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ArticleTitle stringclasses 109 values	Question stringlengths 4 586 ⌀	Answer stringlengths 1 926 ⌀	ArticleFile stringclasses 57 values	EvidencesAvailable stringclasses 120 values
Cymbal	What Greek mythical creatures were depicted holding cymbals?	fauns and satyrs	data/set2/a6	Cymbal Cymbals are a modern percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various cymbal alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. Most modern cymbals are of indefinite pitch (tuned sets have been manufactured but are rare), whereas small cup-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a definite note (''see: crotales). Cymbals are used in modern orchestras and many military, marching, concert and other bands. They are one of the two instrument types that form the modern drum kit, the other being the drum, and are a basic part of much contemporary music. The most basic drum kit normally contains at least one suspended cymbal and a pair of hi-hat cymbals. The origins of cymbals can be traced back to prehistoric times. The ancient Egyptian cymbals closely resembled our own. The British Museum possesses two pairs, thirteen centimetres in diameter, one of which was found in the coffin of the mummy of Ankhhape, a sacred musician. Those used by the Assyrians were both plate- and cup-shaped, those of the Ancient Persians large-sized plates, made of brass, known as Sanj. The Greek cymbals were cup- or bell-shaped, and may be seen in the hands of innumerable fauns and satyrs in sculptures and on painted vases. The word cymbal is derived from the Latin cymbalum, which itself derives from the Greek word kumbalom, meaning a small bowl. * Bell- The center of a Cymbal. When hit with the side or shoulder of a drum stick, it causes a sound which is in a higher register than the rest of the cymbal. * Bow- The remaining surface of the Cymbal. This is where you get a "ping" sound. * Edge or rim- This is where you get the best "crash". Hitting the edge causes the cymbal to vibrate more, thus being louder. The most common Cymbals are the Hi-Hats, Crash, Splash, Ride, and China. Although cymbals are not often required they form part of every orchestra; their chief use is for marking the rhythm, producing effects, or adding military color. Their unique timbre allows them to project even against a full orchestra and through the heaviest of orhestrations. Cymbals have been utilized historically to suggest frenzy, fury or bacchanalian revels, as seen in the Venus music in Wagner's TannhÃ¤user, Grieg's Peer Gynt suite, and Osmin's aria "O wie will ich triumphieren" from Mozart's Die EntfÃ¼hrung aus dem Serail. A pair of clash cymbals in profile. The bell is in green and the straps are in red. Orchestral crash cymbals are traditionally used in pairs, each one having a strap set in the bell of the cymbal by which they are held. Such a pair is known technically as a pair of clash cymbals, although this term is rarely used, see clash cymbals. They are confusingly sometimes referred to simply as crash cymbals, although this term properly applies also to some suspended cymbals. The sound can be obtained by rubbing their edges together in a sliding movement for a "sizzle", striking them against each other in what is called a "crash", tapping the edge of one against the body of the other in what is called a "tap-crash", scraping the edge of one from the inside of the bell to the edge for a "scrape" or "zishend," or shutting the cymbals together and choking the sound in what is called a "hi-hat chick." A skilled player can obtain an enormous dynamic range from such a pair of cymbals. For example, in Beethoven's ninth symphony, one of their first appearances in an orchestral work, they make their entry pianissimo, adding a touch of colour rather than an almighty crash. Clash cymbals are usually damped by pressing them against the player's body. A composer may write laissez vibrer, "Let vibrate" (usually abbreviated l.v.), secco (dry), or equivalent indications on the score; more usually, the player must judge exactly when to damp the cymbals based on the written duration of crash and the context in which it occurs. Clash cymbals have traditionally been accompanied by the bass drum playing an identical part. This combination, played loudly, is an effective way to accentuate a note since the two instruments together contribute to both very low and very high frequency ranges and provide a satisfying "crash-bang-wallop". In older music the composer sometimes provided just one part for this pair of instruments, writing senza piatti or piatti soli (Italian: "without cymbals" or "cymbals only") if the bass drum is to remain silent. However, the modern convention is for the instruments to have independent parts. Clash cymbals evolved into the low-sock and from this to the modern hi-hat. Even in a modern drum kit, they remain paired with the bass drum as the two instruments which are played with the player's feet. However, hi-hat cymbals tend to be heavy with little taper, more similar to a ride cymbal than to a crash cymbal as found in a drum kit, and perform a ride rather than a crash function. The second main orchestral use of cymbals is the suspended cymbal. This instrument takes its name from the traditional method of suspending the cymbal by means of a leather strap or rope, thus allowing the cymbal to vibrate as freely as possible for maximum musical effect. Early jazz drumming pioneers borrowed this style of cymbal mounting during the early 1900s and later drummers further developed this instrument in to the mounted horizontal or nearly horizontally mounted "crash" cymbals of a modern drum kit. Suspended cymbals are most often played with yarn wrapped mallets. However, some composers request other types of mallets like felt mallets or timpani beaters for different attack and sustain qualities. Suspended cymbals can produce bright and slicing tones when forcefully struck, and give an eerie transparent "windy" sound when played quietly. A tremolo, or roll (played with two mallets alternately striking on opposing sides of the cymbal) can build in volume from almost inaudible to an overwhelming climax in a satisfyingly smooth manner (as in Humperdink's Mother Goose Suite). Furthermore, the edge of a suspended cymbal may be hit with shoulder of a drum stick to obtain a sound somewhat akin to that of a pair of clash cymbals. Other methods of playing include scraping a coin or a triangle beater rapidly across the ridges on the top of the cymbal, giving a "zing" sound (as in the fourth movement of DvoÅÃ¡k's Symphony No. 9). Other effects that can be used include drawing a cello or bass bow across the edge of the cymbal for a sound not unlike squealing car brakes. On another note, in highschool marching bands, a "pit" may use a suspended cymbal for a song. This is held on a tree-like structure, similar to how it would be placed by a drumset. Also known as a high-top, the instrument's music will read it as a "sus. cym. or cymb." Ancient cymbals or tuned cymbals are much more rarely called for. Their timbre is entirely different, more like that of small hand-bells or of the notes of the keyed harmonica. They are not struck full against each other, but by one of their edges, and the note given in by them is higher in proportion as they are thicker and smaller. Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet calls for two pairs of cymbals, modelled on some old Pompeian instruments no larger than the hand (some are no larger than a crown piece), and tuned to F and B flat. The modern instruments descended from this line are the crotales. * China cymbals * crash cymbals * hi-hat cymbals * Persian cymbals * ride cymbals * Swish and pang cymbals * Sizzle cymbals * Splash cymbals * Trash Hats (Hi-Hat cymbal / china cymbal hybrid setup) * Clash cymbals * Finger cymbals - Zill * Suspended cymbals Cymbal alloys Cymbal making Drum Drum kit Percussion instrument Avedis Zildjian Company Saluda Cymbals Italian Bellotti Cymbals Agean Cymbals Bosphorus Cymbals Meinl Paiste Sabian Stagg UFIP Yamaha Wuhan Istanbul cymbals Istanbul Agop Turk Masters Cymbals :See also . * CymbalPlanet.com Welcome to the World of Cymbals * Accessory Fetish A Complete List of Cymbal Manufacturers * Cymbal Forum Discussion forum about cymbals. * Orchestral cymbal playing, with an excellent short history of cymbals *
Cymbal	What are orchestral crash cymbals technically called?	a pair of clash cymbals	data/set2/a6	Cymbal Cymbals are a modern percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various cymbal alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. Most modern cymbals are of indefinite pitch (tuned sets have been manufactured but are rare), whereas small cup-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a definite note (''see: crotales). Cymbals are used in modern orchestras and many military, marching, concert and other bands. They are one of the two instrument types that form the modern drum kit, the other being the drum, and are a basic part of much contemporary music. The most basic drum kit normally contains at least one suspended cymbal and a pair of hi-hat cymbals. The origins of cymbals can be traced back to prehistoric times. The ancient Egyptian cymbals closely resembled our own. The British Museum possesses two pairs, thirteen centimetres in diameter, one of which was found in the coffin of the mummy of Ankhhape, a sacred musician. Those used by the Assyrians were both plate- and cup-shaped, those of the Ancient Persians large-sized plates, made of brass, known as Sanj. The Greek cymbals were cup- or bell-shaped, and may be seen in the hands of innumerable fauns and satyrs in sculptures and on painted vases. The word cymbal is derived from the Latin cymbalum, which itself derives from the Greek word kumbalom, meaning a small bowl. * Bell- The center of a Cymbal. When hit with the side or shoulder of a drum stick, it causes a sound which is in a higher register than the rest of the cymbal. * Bow- The remaining surface of the Cymbal. This is where you get a "ping" sound. * Edge or rim- This is where you get the best "crash". Hitting the edge causes the cymbal to vibrate more, thus being louder. The most common Cymbals are the Hi-Hats, Crash, Splash, Ride, and China. Although cymbals are not often required they form part of every orchestra; their chief use is for marking the rhythm, producing effects, or adding military color. Their unique timbre allows them to project even against a full orchestra and through the heaviest of orhestrations. Cymbals have been utilized historically to suggest frenzy, fury or bacchanalian revels, as seen in the Venus music in Wagner's TannhÃ¤user, Grieg's Peer Gynt suite, and Osmin's aria "O wie will ich triumphieren" from Mozart's Die EntfÃ¼hrung aus dem Serail. A pair of clash cymbals in profile. The bell is in green and the straps are in red. Orchestral crash cymbals are traditionally used in pairs, each one having a strap set in the bell of the cymbal by which they are held. Such a pair is known technically as a pair of clash cymbals, although this term is rarely used, see clash cymbals. They are confusingly sometimes referred to simply as crash cymbals, although this term properly applies also to some suspended cymbals. The sound can be obtained by rubbing their edges together in a sliding movement for a "sizzle", striking them against each other in what is called a "crash", tapping the edge of one against the body of the other in what is called a "tap-crash", scraping the edge of one from the inside of the bell to the edge for a "scrape" or "zishend," or shutting the cymbals together and choking the sound in what is called a "hi-hat chick." A skilled player can obtain an enormous dynamic range from such a pair of cymbals. For example, in Beethoven's ninth symphony, one of their first appearances in an orchestral work, they make their entry pianissimo, adding a touch of colour rather than an almighty crash. Clash cymbals are usually damped by pressing them against the player's body. A composer may write laissez vibrer, "Let vibrate" (usually abbreviated l.v.), secco (dry), or equivalent indications on the score; more usually, the player must judge exactly when to damp the cymbals based on the written duration of crash and the context in which it occurs. Clash cymbals have traditionally been accompanied by the bass drum playing an identical part. This combination, played loudly, is an effective way to accentuate a note since the two instruments together contribute to both very low and very high frequency ranges and provide a satisfying "crash-bang-wallop". In older music the composer sometimes provided just one part for this pair of instruments, writing senza piatti or piatti soli (Italian: "without cymbals" or "cymbals only") if the bass drum is to remain silent. However, the modern convention is for the instruments to have independent parts. Clash cymbals evolved into the low-sock and from this to the modern hi-hat. Even in a modern drum kit, they remain paired with the bass drum as the two instruments which are played with the player's feet. However, hi-hat cymbals tend to be heavy with little taper, more similar to a ride cymbal than to a crash cymbal as found in a drum kit, and perform a ride rather than a crash function. The second main orchestral use of cymbals is the suspended cymbal. This instrument takes its name from the traditional method of suspending the cymbal by means of a leather strap or rope, thus allowing the cymbal to vibrate as freely as possible for maximum musical effect. Early jazz drumming pioneers borrowed this style of cymbal mounting during the early 1900s and later drummers further developed this instrument in to the mounted horizontal or nearly horizontally mounted "crash" cymbals of a modern drum kit. Suspended cymbals are most often played with yarn wrapped mallets. However, some composers request other types of mallets like felt mallets or timpani beaters for different attack and sustain qualities. Suspended cymbals can produce bright and slicing tones when forcefully struck, and give an eerie transparent "windy" sound when played quietly. A tremolo, or roll (played with two mallets alternately striking on opposing sides of the cymbal) can build in volume from almost inaudible to an overwhelming climax in a satisfyingly smooth manner (as in Humperdink's Mother Goose Suite). Furthermore, the edge of a suspended cymbal may be hit with shoulder of a drum stick to obtain a sound somewhat akin to that of a pair of clash cymbals. Other methods of playing include scraping a coin or a triangle beater rapidly across the ridges on the top of the cymbal, giving a "zing" sound (as in the fourth movement of DvoÅÃ¡k's Symphony No. 9). Other effects that can be used include drawing a cello or bass bow across the edge of the cymbal for a sound not unlike squealing car brakes. On another note, in highschool marching bands, a "pit" may use a suspended cymbal for a song. This is held on a tree-like structure, similar to how it would be placed by a drumset. Also known as a high-top, the instrument's music will read it as a "sus. cym. or cymb." Ancient cymbals or tuned cymbals are much more rarely called for. Their timbre is entirely different, more like that of small hand-bells or of the notes of the keyed harmonica. They are not struck full against each other, but by one of their edges, and the note given in by them is higher in proportion as they are thicker and smaller. Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet calls for two pairs of cymbals, modelled on some old Pompeian instruments no larger than the hand (some are no larger than a crown piece), and tuned to F and B flat. The modern instruments descended from this line are the crotales. * China cymbals * crash cymbals * hi-hat cymbals * Persian cymbals * ride cymbals * Swish and pang cymbals * Sizzle cymbals * Splash cymbals * Trash Hats (Hi-Hat cymbal / china cymbal hybrid setup) * Clash cymbals * Finger cymbals - Zill * Suspended cymbals Cymbal alloys Cymbal making Drum Drum kit Percussion instrument Avedis Zildjian Company Saluda Cymbals Italian Bellotti Cymbals Agean Cymbals Bosphorus Cymbals Meinl Paiste Sabian Stagg UFIP Yamaha Wuhan Istanbul cymbals Istanbul Agop Turk Masters Cymbals :See also . * CymbalPlanet.com Welcome to the World of Cymbals * Accessory Fetish A Complete List of Cymbal Manufacturers * Cymbal Forum Discussion forum about cymbals. * Orchestral cymbal playing, with an excellent short history of cymbals *
Cymbal	What are orchestral crash cymbals technically called?	clash cymbals	data/set2/a6	Cymbal Cymbals are a modern percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various cymbal alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. Most modern cymbals are of indefinite pitch (tuned sets have been manufactured but are rare), whereas small cup-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a definite note (''see: crotales). Cymbals are used in modern orchestras and many military, marching, concert and other bands. They are one of the two instrument types that form the modern drum kit, the other being the drum, and are a basic part of much contemporary music. The most basic drum kit normally contains at least one suspended cymbal and a pair of hi-hat cymbals. The origins of cymbals can be traced back to prehistoric times. The ancient Egyptian cymbals closely resembled our own. The British Museum possesses two pairs, thirteen centimetres in diameter, one of which was found in the coffin of the mummy of Ankhhape, a sacred musician. Those used by the Assyrians were both plate- and cup-shaped, those of the Ancient Persians large-sized plates, made of brass, known as Sanj. The Greek cymbals were cup- or bell-shaped, and may be seen in the hands of innumerable fauns and satyrs in sculptures and on painted vases. The word cymbal is derived from the Latin cymbalum, which itself derives from the Greek word kumbalom, meaning a small bowl. * Bell- The center of a Cymbal. When hit with the side or shoulder of a drum stick, it causes a sound which is in a higher register than the rest of the cymbal. * Bow- The remaining surface of the Cymbal. This is where you get a "ping" sound. * Edge or rim- This is where you get the best "crash". Hitting the edge causes the cymbal to vibrate more, thus being louder. The most common Cymbals are the Hi-Hats, Crash, Splash, Ride, and China. Although cymbals are not often required they form part of every orchestra; their chief use is for marking the rhythm, producing effects, or adding military color. Their unique timbre allows them to project even against a full orchestra and through the heaviest of orhestrations. Cymbals have been utilized historically to suggest frenzy, fury or bacchanalian revels, as seen in the Venus music in Wagner's TannhÃ¤user, Grieg's Peer Gynt suite, and Osmin's aria "O wie will ich triumphieren" from Mozart's Die EntfÃ¼hrung aus dem Serail. A pair of clash cymbals in profile. The bell is in green and the straps are in red. Orchestral crash cymbals are traditionally used in pairs, each one having a strap set in the bell of the cymbal by which they are held. Such a pair is known technically as a pair of clash cymbals, although this term is rarely used, see clash cymbals. They are confusingly sometimes referred to simply as crash cymbals, although this term properly applies also to some suspended cymbals. The sound can be obtained by rubbing their edges together in a sliding movement for a "sizzle", striking them against each other in what is called a "crash", tapping the edge of one against the body of the other in what is called a "tap-crash", scraping the edge of one from the inside of the bell to the edge for a "scrape" or "zishend," or shutting the cymbals together and choking the sound in what is called a "hi-hat chick." A skilled player can obtain an enormous dynamic range from such a pair of cymbals. For example, in Beethoven's ninth symphony, one of their first appearances in an orchestral work, they make their entry pianissimo, adding a touch of colour rather than an almighty crash. Clash cymbals are usually damped by pressing them against the player's body. A composer may write laissez vibrer, "Let vibrate" (usually abbreviated l.v.), secco (dry), or equivalent indications on the score; more usually, the player must judge exactly when to damp the cymbals based on the written duration of crash and the context in which it occurs. Clash cymbals have traditionally been accompanied by the bass drum playing an identical part. This combination, played loudly, is an effective way to accentuate a note since the two instruments together contribute to both very low and very high frequency ranges and provide a satisfying "crash-bang-wallop". In older music the composer sometimes provided just one part for this pair of instruments, writing senza piatti or piatti soli (Italian: "without cymbals" or "cymbals only") if the bass drum is to remain silent. However, the modern convention is for the instruments to have independent parts. Clash cymbals evolved into the low-sock and from this to the modern hi-hat. Even in a modern drum kit, they remain paired with the bass drum as the two instruments which are played with the player's feet. However, hi-hat cymbals tend to be heavy with little taper, more similar to a ride cymbal than to a crash cymbal as found in a drum kit, and perform a ride rather than a crash function. The second main orchestral use of cymbals is the suspended cymbal. This instrument takes its name from the traditional method of suspending the cymbal by means of a leather strap or rope, thus allowing the cymbal to vibrate as freely as possible for maximum musical effect. Early jazz drumming pioneers borrowed this style of cymbal mounting during the early 1900s and later drummers further developed this instrument in to the mounted horizontal or nearly horizontally mounted "crash" cymbals of a modern drum kit. Suspended cymbals are most often played with yarn wrapped mallets. However, some composers request other types of mallets like felt mallets or timpani beaters for different attack and sustain qualities. Suspended cymbals can produce bright and slicing tones when forcefully struck, and give an eerie transparent "windy" sound when played quietly. A tremolo, or roll (played with two mallets alternately striking on opposing sides of the cymbal) can build in volume from almost inaudible to an overwhelming climax in a satisfyingly smooth manner (as in Humperdink's Mother Goose Suite). Furthermore, the edge of a suspended cymbal may be hit with shoulder of a drum stick to obtain a sound somewhat akin to that of a pair of clash cymbals. Other methods of playing include scraping a coin or a triangle beater rapidly across the ridges on the top of the cymbal, giving a "zing" sound (as in the fourth movement of DvoÅÃ¡k's Symphony No. 9). Other effects that can be used include drawing a cello or bass bow across the edge of the cymbal for a sound not unlike squealing car brakes. On another note, in highschool marching bands, a "pit" may use a suspended cymbal for a song. This is held on a tree-like structure, similar to how it would be placed by a drumset. Also known as a high-top, the instrument's music will read it as a "sus. cym. or cymb." Ancient cymbals or tuned cymbals are much more rarely called for. Their timbre is entirely different, more like that of small hand-bells or of the notes of the keyed harmonica. They are not struck full against each other, but by one of their edges, and the note given in by them is higher in proportion as they are thicker and smaller. Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet calls for two pairs of cymbals, modelled on some old Pompeian instruments no larger than the hand (some are no larger than a crown piece), and tuned to F and B flat. The modern instruments descended from this line are the crotales. * China cymbals * crash cymbals * hi-hat cymbals * Persian cymbals * ride cymbals * Swish and pang cymbals * Sizzle cymbals * Splash cymbals * Trash Hats (Hi-Hat cymbal / china cymbal hybrid setup) * Clash cymbals * Finger cymbals - Zill * Suspended cymbals Cymbal alloys Cymbal making Drum Drum kit Percussion instrument Avedis Zildjian Company Saluda Cymbals Italian Bellotti Cymbals Agean Cymbals Bosphorus Cymbals Meinl Paiste Sabian Stagg UFIP Yamaha Wuhan Istanbul cymbals Istanbul Agop Turk Masters Cymbals :See also . * CymbalPlanet.com Welcome to the World of Cymbals * Accessory Fetish A Complete List of Cymbal Manufacturers * Cymbal Forum Discussion forum about cymbals. * Orchestral cymbal playing, with an excellent short history of cymbals *
Dhaka	Is Dhaka the capital of Bangladesh?	Yes	data/set3/a3	Dhaka Dhaka (formerly spelled as Dacca) (Bangla: à¦¢à¦¾à¦à¦¾, ) is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. Dhaka is a Mega city and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, has a population of over 12 million, making it the largest city in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Pocket Book, 2007 (pdf-file) 2007 Population Estimate. Accessed on 2008-09-29. With its colourful history, Dhaka is known as the 'City of Mosques' and for its famous fine Muslin cloth which has a great ethnic value. Under Mughal rule in the 17th century, the city was also known as Jahangir Nagar, and was both a provincial capital and a centre of the worldwide muslin trade. The modern city, however, was developed chiefly under British rule in the 19th century, and soon became the second-largest city in Bengal after Calcutta (presently Kolkata). With the partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the administrative capital of East Pakistan, and later, in 1972, the capital of an independent Bangladesh. During the intervening period, the city witnessed widespread turmoil; this included many impositions of martial law, the declaration of Bangladesh's independence, military suppression, devastation during war, and natural calamities. Modern Dhaka is the center of political, cultural and economic life in Bangladesh. Price Information of Essential Commodities, National Web Portal, Government of Bangladesh. It has both the highest literacy rate - 72.3% - and the most diverse economy amongst Bangladeshi cities. Although its urban infrastructure is the most developed in the country, it is nonetheless a fighting metropolitan city with challenges such as pollution, congestion, and lack of adequate services due to the rising population. In recent decades, Dhaka has seen modernization of transport, communications and public works. The city is attracting large foreign investments and greater volumes of commerce and trade. It is also experiencing an increasing influx of people from across the nation. Dhaka is consistently ranked as one of the least livable cities in the world. Lalbagh Fort, constructed in the mid 17th century by Shaista Khan. The existence of urbanized settlements in the area that is now Dhaka dates from the 7th century. The city area was ruled by the Buddhist kingdom of Kamarupa and the Pala Empire before passing to the control of the Hindu Sena dynasty in the 9th century. South Asia: Eastern Himalayan Culture, Ecology and People, by Hasna Jasimuddin Moudud. ISBN 9840801651 Many believe that the name of the city was derived after the establishment of the Goddess Dhakeshwari's temple by Ballal Sena in the 12th century. Dhaka and its surrounding area was identified as Bengalla around that period. The town itself consisted of a few market centers like Lakshmi Bazar, Shankhari Bazar, Tanti Bazar, Patuatuli, Kumartuli, Bania Nagar and Goal Nagar. After the Sena dynasty, Dhaka was successively ruled by the Turkish and Afghan governors descending from the Delhi Sultanate before the arrival of the Mughals in 1608. Taru Bahl & M.H. Syed, Encyclopaedia of the Muslim World, page 55, Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2003, ISBN 8126114193 The development of townships and a significant growth in population came as the city was proclaimed the capital of Bengal under Mughal rule in 1608. Mughal subahdar Islam Khan was the first administrator of the city. Francis Bradley Bradley-Birt, The Romance of an Eastern Capitalâ, page 264, Smith, Elder, & co., 1906 Khan named the town "Jahangir Nagar" (City of Jahangir) in honor of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, although this name was dropped soon after Jahangir's death. The main expansion of the city took place under Mughal general Shaista Khan. The city then measured 19 by 13 kilometres (12 by 8 mi), with a population of nearly a million people. "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 6, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. The city passed to the control of the British East India Company in 1765 after the Battle of Plassey. The city's population shrank dramatically during this period as the prominence of Kolkata rose, "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 7, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. With the growth of Calcutta (founded by Job Charnock in 1690), the business centres started moving to Calcutta followed by flight of capital and labour force from Dacca. By 1800, Calcutta became a city of 500 thousands, (Ghosh, 1950 pp 53-54) and Dacca declined to 2000 thousands, the population of 160 years before. but substantive development and modernisation eventually followed. A modern civic water supply system was introduced in 1874 and electricity supply launched in 1878. H Furumai, F Kurisu & H Katayama, Southeast Asian Water Environment 2: Selected Papers from the Second International Symposium on Southeast Asian Water Environment, page 205, IWA Publishing, 2008, ISBN 1843391244 Mohammad Atiqullah & Fazle Karim Khan, Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area, 1608-1981â, page 10, University of Dacca, 1965 The Dhaka Cantonment was established near the city, serving as a base for British and Bengali soldiers. Ahsan Manzil-once the palace of the Dhaka Nawab Family is now a museum During the abortive Partition of Bengal in 1905, Dhaka was declared to be the capital of the newly established state of East Bengal and Assam, but Bengal was reunited in 1911. Following the Partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the capital of East Pakistan. The city witnessed minimal communal violence. A large proportion of the city's Hindu population departed for India, while the city received a large influx of Muslims. After Bangladesh's independence in 1971, Dhaka with the status of the nation's capital, the growth of commerce and industry along with the city's population rose dramatically in the following decades, which created further challenges to services and infrastructure. United Nations Human Settlements Programme, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007â, page 184, Earthscan, 2007, ISBN 184407479X As the center of regional politics, Dhaka saw an increasing number of political strikes and incidents of violence. The adoption of Urdu as the sole official language of Pakistan led to protest marches involving large crowds. Known as the Bengali Language Movement, the protests resulted in police firing which killed students who were demonstrating peacefully. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, Dhaka remained a hotbed of political activity, and the demands for autonomy for the Bengali population gradually gained momentum. Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban houses the national parliament. The 1970 Bhola cyclone devastated much of the region, killing an estimated 500,000 people. More than half the city of Dhaka was flooded and millions of people marooned. With public anger growing against ethnic discrimination and poor cyclone relief efforts from the central government, Bengali politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman held a nationalist gathering on March 7, 1971 at the Race Course Ground. An estimated one million people attended the gathering, leading to the March 26 declaration of Bangladesh's independence. In response, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight, which led to the arrests, torture and killing of thousands of people, Muslims and Hindus Bengali intellectuals. Blood, Archer, , Department of State, United States After nine months of bloody battle with Bangladesh Forces, the Pakistani Army surrendered to the Mitra Bahini on December 16 marking the end of the independence war of Bangladesh. The post-independence period has seen a rapid and massive growth of the city population, attracting migrant workers from rural areas across Bangladesh. A real estate boom has followed the expansion of city limits and the development of new settlements such as Bashundhara, Mirpur and Motijheel. Dhaka is located in central Bangladesh at , on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River. The city lies on the lower reaches of the Ganges Delta and covers a total area of . Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics; Area, Population and Literacy Rate by Paurashava â 2001 (pdf-file) Accessed on 2008-09-29. It consists of seven principal thanas Dhanmondi, Kotwali, Motijheel, Paltan, Ramna, Mohammadpur, Sutrapur, Tejgaon and 16 auxiliary thanas Gulshan, Lalbagh, Mirpur, Pallabi, Shah Ali, Turaag, Sabujbagh, Dhaka Cantonment, Demra, Hazaribagh, Shyampur, Badda, Kafrul, Kamrangir char, Khilgaon and Uttara. In total the city has 130 wards and 725 mohallas. Dhaka district has an area of 1463.60 square kilometres (565 sq mi); and is bounded by the districts of Gazipur, Tangail, Munshiganj, Rajbari, Narayanganj, Manikganj. Tropical vegetation and moist soils characterise the land, which is flat and close to sea level. This leaves Dhaka susceptible to flooding during the monsoon seasons owing to heavy rainfall and cyclones. Dhaka experiences a hot, wet and humid tropical climate. The city is within the monsoon climate zone, with an annual average temperature of 25 Â°C (77 Â°F) and monthly means varying between 18 Â°C (64 Â°F) in January and 29 Â°C (84 Â°F) in August. Nearly 80% of the annual average rainfall of 1,854 millimetres (73 in) occurs between May and September. caused by the city's rapid expansion, congestion and industrial activities. Increasing air and water pollution emanating from traffic congestion and industrial waste are serious problems affecting public health and the quality of life in the city. Water bodies and wetlands around Dhaka are facing extinction as these are being filled up to construct multi-storied buildings and other real estate developments. Coupled with pollution, such erosion of natural habitats threatens to destroy much of the regional biodiversity. The Dhaka City Corporation building The Dhaka municipality was founded on August 1, 1864 and upgraded to "corporation" status in 1978. The Dhaka City Corporation is a self-governing corporation which runs the affairs of the city. The incorporated area is divided into several wards, which have elected commissioners. The mayor of the city is elected by popular vote every five years, and the post is presently held by Sadeque Hossain Khoka. The Dhaka Education Board is responsible for administering all public schools and most private schools with the exception of English-medium schools and madrassahs. All madrassahs in Bangladesh are governed by a central board while English-medium schools are under separate educational and governance structures. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) was established in 1976 and has 6,000 personnel in 12 police stations. With the rapid population growth of the city, the force has been raised to 23,000 personnel and the establishment of 33 police stations has been completed and the creation of another 18 police stations is underway. However, Dhaka suffers from a chronically high crime rate and frequent incidences of political and religious violence. The DMP suffers from lack of equipment and personnel, causing governments to occasionally deploy the Bangladesh Army and paramilitary forces in major efforts to curb crime. Aside from Chittagong, Dhaka is the only city in the country with a water-borne sewage system, but this serves only 25% of the population while another 30% are served with septic tanks. Only two-thirds of households in Dhaka are served by the city water supply system. More than 9.7 million tonnes of solid wastes are produced in Dhaka city each year. While private and government efforts have succeeded in collecting garbage city-wide and using it as manure, most solid wastes are often dumped untreated in nearby low-lying areas and water bodies. Dhaka has one of the highest rates of death from infectious disease of any city in Asia. The city is divided into 10 parliamentary constituencies. The two main political parties are the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Ramna contains the Secretariat, which houses most of the government ministries. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh and the Dhaka High Court are located in the city. The Bangabhaban palace has served as the official residence of the Viceroy of India, the governor of East Pakistan and presently the President of Bangladesh. Bangabhaban, from Banglapedia. The Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, designed by renowned architect Louis Kahn, houses the unicameral national parliament. The Baitul Mukarram, developed with a design resembling the Kaaba of Mecca, is the national mosque. Other historical monuments in the city include the Bara Katra palace, the Lalbagh Fort, the Hoseni Dalan and the Ahsan Manzil. To fight rising traffic congestion and population rise in the capital city, the national government has implemented a policy for rapid urbanisation of surrounding areas and beyond by recent introduction of ten year holiday on income tax for new construction of all types of facilities and buildings outside Dhaka. Bashundhara City, South Asia's largest shopping mall. Dhaka is the commercial heart of Bangladesh. The city has a moderate-sized middle class population, driving the market for modern consumer and luxury goods. and industries located in the Dhaka metropolitan area. The city has historically attracted large number of migrant workers. Hawkers, peddlers, small shops, rickshaws transport, roadside vendors and stalls employ a large segment of the population rickshaw-drivers alone number as many as 400,000. Robert Cervero, Informal Transport in the Developing Worldâ, page 39, UN-HABITAT, 2000, ISBN 9211314534 Half the workforce is employed in household and unorganised labour, while about 800,000 work in the textile industry. Even so, unemployment remains high at 23%. According to CityMayors Statistics, Dhaka's GDP registered at $92 billion in 2008 with an annual growth rate of 7.6%. Its estimated GDP in the year 2020 is $160 billion. The annual per capita income of Dhaka is estimated at $3,600, although a large segment of the population coming from the villages in search of emploment lives below the poverty line, with many surviving on less than $10 a day. The main commercial area of the city include Motijheel, Mirpur, Kawran Bazar, Gulshan, Banani and Uttara. Bashundhara City is a developing economic area that will include high-tech industries, corporations and a large shopping mall in about 5 years. The Export Processing Zone in Dhaka was set up to encourage the export of garments, textiles and other goods. Dhaka has two EPZ's. They are home to 413 industries, which employ mostly women. The Dhaka Stock Exchange is based in the city, as are most of the large multinationals including Citigroup, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Unilever, Nestle and British American Tobacco. Large local conglomerates such as Navana Group ACI, Rahimafrooz also have their corporate offices located in Dhaka. The history of micro-credit also began here and the offices of the Nobel Prize winning Grameen Bank and BRAC are all based in Dhaka. Urban developments have sparked a widespread construction boom, causing new high-rise buildings and skyscrapers to change the city landscape. Growth has been especially strong in the finance, banking, manufacturing, telecommunications and services sectors, while tourism, hotels and restaurants continue as important elements of the Dhaka economy. Animation showing urban growth in Dhaka, Blangladesh from 1972 to 2001. The animation starts with a global view over India using Terra-MODIS 30 km. true color data. The animation then zooms down to Terra-MODIS 1 km. data over Bangladesh, and dissolves into the December 28, 1972 Landsat-1-MSS data of Dhaka. Dhaka can then be seen growing to its present day size by first showing the February 13, 1989 Landsat-5-TM image which then dissolves into the final January 29, 2001 Landsat-7-ETM+ image. The population of Dhaka city (areas under the jurisdiction of the Dhaka city corporation) stands at approximately 6.7 million. The city, in combination with localities forming the wider metropolitan area, is home to an estimated 12.3 million as of 2007. The population is growing by an estimated 4.2% per annum, one of the highest rates amongst Asian cities. The continuing growth reflects ongoing migration from rural areas to the Dhaka urban region, which accounted for 60% of the city's growth in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently, the city's population has also grown with the expansion of city boundaries, a process that added more than a million people to the city in the 1980s. The population literacy rate of the city is estimated at 62.3%. The city population is composed of peoples from virtually every region of Bangladesh. The long-standing inhabitants of the old city are known as Dhakaia and have a distinctive dialect and culture. Between 15,000 to 20,000 of the Rohingya, Santal, Khasi, Garo, Chakma and Mandi tribal peoples reside in the city. Most residents of Dhaka speak Bengali, the national language. Many distinctive Bengali dialects and regional languages such as Chittagonian and Sylheti are also spoken by segments of the population. English is also spoken by a large segment of the population, especially for business purposes. Urdu is spoken by members of several non-Bengali communities, including the Biharis. Islam is the predominant religion of Dhaka's people, with a majority belonging to the Sunni sect. There are also significant Shia and Ahmadiya communities. Hinduism is the second-largest religion and smaller communities practice Buddhism and Christianity. In recent years there have been rising acts of religious violence, especially from radical Islamic groups. Islamic groups have been blamed for targeting Hindus, Christians and Ahmadiyas as well as police and state authorities. Baitul Mukarram (Dhaka), the National Mosque of Bangladesh. The structure resembles the Kaaba in Mecca. Durga Puja at the Dhakeshwari Temple Bangla New Year celebration in Ramna park. As the most populous city of the nation, Dhaka has a vibrant cultural life. Annual celebrations for Independence Day (March 26), Language Martyrs' Day (February 21) and Victory Day (December 16) are prominently celebrated across the city. Dhaka's people congregate at the Shaheed Minar and the Jatiyo Smriti Soudho to remember the national heroes of the liberation war. These occasions are observed with public ceremonies and rallies in public grounds. Many schools and colleges organise fair, festival and concert in which citizens from all level of society participate. Pohela Baishakh, the Bengali New Year, falls annually on April 14 and is popularly celebrated across the city. Large crowds of people gather on the streets of Shahbag, Ramna Park and the campus of the University of Dhaka for celebrations. The most popular dressing style for women are sarees or salwar kameez, while men usually prefer western clothing to the traditional lungi. The Durga Puja is the most important Hindu festival of the year. Large processions of Hindus perform devotional songs, dances, prayers and ceremonies for Goddess Durga. Matthew Westfall & Victoria A. De Villa, Urban Indicators for Managing Cities: Cities Data Bookâ, page 174, Asian Development Bank, 2001, ISBN 9715613128 The Muslim festivals of Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha witnesses widespread celebrations, with large numbers of Muslims attending prayers in mosques across the city; Dhaka being known as the 'City of Mosques'. For much of recent history, Dhaka was characterised by roadside markets and small shops that sold a wide variety of goods. Jeremy Seabrook, In the Cities of the South: Scenes from a Developing Worldâ page 221, Verso Books, 1996, ISBN 1859840817 Recent years have seen the widespread construction of shopping malls, multiplexes, hotels and restaurants attracting Dhaka's growing middle-class and wealthy residents. Various writers, World and Its Peoples, page 489, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2008, ISBN 0761476318 Along with Bangladeshi cuisine and South Asian variants, a large variety in Western and Chinese cuisine are served at numerous restaurants and eateries. Dhakai Bakarkhani is the traditional food/snack of the people of old Dhaka. It is famous for its quality and taste and it was highly praised by the Royal court of the Mughal Empire in Delhi. Despite the growing popularity of music groups and rock bands, traditional folk music remains widely popular. Thomas Angotti & Lothar Beckel, Mega Cities, page 730, GEOSPACE Beckel Satellitenb. GmbH, 2001, ISBN 3853130518 The ghazal songs of artists like Runa Laila and the works of the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and national anthem writer Rabindranath Tagore also widespread following across Dhaka. Alison Arnold, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: The Indian Subcontinent, pages 858-859, Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0824049462 The Baily Road area is known as Natak Para (Theater Neighborhood) which is the center of Dhaka's thriving theater movement. Ian Herbert & Nicole Leclercq, The World of Theatre, page 12, Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN 0415238668 Indian and Pakistani music and films are popular with large segments of Dhaka's population. A. F. Salahuddin Ahmed & Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury, Bangladesh, National Culture, and Heritage: An Introductory Readerâ, page 405, Independent University, 2004, ISBN 9848509003 This area is also credited for the revival of the Jamdani due to the many local saree stores selling and promoting these locally hand-made age old traditional Bengali sarees. Jamdanis are 100% hand weaved and originated from the Persian and Mughal era. Jamdanis are one of the oldest types of cottage industries which is slowly dying due to its slow production process which is the consequent of maintaining high quality. A single medium range Jamdani saree may take as long as 3 months to complete. Bangladesh Betar is the state-run primary provider of radio services, and broadcasts a variety of programming in Bangla and English. In recent years many private radio networks specially FM radio services have been established in the city such as Radio Foorti FM 88.0, Radio Today FM 89.6, Radio Amar FM 101.6 and ABC Radio FM 89.2. Bangladesh Television is the state-run broadcasting network that provides a wide variety of programmes in Bangla and English. Cable and satellite networks such as Ekushey Television, Channel I, ATN Bangla, RTV, NTV and STAR TV are amongst the most popular channels. The main offices of most publishing houses in Bangladesh are based in Dhaka. The Prothom Alo and The Daily Ittefaq are the most popular amongst the large number of Bangla language dailies, periodicals and other publications in the city. The Daily Star and The Independent are the largest English-language dailies published in the city. John Simpson, The Traveler's Handbook, page 195, Globe Pequot, 2006, ISBN 0762740906 Although cellular phones are gaining popularity, less than 10% of households have telephone access. Dhaka is known as the Rickshaw capital of the world. 400,000 rickshaws run each day Cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws are the main mode of transport for the inhabitants of the city, with close to 400,000 rickshaws running each day the largest number for any city in the world. However, only about 85,000 rickshaws are licensed by the city government. Rizanuzzaman Laskar, " Rickshaw pullers get licences", The Daily Star (Dhaka), 2007-03-04 Relatively low-cost and non-polluting cycle rickshaws nevertheless cause traffic congestion and have been banned from many parts of the city. Public buses are operated by the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) and by private companies and operators. Scooters, taxis and privately-owned automobiles are increasingly becoming popular with the city's growing middle-class. The government has overseen the replacement of two-stroke engine taxis with "Green taxis" locally called CNG, which run on compressed natural gas. Dhaka has 1,868 kilometres (1,161 mi) of paved roads. Sharif Uddin Ahmed, Dacca: A Study in Urban History and Developmentâ, page 108, Curzon Press, 1986, ISBN 0913215147 It is connected by highways and railway links to Chittagong, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Faridpur and Sylhet. Highway links to the Indian cities of Kolkata and Agartala have been established by the BRTC which also runs regular bus services to those cities from Dhaka. The Kamalapur Railway Station and the Airport (Biman Bandar) Railway Station are the main railway stations providing trains on suburban and national routes operated by the state-run Bangladesh Railway. Marika McAdam, Bangladesh, page 66, Lonely Planet, 2004, ISBN 1740592808 The Sadarghat Port on the banks of the Buriganga River serves the transportation of goods and passengers upriver and to other ports in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Asian Highway Handbook, page 28; United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Publications, 2005, ISBN 9211201705 The Zia International Airport is the largest and busiest in the nation. Curzon Hall of the University of Dhaka Dhaka has the largest number of schools, colleges and universities of any Bangladeshi city. The education system is divided into 4 levels: Primary (from grades 1 to 5), Secondary (from grades 6 to 10), Higher Secondary (from grades 11 to 12) and tertiary. T. Neville Postlethwaite, The Encyclopedia of Comparative Education and National Systems of Educationâ, page 130, Pergamon Press, 1988, ISBN 0080308538 The five years of lower secondary education concludes with a Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Examination. Students who pass this examination proceed to two years of Higher Secondary or intermediate training, which culminate in a Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) Examination. Education is mainly offered in Bangla, but English is also commonly taught and used. A large number of Muslim families send their children to attend part-time courses or even to pursue full-time religious education, which is imparted in Bangla and Arabic in madrasahs. The Dhaka College is the oldest institution of higher education in the city and amongst the earliest established in British India, founded in 1840. Since independence, Dhaka has seen the establishment of a large number of public and private colleges and universities that offer undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as a variety of doctoral programmes. Growth of academic institutions: Kamal Siddiqui, Social Formation in Dhaka City: A Study in Third World Urban Sociology, page 42, University Press Limited, Dhaka 1990 The University of Dhaka is the largest public university in the nation with more than 30,000 students and 1,300 faculty staff. The university has 18 research centres and 70 departments, faculties and institutes. Eminent seats of higher education include the Jahangirnagar University and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). The Dhaka Medical College and the Sir Salimullah Medical College are amongst the largest and most respected medical schools in the nation. Muhammad Shamsul Huq, Higher Education and Employment in Bangladesh, page 181, UNESCO, 1983 Dhaka's college campuses are often hotbeds of political conflicts. Protests and strikes, and violence amongst police, students and political groups frequently disrupt public university campuses. Cricket and football are the two most popular sports in Dhaka and across the nation. Bangladesh, The New Encyclopaedia Britannica (ed. Robert MacHenry), page 717, Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 1993, ISBN 0852295715 Teams are fielded in intra-city and national competitions by a large number of schools, colleges and private entities. The Mohammedan Sports Club and Abahani are the largest football and cricket teams, maintaining a fierce rivalry. Scyld Berry, " Mahmud grows into captain's role", The Telegraph (UK), 2003-10-18 Many Bangladeshi cricketers and football players such as Sheikh Aslam, Athar Ali Khan, Kaiser Hamid, and Mohammad Ashraful hail from Dhaka. Dhaka has the distinction of having hosted the first official test cricket match of the Pakistan cricket team in 1954 against India. The Bangabandhu National Stadium was formerly the main venue for domestic and international cricket matches, but now exclusively hosts football matches. It is a potential host for the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as well being host to 6 matches to be played in Bangladesh. India lands 2011 World Cup final, from BBC, retrieved July 9, 2006. The Bangladesh Sports Control Board, responsible for promoting sports activities across the nation is based in Dhaka. Dhaka also has stadiums largely used for domestic events such as the Sher-e-Bangla Mirpur Stadium (in Mirpur), the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium and the Outer Stadium Ground. The Dhaka University Ground hosts many intercollegiate tournaments. Muhammad Abdur Rahim, The History of the University of Dacca,â page 161, University of Dacca, 1981 * * * * * * * Dhaka City Corporation
Dhaka	Is Dhaka located on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River?	Yes	data/set3/a3	Dhaka Dhaka (formerly spelled as Dacca) (Bangla: à¦¢à¦¾à¦à¦¾, ) is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. Dhaka is a Mega city and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, has a population of over 12 million, making it the largest city in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Pocket Book, 2007 (pdf-file) 2007 Population Estimate. Accessed on 2008-09-29. With its colourful history, Dhaka is known as the 'City of Mosques' and for its famous fine Muslin cloth which has a great ethnic value. Under Mughal rule in the 17th century, the city was also known as Jahangir Nagar, and was both a provincial capital and a centre of the worldwide muslin trade. The modern city, however, was developed chiefly under British rule in the 19th century, and soon became the second-largest city in Bengal after Calcutta (presently Kolkata). With the partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the administrative capital of East Pakistan, and later, in 1972, the capital of an independent Bangladesh. During the intervening period, the city witnessed widespread turmoil; this included many impositions of martial law, the declaration of Bangladesh's independence, military suppression, devastation during war, and natural calamities. Modern Dhaka is the center of political, cultural and economic life in Bangladesh. Price Information of Essential Commodities, National Web Portal, Government of Bangladesh. It has both the highest literacy rate - 72.3% - and the most diverse economy amongst Bangladeshi cities. Although its urban infrastructure is the most developed in the country, it is nonetheless a fighting metropolitan city with challenges such as pollution, congestion, and lack of adequate services due to the rising population. In recent decades, Dhaka has seen modernization of transport, communications and public works. The city is attracting large foreign investments and greater volumes of commerce and trade. It is also experiencing an increasing influx of people from across the nation. Dhaka is consistently ranked as one of the least livable cities in the world. Lalbagh Fort, constructed in the mid 17th century by Shaista Khan. The existence of urbanized settlements in the area that is now Dhaka dates from the 7th century. The city area was ruled by the Buddhist kingdom of Kamarupa and the Pala Empire before passing to the control of the Hindu Sena dynasty in the 9th century. South Asia: Eastern Himalayan Culture, Ecology and People, by Hasna Jasimuddin Moudud. ISBN 9840801651 Many believe that the name of the city was derived after the establishment of the Goddess Dhakeshwari's temple by Ballal Sena in the 12th century. Dhaka and its surrounding area was identified as Bengalla around that period. The town itself consisted of a few market centers like Lakshmi Bazar, Shankhari Bazar, Tanti Bazar, Patuatuli, Kumartuli, Bania Nagar and Goal Nagar. After the Sena dynasty, Dhaka was successively ruled by the Turkish and Afghan governors descending from the Delhi Sultanate before the arrival of the Mughals in 1608. Taru Bahl & M.H. Syed, Encyclopaedia of the Muslim World, page 55, Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2003, ISBN 8126114193 The development of townships and a significant growth in population came as the city was proclaimed the capital of Bengal under Mughal rule in 1608. Mughal subahdar Islam Khan was the first administrator of the city. Francis Bradley Bradley-Birt, The Romance of an Eastern Capitalâ, page 264, Smith, Elder, & co., 1906 Khan named the town "Jahangir Nagar" (City of Jahangir) in honor of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, although this name was dropped soon after Jahangir's death. The main expansion of the city took place under Mughal general Shaista Khan. The city then measured 19 by 13 kilometres (12 by 8 mi), with a population of nearly a million people. "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 6, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. The city passed to the control of the British East India Company in 1765 after the Battle of Plassey. The city's population shrank dramatically during this period as the prominence of Kolkata rose, "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 7, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. With the growth of Calcutta (founded by Job Charnock in 1690), the business centres started moving to Calcutta followed by flight of capital and labour force from Dacca. By 1800, Calcutta became a city of 500 thousands, (Ghosh, 1950 pp 53-54) and Dacca declined to 2000 thousands, the population of 160 years before. but substantive development and modernisation eventually followed. A modern civic water supply system was introduced in 1874 and electricity supply launched in 1878. H Furumai, F Kurisu & H Katayama, Southeast Asian Water Environment 2: Selected Papers from the Second International Symposium on Southeast Asian Water Environment, page 205, IWA Publishing, 2008, ISBN 1843391244 Mohammad Atiqullah & Fazle Karim Khan, Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area, 1608-1981â, page 10, University of Dacca, 1965 The Dhaka Cantonment was established near the city, serving as a base for British and Bengali soldiers. Ahsan Manzil-once the palace of the Dhaka Nawab Family is now a museum During the abortive Partition of Bengal in 1905, Dhaka was declared to be the capital of the newly established state of East Bengal and Assam, but Bengal was reunited in 1911. Following the Partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the capital of East Pakistan. The city witnessed minimal communal violence. A large proportion of the city's Hindu population departed for India, while the city received a large influx of Muslims. After Bangladesh's independence in 1971, Dhaka with the status of the nation's capital, the growth of commerce and industry along with the city's population rose dramatically in the following decades, which created further challenges to services and infrastructure. United Nations Human Settlements Programme, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007â, page 184, Earthscan, 2007, ISBN 184407479X As the center of regional politics, Dhaka saw an increasing number of political strikes and incidents of violence. The adoption of Urdu as the sole official language of Pakistan led to protest marches involving large crowds. Known as the Bengali Language Movement, the protests resulted in police firing which killed students who were demonstrating peacefully. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, Dhaka remained a hotbed of political activity, and the demands for autonomy for the Bengali population gradually gained momentum. Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban houses the national parliament. The 1970 Bhola cyclone devastated much of the region, killing an estimated 500,000 people. More than half the city of Dhaka was flooded and millions of people marooned. With public anger growing against ethnic discrimination and poor cyclone relief efforts from the central government, Bengali politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman held a nationalist gathering on March 7, 1971 at the Race Course Ground. An estimated one million people attended the gathering, leading to the March 26 declaration of Bangladesh's independence. In response, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight, which led to the arrests, torture and killing of thousands of people, Muslims and Hindus Bengali intellectuals. Blood, Archer, , Department of State, United States After nine months of bloody battle with Bangladesh Forces, the Pakistani Army surrendered to the Mitra Bahini on December 16 marking the end of the independence war of Bangladesh. The post-independence period has seen a rapid and massive growth of the city population, attracting migrant workers from rural areas across Bangladesh. A real estate boom has followed the expansion of city limits and the development of new settlements such as Bashundhara, Mirpur and Motijheel. Dhaka is located in central Bangladesh at , on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River. The city lies on the lower reaches of the Ganges Delta and covers a total area of . Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics; Area, Population and Literacy Rate by Paurashava â 2001 (pdf-file) Accessed on 2008-09-29. It consists of seven principal thanas Dhanmondi, Kotwali, Motijheel, Paltan, Ramna, Mohammadpur, Sutrapur, Tejgaon and 16 auxiliary thanas Gulshan, Lalbagh, Mirpur, Pallabi, Shah Ali, Turaag, Sabujbagh, Dhaka Cantonment, Demra, Hazaribagh, Shyampur, Badda, Kafrul, Kamrangir char, Khilgaon and Uttara. In total the city has 130 wards and 725 mohallas. Dhaka district has an area of 1463.60 square kilometres (565 sq mi); and is bounded by the districts of Gazipur, Tangail, Munshiganj, Rajbari, Narayanganj, Manikganj. Tropical vegetation and moist soils characterise the land, which is flat and close to sea level. This leaves Dhaka susceptible to flooding during the monsoon seasons owing to heavy rainfall and cyclones. Dhaka experiences a hot, wet and humid tropical climate. The city is within the monsoon climate zone, with an annual average temperature of 25 Â°C (77 Â°F) and monthly means varying between 18 Â°C (64 Â°F) in January and 29 Â°C (84 Â°F) in August. Nearly 80% of the annual average rainfall of 1,854 millimetres (73 in) occurs between May and September. caused by the city's rapid expansion, congestion and industrial activities. Increasing air and water pollution emanating from traffic congestion and industrial waste are serious problems affecting public health and the quality of life in the city. Water bodies and wetlands around Dhaka are facing extinction as these are being filled up to construct multi-storied buildings and other real estate developments. Coupled with pollution, such erosion of natural habitats threatens to destroy much of the regional biodiversity. The Dhaka City Corporation building The Dhaka municipality was founded on August 1, 1864 and upgraded to "corporation" status in 1978. The Dhaka City Corporation is a self-governing corporation which runs the affairs of the city. The incorporated area is divided into several wards, which have elected commissioners. The mayor of the city is elected by popular vote every five years, and the post is presently held by Sadeque Hossain Khoka. The Dhaka Education Board is responsible for administering all public schools and most private schools with the exception of English-medium schools and madrassahs. All madrassahs in Bangladesh are governed by a central board while English-medium schools are under separate educational and governance structures. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) was established in 1976 and has 6,000 personnel in 12 police stations. With the rapid population growth of the city, the force has been raised to 23,000 personnel and the establishment of 33 police stations has been completed and the creation of another 18 police stations is underway. However, Dhaka suffers from a chronically high crime rate and frequent incidences of political and religious violence. The DMP suffers from lack of equipment and personnel, causing governments to occasionally deploy the Bangladesh Army and paramilitary forces in major efforts to curb crime. Aside from Chittagong, Dhaka is the only city in the country with a water-borne sewage system, but this serves only 25% of the population while another 30% are served with septic tanks. Only two-thirds of households in Dhaka are served by the city water supply system. More than 9.7 million tonnes of solid wastes are produced in Dhaka city each year. While private and government efforts have succeeded in collecting garbage city-wide and using it as manure, most solid wastes are often dumped untreated in nearby low-lying areas and water bodies. Dhaka has one of the highest rates of death from infectious disease of any city in Asia. The city is divided into 10 parliamentary constituencies. The two main political parties are the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Ramna contains the Secretariat, which houses most of the government ministries. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh and the Dhaka High Court are located in the city. The Bangabhaban palace has served as the official residence of the Viceroy of India, the governor of East Pakistan and presently the President of Bangladesh. Bangabhaban, from Banglapedia. The Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, designed by renowned architect Louis Kahn, houses the unicameral national parliament. The Baitul Mukarram, developed with a design resembling the Kaaba of Mecca, is the national mosque. Other historical monuments in the city include the Bara Katra palace, the Lalbagh Fort, the Hoseni Dalan and the Ahsan Manzil. To fight rising traffic congestion and population rise in the capital city, the national government has implemented a policy for rapid urbanisation of surrounding areas and beyond by recent introduction of ten year holiday on income tax for new construction of all types of facilities and buildings outside Dhaka. Bashundhara City, South Asia's largest shopping mall. Dhaka is the commercial heart of Bangladesh. The city has a moderate-sized middle class population, driving the market for modern consumer and luxury goods. and industries located in the Dhaka metropolitan area. The city has historically attracted large number of migrant workers. Hawkers, peddlers, small shops, rickshaws transport, roadside vendors and stalls employ a large segment of the population rickshaw-drivers alone number as many as 400,000. Robert Cervero, Informal Transport in the Developing Worldâ, page 39, UN-HABITAT, 2000, ISBN 9211314534 Half the workforce is employed in household and unorganised labour, while about 800,000 work in the textile industry. Even so, unemployment remains high at 23%. According to CityMayors Statistics, Dhaka's GDP registered at $92 billion in 2008 with an annual growth rate of 7.6%. Its estimated GDP in the year 2020 is $160 billion. The annual per capita income of Dhaka is estimated at $3,600, although a large segment of the population coming from the villages in search of emploment lives below the poverty line, with many surviving on less than $10 a day. The main commercial area of the city include Motijheel, Mirpur, Kawran Bazar, Gulshan, Banani and Uttara. Bashundhara City is a developing economic area that will include high-tech industries, corporations and a large shopping mall in about 5 years. The Export Processing Zone in Dhaka was set up to encourage the export of garments, textiles and other goods. Dhaka has two EPZ's. They are home to 413 industries, which employ mostly women. The Dhaka Stock Exchange is based in the city, as are most of the large multinationals including Citigroup, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Unilever, Nestle and British American Tobacco. Large local conglomerates such as Navana Group ACI, Rahimafrooz also have their corporate offices located in Dhaka. The history of micro-credit also began here and the offices of the Nobel Prize winning Grameen Bank and BRAC are all based in Dhaka. Urban developments have sparked a widespread construction boom, causing new high-rise buildings and skyscrapers to change the city landscape. Growth has been especially strong in the finance, banking, manufacturing, telecommunications and services sectors, while tourism, hotels and restaurants continue as important elements of the Dhaka economy. Animation showing urban growth in Dhaka, Blangladesh from 1972 to 2001. The animation starts with a global view over India using Terra-MODIS 30 km. true color data. The animation then zooms down to Terra-MODIS 1 km. data over Bangladesh, and dissolves into the December 28, 1972 Landsat-1-MSS data of Dhaka. Dhaka can then be seen growing to its present day size by first showing the February 13, 1989 Landsat-5-TM image which then dissolves into the final January 29, 2001 Landsat-7-ETM+ image. The population of Dhaka city (areas under the jurisdiction of the Dhaka city corporation) stands at approximately 6.7 million. The city, in combination with localities forming the wider metropolitan area, is home to an estimated 12.3 million as of 2007. The population is growing by an estimated 4.2% per annum, one of the highest rates amongst Asian cities. The continuing growth reflects ongoing migration from rural areas to the Dhaka urban region, which accounted for 60% of the city's growth in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently, the city's population has also grown with the expansion of city boundaries, a process that added more than a million people to the city in the 1980s. The population literacy rate of the city is estimated at 62.3%. The city population is composed of peoples from virtually every region of Bangladesh. The long-standing inhabitants of the old city are known as Dhakaia and have a distinctive dialect and culture. Between 15,000 to 20,000 of the Rohingya, Santal, Khasi, Garo, Chakma and Mandi tribal peoples reside in the city. Most residents of Dhaka speak Bengali, the national language. Many distinctive Bengali dialects and regional languages such as Chittagonian and Sylheti are also spoken by segments of the population. English is also spoken by a large segment of the population, especially for business purposes. Urdu is spoken by members of several non-Bengali communities, including the Biharis. Islam is the predominant religion of Dhaka's people, with a majority belonging to the Sunni sect. There are also significant Shia and Ahmadiya communities. Hinduism is the second-largest religion and smaller communities practice Buddhism and Christianity. In recent years there have been rising acts of religious violence, especially from radical Islamic groups. Islamic groups have been blamed for targeting Hindus, Christians and Ahmadiyas as well as police and state authorities. Baitul Mukarram (Dhaka), the National Mosque of Bangladesh. The structure resembles the Kaaba in Mecca. Durga Puja at the Dhakeshwari Temple Bangla New Year celebration in Ramna park. As the most populous city of the nation, Dhaka has a vibrant cultural life. Annual celebrations for Independence Day (March 26), Language Martyrs' Day (February 21) and Victory Day (December 16) are prominently celebrated across the city. Dhaka's people congregate at the Shaheed Minar and the Jatiyo Smriti Soudho to remember the national heroes of the liberation war. These occasions are observed with public ceremonies and rallies in public grounds. Many schools and colleges organise fair, festival and concert in which citizens from all level of society participate. Pohela Baishakh, the Bengali New Year, falls annually on April 14 and is popularly celebrated across the city. Large crowds of people gather on the streets of Shahbag, Ramna Park and the campus of the University of Dhaka for celebrations. The most popular dressing style for women are sarees or salwar kameez, while men usually prefer western clothing to the traditional lungi. The Durga Puja is the most important Hindu festival of the year. Large processions of Hindus perform devotional songs, dances, prayers and ceremonies for Goddess Durga. Matthew Westfall & Victoria A. De Villa, Urban Indicators for Managing Cities: Cities Data Bookâ, page 174, Asian Development Bank, 2001, ISBN 9715613128 The Muslim festivals of Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha witnesses widespread celebrations, with large numbers of Muslims attending prayers in mosques across the city; Dhaka being known as the 'City of Mosques'. For much of recent history, Dhaka was characterised by roadside markets and small shops that sold a wide variety of goods. Jeremy Seabrook, In the Cities of the South: Scenes from a Developing Worldâ page 221, Verso Books, 1996, ISBN 1859840817 Recent years have seen the widespread construction of shopping malls, multiplexes, hotels and restaurants attracting Dhaka's growing middle-class and wealthy residents. Various writers, World and Its Peoples, page 489, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2008, ISBN 0761476318 Along with Bangladeshi cuisine and South Asian variants, a large variety in Western and Chinese cuisine are served at numerous restaurants and eateries. Dhakai Bakarkhani is the traditional food/snack of the people of old Dhaka. It is famous for its quality and taste and it was highly praised by the Royal court of the Mughal Empire in Delhi. Despite the growing popularity of music groups and rock bands, traditional folk music remains widely popular. Thomas Angotti & Lothar Beckel, Mega Cities, page 730, GEOSPACE Beckel Satellitenb. GmbH, 2001, ISBN 3853130518 The ghazal songs of artists like Runa Laila and the works of the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and national anthem writer Rabindranath Tagore also widespread following across Dhaka. Alison Arnold, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: The Indian Subcontinent, pages 858-859, Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0824049462 The Baily Road area is known as Natak Para (Theater Neighborhood) which is the center of Dhaka's thriving theater movement. Ian Herbert & Nicole Leclercq, The World of Theatre, page 12, Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN 0415238668 Indian and Pakistani music and films are popular with large segments of Dhaka's population. A. F. Salahuddin Ahmed & Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury, Bangladesh, National Culture, and Heritage: An Introductory Readerâ, page 405, Independent University, 2004, ISBN 9848509003 This area is also credited for the revival of the Jamdani due to the many local saree stores selling and promoting these locally hand-made age old traditional Bengali sarees. Jamdanis are 100% hand weaved and originated from the Persian and Mughal era. Jamdanis are one of the oldest types of cottage industries which is slowly dying due to its slow production process which is the consequent of maintaining high quality. A single medium range Jamdani saree may take as long as 3 months to complete. Bangladesh Betar is the state-run primary provider of radio services, and broadcasts a variety of programming in Bangla and English. In recent years many private radio networks specially FM radio services have been established in the city such as Radio Foorti FM 88.0, Radio Today FM 89.6, Radio Amar FM 101.6 and ABC Radio FM 89.2. Bangladesh Television is the state-run broadcasting network that provides a wide variety of programmes in Bangla and English. Cable and satellite networks such as Ekushey Television, Channel I, ATN Bangla, RTV, NTV and STAR TV are amongst the most popular channels. The main offices of most publishing houses in Bangladesh are based in Dhaka. The Prothom Alo and The Daily Ittefaq are the most popular amongst the large number of Bangla language dailies, periodicals and other publications in the city. The Daily Star and The Independent are the largest English-language dailies published in the city. John Simpson, The Traveler's Handbook, page 195, Globe Pequot, 2006, ISBN 0762740906 Although cellular phones are gaining popularity, less than 10% of households have telephone access. Dhaka is known as the Rickshaw capital of the world. 400,000 rickshaws run each day Cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws are the main mode of transport for the inhabitants of the city, with close to 400,000 rickshaws running each day the largest number for any city in the world. However, only about 85,000 rickshaws are licensed by the city government. Rizanuzzaman Laskar, " Rickshaw pullers get licences", The Daily Star (Dhaka), 2007-03-04 Relatively low-cost and non-polluting cycle rickshaws nevertheless cause traffic congestion and have been banned from many parts of the city. Public buses are operated by the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) and by private companies and operators. Scooters, taxis and privately-owned automobiles are increasingly becoming popular with the city's growing middle-class. The government has overseen the replacement of two-stroke engine taxis with "Green taxis" locally called CNG, which run on compressed natural gas. Dhaka has 1,868 kilometres (1,161 mi) of paved roads. Sharif Uddin Ahmed, Dacca: A Study in Urban History and Developmentâ, page 108, Curzon Press, 1986, ISBN 0913215147 It is connected by highways and railway links to Chittagong, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Faridpur and Sylhet. Highway links to the Indian cities of Kolkata and Agartala have been established by the BRTC which also runs regular bus services to those cities from Dhaka. The Kamalapur Railway Station and the Airport (Biman Bandar) Railway Station are the main railway stations providing trains on suburban and national routes operated by the state-run Bangladesh Railway. Marika McAdam, Bangladesh, page 66, Lonely Planet, 2004, ISBN 1740592808 The Sadarghat Port on the banks of the Buriganga River serves the transportation of goods and passengers upriver and to other ports in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Asian Highway Handbook, page 28; United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Publications, 2005, ISBN 9211201705 The Zia International Airport is the largest and busiest in the nation. Curzon Hall of the University of Dhaka Dhaka has the largest number of schools, colleges and universities of any Bangladeshi city. The education system is divided into 4 levels: Primary (from grades 1 to 5), Secondary (from grades 6 to 10), Higher Secondary (from grades 11 to 12) and tertiary. T. Neville Postlethwaite, The Encyclopedia of Comparative Education and National Systems of Educationâ, page 130, Pergamon Press, 1988, ISBN 0080308538 The five years of lower secondary education concludes with a Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Examination. Students who pass this examination proceed to two years of Higher Secondary or intermediate training, which culminate in a Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) Examination. Education is mainly offered in Bangla, but English is also commonly taught and used. A large number of Muslim families send their children to attend part-time courses or even to pursue full-time religious education, which is imparted in Bangla and Arabic in madrasahs. The Dhaka College is the oldest institution of higher education in the city and amongst the earliest established in British India, founded in 1840. Since independence, Dhaka has seen the establishment of a large number of public and private colleges and universities that offer undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as a variety of doctoral programmes. Growth of academic institutions: Kamal Siddiqui, Social Formation in Dhaka City: A Study in Third World Urban Sociology, page 42, University Press Limited, Dhaka 1990 The University of Dhaka is the largest public university in the nation with more than 30,000 students and 1,300 faculty staff. The university has 18 research centres and 70 departments, faculties and institutes. Eminent seats of higher education include the Jahangirnagar University and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). The Dhaka Medical College and the Sir Salimullah Medical College are amongst the largest and most respected medical schools in the nation. Muhammad Shamsul Huq, Higher Education and Employment in Bangladesh, page 181, UNESCO, 1983 Dhaka's college campuses are often hotbeds of political conflicts. Protests and strikes, and violence amongst police, students and political groups frequently disrupt public university campuses. Cricket and football are the two most popular sports in Dhaka and across the nation. Bangladesh, The New Encyclopaedia Britannica (ed. Robert MacHenry), page 717, Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 1993, ISBN 0852295715 Teams are fielded in intra-city and national competitions by a large number of schools, colleges and private entities. The Mohammedan Sports Club and Abahani are the largest football and cricket teams, maintaining a fierce rivalry. Scyld Berry, " Mahmud grows into captain's role", The Telegraph (UK), 2003-10-18 Many Bangladeshi cricketers and football players such as Sheikh Aslam, Athar Ali Khan, Kaiser Hamid, and Mohammad Ashraful hail from Dhaka. Dhaka has the distinction of having hosted the first official test cricket match of the Pakistan cricket team in 1954 against India. The Bangabandhu National Stadium was formerly the main venue for domestic and international cricket matches, but now exclusively hosts football matches. It is a potential host for the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as well being host to 6 matches to be played in Bangladesh. India lands 2011 World Cup final, from BBC, retrieved July 9, 2006. The Bangladesh Sports Control Board, responsible for promoting sports activities across the nation is based in Dhaka. Dhaka also has stadiums largely used for domestic events such as the Sher-e-Bangla Mirpur Stadium (in Mirpur), the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium and the Outer Stadium Ground. The Dhaka University Ground hosts many intercollegiate tournaments. Muhammad Abdur Rahim, The History of the University of Dacca,â page 161, University of Dacca, 1981 * * * * * * * Dhaka City Corporation
