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7af6cabb0962cd2a5cf5f0c8a14fa5f3 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/language-universal | Language universal | Language universal
Universalists claim that creoles developed according to universals of language development. According to the version of this hypothesis called the language bioprogram hypothesis, which was later revised and became known as the lexical learning hypothesis, children who were exposed to a pidgin at an early…
…are often referred to as language universals; their nature and extent is the subject of ongoing discussion and research.
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ee153c9fd2c9332775a034409acc86e7 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/language-variant | Language variant | Language variant
The word language contains a multiplicity of different designations. Two senses have already been distinguished: language as a universal species-specific capability of the human race and languages as the various manifestations of that capability, as with English, French, Latin, Swahili, Malay, and so…
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7eafb28cdc764e67708df1fa425b78b0 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/language/Changes-through-geographical-movement | Changes through geographical movement | Changes through geographical movement
The fundamental cause of linguistic change and hence of linguistic diversification is the minute deviations occurring in the transmission of language from one generation to another. But other factors contribute to the historical development of languages and determine the spread of a language family over the world’s surface. Population movements naturally play a large part, and movements of peoples in prehistoric times carried the Indo-European languages from a relatively restricted area into most of Europe and into northern India, Persia, and Armenia. The spread of the Indo-European languages resulted, in the main, from the imposition of the languages on the earlier populations of the territories occupied. In the historical period, within Indo-European, the same process can be seen at work in the Western Roman Empire. Latin superseded the earlier, largely Celtic languages of the Iberian Peninsula and of Gaul (France) not through population replacement (the number of Roman soldiers and settlers in the empire was never large) but through the abandonment of these languages by the inhabitants over the generations as they found in Latin the language of commerce, civilization, law, literature, and social prestige.
Conquest does not always lead to the supersession of a language. Greek survived centuries of Turkish rule and indeed remained a focus of national feeling, as has happened elsewhere in history. Much depends on the various circumstances and on the mutual attitudes of those involved; what must be kept quite clear is the difference between movements of peoples and the spread of languages.
Languages do not just spread and compete with each other for territorial use. They are in constant contact, and every language bears evidence of this throughout its history. Modern Greek is full of words of Turkish origin, despite efforts made at various times since independence to “purify” the language by official action. The Norman Conquest and a period in which French was the language of the ruling class in England effected great changes on English and contributed a very substantial number of French words to English vocabulary—hence the quantity of near synonymous pairs available today: begin, commence; end, finish; kingly, royal; fight, combat; and so on.
These historical processes take place without any direct volition on the part of speakers as regards the language itself. Latin was learned as part of personal advancement, not for its own sake. Loans were incorporated almost without their being noticed, along with the concomitant cultural changes and innovations. Deliberate action directly related to a language does occur. The creation of pidgins involves some degree of linguistic consciousness on the part of their first users. More deliberate, however, have been various attempts at preserving the purity of a language, at least for some uses, or at arresting the processes of change. The care bestowed on the preservation of the Sanskrit used in religious ritual in ancient India and efforts to free Modern Greek from much of its Turkish vocabulary have already been noticed. For a period, under Nazi rule, efforts were made to replace some foreign words in the German language by words of native origin, and there have been movements to replace later accretions in English by words derived from Old English forms. In the long run, such attempts never succeed in preventing or reversing change; at best they preserve collaterally supposedly purer forms and styles for certain purposes and in certain contexts.
With the picture painted above of the tendency for languages to fragment first into dialects and then into separate languages, it might be thought that dialects are relatively late in appearance in the history of a language family. This impression is reinforced by the fact that most nonstandard dialects are unrepresented as such in writing, and so comparatively little is known about dialectal differences within most languages as one goes back in time. In this respect the very detailed knowledge of the Ancient Greek dialect situation is quite untypical.
In fact, dialect divisions must have been a feature of linguistic communities as early as there is any knowledge of them. Dialect splitting is fostered by isolation and loss of contact between groups within a speech community, and the sparse populations of earlier days, often nomadic and spread over large areas relative to their numbers, will have encouraged this process. It is simply the case that all but literate dialects have been lost in the past, and an artificial homogeneity is attributed to most ancient languages and to the so-called reconstructed parent languages of families.
Present-day conditions tend toward the amalgamation of dialects and the disappearance of those spoken by relatively few people. Urbanization, mass travel, universal education, broadcasting, ease of communication, and social mobility are among the forces that foster rather large regional and social dialects, with special occupational types of language within them, in place of the small, strictly localized dialects of earlier times. This is one reason for the urgency with which dialect studies are being pursued in many Western industrialized countries, such as England and parts of the United States. If work is not done soon, many dialects may perish unrecorded.
For the same reasons, dialect divisions that earlier would have widened into distinct languages are now unlikely to do so. One may compare the emergence of the separate Romance languages from once unitary Latin with the splitting of South American Spanish and Portuguese into different dialects of those two languages. Those dialectal divisions are not now expected to widen beyond the range of intercomprehensibility. Those same conditions, together with the spread of literacy, are leading to the extinction of languages spoken by relatively small communities. Such is the fate of most of the North American Indian languages, and Irish, Welsh, Scots Gaelic, and Cornish may ultimately survive only as learned second languages, preserved as cultural focuses for their communities. But in situations like that, both past and present, the intervening period of extensive bilingualism and the concomitant use of two languages has its effect on the changes taking place in the dominant language, which is influenced by the phonetic and grammatical composition of the speakers’ former language. The closing decades of the 20th century also saw a new enthusiasm for the preservation of minority languages, illustrated by the formation of the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages in 1982 (although it ceased functioning in 2010).
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587eea4ad7ca222eb9dc5da6de7c6d63 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/language/Historical-attitudes-toward-language | Historical attitudes toward language | Historical attitudes toward language
As is evident from the discussion above, human life in its present form would be impossible and inconceivable without the use of language. People have long recognized the force and significance of language. Naming—applying a word to pick out and refer to a fellow human being, an animal, an object, or a class of such beings or objects—is only one part of the use of language, but it is an essential and prominent part. In many cultures people have seen in the ability to name a means to control or to possess; this explains the reluctance, in some communities, with which names are revealed to strangers and the taboo restrictions found in several parts of the world on using the names of persons recently dead. Such restrictions echo widespread and perhaps universal taboos on naming directly things considered obscene, blasphemous, or very fearful.
Perhaps not surprisingly, several independent traditions ascribe a divine or at least a supernatural origin to language or to the language of a particular community. The biblical account, representing ancient Jewish beliefs, of Adam’s naming the creatures of the earth under God’s guidance is one such example:
Norse mythology preserves a similar story of divine participation in the creation of language, and in India the god Indra is said to have invented articulate speech. In the debate on the nature and origin of language given in Plato’s Socratic dialogue Cratylus, Socrates is made to speak of the gods as those responsible for first fixing the names of things in the proper way.
A similar divine aura pervades early accounts of the origin of writing. The Norse god Odin was held responsible for the invention of the runic alphabet. The inspired stroke of genius whereby the ancient Greeks adapted a variety of the Phoenician consonantal script so as to represent the distinctive consonant and vowel sounds of Greek, thus producing the first alphabet such as is known today, was linked with the mythological figure Cadmus, who, coming from Phoenicia, was said to have founded Thebes and introduced writing into Greece (see Phoenician language). By a traditional account, the Arabic alphabet, together with the language itself, was given to Adam by God.
The later biblical tradition of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1–9) exemplifies three aspects of early thought about language: (1) divine interest in and control over its use and development, (2) a recognition of the power it gives to humans in relation to their environment, and (3) an explanation of linguistic diversity, of the fact that people in adjacent communities speak different and mutually unintelligible languages, together with a survey of the various speech communities of the world known at the time to the Hebrew people.
The origin of language has never failed to provide a subject for speculation, and its inaccessibility adds to its fascination. Informed investigations of the probable conditions under which language might have originated and developed are seen in the late 18th-century essay of the German philosopher Johann Gottfried von Herder, “Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache” (“Essay on the Origin of Language”), and in numerous other treatments. But people have tried to go farther, to discover or to reconstruct something like the actual forms and structure of the first language. This lies forever beyond the reach of science, in that spoken language in some form is almost certainly coeval with Homo sapiens. The earliest records of written language, the only linguistic fossils humanity can hope to have, go back no more than 4,000 to 5,000 years. Some people have tried to claim that the cries of animals and birds, or nonlexical expressions of excitement or anger, evolved into human speech, as if onomatopoeia were the essence of language; these claims have been ridiculed for their inadequacy (by, for example, the Oxford philologist Max Müller in the 19th century) and have been given nicknames such as “bowwow” and “pooh-pooh” theories.
On several occasions attempts have been made to identify one particular existing language as representing the original or oldest tongue of humankind, but, in fact, the universal process of linguistic change rules out any such hopes from the start. The Greek historian Herodotus told a (possibly satirical) story in which King Psamtik I of Egypt (reigned 664–610 bce) caused a child to be brought up without ever hearing a word spoken in his presence. On one occasion it ran up to its guardian as he brought it some bread, calling out “bekos, bekos”; this, being said to be the Phrygian word for bread, proved that Phrygian was the oldest language. The naiveté and absurdity of such an account have not prevented the repetition of this experiment elsewhere at other times.
In Christian Europe the position of Hebrew as the language of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) gave valid grounds through many centuries for regarding Hebrew, the language in which God was assumed to have addressed Adam, as the parent language of all humankind. Such a view continued to be expressed even well into the 19th century. Only since the mid-1800s has linguistic science made sufficient progress finally to clarify the impracticability of speculation along these lines.
When people have begun to reflect on language, its relation to thinking becomes a central concern. Several cultures have independently viewed the main function of language as the expression of thought. Ancient Indian grammarians speak of the soul apprehending things with the intellect and inspiring the mind with a desire to speak, and in the Greek intellectual tradition Aristotle declared, “Speech is the representation of the experiences of the mind” (On Interpretation). Such an attitude passed into Latin theory and thence into medieval doctrine. Medieval grammarians envisaged three stages in the speaking process: things in the world exhibit properties; these properties are understood by the minds of humans; and, in the manner in which they have been understood, so they are communicated to others by the resources of language. Rationalist writers on language in the 17th century gave essentially a similar account: speaking is expressing thoughts by signs invented for the purpose, and words of different classes (the different parts of speech) came into being to correspond to the different aspects of thinking.
Such a view of language continued to be accepted as generally adequate and gave rise to the sort of definition proposed by Henry Sweet and quoted above. The main objection to it is that it either gives so wide an interpretation to thought as virtually to empty the word of any specific content or gives such a narrow interpretation of language as to exclude a great deal of normal usage. A recognition of the part played by speaking and writing in social cooperation in everyday life has highlighted the many and varied functions of language in all cultures, apart from the functions strictly involved in the communication of thought, which had been the main focus of attention for those who approached language from the standpoint of the philosopher. To allow for the full range of language used by speakers, more-comprehensive definitions of language have been proposed on the lines of the second one quoted at the beginning of this article—namely, “A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates.” Despite the breadth of this definition, however, its use of the word vocal excludes all languages that are not vocalized, particularly manual (signed) languages.
A rather different criticism of accepted views on language began to be made in the 18th century, most notably by the French philosopher Étienne Bonnot de Condillac in “Essai sur l’origine des connaissances humaines” (1746; “Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge”) and by Johann Gottfried von Herder. These thinkers were concerned with the origin and development of language in relation to thought in a way that earlier students had not been. The medieval and rationalist views implied that humans, as rational, thinking creatures, invented language to express their thoughts, fitting words to an already developed structure of intellectual competence. With the examination of the actual and the probable historical relations between thinking and communicating, it became more plausible to say that language emerged not as the means of expressing already formulated judgments, questions, and the like but as the means of thought itself, and that humans’ rationality developed together with the development of their capacity for communicating.
The relations between thought and communication are certainly not fully explained today, and it is clear that it is a great oversimplification to define thought as subvocal speech, in the manner of some behaviourists. But it is no less clear that propositions and other alleged logical structures cannot be wholly separated from the language structures said to express them. Even the symbolizations of modern formal logic are ultimately derived from statements made in some natural language and are interpreted in that light.
The intimate connection between language and thought, as opposed to the earlier assumed unilateral dependence of language on thought, opened the way to a recognition of the possibility that different language structures might in part favour or even determine different ways of understanding and thinking about the world. All people inhabit a broadly similar world, or they would be unable to translate from one language to another, but they do not all inhabit a world exactly the same in all particulars, and translation is not merely a matter of substituting different but equivalent labels for the contents of the same inventory. From this stem the notorious difficulties in translation, especially when the systematizations of science, law, morals, social structure, and so on are involved. The extent of the interdependence of language and thought—linguistic relativity, as it has been termed—is still a matter of debate, but the fact of such interdependence can hardly fail to be acknowledged.
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1eb0c16d04efb51d116620d4d229f36e | https://www.britannica.com/topic/language/Language-acquisition | Language acquisition | Language acquisition
In regard to the production of speech sounds, all typical humans are physiologically alike. It has been shown repeatedly that children learn the language of those who bring them up from infancy. These are often the biological parents, but one’s first language is acquired from environment and learning, not from physiological inheritance. Adopted infants, whatever their physical characteristics and whatever the language of their biological parents, acquire the language of the adoptive parents.
Different shapes of lips, throat, and other parts of the vocal tract have an effect on voice quality; this is part of the individuality of each person’s voice referred to above. Physiological differences, including size of throat and larynx, both overall and in relation to the rest of the vocal tract, are largely responsible for the different pitch ranges characteristic of any individual’s speech. These differences do not affect one’s ability or aptitude to speak any particular language.
Speech is species-specific to humankind. Physiologically, animal communications systems are of all sorts. The animal sounds superficially most resembling speech, the imitative cries of parrots and some other birds, are produced by very different physiological means: birds have no teeth or lips but vocalize by means of the syrinx, a modification of the windpipe above the lungs. Almost all mammals and many other animal species make vocal noises and evince feelings thereby and keep in contact with each other through a rudimentary sort of communication, but those members of the animal kingdom nearest to humans genetically, the great apes, lack the anatomical apparatus necessary for speech.
