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Chickasaw

(Encyclopedia)Chickasaw chĭkˈəsô [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Muskogean branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). They occupied N Mississippi an...

Celtic languages

(Encyclopedia)Celtic languages, subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. At one time, during the Hellenistic period, Celtic speech extended all the way from Britain and the Iberian Peninsula in the west ...

Amyot, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Amyot or Amiot, Joseph ämyōˈ [key], 1718–1794?, French Roman Catholic missionary in China, a Jesuit. He wrote a long treatise on the history, sciences, and customs of the Chinese (15 vol., 1776�...

Palsgrave, John

(Encyclopedia)Palsgrave, John pălzˈgrāv, pôlzˈ– [key], d. 1554, English scholar, educated at Oxford and at the Univ. of Paris. Palsgrave was tutor to Henry VIII's daughter Mary (later Mary I), who used her i...

Lacombe, Albert

(Encyclopedia)Lacombe, Albert älbĕrˈ läkôNbˈ [key], 1827–1916, French Canadian Roman Catholic missionary. He studied at Assomption College in Quebec prov. before he joined the Oblate order and was ordained ...

Mayotte

(Encyclopedia)Mayotte mīŏtˈ [key], island (2015 est. pop. 240,000), 144 sq mi (374 sq km), French departmental collectivity, Indian Ocean, in the Comoro chain. Mamoudzou is the capital and largest city. The land...

Walloons

(Encyclopedia)Walloons wŏlo͞onzˈ [key], group of people living in S Belgium who traditionally spoke a dialect of French called Walloon, but who today for the most part speak standard French. The Walloons, number...

Corsica

(Encyclopedia)Corsica kôrˈsĭkə [key], Fr. Corse, island, 3,352 sq mi (8,682 sq km), a region of metropo...

Du Bellay, Joachim

(Encyclopedia)Du Bellay, Joachim bĕlāˈ [key], 1522?–1560, French poet of the Pléiade (see under Pleiad). He wrote their manifesto, La Deffence et illustration de la langue francoyse (1549), which urges the s...

Jeux Floraux, Académie des

(Encyclopedia)Jeux Floraux, Académie des äkädāmēˈ dā jö flôrōˈ [key] [Fr.,=academy of floral games], one of the oldest known literary societies. It was founded (c.1323) at Toulouse, France, by seven trou...