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African languages
African languages geographic rather than linguistic classification of languages spoken on the African continent. Historically the term refers to the languages of sub-Saharan Africa, which do not belong to a single family, but are divided among several distinct linguistic stocks. It is estimated tha...
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sign language
sign language gestural communication used as an alternative or replacement for speech. Sign languages resemble oral languages in every way other than their modality. As with oral languages, sign languages are acquired spontaneously and have highly intricate, rule-governed grammar and phonology ....
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French language
French language member of the Romance group of the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Romance languages ). It is spoken as a first language by more than 70 million people, chiefly in France (55 million speakers), Belgium (3 million), Switzerland (1.5 million), former ...
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language
language systematic communication by vocal symbols. It is a universal characteristic of the human species. Nothing is known of its origin, although scientists have identified a gene that clearly contributes to the human ability to use language. Scientists generally hold that it has been so long in ...
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international language
international language sometimes called universal language, a language intended to be used by people of different linguistic backgrounds to facilitate communication among them and to reduce the misunderstandings and antagonisms caused by language differences. An international language is usually in...
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Romance languages
Romance languages group of languages belonging to the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Italic languages ). Also called Romanic, they are spoken by about 670 million people in many parts of the world, but chiefly in Europe and the Western Hemisphere. Among the more i...
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Charles du Fresne Du Cange, sieur
Charles du Fresne Du Cange, sieur , 1610-88, French medieval historian and philologist. He is principally known for his Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis [glossary of medieval and late Latin] (1678). It remains the greatest collection ever made of the forms of early medieval Latin and of th...
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artificial languages
artificial languages languages that are invented by one or more human beings as opposed to languages that develop naturally among peoples. Examples of artificial languages are Volapük, Esperanto , and Ido . See international language .
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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...
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Norwegian language
Norwegian language member of the North Germanic, or Scandinavian, group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. It is spoken by about 4 million people in Norway and another million in the other Scandinavian countries and North America. Norwegian is a daughter language ...
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