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Ido

(Encyclopedia)Ido ēˈdō [key], short name of Esperandido, an artificial language that is a simplified version of Esperanto. See international language. ...

Japanese

(Encyclopedia)Japanese jăpˌənēzˈ [key], language of uncertain origin that is spoken by more than 125 million people, most of whom live in Japan. There are also many speakers of Japanese in the Ryukyu Islands, ...

Safire, William L.

(Encyclopedia)Safire, William L. săfˈīrˌ [key], 1929–2009, American journalist and speechwriter, b. New York City as William Safir. A former reporter and public-relations executive, he became a speechwriter (...

Burmese

(Encyclopedia)Burmese, language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages). It is spoken by about 30 million people in Myanmar, where it is both th...

Interlingua

(Encyclopedia)Interlingua ĭnˌtərlĭngˈgwə [key], name of an artificial language introduced in 1951; also the name of a simplified form of Latin (sometimes called Latino Sine Flexione, or “Latin without infle...

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...

Melchior, Lauritz

(Encyclopedia)Melchior, Lauritz mĕlˈkēôr [key], 1890–1973, Danish heroic tenor. He made his debut in Copenhagen in 1913, singing a baritone role in I Pagliacci, and sang regularly at the Bayreuth Festivals f...

Maldon

(Encyclopedia)Maldon môlˈdən [key], town (1991 pop. 14,754) and district, Essex, E England, on the Blackwater estuary. Maldon is a market town with iron foundries and other small industries. The Maldon area has ...

Rainwater, James

(Encyclopedia)Rainwater, James, 1917–86, American physicist, Ph.D. Columbia, 1946. After working on the Manhattan Project as a student during World War II, he became a professor of physics at Columbia in 1952. Hi...

Bartholin

(Encyclopedia)Bartholin bärˈtōlēn [key], renowned Scandinavian family. Kaspar Bartholin, 1585–1629, b. Sweden, was a Danish physician. He was professor of medicine and later of theology at the Univ. of Copenh...