nameless
Could a human civilisation function wordlessly?
~~~ Yes!
We WILL be completely Empathic, with no 'thought', thus, no language necessary in about 235 years!
There will no longer be words/thought/imagination, which is ego, vanity!
We will All be directly One with the Universe! Universal! Limitless!
Words and thought are all 'duality', schizophrenia, limitations!
We need no longer 'think'; We can bypass that rickety train and go directly to Know!
Phoenix Quill
The short answer is NO. Nothing approximating human society is possible without advanced, specific & technical communication. JFTR Sign Language uses words. In fact even DNA is in effect composed of words instructing ribosomes to build proteins. So in essence, Life itself is not possible with out words, much less civilization.
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Could it function? Yes. Could it function in the same way it does now? No.
CXY
civilization. Civil. So yes if it's a civilization. Not everywhere is civilized but are first world countries. Civilization is hard to accomplish in this day and age but possible.
small
Deaf and dumb get along pretty well through their sign language..... so far as I have noticed, they are highly civilized too.