Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Weinreich, Uriel

(Encyclopedia)Weinreich, Uriel, 1926–67, Polish-American linguist, b. Vilnius, Poland (now in Lithuania), Ph.D. Columbia Univ., 1951. Weinreich taught linguistics at Columbia (1951–67) and is noted for his cont...

Greek language

(Encyclopedia)Greek language, member of the Indo-European family of languages (see Indo-European). It is the language of one of the major civilizations of the world and of one of the greatest literatures of all tim...

Japanese

(Encyclopedia)Japanese jăpˌənēzˈ [key], language of uncertain origin that is spoken by more than 125 million people, most of whom live in Japan. There are also many speakers of Japanese in the Ryukyu Islands, ...

Micronesia

(Encyclopedia)Micronesia mīkrōnēˈzhə, –shə [key], one of the three main divisions of Oceania, in W Pacific Ocean, north of the equator. Micronesia includes the Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands, Mariana Is...

Montagnais and Naskapi

(Encyclopedia)Montagnais năsˈkəpē [key], aboriginal peoples originally from Labrador, Canada. Because they both spoke almost identical Algonquian languages and had similar customs, the two groups are often link...

Mandeville, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Mandeville, Sir John, 14th-century English author of The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. Originally written in Norman French, the work became enormously popular and was translated into English, Latin,...

Kalispel

(Encyclopedia)Kalispel pŏnˌdərāˈ [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Salishan branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). The Kalispel were given...

Hindi

(Encyclopedia)Hindi hĭnˈdē [key], language belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. The official language of India, Hindi is the written or literary va...

Anquetil-Duperron, Abraham Hyacinthe

(Encyclopedia)Anquetil-Duperron, Abraham Hyacinthe düpĕrôNˈ [key], 1731–1805, French Orientalist. He gave up studying for the priesthood to pursue his deep interest in Eastern languages. In India (1755–61) ...

Andrewes, Lancelot

(Encyclopedia)Andrewes, Lancelot ănˈdro͞oz [key], 1555–1626, Anglican divine, bishop of Chichester (1605), Ely (1609), and Winchester (1619). One of the most learned men of his time (his knowledge encompassed ...