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Indo-Iranian

(Encyclopedia)Indo-Iranian, subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages, spoken by more than a billion people, chiefly in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (see The Indo-Eu...

Whorf, Benjamin Lee

(Encyclopedia)Whorf, Benjamin Lee hwôrf [key], 1897–1941, American linguist and anthropologist, b. Winthrop, Mass. Although he was trained in chemical engineering and worked for an insurance company, Whorf made ...

grammar

(Encyclopedia)grammar, description of the structure of a language, consisting of the sounds (see phonology); the meaningful combinations of these sounds into words or parts of words, called morphemes; and the arran...

Carnap, Rudolf

(Encyclopedia)Carnap, Rudolf kärˈnäp, –năp [key], 1891–1970, German-American philosopher. He taught philosophy at the Univ. of Vienna (1926–31) and at the German Univ. in Prague (1931–35). After going t...

Ekimov, Alexei

(Encyclopedia)Alexei Ekimov, 1945– , b. Leningrad, USSR, Russian physicist, studied at Leningrad State University and Ioffe Institute of the Russian Academy of Scie...

Diomede Islands

(Encyclopedia)Diomede Islands dīˈəmēd [key], pair of rocky islands in Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia. The larger island, Big Diomede, is Russian, while the smaller is part of Alaska. At 2 mi (3 km) ap...

Derzhavin, Gavril Romanovich

(Encyclopedia)Derzhavin, Gavril Romanovich gəvrēlˈ rəmäˈnəvĭch dyĭrzhäˈvĭn [key], 1743–1816, Russian classical poet. His satirical ode to Catherine II, Felitsa (1782), won her favor, and he became poe...

Gladkov, Feodor Vasilyevich

(Encyclopedia)Gladkov, Feodor Vasilyevich fyôˈdər vəsēˈlyəvĭch glətkôfˈ [key], 1883–1958, Russian author. Born into poverty, Gladkov spent his youth wandering along the Volga and in the N Caucasus read...

Golovnin, Vasily Mikhailovich

(Encyclopedia)Golovnin, Vasily Mikhailovich vəsēˈlyē mēkhīˈləvĭch gələvnyēnˈ [key], 1776–1831, Russian explorer and writer. Sent in 1807 to make a geographical survey of Kamchatka and the Russian pos...

Gordon, Judah Leon

(Encyclopedia)Gordon, Judah Leon, 1830–92, Russian-Hebrew novelist and poet, b. Vilna. As teacher and writer he was one of the leaders in the renaissance of a progressive culture among the Jews (see Haskalah) and...