Originally posted by Quiero Mota
How do you figure? You weren't born knowing English, were you? Languages don't randomly appear in nature; they're all made up by humans. So what's the real difference between one that developed over a thousand years, and one that was made up on the spot?And I don't think "natural" languages are any more valid than "constructed" ones. Not only are they all unnatural and constructed, "constructed" ones serve a very important purpose for communicating; for example: American Sign Language.
By your logic, a bird's nest isn't natural.
It didn't exist until the bird created it, and a plant didn't grow the nest, so the nest is an artificial dwelling, not natural.
Why is there a difference in what we call "natural" and "artificial" when we are animals, too?
If you want to say that we are born with certain ways to communicate without our learned languages, then why did we develop in a way that the "language" section of our brain and our vocal chords, tongues, and mouths all evolved to a point to be able to speak a complex language? We are built to naturally use a language. Just like cats have to learn how to hunt, yet being born with everything to hunt, so do humans have to learn languages.
Spoken languages are natural to us.
Now, I would agree that, say, binary language is not natural as the only thing we have that is "naturally" adapted to that is our ability of complex thought. One could argue that we have evolved a very good sense of boolean concepts: off or on, but one could argue against that as well.
On topic, it should be some sort of evolved Latin AND/OR English AND/OR Standard Mandarin, AND/OR Spanish. Definitely not French, German, Japanese, Italian, Russian, or Hindi, etc.
And before anyone says it, there is not a "Chinese language" there are are over 10 different "Chinese languages" with one being official and taught in most eastern chinese schools.