Dhaka	Is University of Dhaka the largest public university in Dhaka?	Yes	data/set3/a3	Dhaka Dhaka (formerly spelled as Dacca) (Bangla: à¦¢à¦¾à¦à¦¾, ) is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. Dhaka is a Mega city and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, has a population of over 12 million, making it the largest city in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Pocket Book, 2007 (pdf-file) 2007 Population Estimate. Accessed on 2008-09-29. With its colourful history, Dhaka is known as the 'City of Mosques' and for its famous fine Muslin cloth which has a great ethnic value. Under Mughal rule in the 17th century, the city was also known as Jahangir Nagar, and was both a provincial capital and a centre of the worldwide muslin trade. The modern city, however, was developed chiefly under British rule in the 19th century, and soon became the second-largest city in Bengal after Calcutta (presently Kolkata). With the partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the administrative capital of East Pakistan, and later, in 1972, the capital of an independent Bangladesh. During the intervening period, the city witnessed widespread turmoil; this included many impositions of martial law, the declaration of Bangladesh's independence, military suppression, devastation during war, and natural calamities. Modern Dhaka is the center of political, cultural and economic life in Bangladesh. Price Information of Essential Commodities, National Web Portal, Government of Bangladesh. It has both the highest literacy rate - 72.3% - and the most diverse economy amongst Bangladeshi cities. Although its urban infrastructure is the most developed in the country, it is nonetheless a fighting metropolitan city with challenges such as pollution, congestion, and lack of adequate services due to the rising population. In recent decades, Dhaka has seen modernization of transport, communications and public works. The city is attracting large foreign investments and greater volumes of commerce and trade. It is also experiencing an increasing influx of people from across the nation. Dhaka is consistently ranked as one of the least livable cities in the world. Lalbagh Fort, constructed in the mid 17th century by Shaista Khan. The existence of urbanized settlements in the area that is now Dhaka dates from the 7th century. The city area was ruled by the Buddhist kingdom of Kamarupa and the Pala Empire before passing to the control of the Hindu Sena dynasty in the 9th century. South Asia: Eastern Himalayan Culture, Ecology and People, by Hasna Jasimuddin Moudud. ISBN 9840801651 Many believe that the name of the city was derived after the establishment of the Goddess Dhakeshwari's temple by Ballal Sena in the 12th century. Dhaka and its surrounding area was identified as Bengalla around that period. The town itself consisted of a few market centers like Lakshmi Bazar, Shankhari Bazar, Tanti Bazar, Patuatuli, Kumartuli, Bania Nagar and Goal Nagar. After the Sena dynasty, Dhaka was successively ruled by the Turkish and Afghan governors descending from the Delhi Sultanate before the arrival of the Mughals in 1608. Taru Bahl & M.H. Syed, Encyclopaedia of the Muslim World, page 55, Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2003, ISBN 8126114193 The development of townships and a significant growth in population came as the city was proclaimed the capital of Bengal under Mughal rule in 1608. Mughal subahdar Islam Khan was the first administrator of the city. Francis Bradley Bradley-Birt, The Romance of an Eastern Capitalâ, page 264, Smith, Elder, & co., 1906 Khan named the town "Jahangir Nagar" (City of Jahangir) in honor of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, although this name was dropped soon after Jahangir's death. The main expansion of the city took place under Mughal general Shaista Khan. The city then measured 19 by 13 kilometres (12 by 8 mi), with a population of nearly a million people. "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 6, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. The city passed to the control of the British East India Company in 1765 after the Battle of Plassey. The city's population shrank dramatically during this period as the prominence of Kolkata rose, "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 7, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. With the growth of Calcutta (founded by Job Charnock in 1690), the business centres started moving to Calcutta followed by flight of capital and labour force from Dacca. By 1800, Calcutta became a city of 500 thousands, (Ghosh, 1950 pp 53-54) and Dacca declined to 2000 thousands, the population of 160 years before. but substantive development and modernisation eventually followed. A modern civic water supply system was introduced in 1874 and electricity supply launched in 1878. H Furumai, F Kurisu & H Katayama, Southeast Asian Water Environment 2: Selected Papers from the Second International Symposium on Southeast Asian Water Environment, page 205, IWA Publishing, 2008, ISBN 1843391244 Mohammad Atiqullah & Fazle Karim Khan, Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area, 1608-1981â, page 10, University of Dacca, 1965 The Dhaka Cantonment was established near the city, serving as a base for British and Bengali soldiers. Ahsan Manzil-once the palace of the Dhaka Nawab Family is now a museum During the abortive Partition of Bengal in 1905, Dhaka was declared to be the capital of the newly established state of East Bengal and Assam, but Bengal was reunited in 1911. Following the Partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the capital of East Pakistan. The city witnessed minimal communal violence. A large proportion of the city's Hindu population departed for India, while the city received a large influx of Muslims. After Bangladesh's independence in 1971, Dhaka with the status of the nation's capital, the growth of commerce and industry along with the city's population rose dramatically in the following decades, which created further challenges to services and infrastructure. United Nations Human Settlements Programme, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007â, page 184, Earthscan, 2007, ISBN 184407479X As the center of regional politics, Dhaka saw an increasing number of political strikes and incidents of violence. The adoption of Urdu as the sole official language of Pakistan led to protest marches involving large crowds. Known as the Bengali Language Movement, the protests resulted in police firing which killed students who were demonstrating peacefully. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, Dhaka remained a hotbed of political activity, and the demands for autonomy for the Bengali population gradually gained momentum. Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban houses the national parliament. The 1970 Bhola cyclone devastated much of the region, killing an estimated 500,000 people. More than half the city of Dhaka was flooded and millions of people marooned. With public anger growing against ethnic discrimination and poor cyclone relief efforts from the central government, Bengali politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman held a nationalist gathering on March 7, 1971 at the Race Course Ground. An estimated one million people attended the gathering, leading to the March 26 declaration of Bangladesh's independence. In response, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight, which led to the arrests, torture and killing of thousands of people, Muslims and Hindus Bengali intellectuals. Blood, Archer, , Department of State, United States After nine months of bloody battle with Bangladesh Forces, the Pakistani Army surrendered to the Mitra Bahini on December 16 marking the end of the independence war of Bangladesh. The post-independence period has seen a rapid and massive growth of the city population, attracting migrant workers from rural areas across Bangladesh. A real estate boom has followed the expansion of city limits and the development of new settlements such as Bashundhara, Mirpur and Motijheel. Dhaka is located in central Bangladesh at , on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River. The city lies on the lower reaches of the Ganges Delta and covers a total area of . Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics; Area, Population and Literacy Rate by Paurashava â 2001 (pdf-file) Accessed on 2008-09-29. It consists of seven principal thanas Dhanmondi, Kotwali, Motijheel, Paltan, Ramna, Mohammadpur, Sutrapur, Tejgaon and 16 auxiliary thanas Gulshan, Lalbagh, Mirpur, Pallabi, Shah Ali, Turaag, Sabujbagh, Dhaka Cantonment, Demra, Hazaribagh, Shyampur, Badda, Kafrul, Kamrangir char, Khilgaon and Uttara. In total the city has 130 wards and 725 mohallas. Dhaka district has an area of 1463.60 square kilometres (565 sq mi); and is bounded by the districts of Gazipur, Tangail, Munshiganj, Rajbari, Narayanganj, Manikganj. Tropical vegetation and moist soils characterise the land, which is flat and close to sea level. This leaves Dhaka susceptible to flooding during the monsoon seasons owing to heavy rainfall and cyclones. Dhaka experiences a hot, wet and humid tropical climate. The city is within the monsoon climate zone, with an annual average temperature of 25 Â°C (77 Â°F) and monthly means varying between 18 Â°C (64 Â°F) in January and 29 Â°C (84 Â°F) in August. Nearly 80% of the annual average rainfall of 1,854 millimetres (73 in) occurs between May and September. caused by the city's rapid expansion, congestion and industrial activities. Increasing air and water pollution emanating from traffic congestion and industrial waste are serious problems affecting public health and the quality of life in the city. Water bodies and wetlands around Dhaka are facing extinction as these are being filled up to construct multi-storied buildings and other real estate developments. Coupled with pollution, such erosion of natural habitats threatens to destroy much of the regional biodiversity. The Dhaka City Corporation building The Dhaka municipality was founded on August 1, 1864 and upgraded to "corporation" status in 1978. The Dhaka City Corporation is a self-governing corporation which runs the affairs of the city. The incorporated area is divided into several wards, which have elected commissioners. The mayor of the city is elected by popular vote every five years, and the post is presently held by Sadeque Hossain Khoka. The Dhaka Education Board is responsible for administering all public schools and most private schools with the exception of English-medium schools and madrassahs. All madrassahs in Bangladesh are governed by a central board while English-medium schools are under separate educational and governance structures. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) was established in 1976 and has 6,000 personnel in 12 police stations. With the rapid population growth of the city, the force has been raised to 23,000 personnel and the establishment of 33 police stations has been completed and the creation of another 18 police stations is underway. However, Dhaka suffers from a chronically high crime rate and frequent incidences of political and religious violence. The DMP suffers from lack of equipment and personnel, causing governments to occasionally deploy the Bangladesh Army and paramilitary forces in major efforts to curb crime. Aside from Chittagong, Dhaka is the only city in the country with a water-borne sewage system, but this serves only 25% of the population while another 30% are served with septic tanks. Only two-thirds of households in Dhaka are served by the city water supply system. More than 9.7 million tonnes of solid wastes are produced in Dhaka city each year. While private and government efforts have succeeded in collecting garbage city-wide and using it as manure, most solid wastes are often dumped untreated in nearby low-lying areas and water bodies. Dhaka has one of the highest rates of death from infectious disease of any city in Asia. The city is divided into 10 parliamentary constituencies. The two main political parties are the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Ramna contains the Secretariat, which houses most of the government ministries. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh and the Dhaka High Court are located in the city. The Bangabhaban palace has served as the official residence of the Viceroy of India, the governor of East Pakistan and presently the President of Bangladesh. Bangabhaban, from Banglapedia. The Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, designed by renowned architect Louis Kahn, houses the unicameral national parliament. The Baitul Mukarram, developed with a design resembling the Kaaba of Mecca, is the national mosque. Other historical monuments in the city include the Bara Katra palace, the Lalbagh Fort, the Hoseni Dalan and the Ahsan Manzil. To fight rising traffic congestion and population rise in the capital city, the national government has implemented a policy for rapid urbanisation of surrounding areas and beyond by recent introduction of ten year holiday on income tax for new construction of all types of facilities and buildings outside Dhaka. Bashundhara City, South Asia's largest shopping mall. Dhaka is the commercial heart of Bangladesh. The city has a moderate-sized middle class population, driving the market for modern consumer and luxury goods. and industries located in the Dhaka metropolitan area. The city has historically attracted large number of migrant workers. Hawkers, peddlers, small shops, rickshaws transport, roadside vendors and stalls employ a large segment of the population rickshaw-drivers alone number as many as 400,000. Robert Cervero, Informal Transport in the Developing Worldâ, page 39, UN-HABITAT, 2000, ISBN 9211314534 Half the workforce is employed in household and unorganised labour, while about 800,000 work in the textile industry. Even so, unemployment remains high at 23%. According to CityMayors Statistics, Dhaka's GDP registered at $92 billion in 2008 with an annual growth rate of 7.6%. Its estimated GDP in the year 2020 is $160 billion. The annual per capita income of Dhaka is estimated at $3,600, although a large segment of the population coming from the villages in search of emploment lives below the poverty line, with many surviving on less than $10 a day. The main commercial area of the city include Motijheel, Mirpur, Kawran Bazar, Gulshan, Banani and Uttara. Bashundhara City is a developing economic area that will include high-tech industries, corporations and a large shopping mall in about 5 years. The Export Processing Zone in Dhaka was set up to encourage the export of garments, textiles and other goods. Dhaka has two EPZ's. They are home to 413 industries, which employ mostly women. The Dhaka Stock Exchange is based in the city, as are most of the large multinationals including Citigroup, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Unilever, Nestle and British American Tobacco. Large local conglomerates such as Navana Group ACI, Rahimafrooz also have their corporate offices located in Dhaka. The history of micro-credit also began here and the offices of the Nobel Prize winning Grameen Bank and BRAC are all based in Dhaka. Urban developments have sparked a widespread construction boom, causing new high-rise buildings and skyscrapers to change the city landscape. Growth has been especially strong in the finance, banking, manufacturing, telecommunications and services sectors, while tourism, hotels and restaurants continue as important elements of the Dhaka economy. Animation showing urban growth in Dhaka, Blangladesh from 1972 to 2001. The animation starts with a global view over India using Terra-MODIS 30 km. true color data. The animation then zooms down to Terra-MODIS 1 km. data over Bangladesh, and dissolves into the December 28, 1972 Landsat-1-MSS data of Dhaka. Dhaka can then be seen growing to its present day size by first showing the February 13, 1989 Landsat-5-TM image which then dissolves into the final January 29, 2001 Landsat-7-ETM+ image. The population of Dhaka city (areas under the jurisdiction of the Dhaka city corporation) stands at approximately 6.7 million. The city, in combination with localities forming the wider metropolitan area, is home to an estimated 12.3 million as of 2007. The population is growing by an estimated 4.2% per annum, one of the highest rates amongst Asian cities. The continuing growth reflects ongoing migration from rural areas to the Dhaka urban region, which accounted for 60% of the city's growth in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently, the city's population has also grown with the expansion of city boundaries, a process that added more than a million people to the city in the 1980s. The population literacy rate of the city is estimated at 62.3%. The city population is composed of peoples from virtually every region of Bangladesh. The long-standing inhabitants of the old city are known as Dhakaia and have a distinctive dialect and culture. Between 15,000 to 20,000 of the Rohingya, Santal, Khasi, Garo, Chakma and Mandi tribal peoples reside in the city. Most residents of Dhaka speak Bengali, the national language. Many distinctive Bengali dialects and regional languages such as Chittagonian and Sylheti are also spoken by segments of the population. English is also spoken by a large segment of the population, especially for business purposes. Urdu is spoken by members of several non-Bengali communities, including the Biharis. Islam is the predominant religion of Dhaka's people, with a majority belonging to the Sunni sect. There are also significant Shia and Ahmadiya communities. Hinduism is the second-largest religion and smaller communities practice Buddhism and Christianity. In recent years there have been rising acts of religious violence, especially from radical Islamic groups. Islamic groups have been blamed for targeting Hindus, Christians and Ahmadiyas as well as police and state authorities. Baitul Mukarram (Dhaka), the National Mosque of Bangladesh. The structure resembles the Kaaba in Mecca. Durga Puja at the Dhakeshwari Temple Bangla New Year celebration in Ramna park. As the most populous city of the nation, Dhaka has a vibrant cultural life. Annual celebrations for Independence Day (March 26), Language Martyrs' Day (February 21) and Victory Day (December 16) are prominently celebrated across the city. Dhaka's people congregate at the Shaheed Minar and the Jatiyo Smriti Soudho to remember the national heroes of the liberation war. These occasions are observed with public ceremonies and rallies in public grounds. Many schools and colleges organise fair, festival and concert in which citizens from all level of society participate. Pohela Baishakh, the Bengali New Year, falls annually on April 14 and is popularly celebrated across the city. Large crowds of people gather on the streets of Shahbag, Ramna Park and the campus of the University of Dhaka for celebrations. The most popular dressing style for women are sarees or salwar kameez, while men usually prefer western clothing to the traditional lungi. The Durga Puja is the most important Hindu festival of the year. Large processions of Hindus perform devotional songs, dances, prayers and ceremonies for Goddess Durga. Matthew Westfall & Victoria A. De Villa, Urban Indicators for Managing Cities: Cities Data Bookâ, page 174, Asian Development Bank, 2001, ISBN 9715613128 The Muslim festivals of Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha witnesses widespread celebrations, with large numbers of Muslims attending prayers in mosques across the city; Dhaka being known as the 'City of Mosques'. For much of recent history, Dhaka was characterised by roadside markets and small shops that sold a wide variety of goods. Jeremy Seabrook, In the Cities of the South: Scenes from a Developing Worldâ page 221, Verso Books, 1996, ISBN 1859840817 Recent years have seen the widespread construction of shopping malls, multiplexes, hotels and restaurants attracting Dhaka's growing middle-class and wealthy residents. Various writers, World and Its Peoples, page 489, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2008, ISBN 0761476318 Along with Bangladeshi cuisine and South Asian variants, a large variety in Western and Chinese cuisine are served at numerous restaurants and eateries. Dhakai Bakarkhani is the traditional food/snack of the people of old Dhaka. It is famous for its quality and taste and it was highly praised by the Royal court of the Mughal Empire in Delhi. Despite the growing popularity of music groups and rock bands, traditional folk music remains widely popular. Thomas Angotti & Lothar Beckel, Mega Cities, page 730, GEOSPACE Beckel Satellitenb. GmbH, 2001, ISBN 3853130518 The ghazal songs of artists like Runa Laila and the works of the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and national anthem writer Rabindranath Tagore also widespread following across Dhaka. Alison Arnold, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: The Indian Subcontinent, pages 858-859, Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0824049462 The Baily Road area is known as Natak Para (Theater Neighborhood) which is the center of Dhaka's thriving theater movement. Ian Herbert & Nicole Leclercq, The World of Theatre, page 12, Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN 0415238668 Indian and Pakistani music and films are popular with large segments of Dhaka's population. A. F. Salahuddin Ahmed & Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury, Bangladesh, National Culture, and Heritage: An Introductory Readerâ, page 405, Independent University, 2004, ISBN 9848509003 This area is also credited for the revival of the Jamdani due to the many local saree stores selling and promoting these locally hand-made age old traditional Bengali sarees. Jamdanis are 100% hand weaved and originated from the Persian and Mughal era. Jamdanis are one of the oldest types of cottage industries which is slowly dying due to its slow production process which is the consequent of maintaining high quality. A single medium range Jamdani saree may take as long as 3 months to complete. Bangladesh Betar is the state-run primary provider of radio services, and broadcasts a variety of programming in Bangla and English. In recent years many private radio networks specially FM radio services have been established in the city such as Radio Foorti FM 88.0, Radio Today FM 89.6, Radio Amar FM 101.6 and ABC Radio FM 89.2. Bangladesh Television is the state-run broadcasting network that provides a wide variety of programmes in Bangla and English. Cable and satellite networks such as Ekushey Television, Channel I, ATN Bangla, RTV, NTV and STAR TV are amongst the most popular channels. The main offices of most publishing houses in Bangladesh are based in Dhaka. The Prothom Alo and The Daily Ittefaq are the most popular amongst the large number of Bangla language dailies, periodicals and other publications in the city. The Daily Star and The Independent are the largest English-language dailies published in the city. John Simpson, The Traveler's Handbook, page 195, Globe Pequot, 2006, ISBN 0762740906 Although cellular phones are gaining popularity, less than 10% of households have telephone access. Dhaka is known as the Rickshaw capital of the world. 400,000 rickshaws run each day Cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws are the main mode of transport for the inhabitants of the city, with close to 400,000 rickshaws running each day the largest number for any city in the world. However, only about 85,000 rickshaws are licensed by the city government. Rizanuzzaman Laskar, " Rickshaw pullers get licences", The Daily Star (Dhaka), 2007-03-04 Relatively low-cost and non-polluting cycle rickshaws nevertheless cause traffic congestion and have been banned from many parts of the city. Public buses are operated by the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) and by private companies and operators. Scooters, taxis and privately-owned automobiles are increasingly becoming popular with the city's growing middle-class. The government has overseen the replacement of two-stroke engine taxis with "Green taxis" locally called CNG, which run on compressed natural gas. Dhaka has 1,868 kilometres (1,161 mi) of paved roads. Sharif Uddin Ahmed, Dacca: A Study in Urban History and Developmentâ, page 108, Curzon Press, 1986, ISBN 0913215147 It is connected by highways and railway links to Chittagong, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Faridpur and Sylhet. Highway links to the Indian cities of Kolkata and Agartala have been established by the BRTC which also runs regular bus services to those cities from Dhaka. The Kamalapur Railway Station and the Airport (Biman Bandar) Railway Station are the main railway stations providing trains on suburban and national routes operated by the state-run Bangladesh Railway. Marika McAdam, Bangladesh, page 66, Lonely Planet, 2004, ISBN 1740592808 The Sadarghat Port on the banks of the Buriganga River serves the transportation of goods and passengers upriver and to other ports in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Asian Highway Handbook, page 28; United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Publications, 2005, ISBN 9211201705 The Zia International Airport is the largest and busiest in the nation. Curzon Hall of the University of Dhaka Dhaka has the largest number of schools, colleges and universities of any Bangladeshi city. The education system is divided into 4 levels: Primary (from grades 1 to 5), Secondary (from grades 6 to 10), Higher Secondary (from grades 11 to 12) and tertiary. T. Neville Postlethwaite, The Encyclopedia of Comparative Education and National Systems of Educationâ, page 130, Pergamon Press, 1988, ISBN 0080308538 The five years of lower secondary education concludes with a Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Examination. Students who pass this examination proceed to two years of Higher Secondary or intermediate training, which culminate in a Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) Examination. Education is mainly offered in Bangla, but English is also commonly taught and used. A large number of Muslim families send their children to attend part-time courses or even to pursue full-time religious education, which is imparted in Bangla and Arabic in madrasahs. The Dhaka College is the oldest institution of higher education in the city and amongst the earliest established in British India, founded in 1840. Since independence, Dhaka has seen the establishment of a large number of public and private colleges and universities that offer undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as a variety of doctoral programmes. Growth of academic institutions: Kamal Siddiqui, Social Formation in Dhaka City: A Study in Third World Urban Sociology, page 42, University Press Limited, Dhaka 1990 The University of Dhaka is the largest public university in the nation with more than 30,000 students and 1,300 faculty staff. The university has 18 research centres and 70 departments, faculties and institutes. Eminent seats of higher education include the Jahangirnagar University and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). The Dhaka Medical College and the Sir Salimullah Medical College are amongst the largest and most respected medical schools in the nation. Muhammad Shamsul Huq, Higher Education and Employment in Bangladesh, page 181, UNESCO, 1983 Dhaka's college campuses are often hotbeds of political conflicts. Protests and strikes, and violence amongst police, students and political groups frequently disrupt public university campuses. Cricket and football are the two most popular sports in Dhaka and across the nation. Bangladesh, The New Encyclopaedia Britannica (ed. Robert MacHenry), page 717, Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 1993, ISBN 0852295715 Teams are fielded in intra-city and national competitions by a large number of schools, colleges and private entities. The Mohammedan Sports Club and Abahani are the largest football and cricket teams, maintaining a fierce rivalry. Scyld Berry, " Mahmud grows into captain's role", The Telegraph (UK), 2003-10-18 Many Bangladeshi cricketers and football players such as Sheikh Aslam, Athar Ali Khan, Kaiser Hamid, and Mohammad Ashraful hail from Dhaka. Dhaka has the distinction of having hosted the first official test cricket match of the Pakistan cricket team in 1954 against India. The Bangabandhu National Stadium was formerly the main venue for domestic and international cricket matches, but now exclusively hosts football matches. It is a potential host for the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as well being host to 6 matches to be played in Bangladesh. India lands 2011 World Cup final, from BBC, retrieved July 9, 2006. The Bangladesh Sports Control Board, responsible for promoting sports activities across the nation is based in Dhaka. Dhaka also has stadiums largely used for domestic events such as the Sher-e-Bangla Mirpur Stadium (in Mirpur), the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium and the Outer Stadium Ground. The Dhaka University Ground hosts many intercollegiate tournaments. Muhammad Abdur Rahim, The History of the University of Dacca,â page 161, University of Dacca, 1981 * * * * * * * Dhaka City Corporation
Dhaka	How much area does Dhaka cover?	1462.60 square kilometers	data/set3/a3	Dhaka Dhaka (formerly spelled as Dacca) (Bangla: à¦¢à¦¾à¦à¦¾, ) is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. Dhaka is a Mega city and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, has a population of over 12 million, making it the largest city in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Pocket Book, 2007 (pdf-file) 2007 Population Estimate. Accessed on 2008-09-29. With its colourful history, Dhaka is known as the 'City of Mosques' and for its famous fine Muslin cloth which has a great ethnic value. Under Mughal rule in the 17th century, the city was also known as Jahangir Nagar, and was both a provincial capital and a centre of the worldwide muslin trade. The modern city, however, was developed chiefly under British rule in the 19th century, and soon became the second-largest city in Bengal after Calcutta (presently Kolkata). With the partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the administrative capital of East Pakistan, and later, in 1972, the capital of an independent Bangladesh. During the intervening period, the city witnessed widespread turmoil; this included many impositions of martial law, the declaration of Bangladesh's independence, military suppression, devastation during war, and natural calamities. Modern Dhaka is the center of political, cultural and economic life in Bangladesh. Price Information of Essential Commodities, National Web Portal, Government of Bangladesh. It has both the highest literacy rate - 72.3% - and the most diverse economy amongst Bangladeshi cities. Although its urban infrastructure is the most developed in the country, it is nonetheless a fighting metropolitan city with challenges such as pollution, congestion, and lack of adequate services due to the rising population. In recent decades, Dhaka has seen modernization of transport, communications and public works. The city is attracting large foreign investments and greater volumes of commerce and trade. It is also experiencing an increasing influx of people from across the nation. Dhaka is consistently ranked as one of the least livable cities in the world. Lalbagh Fort, constructed in the mid 17th century by Shaista Khan. The existence of urbanized settlements in the area that is now Dhaka dates from the 7th century. The city area was ruled by the Buddhist kingdom of Kamarupa and the Pala Empire before passing to the control of the Hindu Sena dynasty in the 9th century. South Asia: Eastern Himalayan Culture, Ecology and People, by Hasna Jasimuddin Moudud. ISBN 9840801651 Many believe that the name of the city was derived after the establishment of the Goddess Dhakeshwari's temple by Ballal Sena in the 12th century. Dhaka and its surrounding area was identified as Bengalla around that period. The town itself consisted of a few market centers like Lakshmi Bazar, Shankhari Bazar, Tanti Bazar, Patuatuli, Kumartuli, Bania Nagar and Goal Nagar. After the Sena dynasty, Dhaka was successively ruled by the Turkish and Afghan governors descending from the Delhi Sultanate before the arrival of the Mughals in 1608. Taru Bahl & M.H. Syed, Encyclopaedia of the Muslim World, page 55, Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2003, ISBN 8126114193 The development of townships and a significant growth in population came as the city was proclaimed the capital of Bengal under Mughal rule in 1608. Mughal subahdar Islam Khan was the first administrator of the city. Francis Bradley Bradley-Birt, The Romance of an Eastern Capitalâ, page 264, Smith, Elder, & co., 1906 Khan named the town "Jahangir Nagar" (City of Jahangir) in honor of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, although this name was dropped soon after Jahangir's death. The main expansion of the city took place under Mughal general Shaista Khan. The city then measured 19 by 13 kilometres (12 by 8 mi), with a population of nearly a million people. "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 6, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. The city passed to the control of the British East India Company in 1765 after the Battle of Plassey. The city's population shrank dramatically during this period as the prominence of Kolkata rose, "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 7, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. With the growth of Calcutta (founded by Job Charnock in 1690), the business centres started moving to Calcutta followed by flight of capital and labour force from Dacca. By 1800, Calcutta became a city of 500 thousands, (Ghosh, 1950 pp 53-54) and Dacca declined to 2000 thousands, the population of 160 years before. but substantive development and modernisation eventually followed. A modern civic water supply system was introduced in 1874 and electricity supply launched in 1878. H Furumai, F Kurisu & H Katayama, Southeast Asian Water Environment 2: Selected Papers from the Second International Symposium on Southeast Asian Water Environment, page 205, IWA Publishing, 2008, ISBN 1843391244 Mohammad Atiqullah & Fazle Karim Khan, Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area, 1608-1981â, page 10, University of Dacca, 1965 The Dhaka Cantonment was established near the city, serving as a base for British and Bengali soldiers. Ahsan Manzil-once the palace of the Dhaka Nawab Family is now a museum During the abortive Partition of Bengal in 1905, Dhaka was declared to be the capital of the newly established state of East Bengal and Assam, but Bengal was reunited in 1911. Following the Partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the capital of East Pakistan. The city witnessed minimal communal violence. A large proportion of the city's Hindu population departed for India, while the city received a large influx of Muslims. After Bangladesh's independence in 1971, Dhaka with the status of the nation's capital, the growth of commerce and industry along with the city's population rose dramatically in the following decades, which created further challenges to services and infrastructure. United Nations Human Settlements Programme, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007â, page 184, Earthscan, 2007, ISBN 184407479X As the center of regional politics, Dhaka saw an increasing number of political strikes and incidents of violence. The adoption of Urdu as the sole official language of Pakistan led to protest marches involving large crowds. Known as the Bengali Language Movement, the protests resulted in police firing which killed students who were demonstrating peacefully. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, Dhaka remained a hotbed of political activity, and the demands for autonomy for the Bengali population gradually gained momentum. Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban houses the national parliament. The 1970 Bhola cyclone devastated much of the region, killing an estimated 500,000 people. More than half the city of Dhaka was flooded and millions of people marooned. With public anger growing against ethnic discrimination and poor cyclone relief efforts from the central government, Bengali politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman held a nationalist gathering on March 7, 1971 at the Race Course Ground. An estimated one million people attended the gathering, leading to the March 26 declaration of Bangladesh's independence. In response, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight, which led to the arrests, torture and killing of thousands of people, Muslims and Hindus Bengali intellectuals. Blood, Archer, , Department of State, United States After nine months of bloody battle with Bangladesh Forces, the Pakistani Army surrendered to the Mitra Bahini on December 16 marking the end of the independence war of Bangladesh. The post-independence period has seen a rapid and massive growth of the city population, attracting migrant workers from rural areas across Bangladesh. A real estate boom has followed the expansion of city limits and the development of new settlements such as Bashundhara, Mirpur and Motijheel. Dhaka is located in central Bangladesh at , on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River. The city lies on the lower reaches of the Ganges Delta and covers a total area of . Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics; Area, Population and Literacy Rate by Paurashava â 2001 (pdf-file) Accessed on 2008-09-29. It consists of seven principal thanas Dhanmondi, Kotwali, Motijheel, Paltan, Ramna, Mohammadpur, Sutrapur, Tejgaon and 16 auxiliary thanas Gulshan, Lalbagh, Mirpur, Pallabi, Shah Ali, Turaag, Sabujbagh, Dhaka Cantonment, Demra, Hazaribagh, Shyampur, Badda, Kafrul, Kamrangir char, Khilgaon and Uttara. In total the city has 130 wards and 725 mohallas. Dhaka district has an area of 1463.60 square kilometres (565 sq mi); and is bounded by the districts of Gazipur, Tangail, Munshiganj, Rajbari, Narayanganj, Manikganj. Tropical vegetation and moist soils characterise the land, which is flat and close to sea level. This leaves Dhaka susceptible to flooding during the monsoon seasons owing to heavy rainfall and cyclones. Dhaka experiences a hot, wet and humid tropical climate. The city is within the monsoon climate zone, with an annual average temperature of 25 Â°C (77 Â°F) and monthly means varying between 18 Â°C (64 Â°F) in January and 29 Â°C (84 Â°F) in August. Nearly 80% of the annual average rainfall of 1,854 millimetres (73 in) occurs between May and September. caused by the city's rapid expansion, congestion and industrial activities. Increasing air and water pollution emanating from traffic congestion and industrial waste are serious problems affecting public health and the quality of life in the city. Water bodies and wetlands around Dhaka are facing extinction as these are being filled up to construct multi-storied buildings and other real estate developments. Coupled with pollution, such erosion of natural habitats threatens to destroy much of the regional biodiversity. The Dhaka City Corporation building The Dhaka municipality was founded on August 1, 1864 and upgraded to "corporation" status in 1978. The Dhaka City Corporation is a self-governing corporation which runs the affairs of the city. The incorporated area is divided into several wards, which have elected commissioners. The mayor of the city is elected by popular vote every five years, and the post is presently held by Sadeque Hossain Khoka. The Dhaka Education Board is responsible for administering all public schools and most private schools with the exception of English-medium schools and madrassahs. All madrassahs in Bangladesh are governed by a central board while English-medium schools are under separate educational and governance structures. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) was established in 1976 and has 6,000 personnel in 12 police stations. With the rapid population growth of the city, the force has been raised to 23,000 personnel and the establishment of 33 police stations has been completed and the creation of another 18 police stations is underway. However, Dhaka suffers from a chronically high crime rate and frequent incidences of political and religious violence. The DMP suffers from lack of equipment and personnel, causing governments to occasionally deploy the Bangladesh Army and paramilitary forces in major efforts to curb crime. Aside from Chittagong, Dhaka is the only city in the country with a water-borne sewage system, but this serves only 25% of the population while another 30% are served with septic tanks. Only two-thirds of households in Dhaka are served by the city water supply system. More than 9.7 million tonnes of solid wastes are produced in Dhaka city each year. While private and government efforts have succeeded in collecting garbage city-wide and using it as manure, most solid wastes are often dumped untreated in nearby low-lying areas and water bodies. Dhaka has one of the highest rates of death from infectious disease of any city in Asia. The city is divided into 10 parliamentary constituencies. The two main political parties are the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Ramna contains the Secretariat, which houses most of the government ministries. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh and the Dhaka High Court are located in the city. The Bangabhaban palace has served as the official residence of the Viceroy of India, the governor of East Pakistan and presently the President of Bangladesh. Bangabhaban, from Banglapedia. The Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, designed by renowned architect Louis Kahn, houses the unicameral national parliament. The Baitul Mukarram, developed with a design resembling the Kaaba of Mecca, is the national mosque. Other historical monuments in the city include the Bara Katra palace, the Lalbagh Fort, the Hoseni Dalan and the Ahsan Manzil. To fight rising traffic congestion and population rise in the capital city, the national government has implemented a policy for rapid urbanisation of surrounding areas and beyond by recent introduction of ten year holiday on income tax for new construction of all types of facilities and buildings outside Dhaka. Bashundhara City, South Asia's largest shopping mall. Dhaka is the commercial heart of Bangladesh. The city has a moderate-sized middle class population, driving the market for modern consumer and luxury goods. and industries located in the Dhaka metropolitan area. The city has historically attracted large number of migrant workers. Hawkers, peddlers, small shops, rickshaws transport, roadside vendors and stalls employ a large segment of the population rickshaw-drivers alone number as many as 400,000. Robert Cervero, Informal Transport in the Developing Worldâ, page 39, UN-HABITAT, 2000, ISBN 9211314534 Half the workforce is employed in household and unorganised labour, while about 800,000 work in the textile industry. Even so, unemployment remains high at 23%. According to CityMayors Statistics, Dhaka's GDP registered at $92 billion in 2008 with an annual growth rate of 7.6%. Its estimated GDP in the year 2020 is $160 billion. The annual per capita income of Dhaka is estimated at $3,600, although a large segment of the population coming from the villages in search of emploment lives below the poverty line, with many surviving on less than $10 a day. The main commercial area of the city include Motijheel, Mirpur, Kawran Bazar, Gulshan, Banani and Uttara. Bashundhara City is a developing economic area that will include high-tech industries, corporations and a large shopping mall in about 5 years. The Export Processing Zone in Dhaka was set up to encourage the export of garments, textiles and other goods. Dhaka has two EPZ's. They are home to 413 industries, which employ mostly women. The Dhaka Stock Exchange is based in the city, as are most of the large multinationals including Citigroup, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Unilever, Nestle and British American Tobacco. Large local conglomerates such as Navana Group ACI, Rahimafrooz also have their corporate offices located in Dhaka. The history of micro-credit also began here and the offices of the Nobel Prize winning Grameen Bank and BRAC are all based in Dhaka. Urban developments have sparked a widespread construction boom, causing new high-rise buildings and skyscrapers to change the city landscape. Growth has been especially strong in the finance, banking, manufacturing, telecommunications and services sectors, while tourism, hotels and restaurants continue as important elements of the Dhaka economy. Animation showing urban growth in Dhaka, Blangladesh from 1972 to 2001. The animation starts with a global view over India using Terra-MODIS 30 km. true color data. The animation then zooms down to Terra-MODIS 1 km. data over Bangladesh, and dissolves into the December 28, 1972 Landsat-1-MSS data of Dhaka. Dhaka can then be seen growing to its present day size by first showing the February 13, 1989 Landsat-5-TM image which then dissolves into the final January 29, 2001 Landsat-7-ETM+ image. The population of Dhaka city (areas under the jurisdiction of the Dhaka city corporation) stands at approximately 6.7 million. The city, in combination with localities forming the wider metropolitan area, is home to an estimated 12.3 million as of 2007. The population is growing by an estimated 4.2% per annum, one of the highest rates amongst Asian cities. The continuing growth reflects ongoing migration from rural areas to the Dhaka urban region, which accounted for 60% of the city's growth in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently, the city's population has also grown with the expansion of city boundaries, a process that added more than a million people to the city in the 1980s. The population literacy rate of the city is estimated at 62.3%. The city population is composed of peoples from virtually every region of Bangladesh. The long-standing inhabitants of the old city are known as Dhakaia and have a distinctive dialect and culture. Between 15,000 to 20,000 of the Rohingya, Santal, Khasi, Garo, Chakma and Mandi tribal peoples reside in the city. Most residents of Dhaka speak Bengali, the national language. Many distinctive Bengali dialects and regional languages such as Chittagonian and Sylheti are also spoken by segments of the population. English is also spoken by a large segment of the population, especially for business purposes. Urdu is spoken by members of several non-Bengali communities, including the Biharis. Islam is the predominant religion of Dhaka's people, with a majority belonging to the Sunni sect. There are also significant Shia and Ahmadiya communities. Hinduism is the second-largest religion and smaller communities practice Buddhism and Christianity. In recent years there have been rising acts of religious violence, especially from radical Islamic groups. Islamic groups have been blamed for targeting Hindus, Christians and Ahmadiyas as well as police and state authorities. Baitul Mukarram (Dhaka), the National Mosque of Bangladesh. The structure resembles the Kaaba in Mecca. Durga Puja at the Dhakeshwari Temple Bangla New Year celebration in Ramna park. As the most populous city of the nation, Dhaka has a vibrant cultural life. Annual celebrations for Independence Day (March 26), Language Martyrs' Day (February 21) and Victory Day (December 16) are prominently celebrated across the city. Dhaka's people congregate at the Shaheed Minar and the Jatiyo Smriti Soudho to remember the national heroes of the liberation war. These occasions are observed with public ceremonies and rallies in public grounds. Many schools and colleges organise fair, festival and concert in which citizens from all level of society participate. Pohela Baishakh, the Bengali New Year, falls annually on April 14 and is popularly celebrated across the city. Large crowds of people gather on the streets of Shahbag, Ramna Park and the campus of the University of Dhaka for celebrations. The most popular dressing style for women are sarees or salwar kameez, while men usually prefer western clothing to the traditional lungi. The Durga Puja is the most important Hindu festival of the year. Large processions of Hindus perform devotional songs, dances, prayers and ceremonies for Goddess Durga. Matthew Westfall & Victoria A. De Villa, Urban Indicators for Managing Cities: Cities Data Bookâ, page 174, Asian Development Bank, 2001, ISBN 9715613128 The Muslim festivals of Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha witnesses widespread celebrations, with large numbers of Muslims attending prayers in mosques across the city; Dhaka being known as the 'City of Mosques'. For much of recent history, Dhaka was characterised by roadside markets and small shops that sold a wide variety of goods. Jeremy Seabrook, In the Cities of the South: Scenes from a Developing Worldâ page 221, Verso Books, 1996, ISBN 1859840817 Recent years have seen the widespread construction of shopping malls, multiplexes, hotels and restaurants attracting Dhaka's growing middle-class and wealthy residents. Various writers, World and Its Peoples, page 489, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2008, ISBN 0761476318 Along with Bangladeshi cuisine and South Asian variants, a large variety in Western and Chinese cuisine are served at numerous restaurants and eateries. Dhakai Bakarkhani is the traditional food/snack of the people of old Dhaka. It is famous for its quality and taste and it was highly praised by the Royal court of the Mughal Empire in Delhi. Despite the growing popularity of music groups and rock bands, traditional folk music remains widely popular. Thomas Angotti & Lothar Beckel, Mega Cities, page 730, GEOSPACE Beckel Satellitenb. GmbH, 2001, ISBN 3853130518 The ghazal songs of artists like Runa Laila and the works of the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and national anthem writer Rabindranath Tagore also widespread following across Dhaka. Alison Arnold, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: The Indian Subcontinent, pages 858-859, Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0824049462 The Baily Road area is known as Natak Para (Theater Neighborhood) which is the center of Dhaka's thriving theater movement. Ian Herbert & Nicole Leclercq, The World of Theatre, page 12, Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN 0415238668 Indian and Pakistani music and films are popular with large segments of Dhaka's population. A. F. Salahuddin Ahmed & Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury, Bangladesh, National Culture, and Heritage: An Introductory Readerâ, page 405, Independent University, 2004, ISBN 9848509003 This area is also credited for the revival of the Jamdani due to the many local saree stores selling and promoting these locally hand-made age old traditional Bengali sarees. Jamdanis are 100% hand weaved and originated from the Persian and Mughal era. Jamdanis are one of the oldest types of cottage industries which is slowly dying due to its slow production process which is the consequent of maintaining high quality. A single medium range Jamdani saree may take as long as 3 months to complete. Bangladesh Betar is the state-run primary provider of radio services, and broadcasts a variety of programming in Bangla and English. In recent years many private radio networks specially FM radio services have been established in the city such as Radio Foorti FM 88.0, Radio Today FM 89.6, Radio Amar FM 101.6 and ABC Radio FM 89.2. Bangladesh Television is the state-run broadcasting network that provides a wide variety of programmes in Bangla and English. Cable and satellite networks such as Ekushey Television, Channel I, ATN Bangla, RTV, NTV and STAR TV are amongst the most popular channels. The main offices of most publishing houses in Bangladesh are based in Dhaka. The Prothom Alo and The Daily Ittefaq are the most popular amongst the large number of Bangla language dailies, periodicals and other publications in the city. The Daily Star and The Independent are the largest English-language dailies published in the city. John Simpson, The Traveler's Handbook, page 195, Globe Pequot, 2006, ISBN 0762740906 Although cellular phones are gaining popularity, less than 10% of households have telephone access. Dhaka is known as the Rickshaw capital of the world. 400,000 rickshaws run each day Cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws are the main mode of transport for the inhabitants of the city, with close to 400,000 rickshaws running each day the largest number for any city in the world. However, only about 85,000 rickshaws are licensed by the city government. Rizanuzzaman Laskar, " Rickshaw pullers get licences", The Daily Star (Dhaka), 2007-03-04 Relatively low-cost and non-polluting cycle rickshaws nevertheless cause traffic congestion and have been banned from many parts of the city. Public buses are operated by the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) and by private companies and operators. Scooters, taxis and privately-owned automobiles are increasingly becoming popular with the city's growing middle-class. The government has overseen the replacement of two-stroke engine taxis with "Green taxis" locally called CNG, which run on compressed natural gas. Dhaka has 1,868 kilometres (1,161 mi) of paved roads. Sharif Uddin Ahmed, Dacca: A Study in Urban History and Developmentâ, page 108, Curzon Press, 1986, ISBN 0913215147 It is connected by highways and railway links to Chittagong, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Faridpur and Sylhet. Highway links to the Indian cities of Kolkata and Agartala have been established by the BRTC which also runs regular bus services to those cities from Dhaka. The Kamalapur Railway Station and the Airport (Biman Bandar) Railway Station are the main railway stations providing trains on suburban and national routes operated by the state-run Bangladesh Railway. Marika McAdam, Bangladesh, page 66, Lonely Planet, 2004, ISBN 1740592808 The Sadarghat Port on the banks of the Buriganga River serves the transportation of goods and passengers upriver and to other ports in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Asian Highway Handbook, page 28; United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Publications, 2005, ISBN 9211201705 The Zia International Airport is the largest and busiest in the nation. Curzon Hall of the University of Dhaka Dhaka has the largest number of schools, colleges and universities of any Bangladeshi city. The education system is divided into 4 levels: Primary (from grades 1 to 5), Secondary (from grades 6 to 10), Higher Secondary (from grades 11 to 12) and tertiary. T. Neville Postlethwaite, The Encyclopedia of Comparative Education and National Systems of Educationâ, page 130, Pergamon Press, 1988, ISBN 0080308538 The five years of lower secondary education concludes with a Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Examination. Students who pass this examination proceed to two years of Higher Secondary or intermediate training, which culminate in a Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) Examination. Education is mainly offered in Bangla, but English is also commonly taught and used. A large number of Muslim families send their children to attend part-time courses or even to pursue full-time religious education, which is imparted in Bangla and Arabic in madrasahs. The Dhaka College is the oldest institution of higher education in the city and amongst the earliest established in British India, founded in 1840. Since independence, Dhaka has seen the establishment of a large number of public and private colleges and universities that offer undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as a variety of doctoral programmes. Growth of academic institutions: Kamal Siddiqui, Social Formation in Dhaka City: A Study in Third World Urban Sociology, page 42, University Press Limited, Dhaka 1990 The University of Dhaka is the largest public university in the nation with more than 30,000 students and 1,300 faculty staff. The university has 18 research centres and 70 departments, faculties and institutes. Eminent seats of higher education include the Jahangirnagar University and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). The Dhaka Medical College and the Sir Salimullah Medical College are amongst the largest and most respected medical schools in the nation. Muhammad Shamsul Huq, Higher Education and Employment in Bangladesh, page 181, UNESCO, 1983 Dhaka's college campuses are often hotbeds of political conflicts. Protests and strikes, and violence amongst police, students and political groups frequently disrupt public university campuses. Cricket and football are the two most popular sports in Dhaka and across the nation. Bangladesh, The New Encyclopaedia Britannica (ed. Robert MacHenry), page 717, Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 1993, ISBN 0852295715 Teams are fielded in intra-city and national competitions by a large number of schools, colleges and private entities. The Mohammedan Sports Club and Abahani are the largest football and cricket teams, maintaining a fierce rivalry. Scyld Berry, " Mahmud grows into captain's role", The Telegraph (UK), 2003-10-18 Many Bangladeshi cricketers and football players such as Sheikh Aslam, Athar Ali Khan, Kaiser Hamid, and Mohammad Ashraful hail from Dhaka. Dhaka has the distinction of having hosted the first official test cricket match of the Pakistan cricket team in 1954 against India. The Bangabandhu National Stadium was formerly the main venue for domestic and international cricket matches, but now exclusively hosts football matches. It is a potential host for the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as well being host to 6 matches to be played in Bangladesh. India lands 2011 World Cup final, from BBC, retrieved July 9, 2006. The Bangladesh Sports Control Board, responsible for promoting sports activities across the nation is based in Dhaka. Dhaka also has stadiums largely used for domestic events such as the Sher-e-Bangla Mirpur Stadium (in Mirpur), the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium and the Outer Stadium Ground. The Dhaka University Ground hosts many intercollegiate tournaments. Muhammad Abdur Rahim, The History of the University of Dacca,â page 161, University of Dacca, 1981 * * * * * * * Dhaka City Corporation
Dhaka	How many people did the 1970 Bhola cyclone kill?	500,000	data/set3/a3	Dhaka Dhaka (formerly spelled as Dacca) (Bangla: à¦¢à¦¾à¦à¦¾, ) is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. Dhaka is a Mega city and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, has a population of over 12 million, making it the largest city in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Pocket Book, 2007 (pdf-file) 2007 Population Estimate. Accessed on 2008-09-29. With its colourful history, Dhaka is known as the 'City of Mosques' and for its famous fine Muslin cloth which has a great ethnic value. Under Mughal rule in the 17th century, the city was also known as Jahangir Nagar, and was both a provincial capital and a centre of the worldwide muslin trade. The modern city, however, was developed chiefly under British rule in the 19th century, and soon became the second-largest city in Bengal after Calcutta (presently Kolkata). With the partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the administrative capital of East Pakistan, and later, in 1972, the capital of an independent Bangladesh. During the intervening period, the city witnessed widespread turmoil; this included many impositions of martial law, the declaration of Bangladesh's independence, military suppression, devastation during war, and natural calamities. Modern Dhaka is the center of political, cultural and economic life in Bangladesh. Price Information of Essential Commodities, National Web Portal, Government of Bangladesh. It has both the highest literacy rate - 72.3% - and the most diverse economy amongst Bangladeshi cities. Although its urban infrastructure is the most developed in the country, it is nonetheless a fighting metropolitan city with challenges such as pollution, congestion, and lack of adequate services due to the rising population. In recent decades, Dhaka has seen modernization of transport, communications and public works. The city is attracting large foreign investments and greater volumes of commerce and trade. It is also experiencing an increasing influx of people from across the nation. Dhaka is consistently ranked as one of the least livable cities in the world. Lalbagh Fort, constructed in the mid 17th century by Shaista Khan. The existence of urbanized settlements in the area that is now Dhaka dates from the 7th century. The city area was ruled by the Buddhist kingdom of Kamarupa and the Pala Empire before passing to the control of the Hindu Sena dynasty in the 9th century. South Asia: Eastern Himalayan Culture, Ecology and People, by Hasna Jasimuddin Moudud. ISBN 9840801651 Many believe that the name of the city was derived after the establishment of the Goddess Dhakeshwari's temple by Ballal Sena in the 12th century. Dhaka and its surrounding area was identified as Bengalla around that period. The town itself consisted of a few market centers like Lakshmi Bazar, Shankhari Bazar, Tanti Bazar, Patuatuli, Kumartuli, Bania Nagar and Goal Nagar. After the Sena dynasty, Dhaka was successively ruled by the Turkish and Afghan governors descending from the Delhi Sultanate before the arrival of the Mughals in 1608. Taru Bahl & M.H. Syed, Encyclopaedia of the Muslim World, page 55, Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2003, ISBN 8126114193 The development of townships and a significant growth in population came as the city was proclaimed the capital of Bengal under Mughal rule in 1608. Mughal subahdar Islam Khan was the first administrator of the city. Francis Bradley Bradley-Birt, The Romance of an Eastern Capitalâ, page 264, Smith, Elder, & co., 1906 Khan named the town "Jahangir Nagar" (City of Jahangir) in honor of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, although this name was dropped soon after Jahangir's death. The main expansion of the city took place under Mughal general Shaista Khan. The city then measured 19 by 13 kilometres (12 by 8 mi), with a population of nearly a million people. "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 6, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. The city passed to the control of the British East India Company in 1765 after the Battle of Plassey. The city's population shrank dramatically during this period as the prominence of Kolkata rose, "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 7, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. With the growth of Calcutta (founded by Job Charnock in 1690), the business centres started moving to Calcutta followed by flight of capital and labour force from Dacca. By 1800, Calcutta became a city of 500 thousands, (Ghosh, 1950 pp 53-54) and Dacca declined to 2000 thousands, the population of 160 years before. but substantive development and modernisation eventually followed. A modern civic water supply system was introduced in 1874 and electricity supply launched in 1878. H Furumai, F Kurisu & H Katayama, Southeast Asian Water Environment 2: Selected Papers from the Second International Symposium on Southeast Asian Water Environment, page 205, IWA Publishing, 2008, ISBN 1843391244 Mohammad Atiqullah & Fazle Karim Khan, Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area, 1608-1981â, page 10, University of Dacca, 1965 The Dhaka Cantonment was established near the city, serving as a base for British and Bengali soldiers. Ahsan Manzil-once the palace of the Dhaka Nawab Family is now a museum During the abortive Partition of Bengal in 1905, Dhaka was declared to be the capital of the newly established state of East Bengal and Assam, but Bengal was reunited in 1911. Following the Partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the capital of East Pakistan. The city witnessed minimal communal violence. A large proportion of the city's Hindu population departed for India, while the city received a large influx of Muslims. After Bangladesh's independence in 1971, Dhaka with the status of the nation's capital, the growth of commerce and industry along with the city's population rose dramatically in the following decades, which created further challenges to services and infrastructure. United Nations Human Settlements Programme, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007â, page 184, Earthscan, 2007, ISBN 184407479X As the center of regional politics, Dhaka saw an increasing number of political strikes and incidents of violence. The adoption of Urdu as the sole official language of Pakistan led to protest marches involving large crowds. Known as the Bengali Language Movement, the protests resulted in police firing which killed students who were demonstrating peacefully. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, Dhaka remained a hotbed of political activity, and the demands for autonomy for the Bengali population gradually gained momentum. Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban houses the national parliament. The 1970 Bhola cyclone devastated much of the region, killing an estimated 500,000 people. More than half the city of Dhaka was flooded and millions of people marooned. With public anger growing against ethnic discrimination and poor cyclone relief efforts from the central government, Bengali politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman held a nationalist gathering on March 7, 1971 at the Race Course Ground. An estimated one million people attended the gathering, leading to the March 26 declaration of Bangladesh's independence. In response, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight, which led to the arrests, torture and killing of thousands of people, Muslims and Hindus Bengali intellectuals. Blood, Archer, , Department of State, United States After nine months of bloody battle with Bangladesh Forces, the Pakistani Army surrendered to the Mitra Bahini on December 16 marking the end of the independence war of Bangladesh. The post-independence period has seen a rapid and massive growth of the city population, attracting migrant workers from rural areas across Bangladesh. A real estate boom has followed the expansion of city limits and the development of new settlements such as Bashundhara, Mirpur and Motijheel. Dhaka is located in central Bangladesh at , on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River. The city lies on the lower reaches of the Ganges Delta and covers a total area of . Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics; Area, Population and Literacy Rate by Paurashava â 2001 (pdf-file) Accessed on 2008-09-29. It consists of seven principal thanas Dhanmondi, Kotwali, Motijheel, Paltan, Ramna, Mohammadpur, Sutrapur, Tejgaon and 16 auxiliary thanas Gulshan, Lalbagh, Mirpur, Pallabi, Shah Ali, Turaag, Sabujbagh, Dhaka Cantonment, Demra, Hazaribagh, Shyampur, Badda, Kafrul, Kamrangir char, Khilgaon and Uttara. In total the city has 130 wards and 725 mohallas. Dhaka district has an area of 1463.60 square kilometres (565 sq mi); and is bounded by the districts of Gazipur, Tangail, Munshiganj, Rajbari, Narayanganj, Manikganj. Tropical vegetation and moist soils characterise the land, which is flat and close to sea level. This leaves Dhaka susceptible to flooding during the monsoon seasons owing to heavy rainfall and cyclones. Dhaka experiences a hot, wet and humid tropical climate. The city is within the monsoon climate zone, with an annual average temperature of 25 Â°C (77 Â°F) and monthly means varying between 18 Â°C (64 Â°F) in January and 29 Â°C (84 Â°F) in August. Nearly 80% of the annual average rainfall of 1,854 millimetres (73 in) occurs between May and September. caused by the city's rapid expansion, congestion and industrial activities. Increasing air and water pollution emanating from traffic congestion and industrial waste are serious problems affecting public health and the quality of life in the city. Water bodies and wetlands around Dhaka are facing extinction as these are being filled up to construct multi-storied buildings and other real estate developments. Coupled with pollution, such erosion of natural habitats threatens to destroy much of the regional biodiversity. The Dhaka City Corporation building The Dhaka municipality was founded on August 1, 1864 and upgraded to "corporation" status in 1978. The Dhaka City Corporation is a self-governing corporation which runs the affairs of the city. The incorporated area is divided into several wards, which have elected commissioners. The mayor of the city is elected by popular vote every five years, and the post is presently held by Sadeque Hossain Khoka. The Dhaka Education Board is responsible for administering all public schools and most private schools with the exception of English-medium schools and madrassahs. All madrassahs in Bangladesh are governed by a central board while English-medium schools are under separate educational and governance structures. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) was established in 1976 and has 6,000 personnel in 12 police stations. With the rapid population growth of the city, the force has been raised to 23,000 personnel and the establishment of 33 police stations has been completed and the creation of another 18 police stations is underway. However, Dhaka suffers from a chronically high crime rate and frequent incidences of political and religious violence. The DMP suffers from lack of equipment and personnel, causing governments to occasionally deploy the Bangladesh Army and paramilitary forces in major efforts to curb crime. Aside from Chittagong, Dhaka is the only city in the country with a water-borne sewage system, but this serves only 25% of the population while another 30% are served with septic tanks. Only two-thirds of households in Dhaka are served by the city water supply system. More than 9.7 million tonnes of solid wastes are produced in Dhaka city each year. While private and government efforts have succeeded in collecting garbage city-wide and using it as manure, most solid wastes are often dumped untreated in nearby low-lying areas and water bodies. Dhaka has one of the highest rates of death from infectious disease of any city in Asia. The city is divided into 10 parliamentary constituencies. The two main political parties are the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Ramna contains the Secretariat, which houses most of the government ministries. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh and the Dhaka High Court are located in the city. The Bangabhaban palace has served as the official residence of the Viceroy of India, the governor of East Pakistan and presently the President of Bangladesh. Bangabhaban, from Banglapedia. The Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, designed by renowned architect Louis Kahn, houses the unicameral national parliament. The Baitul Mukarram, developed with a design resembling the Kaaba of Mecca, is the national mosque. Other historical monuments in the city include the Bara Katra palace, the Lalbagh Fort, the Hoseni Dalan and the Ahsan Manzil. To fight rising traffic congestion and population rise in the capital city, the national government has implemented a policy for rapid urbanisation of surrounding areas and beyond by recent introduction of ten year holiday on income tax for new construction of all types of facilities and buildings outside Dhaka. Bashundhara City, South Asia's largest shopping mall. Dhaka is the commercial heart of Bangladesh. The city has a moderate-sized middle class population, driving the market for modern consumer and luxury goods. and industries located in the Dhaka metropolitan area. The city has historically attracted large number of migrant workers. Hawkers, peddlers, small shops, rickshaws transport, roadside vendors and stalls employ a large segment of the population rickshaw-drivers alone number as many as 400,000. Robert Cervero, Informal Transport in the Developing Worldâ, page 39, UN-HABITAT, 2000, ISBN 9211314534 Half the workforce is employed in household and unorganised labour, while about 800,000 work in the textile industry. Even so, unemployment remains high at 23%. According to CityMayors Statistics, Dhaka's GDP registered at $92 billion in 2008 with an annual growth rate of 7.6%. Its estimated GDP in the year 2020 is $160 billion. The annual per capita income of Dhaka is estimated at $3,600, although a large segment of the population coming from the villages in search of emploment lives below the poverty line, with many surviving on less than $10 a day. The main commercial area of the city include Motijheel, Mirpur, Kawran Bazar, Gulshan, Banani and Uttara. Bashundhara City is a developing economic area that will include high-tech industries, corporations and a large shopping mall in about 5 years. The Export Processing Zone in Dhaka was set up to encourage the export of garments, textiles and other goods. Dhaka has two EPZ's. They are home to 413 industries, which employ mostly women. The Dhaka Stock Exchange is based in the city, as are most of the large multinationals including Citigroup, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Unilever, Nestle and British American Tobacco. Large local conglomerates such as Navana Group ACI, Rahimafrooz also have their corporate offices located in Dhaka. The history of micro-credit also began here and the offices of the Nobel Prize winning Grameen Bank and BRAC are all based in Dhaka. Urban developments have sparked a widespread construction boom, causing new high-rise buildings and skyscrapers to change the city landscape. Growth has been especially strong in the finance, banking, manufacturing, telecommunications and services sectors, while tourism, hotels and restaurants continue as important elements of the Dhaka economy. Animation showing urban growth in Dhaka, Blangladesh from 1972 to 2001. The animation starts with a global view over India using Terra-MODIS 30 km. true color data. The animation then zooms down to Terra-MODIS 1 km. data over Bangladesh, and dissolves into the December 28, 1972 Landsat-1-MSS data of Dhaka. Dhaka can then be seen growing to its present day size by first showing the February 13, 1989 Landsat-5-TM image which then dissolves into the final January 29, 2001 Landsat-7-ETM+ image. The population of Dhaka city (areas under the jurisdiction of the Dhaka city corporation) stands at approximately 6.7 million. The city, in combination with localities forming the wider metropolitan area, is home to an estimated 12.3 million as of 2007. The population is growing by an estimated 4.2% per annum, one of the highest rates amongst Asian cities. The continuing growth reflects ongoing migration from rural areas to the Dhaka urban region, which accounted for 60% of the city's growth in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently, the city's population has also grown with the expansion of city boundaries, a process that added more than a million people to the city in the 1980s. The population literacy rate of the city is estimated at 62.3%. The city population is composed of peoples from virtually every region of Bangladesh. The long-standing inhabitants of the old city are known as Dhakaia and have a distinctive dialect and culture. Between 15,000 to 20,000 of the Rohingya, Santal, Khasi, Garo, Chakma and Mandi tribal peoples reside in the city. Most residents of Dhaka speak Bengali, the national language. Many distinctive Bengali dialects and regional languages such as Chittagonian and Sylheti are also spoken by segments of the population. English is also spoken by a large segment of the population, especially for business purposes. Urdu is spoken by members of several non-Bengali communities, including the Biharis. Islam is the predominant religion of Dhaka's people, with a majority belonging to the Sunni sect. There are also significant Shia and Ahmadiya communities. Hinduism is the second-largest religion and smaller communities practice Buddhism and Christianity. In recent years there have been rising acts of religious violence, especially from radical Islamic groups. Islamic groups have been blamed for targeting Hindus, Christians and Ahmadiyas as well as police and state authorities. Baitul Mukarram (Dhaka), the National Mosque of Bangladesh. The structure resembles the Kaaba in Mecca. Durga Puja at the Dhakeshwari Temple Bangla New Year celebration in Ramna park. As the most populous city of the nation, Dhaka has a vibrant cultural life. Annual celebrations for Independence Day (March 26), Language Martyrs' Day (February 21) and Victory Day (December 16) are prominently celebrated across the city. Dhaka's people congregate at the Shaheed Minar and the Jatiyo Smriti Soudho to remember the national heroes of the liberation war. These occasions are observed with public ceremonies and rallies in public grounds. Many schools and colleges organise fair, festival and concert in which citizens from all level of society participate. Pohela Baishakh, the Bengali New Year, falls annually on April 14 and is popularly celebrated across the city. Large crowds of people gather on the streets of Shahbag, Ramna Park and the campus of the University of Dhaka for celebrations. The most popular dressing style for women are sarees or salwar kameez, while men usually prefer western clothing to the traditional lungi. The Durga Puja is the most important Hindu festival of the year. Large processions of Hindus perform devotional songs, dances, prayers and ceremonies for Goddess Durga. Matthew Westfall & Victoria A. De Villa, Urban Indicators for Managing Cities: Cities Data Bookâ, page 174, Asian Development Bank, 2001, ISBN 9715613128 The Muslim festivals of Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha witnesses widespread celebrations, with large numbers of Muslims attending prayers in mosques across the city; Dhaka being known as the 'City of Mosques'. For much of recent history, Dhaka was characterised by roadside markets and small shops that sold a wide variety of goods. Jeremy Seabrook, In the Cities of the South: Scenes from a Developing Worldâ page 221, Verso Books, 1996, ISBN 1859840817 Recent years have seen the widespread construction of shopping malls, multiplexes, hotels and restaurants attracting Dhaka's growing middle-class and wealthy residents. Various writers, World and Its Peoples, page 489, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2008, ISBN 0761476318 Along with Bangladeshi cuisine and South Asian variants, a large variety in Western and Chinese cuisine are served at numerous restaurants and eateries. Dhakai Bakarkhani is the traditional food/snack of the people of old Dhaka. It is famous for its quality and taste and it was highly praised by the Royal court of the Mughal Empire in Delhi. Despite the growing popularity of music groups and rock bands, traditional folk music remains widely popular. Thomas Angotti & Lothar Beckel, Mega Cities, page 730, GEOSPACE Beckel Satellitenb. GmbH, 2001, ISBN 3853130518 The ghazal songs of artists like Runa Laila and the works of the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and national anthem writer Rabindranath Tagore also widespread following across Dhaka. Alison Arnold, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: The Indian Subcontinent, pages 858-859, Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0824049462 The Baily Road area is known as Natak Para (Theater Neighborhood) which is the center of Dhaka's thriving theater movement. Ian Herbert & Nicole Leclercq, The World of Theatre, page 12, Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN 0415238668 Indian and Pakistani music and films are popular with large segments of Dhaka's population. A. F. Salahuddin Ahmed & Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury, Bangladesh, National Culture, and Heritage: An Introductory Readerâ, page 405, Independent University, 2004, ISBN 9848509003 This area is also credited for the revival of the Jamdani due to the many local saree stores selling and promoting these locally hand-made age old traditional Bengali sarees. Jamdanis are 100% hand weaved and originated from the Persian and Mughal era. Jamdanis are one of the oldest types of cottage industries which is slowly dying due to its slow production process which is the consequent of maintaining high quality. A single medium range Jamdani saree may take as long as 3 months to complete. Bangladesh Betar is the state-run primary provider of radio services, and broadcasts a variety of programming in Bangla and English. In recent years many private radio networks specially FM radio services have been established in the city such as Radio Foorti FM 88.0, Radio Today FM 89.6, Radio Amar FM 101.6 and ABC Radio FM 89.2. Bangladesh Television is the state-run broadcasting network that provides a wide variety of programmes in Bangla and English. Cable and satellite networks such as Ekushey Television, Channel I, ATN Bangla, RTV, NTV and STAR TV are amongst the most popular channels. The main offices of most publishing houses in Bangladesh are based in Dhaka. The Prothom Alo and The Daily Ittefaq are the most popular amongst the large number of Bangla language dailies, periodicals and other publications in the city. The Daily Star and The Independent are the largest English-language dailies published in the city. John Simpson, The Traveler's Handbook, page 195, Globe Pequot, 2006, ISBN 0762740906 Although cellular phones are gaining popularity, less than 10% of households have telephone access. Dhaka is known as the Rickshaw capital of the world. 400,000 rickshaws run each day Cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws are the main mode of transport for the inhabitants of the city, with close to 400,000 rickshaws running each day the largest number for any city in the world. However, only about 85,000 rickshaws are licensed by the city government. Rizanuzzaman Laskar, " Rickshaw pullers get licences", The Daily Star (Dhaka), 2007-03-04 Relatively low-cost and non-polluting cycle rickshaws nevertheless cause traffic congestion and have been banned from many parts of the city. Public buses are operated by the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) and by private companies and operators. Scooters, taxis and privately-owned automobiles are increasingly becoming popular with the city's growing middle-class. The government has overseen the replacement of two-stroke engine taxis with "Green taxis" locally called CNG, which run on compressed natural gas. Dhaka has 1,868 kilometres (1,161 mi) of paved roads. Sharif Uddin Ahmed, Dacca: A Study in Urban History and Developmentâ, page 108, Curzon Press, 1986, ISBN 0913215147 It is connected by highways and railway links to Chittagong, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Faridpur and Sylhet. Highway links to the Indian cities of Kolkata and Agartala have been established by the BRTC which also runs regular bus services to those cities from Dhaka. The Kamalapur Railway Station and the Airport (Biman Bandar) Railway Station are the main railway stations providing trains on suburban and national routes operated by the state-run Bangladesh Railway. Marika McAdam, Bangladesh, page 66, Lonely Planet, 2004, ISBN 1740592808 The Sadarghat Port on the banks of the Buriganga River serves the transportation of goods and passengers upriver and to other ports in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Asian Highway Handbook, page 28; United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Publications, 2005, ISBN 9211201705 The Zia International Airport is the largest and busiest in the nation. Curzon Hall of the University of Dhaka Dhaka has the largest number of schools, colleges and universities of any Bangladeshi city. The education system is divided into 4 levels: Primary (from grades 1 to 5), Secondary (from grades 6 to 10), Higher Secondary (from grades 11 to 12) and tertiary. T. Neville Postlethwaite, The Encyclopedia of Comparative Education and National Systems of Educationâ, page 130, Pergamon Press, 1988, ISBN 0080308538 The five years of lower secondary education concludes with a Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Examination. Students who pass this examination proceed to two years of Higher Secondary or intermediate training, which culminate in a Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) Examination. Education is mainly offered in Bangla, but English is also commonly taught and used. A large number of Muslim families send their children to attend part-time courses or even to pursue full-time religious education, which is imparted in Bangla and Arabic in madrasahs. The Dhaka College is the oldest institution of higher education in the city and amongst the earliest established in British India, founded in 1840. Since independence, Dhaka has seen the establishment of a large number of public and private colleges and universities that offer undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as a variety of doctoral programmes. Growth of academic institutions: Kamal Siddiqui, Social Formation in Dhaka City: A Study in Third World Urban Sociology, page 42, University Press Limited, Dhaka 1990 The University of Dhaka is the largest public university in the nation with more than 30,000 students and 1,300 faculty staff. The university has 18 research centres and 70 departments, faculties and institutes. Eminent seats of higher education include the Jahangirnagar University and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). The Dhaka Medical College and the Sir Salimullah Medical College are amongst the largest and most respected medical schools in the nation. Muhammad Shamsul Huq, Higher Education and Employment in Bangladesh, page 181, UNESCO, 1983 Dhaka's college campuses are often hotbeds of political conflicts. Protests and strikes, and violence amongst police, students and political groups frequently disrupt public university campuses. Cricket and football are the two most popular sports in Dhaka and across the nation. Bangladesh, The New Encyclopaedia Britannica (ed. Robert MacHenry), page 717, Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 1993, ISBN 0852295715 Teams are fielded in intra-city and national competitions by a large number of schools, colleges and private entities. The Mohammedan Sports Club and Abahani are the largest football and cricket teams, maintaining a fierce rivalry. Scyld Berry, " Mahmud grows into captain's role", The Telegraph (UK), 2003-10-18 Many Bangladeshi cricketers and football players such as Sheikh Aslam, Athar Ali Khan, Kaiser Hamid, and Mohammad Ashraful hail from Dhaka. Dhaka has the distinction of having hosted the first official test cricket match of the Pakistan cricket team in 1954 against India. The Bangabandhu National Stadium was formerly the main venue for domestic and international cricket matches, but now exclusively hosts football matches. It is a potential host for the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as well being host to 6 matches to be played in Bangladesh. India lands 2011 World Cup final, from BBC, retrieved July 9, 2006. The Bangladesh Sports Control Board, responsible for promoting sports activities across the nation is based in Dhaka. Dhaka also has stadiums largely used for domestic events such as the Sher-e-Bangla Mirpur Stadium (in Mirpur), the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium and the Outer Stadium Ground. The Dhaka University Ground hosts many intercollegiate tournaments. Muhammad Abdur Rahim, The History of the University of Dacca,â page 161, University of Dacca, 1981 * * * * * * * Dhaka City Corporation
