Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Sino-Tibetan languages

(Encyclopedia)Sino-Tibetan languages, family of languages spoken by over a billion people in central and SE Asia. This linguistic family is second only to the Indo-European stock in the number of its speakers. It i...

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 ...

Hoffmann, Max

(Encyclopedia)Hoffmann, Max, 1869–1927, German general in World War I. A brilliant strategist, he contributed to the German victory over the Russians at Tannenberg and in 1916 became chief of staff of the eastern...

Sherbrooke, University of

(Encyclopedia)Sherbrooke, University of, at Sherbrooke, Que., Canada; French language; founded 1954. It has faculties of letters and human sciences, science, administration, law, applied science, medicine, educatio...

Schulze-Delitzsch, Hermann

(Encyclopedia)Schulze-Delitzsch, Hermann hĕrˈmän sho͝olˈtsə-dāˈlĭch [key], 1808–83, German liberal politician and economic reformer. Believing in economic self-help by cooperative associations, he founde...

Amharic

(Encyclopedia)Amharic ămhârˈĭk [key], language of Ethiopia belonging to the South Ethiopic group of South Semitic languages, which, in turn, belong to the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of language...

Huastec

(Encyclopedia)Huastec wäsˈtĕk [key], indigenous people of the Pánuco River basin, E Mexico. They speak a Mayan language but are isolated from the rest of the Mayan stock, from whom they may have been separated ...

Mistral, Frédéric

(Encyclopedia)Mistral, Frédéric frādārēkˈ mēsträlˈ [key], 1830–1914, French Provençal poet. With Théodore Aubanel he was one of the seven founders (1854) of the Félibrige, an organization to promote P...

Sogdiana

(Encyclopedia)Sogdiana sŏgdēāˈnə [key], part of the ancient Persian Empire in central Asia between the Oxus (Amu Darya) and Jaxartes (Syr Darya) rivers. Corresponding to the later emirate of Bukhara and region...

Oder-Neisse line

(Encyclopedia)Oder-Neisse line, frontier established in 1945 between Germany and Poland; it followed the Oder and W Neisse rivers from the Baltic Sea to the Czechoslovak border. The boundary, desired by most Poles ...

Browse by Subject