The English and Germanlanguages are both members of the West Germaniclanguage family.
Deaf and mute people communicate using signlanguage.
1983,History of the College for the Deaf, 1857-1907,→ISBN, page240:
Hence the naturallanguage of the mute is, in schools of this class, suppressed as soon and as far as possible, and its existence as alanguage, capable of being made the reliable and precise vehicle for the widest range of thought, is ignored.
2000, Geary Hobson,The Last of the Ofos,→ISBN, page113:
Mr. Darko, generally acknowledged to be the last surviving member of the Ofo Tribe, was also the last remaining speaker of the tribe'slanguage.
2021 April 25, John Malathronas, “Which languages are easiest – and most difficult – for native English speakers to learn?”, inCNN[1], archived fromthe original on22 March 2022:
Many of us have entertained the idea of expanding our horizons. Learning a foreignlanguage is an obvious option. It’s one that I would personally endorse: My individual circumstances were such that, by the age of 12, I could speak German, Greek and English, solanguages became my passion and my hobby.
2024 March 8, Antara, “11 Indigenous Languages Declared Extinct: Education Ministry”, inJakarta Globe[2], archived fromthe original on1 February 2025:
Muksin specifically mentioned 11 extinct indigenouslanguages, such as Tandia and Mawes in West Papua and Papua, along with Kajeli, Piru, Moksela, Palumata, Ternateno, Hukumina, Hoti, Serua, and Nila in different areas of Maluku.
(uncountable) The ability to communicate using words.
the gift oflanguage
1805 December, Julius Griffiths, “A Journey across the Desert”, inThe Monthly Mirror, page362:
It is wholly out of the power oflanguage to convey any idea of the blissful enjoyment of obtaining water, after an almost total want of it, during eight and forty hours, in the scorching regions of an Arabian desert, in the month of July.
1981,William Irwin Thompson,The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page15:
Language is the articulation of the limited to express the unlimited; it is the ultimate mystery which is the image of God, for in breaking up infinity to create finite beings, God has found a way to let the limited being yet be a reflection of His unlimited Being.
Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyerlanguage, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
And ‘blubbing’ . . .Blubbing went out with ‘decent’ and ‘ripping’. Mind you, not a bad newlanguage to start up. 1920s schoolboy slang could be due for a revival.
(uncountable) The specific wording or style of a text, such as a law or a contract.
2012 April 22,Peter Ludlow, “The Living Word”, inThe New York Times[3], retrieved23 January 2026:
Technological advances are notorious for exposing the open-endedness of thelanguage in our laws, even when we thought our definitions were airtight. Lawmakers can’t anticipate everything. Indeed, you could make the case that the whole area of patent law just is the problem of deciding whether some new technology should fall within the range of thelanguage of the patent.
2017 September 17, John Hill, “Judge backs city on firefighters' retirement ruling”, inThe Providence Journal[4], retrieved23 January 2026:
A Superior Court judge Tuesday let stand an arbitrator’s ruling that the city was allowed to pass onto its firefighters increased pension and retirement benefit costs due to changes in the state pension system. The city firefighters' union had gone to court seeking to overturn the arbitrator’s 2015 decision, claiming he’d misinterpreted thelanguage in the contract. In his 17-page decision, Superior Court Justice Joseph Montalbano noted that by law the union had to do more than just have a good argument.
2023 August 25, Timothy Scalona, “The myth of right to shelter in Massachusetts”, inThe Boston Globe[5], retrieved23 January 2026:
Massachusetts often claims to be a right-to-shelter state because, on the books, it provides homeless families access to emergency shelter, free of cost. This was the purpose for which the right-to-shelter law was crafted. Thelanguage of the law, however, could not be further from the truth.
(countable,uncountable,figurative) The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way; that which communicates something, as language does.
bodylanguage; thelanguage of the eyes
2001, Eugene C. Kennedy, Sara C. Charles,On Becoming a Counselor,→ISBN:
A tale about themselves [is] told by people with help from the universallanguages of their eyes, their hands, and even their shirting feet.
2005,Sean Dooley,The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page231:
Birding had become like that for me. It is alanguage that, once learnt, I have been unable to unlearn.
A more likely hypothesis was that the attacked leaves were transmitting some airborne chemical signal to sound the alarm, rather like insects sending out warnings[…] But this is the first time that a plant-to-plantlanguage has been detected.
2009,Animals in Translation, page274:
Prairie dogs use theirlanguage to refer to real dangers in the real world, so it definitely has meaning.
An admonishment said in response to someone using vulgar language during a conversation.
2016, “The Vanishing of Will Byers”, inStranger Things, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Nancy Wheeler, Karen Wheeler, Ted Wheeler, and Mike Wheeler (Natalia Dyer, Cara Buono, Joe Chrest, and Finn Wolfhard):
Nancy: So... me and Barbara are gonna study at her house tonight. That's cool, right? / Karen: No, not cool. / Nancy: What? Why not? / Karen: Why do you think? Am I speaking Chinese in this house? Until we know Will is okay, no one leaves. / Nancy: This is such bullshit. / Ted:Language. / Nancy: So we're under house arrest? Just because Mike's friend got lost on the way home from... / Mike: Wait, this is Will's fault? / Karen: Nancy, take that back. / Nancy: No! / Mike: You're just pissed off 'cause you wanna hang out with Steve. / Ted: Steve? / Karen: Who's Steve? / Mike: Her new boyfriend. / Nancy: You are such a douchebag, Mike! / Ted:Language!
1896, William Horatio Clarke,The Organist's Retrospect, page79:
A flue-pipe is one in which the air passes through the throat, or flue, which is the narrow, longitudinal aperture between the lower lip and the tongue, orlanguage.[…] Thelanguage is adjusted by slightly elevating or depressing it,[…]