Dhaka	When is the end of the independence war of Bangladesh?	December 16, 1971	data/set3/a3	Dhaka Dhaka (formerly spelled as Dacca) (Bangla: à¦¢à¦¾à¦à¦¾, ) is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. Dhaka is a Mega city and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, has a population of over 12 million, making it the largest city in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Pocket Book, 2007 (pdf-file) 2007 Population Estimate. Accessed on 2008-09-29. With its colourful history, Dhaka is known as the 'City of Mosques' and for its famous fine Muslin cloth which has a great ethnic value. Under Mughal rule in the 17th century, the city was also known as Jahangir Nagar, and was both a provincial capital and a centre of the worldwide muslin trade. The modern city, however, was developed chiefly under British rule in the 19th century, and soon became the second-largest city in Bengal after Calcutta (presently Kolkata). With the partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the administrative capital of East Pakistan, and later, in 1972, the capital of an independent Bangladesh. During the intervening period, the city witnessed widespread turmoil; this included many impositions of martial law, the declaration of Bangladesh's independence, military suppression, devastation during war, and natural calamities. Modern Dhaka is the center of political, cultural and economic life in Bangladesh. Price Information of Essential Commodities, National Web Portal, Government of Bangladesh. It has both the highest literacy rate - 72.3% - and the most diverse economy amongst Bangladeshi cities. Although its urban infrastructure is the most developed in the country, it is nonetheless a fighting metropolitan city with challenges such as pollution, congestion, and lack of adequate services due to the rising population. In recent decades, Dhaka has seen modernization of transport, communications and public works. The city is attracting large foreign investments and greater volumes of commerce and trade. It is also experiencing an increasing influx of people from across the nation. Dhaka is consistently ranked as one of the least livable cities in the world. Lalbagh Fort, constructed in the mid 17th century by Shaista Khan. The existence of urbanized settlements in the area that is now Dhaka dates from the 7th century. The city area was ruled by the Buddhist kingdom of Kamarupa and the Pala Empire before passing to the control of the Hindu Sena dynasty in the 9th century. South Asia: Eastern Himalayan Culture, Ecology and People, by Hasna Jasimuddin Moudud. ISBN 9840801651 Many believe that the name of the city was derived after the establishment of the Goddess Dhakeshwari's temple by Ballal Sena in the 12th century. Dhaka and its surrounding area was identified as Bengalla around that period. The town itself consisted of a few market centers like Lakshmi Bazar, Shankhari Bazar, Tanti Bazar, Patuatuli, Kumartuli, Bania Nagar and Goal Nagar. After the Sena dynasty, Dhaka was successively ruled by the Turkish and Afghan governors descending from the Delhi Sultanate before the arrival of the Mughals in 1608. Taru Bahl & M.H. Syed, Encyclopaedia of the Muslim World, page 55, Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2003, ISBN 8126114193 The development of townships and a significant growth in population came as the city was proclaimed the capital of Bengal under Mughal rule in 1608. Mughal subahdar Islam Khan was the first administrator of the city. Francis Bradley Bradley-Birt, The Romance of an Eastern Capitalâ, page 264, Smith, Elder, & co., 1906 Khan named the town "Jahangir Nagar" (City of Jahangir) in honor of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, although this name was dropped soon after Jahangir's death. The main expansion of the city took place under Mughal general Shaista Khan. The city then measured 19 by 13 kilometres (12 by 8 mi), with a population of nearly a million people. "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 6, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. The city passed to the control of the British East India Company in 1765 after the Battle of Plassey. The city's population shrank dramatically during this period as the prominence of Kolkata rose, "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 7, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. With the growth of Calcutta (founded by Job Charnock in 1690), the business centres started moving to Calcutta followed by flight of capital and labour force from Dacca. By 1800, Calcutta became a city of 500 thousands, (Ghosh, 1950 pp 53-54) and Dacca declined to 2000 thousands, the population of 160 years before. but substantive development and modernisation eventually followed. A modern civic water supply system was introduced in 1874 and electricity supply launched in 1878. H Furumai, F Kurisu & H Katayama, Southeast Asian Water Environment 2: Selected Papers from the Second International Symposium on Southeast Asian Water Environment, page 205, IWA Publishing, 2008, ISBN 1843391244 Mohammad Atiqullah & Fazle Karim Khan, Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area, 1608-1981â, page 10, University of Dacca, 1965 The Dhaka Cantonment was established near the city, serving as a base for British and Bengali soldiers. Ahsan Manzil-once the palace of the Dhaka Nawab Family is now a museum During the abortive Partition of Bengal in 1905, Dhaka was declared to be the capital of the newly established state of East Bengal and Assam, but Bengal was reunited in 1911. Following the Partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the capital of East Pakistan. The city witnessed minimal communal violence. A large proportion of the city's Hindu population departed for India, while the city received a large influx of Muslims. After Bangladesh's independence in 1971, Dhaka with the status of the nation's capital, the growth of commerce and industry along with the city's population rose dramatically in the following decades, which created further challenges to services and infrastructure. United Nations Human Settlements Programme, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007â, page 184, Earthscan, 2007, ISBN 184407479X As the center of regional politics, Dhaka saw an increasing number of political strikes and incidents of violence. The adoption of Urdu as the sole official language of Pakistan led to protest marches involving large crowds. Known as the Bengali Language Movement, the protests resulted in police firing which killed students who were demonstrating peacefully. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, Dhaka remained a hotbed of political activity, and the demands for autonomy for the Bengali population gradually gained momentum. Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban houses the national parliament. The 1970 Bhola cyclone devastated much of the region, killing an estimated 500,000 people. More than half the city of Dhaka was flooded and millions of people marooned. With public anger growing against ethnic discrimination and poor cyclone relief efforts from the central government, Bengali politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman held a nationalist gathering on March 7, 1971 at the Race Course Ground. An estimated one million people attended the gathering, leading to the March 26 declaration of Bangladesh's independence. In response, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight, which led to the arrests, torture and killing of thousands of people, Muslims and Hindus Bengali intellectuals. Blood, Archer, , Department of State, United States After nine months of bloody battle with Bangladesh Forces, the Pakistani Army surrendered to the Mitra Bahini on December 16 marking the end of the independence war of Bangladesh. The post-independence period has seen a rapid and massive growth of the city population, attracting migrant workers from rural areas across Bangladesh. A real estate boom has followed the expansion of city limits and the development of new settlements such as Bashundhara, Mirpur and Motijheel. Dhaka is located in central Bangladesh at , on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River. The city lies on the lower reaches of the Ganges Delta and covers a total area of . Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics; Area, Population and Literacy Rate by Paurashava â 2001 (pdf-file) Accessed on 2008-09-29. It consists of seven principal thanas Dhanmondi, Kotwali, Motijheel, Paltan, Ramna, Mohammadpur, Sutrapur, Tejgaon and 16 auxiliary thanas Gulshan, Lalbagh, Mirpur, Pallabi, Shah Ali, Turaag, Sabujbagh, Dhaka Cantonment, Demra, Hazaribagh, Shyampur, Badda, Kafrul, Kamrangir char, Khilgaon and Uttara. In total the city has 130 wards and 725 mohallas. Dhaka district has an area of 1463.60 square kilometres (565 sq mi); and is bounded by the districts of Gazipur, Tangail, Munshiganj, Rajbari, Narayanganj, Manikganj. Tropical vegetation and moist soils characterise the land, which is flat and close to sea level. This leaves Dhaka susceptible to flooding during the monsoon seasons owing to heavy rainfall and cyclones. Dhaka experiences a hot, wet and humid tropical climate. The city is within the monsoon climate zone, with an annual average temperature of 25 Â°C (77 Â°F) and monthly means varying between 18 Â°C (64 Â°F) in January and 29 Â°C (84 Â°F) in August. Nearly 80% of the annual average rainfall of 1,854 millimetres (73 in) occurs between May and September. caused by the city's rapid expansion, congestion and industrial activities. Increasing air and water pollution emanating from traffic congestion and industrial waste are serious problems affecting public health and the quality of life in the city. Water bodies and wetlands around Dhaka are facing extinction as these are being filled up to construct multi-storied buildings and other real estate developments. Coupled with pollution, such erosion of natural habitats threatens to destroy much of the regional biodiversity. The Dhaka City Corporation building The Dhaka municipality was founded on August 1, 1864 and upgraded to "corporation" status in 1978. The Dhaka City Corporation is a self-governing corporation which runs the affairs of the city. The incorporated area is divided into several wards, which have elected commissioners. The mayor of the city is elected by popular vote every five years, and the post is presently held by Sadeque Hossain Khoka. The Dhaka Education Board is responsible for administering all public schools and most private schools with the exception of English-medium schools and madrassahs. All madrassahs in Bangladesh are governed by a central board while English-medium schools are under separate educational and governance structures. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) was established in 1976 and has 6,000 personnel in 12 police stations. With the rapid population growth of the city, the force has been raised to 23,000 personnel and the establishment of 33 police stations has been completed and the creation of another 18 police stations is underway. However, Dhaka suffers from a chronically high crime rate and frequent incidences of political and religious violence. The DMP suffers from lack of equipment and personnel, causing governments to occasionally deploy the Bangladesh Army and paramilitary forces in major efforts to curb crime. Aside from Chittagong, Dhaka is the only city in the country with a water-borne sewage system, but this serves only 25% of the population while another 30% are served with septic tanks. Only two-thirds of households in Dhaka are served by the city water supply system. More than 9.7 million tonnes of solid wastes are produced in Dhaka city each year. While private and government efforts have succeeded in collecting garbage city-wide and using it as manure, most solid wastes are often dumped untreated in nearby low-lying areas and water bodies. Dhaka has one of the highest rates of death from infectious disease of any city in Asia. The city is divided into 10 parliamentary constituencies. The two main political parties are the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Ramna contains the Secretariat, which houses most of the government ministries. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh and the Dhaka High Court are located in the city. The Bangabhaban palace has served as the official residence of the Viceroy of India, the governor of East Pakistan and presently the President of Bangladesh. Bangabhaban, from Banglapedia. The Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, designed by renowned architect Louis Kahn, houses the unicameral national parliament. The Baitul Mukarram, developed with a design resembling the Kaaba of Mecca, is the national mosque. Other historical monuments in the city include the Bara Katra palace, the Lalbagh Fort, the Hoseni Dalan and the Ahsan Manzil. To fight rising traffic congestion and population rise in the capital city, the national government has implemented a policy for rapid urbanisation of surrounding areas and beyond by recent introduction of ten year holiday on income tax for new construction of all types of facilities and buildings outside Dhaka. Bashundhara City, South Asia's largest shopping mall. Dhaka is the commercial heart of Bangladesh. The city has a moderate-sized middle class population, driving the market for modern consumer and luxury goods. and industries located in the Dhaka metropolitan area. The city has historically attracted large number of migrant workers. Hawkers, peddlers, small shops, rickshaws transport, roadside vendors and stalls employ a large segment of the population rickshaw-drivers alone number as many as 400,000. Robert Cervero, Informal Transport in the Developing Worldâ, page 39, UN-HABITAT, 2000, ISBN 9211314534 Half the workforce is employed in household and unorganised labour, while about 800,000 work in the textile industry. Even so, unemployment remains high at 23%. According to CityMayors Statistics, Dhaka's GDP registered at $92 billion in 2008 with an annual growth rate of 7.6%. Its estimated GDP in the year 2020 is $160 billion. The annual per capita income of Dhaka is estimated at $3,600, although a large segment of the population coming from the villages in search of emploment lives below the poverty line, with many surviving on less than $10 a day. The main commercial area of the city include Motijheel, Mirpur, Kawran Bazar, Gulshan, Banani and Uttara. Bashundhara City is a developing economic area that will include high-tech industries, corporations and a large shopping mall in about 5 years. The Export Processing Zone in Dhaka was set up to encourage the export of garments, textiles and other goods. Dhaka has two EPZ's. They are home to 413 industries, which employ mostly women. The Dhaka Stock Exchange is based in the city, as are most of the large multinationals including Citigroup, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Unilever, Nestle and British American Tobacco. Large local conglomerates such as Navana Group ACI, Rahimafrooz also have their corporate offices located in Dhaka. The history of micro-credit also began here and the offices of the Nobel Prize winning Grameen Bank and BRAC are all based in Dhaka. Urban developments have sparked a widespread construction boom, causing new high-rise buildings and skyscrapers to change the city landscape. Growth has been especially strong in the finance, banking, manufacturing, telecommunications and services sectors, while tourism, hotels and restaurants continue as important elements of the Dhaka economy. Animation showing urban growth in Dhaka, Blangladesh from 1972 to 2001. The animation starts with a global view over India using Terra-MODIS 30 km. true color data. The animation then zooms down to Terra-MODIS 1 km. data over Bangladesh, and dissolves into the December 28, 1972 Landsat-1-MSS data of Dhaka. Dhaka can then be seen growing to its present day size by first showing the February 13, 1989 Landsat-5-TM image which then dissolves into the final January 29, 2001 Landsat-7-ETM+ image. The population of Dhaka city (areas under the jurisdiction of the Dhaka city corporation) stands at approximately 6.7 million. The city, in combination with localities forming the wider metropolitan area, is home to an estimated 12.3 million as of 2007. The population is growing by an estimated 4.2% per annum, one of the highest rates amongst Asian cities. The continuing growth reflects ongoing migration from rural areas to the Dhaka urban region, which accounted for 60% of the city's growth in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently, the city's population has also grown with the expansion of city boundaries, a process that added more than a million people to the city in the 1980s. The population literacy rate of the city is estimated at 62.3%. The city population is composed of peoples from virtually every region of Bangladesh. The long-standing inhabitants of the old city are known as Dhakaia and have a distinctive dialect and culture. Between 15,000 to 20,000 of the Rohingya, Santal, Khasi, Garo, Chakma and Mandi tribal peoples reside in the city. Most residents of Dhaka speak Bengali, the national language. Many distinctive Bengali dialects and regional languages such as Chittagonian and Sylheti are also spoken by segments of the population. English is also spoken by a large segment of the population, especially for business purposes. Urdu is spoken by members of several non-Bengali communities, including the Biharis. Islam is the predominant religion of Dhaka's people, with a majority belonging to the Sunni sect. There are also significant Shia and Ahmadiya communities. Hinduism is the second-largest religion and smaller communities practice Buddhism and Christianity. In recent years there have been rising acts of religious violence, especially from radical Islamic groups. Islamic groups have been blamed for targeting Hindus, Christians and Ahmadiyas as well as police and state authorities. Baitul Mukarram (Dhaka), the National Mosque of Bangladesh. The structure resembles the Kaaba in Mecca. Durga Puja at the Dhakeshwari Temple Bangla New Year celebration in Ramna park. As the most populous city of the nation, Dhaka has a vibrant cultural life. Annual celebrations for Independence Day (March 26), Language Martyrs' Day (February 21) and Victory Day (December 16) are prominently celebrated across the city. Dhaka's people congregate at the Shaheed Minar and the Jatiyo Smriti Soudho to remember the national heroes of the liberation war. These occasions are observed with public ceremonies and rallies in public grounds. Many schools and colleges organise fair, festival and concert in which citizens from all level of society participate. Pohela Baishakh, the Bengali New Year, falls annually on April 14 and is popularly celebrated across the city. Large crowds of people gather on the streets of Shahbag, Ramna Park and the campus of the University of Dhaka for celebrations. The most popular dressing style for women are sarees or salwar kameez, while men usually prefer western clothing to the traditional lungi. The Durga Puja is the most important Hindu festival of the year. Large processions of Hindus perform devotional songs, dances, prayers and ceremonies for Goddess Durga. Matthew Westfall & Victoria A. De Villa, Urban Indicators for Managing Cities: Cities Data Bookâ, page 174, Asian Development Bank, 2001, ISBN 9715613128 The Muslim festivals of Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha witnesses widespread celebrations, with large numbers of Muslims attending prayers in mosques across the city; Dhaka being known as the 'City of Mosques'. For much of recent history, Dhaka was characterised by roadside markets and small shops that sold a wide variety of goods. Jeremy Seabrook, In the Cities of the South: Scenes from a Developing Worldâ page 221, Verso Books, 1996, ISBN 1859840817 Recent years have seen the widespread construction of shopping malls, multiplexes, hotels and restaurants attracting Dhaka's growing middle-class and wealthy residents. Various writers, World and Its Peoples, page 489, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2008, ISBN 0761476318 Along with Bangladeshi cuisine and South Asian variants, a large variety in Western and Chinese cuisine are served at numerous restaurants and eateries. Dhakai Bakarkhani is the traditional food/snack of the people of old Dhaka. It is famous for its quality and taste and it was highly praised by the Royal court of the Mughal Empire in Delhi. Despite the growing popularity of music groups and rock bands, traditional folk music remains widely popular. Thomas Angotti & Lothar Beckel, Mega Cities, page 730, GEOSPACE Beckel Satellitenb. GmbH, 2001, ISBN 3853130518 The ghazal songs of artists like Runa Laila and the works of the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and national anthem writer Rabindranath Tagore also widespread following across Dhaka. Alison Arnold, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: The Indian Subcontinent, pages 858-859, Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0824049462 The Baily Road area is known as Natak Para (Theater Neighborhood) which is the center of Dhaka's thriving theater movement. Ian Herbert & Nicole Leclercq, The World of Theatre, page 12, Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN 0415238668 Indian and Pakistani music and films are popular with large segments of Dhaka's population. A. F. Salahuddin Ahmed & Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury, Bangladesh, National Culture, and Heritage: An Introductory Readerâ, page 405, Independent University, 2004, ISBN 9848509003 This area is also credited for the revival of the Jamdani due to the many local saree stores selling and promoting these locally hand-made age old traditional Bengali sarees. Jamdanis are 100% hand weaved and originated from the Persian and Mughal era. Jamdanis are one of the oldest types of cottage industries which is slowly dying due to its slow production process which is the consequent of maintaining high quality. A single medium range Jamdani saree may take as long as 3 months to complete. Bangladesh Betar is the state-run primary provider of radio services, and broadcasts a variety of programming in Bangla and English. In recent years many private radio networks specially FM radio services have been established in the city such as Radio Foorti FM 88.0, Radio Today FM 89.6, Radio Amar FM 101.6 and ABC Radio FM 89.2. Bangladesh Television is the state-run broadcasting network that provides a wide variety of programmes in Bangla and English. Cable and satellite networks such as Ekushey Television, Channel I, ATN Bangla, RTV, NTV and STAR TV are amongst the most popular channels. The main offices of most publishing houses in Bangladesh are based in Dhaka. The Prothom Alo and The Daily Ittefaq are the most popular amongst the large number of Bangla language dailies, periodicals and other publications in the city. The Daily Star and The Independent are the largest English-language dailies published in the city. John Simpson, The Traveler's Handbook, page 195, Globe Pequot, 2006, ISBN 0762740906 Although cellular phones are gaining popularity, less than 10% of households have telephone access. Dhaka is known as the Rickshaw capital of the world. 400,000 rickshaws run each day Cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws are the main mode of transport for the inhabitants of the city, with close to 400,000 rickshaws running each day the largest number for any city in the world. However, only about 85,000 rickshaws are licensed by the city government. Rizanuzzaman Laskar, " Rickshaw pullers get licences", The Daily Star (Dhaka), 2007-03-04 Relatively low-cost and non-polluting cycle rickshaws nevertheless cause traffic congestion and have been banned from many parts of the city. Public buses are operated by the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) and by private companies and operators. Scooters, taxis and privately-owned automobiles are increasingly becoming popular with the city's growing middle-class. The government has overseen the replacement of two-stroke engine taxis with "Green taxis" locally called CNG, which run on compressed natural gas. Dhaka has 1,868 kilometres (1,161 mi) of paved roads. Sharif Uddin Ahmed, Dacca: A Study in Urban History and Developmentâ, page 108, Curzon Press, 1986, ISBN 0913215147 It is connected by highways and railway links to Chittagong, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Faridpur and Sylhet. Highway links to the Indian cities of Kolkata and Agartala have been established by the BRTC which also runs regular bus services to those cities from Dhaka. The Kamalapur Railway Station and the Airport (Biman Bandar) Railway Station are the main railway stations providing trains on suburban and national routes operated by the state-run Bangladesh Railway. Marika McAdam, Bangladesh, page 66, Lonely Planet, 2004, ISBN 1740592808 The Sadarghat Port on the banks of the Buriganga River serves the transportation of goods and passengers upriver and to other ports in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Asian Highway Handbook, page 28; United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Publications, 2005, ISBN 9211201705 The Zia International Airport is the largest and busiest in the nation. Curzon Hall of the University of Dhaka Dhaka has the largest number of schools, colleges and universities of any Bangladeshi city. The education system is divided into 4 levels: Primary (from grades 1 to 5), Secondary (from grades 6 to 10), Higher Secondary (from grades 11 to 12) and tertiary. T. Neville Postlethwaite, The Encyclopedia of Comparative Education and National Systems of Educationâ, page 130, Pergamon Press, 1988, ISBN 0080308538 The five years of lower secondary education concludes with a Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Examination. Students who pass this examination proceed to two years of Higher Secondary or intermediate training, which culminate in a Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) Examination. Education is mainly offered in Bangla, but English is also commonly taught and used. A large number of Muslim families send their children to attend part-time courses or even to pursue full-time religious education, which is imparted in Bangla and Arabic in madrasahs. The Dhaka College is the oldest institution of higher education in the city and amongst the earliest established in British India, founded in 1840. Since independence, Dhaka has seen the establishment of a large number of public and private colleges and universities that offer undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as a variety of doctoral programmes. Growth of academic institutions: Kamal Siddiqui, Social Formation in Dhaka City: A Study in Third World Urban Sociology, page 42, University Press Limited, Dhaka 1990 The University of Dhaka is the largest public university in the nation with more than 30,000 students and 1,300 faculty staff. The university has 18 research centres and 70 departments, faculties and institutes. Eminent seats of higher education include the Jahangirnagar University and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). The Dhaka Medical College and the Sir Salimullah Medical College are amongst the largest and most respected medical schools in the nation. Muhammad Shamsul Huq, Higher Education and Employment in Bangladesh, page 181, UNESCO, 1983 Dhaka's college campuses are often hotbeds of political conflicts. Protests and strikes, and violence amongst police, students and political groups frequently disrupt public university campuses. Cricket and football are the two most popular sports in Dhaka and across the nation. Bangladesh, The New Encyclopaedia Britannica (ed. Robert MacHenry), page 717, Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 1993, ISBN 0852295715 Teams are fielded in intra-city and national competitions by a large number of schools, colleges and private entities. The Mohammedan Sports Club and Abahani are the largest football and cricket teams, maintaining a fierce rivalry. Scyld Berry, " Mahmud grows into captain's role", The Telegraph (UK), 2003-10-18 Many Bangladeshi cricketers and football players such as Sheikh Aslam, Athar Ali Khan, Kaiser Hamid, and Mohammad Ashraful hail from Dhaka. Dhaka has the distinction of having hosted the first official test cricket match of the Pakistan cricket team in 1954 against India. The Bangabandhu National Stadium was formerly the main venue for domestic and international cricket matches, but now exclusively hosts football matches. It is a potential host for the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as well being host to 6 matches to be played in Bangladesh. India lands 2011 World Cup final, from BBC, retrieved July 9, 2006. The Bangladesh Sports Control Board, responsible for promoting sports activities across the nation is based in Dhaka. Dhaka also has stadiums largely used for domestic events such as the Sher-e-Bangla Mirpur Stadium (in Mirpur), the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium and the Outer Stadium Ground. The Dhaka University Ground hosts many intercollegiate tournaments. Muhammad Abdur Rahim, The History of the University of Dacca,â page 161, University of Dacca, 1981 * * * * * * * Dhaka City Corporation
Dhaka	Did the Mughals arrive in Dhaka?	Yes	data/set3/a3	Dhaka Dhaka (formerly spelled as Dacca) (Bangla: à¦¢à¦¾à¦à¦¾, ) is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. Dhaka is a Mega city and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, has a population of over 12 million, making it the largest city in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Pocket Book, 2007 (pdf-file) 2007 Population Estimate. Accessed on 2008-09-29. With its colourful history, Dhaka is known as the 'City of Mosques' and for its famous fine Muslin cloth which has a great ethnic value. Under Mughal rule in the 17th century, the city was also known as Jahangir Nagar, and was both a provincial capital and a centre of the worldwide muslin trade. The modern city, however, was developed chiefly under British rule in the 19th century, and soon became the second-largest city in Bengal after Calcutta (presently Kolkata). With the partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the administrative capital of East Pakistan, and later, in 1972, the capital of an independent Bangladesh. During the intervening period, the city witnessed widespread turmoil; this included many impositions of martial law, the declaration of Bangladesh's independence, military suppression, devastation during war, and natural calamities. Modern Dhaka is the center of political, cultural and economic life in Bangladesh. Price Information of Essential Commodities, National Web Portal, Government of Bangladesh. It has both the highest literacy rate - 72.3% - and the most diverse economy amongst Bangladeshi cities. Although its urban infrastructure is the most developed in the country, it is nonetheless a fighting metropolitan city with challenges such as pollution, congestion, and lack of adequate services due to the rising population. In recent decades, Dhaka has seen modernization of transport, communications and public works. The city is attracting large foreign investments and greater volumes of commerce and trade. It is also experiencing an increasing influx of people from across the nation. Dhaka is consistently ranked as one of the least livable cities in the world. Lalbagh Fort, constructed in the mid 17th century by Shaista Khan. The existence of urbanized settlements in the area that is now Dhaka dates from the 7th century. The city area was ruled by the Buddhist kingdom of Kamarupa and the Pala Empire before passing to the control of the Hindu Sena dynasty in the 9th century. South Asia: Eastern Himalayan Culture, Ecology and People, by Hasna Jasimuddin Moudud. ISBN 9840801651 Many believe that the name of the city was derived after the establishment of the Goddess Dhakeshwari's temple by Ballal Sena in the 12th century. Dhaka and its surrounding area was identified as Bengalla around that period. The town itself consisted of a few market centers like Lakshmi Bazar, Shankhari Bazar, Tanti Bazar, Patuatuli, Kumartuli, Bania Nagar and Goal Nagar. After the Sena dynasty, Dhaka was successively ruled by the Turkish and Afghan governors descending from the Delhi Sultanate before the arrival of the Mughals in 1608. Taru Bahl & M.H. Syed, Encyclopaedia of the Muslim World, page 55, Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2003, ISBN 8126114193 The development of townships and a significant growth in population came as the city was proclaimed the capital of Bengal under Mughal rule in 1608. Mughal subahdar Islam Khan was the first administrator of the city. Francis Bradley Bradley-Birt, The Romance of an Eastern Capitalâ, page 264, Smith, Elder, & co., 1906 Khan named the town "Jahangir Nagar" (City of Jahangir) in honor of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, although this name was dropped soon after Jahangir's death. The main expansion of the city took place under Mughal general Shaista Khan. The city then measured 19 by 13 kilometres (12 by 8 mi), with a population of nearly a million people. "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 6, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. The city passed to the control of the British East India Company in 1765 after the Battle of Plassey. The city's population shrank dramatically during this period as the prominence of Kolkata rose, "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 7, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. With the growth of Calcutta (founded by Job Charnock in 1690), the business centres started moving to Calcutta followed by flight of capital and labour force from Dacca. By 1800, Calcutta became a city of 500 thousands, (Ghosh, 1950 pp 53-54) and Dacca declined to 2000 thousands, the population of 160 years before. but substantive development and modernisation eventually followed. A modern civic water supply system was introduced in 1874 and electricity supply launched in 1878. H Furumai, F Kurisu & H Katayama, Southeast Asian Water Environment 2: Selected Papers from the Second International Symposium on Southeast Asian Water Environment, page 205, IWA Publishing, 2008, ISBN 1843391244 Mohammad Atiqullah & Fazle Karim Khan, Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area, 1608-1981â, page 10, University of Dacca, 1965 The Dhaka Cantonment was established near the city, serving as a base for British and Bengali soldiers. Ahsan Manzil-once the palace of the Dhaka Nawab Family is now a museum During the abortive Partition of Bengal in 1905, Dhaka was declared to be the capital of the newly established state of East Bengal and Assam, but Bengal was reunited in 1911. Following the Partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the capital of East Pakistan. The city witnessed minimal communal violence. A large proportion of the city's Hindu population departed for India, while the city received a large influx of Muslims. After Bangladesh's independence in 1971, Dhaka with the status of the nation's capital, the growth of commerce and industry along with the city's population rose dramatically in the following decades, which created further challenges to services and infrastructure. United Nations Human Settlements Programme, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007â, page 184, Earthscan, 2007, ISBN 184407479X As the center of regional politics, Dhaka saw an increasing number of political strikes and incidents of violence. The adoption of Urdu as the sole official language of Pakistan led to protest marches involving large crowds. Known as the Bengali Language Movement, the protests resulted in police firing which killed students who were demonstrating peacefully. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, Dhaka remained a hotbed of political activity, and the demands for autonomy for the Bengali population gradually gained momentum. Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban houses the national parliament. The 1970 Bhola cyclone devastated much of the region, killing an estimated 500,000 people. More than half the city of Dhaka was flooded and millions of people marooned. With public anger growing against ethnic discrimination and poor cyclone relief efforts from the central government, Bengali politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman held a nationalist gathering on March 7, 1971 at the Race Course Ground. An estimated one million people attended the gathering, leading to the March 26 declaration of Bangladesh's independence. In response, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight, which led to the arrests, torture and killing of thousands of people, Muslims and Hindus Bengali intellectuals. Blood, Archer, , Department of State, United States After nine months of bloody battle with Bangladesh Forces, the Pakistani Army surrendered to the Mitra Bahini on December 16 marking the end of the independence war of Bangladesh. The post-independence period has seen a rapid and massive growth of the city population, attracting migrant workers from rural areas across Bangladesh. A real estate boom has followed the expansion of city limits and the development of new settlements such as Bashundhara, Mirpur and Motijheel. Dhaka is located in central Bangladesh at , on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River. The city lies on the lower reaches of the Ganges Delta and covers a total area of . Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics; Area, Population and Literacy Rate by Paurashava â 2001 (pdf-file) Accessed on 2008-09-29. It consists of seven principal thanas Dhanmondi, Kotwali, Motijheel, Paltan, Ramna, Mohammadpur, Sutrapur, Tejgaon and 16 auxiliary thanas Gulshan, Lalbagh, Mirpur, Pallabi, Shah Ali, Turaag, Sabujbagh, Dhaka Cantonment, Demra, Hazaribagh, Shyampur, Badda, Kafrul, Kamrangir char, Khilgaon and Uttara. In total the city has 130 wards and 725 mohallas. Dhaka district has an area of 1463.60 square kilometres (565 sq mi); and is bounded by the districts of Gazipur, Tangail, Munshiganj, Rajbari, Narayanganj, Manikganj. Tropical vegetation and moist soils characterise the land, which is flat and close to sea level. This leaves Dhaka susceptible to flooding during the monsoon seasons owing to heavy rainfall and cyclones. Dhaka experiences a hot, wet and humid tropical climate. The city is within the monsoon climate zone, with an annual average temperature of 25 Â°C (77 Â°F) and monthly means varying between 18 Â°C (64 Â°F) in January and 29 Â°C (84 Â°F) in August. Nearly 80% of the annual average rainfall of 1,854 millimetres (73 in) occurs between May and September. caused by the city's rapid expansion, congestion and industrial activities. Increasing air and water pollution emanating from traffic congestion and industrial waste are serious problems affecting public health and the quality of life in the city. Water bodies and wetlands around Dhaka are facing extinction as these are being filled up to construct multi-storied buildings and other real estate developments. Coupled with pollution, such erosion of natural habitats threatens to destroy much of the regional biodiversity. The Dhaka City Corporation building The Dhaka municipality was founded on August 1, 1864 and upgraded to "corporation" status in 1978. The Dhaka City Corporation is a self-governing corporation which runs the affairs of the city. The incorporated area is divided into several wards, which have elected commissioners. The mayor of the city is elected by popular vote every five years, and the post is presently held by Sadeque Hossain Khoka. The Dhaka Education Board is responsible for administering all public schools and most private schools with the exception of English-medium schools and madrassahs. All madrassahs in Bangladesh are governed by a central board while English-medium schools are under separate educational and governance structures. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) was established in 1976 and has 6,000 personnel in 12 police stations. With the rapid population growth of the city, the force has been raised to 23,000 personnel and the establishment of 33 police stations has been completed and the creation of another 18 police stations is underway. However, Dhaka suffers from a chronically high crime rate and frequent incidences of political and religious violence. The DMP suffers from lack of equipment and personnel, causing governments to occasionally deploy the Bangladesh Army and paramilitary forces in major efforts to curb crime. Aside from Chittagong, Dhaka is the only city in the country with a water-borne sewage system, but this serves only 25% of the population while another 30% are served with septic tanks. Only two-thirds of households in Dhaka are served by the city water supply system. More than 9.7 million tonnes of solid wastes are produced in Dhaka city each year. While private and government efforts have succeeded in collecting garbage city-wide and using it as manure, most solid wastes are often dumped untreated in nearby low-lying areas and water bodies. Dhaka has one of the highest rates of death from infectious disease of any city in Asia. The city is divided into 10 parliamentary constituencies. The two main political parties are the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Ramna contains the Secretariat, which houses most of the government ministries. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh and the Dhaka High Court are located in the city. The Bangabhaban palace has served as the official residence of the Viceroy of India, the governor of East Pakistan and presently the President of Bangladesh. Bangabhaban, from Banglapedia. The Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, designed by renowned architect Louis Kahn, houses the unicameral national parliament. The Baitul Mukarram, developed with a design resembling the Kaaba of Mecca, is the national mosque. Other historical monuments in the city include the Bara Katra palace, the Lalbagh Fort, the Hoseni Dalan and the Ahsan Manzil. To fight rising traffic congestion and population rise in the capital city, the national government has implemented a policy for rapid urbanisation of surrounding areas and beyond by recent introduction of ten year holiday on income tax for new construction of all types of facilities and buildings outside Dhaka. Bashundhara City, South Asia's largest shopping mall. Dhaka is the commercial heart of Bangladesh. The city has a moderate-sized middle class population, driving the market for modern consumer and luxury goods. and industries located in the Dhaka metropolitan area. The city has historically attracted large number of migrant workers. Hawkers, peddlers, small shops, rickshaws transport, roadside vendors and stalls employ a large segment of the population rickshaw-drivers alone number as many as 400,000. Robert Cervero, Informal Transport in the Developing Worldâ, page 39, UN-HABITAT, 2000, ISBN 9211314534 Half the workforce is employed in household and unorganised labour, while about 800,000 work in the textile industry. Even so, unemployment remains high at 23%. According to CityMayors Statistics, Dhaka's GDP registered at $92 billion in 2008 with an annual growth rate of 7.6%. Its estimated GDP in the year 2020 is $160 billion. The annual per capita income of Dhaka is estimated at $3,600, although a large segment of the population coming from the villages in search of emploment lives below the poverty line, with many surviving on less than $10 a day. The main commercial area of the city include Motijheel, Mirpur, Kawran Bazar, Gulshan, Banani and Uttara. Bashundhara City is a developing economic area that will include high-tech industries, corporations and a large shopping mall in about 5 years. The Export Processing Zone in Dhaka was set up to encourage the export of garments, textiles and other goods. Dhaka has two EPZ's. They are home to 413 industries, which employ mostly women. The Dhaka Stock Exchange is based in the city, as are most of the large multinationals including Citigroup, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Unilever, Nestle and British American Tobacco. Large local conglomerates such as Navana Group ACI, Rahimafrooz also have their corporate offices located in Dhaka. The history of micro-credit also began here and the offices of the Nobel Prize winning Grameen Bank and BRAC are all based in Dhaka. Urban developments have sparked a widespread construction boom, causing new high-rise buildings and skyscrapers to change the city landscape. Growth has been especially strong in the finance, banking, manufacturing, telecommunications and services sectors, while tourism, hotels and restaurants continue as important elements of the Dhaka economy. Animation showing urban growth in Dhaka, Blangladesh from 1972 to 2001. The animation starts with a global view over India using Terra-MODIS 30 km. true color data. The animation then zooms down to Terra-MODIS 1 km. data over Bangladesh, and dissolves into the December 28, 1972 Landsat-1-MSS data of Dhaka. Dhaka can then be seen growing to its present day size by first showing the February 13, 1989 Landsat-5-TM image which then dissolves into the final January 29, 2001 Landsat-7-ETM+ image. The population of Dhaka city (areas under the jurisdiction of the Dhaka city corporation) stands at approximately 6.7 million. The city, in combination with localities forming the wider metropolitan area, is home to an estimated 12.3 million as of 2007. The population is growing by an estimated 4.2% per annum, one of the highest rates amongst Asian cities. The continuing growth reflects ongoing migration from rural areas to the Dhaka urban region, which accounted for 60% of the city's growth in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently, the city's population has also grown with the expansion of city boundaries, a process that added more than a million people to the city in the 1980s. The population literacy rate of the city is estimated at 62.3%. The city population is composed of peoples from virtually every region of Bangladesh. The long-standing inhabitants of the old city are known as Dhakaia and have a distinctive dialect and culture. Between 15,000 to 20,000 of the Rohingya, Santal, Khasi, Garo, Chakma and Mandi tribal peoples reside in the city. Most residents of Dhaka speak Bengali, the national language. Many distinctive Bengali dialects and regional languages such as Chittagonian and Sylheti are also spoken by segments of the population. English is also spoken by a large segment of the population, especially for business purposes. Urdu is spoken by members of several non-Bengali communities, including the Biharis. Islam is the predominant religion of Dhaka's people, with a majority belonging to the Sunni sect. There are also significant Shia and Ahmadiya communities. Hinduism is the second-largest religion and smaller communities practice Buddhism and Christianity. In recent years there have been rising acts of religious violence, especially from radical Islamic groups. Islamic groups have been blamed for targeting Hindus, Christians and Ahmadiyas as well as police and state authorities. Baitul Mukarram (Dhaka), the National Mosque of Bangladesh. The structure resembles the Kaaba in Mecca. Durga Puja at the Dhakeshwari Temple Bangla New Year celebration in Ramna park. As the most populous city of the nation, Dhaka has a vibrant cultural life. Annual celebrations for Independence Day (March 26), Language Martyrs' Day (February 21) and Victory Day (December 16) are prominently celebrated across the city. Dhaka's people congregate at the Shaheed Minar and the Jatiyo Smriti Soudho to remember the national heroes of the liberation war. These occasions are observed with public ceremonies and rallies in public grounds. Many schools and colleges organise fair, festival and concert in which citizens from all level of society participate. Pohela Baishakh, the Bengali New Year, falls annually on April 14 and is popularly celebrated across the city. Large crowds of people gather on the streets of Shahbag, Ramna Park and the campus of the University of Dhaka for celebrations. The most popular dressing style for women are sarees or salwar kameez, while men usually prefer western clothing to the traditional lungi. The Durga Puja is the most important Hindu festival of the year. Large processions of Hindus perform devotional songs, dances, prayers and ceremonies for Goddess Durga. Matthew Westfall & Victoria A. De Villa, Urban Indicators for Managing Cities: Cities Data Bookâ, page 174, Asian Development Bank, 2001, ISBN 9715613128 The Muslim festivals of Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha witnesses widespread celebrations, with large numbers of Muslims attending prayers in mosques across the city; Dhaka being known as the 'City of Mosques'. For much of recent history, Dhaka was characterised by roadside markets and small shops that sold a wide variety of goods. Jeremy Seabrook, In the Cities of the South: Scenes from a Developing Worldâ page 221, Verso Books, 1996, ISBN 1859840817 Recent years have seen the widespread construction of shopping malls, multiplexes, hotels and restaurants attracting Dhaka's growing middle-class and wealthy residents. Various writers, World and Its Peoples, page 489, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2008, ISBN 0761476318 Along with Bangladeshi cuisine and South Asian variants, a large variety in Western and Chinese cuisine are served at numerous restaurants and eateries. Dhakai Bakarkhani is the traditional food/snack of the people of old Dhaka. It is famous for its quality and taste and it was highly praised by the Royal court of the Mughal Empire in Delhi. Despite the growing popularity of music groups and rock bands, traditional folk music remains widely popular. Thomas Angotti & Lothar Beckel, Mega Cities, page 730, GEOSPACE Beckel Satellitenb. GmbH, 2001, ISBN 3853130518 The ghazal songs of artists like Runa Laila and the works of the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and national anthem writer Rabindranath Tagore also widespread following across Dhaka. Alison Arnold, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: The Indian Subcontinent, pages 858-859, Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0824049462 The Baily Road area is known as Natak Para (Theater Neighborhood) which is the center of Dhaka's thriving theater movement. Ian Herbert & Nicole Leclercq, The World of Theatre, page 12, Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN 0415238668 Indian and Pakistani music and films are popular with large segments of Dhaka's population. A. F. Salahuddin Ahmed & Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury, Bangladesh, National Culture, and Heritage: An Introductory Readerâ, page 405, Independent University, 2004, ISBN 9848509003 This area is also credited for the revival of the Jamdani due to the many local saree stores selling and promoting these locally hand-made age old traditional Bengali sarees. Jamdanis are 100% hand weaved and originated from the Persian and Mughal era. Jamdanis are one of the oldest types of cottage industries which is slowly dying due to its slow production process which is the consequent of maintaining high quality. A single medium range Jamdani saree may take as long as 3 months to complete. Bangladesh Betar is the state-run primary provider of radio services, and broadcasts a variety of programming in Bangla and English. In recent years many private radio networks specially FM radio services have been established in the city such as Radio Foorti FM 88.0, Radio Today FM 89.6, Radio Amar FM 101.6 and ABC Radio FM 89.2. Bangladesh Television is the state-run broadcasting network that provides a wide variety of programmes in Bangla and English. Cable and satellite networks such as Ekushey Television, Channel I, ATN Bangla, RTV, NTV and STAR TV are amongst the most popular channels. The main offices of most publishing houses in Bangladesh are based in Dhaka. The Prothom Alo and The Daily Ittefaq are the most popular amongst the large number of Bangla language dailies, periodicals and other publications in the city. The Daily Star and The Independent are the largest English-language dailies published in the city. John Simpson, The Traveler's Handbook, page 195, Globe Pequot, 2006, ISBN 0762740906 Although cellular phones are gaining popularity, less than 10% of households have telephone access. Dhaka is known as the Rickshaw capital of the world. 400,000 rickshaws run each day Cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws are the main mode of transport for the inhabitants of the city, with close to 400,000 rickshaws running each day the largest number for any city in the world. However, only about 85,000 rickshaws are licensed by the city government. Rizanuzzaman Laskar, " Rickshaw pullers get licences", The Daily Star (Dhaka), 2007-03-04 Relatively low-cost and non-polluting cycle rickshaws nevertheless cause traffic congestion and have been banned from many parts of the city. Public buses are operated by the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) and by private companies and operators. Scooters, taxis and privately-owned automobiles are increasingly becoming popular with the city's growing middle-class. The government has overseen the replacement of two-stroke engine taxis with "Green taxis" locally called CNG, which run on compressed natural gas. Dhaka has 1,868 kilometres (1,161 mi) of paved roads. Sharif Uddin Ahmed, Dacca: A Study in Urban History and Developmentâ, page 108, Curzon Press, 1986, ISBN 0913215147 It is connected by highways and railway links to Chittagong, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Faridpur and Sylhet. Highway links to the Indian cities of Kolkata and Agartala have been established by the BRTC which also runs regular bus services to those cities from Dhaka. The Kamalapur Railway Station and the Airport (Biman Bandar) Railway Station are the main railway stations providing trains on suburban and national routes operated by the state-run Bangladesh Railway. Marika McAdam, Bangladesh, page 66, Lonely Planet, 2004, ISBN 1740592808 The Sadarghat Port on the banks of the Buriganga River serves the transportation of goods and passengers upriver and to other ports in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Asian Highway Handbook, page 28; United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Publications, 2005, ISBN 9211201705 The Zia International Airport is the largest and busiest in the nation. Curzon Hall of the University of Dhaka Dhaka has the largest number of schools, colleges and universities of any Bangladeshi city. The education system is divided into 4 levels: Primary (from grades 1 to 5), Secondary (from grades 6 to 10), Higher Secondary (from grades 11 to 12) and tertiary. T. Neville Postlethwaite, The Encyclopedia of Comparative Education and National Systems of Educationâ, page 130, Pergamon Press, 1988, ISBN 0080308538 The five years of lower secondary education concludes with a Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Examination. Students who pass this examination proceed to two years of Higher Secondary or intermediate training, which culminate in a Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) Examination. Education is mainly offered in Bangla, but English is also commonly taught and used. A large number of Muslim families send their children to attend part-time courses or even to pursue full-time religious education, which is imparted in Bangla and Arabic in madrasahs. The Dhaka College is the oldest institution of higher education in the city and amongst the earliest established in British India, founded in 1840. Since independence, Dhaka has seen the establishment of a large number of public and private colleges and universities that offer undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as a variety of doctoral programmes. Growth of academic institutions: Kamal Siddiqui, Social Formation in Dhaka City: A Study in Third World Urban Sociology, page 42, University Press Limited, Dhaka 1990 The University of Dhaka is the largest public university in the nation with more than 30,000 students and 1,300 faculty staff. The university has 18 research centres and 70 departments, faculties and institutes. Eminent seats of higher education include the Jahangirnagar University and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). The Dhaka Medical College and the Sir Salimullah Medical College are amongst the largest and most respected medical schools in the nation. Muhammad Shamsul Huq, Higher Education and Employment in Bangladesh, page 181, UNESCO, 1983 Dhaka's college campuses are often hotbeds of political conflicts. Protests and strikes, and violence amongst police, students and political groups frequently disrupt public university campuses. Cricket and football are the two most popular sports in Dhaka and across the nation. Bangladesh, The New Encyclopaedia Britannica (ed. Robert MacHenry), page 717, Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 1993, ISBN 0852295715 Teams are fielded in intra-city and national competitions by a large number of schools, colleges and private entities. The Mohammedan Sports Club and Abahani are the largest football and cricket teams, maintaining a fierce rivalry. Scyld Berry, " Mahmud grows into captain's role", The Telegraph (UK), 2003-10-18 Many Bangladeshi cricketers and football players such as Sheikh Aslam, Athar Ali Khan, Kaiser Hamid, and Mohammad Ashraful hail from Dhaka. Dhaka has the distinction of having hosted the first official test cricket match of the Pakistan cricket team in 1954 against India. The Bangabandhu National Stadium was formerly the main venue for domestic and international cricket matches, but now exclusively hosts football matches. It is a potential host for the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as well being host to 6 matches to be played in Bangladesh. India lands 2011 World Cup final, from BBC, retrieved July 9, 2006. The Bangladesh Sports Control Board, responsible for promoting sports activities across the nation is based in Dhaka. Dhaka also has stadiums largely used for domestic events such as the Sher-e-Bangla Mirpur Stadium (in Mirpur), the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium and the Outer Stadium Ground. The Dhaka University Ground hosts many intercollegiate tournaments. Muhammad Abdur Rahim, The History of the University of Dacca,â page 161, University of Dacca, 1981 * * * * * * * Dhaka City Corporation
Dhaka	Is University of Dhaka older than the Dhaka College?	No	data/set3/a3	Dhaka Dhaka (formerly spelled as Dacca) (Bangla: à¦¢à¦¾à¦à¦¾, ) is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. Dhaka is a Mega city and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, has a population of over 12 million, making it the largest city in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Pocket Book, 2007 (pdf-file) 2007 Population Estimate. Accessed on 2008-09-29. With its colourful history, Dhaka is known as the 'City of Mosques' and for its famous fine Muslin cloth which has a great ethnic value. Under Mughal rule in the 17th century, the city was also known as Jahangir Nagar, and was both a provincial capital and a centre of the worldwide muslin trade. The modern city, however, was developed chiefly under British rule in the 19th century, and soon became the second-largest city in Bengal after Calcutta (presently Kolkata). With the partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the administrative capital of East Pakistan, and later, in 1972, the capital of an independent Bangladesh. During the intervening period, the city witnessed widespread turmoil; this included many impositions of martial law, the declaration of Bangladesh's independence, military suppression, devastation during war, and natural calamities. Modern Dhaka is the center of political, cultural and economic life in Bangladesh. Price Information of Essential Commodities, National Web Portal, Government of Bangladesh. It has both the highest literacy rate - 72.3% - and the most diverse economy amongst Bangladeshi cities. Although its urban infrastructure is the most developed in the country, it is nonetheless a fighting metropolitan city with challenges such as pollution, congestion, and lack of adequate services due to the rising population. In recent decades, Dhaka has seen modernization of transport, communications and public works. The city is attracting large foreign investments and greater volumes of commerce and trade. It is also experiencing an increasing influx of people from across the nation. Dhaka is consistently ranked as one of the least livable cities in the world. Lalbagh Fort, constructed in the mid 17th century by Shaista Khan. The existence of urbanized settlements in the area that is now Dhaka dates from the 7th century. The city area was ruled by the Buddhist kingdom of Kamarupa and the Pala Empire before passing to the control of the Hindu Sena dynasty in the 9th century. South Asia: Eastern Himalayan Culture, Ecology and People, by Hasna Jasimuddin Moudud. ISBN 9840801651 Many believe that the name of the city was derived after the establishment of the Goddess Dhakeshwari's temple by Ballal Sena in the 12th century. Dhaka and its surrounding area was identified as Bengalla around that period. The town itself consisted of a few market centers like Lakshmi Bazar, Shankhari Bazar, Tanti Bazar, Patuatuli, Kumartuli, Bania Nagar and Goal Nagar. After the Sena dynasty, Dhaka was successively ruled by the Turkish and Afghan governors descending from the Delhi Sultanate before the arrival of the Mughals in 1608. Taru Bahl & M.H. Syed, Encyclopaedia of the Muslim World, page 55, Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2003, ISBN 8126114193 The development of townships and a significant growth in population came as the city was proclaimed the capital of Bengal under Mughal rule in 1608. Mughal subahdar Islam Khan was the first administrator of the city. Francis Bradley Bradley-Birt, The Romance of an Eastern Capitalâ, page 264, Smith, Elder, & co., 1906 Khan named the town "Jahangir Nagar" (City of Jahangir) in honor of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, although this name was dropped soon after Jahangir's death. The main expansion of the city took place under Mughal general Shaista Khan. The city then measured 19 by 13 kilometres (12 by 8 mi), with a population of nearly a million people. "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 6, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. The city passed to the control of the British East India Company in 1765 after the Battle of Plassey. The city's population shrank dramatically during this period as the prominence of Kolkata rose, "Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area (1608-1981)", page 7, M. Atiqullah and F. Karim Khan, Social Science Research Project, University of Dacca Press, East Pakistan, 1965. With the growth of Calcutta (founded by Job Charnock in 1690), the business centres started moving to Calcutta followed by flight of capital and labour force from Dacca. By 1800, Calcutta became a city of 500 thousands, (Ghosh, 1950 pp 53-54) and Dacca declined to 2000 thousands, the population of 160 years before. but substantive development and modernisation eventually followed. A modern civic water supply system was introduced in 1874 and electricity supply launched in 1878. H Furumai, F Kurisu & H Katayama, Southeast Asian Water Environment 2: Selected Papers from the Second International Symposium on Southeast Asian Water Environment, page 205, IWA Publishing, 2008, ISBN 1843391244 Mohammad Atiqullah & Fazle Karim Khan, Growth of Dacca City: Population and Area, 1608-1981â, page 10, University of Dacca, 1965 The Dhaka Cantonment was established near the city, serving as a base for British and Bengali soldiers. Ahsan Manzil-once the palace of the Dhaka Nawab Family is now a museum During the abortive Partition of Bengal in 1905, Dhaka was declared to be the capital of the newly established state of East Bengal and Assam, but Bengal was reunited in 1911. Following the Partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the capital of East Pakistan. The city witnessed minimal communal violence. A large proportion of the city's Hindu population departed for India, while the city received a large influx of Muslims. After Bangladesh's independence in 1971, Dhaka with the status of the nation's capital, the growth of commerce and industry along with the city's population rose dramatically in the following decades, which created further challenges to services and infrastructure. United Nations Human Settlements Programme, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007â, page 184, Earthscan, 2007, ISBN 184407479X As the center of regional politics, Dhaka saw an increasing number of political strikes and incidents of violence. The adoption of Urdu as the sole official language of Pakistan led to protest marches involving large crowds. Known as the Bengali Language Movement, the protests resulted in police firing which killed students who were demonstrating peacefully. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, Dhaka remained a hotbed of political activity, and the demands for autonomy for the Bengali population gradually gained momentum. Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban houses the national parliament. The 1970 Bhola cyclone devastated much of the region, killing an estimated 500,000 people. More than half the city of Dhaka was flooded and millions of people marooned. With public anger growing against ethnic discrimination and poor cyclone relief efforts from the central government, Bengali politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman held a nationalist gathering on March 7, 1971 at the Race Course Ground. An estimated one million people attended the gathering, leading to the March 26 declaration of Bangladesh's independence. In response, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight, which led to the arrests, torture and killing of thousands of people, Muslims and Hindus Bengali intellectuals. Blood, Archer, , Department of State, United States After nine months of bloody battle with Bangladesh Forces, the Pakistani Army surrendered to the Mitra Bahini on December 16 marking the end of the independence war of Bangladesh. The post-independence period has seen a rapid and massive growth of the city population, attracting migrant workers from rural areas across Bangladesh. A real estate boom has followed the expansion of city limits and the development of new settlements such as Bashundhara, Mirpur and Motijheel. Dhaka is located in central Bangladesh at , on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River. The city lies on the lower reaches of the Ganges Delta and covers a total area of . Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics; Area, Population and Literacy Rate by Paurashava â 2001 (pdf-file) Accessed on 2008-09-29. It consists of seven principal thanas Dhanmondi, Kotwali, Motijheel, Paltan, Ramna, Mohammadpur, Sutrapur, Tejgaon and 16 auxiliary thanas Gulshan, Lalbagh, Mirpur, Pallabi, Shah Ali, Turaag, Sabujbagh, Dhaka Cantonment, Demra, Hazaribagh, Shyampur, Badda, Kafrul, Kamrangir char, Khilgaon and Uttara. In total the city has 130 wards and 725 mohallas. Dhaka district has an area of 1463.60 square kilometres (565 sq mi); and is bounded by the districts of Gazipur, Tangail, Munshiganj, Rajbari, Narayanganj, Manikganj. Tropical vegetation and moist soils characterise the land, which is flat and close to sea level. This leaves Dhaka susceptible to flooding during the monsoon seasons owing to heavy rainfall and cyclones. Dhaka experiences a hot, wet and humid tropical climate. The city is within the monsoon climate zone, with an annual average temperature of 25 Â°C (77 Â°F) and monthly means varying between 18 Â°C (64 Â°F) in January and 29 Â°C (84 Â°F) in August. Nearly 80% of the annual average rainfall of 1,854 millimetres (73 in) occurs between May and September. caused by the city's rapid expansion, congestion and industrial activities. Increasing air and water pollution emanating from traffic congestion and industrial waste are serious problems affecting public health and the quality of life in the city. Water bodies and wetlands around Dhaka are facing extinction as these are being filled up to construct multi-storied buildings and other real estate developments. Coupled with pollution, such erosion of natural habitats threatens to destroy much of the regional biodiversity. The Dhaka City Corporation building The Dhaka municipality was founded on August 1, 1864 and upgraded to "corporation" status in 1978. The Dhaka City Corporation is a self-governing corporation which runs the affairs of the city. The incorporated area is divided into several wards, which have elected commissioners. The mayor of the city is elected by popular vote every five years, and the post is presently held by Sadeque Hossain Khoka. The Dhaka Education Board is responsible for administering all public schools and most private schools with the exception of English-medium schools and madrassahs. All madrassahs in Bangladesh are governed by a central board while English-medium schools are under separate educational and governance structures. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) was established in 1976 and has 6,000 personnel in 12 police stations. With the rapid population growth of the city, the force has been raised to 23,000 personnel and the establishment of 33 police stations has been completed and the creation of another 18 police stations is underway. However, Dhaka suffers from a chronically high crime rate and frequent incidences of political and religious violence. The DMP suffers from lack of equipment and personnel, causing governments to occasionally deploy the Bangladesh Army and paramilitary forces in major efforts to curb crime. Aside from Chittagong, Dhaka is the only city in the country with a water-borne sewage system, but this serves only 25% of the population while another 30% are served with septic tanks. Only two-thirds of households in Dhaka are served by the city water supply system. More than 9.7 million tonnes of solid wastes are produced in Dhaka city each year. While private and government efforts have succeeded in collecting garbage city-wide and using it as manure, most solid wastes are often dumped untreated in nearby low-lying areas and water bodies. Dhaka has one of the highest rates of death from infectious disease of any city in Asia. The city is divided into 10 parliamentary constituencies. The two main political parties are the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Ramna contains the Secretariat, which houses most of the government ministries. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh and the Dhaka High Court are located in the city. The Bangabhaban palace has served as the official residence of the Viceroy of India, the governor of East Pakistan and presently the President of Bangladesh. Bangabhaban, from Banglapedia. The Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, designed by renowned architect Louis Kahn, houses the unicameral national parliament. The Baitul Mukarram, developed with a design resembling the Kaaba of Mecca, is the national mosque. Other historical monuments in the city include the Bara Katra palace, the Lalbagh Fort, the Hoseni Dalan and the Ahsan Manzil. To fight rising traffic congestion and population rise in the capital city, the national government has implemented a policy for rapid urbanisation of surrounding areas and beyond by recent introduction of ten year holiday on income tax for new construction of all types of facilities and buildings outside Dhaka. Bashundhara City, South Asia's largest shopping mall. Dhaka is the commercial heart of Bangladesh. The city has a moderate-sized middle class population, driving the market for modern consumer and luxury goods. and industries located in the Dhaka metropolitan area. The city has historically attracted large number of migrant workers. Hawkers, peddlers, small shops, rickshaws transport, roadside vendors and stalls employ a large segment of the population rickshaw-drivers alone number as many as 400,000. Robert Cervero, Informal Transport in the Developing Worldâ, page 39, UN-HABITAT, 2000, ISBN 9211314534 Half the workforce is employed in household and unorganised labour, while about 800,000 work in the textile industry. Even so, unemployment remains high at 23%. According to CityMayors Statistics, Dhaka's GDP registered at $92 billion in 2008 with an annual growth rate of 7.6%. Its estimated GDP in the year 2020 is $160 billion. The annual per capita income of Dhaka is estimated at $3,600, although a large segment of the population coming from the villages in search of emploment lives below the poverty line, with many surviving on less than $10 a day. The main commercial area of the city include Motijheel, Mirpur, Kawran Bazar, Gulshan, Banani and Uttara. Bashundhara City is a developing economic area that will include high-tech industries, corporations and a large shopping mall in about 5 years. The Export Processing Zone in Dhaka was set up to encourage the export of garments, textiles and other goods. Dhaka has two EPZ's. They are home to 413 industries, which employ mostly women. The Dhaka Stock Exchange is based in the city, as are most of the large multinationals including Citigroup, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Unilever, Nestle and British American Tobacco. Large local conglomerates such as Navana Group ACI, Rahimafrooz also have their corporate offices located in Dhaka. The history of micro-credit also began here and the offices of the Nobel Prize winning Grameen Bank and BRAC are all based in Dhaka. Urban developments have sparked a widespread construction boom, causing new high-rise buildings and skyscrapers to change the city landscape. Growth has been especially strong in the finance, banking, manufacturing, telecommunications and services sectors, while tourism, hotels and restaurants continue as important elements of the Dhaka economy. Animation showing urban growth in Dhaka, Blangladesh from 1972 to 2001. The animation starts with a global view over India using Terra-MODIS 30 km. true color data. The animation then zooms down to Terra-MODIS 1 km. data over Bangladesh, and dissolves into the December 28, 1972 Landsat-1-MSS data of Dhaka. Dhaka can then be seen growing to its present day size by first showing the February 13, 1989 Landsat-5-TM image which then dissolves into the final January 29, 2001 Landsat-7-ETM+ image. The population of Dhaka city (areas under the jurisdiction of the Dhaka city corporation) stands at approximately 6.7 million. The city, in combination with localities forming the wider metropolitan area, is home to an estimated 12.3 million as of 2007. The population is growing by an estimated 4.2% per annum, one of the highest rates amongst Asian cities. The continuing growth reflects ongoing migration from rural areas to the Dhaka urban region, which accounted for 60% of the city's growth in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently, the city's population has also grown with the expansion of city boundaries, a process that added more than a million people to the city in the 1980s. The population literacy rate of the city is estimated at 62.3%. The city population is composed of peoples from virtually every region of Bangladesh. The long-standing inhabitants of the old city are known as Dhakaia and have a distinctive dialect and culture. Between 15,000 to 20,000 of the Rohingya, Santal, Khasi, Garo, Chakma and Mandi tribal peoples reside in the city. Most residents of Dhaka speak Bengali, the national language. Many distinctive Bengali dialects and regional languages such as Chittagonian and Sylheti are also spoken by segments of the population. English is also spoken by a large segment of the population, especially for business purposes. Urdu is spoken by members of several non-Bengali communities, including the Biharis. Islam is the predominant religion of Dhaka's people, with a majority belonging to the Sunni sect. There are also significant Shia and Ahmadiya communities. Hinduism is the second-largest religion and smaller communities practice Buddhism and Christianity. In recent years there have been rising acts of religious violence, especially from radical Islamic groups. Islamic groups have been blamed for targeting Hindus, Christians and Ahmadiyas as well as police and state authorities. Baitul Mukarram (Dhaka), the National Mosque of Bangladesh. The structure resembles the Kaaba in Mecca. Durga Puja at the Dhakeshwari Temple Bangla New Year celebration in Ramna park. As the most populous city of the nation, Dhaka has a vibrant cultural life. Annual celebrations for Independence Day (March 26), Language Martyrs' Day (February 21) and Victory Day (December 16) are prominently celebrated across the city. Dhaka's people congregate at the Shaheed Minar and the Jatiyo Smriti Soudho to remember the national heroes of the liberation war. These occasions are observed with public ceremonies and rallies in public grounds. Many schools and colleges organise fair, festival and concert in which citizens from all level of society participate. Pohela Baishakh, the Bengali New Year, falls annually on April 14 and is popularly celebrated across the city. Large crowds of people gather on the streets of Shahbag, Ramna Park and the campus of the University of Dhaka for celebrations. The most popular dressing style for women are sarees or salwar kameez, while men usually prefer western clothing to the traditional lungi. The Durga Puja is the most important Hindu festival of the year. Large processions of Hindus perform devotional songs, dances, prayers and ceremonies for Goddess Durga. Matthew Westfall & Victoria A. De Villa, Urban Indicators for Managing Cities: Cities Data Bookâ, page 174, Asian Development Bank, 2001, ISBN 9715613128 The Muslim festivals of Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha witnesses widespread celebrations, with large numbers of Muslims attending prayers in mosques across the city; Dhaka being known as the 'City of Mosques'. For much of recent history, Dhaka was characterised by roadside markets and small shops that sold a wide variety of goods. Jeremy Seabrook, In the Cities of the South: Scenes from a Developing Worldâ page 221, Verso Books, 1996, ISBN 1859840817 Recent years have seen the widespread construction of shopping malls, multiplexes, hotels and restaurants attracting Dhaka's growing middle-class and wealthy residents. Various writers, World and Its Peoples, page 489, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2008, ISBN 0761476318 Along with Bangladeshi cuisine and South Asian variants, a large variety in Western and Chinese cuisine are served at numerous restaurants and eateries. Dhakai Bakarkhani is the traditional food/snack of the people of old Dhaka. It is famous for its quality and taste and it was highly praised by the Royal court of the Mughal Empire in Delhi. Despite the growing popularity of music groups and rock bands, traditional folk music remains widely popular. Thomas Angotti & Lothar Beckel, Mega Cities, page 730, GEOSPACE Beckel Satellitenb. GmbH, 2001, ISBN 3853130518 The ghazal songs of artists like Runa Laila and the works of the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and national anthem writer Rabindranath Tagore also widespread following across Dhaka. Alison Arnold, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: The Indian Subcontinent, pages 858-859, Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0824049462 The Baily Road area is known as Natak Para (Theater Neighborhood) which is the center of Dhaka's thriving theater movement. Ian Herbert & Nicole Leclercq, The World of Theatre, page 12, Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN 0415238668 Indian and Pakistani music and films are popular with large segments of Dhaka's population. A. F. Salahuddin Ahmed & Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury, Bangladesh, National Culture, and Heritage: An Introductory Readerâ, page 405, Independent University, 2004, ISBN 9848509003 This area is also credited for the revival of the Jamdani due to the many local saree stores selling and promoting these locally hand-made age old traditional Bengali sarees. Jamdanis are 100% hand weaved and originated from the Persian and Mughal era. Jamdanis are one of the oldest types of cottage industries which is slowly dying due to its slow production process which is the consequent of maintaining high quality. A single medium range Jamdani saree may take as long as 3 months to complete. Bangladesh Betar is the state-run primary provider of radio services, and broadcasts a variety of programming in Bangla and English. In recent years many private radio networks specially FM radio services have been established in the city such as Radio Foorti FM 88.0, Radio Today FM 89.6, Radio Amar FM 101.6 and ABC Radio FM 89.2. Bangladesh Television is the state-run broadcasting network that provides a wide variety of programmes in Bangla and English. Cable and satellite networks such as Ekushey Television, Channel I, ATN Bangla, RTV, NTV and STAR TV are amongst the most popular channels. The main offices of most publishing houses in Bangladesh are based in Dhaka. The Prothom Alo and The Daily Ittefaq are the most popular amongst the large number of Bangla language dailies, periodicals and other publications in the city. The Daily Star and The Independent are the largest English-language dailies published in the city. John Simpson, The Traveler's Handbook, page 195, Globe Pequot, 2006, ISBN 0762740906 Although cellular phones are gaining popularity, less than 10% of households have telephone access. Dhaka is known as the Rickshaw capital of the world. 400,000 rickshaws run each day Cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws are the main mode of transport for the inhabitants of the city, with close to 400,000 rickshaws running each day the largest number for any city in the world. However, only about 85,000 rickshaws are licensed by the city government. Rizanuzzaman Laskar, " Rickshaw pullers get licences", The Daily Star (Dhaka), 2007-03-04 Relatively low-cost and non-polluting cycle rickshaws nevertheless cause traffic congestion and have been banned from many parts of the city. Public buses are operated by the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) and by private companies and operators. Scooters, taxis and privately-owned automobiles are increasingly becoming popular with the city's growing middle-class. The government has overseen the replacement of two-stroke engine taxis with "Green taxis" locally called CNG, which run on compressed natural gas. Dhaka has 1,868 kilometres (1,161 mi) of paved roads. Sharif Uddin Ahmed, Dacca: A Study in Urban History and Developmentâ, page 108, Curzon Press, 1986, ISBN 0913215147 It is connected by highways and railway links to Chittagong, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Faridpur and Sylhet. Highway links to the Indian cities of Kolkata and Agartala have been established by the BRTC which also runs regular bus services to those cities from Dhaka. The Kamalapur Railway Station and the Airport (Biman Bandar) Railway Station are the main railway stations providing trains on suburban and national routes operated by the state-run Bangladesh Railway. Marika McAdam, Bangladesh, page 66, Lonely Planet, 2004, ISBN 1740592808 The Sadarghat Port on the banks of the Buriganga River serves the transportation of goods and passengers upriver and to other ports in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Asian Highway Handbook, page 28; United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Publications, 2005, ISBN 9211201705 The Zia International Airport is the largest and busiest in the nation. Curzon Hall of the University of Dhaka Dhaka has the largest number of schools, colleges and universities of any Bangladeshi city. The education system is divided into 4 levels: Primary (from grades 1 to 5), Secondary (from grades 6 to 10), Higher Secondary (from grades 11 to 12) and tertiary. T. Neville Postlethwaite, The Encyclopedia of Comparative Education and National Systems of Educationâ, page 130, Pergamon Press, 1988, ISBN 0080308538 The five years of lower secondary education concludes with a Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Examination. Students who pass this examination proceed to two years of Higher Secondary or intermediate training, which culminate in a Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) Examination. Education is mainly offered in Bangla, but English is also commonly taught and used. A large number of Muslim families send their children to attend part-time courses or even to pursue full-time religious education, which is imparted in Bangla and Arabic in madrasahs. The Dhaka College is the oldest institution of higher education in the city and amongst the earliest established in British India, founded in 1840. Since independence, Dhaka has seen the establishment of a large number of public and private colleges and universities that offer undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as a variety of doctoral programmes. Growth of academic institutions: Kamal Siddiqui, Social Formation in Dhaka City: A Study in Third World Urban Sociology, page 42, University Press Limited, Dhaka 1990 The University of Dhaka is the largest public university in the nation with more than 30,000 students and 1,300 faculty staff. The university has 18 research centres and 70 departments, faculties and institutes. Eminent seats of higher education include the Jahangirnagar University and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). The Dhaka Medical College and the Sir Salimullah Medical College are amongst the largest and most respected medical schools in the nation. Muhammad Shamsul Huq, Higher Education and Employment in Bangladesh, page 181, UNESCO, 1983 Dhaka's college campuses are often hotbeds of political conflicts. Protests and strikes, and violence amongst police, students and political groups frequently disrupt public university campuses. Cricket and football are the two most popular sports in Dhaka and across the nation. Bangladesh, The New Encyclopaedia Britannica (ed. Robert MacHenry), page 717, Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 1993, ISBN 0852295715 Teams are fielded in intra-city and national competitions by a large number of schools, colleges and private entities. The Mohammedan Sports Club and Abahani are the largest football and cricket teams, maintaining a fierce rivalry. Scyld Berry, " Mahmud grows into captain's role", The Telegraph (UK), 2003-10-18 Many Bangladeshi cricketers and football players such as Sheikh Aslam, Athar Ali Khan, Kaiser Hamid, and Mohammad Ashraful hail from Dhaka. Dhaka has the distinction of having hosted the first official test cricket match of the Pakistan cricket team in 1954 against India. The Bangabandhu National Stadium was formerly the main venue for domestic and international cricket matches, but now exclusively hosts football matches. It is a potential host for the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as well being host to 6 matches to be played in Bangladesh. India lands 2011 World Cup final, from BBC, retrieved July 9, 2006. The Bangladesh Sports Control Board, responsible for promoting sports activities across the nation is based in Dhaka. Dhaka also has stadiums largely used for domestic events such as the Sher-e-Bangla Mirpur Stadium (in Mirpur), the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium and the Outer Stadium Ground. The Dhaka University Ground hosts many intercollegiate tournaments. Muhammad Abdur Rahim, The History of the University of Dacca,â page 161, University of Dacca, 1981 * * * * * * * Dhaka City Corporation
