Tasmanian cedar, any of three species of evergreen conifers of the genus Athrotaxis, of the cypress family (Cupressaceae), native to the temperate rain forests of Tasmania. Two of the species are small trees, 6 to 12 metres (20 to 40 feet) tall and 1 to 1.5 metres (3 to 5 feet) in circumference,

Tasmanian cedar: The third species, King William pine (A. selaginoides), is a timber tree that may grow as high as 30 metres (100 feet) and as large in circumference as 2.7 metres (9 feet). Its dark green, leathery leaves contain volatile oils.

Arabian religion: South Arabia: …of the South Arabian pantheon, ʿAthtar had superseded the ancient supreme Semitic god Il or El, whose name survives nearly exclusively in theophoric names. ʿAthtar was a god of the thunderstorm, dispensing natural irrigation in the form of rain. When qualified as Sharīqān, “the Eastern One” (possibly a reference to…

Arabian religion: South Arabia: …of the South Arabian pantheon, ʿAthtar had superseded the ancient supreme Semitic god Il or El, whose name survives nearly exclusively in theophoric names. ʿAthtar was a god of the thunderstorm, dispensing natural irrigation in the form of rain. When qualified as Sharīqān, “the Eastern One” (possibly a reference to…

Astarte, great goddess of the ancient Middle East and chief deity of Tyre, Sidon, and Elat, important Mediterranean seaports. Hebrew scholars now feel that the goddess Ashtoreth mentioned so often in the Bible is a deliberate conflation of the Greek name Astarte and the Hebrew word boshet, “shame,”

fern: Annotated classification: Family Athyriaceae(lady ferns) Plants in soil or on rocks; rhizomes short- to long-creeping or erect, scaly; leaves 1 to 4 times pinnately divided, glabrous, hairy, glandular, or occasionally scaly; sori round or elongate along the veins, sometimes back to back along a vein or curved around…

lady fern: …common lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina), narrow lady fern (A. angustum), and southern lady fern (A. asplenioides).

lady fern: angustum), and southern lady fern (A. asplenioides).

lady fern, (Athyrium filix-femina), a large, feathery fern (family Athyriaceae) widely cultivated for ornamentation. Lady ferns occur in moist semi-shaded areas in the temperate zones of the world. There are numerous cultivars, and the taxonomy is sometimes divided into three species: common lady

Alaskan mountains: Physiography of the northern ranges: Atigun Pass, at the head of the Dietrich River, connects the oil-producing areas of the North Slope with interior Alaska and the south.

antithrombin (AT), an anticlotting substance occurring in the plasma of blood that functions primarily to block the action of thrombin, an enzyme central to coagulation—the process by which a clot is formed. AT combines with thrombin as well as most of the other activated blood-clotting proteins

mongoose: Natural history: …and are terrestrial, although the marsh mongoose (Atilax paludinosus) and a few others are semiaquatic. Some mongooses live alone or in pairs, but others, such as the banded mongoose (Mungos mungo), dwarf mongooses (genus Helogale), and meerkats, live in large groups. Litters usually consist of two to four young.

asteroid: Near-Earth asteroids: Known as Atira asteroids after (163693) Atira, they have mean distances from the Sun that are less than 1 AU and aphelion distances less than 0.983 AU; they do not cross Earth’s orbit.

Atīśa was an Indian Buddhist reformer whose teachings formed the basis of the Tibetan Bka’-gdams-pa (“Those Bound by Command”) sect of Buddhism, founded by his disciple ’Brom-ston. Traveling to Tibet in 1038 or 1042 from Nālandā, a centre of Buddhist studies in India, Atīśa established monasteries

Atīśa was an Indian Buddhist reformer whose teachings formed the basis of the Tibetan Bka’-gdams-pa (“Those Bound by Command”) sect of Buddhism, founded by his disciple ’Brom-ston. Traveling to Tibet in 1038 or 1042 from Nālandā, a centre of Buddhist studies in India, Atīśa established monasteries

Atishi is an Indian social activist and politician, best known as one of the top leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP; “Common Man’s Party”). She served a brief term (September 2024–February 2025) as chief minister of Delhi union territory, replacing AAP founder Arvind Kejriwal. She is the third

Lake Atitlán, lake in southwestern Guatemala. It lies in a spectacular setting in the central highlands at about 5,128 feet (1,563 metres) above sea level. The lake, 1,049 feet (320 metres) deep, is 12 miles (19 km) long and 6 miles (10 km) wide, with an area of 49.3 square miles (127.7 square km).