The development of speech has been linked to upright posture and the freeing of the vocal cords from the frequent need to “hold one’s breath” in using the arms for locomotion. Certainly, speaking and hearing—as a primary means of communication—have a number of striking advantages: speech does not depend on daylight or on mutual visibility; it can operate in all directions over reasonably wide areas; and it can be adjusted in loudness to cope with distance. As is seen in crowded rooms, it is possible to pick out some one person’s voice despite a good deal of other noise and in the midst of other voices speaking the same language. Also, the physical energy required in speaking is extremely small in relation to the immense power wielded by speech in human life, and scarcely any other activity, such as running, walking, or tool using, interferes seriously with the process.
The characteristics just outlined pertain to all of the world’s spoken languages. What is more a matter of controversy is the extent to which biological inheritance is involved in language acquisition and language use. The fact that language traditionally has been viewed as species-specific to human beings argues an essential cerebral or mental component, and in the 19th century certain aspects of speech control and use were located in a particular part of the human brain (the Broca area, named for the 19th-century French surgeon who discovered it, Paul Broca).
Whether the great apes have the mental capacity to acquire at least a rudimentary form of language has developed into an area of active research. While apes lack the anatomical structures that are necessary for the vocalization of human speech, many investigators nevertheless claim to have taught chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans to communicate in languages whose “words” are composed of hand signs or geometric symbols. These claims have been disputed, with critics arguing that the apes have not demonstrated true language acquisition in the sense of understanding the “words” as symbolic abstractions that can be used in new and grammatically meaningful constructions. Researchers working with the apes, however, maintain that at least some of the apes have learned to understand and manipulate the “words” as abstractions.
No one inherits the ability to use a particular language, but children are typically born with the ability and the drive to acquire language—namely, the one (or ones) to which they are routinely exposed from infancy. Children bring to this task considerable innate ability, because their exposure is largely to a random selection of utterances (apart from any attempts at systematic teaching that they may encounter) occurring in their general vicinity or addressed to them. Yet by late childhood they have, through progressive stages, acquired the basic vocabulary of at least one language, together with its phonological and grammatical structure. This is substantially the same situation the world over, among literate and illiterate communities, and the process takes up much the same number of years of childhood. Thus, it would appear that all languages are roughly equal in complexity and in difficulty of mastery. Moreover, it is thought that some two-thirds of the world’s children grow up in multilingual settings, suggesting that bilingualism is actually a more common human condition than monolingualism. Certainly, children who acquire two languages do so at the same rate as children who acquire one language. There seems to be no theoretical limit to the number of languages a young child is capable of acquiring.
It is therefore clear that humans bring into the world an innate faculty for language acquisition, language use, and grammar construction. The last phrase refers to the internalization of the rules of the grammar of one’s first language from a more or less random exposure to utterances in it. Human children are very soon able to construct new, grammatically acceptable sentences from material they have already encountered; unlike the parrot in human society, they are not limited to mere repetition of utterances.
The part played by this innate ability and its exact nature remain unclear. Until the 1950s scholars considered language acquisition to be carried out largely by analogical creation from observed patterns of sentences occurring in utterances received and understood by the child. Such a view, much favoured by persons inclined to a behaviourist interpretation of human learning processes (e.g., the American linguist Leonard Bloomfield), stressed the very evident differences between the structures of different languages, particularly on the surface. Following the pioneering work of the American linguist Noam Chomsky in the late 1950s, a number of linguists placed much more emphasis on the inherent grammar-building disposition and competence of the human brain, which is activated by exposure to utterances in a language, especially during childhood, in such a way that it fits the utterances into predetermined general categories and structures. Such linguists, inheritors of the 17th- and 18th-century interest in “universal grammar,” put their stress on the underlying similarities of all languages, especially in the deeper areas of grammatical analysis (see linguistics: Transformational-generative grammar). Additional areas of investigation in the late 20th century were the cognitive systems and abilities underlying language acquisition and use (e.g., concept development, memory, and attention) and the relevance of social interaction (especially language play) between child and adult. Theories of child language acquisition, as a consequence, became more multifaceted and complex than the approaches that dominated linguistic research in the 1970s and ’80s.
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865709b573c6a9a3229bb540fce3d8e3 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/language/Language-and-social-differentiation-and-assimilation | Language and social differentiation and assimilation | Language and social differentiation and assimilation
The part played by variations within a language in differentiating social and occupational groups in a society has already been referred to above. In language transmission this tends to be self-perpetuating unless deliberately interfered with. Children are in general brought up within the social group to which their parents and immediate family circle belong, and they learn the dialect and communication styles of that group along with the rest of the subculture and behavioral traits and attitudes that are characteristic of it. This is a largely unconscious and involuntary process of acculturation, but the importance of the linguistic manifestations of social status and of social hierarchies is not lost on aspirants for personal advancement in stratified societies. The deliberate cultivation of an appropriate dialect, in its lexical, grammatical, and phonological features, has been the self-imposed task of many persons wishing “to better themselves” and the butt of unkind ridicule on the part of persons already feeling themselves secure in their social status or unwilling to attempt any change in it. Much of the comedy in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion (first performed in 1913, with subsequent film adaptations) turns on Eliza Doolittle’s need to unlearn her native Cockney if she is to rise in the social scale. Culturally and subculturally determined taboos play a part in all this, and persons desirous of moving up or down in the social scale have to learn what words to use and what words to avoid if they are to be accepted and to “belong” in their new position.
The same considerations apply to changing one’s language as to changing one’s dialect. Language changing is harder for the individual and is generally a rarer occurrence, but it is likely to be widespread in any mass immigration movement. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the eagerness with which immigrants and the children of immigrants from continental Europe living in the United States learned and insisted on speaking English is an illustration of their realization that English was the linguistic badge of full membership in their new homeland at the time when the country was proud to consider itself the melting pot in which people of diverse linguistic and cultural origins would become citizens of a unified community. A reverse movement, typically by third-generation immigrants, manifests a concern to be in contact again with the ancestral language.
The same sort of self-perpetuation, in the absence of deliberate rejection, operates in the special languages of sports and games and of trades and professions (these are in the main concerned with special vocabularies). Game learners, apprentices, and professional students learn the locutions together with the rest of the game or the job. The specific words and phrases occur in the teaching process and are observed in use, and novices are only too eager to display an easy competence with such phraseology as a mark of their full membership of the group.
Languages and variations within languages play both a unifying and a diversifying role in human society as a whole. Language is a part of culture, but culture is a complex totality containing many different features, and the boundaries between cultural features are not clear-cut, nor do they all coincide. Physical barriers such as oceans, high mountains, and wide rivers constitute impediments to human intercourse and to culture contacts, though modern technology in the fields of travel and communications makes such geographical factors of less and less account. More potent for much of the 20th century were political restrictions on the movement of people and of ideas, such as divided western Europe from formerly communist eastern Europe; the frontiers between these two political blocs represented much more of a cultural dividing line than any other European frontiers.
The distribution of the various components of cultures differs, and the distribution of languages may differ from that of nonlinguistic cultural features. This results from the varying ease and rapidity with which changes may be acquired or enforced and from the historical circumstances responsible for these changes. From the end of World War II until 1990, for example, the division between East and West Germany represented a major political and cultural split in an area of relative linguistic unity. It is significant that differences of vocabulary and usage were noticeable on each side of that division, overlying earlier differences attributed to regional dialects.
Language, no less than other aspects of human behaviour, is subject to purposive interference. When people with different languages need to communicate, various expedients are open to them, the most obvious being second-language learning and teaching. This takes time, effort, and organization, and, when more than two languages are involved, the time and effort are that much greater. Other expedients may also be applied. Ad hoc pidgins for the restricted purposes of trade and administration are mentioned above. Tacit or deliberate agreements have been reached whereby one language is chosen for international purposes when users of several different languages are involved. In the Roman Empire, broadly, the western half used Latin as a lingua franca, and the eastern half used Greek. In western Europe during the Middle Ages, Latin continued as the international language of educated people, and Latin was the second language taught in schools. Later the cultural, diplomatic, and military reputation of France made French the language of European diplomacy. This use of French as the language of international relations persisted until the 20th century. At important conferences among representatives of different nations, it is usually agreed which languages shall be officially recognized for registering the decisions reached, and the provisions of treaties are interpreted in the light of texts in a limited number of languages, those of the major participants.
After World War II the dominant use of English in science and technology and in international commerce led to the recognition of that language as the major international language in the world of practical affairs, with more and more countries making English the first foreign language to be taught and thus producing a vast expansion of English-language-teaching programs all over the world. Those whose native language is English do not sufficiently realize the amount of effort, by teacher and learner alike, that is put into the acquisition of a working knowledge of English by educated first speakers of other languages.
As an alternative to the recognition of particular natural languages as international in status, attempts have been made to invent and propagate new and genuinely international languages, devised for the purpose. Of these, Esperanto, invented by the Polish-Russian doctor L.L. Zamenhof in the 19th century, is the best known. Such languages are generally built up from parts of the vocabulary and grammatical apparatus of the better-known existing languages of the world. The relationship between the written letter and its pronunciation is more systematic than with many existing orthographies (English spelling is notoriously unreliable as an indication of pronunciation), and care is taken to avoid the grammatical irregularities to which all natural languages are subject and also to avoid sounds found difficult by many speakers (e.g., the English th sounds, which most Europeans, apart from English speakers, dislike). These artificial languages have not made much progress, though an international society of Esperanto speakers does exist.
Deliberate interference with the natural course of linguistic changes and the distribution of languages is not confined to the facilitating of international intercourse and cooperation. Language as a cohesive force for nation-states and for linguistic groups within nation-states has for long been manipulated for political ends. Multilingual states can exist and prosper; Switzerland is a good example. But linguistic rivalry and strife can be disruptive. Language riots have occurred in Belgium between French and Flemish speakers and in parts of India between rival vernacular communities. A language can become or be made a focus of loyalty for a minority community that thinks itself suppressed, persecuted, or subjected to discrimination. The French language in Canada in the mid-20th century is an example. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Irish Gaelic, or Irish, came to symbolize Irish patriotism and Irish independence from Great Britain, and Irish became Ireland’s first official language at that country’s independence. Government documents are published in Irish and English (the country’s second official language), and Irish is taught in state schools, though it remains under the significant international pressures exerted by English that are described above.
A language may be a target for attack or suppression if the authorities associate it with what they consider a disaffected or rebellious group or a culturally inferior one. There have been periods when American Indian children were forbidden to speak a language other than English at school and when pupils were not allowed to speak Welsh in British state schools in Wales. Both these prohibitions have been abandoned. After the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, Basque speakers were discouraged from using their language in public as a consequence of the strong support given by the Basques to the republican forces. Interestingly, on the other side of the Franco-Spanish frontier, French Basques were positively encouraged to keep their language in use, if only as an object of touristic interest and consequent economic benefit to the area.
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d7f3b9da3ec8936bc84b3a1588a85d24 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/language/Language-typology | Language typology | Language typology
Language families, as conceived in the historical study of languages, should not be confused with the quite separate classifications of languages by reference to their sharing certain predominant features of grammatical structure. Such classifications give rise to what are called typological classes.
In fulfilling the requirements of open-ended creativity imposed on language by human beings, grammatical structure has things in common in all known languages, particularly at the deeper levels of grammar. All known languages have words or wordlike elements combined in accordance with rules into sentences; all known languages distinguish in some way nounlike and verblike sentence components; and all known languages have the means of embedding or subordinating one sentence within another as an included clause (e.g., the sun set and we returned home: When the sun set, we returned home; Joan was playing tennis and Joan twisted her ankle: Joan, who was playing tennis, twisted her ankle, or while she was playing tennis, Joan twisted her ankle). Descriptive analyses of all the languages of the world have not yet been prepared, and, of course, there is information about only a minute number of those that are no longer used—namely, those few that were written. But there is enough known to make the assertion of such universal features as have been given with fair confidence. These are often referred to as language universals; their nature and extent is the subject of ongoing discussion and research.
Within these very general guidelines, however, languages exhibit various types of structure. This can most readily be seen by comparing the relations between the forms of words and their syntactic functions in different languages. Such a comparison is the basis of three broad types of language that have been distinguished since the beginning of the 19th century. They are, in fact, more like characteristics than types, in that most languages contain traces of all three, in different proportions.
Classical Chinese made little or no use of word-form variation, such as is found, for example, in Latin, for grammatical purposes. Sentence structure was expressed by word order, word grouping, and the use of specific grammatical words, or particles. Such languages have been called isolating or analytic. Modern Chinese languages are much less analytic than is often believed; probably, Vietnamese is the most fully representative of this type today. Some languages string together, or agglutinate, successive bits, each with a specific grammatical function, into the body of single words. Turkish is a typical agglutinative language: compare Turkish evleri, “houses” (accusative case), in which ev is the root meaning “house,” -ler marks plurality, and -i is the sign for accusative, with Latin domūs, in which -ūs combines the representation of accusative and plural without the possibility of assigning either category separately to one part of the word ending. Latin is in this respect an inflectional, or fusional, language. In a more extreme example, Latin ī “go!” cumulatively represents in one fused form the verb meaning “go,” active voice, imperative mood, second person, and singular number, each a grammatically distinct category.
English, like many other languages, includes features of all three types. In its use of word order alone to distinguish grammatical differences (the dog chased the cat; the cat chased the dog), it resembles Classical Chinese rather than Latin. In a word form such as manliness, in which each bit can be assigned a grammatical function (man the basic noun, -li- the adjective formative, and -ness the abstract noun formative), it makes use of agglutination, whereas plurals such as men and geese and past tenses such as came and ran fuse distinct grammatical categories into a word form in which only arbitrarily can one allot some sound segments, or letters, to one and some to the other.
Assigning languages to different types in this way involves a delicate procedure of balancing one part of the grammar against another and deciding which type of structure predominates and how well the other types are represented. Languages predominantly of each of the types are found in communities at all levels of civilization and with all types of culture.
