A language is a structured system of communication. Language, in a broader sense, is the method of communication that involves the use of – human – languages; the scientific study of language is called linguistics. Questions concerning the philosophy of language, such as whether words can represent experience, have been debated at least since Gorgias and Plato in ancient Greece. Thinkers such as Rousseau have argued that language originated from emotions while others like Kant have held that it originated from rational and logical thought. 20th-century philosophers such as Wittgenstein argued that philosophy is the study of language. Major figures in linguistics include Noam Chomsky. Estimates of the number of human languages in the world vary between 5,000 and 7,000. However, any precise estimate depends on the arbitrary distinction between languages and dialect. Natural languages are spoken or signed, but any language can be encoded into secondary media using auditory, visual, or tactile stimuli – for example, in writing, signing, or braille.

This is. Depending on philosophical perspectives regarding the definition of language and meaning, when used as a general concept, "language" may refer to the cognitive ability to learn and use systems of complex communication, or to describe the set of rules that makes up these systems, or the set of utterances that can be produced from those rules. All languages rely on the process of semiosis to relate signs to particular meanings. Oral and tactile languages contain a phonological system that governs how symbols are used to form sequences known as words or morphemes, a syntactic system that governs how words and morphemes are combined to form phrases and utterances. Human language has the properties of productivity and displacement, relies on social convention and learning, its complex structure affords a much wider range of expressions than any known system of animal communication. Language is thought to have originated when early hominins started changing their primate communication systems, acquiring the ability to form a theory of other minds and a shared intentionality.

This development is sometimes thought to have coincided with an increase in brain volume, many linguists see the structures of language as having evolved to serve specific communicative and social functions. Language is processed in many different locations in the human brain, but in Broca's and Wernicke's areas. Humans acquire language through social interaction in early childhood, children speak fluently by three years old; the use of language is entrenched in human culture. Therefore, in addition to its communicative uses, language has many social and cultural uses, such as signifying group identity, social stratification, as well as social grooming and entertainment. Languages evolve and diversify over time, the history of their evolution can be reconstructed by comparing modern languages to determine which traits their ancestral languages must have had in order for the developmental stages to occur. A group of languages that descend from a common ancestor is known as a language family; the Indo-European family is the most spoken and includes languages as diverse as English and Hindi.

The languages of the Dravidian family, spoken in Southern India, include Tamil and Kannada. Academic consensus holds that between 50% and 90% of languages spoken at the beginning of the 21st century will have become extinct by the year 2100; the English word language derives from Proto-Indo-European "tongue, language" through Latin lingua, "language. The word is sometimes used to refer to codes and other kinds of artificially constructed communication systems such as formally defined computer languages used for computer programming. Unlike conventional human languages, a formal language in this sense is a system of signs for encoding and decoding information; this article concerns the properties of natural human language as it is studied in the discipline of linguistics. As an object of linguistic study, "language" has two primary meanings: an abstract concept, a specific linguistic system, e.g. "French". The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who defined the modern discipline of linguistics, first explicitly formulated the distinction using the French word langage for language as a concept, langue as a specific instance of a language system, parole for the concrete usage of speech in a particular language.

When speaking of language as a general concept, definitions can be used which stress different aspects of the phenomenon. These definitions entail different approaches and understandings of language, they inform different and incompatible schools of linguistic theory. Debates about the nature and origin of language go back to the ancient world. Greek philosophers such as Gorgias and Plato debated the relation between words and reality. Gorgias argued that language could represent neither the objective experience nor human experience, that communication and truth were therefore impossible. Plato maintained that communication is possible because language represents ideas and concepts that exist independently of, prior t

Steve Sion is a former American bridge player. Steve Sion and his regular partner Alan Cokin were accused of cheating in 1979, they were banned, their American Contract Bridge League membership was reinstated five years later. Sion was convicted of cheating in 1997 and was expelled from the ACBL; the cheating convictions make. Fishbein Trophy 1984 North American Bridge Championships North American Pairs 1984 Grand National Teams 1989 Jacoby Open Swiss Teams 1993 Lebhar IMP Pairs 1995 Mitchell Board-a-Match Teams 1979 Chicago Mixed Board-a-Match 1984, 1994 Wernher Open Pairs 1990 North American Bridge Championships Grand National Teams 1978 Reisinger 1974 Spingold 1984 von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs 1984, 1991, 1994

The 1990 Arizona Wildcats football team represented the University of Arizona in the Pacific-10 Conference during the 1990 NCAA Division I-A football season. In their fourth season under head coach Dick Tomey, the Wildcats compiled a 7–5 record, finished in fifth place in the Pac-10, lost the 1990 Aloha Bowl to Syracuse, were outscored by their opponents, 311 to 267; the team played its home games in Arizona Stadium in Arizona. The team's statistical leaders included George Malauulu with 726 passing yards, Art Greathouse with 482 rushing yards, Terry Vaughn with 431 receiving yards. Safety Jeff Hammerschmidt led the team with 78 tackles