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Topics related to "Sino-Tibetan languages"

Sino-Tibetan languages
Sino-Tibetan languages family of languages spoken by over a billion people in central and SE Asia. This linguistic family is second only to the Indo-European stock in the number of its speakers. It is usually said to have three subfamilies: Tibeto-Burman, Chinese , and Tai, or Thai. One school of ... Read more
Tibetan language
Tibetan language member of the Tibeto-Burman subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages ). It is spoken by 5 million people in the Tibet autonomous region and the Qinghai and Gansu provinces of China and in Bhutan, Nepal, the Indian state of Sikkim, and part of K... Read more
Thai language
Thai language , formerly Siamese, member of the Tai or Thai subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages ). The official language of Thailand, Thai is spoken by approximately 50 million people in Thailand, Vietnam, and the Yunnan province of China. It has several di... Read more
Native American languages
Native American languages languages of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere and their descendants. A number of the Native American languages that were spoken at the time of the European arrival in the New World in the late 15th cent. have become extinct, but many of them are still in use to... Read more
Burmese
Burmese language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages ). It is spoken by about 30 million people in Myanmar, where it is both the principal and the official language. Burmese can be described as monosyllabic because root words... Read more
Chinese
Chinese subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages ), which is also sometimes grouped with the Tai, or Thai, languages in a Sinitic subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan language stock. Chinese comprises a number of variants; those that are mutually unintelligible are co... Read more
Karens
Karens , members of a Thai-Chinese cultural group, one of the most important minorities in Myanmar, living in the Kayah State , Kayin State, Tanintharyi , and the Ayeyarwady delta. They form 7% of Myanmar's population. The Karen hill tribes have tended to remain animistic, but among those settled ... Read more
Buddhist literature
Buddhist literature During his lifetime the Buddha taught not in Vedic Sanskrit, which had become unintelligible to the people, but in his own NE Indian dialect; he also encouraged his monks to propagate his teachings in the vernacular. After his death, the Buddhist canon was formulated and transmi... Read more
Sikkim
Sikkim , state (2001 provisional pop. 540,493), 2,745 sq mi (7,110 sq km), India. It is located in the E Himalayas and bordered by Nepal (W), by the Tibet region of China (N), by Bhutan (E), and by the Indian state of West Bengal (S). The capital and only town is Gangtok. Most of Sikkim is mountaino... Read more
Tibet
Tibet , Tibetan Bodyul, Mandarin Xizang, autonomous region (1994 est. pop. 2,300,000), c.471,700 sq mi (1,221,700 sq km), SW China. A Chinese autonomous region since 1951, Tibet is bordered on the south by Myanmar, India, Bhutan, and Nepal, on the west by India (including the disputed Kashmir), ... Read more

Encyclopedia entries related to "Sino-Tibetan languages"

Sino-Tibetan languages
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ...of a number of the languages suggested for the Sino-Tibetan family and its various...Common Features The Sino-Tibetan languages have in common several...isolating than the languages of the other Sino-Tibetan families. In fact... Read more
Tibeto-Burman languages
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. See Sino-Tibetan languages ; Burmese ; Tibetan language . Read more
Thai language
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ...of the Tai or Thai subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages ). The official language of Thailand...and, more recently, from European languages such as French and English. The Thai... Read more
Tibetan language
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition member of the Tibeto-Burman subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages ). It is spoken by 5 million people in the Tibet autonomous region and the Qinghai and Gansu provinces of China and in Bhutan... Read more
Southeast Asian languages
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition family of languages, sometimes also called...subfamilies: the Mon-Khmer languages, the Munda languages, and the Annamese-Muong...term Southeast Asian languages in this article is based...namely, Malayo-Polynesian languages , Sino-Tibetan languages , and Mon-Khmer ... Read more
language
Book article from: World Encyclopedia ...communication. Although there are more than 4000 different languages, they have many characteristics in common. Almost every...may not be linked in vocabulary or origin. Families of languages have been constructed ( Afro-Asiatic , Austronesian , Dravidian , Indo-European , Niger-Congo , ... Read more
Chinese
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ...family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages ), which is also sometimes...pronunciation. Like the other Sino-Tibetan languages, Chinese is tonal, i.e...Chinese (again, like other Sino-Tibetan languages) is also strongly monosyllabic... Read more
Burmese
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages ). It is spoken by about 30 million people in Myanmar, where it is both the principal and the official language. Burmese can be... Read more
CHINA
Book article from: Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language ...A country of East Asia. Languages: Putonghua (official: see...below), and various minority languages, including Uighur, Tibetan...a single language of the Sino-Tibetan family, with many dialects...though grammatically similar) languages whose speakers employ the...Section has to cope with ... Read more
Thai
Book article from: World Encyclopedia Thai National language of Thailand, spoken by most of the population. It is closely related to Lao, spoken across the border in Laos. It belongs to the Tai family, possibly a sub-family of the Sino-Tibetan languages group. Read more

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

Factfile on -- languages.
Magazine article from: New Internationalist; 10/1/2000; 436 words ; ...knows the exact number, there are at least 6,000 languages in the world today. More than half may have disappeared by the year 2025. Languages usually have a relatively short lifespan. Only...lasted more than 2000 years. FAMILY TIES(2) Many languages have a common source and it is possible to ... Read more
Half the ancient world.(The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages)(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Quadrant; 12/1/2004; ; 700+ words ; The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages, edited by Roger D. Woodard; Cambridge University...The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages promises a great deal that might be of interest to...group are not even mentioned: Australian Aboriginal languages, Japanese-Korean, the ... Read more