Human language is a means of communication between people, which can be naturally evolved or intentionally constructed. Animals and machines also have languages, but human language is unique in its arbitrary connection between sounds and ideas. It has many forms and social elements, and its evolution and origin are still debated.
A human language is a language that arose for the primary purpose of communication between human beings. This type of language can evolve naturally or it can be intentionally constructed, but in all cases its distinguishing feature is its use for communication between humans. Conversely, it can also be said that animals have languages, and language is necessary for the functions of some machines. It is generally believed that human language operates in different ways than these other types of language.
The evolution of human language is complex and there are many different theories on how language developed. Almost all humans acquire one or more human languages as children and can be said to be native speakers of those languages. While there are many different languages, each language is equally valuable for communicating thoughts, although languages can do this in different ways. Human languages can be very different in terms of grammar and sounds, but their purpose is the same in human cultures.
One of the unique characteristics of human languages is that the connection between sounds and the ideas those sounds represent is arbitrary. Different words can be used to represent the same concept with equal usefulness, and often the words are very different between languages. Languages may be interconnected and historically related, but that does not imply that all languages evolved from a single original language. Even so, many early studies of human language were primarily concerned with tracing the language of roots back to a single original source.
A human language can have many different forms and facets. For example, there may be written and spoken components as well as other ways of encoding language, such as hand signs. In some cases, language is not only used for practical communication but also to differentiate groups of people, as the ability to communicate was once an important sign of intelligence. Language has many social elements when used by humans and many important aspects of language are unrelated to the sounds of the language.
Interestingly, human language is not always used for communication with other humans and in some cases is incorporated into other languages. For example, the type of language used to command dogs draws on human speech but cannot be used by both parties for complete communication. The study of languages is constantly evolving, also because the way humans acquire language and even the origin of language is not fully understood. As such, it is impossible to fully define human language, as the topic is still hotly debated.
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