Concept
Modern language
Overview
A modern language (also known as a living language) is any human language that is currently in use as a native language.
The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead classical languages such as Latin and Classical Chinese, which are studied for their cultural and linguistic value. For example, the Modern Language Association tracks student enrollments in Ancient Greek versus Modern Greek, or Biblical Hebrew versus Modern Hebrew, separately.
SIL Ethnologue defines a living language as "one that has at least one speaker for whom it is their first language" (see also Language § Linguistic diversity).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Modern language is discussed.
First of all, languages are by this simplification rendered more prolix, several words having become necessary to express what could have been expressed by a single word before. Thus the words, _Dei_ and, _Deo_, in the Latin, sufficiently show, without any addition, what relation, the object signified is understood to stand in to the objects expressed by the other words in the sentence. But to express the same…
Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
names the idea; states what it is
I think that if a modern language is to be taught, it should be taught by a person whose native language it is, not only because it will be better taught, but because children feel less artificiality in talking a foreign language to a foreigner than in talking it to a person whose natural language is the same as their own. I think, therefore, that every school for children ought to have a French mistress, and if…
Bertrand Russell, Education and the good life
states what it is; opens on it; names the idea
For the rest, he had studied well, was particularly versed in the modern languages and their literature, and wrote an excellent hand. He was very well disposed to me, and I, having been always accustomed and inclined to the society of older persons, soon attached myself to him.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Autobiography of Goethe Truth and Poetry
states what it is; opens on it; names the idea
On comparing the dialects spoken in different parts of England, we find scarcely any difference but those of pronunciation: the structures of the sentences are almost uniform. Between English and the allied modern languages there are divergences of structure: there are some unlikenesses of idiom; some unlikenesses in the ways of modifying the meanings of verbs; and considerable unlikenesses in the uses of genders…
Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Biology, Volume 1
names the idea
It may be said to be, at once, both what the logicians call, a singular, and what they call, a common term; and to join, in its signification the seemingly opposite qualities of the most precise individuality and the most extensive generalization. This word, therefore, expressing so very abstract and metaphysical an idea, would not easily or readily occur to the first formers of language. What are called the…
Adam Smith, The Essays of Adam Smith
states what it is
Philosophers who discussed Modern language
Related ideas
- French language
- German language
- Ancient Greek
- Northern Europe
- Latin
- Russia
- Ukraine
- Modern Language Association
- Central Europe
- English language
- Esperanto
- Toki Pona
Place in the tradition
Part of History of philosophy in Poland.