Languages

 What is Language? The answer to this question in almost every dictionary, would be that language is a system or method that consists of symbols, structurally formed words and sentences which is principally used by humans for communication through reading, writing or speaking. Language is a significant part of our lives and it should also be noted that language and the definition of language is also constantly evolving according to changes in our lifestyles as time passes. It is really fascinating how humans developed such a smart tool almost 5000 years ago. Today, the languages we speak, write, read and listen indeed give the evidence of how innovative and inquisitive humans have been and how the research to develop these languages was always efficient and extensive since a very long time. Humans went beyond their ability and invented this effective system of communication, which is now almost a fundamental part of the society. Even though we use languages on a daily basis but, a language is far more complex than what we think it is. Here is where the term called ‘Linguistics’ comes in. To study about languages from square one, meaning how words are formed in the very first place and to study the dynamics of something we casually speak, write, read and listen is indeed intriguing. Linguistics mainly can be said to be the systematic study of the structure of language and the way it is used. Researching the structure of a language involves a lot of factors and complexities where for example, Phonetics and Phonology focus on the sounds of human languages and the pattern of particular languages while Morphology examines the internal structure of words, and Syntax is concerned with describing and accounting for the way words are grouped into larger structures like sentences. There also exist various branches of linguistics like Cognitive linguistics, Corpus linguistics and Sociolinguistics which deals with the relationships between language, it’s users and it’s uses. From this we understand that even though humans first developed languages probably for the ease of communication, the research done on those languages after that is very vast. Humans’ curiosity in various aspects, has resulted in the progress of languages. In fact, the dictionary which we use to find the meaning of ‘language’ has also changed with time as the language itself evolved through the years. If we observe the language, English we can see that a lot of words in the language have changed as time passed by. In actuality, we have a term, ‘Archaic words’ for the old words that were used previously, which changed to be different words with almost the same meanings. For instance, the word ‘thee’ changed to ‘you’. This can also be observed while reading the original works of poets and writers of the olden times like William Shakespeare and Robert Browning. Not only English but all the languages around the world are constantly changing. In India, approximately 1600 languages are in existence which are spoken in different regions of the country. This diversity of languages in our country is truly astonishing. Now, mainly the Indian languages that are known today have their root in two major groups of languages, the languages spoken in the north are mostly Indo-Aryan languages while those spoken in south are Dravidian languages. These languages evolved to form other ones, hence giving rise to such a wide variety of languages today. This also shows the cultural diversity in India. In fact, one major factor in cultural ethnicity is sharing common languages. Thus, evolution and changes in languages affect a lot of factors surrounding us. One interesting thing that should be noted here is that, words, their meanings and their uses change even in a span as short as ten years. There are constant additions and elimination of words which are always being recorded and researched. In conclusion, language is truly a unique innovation of humans, which is being explored even till now, and there of course will always be more inventions in the future. 

                                                             -Devika Deshpande