what do you think of language?

Question

just curious to see what you think about language and how there are so many in this world. why do we need so many? how did they all come about? etc.

Answer 1

New languages come about when groups are linguistically isolated.

Because languages change over time, according to the whims and preferences of individuals in those groups, if two groups start out speaking the same language, and have minimal contact thereafter, eventually, they'll end up speaking different languages.

Throw in the influences of different neighboring languages to different groups of speakers, and you just accelerate the change.

The smaller the group, the easier it is for changes to take hold. With a major language like English, there is a common core of the language that is generally more-or-less agreed upon by most influential speakers, and that agreement, facilitated by mass, long-distance, and nowadays, multi-directional communication, tends to keep the language from drifting too much, even though the language is big and widespread enough to "speciate." But if you were a neolithic farmer in Africa, and you never went more than 10 miles from where you were born, and never met anyone from more than 100 miles away....well, the peculiarities of your local speakers can build more-or-less unimpeded.

You might notice that some of the less-mutually intelligible English dialects come from groups that are either geographically isolated (a lot of rural Southern US dialects, Manx English, stuff like that), or socially/economically segregated ("Ebonics").

Remove these people from the general English-speaking society, and you'd probably have a completely separate language in a couple of generations.

Answer 2

Languages are a fascinating subject.

There is a theory that says that if you know the language a people speak then you know something about the way they think and feel.

In other words, English even reflects the way we feel and view the world. We're just not very aware of it. However, someone who spoke Chinese, Japanese or even French would see it better. A Mexican friend of mine once told me that he thought English was a very intellectual sounding language when he first heard it. He said he thought that it still was to some extent even after learning it.

Pop culture in the world draws a lot from English too and that also says something about the language. It has given many of the world's languages new words like cowboy / kovboi, frisbee, skateboard, snowboarding, el rapero, el hip-hopero, ein Rockstar, une star du rock, and Le Western (Western movie) etc.

All languages probably originated from a single human language that was spoken somewhere in Western Africa about 170,000 years ago. As people began moving to eastern and southern Africa and across the Red Sea to Arabia and the Middle East, new languages developed. Eventually, humans carried their new languages to all parts of the world.

The tendency has been for the number of languages to decrease. For example, There are fewer languages spoken today than there were 500 years ago, and even 500 years ago, there were fewer languages spoken than there were 2,000 years ago.

Answer 3

I have the same ideas. Why are there so many kinds of languages? Why weren't they integrated into one official language?
Language is a great medium of communication with people. Without it, we would not be able to transmit our words and thoughts to others and not have been able to make the world of today.
I'm sorry I don't know about the origin of the appearance of so many kinds of languages. I'm also curious to know this, too!
It is unimaginable to think how languages have appeared and we may need to thank our ancestors for having invented the wonderful tool, "languages," which enable us to enjoy communicating with people around the world!

Answer 4

I have many ideas on how languages appeared but most of them are fantastic. :) As to why there are so many, I think at first there were as many of them as the people 'cause every person should have his/her own idea on how to call smth. or express a certain thought. But in time people who lived together in different places made uniform sets of words and expressions, that is languages. Of course, they are all different - because they started from different people with their own ideas. Just try it out with friends: each of you should invent an artificial language of your own. Don't invent too much, just some basic ideas and words - then compare, and you'll see! Have fun!

Answer 5

When I was a kid I used to have this theory that all foreign languages were just a ruse used to trick me into thinking that not everyone spoke the same way I did. Boy was I wrong =P

Answer 6

I like to speak all the languages , i could make more friends ...

But if there was just one language in the hole world it 'd so much better

Answer 7

I think language can be beautiful and romantic. I guess with all the different types of languages it makes it unique

Answer 8

if you learn spanish you only need to work a little to learn italian and the latin cool eh?

Answer 9

i luv languages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language

i cant explain it better

Answer 10

Esperanto is the answer!!!