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Navajo, language

(Encyclopedia)Navajo or Navaho, language belonging to the Athabascan branch of the Nadene linguistic family, or stock, of North America (including Mexico). See Native American languages. ...

Chinook, indigenous people of North America

(Encyclopedia)Chinook shĭno͝okˈ, chĭ– [key], Native American tribe of the Penutian linguistic stock. Altogether twelve main tribes spoke Chinook languages; all were in the Columbia River valley. The Chinook t...

case

(Encyclopedia)case, in language, one of the several possible forms of a given noun, pronoun, or adjective that indicates its grammatical function (see inflection); in inflected languages it is usually indicated by ...

Yurok

(Encyclopedia)Yurok yo͝orˈŏk [key], Native North Americans who in the mid-19th cent. occupied parts of NW California, particularly the area around the Klamath River. They were of the California cultural area but...

Abed, Sir Fazle Hasan

(Encyclopedia)Abed, Sir Fazle Hasan, 1936–2019, Bangladeshi humanitarian. After studying accounting in Britain, he returned (1968) to what was then East Pakistan and began working for Shell Pakistan. In 1970, dur...

Hortensius, Quintus

(Encyclopedia)Hortensius, Quintus kwĭnˈtəs hôrtĕnˈshəs [key], 114 b.c.–50 b.c., Roman orator. He was the favorite lawyer of the patrician party and made his name as defense counsel in the bribery and embez...

gong

(Encyclopedia)gong, percussion instrument consisting of a disk, usually with upturned edges, 3 ft (91 cm) or more in diameter in the modern orchestra, often made of bronze, and struck with a felt- or leather-covere...

Tan, Amy

(Encyclopedia)Tan, Amy, 1952–, American novelist, b. Oakland, Calif. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, she has taken for her theme the lives of Asian-Americans and the generational and cultural differences amon...

Persad-Bissessar, Kamla

(Encyclopedia)Persad-Bissessar, Kamla, 1952—, Trinidadian political leader. A lawyer of South Asian descent and a member of the United National Congress (UNC), she was appointed to Trinidad and Tobago's senate in...

Bosporus

(Encyclopedia)Bosporus –pərəs [key] [Gr.,=ox ford, in reference to the story of Io], Turk. Boğaziçi, strait, c.20 mi (30 km) long and c.2,100 ft (640 m) wide at its narrowest, separating European from Asian T...