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  • yellow-throated marten (mammal)
    The yellow-throated marten (M. flavigula), of the subgenus Charronia, is also called honey dog for its fondness for sweet food. It is found in southern Asia. Its head and body length is 56–61 cm, and its tail is 38–43 cm long. It has a brown coat that darkens toward and on the tail, and its throat and chin are orange....
  • yellow-tufted woodpecker (bird)
    ...developed aggressive behaviour. Few species are markedly social, but members of the New World genus Melanerpes especially tend to be, even while nesting. Up to 11 different adults of the yellow-tufted woodpecker (M. cruentatus) were observed feeding young in three different nests in eastern Peru. Some of the adults fed young in two and even in all three nests. Andean flickers......
  • yellow-wattled lapwing (bird)
    ...lapwing (Stephanibyx coronatus), of Africa, has a black cap with a white ring around it. The red-wattled lapwing, Vanellus (sometimes Lobivanellus) indicus, and the yellow-wattled lapwing (V. malabaricus), of southern Asia, have wattles on the face. Others are the gray-headed lapwing (Microsarcops cinereus), of eastern Asia, and the long-toed......
  • yellow-winged bat (mammal)
    ...and fly from the cave exit well before nightfall. Should they be too early, their internal clock may be reset. A few species of bats, including a flying fox (Pteropus samoensis), the yellow-winged bat (Lavia frons), and the greater sac-winged bat Saccopteryx bilineata, may forage actively during the day, but little is yet known of their special......
  • yellow-wort (plant)
    Centaury (Centaurium) has pink flowers that close in the afternoon; yellow-wort (Blackstonia) has bright yellow flowers and broad leaves. Both genera contain species used in herbal remedies and in the making of dyes. Gentians (plants of the genus Gentiana) bear attractive flowers, usually blue but occasionally yellow, white, red, or purple; several species are cultivated as......
  • yellowberry (plant)
    (species Rubus chamaemorus), creeping herbaceous plant, native to the Arctic and subarctic regions of the north temperate zone, and its edible, aggregate fruit resembling structurally the raspberry. The yellow or amber-coloured berry grows from a 2.5-centimetre (1-inch) white flower on a creeping rootlike stem, or rhizome. The stalks grow to a height of 7.6–25 cm (3–10...
  • yellowfin sole (fish)
    Other species include the yellowtail flounder, or rusty dab (L. ferruginea), a reddish brown western Atlantic fish with rust-coloured spots and a yellow tail; the yellowfin sole, or Alaska dab (L. aspera), a brownish northern Pacific flatfish; and the longhead dab (L. proboscidea), a light-spotted, brownish northern Pacific fish with yellow on the edges of its body....
  • yellowfin tuna (fish)
    ...and sport fishing, with anglers rating it among the greatest trophies obtainable. The other commercially important species are the albacore, marked with a shining blue stripe on each side; the yellowfin, with yellow fins and a golden stripe on each side; and the bigeye, a robust fish with relatively large eyes....
  • yellowhammer (bird)
    (Emberiza citrinella), Eurasian bird belonging to the family Emberizidae (order Passeriformes). The name is derived from the German Ammer, “bunting.” It is a 16-centimetre- (6-inch-) long streaked brown bird with yellow-tinged head and breast. Its rapid song is heard in fields from Britain to Central Asia....
  • Yellowhead Pass (pass, Alberta-British Columbia, Canada)
    route through the Rocky Mountains, at the Alberta–British Columbia border, Canada, just west of Jasper and leading from Jasper National Park into Mount Robson Provincial Park. It lies at 3,711 feet (1,131 m) above sea level. The pass was noted by Sandford Fleming in his railway survey of 1870 and was later used by the main line of the Canadian National Railway. It is now ...
  • Yellowknife (people)
    a small Athabaskan-speaking North American Indian tribe who traditionally lived northeast of the Great Bear and Great Slave lakes in what is now the Northwest Territories, Can. The name Yellowknife derives from the group’s use of yellow copper in making knives and other tools. In language and culture patterns the Yellowknife were almost identical to the Chipewyan, who wer...
