Accent
A way of pronouncing words that indicates the place of origin or social background of the speaker.
Dialect
A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.
Esperanto
An artificial language invented in 1887, based on the root forms of some words common to the major European languages.
Extinct language
A language that was once used by people in daily activities but is no longer used.
Ideograms
The system of writing used in China and other East Asian countries in which each symbol represents an idea or concept rather than a specific sound, as is the case with letters in English.
Isogloss
A boundary that separates regions in which different language usages predominate.
Isolated language
A language that is unrelated to any other languages and therefore not attached to any language family.
Language branch
A collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed several thousand years ago. Differences are not as extensive or old as with language families, and archaeological evidence can confirm that these derived from the same family.
Language
A system of communication through the use of speech, a collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning.
Language group
A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary.
Language family
A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history.
Lingua franca
A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages.
Literary tradition
A language that is written as well as spoken.
Monolinguality
Speaking only one language.
Bilinguality
Speaking two languages.
Multilinguality
Speaking several languages.
Official language
The language adopted for use by the government for the conduct of business and publication of documents.
Orthography
The study of established correct spelling.
Pidgin language
A form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca, used for communications among speakers of two different languages.
Standard language
The form of a language used for official government business, education, and mass communications.
Toponym
The name given to a portion of Earth's surface.
Trade language
A language used between native speakers of different languages to allow them to communicate so that they can trade with each other.
Vernacular
The everyday language of the people in a country or region, as distinct from official or formal language.
British Received Pronunication (BRP)
The dialect of English associated with upper-class Britons living in the London area and now considered standard in the United Kingdom.
Creole/Creolized language
A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated.
Ebonics
Dialect spoken by some African Americans.
Franglais
A term used by the French for English words that have entered the French language.
Spanglish
Combination of Spanish and English, spoken by Hispanic-Americans.
Vulgar Latin
A form of Latin used in daily conversation by ancient Romand, as opposed to the standard dialect, which was used for official documents.