English_language	What is given for the number of native speakers?	No figure is given for the number of native speakers.	data/set5/a1	English_language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and of the United States since the late 19th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. /ref> It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in Commonwealth countries and many international organizations, where it is often the preferred language. Historically, English originated from several dialects, now called Old English, which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. The language was heavily influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek. Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet. A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations. Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English, in common with other global languages, has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most particularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Similarly, historical linguists, aware of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change, are always aware of the potential English contains through the vast size and spread of the communities that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct languages over time. English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands in the 5th century. One of these German tribes were the Angles, Anglik English language resource who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The names 'England' (or 'Aenglaland') and English are derived from the name of this tribe. The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from the regions of Denmark and Jutland, Linguistics research center Texas University The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe, Calgary University Before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language. English Language Expert Although the most significant changes in dialect occurred after the Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as Old English. History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle English" Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain . One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of English, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication). Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Italic branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary. The emergence and spread of the British Empire as well as the emergence of the United States as a superpower helped to spread the English language around the world. The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is either Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as either a separate language or else as a group of dialects of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be the next closest. After those are other Germanic languages, namely the West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. With the exception of Scots, none of these languages is mutually intelligible with English, because of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology. Lexical differences with the other Germanic languages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage in English of words taken from Latin (for example, "exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with "gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. German Ãnderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (literally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also significantly different from English, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a number of false friends between English and its relatives. Phonology differences obscure words which actually are genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the English word has come to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon). Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes -hood, -ship, -dom and -ness. All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix -heit being cognate of English -hood, while English -dom is cognate with German -tum). Many written French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such as mirage or phrases like coup dâÃ©tat) has become completely anglicized and follows a typically English pattern of stress. Some North Germanic words also entered English due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window", "egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the present plural form of "to be"). Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Ethnologue, 1999 CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World). However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)". Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined. 20,000 Teaching There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, 7 March edition, 2007. The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home. United Kingdom (61 million), [ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995] (2003-08-03).] Canada (18.2 million), Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territoriesâ20% sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada. Australia (15.5 million), Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home. Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa. and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million). Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. No figure is given for the number of native speakers, but it would be somewhere between the number of people who spoke English only (3,008,058) and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer. Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004. Following India is the People's Republic of China. Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377â390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census]). English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States. In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico) , former British colony of Hong Kong, and Netherlands Antilles. English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom. Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006. U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research United Kingdom. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. U.S. ENGLISH, Inc. English is not a de jure official language of Israel; however, the country has maintained official language use a de facto role for English since the British mandate. Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research Center Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications. International Maritime Organization English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%). The Official EU languages Among non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%). European Union Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. The expansion of the British Empire andâsince World War IIâthe influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins. Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the worldâone based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queen's) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other areas influenced either by the British Commonwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the United States. The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) which have had either close association with the United States or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed. Scots developedâlargely independently âfrom the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English. Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out. Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002 Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. * Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners. * E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be. * English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language. * Manually Coded English a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English. * Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel. * Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words. It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation. This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given: * Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ /, / /, / /, and / /) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable compare pin and spin , crap and scrap . In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well. In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated. * Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects. * Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [ ], sack [ ]. * Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) examples: sad [ ], bag [ ]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question. In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example: : - Do you need anything? : - I don't, no : - I don't know (contracted to, for example, - or I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further) English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed. Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example: : That \| was \| the \| best \| thing \| you \| could \| have \| done! Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable. The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example: : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.) : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen something else.) Also : I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her) : I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but now I will) : I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc) : I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else) : I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else) This can also be used to express emotion: : Oh, really? (...I did not know that) : Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly obvious) The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positiveânegative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example: : When do you want to be paid? : Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?") : Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.") English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular. At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect. The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries. For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion SchÃ¶ner) Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego, Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo, tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matá¹"; mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf. Greek gignÅmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know). Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English and more common in ordinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinization of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language. An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or arrive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English. An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison; cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon lower classes. Since the majority of words used in informal settings will normally be Germanic, such words are often the preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article. However, there are other Latinate words that are used normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal; these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance, the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use, push and stay are all Latinate. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, Ã¼ber, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. See also: sociolinguistics. The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states: The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no Academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy: The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year. Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages). 83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic. Old English Online Conversely, a vast majority of more advanced words from subjects such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic. Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists. A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows: Influences in English vocabulary * Langue d'oÃ¯l, including French and Old Norman: 28.3% * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24% * Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25% * Greek: 5.32% * No etymology given: 4.03% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages contributed less than 1% A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics: Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com * French (langue d'oÃ¯l): 41% * "Native" English: 33% * Latin: 15% * Old Norse: 2% * Dutch: 1% * Other: 10% Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver (small coin). A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oÃ¯l origin, most derived from, or transmitted via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. Words of French origin include competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, machine, force, and many others that have been and are being anglicised; they are now pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French. Since around the ninth century, English has been written using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken. Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable. Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalizations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233-245. Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic. Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company. In general, the English language, being the product of many other languages and having only been codified orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging. Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can't Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169 It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish. Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29. Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relatively regular way: Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in cafÃ©), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naÃ¯ve, ZoÃ«). Words such as dÃ©cor, cafÃ©, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ©, entrÃ©e, fiancÃ©e and naÃ¯ve are frequently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often added to words to make them have a more "upscale" commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer keyboards, caf'e or cafe' (for example) have begun to become prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer keyboards in English-speaking countries. Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as animÃ©, exposÃ©, lamÃ©, Ã¶re, Ã¸re, pÃ¢tÃ©, piquÃ©, and rosÃ©, though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ© is often spelled resume in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as matÃ©, from Spanish yerba mate, following the French usage. A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English. To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named Basic English, a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus companies who need to make complex books for international use may employ Basic English, as well as language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time. Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that could be said with a few other words and he worked to make the words work for speakers of any other language. He put his set of words through a large number of tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar simpler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English users. The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace. Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses. Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear". * Changes to Old English vocabulary * English for Academic Purposes * English language learning and teaching * Language Report * Teaching English as a foreign language * * * * * * * * Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953. * * * * 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker * Accents of English from Around the World Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online * * More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker * National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition * The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how non-native speakers around the world use English * Collection of English bilingual dictionaries * dict.org * Dictionary of American Regional English * English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary * Oxford's online dictionary * Merriam-Webster's online dictionary * Macquarie Dictionary Online
English_language	Is english an intonation language?	Yes	data/set5/a1	English_language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and of the United States since the late 19th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. /ref> It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in Commonwealth countries and many international organizations, where it is often the preferred language. Historically, English originated from several dialects, now called Old English, which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. The language was heavily influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek. Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet. A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations. Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English, in common with other global languages, has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most particularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Similarly, historical linguists, aware of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change, are always aware of the potential English contains through the vast size and spread of the communities that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct languages over time. English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands in the 5th century. One of these German tribes were the Angles, Anglik English language resource who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The names 'England' (or 'Aenglaland') and English are derived from the name of this tribe. The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from the regions of Denmark and Jutland, Linguistics research center Texas University The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe, Calgary University Before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language. English Language Expert Although the most significant changes in dialect occurred after the Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as Old English. History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle English" Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain . One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of English, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication). Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Italic branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary. The emergence and spread of the British Empire as well as the emergence of the United States as a superpower helped to spread the English language around the world. The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is either Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as either a separate language or else as a group of dialects of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be the next closest. After those are other Germanic languages, namely the West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. With the exception of Scots, none of these languages is mutually intelligible with English, because of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology. Lexical differences with the other Germanic languages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage in English of words taken from Latin (for example, "exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with "gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. German Ãnderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (literally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also significantly different from English, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a number of false friends between English and its relatives. Phonology differences obscure words which actually are genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the English word has come to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon). Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes -hood, -ship, -dom and -ness. All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix -heit being cognate of English -hood, while English -dom is cognate with German -tum). Many written French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such as mirage or phrases like coup dâÃ©tat) has become completely anglicized and follows a typically English pattern of stress. Some North Germanic words also entered English due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window", "egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the present plural form of "to be"). Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Ethnologue, 1999 CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World). However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)". Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined. 20,000 Teaching There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, 7 March edition, 2007. The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home. United Kingdom (61 million), [ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995] (2003-08-03).] Canada (18.2 million), Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territoriesâ20% sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada. Australia (15.5 million), Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home. Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa. and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million). Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. No figure is given for the number of native speakers, but it would be somewhere between the number of people who spoke English only (3,008,058) and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer. Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004. Following India is the People's Republic of China. Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377â390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census]). English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States. In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico) , former British colony of Hong Kong, and Netherlands Antilles. English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom. Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006. U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research United Kingdom. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. U.S. ENGLISH, Inc. English is not a de jure official language of Israel; however, the country has maintained official language use a de facto role for English since the British mandate. Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research Center Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications. International Maritime Organization English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%). The Official EU languages Among non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%). European Union Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. The expansion of the British Empire andâsince World War IIâthe influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins. Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the worldâone based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queen's) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other areas influenced either by the British Commonwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the United States. The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) which have had either close association with the United States or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed. Scots developedâlargely independently âfrom the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English. Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out. Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002 Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. * Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners. * E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be. * English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language. * Manually Coded English a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English. * Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel. * Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words. It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation. This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given: * Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ /, / /, / /, and / /) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable compare pin and spin , crap and scrap . In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well. In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated. * Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects. * Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [ ], sack [ ]. * Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) examples: sad [ ], bag [ ]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question. In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example: : - Do you need anything? : - I don't, no : - I don't know (contracted to, for example, - or I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further) English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed. Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example: : That \| was \| the \| best \| thing \| you \| could \| have \| done! Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable. The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example: : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.) : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen something else.) Also : I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her) : I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but now I will) : I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc) : I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else) : I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else) This can also be used to express emotion: : Oh, really? (...I did not know that) : Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly obvious) The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positiveânegative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example: : When do you want to be paid? : Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?") : Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.") English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular. At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect. The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries. For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion SchÃ¶ner) Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego, Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo, tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matá¹"; mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf. Greek gignÅmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know). Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English and more common in ordinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinization of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language. An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or arrive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English. An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison; cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon lower classes. Since the majority of words used in informal settings will normally be Germanic, such words are often the preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article. However, there are other Latinate words that are used normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal; these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance, the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use, push and stay are all Latinate. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, Ã¼ber, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. See also: sociolinguistics. The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states: The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no Academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy: The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year. Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages). 83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic. Old English Online Conversely, a vast majority of more advanced words from subjects such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic. Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists. A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows: Influences in English vocabulary * Langue d'oÃ¯l, including French and Old Norman: 28.3% * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24% * Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25% * Greek: 5.32% * No etymology given: 4.03% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages contributed less than 1% A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics: Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com * French (langue d'oÃ¯l): 41% * "Native" English: 33% * Latin: 15% * Old Norse: 2% * Dutch: 1% * Other: 10% Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver (small coin). A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oÃ¯l origin, most derived from, or transmitted via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. Words of French origin include competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, machine, force, and many others that have been and are being anglicised; they are now pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French. Since around the ninth century, English has been written using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken. Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable. Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalizations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233-245. Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic. Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company. In general, the English language, being the product of many other languages and having only been codified orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging. Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can't Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169 It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish. Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29. Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relatively regular way: Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in cafÃ©), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naÃ¯ve, ZoÃ«). Words such as dÃ©cor, cafÃ©, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ©, entrÃ©e, fiancÃ©e and naÃ¯ve are frequently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often added to words to make them have a more "upscale" commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer keyboards, caf'e or cafe' (for example) have begun to become prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer keyboards in English-speaking countries. Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as animÃ©, exposÃ©, lamÃ©, Ã¶re, Ã¸re, pÃ¢tÃ©, piquÃ©, and rosÃ©, though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ© is often spelled resume in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as matÃ©, from Spanish yerba mate, following the French usage. A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English. To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named Basic English, a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus companies who need to make complex books for international use may employ Basic English, as well as language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time. Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that could be said with a few other words and he worked to make the words work for speakers of any other language. He put his set of words through a large number of tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar simpler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English users. The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace. Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses. Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear". * Changes to Old English vocabulary * English for Academic Purposes * English language learning and teaching * Language Report * Teaching English as a foreign language * * * * * * * * Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953. * * * * 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker * Accents of English from Around the World Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online * * More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker * National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition * The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how non-native speakers around the world use English * Collection of English bilingual dictionaries * dict.org * Dictionary of American Regional English * English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary * Oxford's online dictionary * Merriam-Webster's online dictionary * Macquarie Dictionary Online
English_language	Is english a de jure official language of Israel?	no	data/set5/a1	English_language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and of the United States since the late 19th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. /ref> It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in Commonwealth countries and many international organizations, where it is often the preferred language. Historically, English originated from several dialects, now called Old English, which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. The language was heavily influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek. Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet. A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations. Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English, in common with other global languages, has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most particularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Similarly, historical linguists, aware of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change, are always aware of the potential English contains through the vast size and spread of the communities that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct languages over time. English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands in the 5th century. One of these German tribes were the Angles, Anglik English language resource who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The names 'England' (or 'Aenglaland') and English are derived from the name of this tribe. The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from the regions of Denmark and Jutland, Linguistics research center Texas University The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe, Calgary University Before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language. English Language Expert Although the most significant changes in dialect occurred after the Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as Old English. History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle English" Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain . One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of English, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication). Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Italic branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary. The emergence and spread of the British Empire as well as the emergence of the United States as a superpower helped to spread the English language around the world. The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is either Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as either a separate language or else as a group of dialects of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be the next closest. After those are other Germanic languages, namely the West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. With the exception of Scots, none of these languages is mutually intelligible with English, because of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology. Lexical differences with the other Germanic languages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage in English of words taken from Latin (for example, "exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with "gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. German Ãnderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (literally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also significantly different from English, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a number of false friends between English and its relatives. Phonology differences obscure words which actually are genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the English word has come to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon). Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes -hood, -ship, -dom and -ness. All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix -heit being cognate of English -hood, while English -dom is cognate with German -tum). Many written French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such as mirage or phrases like coup dâÃ©tat) has become completely anglicized and follows a typically English pattern of stress. Some North Germanic words also entered English due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window", "egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the present plural form of "to be"). Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Ethnologue, 1999 CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World). However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)". Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined. 20,000 Teaching There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, 7 March edition, 2007. The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home. United Kingdom (61 million), [ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995] (2003-08-03).] Canada (18.2 million), Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territoriesâ20% sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada. Australia (15.5 million), Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home. Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa. and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million). Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. No figure is given for the number of native speakers, but it would be somewhere between the number of people who spoke English only (3,008,058) and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer. Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004. Following India is the People's Republic of China. Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377â390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census]). English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States. In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico) , former British colony of Hong Kong, and Netherlands Antilles. English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom. Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006. U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research United Kingdom. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. U.S. ENGLISH, Inc. English is not a de jure official language of Israel; however, the country has maintained official language use a de facto role for English since the British mandate. Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research Center Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications. International Maritime Organization English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%). The Official EU languages Among non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%). European Union Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. The expansion of the British Empire andâsince World War IIâthe influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins. Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the worldâone based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queen's) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other areas influenced either by the British Commonwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the United States. The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) which have had either close association with the United States or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed. Scots developedâlargely independently âfrom the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English. Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out. Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002 Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. * Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners. * E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be. * English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language. * Manually Coded English a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English. * Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel. * Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words. It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation. This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given: * Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ /, / /, / /, and / /) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable compare pin and spin , crap and scrap . In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well. In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated. * Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects. * Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [ ], sack [ ]. * Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) examples: sad [ ], bag [ ]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question. In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example: : - Do you need anything? : - I don't, no : - I don't know (contracted to, for example, - or I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further) English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed. Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example: : That \| was \| the \| best \| thing \| you \| could \| have \| done! Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable. The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example: : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.) : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen something else.) Also : I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her) : I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but now I will) : I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc) : I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else) : I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else) This can also be used to express emotion: : Oh, really? (...I did not know that) : Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly obvious) The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positiveânegative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example: : When do you want to be paid? : Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?") : Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.") English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular. At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect. The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries. For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion SchÃ¶ner) Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego, Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo, tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matá¹"; mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf. Greek gignÅmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know). Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English and more common in ordinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinization of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language. An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or arrive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English. An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison; cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon lower classes. Since the majority of words used in informal settings will normally be Germanic, such words are often the preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article. However, there are other Latinate words that are used normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal; these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance, the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use, push and stay are all Latinate. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, Ã¼ber, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. See also: sociolinguistics. The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states: The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no Academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy: The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year. Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages). 83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic. Old English Online Conversely, a vast majority of more advanced words from subjects such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic. Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists. A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows: Influences in English vocabulary * Langue d'oÃ¯l, including French and Old Norman: 28.3% * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24% * Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25% * Greek: 5.32% * No etymology given: 4.03% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages contributed less than 1% A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics: Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com * French (langue d'oÃ¯l): 41% * "Native" English: 33% * Latin: 15% * Old Norse: 2% * Dutch: 1% * Other: 10% Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver (small coin). A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oÃ¯l origin, most derived from, or transmitted via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. Words of French origin include competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, machine, force, and many others that have been and are being anglicised; they are now pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French. Since around the ninth century, English has been written using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken. Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable. Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalizations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233-245. Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic. Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company. In general, the English language, being the product of many other languages and having only been codified orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging. Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can't Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169 It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish. Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29. Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relatively regular way: Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in cafÃ©), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naÃ¯ve, ZoÃ«). Words such as dÃ©cor, cafÃ©, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ©, entrÃ©e, fiancÃ©e and naÃ¯ve are frequently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often added to words to make them have a more "upscale" commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer keyboards, caf'e or cafe' (for example) have begun to become prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer keyboards in English-speaking countries. Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as animÃ©, exposÃ©, lamÃ©, Ã¶re, Ã¸re, pÃ¢tÃ©, piquÃ©, and rosÃ©, though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ© is often spelled resume in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as matÃ©, from Spanish yerba mate, following the French usage. A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English. To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named Basic English, a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus companies who need to make complex books for international use may employ Basic English, as well as language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time. Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that could be said with a few other words and he worked to make the words work for speakers of any other language. He put his set of words through a large number of tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar simpler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English users. The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace. Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses. Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear". * Changes to Old English vocabulary * English for Academic Purposes * English language learning and teaching * Language Report * Teaching English as a foreign language * * * * * * * * Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953. * * * * 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker * Accents of English from Around the World Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online * * More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker * National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition * The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how non-native speakers around the world use English * Collection of English bilingual dictionaries * dict.org * Dictionary of American Regional English * English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary * Oxford's online dictionary * Merriam-Webster's online dictionary * Macquarie Dictionary Online
English_language	Is the stressed syllable called the nuclear syllable?	yes	data/set5/a1	English_language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and of the United States since the late 19th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. /ref> It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in Commonwealth countries and many international organizations, where it is often the preferred language. Historically, English originated from several dialects, now called Old English, which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. The language was heavily influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek. Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet. A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations. Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English, in common with other global languages, has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most particularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Similarly, historical linguists, aware of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change, are always aware of the potential English contains through the vast size and spread of the communities that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct languages over time. English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands in the 5th century. One of these German tribes were the Angles, Anglik English language resource who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The names 'England' (or 'Aenglaland') and English are derived from the name of this tribe. The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from the regions of Denmark and Jutland, Linguistics research center Texas University The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe, Calgary University Before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language. English Language Expert Although the most significant changes in dialect occurred after the Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as Old English. History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle English" Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain . One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of English, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication). Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Italic branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary. The emergence and spread of the British Empire as well as the emergence of the United States as a superpower helped to spread the English language around the world. The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is either Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as either a separate language or else as a group of dialects of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be the next closest. After those are other Germanic languages, namely the West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. With the exception of Scots, none of these languages is mutually intelligible with English, because of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology. Lexical differences with the other Germanic languages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage in English of words taken from Latin (for example, "exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with "gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. German Ãnderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (literally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also significantly different from English, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a number of false friends between English and its relatives. Phonology differences obscure words which actually are genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the English word has come to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon). Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes -hood, -ship, -dom and -ness. All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix -heit being cognate of English -hood, while English -dom is cognate with German -tum). Many written French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such as mirage or phrases like coup dâÃ©tat) has become completely anglicized and follows a typically English pattern of stress. Some North Germanic words also entered English due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window", "egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the present plural form of "to be"). Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Ethnologue, 1999 CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World). However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)". Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined. 20,000 Teaching There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, 7 March edition, 2007. The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home. United Kingdom (61 million), [ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995] (2003-08-03).] Canada (18.2 million), Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territoriesâ20% sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada. Australia (15.5 million), Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home. Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa. and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million). Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. No figure is given for the number of native speakers, but it would be somewhere between the number of people who spoke English only (3,008,058) and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer. Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004. Following India is the People's Republic of China. Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377â390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census]). English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States. In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico) , former British colony of Hong Kong, and Netherlands Antilles. English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom. Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006. U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research United Kingdom. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. U.S. ENGLISH, Inc. English is not a de jure official language of Israel; however, the country has maintained official language use a de facto role for English since the British mandate. Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research Center Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications. International Maritime Organization English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%). The Official EU languages Among non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%). European Union Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. The expansion of the British Empire andâsince World War IIâthe influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins. Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the worldâone based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queen's) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other areas influenced either by the British Commonwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the United States. The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) which have had either close association with the United States or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed. Scots developedâlargely independently âfrom the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English. Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out. Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002 Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. * Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners. * E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be. * English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language. * Manually Coded English a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English. * Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel. * Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words. It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation. This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given: * Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ /, / /, / /, and / /) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable compare pin and spin , crap and scrap . In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well. In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated. * Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects. * Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [ ], sack [ ]. * Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) examples: sad [ ], bag [ ]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question. In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example: : - Do you need anything? : - I don't, no : - I don't know (contracted to, for example, - or I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further) English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed. Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example: : That \| was \| the \| best \| thing \| you \| could \| have \| done! Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable. The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example: : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.) : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen something else.) Also : I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her) : I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but now I will) : I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc) : I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else) : I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else) This can also be used to express emotion: : Oh, really? (...I did not know that) : Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly obvious) The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positiveânegative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example: : When do you want to be paid? : Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?") : Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.") English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular. At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect. The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries. For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion SchÃ¶ner) Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego, Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo, tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matá¹"; mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf. Greek gignÅmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know). Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English and more common in ordinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinization of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language. An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or arrive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English. An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison; cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon lower classes. Since the majority of words used in informal settings will normally be Germanic, such words are often the preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article. However, there are other Latinate words that are used normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal; these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance, the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use, push and stay are all Latinate. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, Ã¼ber, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. See also: sociolinguistics. The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states: The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no Academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy: The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year. Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages). 83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic. Old English Online Conversely, a vast majority of more advanced words from subjects such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic. Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists. A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows: Influences in English vocabulary * Langue d'oÃ¯l, including French and Old Norman: 28.3% * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24% * Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25% * Greek: 5.32% * No etymology given: 4.03% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages contributed less than 1% A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics: Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com * French (langue d'oÃ¯l): 41% * "Native" English: 33% * Latin: 15% * Old Norse: 2% * Dutch: 1% * Other: 10% Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver (small coin). A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oÃ¯l origin, most derived from, or transmitted via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. Words of French origin include competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, machine, force, and many others that have been and are being anglicised; they are now pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French. Since around the ninth century, English has been written using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken. Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable. Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalizations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233-245. Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic. Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company. In general, the English language, being the product of many other languages and having only been codified orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging. Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can't Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169 It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish. Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29. Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relatively regular way: Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in cafÃ©), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naÃ¯ve, ZoÃ«). Words such as dÃ©cor, cafÃ©, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ©, entrÃ©e, fiancÃ©e and naÃ¯ve are frequently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often added to words to make them have a more "upscale" commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer keyboards, caf'e or cafe' (for example) have begun to become prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer keyboards in English-speaking countries. Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as animÃ©, exposÃ©, lamÃ©, Ã¶re, Ã¸re, pÃ¢tÃ©, piquÃ©, and rosÃ©, though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ© is often spelled resume in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as matÃ©, from Spanish yerba mate, following the French usage. A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English. To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named Basic English, a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus companies who need to make complex books for international use may employ Basic English, as well as language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time. Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that could be said with a few other words and he worked to make the words work for speakers of any other language. He put his set of words through a large number of tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar simpler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English users. The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace. Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses. Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear". * Changes to Old English vocabulary * English for Academic Purposes * English language learning and teaching * Language Report * Teaching English as a foreign language * * * * * * * * Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953. * * * * 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker * Accents of English from Around the World Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online * * More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker * National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition * The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how non-native speakers around the world use English * Collection of English bilingual dictionaries * dict.org * Dictionary of American Regional English * English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary * Oxford's online dictionary * Merriam-Webster's online dictionary * Macquarie Dictionary Online
English_language	Does english grammar have minimal inflection?	Yes	data/set5/a1	English_language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and of the United States since the late 19th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. /ref> It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in Commonwealth countries and many international organizations, where it is often the preferred language. Historically, English originated from several dialects, now called Old English, which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. The language was heavily influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek. Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet. A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations. Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English, in common with other global languages, has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most particularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Similarly, historical linguists, aware of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change, are always aware of the potential English contains through the vast size and spread of the communities that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct languages over time. English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands in the 5th century. One of these German tribes were the Angles, Anglik English language resource who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The names 'England' (or 'Aenglaland') and English are derived from the name of this tribe. The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from the regions of Denmark and Jutland, Linguistics research center Texas University The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe, Calgary University Before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language. English Language Expert Although the most significant changes in dialect occurred after the Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as Old English. History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle English" Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain . One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of English, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication). Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Italic branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary. The emergence and spread of the British Empire as well as the emergence of the United States as a superpower helped to spread the English language around the world. The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is either Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as either a separate language or else as a group of dialects of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be the next closest. After those are other Germanic languages, namely the West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. With the exception of Scots, none of these languages is mutually intelligible with English, because of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology. Lexical differences with the other Germanic languages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage in English of words taken from Latin (for example, "exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with "gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. German Ãnderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (literally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also significantly different from English, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a number of false friends between English and its relatives. Phonology differences obscure words which actually are genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the English word has come to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon). Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes -hood, -ship, -dom and -ness. All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix -heit being cognate of English -hood, while English -dom is cognate with German -tum). Many written French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such as mirage or phrases like coup dâÃ©tat) has become completely anglicized and follows a typically English pattern of stress. Some North Germanic words also entered English due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window", "egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the present plural form of "to be"). Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Ethnologue, 1999 CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World). However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)". Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined. 20,000 Teaching There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, 7 March edition, 2007. The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home. United Kingdom (61 million), [ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995] (2003-08-03).] Canada (18.2 million), Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territoriesâ20% sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada. Australia (15.5 million), Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home. Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa. and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million). Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. No figure is given for the number of native speakers, but it would be somewhere between the number of people who spoke English only (3,008,058) and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer. Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004. Following India is the People's Republic of China. Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377â390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census]). English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States. In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico) , former British colony of Hong Kong, and Netherlands Antilles. English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom. Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006. U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research United Kingdom. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. U.S. ENGLISH, Inc. English is not a de jure official language of Israel; however, the country has maintained official language use a de facto role for English since the British mandate. Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research Center Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications. International Maritime Organization English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%). The Official EU languages Among non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%). European Union Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. The expansion of the British Empire andâsince World War IIâthe influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins. Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the worldâone based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queen's) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other areas influenced either by the British Commonwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the United States. The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) which have had either close association with the United States or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed. Scots developedâlargely independently âfrom the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English. Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out. Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002 Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. * Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners. * E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be. * English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language. * Manually Coded English a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English. * Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel. * Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words. It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation. This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given: * Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ /, / /, / /, and / /) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable compare pin and spin , crap and scrap . In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well. In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated. * Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects. * Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [ ], sack [ ]. * Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) examples: sad [ ], bag [ ]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question. In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example: : - Do you need anything? : - I don't, no : - I don't know (contracted to, for example, - or I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further) English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed. Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example: : That \| was \| the \| best \| thing \| you \| could \| have \| done! Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable. The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example: : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.) : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen something else.) Also : I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her) : I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but now I will) : I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc) : I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else) : I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else) This can also be used to express emotion: : Oh, really? (...I did not know that) : Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly obvious) The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positiveânegative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example: : When do you want to be paid? : Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?") : Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.") English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular. At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect. The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries. For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion SchÃ¶ner) Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego, Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo, tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matá¹"; mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf. Greek gignÅmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know). Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English and more common in ordinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinization of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language. An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or arrive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English. An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison; cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon lower classes. Since the majority of words used in informal settings will normally be Germanic, such words are often the preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article. However, there are other Latinate words that are used normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal; these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance, the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use, push and stay are all Latinate. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, Ã¼ber, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. See also: sociolinguistics. The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states: The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no Academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy: The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year. Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages). 83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic. Old English Online Conversely, a vast majority of more advanced words from subjects such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic. Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists. A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows: Influences in English vocabulary * Langue d'oÃ¯l, including French and Old Norman: 28.3% * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24% * Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25% * Greek: 5.32% * No etymology given: 4.03% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages contributed less than 1% A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics: Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com * French (langue d'oÃ¯l): 41% * "Native" English: 33% * Latin: 15% * Old Norse: 2% * Dutch: 1% * Other: 10% Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver (small coin). A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oÃ¯l origin, most derived from, or transmitted via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. Words of French origin include competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, machine, force, and many others that have been and are being anglicised; they are now pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French. Since around the ninth century, English has been written using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken. Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable. Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalizations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233-245. Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic. Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company. In general, the English language, being the product of many other languages and having only been codified orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging. Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can't Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169 It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish. Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29. Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relatively regular way: Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in cafÃ©), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naÃ¯ve, ZoÃ«). Words such as dÃ©cor, cafÃ©, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ©, entrÃ©e, fiancÃ©e and naÃ¯ve are frequently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often added to words to make them have a more "upscale" commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer keyboards, caf'e or cafe' (for example) have begun to become prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer keyboards in English-speaking countries. Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as animÃ©, exposÃ©, lamÃ©, Ã¶re, Ã¸re, pÃ¢tÃ©, piquÃ©, and rosÃ©, though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ© is often spelled resume in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as matÃ©, from Spanish yerba mate, following the French usage. A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English. To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named Basic English, a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus companies who need to make complex books for international use may employ Basic English, as well as language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time. Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that could be said with a few other words and he worked to make the words work for speakers of any other language. He put his set of words through a large number of tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar simpler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English users. The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace. Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses. Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear". * Changes to Old English vocabulary * English for Academic Purposes * English language learning and teaching * Language Report * Teaching English as a foreign language * * * * * * * * Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953. * * * * 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker * Accents of English from Around the World Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online * * More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker * National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition * The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how non-native speakers around the world use English * Collection of English bilingual dictionaries * dict.org * Dictionary of American Regional English * English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary * Oxford's online dictionary * Merriam-Webster's online dictionary * Macquarie Dictionary Online
English_language	Did old English develop into Middle English?	Yes	data/set5/a1	English_language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and of the United States since the late 19th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. /ref> It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in Commonwealth countries and many international organizations, where it is often the preferred language. Historically, English originated from several dialects, now called Old English, which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. The language was heavily influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek. Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet. A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations. Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English, in common with other global languages, has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most particularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Similarly, historical linguists, aware of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change, are always aware of the potential English contains through the vast size and spread of the communities that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct languages over time. English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands in the 5th century. One of these German tribes were the Angles, Anglik English language resource who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The names 'England' (or 'Aenglaland') and English are derived from the name of this tribe. The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from the regions of Denmark and Jutland, Linguistics research center Texas University The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe, Calgary University Before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language. English Language Expert Although the most significant changes in dialect occurred after the Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as Old English. History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle English" Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain . One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of English, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication). Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Italic branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary. The emergence and spread of the British Empire as well as the emergence of the United States as a superpower helped to spread the English language around the world. The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is either Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as either a separate language or else as a group of dialects of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be the next closest. After those are other Germanic languages, namely the West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. With the exception of Scots, none of these languages is mutually intelligible with English, because of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology. Lexical differences with the other Germanic languages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage in English of words taken from Latin (for example, "exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with "gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. German Ãnderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (literally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also significantly different from English, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a number of false friends between English and its relatives. Phonology differences obscure words which actually are genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the English word has come to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon). Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes -hood, -ship, -dom and -ness. All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix -heit being cognate of English -hood, while English -dom is cognate with German -tum). Many written French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such as mirage or phrases like coup dâÃ©tat) has become completely anglicized and follows a typically English pattern of stress. Some North Germanic words also entered English due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window", "egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the present plural form of "to be"). Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Ethnologue, 1999 CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World). However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)". Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined. 20,000 Teaching There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, 7 March edition, 2007. The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home. United Kingdom (61 million), [ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995] (2003-08-03).] Canada (18.2 million), Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territoriesâ20% sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada. Australia (15.5 million), Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home. Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa. and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million). Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. No figure is given for the number of native speakers, but it would be somewhere between the number of people who spoke English only (3,008,058) and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer. Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004. Following India is the People's Republic of China. Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377â390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census]). English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States. In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico) , former British colony of Hong Kong, and Netherlands Antilles. English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom. Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006. U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research United Kingdom. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. U.S. ENGLISH, Inc. English is not a de jure official language of Israel; however, the country has maintained official language use a de facto role for English since the British mandate. Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research Center Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications. International Maritime Organization English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%). The Official EU languages Among non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%). European Union Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. The expansion of the British Empire andâsince World War IIâthe influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins. Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the worldâone based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queen's) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other areas influenced either by the British Commonwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the United States. The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) which have had either close association with the United States or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed. Scots developedâlargely independently âfrom the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English. Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out. Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002 Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. * Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners. * E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be. * English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language. * Manually Coded English a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English. * Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel. * Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words. It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation. This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given: * Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ /, / /, / /, and / /) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable compare pin and spin , crap and scrap . In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well. In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated. * Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects. * Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [ ], sack [ ]. * Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) examples: sad [ ], bag [ ]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question. In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example: : - Do you need anything? : - I don't, no : - I don't know (contracted to, for example, - or I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further) English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed. Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example: : That \| was \| the \| best \| thing \| you \| could \| have \| done! Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable. The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example: : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.) : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen something else.) Also : I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her) : I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but now I will) : I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc) : I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else) : I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else) This can also be used to express emotion: : Oh, really? (...I did not know that) : Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly obvious) The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positiveânegative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example: : When do you want to be paid? : Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?") : Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.") English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular. At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect. The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries. For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion SchÃ¶ner) Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego, Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo, tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matá¹"; mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf. Greek gignÅmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know). Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English and more common in ordinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinization of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language. An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or arrive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English. An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison; cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon lower classes. Since the majority of words used in informal settings will normally be Germanic, such words are often the preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article. However, there are other Latinate words that are used normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal; these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance, the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use, push and stay are all Latinate. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, Ã¼ber, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. See also: sociolinguistics. The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states: The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no Academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy: The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year. Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages). 83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic. Old English Online Conversely, a vast majority of more advanced words from subjects such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic. Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists. A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows: Influences in English vocabulary * Langue d'oÃ¯l, including French and Old Norman: 28.3% * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24% * Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25% * Greek: 5.32% * No etymology given: 4.03% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages contributed less than 1% A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics: Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com * French (langue d'oÃ¯l): 41% * "Native" English: 33% * Latin: 15% * Old Norse: 2% * Dutch: 1% * Other: 10% Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver (small coin). A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oÃ¯l origin, most derived from, or transmitted via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. Words of French origin include competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, machine, force, and many others that have been and are being anglicised; they are now pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French. Since around the ninth century, English has been written using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken. Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable. Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalizations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233-245. Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic. Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company. In general, the English language, being the product of many other languages and having only been codified orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging. Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can't Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169 It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish. Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29. Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relatively regular way: Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in cafÃ©), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naÃ¯ve, ZoÃ«). Words such as dÃ©cor, cafÃ©, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ©, entrÃ©e, fiancÃ©e and naÃ¯ve are frequently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often added to words to make them have a more "upscale" commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer keyboards, caf'e or cafe' (for example) have begun to become prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer keyboards in English-speaking countries. Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as animÃ©, exposÃ©, lamÃ©, Ã¶re, Ã¸re, pÃ¢tÃ©, piquÃ©, and rosÃ©, though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ© is often spelled resume in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as matÃ©, from Spanish yerba mate, following the French usage. A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English. To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named Basic English, a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus companies who need to make complex books for international use may employ Basic English, as well as language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time. Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that could be said with a few other words and he worked to make the words work for speakers of any other language. He put his set of words through a large number of tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar simpler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English users. The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace. Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses. Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear". * Changes to Old English vocabulary * English for Academic Purposes * English language learning and teaching * Language Report * Teaching English as a foreign language * * * * * * * * Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953. * * * * 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker * Accents of English from Around the World Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online * * More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker * National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition * The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how non-native speakers around the world use English * Collection of English bilingual dictionaries * dict.org * Dictionary of American Regional English * English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary * Oxford's online dictionary * Merriam-Webster's online dictionary * Macquarie Dictionary Online
