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Indo-European

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Indo-European, family of languages having more speakers than any other language family. It is estimated that approximately half the world's population speaks an Indo-European tongue as a first ...

Rückert, Friedrich

(Encyclopedia)Rückert, Friedrich frīˈmo͝ont rīˈmär [key], 1788–1866, German scholar and poet. An editor and professor of Oriental languages, he wrote imitations of Asian and Middle Eastern poetry and made ...

Smith, William Robertson

(Encyclopedia)Smith, William Robertson, 1846–94, Scottish biblical scholar and Orientalist. He studied for the ministry of the Free Church of Scotland. From 1870 he was professor of Oriental languages and Old Tes...

lingua franca

(Encyclopedia)lingua franca lĭngˈgwə frăngˈkə [key], an auxiliary language, generally of a hybrid and partially developed nature, that is employed over an extensive area by people speaking different and mutua...

Hindustani

(Encyclopedia)Hindustani hĭndo͞ostänˈē [key], subdivision of the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian languages, which ...

Syriac

(Encyclopedia)Syriac sērˈēăkˌ [key], late dialect of Aramaic, which is a West Semitic language (see Afroasiatic languages). The early Christians of Mesopotamia and Syria gave the Greek name Syriac to the Arama...

Indo-European Family of Languages, The (table)

(Encyclopedia)The Indo-European Family of Languages * Asterisk indicates a dead language. ...

inflection

(Encyclopedia)inflection, in grammar. In many languages, words or parts of words are arranged in formally similar sets consisting of a root, or base, and various affixes. Thus walking, walks, walker have in common ...

American University in Cairo

(Encyclopedia)American University in Cairo, at Cairo, Egypt; English language; founded 1919. It has faculties of anthropology, computer science, economics and political science, engineering, English and comparative...

alphabet

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Examples of letters in various alphabets (arrows indicate the direction of reading) alphabet [Gr. alpha-beta, like Eng. ABC], system of writing, theoretically having a one-for-one relation bet...