Lake Atitlán, lake in southwestern Guatemala. It lies in a spectacular setting in the central highlands at about 5,128 feet (1,563 metres) above sea level. The lake, 1,049 feet (320 metres) deep, is 12 miles (19 km) long and 6 miles (10 km) wide, with an area of 49.3 square miles (127.7 square km).

Atiu, one of the southern Cook Islands, a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean. It is the third largest of the Cook Islands and is also known as Enuamanu (“land of birds”). Atiu was settled by Polynesian voyagers about 500 ce and was explored by crew

lorazepam, drug used in the treatment of anxiety disorders, sleep disorders, and epilepsy, as a sedative, and to induce amnesia, generally in the context of surgical procedures. Lorazepam was approved for these uses by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1977. It is marketed under

Sir Michael Francis Atiyah was a British mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1966 primarily for his work in topology. Atiyah received a knighthood in 1983 and the Order of Merit in 1992. He also served as president of the Royal Society (1990–95). Atiyah’s father was Lebanese and his

mathematics: Mathematical physics and the theory of groups: …differentiation, culminating in the celebrated Atiyah-Singer theorem for elliptic operators. (Elliptic is a technical term for the type of operator studied in potential theory.) There are remarkable implications for the study of pure geometry, and much attention has been directed to the problem of how the theory of bundles embraces…

Buddhism: Rnying-ma-pa: …Anuyoga at death, and the Atiyoga in the present existence.

Aceh, autonomous daerah istimewa (special district) of Indonesia, with the status of propinsi (or provinsi; province), forming the northern extremity of the island of Sumatra. Aceh is surrounded by water on three sides: the Indian Ocean to the west and north and the Strait of Malacca to the east.

Acehnese, one of the main ethnic groups on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. They were estimated to number roughly 4.2 million in the early 21st century. They speak a language of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) family. The Acehnese were ruled by Indian princes prior to 500 ce, and in the 13th

scorpaeniform: Ecology: …of the best-known members, the Atka mackerel (Pleurogrammus monopterygius), which is common in the North Pacific and has considerable sporting and commercial fishing value, spends the major part of its life in the open sea. The related Okhotsk Atka mackerel (P. azonus) has been observed in the upper layers of…

Eskimo-Aleut languages: Unangam Tunuu (Aleut): …settled beginning in 1800; and Atkan Unangam Tunuu (Atkan Aleut), which is spoken also by young people (but no children) on Atka Island, Aleutian Islands, and by some old people on Bering Island, Commander Islands, Russia, settled in 1826. Attu, once the westernmost Unangam Tunuu dialect in Alaska, is now…

crime: Intention: …Court ruled in 2002, in Atkins v. Virginia, that a sentence of capital punishment for people with mental retardation was unconstitutional; however, such people can be sentenced to life in prison without parole. The practice of not acquitting those with mental impairments but mitigating their punishments is found in many…

Anna Atkins was an English photographer and botanist noted for her early use of photography for scientific purposes. Anna Children, whose mother died soon after she was born, was involved from an early age in the scientific activities that occupied her father, John George Children. A respected

Chet Atkins was an influential American country-and-western guitarist and record company executive who is often credited with developing the Nashville Sound. Born into a musical family, Atkins began playing the guitar as a child and during his teen years performed professionally as a fiddler. By