English_language	Are books, magazines, and newspapers written in English available?	yes	data/set5/a1	English_language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and of the United States since the late 19th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. /ref> It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in Commonwealth countries and many international organizations, where it is often the preferred language. Historically, English originated from several dialects, now called Old English, which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. The language was heavily influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek. Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet. A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations. Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English, in common with other global languages, has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most particularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Similarly, historical linguists, aware of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change, are always aware of the potential English contains through the vast size and spread of the communities that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct languages over time. English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands in the 5th century. One of these German tribes were the Angles, Anglik English language resource who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The names 'England' (or 'Aenglaland') and English are derived from the name of this tribe. The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from the regions of Denmark and Jutland, Linguistics research center Texas University The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe, Calgary University Before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language. English Language Expert Although the most significant changes in dialect occurred after the Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as Old English. History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle English" Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain . One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of English, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication). Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Italic branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary. The emergence and spread of the British Empire as well as the emergence of the United States as a superpower helped to spread the English language around the world. The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is either Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as either a separate language or else as a group of dialects of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be the next closest. After those are other Germanic languages, namely the West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. With the exception of Scots, none of these languages is mutually intelligible with English, because of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology. Lexical differences with the other Germanic languages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage in English of words taken from Latin (for example, "exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with "gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. German Ãnderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (literally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also significantly different from English, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a number of false friends between English and its relatives. Phonology differences obscure words which actually are genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the English word has come to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon). Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes -hood, -ship, -dom and -ness. All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix -heit being cognate of English -hood, while English -dom is cognate with German -tum). Many written French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such as mirage or phrases like coup dâÃ©tat) has become completely anglicized and follows a typically English pattern of stress. Some North Germanic words also entered English due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window", "egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the present plural form of "to be"). Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Ethnologue, 1999 CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World). However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)". Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined. 20,000 Teaching There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, 7 March edition, 2007. The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home. United Kingdom (61 million), [ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995] (2003-08-03).] Canada (18.2 million), Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territoriesâ20% sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada. Australia (15.5 million), Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home. Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa. and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million). Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. No figure is given for the number of native speakers, but it would be somewhere between the number of people who spoke English only (3,008,058) and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer. Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004. Following India is the People's Republic of China. Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377â390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census]). English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States. In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico) , former British colony of Hong Kong, and Netherlands Antilles. English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom. Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006. U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research United Kingdom. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. U.S. ENGLISH, Inc. English is not a de jure official language of Israel; however, the country has maintained official language use a de facto role for English since the British mandate. Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research Center Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications. International Maritime Organization English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%). The Official EU languages Among non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%). European Union Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. The expansion of the British Empire andâsince World War IIâthe influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins. Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the worldâone based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queen's) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other areas influenced either by the British Commonwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the United States. The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) which have had either close association with the United States or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed. Scots developedâlargely independently âfrom the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English. Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out. Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002 Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. * Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners. * E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be. * English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language. * Manually Coded English a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English. * Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel. * Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words. It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation. This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given: * Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ /, / /, / /, and / /) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable compare pin and spin , crap and scrap . In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well. In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated. * Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects. * Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [ ], sack [ ]. * Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) examples: sad [ ], bag [ ]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question. In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example: : - Do you need anything? : - I don't, no : - I don't know (contracted to, for example, - or I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further) English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed. Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example: : That \| was \| the \| best \| thing \| you \| could \| have \| done! Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable. The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example: : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.) : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen something else.) Also : I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her) : I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but now I will) : I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc) : I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else) : I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else) This can also be used to express emotion: : Oh, really? (...I did not know that) : Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly obvious) The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positiveânegative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example: : When do you want to be paid? : Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?") : Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.") English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular. At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect. The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries. For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion SchÃ¶ner) Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego, Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo, tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matá¹"; mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf. Greek gignÅmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know). Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English and more common in ordinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinization of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language. An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or arrive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English. An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison; cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon lower classes. Since the majority of words used in informal settings will normally be Germanic, such words are often the preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article. However, there are other Latinate words that are used normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal; these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance, the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use, push and stay are all Latinate. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, Ã¼ber, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. See also: sociolinguistics. The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states: The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no Academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy: The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year. Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages). 83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic. Old English Online Conversely, a vast majority of more advanced words from subjects such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic. Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists. A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows: Influences in English vocabulary * Langue d'oÃ¯l, including French and Old Norman: 28.3% * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24% * Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25% * Greek: 5.32% * No etymology given: 4.03% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages contributed less than 1% A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics: Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com * French (langue d'oÃ¯l): 41% * "Native" English: 33% * Latin: 15% * Old Norse: 2% * Dutch: 1% * Other: 10% Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver (small coin). A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oÃ¯l origin, most derived from, or transmitted via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. Words of French origin include competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, machine, force, and many others that have been and are being anglicised; they are now pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French. Since around the ninth century, English has been written using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken. Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable. Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalizations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233-245. Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic. Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company. In general, the English language, being the product of many other languages and having only been codified orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging. Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can't Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169 It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish. Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29. Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relatively regular way: Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in cafÃ©), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naÃ¯ve, ZoÃ«). Words such as dÃ©cor, cafÃ©, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ©, entrÃ©e, fiancÃ©e and naÃ¯ve are frequently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often added to words to make them have a more "upscale" commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer keyboards, caf'e or cafe' (for example) have begun to become prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer keyboards in English-speaking countries. Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as animÃ©, exposÃ©, lamÃ©, Ã¶re, Ã¸re, pÃ¢tÃ©, piquÃ©, and rosÃ©, though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ© is often spelled resume in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as matÃ©, from Spanish yerba mate, following the French usage. A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English. To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named Basic English, a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus companies who need to make complex books for international use may employ Basic English, as well as language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time. Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that could be said with a few other words and he worked to make the words work for speakers of any other language. He put his set of words through a large number of tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar simpler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English users. The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace. Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses. Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear". * Changes to Old English vocabulary * English for Academic Purposes * English language learning and teaching * Language Report * Teaching English as a foreign language * * * * * * * * Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953. * * * * 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker * Accents of English from Around the World Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online * * More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker * National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition * The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how non-native speakers around the world use English * Collection of English bilingual dictionaries * dict.org * Dictionary of American Regional English * English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary * Oxford's online dictionary * Merriam-Webster's online dictionary * Macquarie Dictionary Online
English_language	Is the syntax of German different with different rules?	yes	data/set5/a1	English_language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and of the United States since the late 19th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. /ref> It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in Commonwealth countries and many international organizations, where it is often the preferred language. Historically, English originated from several dialects, now called Old English, which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. The language was heavily influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek. Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet. A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations. Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English, in common with other global languages, has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most particularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Similarly, historical linguists, aware of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change, are always aware of the potential English contains through the vast size and spread of the communities that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct languages over time. English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands in the 5th century. One of these German tribes were the Angles, Anglik English language resource who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The names 'England' (or 'Aenglaland') and English are derived from the name of this tribe. The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from the regions of Denmark and Jutland, Linguistics research center Texas University The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe, Calgary University Before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language. English Language Expert Although the most significant changes in dialect occurred after the Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as Old English. History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle English" Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain . One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of English, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication). Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Italic branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary. The emergence and spread of the British Empire as well as the emergence of the United States as a superpower helped to spread the English language around the world. The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is either Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as either a separate language or else as a group of dialects of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be the next closest. After those are other Germanic languages, namely the West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. With the exception of Scots, none of these languages is mutually intelligible with English, because of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology. Lexical differences with the other Germanic languages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage in English of words taken from Latin (for example, "exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with "gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. German Ãnderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (literally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also significantly different from English, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a number of false friends between English and its relatives. Phonology differences obscure words which actually are genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the English word has come to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon). Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes -hood, -ship, -dom and -ness. All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix -heit being cognate of English -hood, while English -dom is cognate with German -tum). Many written French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such as mirage or phrases like coup dâÃ©tat) has become completely anglicized and follows a typically English pattern of stress. Some North Germanic words also entered English due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window", "egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the present plural form of "to be"). Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Ethnologue, 1999 CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World). However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)". Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined. 20,000 Teaching There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, 7 March edition, 2007. The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home. United Kingdom (61 million), [ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995] (2003-08-03).] Canada (18.2 million), Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territoriesâ20% sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada. Australia (15.5 million), Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home. Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa. and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million). Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. No figure is given for the number of native speakers, but it would be somewhere between the number of people who spoke English only (3,008,058) and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer. Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004. Following India is the People's Republic of China. Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377â390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census]). English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States. In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico) , former British colony of Hong Kong, and Netherlands Antilles. English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom. Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006. U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research United Kingdom. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. U.S. ENGLISH, Inc. English is not a de jure official language of Israel; however, the country has maintained official language use a de facto role for English since the British mandate. Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research Center Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications. International Maritime Organization English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%). The Official EU languages Among non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%). European Union Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. The expansion of the British Empire andâsince World War IIâthe influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins. Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the worldâone based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queen's) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other areas influenced either by the British Commonwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the United States. The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) which have had either close association with the United States or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed. Scots developedâlargely independently âfrom the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English. Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out. Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002 Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. * Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners. * E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be. * English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language. * Manually Coded English a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English. * Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel. * Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words. It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation. This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given: * Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ /, / /, / /, and / /) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable compare pin and spin , crap and scrap . In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well. In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated. * Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects. * Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [ ], sack [ ]. * Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) examples: sad [ ], bag [ ]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question. In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example: : - Do you need anything? : - I don't, no : - I don't know (contracted to, for example, - or I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further) English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed. Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example: : That \| was \| the \| best \| thing \| you \| could \| have \| done! Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable. The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example: : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.) : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen something else.) Also : I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her) : I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but now I will) : I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc) : I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else) : I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else) This can also be used to express emotion: : Oh, really? (...I did not know that) : Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly obvious) The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positiveânegative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example: : When do you want to be paid? : Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?") : Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.") English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular. At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect. The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries. For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion SchÃ¶ner) Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego, Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo, tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matá¹"; mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf. Greek gignÅmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know). Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English and more common in ordinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinization of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language. An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or arrive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English. An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison; cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon lower classes. Since the majority of words used in informal settings will normally be Germanic, such words are often the preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article. However, there are other Latinate words that are used normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal; these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance, the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use, push and stay are all Latinate. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, Ã¼ber, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. See also: sociolinguistics. The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states: The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no Academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy: The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year. Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages). 83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic. Old English Online Conversely, a vast majority of more advanced words from subjects such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic. Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists. A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows: Influences in English vocabulary * Langue d'oÃ¯l, including French and Old Norman: 28.3% * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24% * Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25% * Greek: 5.32% * No etymology given: 4.03% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages contributed less than 1% A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics: Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com * French (langue d'oÃ¯l): 41% * "Native" English: 33% * Latin: 15% * Old Norse: 2% * Dutch: 1% * Other: 10% Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver (small coin). A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oÃ¯l origin, most derived from, or transmitted via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. Words of French origin include competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, machine, force, and many others that have been and are being anglicised; they are now pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French. Since around the ninth century, English has been written using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken. Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable. Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalizations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233-245. Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic. Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company. In general, the English language, being the product of many other languages and having only been codified orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging. Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can't Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169 It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish. Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29. Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relatively regular way: Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in cafÃ©), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naÃ¯ve, ZoÃ«). Words such as dÃ©cor, cafÃ©, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ©, entrÃ©e, fiancÃ©e and naÃ¯ve are frequently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often added to words to make them have a more "upscale" commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer keyboards, caf'e or cafe' (for example) have begun to become prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer keyboards in English-speaking countries. Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as animÃ©, exposÃ©, lamÃ©, Ã¶re, Ã¸re, pÃ¢tÃ©, piquÃ©, and rosÃ©, though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ© is often spelled resume in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as matÃ©, from Spanish yerba mate, following the French usage. A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English. To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named Basic English, a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus companies who need to make complex books for international use may employ Basic English, as well as language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time. Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that could be said with a few other words and he worked to make the words work for speakers of any other language. He put his set of words through a large number of tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar simpler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English users. The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace. Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses. Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear". * Changes to Old English vocabulary * English for Academic Purposes * English language learning and teaching * Language Report * Teaching English as a foreign language * * * * * * * * Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953. * * * * 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker * Accents of English from Around the World Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online * * More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker * National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition * The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how non-native speakers around the world use English * Collection of English bilingual dictionaries * dict.org * Dictionary of American Regional English * English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary * Oxford's online dictionary * Merriam-Webster's online dictionary * Macquarie Dictionary Online
English_language	Is it true that semantics causes a number of false friends?	true	data/set5/a1	English_language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and of the United States since the late 19th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. /ref> It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in Commonwealth countries and many international organizations, where it is often the preferred language. Historically, English originated from several dialects, now called Old English, which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. The language was heavily influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek. Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet. A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations. Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English, in common with other global languages, has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most particularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Similarly, historical linguists, aware of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change, are always aware of the potential English contains through the vast size and spread of the communities that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct languages over time. English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands in the 5th century. One of these German tribes were the Angles, Anglik English language resource who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The names 'England' (or 'Aenglaland') and English are derived from the name of this tribe. The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from the regions of Denmark and Jutland, Linguistics research center Texas University The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe, Calgary University Before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language. English Language Expert Although the most significant changes in dialect occurred after the Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as Old English. History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle English" Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain . One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of English, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication). Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Italic branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary. The emergence and spread of the British Empire as well as the emergence of the United States as a superpower helped to spread the English language around the world. The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is either Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as either a separate language or else as a group of dialects of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be the next closest. After those are other Germanic languages, namely the West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. With the exception of Scots, none of these languages is mutually intelligible with English, because of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology. Lexical differences with the other Germanic languages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage in English of words taken from Latin (for example, "exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with "gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. German Ãnderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (literally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also significantly different from English, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a number of false friends between English and its relatives. Phonology differences obscure words which actually are genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the English word has come to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon). Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes -hood, -ship, -dom and -ness. All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix -heit being cognate of English -hood, while English -dom is cognate with German -tum). Many written French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such as mirage or phrases like coup dâÃ©tat) has become completely anglicized and follows a typically English pattern of stress. Some North Germanic words also entered English due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window", "egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the present plural form of "to be"). Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Ethnologue, 1999 CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World). However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)". Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined. 20,000 Teaching There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, 7 March edition, 2007. The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home. United Kingdom (61 million), [ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995] (2003-08-03).] Canada (18.2 million), Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territoriesâ20% sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada. Australia (15.5 million), Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home. Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa. and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million). Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. No figure is given for the number of native speakers, but it would be somewhere between the number of people who spoke English only (3,008,058) and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer. Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004. Following India is the People's Republic of China. Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377â390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census]). English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States. In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico) , former British colony of Hong Kong, and Netherlands Antilles. English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom. Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006. U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research United Kingdom. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. U.S. ENGLISH, Inc. English is not a de jure official language of Israel; however, the country has maintained official language use a de facto role for English since the British mandate. Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research Center Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications. International Maritime Organization English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%). The Official EU languages Among non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%). European Union Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. The expansion of the British Empire andâsince World War IIâthe influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins. Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the worldâone based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queen's) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other areas influenced either by the British Commonwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the United States. The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) which have had either close association with the United States or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed. Scots developedâlargely independently âfrom the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English. Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out. Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002 Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. * Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners. * E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be. * English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language. * Manually Coded English a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English. * Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel. * Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words. It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation. This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given: * Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ /, / /, / /, and / /) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable compare pin and spin , crap and scrap . In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well. In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated. * Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects. * Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [ ], sack [ ]. * Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) examples: sad [ ], bag [ ]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question. In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example: : - Do you need anything? : - I don't, no : - I don't know (contracted to, for example, - or I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further) English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed. Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example: : That \| was \| the \| best \| thing \| you \| could \| have \| done! Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable. The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example: : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.) : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen something else.) Also : I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her) : I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but now I will) : I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc) : I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else) : I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else) This can also be used to express emotion: : Oh, really? (...I did not know that) : Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly obvious) The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positiveânegative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example: : When do you want to be paid? : Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?") : Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.") English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular. At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect. The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries. For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion SchÃ¶ner) Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego, Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo, tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matá¹"; mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf. Greek gignÅmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know). Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English and more common in ordinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinization of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language. An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or arrive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English. An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison; cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon lower classes. Since the majority of words used in informal settings will normally be Germanic, such words are often the preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article. However, there are other Latinate words that are used normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal; these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance, the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use, push and stay are all Latinate. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, Ã¼ber, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. See also: sociolinguistics. The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states: The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no Academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy: The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year. Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages). 83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic. Old English Online Conversely, a vast majority of more advanced words from subjects such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic. Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists. A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows: Influences in English vocabulary * Langue d'oÃ¯l, including French and Old Norman: 28.3% * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24% * Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25% * Greek: 5.32% * No etymology given: 4.03% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages contributed less than 1% A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics: Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com * French (langue d'oÃ¯l): 41% * "Native" English: 33% * Latin: 15% * Old Norse: 2% * Dutch: 1% * Other: 10% Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver (small coin). A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oÃ¯l origin, most derived from, or transmitted via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. Words of French origin include competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, machine, force, and many others that have been and are being anglicised; they are now pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French. Since around the ninth century, English has been written using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken. Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable. Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalizations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233-245. Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic. Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company. In general, the English language, being the product of many other languages and having only been codified orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging. Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can't Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169 It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish. Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29. Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relatively regular way: Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in cafÃ©), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naÃ¯ve, ZoÃ«). Words such as dÃ©cor, cafÃ©, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ©, entrÃ©e, fiancÃ©e and naÃ¯ve are frequently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often added to words to make them have a more "upscale" commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer keyboards, caf'e or cafe' (for example) have begun to become prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer keyboards in English-speaking countries. Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as animÃ©, exposÃ©, lamÃ©, Ã¶re, Ã¸re, pÃ¢tÃ©, piquÃ©, and rosÃ©, though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ© is often spelled resume in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as matÃ©, from Spanish yerba mate, following the French usage. A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English. To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named Basic English, a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus companies who need to make complex books for international use may employ Basic English, as well as language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time. Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that could be said with a few other words and he worked to make the words work for speakers of any other language. He put his set of words through a large number of tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar simpler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English users. The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace. Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses. Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear". * Changes to Old English vocabulary * English for Academic Purposes * English language learning and teaching * Language Report * Teaching English as a foreign language * * * * * * * * Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953. * * * * 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker * Accents of English from Around the World Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online * * More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker * National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition * The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how non-native speakers around the world use English * Collection of English bilingual dictionaries * dict.org * Dictionary of American Regional English * English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary * Oxford's online dictionary * Merriam-Webster's online dictionary * Macquarie Dictionary Online
English_language	Here , are all syllables unstressed , except the syllables/words best and done , which are stressed ?	yes	data/set5/a1	English_language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and of the United States since the late 19th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. /ref> It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in Commonwealth countries and many international organizations, where it is often the preferred language. Historically, English originated from several dialects, now called Old English, which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. The language was heavily influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek. Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet. A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations. Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English, in common with other global languages, has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most particularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Similarly, historical linguists, aware of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change, are always aware of the potential English contains through the vast size and spread of the communities that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct languages over time. English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands in the 5th century. One of these German tribes were the Angles, Anglik English language resource who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The names 'England' (or 'Aenglaland') and English are derived from the name of this tribe. The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from the regions of Denmark and Jutland, Linguistics research center Texas University The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe, Calgary University Before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language. English Language Expert Although the most significant changes in dialect occurred after the Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as Old English. History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle English" Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain . One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of English, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication). Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Italic branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary. The emergence and spread of the British Empire as well as the emergence of the United States as a superpower helped to spread the English language around the world. The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is either Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as either a separate language or else as a group of dialects of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be the next closest. After those are other Germanic languages, namely the West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. With the exception of Scots, none of these languages is mutually intelligible with English, because of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology. Lexical differences with the other Germanic languages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage in English of words taken from Latin (for example, "exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with "gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. German Ãnderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (literally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also significantly different from English, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a number of false friends between English and its relatives. Phonology differences obscure words which actually are genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the English word has come to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon). Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes -hood, -ship, -dom and -ness. All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix -heit being cognate of English -hood, while English -dom is cognate with German -tum). Many written French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such as mirage or phrases like coup dâÃ©tat) has become completely anglicized and follows a typically English pattern of stress. Some North Germanic words also entered English due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window", "egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the present plural form of "to be"). Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Ethnologue, 1999 CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World). However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)". Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined. 20,000 Teaching There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, 7 March edition, 2007. The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home. United Kingdom (61 million), [ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995] (2003-08-03).] Canada (18.2 million), Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territoriesâ20% sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada. Australia (15.5 million), Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home. Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa. and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million). Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. No figure is given for the number of native speakers, but it would be somewhere between the number of people who spoke English only (3,008,058) and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer. Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004. Following India is the People's Republic of China. Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377â390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census]). English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States. In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico) , former British colony of Hong Kong, and Netherlands Antilles. English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom. Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006. U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research United Kingdom. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. U.S. ENGLISH, Inc. English is not a de jure official language of Israel; however, the country has maintained official language use a de facto role for English since the British mandate. Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research Center Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications. International Maritime Organization English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%). The Official EU languages Among non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%). European Union Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. The expansion of the British Empire andâsince World War IIâthe influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins. Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the worldâone based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queen's) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other areas influenced either by the British Commonwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the United States. The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) which have had either close association with the United States or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed. Scots developedâlargely independently âfrom the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English. Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out. Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002 Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. * Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners. * E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be. * English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language. * Manually Coded English a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English. * Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel. * Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words. It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation. This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given: * Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ /, / /, / /, and / /) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable compare pin and spin , crap and scrap . In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well. In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated. * Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects. * Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [ ], sack [ ]. * Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) examples: sad [ ], bag [ ]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question. In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example: : - Do you need anything? : - I don't, no : - I don't know (contracted to, for example, - or I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further) English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed. Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example: : That \| was \| the \| best \| thing \| you \| could \| have \| done! Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable. The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example: : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.) : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen something else.) Also : I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her) : I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but now I will) : I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc) : I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else) : I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else) This can also be used to express emotion: : Oh, really? (...I did not know that) : Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly obvious) The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positiveânegative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example: : When do you want to be paid? : Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?") : Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.") English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular. At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect. The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries. For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion SchÃ¶ner) Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego, Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo, tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matá¹"; mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf. Greek gignÅmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know). Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English and more common in ordinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinization of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language. An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or arrive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English. An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison; cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon lower classes. Since the majority of words used in informal settings will normally be Germanic, such words are often the preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article. However, there are other Latinate words that are used normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal; these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance, the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use, push and stay are all Latinate. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, Ã¼ber, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. See also: sociolinguistics. The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states: The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no Academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy: The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year. Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages). 83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic. Old English Online Conversely, a vast majority of more advanced words from subjects such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic. Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists. A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows: Influences in English vocabulary * Langue d'oÃ¯l, including French and Old Norman: 28.3% * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24% * Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25% * Greek: 5.32% * No etymology given: 4.03% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages contributed less than 1% A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics: Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com * French (langue d'oÃ¯l): 41% * "Native" English: 33% * Latin: 15% * Old Norse: 2% * Dutch: 1% * Other: 10% Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver (small coin). A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oÃ¯l origin, most derived from, or transmitted via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. Words of French origin include competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, machine, force, and many others that have been and are being anglicised; they are now pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French. Since around the ninth century, English has been written using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken. Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable. Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalizations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233-245. Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic. Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company. In general, the English language, being the product of many other languages and having only been codified orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging. Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can't Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169 It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish. Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29. Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relatively regular way: Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in cafÃ©), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naÃ¯ve, ZoÃ«). Words such as dÃ©cor, cafÃ©, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ©, entrÃ©e, fiancÃ©e and naÃ¯ve are frequently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often added to words to make them have a more "upscale" commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer keyboards, caf'e or cafe' (for example) have begun to become prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer keyboards in English-speaking countries. Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as animÃ©, exposÃ©, lamÃ©, Ã¶re, Ã¸re, pÃ¢tÃ©, piquÃ©, and rosÃ©, though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ© is often spelled resume in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as matÃ©, from Spanish yerba mate, following the French usage. A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English. To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named Basic English, a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus companies who need to make complex books for international use may employ Basic English, as well as language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time. Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that could be said with a few other words and he worked to make the words work for speakers of any other language. He put his set of words through a large number of tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar simpler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English users. The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace. Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses. Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear". * Changes to Old English vocabulary * English for Academic Purposes * English language learning and teaching * Language Report * Teaching English as a foreign language * * * * * * * * Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953. * * * * 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker * Accents of English from Around the World Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online * * More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker * National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition * The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how non-native speakers around the world use English * Collection of English bilingual dictionaries * dict.org * Dictionary of American Regional English * English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary * Oxford's online dictionary * Merriam-Webster's online dictionary * Macquarie Dictionary Online
English_language	Are many words describing the navy , types of ships , and other objects or activities on the water of dutch origin ?	yes	data/set5/a1	English_language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and of the United States since the late 19th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. /ref> It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in Commonwealth countries and many international organizations, where it is often the preferred language. Historically, English originated from several dialects, now called Old English, which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. The language was heavily influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek. Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet. A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations. Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English, in common with other global languages, has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most particularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Similarly, historical linguists, aware of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change, are always aware of the potential English contains through the vast size and spread of the communities that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct languages over time. English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands in the 5th century. One of these German tribes were the Angles, Anglik English language resource who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The names 'England' (or 'Aenglaland') and English are derived from the name of this tribe. The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from the regions of Denmark and Jutland, Linguistics research center Texas University The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe, Calgary University Before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language. English Language Expert Although the most significant changes in dialect occurred after the Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as Old English. History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle English" Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain . One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of English, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication). Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Italic branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary. The emergence and spread of the British Empire as well as the emergence of the United States as a superpower helped to spread the English language around the world. The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is either Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as either a separate language or else as a group of dialects of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be the next closest. After those are other Germanic languages, namely the West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. With the exception of Scots, none of these languages is mutually intelligible with English, because of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology. Lexical differences with the other Germanic languages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage in English of words taken from Latin (for example, "exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with "gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. German Ãnderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (literally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also significantly different from English, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a number of false friends between English and its relatives. Phonology differences obscure words which actually are genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the English word has come to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon). Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes -hood, -ship, -dom and -ness. All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix -heit being cognate of English -hood, while English -dom is cognate with German -tum). Many written French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such as mirage or phrases like coup dâÃ©tat) has become completely anglicized and follows a typically English pattern of stress. Some North Germanic words also entered English due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window", "egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the present plural form of "to be"). Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Ethnologue, 1999 CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World). However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)". Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined. 20,000 Teaching There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, 7 March edition, 2007. The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home. United Kingdom (61 million), [ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995] (2003-08-03).] Canada (18.2 million), Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territoriesâ20% sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada. Australia (15.5 million), Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home. Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa. and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million). Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. No figure is given for the number of native speakers, but it would be somewhere between the number of people who spoke English only (3,008,058) and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer. Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004. Following India is the People's Republic of China. Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377â390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census]). English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States. In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico) , former British colony of Hong Kong, and Netherlands Antilles. English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom. Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006. U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research United Kingdom. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. U.S. ENGLISH, Inc. English is not a de jure official language of Israel; however, the country has maintained official language use a de facto role for English since the British mandate. Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research Center Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications. International Maritime Organization English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%). The Official EU languages Among non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%). European Union Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. The expansion of the British Empire andâsince World War IIâthe influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins. Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the worldâone based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queen's) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other areas influenced either by the British Commonwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the United States. The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) which have had either close association with the United States or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed. Scots developedâlargely independently âfrom the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English. Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out. Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002 Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. * Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners. * E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be. * English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language. * Manually Coded English a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English. * Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel. * Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words. It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation. This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given: * Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ /, / /, / /, and / /) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable compare pin and spin , crap and scrap . In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well. In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated. * Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects. * Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [ ], sack [ ]. * Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) examples: sad [ ], bag [ ]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question. In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example: : - Do you need anything? : - I don't, no : - I don't know (contracted to, for example, - or I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further) English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed. Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example: : That \| was \| the \| best \| thing \| you \| could \| have \| done! Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable. The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example: : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.) : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen something else.) Also : I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her) : I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but now I will) : I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc) : I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else) : I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else) This can also be used to express emotion: : Oh, really? (...I did not know that) : Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly obvious) The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positiveânegative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example: : When do you want to be paid? : Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?") : Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.") English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular. At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect. The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries. For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion SchÃ¶ner) Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego, Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo, tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matá¹"; mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf. Greek gignÅmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know). Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English and more common in ordinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinization of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language. An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or arrive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English. An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison; cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon lower classes. Since the majority of words used in informal settings will normally be Germanic, such words are often the preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article. However, there are other Latinate words that are used normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal; these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance, the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use, push and stay are all Latinate. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, Ã¼ber, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. See also: sociolinguistics. The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states: The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no Academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy: The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year. Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages). 83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic. Old English Online Conversely, a vast majority of more advanced words from subjects such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic. Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists. A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows: Influences in English vocabulary * Langue d'oÃ¯l, including French and Old Norman: 28.3% * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24% * Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25% * Greek: 5.32% * No etymology given: 4.03% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages contributed less than 1% A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics: Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com * French (langue d'oÃ¯l): 41% * "Native" English: 33% * Latin: 15% * Old Norse: 2% * Dutch: 1% * Other: 10% Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver (small coin). A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oÃ¯l origin, most derived from, or transmitted via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. Words of French origin include competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, machine, force, and many others that have been and are being anglicised; they are now pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French. Since around the ninth century, English has been written using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken. Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable. Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalizations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233-245. Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic. Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company. In general, the English language, being the product of many other languages and having only been codified orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging. Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can't Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169 It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish. Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29. Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relatively regular way: Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in cafÃ©), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naÃ¯ve, ZoÃ«). Words such as dÃ©cor, cafÃ©, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ©, entrÃ©e, fiancÃ©e and naÃ¯ve are frequently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often added to words to make them have a more "upscale" commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer keyboards, caf'e or cafe' (for example) have begun to become prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer keyboards in English-speaking countries. Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as animÃ©, exposÃ©, lamÃ©, Ã¶re, Ã¸re, pÃ¢tÃ©, piquÃ©, and rosÃ©, though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ© is often spelled resume in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as matÃ©, from Spanish yerba mate, following the French usage. A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English. To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named Basic English, a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus companies who need to make complex books for international use may employ Basic English, as well as language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time. Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that could be said with a few other words and he worked to make the words work for speakers of any other language. He put his set of words through a large number of tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar simpler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English users. The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace. Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses. Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear". * Changes to Old English vocabulary * English for Academic Purposes * English language learning and teaching * Language Report * Teaching English as a foreign language * * * * * * * * Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953. * * * * 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker * Accents of English from Around the World Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online * * More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker * National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition * The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how non-native speakers around the world use English * Collection of English bilingual dictionaries * dict.org * Dictionary of American Regional English * English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary * Oxford's online dictionary * Merriam-Webster's online dictionary * Macquarie Dictionary Online
