Language
Language is a system of conventional spoken, manual, or written symbols by means of which living beings, and most relevantly humans, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves. The functions of language include communication, the expression of identity, play, imaginative expression, and emotional release.
Typically, people acquire a single language initially, their native language, used by those by whom they are surrounded from infancy. In some cases, due to exposure to multiple languages, some people can be native in multiple languages. In other cases, one native language can be dominant, and another heritage language spoken at home but not in the wider community can be imperfectly acquired. An example of this can be second generation Hispanics in the United States, whose heritage language Spanish often is known much more poorly than English. It is demonstrated that children can acquire four native languages. Subsequent languages are learned to different degrees of competence under various conditions.
An official language is a language given a special legal status in a particular jurisdiction. A minority language or local language can refer to languages spoken locally in an area, co-existing with another language, usually the official language, or to smaller languages dominant in a particular area in a greater jurisdiction which speaks another language. Minority or local languages may or may not be recognised and/or officialised by the government. There may be several official languages in a jurisdiction and some may be spoken only by minorities.
Languages have often functioned as an important marker of belonging to particular ethnicities, especially as it is often difficult for adults to learn to speak new languages without an accent. This is particularly true of local non-recognised languages, such as Venetian in Veneto, or Sicilian in Sicily, which therefore remain strongly tied to local ethnicities. However, second-generation and later generation immigrants may become fluent native speakers of the most commonly used language in an area, despite their parents shortcomings. This is because young children typically learn languages from other children their age, more than they learn from their parents. If the parents are natives but have different accents from different parts of a country, the children will adopt neither accent, but instead adopt the accent of the other kids they regularly play with.
A conquering group which differs racially from the conquered group may cause the conquered to use the language of the conquerors. An example of this is Peruvians (racially Amerindian) who now speak Spanish natively. The conquerors may also start to use the language of those conquered, such as in the case of Spaniards in Paraguay who were forced to learn and speak Guarani, an Amerindian language. This makes language an imperfect racial marker.
Languages are typically grouped into language families, such as the Indo-European family, branching off into Germanic, Slavic, Romance, and more sub-families. Politically, it is said that a language is a dialect with an army and a navy, meaning that the distinction between language and dialect is arbitrary and ultimately political. Linguistically, however, a language is a continuum of systems of speech (lects) all of which are similar enough to be mutually intercomprehensible. Sub-classifications of a language are called dialects. Non-mutually intelligibile lects are linguistically considered separate languages, although the definition of mutual intelligibility varies.
Sociolects are dialects spoken by a particular social class, geolects are traditional geographically-bound dialects, and ethnolects are dialects spoken by particular ethnic groups but not necessarily bound to geography. An example of a sociolect is the standard textbook posh English spoken with a classic Received Pronunciation accent, which is often perceived as old-fashioned, upper class and learned; an example of a geolect is Geordie, from North East England; and an example of an ethnolect is African American Vernacular English, also known as Ebonics, which is less restricted by geography and more closely tied to ethnicity.