In the course of transmission, grammatical structures change, just as do pronunciation and meanings, and in time the cumulative effect may be the transference of a language from one overall type to another, although it remains descended from the earlier language and therefore is just as much part of the same historical family. Latin is very different typologically from French in its grammatical structure, but French is nevertheless the form that Latin took in France in the course of time. In the matter of the grammatical relevance of word order, the absence of case inflections in nouns, and the use of verbal auxiliaries instead of single word tense forms, French is more like English, a distant cousin within the Indo-European family, than it is like Latin, its immediate progenitor (compare French j’ai donné, English I have given, Latin dedī). The two sorts of language classification, historical and typological, serve different purposes and are differently based. Language families group languages together on the basis of descent—i.e., unbroken transmission from an earlier common parent language. The evidence is, in the main, systematic correspondences among the shapes of words of similar meanings (e.g., Greek patēr, Latin pater, French père, German Vater, English father). Languages are put into typological classes, with the reservation already mentioned, on the basis of certain overall similarities of structure irrespective of historical relations. Though these two classifications may coincide with some languages, as is the case to a great extent in the Bantu family, they do so only contingently; being based on different data and oriented differently, they do not logically or necessarily imply each other.
In a way, these two systems of classification involve the two most important aspects in which languages must be seen for them to be properly understood: as products of a continuous historical process and also as self-sufficient systems of communication in any one period. Both as a component of cultural history and as a central part of culture itself, language is able to reveal, more than any other human activity and achievement, what is involved in humankind’s distinctive humanity.
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ca94f02fb8cb17e36ebcfb3cac3098cb | https://www.britannica.com/topic/language/Lexical-meaning | Lexical meaning | Lexical meaning
The other component of sentence meaning is word meaning, the individual meanings of the words in a sentence, as lexical items. The concept of word meaning is a familiar one. Dictionaries list words and in one way or another state their meanings. It is regarded as a sensible question to ask of any word in a language, “What does it mean?” This question, like many others about language, is easier to ask than to answer.
It is through lexical resources that languages maintain the flexibility their open-ended commitments demand. Every language has a vocabulary of many thousands of words, though not all are in active use, and some are known only to relatively few speakers. Perhaps the commonest delusion in considering vocabularies is the assumption that the words of different languages, or at least their nouns, verbs, and adjectives, label the same inventory of things, processes, and qualities in the world but unfortunately label them with different labels from language to language. If this were so, translation would be easier than it is; but the fact that translation, though often difficult, is possible indicates that people are talking about similar worlds of experience in their various languages.
Languages in part create the world in which humans live. Of course, many words do name existing bits and pieces of earth and heaven: stone, tree, dog, woman, star, cloud, and so on. Others, however, do not so much pick out what is there as classify it and organize one’s relations with it and with each other with regard to it. A range of living creatures are mammals or are vertebrates, because people classify them in these ways, among others, by applying selected criteria and so determining the denotation of the words mammal and vertebrate. Plants are vegetables or weeds according as groups of people classify them, and different plants are included and excluded by such classifications in different languages and different cultures.
Time and its associated vocabulary (year, month, day, hour, minute, yesterday, tomorrow, and so on) do not refer to discrete sections of reality but enable people to impose some sort of order, in agreement with others, on the processes of change observed in the world. Personal pronouns pick out the persons speaking, spoken to, and spoken about; but some languages make different distinctions in their pronouns from those made in English. For example, in Malay, kita, which means “we,” including the person addressed, is distinct from kami, a form for “we” that includes the speaker and a third person or persons but excludes the person addressed. In Japanese and in several other languages, a variety of words denoting the first and second persons indicate additionally the observed or intended social relationship of those involved.
Other word meanings are even more language- and culture-bound and, in consequence, harder to translate. Right and wrong, theft, inheritance, property, debt, sin, and crime are just a few of the words regulating one’s conduct and relations with one’s fellows in a particular culture. Translation becomes progressively harder as one moves to languages of more remote cultures, and it has been said that it requires “a unification of cultural context.” Insofar as a person’s understanding of the universe and of the relations between that person and other people is closely linked with the language used, it must be assumed, and the evidence confirms this assumption, that children progressively acquire such understanding along with their language.
The great majority of word shapes bear no direct relation to their lexical meanings. If they did, languages would be more alike. What are called onomatopoeic words have some similarity in shape through different languages: French coucou, English cuckoo, and German Kuckuck directly mimic the call of the bird. English dingdong and German bim-bam share several sound features in common that partially resemble the clanging of bells. More abstractly, some direct “sound symbolism” has been seen between certain sound types and visual or tactile shapes. Most people agree that the made-up word oomboolu would better designate a round, bulbous object than a spiky one. In addition, the appropriateness of the vowel sound represented by ee in English wee and i in French petit and Italian piccolo for expressing things of small size has been traced in several languages.
All this, however, is a very small part of the vocabulary of any language. For by far the largest number of words in a spoken language, there is no direct association between sound and meaning. English horse, German Pferd, French cheval, Latin equus, and Greek hippos are all unrelated to the animal so named, except that these words are so used in the languages concerned. This is what is meant by the term arbitrary in the second definition of language quoted at the beginning of this article. Vocabulary has to be largely arbitrary, because the greater part of the world and of human experience is not directly associated with any kind of noise, or even with specific gestures or hand shapes.
The relations between sentence structure and structural meanings are also largely arbitrary and tacitly conventional. The use of loudness and stress for emphasis in spoken languages as well as certain linguistic indications of anger and excitement are akin to nonlinguistic expressions of emotion and are somewhat similar across language divisions. But actual intonations and features such as word order, word inflection, and grammatical particles, used in maintaining distinctions in structural meaning, differ markedly in different languages.
Not only are word meanings somewhat different in different languages; they are not fixed for all time in any one language. Semantic changes take place all along (see below Linguistic change), and at any moment the semantic area covered by a word is indeterminately bordered and differs from context to context. This is a further aspect and condition of the inherent and necessary flexibility of language.
People can be as precise or as imprecise as they need or wish to be. In general, words are fairly imprecise, yet for particular purposes their meanings can be tightened up, usually by bringing in more words or phrases to divide up a given field in more detail. Good contrasts generally with bad, but one can, for example, grade students as first-class, excellent, very good, good, fair, poor, and failed (or bad). In this case, good now covers a restricted and relatively low place in a field of associated terms.
Colour words get their meanings from their mutual contrasts. The field of visually discriminable hues is very large and goes far beyond the resources of any vocabulary as it is normally used. Children learn the central or basic colour words of their language fairly early and at the same time; such terms as red and green are normally learned before subdivisions such as crimson and scarlet or chartreuse. It is well known that languages make their primary divisions of the spectrum of colours in different places; Japanese aoi covers many of the hues referred to in English by green and blue, while blue covers much of the range of the two Russian words goluboy and siny. While the actual colour vocabularies of languages differ, however, research by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay in the 1960s sought to show that “there exist universally for humans eleven basic perceptual color categories” that serve as reference points for the colour words of a language, whatever number may be regularly employed at any time. The claim remains controversial.
Ordinarily, considerable areas of indeterminate designation in colour vocabulary and in other fields are tolerated; between red and purple and between purple and blue, there are hues that one would hesitate to assign firmly to one or the other and on which there would be considerable personal disagreement. When greater precision than normal is required—as, for example, in listing paint or textile colours—all kinds of additional terms can be brought into service to supplement the usual vocabulary: off-white, light cream, lemon, blush pink, and so on.
The vocabulary of kinship terms varies from language to language, reflecting cultural differences. English distinguishes the nearer kinsfolk by sex: mother, father; sister, brother; aunt, uncle; and others. Other languages, such as Malay, make a lexical distinction of age the primary one, with separate words for elder brother or sister and younger brother or sister. Still other languages—for example, some American Indian ones—use different words for the sister of a man and for the sister of a woman. But beyond this any language can be as precise as the situation demands in kin designation. When it is necessary, English speakers can specify elder sister and female cousin, and within the overall category it is possible to distinguish first and second cousins and cousins once removed, distinctions that it is ordinarily pedantic to make.
The best example of infinite precision available from a strictly limited lexical stock is in the field of arithmetic. Between any two whole numbers a further fractional or decimal number may always be inserted, and this may go on indefinitely: between 10 and 11, 10 1/2 (10.5), 10 1/4 (10.25), 10 1/8 (10.125), and so on. Thus, mathematicians and physical scientists are able to achieve any desired degree of quantitative precision appropriate to their purposes, and hence the importance of quantitative statements in the sciences; any thermometric scale contains far more distinctions of temperature than are reasonably available in the vocabulary of a language (hot, warm, cool, tepid, cold, and so on). For this reason mathematics has been described as the “ideal use of language.” This characterization, however, applies to relatively few areas of expression, and for many purposes in everyday life the very imprecision of natural languages is the source of their strength and adaptability.
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2d5934f988c080d0fb0847f4fe5343bf | https://www.britannica.com/topic/language/Linguistic-change | Linguistic change | Linguistic change
Every language has a history, and, as in the rest of human culture, changes are constantly taking place in the course of the learned transmission of a language from one generation to another. This is just part of the difference between human culture and animal behaviour. Languages change in all their aspects, in their pronunciation, word forms, syntax, and word meanings (semantic change). These changes are mostly very gradual in their operation, becoming noticeable only cumulatively over the course of several generations. But, in some areas of vocabulary, particular words closely related to rapid cultural change are subject to equally rapid and therefore noticeable changes within a generation or even within a decade. In the 20th century the vocabulary of science and technology was an outstanding example. The same is also true of those parts of vocabulary that are involved in fashionable slangs and jargons, whose raison d’être in promoting group, particularly age-group, solidarity depends on their being always fresh and distinctive. Old slangs date, as any novel or film more than 10 years old is apt to show.
In the structural aspects of spoken language, their pronunciation and grammar, and in vocabulary less closely involved in rapid cultural movement, the processes of linguistic change are best observed by comparing written records of a language over extended periods. This is most readily seen by English speakers through setting side by side present-day English texts with 18th-century English, the English of the Authorized Version of the Bible, Shakespearean English, Chaucer’s English, and the varieties of Old English (Anglo-Saxon) that survive in written form. Noticeably, as one goes back in time, the effort required in understanding increases, and, while people do not hesitate to speak of “Shakespearean English,” they are more doubtful about Chaucer, and for the most part Old English texts are as unintelligible to a modern English speaker as, for example, texts in German. It is clear that the differences involved include word meanings, grammar, and, so far as this can be reconstructed, pronunciation.
Similar evidence, together with what is known of the cultural history of the peoples concerned, makes clear the continuous historical connections linking French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian with the spoken (“vulgar”) Latin of the western Roman Empire. This group constitutes the Romance subfamily of languages and is an example of how, as the result of linguistic change over a wide area, a group of distinct, though historically related, languages comes into being.
In the transmission of a language from parent to child, slight deviations in all aspects of language use occur all the time, and, as children’s communication contacts widen, they confront a growing range of slight differences in personal language use, some of them correlating with social or regional differences within a community, these differences themselves being the results of the transmission process. As a consequence, children’s language comes to differ slightly from that of their parents’ generation. In urbanized communities an additional factor is involved: children have been shown to be effectively influenced by the language habits of their peer groups once they have made contacts with them in and out of school.
Such changes, though slight at the time, are progressively cumulative. Since ready intercommunication is a primary purpose of language, as long as a community remains unitary, with strong central direction and a central cultural focus, such changes will not go beyond the limits of intercomprehensibility. But in more-scattered communities and in larger language areas, especially when cultural and administrative ties are weakened and broken, these cumulative deviations in the course of generations give rise to wider regional differences. Such differences take the form of dialectal differentiation as long as there is some degree of mutual comprehension but eventually result in the emergence of distinct languages. This is what happened in the history of the colloquial Latin of the western Roman Empire, and it can be assumed that a similar course of events gave rise to the separate Germanic languages (English, German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and some others), though in this family the original unitary language is not known historically but inferred as “Common Germanic” or “Proto-Germanic” and tentatively assigned to early in the 1st millennium bce as the period before separation began.
This is how language families have developed. Most but not all of the languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European family, so-called because in addition it includes the classical Indian language Sanskrit and most of the modern languages of northern India and Pakistan. It includes as subfamilies the two families just mentioned, Romance and Germanic, and several others. It is assumed that the subfamilies, and from them the individual languages of the Indo-European family, are ultimately derived from a unitary language spoken somewhere in eastern Europe or western Asia (its exact location is still under debate), perhaps 5,000 years ago. This unitary language has itself been referred to as “Indo-European,” “Proto-Indo-European,” the “common parent language,” or the “original language” (Ursprache) of the family. But it must be emphasized that, whatever it may have been like, it was just one language among many and of no special status in itself. It was certainly in no way the original language of humankind or anything like it. It had its own earlier history, of which virtually nothing can be inferred, and it was, of course, very recent in relation to the time span of human language itself. What is really special about such “parent” or “proto-” languages is that they represent the farthest point to which available techniques and resources enable linguists to reconstruct the prehistory of attested and living languages. Similarly constituted families of languages derived from inferred common sources have been established for other parts of the world—for example, Altaic, covering Turkish and several languages of Central Asia, and Bantu, containing many of the languages of central and southern Africa.
If enough material in the form of written records from past ages were available, it would be possible to group all the world’s languages into historically related families. In addition, an answer could perhaps be posited to the question of whether all languages are descended from a single original language or whether languages emerged independently among several groups of early peoples (the rival theories of monogenesis and polygenesis, a controversy more confidently disputed in the 19th century than today). In actual fact, written records, when they are available, go back only a fraction of the time in which human language has been developed and used, and over much of the globe written records are nonexistent. In addition, there are few linguistically relevant fossils comparable to the fossils of geological prehistory, though a certain amount of information about the early development of the vocal tract can be deduced from skeletal remains. This means that the history and prehistory of languages will not be able to go back more than to a few thousand years bce and will be much more-restricted in language areas in which few or no written records are available, as in much of Africa and in South America. Many languages will remain not related with certainty to any family.