  • Yellowknife (Northwest Territories, Canada)
    city and capital (since 1967) of Northwest Territories, Canada. It lies on the north shore of Great Slave Lake, 5 miles (8 km) south of the mouth of the Yellowknife River....
  • Yellowknife Group (geological feature, Canada)
    Important occurrences are the Barberton belt in South Africa; the Sebakwian, Belingwean, and Bulawayan-Shamvaian belts of Zimbabwe; the Yellowknife belts in the Slave province of Canada; the Abitibi, Wawa, Wabigoon, and Quetico belts of the Superior province of Canada; the Dharwar belts in India; and the Warrawoona and......
  • yellowlegs (bird)
    either of two species of American shorebirds with trim, gray-brown and white streaked bodies, long bills, and long, bright yellow legs. They belong to the genus Tringa of the family Scolopacidae; this family also includes the curlews, turnstones, sandpipers, and snipes....
  • Yellowman (Jamaican musician)
    The rise of deejay Yellowman in the early 1980s marked the transition from mainstream reggae to dancehall music that took place in Jamaican nightclubs. In addition to the explicitly political lyrics of songs of the early 1980s such as “Operation Eradication” and “Soldier Take Over,” Yellowman incorporated into his repertoire salacious lyrics that became widely known as....
  • Yellowplush Correspondence, The (work by Thackeray)
    ...as Mr. Michael Angelo Titmarsh, Fitz-Boodle, The Fat Contributor, or Ikey Solomons. He collected the best of these early writings in Miscellanies, 4 vol. (1855–57). These include The Yellowplush Correspondence, the memoirs and diary of a young cockney footman written in his own vocabulary and style; Major Gahagan (1838–39), a fantasy of soldiering in India;......
  • yellows (plant disease)
    widespread plant disease caused by many forms of the soil-inhabiting fungus Fusarium oxysporum. Several hundred plant species are susceptible at soil temperatures above 75° F (24° C). Infected plants are usually stunted; their leaves turn pale green to golden yellow and later wilt, wither, die, and drop off progressively upward from the stem base. Dark strea...
  • Yellowstone Falls (waterfall, United States)
    The last category, mountainous and formerly glaciated regions, include such well-known waterfalls as Yosemite Falls, California (739 metres), with a three-section drop; Yellowstone Falls, Wyoming (94 metres), with a two-section drop; Sutherland Falls, South Island, New Zealand (580 metres); and Krimmler Waterfall, Austria (380 metres). Other falls of considerable height or volume of flow occur......
  • Yellowstone Lake (lake, Wyoming, United States)
    lake in Yellowstone National Park, northwestern Wyoming, U.S. It lies at an elevation of 7,731 feet (2,356 metres) above sea level and is the largest body of water in North America, and the second largest in the world, at so high an altitude. It is fed by 59 streams and rivers and drained by the Yellowstone River, which flows through the lak...
  • Yellowstone National Park (park, United States)
    the oldest, one of the largest, and probably the best-known national park in the United States. It is situated in northwestern Wyoming and partly in southern Montana and eastern Idaho and includes the greatest concentration of geothermal features in the world. The park was established by the U.S. Congress on March 1, 1872,...
  • Yellowstone Plateau (plateau, United States)
    Plateaus of one type or another can be found on most continents. Those caused by thermal expansion of the lithosphere are usually associated with hot spots. The Yellowstone Plateau in the United States, the Massif Central in France, and the Ethiopian Plateau in Africa are prominent examples. Most hot spots are associated with the upwelling of hot material in the asthenosphere, and this hot......
  • Yellowstone River (river, United States)
    river, noted for its scenic beauty, in the western United States. It rises on the slopes of Yount Peak in Wyoming and enters Yellowstone National Park. It feeds into Yellowstone Lake, below which it plunges 422 feet (129 metres) in two spectacular waterfalls, and enters the magnificent Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Leaving the park at Gardiner, Montana, the river turns north ...
