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Arabic languages

(Encyclopedia)Arabic languages, members of the West Semitic group of the Semitic subdivision of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages). The Arabic languages comprise North Arabic (or simply...

Afroasiatic languages

(Encyclopedia)Afroasiatic languages hămˈĭtō-səmĭtˈĭk [key], family of languages spoken by more than 250 million people in N Africa; much of the Sahara; parts of E, central, and W Africa; and W Asia (especia...

Arabic literature

(Encyclopedia)Arabic literature, literary works written in the Arabic language. The great body of Arabic literature includes works by Arabic speaking Turks, Persians, Syrians, Egyptians, Indians, Jews, and other Af...

Dravidian languages

(Encyclopedia)Dravidian languages drəvĭdˈēən [key], family of about 23 languages that appears to be unrelated to any other known language family. The Dravidian languages are spoken by more than 200 million peo...

African languages

(Encyclopedia)African languages, geographic rather than linguistic classification of languages spoken on the African continent. Historically the term refers to the languages of sub-Saharan Africa, which do not belo...

Malayo-Polynesian languages

(Encyclopedia)Malayo-Polynesian languages ôˌstrōnēˈzhən [key], family of languages estimated at from 300 to 500 tongues and understood by approximately 300 million people in Madagascar; the Malay Peninsula; I...

Dardic languages

(Encyclopedia)Dardic languages därˈdĭk [key], group of languages belonging to the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. See Indo-Iranian. ...

Click languages

(Encyclopedia)Click languages: see African languages. ...

Italic languages

(Encyclopedia)Italic languages, subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages that may be divided into two groups. The first group consists of the ancient Italic languages and dialects that were once spoken in...

Iranian languages

(Encyclopedia)Iranian languages, group of languages belonging to the Indo-Iranian family of the Indo-European family of languages. See Indo-Iranian languages. ...