Origins of human language

Scientists do not agree on when language was first used by humans (or their ancestors).

The world's languages have been grouped into families of languages that have similarities. Some of the major groupings are the Indo-European languages, the Afro-Asiatic languages, and the Sino-Tibetan languages.

One prominent artificial language, called Esperanto, was created by L. L. Zamenhof. It was a compilation of various elements of different languages, and it was intended to be an easy-to-learn language. Other constructed languages strive to be more logical than natural languages; a prominent example of this is Lojban.

Other writers, such as J. R. R. Tolkien, have created fantasy languages, for literary, linguistic, or personal reasons. One of Tolkien's languages is called Quenya, which is a form of Elvish. It includes its own alphabet and its phonology and syntax are modelled after Finnish. Linguist Mark Okrand devised Klingon and Vulcan for Star Trek, which have since been developed into full languages.