  • yellowtail flounder (fish)
    Other species include the yellowtail flounder, or rusty dab (L. ferruginea), a reddish brown western Atlantic fish with rust-coloured spots and a yellow tail; the yellowfin sole, or Alaska dab (L. aspera), a brownish northern Pacific flatfish; and the longhead dab (L. proboscidea), a light-spotted, brownish northern Pacific fish with yellow on the edges of its......
  • yellowtail snapper (fish)
    ...of snapper include the emperor snapper (L. sebae), a red and white Indo-Pacific fish; the gray, or mangrove, snapper (L. griseus), a gray, reddish, or greenish Atlantic fish; the yellowtail snapper (Ocyurus chrysurus), a swift-moving Atlantic species with a broad, yellow stripe from the nose to the wholly yellow tail; and the red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus),......
  • yellowthroat (genus of bird)
    The yellowthroats, any of the eight species of the genus Geothlypis, live in marshes and wet thickets. The male of the common yellowthroat (G. trichas)—often called the Maryland yellowthroat in the United States—is yellow with a black mask; his song, a strong repeated “wicheree,” is heard from Alaska and Newfoundland to Mexico. Other yellowthroat species.....
  • yellowwood (plant genus)
    The name yellowwood also refers to a genus of flowering plants, Cladrastis, with about six species in the legume family (Fabaceae). One species, C. kentukea, grows in eastern North America, and the remaining species occur in East Asia. Plants of Cladrastis are medium-sized trees with usually smooth gray bark, deciduous pinnately compound leaves, and large pendant......
  • yellowwood (dye)
    either of two natural dyes. Old fustic, or yellowwood, is derived from the heartwood of dyer’s mulberry, a large, tropical American tree (Chlorophora tinctoria, or Maclura tinctoria) of the mulberry family, Moraceae. The dye produces yellows on wool mordanted (fixed) with chromium salts....
  • yellowwood (tree)
    any of about 100 species of coniferous evergreen timber trees and shrubs constituting the conifer genus Podocarpus (family Podocarpaceae). These are widely distributed in mountain forests of the Southern Hemisphere and occur as far north as Mexico, southern China, and southern Japan. Most have yellowish wood, occasionally brownish or reddish; they are often known locally as brown or black p...
  • Yeltsin, Boris (president of Russia)
    Russian politician, who became president of Russia in 1990. In 1991 he became the first popularly elected leader in the country’s history, guiding Russia through a stormy decade of political and economic retrenching until his resignation on the eve of 2000....
  • Yeltsin, Boris Nikolayevich (president of Russia)
    Russian politician, who became president of Russia in 1990. In 1991 he became the first popularly elected leader in the country’s history, guiding Russia through a stormy decade of political and economic retrenching until his resignation on the eve of 2000....
  • Yelü (people)
    ...and, with other subdued tribes in the area, formed a confederation, which they then transformed into a hereditary monarchy. Leadership always remained in the hands of the ruling tribe, the Yelü, who for the sake of stability shifted to the Chinese clan system of orderly succession....
  • Yelü Chucai (Chinese official)
    Ögödei’s Chinese adviser, Yelü Chucai, convinced him to reverse previous Mongol policy. Instead of leveling North China and all its inhabitants in the usual Mongol manner, he preserved the country in order to utilize the wealth and skills of its inhabitants. That decision not only saved Chinese culture in North China but it also gave the Mongols access to the Chinese we...
  • Yelü Dashi (emperor of Western Liao dynasty)
    founder and first emperor (1124–43) of the Xi (Western) Liao dynasty (1124–1211) of Central Asia....
  • Yelü Yi (emperor of Liao dynasty)
    leader of the nomadic Mongol-speaking Khitan tribes who occupied the northern border of China....
  • Yelwa (Nigeria)
    town, seat of the traditional Yauri emirate, Kebbi state, northwestern Nigeria. It lies on the road between Kontagora and Birnin Kebbi. An early Niger River settlement of the Reshe (Gungawa) people, it was ruled by the kings of Yauri from their capital at Bin Yauri, 8.5 miles (14 km) southeast. In 1888, after a period of civil war in which Bin Yauri had been a...
