Language is a process every child learns from birth, and we continue to use it until our death. When learning a language, learning its alphabet is the first step. Just as we learn mathematics, we have to understand the usage and meaning of its symbols, such as the “+” sign represent “addition”. After this process, we would be able to use these symbols in mathematics to simplify things which could be easier to understand. By this, I mean once one sees “1+1 = 2”, s/he would automatically formulate the idea in his/her brain and understand that “when one added to one, equals 2”. In the process of learning more symbols, we would be able to apply them into mathematics problems and assist the process of calculation in mathematics.
Moreover, mathematics also helps us to simplify things. Just as when we write an equation, “b2 + 6b = 9”, we would not write it in English as “b to the power of two plus six multiply by b, equals nine” When we express an equation in “mathematical language”, it would be more concise and understandable.
As mathematics simplifies things, it would acts as a system of communication that minimizes the number of justifiable interpretations. By this, I mean when thinking of the equation “1+1= 2”, we would understand that “when one added to one, equals 2”, there are no other definitions or meanings. In other words, it is free of contradiction.
Mathematics is perhaps the most straightforward of all to understand as a language by itself. Basically, whether they are as simple as “1+1=2,” or more complex like “f(x) = x3 + x2 + 3x + C, f’(x) = 3x2 + 2x + 3” can be understood by anyone in the world who has a basic working knowledge of mathematics.
The structure of mathematics gives us the ability for abstract thinking. Because of this we are able to expand our knowledge and develop it into other fields, such as Physics. In this view, mathematics acts as a tool.
Nevertheless, it is still obvious that mathematics is not a language that can be spoken aloud with the same fluency as other natural language.
As we compare mathematics with a daily language like Chinese, we can notice the difference clearly. As we know, Chinese is a language evolved from China, and was originally started from shapes. They were formed from stylized pictures of some physical objects such as””, would be the moon. They are therefore called pictographs, which possessed the earliest form of the characteristics of a script. These picture-words underwent a gradual evolution over the centuries until the pictographs changed into "square characters," which we uses nowadays. On the other hand, mathematics does not have its specific origin.
As I have mentioned before, mathematics is not a language that can be spoken aloud. We often use another natural language to express ourselves in mathematics language. For instance, we would express “+” as the word “addition” in English. In this case, therefore, mathematics is more like a symbols, or signs that represent words from other languages.
In conclusion, a language is a system of communicating, expressing, conveying ideas, thoughts, knowledge, and information. Mathematics does possess these distinguish features therefore I believe mathematics is a language
