language human_language - freebase-schema/freebase GitHub Wiki

---

A human language is any language used by people to communicate or convey ideas.

The human language type is used for languages that are members of the lowest-level language family. For example, the Kapampangan language belongs to the hierarchy of language families Central Luzon (lowest level) -> Northern Philippine -> Philippine -> Malayo-Polynesian -> Austronesian (highest level).

• Living languages or modern languages (e.g. French language, English language, Standard Mandarin, German language)

• Mixed languages that are a fusion of source languages (e.g. Michif language, Mednyj Aleut, Cappadocian Greek language)

• Creole languages (e.g. Nubi language, Fa d'Ambu language Guianese Creole French language)

• Extinct languages (e.g. Ceylon Dutch language, Chemakum, Cotoname language, Weyto language)

• Reconstructed languages (e.g. Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Celtic language, Proto-Kra language)

• Planned and constructed languages (e.g. Esperanto language, Volapük, Loglan, Afrihili)

• Fictional languages that became working languages or are being developed into one (e.g. Klingon language, Mandalorian language, Quenya,Lapine)

• Co-type with the Language in fiction type.

• Sign languages (e.g. American Sign Language, Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language, Providencia Sign Language, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language)

• Dialects (e.g. Welsh English, Canadian French, Gyeongsang dialect, Negombo Tamil)

• Use the Language dialect type for these.

Note: If the decision cannot be made on whether a topic is a language or a dialect, both the Human language and Language dialect types can be used.

• Forms of a language that involve code-switching or borrowings from one other language, but which have not become true mixed languages, creoles, or dialects (e.g. Spanglish, Portunol, Franglais, Taglish)

• Fictional languages that are not working languages nor being developed to be one (e.g. Mangani, Marain, Huttanese language)

• Use the Language in fiction type for these.

• Writing systems (e.g. Tamil Brahmi, Rongorongo, Linear Elamite, Inuktitut Syllabics)

• Use the Language writing system type for these.

• Language families where individual languages belong (e.g. Breton language and Irish belong to the Celtic languages family; Phuthi language and Bemba language belong to the Bantu languages family)

• Use the Language family type for these.

• Ethnicity (e.g. Kurdish people, Maori, Sami)

• Use the Ethnicity type for these.

• Programming languages (e.g. PHP, Perl, Simula)

• Use the Programming language type for these.

• Animal languages (e.g. Whale song, Bird song, Great Ape language)