A cantata is sung, unlike a sonata, which is played on instruments only. The most famous cantatas are by Johann Sebastian Bach, who wrote the music for about 200 religious cantatas, using hymns and new religious poems as his texts. His cantatas consisted of several different sections for different voices —solos, duets, and choruses. Some of his nonreligious cantatas have been performed like mini-operas.

(1) A use of spells or verbal charms spoken or sung as part of a ritual of magic. (2) A formula of words used in, or as if in, such a ritual.

*Incantation* comes directly from the Latin word *incantare,* “enchant.” *Incantare* itself has *cantare* as a root, which reminds us that magic and ritual have always been associated with chanting and music. Incantations have often been in strange languages; “Abracadabra” is a not-so-serious version of an incantation.

The cantor is, after the rabbi, the most important figure in a Jewish worship service. A cantor not only must possess an excellent singing voice but also must know by heart long passages of Hebrew. Cantors such as Jan Peerce and Richard Tucker became international opera stars. The comedian and singer Edward Israel Iskowitz renamed himself Eddie Cantor for his original profession and became enormously popular on stage, screen, radio, and television for over 40 years.

An additional melody sung above the principal melody.

The prefix *des-,* meaning “two” or “apart,” indicates that the descant is a “second song” apart from the main melody. In popular songs a descant will often be sung at the very end to produce a thrilling climax.

The study of human speech.

Any analysis of language, including 8th-grade grammar, can be called linguistics. As recently as 200 years ago, ordinary grammar was about the only kind of linguistics there was. Today a *linguist* may be a person who learns foreign languages, but the term usually refers to people who devote themselves to analyzing the structure of language. Many linguists concentrate on the history of a language; others study the way children learn to speak; others analyze the sounds of a language—and still others just study English grammar, a subject so big that you could easily spend your entire life on it.

Using or able to use several languages.

The roots of *multilingual* come from Latin (see MULTI). If you happen to prefer Greek, use the synonym *polyglot*, in which *poly-* has the same meaning as *multi-*, and *-glot* means the same thing as *-lingual*. The best way to become multilingual is probably to be born in a *bilingual* (two-language) household; learning those first two seems to give the mind the kind of exercise that makes later language-learning easy.

A language used as a common or commercial language among peoples who speak different languages.

In the Middle Ages, the Arabs of the eastern Mediterranean referred to all Europeans as Franks (the name of the tribe that once occupied the land we call France). Since there was plenty of Arab-European trade, the traders in the Mediterranean ports eventually developed a trading language combining Italian, Arabic, and other languages, which almost everyone could more or less understand, and it became known as the “Frankish language,” or lingua franca. Some languages actually succeed in becoming lingua francas without changing much. So, when the Roman empire became vast and mighty, Latin became the important lingua franca; and at a meeting between Japanese and Vietnamese businesspeople today, English may well be the only language spoken.

A narrow, flat pasta.

The modern language closest to Latin is Italian, and the Italian word *linguine* means literally “little tongues.” Linguine is only one of the types of pasta whose names describes their shapes. Others include *spaghetti* (“little strings”), *fettuccine* (“little ribbons”), *penne* (“little quills”), *orzo* (“barley”), *farfalle* (“butterflies”), *vermicelli* (“little worms”), *capellini* (“little hairs”), *fusilli* (“little spindles”), and *radiatori* (“little radiators”). If you're thinking about learning Italian, you could make a good start by just visiting an Italian restaurant.