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accent

(Encyclopedia)accent, in speech, emphasis given a particular sound, called prosodic systems in linguistics. There are three basic accentual methods: stress, tone, and length. In English each word has at least one p...

Conrad, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Conrad, Joseph, 1857–1924, English novelist, b. Berdichev, Russia (now Berdychiv, Ukraine), originally named Jósef Teodor Konrad Walecz Korzeniowski. Born of Polish parents, he is considered one of...

Gray, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Gray, Thomas, 1716–71, English poet. He was educated at Eton and Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1739 he began a grand tour of the Continent with Horace Walpole. They quarreled in Italy, and Gray returned...

Aruba

(Encyclopedia)Aruba əro͞oˈbə [key], island, autonomous part of the Netherlands (2015 est. pop. 104,000), 69 sq mi (179 sq km), in the Lesser Antilles off the coast of Venezuela. Oranjestad is the capital and ma...

Tudor, Antony

(Encyclopedia)Tudor, Antony, 1909–87, English choreographer and dancer. Tudor went to the United States at the invitation of the Ballet Theatre, New York City (1939); he danced leading roles and created ballets f...

Nicolson, Marjorie Hope

(Encyclopedia)Nicolson, Marjorie Hope, 1894–1981, American educator, b. Yonkers, N.Y., grad. Univ. of Michigan (B.A., 1914; M.A., 1918) and Yale (Ph.D., 1920). She was dean and professor at Smith from 1929 to 194...

MacDiarmid, Hugh

(Encyclopedia)MacDiarmid, Hugh məkdûrˈmĭd, –mĭt [key], pseud. of Christopher Murray Grieve, 1892–1978, Scottish poet and critic, b. Langholm, Dumfrieshire. Passionately devoted to Communism and to Scottish...

Gelman, Juan

(Encyclopedia)Gelman, Juan, 1930–2014, Argentine poet, b. Buenos Aires. He published more than 20 books of verse. Many of his poems reflect his left-wing political views, speaking out against oppression and injus...

Popol Vuh

(Encyclopedia)Popol Vuh pōpōlˈ vo͞oˈ [key] [Quiché,=collection of the council], sacred book of the Quiché. The most important document of the cosmogony, religion, mythology, migratory traditions, and history...

Native American languages

(Encyclopedia)Native American languages, languages of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere and their descendants. A number of the Native American languages that were spoken at the time of the European arriv...