  • Yelyn Valley (valley, Mongolia)
    ...in clusters resembling bundles of pencils, are found in the eastern and central regions. The southern Gobi contains three mountain ranges, known as the Gurvan Sayhan Mountains, and the scenic Yelyn Valley, now a national park, with deep gorges surrounded by towering rocky cliffs where condors have made their nests....
  • Yelysavethrad (Ukraine)
    city, south-central Ukraine. It lies along the upper Inhul River where the latter is crossed by the Kremenchuk-Odessa railway. Founded as a fortress in 1754, it was made a city, Yelysavethrad (Russian: Yelizavetgrad, or Elizavetgrad), in 1765 and developed as the centre of a rich agricultural area. It was renamed Zinovyevsk in 1924, Kirovo in 1936, and Kirovohrad in 1939. Indust...
  • Yemen
    mostly mountainous country situated at the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. It is generally an arid country, though there are broad patches with sufficient precipitation to make agriculture successful. The people speak various dialects of Arabic and are mostly Muslims (see Islam)....
  • Yemen (Aden) (former country, Yemen)
    The new government in Aden renamed the country the People’s Republic of South Yemen. Short of resources and unable to obtain any significant amounts of aid, either from the Western states or from those in the Arab world, it began to drift toward the Soviet Union, which eagerly provided economic and technical assistance in hopes of bringing an Arab state into its political sphere. By the ear...
  • Yemen Airways (airline, Yemen)
    ...in the south, greatly facilitated internal travel and transport between the cities and major towns of Yemen. The two airlines were finally merged nearly a decade after unification. Today, Yemenia (Yemen Airways) operates regular service to a large number of countries in the Red Sea region and to most other Arab states, as well as to a growing number of European transportation hubs. Major......
  • Yemen Arab Republic (former country, Yemen)
    ...al-Badr became imam. Within a week, elements of the military, supported by a variety of political organizations, staged a coup and declared the foundation of the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen). The young imam escaped from his battered palace, fled into the northern highlands, and began the traditional process of rallying the tribes to his cause. The new republic called upon......
  • Yemen Bank of Reconstruction and Development (bank, Yemen)
    ...merger of the central banks of the two Yemens. It is responsible for issuing the rial, the national currency, and for managing the government’s foreign exchange and other financial operations. The Yemen Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1962) provides commercial and customer services. Banking is a small sector of the economy; services have traditionally been difficult to obtain si...
  • Yemen, flag of
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  • Yemen, history of
    History...
  • Yemen Plateau (plateau, Arabia)
    ...Saudi Arabia), where Mount Al-Lawz rises to 8,464 feet (2,580 metres); and the southeastern corner in Oman, where Mount Al-Shām attains an elevation of 9,957 feet (3,035 metres). Much of the Yemen Plateau is at an elevation above 7,000 feet (2,100 metres). To the north and east elevations decrease. Steep cliffs and steep canyons descend from the highlands into adjacent seas to the south....
  • Yemen, Republic of
    mostly mountainous country situated at the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. It is generally an arid country, though there are broad patches with sufficient precipitation to make agriculture successful. The people speak various dialects of Arabic and are mostly Muslims (see Islam)....
  • Yemen (Ṣanʿāʾ) (former country, Yemen)
    ...al-Badr became imam. Within a week, elements of the military, supported by a variety of political organizations, staged a coup and declared the foundation of the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen). The young imam escaped from his battered palace, fled into the northern highlands, and began the traditional process of rallying the tribes to his cause. The new republic called upon......
  • Yemen Socialist Party (political party, Yemen)
    ...also republican in form, had an avowedly Marxist regime, and the political system and economy reflected many of the goals and organizational structures of its “scientific socialism.” The Yemen Socialist Party (YSP), the only legal political organization, determined government policy and exercised control over the state administrative system, the legislature, and the military....