Chet Atkins was an influential American country-and-western guitarist and record company executive who is often credited with developing the Nashville Sound. Born into a musical family, Atkins began playing the guitar as a child and during his teen years performed professionally as a fiddler. By

rackets: History.: …the world championship (1862); and Geoffrey Atkins, world champion from 1954 to 1970, who excelled Latham’s record of reigning for 15 years. Atkins is rated by some as the greatest of all amateurs.

electronic dance music: Chicago and Detroit: …one widely agreed-upon formative figure: Juan Atkins, who in 1981 partnered with Rik Davis as Cybotron and issued the single “Alleys of Your Mind.” Shortly after releasing an album, Enter (1983), the duo split up, at which point Atkins started his own label, Metroplex, and began releasing 12-inch vinyl singles…

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was an American guitar player and gospel and blues singer who was popular in the 1930s and ’40s. She sang traditional gospel songs with contemporary jazz tempos that she played on her electric guitar. With these performances, she introduced gospel into nightclubs and concert

graphic design: The digital revolution: …MacPaint™ program by computer programmer Bill Atkinson and graphic designer Susan Kare, had a revolutionary human interface. Tool icons controlled by a mouse or graphics tablet enabled designers and artists to use computer graphics in an intuitive manner. The Postscript™ page-description language from Adobe Systems, Inc., enabled pages of type…

Black Hawk War: The war begins: Henry Atkinson was already en route to Rock Island on a mission to prevent the Sauk and Fox from warring with the Menominee and Sioux. After arriving on April 12, Atkinson met with “friendly” Sauk and Fox chiefs whose refusal to help convinced him that…

U.S. Open: …when the five-set match between Juliette Atkinson (the winner) and Marion Jones extended to 51 games. Arthur Ashe won the U.S. Open in 1968, but because of his amateur status (he was a lieutenant in the U.S. Army at the time) he was unable to accept the prize money. Another…

Kate Atkinson is a British short-story writer, playwright, and novelist whose works are known for their complicated plots, experimental form, and often eccentric characters. Atkinson received her early education at a private preparatory school and later the Queen Anne Grammar School for Girls in

language: Changes through time: …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…

Rowan Atkinson is an English actor and comedian who has delighted television and film audiences with his comic creations Mr. Bean and Edmund Blackadder. Atkinson attended Durham Cathedral Choristers’ School. At the University of Newcastle upon Tyne he studied electrical engineering; he progressed

Rowan Atkinson is an English actor and comedian who has delighted television and film audiences with his comic creations Mr. Bean and Edmund Blackadder. Atkinson attended Durham Cathedral Choristers’ School. At the University of Newcastle upon Tyne he studied electrical engineering; he progressed

Sir Harry Atkinson was a statesman who, as prime minister of New Zealand in the depression-ridden 1880s, implemented a policy of economic self-reliance and government austerity. Atkinson left England for Taranaki province, N.Z., in 1853 and attained distinction as a soldier in the wars of 1860 and

Sir Harry Atkinson was a statesman who, as prime minister of New Zealand in the depression-ridden 1880s, implemented a policy of economic self-reliance and government austerity. Atkinson left England for Taranaki province, N.Z., in 1853 and attained distinction as a soldier in the wars of 1860 and

Doctor Atl was a painter and writer who was one of the pioneers of the Mexican movement for artistic nationalism. Educated in Mexico City, Rome, and Peru, he founded the journal Action d’Art in Paris in 1913 and edited it for three years. The paintings he created during that period generally

Lay of Atli, heroic poem in the Norse Poetic Edda (see Edda), an older variant of the tale of slaughter and revenge that is the subject of the German epic Nibelungenlied, from which it differs in several respects. In the Norse poem, Atli (the Hunnish king Attila) is the villain, who is slain by his

Babylon, one of the most famous cities of antiquity. It was the capital of southern Mesopotamia (Babylonia) from the early 2nd millennium to the early 1st millennium bce and capital of the Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) empire in the 7th and 6th centuries bce, when it was at the height of its splendor.

Swedish literature: The 17th century: He proposed this idea in Atland eller Manheim (1679–1702), which, translated into Latin as Atlantica, attained European fame.