Nevertheless, the methods of historical linguistics, involving the precise and systematic comparison of word forms and word meanings, have produced remarkable results in establishing language families on the same basis as Indo-European was established, in far less-favourable fields. But any attempt by these means to get back to “the origin of language” or to reconstruct the original language of the human race, if indeed there was one, has so far been beyond the reach of science. However, hypotheses based on large-scale comparative studies using statistical methods continue to be proposed. For example, in 2011 a study of 504 languages by New Zealand biologist Quentin D. Atkinson suggested that the number of phonemes a language contains may be an index of evolutionary diversity. In this sample, the languages of southwest Africa had the largest phoneme inventories, and the number of phonemes declined the farther away from this area humans settled, showing an interesting parallel with the reduction in human genetic diversity seen over increasing distance from Africa already noted by biologists. The findings are suggestive, but they need to be tested against a much larger sample of languages.
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eee643da8bd6c09825963f3a12abb628 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/language/Meaning-and-style-in-language | Meaning and style in language | Meaning and style in language
The whole object and purpose of language is to be meaningful. Languages have developed and are constituted in their present forms in order to meet the needs of communication in all its aspects.
It is because the needs of human communication are so various and so multifarious that the study of meaning is probably the most difficult and baffling part of the serious study of language. Traditionally, language has been defined as the expression of thought, but this involves far too narrow an interpretation of language or far too wide a view of thought to be serviceable. The expression of thought is just one among the many functions performed by language in certain contexts.
First, one must recognize that the meaning of any sentence comprises two parts: the meanings of the words it contains and the structural or grammatical meaning carried by the sentence itself. In English the dog chased the cat and the boy chased the cat differ in meaning because dog and boy are different words with different word meanings; the same applies to equivalent sentences in other languages. The two sentences the dog chased the cat and the cat chased the dog, though containing exactly the same words, are different in meaning because the different word orders distinguish what are conventionally called subject and object. In Latin the two corresponding sentences would be distinguished not by word order, which is grammatically indifferent and largely a matter of style, but by different shapes in the lexical equivalents of dog and cat. In Japanese the grammatical distinction of subject and object, normally marked by the word order subject–object–verb (SOV), can be reinforced by a subject particle after the first word and an object particle after the second.
The formal resources of any language for making distinctions in the structural meanings of sentences are limited by two things: the linear (time) dimension of speaking and the limited memory span of the human brain. Writing copies the time stream of speech with the linear flow of scripts. Diagrams and pictures employ two dimensions, and models employ three; but writing is partially relieved of memory-span restrictions by the permanence of visual marks. Because written texts are almost entirely divorced from oral pronunciation, sentence length and sentence complexity can be carried to extremes, as may be observed in some legal and legislative documents that are virtually unintelligible if read aloud.
Within these linear restrictions, distinctions corresponding to the main uses of language can be made. All languages can employ different sentence structures to state facts (declarative), to ask questions (interrogative), and to enjoin or forbid some course of action (imperative). More delicate means exist to soften or modify these basic distinctions—e.g., It’s cold today, isn’t it?; Isn’t it still raining?; Shut the door, if you don’t mind; Don’t be long, will you? Languages use their resources differently for these purposes, but, generally speaking, each seems to be equally flexible structurally. The principal resources are word order, word form, and, in speech, pitch and stress placement. In English, as an example, a word or phrase can be highlighted by being placed first in the sentence when it would not normally occur there: compare he can’t bear loud noises with loud noises he can’t bear or loud noises, he can’t bear them. The object noun or noun phrase can also be put first by making the sentence passive; this allows the original subject to be omitted if one does not know or does not want to refer to an agent: the town was destroyed (by the revolutionaries). Within and together with all these possibilities, almost any word can be made contrastively prominent in spoken language by being stressed (spoken more loudly) or by being uttered on a higher pitch, and very often these two are combined: I asked you for RED roses (not yellow); I meant it for YOU (not her); HE knows nothing about it (someone else may). Prominence is especially associated with intonation, itself an important carrier of structural meaning in speech. One may state facts, ask questions, and give instructions with a variety of intonations indicating, along with visible gestures, different attitudes, feelings, and social and personal relations between speaker and hearer.
The possibilities of expressing structural meanings are a highly important part of any language. They are acquired along with the rest of one’s first language in childhood and are learned more slowly and with more difficulty in mastering a second or later language. Scholars continue to analyze these resources as they pursue a full understanding of all the semantic functions performed by means of these resources.
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e22a5c4d903ec8e0335657d1d6b9982b | https://www.britannica.com/topic/language/Pidgins-and-creoles | Pidgins and creoles | Pidgins and creoles
Some specialized languages were developed to keep the outsider at bay. In other circumstances, languages have been deliberately created to facilitate communication with outsiders. This happens when people speaking two different languages have to work together, usually in some form of trade relation or administrative routine. In such situations the so-called pidgins arise, more or less purposely made up of vocabulary items from each language, with mutual abandonment of grammatical complexities that would cause confusion to either party. Pidgins have been particularly associated with areas settled by European traders; examples have been Chinook Jargon, a lingua franca based on an American Indian language and English that was formerly used in Washington and Oregon, and Beach-la-mar, an English-based pidgin of parts of the South Seas. Some pidgins have come to be extensively used, such as Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea and the pidgins of the West African coast.
Sometimes, as the result of relatively permanent settlement and the intermixture of two speech communities, a pidgin becomes the first language of later generations, ultimately displacing both the original languages. First languages arising in this way from artificially created pidgins are called creoles. Notable among creoles is Haitian Creole, which grew primarily from the interactions between French colonists and enslaved Africans on Haiti’s plantations. It is one of Haiti’s official languages (the other being French), and it shows lexical and grammatical features of both French and African languages.
Creoles differ from pidgins in that, as first languages, they are subject to the natural processes of change like any other language (see below Linguistic change), and, despite the deliberately simplified form of the original pidgin, creoles develop their own complexities in the course of generations. This occurs because the restricted uses to which pidgins were first put and for which they were devised did not require any great flexibility. Once such a language becomes the first or only language of many people, it must acquire the resources (i.e., the complexity) to respond adequately to all the requirements of a natural language. The study of the processes whereby a pidgin becomes a creole and of the relationship between creoles and a country’s standard language is carried on within sociolinguistics. The investigation can be controversial, as historical records may be missing and major issues of cultural and ethnic identity are involved.
Signed languages and gesture languages have the same linguistic components as spoken languages. Although they do not involve speech sounds, they have their own grammar, syntax, and morphology. Sign language is most often used in deaf communities, although it is also sometimes used by hearing people when they are unable to communicate verbally. Although some sign languages are related to spoken languages, often within a geographic community (such as American [spoken] English and American Sign Language), they are not necessarily direct translations. The scope, history, and unique linguistic and sociological characteristics of sign language are too broad to be fully discussed here; for further treatment of the subject, see sign language.
When individuals speak, they do not normally confine themselves to the mere emission of speech sounds. Because speaking usually involves at least two parties in sight of each other, a great deal of meaning is conveyed by facial expression and movements and postures of the whole body but especially of the hands; these are collectively known as gestures. The contribution of bodily gestures to the total meaning of a conversation is in part culturally determined and differs in different communities. Just how important these visual symbols are may be seen when one considers how much less effective phone conversation is as compared with conversation face to face. Again, the part played in emotional contact and in the expression of feelings by facial expressions and tone of voice, quite independently of the words used, has been shown in tests in which subjects have been asked to react to sentences that appear as friendly and inviting when read but are spoken angrily and, conversely, to sentences that appear as hostile but are spoken with friendly facial expressions. It is found that it is the visual accompaniments and tone of voice that elicit the main emotional response. A good deal of sarcasm exploits these contrasts, which are sometimes described under the heading of paralanguage.
Just as there are paralinguistic activities such as facial expressions and bodily gestures integrated with and assisting the communicative function of spoken language, so there are vocally produced noises that cannot be regarded as part of any language, though they help in communication and in the expression of feeling. These include laughter, shouts and screams of joy, fear, pain, and so forth, and conventional expressions of disgust, triumph, and so on, traditionally spelled ugh!, ha ha!, and so on, in English. These sorts of nonlexical expressions are much more similar in form and meaning throughout humankind as a whole, in contrast to the great diversity of languages. They are also far less arbitrary than most of the lexical components of language, and they are much nearer the cries of animals produced under similar circumstances and serve similar expressive and communicative purposes (as far as animals’ intentions and behaviour can be understood). Some people have tried to trace the origin of language itself to them.
A language is a symbol system. It may be regarded, because of its infinite flexibility and productivity, as the symbol system par excellence. But there are other symbol systems recognized and institutionalized in the different cultures of humankind. Examples of these exist on maps and blueprints and in the conventions of representational art (e.g., the golden halos around the heads of saints in religious paintings). Other symbol systems are musical notation and dance notation, wherein graphic symbols designate musical pitches and other features of musical performance and the movements of formalized dances. More loosely, because music itself can convey and arouse emotions and certain musical forms and structures are often associated with certain types of feeling, one frequently reads of the “language of music” or even of “the grammar of music.” The terms language and grammar are here being used metaphorically, however, if only because no symbol system other than language has the same potential of infinite productivity, extension, and precision.
Languages are used by human beings to communicate with other human beings. Derivatively, bits of languages may be used by humans to control machinery, as when different buttons and switches are marked with words or phrases designating their functions. A specialized development of human-machine language is seen in computer programming languages, which provide the means whereby sets of instructions and data of various kinds are supplied to computers in forms acceptable to these machines. Various types of such languages are employed for different purposes.
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40f57dda21ba9cc402ad503d230810a4 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/language/Style | Style | Style
The capacity for conceptualization possessed and developed by languages is by no means the only purpose language serves. A person’s speech, supplemented by facial expression and gesture when speaker and hearer are mutually in sight, indicates and is intended to indicate a great deal more than factual information, inquiries, and requests. Similarly, sign languages incorporate facial expressions and body language to add meaning and nuance. The fact that some of these other functions are performed by parts of a language usually mastered later by foreign learners gives rise to misinterpretation and often makes foreign speakers appear rude or insensitive when they are, in actuality, simply deploying fewer resources in the language.
Within the range of the structural and lexical possibilities of a language, speakers (or senders) are able to convey their emotional attitudes and feelings toward the person or persons they are addressing (receivers) and toward the subject matter of what they are saying (sending). They are also able to conceal such feelings as one form of linguistic deception, though this is usually a harder task. These same resources are also exploited to arouse appropriate feelings and responses in others, again independently of any factual content. This is the chosen field of the propagandist, the preacher, the orator, the barrister (lawyer), and the advertiser. Spoken languages make use of intonation and voice qualities in these different ways; a person can produce and recognize the intonation and type of voice employed in coaxing, in pleading, in browbeating, in threatening, in pleasure, and in anger, as well as those appropriate for matter-of-fact statements and the exposition of details about which the speaker has little or no emotional involvement.
To describe exactly which phonetic features are brought into play is quite another matter, involving advanced competence in phonetic discrimination and analysis. Grammar and vocabulary are equally involved, though differently in each language. English speakers know the difference between Come and give me a hand! and Could you possibly come and help me?; He’s got the gift of gab and He is undoubtedly a fluent and persuasive speaker are each appropriate for different occasions. By greetings and leave-takings a great deal of intended interpretation of the social relations between individuals can be expressed. Much of this is the “good manners” taught to children and expected of adults; these aspects of language behaviour vary from culture to culture and group to group, but in none are they wholly absent. It is, of course, equally possible to be deliberately bad mannered or deliberately to flout a linguistic convention or expectation, but this can be done only by knowing what is expected in the situation. The refinements of rudeness, like the refinements of politeness, insofar as the use of language is involved, require a very good knowledge of a language. Equal levels of sophistication are behind the process known as code-switching, wherein individuals move between different linguistic codes depending on the social contexts in which they find themselves.
Written language is no less adapted to conveying more than just factual information, asking factual questions, and giving instructions. Intonation and tone of voice are not easily reproducible in orthographic systems, but part of the skill of novelists or reporters is to convey these features of speech in their descriptions. Additionally, as the examples above show, grammatical and lexical choices are available to the writer, and anyone who has written anything to someone else knows the challenges of making words achieve precisely the purpose for which they are intended.
These variations within a language or within any dialect of a language, may be referred to as styles. Each time people communicate, they do so in one or another style, deliberately chosen with the sort of considerations in mind that have just been mentioned, even though in speech the choice may often be routine. Sometimes style, especially in literature, is contrasted with plain everyday language. In using such plain unmarked types of language, however, one is no less choosing a particular style, even though it is the most commonly used one and the most neutral in that it conveys and arouses the least emotional involvement or personal feelings.
Stylistic differences are available to all mature native speakers or users and in literate communities to all writers, as well as to foreigners who know a second language very well. But there is undoubtedly a considerable range of skills in exploiting all the resources of a language, and communities have always recognized and usually respected certain individuals as preeminently skilled in particular styles, as orators, storytellers, preachers, poets, scribes, belletrists, and so forth. This is the material of literature and, in societies without writing, oral literature.
In all languages, certain forms of expression have been considered worthy of preservation, study, and cultivation. In writing, the nature of written surfaces makes this fairly easy, though not all written material is deliberately preserved; much of it is deliberately destroyed, and, although the chance survival of inscriptions on stone or clay is of the greatest value to the archaeologist and historian, a good deal of such material was never intended to survive. Literature, on the other hand, is essentially regarded as of permanent worth. Printing and, in earlier days, the copying of manuscripts are the means of preserving written literature. In communities without writing, certain persons memorize narratives, poems, songs, prayers, ritual texts, and the like, and these are passed on, with new creations in such styles, to succeeding generations. Such skills, preservative as well as creative, are likely to be lost along with much of the surrounding culture under the impact of literacy. Here, modern recording technology has come to the rescue, and many workers in the field of unwritten languages are preserving specimens of oral literatures with transcriptions and translations while speakers having the requisite knowledge and skills are still available. A great amount of such material, however, must have been irretrievably lost from cultures without writing before the 20th century.
