Would you say language is a uniquely human phenomenon?

This is an interesting question. I disagree with what the other answerers are saying-- I don't consider most of the ways animals communicate to be "language". I don't think a bird can yell "good God Alexander! There's a man with a gun shooting down our comrades!" Sure, the bird can warn the other birds of danger but be it a man with a gun, a fox or a clever cat it's the same mechanism.

Language, though, is not a uniquely human phenomenon. Perhaps you recall Koko the Gorilla, a gorilla who was actually taught to communicate with her care-takers in American Sign Language. Not only was she able to communicate her wants and needs to them, but she was also able to understand things that were signed back to her.

There was also another, less lauded, gorilla named Michael in the same study who was taught ASL and left alone with Koko. The keepers set up cameras and were astounded to see that the two gorillas communicated with each other through ASL without being prompted. I also read that the two gorillas would insult each other through ASL! This certainly speaks as to their ability to understand the application of language.

Now, it is worth mentioning that Koko was not able to form sentences or understand them-- she could only communicate through single nouns, adjectives or verbs. Her vocabulary was no larger than 1,000 words either.

So, in summation, I would say that language is not a uniquely human phenomenon; but perhaps the breadth and depth of our mastery-- the myriad ways in which we can express ourselves and communicate things of which other species have no conception-- is uniquely human.

And for the record, nothing comparable to spoken language exists in the animal kingdom or the world of research.

The story of Christ is so original? Oh, no, dear heart, there are several similar stories in other religions that pre-date the one of a Jewish 'street' preacher at the onset of the first century AD. When Christianity was being pasted together, the holy men were picking and choosing like crazy--a little bit from there, a little bit from here. Meanwhile, love, basing one's beliefs on a movie, especially one that's S&M porn posing as the story of Jesus, and produced by a drunk third-rate actor and anti-Semite, leaves commonsense greatly to be desired.

If I were to stare long and hard at you without twitching my lips in the least, wouldn't you respond in any way? Substitute me for a baboon or a pug... won't you still sense the magic of the phenomenon named body language? And vice versa... it's all universal :)

Humans aren't as unique as we'd like to flatter ourselves into thinking. We're actually pretty late in the evolutionary ball game.

yes but some animals have communications very similar to human language but lacking some of th elements

No, haven't you ever heard birds sqwaking at each other or humpback whales singing to eachother? Just because we dont understand it doesnt mean its not a language.

Noooo. Every species has its own language. We're just not clever enough to understand them all ... yet.

No.

Other species communicate in different ways, many of which we are just discovering.

No, well not body language anyway.