Definition of the term "language". Language - Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

23.09.2019

Tongue - I The tongue (lingua, or glossa) is an unpaired outgrowth of the floor of the oral cavity in vertebrates and humans. The egg of fish is formed by a fold of the mucous membrane... Big Soviet encyclopedia
tongue - -a, m. 1. An organ in the oral cavity in the form of a muscular outgrowth in vertebrates and humans, facilitating the chewing and swallowing of food, determining its taste properties. - Life is hard labor! - he grumbled, rolling crumbs of black bread in his mouth with his tongue. Small academic dictionary
tongue - (lingua, glossa), a growth of the floor of the oral cavity in vertebrates, performing the functions of transportation and taste analysis of food. The egg of fish, with the exception of lungfishes, has no muscles and moves together with the hyoid-branch skeleton. Biological encyclopedic Dictionary
language - language gender. p. -a, pl. languages, often with seminarian emphasis languages, dial. lyazyk "language", Novgorod, Belozersk. (where l- – from lick), tongue, Ukrainian. tongue, blr. language, other Russian Language, Old Slav. Language γλώσσα, ἔθνος (Ostrom., Klots., Supr.), Bulgarian. Etymological dictionary Max Vasmer
tongue - tongue I m. 1. A mobile, elongated muscular organ in the oral cavity in humans and vertebrates, with the help of which the process of chewing and swallowing food is carried out, its taste qualities. || Such an organ is like an organ of taste. Dictionary Efremova
Language - In all countries and among all peoples there is an extensive sexual and erotic vocabulary. It contains special expressions or figures of speech to refer to the female and male genital organs, sexual intercourse, caresses and other areas of love and sexuality. Sexological encyclopedia
TONGUE - TONGUE - in anatomy - in terrestrial vertebrates and humans, a muscular outgrowth (in fish, a fold of the mucous membrane) at the bottom of the oral cavity. Participates in the capture, processing of food, in the acts of swallowing and speech (in humans). The tongue contains taste buds. LANGUAGE - .. Large encyclopedic dictionary
LANGUAGE - 1. Ya (English language) - any system of signs physical nature, serving as a means of implementation human communication and thinking; in the proper sense of Y. words - a phenomenon that is socially necessary and historically conditioned. Large psychological dictionary
language - A means of communication in human society; the ability to speak, write, verbally express one’s thoughts; expressed thought, speech; style, style of presentation. About the sound of speech, the nature of the pronunciation of sounds. Dictionary of Russian language epithets
language - LANGUAGE, language (language · book · obsolete, only in 3, 4, 7 and 8 · characters), · male. 1. An organ in the oral cavity in the form of a movable soft outgrowth, which is an organ of taste, and in humans also contributes to the formation of speech sounds. Cow tongue. It hurts to bite your tongue. Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
language - 1. language, languages, languages, languages, language, languages, language, languages, language, languages, language, languages 2. language, languages, languages, languages, language, languages, language, languages, language, languages, language , languages Zaliznyak's Grammar Dictionary
LANGUAGE - LANGUAGE - English. language; German Sprache. A system of signs that serves as a means of human communication, mental activity, a way of expressing a person’s self-awareness, a means of transmitting from generation to generation and storing information. see SPEECH. Sociological Dictionary
language - LANGUAGE -a; m. 1. An organ in the oral cavity in the form of a muscular outgrowth in vertebrates and humans, facilitating chewing and swallowing food, determining its taste properties. Pink long me. dogs. I'm a rough cat. Lick your lips with your tongue. Burn... Kuznetsov's Explanatory Dictionary
LANGUAGE - LANGUAGE is the primary, most natural and publicly accessible representation of the world. The naturalness of language, which makes itself felt in its presence in any society (a living being without one language or another is unknown to science)... New Philosophical Encyclopedia
tongue - An organ in the oral cavity of vertebrates that performs the functions of transporting and tasting food. The structure of the tongue reflects the specific nutrition of animals. Biology. Modern encyclopedia
Tongue - I The tongue (lingua) is a muscular organ of the oral cavity. The language is divided into apex, body and root. A newborn's tongue is short, wide and thick, lies entirely in the oral cavity, its root is located horizontally. Medical encyclopedia
language - 1) a system of signs of any configuration, serving as a means of human (including national) communication, as well as thinking; 2) a means of storing and transmitting information; 3) one of the means of controlling human behavior... Ethnographic Dictionary
language - spelling language, -a Lopatin's spelling dictionary
language - By-product (see); in cooking, beef (cow, ox, bovine) and veal tongues are usually used. Beef tongues weigh 1.5-2 kg, veal - 0.5 kg. Culinary dictionary
- LANGUAGE is a complex developing semiotic system, which is a specific and universal means of objectifying the content of both individual consciousness and cultural tradition, providing the possibility of its intersubjectivity... The latest philosophical dictionary
language - 1. LANGUAGE1, a, plural. i, ov, m. 1. A movable muscular organ in the oral cavity that perceives taste sensations and is also involved in articulation in humans. Lick with tongue. Try it on me. (i.e. taste). Snake... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
language - noun, number of synonyms... Dictionary of Russian synonyms

Language(lingua) - a muscular organ of the oral cavity.