All languages have a literature, but different types of literature flourish in different languages and in different cultures. A warrior caste or a general respect for martial prowess fosters heroic verse or prose tales; urban yearnings for the supposed joys of country life encourage the development of pastoral poetry, itself an outgrowth of the songs of shepherds and rural workers; and the same sense of the jadedness of city life is the best ground for the cultivation of satirical verse and prose, a form of literature probably confined largely to urban civilizations. Every language has the resources to meet these and other cultural requirements in its literature as the occasions arise, but some literary forms are more deeply involved in the structure of the language itself; this is made clear by the relative difficulty of translating certain types of literature and literary styles from one language to another. Poetry, in particular, is closely bound to the structure of the language in which it is composed, and poetry is notoriously difficult to translate from one language into another.
The special vocabularies and linguistic forms used in several games have already been mentioned. Here one may point to the widespread existence of verbal games themselves, based on the accidental features of a particular language. English-speaking children are accustomed to riddles, puns, and spelling games: “I spy with my little eye something beginning with p” (notice the regular formula with which this opens). These and similar word games have been found all over the world. Homer records the punning use by Odysseus of No-man (Greek Outis) as his name when he was about to attack Cyclops, who then roared out “No-man is killing me!” and so failed to attract any help. In some languages that make use of lexically distinctive tones, tone puns (words alike but for having different tones) are a form of word play.
As an intellectual challenge, the crossword puzzle in all its varieties, originally an American development early in the 20th century, has maintained popularity over much of the literate world that employs the Latin (Roman) alphabet. Crossword-puzzle solvers rely heavily on the relative probabilities of letter sequences in written words to suggest an answer to a partly filled line, and, depending on the particular style of the originator, crossword clues make use of many sorts of formal features in the language, among them spelling puns, spoken puns, and accidental letter sequences in words and phrases. To be able to solve a crossword puzzle in a second language shows a high degree of skill and knowledge therein.
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906caa774e4055cfe3c4bb82a2612a09 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Languages-of-Art | Languages of Art | Languages of Art
His Languages of Art (1968) was the first work of analytical philosophy to produce a distinct and systematic theory of art. Goodman’s theory has attracted considerable attention, the more so in that it is an extension of a general philosophical perspective, expounded in works of great…
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ddd4921103002e98a9b479d935e975fc | https://www.britannica.com/topic/langue-doil | Langue d’oïl | Langue d’oïl
…to the Alps was the langue d’oïl (the future French), and to the south it was the langue d’oc (Occitan), terms derived from the respective expressions for “yes.”
The langue d’oïl had a tradition of dance and spinning songs before the troubadours exerted by the mid-12th century an influence encouraged by, among others, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Guilhelm IX’s granddaughter and queen of France and later England (as the wife of Henry II). The troubadours’…
The langue d’oïl (forerunner of modern French) was the dominant language from the 17th century.
…dialects made up the so-called langue d’oïl (the term is based on the French use of the word oïl, modern oui, for “yes”). Standard French has also greatly reduced the use of the Occitan language of southern France (the so-called langue d’oc, from Provençal oc for “yes”). Provençal, Occitan’s major…
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4f6119f1bd3c6ea4557068d2b040b536 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/langue-linguistics | Langue | Langue
… or actual individual utterances, from langue, the underlying system of conventions that makes such utterances understandable; it is this underlying langue that most interests semioticians.
…inner and outer form): (1) langue versus parole and (2) form versus substance. By langue, best translated in its technical Saussurean sense as language system, is meant the totality of regularities and patterns of formation that underlie the utterances of a language; by parole, which can be translated as language…
…the individual person, and “langue,” the system underlying speech activity. His distinctions proved to be mainsprings to productive linguistic research and can be regarded as starting points on the avenue of linguistics known as structuralism.
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b2cdc4b048972d1dd909d5e52768ece2 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lankavatara-sutra | Lankavatara-sutra | Lankavatara-sutra
Lankavatara-sutra, (Sanskrit: “Sutra of the Appearance of the Good Doctrine in Lanka”) in full Saddharma-lankavatara-sutra, distinctive and influential philosophical discourse in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition that is said to have been preached by the Buddha in the mythical city Lanka. Dating from perhaps the 4th century, although parts of it may be earlier, it is the chief canonical exposition of Vijnanavada (“Doctrine of Consciousness”), or subjective idealism. It teaches, in other words, that the world is an illusory reflection of ultimate, undifferentiated mind and that this truth suddenly becomes an inner realization in concentrated meditation.
The thought of the Lankavatara-sutra is reflected in the Yogachara school and provides some of the philosophical background of Zen. It is distinct from two other main thrusts in Mahayana, the Prajnaparamita (“Perfection of Wisdom”) emphasis and the worship of Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light. The sutra was first translated into Chinese in the 5th century and has been the subject of many treatises and commentaries.
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885a90ca0c863d4a90cb131312c7539a | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lantern-Festival | Lantern Festival | Lantern Festival
Lantern Festival, also called Yuan Xiao Festival, holiday celebrated in China and other Asian countries that honours deceased ancestors on the 15th day of the first month (Yuan) of the lunar calendar. The Lantern Festival aims to promote reconciliation, peace, and forgiveness. The holiday marks the first full moon of the new lunar year and the end of the Chinese New Year (see Lunar New Year). During the festival, houses are festooned with colourful lanterns, often with riddles written on them; if the riddle is answered correctly, the solver earns a small gift. Festival celebrations also include lion and dragon dances, parades, and fireworks. Small glutinous rice balls filled with fruits and nuts, called yuanxiao or tangyuan, are eaten during the festival. The round shape of the balls symbolizes wholeness and unity within the family. The Lantern Festival is celebrated on Friday, February 26, 2021.
The Lantern Festival may originate as far back as the Han dynasty (206 bce to 220 ce), when Buddhist monks would light lanterns on the 15th day of the lunar year in honour of the Buddha. The rite was later adopted by the general population and spread throughout China and other parts of Asia. A legend concerning the festival’s origin tells the tale of the Jade Emperor (You Di), who became angered at a town for killing his goose. He planned to destroy the town with fire, but he was thwarted by a fairy who advised the people to light lanterns across the town on the appointed day of destruction. The emperor, fooled by all the light, assumed the town was already engulfed in flames. The town was spared, and in gratitude the people continued to commemorate the event annually by carrying colourful lanterns throughout the town.
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6026072f17ce92339102e950c00635e8 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lantian-man | Lantian man | Lantian man
Lantian man, Wade-Giles Lan-t’ien, fossils of hominins (members of the human lineage) found in 1963 and 1964 by Chinese archaeologists at two sites in Lantian district, Shaanxi province, China. One specimen was found at each site: a cranium (skullcap) at Gongwangling (Kung-wang-ling) and a mandible (lower jaw) at Chenjiawo (Ch’en-chia-wo). Both appear to be female. Stone implements from a third site in Lantian may be contemporary with the fossils.
Named Sinanthropus lantianensis by its discoverers, Lantian man is now classified by most scholars as Homo erectus, as it resembles other Chinese and Indonesian fossils of this species, such as Java man and Peking man. The Lantian remains are believed to be about 1.1 million years old, almost as old as the earliest fossils of Java man and substantially older than Peking man. The Lantian skull most resembles that of a small-brained Java man, its cranial capacity being only 780 cubic cm (48 cubic inches).
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d68eb60b784761ec153683dcf668d48d | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lao | Lao | Lao
The Lao people, the predominant ethnic group in present-day Laos, are a branch of the Tai peoples who by the 8th century ce had established a powerful kingdom, Nanzhao, in southwestern China. From Nanzhao the Tai gradually penetrated southward into the Southeast Asian mainland; their migration…
The Lao live mainly in the valley of the Mekong River and its tributaries, comprising about two-thirds the population of Laos.
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1ddfe7f05a8f688df7a21fb4366bf264 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lao-Issara | Lao Issara | Lao Issara
Lao Issara, English Free Laos, Laotian political movement against French colonial control, founded in 1945. The departure of the Japanese from Laos in 1945 left the Laotian ruling elite divided over the issue of the restoration of French control. The king welcomed the French return, but Prince Phetsarath, the viceroy, and his brothers, Souvanna Phouma and Souphanouvong, were prominent in the noncommunist Lao Issara, which demanded full independence. The granting of limited independence within the French union in 1949 split the Lao Issara, one faction becoming the left-oriented Pathet Lao.
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b6ee53fd907e2f6e6d6647488e8e963a | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lao-Patriotic-Front | Lao Patriotic Front | Lao Patriotic Front
…a legal political wing, the Lao Patriotic Front (Neo Lao Hak Xat), was founded and participated in several coalition governments. In the 1960s and early ’70s the Pathet Lao fought a civil war against the U.S.-backed Vientiane regime, winning effective control in the north and east. In the spring of…
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3d5ffd04f53a1d233ff646f704c9a659 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lao-Peoples-Revolutionary-Party | Lao People’s Revolutionary Party | Lao People’s Revolutionary Party
…effectively controlled by the communist Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP). This party, in alliance with the Vietnamese communists, carried out the revolution that ended in its seizure of power and the abolition of the monarchy. Top government positions—beginning with the president, who is head of state, and the prime minister,…
…republic were guided by the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP; called the Lao People’s Party until 1972), the communist party of Laos. Its Politburo was dominated by a small cohesive band of revolutionaries who had founded the party in 1955 and had engaged in persistent revolutionary activity until their takeover…
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cc69b0416a41800131ac814b199b2140 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lao-Soung | Lao Soung | Lao Soung
The Lao Soung group includes peoples who have migrated into northern Laos since the early 19th century and speak Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao) or Tibeto-Burman languages. Among the most prominent of those communities are the Hmong, Mien (also called Man or Yao), Akha (a subgroup of Hani peoples),…
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1de842e9a5672998ceb5bff034f37537 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lao-Tai | Lao Tai | Lao Tai
Lao Tai peoples of the Lao Loum group also once had a clear political hierarchy and a stratified social structure. Black Tai tribal organization, for instance, had three levels: the village, which was the smallest unit; the commune, which comprised several villages; and the muong,…
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bbc3dfc49e15ef53cb893ea1cefd2177 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Laocoon-Greek-sculpture | Laocoön | Laocoön
Laocoön, a portrayal of anguish, shows the figure of the priest Laocoön and his two sons in the grip of two snakes. The sculpture, in immobile stone, is bursting with dynamism and energy.
The Laocoön group, a famous sculpture of the Trojan priest and his two sons struggling with a huge serpent, probably made by Rhodian artists in the 1st century ce but derived from examples of suffering figures carved in the 1st century bce, is a good example…
…his interpretation of the “Laocoon,” a famous sculpture of Hellenistic times (c. 1st century bc), which shows the priest Laocoon and his sons as they are about to be killed by the serpents that hold them entwined. In the Laokoon Lessing attempted to fundamentally define the separate functions of…
) and in the Laocoön statue (now in the Vatican Museum) attributed by Pliny the Elder to three Rhodian sculptors, Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus. The statue was for a time in the palace of the Emperor Titus (ad 79–81). After its rediscovery during the Renaissance, it regained its exalted…
…and Athenodorus, of the group Laocoön and His Sons. Nothing further is known of him except that inscriptions found at Lindus in Rhodes indicate that he was alive between 42 and 21 bce.
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9af439cedf318c562df79eb65052bf36 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Laocoon-painting-by-El-Greco | Laocoön | Laocoön
…most Renaissance artists, is the Laocoon (1610–14). For ancient Troy he substituted a view of Toledo, similar to the one just discussed, and he displayed little regard for classical tradition in painting the highly expressive but great, sprawling body of the priest.
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1cdeaf3614f2987ad8b781e732ba6c0f | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Laodameia | Laodameia | Laodameia
His bride, Laodameia, was so grief stricken that the gods granted her request that Protesilaus be allowed to return from the dead for three hours. At the expiration of the time she accompanied him to the underworld, either by taking her own life or by immolating herself…
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61157e2bd4176888e17bb24eac5aa9da | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Laozi-huhuajing | Laozi huhuajing | Laozi huhuajing
This book, the Laozi huhuajing (“Laozi’s Conversion of the Barbarians”), in which Buddhism was presented as an inferior kind of Daoism, was often condemned by the Chinese imperial authorities.
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bd269a4ab4e3283f5312f56f0c5ab78a | https://www.britannica.com/topic/lapidary-style | Lapidary style | Lapidary style
Lapidary style, in calligraphy, style of lettering characteristically used for inscription in marble or other stone by chisel strokes, as, for example, on Trajan’s Column in the Forum at Rome. The words of the inscription may be painted upon the stone slab first as a guide for the stonecutter, and the effect of his cut letters may be heightened by later painting or gilding them. The play of light and shade on the planes of the incised strokes enhances the precision of the technique. The lapidary style reached its zenith of elegance and restraint in the square roman capital alphabet.
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8c776e6809daadac52ec750af2cc4879 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/lappmark | Lappmark | Lappmark
Territorial subdivisions called lappmark were established for the regulation and taxation of the fur trade. As Swedish cultivators settled the coastal provinces (Västerbotten and Norrbotten) and began to move up the rivers into the interior, conflicts arose with the indigenous Sami. Twice, “limits of cultivation” were established by…
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d97de5e9b0d47481c462dec4d2f61b41 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lar-Roman-deities | Lar | Lar
Lar, plural Lares, in Roman religion, any of numerous tutelary deities. They were originally gods of the cultivated fields, worshipped by each household at the crossroads where its allotment joined those of others. Later the Lares were worshipped in the houses in association with the Penates, the gods of the storeroom (penus) and thus of the family’s prosperity; the household Lar (Familiaris) was conceived as the centre of the family and of the family cult.
Originally each household had only one Lar. It was usually represented as a youthful figure, dressed in a short tunic, holding in one hand a drinking horn, in the other a cup. Under the empire, two of these images were commonly to be found, one on each side of the central figure of the genius, of Vesta, or of some other deity. The whole group came to be called indifferently Lares or Penates. A prayer was said to the Lar every morning, and special offerings were made at family festivals.
The public Lares belonged to the state religion. Among these were included the Lares compitales, who presided over the crossroads (compita) and the whole neighbouring district. They had a special annual festival, called the Compitalia.
The state itself had its own Lares, called praestites, the protecting patrons and guardians of the city. They had a temple and altar on the Via Sacra and were represented as men wearing the chlamys (military cloak), carrying lances, seated, with a dog (the emblem of watchfulness) at their feet.