Atlanta, city, capital (1868) of Georgia, U.S., and seat (1853) of Fulton county (but also partly in DeKalb county). It lies in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northwestern part of the state, just southeast of the Chattahoochee River. Atlanta is Georgia’s largest city and the

Donald Glover: Acting, writing, and producing career: The series Atlanta (2016–22), about an aspiring rap artist, was created, produced, written, and directed by Glover, who also had a starring role. The show, which ran for four seasons, was twice nominated for Emmy Awards for best comedy series, and Glover won an Emmy for acting…

Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, athletic festival held in Atlanta that took place July 19–August 4, 1996. The Atlanta Games were the 23rd occurrence of the modern Olympic Games. Selected over Athens to host the Centennial Summer Games, Atlanta staged one of the most extravagant Games in Olympic

Dorothy Alexander: …and choreographer, founder of the Atlanta Ballet, and pioneer of the regional ballet movement.

Spelman College, private, historically black institution of higher learning for women in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. A liberal arts college, Spelman offers bachelor’s degrees in more than 20 fields, including arts, sciences, psychology, computer science, economics, languages, philosophy, political

The Atlanta Braves are the only existing Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise to have played every season since professional baseball came into existence. Founded in Boston in 1871, the franchise has moved twice: it began playing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1953 and then in Atlanta in 1966. The

Atlanta Campaign, an important series of battles in Georgia that occurred May–September 1864 between Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. Union troops eventually cut off a main Confederate supply center, and the outcome influenced the U.S. presidential election of 1864, in

Dorothy Alexander: …and choreographer, founder of the Atlanta Ballet, and pioneer of the regional ballet movement.

Atlanta Compromise, classic statement on race relations articulated by Booker T. Washington, a leading Black educator in the United States in the late 19th century. In a speech at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 18, 1895, Washington asserted that

Georgia State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. It is part of the University System of Georgia. The university consists of six colleges, including colleges of arts and sciences, business, education, health and human services, and law and the

Atlanta Dream, professional basketball team based in Atlanta that plays in the Eastern Conference of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team has won three Eastern Conference championships (2010, 2011, and 2013). The Dream came into existence as a WNBA expansion team in 2008.

Atlanta Falcons, American professional football team based in Atlanta that plays in the National Football Conference (NFC) of the NFL. The Falcons have won two NFC championships (1999 and 2017). (Read Walter Camp’s 1903 Britannica essay on inventing American football.) The Falcons began play in

Calgary Flames, Canadian professional ice hockey team based in Calgary, Alberta, that plays in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Flames have won three conference titles (1986, 1989, and 2004) and one Stanley Cup championship (1989). The franchise was originally located

Atlanta Hawks, American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks were one of the original franchises of the National Basketball Association (NBA) when the league was established in 1949. The team won its only championship in 1958. Originally founded in Moline and Rock Island,

Hoke Smith: He published the Atlanta Journal (1887–1900), which he used as a forum to champion virtually all progressive measures of the period, with the notable exception of civil rights for blacks.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, morning daily newspaper published in Atlanta, Ga., and based largely on the former Atlanta Constitution following its merger with the Atlanta Journal in 2001. The Constitution had been counted among the great newspapers of the United States, and it came to be

Atlanta Olympic Games bombing of 1996, bombing that occurred at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, resulting in two deaths and more than 100 injuries. On July 27, 1996, a single homemade pipe bomb left in a knapsack exploded amid a crowd of spectators in Centennial Olympic Park, near the

rock festival: Monterey, Woodstock, and beyond: …post-Woodstock festivals, the Atlanta (Georgia) Pop Festival in 1969–70 was perhaps the most important to rock history; it packed the lower end of the bill with local groups and thereby invigorated the Southern rock movement of the 1970s. Rock festivals in the United States tapered off after about 1975, only…

Atlanta race riot of 1906, major outbreak of violence in Atlanta, Georgia, that killed at least 12 and possibly as many as 25 African Americans in late September 1906. White mobs, inflamed by newspaper reports of Black men attacking white women, burned more than 1,000 homes and businesses in the

Southern rock: …borrowed from soul, and the Atlanta Rhythm Section leaned toward country. A few acts, such as Sea Level and the Dixie Dregs, even flirted with jazz-rock.

