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  2. Language - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language

    Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary.It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing.

  3. History of linguistics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_linguistics

    Linguistics is the scientific study of language, [1] involving analysis of language form, language meaning, and language in context. [2]Language use was first systematically documented in Mesopotamia, with extant lexical lists of the 3rd to the 2nd Millennia BCE, offering glossaries on Sumerian cuneiform usage and meaning, and phonetical vocabularies of foreign languages.

  4. Origin of language - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language

    The origin of language, its relationship with human evolution, and its consequences have been subjects of study for centuries.Scholars wishing to study the origins of language draw inferences from evidence such as the fossil record, archaeological evidence, contemporary language diversity, studies of language acquisition, and comparisons between human language and systems of animal ...

  5. Historical linguistics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_linguistics

    Historical linguistics, also known as diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of how languages change over time. [1] It seeks to understand the nature and causes of linguistic change and to trace the evolution of languages.

  6. Evolution of languages - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_languages

    The highly diverse Nilo-Saharan languages, first proposed as a family by Joseph Greenberg in 1963 might have originated in the Upper Paleolithic. [1] Given the presence of a tripartite number system in modern Nilo-Saharan languages, linguist N.A. Blench inferred a noun classifier in the proto-language, distributed based on water courses in the Sahara during the "wet period" of the Neolithic ...

  7. Sociohistorical linguistics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociohistorical_linguistics

    Sociohistorical linguistics, or historical sociolinguistics, is the study of the relationship between language and society in its historical dimension.A typical question in this field would, for instance, be: "How were the verb endings -s and -th (he loves vs. he loveth) distributed in Middle English society" or "When did people use French, when did they use English in 14th-century England?"

  8. Historical language - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_language

    Thus, historical languages contrast with dead languages (languages which have become extinct, or undergone language death). Also, historical languages contrast with reconstructed languages (that is, the proto-languages) of theoretical linguistics. One of the approaches to defining and using the concept of historical languages is implemented in ...

  9. Comparative linguistics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_linguistics

    Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness.. Genetic relatedness implies a common origin or proto-language and comparative linguistics aims to construct language families, to reconstruct proto-languages and specify the changes that have resulted in the documented languages.