English_language	Are local variations in the formal written version of the language quite limited , being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English ?	yes	data/set5/a1	English_language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and of the United States since the late 19th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. /ref> It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in Commonwealth countries and many international organizations, where it is often the preferred language. Historically, English originated from several dialects, now called Old English, which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. The language was heavily influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman (Anglo-French) vocabulary and spelling conventions. Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek. Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet. A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations. Linguists such as David Crystal recognize that one impact of this massive growth of English, in common with other global languages, has been to reduce native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world, most particularly in Australasia and North America, and its huge influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Similarly, historical linguists, aware of the complex and fluid dynamics of language change, are always aware of the potential English contains through the vast size and spread of the communities that use it and its natural internal variety, such as in its creoles and pidgins, to produce a new family of distinct languages over time. English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands in the 5th century. One of these German tribes were the Angles, Anglik English language resource who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The names 'England' (or 'Aenglaland') and English are derived from the name of this tribe. The Anglo Saxons began invading around 449 AD from the regions of Denmark and Jutland, Linguistics research center Texas University The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe, Calgary University Before the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England the native population spoke Brythonic, a Celtic language. English Language Expert Although the most significant changes in dialect occurred after the Norman invasion of 1066, the language retained its name and the pre-Norman invasion dialect is now known as Old English. History of English, Chapter 5 "From Old to Middle English" Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain . One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family; they conquered and colonized parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. (Over the centuries, this lost the specifically Norman element under the influence of Parisian French and, later, of English, eventually turning into a distinctive dialect of Anglo-French.) These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it was never a truly mixed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication). Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical supplementation of the Anglo-Frisian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Italic branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary. The emergence and spread of the British Empire as well as the emergence of the United States as a superpower helped to spread the English language around the world. The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is either Scots, spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, or Frisian. As Scots is viewed by linguists as either a separate language or else as a group of dialects of English, Frisian rather than Scots is often said to be the next closest. After those are other Germanic languages, namely the West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. With the exception of Scots, none of these languages is mutually intelligible with English, because of divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology. Lexical differences with the other Germanic languages arise predominantly because of the heavy usage in English of words taken from Latin (for example, "exit", vs. Dutch uitgang) (literally "out-gang" with "gang" as in "gangway") and French ("change" vs. German Ãnderung, "movement" vs. German Bewegung) (literally "othering" and "be-way-ing" ("proceeding along the way")). The syntax of German and Dutch is also significantly different from English, with different rules for setting up sentences (for example, German Ich habe noch nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen, vs. English "I have still never seen anything in the square"). Semantics causes a number of false friends between English and its relatives. Phonology differences obscure words which actually are genetically related ("enough" vs. German genug), and sometimes both semantics and phonology are different (German Zeit, "time", is related to English "tide", but the English word has come to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon). Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes -hood, -ship, -dom and -ness. All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix -heit being cognate of English -hood, while English -dom is cognate with German -tum). Many written French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with exceptions such as mirage or phrases like coup dâÃ©tat) has become completely anglicized and follows a typically English pattern of stress. Some North Germanic words also entered English due to the Danish invasion shortly before then (see Danelaw); these include words such as "sky", "window", "egg", and even "they" (and its forms) and "are" (the present plural form of "to be"). Pie chart showing the relative numbers of native English speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. Curtis, Andy. Color, Race, And English Language Teaching: Shades of Meaning. 2006, page 192. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Ethnologue, 1999 CIA World Factbook, Field Listing - Languages (World). However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)". Languages of the World (Charts), Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey. Available at The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined. 20,000 Teaching There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. Not the Queen's English, Newsweek International, 7 March edition, 2007. The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), Table 47 gives the figure of 214,809,000 for those five years old and over who speak exclusively English at home. Based on the American Community Survey, these results exclude those living communally (such as college dormitories, institutions, and group homes), and by definition exclude native English speakers who speak more than one language at home. United Kingdom (61 million), [ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Second Edition, Crystal, David; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, [1995] (2003-08-03).] Canada (18.2 million), Population by mother tongue and age groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territoriesâ20% sample data, Census 2006, Statistics Canada. Australia (15.5 million), Census Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics Main Language Spoken at Home. The figure is the number of people who only speak English at home. Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), Census in Brief, page 15 (Table 2.5), 2001 Census, Statistics South Africa. and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million). Languages spoken, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. No figure is given for the number of native speakers, but it would be somewhere between the number of people who spoke English only (3,008,058) and the total number of English speakers (3,673,623), if one ignores the 197,187 people who did not provide a usable answer. Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. Subcontinent Raises Its Voice, Crystal, David; Guardian Weekly: Friday 19 November 2004. Following India is the People's Republic of China. Yong Zhao; Keith P. Campbell (1995). "English in China". World Englishes 14 (3): 377â390. Hong Kong contributes an additional 2.5 million speakers (1996 by-census]). English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize (Belizean Kriol), the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey (Channel Island English), Guyana, Ireland (Hiberno-English), Isle of Man (Manx English), Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States. In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico) , former British colony of Hong Kong, and Netherlands Antilles. English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United States or the United Kingdom. Languages Spoken in the U.S., National Virtual Translation Center, 2006. U.S. English Foundation, Official Language Research United Kingdom. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. U.S. ENGLISH, Inc. English is not a de jure official language of Israel; however, the country has maintained official language use a de facto role for English since the British mandate. Multilingualism in Israel, Language Policy Research Center Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications. International Maritime Organization English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French (32%), German (18%), and Spanish (8%). The Official EU languages Among non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the Netherlands (87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%), Slovenia (56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%). European Union Norway and Iceland also have a large majority of competent English-speakers. Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries. The expansion of the British Empire andâsince World War IIâthe influence of the United States have spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins. Two educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the worldâone based on educated southern British and the other based on educated Midwestern American. The former is sometimes called BBC (or the Queen's) English, and it may be noticeable by its preference for "Received Pronunciation"; it typifies the Cambridge model, which is the standard for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other areas influenced either by the British Commonwealth or by a desire not to be identified with the United States. The latter dialect, General American which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) which have had either close association with the United States or desire to be so identified. Aside from those two major dialects are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed. Scots developedâlargely independently âfrom the same origins, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English. Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to die out. Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England 2nd edition, page 125, Blackwell, Oxford, 2002 Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words. * Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners. * E-Prime excludes forms of the verb to be. * English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language. * Manually Coded English a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English. * Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel. * Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words. It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation. This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given: * Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ /, / /, / /, and / /) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable compare pin and spin , crap and scrap . In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well. In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated. * Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects. * Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [ ], sack [ ]. * Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) examples: sad [ ], bag [ ]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position. English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question. In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example: : - Do you need anything? : - I don't, no : - I don't know (contracted to, for example, - or I dunno in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between don't and know even further) English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be accentuated/stressed and the latter are unaccentuated/unstressed. Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example: : That \| was \| the \| best \| thing \| you \| could \| have \| done! Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words best and done, which are stressed. Best is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable. The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example: : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.) : John had not stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or ... Not at that time, but later he did.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen some other money.) : John had not stolen that money. (... He had stolen something else.) Also : I did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her) : I did not tell her that. (... You said I did. or ... but now I will) : I did not tell her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc) : I did not tell her that. (... I told someone else) : I did not tell her that. (... I told her something else) This can also be used to express emotion: : Oh, really? (...I did not know that) : Oh, really? (...I disbelieve you. or ... That is blatantly obvious) The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positiveânegative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example: : When do you want to be paid? : Now? (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?") : Now. (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.") English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular. At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect. The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries. For the processes and triggers of English vocabulary changes cf. English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion SchÃ¶ner) Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns I, from Old English ic, (cf. Latin ego, Greek ego, Sanskrit aham), me (cf. Latin me, Greek eme, Sanskrit mam), numbers (e.g. one, two, three, cf. Latin unus, duo, tres, Greek oinos "ace (on dice)", duo, treis), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc (cf. Greek "meter", Latin "mater", Sanskrit "matá¹"; mother), names of many animals (cf. Sankrit mus, Greek mys, Latin mus; mouse), and many common verbs (cf. Greek gignÅmi, Latin gnoscere, Hittite kanes; to know). Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Norse origin) tend to be shorter than the Latinate words of English and more common in ordinary speech. This includes nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The longer Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinization of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuse of the language. An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: come or arrive; sight or vision; freedom or liberty. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (oversee), a Latin derived word (supervise), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (survey). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances, enabling the speaker to express fine variations or shades of thought. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English. An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: deer and venison; cow and beef; swine/pig and pork, or sheep and mutton. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion, where a French-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by Anglo-Saxon lower classes. Since the majority of words used in informal settings will normally be Germanic, such words are often the preferred choices when a speaker wishes to make a point in an argument in a very direct way. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article. However, there are other Latinate words that are used normally in everyday speech and do not sound formal; these are mainly words for concepts that no longer have Germanic words, and are generally assimilated better and in many cases do not appear Latinate. For instance, the words mountain, valley, river, aunt, uncle, move, use, push and stay are all Latinate. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as cookie, Internet and URL (technical terms), as well as genre, Ã¼ber, lingua franca and amigo (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. See also: sociolinguistics. The General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states: The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Italian there is no Academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy: The editors of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year. Kister, Ken. "Dictionaries defined." Library Journal, 6/15/92, Vol. 117 Issue 11, p43, 4p, 2bw One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages). 83% of the 1,000 most common English words, and all of the 100 most common, are Germanic. Old English Online Conversely, a vast majority of more advanced words from subjects such as the sciences, philosophy, math, etc. come from Latin or Greek. A noticeable number of words from astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry are from Arabic. Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists. A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows: Influences in English vocabulary * Langue d'oÃ¯l, including French and Old Norman: 28.3% * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24% * Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25% * Greek: 5.32% * No etymology given: 4.03% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages contributed less than 1% A survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics: Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at Amazon.com * French (langue d'oÃ¯l): 41% * "Native" English: 33% * Latin: 15% * Old Norse: 2% * Dutch: 1% * Other: 10% Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. Yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper) and cruiser (kruiser) are examples. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. spook, and the now obsolete snyder (tailor) and stiver (small coin). A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oÃ¯l origin, most derived from, or transmitted via, the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. Words of French origin include competition, art, table, publicity, police, role, routine, machine, force, and many others that have been and are being anglicised; they are now pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French. Since around the ninth century, English has been written using the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken. Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable. Abbott, M. (2000). Identifying reliable generalizations for spelling words: The importance of multilevel analysis. The Elementary School Journal 101(2), 233-245. Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic. Moats, L. M. (2001). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Company. In general, the English language, being the product of many other languages and having only been codified orthographically in the 16th century, has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the sound sequence ough can be pronounced in not less than seven different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging. Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can't Read (New York: Touchstone, 1997) pp. 156-169 It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish. Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29. Only the consonant letters are pronounced in a relatively regular way: Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in cafÃ©), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. naÃ¯ve, ZoÃ«). Words such as dÃ©cor, cafÃ©, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ©, entrÃ©e, fiancÃ©e and naÃ¯ve are frequently spelled both ways. Diacritical marks are often added to words to make them have a more "upscale" commercial appeal. Recently, in the advent of computer keyboards, caf'e or cafe' (for example) have begun to become prevalent in computer-generated signs due to the lack of effective diacritical keys on many computer keyboards in English-speaking countries. Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as animÃ©, exposÃ©, lamÃ©, Ã¶re, Ã¸re, pÃ¢tÃ©, piquÃ©, and rosÃ©, though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, rÃ©sumÃ©/resumÃ© is often spelled resume in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as matÃ©, from Spanish yerba mate, following the French usage. A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang, colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to the spelling differences between British and American English. To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named Basic English, a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus companies who need to make complex books for international use may employ Basic English, as well as language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time. Ogden did not put any words into Basic English that could be said with a few other words and he worked to make the words work for speakers of any other language. He put his set of words through a large number of tests and adjustments. He also made the grammar simpler, but tried to keep the grammar normal for English users. The concept gained its greatest publicity just after the Second World War as a tool for world peace. Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses. Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear". * Changes to Old English vocabulary * English for Academic Purposes * English language learning and teaching * Language Report * Teaching English as a foreign language * * * * * * * * Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953. * * * * 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker * Accents of English from Around the World Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online * * More than 20000 English words recorded by a native speaker * National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition * The Global English Survey Project A survey tracking how non-native speakers around the world use English * Collection of English bilingual dictionaries * dict.org * Dictionary of American Regional English * English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary * Oxford's online dictionary * Merriam-Webster's online dictionary * Macquarie Dictionary Online
Flute	Is the flute a musical instrument?	Yes.	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	Is the flute a musical instrument?	Yes	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	Is it possible to open flutes at one or both ends?	Yes.	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	Is it possible to open flutes at one or both ends?	Yes	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	Are Indian concert flutes available in standard pitches?	Yes.	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	Are Indian concert flutes available in standard pitches?	Yes	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	What do we refer musicians who play flute?	A flute player, a flautist or a flutist.	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	What do we refer musicians who play flute?	A flute player, a flautist, or a flutist	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	When was a three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk discovered?	2004.	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	When was a three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk discovered?	In 2004	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	When did the tin whistle first appear?	12th century.	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	When did the tin whistle first appear?	In the 12th century	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	What are the oldest known musical instruments?	A three holed-flute made from a mammoth tusk and two flutes made from swan's bones.	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	What are the oldest known musical instruments?	A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk and two flutes made from swans' bones are among the oldest known musical instruments	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	When was the pan flute spread to other parts of Europe?	7th century BC.	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	When was the pan flute spread to other parts of Europe?	After the 7th century BC	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Flute	What does the air stream across this hole create?	A Bernoulli, or siphon.	data/set2/a5	Flute A picture of a Western concert flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, or a flutist. The flute has been dated to prehistoric times. It has appeared in different forms and locations around the world. A three-holed flute made from a mammoth tusk (from the GeiÃenklÃ¶sterle cave in the German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago ) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swans' bones excavated a decade earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the oldest known musical instruments. A fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,100 years ago, may also be an early flute. Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. The Bible, in Genesis 4:21, cites Jubal as being the "father of all those who play the ugab and the kinnor". The former Hebrew term refers to some wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage). Some early flutes were made out of tibias (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE has made vague references to the cross flute. Playable 9000-year-old Gudi (literally, "bone flute"), made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, with five to eight holes each, were excavated from a tomb in Jiahu The bone age flute. BBC. Retrieved July 2007. in the Central Chinese province of Henan. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (ç¯ª) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flute's side instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius. The pan flute was used in Greece from the 7th century BC, and spread to other parts of Europe. A Worldwide History of the Pan Flute Throughout the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries, transverse flutes were very uncommon in Europe, with the various fipple flutes being more prominent. The tin whistle (an Irish flute) first appeared in the 12th century, and the recorder in the 14th century. The first literary appearance of the transverse flute was made in 1285, but early on the instrument was only used in Germany and France. Following the 16th-century court music, concert flutes began appearing in chamber ensembles. These flutes were often tuned to the key of D, and used as the tenor voice. However, these flutes varied greatly in size and range. The recorder continued to be popular during the renaissance, but its use declined in the 18th century. The later half of the 18th century shows the first orchestras being formed, and the concert flute being a member thereof, featured in symphonies and concertos. Throughout the rest of the 18th century the interest in concert flutes increased, and peaked in the early half of the 1800s. In the 19th century, the ocarina was developed from the gemshorn, an instrument from the 16th century. The 20th century saw a revival of the recorder, while the concert flute and tin whistle continued to be popular. The invention of plastics in the 20th century gave birth to the tonette, a fipple flute used in music education, but it soon fell out of use, replaced by plastic recorders. A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Flute acoustics, UNSW. Retrieved June 2007. The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes. To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In the organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower. In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full sound than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a considerably trickier proposition. Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the production of higher harmonics or upper partials. Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone, but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter. Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radiuses or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute. A study in which professional players were blindfolded could find no significant differences between instruments made from a variety of different metals. In two different sets of blind listening, no instrument was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver instrument was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range of the instrument". Unfortunately, this study did not control for headjoint design, which is generally known to affect tone (see above). Controlled tone tests show that the tube mass does make a difference and therefore tube density and wall thickness will make a difference. One must also consider the inefficiency of the human ear to detect sound, vs electronic sensors. Playing the zampoÃ±a, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute. In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician. Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The Flue pipes of Organs, which are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. An illustration of a Western concert flute The Western concert flute, a descendant of the 19th-century German flute, is a transverse flute which is closed at the top. Near the top is the embouchure hole, across and into which the player blows. It has larger circular finger-holes than its baroque predecessors, designed to increase the instrument's dynamic range. Various combinations can be opened or closed by means of keys, to produce the different notes in its playing range. There are a total of 25 working keys on a western concert flute. The note produced depends on which finger-holes are opened or closed and on how the flute is blown. There are two kinds of foot joints available for the concert flute: the standard C foot (shown above) or the longer B foot with an extra key extending the flute's range to B below middle C. There can also be a Bb below middle c foot joint added to the instrument. With the rare exception of the Kingma system, or custom-devised fingering systems, modern Western concert flutes conform to the Boehm system. The standard concert flute is pitched in the key of C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C (or one half-step lower with a B foot). This means that the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestral instruments, with the exception of the piccolo, which plays an octave higher. G alto and C bass flutes, pitched, respectively, a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, are used occasionally. Parts are written for alto flute more frequently than for bass. The contrabass, double contrabass, and hyperbass are other rare forms of the flute pitched two, three, and four octaves below middle C respectively. Other sizes of flute and piccolo are used from time to time. A rarer instrument of the modern pitching system is the treble G flute. Instruments made according to an older pitch standard, used principally in wind-band music, include Db piccolo, Eb soprano flute (the primary instrument, equivalent to today's concert C flute), F alto flute, and Bb bass flute. Photograph of an 8-holed bamboo flute A bansuri being played by an Indian classical music artist. The bamboo flute is an important instrument in Indian classical music, and developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the Bansuri (see below). The Indian flutes are very simple compared to the Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas. Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2 (D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist. Various type of flutes being sold by a boy in a local market in Bangalore, India Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music. The quality of the flute's sound depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in South India. The Japanese flute, called the Fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from Japan. The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone quality Pahlevanian 2001 and the pitch of a piccolo, found in the Caucasus region of Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces. The sring is also used in combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing. One Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national Armenian instruments. Komitas 1994 Diple Duduk Irish flute Palendag Pipe and tabor Tin whistle Tumpong Washint Fleadh Cheoil (Irish competition) Trill Boehm, Theobald. 1964. The Flute and Flute-Playing in Acoustical, Technical, and Artistic Aspects, translated by Dayton C. Miller, with a new introduction by Samuel Baron. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21259-9 Buchanan, Donna A. 2001. âBulgaria Â§II: Traditional Music, 2: Characteristics of Pre-Socialist Musical Culture, 1800â1944, (iii): Instrumentsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Crane, Frederick. 1972. Extant Medieval Musical Instruments: A Provisional Catalogue by Types. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-022-6 Galway, James. 1982. Flute. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Macdonald. ISBN 0356047113 (cloth); ISBN 0356047121 (pbk.) New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 002871380X Reprinted 1990, London: Kahn & Averill London: Khan & Averill ISBN 1871082137 Komitas, Vardapet. 1994. Grakan nshkhark' Komitas Vardapeti beghun grch'Än: npast mÄ Komitas Vardapeti srbadasman harts'in, edited by Abel Oghlukian. Montreal: Ganatahayots' Aá¹ajnordarani "K'ristonÄakan Usman ew Astuatsabanut'ean Kedron". Pahlevanian, Alina. 2001. âArmenia Â§I: Folk Music, 3: Epicsâ. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. Phelan, James, The Complete Guide to the Flute and Piccolo (Burkart-Phelan, Inc., 2004) Putnik, Edwin. 1970. The Art of Flute Playing. Evanston, Illinois: Summy-Birchard Inc. Revised edition 1973, Princeton, New Jersey and Evanston, Illinois. ISBN 0874870771 Toff, Nancy. 1985. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers. New York: Charles's Scribners Sons. ISBN 0684182416 Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715387715 Second Edition 1996, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195105028 Wye, Trevor. 1988. Proper Flute Playing: A Companion to the Practice Books. London: Novello. ISBN 0711984654 * FluteInfo Contains fingering charts, performance articles, free sheet music and other musical information. * Thai Flute Khlui * Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical flute exams * Access to IMSLP: 12 collections totaling 1000 free downloadable flute/recorder solos with historical notes * Chiff & Fipple: Very large website devoted to tin whistles * Chiffboard: Large and busy forums on flutes, tin whistles and related folk instruments * Vidly.net This video shows how a flute is manufactured. * The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection has many pictures of flutes through the ages, among other useful information. * FluteHistory.com * Larry Krantz Flute Pages Wide range of flute related information contributed by many professional flute players. Access to information about flute - email discussion group. * Flautistico.com Flute related content in Spanish. * Jennifer Cluff flute articles Extensive list of articles on hard-to-find flute topics. * The Woodwind Fingering Guide - A large, easy-to-navigate listing of flute fingerings * The Virtual Flute An easy to search database of Boehm flute alternate fingering and multiphonic fingering - An extensive work by the School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia * Indian Flutes * Photo of a Pinkillo. * * * * * * Ikonographie der RenaissanceflÃ¶te / Renaissance Flute Iconography * Interactive Indian Classical Bansuri Fingering Chart * Download Bansuri Fingering Chart * Interactive Flute Fingering Trainer
Fox	Are foxes wary of humans?	Yes	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	Are foxes wary of humans?	Yes	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	Are fennec foxes endangered?	no	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	Are fennec foxes endangered?	No	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	Does the diet of foxes include reptiles?	yes	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	Does the diet of foxes include reptiles?	Yes	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	How long do most foxes live?	Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity.	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	How long do most foxes live?	2 to 3 years	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	In what country did fox hunting originate?	the United Kingdom	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	In what country did fox hunting originate?	in the United Kingdom	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	What is the smallest species of fox?	The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox.	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	What is the smallest species of fox?	the Fennec Fox	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	What are female foxes called?	vixens	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	What are female foxes called?	vixens	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	What is caching food?	Caching is burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil.	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	What is caching food?	burying it for later consumption	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
Fox	Do foxes damage fruit on farms?	No	data/set1/a6	Fox A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species (of which only 12 actually belong to the Vulpes genus, or 'true foxes') of small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups (see Foxes in culture). The Modern English "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove" Transactions of the Philological Society, retrieved August 31st 2008 . Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", and Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail". The Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved June 8th 2008: headword "Fox" The Fennec Fox is the smallest species of fox. Arctic fox curled up in snow Skeleton Most foxes live 2 to 3 years, but they can survive for up to 10 years or even longer in captivity. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Dogs (male foxes) weigh on average, 5.9kg and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at 5.2kg (13 lbs and 11.5 lbs, respectively). Fox-like features typically include an acute muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of foxes adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Unlike many canids, foxes are not usually pack animals, however this does happen in some rare cases. Typically, they are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practised from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not kept as pets (with the exception of the fennec); however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioural traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals: pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails. Early Canid Domestication: The Fox Farm Experiment Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera: * Alopex -- Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, not its own genus Alopex. * Cerdocyon -- Crab-eating fox * Chrysocyon -- Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazÃº ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox", one of several names used by Spanish speakers). * Dusicyon -- Falkland Islands fox * Lycalopex -- Six South American species * Otocyon -- Bat-eared fox * Urocyon -- Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox * Vulpes -- Including twelve species of true ("vulpine") foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata, and their closest kin. The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates, however it also includes rodents, rabbits and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of foxes generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil. The island fox is a critically endangered species. Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence. Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction. A similar introduction occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in temperate North America, where European reds (Vulpes vulpes) were brought to the colonies for fox hunting, where they decimated the American red fox population through more aggressive hunting and breeding. Interbreeding with American reds, traits of the European red eventually pervaded the gene pool, leaving European and American foxes now virtually identical. Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered. Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, where they leave the fruit intact. Foxes on Fruit Farms Historians believe foxes were imported into non-native environments long before the colonial era. The first example of the introduction of the fox into a new habitat by humans seems to be Neolithic Cyprus. Stone carvings representing foxes have been found in the early settlement of GÃ¶bekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. Attacked jogger takes fox for run: BBC News Fox hunting is a controversial sport that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom , though hunting without dogs is still permitted. The sport is practiced in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. * Kitsune - Japanese folklore related to the fox * Foxes in culture * The fox website * Fox sound files. * More fox sound files. * Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004 [[my:áá¼á±áá½á±á¸
French_language	How many years ago did African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language?	2 years ago	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	In Old French, was the plural for animal animals?	Yes	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	Is catalan the only official language of Andorra?	Yes	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	In Belgium, however, is quatre-vingts universally used?	Yes	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	Where is it an official language?	null	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	Is french taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic?	Yes	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	What is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes?	French	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	Is french descendant of the Latin language?	Yes	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	Are there also a variety of regional languages In addition?	Yes	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	Is it true that france signed the European Charter for Regional Languages?	Yes	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	France signed the European Charter for what?	null	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	Is french language of 20 %?	null	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	Is French language of Wallonia?	null	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	Are the prefixes en- and em- always nasalized ?	Yes	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	Are French and German not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the flemish region , although there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers ?	null	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
French_language	Can the palatal nasal occur in word initial position ( e.g ?	null	data/set5/a5	French_language French (franÃ§ais, ) is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. Most of the rest live in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, Luxembourg, and Monaco. French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, and minority languages ranging from Catalan and Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. In addition, prior to the ascension of English in the early 20th century, French served as the preeminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 Loi constitutionnelle 1992 â (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-CotterÃªts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population. Bilingual signs in Brussels. In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages âalong with Dutchâ of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language. â The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language. French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language. 40%+60%59%=75.4% Maltese is a Semitic language C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. Merritt Ruhlen. 1991. A Guide to the World's Languages, Volume 1: Classification. Stanford. David Dalby. 2000. The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. Linguasphere Observatory. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th ed. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse. 1997. "Arabic Dialects and Maltese," The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron. Routledge. Pages 263-311. influenced by Italian and to a lesser extent French; 17% of the Maltese population speaks French. eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11] A French presence has existed on Malta since the arrival of the Ordre des Hospitaliers in 1530. Although MonÃ©gasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population. [[Image:Knowledge French EU map.png\|right\|thumb\|240px\|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries Source: , data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. ]] French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Aosta Valley, Italy. In addition, a number of Franco-ProvenÃ§al dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition. /ref> French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively-spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French. text, The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'OÃ¯l of the islands. Bilingual (English/French) stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, an example of bilingualism at the federal level in Canada. French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizeable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint BarthÃ©lemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6â12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12â18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third National Virtual Translation Center â Languages Spoken in the U.S. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 â Language Spoken at Home: 2000 most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if excluding Creole French. Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal. A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language. La Francophonie dans le monde 2006â2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007 Source does not state the given "facts" --> French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, CÃ´te d'Ivoire Le franÃ§ais Ã Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002 and in Libreville, Gabon. "De plus, le franÃ§ais est Ã©galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perÃ§u comme une langue gabonaise." It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franÃ§ais mais..." In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met with competition from English, since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a while and has recently become an official language of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, due to the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth. "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French-speakers." It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. "Le franÃ§ais, langue en Ã©volution Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franÃ§ais (mÃªme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et Ã mesure que les nouvelles gÃ©nÃ©rations vont Ã l'Ã©cole, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." c) Le sabir franco-africain: Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries RÃ©publique centrafricaine: (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). , but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies: :Benin :Burkina Faso :Burundi :Cameroon :Central African Republic :Chad :Comoros :Congo (Brazzaville) :CÃ´te d'Ivoire :Democratic Republic of the Congo :Djibouti :Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain) :Gabon :Guinea :Madagascar :Mali :Niger :Rwanda :Senegal :Seychelles :Togo In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states: :* Algeria :* Mauritania :* Morocco :* Tunisia In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education. While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes ; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie. French is also the official language of Mayotte and RÃ©union, two overseas territories of France located in the Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in Mauritius, along with English. A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note French was the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic, until 1943, when the country declared independence from France. French is still considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic. French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms, International Herald Tribune, 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government." In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "TÃ¢y Bá»i" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is not offered at the basic education level, but the University of Foreign Languages in Yangon offers a B.A. in French, and Alliance FranÃ§aise has active centres in Yangon and Mandalay. The Francophone community is estimated to number from 25,000 to 50,000+. French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language. French is a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Canadian French Cambodian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French) Louisiana Creole French Maghreb French (see also North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Oceanic French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly-used special name. Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully-voiced throughout. * Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated. * Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne). * Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal . * French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in roue, "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. fort) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects. * Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and occur in final position as in paye, "pay", vs. pays, "country". French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are: * final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-Ã -terre. Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien â chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil â gentille) adds a [j] sound. * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelled â j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). * Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects. * Digraphs: French not only uses diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. * Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, illusion is pronounced and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced . * Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone. Accents that affect pronunciation * The acute accent (l'accent aigu), Ã© (e.g. Ã©coleâschool), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The grave accent (l'accent grave), Ã¨ (e.g. Ã©lÃ¨veâpupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default . * The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) Ãª (e.g. forÃªtâforest) shows that an e is pronounced and that an Ã´ is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter Ã¢, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forÃªt and hospital became hÃ´pital. * The diaeresis (le trÃ©ma) (e.g. naÃ¯fâfoolish, NoÃ«lâChristmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa. * The cedilla (la cÃ©dille) Ã§ (e.g. garÃ§onâboy) means that the letter Ã§ is pronounced in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus Ã§ is never found in front of soft vowels. Accents with no pronunciation effect * The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in Ã®le (island, compare with English isle) . *** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs lÃ and oÃ¹ ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. French is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (Å) and (Ã¦). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography: * Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus) * Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pes (stem: ped-)) As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, , beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-Ã -terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance. * acute accent (Ã©): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An Ã© in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: Ã©couter Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bÅuf. Å is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong Î¿Î¹, e.g. cÅlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. Åsophage or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature Å is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister). * The ligature Ã¦ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like Ã¦gosome, Ã¦gyrine, Ã¦schne, cÃ¦cum, nÃ¦vus or urÃ¦us. La ligature Ã¦ The vowel quality is identical to Ã© . French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. Also castel pl. castels became chÃ¢teau pl. chÃ¢teaux. French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including: * the loss of Latin's declensions * only two grammatical genders * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives * new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example: * brother: frÃ¨re / fraternel Walter & Walter 1998 The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty ( ) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60â99. The French word for eighty, for example, is , which literally means "four twenties", and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are and . In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be (Geneva, NeuchÃ¢tel, Jura) or (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un Two: deux Three: trois Four: quatre Five: cinq Six: six Seven: sept Eight: huit Nine: neuf Ten: dix Eleven: onze Twelve: douze Thirteen: treize Fourteen: quatorze Fifteen: quinze Sixteen: seize Seventeen: dix-sept Eighteen: dix-huit Nineteen: dix-neuf Twenty: vingt The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of QuÃ©bec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words. references needed * AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise * Alliance franÃ§aise * CRFL (CaReFuL mnemonic) â French pronunciation * Francophonie * French-based creole languages * French language in Canada * French language in the United States * French proverbs * French verb morphology * French Wikipedia * History of French * List of countries where French is an official language * List of English words of French origin * List of French loanwords in Persian * List of French words and phrases used by English speakers * List of pseudo-French words adapted to English * LouchÃ©bem * Office quÃ©bÃ©cois de la langue franÃ§aise * Reforms of French orthography * Varieties of French * Verlan * Quebec French * French people * French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course) * French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website * French lessons at Target Language (extensive) * Learn French BBC * Learn French at About (including French gestures) * Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables) * Ecole Interculturelle de FranÃ§ais, French language school in France * English - French Dictionary * Collins French Dictionary * English French Dictionary with gender and type of words * Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique * Le Dictionnaire * LookWAYup French English Dictionary * WordReference.com English-French dictionary * A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs * French vocabulary, with audio * Questions and answers * Free Audio base of French Words * French audio files of the Shtooka.net project
German_language	How many years ago was the Luther Bible by Martin Luther printed?	475	data/set5/a2	German_language German ( , ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide. German is spoken primarily in Germany (first language for more than 95% of the population), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%) together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (D-A-CH-Li-Lux) constituting the countries where German is the majority language. Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Bolzano-Bozen), in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the French Alsace region which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, SÃ¸nderjylland) of Denmark. Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia). A considerable proportion of the native population speak German dialects in Luxembourg and the surrounding areas. Some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street. Examples of German language in Namibian everyday life. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States, Canada, Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where the dialect AlemÃ¡n Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. In Namibia, German Namibians retain German educational institutions. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser HunsrÃ¼ckisch was developed), Santa Catarina, ParanÃ¡, and EspÃrito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico. Nearly all inhabitants of the city of Pomerode in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil speak German. German in the United States is the fifth most spoken language at home (~ 1.4 million) after English, Spanish, Chinese, and French according to the 2000 U.S. Census. US Census 2000 The United States, therefore, has one of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside Europe. The states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English (the second most spoken language in other states is either Spanish or French). An indication of the German presence can be found in the names of such places as Bismarck (state capital), Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg in North Dakota; New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas; and Kiel, Berlin and Germantown in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, (a West Central German variety), and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. A significant group of German Pietists in Iowa formed the Amana Colonies and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. In Canada, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, Statistics Canada 2006 while people of German ancestry (German Canadians) are found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in British Columbia (118,035) and Ontario (230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language Canada's third most spoken after French and English. In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, MazatlÃ¡n, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo. Dialects in North America: The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa Amana German is spoken. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Hutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak first Hutterite German before learning English in the public school, the standard language of the surrounding areas. Many colonies though continue with German Grammar School, separate from the public school, throughout a student's elementary education. The state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Germans arriving in the 1840s from Prussia (particularly the Silesia region). With the prolonged isolation and contact with Australian English some have suggested a unique dialect formed known as Barossa German spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Usage sharply declined with the advent of World War I with the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the twentieth century but now its use is limited to a few older speakers. There is an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of Papua New Guinea, across Micronesia and in northern Australia (i.e. coastal parts of Queensland and Western Australia), by few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars. According to Global Reach (2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is German. Global Statistics, Global Reach. Internet Languages, NVTC. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, "Distribution of languages on the Internet". making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface. Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics. Palmares, Internet Society. FUNREDES Funredes. (1998) and Vilaweb Vilaweb. (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese. The Germanic-speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 962. German-language newspapers in North America in 1922 The history of the language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardization of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (sÃ¤chsische Kanzleisprache) also known as MeiÃner-Deutsch (MeiÃner-German, i.e. of Meissen, founded 929 AD). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterite tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) â which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. In 1901 the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in written form while the Deutsche BÃ¼hnensprache (literally: German stage-language) had already established spelling-rules for German three years earlier which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava(German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German: Pressburg), Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas where only a dialect is spoken, for example Switzerland and Austria. However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age. The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it. The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (BundeslÃ¤nder) would not accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule - everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major yet incomplete revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the new school year of 2006. In 2007, some venerable spellings will be finally invalidated even though they caused little or no trouble. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, like in dass and muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using daÃ and muÃ. The cause of the controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth. (The reformers seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that a considerable part of that culture - namely the entire German literature of the 20th century - is in the old spelling.) The increasing use of English in Germany's higher education system, as well as in business and in popular culture, has led various German academics to state, not necessarily from an entirely negative perspective, that German is a language in decline in its native country. For example, Ursula Kimpel, of the University of TÃ¼bingen, said in 2005 that âGerman universities are offering more courses in English because of the large number of students coming from abroad. German is unfortunately a language in decline. We need and want our professors to be able to teach effectively in English.â Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but also in major cities in other parts of the country. Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss, Austrian Standard German officially in the Austrian education system. D-A-CH-flag, an unofficial flag comprising flags of the three dominant states in the German Sprachraum. Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and Sorbian as minority languages), in Austria (with Slovene, Croatian, and Hungarian), Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of Sopron (Hungary), Krahule (Slovakia) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the Vatican Swiss Guard. German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (South Jutland region), France (Alsace and Moselle regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, Poland (Opole region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt). German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe. Knowledge of German in Europe. German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. German is the main language of about 90â95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). It is therefore the most spoken first language in the EU. It is the second most known foreign language in the EU. After English; It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. Thirty-two percent of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language). This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable or satellite. German was once, and still remains to some extent, a lingua franca in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe. By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked black. Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West-Germanic dialectal varieties. German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German. The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon languages. Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII. Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the Luther Bible by Martin Luther was printed. This translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany. The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated and at home. Today Low Saxon can be divided in two groups: Low Saxon varieties with a reasonable standard German influx and varieties of Standard German with a Low Saxon influence known as Missingsch. High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian, High Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish. Upper German dialects include Northern Austro-Bavarian, Central Austro-Bavarian, Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian, East Franconian, High Alemannic German, Highest Alemannic German, Alsatian and Low Alemannic German. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and SiebenbÃ¼rgisch are High German dialects of Poland and Romania respectively. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script. In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics. The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany. German is an inflected language. German nouns inflect into: * one of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. * one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neutral. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ...ung(-ing), ...schaft(-ship), ...keit or ...heit(-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ...chen or ...lein (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ...ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ...er (-er), e.g. Feier (feminine), Eng. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), Eng. labourer. * two numbers: singular and plural Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in informal speech. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e. In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (Am Freitag bin ich einkaufen gegangen. â "On Friday I went shopping."; Eines Tages war er endlich da. â "One day he finally showed up".) This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish and English), too. Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun compounds where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: HundehÃ¼tte (Eng. dog hut; specifically: doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is RindfleischetikettierungsÃ¼berwachungsaufgabenÃ¼bertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Ãberwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Ãbertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".] Standard German verbs inflect into: * one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.) * three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. * two numbers: singular and plural * three moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive * two voices: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic. * two non-composed tenses (present, preterite) and four composed tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect) * distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus Preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or for the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise. * distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form. * disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]). There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through a relatively small number of prefixes. Some of those prefixes have a meaning themselves (Example: zer- refers to the destruction of things, as in zerreiÃen = to tear apart, zerbrechen = to break apart, zerschneiden = to cut apart), others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves (Example: ver- , as in versuchen = to try, vernehmen = to interrogate, verteilen = to distribute, verstehen = to understand). More examples: haften = to stick, verhaften = to imprison; kaufen = to buy, verkaufen = to sell; hÃ¶ren = to hear, aufhÃ¶ren = to cease; fahren = to drive, erfahren = to get to know, to hear about something. Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In finite verb forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?). Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g. :Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem Ã¼blichen Ãrger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause an . A literal translation of this example might look like this: :He -rived on a Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual disagreements that had been troubling him repeatedly, looking forward to a questionable meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already fixed for him, ar- at home. German requires that a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) appear second in the sentence, preceded by the most important topical phrase. The second most important phrase appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options: : (The old man gives me the book today) : (stress on das Buch) : (stress on heute) : (stress on mir) : (stress on der alte Mann) : : : The position of a noun as a subject or object in a German sentence doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. For example, in the sentence "Man bites dog" it is clear who did what to whom. To exchange the place of the subject with that of the object â "Dog bites man" â changes the meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as in Latin thus indicating whether it is the subject or object of the verb's action. The above example in German would be or with both having exactly the same meaning. If the articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines ( ), the syntax applies as in English â the first noun is the subject and the noun following the predicate is the object. Except for emphasis, adverbs of time have to appear in the third place in the sentence, just after the predicate. Otherwise the speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word order (in Modern English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. ( ) When an auxiliary verb is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.: : (The old man has given me the book yesterday.) : : : The word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common word orders; one is for main clauses and another for subordinate clauses. In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has position 2; in questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded. For example in a subordinate clause introduced by "weil" ("because") the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a main clause. The correct way of saying "because I'm broke" is " ". In the vernacular you may hear instead " " This phenomenon may be caused by mixing the word-order pattern used for the word with the pattern used for an alternative word for "because", , which is used with the main clause order (" "). Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" ( ). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?" The number of infinitives at the end is usually restricted to two, causing the third infinitive or auxiliary verb that would have gone at the very end to be placed instead at the beginning of the chain of verbs. For example in the sentence "Should he move into the house that he just has had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into the house move, that he just renovated had?". ( ). The older form would have been ( ). If there are more than three infinitives, all except the first two are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say the rule is not rigorously applied. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, and Greek, and a smaller amount from French some of which might be reborrowings from Germanic Frankish and most recently English. a phenomenon known in German as Denglisch or in English as Germish or Denglisch At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language in forming equivalents for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem repertory is great. Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Overall, German has fewer Romance-language loanwords than English. The coining of new, autochthonous words gave German a vocabulary of an estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century. In comparison, Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words today. Even today, many low-key scholarly movements try to promote the Ersatz (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or neologous German alternatives. Verein Deutsche Sprache e.V. - Der Anglizismen-Index It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too. In the modern scientific German vocabulary data base in Leipzig (as of July 2003) Willkommen there are nine million words and word groups in 35 million sentences (out of a corpus of 500 million words). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely Ã¤, Ã¶ and Ã¼, as well as the Eszett or scharfes s (sharp s), Ã. Before the German spelling reform of 1996, Ã replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings. In reformed spelling, Ã replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital Ã, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For example, MaÃband (tape measure) is capitalized MASSBAND. An exception is the use of Ã in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, a "Ã" is to be used instead of "SS". (So: "KREÃLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN".) A capital Ã has been proposed and included in Unicode, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In Switzerland, Ã is not used at all. Umlaut vowels (Ã¤, Ã¶, Ã¼) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner Ã can be transcribed as ss. German readers understand those transcriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are considered a makeshift, not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ËraËsfÉlt], Coesfeld [ËkoËsfÉlt] and Itzehoe [ÉªtsÉËhoË], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-day spelling of words other than proper nouns.) There is no general agreement on where these umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e, whereas dictionaries use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book Ãrzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ã is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ãrzte occurs after Arzt but before Asbest (because Ã is treated as A). In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and SÃ¼tterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however were claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. Adolf Reinecke, Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift: ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre ZweckmÃ¤Ãigkeit und vÃ¶lkische Bedeutung, Leipzig, Hasert, 1910 The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. The Fraktur script remains present in everyday life through road signs, pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and oldness. A proper use of the long s, (langes s), Å¿, is essential to write German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces include the long s, also. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting, recently. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in differentiating between the words WachÅ¿tube (=guard-house) and Wachstube (=tube of floor polish). One can decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, easily ("Wach-Å¿tube" vs. "Wachs-tube"). The long s only appears in lower case. German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in short and long varieties, as detailed in the following table: Short is realised as in stressed syllables (including secondary stress), but as in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short can be spelled either with e or with Ã¤ (hÃ¤tte 'would have' and Kette 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open sound of long Ã; in some varieties of standard German, and have merged into , removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like BÃ¤ren/Beeren 'bears/berries' or Ãhre/Ehre 'spike/honour' become homophonous). In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed is not pronounced as , but vocalised to . Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist: * If a vowel (other than i) is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. Hof [hoËf]). * If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster (e.g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e.g. hoffen [ËhÉfÇn]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preciding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled. Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. hat [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; Mond , 'moon' is long despite the second rule). For an i that is neither in the combination ie (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the e in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word StÃ¤dte 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ch can be short (Fach 'compartment', KÃ¼che 'kitchen') or long (Suche 'search', BÃ¼cher 'books') almost at random. Thus, Lache is homographous: (Lache) 'puddle' and (lache) 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.). German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, Ã¤u, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters: Additionally, the digraph ie generally represents the phoneme , which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, a /r/ at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised /r/ is not considered a diphthong: BÃ¤r 'bear', er 'he', wir 'we', Tor 'gate', kurz 'short', WÃ¶rter 'words'. In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a glottal stop [Ê]. * c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [Ê¦] (before Ã¤, Ã¤u, e, i, Ã¶, Ã¼, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, or before consonants). The combination ck is, as in English, used to indicate that the preceding vowel is short. * ch occurs most often and is pronounced either [Ã§] (after Ã¤, ai, Ã¤u, e, ei, eu, i, Ã¶, Ã¼ and after consonants, in the diminutive suffix -chen and at the beginning of a word) or [x] (after a, au, o, u). Ch never occurs at the beginning of an originally German word. In borrowed words with initial Ch there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. For example, the word "Chemie" (chemistry) can be pronounced [keËËmiË], [Ã§eËËmiË] or [ÊeËËmiË] depending on dialect. * dsch is pronounced Ê¤ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only. * f is pronounced [f] as in "father". * h is pronounced [h] like in "home" at the beginning of a syllable. After a vowel it is silent and only lengthens the vowel (e.g. "Reh" = roe deer). * j is pronounced [j] in Germanic words ("Jahr" [jaËÉ]). In younger loanwords, it follows more or less the respective languages' pronunciations. * l is always pronounced [l], never [É«] (the English "Dark L"). * q only exists in combination with u and appears both in Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "QualitÃ¤t"). It is pronounced [kv]. * r is pronounced as a guttural sound (an uvular trill, [Ê]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" [ÊaËzÉn]; "Burg" like [buÊg]). In spoken German however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ÉÉ] - "Burg" [buÉg]). In some southern non-standard varieties, the r is pronounced as a tongue-tip r (the alveolar trill). * s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset (e.g. Sohn [zoËn]), otherwise [s] (e.g. Bus [bÊs]). In Austria and Switzerland, it is always pronounced [s]. A ss [s] indicates that the preceding vowel is short. st and sp at the beginning of words of German origin are pronounced [Êt] and [Êp], respectively. * Ã (a letter unique to German called "Esszet") was a ligature of a double s and of a sz and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e.g. "ich muss" â "ich muÃ"; "ich mÃ¼sste" â "ich mÃ¼Ãte"); within a word it contrasts with ss [s] in indicating that the preceding vowel is long (compare "in MaÃen" [in 'maËsÉn] "with moderation" and "in Massen" [in 'masÉn] "in loads"). The use of Ã has recently been limited by the latest German spelling reform and is no longer used for ss at the end of a syllable; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934. Mittelschulvorbereitung Deutsch * sch is pronounced [Ê] (like "sh" in "Shine"). * tion in Latin loanwords is pronounced tsion. * v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e.g. "Vater" [ËfaËtÉ]) and [v] in most other words (e.g. "Vase" [ËvaËzÇ]). * w is pronounced [v] like in "vacation" (e.g. "was" [vas]). * y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel. * z is always pronounced [Ê¦] (e.g. "zog" [Ê¦oËk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short. German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sounds, which the English language has inherited from Anglo Saxon, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th century. It is sometimes possible to find parallels between German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" â in German "Dank", "this" and "that" â "dies" and "das", "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) â "du", "think" â "denken", "thirsty" â "durstig" and many other examples. Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f, or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" â "lachen", "through" and "thorough" â "durch", "high" â "hoch", "naught" â "nichts", etc. A sizeable fraction of English vocabulary is cognate to German words, although the common ancestry may be somewhat obscured by various shifts in phonetics (eg. the High German consonant shift), meaning and orthography. For example: * the High German consonant shift pâff led to such cognates as Ger. Schiff with Eng. ship. Ger. Baum (meaning "tree") is cognate to Eng. beam as may be seen in the name of trees such as the hornbeam and the whitebeam. :For a list of German loanwords in English, see In the English language, there are also many words taken from German without any letter change, e.g.: The use and learning of the German language is promoted by a number of organisations. The government-backed Goethe Institute (named after the famous German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) aims to enhance the knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example the Goethe Institute teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is the equivalent of the British BBC World Service and provides radio and television broadcasts in German and a variety of other languages across the globe. Its German language services are tailored for German language learners by being spoken at slow speed. * Deutsch * German loan words * German name * German family name etymology * German placename etymology * German exonyms * German as a Minority Language * German in the United States * German spelling reform of 1996 * Germanism * Denglish, * List of English words of German origin * List of pseudo-German words adapted to English * Missingsch * Umlaut, Ã * Various terms used for Germans * * * Michael Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704 * George O. Curme, A Grammar of the German Language (1904, 1922) â the most complete and authoritative work in English * Anthony Fox, The Structure of German (2005) ISBN 0199273995 * W.B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505 * * The Goethe Institute: German Government sponsored organisation for the promotion of the German language and culture. * German Pronouns: Nominative Case * German Pronouns: Accusative Case * The Leo Dictionaries: A German language portal featuring German-English, German-French, German-Spanish, German-Italian and German-Chinese dictionaries, with forums and a search function * Online German Course: A free online German course for absolute beginners.
