Languages are ways to represent things, actions, and ideas. Most often, the term refers to vocal languages. Animal "languages" can be quite complex; but they do not satisfy the the criteria linguists use to define what is a true language. Basically, a language must have a full grammar and be able to be used in any context to express any idea. Among the animals, humans alone have been proven to have a true language instead of a simple means of communicating a limited set of things such as danger, readiness to mate, or location/proximity.
Mathematics and computer science use artificial languages called formal languages, (including programming languages).
The study of languages makes up linguistics and philology. Other important concepts:
List of language families and languages:
A useful listing of 4000 languages and dialects (grouped by their relationships), with the numbers one through ten in each language can be found at Mark Rosenfelder's Metaverse website (see external links).
A fairly complete list of all languages, locations, population, and genetic affiliation can be found in the Ethnologue.
See also common phrases in different languages, tongue twister.
What are our priorities for writing in this area? To help develop a list of the most basic topics about language, please see Linguistics basic topics.
External links: