natural language

Language naturally spoken or signed by humans, as opposed to "constructed" and "formal" languages

Entitytype of language field of study field of studyQ33742

Also known as ordinary language · natlang

Instance of: type of language
, field of study
, field of study
Subclass of: human language

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

A natural language or ordinary language is any spoken language or signed language used organically in a human community, first emerging without conscious premeditation and subject to: replication across generations of people in the community, regional expansion or contraction, and gradual internal and structural changes. The vast majority of languages in the world are natural languages. As a category, natural language includes both standard dialects as well as nonstandard or vernacular dialects. Even an official language with a regulating academy such as Standard French, overseen by the Académie Française, is still classified as a natural language, as its prescriptive aspects do not make it regulated enough to be considered a constructed or controlled natural language. Linguists broadly consider writing to be a static visual representation of a particular natural language, though, in many cases in highly literate modern societies, writing itself is also now subject to the natural processes of widely spoken natural languages.

Overview

All data

44 statements · 20% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Different from: human language
natural language
Has characteristic: vocabulary
linguistic universal
language family
grammar
origin of language
Has list: index of language articles
Opposite of: planned language

On other databases

29 identifiers linking natural language across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

20%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 8, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). natural language (Q33742). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/natural-language-Q33742