Robert Shaw: … (1956–67) and conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (1967–88), where he also served as music director, expanding the orchestra’s program to include ballet, oratorios, chamber music, educational concerts, and special telecasts. In 1990 Shaw began leading an annual series of workshops at Carnegie Hall for singers and choral directors and…

Winnipeg Jets, Canadian professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, that plays in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The franchise was founded in 1999 in Atlanta as the Thrashers and had losing seasons in each of its first five years of existence. Improvement

Atlanta: The contemporary city: …Women’s National Basketball Association and Atlanta United FC of Major League Soccer.

Freaknik: Inception: …1980s by students attending the Atlanta University Center (a consortium of HBCUs in Atlanta, including Morehouse College, Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, and, at the time, Morris Brown College). The DC Metro Club—one of the state clubs at AUC, consisting of students from Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia—took the lead…

E. Franklin Frazier: …Georgia, where he organized the Atlanta University School of Social Work, later becoming its director. With the controversy surrounding the publication (1927) of Frazier’s “The Pathology of Race Prejudice” in Forum, he was forced to leave Morehouse. He received a fellowship from the University of Chicago (1927), where he took…

Battle of Atlanta, American Civil War engagement fought on July 22, 1864, that was part of the Union’s summer Atlanta Campaign. Union Major Generals William Tecumseh Sherman and James B. McPherson successfully defended against a Confederate offensive from Lieut. Gen. John Bell Hood on the eastern

atlas, in architecture, male figure used as a column to support an entablature, balcony, or other projection, originating in the Classical architecture of antiquity. Such figures are posed as if supporting great weights (e.g., Atlas bearing the world). The related telamon of Roman architecture, the

Ternifine: …new genus and species (Atlanthropus mauritanicus). However, later it was recognized that the fossils from Algeria and China, along with similar specimens from Java, could all be classified together in one species, which is now called Homo erectus. The hominins at Ternifine were found with stone tools of the…

Atlantic, county, southeastern New Jersey, U.S., bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Mullica River and Great Bay to the northeast, and the Tuckahoe River and Great Egg Harbor to the south. It constitutes a coastal lowland bisected by the Great Egg Harbor River, which runs through swampy

Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc. (A&P), former German-owned food distribution company that operated supermarket chains in the United States and Canada. The company’s history traces to 1859, when George F. Gilman and George Huntington Hartford founded the Great American Tea Co. in New York

railroad: Canadian railroads: …it was known as the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad in the three northern New England states and the St. Lawrence and Atlantic in Quebec. At the behest of the Maine promoters of this line, a gauge of 5 feet 6 inches (1,676 mm) was adopted to exclude Boston and…

argentine: Argentines of the species Argentina silus are silvery fishes about 45 cm (18 inches) long; they live about 145–545 m (480–1,800 feet) below the surface and are sometimes caught by fishermen.

bonito: sarda of the Atlantic and Mediterranean, S. orientalis of the Indo-Pacific, S. chilensis of the eastern Pacific, and S. australis of Australia and New Zealand.

Atlantic Charter, joint declaration issued on August 14, 1941, during World War II, by the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, and Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt of the still nonbelligerent United States, after four days of conferences aboard warships anchored at Placentia Bay, off the coast of

Atlantic City, resort city, Atlantic county, southeastern New Jersey, U.S., on the Atlantic Ocean. It lies on low, narrow, sandy, 10-mile- (16-km-) long Absecon Island, which is separated from the mainland by a narrow strait and several miles of meadows partly covered with water at high tide. The

Louis Malle: …films included the critically acclaimed Atlantic City (1980), a comedy-drama about the emotional renewal of a small-time criminal; My Dinner with André (1981), an unusual film consisting almost entirely of a dinner-table conversation between two characters; and Au revoir les enfants (1987), an autobiographical reminiscence of life in a Roman…

Europe: Climatic change: …the succeeding climatic optimum (the Atlantic phase), which was probably wetter and certainly somewhat warmer, mixed forests of oak, elm, common lime (linden), and elder spread northward. Only in the late Atlantic period did the beech and hornbeam spread into western and central Europe from the southeast.

