Languages, SCA-TAN

Language, a system of conventional spoken, manual, or written symbols by means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves. The functions of language include communication, the expression of identity, play, imaginative expression, and emotional release.
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Languages Encyclopedia Articles By Title

scansion
scansion, the analysis and visual representation of a poem’s metrical pattern. Adapted from the classical method......
Schlegel, August Wilhelm von
August Wilhelm von Schlegel was a German scholar and critic, one of the most influential disseminators of the ideas......
Schlegel, Friedrich von
Friedrich von Schlegel was a German writer and critic, originator of many of the philosophical ideas that inspired......
Schleicher, August
August Schleicher was a German linguist whose work in comparative linguistics was a summation of the achievements......
schwa
schwa, vowel, typically unstressed, represented in phonetic transcriptions by the symbol ə (upside-down e). It......
Scot, Michael
Michael Scot was a Scottish scholar and mathematician whose translations of Aristotle from Arabic and Hebrew into......
Scots Gaelic language
Scots Gaelic language, a member of the Goidelic group of Celtic languages, spoken along the northwest coast of......
Scots language
Scots language, historic language of the people of Lowland Scotland and one closely related to English. The word......
Sedang language
Sedang language, North Bahnaric language of the Mon-Khmer family, which is itself a part of the Austroasiatic stock.......
Sedley, Sir Charles, 4th Baronet
Sir Charles Sedley, 4th Baronet was an English Restoration poet, dramatist, wit, and courtier. Sedley attended......
Semelaic languages
Semelaic languages, (from Malay orang asli, “aborigines”), subbranch of the Aslian branch of the Mon-Khmer language......
Semitic languages
Semitic languages, languages that form a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language phylum. Members of the Semitic group......
Senoic languages
Senoic languages, subbranch of the Aslian branch of the Mon-Khmer language family, itself a part of the Austroasiatic......
Sereni, Vittorio
Vittorio Sereni was an Italian poet, author, editor, and translator who was known for his lyric verse and for his......
Shadwell, Thomas
Thomas Shadwell was an English dramatist and poet laureate, known for his broad comedies of manners and as the......
Shamir, Adi
Adi Shamir is an Israeli cryptographer and computer scientist and cowinner, with American computer scientists Leonard......
Shan language
Shan language, language spoken in the northern and eastern states of Myanmar (Burma) and belonging to the Southwestern......
Shelton, Thomas
Thomas Shelton was the first English translator of Don Quixote. His work (1612 and 1620) was based not on Cervantes’s......
Shorey, Paul
Paul Shorey was a U.S. scholar and Humanist noted for his writings on classical Greek art and thought. Shorey graduated......
shorthand
shorthand, Shorthand alphabetsEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.a system for rapid writing that uses symbols or abbreviations......
Shunga script
Shunga script, Brahmi script of North India that is associated with the Shunga dynasty (c. 185–73 bce). It may......
sibilant
sibilant, in phonetics, a fricative consonant sound, in which the tip, or blade, of the tongue is brought near......
Sicard, Roch-Ambroise Cucurron, Abbé
Roch-Ambroise Cucurron, Abbé Sicard was a French educator who was a pioneer in the teaching of the deaf. From 1786......
Sicel language
Sicel language, language spoken by the ancient Siculi (Sicels) in Italy and Sicily. The language is known from......
Sidetic language
Sidetic language, one of the most sparsely documented of the ancient Anatolian languages, Sidetic was spoken in......
sign language
sign language, any means of communication through bodily movements, especially of the hands and arms, used when......
Simrock, Karl Joseph
Karl Joseph Simrock was a German literary scholar and poet who preserved and made accessible much early German......
Sinaitic inscriptions
Sinaitic inscriptions, archaeological remains that are among the earliest examples of alphabetic writing; they......
Sindhi language
Sindhi language, Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 23 million people in Pakistan, mostly living in the southeastern......