The language is divided into apex, body and root. A newborn's tongue is short, wide and thick, lies entirely in the oral cavity, its root is located horizontally. As the child grows, the root of the tongue gradually descends along with the larynx, acquiring an increasingly vertical position. The size and shape of the tongue in adults have individual characteristics. Its length is 70-120 mm, width 45-75 mm, weight 69-95 G. The upper surface of the mouth (back) faces the palate, the lower one adjoins the bottom of the oral cavity; the edge of the mouth borders the teeth and gums, the root faces the pharynx. A median groove is visible on the back of the root; a V-shaped boundary groove runs along the border of the body and the root. At the junction of the two branches of the border groove in the midline there is a blind foramen of the epiglottis. From the root of the ego to the epiglottis there are a median and two lateral lingual-epiglottic folds, between which the paired fossa of the epiglottis is located. The lower surface of the mouth, with a paired fringed fold located on it, is connected to the floor of the oral cavity through a frenulum.

The lower surface of the tongue is smooth, covered with stratified non-keratinizing epithelium; the submucosa contributes to the mobility of the mucous membrane. On the back of the tongue, there is no submucosa, and the mucous membrane is immobilely connected to the aponeurosis of the tongue, consisting mainly of collagen fibers. Above the aponeurosis in the lamina propria of the mucous membrane there are plexuses of small arteries and veins. The presulcal part of the back of the tongue and its edges are covered with many different papillae, the degree of development and location of individual types of which determines the individual pattern of the surface of the tongue.

Filiform papillae are the most numerous (up to 500 per cm 2) with an average size of 1.5´ 0.6 mm. They are located on the entire upper surface of the body and the apex of the bladder, giving them a velvety appearance. The basis of the papilla is formed by the connective tissue of the lamina propria of the mucous membrane. Secondary papillae extend from the base, each of which is covered with stratified squamous keratinizing epithelium, due to which the papilla acquires a whitish tint. The basis of the papillae of the tongue includes blood vessels and nerves; individual nerve fibers, together with capillaries, penetrate into the secondary papillae. Filiform papillae have tactile sensitivity and provide the tongue with the ability to perceive the volume and shape of objects entering the oral cavity. Cone-shaped papillae are located among filiform papillae and differ little from the latter. They are a transitional form to taste buds. Fungiform papillae are localized at the apex of the tongue (up to 90 per 1 cm 2) and in the middle part of the back (up to 40-50 per 1 cm 2). They are larger than filamentous in size, have a narrowed base and an expanded “cap”, are covered with multilayered squamous non-keratinizing epithelium, and therefore have a reddish color. The fungiform papillae contain thermoreceptors and so-called taste buds, in which taste buds are concentrated. The circumvallate papillae, numbering from 7 to 12, are located in one row in front of the border sulcus, without rising above the surface of the I. Each papilla has the shape of a cylinder with a diameter of 2-3 mm and is surrounded by a roller, from which it is separated by a circular groove. The epithelium covering the walls of the groove contains several rows of taste buds. The serous (Ebner's) glands open into the groove. Leaf-shaped papillae, numbering 15-20 (they are well expressed in children), are located in the posterior part of the edges of the jaundice in the form of parallel elevations separated by grooves; taste buds are located in the epithelium of the grooves: serous glands open into the grooves between the papillae. Along the edges of the root of Ya. there are marginal (lenticular) papillae, similar to mushroom-shaped ( rice. 1 ).

The mucous membrane of the lingual root is devoid of papillae; under the epithelium there are lymphatic follicles that form the lingual tonsil. The lingual glands lie in the mucous membrane and superficial layers of the muscles of the tongue; they are small salivary glands. In the region of the apex of the tongue lies the mixed anterior lingual (nunova) gland, the ducts of which open on its lower surface.

