Languages, CAP-DEF

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

Cappel, Louis
Louis Cappel was a French Huguenot theologian and Hebrew scholar. Cappel studied theology at Sedan and Saumur,......
Carew, Richard
Richard Carew was an English scholar and antiquary known especially for a history of Cornwall that gives an interesting......
Carey, William
William Carey was the founder of the English Baptist Missionary Society (1792), a lifelong missionary to India,......
Carian language
Carian language, an extinct Anatolian language once spoken in Caria, an ancient district of southwest Anatolia.......
Cariban languages
Cariban languages, a group of South American Indian languages that were spoken before the Spanish conquest from......
Carnap, Rudolf
Rudolf Carnap was a German-born American philosopher of logical positivism. He made important contributions to......
Caro, Annibale
Annibale Caro was a Roman lyric poet, satirist, and translator, remembered chiefly for his translation of Virgil’s......
carpe diem
carpe diem, phrase used by the Roman poet Horace to express the idea that one should enjoy life while one can.......
Carson, Anne
Anne Carson is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator, and classicist whose work treats classical subjects in what......
Carter, Elizabeth
Elizabeth Carter was an English poet, translator, and member of a famous group of literary “bluestockings” who......
Cary, Henry Francis
Henry Francis Cary was an English biographer and translator best known for his blank verse translation of The Divine......
Casaubon, Isaac
Isaac Casaubon was a French classical scholar and theologian who was one of the leading scholars of the era. Casaubon......
Cassius Dionysius
Cassius Dionysius was an ancient North African writer on botany and medicinal substances, best known for his Greek......
Castelvetro, Lodovico
Lodovico Castelvetro was a dominant literary critic of the Italian Renaissance, particularly noted for his translation......
Castilho, António Feliciano de
António Feliciano de Castilho was a poet and translator, a central figure in the Portuguese Romantic movement.......
Castilian dialect
Castilian dialect, a dialect of the Spanish language (q.v.), the basis of modern standard Spanish. Originally the......
Castrén, Matthias Alexander
Matthias Alexander Castrén was a Finnish nationalist and pioneer in the study of remote Arctic and Siberian Uralic......
Catalan language
Catalan language, Romance language spoken in eastern and northeastern Spain—chiefly in Catalonia and Valencia—and......
Caucasian languages
Caucasian languages, group of languages indigenous to Transcaucasia and adjacent areas of the Caucasus region,......
Cavafy, Constantine P.
Constantine P. Cavafy was a Greek poet who developed his own consciously individual style and thus became one of......
caveat emptor
caveat emptor, (Latin: “let the buyer beware”), in the law of commercial transactions, principle that the buyer......
Caxton, William
William Caxton was the first English printer, who, as a translator and publisher, exerted an important influence......
Cebuano language
Cebuano language, member of the Western, or Indonesian, branch of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language......
Celtic languages
Celtic languages, branch of the Indo-European language family, spoken throughout much of Western Europe in Roman......
Celto-Iberian language
Celto-Iberian language, extinct Indo-European language of the western part of the Iberian Peninsula. Celto-Iberian......
Central Sudanic languages
Central Sudanic languages, a group of more than 30 languages that form a subbranch of the Nilo-Saharan language......
Cesarotti, Melchiorre
Melchiorre Cesarotti was an Italian poet, essayist, translator, and literary critic who, by his essays and his......
Cevdet Paşa, Ahmed
Ahmed Cevdet Paşa was a statesman and historian, a major figure in 19th-century Turkish letters. Cevdet went to......
Chadic languages
Chadic languages, superfamily of languages in the Afro-Asiatic phylum. Some 140 or more Chadic languages are spoken,......
Chalcidian alphabet
Chalcidian alphabet, one of several variants of the Greek alphabet, used in western Greece (Évvoia) and in some......
Chamic languages
Chamic languages, group of languages spoken in Vietnam and Cambodia, classified as West Indonesian languages in......