Sinhalese language
Sinhalese language, Indo-Aryan language, one of the two official languages of Sri Lanka. It was taken there by......
Sino-Tibetan languages
Sino-Tibetan languages, group of languages that includes both the Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages. In terms......
Siouan languages
Siouan languages, family of languages in North America spread primarily across the Great Plains, extending from......
Siraiki language
Siraiki language, Indo-Aryan language spoken in Pakistan. The Siraiki-speaking region spreads across the southwestern......
slang
slang, unconventional words or phrases that express either something new or something old in a new way. It is flippant,......
Slaveykov, Pencho Petkov
Pencho Petkov Slaveykov was a Bulgarian writer who, with his father, Petko Rachev, introduced contemporary ideas......
Slovak language
Slovak language, West Slavic language closely related to Czech, Polish, and the Sorbian languages of eastern Germany.......
Slovene language
Slovene language, South Slavic language written in the Roman (Latin) alphabet and spoken in Slovenia and in adjacent......
Soga, Tiyo
Tiyo Soga was a Xhosa journalist, minister, translator, composer of hymns, and collector of black South African......
soliloquy
soliloquy, passage in a drama in which the thoughts or feelings of a character are expressed aloud while the character......
Sommer, Ferdinand
Ferdinand Sommer was a German historical linguist known primarily for his scholarship concerning Hittite and the......
Songhai languages
Songhai languages, group of closely related languages generally assumed to constitute the primary branch of the......
sonorant
sonorant, in phonetics, any of the nasal, liquid, and glide consonants that are marked by a continuing resonant......
Sorbian languages
Sorbian languages, closely related West Slavic languages or dialects; their small number of speakers in eastern......
Souei language
Souei language, language of northeastern Thailand, northern Cambodia, and parts of southern Laos. It belongs to......
South Arabian languages
South Arabian languages, two groups of Semitic languages in southern Arabia that were formerly thought to constitute......
South Picene language
South Picene language, an ancient Italic language (formerly referred to as Old Sabellic [Old Sabellian], or Central......
South Semitic alphabet
South Semitic alphabet, any of a group of minor scripts originating in the Arabian Peninsula in about 1000 bc,......
Spanish language
Spanish language, Romance language (Indo-European family) spoken as a first language by some 360 million people......
speculative grammar
speculative grammar, a linguistic theory of the Middle Ages, especially the second half of the 13th century. It......
speech act theory
speech act theory, Theory of meaning that holds that the meaning of linguistic expressions can be explained in......
speech disorder
speech disorder, any of the disorders that impair human speech. Human communication relies largely on the faculty......
speech synthesis
speech synthesis, generation of speech by artificial means, usually by computer. Production of sound to simulate......
Speedwriting
Speedwriting, shorthand system using the letters of the alphabet and punctuation marks. The name is a registered......
Sranan
Sranan, creole language spoken in Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana) in northeastern South America. Sranan is spoken......
Sre language
Sre language, dialect spoken in Vietnam, one of the approximately nine dialects of the Koho language, belonging......
Stanley, Thomas
Thomas Stanley was an English poet, translator, and the first English historian of philosophy. Stanley was the......
Staszic, Stanisław
Stanisław Staszic was the foremost political writer of the Enlightenment in Poland. Staszic came from a middle-class......
stenotypy
stenotypy, a system of machine shorthand in which letters or groups of letters phonetically represent syllables,......
Stolberg-Stolberg, Friedrich Leopold, Graf zu
Friedrich Leopold, Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg was a German lyric poet of the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress)......
stop
stop, in phonetics, a consonant sound characterized by the momentary blocking (occlusion) of some part of the oral......
Strand, Mark
Mark Strand was a Canadian poet, writer of short fiction, and translator whose poetry, noted for its surreal quality,......
Strange, Michael
Michael Strange was an American writer and performer who produced poetry and plays, acted onstage, and did readings......
stratificational grammar
stratificational grammar, system of grammatical analysis in which language is viewed as a network of relationships......