The muscles of the stomach are divided into internal intrinsic muscles and external (skeletal) muscles. The internal muscles, which change the shape of the tongue (stretch, shorten, flatten), form a three-dimensional spatial lattice in the tongue into which the fibers of the external muscles are woven. According to the direction of the fibers, they distinguish between the upper and lower longitudinal muscles, which stretch from the epiglottis to the apex of the bladder, the transverse and vertical muscles. The muscles of the right and left halves are separated by the septum of the spine, which runs in the median plane. The external muscles of the I. come to it from neighboring skeletal formations. The genioglossus muscle starts from the mental spine of the lower jaw, fan-shapedly diverges in the body of the tongue, alternating with bundles of the vertical muscle: it pulls the tongue forward and down. The hyoid-glossus muscle goes from the hyoid bone to the body of the tongue, partially continues into the vertical muscle, moves the tongue down and back. The non-permanent part of this muscle, starting from the lesser horn of the hyoid bone, is called the cartilaginous muscle. The styloglossus muscle originates from the styloid process of the temporal bone, approaches the root of the ulcer and continues into the longitudinal muscles: it pulls the ulcer backward and upward. In addition, the palatoglossus muscle and the pharyngoglossus part of the superior pharyngeal constrictor go to the I. The tendon fibers of the muscles are woven into the aponeurosis of the tongue and its septum; some of the fibers pierce the aponeurosis and end in the mucous membrane, reaching the base of the papillae. In the tongue, in addition to the striated muscle fibers that make up the bulk of the muscle, there are branched fibers with centrally located nuclei, reminiscent of cardiomyocytes.

The blood supply to the tongue is carried out by the lingual artery, a branch of the external carotid artery, which forms numerous anastomoses in the thickness of the tongue. The outflow of blood occurs through the lingual vein, which flows into the internal jugular vein.

Lymphatic vessels form networks in the mucous membrane and muscles of the bladder. Lymph from the apex of the bladder flows into the submental, submandibular and deep lateral cervical lymph nodes of both sides, from the body and root - into the submandibular and deep lateral cervical nodes of its side, incl. into the jugular-digastric and jugular-scapular-hyoid nodes.

Innervation is carried out by sensory. motor and autonomic nerve fibers. The mucous membrane of the two anterior thirds of the tongue is innervated by the lingual nerve, a branch of the mandibular nerve. The taste fibers contained in the lingual nerve pass further along the chorda tympani into the facial nerve. The mucous membrane of the root of the tongue is innervated by the lingual branches of the glossopharyngeal nerve, the fossa of the epiglottis and the part of the root of the tongue closest to it are innervated by the superior laryngeal nerve, which is a branch of the vagus nerve. The muscles of the stomach (external and internal) are innervated by the hypoglossal nerve. Sympathetic innervation comes from the superior cervical ganglion, the sympathetic trunk, parasympathetic - from the submandibular ganglion.

The functions of language are diverse. It actively participates in the process of processing food in the oral cavity, facilitating its movement during chewing, mixing with saliva, and, together with the soft palate and pharynx, ensures the swallowing of a bolus of food. The high tactile sensitivity of the food surface makes it possible to determine the presence of solid, unchewed or inedible inclusions in food. Rising upward and pressing against the palate, the mouth isolates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity, thus ensuring the separation of oral and nasal breathing. In infants, the ya takes part in the act of sucking. The movements of the tongue muscles take part in the formation of speech sounds, as well as musical sounds, and influence the articulation and timbre of the voice. The main part of the receptor apparatus of the taste organ is concentrated in the mucous membrane of the jaundice, its papillae. Different areas of the surface of the egg have unequal sensitivity to taste stimuli. So, the root of the tongue is more sensitive to bitter taste, the edges to sour, the edges and tip to salty, the tip of the tongue to sweet.

- one of greatest mysteries human existence. Why are only humans, unlike all other species of living beings living on Earth, capable of communicating through language? How did the language appear? Scientists have been trying to answer these questions for many years, but have not yet found acceptable answers, although they have put forward countless theories; We will look at some of these theories in this article.

Human language: arose whether it evolved from simple sounds made by animals, or was given to man

God? Everyone agrees that language is the main feature that distinguishes humans from other species. Our children are mastering skills oral speech, barely reaching the age of four; If a child at four years old cannot speak, then this is a consequence of a congenital or acquired pathology. In general, the gift of speech is inherent in all people - and in none of the other living creatures inhabiting the Earth. Why is it that only humanity has the ability to communicate verbally, and how did we acquire this ability?

First experiments and scientific hypotheses.

Also in Ancient Egypt people thought about which language is the most ancient, that is, they posed the problem origin of the language.
Basics modern theories The origins of language were laid down by ancient Greek philosophers.
According to views on they were divided into two scientific schools - supporters of the “fusey” and adherents of the “these”.
Fusey theory(fusei - Greek " by nature") defended the natural, “natural” character of language and, therefore, the natural, biological conditionality of its occurrence and structure. Supporters of the natural origin of the names of objects, in particular, Heraclitus of Ephesus(535-475 BC), believed that names were given by nature, since the first sounds reflected the things to which the names correspond. Names are shadows or reflections of things. The one who names things must reveal the correct name created by nature, but if this fails, then he only makes noise.

