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prose

(Encyclopedia)prose [Lat. prosa oratio=straightforward, or direct, speech], meaningful and grammatical written or spoken language that does not utilize the metrical structure, word transposition, or rhyme character...

Šafařik, Pavel Josef

(Encyclopedia)Šafařik, Pavel Josef päˈvĕl yôˈzĕf shäˈfär-zhēk [key], 1795–1861, Czech philologist and archaeologist; his name is also spelled Schafarik and Schafřík. Šafařik advanced the theory th...

San Juan, pueblo, United States

(Encyclopedia)San Juan, pueblo (1990 pop. 1,821), Rio Arriba co., N N.Mex., on the Rio Grande; settled 1598 by Juan de Oñate. A Franciscan mission was later established. It was the home of Popé, the medicine man ...

Open University

(Encyclopedia)Open University, headquartered at Milton Keynes, England; founded 1969 as the Univ. of the Air. In 1971 a distance learning program was begun that now consists of correspondence courses integrated wit...

Tegnér, Esaias

(Encyclopedia)Tegnér, Esaias ĕsīˈäs tĕng-nârˈ [key], 1782–1846, Swedish poet, bishop of Växjö. Tegnér was the most popular of the Swedish romantic poets. An optimistic nationalist and liberal in his yo...

Verner, Karl Adolf

(Encyclopedia)Verner, Karl Adolf vûrˈnər, Dan. kärl äˈdôlf vĕrˈnər [key], 1846–96, Danish philologist. Verner was a librarian at the Univ. of Halle (now in E Germany) and a professor of Slavonic languag...

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Jacques Henri

(Encyclopedia)Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Jacques Henri zhäk äNrēˈ bĕrnärdăNˈ də săN–pyĕrˈ [key], 1737–1814, French naturalist and author. He was a friend of Rousseau, by whom he was strongly influen...

Romance languages

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Romance languages, group of languages belonging to the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Italic languages). Also called Romanic, they are spoken by about 670 millio...

Romani

(Encyclopedia)Romani or Romany both: rŏmˈənē, rōˈ– [key], people known historically in English as Gypsies and their language. 1 A traditionally nomadic people with particular folkways and a unique language,...

phonetics

(Encyclopedia)phonetics fōnĕtˈĭks, fə– [key], study of the sounds of languages from three basic points of view. Phonetics studies speech sounds according to their production in the vocal organs (articulatory...