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8a98a883e4369d1558044ca6b59e6e78 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lara-Jonggrang | Lara Jonggrang | Lara Jonggrang
…the complex is that of Lara Jonggrang, also called Candi Prambanan (Prambanan Temple) because of its close proximity to the village. These temples were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999.
Shiva’s great temple at Prambanan, though not associated with the Shailendra family, is less than 50 miles (80 km) away, and an inscription dating to 856 marks what may be its foundation stone. The two monuments, which have much in common, help to explain the religious impulses in earlier…
Commonly called Prambanan Temple, the complex consists of six main temples; the three large ones along the west, dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma, contain fine statues. Of the three smaller temples along the east, the middle one contains a statue of Nandi, the bull of Shiva.…
…of the central Javanese period, Lara Jonggrang, at Prambanan, is indeed a colossal work, rivaling Borobudur. It was probably built soon after 900. Not Buddhist but Hindu, the shrine represents the cosmic mountain. There were originally 232 temples incorporated into the design. The plan was centred on a square court…
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1df4693466c047c0d451de6e67ab7e14 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Laran-om-staten | Läran om staten | Läran om staten
In 1842 he published Läran om staten (“Political Science”), which was influenced deeply by the philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel and in which he advanced the idea that the essence of a state is a national spirit. His influence as a stimulator of the national cultural life began in 1844…
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75e35ea67590f0211dfc3c30fe225cd2 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/lard | Lard | Lard
Lard, soft, creamy, white solid or semisolid fat with butter-like consistency, obtained by rendering or melting the fatty tissue of hogs. A highly valued cooking and baking fat, lard is blended, frequently after modification by molecular rearrangement or hydrogenation, with other fats and oils to make shortening. Antioxidants are usually added to lard and shortenings to protect against rancidity. Lard is also used in pharmacy and perfumery to make ointments and pomades.
Lard varies with the production method and the fat-bearing animal parts used. Steam- or wet-rendered lard is made by injecting steam under pressure into a closed vessel containing hog fats. Open-kettle-rendered or dry-rendered (enclosed-system) lards, which are darker in colour, are made by melting hog fats in steam-jacketed vessels; the residue is called cracklings. Neutral lard is prepared by melting leaf fat (from around the kidneys) and back fat at about 49° C (120° F). Continuous rendering involves grinding, rapid heating, and separation of fat from the cells by centrifuging. Lard composition varies with the diet of the hogs. The predominant fatty acids are oleic, palmitic, stearic, and linoleic.
Lard oil is the clear, colourless oil pressed from pure lard after it has been crystallized, or grained, at 7° C (45° F). It is used as a lubricant, in cutting oils, and in soap manufacture. The solid residue, lard stearin, is used in shortenings and as a source of saturated fatty acids.
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93bb8b94de9b9476bd201f373484c774 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/lard-oil | Lard oil | Lard oil
Lard oil is the clear, colourless oil pressed from pure lard after it has been crystallized, or grained, at 7° C (45° F). It is used as a lubricant, in cutting oils, and in soap manufacture. The solid residue, lard stearin, is used in shortenings…
Lard oil has excellent lubricating qualities, but it tends to become rancid. Sulfurized mineral oil is one of the most popular coolants. The sulfur tends to prevent chips from the work from welding to the tip of the tool. For sawing and grinding operations, soluble…
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32a235c19889ceb1334a7442930c5a94 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lares-Compitales | Lares Compitales | Lares Compitales
…coupled in Rome with the Lares Compitales (the spirits of his ancestors). Its principal custodians (seviri Augustales) were normally freedmen. Both the Senate and the emperor had central control over the institution. The Senate could withhold a vote of posthumous deification, and the emperor could acknowledge or refuse provincial initiatives…
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230c38ed8072070bdccd8a460546c380 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Large-Magellanic-Cloud | Large Magellanic Cloud | Large Magellanic Cloud
One of them, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), is a luminous patch about 5° in diameter, and the other, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), measures less than 2° across. The Magellanic Clouds are visible to the unaided eye in the Southern Hemisphere, but they cannot be observed from most…
…supernova was located in the Large Magellanic Cloud at a distance of about 160,000 light-years. It immediately became the subject of intense observation by astronomers throughout the Southern Hemisphere and was observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. SN 1987A’s brightness peaked in May 1987, with a magnitude of about 2.9,…
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82f3ce4baa5c1a43c6e4bfc91b32799d | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Larissa-astronomy | Larissa | Larissa
…of its discoveries, Proteus and Larissa, closely enough to detect both their size and approximate shape. Both bodies are irregular in shape and appear to have heavily cratered surfaces. The sizes of the other four are estimated from a combination of distant images and their brightnesses, based on the assumption…
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be456dc3582675cb1bb2658bb42256cb | https://www.britannica.com/topic/LArlesienne-incidental-music-by-Bizet | L'Arlésienne | L'Arlésienne
L’Arlésienne, incidental music for orchestra by French composer Georges Bizet, written to accompany Alphonse Daudet’s play of the same name, which premiered on October 1, 1872. The most famous movement is the “Farandole,” which sets a traditional Provençal tune against a light and playful dance melody, making deft use of polyphonic textures.
Daudet’s play concerns a young man torn between two loves—a gentle young woman from the countryside and a seductive charmer from Arles. When the young woman from Arles—who never appears on stage—proves to be unfaithful, the young man attempts to console himself by returning to his country girlfriend, but he is unable to forget his other passions. Lost in lovesick despair, he takes his own life.
Bizet was asked by Daudet to write music for the play. He composed a variety of songs, dances, and interludes that the playwright eventually conceded were better than the play itself. The play was a failure, closing after only 21 performances.
After the play closed, Bizet salvaged his music by arranging selections from his score into a concert suite. He chose four movements for this purpose and might have crafted another suite had he not died a few years later. A colleague of Bizet’s, Ernest Guiraud, later arranged a second suite. Each of the suites contains a movement that quotes a Provençal folk melody known as the “Marcho dei Rei.”
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036f898060abc51eed8264d6385ab9ee | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Larnian-industry | Larnian industry | Larnian industry
These artifacts were named Larnian, after Larne, Northern Ireland, the site where they were first found; dates from 6000 bce onward were assigned to them. Archaeological work since World War II, however, casts considerable doubt on the antiquity and affinities of the people who were responsible for the Larnian…
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f1a68e8ff9609a89a48769e6871a2ef8 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Larvenformen-der-Dipteren | Larvenformen der Dipteren | Larvenformen der Dipteren
…work in a monograph entitled Larvenformen der Dipteren (1952; “Dipterous Larvae”), which became the standard work on the subject. He later extended his studies on dipterans to include those species of the order found in New Zealand, which afforded him the opportunity to apply the principles of cladistic classification to…
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8799b9e6b9641d222c9d6fa1994086a2 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/laryngeal-consonant | Laryngeal consonant | Laryngeal consonant
…direct evidence for the “laryngeal” consonants reconstructed for Proto-Indo-European on purely internal grounds by linguist Ferdinand de Saussure in 1879. Study of the details of the development of these guttural (or pharyngeal) fricatives in Anatolian continues.
…consonants, for which the label laryngeal is used. These consonants, however, have mostly disappeared or have become identical with other sounds in the recorded Indo-European languages, so that their former existence has had to be deduced mainly from their effects on neighbouring sounds. Hence, the laryngeal sounds were not suspected…
…ʾ) are pronounced in the larynx. The latter sound is formed by cutting off the airstream through the shutting of the vocal cords, as in the middle of the exclamation uh-oh! or in the Cockney English pronunciation of “bottle” as boʾl. A gagginglike constriction of the pharynx produces the rasping…
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6a0dd404b50f001e101541ca26469b53 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/lasagna | Lasagna | Lasagna
Ribbon types include the wide lasagna and the narrow linguini. Farfels are ground, granulated, or shredded. The wide variety of special shapes includes farfalloni (“large butterflies”), lancette (“little spears”), fusilli (“spindles”), and riccioline (“little curls”).
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706ccdefe8a3c60fdb1488023e8b0125 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lascarid-dynasty | Lascarid dynasty | Lascarid dynasty
… under the dynasty of the Lascarids. Centred in the Aegean region and Bithynia, the Lascarids established a modus vivendi with the Seljuq power and retook Constantinople from the Latins in 1261. The reconquest of Constantinople was, in fact, a disaster for the empire’s Anatolian possessions, since with the transfer of…
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d9097ecefb5c606d46af21d50fb45199 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Laser-Geodynamic-Satellite | Laser Geodynamic Satellite | Laser Geodynamic Satellite
…geodetic purposes was Lageos (Laser Geodynamic Satellite), launched by the United States on May 4, 1976, into a nearly circular orbit at a height of approximately 6,000 kilometres. It consisted of an aluminum sphere 60 centimetres (23.6 inches) in diameter that carried 426 reflectors suitable for reflecting laser beams…
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03de081cfdd86b5d2175430dd918b167 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Laser-Interferometer-Gravitational-wave-Observatory | Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory | Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), astronomical observatory located in Hanford, Washington, and in Livingston, Louisiana, that in 2015 made the first direct detection of gravitational waves. Construction began on LIGO in 1999, and observations began in 2001. Gravitational waves are variations in the gravitational field that are transmitted as waves. According to general relativity, the curvature of space-time is determined by the distribution of masses, while the motion of masses is determined by the curvature. In consequence, variations of the gravitational field should be transmitted from place to place as waves, just as variations of an electromagnetic field travel as waves. LIGO is designed to detect the gravitational waves released when two neutron stars or black holes spiral into each other or when a stellar core collapses and causes a Type II supernova.
Each installation of LIGO is an underground L-shaped laser interferometer with arms 4 km (2.5 miles) long. Each arm of the interferometer is inside an evacuated pipe 1.3 metres (4 feet) in diameter. When a gravitational wave passes through the interferometer, it will make one arm of the interferometer shorter and the other longer, and these changes in distance will appear as a change in the interference fringes between the two beams. LIGO is an extremely sensitive instrument; it can detect a change in distance of 10−17 cm over the length of the arm. Because it is so sensitive, a spurious gravitational wave signal can be produced by many sources—thermal noise, minute fluctuations in electrical current, and even small seismic disturbances caused by wind. Thus, two installations are required to make a solid detection.
The Advanced LIGO project was designed to make LIGO 10 times more sensitive and began observations in 2015. On September 14 the two detectors made the first observation of gravitational waves. Two black holes about 1.3 billion light-years away spiralled into each other. The black holes were 36 and 29 times the mass of the Sun and formed a new black hole 62 times the mass of the Sun. In the merger, three solar masses were converted to energy in gravitational waves; the amount of power radiated was 50 times more than all the stars shining in the universe in that moment.
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9723baad633cc6feb60487f9a936576e | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Laspeyres-index | Laspeyres index | Laspeyres index
Laspeyres index, index proposed by German economist Étienne Laspeyres (1834–1913) for measuring current prices or quantities in relation to those of a selected base period. A Laspeyres price index is computed by taking the ratio of the total cost of purchasing a specified group of commodities at current prices to the cost of that same group at base-period prices and multiplying by 100. The base-period index number is thus 100, and periods with higher price levels have index numbers greater than 100.
The distinctive feature of the Laspeyres index is that it uses a group of commodities purchased in the base period as the basis for comparison. In other words, in computing the index, a commodity’s relative price (the ratio of the current price to the base-period price) is weighted by the commodity’s relative importance to all purchases during the base period. (Compare Paasche index.)
The Laspeyres price index tends to overstate price increases because, as prices change, consumers typically alter their purchasing decisions by selecting fewer products with large price increases while buying more products that show low or no price increases. If consumers can do this without reducing their total satisfaction, the use of base-period commodity selections tends to overstate declines in the standard of living. Similar to the price index, the Laspeyres quantity index uses base-period prices to compare aggregate production levels in two periods.
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7e8e98bf044abc2444e8ec66c468c26b | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lassie-Come-Home | Lassie Come Home | Lassie Come Home
The nonfantastic animal story Lassie Come Home (1940), by Eric Knight, survived adaptation to film and television. In the convention of the talking animal, authentic work was produced by Ben Lucien Burman, with his wonderful “Catfish Bend” tales (1952–67). The American-style, wholesome, humorous family story was more than competently…
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05bf34a2538bbefa418b9a58347ab83a | https://www.britannica.com/topic/last-clear-chance | Last clear chance | Last clear chance
…exposes himself to certain dangers; last clear chance, which allows the plaintiff to recover even though contributorily negligent—if the defendant had the last clear chance to avoid the mishap.
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2794e245c0ba9972c97223b375ac4710 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Day-of-Pompeii | Last Day of Pompeii | Last Day of Pompeii
…his best-known work, the monumental “Last Day of Pompeii” (1830–33), while there; it brought him an international reputation. Though he painted other large canvases with historical subjects, none was as successful as “Pompeii.” Much of his continuing reputation rests on his more intimate portraits and his watercolours and travel sketches.
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76420756d3c90b848cf5952534ae8d23 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Exit-to-Brooklyn | Last Exit to Brooklyn | Last Exit to Brooklyn
(Last Exit to Brooklyn [1964]), documented lower-class urban life with brutal frankness. Similarly, John Rechy portrayed America’s urban homosexual subculture in City of Night (1963). As literary and social mores were liberalized, Cheever himself dealt with homosexuality in his prison novel Falconer
…the 1960s of Hubert Selby’s Last Exit to Brooklyn or Gore Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge can expect little objection, on the part of either publisher or police, to language or subject matter totally unacceptable, under the obscenity laws then operating, in 1922, when Ulysses was first published. This is certainly true…
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fa7615a074698992771fef3e0a282586 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/last-in-first-out | Last in, first out | Last in, first out
…(1) first-in, first-out (FIFO), (2) last-in, first-out (LIFO), or (3) average cost. The LIFO method is widely used in the United States, where it is also an acceptable costing method for income tax purposes; companies in most other countries measure inventory cost and the cost of goods sold by some…
…valuation known as LIFO (Last In, First Out), in which inventory is valued at the purchase price of the earliest purchases. This avoids the fluctuations caused by short-run price-level changes, but it fails to record changes in real long-run values. There seems to be no completely satisfactory solution to…
…sold; and last-in, first-out (LIFO), in which the reverse pattern is followed. (See accounting.)