Supporters "Theseus" theories(thesei - Greek " by establishment") among which were Democritus of Abdera(470/460 - first half of the 4th century BC) and Aristotle from Stagira (384-322 BC), argued for the conditional nature of language, not related to the essence of things, and, therefore, artificiality, in extreme terms - the conscious nature of its emergence in society. Names come from the establishment, according to custom, of an agreement between people. They pointed out many inconsistencies between a thing and its name: words have several meanings, the same concepts are denoted by several words. If names were given by nature, it would be impossible to rename people, but, for example, Aristocles with the nickname Plato (“broad-shouldered”) went down in history.

Scientists have put forward dozens of hypotheses about how people overcame obstacles to appearance of language; These hypotheses are mostly very speculative and differ significantly from each other.

The theory of the emergence of language from sounds.

Many biologists and linguists who support the idea of evolution from protozoa to humans believe that language gradually developed from the sounds and noises made by animals. As human intelligence developed, people were able to pronounce more and more sounds; gradually these sounds turned into words, to which meanings were assigned.
One way or another, sounds designed to express emotions are very different from those used to convey concepts. Therefore the probability origin of human language from the sounds made by animals is extremely small.

The theory of language creation by the power of the human mind

Some scientists have suggested that humans somehow created language through their intelligence. According to their theory, as man evolved, people's intellectual abilities continually increased and eventually allowed people to begin to communicate with each other. This assumption also seems very logical, but most scientists and linguists deny this possibility. In particular, Dwight Bolinger, a scientist and linguist who has studied the language abilities of chimpanzees, says:

“It's worth wondering why all the life forms inhabiting Earth had to wait millions of years before Homo did it [create language]. Is it because a certain level of intelligence had to appear first? But how could this happen if intelligence is entirely dependent on language? Language could not possibly be a prerequisite for emergence of language».

The level of intelligence cannot be measured without the help of language. So the hypothesis about the emergence of language as a result of the development of the human mind is unfounded and unprovable.
Among other things, scientists cannot prove that language requires developed intelligence. Thus, we can conclude that we do not owe our ability to communicate linguistically to our highly developed intellect.

Theory of the sudden emergence of language

Some scientists believe that language appeared among people suddenly, without visible prerequisites for its origin. They believe that language was originally inherent in humans, and at a certain stage of evolution people simply discovered this feature in themselves and began to use words and gestures to communicate and transmit information, gradually expanding their vocabulary. Proponents of the theory of the sudden appearance of language argue that people acquired the gift of speech as a result of a random rearrangement of DNA sections during the process of evolution.

According to this theory, language and everything necessary for communication existed before man discovered it. But this means that language as such arose completely by accident and was not conceived as an integral system. Meanwhile, language is a complex logical system, highest level the organization of which simply does not allow one to believe in its random occurrence. And even if this theory can be considered as a model of the emergence of language, it cannot in any way be considered an acceptable explanation of the origin of it, since such a complex structure as language could not arise on its own, without a creator.

Sign language theory

This theory was put forward Etienne Condillac, Jean Jacques Rousseau and German psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Wundt(1832-1920), who believed that language is formed arbitrarily and unconsciously.
According to this theory, as humans evolved, they gradually developed a sign system because they discovered that the use of signs could be beneficial. At first they did not try to convey any ideas to others; a person simply performed some action, another saw it and then repeated this action. For example, one person tries to move an object, but is unable to do it himself; the other sees these efforts and comes to his aid. As a result, the person realized that in order for him to be helped to move something, a gesture depicting pushing was enough.

The most serious drawback of this theory is that, despite countless attempts, none of its adherents have been able to offer an acceptable scenario for adding sounds to gestures.
Gestures continue to be used as an aid to communication modern man. Nonverbal (non-verbal) means of communication, including gestures, studies paralinguistics as a separate discipline of linguistics.

Onomatopoeia theory

This hypothesis was put forward in 1880 Max Miller(Miiller), but even he himself considered it not very plausible. According to one hypothesis, words initially had a sound similarity to the concepts they expressed (onomatopoeia). For example, the concept of “dog” was initially expressed by the interjection “woof-woof” or “yap-yap,” and sounds reminiscent of birds chirping or croaking were associated with the birds making them. Actions were indicated by the sounds people made while performing those actions; for example, eating food was conveyed by slurping, and lifting a heavy stone by strained hooting.

Miller's theory would seem quite logical, but in all languages of our time, the sound of words has nothing to do with the “sound image” of the concepts they express; and in the ancient languages studied by modern linguists, there was nothing like this.

Obstacles to the emergence of language by evolutionary means

It seems common sense to many that people could invent signs and words to denote simple objects and actions, but how did people invent syntax? There is no way a person can say, “Give me food,” if all the words he has are “food” and “I.” Syntax is such a complex system that people would not be able to "discover" it by accident. For syntax to arise, an intelligent creator was required, but a person could not be this creator, since he would not be able to convey his discovery to others. We cannot imagine our speech without a metalanguage - a set of function words that do not have a lexical meaning, but determine the meanings of other words. There is no way people could, by pure chance, begin to use and understand these words.