Streitberg, Wilhelm
Wilhelm Streitberg was a German historical linguist who, with Karl Brugmann, founded (1891) and edited Indogermanische......
stress
stress, in phonetics, intensity given to a syllable of speech by special effort in utterance, resulting in relative......
structuralism
structuralism, in linguistics, any one of several schools of 20th-century linguistics committed to the structuralist......
stuttering
stuttering, speech defect characterized by involuntary repetition of sounds or syllables and the intermittent blocking......
Sudanic languages
Sudanic languages, any of the African languages spoken from Ethiopia in the east to Senegal in the west. Unrelated......
Sulpicius Severus
Sulpicius Severus was an early Christian ascetic, a chief authority for contemporary Gallo-Roman history, who is......
Sumerian language
Sumerian language, language isolate and the oldest written language in existence. First attested about 3100 bce......
Sumerian writing
Sumerian writing, type of writing used by the ancient Sumerian civilization of southern Mesopotamia. It is the......
suprasegmental
suprasegmental, in phonetics, a speech feature such as stress, tone, or word juncture that accompanies or is added......
Surmic languages
Surmic languages, group of languages that are spoken in southwestern Ethiopia and neighbouring zones of South Sudan......
surname
surname, name added to a “given name” (also called the "first name"). In many cases the surname is inherited and......
Svan language
Svan language, unwritten language spoken in the high valleys south of Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus. Svan and the......
Swahili language
Swahili language, Bantu language spoken either as a mother tongue or as a fluent second language on the east coast......
Swedish language
Swedish language, the official language of Sweden and, with Finnish, one of the two national languages of Finland.......
Swenson, May
May Swenson was an American poet whose work is noted for its engaging imagery, intricate wordplay, and eccentric......
Swiss German language
Swiss German language, collective name for the great variety of Alemannic (Upper German) dialects spoken in Switzerland......
syllabary
syllabary, a set of written symbols used to represent the syllables of the words of a language. Writing systems......
syllable
syllable, a segment of speech that consists of a vowel, with or without one or more accompanying consonant sounds......
Sylvester, Josuah
Josuah Sylvester was an English poet-translator, best known as the translator of a popular biblical epic, the Divine......
Symonds, John Addington
John Addington Symonds was an English essayist, poet, and biographer best known for his cultural history of the......
synonym
synonym, word or phrase that has the same meaning as another one. It is formed from the Greek words syn, meaning......
syntax
syntax, the arrangement of words in sentences, clauses, and phrases, and the study of the formation of sentences......
synthetic language
synthetic language, any language in which syntactic relations within sentences are expressed by inflection (the......
Syriac alphabet
Syriac alphabet, writing system used by the Syriac Christians from the 1st century ad until about the 14th century.......
Syriac language
Syriac language, Semitic language belonging to the Northern Central, or Northwestern, group that was an important......
Szentkuthy, Miklos
Miklos Szentkuthy was a Hungarian writer who wrote complex experimental fiction that explored the absurdity of......
Sībawayh
Sībawayh was a celebrated grammarian of the Arabic language. After studying in Basra, Iraq, with a prominent grammarian,......
table talk
table talk, informal conversation at or as if at a dining table; especially, the social talk of a celebrity recorded......
Tagalog language
Tagalog language, member of the Central Philippine branch of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family......
tagmemics
tagmemics, a system of linguistic analysis developed by the American linguist Kenneth L. Pike in the 1950s and......
Tai languages
Tai languages, closely related family of languages, of which the Thai language of Thailand is the most important......
Taman languages
Taman languages, group of languages that form part of the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family.......
Tamil language
Tamil language, member of the Dravidian language family, spoken primarily in India. It is the official language......
Tanizaki Jun’ichirō
Tanizaki Jun’ichirō was a major modern Japanese novelist, whose writing is characterized by eroticism and ironic......

Languages Encyclopedia Articles By Title