Language (Official Language Law in other translations). Latvia provides national minority education programmes in Russian (the first language for over one third of the population), Polish, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Estonian, Lithuanian, and Belarussian.

The preamble to the Official Language Law includes as its goals "the integration of members of ethnic minorities into the society of Latvia, while observing their rights to use their native language or other languages; [and] the increased influence of Latvian in the cultural environment of Latvia, to promote a more rapid integration of society." (Full article...)

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Countries and regions where Portuguese has official status

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Language News

13 June 2022 – Censorship of Wikipedia

The Wikimedia Foundation files an appeal against a Russian court order demanding the removal of certain Russo-Ukrainian War-related information from the Russian-language Wikipedia, which is one of the few remaining fact-checked sources still available to the general Russian public. (Reuters) (DW)

2 June 2022 – Internet censorship in Russia