A person cannot convey his thoughts to another without resorting to syntactic constructions; speech without syntax is reduced to exclamations and orders.
In addition, evolutionists are unable to explain the patterns of changes that have occurred in languages since the advent of writing, which preserved these changes for modern linguists. The most ancient languages - Latin, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Phoenician, Ancient Syriac - are much more complex than any of the modern languages. Anyone who encounters these languages these days has no hesitation in admitting that they are definitely more confusing and difficult to learn than the current ones. Languages never became more complex than they were; on the contrary, over time they only became simpler. However, this is in no way consistent with the theory of biological evolution, according to which everything that exists has become more complex over time.

Theory of the creation of language

Legends similar to the story of the Tower of Babel have been recorded among the most isolated peoples of all continents. They can be divided into three types: the first speaks of large construction, without mentioning the division of languages (the peoples of Africa, India, Mexico, Spain, Burma); oral chronicles of the second type present their versions of the origin of languages, without mentioning the construction (peoples Ancient Greece, Africa, India, Australia, USA, Central America), and stories of the third type, like the Bible, combine these two events.

It is clear from the biblical account of Creation that language existed before God began to create this world. Language was one of the ways of communication of the Most Holy Trinity - the hypostases of the Triune God.
The history of mankind allows Christians to claim that language exists as long as God exists, and according to the Bible, God exists forever.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. And God said: Let there be light. And there was light" (Genesis 1:1-3).

But why, of all the living creatures He created, did God endow only humans with language? We find the answer to this question in the very first chapter of Holy Scripture:

“And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).

God created people in his image, and since God has language and communication, people also received this gift. Thus, language is one of the facets of the Personality of Godhead that He has imparted to people. This is a perfectly reasonable conclusion, since language gives us a partial idea of the nature of God. Like God, language is incredibly complex. It can take a lifetime to study; but at the same time, children, barely learning to walk, begin to understand and use language.

Religious theories

According to the Bible, God punished the descendants of Adam for their attempt to build a tower to heaven with a variety of languages:
Throughout the whole earth there was one language and one dialect... And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building. And the Lord said: Behold, there is one people, and they all have one language; and this is what they began to do, and they will not deviate from what they planned to do. Let us go down and confuse their language there, so that one does not understand the speech of the other. And the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore the name was given to it: Babylon; for there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout all the earth (Genesis 11:5-9).

The Gospel of John begins in the following words, where Logos (word, thought, mind) is equated with the Divine:

“In the beginning was the Word [Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was with God in the beginning.”

The Acts of the Apostles (part of the New Testament) describes an event that happened to the apostles, from which the connection of language with the Divine follows:

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord. And suddenly there was a noise from the sky, as if from rushing strong wind, and filled the whole house where they were. And cloven tongues as of fire appeared to them, and one rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now in Jerusalem there were Jews, pious people, from every nation under heaven. When this noise was made, the people gathered and were in confusion, for everyone heard them speaking in his own dialect. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Are not these all Galileans who speak?” How can we each hear our own dialect in which we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjacent to Cyrene, and those who came from Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them in our tongues talking about the great deeds of God? And they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to each other: What does this mean? And others, mocking, said: they got drunk on sweet wine. Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and cried out to them: Men of the Jews, and all who live in Jerusalem! Let this be known to you, and give heed to my words...” (Acts of the Apostles 2:1-14).

The Day of Pentecost, or Trinity Day, deserves to become, in addition to its religious significance, the Day of the Linguist or Translator.

Existence of a proto-language

Researchers most often judge the origin of peoples by their languages. Linguists divide many Asian and African languages into Semitic - named Shema or Sima - and Hamitic - named Hama, the sons of Noach. To the Semitic group of languages; link to language families; include Hebrew, Old Babylonian, Assyrian, Aramaic, various Arabic dialects, Amharic in Ethiopia and some others. Hamitic languages include ancient Egyptian, Coptic, Berber, as well as many other African languages and dialects.

At present, however, in science there is a tendency to combine Hamitic and Semitic languages into one Semitic-Hamitic group. The peoples descended from Yephet generally speak Indo-European languages. This group includes the vast majority European languages, as well as many of the languages of the peoples of Asia: Iranian, Indian, Turkic.

What was this "single language", which was spoken by all the people of the world?
Many linguists meant the Hebrew language as a universal human language in view of the fact that many proper names of the primitive world, preserved in the languages of all the peoples of exile, built from the roots of the Hebrew language.

According to the tradition of Judaism, the “One Language” spoken by people before the division into nations was the “Sacred Language”. sacred language– “Loshn Koidesh” is the language in which the Creator spoke to Adam, and people spoke it until the Babylonian Pandemonium. Later, prophets spoke this language, and the Holy Scriptures were written in it.

