Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

sign language

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Manual alphabet sign language, gestural communication used as an alternative or replacement for speech. Sign languages resemble oral languages in every way other than their modality. As with o...

Siamese language

(Encyclopedia)Siamese language: see Thai language. ...

Polish language

(Encyclopedia)Polish language, member of the West Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Slavic languages). Polish is spoken as a first language by about 38 million peopl...

Russian language

(Encyclopedia)Russian language, also called Great Russian, member of the East Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Slavic languages). The principal language of administ...

programming language

(Encyclopedia)programming language, syntax, grammar, and symbols or words used to give instructions to a computer. Once the program is written and has had any errors repaired (a process called debugging), it may ...

Provençal language

(Encyclopedia)Provençal language prôväNsälˈ [key]: see Occitan. ...

Pilipino language

(Encyclopedia)Pilipino language, form of Tagalog used in the Philippines. See Malayo-Polynesian languages. ...

Pehlevi language

(Encyclopedia)Pehlevi language: see Pahlavi language. ...

Persian language

(Encyclopedia)Persian language, member of the Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Indo-Iranian languages). The official language of Iran, it has about 38 millio...

Basques

(Encyclopedia)Basques băsks [key], people of N Spain and SW France. There are about 2 million Basques in the three Basque provs. and Navarre, Spain; some 250,000 in Labourd, Soule, and Lower Navarre, France; and c...