Changes

==References==

==References==

* Crystal, David (1997). ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.'' Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

* Crystal, David (1997). ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.'' Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

* Crystal, David (2001). ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.'' Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

* Crystal, David (2001). ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.'' Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

===Literature=== is literally "acquaintance with letters" as in the first sense given in the [[Oxford English Dictionary]] (from the [[Latin]] ''littera'' meaning "an individual written character ([[letter (alphabet)|letter]])"). The term has generally come to identify a collection of [[writing|text]]s or [[works of art]], which in Western culture are mainly [[prose]], both [[fiction]] and [[non-fiction]], [[drama]] and [[poetry]].  In much of, if not all, the world texts can be [[oral literature|oral]] as well and include such [[genre]]s as [[Epic poetry|epic]], [[legend]], [[Mythology|myth]], [[ballad]], plus other forms of oral poetry, and [[folktale]].

==Literature== is literally "acquaintance with letters" as in the first sense given in the [[Oxford English Dictionary]] (from the [[Latin]] ''littera'' meaning "an individual written character ([[letter (alphabet)|letter]])"). The term has generally come to identify a collection of [[writing|text]]s or [[works of art]], which in Western culture are mainly [[prose]], both [[fiction]] and [[non-fiction]], [[drama]] and [[poetry]].  In much of, if not all, the world texts can be [[oral literature|oral]] as well and include such [[genre]]s as [[Epic poetry|epic]], [[legend]], [[Mythology|myth]], [[ballad]], plus other forms of oral poetry, and [[folktale]].

==Literature: An Introduction==

===Literature: An Introduction===

[[Nation]]s can have literatures, as can [[corporation]]s, [[Philosophy|philosophical schools]] or [[Periodization|historical periods]]. Popular  belief commonly holds that the literature of a [[nation]], for example, comprises the collection of texts which make it a whole nation.  The [[Hebrew Bible]], [[Iran|Persian]] ''[[Shahnama]]'', the [[India]]n ''[[Mahabharata]]'', ''[[Ramayana]]'' and ''[[Thirukural]]'', the ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]'', ''[[Beowulf]]'', and the [[Constitution of the United States]], all fall within this definition of a kind of literature.

[[Nation]]s can have literatures, as can [[corporation]]s, [[Philosophy|philosophical schools]] or [[Periodization|historical periods]]. Popular  belief commonly holds that the literature of a [[nation]], for example, comprises the collection of texts which make it a whole nation.  The [[Hebrew Bible]], [[Iran|Persian]] ''[[Shahnama]]'', the [[India]]n ''[[Mahabharata]]'', ''[[Ramayana]]'' and ''[[Thirukural]]'', the ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]'', ''[[Beowulf]]'', and the [[Constitution of the United States]], all fall within this definition of a kind of literature.