Chapelain, Jean
Jean Chapelain was a French literary critic and poet who attempted to apply empirical standards to literary criticism.......
Chapman, George
George Chapman was an English poet and dramatist, whose translation of Homer long remained the standard English......
chemical formula
chemical formula, any of several kinds of expressions of the composition or structure of chemical compounds. The......
Cherokee language
Cherokee language, North American Indian language, a member of the Iroquoian family, spoken by the Cherokee (Tsalagi)......
Chibchan languages
Chibchan languages, a group of South American Indian languages that were spoken before ce 1500 in the area now......
Chinese Pidgin English
Chinese Pidgin English, a modified form of English used as a trade language between the British and the Chinese,......
Chinese writing
Chinese writing, basically logographic writing system, one of the world’s great writing systems. Like Semitic writing......
Chinook Jargon
Chinook Jargon, pidgin, presently extinct, formerly used as a trade language in the Pacific Northwest region of......
Chomsky, Noam
Noam Chomsky is an American theoretical linguist whose work from the 1950s revolutionized the field of linguistics......
Chrestien, Florent
Florent Chrestien was a French satirist and Latin poet, especially known for his translations of Greek and Latin......
Chrysoloras, Manuel
Manuel Chrysoloras was a Greek scholar who was a pioneer in spreading Greek literature in the West. The Byzantine......
Chuvash language
Chuvash language, member of the Turkic language family within the Altaic language group, spoken in Chuvashia and......
Châtelet, Gabrielle-Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du
Gabrielle-Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet was a French mathematician and physicist who was......
Ciardi, John
John Ciardi was an American poet, critic, and translator who helped make poetry accessible to both adults and children.......
Claussen, Sophus
Sophus Claussen was one of Scandinavia’s foremost lyric poets. He was influenced by the French Symbolists and in......
click
click, Click notationin phonetics, a suction sound made in the mouth. Click sounds occur in a number of African......
click languages
click languages, a group of languages found only in Africa in which clicks function as normal consonants. The sole......
Cockney
Cockney, dialect of the English language traditionally spoken by working-class Londoners. Cockney is also often......
code-switching
code-switching, process of shifting from one linguistic code (a language or dialect) to another, depending on the......
cogito, ergo sum
cogito, ergo sum, dictum coined by the French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes in his Discourse on......
Collitz, Hermann
Hermann Collitz was a German-born U.S. linguist noted for his work on the Indo-European languages. He contributed......
Colossus
Colossus, the first large-scale electronic computer, which went into operation in 1944 at Britain’s wartime code-breaking......
Congreve, William
William Congreve was an English dramatist who shaped the English comedy of manners through his brilliant comic......
connotation
connotation, distinction of meaning introduced by John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic (1843). A similar distinction......
Conrart, Valentin
Valentin Conrart was a man of letters and authority on grammar and style, known as the practical inaugurator of......
consonant
consonant, any speech sound, such as that represented by t, g, f, or z, that is characterized by an articulation......
Constantine the African
Constantine the African was a medieval medical scholar who initiated the translation of Arabic medical works into......
Coornhert, Dirck Volckertszoon
Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert was a Dutch poet, translator, playwright, and moralist who set down Humanist values......
Coptic language
Coptic language, an Afro-Asiatic language that was spoken in Egypt from about the 2nd century ce and that represents......
Cordeiro da Matta, Joaquim Dias
Joaquim Dias Cordeiro da Matta was an Angolan poet, novelist, journalist, pedagogue, historian, philologist, and......
Cornish language
Cornish language, a member of the Brythonic group of Celtic languages. Spoken in Cornwall in southwestern Britain,......
crasis
crasis, in classical Greek, the contraction of two vowels or diphthongs at the end of one word and the beginning......
Crates of Mallus
Crates of Mallus was a Stoic philosopher, from Mallus in Cilicia, primarily important as a grammarian. His chief......
creole languages
creole languages, vernacular languages that developed in colonial European plantation settlements in the 17th and......
cryptography
cryptography, Practice of the enciphering and deciphering of messages in secret code in order to render them unintelligible......
