From what I can tell, the main difference between Wolfram and Matlab/Julia (other than syntax) is a database of various facts. Is that a fair assessment?
Is there a way to access the database without the language?
It's based on rewriting symbolic terms (similar to Lisp's s-expressions) using rules.
It then originally has a large library of facts and rules for a large amount of mathematical domains. This has been expanded over time into lots of knowledge about the world (physics, biology, astronomy, ...).
Programming is often done with multimedia-rich notebooks.
Is there a way to access the database without the language?