The fact that, according to the Torah, the Hebrew language was used by the first people is also indicated by Scripture, where a play on words is found that is not translated into other languages. Thus, the wife is called in Hebrew isha from ish (husband), which indicates the unity and holiness of the marital union. The name Adam (man) comes from Adam (earth), Chava (in Russian Eve) comes from Hay (living), “for she was the mother of all living things,” Cain comes from Kaniti (I acquired) and so on. This language was called Hebrew by the name of Eber, a descendant of Shem, for Eber preserved this language, passing it on to Abraham. Abraham used the sacred language only for holy purposes.

The everyday language of Abraham was Aramaic, very close to the sacred language, but - as a result of general use - it had lost the purity, severity and grammatical harmony of Hebrew.
Much the same can be said about another Semitic language - Arabic. Arabic is superior to Hebrew as a living language written monuments an abundance of synonyms and the presence of precise designations of objects and expressions. Hebrew, of course, also possessed these advantages in the era of the prophets. Therefore, when we read poetic passages of Scripture, we are confronted with completely different vocabulary, often with words that appear only once in Scripture. As a result of the Jews' long stay in exile, the original richness of the Holy Language was lost, and the language of the Bible that has come down to us is only a surviving remnant of ancient Hebrew. This is the tradition and point of view of Judaism, as set forth in the book of Kuzari by Rabbi Judah HaLevi.

Scientists have long intuitively realized origin of languages world from a single source. Thus, the German philosopher of the 17th century Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who spoke numerous languages of various families, dealt quite a lot with issues of related relationships between languages and general theory language. Leibniz, although he rejected the “Jewish theory” of the origin of languages, that is, the biblical theory of the origin of all of them from the Sacred Language - Hebrew, was inclined to recognize a single original language. He preferred to call it “Adamic,” that is, descending from Adam.

Linguistic experts have come to the conclusion that if not all languages of the world, then at least the vast majority have a related – common – origin.

We speak Russian; in Latin est; in English is, in German ist. These are all Indo-European languages. Let us, however, move on to the Semitic languages: in Hebrew esh, in Aramaic it or is. Six in Hebrew is shesh, in Aramaic it is shit or shis, in Ukrainian it is shist, in English it is six, in German it is sechs. The word seven in English is seven, in German is sieben, in Hebrew is sheva. Numeral " three» in a row Indo-European languages: Persian: trees, Greek: treis, Latin: tres, Gothic: threis.
Or let's take a more complex example. The word idea, borrowed from ancient Greek, has a parallel root in Hebrew. De'a in Hebrew means "sight", "opinion". In Hebrew, as well as in other Semitic languages, the root of this word, consisting of three letters yod, dalet and 'ayin, has a fairly wide use: Yode'a - “he knows”, yada - “knew”, yivada' - will known. Let us note that in the Russian language there is a verb vedat, that is, “to know,” and in ancient Indian ved also means “knowledge.” In German wissen means “to know”, and in English language this root appears in the words wise - “wise”, wisdom - “wisdom”.

Method comparative analysis languages also allows one to penetrate deeply into the essence of the processes under study, to reveal a system of certain correspondences where superficial observation does not notice anything similar.

Nostratic language
The intuitive desire of scientists to at least partially reproduce the “single language” of humanity, which, according to the Torah, existed on earth before the division of humanity into nations, is, in our opinion, quite remarkable. Followers of the so-called “Nostratic school”.
They even compiled a small dictionary of the “Nostratic” language.” These scientists call “Nostratic” a certain primitive protolanguage from which Semitic-Hamitic, Indo-European, Ural-Altaic and other languages originated.

Of course, science has the right to deal with working theories and hypotheses that can be proven or disproven sooner or later.

5. Conclusion

Evolutionists have put forward a great many theories of the origin and development of human language. However, all these concepts are broken by their own shortcomings. Proponents of the theory of evolution have still not found an acceptable answer to the question of the emergence of linguistic communication. But none of these theories provides an acceptable explanation for the extraordinary diversity and complexity of languages. So there is nothing left but faith in God the Creator, Who not only created man, but also endowed him with the gift of speech. The Bible tells about the Creation of all things by God; its text is devoid of contradictions and contains answers to all questions. Unlike the theory of evolution, which lacks credibility in explaining the origin of language, the creation theory set forth in the Bible (the theory of the divine creation of language) is able to withstand any objections. This theory retains its position to this day, despite the fact that all this time its opponents have been desperately searching for counterarguments against it.

Language is the most ancient and main property of a person, as biological species, distinguishing it from other living beings. In linguistics, the science of language, the following definition is used: language is a sign system, created naturally or artificially, with the help of which people communicate and formulate their mental activity.

