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Section 39
Languages
Language is one of the major forms of communication between people.
Speech and writing are the main components of a language.
By introducing grammar into language, we make it easier to communicate.
The structure of language is different between languages.
Word order, tense, noun and verb forms may vary.
Some languages, like French and German, give nouns a gender.
Others may change the verb according to gender.
Some, like English, do not give genders to either noun or verb.
The number of words used in a language varies considerably.
In English, there are as many as almost 2,000,000 words which can be used.
Only about 60,000 are used daily and in fact 10,000 words are enough to communicate well in English.
One of the difficulties with language is that it is rarely static.
That is language is always changing as cultures meet and exchange ideas.
New words enter our languages every year, most are technical or scientific.
The variety of languages in the world makes it more interesting than if we all spoke just one language.
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