Definition:
A human system of communication that uses arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols.
Etymolgy:
From the Latin, "tongue, language"Examples and Observations:
- "Would I had phrases that are not known, utterances that are strange, in new language that has not been used, free from repetition, not an utterance which has grown stale, which men of old have spoken."
(ancient Egyptian inscription) - "Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary makers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the ground."
(Walt Whitman) - "We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language."
(Oscar Wilde) - "Language is the mother of thought, not its handmaiden."
(Karl Kraus) - "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."
(Ludwig Wittgenstein) - "The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink."
(George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language") - "Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands, and goes to work."
(Carl Sandburg) - "But behavior in the human being is sometimes a defense, a way of concealing motives and thoughts, as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication."
(Abraham Maslow) - "A different language is a different vision of life."
(Federico Fellini) - "All words, in every language, are metaphors."
(Marshall McLuhan) - "By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth."
(George Carlin) - "Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain."
(Lily Tomlin)
Pronunciation: LANG-gwij