German_language	Is german an inflected language?	yes	data/set5/a2	German_language German ( , ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide. German is spoken primarily in Germany (first language for more than 95% of the population), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%) together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (D-A-CH-Li-Lux) constituting the countries where German is the majority language. Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Bolzano-Bozen), in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the French Alsace region which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, SÃ¸nderjylland) of Denmark. Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia). A considerable proportion of the native population speak German dialects in Luxembourg and the surrounding areas. Some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street. Examples of German language in Namibian everyday life. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States, Canada, Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where the dialect AlemÃ¡n Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. In Namibia, German Namibians retain German educational institutions. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser HunsrÃ¼ckisch was developed), Santa Catarina, ParanÃ¡, and EspÃrito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico. Nearly all inhabitants of the city of Pomerode in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil speak German. German in the United States is the fifth most spoken language at home (~ 1.4 million) after English, Spanish, Chinese, and French according to the 2000 U.S. Census. US Census 2000 The United States, therefore, has one of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside Europe. The states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English (the second most spoken language in other states is either Spanish or French). An indication of the German presence can be found in the names of such places as Bismarck (state capital), Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg in North Dakota; New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas; and Kiel, Berlin and Germantown in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, (a West Central German variety), and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. A significant group of German Pietists in Iowa formed the Amana Colonies and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. In Canada, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, Statistics Canada 2006 while people of German ancestry (German Canadians) are found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in British Columbia (118,035) and Ontario (230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language Canada's third most spoken after French and English. In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, MazatlÃ¡n, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo. Dialects in North America: The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa Amana German is spoken. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Hutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak first Hutterite German before learning English in the public school, the standard language of the surrounding areas. Many colonies though continue with German Grammar School, separate from the public school, throughout a student's elementary education. The state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Germans arriving in the 1840s from Prussia (particularly the Silesia region). With the prolonged isolation and contact with Australian English some have suggested a unique dialect formed known as Barossa German spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Usage sharply declined with the advent of World War I with the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the twentieth century but now its use is limited to a few older speakers. There is an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of Papua New Guinea, across Micronesia and in northern Australia (i.e. coastal parts of Queensland and Western Australia), by few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars. According to Global Reach (2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is German. Global Statistics, Global Reach. Internet Languages, NVTC. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, "Distribution of languages on the Internet". making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface. Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics. Palmares, Internet Society. FUNREDES Funredes. (1998) and Vilaweb Vilaweb. (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese. The Germanic-speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 962. German-language newspapers in North America in 1922 The history of the language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardization of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (sÃ¤chsische Kanzleisprache) also known as MeiÃner-Deutsch (MeiÃner-German, i.e. of Meissen, founded 929 AD). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterite tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) â which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. In 1901 the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in written form while the Deutsche BÃ¼hnensprache (literally: German stage-language) had already established spelling-rules for German three years earlier which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava(German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German: Pressburg), Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas where only a dialect is spoken, for example Switzerland and Austria. However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age. The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it. The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (BundeslÃ¤nder) would not accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule - everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major yet incomplete revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the new school year of 2006. In 2007, some venerable spellings will be finally invalidated even though they caused little or no trouble. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, like in dass and muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using daÃ and muÃ. The cause of the controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth. (The reformers seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that a considerable part of that culture - namely the entire German literature of the 20th century - is in the old spelling.) The increasing use of English in Germany's higher education system, as well as in business and in popular culture, has led various German academics to state, not necessarily from an entirely negative perspective, that German is a language in decline in its native country. For example, Ursula Kimpel, of the University of TÃ¼bingen, said in 2005 that âGerman universities are offering more courses in English because of the large number of students coming from abroad. German is unfortunately a language in decline. We need and want our professors to be able to teach effectively in English.â Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but also in major cities in other parts of the country. Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss, Austrian Standard German officially in the Austrian education system. D-A-CH-flag, an unofficial flag comprising flags of the three dominant states in the German Sprachraum. Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and Sorbian as minority languages), in Austria (with Slovene, Croatian, and Hungarian), Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of Sopron (Hungary), Krahule (Slovakia) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the Vatican Swiss Guard. German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (South Jutland region), France (Alsace and Moselle regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, Poland (Opole region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt). German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe. Knowledge of German in Europe. German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. German is the main language of about 90â95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). It is therefore the most spoken first language in the EU. It is the second most known foreign language in the EU. After English; It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. Thirty-two percent of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language). This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable or satellite. German was once, and still remains to some extent, a lingua franca in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe. By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked black. Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West-Germanic dialectal varieties. German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German. The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon languages. Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII. Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the Luther Bible by Martin Luther was printed. This translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany. The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated and at home. Today Low Saxon can be divided in two groups: Low Saxon varieties with a reasonable standard German influx and varieties of Standard German with a Low Saxon influence known as Missingsch. High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian, High Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish. Upper German dialects include Northern Austro-Bavarian, Central Austro-Bavarian, Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian, East Franconian, High Alemannic German, Highest Alemannic German, Alsatian and Low Alemannic German. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and SiebenbÃ¼rgisch are High German dialects of Poland and Romania respectively. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script. In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics. The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany. German is an inflected language. German nouns inflect into: * one of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. * one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neutral. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ...ung(-ing), ...schaft(-ship), ...keit or ...heit(-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ...chen or ...lein (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ...ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ...er (-er), e.g. Feier (feminine), Eng. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), Eng. labourer. * two numbers: singular and plural Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in informal speech. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e. In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (Am Freitag bin ich einkaufen gegangen. â "On Friday I went shopping."; Eines Tages war er endlich da. â "One day he finally showed up".) This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish and English), too. Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun compounds where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: HundehÃ¼tte (Eng. dog hut; specifically: doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is RindfleischetikettierungsÃ¼berwachungsaufgabenÃ¼bertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Ãberwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Ãbertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".] Standard German verbs inflect into: * one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.) * three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. * two numbers: singular and plural * three moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive * two voices: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic. * two non-composed tenses (present, preterite) and four composed tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect) * distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus Preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or for the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise. * distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form. * disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]). There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through a relatively small number of prefixes. Some of those prefixes have a meaning themselves (Example: zer- refers to the destruction of things, as in zerreiÃen = to tear apart, zerbrechen = to break apart, zerschneiden = to cut apart), others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves (Example: ver- , as in versuchen = to try, vernehmen = to interrogate, verteilen = to distribute, verstehen = to understand). More examples: haften = to stick, verhaften = to imprison; kaufen = to buy, verkaufen = to sell; hÃ¶ren = to hear, aufhÃ¶ren = to cease; fahren = to drive, erfahren = to get to know, to hear about something. Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In finite verb forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?). Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g. :Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem Ã¼blichen Ãrger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause an . A literal translation of this example might look like this: :He -rived on a Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual disagreements that had been troubling him repeatedly, looking forward to a questionable meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already fixed for him, ar- at home. German requires that a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) appear second in the sentence, preceded by the most important topical phrase. The second most important phrase appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options: : (The old man gives me the book today) : (stress on das Buch) : (stress on heute) : (stress on mir) : (stress on der alte Mann) : : : The position of a noun as a subject or object in a German sentence doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. For example, in the sentence "Man bites dog" it is clear who did what to whom. To exchange the place of the subject with that of the object â "Dog bites man" â changes the meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as in Latin thus indicating whether it is the subject or object of the verb's action. The above example in German would be or with both having exactly the same meaning. If the articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines ( ), the syntax applies as in English â the first noun is the subject and the noun following the predicate is the object. Except for emphasis, adverbs of time have to appear in the third place in the sentence, just after the predicate. Otherwise the speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word order (in Modern English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. ( ) When an auxiliary verb is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.: : (The old man has given me the book yesterday.) : : : The word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common word orders; one is for main clauses and another for subordinate clauses. In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has position 2; in questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded. For example in a subordinate clause introduced by "weil" ("because") the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a main clause. The correct way of saying "because I'm broke" is " ". In the vernacular you may hear instead " " This phenomenon may be caused by mixing the word-order pattern used for the word with the pattern used for an alternative word for "because", , which is used with the main clause order (" "). Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" ( ). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?" The number of infinitives at the end is usually restricted to two, causing the third infinitive or auxiliary verb that would have gone at the very end to be placed instead at the beginning of the chain of verbs. For example in the sentence "Should he move into the house that he just has had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into the house move, that he just renovated had?". ( ). The older form would have been ( ). If there are more than three infinitives, all except the first two are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say the rule is not rigorously applied. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, and Greek, and a smaller amount from French some of which might be reborrowings from Germanic Frankish and most recently English. a phenomenon known in German as Denglisch or in English as Germish or Denglisch At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language in forming equivalents for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem repertory is great. Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Overall, German has fewer Romance-language loanwords than English. The coining of new, autochthonous words gave German a vocabulary of an estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century. In comparison, Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words today. Even today, many low-key scholarly movements try to promote the Ersatz (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or neologous German alternatives. Verein Deutsche Sprache e.V. - Der Anglizismen-Index It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too. In the modern scientific German vocabulary data base in Leipzig (as of July 2003) Willkommen there are nine million words and word groups in 35 million sentences (out of a corpus of 500 million words). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely Ã¤, Ã¶ and Ã¼, as well as the Eszett or scharfes s (sharp s), Ã. Before the German spelling reform of 1996, Ã replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings. In reformed spelling, Ã replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital Ã, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For example, MaÃband (tape measure) is capitalized MASSBAND. An exception is the use of Ã in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, a "Ã" is to be used instead of "SS". (So: "KREÃLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN".) A capital Ã has been proposed and included in Unicode, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In Switzerland, Ã is not used at all. Umlaut vowels (Ã¤, Ã¶, Ã¼) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner Ã can be transcribed as ss. German readers understand those transcriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are considered a makeshift, not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ËraËsfÉlt], Coesfeld [ËkoËsfÉlt] and Itzehoe [ÉªtsÉËhoË], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-day spelling of words other than proper nouns.) There is no general agreement on where these umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e, whereas dictionaries use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book Ãrzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ã is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ãrzte occurs after Arzt but before Asbest (because Ã is treated as A). In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and SÃ¼tterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however were claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. Adolf Reinecke, Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift: ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre ZweckmÃ¤Ãigkeit und vÃ¶lkische Bedeutung, Leipzig, Hasert, 1910 The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. The Fraktur script remains present in everyday life through road signs, pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and oldness. A proper use of the long s, (langes s), Å¿, is essential to write German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces include the long s, also. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting, recently. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in differentiating between the words WachÅ¿tube (=guard-house) and Wachstube (=tube of floor polish). One can decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, easily ("Wach-Å¿tube" vs. "Wachs-tube"). The long s only appears in lower case. German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in short and long varieties, as detailed in the following table: Short is realised as in stressed syllables (including secondary stress), but as in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short can be spelled either with e or with Ã¤ (hÃ¤tte 'would have' and Kette 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open sound of long Ã; in some varieties of standard German, and have merged into , removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like BÃ¤ren/Beeren 'bears/berries' or Ãhre/Ehre 'spike/honour' become homophonous). In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed is not pronounced as , but vocalised to . Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist: * If a vowel (other than i) is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. Hof [hoËf]). * If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster (e.g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e.g. hoffen [ËhÉfÇn]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preciding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled. Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. hat [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; Mond , 'moon' is long despite the second rule). For an i that is neither in the combination ie (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the e in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word StÃ¤dte 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ch can be short (Fach 'compartment', KÃ¼che 'kitchen') or long (Suche 'search', BÃ¼cher 'books') almost at random. Thus, Lache is homographous: (Lache) 'puddle' and (lache) 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.). German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, Ã¤u, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters: Additionally, the digraph ie generally represents the phoneme , which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, a /r/ at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised /r/ is not considered a diphthong: BÃ¤r 'bear', er 'he', wir 'we', Tor 'gate', kurz 'short', WÃ¶rter 'words'. In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a glottal stop [Ê]. * c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [Ê¦] (before Ã¤, Ã¤u, e, i, Ã¶, Ã¼, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, or before consonants). The combination ck is, as in English, used to indicate that the preceding vowel is short. * ch occurs most often and is pronounced either [Ã§] (after Ã¤, ai, Ã¤u, e, ei, eu, i, Ã¶, Ã¼ and after consonants, in the diminutive suffix -chen and at the beginning of a word) or [x] (after a, au, o, u). Ch never occurs at the beginning of an originally German word. In borrowed words with initial Ch there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. For example, the word "Chemie" (chemistry) can be pronounced [keËËmiË], [Ã§eËËmiË] or [ÊeËËmiË] depending on dialect. * dsch is pronounced Ê¤ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only. * f is pronounced [f] as in "father". * h is pronounced [h] like in "home" at the beginning of a syllable. After a vowel it is silent and only lengthens the vowel (e.g. "Reh" = roe deer). * j is pronounced [j] in Germanic words ("Jahr" [jaËÉ]). In younger loanwords, it follows more or less the respective languages' pronunciations. * l is always pronounced [l], never [É«] (the English "Dark L"). * q only exists in combination with u and appears both in Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "QualitÃ¤t"). It is pronounced [kv]. * r is pronounced as a guttural sound (an uvular trill, [Ê]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" [ÊaËzÉn]; "Burg" like [buÊg]). In spoken German however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ÉÉ] - "Burg" [buÉg]). In some southern non-standard varieties, the r is pronounced as a tongue-tip r (the alveolar trill). * s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset (e.g. Sohn [zoËn]), otherwise [s] (e.g. Bus [bÊs]). In Austria and Switzerland, it is always pronounced [s]. A ss [s] indicates that the preceding vowel is short. st and sp at the beginning of words of German origin are pronounced [Êt] and [Êp], respectively. * Ã (a letter unique to German called "Esszet") was a ligature of a double s and of a sz and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e.g. "ich muss" â "ich muÃ"; "ich mÃ¼sste" â "ich mÃ¼Ãte"); within a word it contrasts with ss [s] in indicating that the preceding vowel is long (compare "in MaÃen" [in 'maËsÉn] "with moderation" and "in Massen" [in 'masÉn] "in loads"). The use of Ã has recently been limited by the latest German spelling reform and is no longer used for ss at the end of a syllable; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934. Mittelschulvorbereitung Deutsch * sch is pronounced [Ê] (like "sh" in "Shine"). * tion in Latin loanwords is pronounced tsion. * v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e.g. "Vater" [ËfaËtÉ]) and [v] in most other words (e.g. "Vase" [ËvaËzÇ]). * w is pronounced [v] like in "vacation" (e.g. "was" [vas]). * y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel. * z is always pronounced [Ê¦] (e.g. "zog" [Ê¦oËk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short. German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sounds, which the English language has inherited from Anglo Saxon, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th century. It is sometimes possible to find parallels between German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" â in German "Dank", "this" and "that" â "dies" and "das", "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) â "du", "think" â "denken", "thirsty" â "durstig" and many other examples. Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f, or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" â "lachen", "through" and "thorough" â "durch", "high" â "hoch", "naught" â "nichts", etc. A sizeable fraction of English vocabulary is cognate to German words, although the common ancestry may be somewhat obscured by various shifts in phonetics (eg. the High German consonant shift), meaning and orthography. For example: * the High German consonant shift pâff led to such cognates as Ger. Schiff with Eng. ship. Ger. Baum (meaning "tree") is cognate to Eng. beam as may be seen in the name of trees such as the hornbeam and the whitebeam. :For a list of German loanwords in English, see In the English language, there are also many words taken from German without any letter change, e.g.: The use and learning of the German language is promoted by a number of organisations. The government-backed Goethe Institute (named after the famous German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) aims to enhance the knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example the Goethe Institute teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is the equivalent of the British BBC World Service and provides radio and television broadcasts in German and a variety of other languages across the globe. Its German language services are tailored for German language learners by being spoken at slow speed. * Deutsch * German loan words * German name * German family name etymology * German placename etymology * German exonyms * German as a Minority Language * German in the United States * German spelling reform of 1996 * Germanism * Denglish, * List of English words of German origin * List of pseudo-German words adapted to English * Missingsch * Umlaut, Ã * Various terms used for Germans * * * Michael Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704 * George O. Curme, A Grammar of the German Language (1904, 1922) â the most complete and authoritative work in English * Anthony Fox, The Structure of German (2005) ISBN 0199273995 * W.B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505 * * The Goethe Institute: German Government sponsored organisation for the promotion of the German language and culture. * German Pronouns: Nominative Case * German Pronouns: Accusative Case * The Leo Dictionaries: A German language portal featuring German-English, German-French, German-Spanish, German-Italian and German-Chinese dictionaries, with forums and a search function * Online German Course: A free online German course for absolute beginners.
German_language	In Switzerland, is Ã used at all?	no	data/set5/a2	German_language German ( , ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide. German is spoken primarily in Germany (first language for more than 95% of the population), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%) together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (D-A-CH-Li-Lux) constituting the countries where German is the majority language. Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Bolzano-Bozen), in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the French Alsace region which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, SÃ¸nderjylland) of Denmark. Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia). A considerable proportion of the native population speak German dialects in Luxembourg and the surrounding areas. Some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street. Examples of German language in Namibian everyday life. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States, Canada, Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where the dialect AlemÃ¡n Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. In Namibia, German Namibians retain German educational institutions. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser HunsrÃ¼ckisch was developed), Santa Catarina, ParanÃ¡, and EspÃrito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico. Nearly all inhabitants of the city of Pomerode in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil speak German. German in the United States is the fifth most spoken language at home (~ 1.4 million) after English, Spanish, Chinese, and French according to the 2000 U.S. Census. US Census 2000 The United States, therefore, has one of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside Europe. The states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English (the second most spoken language in other states is either Spanish or French). An indication of the German presence can be found in the names of such places as Bismarck (state capital), Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg in North Dakota; New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas; and Kiel, Berlin and Germantown in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, (a West Central German variety), and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. A significant group of German Pietists in Iowa formed the Amana Colonies and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. In Canada, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, Statistics Canada 2006 while people of German ancestry (German Canadians) are found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in British Columbia (118,035) and Ontario (230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language Canada's third most spoken after French and English. In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, MazatlÃ¡n, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo. Dialects in North America: The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa Amana German is spoken. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Hutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak first Hutterite German before learning English in the public school, the standard language of the surrounding areas. Many colonies though continue with German Grammar School, separate from the public school, throughout a student's elementary education. The state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Germans arriving in the 1840s from Prussia (particularly the Silesia region). With the prolonged isolation and contact with Australian English some have suggested a unique dialect formed known as Barossa German spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Usage sharply declined with the advent of World War I with the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the twentieth century but now its use is limited to a few older speakers. There is an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of Papua New Guinea, across Micronesia and in northern Australia (i.e. coastal parts of Queensland and Western Australia), by few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars. According to Global Reach (2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is German. Global Statistics, Global Reach. Internet Languages, NVTC. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, "Distribution of languages on the Internet". making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface. Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics. Palmares, Internet Society. FUNREDES Funredes. (1998) and Vilaweb Vilaweb. (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese. The Germanic-speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 962. German-language newspapers in North America in 1922 The history of the language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardization of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (sÃ¤chsische Kanzleisprache) also known as MeiÃner-Deutsch (MeiÃner-German, i.e. of Meissen, founded 929 AD). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterite tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) â which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. In 1901 the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in written form while the Deutsche BÃ¼hnensprache (literally: German stage-language) had already established spelling-rules for German three years earlier which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava(German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German: Pressburg), Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas where only a dialect is spoken, for example Switzerland and Austria. However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age. The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it. The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (BundeslÃ¤nder) would not accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule - everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major yet incomplete revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the new school year of 2006. In 2007, some venerable spellings will be finally invalidated even though they caused little or no trouble. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, like in dass and muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using daÃ and muÃ. The cause of the controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth. (The reformers seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that a considerable part of that culture - namely the entire German literature of the 20th century - is in the old spelling.) The increasing use of English in Germany's higher education system, as well as in business and in popular culture, has led various German academics to state, not necessarily from an entirely negative perspective, that German is a language in decline in its native country. For example, Ursula Kimpel, of the University of TÃ¼bingen, said in 2005 that âGerman universities are offering more courses in English because of the large number of students coming from abroad. German is unfortunately a language in decline. We need and want our professors to be able to teach effectively in English.â Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but also in major cities in other parts of the country. Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss, Austrian Standard German officially in the Austrian education system. D-A-CH-flag, an unofficial flag comprising flags of the three dominant states in the German Sprachraum. Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and Sorbian as minority languages), in Austria (with Slovene, Croatian, and Hungarian), Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of Sopron (Hungary), Krahule (Slovakia) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the Vatican Swiss Guard. German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (South Jutland region), France (Alsace and Moselle regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, Poland (Opole region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt). German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe. Knowledge of German in Europe. German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. German is the main language of about 90â95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). It is therefore the most spoken first language in the EU. It is the second most known foreign language in the EU. After English; It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. Thirty-two percent of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language). This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable or satellite. German was once, and still remains to some extent, a lingua franca in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe. By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked black. Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West-Germanic dialectal varieties. German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German. The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon languages. Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII. Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the Luther Bible by Martin Luther was printed. This translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany. The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated and at home. Today Low Saxon can be divided in two groups: Low Saxon varieties with a reasonable standard German influx and varieties of Standard German with a Low Saxon influence known as Missingsch. High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian, High Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish. Upper German dialects include Northern Austro-Bavarian, Central Austro-Bavarian, Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian, East Franconian, High Alemannic German, Highest Alemannic German, Alsatian and Low Alemannic German. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and SiebenbÃ¼rgisch are High German dialects of Poland and Romania respectively. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script. In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics. The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany. German is an inflected language. German nouns inflect into: * one of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. * one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neutral. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ...ung(-ing), ...schaft(-ship), ...keit or ...heit(-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ...chen or ...lein (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ...ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ...er (-er), e.g. Feier (feminine), Eng. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), Eng. labourer. * two numbers: singular and plural Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in informal speech. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e. In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (Am Freitag bin ich einkaufen gegangen. â "On Friday I went shopping."; Eines Tages war er endlich da. â "One day he finally showed up".) This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish and English), too. Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun compounds where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: HundehÃ¼tte (Eng. dog hut; specifically: doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is RindfleischetikettierungsÃ¼berwachungsaufgabenÃ¼bertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Ãberwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Ãbertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".] Standard German verbs inflect into: * one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.) * three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. * two numbers: singular and plural * three moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive * two voices: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic. * two non-composed tenses (present, preterite) and four composed tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect) * distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus Preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or for the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise. * distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form. * disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]). There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through a relatively small number of prefixes. Some of those prefixes have a meaning themselves (Example: zer- refers to the destruction of things, as in zerreiÃen = to tear apart, zerbrechen = to break apart, zerschneiden = to cut apart), others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves (Example: ver- , as in versuchen = to try, vernehmen = to interrogate, verteilen = to distribute, verstehen = to understand). More examples: haften = to stick, verhaften = to imprison; kaufen = to buy, verkaufen = to sell; hÃ¶ren = to hear, aufhÃ¶ren = to cease; fahren = to drive, erfahren = to get to know, to hear about something. Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In finite verb forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?). Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g. :Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem Ã¼blichen Ãrger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause an . A literal translation of this example might look like this: :He -rived on a Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual disagreements that had been troubling him repeatedly, looking forward to a questionable meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already fixed for him, ar- at home. German requires that a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) appear second in the sentence, preceded by the most important topical phrase. The second most important phrase appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options: : (The old man gives me the book today) : (stress on das Buch) : (stress on heute) : (stress on mir) : (stress on der alte Mann) : : : The position of a noun as a subject or object in a German sentence doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. For example, in the sentence "Man bites dog" it is clear who did what to whom. To exchange the place of the subject with that of the object â "Dog bites man" â changes the meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as in Latin thus indicating whether it is the subject or object of the verb's action. The above example in German would be or with both having exactly the same meaning. If the articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines ( ), the syntax applies as in English â the first noun is the subject and the noun following the predicate is the object. Except for emphasis, adverbs of time have to appear in the third place in the sentence, just after the predicate. Otherwise the speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word order (in Modern English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. ( ) When an auxiliary verb is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.: : (The old man has given me the book yesterday.) : : : The word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common word orders; one is for main clauses and another for subordinate clauses. In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has position 2; in questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded. For example in a subordinate clause introduced by "weil" ("because") the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a main clause. The correct way of saying "because I'm broke" is " ". In the vernacular you may hear instead " " This phenomenon may be caused by mixing the word-order pattern used for the word with the pattern used for an alternative word for "because", , which is used with the main clause order (" "). Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" ( ). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?" The number of infinitives at the end is usually restricted to two, causing the third infinitive or auxiliary verb that would have gone at the very end to be placed instead at the beginning of the chain of verbs. For example in the sentence "Should he move into the house that he just has had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into the house move, that he just renovated had?". ( ). The older form would have been ( ). If there are more than three infinitives, all except the first two are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say the rule is not rigorously applied. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, and Greek, and a smaller amount from French some of which might be reborrowings from Germanic Frankish and most recently English. a phenomenon known in German as Denglisch or in English as Germish or Denglisch At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language in forming equivalents for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem repertory is great. Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Overall, German has fewer Romance-language loanwords than English. The coining of new, autochthonous words gave German a vocabulary of an estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century. In comparison, Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words today. Even today, many low-key scholarly movements try to promote the Ersatz (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or neologous German alternatives. Verein Deutsche Sprache e.V. - Der Anglizismen-Index It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too. In the modern scientific German vocabulary data base in Leipzig (as of July 2003) Willkommen there are nine million words and word groups in 35 million sentences (out of a corpus of 500 million words). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely Ã¤, Ã¶ and Ã¼, as well as the Eszett or scharfes s (sharp s), Ã. Before the German spelling reform of 1996, Ã replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings. In reformed spelling, Ã replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital Ã, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For example, MaÃband (tape measure) is capitalized MASSBAND. An exception is the use of Ã in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, a "Ã" is to be used instead of "SS". (So: "KREÃLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN".) A capital Ã has been proposed and included in Unicode, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In Switzerland, Ã is not used at all. Umlaut vowels (Ã¤, Ã¶, Ã¼) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner Ã can be transcribed as ss. German readers understand those transcriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are considered a makeshift, not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ËraËsfÉlt], Coesfeld [ËkoËsfÉlt] and Itzehoe [ÉªtsÉËhoË], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-day spelling of words other than proper nouns.) There is no general agreement on where these umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e, whereas dictionaries use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book Ãrzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ã is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ãrzte occurs after Arzt but before Asbest (because Ã is treated as A). In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and SÃ¼tterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however were claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. Adolf Reinecke, Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift: ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre ZweckmÃ¤Ãigkeit und vÃ¶lkische Bedeutung, Leipzig, Hasert, 1910 The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. The Fraktur script remains present in everyday life through road signs, pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and oldness. A proper use of the long s, (langes s), Å¿, is essential to write German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces include the long s, also. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting, recently. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in differentiating between the words WachÅ¿tube (=guard-house) and Wachstube (=tube of floor polish). One can decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, easily ("Wach-Å¿tube" vs. "Wachs-tube"). The long s only appears in lower case. German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in short and long varieties, as detailed in the following table: Short is realised as in stressed syllables (including secondary stress), but as in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short can be spelled either with e or with Ã¤ (hÃ¤tte 'would have' and Kette 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open sound of long Ã; in some varieties of standard German, and have merged into , removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like BÃ¤ren/Beeren 'bears/berries' or Ãhre/Ehre 'spike/honour' become homophonous). In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed is not pronounced as , but vocalised to . Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist: * If a vowel (other than i) is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. Hof [hoËf]). * If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster (e.g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e.g. hoffen [ËhÉfÇn]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preciding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled. Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. hat [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; Mond , 'moon' is long despite the second rule). For an i that is neither in the combination ie (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the e in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word StÃ¤dte 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ch can be short (Fach 'compartment', KÃ¼che 'kitchen') or long (Suche 'search', BÃ¼cher 'books') almost at random. Thus, Lache is homographous: (Lache) 'puddle' and (lache) 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.). German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, Ã¤u, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters: Additionally, the digraph ie generally represents the phoneme , which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, a /r/ at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised /r/ is not considered a diphthong: BÃ¤r 'bear', er 'he', wir 'we', Tor 'gate', kurz 'short', WÃ¶rter 'words'. In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a glottal stop [Ê]. * c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [Ê¦] (before Ã¤, Ã¤u, e, i, Ã¶, Ã¼, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, or before consonants). The combination ck is, as in English, used to indicate that the preceding vowel is short. * ch occurs most often and is pronounced either [Ã§] (after Ã¤, ai, Ã¤u, e, ei, eu, i, Ã¶, Ã¼ and after consonants, in the diminutive suffix -chen and at the beginning of a word) or [x] (after a, au, o, u). Ch never occurs at the beginning of an originally German word. In borrowed words with initial Ch there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. For example, the word "Chemie" (chemistry) can be pronounced [keËËmiË], [Ã§eËËmiË] or [ÊeËËmiË] depending on dialect. * dsch is pronounced Ê¤ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only. * f is pronounced [f] as in "father". * h is pronounced [h] like in "home" at the beginning of a syllable. After a vowel it is silent and only lengthens the vowel (e.g. "Reh" = roe deer). * j is pronounced [j] in Germanic words ("Jahr" [jaËÉ]). In younger loanwords, it follows more or less the respective languages' pronunciations. * l is always pronounced [l], never [É«] (the English "Dark L"). * q only exists in combination with u and appears both in Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "QualitÃ¤t"). It is pronounced [kv]. * r is pronounced as a guttural sound (an uvular trill, [Ê]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" [ÊaËzÉn]; "Burg" like [buÊg]). In spoken German however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ÉÉ] - "Burg" [buÉg]). In some southern non-standard varieties, the r is pronounced as a tongue-tip r (the alveolar trill). * s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset (e.g. Sohn [zoËn]), otherwise [s] (e.g. Bus [bÊs]). In Austria and Switzerland, it is always pronounced [s]. A ss [s] indicates that the preceding vowel is short. st and sp at the beginning of words of German origin are pronounced [Êt] and [Êp], respectively. * Ã (a letter unique to German called "Esszet") was a ligature of a double s and of a sz and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e.g. "ich muss" â "ich muÃ"; "ich mÃ¼sste" â "ich mÃ¼Ãte"); within a word it contrasts with ss [s] in indicating that the preceding vowel is long (compare "in MaÃen" [in 'maËsÉn] "with moderation" and "in Massen" [in 'masÉn] "in loads"). The use of Ã has recently been limited by the latest German spelling reform and is no longer used for ss at the end of a syllable; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934. Mittelschulvorbereitung Deutsch * sch is pronounced [Ê] (like "sh" in "Shine"). * tion in Latin loanwords is pronounced tsion. * v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e.g. "Vater" [ËfaËtÉ]) and [v] in most other words (e.g. "Vase" [ËvaËzÇ]). * w is pronounced [v] like in "vacation" (e.g. "was" [vas]). * y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel. * z is always pronounced [Ê¦] (e.g. "zog" [Ê¦oËk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short. German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sounds, which the English language has inherited from Anglo Saxon, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th century. It is sometimes possible to find parallels between German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" â in German "Dank", "this" and "that" â "dies" and "das", "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) â "du", "think" â "denken", "thirsty" â "durstig" and many other examples. Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f, or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" â "lachen", "through" and "thorough" â "durch", "high" â "hoch", "naught" â "nichts", etc. A sizeable fraction of English vocabulary is cognate to German words, although the common ancestry may be somewhat obscured by various shifts in phonetics (eg. the High German consonant shift), meaning and orthography. For example: * the High German consonant shift pâff led to such cognates as Ger. Schiff with Eng. ship. Ger. Baum (meaning "tree") is cognate to Eng. beam as may be seen in the name of trees such as the hornbeam and the whitebeam. :For a list of German loanwords in English, see In the English language, there are also many words taken from German without any letter change, e.g.: The use and learning of the German language is promoted by a number of organisations. The government-backed Goethe Institute (named after the famous German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) aims to enhance the knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example the Goethe Institute teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is the equivalent of the British BBC World Service and provides radio and television broadcasts in German and a variety of other languages across the globe. Its German language services are tailored for German language learners by being spoken at slow speed. * Deutsch * German loan words * German name * German family name etymology * German placename etymology * German exonyms * German as a Minority Language * German in the United States * German spelling reform of 1996 * Germanism * Denglish, * List of English words of German origin * List of pseudo-German words adapted to English * Missingsch * Umlaut, Ã * Various terms used for Germans * * * Michael Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704 * George O. Curme, A Grammar of the German Language (1904, 1922) â the most complete and authoritative work in English * Anthony Fox, The Structure of German (2005) ISBN 0199273995 * W.B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505 * * The Goethe Institute: German Government sponsored organisation for the promotion of the German language and culture. * German Pronouns: Nominative Case * German Pronouns: Accusative Case * The Leo Dictionaries: A German language portal featuring German-English, German-French, German-Spanish, German-Italian and German-Chinese dictionaries, with forums and a search function * Online German Course: A free online German course for absolute beginners.
German_language	Are there two common word orders?	yes	data/set5/a2	German_language German ( , ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide. German is spoken primarily in Germany (first language for more than 95% of the population), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%) together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (D-A-CH-Li-Lux) constituting the countries where German is the majority language. Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Bolzano-Bozen), in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the French Alsace region which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, SÃ¸nderjylland) of Denmark. Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia). A considerable proportion of the native population speak German dialects in Luxembourg and the surrounding areas. Some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street. Examples of German language in Namibian everyday life. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States, Canada, Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where the dialect AlemÃ¡n Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. In Namibia, German Namibians retain German educational institutions. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser HunsrÃ¼ckisch was developed), Santa Catarina, ParanÃ¡, and EspÃrito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico. Nearly all inhabitants of the city of Pomerode in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil speak German. German in the United States is the fifth most spoken language at home (~ 1.4 million) after English, Spanish, Chinese, and French according to the 2000 U.S. Census. US Census 2000 The United States, therefore, has one of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside Europe. The states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English (the second most spoken language in other states is either Spanish or French). An indication of the German presence can be found in the names of such places as Bismarck (state capital), Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg in North Dakota; New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas; and Kiel, Berlin and Germantown in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, (a West Central German variety), and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. A significant group of German Pietists in Iowa formed the Amana Colonies and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. In Canada, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, Statistics Canada 2006 while people of German ancestry (German Canadians) are found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in British Columbia (118,035) and Ontario (230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language Canada's third most spoken after French and English. In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, MazatlÃ¡n, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo. Dialects in North America: The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa Amana German is spoken. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Hutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak first Hutterite German before learning English in the public school, the standard language of the surrounding areas. Many colonies though continue with German Grammar School, separate from the public school, throughout a student's elementary education. The state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Germans arriving in the 1840s from Prussia (particularly the Silesia region). With the prolonged isolation and contact with Australian English some have suggested a unique dialect formed known as Barossa German spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Usage sharply declined with the advent of World War I with the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the twentieth century but now its use is limited to a few older speakers. There is an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of Papua New Guinea, across Micronesia and in northern Australia (i.e. coastal parts of Queensland and Western Australia), by few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars. According to Global Reach (2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is German. Global Statistics, Global Reach. Internet Languages, NVTC. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, "Distribution of languages on the Internet". making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface. Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics. Palmares, Internet Society. FUNREDES Funredes. (1998) and Vilaweb Vilaweb. (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese. The Germanic-speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 962. German-language newspapers in North America in 1922 The history of the language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardization of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (sÃ¤chsische Kanzleisprache) also known as MeiÃner-Deutsch (MeiÃner-German, i.e. of Meissen, founded 929 AD). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterite tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) â which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. In 1901 the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in written form while the Deutsche BÃ¼hnensprache (literally: German stage-language) had already established spelling-rules for German three years earlier which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava(German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German: Pressburg), Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas where only a dialect is spoken, for example Switzerland and Austria. However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age. The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it. The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (BundeslÃ¤nder) would not accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule - everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major yet incomplete revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the new school year of 2006. In 2007, some venerable spellings will be finally invalidated even though they caused little or no trouble. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, like in dass and muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using daÃ and muÃ. The cause of the controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth. (The reformers seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that a considerable part of that culture - namely the entire German literature of the 20th century - is in the old spelling.) The increasing use of English in Germany's higher education system, as well as in business and in popular culture, has led various German academics to state, not necessarily from an entirely negative perspective, that German is a language in decline in its native country. For example, Ursula Kimpel, of the University of TÃ¼bingen, said in 2005 that âGerman universities are offering more courses in English because of the large number of students coming from abroad. German is unfortunately a language in decline. We need and want our professors to be able to teach effectively in English.â Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but also in major cities in other parts of the country. Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss, Austrian Standard German officially in the Austrian education system. D-A-CH-flag, an unofficial flag comprising flags of the three dominant states in the German Sprachraum. Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and Sorbian as minority languages), in Austria (with Slovene, Croatian, and Hungarian), Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of Sopron (Hungary), Krahule (Slovakia) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the Vatican Swiss Guard. German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (South Jutland region), France (Alsace and Moselle regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, Poland (Opole region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt). German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe. Knowledge of German in Europe. German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. German is the main language of about 90â95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). It is therefore the most spoken first language in the EU. It is the second most known foreign language in the EU. After English; It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. Thirty-two percent of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language). This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable or satellite. German was once, and still remains to some extent, a lingua franca in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe. By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked black. Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West-Germanic dialectal varieties. German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German. The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon languages. Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII. Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the Luther Bible by Martin Luther was printed. This translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany. The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated and at home. Today Low Saxon can be divided in two groups: Low Saxon varieties with a reasonable standard German influx and varieties of Standard German with a Low Saxon influence known as Missingsch. High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian, High Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish. Upper German dialects include Northern Austro-Bavarian, Central Austro-Bavarian, Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian, East Franconian, High Alemannic German, Highest Alemannic German, Alsatian and Low Alemannic German. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and SiebenbÃ¼rgisch are High German dialects of Poland and Romania respectively. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script. In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics. The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany. German is an inflected language. German nouns inflect into: * one of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. * one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neutral. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ...ung(-ing), ...schaft(-ship), ...keit or ...heit(-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ...chen or ...lein (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ...ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ...er (-er), e.g. Feier (feminine), Eng. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), Eng. labourer. * two numbers: singular and plural Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in informal speech. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e. In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (Am Freitag bin ich einkaufen gegangen. â "On Friday I went shopping."; Eines Tages war er endlich da. â "One day he finally showed up".) This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish and English), too. Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun compounds where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: HundehÃ¼tte (Eng. dog hut; specifically: doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is RindfleischetikettierungsÃ¼berwachungsaufgabenÃ¼bertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Ãberwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Ãbertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".] Standard German verbs inflect into: * one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.) * three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. * two numbers: singular and plural * three moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive * two voices: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic. * two non-composed tenses (present, preterite) and four composed tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect) * distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus Preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or for the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise. * distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form. * disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]). There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through a relatively small number of prefixes. Some of those prefixes have a meaning themselves (Example: zer- refers to the destruction of things, as in zerreiÃen = to tear apart, zerbrechen = to break apart, zerschneiden = to cut apart), others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves (Example: ver- , as in versuchen = to try, vernehmen = to interrogate, verteilen = to distribute, verstehen = to understand). More examples: haften = to stick, verhaften = to imprison; kaufen = to buy, verkaufen = to sell; hÃ¶ren = to hear, aufhÃ¶ren = to cease; fahren = to drive, erfahren = to get to know, to hear about something. Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In finite verb forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?). Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g. :Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem Ã¼blichen Ãrger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause an . A literal translation of this example might look like this: :He -rived on a Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual disagreements that had been troubling him repeatedly, looking forward to a questionable meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already fixed for him, ar- at home. German requires that a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) appear second in the sentence, preceded by the most important topical phrase. The second most important phrase appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options: : (The old man gives me the book today) : (stress on das Buch) : (stress on heute) : (stress on mir) : (stress on der alte Mann) : : : The position of a noun as a subject or object in a German sentence doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. For example, in the sentence "Man bites dog" it is clear who did what to whom. To exchange the place of the subject with that of the object â "Dog bites man" â changes the meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as in Latin thus indicating whether it is the subject or object of the verb's action. The above example in German would be or with both having exactly the same meaning. If the articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines ( ), the syntax applies as in English â the first noun is the subject and the noun following the predicate is the object. Except for emphasis, adverbs of time have to appear in the third place in the sentence, just after the predicate. Otherwise the speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word order (in Modern English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. ( ) When an auxiliary verb is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.: : (The old man has given me the book yesterday.) : : : The word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common word orders; one is for main clauses and another for subordinate clauses. In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has position 2; in questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded. For example in a subordinate clause introduced by "weil" ("because") the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a main clause. The correct way of saying "because I'm broke" is " ". In the vernacular you may hear instead " " This phenomenon may be caused by mixing the word-order pattern used for the word with the pattern used for an alternative word for "because", , which is used with the main clause order (" "). Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" ( ). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?" The number of infinitives at the end is usually restricted to two, causing the third infinitive or auxiliary verb that would have gone at the very end to be placed instead at the beginning of the chain of verbs. For example in the sentence "Should he move into the house that he just has had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into the house move, that he just renovated had?". ( ). The older form would have been ( ). If there are more than three infinitives, all except the first two are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say the rule is not rigorously applied. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, and Greek, and a smaller amount from French some of which might be reborrowings from Germanic Frankish and most recently English. a phenomenon known in German as Denglisch or in English as Germish or Denglisch At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language in forming equivalents for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem repertory is great. Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Overall, German has fewer Romance-language loanwords than English. The coining of new, autochthonous words gave German a vocabulary of an estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century. In comparison, Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words today. Even today, many low-key scholarly movements try to promote the Ersatz (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or neologous German alternatives. Verein Deutsche Sprache e.V. - Der Anglizismen-Index It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too. In the modern scientific German vocabulary data base in Leipzig (as of July 2003) Willkommen there are nine million words and word groups in 35 million sentences (out of a corpus of 500 million words). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely Ã¤, Ã¶ and Ã¼, as well as the Eszett or scharfes s (sharp s), Ã. Before the German spelling reform of 1996, Ã replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings. In reformed spelling, Ã replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital Ã, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For example, MaÃband (tape measure) is capitalized MASSBAND. An exception is the use of Ã in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, a "Ã" is to be used instead of "SS". (So: "KREÃLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN".) A capital Ã has been proposed and included in Unicode, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In Switzerland, Ã is not used at all. Umlaut vowels (Ã¤, Ã¶, Ã¼) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner Ã can be transcribed as ss. German readers understand those transcriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are considered a makeshift, not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ËraËsfÉlt], Coesfeld [ËkoËsfÉlt] and Itzehoe [ÉªtsÉËhoË], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-day spelling of words other than proper nouns.) There is no general agreement on where these umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e, whereas dictionaries use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book Ãrzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ã is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ãrzte occurs after Arzt but before Asbest (because Ã is treated as A). In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and SÃ¼tterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however were claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. Adolf Reinecke, Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift: ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre ZweckmÃ¤Ãigkeit und vÃ¶lkische Bedeutung, Leipzig, Hasert, 1910 The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. The Fraktur script remains present in everyday life through road signs, pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and oldness. A proper use of the long s, (langes s), Å¿, is essential to write German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces include the long s, also. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting, recently. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in differentiating between the words WachÅ¿tube (=guard-house) and Wachstube (=tube of floor polish). One can decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, easily ("Wach-Å¿tube" vs. "Wachs-tube"). The long s only appears in lower case. German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in short and long varieties, as detailed in the following table: Short is realised as in stressed syllables (including secondary stress), but as in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short can be spelled either with e or with Ã¤ (hÃ¤tte 'would have' and Kette 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open sound of long Ã; in some varieties of standard German, and have merged into , removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like BÃ¤ren/Beeren 'bears/berries' or Ãhre/Ehre 'spike/honour' become homophonous). In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed is not pronounced as , but vocalised to . Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist: * If a vowel (other than i) is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. Hof [hoËf]). * If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster (e.g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e.g. hoffen [ËhÉfÇn]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preciding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled. Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. hat [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; Mond , 'moon' is long despite the second rule). For an i that is neither in the combination ie (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the e in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word StÃ¤dte 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ch can be short (Fach 'compartment', KÃ¼che 'kitchen') or long (Suche 'search', BÃ¼cher 'books') almost at random. Thus, Lache is homographous: (Lache) 'puddle' and (lache) 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.). German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, Ã¤u, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters: Additionally, the digraph ie generally represents the phoneme , which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, a /r/ at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised /r/ is not considered a diphthong: BÃ¤r 'bear', er 'he', wir 'we', Tor 'gate', kurz 'short', WÃ¶rter 'words'. In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a glottal stop [Ê]. * c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [Ê¦] (before Ã¤, Ã¤u, e, i, Ã¶, Ã¼, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, or before consonants). The combination ck is, as in English, used to indicate that the preceding vowel is short. * ch occurs most often and is pronounced either [Ã§] (after Ã¤, ai, Ã¤u, e, ei, eu, i, Ã¶, Ã¼ and after consonants, in the diminutive suffix -chen and at the beginning of a word) or [x] (after a, au, o, u). Ch never occurs at the beginning of an originally German word. In borrowed words with initial Ch there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. For example, the word "Chemie" (chemistry) can be pronounced [keËËmiË], [Ã§eËËmiË] or [ÊeËËmiË] depending on dialect. * dsch is pronounced Ê¤ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only. * f is pronounced [f] as in "father". * h is pronounced [h] like in "home" at the beginning of a syllable. After a vowel it is silent and only lengthens the vowel (e.g. "Reh" = roe deer). * j is pronounced [j] in Germanic words ("Jahr" [jaËÉ]). In younger loanwords, it follows more or less the respective languages' pronunciations. * l is always pronounced [l], never [É«] (the English "Dark L"). * q only exists in combination with u and appears both in Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "QualitÃ¤t"). It is pronounced [kv]. * r is pronounced as a guttural sound (an uvular trill, [Ê]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" [ÊaËzÉn]; "Burg" like [buÊg]). In spoken German however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ÉÉ] - "Burg" [buÉg]). In some southern non-standard varieties, the r is pronounced as a tongue-tip r (the alveolar trill). * s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset (e.g. Sohn [zoËn]), otherwise [s] (e.g. Bus [bÊs]). In Austria and Switzerland, it is always pronounced [s]. A ss [s] indicates that the preceding vowel is short. st and sp at the beginning of words of German origin are pronounced [Êt] and [Êp], respectively. * Ã (a letter unique to German called "Esszet") was a ligature of a double s and of a sz and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e.g. "ich muss" â "ich muÃ"; "ich mÃ¼sste" â "ich mÃ¼Ãte"); within a word it contrasts with ss [s] in indicating that the preceding vowel is long (compare "in MaÃen" [in 'maËsÉn] "with moderation" and "in Massen" [in 'masÉn] "in loads"). The use of Ã has recently been limited by the latest German spelling reform and is no longer used for ss at the end of a syllable; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934. Mittelschulvorbereitung Deutsch * sch is pronounced [Ê] (like "sh" in "Shine"). * tion in Latin loanwords is pronounced tsion. * v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e.g. "Vater" [ËfaËtÉ]) and [v] in most other words (e.g. "Vase" [ËvaËzÇ]). * w is pronounced [v] like in "vacation" (e.g. "was" [vas]). * y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel. * z is always pronounced [Ê¦] (e.g. "zog" [Ê¦oËk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short. German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sounds, which the English language has inherited from Anglo Saxon, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th century. It is sometimes possible to find parallels between German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" â in German "Dank", "this" and "that" â "dies" and "das", "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) â "du", "think" â "denken", "thirsty" â "durstig" and many other examples. Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f, or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" â "lachen", "through" and "thorough" â "durch", "high" â "hoch", "naught" â "nichts", etc. A sizeable fraction of English vocabulary is cognate to German words, although the common ancestry may be somewhat obscured by various shifts in phonetics (eg. the High German consonant shift), meaning and orthography. For example: * the High German consonant shift pâff led to such cognates as Ger. Schiff with Eng. ship. Ger. Baum (meaning "tree") is cognate to Eng. beam as may be seen in the name of trees such as the hornbeam and the whitebeam. :For a list of German loanwords in English, see In the English language, there are also many words taken from German without any letter change, e.g.: The use and learning of the German language is promoted by a number of organisations. The government-backed Goethe Institute (named after the famous German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) aims to enhance the knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example the Goethe Institute teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is the equivalent of the British BBC World Service and provides radio and television broadcasts in German and a variety of other languages across the globe. Its German language services are tailored for German language learners by being spoken at slow speed. * Deutsch * German loan words * German name * German family name etymology * German placename etymology * German exonyms * German as a Minority Language * German in the United States * German spelling reform of 1996 * Germanism * Denglish, * List of English words of German origin * List of pseudo-German words adapted to English * Missingsch * Umlaut, Ã * Various terms used for Germans * * * Michael Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704 * George O. Curme, A Grammar of the German Language (1904, 1922) â the most complete and authoritative work in English * Anthony Fox, The Structure of German (2005) ISBN 0199273995 * W.B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505 * * The Goethe Institute: German Government sponsored organisation for the promotion of the German language and culture. * German Pronouns: Nominative Case * German Pronouns: Accusative Case * The Leo Dictionaries: A German language portal featuring German-English, German-French, German-Spanish, German-Italian and German-Chinese dictionaries, with forums and a search function * Online German Course: A free online German course for absolute beginners.
German_language	Are feminines declined in the singular?	no	data/set5/a2	German_language German ( , ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide. German is spoken primarily in Germany (first language for more than 95% of the population), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%) together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (D-A-CH-Li-Lux) constituting the countries where German is the majority language. Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Bolzano-Bozen), in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the French Alsace region which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, SÃ¸nderjylland) of Denmark. Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia). A considerable proportion of the native population speak German dialects in Luxembourg and the surrounding areas. Some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street. Examples of German language in Namibian everyday life. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States, Canada, Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where the dialect AlemÃ¡n Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. In Namibia, German Namibians retain German educational institutions. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser HunsrÃ¼ckisch was developed), Santa Catarina, ParanÃ¡, and EspÃrito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico. Nearly all inhabitants of the city of Pomerode in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil speak German. German in the United States is the fifth most spoken language at home (~ 1.4 million) after English, Spanish, Chinese, and French according to the 2000 U.S. Census. US Census 2000 The United States, therefore, has one of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside Europe. The states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English (the second most spoken language in other states is either Spanish or French). An indication of the German presence can be found in the names of such places as Bismarck (state capital), Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg in North Dakota; New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas; and Kiel, Berlin and Germantown in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, (a West Central German variety), and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. A significant group of German Pietists in Iowa formed the Amana Colonies and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. In Canada, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, Statistics Canada 2006 while people of German ancestry (German Canadians) are found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in British Columbia (118,035) and Ontario (230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language Canada's third most spoken after French and English. In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, MazatlÃ¡n, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo. Dialects in North America: The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa Amana German is spoken. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Hutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak first Hutterite German before learning English in the public school, the standard language of the surrounding areas. Many colonies though continue with German Grammar School, separate from the public school, throughout a student's elementary education. The state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Germans arriving in the 1840s from Prussia (particularly the Silesia region). With the prolonged isolation and contact with Australian English some have suggested a unique dialect formed known as Barossa German spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Usage sharply declined with the advent of World War I with the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the twentieth century but now its use is limited to a few older speakers. There is an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of Papua New Guinea, across Micronesia and in northern Australia (i.e. coastal parts of Queensland and Western Australia), by few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars. According to Global Reach (2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is German. Global Statistics, Global Reach. Internet Languages, NVTC. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, "Distribution of languages on the Internet". making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface. Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics. Palmares, Internet Society. FUNREDES Funredes. (1998) and Vilaweb Vilaweb. (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese. The Germanic-speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 962. German-language newspapers in North America in 1922 The history of the language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardization of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (sÃ¤chsische Kanzleisprache) also known as MeiÃner-Deutsch (MeiÃner-German, i.e. of Meissen, founded 929 AD). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterite tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) â which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. In 1901 the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in written form while the Deutsche BÃ¼hnensprache (literally: German stage-language) had already established spelling-rules for German three years earlier which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava(German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German: Pressburg), Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas where only a dialect is spoken, for example Switzerland and Austria. However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age. The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it. The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (BundeslÃ¤nder) would not accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule - everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major yet incomplete revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the new school year of 2006. In 2007, some venerable spellings will be finally invalidated even though they caused little or no trouble. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, like in dass and muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using daÃ and muÃ. The cause of the controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth. (The reformers seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that a considerable part of that culture - namely the entire German literature of the 20th century - is in the old spelling.) The increasing use of English in Germany's higher education system, as well as in business and in popular culture, has led various German academics to state, not necessarily from an entirely negative perspective, that German is a language in decline in its native country. For example, Ursula Kimpel, of the University of TÃ¼bingen, said in 2005 that âGerman universities are offering more courses in English because of the large number of students coming from abroad. German is unfortunately a language in decline. We need and want our professors to be able to teach effectively in English.â Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but also in major cities in other parts of the country. Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss, Austrian Standard German officially in the Austrian education system. D-A-CH-flag, an unofficial flag comprising flags of the three dominant states in the German Sprachraum. Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and Sorbian as minority languages), in Austria (with Slovene, Croatian, and Hungarian), Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of Sopron (Hungary), Krahule (Slovakia) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the Vatican Swiss Guard. German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (South Jutland region), France (Alsace and Moselle regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, Poland (Opole region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt). German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe. Knowledge of German in Europe. German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. German is the main language of about 90â95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). It is therefore the most spoken first language in the EU. It is the second most known foreign language in the EU. After English; It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. Thirty-two percent of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language). This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable or satellite. German was once, and still remains to some extent, a lingua franca in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe. By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked black. Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West-Germanic dialectal varieties. German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German. The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon languages. Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII. Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the Luther Bible by Martin Luther was printed. This translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany. The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated and at home. Today Low Saxon can be divided in two groups: Low Saxon varieties with a reasonable standard German influx and varieties of Standard German with a Low Saxon influence known as Missingsch. High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian, High Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish. Upper German dialects include Northern Austro-Bavarian, Central Austro-Bavarian, Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian, East Franconian, High Alemannic German, Highest Alemannic German, Alsatian and Low Alemannic German. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and SiebenbÃ¼rgisch are High German dialects of Poland and Romania respectively. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script. In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics. The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany. German is an inflected language. German nouns inflect into: * one of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. * one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neutral. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ...ung(-ing), ...schaft(-ship), ...keit or ...heit(-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ...chen or ...lein (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ...ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ...er (-er), e.g. Feier (feminine), Eng. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), Eng. labourer. * two numbers: singular and plural Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in informal speech. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e. In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (Am Freitag bin ich einkaufen gegangen. â "On Friday I went shopping."; Eines Tages war er endlich da. â "One day he finally showed up".) This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish and English), too. Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun compounds where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: HundehÃ¼tte (Eng. dog hut; specifically: doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is RindfleischetikettierungsÃ¼berwachungsaufgabenÃ¼bertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Ãberwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Ãbertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".] Standard German verbs inflect into: * one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.) * three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. * two numbers: singular and plural * three moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive * two voices: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic. * two non-composed tenses (present, preterite) and four composed tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect) * distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus Preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or for the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise. * distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form. * disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]). There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through a relatively small number of prefixes. Some of those prefixes have a meaning themselves (Example: zer- refers to the destruction of things, as in zerreiÃen = to tear apart, zerbrechen = to break apart, zerschneiden = to cut apart), others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves (Example: ver- , as in versuchen = to try, vernehmen = to interrogate, verteilen = to distribute, verstehen = to understand). More examples: haften = to stick, verhaften = to imprison; kaufen = to buy, verkaufen = to sell; hÃ¶ren = to hear, aufhÃ¶ren = to cease; fahren = to drive, erfahren = to get to know, to hear about something. Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In finite verb forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?). Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g. :Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem Ã¼blichen Ãrger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause an . A literal translation of this example might look like this: :He -rived on a Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual disagreements that had been troubling him repeatedly, looking forward to a questionable meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already fixed for him, ar- at home. German requires that a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) appear second in the sentence, preceded by the most important topical phrase. The second most important phrase appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options: : (The old man gives me the book today) : (stress on das Buch) : (stress on heute) : (stress on mir) : (stress on der alte Mann) : : : The position of a noun as a subject or object in a German sentence doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. For example, in the sentence "Man bites dog" it is clear who did what to whom. To exchange the place of the subject with that of the object â "Dog bites man" â changes the meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as in Latin thus indicating whether it is the subject or object of the verb's action. The above example in German would be or with both having exactly the same meaning. If the articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines ( ), the syntax applies as in English â the first noun is the subject and the noun following the predicate is the object. Except for emphasis, adverbs of time have to appear in the third place in the sentence, just after the predicate. Otherwise the speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word order (in Modern English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. ( ) When an auxiliary verb is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.: : (The old man has given me the book yesterday.) : : : The word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common word orders; one is for main clauses and another for subordinate clauses. In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has position 2; in questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded. For example in a subordinate clause introduced by "weil" ("because") the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a main clause. The correct way of saying "because I'm broke" is " ". In the vernacular you may hear instead " " This phenomenon may be caused by mixing the word-order pattern used for the word with the pattern used for an alternative word for "because", , which is used with the main clause order (" "). Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" ( ). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?" The number of infinitives at the end is usually restricted to two, causing the third infinitive or auxiliary verb that would have gone at the very end to be placed instead at the beginning of the chain of verbs. For example in the sentence "Should he move into the house that he just has had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into the house move, that he just renovated had?". ( ). The older form would have been ( ). If there are more than three infinitives, all except the first two are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say the rule is not rigorously applied. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, and Greek, and a smaller amount from French some of which might be reborrowings from Germanic Frankish and most recently English. a phenomenon known in German as Denglisch or in English as Germish or Denglisch At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language in forming equivalents for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem repertory is great. Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Overall, German has fewer Romance-language loanwords than English. The coining of new, autochthonous words gave German a vocabulary of an estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century. In comparison, Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words today. Even today, many low-key scholarly movements try to promote the Ersatz (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or neologous German alternatives. Verein Deutsche Sprache e.V. - Der Anglizismen-Index It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too. In the modern scientific German vocabulary data base in Leipzig (as of July 2003) Willkommen there are nine million words and word groups in 35 million sentences (out of a corpus of 500 million words). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely Ã¤, Ã¶ and Ã¼, as well as the Eszett or scharfes s (sharp s), Ã. Before the German spelling reform of 1996, Ã replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings. In reformed spelling, Ã replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital Ã, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For example, MaÃband (tape measure) is capitalized MASSBAND. An exception is the use of Ã in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, a "Ã" is to be used instead of "SS". (So: "KREÃLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN".) A capital Ã has been proposed and included in Unicode, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In Switzerland, Ã is not used at all. Umlaut vowels (Ã¤, Ã¶, Ã¼) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner Ã can be transcribed as ss. German readers understand those transcriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are considered a makeshift, not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ËraËsfÉlt], Coesfeld [ËkoËsfÉlt] and Itzehoe [ÉªtsÉËhoË], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-day spelling of words other than proper nouns.) There is no general agreement on where these umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e, whereas dictionaries use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book Ãrzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ã is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ãrzte occurs after Arzt but before Asbest (because Ã is treated as A). In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and SÃ¼tterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however were claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. Adolf Reinecke, Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift: ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre ZweckmÃ¤Ãigkeit und vÃ¶lkische Bedeutung, Leipzig, Hasert, 1910 The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. The Fraktur script remains present in everyday life through road signs, pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and oldness. A proper use of the long s, (langes s), Å¿, is essential to write German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces include the long s, also. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting, recently. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in differentiating between the words WachÅ¿tube (=guard-house) and Wachstube (=tube of floor polish). One can decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, easily ("Wach-Å¿tube" vs. "Wachs-tube"). The long s only appears in lower case. German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in short and long varieties, as detailed in the following table: Short is realised as in stressed syllables (including secondary stress), but as in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short can be spelled either with e or with Ã¤ (hÃ¤tte 'would have' and Kette 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open sound of long Ã; in some varieties of standard German, and have merged into , removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like BÃ¤ren/Beeren 'bears/berries' or Ãhre/Ehre 'spike/honour' become homophonous). In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed is not pronounced as , but vocalised to . Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist: * If a vowel (other than i) is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. Hof [hoËf]). * If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster (e.g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e.g. hoffen [ËhÉfÇn]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preciding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled. Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. hat [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; Mond , 'moon' is long despite the second rule). For an i that is neither in the combination ie (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the e in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word StÃ¤dte 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ch can be short (Fach 'compartment', KÃ¼che 'kitchen') or long (Suche 'search', BÃ¼cher 'books') almost at random. Thus, Lache is homographous: (Lache) 'puddle' and (lache) 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.). German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, Ã¤u, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters: Additionally, the digraph ie generally represents the phoneme , which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, a /r/ at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised /r/ is not considered a diphthong: BÃ¤r 'bear', er 'he', wir 'we', Tor 'gate', kurz 'short', WÃ¶rter 'words'. In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a glottal stop [Ê]. * c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [Ê¦] (before Ã¤, Ã¤u, e, i, Ã¶, Ã¼, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, or before consonants). The combination ck is, as in English, used to indicate that the preceding vowel is short. * ch occurs most often and is pronounced either [Ã§] (after Ã¤, ai, Ã¤u, e, ei, eu, i, Ã¶, Ã¼ and after consonants, in the diminutive suffix -chen and at the beginning of a word) or [x] (after a, au, o, u). Ch never occurs at the beginning of an originally German word. In borrowed words with initial Ch there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. For example, the word "Chemie" (chemistry) can be pronounced [keËËmiË], [Ã§eËËmiË] or [ÊeËËmiË] depending on dialect. * dsch is pronounced Ê¤ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only. * f is pronounced [f] as in "father". * h is pronounced [h] like in "home" at the beginning of a syllable. After a vowel it is silent and only lengthens the vowel (e.g. "Reh" = roe deer). * j is pronounced [j] in Germanic words ("Jahr" [jaËÉ]). In younger loanwords, it follows more or less the respective languages' pronunciations. * l is always pronounced [l], never [É«] (the English "Dark L"). * q only exists in combination with u and appears both in Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "QualitÃ¤t"). It is pronounced [kv]. * r is pronounced as a guttural sound (an uvular trill, [Ê]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" [ÊaËzÉn]; "Burg" like [buÊg]). In spoken German however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ÉÉ] - "Burg" [buÉg]). In some southern non-standard varieties, the r is pronounced as a tongue-tip r (the alveolar trill). * s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset (e.g. Sohn [zoËn]), otherwise [s] (e.g. Bus [bÊs]). In Austria and Switzerland, it is always pronounced [s]. A ss [s] indicates that the preceding vowel is short. st and sp at the beginning of words of German origin are pronounced [Êt] and [Êp], respectively. * Ã (a letter unique to German called "Esszet") was a ligature of a double s and of a sz and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e.g. "ich muss" â "ich muÃ"; "ich mÃ¼sste" â "ich mÃ¼Ãte"); within a word it contrasts with ss [s] in indicating that the preceding vowel is long (compare "in MaÃen" [in 'maËsÉn] "with moderation" and "in Massen" [in 'masÉn] "in loads"). The use of Ã has recently been limited by the latest German spelling reform and is no longer used for ss at the end of a syllable; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934. Mittelschulvorbereitung Deutsch * sch is pronounced [Ê] (like "sh" in "Shine"). * tion in Latin loanwords is pronounced tsion. * v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e.g. "Vater" [ËfaËtÉ]) and [v] in most other words (e.g. "Vase" [ËvaËzÇ]). * w is pronounced [v] like in "vacation" (e.g. "was" [vas]). * y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel. * z is always pronounced [Ê¦] (e.g. "zog" [Ê¦oËk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short. German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sounds, which the English language has inherited from Anglo Saxon, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th century. It is sometimes possible to find parallels between German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" â in German "Dank", "this" and "that" â "dies" and "das", "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) â "du", "think" â "denken", "thirsty" â "durstig" and many other examples. Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f, or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" â "lachen", "through" and "thorough" â "durch", "high" â "hoch", "naught" â "nichts", etc. A sizeable fraction of English vocabulary is cognate to German words, although the common ancestry may be somewhat obscured by various shifts in phonetics (eg. the High German consonant shift), meaning and orthography. For example: * the High German consonant shift pâff led to such cognates as Ger. Schiff with Eng. ship. Ger. Baum (meaning "tree") is cognate to Eng. beam as may be seen in the name of trees such as the hornbeam and the whitebeam. :For a list of German loanwords in English, see In the English language, there are also many words taken from German without any letter change, e.g.: The use and learning of the German language is promoted by a number of organisations. The government-backed Goethe Institute (named after the famous German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) aims to enhance the knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example the Goethe Institute teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is the equivalent of the British BBC World Service and provides radio and television broadcasts in German and a variety of other languages across the globe. Its German language services are tailored for German language learners by being spoken at slow speed. * Deutsch * German loan words * German name * German family name etymology * German placename etymology * German exonyms * German as a Minority Language * German in the United States * German spelling reform of 1996 * Germanism * Denglish, * List of English words of German origin * List of pseudo-German words adapted to English * Missingsch * Umlaut, Ã * Various terms used for Germans * * * Michael Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704 * George O. Curme, A Grammar of the German Language (1904, 1922) â the most complete and authoritative work in English * Anthony Fox, The Structure of German (2005) ISBN 0199273995 * W.B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505 * * The Goethe Institute: German Government sponsored organisation for the promotion of the German language and culture. * German Pronouns: Nominative Case * German Pronouns: Accusative Case * The Leo Dictionaries: A German language portal featuring German-English, German-French, German-Spanish, German-Italian and German-Chinese dictionaries, with forums and a search function * Online German Course: A free online German course for absolute beginners.
