What is language?

a language is not “a lot of words and grammar”. a language is the means by which one person expresses his thoughts and feelings to another person so that he understands them.

a language can be made up of signs, or sounds, facial expressions, or just gestures or bodily actions. or it can be all these things taken together. when you have something to say, you not only speak, you make gestures and change the expressions of your face.

as civilizations grew older, people began to live in large groups, life become different, people learned more and more new things, languages also became less primitive. but surprisingly enough, we do not really know how languages began. some thinks they began from the natural cries that people made to express surprise, happiness or pain. others think languages began by imitation of the sounds of animals. and it is possible that each of these methods had a part in the beginning of language.

we know that practically all the languages spoken on earth today come from several ancient languages. the ancient languages with all the languages coming from it is called a “family” of languages. english is also a member of the indo-european family of languages. other members of this family are such languages as french, italian, german, norwegian, russian and greek.

statements:

a) a language includes only words and grammar rules.

b) a language includes more than words and grammar rules.

  2. a) we need languages for communication.

b) we need languages only for self-expression.

  3. a) primitive civilizations have rather primitive languages.

  b) primitive civilizations do not have any languages.

  4. a) people know that languages began from the natural cries of primitive people.

  b) people have several theories about the beginning of languages.

  5. a) languages are united into families by their origin.

  b) languages are united into families by the territories on which they are spoken.

    6. a) the indo-european family includes only languages spoken in western europe.

    b) the indo-european family includes languages spoken in western, eastern and southern europe and in asia.
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