What makes homo sapiens "human"?

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Ok. I would most definetly disagree with that as a useful definition of language. By language I mean a communication form with grammar and the ability to express abstract concepts as a bare minimum.

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I think Mr. Jack hit it on the head. It is a human's ability to use abstraction that separates him/her from the rest of the animal kingdom. By abstraction, this includes figurative language, analogies, etc. Every other claim of language in non-human species has been direct communication of an object or action. You never see other animals using an analogy to describe a hunting strategy.

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But we don't know that since we cannot yet decipher their language.

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I am of the opinion that there isn't a language to decipher. I am not saying that we should stop researching the possibility, but it seems rather improbable. Even among single celled bacteria there is cell to cell communication, but I would hardly claim that bacteria could be communicating abstract thoughts through a language that we have yet to decipher. Short of totally deciphering the grunts of our ape cousins, we should also look at the roots of human consciousness and how our brain copes with communication. I think it is through this route that we can rule out abstraction in our cousins at least, and possible apply the same rules to more distantly related mammals including carnivorae and cetaceans. Of course, I could be totally off my rocker and I really don't have that much to back me up.