Origin of language

Education and the development of language, along with work, played a key role in the development of man as a rational being. One of the most important problems in the question of the origin of language is its ability to reflect reality. Words, like signs of language, have no resemblance to the object they denote. Nevertheless, a clear image of an object appears in a person’s mind when he hears or sees a word denoting it.

To understand how a language appeared, the sound complex of which in itself does not reflect anything, scientists are developing various Onomatopoeic theory considers the origin of the first words as a reproduction of the sounds and noises of nature. However, it cannot explain the presence of different sound shells for the same phenomenon in different languages. According to the interjection theory, the original word is based on an emotional exclamation or cry denoting a person’s state. This theory, in turn, does not explain the entire diversity of language, which could not have come from interjections alone.

Some scientists suggest that the first words were nouns; man initially sought to reflect the objects and phenomena of reality. Others believe that verbal forms are primary, a person first of all performed an action and, on its basis, built a picture of the world.

Thus, each theory of the origin of language depends on the function that is assigned to it.

Language functions

The essence of language, its main characteristics are manifested in its functions. Among the large number of language functions, the most significant ones are highlighted.

Communication function. By definition, language is the main means of communication between people.
Thinking or cognitive function. Language serves as the main means of formation and expression of mental activity.
Cognitive function. Language allows you to create new words and concepts, and also acts as a means of storing and transmitting information.
Other functions (phatic, emotive, appellative, aesthetic, etc.).

Language and speech

The term language cannot be identified with the concept of speech. First of all, language is a means of communication, and speech is its embodiment. Main characteristics language - its abstractness and formality, while speech is characterized by materiality, because it consists of articulated sounds that are perceived by the ear.

Unlike stable and static language, speech is an active and dynamic phenomenon. It is worth noting that language is a public property and reflects the picture of the world of the people speaking it, and speech, in turn, is purely individual and reflects the experience of a particular person. Language, as a complex sign system, has a level organization, while speech is characterized by a linear organization. And finally, language does not depend on a specific situation and setting, but speech is contextually and situationally determined. Thus, we can say that language relates to speech as the general relates to the particular.

Units and levels of language

The main ones are phoneme, morpheme, word and sentence. In accordance with each unit, a separate language level is formed. So the lowest level is phonetic, which consists of the simplest linguistic units - phonemes. The phoneme itself has no meaning and acquires a meaningful function only as part of a morpheme. The morpheme (morphemic level), in turn, is the shortest meaningful unit of language. There are derivational (form words) and grammatical (form word forms) morphemes.

A word (lexical-semantic level) represents the main significant unit of language, which can have syntactic independence. It serves to designate objects, phenomena, processes and properties. Words are divided into certain groups: a system of parts of speech (based on grammatical features), a system of synonyms and antonyms (based on semantic relations), groups of archaisms, historicisms and neologisms (from a historical perspective), etc.

A sentence (syntactic level) is a combination of words that expresses a certain thought. The sentence is characterized by semantic and intonation completeness and structure. There are simple and complex sentences. It should be noted that the unit of each level of language is an element of the construction of the unit of the next level.

Languages of the world

According to various estimates, there are about 7,000 languages in the world. All of them are divided into the following groups:

common and not common;
written and unwritten;
"living" and "dead";
artificial and natural.

Based on linguistic kinship, a genetic one has been created; according to it, there is another definition of language. This is primarily an attitude towards a specific ancestor language. As a rule, the Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan and Ural-Altaic families of languages are distinguished. All languages of one family are based on one parent language.

Russian language

Russian language is one of the Indo-European languages language family and is a language of global importance. The Russian language is the national language of the Russian people. The Russian language uses a writing system based on the Russian alphabet, which goes back to the Cyrillic alphabet. Moreover, in the Russian language, not everything is indicated by letters, but only the basic sounds of speech. So the number of letters in the alphabet is 33, and the sound system contains 43 sounds, of which 6 are vowels and 37 are consonants. The classification of sounds of the Russian language is made on the basis of articulatory properties. In this case, sounds are distinguished by the method of their pronunciation and by the areas of the speech apparatus involved in their pronunciation.

There is also a classification of the sounds of the Russian language according to acoustic characteristics. This takes into account the participation of voice and noise in the formation of sound. Russian is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn.

Thus, we can give the following definition: “Language is a complex polysemantic concept in which it is considered primarily as a multi-level sign system that is in organic unity with human thinking.”

LANGUAGE, -A, m.

