Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Click languages

(Encyclopedia)Click languages: see African languages. ...

Polynesian languages

(Encyclopedia)Polynesian languages: see Malayo-Polynesian languages. ...

(Encyclopedia)Italic languages, subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages that may be divided into two groups. The first group consists of the ancient Italic languages and dialects that were once spoken in...

Arabic languages

(Encyclopedia)Arabic languages, members of the West Semitic group of the Semitic subdivision of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages). The Arabic languages comprise North Arabic (or simply...

Celtic languages

(Encyclopedia)Celtic languages, subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. At one time, during the Hellenistic period, Celtic speech extended all the way from Britain and the Iberian Peninsula in the west ...

Mon-Khmer languages

(Encyclopedia)Mon-Khmer languages mōn-kəmârˈ [key], group of languages frequently considered as a subfamily of the Southeast Asian family of languages. See Southeast Asian languages. ...

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...

Finno-Ugric languages

(Encyclopedia)Finno-Ugric languages fĭnˈō-o͞oˈgrĭk [key], also called Finno-Ugrian languages, group of languages forming a subdivision of the Uralic subfamily of the Ural-Altaic family of languages (see Urali...