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), American collegiate athletic organization formed in 1953 as an offshoot of the Southern Conference. Member schools are Boston College (joined 2005), the University of California, Berkeley (joined 2024), Clemson University, Duke University, Florida State University

Tertiary Period: Sedimentary sequences: …Tertiary sediments occur on the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains and extend around the margin of the Gulf of Mexico to the Yucatán Peninsula, a distance of more than 5,000 km (about 3,100 miles). Seaward these deposits can be traced from the Atlantic Coastal Plain to the continental margin and…

cod, (genus Gadus), any of three or four species of large and economically important marine food fishes of the family Gadidae. Historically, the term cod referred to Atlantic cod ( Gadus morhua), a cold-water fish found on both sides of the North Atlantic. In the present day, the term applies to

naval warfare: The age of the guided missile: …fleet defenses, the supply ship Atlantic Conveyor (May 25). Also, a land-to-sea missile struck and damaged the destroyer HMS Glamorgan (June 12), presaging more strikes from land in future maritime wars. Third, the British relearned lessons of damage control and ship survivability, while the Argentines found that aircraft armed only…

equatorial countercurrent: The Atlantic Equatorial Countercurrent is strongest off the coast of Ghana (Africa), where it is known as the Guinea Current. The countercurrent of the Indian Ocean flows only during the northern winter and only south of the equator.

ship: The Atlantic Ferry: At this point the contributions of Isambard Kingdom Brunel to sea transportation began. Brunel was the chief engineer of the Great Western Railway between Bristol and London, which was nearing completion in the late 1830s. A man who thrived on challenges, Brunel…

United States Navy: Theories of force projection and World War I: …ordered 16 battleships of the Atlantic Fleet on a cruise around the world in 1907–09. The hulls of the battleships had been painted white, earning them the nickname “the Great White Fleet,” and the global tour improved crew efficiency and had valuable diplomatic effects. Naval aviation was inaugurated in 1910…

Cape May: …observing bird migrations along the Atlantic Flyway. Tourism is the mainstay of the economy, although commercial fishing and seafood processing are also important.

clam: The Atlantic geoduck (P. bitruncata), similar to the Pacific species, occurs from the coast of North Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico.

goliath grouper, (Epinephelus itajara), large sea bass (family Serranidae) found on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of tropical America and in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. The species sometimes attains a length of 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) and a weight of about 455 kg (1,000 pounds). The adult is dull

halibut: The Atlantic halibut is found in the eastern and western parts of the North Atlantic. It is the largest flatfish, and the most massive individuals may reach a length of about 4.7 metres (15.4 feet) and a weight of 320 kg (705 pounds). It is brown,…

Atlantic herring, (Clupea harengus), species of herring in the family Clupeidae (order Clupeiformes) and one of the most commercially important fish in the world. Atlantic herring travel in large schools, migrating between feeding, spawning, and overwintering areas (see also schooling behavior).

dolphin: Conservation status: as endangered species, and the Atlantic humpbacked dolphin (Sousa teuszii), which is classified as critically endangered.

Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, shipping route paralleling the eastern coast of the United States, serving ports from Boston to Key West, Fla. It is part of the Intracoastal Waterway

South American Indian languages: Phonological characteristics: …languages into three types: (1) Atlantic, with few oral consonants but complex systems of nasal consonants, and oral and nasal vowels, of which the Ge languages would be typical; (2) Pacific, with complex systems of oral consonants (many contrasting points and modes of articulation) but with few nasal consonants and…

Atlantic languages, branch of the Niger-Congo language family spoken primarily in Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. The approximately 45 Atlantic languages are spoken by about 30 million people. One language cluster, Fula (also called Fulani, Peul, Fulfulde, and