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Assyrian language

(Encyclopedia)Assyrian language, East Semitic dialect that evolved from Akkadian after 1950 b.c. The term Assyrian is sometimes incorrectly used for the Akkadian language as a whole because the first inscriptions i...

Drummond, William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Drummond, William Henry, 1854–1907, Canadian poet, b. Ireland. For several years he worked and practiced medicine in frontier Canadian communities. There he came to know the French Canadians, whom h...

Corinna

(Encyclopedia)Corinna kərĭnˈə [key], fl. c.500? b.c., Greek poet of Tanagra. Her verse, fragments of which remain, deals with mythological themes and is written in Boeotian dialect. There exists no consensus on...

Grossi, Tommaso

(Encyclopedia)Grossi, Tommaso tôm-mäˈzō grôsˈsē [key], 1791–1853, Italian novelist and poet. Imitating his friend Manzoni, he wrote romantic historical novels, among them Marco Visconti (1834, tr. 1836). O...

Cursor Mundi

(Encyclopedia)Cursor Mundi kûrˈsôr mŭnˈdī [key], a long religious epic in Middle English relating the history of the world as recorded in the Old and New Testaments. This anonymous poem (written c.1300) is a ...

Thompson, William T.

(Encyclopedia)Thompson, William T., 1812–82, American humorist and editor, b. Ravenna, Ohio. He was founder and editor of the Savannah Morning News, which became one of the most prominent newspapers in Georgia. I...

Rustico di Filippo

(Encyclopedia)Rustico di Filippo ro͞oˈstēkō dē fēlēpˈpō [key], 13th cent. Italian poet. He was perhaps one of the first to use the Tuscan dialect in literature. Some 60 of his sonnets, most of them in a bu...

Trissino, Gian Giorgio

(Encyclopedia)Trissino, Gian Giorgio jän jôrˈjō trēs–sēˈnō [key], 1478–1550, Italian poet and philologist. His play Sofonisba (written 1515, produced 1557) introduced classical Greek dramatic techniques...

langue d'oc and langue d'oïl

(Encyclopedia)langue d'oc dôēlˈ [key], names of the two principal groups of medieval French dialects. Langue d'oc (literally, “language of yes”) was spoken south of a line running, roughly, from Bordeaux to ...

Gryphius, Andreas

(Encyclopedia)Gryphius, Andreas ändrāˈäs grüˈfēo͝os [key], 1616–64, German poet-dramatist, originally named Andreas Greif. He wrote in Latin, new High German, and Silesian dialect. Among his many sonnets,...