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accent

(Encyclopedia)accent, in speech, emphasis given a particular sound, called prosodic systems in linguistics. There are three basic accentual methods: stress, tone, and length. In English each word has at least one p...

measure

(Encyclopedia)measure, in music, a metrical unit having a given number of beats, the first of which normally is accented, although the accent may be displaced by syncopation. Measures are separated on the staff by ...

ablaut

(Encyclopedia)ablaut äpˈlout [key] [Ger.,=off-sound], in inflection, vowel variation (as in English sing, sang, sung, song) caused by former differences in syllabic accent. In a prehistoric period the correspondi...

umlaut

(Encyclopedia)umlaut o͝omˈlout [key] [Ger.,=transformed sound], in inflection, variation of vowels of the type of English man to men. In this instance it is the end product of the effect of a y (long since disapp...

punctuation

(Encyclopedia)punctuation [Lat.,=point], the use of special signs in writing to clarify how words are used; the term also refers to the signs themselves. In every language, besides the sounds of the words that are ...

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...

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...

sociolinguistics

(Encyclopedia)sociolinguistics, the study of language as it affects and is affected by social relations. Sociolinguistics encompasses a broad range of concerns, including bilingualism, pidgin and creole languages, ...

Díaz del Castillo, Bernal

(Encyclopedia)Díaz del Castillo, Bernal bārnälˈ dēˈäth dĕl kästēˈlyō [key], c.1492–1581, Spanish conquistador and chronicler. He had served in the New World under various commanders—Pedro Arias de ...

alphanumeric

(Encyclopedia)alphanumeric ălˌfəmĕrˈĭk [key], the set of letters and numbers. When used in reference to computer input and output, the set usually is expanded to include the upper- and lower-case alphabetic c...

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