palindrome [Grk palindrómos ‘running back again’]

A term for a word or phrase that reads the same backwards and forwards, e.g. able was I ere I saw Elba and the name Otto. This is a special type of anagram.

Term used by de Saussure to indicate the approach to language which sees linguistic regularities in a language which are not subject to change through time. ( also universals)

References

Jakobson, R. 1968. Child language. Aphasia and phonological universals. The Hague. Saussure, F.de. 1916. Cours de linguistique générale, ed. C.Bally and A.Sechehaye. Paris. (Course

in general linguistics, trans. R.Harris. London, 1983.)

Indo-Aryan language with approx. 45 million speakers in India and Pakistan. Characteristics: tonal languages; three writing systems (Gurumukhi, Persian,

Devanāgarī).