Language
From KneeQuickie
Language is a system of visual symbols (i.e., scripts) auditory symbols (i.e., phonemes), or gestures (such as those used in sign language) used to communicate ideas, which are bound by an interior logic. The study of languages is called linguistics.
Languages are broadly defined. Anything that is capable of expressing basic or complex ideas are considered to be languages. Computer coding, as well mathematical formulae, are considered to be languages. However, the KneeQuickie is not so much concerned with this as it as languages whose primary use are to be communicated by beings, whether they be human or otherwise.
Among humans there are two main forms of language, spoken and signed, as well as written forms.
Characteristics
All human languages share a number of characteristics, the most obvious being the use of vocal or gestural symbols that correspond regularly to certain meanings. The meaning assigned to a given symbol is effectively arbitrary and dependent on culture.
Origins of Language
The origin of human language is a highly obscure field, containing many arguments and theories, but little actual evidence. Because of the inherent imprecision and limited time scope of historical linguistics, it is impossible to reconstruct the original human tongues--though some believe they have succeeded--or even guess at it what it may have been.
Human languages across the globe are as developed and complex as each other, and there are no signs of "primitive" tongues. There is only such example that could be construed as a "primitive" tongue, Pirahã, which shows a lack of numerals, of recursion (a concept that Chomsky states is the definitive sign of all human languages), and even of simple color terminology, these features could be recent innovations. The vast variation and complexity of language among humans gives no easy answer to the origin; it is impossible to deduce even a global grammar or reconstruct every living language into a common denominator.
Based on fossil studies and examination of human skulls, it is guessed that humans gained a complex enough brain structure to handle language between two-hundred thousand years ago to seventy-thousand years ago. Such a vast gulf of timescale also makes it hard to pinpoint where languages began.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of the properties of language and belongs to category of social sciences. Branches include theoretical, applied, and historical linguistics. Researchers in the field of linguistics are known as linguists.
Notable linguists include Noam Chomsky and J.R.R. Tolkien.
