Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

203 results found

Southeast Asian languages

(Encyclopedia)Southeast Asian languages, family of languages, sometimes also called Austroasiatic, spoken in SE Asia by about 80 million people. According to one school of thought, it has three subfamilies: the Mon...

Baluchi

(Encyclopedia)Baluchi bəlo͞oˈchē [key], language belonging to the Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. See Indo-Iranian languages. ...

Gujarati

(Encyclopedia)Gujarati go͝oˌjəräˈtē [key], language belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. See Indo-Iranian languages. ...

Hadad, in ancient Middle Eastern religions

(Encyclopedia)Hadad āˈdăd [key], ancient weather god of Semitic origin, worshiped in Babylonia and Assyria. Important throughout the Middle East, he was worshiped under many names. As god of the storm, he was, a...

Streicher, Julius

(Encyclopedia)Streicher, Julius yo͞oˈlyo͝os shtrīˈkhər [key], 1885–1946, German National Socialist (Nazi) leader. An early party member, originally a schoolteacher, he aired his sadistic and anti-Semitic ma...

Sinhalese

(Encyclopedia)Sinhalese sĭnˌhəlēzˈ [key], language belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. An alternate spelling for Sinhalese is Singhalese. See In...

Sumer

(Encyclopedia)Sumer so͝o-mērˈēən [key]. The term Sumer is used today to designate the southern part of ancient Mesopotamia. From the earliest date of which there is any record, S Mesopotamia was occupied by a ...

Tibeto-Burman languages

(Encyclopedia)Tibeto-Burman languages, subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. See Sino-Tibetan languages; Burmese; Tibetan language. ...

Gobineau, Joseph Arthur, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Gobineau, Joseph Arthur, comte de zhôzĕfˈ ärtürˈ kôNt də gōbēnōˈ [key], 1816–82, French diplomat and man of letters. The chief early French proponent of the theory of Nordic supremacy, h...

Goidelic

(Encyclopedia)Goidelic goidĕlˈĭk [key], or Gaelic, group of languages belonging to the Celtic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. See Celtic languages; Irish language. ...

Browse by Subject