Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Greek literature, modern

(Encyclopedia)Greek literature, modern, literature written in Greek in the modern era, primarily beginning during the period of rebellion against the rule of the Ottoman Empire. In general, 20th-century Greek lit...

Dutch language

(Encyclopedia)Dutch language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Also called Netherlandish, it is spoken by about 15 milli...

Danish language

(Encyclopedia)Danish language, member of the North Germanic, or Scandinavian, group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. The official language of Denmark, it is spoken by over 5 milli...

creole language

(Encyclopedia)creole language krēōlˈ [key], any language that began as a pidgin but was later adopted as the mother tongue by a people in place of the original mother tongue or tongues. Examples are the Gullah o...

Czech language

(Encyclopedia)Czech language chĕk [key], in the past sometimes also called Bohemian, member of the West Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Slavic languages). The off...

Finnish language

(Encyclopedia)Finnish language, also called Suomi, member of the Finnic group of the Finno-Ugric languages. These languages form a subdivision of the Uralic subfamily of the Ural-Altaic family of languages (see Ura...

Italian language

(Encyclopedia)CEE Italian language, member of the Romance group of the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Romance languages). The official language of Italy and San Marino, and one of...

Irish language

(Encyclopedia)Irish language, also called Irish Gaelic and Erse, member of the Goidelic group of the Celtic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Celtic languages). The history of Irish as a liter...

Hungarian language

(Encyclopedia)Hungarian language, also called Magyar, member of the Ugric group of the Finno-Ugric languages. These languages form a subdivision of the Uralic subfamily of the Ural-Altaic family of languages (see U...

Browse by Subject