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db8d567037fbc6b2bb2b9c55d9cbef64 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Judgment-fresco-by-Cavallini | Last Judgment | Last Judgment
…his most famous works, a Last Judgment fresco, frescoes of Old Testament scenes (only fragments survive), and an Annunciation in Santa Cecilia in Trastevere in Rome. Here the classicizing elements of his mosaics are consolidated in a powerful and grandly expressive style best illustrated by a beautiful and lively group…
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9a0c3f6fc8e2eb6dacb2c8ea856f4411 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Judgment-fresco-by-Signorelli | Last Judgment | Last Judgment
…the World” and the “Last Judgment” (1499–1502), is in the chapel of S. Brizio in Orvieto cathedral. Those frescoes, which greatly influenced Michelangelo, are crowded with powerful nudes painted in many postures that accentuate their musculature. Signorelli had little sense of colour, but here his greenish and purple devils…
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0ce77a61681a1df998934aa9c7d6c66b | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Judgment-painting-by-Angelico | The Last Judgment | The Last Judgment
…works such as the large The Last Judgment (1440–45) and The Coronation of the Virgin (c. 1430–32), for example, the human figures receding toward the rear themselves create a feeling of space similar to that in the paintings of Angelico’s great Florentine contemporary Masaccio. The earliest work by Angelico that…
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8e430da5508626e7c16b374e221fafc1 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Judgment-painting-by-Jean-Cousin-the-Younger | Last Judgment | Last Judgment
…important surviving work is the “Last Judgment,” now in the Louvre, the theme of which is the insignificance of human life; the composition suggests both Florentine Mannerism and Flemish influences. Cousin also is noted for his drawing style, best represented in the emblematic style of his “Livre de Fortune” (1568).…
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a315a8ca2816ddd4dcf978a4b9287fc8 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Judgment-painting-by-Lucas-van-Leyden | Last Judgment | Last Judgment
…all in his masterpiece, the Last Judgment (commissioned 1526), in which the composition is unified by the clear, dominant rhythm of the figures and the logically rendered space.
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c9eb13f29509b30ac44a91b6ebfd052e | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Judgment-painting-by-Pacheco | Last Judgment | Last Judgment
Such paintings as the Last Judgment (1614) in the convent of Santa Isabel and the Martyrs of Granada are highly imitative and rigid works, monumental but unimpressive. Although Velázquez became Pacheco’s son-in-law, he was uninfluenced by his father-in-law’s art.
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b846c4f3a127f3221994a7cf28e28501 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Moments | Last Moments | Last Moments
…a dark, moody “modernista” painting, Last Moments (later painted over), showing the visit of a priest to the bedside of a dying woman, a work that was accepted for the Spanish section of the Exposition Universelle in Paris in that year. Eager to see his own work in place and…
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fc4eec086e23e749fb88321e1ce6934b | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-of-the-Vikings | Last of the Vikings | Last of the Vikings
…in Den siste viking (1921; Last of the Vikings, 1923).
… Islands: Den siste viking (1921; Last of the Vikings) and Folk ved sjøen (1929; Folk by the Sea), perhaps his finest work. Both of these works are epic in conception and contain remarkable passages of description.
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712fc67e36f9e586059075216bc49c03 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Poems-and-Two-Plays | Last Poems and Two Plays | Last Poems and Two Plays
…verse collections, New Poems and Last Poems and Two Plays, appeared in 1938 and 1939 respectively. In these books many of his previous themes are gathered up and rehandled, with an immense technical range; the aged poet was using ballad rhythms and dialogue structure with undiminished energy as he approached…
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253ced0ef67216b83a1f2b47034dfbdc | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Supper-fresco-by-Castagno | Last Supper | Last Supper
…first notable works were a Last Supper and, in a single composition above that, a Crucifixion, a Deposition, and a Resurrection—all executed in 1447 for the refectory of the former Convent of Sant’Apollonia in Florence, now known as the Cenacolo di Sant’Apollonia. These monumental frescoes, revealing the influence of Masaccio’s…
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327f90e10380ad7493e267b68dbd2e9a | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Supper-painting-by-Veronese | Last Supper | Last Supper
…paintings and particularly in the Last Supper commissioned in 1573 by the convent of Saints Giovanni e Paolo aroused the suspicion of the Inquisition’s tribunal of the Holy Office, which summoned Veronese to defend the painting. The tribunal objected to the painting on grounds that it included irreverent elements, inappropriate…
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04078416d9df0bc8eb76d51245924ef6 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Tango-in-Paris | Last Tango in Paris | Last Tango in Paris
…best known for his film Last Tango in Paris (1972), the erotic content of which created an international sensation.
…Bertolucci, appearing in the latter’s Last Tango in Paris (1972). An actor of limited range, Léaud nevertheless endowed the role of a scatterbrained young man with both emotional intensity and a wry underlying humour.
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578510b9f6cb6546f4c5c3e6f83c0585 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lastuja | Lastuja | Lastuja
Aho’s short stories, Lastuja, 8 series (1891–1921; “Chips”), have been most enduring; they are concerned with peasant life, fishing, and the wildlife of the lakelands. In these, as in his reminiscences of childhood, Muistatko—? (1920; “Do You Remember?”), Aho displays a quiet lyricism.
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a673687fcebacfa0139e80e19d53376a | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Late-Archaic-Chinese-language | Late Archaic Chinese language | Late Archaic Chinese language
…became still more pronounced in Late Archaic, the language of the two major Confucian and Daoist writers, Mencius (Mengzi) and Zhuangzi, as well as of other important philosophers. The grammar by then had become more explicit in the writing system, with a number of well-defined grammatical particles, and it can…
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1b645f21d1d3716f3fd78c82e4b88d23 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Late-Chagatai-language | Late Chagatai language | Late Chagatai language
…Middle and Late Ottoman, Azerbaijani, Late Chagatai, and others. Ottoman is the leading language, with a rich literature comprising a variety of forms and styles. Azerbaijani reached a high level of development in the 16th century. Chagatai continued to play a major role, mixing with local elements in, for example,…
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1bf481c53275827d8e7aaf389d2bcf94 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Late-Classic-sub-period | Late Classic sub-period | Late Classic sub-period
In the Late Classic subperiod, between ad 600 and 900, ceremonial centres in the Maya Lowlands proliferated, as did the carving and erection of the inscribed and dated stelae and monuments. Farming techniques became more sophisticated, abstract thinking soared, and Maya astronomers and mathematicians finished work on…
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dc14142f85dd2858fe40c36dec644a67 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Late-Hallstatt-Period | Late Hallstatt Period | Late Hallstatt Period
…but, as with Heuneburg, the Late Hallstatt Period is a distinct phase, and the brief time it took for these centres to come into existence demonstrates the potential for power available at the time. Heuneburg was one of the wealthiest of all these sites, and it is important for many…
During the Late Hallstatt Period these changes were most dramatically reflected by the group of so-called princely graves in west-central Europe. These were immensely rich burials in large barrows, in which the construction of grave chamber and barrow became monumental enterprises, reminiscent of the late Unetician barrows…
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de271819ed863b5d8cecc6e912220d86 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Late-Intermediate-Period | Late Intermediate Period | Late Intermediate Period
The Late Intermediate Period began about 1000 (Rowe has said 900) with the dying out of the signs of unity imposed by Huari. The seeds of the Chimú state were probably sown at the same time, but they are…
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7460bf47a5e08c300880a69c5a0f68c7 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Late-Jomon | Late Jōmon | Late Jōmon
In the Late Jōmon (c. 1500–1000 bce) colder temperatures and increased rainfall forced migration from the central mountains to the eastern coastal areas of Honshu. There is evidence of even greater interest in ritual, probably because of the extensive decrease in population. From this time are found…
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89e4f680214d5a08c28dad98fa7033d4 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Late-Middle-English-language | Late Middle English language | Late Middle English language
…and Geoffrey Chaucer; and (3) Late Middle English, from about 1400 to about 1500, which was marked by the spread of the London literary dialect and the gradual cleavage between the Scottish dialect and the other northern dialects. During this period the basic lines of inflection as they appear in…
…until the mid-14th century, when late Middle English, a language heavily influenced by Norman French, became the official language. This hybrid language subsequently evolved into modern English. Many additions to the English language have been made since the 14th century, but the Normans were the last important linguistic group to…
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80d46c3bba3cc75fa670f9b83d68cd1c | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Late-Night-with-David-Letterman | Late Night with David Letterman | Late Night with David Letterman
…television with the critically acclaimed Late Night with David Letterman, which premiered in 1982 on NBC. The show ran immediately after Carson’s The Tonight Show, and its ironic and offbeat humour was a hit with viewers. Late Night featured top-10 lists; sarcastic interplay between Letterman and his comic foil, bandleader…
Late Night with David Letterman (1982–93) replaced Tomorrow in 1982. By 1988 NBC had added Later with Bob Costas (1988–94), extending weeknight network programming to 2:30 am Eastern Standard Time.
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6773b5cc0cd2a889ea8b990353d08b66 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Late-Protoliterate-Period | Late Protoliterate Period | Late Protoliterate Period
…the succeeding “Jamdat Nasr” (Late Protoliterate) phase, a large cemetery produced valuable remains allied to more sensational discoveries made at Erech.
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df8e26939bd1c3f1620054464b3f6224 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Late-Show-with-David-Letterman | Late Show | Late Show
Late Show, in full Late Show with David Letterman (1993–2015) and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015– ), American late-night talk show that began airing on the CBS television network in 1993, with comedian David Letterman as host, and won numerous Emmy Awards for its innovative, frequently off-the-wall approach to the talk-show format. After Letterman stepped down in 2015, Stephen Colbert became the program’s host.
Letterman rose to popularity as the host of Late Night with David Letterman (1982–93), which followed The Tonight Show in the late-night lineup of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). Despite Letterman’s long career with NBC, in 1993 the network chose comedian Jay Leno over Letterman to succeed Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show. Letterman subsequently moved to CBS and launched the Late Show with David Letterman on August 30, 1993.
An hour-long program broadcast weeknights opposite The Tonight Show, the Late Show with David Letterman became a cornerstone of CBS’s programming. It was shot live on tape before a studio audience in the theatre in New York City that was the home of The Ed Sullivan Show. Like other late-night talk shows, the program featured interviews with celebrity guests interspersed with comedic segments, skits, and musical performances.
Each episode of the Late Show with David Letterman typically opened with a humorous monologue by Letterman that was often punctuated by banter with the show’s diminutive bandleader, Paul Shaffer, an accomplished musician who affected a glitzy showbiz persona that typified the show’s winking tongue-in-cheek sensibility. Like Late Night, it had a hip cachet that had much to do with the audience’s being in on the joke, whether it involved the nightly Top Ten list, Letterman’s interaction with one of his quirkier guests (from flamboyant fitness advocate Richard Simmons to caustic comic book author Harvey Pekar), or the bizarre conceptual bits that were a staple of the program. Those frequently involved an ensemble of sidemen drawn from the production staff (e.g., stage manager Biff Henderson) and the theatre’s Manhattan neighbourhood (delicatessen owner Rupert Jee) or simply recruited off the street. Influenced by the avant-garde approach of television comedy pioneer Ernie Kovacs, Letterman and his team routinely went behind and beyond the stage, calling out of windows with a bullhorn, telephoning office workers in nearby buildings, and mounting cameras on just about anything that moves. “Stupid Pet Tricks,” “Stupid Human Tricks,” “Know Your Cuts of Meat,” and “Is This Anything?” were just a few of the show’s regular segments.
Most of Letterman’s interviews were good-natured and funny. However, he could also be probing or antagonistic, which resulted in long-running feuds with a number of celebrities, including Cher and Madonna. Yet underlying Letterman’s often biting and sardonic humour was a sincerity and genuineness that more than a few observers attributed to his Midwestern roots. The show also was lauded for showcasing both high-profile and up-and-coming recording artists, almost all of whom performed with the show’s skillful house band. After initially topping the late-night talk-show viewer ratings, the Late Show with David Letterman in subsequent years failed to reach as broad an audience as The Tonight Show, but its influence on a generation of viewers and comedians was undeniable.
In 2014 Letterman announced that he was retiring the following year, and Stephen Colbert, then host of the satiric news program The Colbert Report, was named his successor. Amid much fanfare, Letterman hosted his last show on May 20, 2015.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert debuted on September 8, 2015. It was also filmed live in the Ed Sullivan Theater, which had undergone a massive renovation. The program followed a format typical for late-night talk shows, with an opening monologue, skits, and several interviews. It also featured a house band—Stay Human, with its founder Jon Batiste as bandleader. While the majority of his guests were entertainers, Colbert also scheduled numerous politicians and news makers, notably from the tech industry, and many of his interviews were seen as smart and thoughtful. Although ratings were initially low, beginning in 2017, his incisive political satire led to a dramatic increase in the show’s viewership.
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251ee0358622f23ebfcd0e683db58e2b | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Later-Jin-dynasty | Later Jin dynasty | Later Jin dynasty
…Asia, and Gaozu established the Hou (Later) Jin dynasty. When Gaozu’s son attempted to halt his tribute payments to the Khitan in 946, they reinvaded North China and carried him into captivity, thus ending the 10-year Hou Jin dynasty. The following year a former Hou Jin general who also bore…
…Tang in 923, by the Hou Jin in 936, by the Hou Han in 947, and by the Hou Zhou in 951. These rapid successions of dynasties came to an end only with the rise in 960 of the Song dynasty, which finally succeeded in establishing another lasting empire and…
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b456d80ad1f07e9496bb7be8dd546cf3 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Later-Koguryo | Later Koguryŏ | Later Koguryŏ
…the Later Paekche (892) and Later Koguryŏ (also called Majin or T’aebong; 901) kingdoms. Together with Silla, they are commonly referred to as the Later Three Kingdoms. In this period Sŏn (Zen) Buddhism was most popular, with its emphasis on the importance of realizing, through contemplation, the inborn Buddha nature…
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89470076175edb2e495469abf2f91169 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Later-Le-dynasty | Later Le Dynasty | Later Le Dynasty
Later Le Dynasty, Vietnamese Nha Hau Le, (1428–1788), the greatest and longest lasting dynasty of traditional Vietnam. Its predecessor, the Earlier Le, was founded by Le Hoan and lasted from 980 to 1009.
