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Latvian

(Encyclopedia)Latvian or Lettish lĕtˈĭsh [key], a language belonging to the Baltic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Baltic languages). The mother tongue of close to 3 million persons livin...

Komi

(Encyclopedia)Komi kōˈmē, kôˈ– [key], Finnic people of the northeastern part of European Russia. There are two traditional branches of the Komi—Zyrians and Permyaks. The Zyrians are now officially called K...

transformational-generative grammar

(Encyclopedia)transformational-generative grammar, linguistic theory associated with Noam Chomsky, particularly with his Syntactic Structures (1957), and with Chomsky's teacher Zellig Harris. Generative grammar att...

synonym

(Encyclopedia)synonym sĭnˈənĭm [key] [Gr.,=having the same name], word having a meaning that is the same as or very similar to the meaning of another word of the same language. Some are alike in some meanings o...

phonology

(Encyclopedia)phonology, study of the sound systems of languages. It is distinguished from phonetics, which is the study of the production, perception, and physical properties of speech sounds; phonology attempts t...

Quine, W. V.

(Encyclopedia)Quine, W. V. (Willard Van Orman Quine) kwīn [key], 1908–2000, American philosopher and mathematical logician, b. Akron, Ohio, grad. Oberlin, 1930. He studied at Harvard (Ph.D., 1932) under Alfred N...

Lachish

(Encyclopedia)Lachish lāˈkĭsh [key], city, S ancient Palestine, SW of Jerusalem, in present-day Israel. It is mentioned in the Tell el Amarna letters and was one of the Amorite cities allied against the Gibeonit...

Karaites

(Encyclopedia)Karaites or Caraites both: kârˈəīts [key], form of Judaism, reputedly founded (8th cent.) in Persia by Anan ben David and originally known as Ananites. Its adherents were called Karaites after the...

parable

(Encyclopedia)parable, the term translates the Hebrew word “mashal”—a term denoting a metaphor, or an enigmatic saying or an analogy. In the Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition, however, “parables” were illu...

Serbo-Croatian

(Encyclopedia)Serbo-Croatian sûrˈbō-krōāˈshən [key], language belonging to the South Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Slavic languages). Serbo-Croatian compr...

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