Cua, Paulus
Paulus Cua was a Vietnamese scholar who contributed to the popular usage of Quoc-ngu, a romanized system of transcribing......
Cuitlatec language
Cuitlatec language, a language isolate (i.e., a language with no known relatives) that was spoken in the Mexican......
cuneiform
cuneiform, system of writing used in the ancient Middle East. The name, a coinage from Latin and Middle French......
Curme, George O.
George O. Curme was an American grammarian and professor of German, best known for his Grammar of the German Language......
cursive
cursive, style of handwriting distinguished by rounded shapes in a word and, frequently, connection of characters.......
Curtius, Georg
Georg Curtius was a German classicist and Indo-European language scholar, whose writings were fundamental to the......
Cushitic languages
Cushitic languages, a division of the Afro-Asiatic phylum, comprising about 40 languages that are spoken mainly......
Cydones, Demetrius
Demetrius Cydones was a Byzantine humanist scholar, statesman, and theologian who introduced the study of the Greek......
Cydones, Prochorus
Prochorus Cydones was an Eastern Orthodox monk, theologian, and linguist who, by his advocacy of Western Aristotelian......
Cypriot syllabary
Cypriot syllabary, system of writing used on the island of Cyprus, chiefly from the 6th to the 3rd century bc.......
Cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic alphabet, writing system developed in the 9th–10th century ce for Slavic-speaking peoples of the Eastern......
Czech language
Czech language, West Slavic language closely related to Slovak, Polish, and the Sorbian languages of eastern Germany.......
d
d, letter that has retained the fourth place in the alphabet from the earliest point at which it appears in history.......
Dacier, André
André Dacier was a classical scholar and translator who, with his wife, Anne Dacier, was responsible for some of......
Dacier, Anne
Anne Dacier was a classical commentator, translator, and editor, famous throughout Europe for her translations......
Dagestanian languages
Dagestanian languages, group of languages spoken in the northeastern part of the Caucasus and including the Avar-Andi-Dido,......
Dai hyakkajiten
Dai hyakkajiten, (Japanese: “Great Encyclopaedia”), comprehensive Japanese general encyclopaedia, published in......
Dai jiten
Dai jiten, (Japanese: “Great Dictionary”), dictionary of the Japanese language published in 13 illustrated volumes......
Daju languages
Daju languages, group of related languages scattered across the Nuba Hills of southern Sudan (including Lagowa,......
Dalmatian language
Dalmatian language, extinct Romance language formerly spoken along the Dalmatian coast from the island of Veglia......
dance notation
dance notation, the recording of dance movement through the use of written symbols. Dance notation is to dance......
Danish language
Danish language, the official language of Denmark, spoken there by more than five million people. It is also spoken......
Dao’an
Dao’an was a pioneer Chinese Buddhist monk who facilitated the assimilation of Buddhism in China through his work......
Dardic languages
Dardic languages, group of closely related Indo-Iranian languages spoken in Pakistan, Kashmir, and Afghanistan.......
Dari language
Dari language, member of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian family of languages and, along with Pashto, one......
Darmesteter, Arsène
Arsène Darmesteter was a language scholar who advanced knowledge of the history of French, particularly through......
Darmesteter, James
James Darmesteter was a French scholar noted for ancient Iranian language studies, especially his English and French......
Davis, Lydia
Lydia Davis is an American writer noted for her idiosyncratic and extremely short stories often characterized by......
Day-Lewis, C.
C. Day-Lewis was one of the leading British poets of the 1930s; he then turned from poetry of left-wing political......
de facto
de facto, a legal concept used to refer to what happens in reality or in practice, as opposed to de jure (“from......
de jure
de jure, legal concept that refers to what happens according to the law, in contrast to de facto (Latin: “from......
definition
definition, In philosophy, the specification of the meaning of an expression relative to a language. Definitions......

Languages Encyclopedia Articles By Title