  • Yemeni Congregation for Reform (political party, Yemen)
    ...were judged by international monitors to be relatively free and fair. President Ṣāliḥ’s party, the GPC, emerged with a large plurality of seats. The Islamic Reform Grouping (Iṣlāḥ), the main organized opposition to the unification regime since 1990, and the YSP both won strong minority representation. Holding virtually all the seats, the three......
  • Yemeni Highlands (region, Arabia)
    The Yemeni highlands are physiographically very different from those of the shield; they are not mountains but the deeply dissected edge of the Arabian plateau. From the west the formations rise abruptly from the narrow coastal plain in Yemen; they reach heights of about 10,000 to 12,000 feet above sea level, and eastward they decrease gradually in elevation. The highlands along the southern......
  • Yemeni Socialist Party (political party, Yemen)
    ...also republican in form, had an avowedly Marxist regime, and the political system and economy reflected many of the goals and organizational structures of its “scientific socialism.” The Yemen Socialist Party (YSP), the only legal political organization, determined government policy and exercised control over the state administrative system, the legislature, and the military....
  • Yemenia (airline, Yemen)
    ...in the south, greatly facilitated internal travel and transport between the cities and major towns of Yemen. The two airlines were finally merged nearly a decade after unification. Today, Yemenia (Yemen Airways) operates regular service to a large number of countries in the Red Sea region and to most other Arab states, as well as to a growing number of European transportation hubs. Major......
  • Yemin Moshe (district, Jerusalem)
    ...of west Jerusalem; the German Colony, near what became the railway station; and the American Colony, north of the Damascus Gate. Some early communities, such as Mishkenot Shaʾanannim and Yemin Moshe, with its famous windmill landmark, have been reconstructed and resettled or turned into cultural centres. Others include the Bukharan Quarter; Meʾa Sheʿarim, founded by......
  • Yemmiganur (India)
    city, western Andhra Pradesh state, southern India. It lies west of the city of Kurnool. Yemmiganūr was included in the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar, which flourished during medieval times (14th–16th century). Later, the city came under Muslim rule. Yemmiganūr’s chief industries are cotton ginning, peanut (groundnut) milling, and weaving. Pop. (1991 prelim.) 65,118....
  • yen (bronze vessel)
    type of ancient Chinese bronze steamer, or cooking vessel, used particularly for grain. It consisted of a deep upper bowl with a pierced bottom, which was placed upon or attached to a lower, legged vessel similar in shape to the li. It was produced during the Shang, or Yin (18th–12th century ...
  • yen (Japanese currency)
    monetary unit of Japan. The yen was divided into 100 sen and into 1,000 rin until 1954, when these tiny denominations were removed from circulation. Despite having suffered enormous devastation during World War II, Japan enjoyed an economic miracle in the second half of the 20th century, during which time the yen became one of the leading international currencies, challenging the pound st...
  • Yen Bai uprising (Vietnamese history)
    Its most ambitious action—an event known as the Yen Bai uprising—occurred on the night of Feb. 9, 1930, when the military garrison at Yen Bai, a small town along the Chinese border, mutinied. Before the remainder of the country could follow suit, however, the French, who had been alerted, crushed the revolt with such severity that the VNQDD was destroyed. Many former members joined.....
  • Yen, C. K. (Chinese statesman)
    ...United States finally break diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979 in order to establish full relations with the People’s Republic of China. After his death in 1975 he was succeeded temporarily by Yen Chia-kan (C.K. Yen), who was in 1978 replaced by Chiang’s son Chiang Ching-kuo....
  • Yen Chen-ch’ing (Chinese artist)
    ...in synthesizing southern and northern tendencies, blending fluid brush movement and expressive power, were Chang Hsü (known for his “delirious cursive” writing) and his pupils Yen Chen-ch’ing and the monk Huai-su (the latter practicing a “wild cursive”—k’uang-ts’ao—style). They helped establish a new aesthetic standard...
  • Yen Chia-kan (Chinese statesman)
    ...United States finally break diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979 in order to establish full relations with the People’s Republic of China. After his death in 1975 he was succeeded temporarily by Yen Chia-kan (C.K. Yen), who was in 1978 replaced by Chiang’s son Chiang Ching-kuo....
