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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...

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...

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...

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...

Australian languages

(Encyclopedia)Australian languages, aboriginal languages spoken on the continent of Australia. The Australian languages do not appear to be related to any other linguistic family. The exact number of these language...

Hamitic languages

(Encyclopedia)Hamitic languages, subfamily of the Hamito-Semitic family of languages, a now-abandoned system of classification for languages of N Africa and SW Asia. The Egyptian, Berber, Cushitic, and (sometimes) ...

Paleosiberian languages

(Encyclopedia)Paleosiberian languages pāˌlēōsībērˈēən [key], also called Paleoasiatic or Hyperborean languages, family of languages spoken by about 15,000 indigenous inhabitants of Siberia. Of these, most ...

Munda languages

(Encyclopedia)Munda languages mo͝onˈdə [key], group of languages generally regarded as a subfamily of the Southeast Asian family of languages. See Southeast Asian languages. ...