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Who Speak Allied: There are many minorities that speak non-Chinese languages that belong neither to the Altaic nor the Sino-Tibetan group. These include the 14,000 Tajiks of southwestern Sinkiang, who speak an Iranic language of the Indo-European group, and the Wa and Puman people who speak an Austroasian language. The Wa and Puman are fierce tribesmen who live on both sides of the Yiinnan-Burma border and number only about 100,000. The Austronesian or Ma-layo-Polynesian language is also spoken in China by various groups, predominantly in Taiwan.
HAMITIC PEOPLES, ha-mit'ik, or Hamites, the name given to several non-Negroid ethnic groups in northern and eastern Africa who are regarded to be of kindred origin and who speak allied languages. According to legend they are descended from Ham, one of the sons of Noah. The Hamitic cradleland was probably in the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Hamitic languages, closely related to the Semitic, are generally considered to include Ancient Egyptian, as well as the Berber and Cushitic languages n'ow spoken on approximately one fifth of the African continent. The term Hamitic has largely been replaced by the broader term Hamito-Semitic, referring to a language group.
RIBOSE, ri'bos, a five-carbon monosac-charide that was originally prepared from the allied sugar, arabinose (see CARBOHYDRATE). Its name is an anagram of arabinose, with some letters omitted, and has no other significance. For some years after its preparation, ribose remained a mere laboratory curiosity. However, it is now known to be of supreme importance to life, for it and the closely allied compound, deoxyribose, are among the hydrolysis products of the nucleic acids (q.v.). |
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