Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 05.djvu/491

LEFT LANGUE-DE-BCEUF 415 LANIID^ connected by a community of origin. Thus the Indo-European (called also Aryan, or Indo-Germanic) is composed of seven great branches: The Indian, the Iranian or Persian, the Greek, the Italic, the Celtic, the Slavonic or Slavo-Celtic, and the Germanic or Teutonic. Each of these may again be subdivided. Thus the Germanic branch includes Maeso- Gothic. or the dialect of the Goths of Mssia; the Low German languages, still spoken in the north of Germany, and including two important cultivated tongues, the Netherlandish and Eng- lish; the High-German body of dia- lects, represented now by only a single literary language, the so-called German; and the Scandinavian division, written in the forms of Danish, Swedish, Norwe- gian and Icelandic. The Semitic family of languages is the next in importance. It includes Arabic, Syrian, or Aramaic, the Canaanitish dialects, chief among which are Hebrew and Phoenician, and the Assyrian and Babylonian dialects. In music, in an organ an open metal flue pipe consists of foot, and language, and body. The language is a flat piece of metal fastened by its edge to the top of the foot, and which, by its shape, only permits the air to leave the foot in one direction. LANGTJE - DE - BCETTF (long-duh- buhf'), a military implement, consisting of a broad-pointed blade, which was af- fixed to a staff', and received its name from its resemblance to an ox's tongue. LANGUEDOC (long-gnh-dok'), a former province of France; bounded on the E. by the Rhone, on the S. by the Mediterranean and the counties of Foix and Roussillon, and on the W. by Gas- cony and Guienne; (now embraced in the departments of Lozere, Gard Arde- che, Aude, Herault, Upper Loire, Tarn, and Upper Garonne) ; name derived from langue d'oc. During the period of the Roman empire this part of Gaul was prosperous and wealthy, a home of en- lightenment. In 412 the Visigoths founded the kingdom of Toulouse (one of the chief cities of Languedoc, Mont- pellier being the other), and were only overthrown in 759 by Pepin the Frank. Two centuries later this part of France was immediately subject to the Count of Toulouse, one of the great feudatories of the kingdom. For the story of the religi- ous wars of the 12th and 13th centuries see Albigenses. LANGUE D'OC (lon^ dok), the South- ern French dialect, or Provencal (q. v.), so called because the people use oc in- stead of Old for "yes," as in the N. prov- inces. LANGUE D'OIL (do-eP), or LANGUE D'OUI (dwe), the Romance dialect spoken in the Middle Ages in the N. of France and so called from its word for yes being oil, ouil, or oui. It was the language of the Trouveres and the progenitor of modern French. LANIER, SIDNEY (-ner'), an Amer- ican poet; born in Macon, Ga., Feb. 3, 1842. He served in the Confederate army as a private soldier; studied law, and practiced it at Macon- but aban- doned that profession and devoted him- self to music and poetry. From 1879 till his death he was lecturer on English lit- erature in Johns Hopkins University. The poem "Corn," one of his earliest pieces (1874), and "Clover," "The Bee," SIDNEY LANIER "The Dove," etc., show insight into na- ture. His poetic works were collected and published (1884). He wrote also "The Science of English Verse" (1880); "The English Novel and the Principles of its Development" (1883). He edited or compiled "The Boy's Froissart" (1878); "The Boy's King Arthur" (1880); "The Boy's Percy" (1882). He died in Lynn, N. C, Sept. 7, 1881. LANIID^ (-ni'i-de), or LANI- AD.ffl (-ni'a-de), a family of thrush- like perching birds. The bill, which is long, has a deep notch or prominent tooth near the tip of the upper mandible, which is hooked. Swainson divided the LaniidcC into five sub-families: Lamianse (tree shrikes), Thamnophilinse (bush shrikes), Dicrurinie (drongo shrikes), Ceblepyringe (caterpillar catchers), and