The Later Le was established when its founder, Le Loi, began a resistance movement against the Chinese armies then occupying Vietnam; by 1428 he had liberated the country and was free to begin the process of recovering the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula from the Indianized kingdom of Champa. In 1471 Le Thanh Tong, the greatest of the Le rulers, permanently subjugated Champa. Le Thanh Tong divided Vietnam into 13 provinces or circuits, based on the Chinese model, and established a triennial Confucian civil service examination. He also promulgated a new legal code, the Hong Duc code. This administrative system showed some Chinese influence but also contained distinctly Vietnamese elements.
The rulers following Le Thanh Tong came under the control of a series of ambitious feudal magnates. In 1527 the throne was even usurped by a member of the powerful Mac family. Although a Le emperor was restored in 1533 with the help of the Nguyen family, the Le rulers were thereafter only theoretically supreme. Real power was shared between two families, the Trinh in the north and the Nguyen, with their capital at Hue, in the south. By about 1630 the cleavage between the two had become so acute that the southerners built two walls across the plain of Dong Hai (at latitude 18° north) to the jungle, sealing off the north until the late 18th century.
In 1771 a peasant uprising led by the Tay Son brothers spread throughout the country and seven years later overthrew the dynasty. Members of the Nguyen family, however, were able to obtain French aid and reunite the nation under the Nguyen dynasty.
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5d6b5b6c6867f4603f00adbb0a2b6d34 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Later-Liang-dynasty-Chinese-history-907-923 | Later Liang dynasty | Later Liang dynasty
…the five dynasties was the Hou (Later) Liang, which was established by the rebel leader Zhu Wen after he usurped the Tang throne in 907. Zhu was murdered by his own son in 912, and the Hou Liang was overthrown by one of its generals, Zhuangzong (personal name Li Cunxu),…
…the first emperor of the Hou (Later) Liang dynasty (907–923).
Zhu Wen’s short-lived Hou (Later) Liang dynasty, founded in 907, was superseded by the Hou Tang in 923, by the Hou Jin in 936, by the Hou Han in 947, and by the Hou Zhou in 951. These rapid successions of dynasties came to an end only with…
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3a2da21cdd881a4e9d3425f19bc30aac | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Later-Ly-dynasty | Later Ly dynasty | Later Ly dynasty
Later Ly dynasty, Vietnamese Nha Hau Ly, (1009–1225), first of the three great dynasties of Vietnam. The kingdom, known later as Dai Viet, was established by Ly Thai To in the Red River Delta area of present northern Vietnam. Its capital was Thang Long (Hanoi). (It is “later” with respect to the Earlier Ly dynasty, founded by Ly Bon and lasting from 544 to 602/603.) The Later Ly was the first stable Vietnamese dynasty and helped establish many of the characteristics of the modern Vietnamese state.
A Chinese style of administration was one of the more significant changes wrought by the Later Ly. Through this system the local lords were replaced by a nine-tiered hierarchy of civil servants and state officials. An institution for the training of civil administrators was established, as was an academy of learning. This centralized form of government enabled the Ly to establish universal military service, which kept the invading Chinese and Champa at bay for two centuries. More importantly, the administrative system enabled the Ly to develop the great Red River Delta system of dikes and canals that prevented summer flooding and winter drought and made the region one of the most fertile rice-growing areas in the world. The Ly promoted literature and art, and during their reign, knowledge of classical Chinese literature was widespread. Under the Ly, Vietnamese influence spread southward into the area controlled by the Indianized kingdom of Champa.
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a3a801e13706d8eebd29693e1d3757e0 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Later-Paekche | Later Paekche | Later Paekche
…and Kungye, established, respectively, the Later Paekche (892) and Later Koguryŏ (also called Majin or T’aebong; 901) kingdoms. Together with Silla, they are commonly referred to as the Later Three Kingdoms. In this period Sŏn (Zen) Buddhism was most popular, with its emphasis on the importance of realizing, through contemplation,…
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4c6ceb465d76d51852dabdd7393a9926 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Later-Tang-dynasty | Later Tang dynasty | Later Tang dynasty
…Li Cunxu), who established the Hou (Later) Tang dynasty in 923. Although Zhuangzong and his successors ruled relatively well for 13 years, the Hou Tang was finally terminated when one of its generals, Gaozu (personal name Shi Jingtang), overthrew his master with the aid of the Khitan, a seminomadic people…
…907, was superseded by the Hou Tang in 923, by the Hou Jin in 936, by the Hou Han in 947, and by the Hou Zhou in 951. These rapid successions of dynasties came to an end only with the rise in 960 of the Song dynasty, which finally succeeded…
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7a24703ca1873a8ea49c84258b402292 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Later-Three-Kingdoms | Later Three Kingdoms | Later Three Kingdoms
…commonly referred to as the Later Three Kingdoms. In this period Sŏn (Zen) Buddhism was most popular, with its emphasis on the importance of realizing, through contemplation, the inborn Buddha nature of the individual.
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7a7594676b716ace875edc7401d15c84 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Later-Vedic-Period | Later Vedic Period | Later Vedic Period
The principal literary sources from this period are the Sama-, the Yajur-, and the Atharvaveda (mainly ritual texts), the Brahmanas (manuals on ritual), and the Upanishads (Upanisads) and Aranyakas (collections of philosophical and metaphysical discourses). Associated with the…
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cfd3a457e7dc488cb67f67affeef6ed6 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Later-Zhou-dynasty | Later Zhou dynasty | Later Zhou dynasty
…usurped the throne, founding the Hou (Later) Zhou dynasty. Although progress toward a more stable government began to be made during this time, the emperor died, leaving an infant on the throne. As a result, another general, Zhao Kuangyin (Taizu), seized the throne, founding the more long-lived Song dynasty, thus…
… in 947, and by the Hou Zhou in 951. These rapid successions of dynasties came to an end only with the rise in 960 of the Song dynasty, which finally succeeded in establishing another lasting empire and in taking over much, though not all, of the former Tang empire.
…father soon afterward established the Hou (Later) Zhou dynasty (951–960) at Kaifeng; Zhao’s patron succeeded to the throne in 954 and fought to extend his sway into South China and to eliminate a rival who, established to the north in Shanxi and supported by the Khitan (Chinese: Qidan) empire, laid…
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c141bfbfff7fc0fd03910b91a91b7ccd | https://www.britannica.com/topic/lateral-subsurface-drainage | Lateral | Lateral
…of the subsurface system, the lateral, primarily removes water from the soil. The laterals may be arranged in either a uniform or a random pattern. The choice is governed by the crop grown and its value, the characteristics of the soil, and the precipitation pattern.
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fc96011410521527552440e701d7c228 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lateran-Palace | Lateran Palace | Lateran Palace
…Felice (1587), and the present Lateran Palace, built on the ruins of the old medieval palace. He collaborated with Giacomo della Porta on the completion of St. Peter’s dome (1588–90) from Michelangelo’s model. His most famous undertaking was the removal of the Egyptian obelisk (brought to Rome in the 1st…
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c66bbdf2329112dba061361c53b618e1 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/latewood | Latewood | Latewood
…wood (spring wood) and the late wood (summer wood); early wood is less dense because the cells are larger and their walls are thinner. Although the transition of early wood to late wood within a growth ring may be obscure, that demarcation between the adjacent late wood of one ring…
Growth rings are visible because of macroscopic differences in structure between earlywood and latewood—i.e., wood produced in the spring and later in a season of growth. The two kinds of wood may differ in density, colour, or other characteristics. In coniferous species,…
…take on the appearance of latewood. Once the drought conditions have passed, the radial diameters of the cells of the secondary tissues will increase, creating the appearance of a new annual ring. This, however, is a false ring, because there is a gradient of increasing cell-wall thickness and decreasing cell…
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e0f7175a0a9d5e5baa7c09972f5fd9aa | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latha-a-Bhreitheanis | Latha à Bhreitheanis | Latha à Bhreitheanis
His Latha à Bhreitheanis (“Day of Judgment”) and An Claigeann (“The Skull”) are impressive and sombre and show considerable imaginative power.
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ce2cddfa7602677b77a31b1cc7c91c4e | https://www.britannica.com/topic/latihan | Latihan | Latihan
…feature of Subud is the latihan, its only group spiritual activity, which is usually held for an hour twice a week. During latihan, undergone by men and women in separate rooms, members allow the power of God to express itself through unrestrained spontaneous activity. The latihan includes unprogrammed singing, dancing,…
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e561e17e8317675f85ff67184101946f | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latin-America-A-Cultural-History | Latin America: A Cultural History | Latin America: A Cultural History
…continente de siete colores (1965; Latin America: A Cultural History) introduced an international audience to Arciniegas’s panoramic view of his continent.
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883507e0dc5ed7290cbf540980947973 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latin-American-Free-Trade-Association | Latin American Free Trade Association | Latin American Free Trade Association
…of Latin America through the Latin American Free Trade Association (1960) and its successor, the Latin American Integration Association (1980). In 1985 Argentina and Brazil signed the Declaration of Iguaçu, which created a bilateral commission to promote the integration of their economies; by the following year the two countries had…
ALADI replaced the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA; Asociación Latinoamericana de Libre Comercio), which had been established in 1960 with the aim of developing a common market in Latin America. The scheme made little progress, and ALADI was created with a more flexible and more limited role…
…a treaty setting up the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA), predecessor to the Latin American Integration Association. By 1970 the seven signatories had been joined by Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Bolivia. The treaty provided for a 12-year transition period during which all obstacles to trade were to be eliminated.…
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8bf0913de4eeef72c434b53f56c1a722 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latin-Averroism | Latin Averroism | Latin Averroism
Latin Averroism, the teachings of a number of Western Christian philosophers who, in the later Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, drew inspiration from the interpretation of Aristotle put forward by Averroës, a Muslim philosopher. The basic tenet of Latin Averroism was the assertion that reason and philosophy are superior to faith and knowledge founded on faith. The Latin Averroists, represented in Paris by John of Jandun and in Italy by Taddeo of Parma and Angelo of Arezzo, also held that the creation of matter and of spirits was necessary and eternal and that there is but one “intellective soul” for all of humanity (thereby denying individual personality and immortality). They espoused also psychological determinism, which precluded moral responsibility.
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2fb4f674387b01b227fa85efc5f4a4e9 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latin-Faliscan-languages | Latin-Faliscan languages | Latin-Faliscan languages
Latin-Faliscan languages, language group proposed by some scholars to be included in the Italic branch of Indo-European languages. The group includes Latin, which emanated from Rome, and Faliscan, spoken in the Falerii district in southeastern Etruria. Closely related to Latin, Faliscan is known from a few short inscriptions written in the Etruscan alphabet. The other subdivision of Italic is the Osco-Umbrian languages.
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401df1773c0b3a076b7aeb96d64427bb | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latin-Monetary-Union | Latin Monetary Union | Latin Monetary Union
…Italy, and Switzerland formed the Latin Monetary Union in 1865. The union established a mint ratio between the two metals and provided for use of the same standard units and issuance of coins. The system was undermined by the monetary manipulations of Italy and Greece (which had been admitted later)…
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af8452906f77dbc91d194c120537dd29 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latin-scholarship | Latin scholarship | Latin scholarship
From the beginning, Roman scholarship imitated Greek: Hellenistic techniques were applied to the treatment of Latin texts, and Latin grammar adopted Greek categories and terminology. Learned Greeks such as Tyrannion, Alexander Polyhistor, and Parthenius were brought to Rome as…
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9bb6337aaa4a9057e2f743c967f743ef | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latin-Scholasticism | Latin Scholasticism | Latin Scholasticism
Attracted to Latin Scholasticism, he made Greek translations of the major works of Western writers, including tracts by St. Augustine of Hippo (5th century) and St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa theologiae. By 1365 he had made a profession of faith in the Latin church.
…thought and his translation of Latin Scholastic writings, based his opposition movement against the leading school of Byzantine mystical theology.
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97d0f0ed32d7dbf4d381adb560b8028f | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latin-War | Latin War | Latin War
…with Rome; defeated in the Latin War (340–338), it lost part of its territory and became Rome’s ally. After 90 bc it received Roman citizenship and became a municipium. In the civil wars the younger Marius was blockaded in the town by the Sullans (82 bc), who took the city,…
The Latin War (340–338 bc) was quickly decided in Rome’s favour. Virtually all of Latium was given Roman citizenship and became Roman territory, but the towns retained their local governments. The large states of Praeneste and Tibur maintained nominal independence by becoming Rome’s military allies. Thus…
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9fb863d9adb786804af71e5b1567b253 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latini | Latini | Latini
Noncitizens could be either Latini, inhabitants of Roman settlements that had the rights of members of the original Latin League, or peregrini, who were members of foreign communities or of those territories governed but not absorbed by Rome. The great extension of the citizenship by the emperor Caracalla in…
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8c0ce368b5f94fdbaa6984cef5c39f41 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latinus | Latinus | Latinus
Latinus, in Roman legend, king of the aborigines in Latium and eponymous hero of the Latin race. The Greek poet Hesiod (7th century bc), in Theogony, calls him the son of the Greek hero Odysseus and the enchantress Circe. The Roman poet Virgil, in the Aeneid, makes him the son of the Roman god Faunus and the nymph Marica. Latinus was a shadowy personality who was perhaps invented to explain the origin of Rome and its relations with Latium.
According to Virgil’s Aeneid, the hero Aeneas landed at the mouth of the Tiber River and was welcomed by Latinus, the peaceful ruler whose daughter Lavinia he ultimately married. Latinus is portrayed as a good man who is helpless to control the passions of his wife, Queen Amata, and Turnus, the rejected suitor for his daughter.
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