1. An organ in the oral cavity in the form of a muscular outgrowth in vertebrates and humans that facilitates chewing and swallowing food and determines its taste properties. - Life is hard labor! - he grumbled, rolling crumbs of black bread in his mouth with his tongue. Chekhov, Freeloaders. [The dog] was breathing intermittently, sticking out its pink tongue. Garshin, That which did not happen. || This organ of some animals is used as food. Heaps of sausages, fried poultry, --- languages, pickles, urine, jam. A. N. Tolstoy, Peter the Great. || trans.; what or Which. What? having an elongated, elongated shape. In front of the stove, from the holes of which fiery tongues of flame were escaping, a cook stood with a red-hot poker in her hands. Ch. Uspensky, On the back stairs. In Anikushka’s house there is nothing to breathe. Black sharp tongues of soot scurry out of the lamp. Sholokhov, Quiet Don.

2. This human organ is involved in the formation of speech sounds and thereby in the verbal reproduction of thoughts; organ of speech. Not the slightest murmur uttered from his tongue. S. Aksakov, Meeting with the Martinists. He wanted to say that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to also take dad, mom and cat with him, but his tongue didn’t say at all what was needed. Chekhov, Grisha. “Nikolai Antonich,” I said, trying not to worry and noticing, however, that my tongue didn’t really obey me. Kaverin, Two captains. || only units h. The ability to speak and express one's thoughts verbally. Is literacy the same general accessory? human race like language or vision? Pushkin, Journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg [draft edition]. - You should have told him everything directly. They say you can’t do this, Foma Fomich, but here it is! After all, you have a language? Dostoevsky, Stepanchikovo village.

3. (pl. languages and outdated languages). A system of verbal expression of thoughts that has a certain sound and grammatical structure and serving as a means of communication between people. Ancient languages. French. □ The professor traveled all over the globe and, it seems, knew all the earth's languages, living and dead, cultivated and wild. Kuprin, Magic Carpet. The conversation stops. I can't hear the language they speak. Garshin, Four days.

4. A type of speech that has certain characteristic features; style, syllable. Literary language. Colloquial. Poetic language. Newspaper language. □ - Nonsense! You are a savage! We cannot speak to you in the language of science. A. N. Tolstoy, Fools. || someone or something A way of verbal expression characteristic of someone or something. Schiller's sonorous, strong language overwhelmed us. Herzen,<День был душный…>

5. what. A means of wordless communication. Formula language. The language of music. □ The language of love, a wonderful language, known only to youth, to whom, who has once been loved, has not become your native language? Lermontov, Tambov Treasurer. The conversation took place more in the language of glances, smiles and interjections. I. Goncharov, Ordinary history.

6. (pl. languages And languages). Outdated People, nationality. When Napoleon came at us with tongues, he rebelled the Germans and Poland - everyone froze with excitement. L. Tolstoy, Yasnaya Polyana school for the months of November and December. Many thousands of people, from all over Russia - all languages - worked day and night to build the city. A. N. Tolstoy, Peter's Day.

7. A prisoner from whom you can get the necessary information. The only thing he still needed to know was what exactly these troops were; and for this purpose Denisova needed to take language(that is, a person from the enemy column). L. Tolstoy, War and Peace. He took a wire with him in case he had to tie his tongue. Leonov, Capture of Velikoshumsk.

8. A metal rod in a bell or bell that, when struck against a wall, produces a ringing sound. At about six o'clock the priest comes into the church, and the sexton runs out of the church and stands by the rope stretched to the tongue of the main bell. Saltykov-Shchedrin, Poshekhonskaya antiquity.

Long tongue who cm. long .
Gossips cm. wicked .
Cloth tongue cm. cloth
Aesopian language cm. Aesopov.
Tongue without bones who- about a talkative person.
Tongue on the shoulder who- about a state of great fatigue (from work, movement).
The tongue turned (turned) who cm. turn around
Tongue stuck to larynx who- about the loss of the ability to speak.
The tongue is loose (will be loose) who cm. untie.
The tongue is well hung ( or suspended) who- about an eloquent, fluently speaking person.
Tongue itches who about a great desire to speak out, express your opinion. Sticking out (sticking out) tongue cm. stick out .
Keep your mouth shut ( or on a leash)- to keep silent, not to talk about something.
Bite your tongue cm. have a snack 1.
Breaking tongue- speak incorrectly, distorting words and sounds.
Find a common language cm. general .
Sharpen your tongue cm. sharpen
Hold your tongue- refrain from speaking out.
Bite your tongue cm. bite .
Swallow tongue; you'll swallow your tongue cm. swallow .
Untie your tongue(s) cm. untie .
Spill the beans cm. dissolve
Tie tongue to whom cm. to tie .
You'll break your tongue cm. break .
Shorten your tongue to whom cm. shorten .
scratch ( or calluses and so on. ) language (simple) - the same as wag your tongue.
Unleash your tongue- start talking a lot, uncontrollably.
Chat ( or scratch, scratch and so on. ) tongue (simple) - talk nonsense; talk idle talk.
speak Russian ( or say) cm. Russian.
Tongue pulled whom; the devil pulled his tongue whom cm.