natural language (redirected from Informal speech)

natural language

n.

A human written or spoken language as opposed to a computer language.

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natural language

n

1. (Linguistics) a language that has evolved naturally as a means of communication among people Compare artificial language, formal language

2. (Linguistics) languages of this kind considered collectively

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

natural language - a human written or spoken language used by a community; opposed to e.g. a computer language tongue language, linguistic communication - a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols; "he taught foreign languages"; "the language introduced is standard throughout the text"; "the speed with which a program can be executed depends on the language in which it is written" first language, maternal language, mother tongue - one's native language; the language learned by children and passed from one generation to the next tonal language, tone language - a language in which different tones distinguish different meanings creole - a mother tongue that originates from contact between two languages American-Indian language, Amerind, Amerindian language, American Indian, Indian - any of the languages spoken by Amerindians Eskimo-Aleut, Eskimo-Aleut language - the family of languages that includes Eskimo and Aleut Chukchi language, Chukchi - an indigenous and isolated language of unknown origin spoken by the Chukchi that is pronounced differently by men and women Sino-Tibetan, Sino-Tibetan language - the family of tonal languages spoken in eastern Asia Austro-Asiatic, Austro-Asiatic language, Munda-Mon-Khmer - a family of languages spoken in southern and southeastern Asia Hmong language, Miao, Hmong - a language of uncertain affiliation spoken by the Hmong Austronesian language, Austronesian - the family of languages spoken in Australia and Formosa and Malaysia and Polynesia Papuan language, Papuan - any of the indigenous languages spoken in Papua New Guinea or New Britain or the Solomon Islands that are not Malayo-Polynesian languages Khoisan, Khoisan language - a family of languages spoken in southern Africa Indo-European language, Indo-Hittite, Indo-European - the family of languages that by 1000 BC were spoken throughout Europe and in parts of southwestern and southern Asia Ural-Altaic - a (postulated) group of languages including many of the indigenous languages of Russia (but not Russian) Basque - the language of the Basque people; of no known relation to any other language Elamitic, Susian, Elamite - an extinct ancient language of unknown affinities; spoken by the Elamites Cassite, Kassite - an ancient language spoken by the Kassites Caucasian language, Caucasian - a number of languages spoken in the Caucasus that are unrelated to languages spoken elsewhere Dravidian language, Dravidic, Dravidian - a large family of languages spoken in south and central India and Sri Lanka Afrasian, Afrasian language, Afro-Asiatic, Afroasiatic, Afroasiatic language, Hamito-Semitic - a large family of related languages spoken both in Asia and Africa Niger-Kordofanian, Niger-Kordofanian language - the family of languages that includes most of the languages spoken in Africa south of the Sahara; the majority of them are tonal languages but there are important exceptions (e.g., Swahili or Fula) Nilo-Saharan, Nilo-Saharan language - a family of East African languages spoken by Nilotic peoples from the Sahara south to Kenya and Tanzania artificial language - a language that is deliberately created for a specific purpose