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Jean, Michaëlle

(Encyclopedia)Jean, Michaëlle, 1957–, Canadian journalist, filmmaker, and women's rights activist, b. Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Her family immigrated to Canada in 1968. After studying languages and literature at th...

Mbundu

(Encyclopedia)Mbundu əmbo͞onˈdo͞o [key], black African ethnic group, W Angola. The Mbundu speak Bantu languages and number about 6 million. By the late 15th cent. they had formed the Ndongo kingdom, ruled by th...

Varenius, Bernhardus

(Encyclopedia)Varenius, Bernhardus bĕrnˈhärt fäˈrən [key], 1622–50, Dutch geographer. He studied to be a physician, but instead focused on geography. His first work was a geography and history of Japan, Des...

Toy, Crawford Howell

(Encyclopedia)Toy, Crawford Howell, 1836–1919, American biblical scholar, b. Norfolk, Va., M.A. Univ. of Virginia, 1856. He also studied (1859–60) at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Greenville, S.C.,...

Pinyin

(Encyclopedia)Pinyin pĭnˈyĭnˈ [key] [Chin. Hanyu pinyin = Chinese phonetic alphabet], system of romanization of Chinese written characters, approved in 1958 by the government of the People's Republic of Chi...

Polyglot Bible

(Encyclopedia)Polyglot Bible pŏlˈēglŏt [key], Bible in which different texts, often in different languages, are laid out in parallel columns. Polyglot Bibles serve as tools for textual criticism. Origen's Hexap...

Pomo

(Encyclopedia)Pomo, Native Americans of N California, belonging to the Hokan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). The Pomo were the most southerly Native Americans on the Cal...

Egyptian language

(Encyclopedia)Egyptian language, extinct language of ancient Egypt, a member of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages). The development of ancient Egyptian is usually divided into four peri...

Pygmy

(Encyclopedia)Pygmy or Pigmy both: pĭgˈmē [key], term used for dark-skinned people who live in equatorial rain forests and average less than 59 in. (150 cm) in height. Some studies make a distinction between Neg...

Eikon Basilike

(Encyclopedia)Eikon Basilike īˈkŏn bəsĭlˈĭkē [key] [Gr.,=royal image], subtitled “the Portraiture of His Sacred Majesty in His Solitudes and Sufferings,” a work published soon after the execution of Cha...