  • Yen Fu (Chinese scholar)
    Chinese scholar who translated into Chinese works by T.H. Huxley, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Adam Smith, and others in an attempt to show that the secret to Western wealth and power did not lie in Western technological advances, such as gunmaking, but in the ideas and institutions that lay behind these techniques. His translations of and introductions to these works had great influence on ...
  • Yen Jo-chü (Chinese scholar)
    great Chinese scholar from the early period of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12) who proved that 25 chapters of the Shujing, or Shangshu, one of the Five Classics of Confucianism, upon which the government modeled itself for more than a thousand years, were forged....
  • Yen Li-pen (Chinese painter)
    one of the most famous Chinese figure painters in the early years of the Tang dynasty (618–907)....
  • Yen Mountains (mountains, China)
    ...the North China Plain and the northern ranges, plains, and plateaus, and routes running across the great plain naturally converge on the city. In addition, since the dawn of Chinese history, the Yan range has constituted a formidable barrier between the North China Plain to the south, the Mongolian Plateau to the north, and the Liao River Plain in the southern region of the Northeast......
  • Yen Shan (mountains, China)
    ...the North China Plain and the northern ranges, plains, and plateaus, and routes running across the great plain naturally converge on the city. In addition, since the dawn of Chinese history, the Yan range has constituted a formidable barrier between the North China Plain to the south, the Mongolian Plateau to the north, and the Liao River Plain in the southern region of the Northeast......
  • Yen Ti (Chinese mythological emperor)
    second of China’s mythical emperors, said to have been born in the 28th century bc with the head of a bull and the body of a man. By inventing the cart and plow, by taming the ox and yoking the horse, and by teaching his people to clear the land with fire, Shen Nung reputedly established a stable agricultural society in China. His catalog of 365 species of medicinal plants bec...
  • Yen, Vivian Wu (Taiwanese businesswoman)
    Chinese-born Taiwanese businesswoman who was the tenacious chairwoman of the Yulon Group, the largest auto manufacturer in Taiwan; she became known as the “Iron Lady” after taking the reins and successfully expanding the conglomerate following the death in 1981 of her husband, Yen Ching-ling. In the 1950s the couple founded the textile and auto companies that eventually formed the co...
  • Yen Yüan (Chinese philosopher)
    Chinese founder of a pragmatic empirical school of Confucianism opposed to the speculative neo-Confucian philosophy that had dominated China since the 11th century....
  • Yen-an (China)
    city, northern Shaanxi sheng (province), north-central China. It became famous as the wartime stronghold of the Chinese communists from the mid-1930s to 1949. Yan’an is on the heavily dissected Loess Plateau, which consists of loess (windblown soil) that is deeply etched by gullies. The city sta...
  • Yen-ch’eng (China)
    city, north-central Jiangsu sheng (province), eastern China, in the province’s eastern coastal district....
  • Yen-chi (China)
    city, eastern Jilin sheng (province), far northeastern China. It is a county-level shi (municipality) and the administrative seat of Yanbian Chaoxianzu (Korean) Autonomous Prefecture, which covers a mountainous area on the North Korean–Chinese border, more than half of whose inhabitants are of Korean ancest...
  • Yen-ching (China)
    city, province-level shi (municipality), and capital of the People’s Republic of China. Few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. The city has been an integral part of China’s history over the past eight centuries, and nearly every major b...
  • Yen-lo Wang (Chinese mythology)
    The first king receives the dead and determines whether or not they require punishment and, if so, to which region they should be sent. Formerly the position of first judge was held by Yen-lo Wang (a Chinese form of the Indian lord of death, Yama), but he was demoted to the fifth court because of his leniency. The second king has jurisdiction over the region that punishes dishonest go-betweens,......
  • Yen-t’ai (China)
    port city, northeastern Shandong sheng (province), northeast-central China. It is located on the northern coast of the Shandong Peninsula on the Yellow Sea, about 45 miles (70 km) west of Weihai....
