什麼是語言

語言是同一個文化中的人所使用來互相溝通的一套口説或書寫符號系統。語言反映並影響文化中的思考方式，並會隨着文化中語言的發展而改變。原本相關的語言會因為使用者的互相隔離而越來越不同。當言語集團互相接觸時（例如經由貿易或征服），它們的語言會互相影響。大多數現存的語言與其他從古老的語言傳承下來的語言構成一族（參閲historical linguistics）。最大範圍的語言分類是語族，舉例來説，所有的羅曼諸語言源起於拉丁語，屬印歐諸語言族的義大利分支，是繼承古老的母語原始印歐語而來。其他主要語族有，亞洲的漢藏諸語言、南島諸語言、達羅毗荼諸語言、阿爾泰諸語言和南亞諸語言；非洲的尼日－剛果諸語言、亞非諸語言和尼羅－撒哈拉諸語言；美洲的猶他－阿茲特克諸語言、馬雅諸語言、奧托－曼格諸語言和圖皮諸語言。追溯語言間的關係是以比較語法和句法，尤其是以尋求不同語言間同源詞（相似的字）的方法來進行。語言擁有可以被分析並有系統地呈現的複雜結構（參閲linguistics）。所有的語言都是從言語開始，許多並繼續發展文字系統。所有的語言都可以用不同的句子結構來表達語氣。雖使用不同的層次來表達語氣，但似乎都能表現出一種有彈性的結構上的平等。主要的層次有詞序、構詞、句法結構和言語中的語調。不同的語言保持了本身對數量、人稱、詞性、時態、語氣和其他與字根分離或連結在一起的項目的指示法。人類天生學習語言的能力隨年齡增長而減弱，且在約十歲之後所學習的語言其表達能力通常不會比在之前所學的語言還要好。亦請參閲dialect。

language

System of conventional spoken or written symbols used by people in a shared culture to communicate with each other. A language both reflects and affects a culture's way of thinking, and changes in a culture influence the development of its language. Related languages become more differentiated when their speakers are isolated from each other. When speech communities come into contact (e.g., through trade or conquest), their languages influence each other. Most existing languages are grouped with other languages descended “genetically” from a common ancestral language (see historical linguistics). The broadest grouping of languages is the language family. For example, all the Romance languages are derived from Latin, which in turn belongs to the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family, descended from the ancient parent language, Proto-Indo-European. Other major families include, in Asia, Sino-Tibetan, Austronesian, Dravidian, Altaic, and Austroasiatic; in Africa, Niger-Congo, Afro-Asiatic, and Nilo-Saharan; and in the Americas, Uto-Aztecan, Mayan, Otomanguean, and Tupian. Relationships between languages are traced by comparing grammar and syntax and especially by looking for cognates (related words) in different languages. Language has a complex structure that can be analyzed and systematically presented (see linguistics). All languages begin as speech, and many go on to develop writing systems. All can employ different sentence structures to convey mood. They use their resources differently for this but seem to be equally flexible structurally. The principal resources are word order, word form, syntactic structure, and, in speech, intonation. Different languages keep indicators of number, person, gender, tense, mood, and other categories separate from the root word or attach them to it. The innate human capacity to learn language fades with age, and languages learned after about age 10 are usually not spoken as well as those learned earlier. See also dialect.