  • Yenakiyeve (Ukraine)
    city, eastern Ukraine. It lies along the Krynka River. A pig-iron concern began there in 1858 but lasted only eight years; not until the first coal mines opened in the locality in 1883 did industrialization begin. A metallurgical factory established in 1895–97 was later reconstructed. The city, incorporated in 1925, ultimately developed a wide industrial base, with numero...
  • Yenakiyevo (Ukraine)
    city, eastern Ukraine. It lies along the Krynka River. A pig-iron concern began there in 1858 but lasted only eight years; not until the first coal mines opened in the locality in 1883 did industrialization begin. A metallurgical factory established in 1895–97 was later reconstructed. The city, incorporated in 1925, ultimately developed a wide industrial base, with numero...
  • Yenangyaung (Myanmar)
    town, west-central Myanmar (Burma), on the Irrawaddy River, 135 miles (217 km) southwest of Mandalay. It is the centre of oil fields that were long the most productive in Myanmar. Pop. (1983) 62,582....
  • Yenbo (Saudi Arabia)
    town, western Saudi Arabia, on the Red Sea north of Jidda. It serves as the country’s second Red Sea port, after Jidda, and is the main port for Medina, 100 miles (160 km) to the east. The economy of Yanbuʿ was traditionally based on the pilgrim trade and the export of agricultural products, especially dates. Its harbour is being enlarged and improved to ease the pressure on Jidda, a...
  • Yendys, Sydney (British poet)
    English poet of the so-called Spasmodic school....
  • Yengema (Sierra Leone)
    town, east-central Sierra Leone. The headquarters of a diamond-mining area inhabited mainly by the Kono and Mandingo peoples, the town has diamond-washing plants, a hospital, and several schools. Pop. (latest est.) 12,938....
  • Yeni Osmanlilar (Turkish organization)
    secret Turkish nationalist organization formed in Istanbul in June 1865. A forerunner of other Turkish nationalist groups (see Young Turks), the Young Ottomans favoured converting the Turkish-dominated multinational Ottoman Empire into a more purely Turkish state and called for the creation of a constitutional government. By 1867 the Young Ottomans had expanded from the o...
  • Yeniçeri (Turkish military)
    (New Soldier, or Troop), member of an elite corps in the standing army of the Ottoman Empire from the late 14th century to 1826. Highly respected for their military prowess in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Janissaries became a powerful political force within the Ottoman state. The Janissary corps was originally staffed by Christian youths from the Balkan provinces who were converted to Isl...
  • Yenisehir (Turkey)
    ...to defend their territories in the hinterland of the Asiatic shore opposite Constantinople (now Istanbul). Osman gradually extended his control over several former Byzantine fortresses, including Yenişehir, which provided the Ottomans with a strong base to lay siege to Bursa and Nicaea (now İznik), in northwestern Anatolia. The greatest success of Osman’s reign was the conq...
  • Yenisei River (river, Russia)
    river of central Russia, one of the longest rivers in Asia. The world’s sixth largest river in terms of discharge, the Yenisey runs from south to north across the great expanse of central Siberia. It traverses a vast region of strikingly varied landscapes where ancient peoples and customs as well as an enormous economic infrastructure...
  • Yeniseian languages
    small group of languages grouped with Yukaghir, Nivkh, and the Luorawetlan languages as Paleo-Siberian languages. The Yeniseian group contains at least four languages—Ket, Kott, Arin (Arrin), and Assan—but only Ket is a living language. See also Paleo-Siberian languages. ...
  • Yeniseiok (people)
    an indigenous Arctic people who traditionally resided on the east bank of the lower Yenisey River of Russia. They numbered about 300 in the Russian census of 2002....
  • Yenisey (people)
    an indigenous Arctic people who traditionally resided on the east bank of the lower Yenisey River of Russia. They numbered about 300 in the Russian census of 2002....
  • Yenisey language
    ...languages (q.v.). There are five Samoyedic languages, which are divided into two subgroups—North Samoyedic and South Samoyedic. The North Samoyedic subgroup consists of Nenets (Yurak), Enets (Yenisey), and Nganasan (Tavgi). The South Samoyedic subgroup comprises Selkup and the practically extinct Kamas language. None of these languages was written before 1930, and they are......
  • Yenisey Ostyak (people)
    indigenous people of central Siberia who live in the Yenisey River basin; in the late 20th century they numbered about 500. Certain traits of the Ket suggest a southerly origin. Their language, Ket, is the last true survivor of the Yeniseian group spoken in the area. Usually classed as Paleo-Siberian, this collection of unrelated language groups has no firmly established relati...
  • Yenisey River (river, Russia)
    river of central Russia, one of the longest rivers in Asia. The world’s sixth largest river in terms of discharge, the Yenisey runs from south to north across the great expanse of central Siberia. It traverses a vast region of strikingly varied landscapes where ancient peoples and customs as well as an enormous economic infrastructure...
  • Yenisey Samoyed (people)
    an indigenous Arctic people who traditionally resided on the east bank of the lower Yenisey River of Russia. They numbered about 300 in the Russian census of 2002....
  • Yenisey-Ostyak language
    one of two surviving members of the Yeniseian family of languages spoken by about 500 people living in central Siberia. (The other, a moribund close relative called Yug [Yugh], or Sym, is sometimes considered a dialect of Ket.)...
  • Yenisey-Ostyak languages
    small group of languages grouped with Yukaghir, Nivkh, and the Luorawetlan languages as Paleo-Siberian languages. The Yeniseian group contains at least four languages—Ket, Kott, Arin (Arrin), and Assan—but only Ket is a living language. See also Paleo-Siberian languages. ...
  • Yeniseyan languages
    small group of languages grouped with Yukaghir, Nivkh, and the Luorawetlan languages as Paleo-Siberian languages. The Yeniseian group contains at least four languages—Ket, Kott, Arin (Arrin), and Assan—but only Ket is a living language. See also Paleo-Siberian languages. ...
  • Yentl (film by Streisand [1983])
    ...AlexanderArt Direction: Anna Asp for Fanny & AlexanderOriginal Score: Bill Conti for The Right StuffBest Adaptation Score: Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, Michel Legrand for YentlOriginal Song: “Flashdance...What a Feeling” from Flashdance; music by Giorgio Moroder, lyrics by Irene Cara and......
  • yeoman (English social class)
    in English history, a class intermediate between the gentry and the labourers; a yeoman was usually a landholder but could also be a retainer, guard, attendant, or subordinate official. The word appears in Middle English as yemen, or yoman, and is perhaps a contraction of yeng man or yong man, meaning young man, or attendant. Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tal...
  • Yeoman South (region, United States)
    The Upland South, which comprises the southern Appalachians, the upper Appalachian Piedmont, the Cumberland and other low interior plateaus, and the Ozarks and Ouachitas, was colonized culturally and demographically from the Chesapeake Bay hearth area and the Midland; it is most emphatically white Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) in character. The latter area, which contains a large black......
  • yeoman warder (guardian of Tower of London)
    the official guardian of the Tower of London. The office of yeoman warder has existed since the Tower was constructed in the 11th century; it is one of the oldest such offices in the world (compare Swiss Guards). In early times yeoman warders were charged with guarding the Tower’s typically prestigious prisoners and assisting in their pu...
  • yeomanry (English social class)
    in English history, a class intermediate between the gentry and the labourers; a yeoman was usually a landholder but could also be a retainer, guard, attendant, or subordinate official. The word appears in Middle English as yemen, or yoman, and is perhaps a contraction of yeng man or yong man, meaning young man, or attendant. Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tal...
  • Yeomen of the Guard (British military)
    the personal bodyguard of the sovereign of England, in continuous existence since they were established by King Henry VII in 1485. They should not be confused with the yeomen warders of the Tower of London, often called “Beefeaters,” who, like the Yeomen of the Guard, wear Tudor costume. Originally, the Yeomen of the Guard were responsible for the king’s safety on journeys at ...
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