German_language	Is 9 % of the Internet population German?	no	data/set5/a2	German_language German ( , ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide. German is spoken primarily in Germany (first language for more than 95% of the population), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%) together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (D-A-CH-Li-Lux) constituting the countries where German is the majority language. Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Bolzano-Bozen), in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the French Alsace region which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, SÃ¸nderjylland) of Denmark. Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia). A considerable proportion of the native population speak German dialects in Luxembourg and the surrounding areas. Some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street. Examples of German language in Namibian everyday life. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States, Canada, Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where the dialect AlemÃ¡n Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. In Namibia, German Namibians retain German educational institutions. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser HunsrÃ¼ckisch was developed), Santa Catarina, ParanÃ¡, and EspÃrito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico. Nearly all inhabitants of the city of Pomerode in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil speak German. German in the United States is the fifth most spoken language at home (~ 1.4 million) after English, Spanish, Chinese, and French according to the 2000 U.S. Census. US Census 2000 The United States, therefore, has one of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside Europe. The states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English (the second most spoken language in other states is either Spanish or French). An indication of the German presence can be found in the names of such places as Bismarck (state capital), Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg in North Dakota; New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas; and Kiel, Berlin and Germantown in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, (a West Central German variety), and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. A significant group of German Pietists in Iowa formed the Amana Colonies and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. In Canada, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, Statistics Canada 2006 while people of German ancestry (German Canadians) are found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in British Columbia (118,035) and Ontario (230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language Canada's third most spoken after French and English. In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, MazatlÃ¡n, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo. Dialects in North America: The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa Amana German is spoken. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Hutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak first Hutterite German before learning English in the public school, the standard language of the surrounding areas. Many colonies though continue with German Grammar School, separate from the public school, throughout a student's elementary education. The state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Germans arriving in the 1840s from Prussia (particularly the Silesia region). With the prolonged isolation and contact with Australian English some have suggested a unique dialect formed known as Barossa German spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Usage sharply declined with the advent of World War I with the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the twentieth century but now its use is limited to a few older speakers. There is an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of Papua New Guinea, across Micronesia and in northern Australia (i.e. coastal parts of Queensland and Western Australia), by few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars. According to Global Reach (2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is German. Global Statistics, Global Reach. Internet Languages, NVTC. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, "Distribution of languages on the Internet". making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface. Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics. Palmares, Internet Society. FUNREDES Funredes. (1998) and Vilaweb Vilaweb. (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese. The Germanic-speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 962. German-language newspapers in North America in 1922 The history of the language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardization of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (sÃ¤chsische Kanzleisprache) also known as MeiÃner-Deutsch (MeiÃner-German, i.e. of Meissen, founded 929 AD). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterite tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) â which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. In 1901 the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in written form while the Deutsche BÃ¼hnensprache (literally: German stage-language) had already established spelling-rules for German three years earlier which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava(German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German: Pressburg), Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas where only a dialect is spoken, for example Switzerland and Austria. However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age. The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it. The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (BundeslÃ¤nder) would not accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule - everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major yet incomplete revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the new school year of 2006. In 2007, some venerable spellings will be finally invalidated even though they caused little or no trouble. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, like in dass and muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using daÃ and muÃ. The cause of the controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth. (The reformers seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that a considerable part of that culture - namely the entire German literature of the 20th century - is in the old spelling.) The increasing use of English in Germany's higher education system, as well as in business and in popular culture, has led various German academics to state, not necessarily from an entirely negative perspective, that German is a language in decline in its native country. For example, Ursula Kimpel, of the University of TÃ¼bingen, said in 2005 that âGerman universities are offering more courses in English because of the large number of students coming from abroad. German is unfortunately a language in decline. We need and want our professors to be able to teach effectively in English.â Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but also in major cities in other parts of the country. Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss, Austrian Standard German officially in the Austrian education system. D-A-CH-flag, an unofficial flag comprising flags of the three dominant states in the German Sprachraum. Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and Sorbian as minority languages), in Austria (with Slovene, Croatian, and Hungarian), Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of Sopron (Hungary), Krahule (Slovakia) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the Vatican Swiss Guard. German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (South Jutland region), France (Alsace and Moselle regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, Poland (Opole region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt). German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe. Knowledge of German in Europe. German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. German is the main language of about 90â95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). It is therefore the most spoken first language in the EU. It is the second most known foreign language in the EU. After English; It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. Thirty-two percent of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language). This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable or satellite. German was once, and still remains to some extent, a lingua franca in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe. By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked black. Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West-Germanic dialectal varieties. German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German. The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon languages. Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII. Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the Luther Bible by Martin Luther was printed. This translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany. The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated and at home. Today Low Saxon can be divided in two groups: Low Saxon varieties with a reasonable standard German influx and varieties of Standard German with a Low Saxon influence known as Missingsch. High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian, High Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish. Upper German dialects include Northern Austro-Bavarian, Central Austro-Bavarian, Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian, East Franconian, High Alemannic German, Highest Alemannic German, Alsatian and Low Alemannic German. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and SiebenbÃ¼rgisch are High German dialects of Poland and Romania respectively. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script. In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics. The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany. German is an inflected language. German nouns inflect into: * one of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. * one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neutral. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ...ung(-ing), ...schaft(-ship), ...keit or ...heit(-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ...chen or ...lein (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ...ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ...er (-er), e.g. Feier (feminine), Eng. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), Eng. labourer. * two numbers: singular and plural Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in informal speech. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e. In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (Am Freitag bin ich einkaufen gegangen. â "On Friday I went shopping."; Eines Tages war er endlich da. â "One day he finally showed up".) This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish and English), too. Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun compounds where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: HundehÃ¼tte (Eng. dog hut; specifically: doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is RindfleischetikettierungsÃ¼berwachungsaufgabenÃ¼bertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Ãberwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Ãbertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".] Standard German verbs inflect into: * one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.) * three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. * two numbers: singular and plural * three moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive * two voices: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic. * two non-composed tenses (present, preterite) and four composed tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect) * distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus Preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or for the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise. * distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form. * disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]). There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through a relatively small number of prefixes. Some of those prefixes have a meaning themselves (Example: zer- refers to the destruction of things, as in zerreiÃen = to tear apart, zerbrechen = to break apart, zerschneiden = to cut apart), others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves (Example: ver- , as in versuchen = to try, vernehmen = to interrogate, verteilen = to distribute, verstehen = to understand). More examples: haften = to stick, verhaften = to imprison; kaufen = to buy, verkaufen = to sell; hÃ¶ren = to hear, aufhÃ¶ren = to cease; fahren = to drive, erfahren = to get to know, to hear about something. Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In finite verb forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?). Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g. :Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem Ã¼blichen Ãrger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause an . A literal translation of this example might look like this: :He -rived on a Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual disagreements that had been troubling him repeatedly, looking forward to a questionable meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already fixed for him, ar- at home. German requires that a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) appear second in the sentence, preceded by the most important topical phrase. The second most important phrase appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options: : (The old man gives me the book today) : (stress on das Buch) : (stress on heute) : (stress on mir) : (stress on der alte Mann) : : : The position of a noun as a subject or object in a German sentence doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. For example, in the sentence "Man bites dog" it is clear who did what to whom. To exchange the place of the subject with that of the object â "Dog bites man" â changes the meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as in Latin thus indicating whether it is the subject or object of the verb's action. The above example in German would be or with both having exactly the same meaning. If the articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines ( ), the syntax applies as in English â the first noun is the subject and the noun following the predicate is the object. Except for emphasis, adverbs of time have to appear in the third place in the sentence, just after the predicate. Otherwise the speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word order (in Modern English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. ( ) When an auxiliary verb is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.: : (The old man has given me the book yesterday.) : : : The word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common word orders; one is for main clauses and another for subordinate clauses. In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has position 2; in questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded. For example in a subordinate clause introduced by "weil" ("because") the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a main clause. The correct way of saying "because I'm broke" is " ". In the vernacular you may hear instead " " This phenomenon may be caused by mixing the word-order pattern used for the word with the pattern used for an alternative word for "because", , which is used with the main clause order (" "). Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" ( ). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?" The number of infinitives at the end is usually restricted to two, causing the third infinitive or auxiliary verb that would have gone at the very end to be placed instead at the beginning of the chain of verbs. For example in the sentence "Should he move into the house that he just has had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into the house move, that he just renovated had?". ( ). The older form would have been ( ). If there are more than three infinitives, all except the first two are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say the rule is not rigorously applied. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, and Greek, and a smaller amount from French some of which might be reborrowings from Germanic Frankish and most recently English. a phenomenon known in German as Denglisch or in English as Germish or Denglisch At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language in forming equivalents for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem repertory is great. Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Overall, German has fewer Romance-language loanwords than English. The coining of new, autochthonous words gave German a vocabulary of an estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century. In comparison, Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words today. Even today, many low-key scholarly movements try to promote the Ersatz (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or neologous German alternatives. Verein Deutsche Sprache e.V. - Der Anglizismen-Index It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too. In the modern scientific German vocabulary data base in Leipzig (as of July 2003) Willkommen there are nine million words and word groups in 35 million sentences (out of a corpus of 500 million words). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely Ã¤, Ã¶ and Ã¼, as well as the Eszett or scharfes s (sharp s), Ã. Before the German spelling reform of 1996, Ã replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings. In reformed spelling, Ã replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital Ã, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For example, MaÃband (tape measure) is capitalized MASSBAND. An exception is the use of Ã in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, a "Ã" is to be used instead of "SS". (So: "KREÃLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN".) A capital Ã has been proposed and included in Unicode, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In Switzerland, Ã is not used at all. Umlaut vowels (Ã¤, Ã¶, Ã¼) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner Ã can be transcribed as ss. German readers understand those transcriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are considered a makeshift, not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ËraËsfÉlt], Coesfeld [ËkoËsfÉlt] and Itzehoe [ÉªtsÉËhoË], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-day spelling of words other than proper nouns.) There is no general agreement on where these umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e, whereas dictionaries use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book Ãrzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ã is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ãrzte occurs after Arzt but before Asbest (because Ã is treated as A). In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and SÃ¼tterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however were claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. Adolf Reinecke, Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift: ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre ZweckmÃ¤Ãigkeit und vÃ¶lkische Bedeutung, Leipzig, Hasert, 1910 The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. The Fraktur script remains present in everyday life through road signs, pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and oldness. A proper use of the long s, (langes s), Å¿, is essential to write German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces include the long s, also. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting, recently. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in differentiating between the words WachÅ¿tube (=guard-house) and Wachstube (=tube of floor polish). One can decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, easily ("Wach-Å¿tube" vs. "Wachs-tube"). The long s only appears in lower case. German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in short and long varieties, as detailed in the following table: Short is realised as in stressed syllables (including secondary stress), but as in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short can be spelled either with e or with Ã¤ (hÃ¤tte 'would have' and Kette 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open sound of long Ã; in some varieties of standard German, and have merged into , removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like BÃ¤ren/Beeren 'bears/berries' or Ãhre/Ehre 'spike/honour' become homophonous). In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed is not pronounced as , but vocalised to . Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist: * If a vowel (other than i) is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. Hof [hoËf]). * If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster (e.g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e.g. hoffen [ËhÉfÇn]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preciding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled. Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. hat [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; Mond , 'moon' is long despite the second rule). For an i that is neither in the combination ie (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the e in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word StÃ¤dte 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ch can be short (Fach 'compartment', KÃ¼che 'kitchen') or long (Suche 'search', BÃ¼cher 'books') almost at random. Thus, Lache is homographous: (Lache) 'puddle' and (lache) 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.). German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, Ã¤u, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters: Additionally, the digraph ie generally represents the phoneme , which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, a /r/ at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised /r/ is not considered a diphthong: BÃ¤r 'bear', er 'he', wir 'we', Tor 'gate', kurz 'short', WÃ¶rter 'words'. In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a glottal stop [Ê]. * c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [Ê¦] (before Ã¤, Ã¤u, e, i, Ã¶, Ã¼, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, or before consonants). The combination ck is, as in English, used to indicate that the preceding vowel is short. * ch occurs most often and is pronounced either [Ã§] (after Ã¤, ai, Ã¤u, e, ei, eu, i, Ã¶, Ã¼ and after consonants, in the diminutive suffix -chen and at the beginning of a word) or [x] (after a, au, o, u). Ch never occurs at the beginning of an originally German word. In borrowed words with initial Ch there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. For example, the word "Chemie" (chemistry) can be pronounced [keËËmiË], [Ã§eËËmiË] or [ÊeËËmiË] depending on dialect. * dsch is pronounced Ê¤ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only. * f is pronounced [f] as in "father". * h is pronounced [h] like in "home" at the beginning of a syllable. After a vowel it is silent and only lengthens the vowel (e.g. "Reh" = roe deer). * j is pronounced [j] in Germanic words ("Jahr" [jaËÉ]). In younger loanwords, it follows more or less the respective languages' pronunciations. * l is always pronounced [l], never [É«] (the English "Dark L"). * q only exists in combination with u and appears both in Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "QualitÃ¤t"). It is pronounced [kv]. * r is pronounced as a guttural sound (an uvular trill, [Ê]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" [ÊaËzÉn]; "Burg" like [buÊg]). In spoken German however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ÉÉ] - "Burg" [buÉg]). In some southern non-standard varieties, the r is pronounced as a tongue-tip r (the alveolar trill). * s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset (e.g. Sohn [zoËn]), otherwise [s] (e.g. Bus [bÊs]). In Austria and Switzerland, it is always pronounced [s]. A ss [s] indicates that the preceding vowel is short. st and sp at the beginning of words of German origin are pronounced [Êt] and [Êp], respectively. * Ã (a letter unique to German called "Esszet") was a ligature of a double s and of a sz and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e.g. "ich muss" â "ich muÃ"; "ich mÃ¼sste" â "ich mÃ¼Ãte"); within a word it contrasts with ss [s] in indicating that the preceding vowel is long (compare "in MaÃen" [in 'maËsÉn] "with moderation" and "in Massen" [in 'masÉn] "in loads"). The use of Ã has recently been limited by the latest German spelling reform and is no longer used for ss at the end of a syllable; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934. Mittelschulvorbereitung Deutsch * sch is pronounced [Ê] (like "sh" in "Shine"). * tion in Latin loanwords is pronounced tsion. * v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e.g. "Vater" [ËfaËtÉ]) and [v] in most other words (e.g. "Vase" [ËvaËzÇ]). * w is pronounced [v] like in "vacation" (e.g. "was" [vas]). * y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel. * z is always pronounced [Ê¦] (e.g. "zog" [Ê¦oËk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short. German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sounds, which the English language has inherited from Anglo Saxon, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th century. It is sometimes possible to find parallels between German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" â in German "Dank", "this" and "that" â "dies" and "das", "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) â "du", "think" â "denken", "thirsty" â "durstig" and many other examples. Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f, or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" â "lachen", "through" and "thorough" â "durch", "high" â "hoch", "naught" â "nichts", etc. A sizeable fraction of English vocabulary is cognate to German words, although the common ancestry may be somewhat obscured by various shifts in phonetics (eg. the High German consonant shift), meaning and orthography. For example: * the High German consonant shift pâff led to such cognates as Ger. Schiff with Eng. ship. Ger. Baum (meaning "tree") is cognate to Eng. beam as may be seen in the name of trees such as the hornbeam and the whitebeam. :For a list of German loanwords in English, see In the English language, there are also many words taken from German without any letter change, e.g.: The use and learning of the German language is promoted by a number of organisations. The government-backed Goethe Institute (named after the famous German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) aims to enhance the knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example the Goethe Institute teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is the equivalent of the British BBC World Service and provides radio and television broadcasts in German and a variety of other languages across the globe. Its German language services are tailored for German language learners by being spoken at slow speed. * Deutsch * German loan words * German name * German family name etymology * German placename etymology * German exonyms * German as a Minority Language * German in the United States * German spelling reform of 1996 * Germanism * Denglish, * List of English words of German origin * List of pseudo-German words adapted to English * Missingsch * Umlaut, Ã * Various terms used for Germans * * * Michael Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704 * George O. Curme, A Grammar of the German Language (1904, 1922) â the most complete and authoritative work in English * Anthony Fox, The Structure of German (2005) ISBN 0199273995 * W.B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505 * * The Goethe Institute: German Government sponsored organisation for the promotion of the German language and culture. * German Pronouns: Nominative Case * German Pronouns: Accusative Case * The Leo Dictionaries: A German language portal featuring German-English, German-French, German-Spanish, German-Italian and German-Chinese dictionaries, with forums and a search function * Online German Course: A free online German course for absolute beginners.
German_language	Is german written using the Latin alphabet?	Yes	data/set5/a2	German_language German ( , ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide. German is spoken primarily in Germany (first language for more than 95% of the population), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%) together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (D-A-CH-Li-Lux) constituting the countries where German is the majority language. Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Bolzano-Bozen), in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the French Alsace region which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, SÃ¸nderjylland) of Denmark. Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia). A considerable proportion of the native population speak German dialects in Luxembourg and the surrounding areas. Some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street. Examples of German language in Namibian everyday life. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States, Canada, Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where the dialect AlemÃ¡n Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. In Namibia, German Namibians retain German educational institutions. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser HunsrÃ¼ckisch was developed), Santa Catarina, ParanÃ¡, and EspÃrito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico. Nearly all inhabitants of the city of Pomerode in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil speak German. German in the United States is the fifth most spoken language at home (~ 1.4 million) after English, Spanish, Chinese, and French according to the 2000 U.S. Census. US Census 2000 The United States, therefore, has one of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside Europe. The states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English (the second most spoken language in other states is either Spanish or French). An indication of the German presence can be found in the names of such places as Bismarck (state capital), Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg in North Dakota; New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas; and Kiel, Berlin and Germantown in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, (a West Central German variety), and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. A significant group of German Pietists in Iowa formed the Amana Colonies and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. In Canada, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, Statistics Canada 2006 while people of German ancestry (German Canadians) are found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in British Columbia (118,035) and Ontario (230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language Canada's third most spoken after French and English. In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, MazatlÃ¡n, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo. Dialects in North America: The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa Amana German is spoken. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Hutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak first Hutterite German before learning English in the public school, the standard language of the surrounding areas. Many colonies though continue with German Grammar School, separate from the public school, throughout a student's elementary education. The state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Germans arriving in the 1840s from Prussia (particularly the Silesia region). With the prolonged isolation and contact with Australian English some have suggested a unique dialect formed known as Barossa German spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Usage sharply declined with the advent of World War I with the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the twentieth century but now its use is limited to a few older speakers. There is an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of Papua New Guinea, across Micronesia and in northern Australia (i.e. coastal parts of Queensland and Western Australia), by few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars. According to Global Reach (2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is German. Global Statistics, Global Reach. Internet Languages, NVTC. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, "Distribution of languages on the Internet". making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface. Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics. Palmares, Internet Society. FUNREDES Funredes. (1998) and Vilaweb Vilaweb. (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese. The Germanic-speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 962. German-language newspapers in North America in 1922 The history of the language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardization of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (sÃ¤chsische Kanzleisprache) also known as MeiÃner-Deutsch (MeiÃner-German, i.e. of Meissen, founded 929 AD). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterite tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) â which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. In 1901 the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in written form while the Deutsche BÃ¼hnensprache (literally: German stage-language) had already established spelling-rules for German three years earlier which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava(German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German: Pressburg), Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas where only a dialect is spoken, for example Switzerland and Austria. However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age. The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it. The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (BundeslÃ¤nder) would not accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule - everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major yet incomplete revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the new school year of 2006. In 2007, some venerable spellings will be finally invalidated even though they caused little or no trouble. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, like in dass and muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using daÃ and muÃ. The cause of the controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth. (The reformers seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that a considerable part of that culture - namely the entire German literature of the 20th century - is in the old spelling.) The increasing use of English in Germany's higher education system, as well as in business and in popular culture, has led various German academics to state, not necessarily from an entirely negative perspective, that German is a language in decline in its native country. For example, Ursula Kimpel, of the University of TÃ¼bingen, said in 2005 that âGerman universities are offering more courses in English because of the large number of students coming from abroad. German is unfortunately a language in decline. We need and want our professors to be able to teach effectively in English.â Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but also in major cities in other parts of the country. Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss, Austrian Standard German officially in the Austrian education system. D-A-CH-flag, an unofficial flag comprising flags of the three dominant states in the German Sprachraum. Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and Sorbian as minority languages), in Austria (with Slovene, Croatian, and Hungarian), Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of Sopron (Hungary), Krahule (Slovakia) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the Vatican Swiss Guard. German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (South Jutland region), France (Alsace and Moselle regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, Poland (Opole region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt). German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe. Knowledge of German in Europe. German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. German is the main language of about 90â95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). It is therefore the most spoken first language in the EU. It is the second most known foreign language in the EU. After English; It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. Thirty-two percent of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language). This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable or satellite. German was once, and still remains to some extent, a lingua franca in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe. By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked black. Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West-Germanic dialectal varieties. German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German. The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon languages. Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII. Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the Luther Bible by Martin Luther was printed. This translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany. The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated and at home. Today Low Saxon can be divided in two groups: Low Saxon varieties with a reasonable standard German influx and varieties of Standard German with a Low Saxon influence known as Missingsch. High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian, High Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish. Upper German dialects include Northern Austro-Bavarian, Central Austro-Bavarian, Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian, East Franconian, High Alemannic German, Highest Alemannic German, Alsatian and Low Alemannic German. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and SiebenbÃ¼rgisch are High German dialects of Poland and Romania respectively. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script. In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics. The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany. German is an inflected language. German nouns inflect into: * one of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. * one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neutral. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ...ung(-ing), ...schaft(-ship), ...keit or ...heit(-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ...chen or ...lein (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ...ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ...er (-er), e.g. Feier (feminine), Eng. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), Eng. labourer. * two numbers: singular and plural Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in informal speech. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e. In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (Am Freitag bin ich einkaufen gegangen. â "On Friday I went shopping."; Eines Tages war er endlich da. â "One day he finally showed up".) This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish and English), too. Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun compounds where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: HundehÃ¼tte (Eng. dog hut; specifically: doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is RindfleischetikettierungsÃ¼berwachungsaufgabenÃ¼bertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Ãberwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Ãbertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".] Standard German verbs inflect into: * one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.) * three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. * two numbers: singular and plural * three moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive * two voices: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic. * two non-composed tenses (present, preterite) and four composed tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect) * distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus Preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or for the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise. * distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form. * disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]). There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through a relatively small number of prefixes. Some of those prefixes have a meaning themselves (Example: zer- refers to the destruction of things, as in zerreiÃen = to tear apart, zerbrechen = to break apart, zerschneiden = to cut apart), others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves (Example: ver- , as in versuchen = to try, vernehmen = to interrogate, verteilen = to distribute, verstehen = to understand). More examples: haften = to stick, verhaften = to imprison; kaufen = to buy, verkaufen = to sell; hÃ¶ren = to hear, aufhÃ¶ren = to cease; fahren = to drive, erfahren = to get to know, to hear about something. Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In finite verb forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?). Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g. :Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem Ã¼blichen Ãrger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause an . A literal translation of this example might look like this: :He -rived on a Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual disagreements that had been troubling him repeatedly, looking forward to a questionable meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already fixed for him, ar- at home. German requires that a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) appear second in the sentence, preceded by the most important topical phrase. The second most important phrase appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options: : (The old man gives me the book today) : (stress on das Buch) : (stress on heute) : (stress on mir) : (stress on der alte Mann) : : : The position of a noun as a subject or object in a German sentence doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. For example, in the sentence "Man bites dog" it is clear who did what to whom. To exchange the place of the subject with that of the object â "Dog bites man" â changes the meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as in Latin thus indicating whether it is the subject or object of the verb's action. The above example in German would be or with both having exactly the same meaning. If the articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines ( ), the syntax applies as in English â the first noun is the subject and the noun following the predicate is the object. Except for emphasis, adverbs of time have to appear in the third place in the sentence, just after the predicate. Otherwise the speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word order (in Modern English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. ( ) When an auxiliary verb is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.: : (The old man has given me the book yesterday.) : : : The word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common word orders; one is for main clauses and another for subordinate clauses. In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has position 2; in questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded. For example in a subordinate clause introduced by "weil" ("because") the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a main clause. The correct way of saying "because I'm broke" is " ". In the vernacular you may hear instead " " This phenomenon may be caused by mixing the word-order pattern used for the word with the pattern used for an alternative word for "because", , which is used with the main clause order (" "). Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" ( ). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?" The number of infinitives at the end is usually restricted to two, causing the third infinitive or auxiliary verb that would have gone at the very end to be placed instead at the beginning of the chain of verbs. For example in the sentence "Should he move into the house that he just has had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into the house move, that he just renovated had?". ( ). The older form would have been ( ). If there are more than three infinitives, all except the first two are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say the rule is not rigorously applied. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, and Greek, and a smaller amount from French some of which might be reborrowings from Germanic Frankish and most recently English. a phenomenon known in German as Denglisch or in English as Germish or Denglisch At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language in forming equivalents for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem repertory is great. Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Overall, German has fewer Romance-language loanwords than English. The coining of new, autochthonous words gave German a vocabulary of an estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century. In comparison, Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words today. Even today, many low-key scholarly movements try to promote the Ersatz (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or neologous German alternatives. Verein Deutsche Sprache e.V. - Der Anglizismen-Index It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too. In the modern scientific German vocabulary data base in Leipzig (as of July 2003) Willkommen there are nine million words and word groups in 35 million sentences (out of a corpus of 500 million words). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely Ã¤, Ã¶ and Ã¼, as well as the Eszett or scharfes s (sharp s), Ã. Before the German spelling reform of 1996, Ã replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings. In reformed spelling, Ã replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital Ã, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For example, MaÃband (tape measure) is capitalized MASSBAND. An exception is the use of Ã in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, a "Ã" is to be used instead of "SS". (So: "KREÃLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN".) A capital Ã has been proposed and included in Unicode, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In Switzerland, Ã is not used at all. Umlaut vowels (Ã¤, Ã¶, Ã¼) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner Ã can be transcribed as ss. German readers understand those transcriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are considered a makeshift, not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ËraËsfÉlt], Coesfeld [ËkoËsfÉlt] and Itzehoe [ÉªtsÉËhoË], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-day spelling of words other than proper nouns.) There is no general agreement on where these umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e, whereas dictionaries use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book Ãrzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ã is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ãrzte occurs after Arzt but before Asbest (because Ã is treated as A). In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and SÃ¼tterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however were claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. Adolf Reinecke, Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift: ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre ZweckmÃ¤Ãigkeit und vÃ¶lkische Bedeutung, Leipzig, Hasert, 1910 The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. The Fraktur script remains present in everyday life through road signs, pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and oldness. A proper use of the long s, (langes s), Å¿, is essential to write German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces include the long s, also. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting, recently. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in differentiating between the words WachÅ¿tube (=guard-house) and Wachstube (=tube of floor polish). One can decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, easily ("Wach-Å¿tube" vs. "Wachs-tube"). The long s only appears in lower case. German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in short and long varieties, as detailed in the following table: Short is realised as in stressed syllables (including secondary stress), but as in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short can be spelled either with e or with Ã¤ (hÃ¤tte 'would have' and Kette 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open sound of long Ã; in some varieties of standard German, and have merged into , removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like BÃ¤ren/Beeren 'bears/berries' or Ãhre/Ehre 'spike/honour' become homophonous). In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed is not pronounced as , but vocalised to . Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist: * If a vowel (other than i) is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. Hof [hoËf]). * If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster (e.g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e.g. hoffen [ËhÉfÇn]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preciding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled. Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. hat [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; Mond , 'moon' is long despite the second rule). For an i that is neither in the combination ie (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the e in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word StÃ¤dte 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ch can be short (Fach 'compartment', KÃ¼che 'kitchen') or long (Suche 'search', BÃ¼cher 'books') almost at random. Thus, Lache is homographous: (Lache) 'puddle' and (lache) 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.). German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, Ã¤u, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters: Additionally, the digraph ie generally represents the phoneme , which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, a /r/ at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised /r/ is not considered a diphthong: BÃ¤r 'bear', er 'he', wir 'we', Tor 'gate', kurz 'short', WÃ¶rter 'words'. In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a glottal stop [Ê]. * c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [Ê¦] (before Ã¤, Ã¤u, e, i, Ã¶, Ã¼, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, or before consonants). The combination ck is, as in English, used to indicate that the preceding vowel is short. * ch occurs most often and is pronounced either [Ã§] (after Ã¤, ai, Ã¤u, e, ei, eu, i, Ã¶, Ã¼ and after consonants, in the diminutive suffix -chen and at the beginning of a word) or [x] (after a, au, o, u). Ch never occurs at the beginning of an originally German word. In borrowed words with initial Ch there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. For example, the word "Chemie" (chemistry) can be pronounced [keËËmiË], [Ã§eËËmiË] or [ÊeËËmiË] depending on dialect. * dsch is pronounced Ê¤ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only. * f is pronounced [f] as in "father". * h is pronounced [h] like in "home" at the beginning of a syllable. After a vowel it is silent and only lengthens the vowel (e.g. "Reh" = roe deer). * j is pronounced [j] in Germanic words ("Jahr" [jaËÉ]). In younger loanwords, it follows more or less the respective languages' pronunciations. * l is always pronounced [l], never [É«] (the English "Dark L"). * q only exists in combination with u and appears both in Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "QualitÃ¤t"). It is pronounced [kv]. * r is pronounced as a guttural sound (an uvular trill, [Ê]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" [ÊaËzÉn]; "Burg" like [buÊg]). In spoken German however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ÉÉ] - "Burg" [buÉg]). In some southern non-standard varieties, the r is pronounced as a tongue-tip r (the alveolar trill). * s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset (e.g. Sohn [zoËn]), otherwise [s] (e.g. Bus [bÊs]). In Austria and Switzerland, it is always pronounced [s]. A ss [s] indicates that the preceding vowel is short. st and sp at the beginning of words of German origin are pronounced [Êt] and [Êp], respectively. * Ã (a letter unique to German called "Esszet") was a ligature of a double s and of a sz and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e.g. "ich muss" â "ich muÃ"; "ich mÃ¼sste" â "ich mÃ¼Ãte"); within a word it contrasts with ss [s] in indicating that the preceding vowel is long (compare "in MaÃen" [in 'maËsÉn] "with moderation" and "in Massen" [in 'masÉn] "in loads"). The use of Ã has recently been limited by the latest German spelling reform and is no longer used for ss at the end of a syllable; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934. Mittelschulvorbereitung Deutsch * sch is pronounced [Ê] (like "sh" in "Shine"). * tion in Latin loanwords is pronounced tsion. * v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e.g. "Vater" [ËfaËtÉ]) and [v] in most other words (e.g. "Vase" [ËvaËzÇ]). * w is pronounced [v] like in "vacation" (e.g. "was" [vas]). * y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel. * z is always pronounced [Ê¦] (e.g. "zog" [Ê¦oËk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short. German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sounds, which the English language has inherited from Anglo Saxon, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th century. It is sometimes possible to find parallels between German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" â in German "Dank", "this" and "that" â "dies" and "das", "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) â "du", "think" â "denken", "thirsty" â "durstig" and many other examples. Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f, or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" â "lachen", "through" and "thorough" â "durch", "high" â "hoch", "naught" â "nichts", etc. A sizeable fraction of English vocabulary is cognate to German words, although the common ancestry may be somewhat obscured by various shifts in phonetics (eg. the High German consonant shift), meaning and orthography. For example: * the High German consonant shift pâff led to such cognates as Ger. Schiff with Eng. ship. Ger. Baum (meaning "tree") is cognate to Eng. beam as may be seen in the name of trees such as the hornbeam and the whitebeam. :For a list of German loanwords in English, see In the English language, there are also many words taken from German without any letter change, e.g.: The use and learning of the German language is promoted by a number of organisations. The government-backed Goethe Institute (named after the famous German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) aims to enhance the knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example the Goethe Institute teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is the equivalent of the British BBC World Service and provides radio and television broadcasts in German and a variety of other languages across the globe. Its German language services are tailored for German language learners by being spoken at slow speed. * Deutsch * German loan words * German name * German family name etymology * German placename etymology * German exonyms * German as a Minority Language * German in the United States * German spelling reform of 1996 * Germanism * Denglish, * List of English words of German origin * List of pseudo-German words adapted to English * Missingsch * Umlaut, Ã * Various terms used for Germans * * * Michael Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704 * George O. Curme, A Grammar of the German Language (1904, 1922) â the most complete and authoritative work in English * Anthony Fox, The Structure of German (2005) ISBN 0199273995 * W.B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505 * * The Goethe Institute: German Government sponsored organisation for the promotion of the German language and culture. * German Pronouns: Nominative Case * German Pronouns: Accusative Case * The Leo Dictionaries: A German language portal featuring German-English, German-French, German-Spanish, German-Italian and German-Chinese dictionaries, with forums and a search function * Online German Course: A free online German course for absolute beginners.
German_language	Was the Luther Bible by Martin Luther printed?	Yes	data/set5/a2	German_language German ( , ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide. German is spoken primarily in Germany (first language for more than 95% of the population), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%) together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (D-A-CH-Li-Lux) constituting the countries where German is the majority language. Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Bolzano-Bozen), in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the French Alsace region which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, SÃ¸nderjylland) of Denmark. Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia). A considerable proportion of the native population speak German dialects in Luxembourg and the surrounding areas. Some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street. Examples of German language in Namibian everyday life. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States, Canada, Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where the dialect AlemÃ¡n Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. In Namibia, German Namibians retain German educational institutions. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser HunsrÃ¼ckisch was developed), Santa Catarina, ParanÃ¡, and EspÃrito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico. Nearly all inhabitants of the city of Pomerode in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil speak German. German in the United States is the fifth most spoken language at home (~ 1.4 million) after English, Spanish, Chinese, and French according to the 2000 U.S. Census. US Census 2000 The United States, therefore, has one of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside Europe. The states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English (the second most spoken language in other states is either Spanish or French). An indication of the German presence can be found in the names of such places as Bismarck (state capital), Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg in North Dakota; New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas; and Kiel, Berlin and Germantown in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, (a West Central German variety), and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. A significant group of German Pietists in Iowa formed the Amana Colonies and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. In Canada, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, Statistics Canada 2006 while people of German ancestry (German Canadians) are found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in British Columbia (118,035) and Ontario (230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language Canada's third most spoken after French and English. In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, MazatlÃ¡n, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo. Dialects in North America: The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa Amana German is spoken. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Hutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak first Hutterite German before learning English in the public school, the standard language of the surrounding areas. Many colonies though continue with German Grammar School, separate from the public school, throughout a student's elementary education. The state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Germans arriving in the 1840s from Prussia (particularly the Silesia region). With the prolonged isolation and contact with Australian English some have suggested a unique dialect formed known as Barossa German spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Usage sharply declined with the advent of World War I with the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the twentieth century but now its use is limited to a few older speakers. There is an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of Papua New Guinea, across Micronesia and in northern Australia (i.e. coastal parts of Queensland and Western Australia), by few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars. According to Global Reach (2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is German. Global Statistics, Global Reach. Internet Languages, NVTC. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, "Distribution of languages on the Internet". making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface. Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics. Palmares, Internet Society. FUNREDES Funredes. (1998) and Vilaweb Vilaweb. (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese. The Germanic-speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 962. German-language newspapers in North America in 1922 The history of the language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardization of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (sÃ¤chsische Kanzleisprache) also known as MeiÃner-Deutsch (MeiÃner-German, i.e. of Meissen, founded 929 AD). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterite tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) â which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. In 1901 the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in written form while the Deutsche BÃ¼hnensprache (literally: German stage-language) had already established spelling-rules for German three years earlier which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava(German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German: Pressburg), Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas where only a dialect is spoken, for example Switzerland and Austria. However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age. The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it. The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (BundeslÃ¤nder) would not accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule - everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major yet incomplete revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the new school year of 2006. In 2007, some venerable spellings will be finally invalidated even though they caused little or no trouble. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, like in dass and muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using daÃ and muÃ. The cause of the controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth. (The reformers seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that a considerable part of that culture - namely the entire German literature of the 20th century - is in the old spelling.) The increasing use of English in Germany's higher education system, as well as in business and in popular culture, has led various German academics to state, not necessarily from an entirely negative perspective, that German is a language in decline in its native country. For example, Ursula Kimpel, of the University of TÃ¼bingen, said in 2005 that âGerman universities are offering more courses in English because of the large number of students coming from abroad. German is unfortunately a language in decline. We need and want our professors to be able to teach effectively in English.â Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but also in major cities in other parts of the country. Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss, Austrian Standard German officially in the Austrian education system. D-A-CH-flag, an unofficial flag comprising flags of the three dominant states in the German Sprachraum. Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and Sorbian as minority languages), in Austria (with Slovene, Croatian, and Hungarian), Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of Sopron (Hungary), Krahule (Slovakia) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the Vatican Swiss Guard. German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (South Jutland region), France (Alsace and Moselle regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, Poland (Opole region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt). German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe. Knowledge of German in Europe. German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. German is the main language of about 90â95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). It is therefore the most spoken first language in the EU. It is the second most known foreign language in the EU. After English; It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. Thirty-two percent of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language). This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable or satellite. German was once, and still remains to some extent, a lingua franca in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe. By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked black. Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West-Germanic dialectal varieties. German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German. The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon languages. Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII. Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the Luther Bible by Martin Luther was printed. This translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany. The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated and at home. Today Low Saxon can be divided in two groups: Low Saxon varieties with a reasonable standard German influx and varieties of Standard German with a Low Saxon influence known as Missingsch. High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian, High Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish. Upper German dialects include Northern Austro-Bavarian, Central Austro-Bavarian, Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian, East Franconian, High Alemannic German, Highest Alemannic German, Alsatian and Low Alemannic German. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and SiebenbÃ¼rgisch are High German dialects of Poland and Romania respectively. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script. In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics. The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany. German is an inflected language. German nouns inflect into: * one of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. * one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neutral. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ...ung(-ing), ...schaft(-ship), ...keit or ...heit(-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ...chen or ...lein (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ...ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ...er (-er), e.g. Feier (feminine), Eng. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), Eng. labourer. * two numbers: singular and plural Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in informal speech. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e. In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (Am Freitag bin ich einkaufen gegangen. â "On Friday I went shopping."; Eines Tages war er endlich da. â "One day he finally showed up".) This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish and English), too. Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun compounds where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: HundehÃ¼tte (Eng. dog hut; specifically: doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is RindfleischetikettierungsÃ¼berwachungsaufgabenÃ¼bertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Ãberwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Ãbertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".] Standard German verbs inflect into: * one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.) * three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. * two numbers: singular and plural * three moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive * two voices: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic. * two non-composed tenses (present, preterite) and four composed tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect) * distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus Preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or for the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise. * distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form. * disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]). There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through a relatively small number of prefixes. Some of those prefixes have a meaning themselves (Example: zer- refers to the destruction of things, as in zerreiÃen = to tear apart, zerbrechen = to break apart, zerschneiden = to cut apart), others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves (Example: ver- , as in versuchen = to try, vernehmen = to interrogate, verteilen = to distribute, verstehen = to understand). More examples: haften = to stick, verhaften = to imprison; kaufen = to buy, verkaufen = to sell; hÃ¶ren = to hear, aufhÃ¶ren = to cease; fahren = to drive, erfahren = to get to know, to hear about something. Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In finite verb forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?). Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g. :Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem Ã¼blichen Ãrger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause an . A literal translation of this example might look like this: :He -rived on a Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual disagreements that had been troubling him repeatedly, looking forward to a questionable meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already fixed for him, ar- at home. German requires that a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) appear second in the sentence, preceded by the most important topical phrase. The second most important phrase appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options: : (The old man gives me the book today) : (stress on das Buch) : (stress on heute) : (stress on mir) : (stress on der alte Mann) : : : The position of a noun as a subject or object in a German sentence doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. For example, in the sentence "Man bites dog" it is clear who did what to whom. To exchange the place of the subject with that of the object â "Dog bites man" â changes the meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as in Latin thus indicating whether it is the subject or object of the verb's action. The above example in German would be or with both having exactly the same meaning. If the articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines ( ), the syntax applies as in English â the first noun is the subject and the noun following the predicate is the object. Except for emphasis, adverbs of time have to appear in the third place in the sentence, just after the predicate. Otherwise the speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word order (in Modern English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. ( ) When an auxiliary verb is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.: : (The old man has given me the book yesterday.) : : : The word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common word orders; one is for main clauses and another for subordinate clauses. In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has position 2; in questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded. For example in a subordinate clause introduced by "weil" ("because") the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a main clause. The correct way of saying "because I'm broke" is " ". In the vernacular you may hear instead " " This phenomenon may be caused by mixing the word-order pattern used for the word with the pattern used for an alternative word for "because", , which is used with the main clause order (" "). Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" ( ). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?" The number of infinitives at the end is usually restricted to two, causing the third infinitive or auxiliary verb that would have gone at the very end to be placed instead at the beginning of the chain of verbs. For example in the sentence "Should he move into the house that he just has had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into the house move, that he just renovated had?". ( ). The older form would have been ( ). If there are more than three infinitives, all except the first two are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say the rule is not rigorously applied. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, and Greek, and a smaller amount from French some of which might be reborrowings from Germanic Frankish and most recently English. a phenomenon known in German as Denglisch or in English as Germish or Denglisch At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language in forming equivalents for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem repertory is great. Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Overall, German has fewer Romance-language loanwords than English. The coining of new, autochthonous words gave German a vocabulary of an estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century. In comparison, Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words today. Even today, many low-key scholarly movements try to promote the Ersatz (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or neologous German alternatives. Verein Deutsche Sprache e.V. - Der Anglizismen-Index It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too. In the modern scientific German vocabulary data base in Leipzig (as of July 2003) Willkommen there are nine million words and word groups in 35 million sentences (out of a corpus of 500 million words). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely Ã¤, Ã¶ and Ã¼, as well as the Eszett or scharfes s (sharp s), Ã. Before the German spelling reform of 1996, Ã replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings. In reformed spelling, Ã replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital Ã, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For example, MaÃband (tape measure) is capitalized MASSBAND. An exception is the use of Ã in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, a "Ã" is to be used instead of "SS". (So: "KREÃLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN".) A capital Ã has been proposed and included in Unicode, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In Switzerland, Ã is not used at all. Umlaut vowels (Ã¤, Ã¶, Ã¼) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner Ã can be transcribed as ss. German readers understand those transcriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are considered a makeshift, not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ËraËsfÉlt], Coesfeld [ËkoËsfÉlt] and Itzehoe [ÉªtsÉËhoË], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-day spelling of words other than proper nouns.) There is no general agreement on where these umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e, whereas dictionaries use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book Ãrzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ã is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ãrzte occurs after Arzt but before Asbest (because Ã is treated as A). In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and SÃ¼tterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however were claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. Adolf Reinecke, Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift: ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre ZweckmÃ¤Ãigkeit und vÃ¶lkische Bedeutung, Leipzig, Hasert, 1910 The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. The Fraktur script remains present in everyday life through road signs, pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and oldness. A proper use of the long s, (langes s), Å¿, is essential to write German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces include the long s, also. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting, recently. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in differentiating between the words WachÅ¿tube (=guard-house) and Wachstube (=tube of floor polish). One can decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, easily ("Wach-Å¿tube" vs. "Wachs-tube"). The long s only appears in lower case. German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in short and long varieties, as detailed in the following table: Short is realised as in stressed syllables (including secondary stress), but as in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short can be spelled either with e or with Ã¤ (hÃ¤tte 'would have' and Kette 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open sound of long Ã; in some varieties of standard German, and have merged into , removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like BÃ¤ren/Beeren 'bears/berries' or Ãhre/Ehre 'spike/honour' become homophonous). In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed is not pronounced as , but vocalised to . Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist: * If a vowel (other than i) is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. Hof [hoËf]). * If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster (e.g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e.g. hoffen [ËhÉfÇn]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preciding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled. Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. hat [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; Mond , 'moon' is long despite the second rule). For an i that is neither in the combination ie (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the e in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word StÃ¤dte 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ch can be short (Fach 'compartment', KÃ¼che 'kitchen') or long (Suche 'search', BÃ¼cher 'books') almost at random. Thus, Lache is homographous: (Lache) 'puddle' and (lache) 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.). German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, Ã¤u, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters: Additionally, the digraph ie generally represents the phoneme , which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, a /r/ at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised /r/ is not considered a diphthong: BÃ¤r 'bear', er 'he', wir 'we', Tor 'gate', kurz 'short', WÃ¶rter 'words'. In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a glottal stop [Ê]. * c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [Ê¦] (before Ã¤, Ã¤u, e, i, Ã¶, Ã¼, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, or before consonants). The combination ck is, as in English, used to indicate that the preceding vowel is short. * ch occurs most often and is pronounced either [Ã§] (after Ã¤, ai, Ã¤u, e, ei, eu, i, Ã¶, Ã¼ and after consonants, in the diminutive suffix -chen and at the beginning of a word) or [x] (after a, au, o, u). Ch never occurs at the beginning of an originally German word. In borrowed words with initial Ch there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. For example, the word "Chemie" (chemistry) can be pronounced [keËËmiË], [Ã§eËËmiË] or [ÊeËËmiË] depending on dialect. * dsch is pronounced Ê¤ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only. * f is pronounced [f] as in "father". * h is pronounced [h] like in "home" at the beginning of a syllable. After a vowel it is silent and only lengthens the vowel (e.g. "Reh" = roe deer). * j is pronounced [j] in Germanic words ("Jahr" [jaËÉ]). In younger loanwords, it follows more or less the respective languages' pronunciations. * l is always pronounced [l], never [É«] (the English "Dark L"). * q only exists in combination with u and appears both in Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "QualitÃ¤t"). It is pronounced [kv]. * r is pronounced as a guttural sound (an uvular trill, [Ê]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" [ÊaËzÉn]; "Burg" like [buÊg]). In spoken German however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ÉÉ] - "Burg" [buÉg]). In some southern non-standard varieties, the r is pronounced as a tongue-tip r (the alveolar trill). * s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset (e.g. Sohn [zoËn]), otherwise [s] (e.g. Bus [bÊs]). In Austria and Switzerland, it is always pronounced [s]. A ss [s] indicates that the preceding vowel is short. st and sp at the beginning of words of German origin are pronounced [Êt] and [Êp], respectively. * Ã (a letter unique to German called "Esszet") was a ligature of a double s and of a sz and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e.g. "ich muss" â "ich muÃ"; "ich mÃ¼sste" â "ich mÃ¼Ãte"); within a word it contrasts with ss [s] in indicating that the preceding vowel is long (compare "in MaÃen" [in 'maËsÉn] "with moderation" and "in Massen" [in 'masÉn] "in loads"). The use of Ã has recently been limited by the latest German spelling reform and is no longer used for ss at the end of a syllable; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934. Mittelschulvorbereitung Deutsch * sch is pronounced [Ê] (like "sh" in "Shine"). * tion in Latin loanwords is pronounced tsion. * v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e.g. "Vater" [ËfaËtÉ]) and [v] in most other words (e.g. "Vase" [ËvaËzÇ]). * w is pronounced [v] like in "vacation" (e.g. "was" [vas]). * y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel. * z is always pronounced [Ê¦] (e.g. "zog" [Ê¦oËk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short. German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sounds, which the English language has inherited from Anglo Saxon, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th century. It is sometimes possible to find parallels between German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" â in German "Dank", "this" and "that" â "dies" and "das", "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) â "du", "think" â "denken", "thirsty" â "durstig" and many other examples. Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f, or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" â "lachen", "through" and "thorough" â "durch", "high" â "hoch", "naught" â "nichts", etc. A sizeable fraction of English vocabulary is cognate to German words, although the common ancestry may be somewhat obscured by various shifts in phonetics (eg. the High German consonant shift), meaning and orthography. For example: * the High German consonant shift pâff led to such cognates as Ger. Schiff with Eng. ship. Ger. Baum (meaning "tree") is cognate to Eng. beam as may be seen in the name of trees such as the hornbeam and the whitebeam. :For a list of German loanwords in English, see In the English language, there are also many words taken from German without any letter change, e.g.: The use and learning of the German language is promoted by a number of organisations. The government-backed Goethe Institute (named after the famous German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) aims to enhance the knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example the Goethe Institute teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is the equivalent of the British BBC World Service and provides radio and television broadcasts in German and a variety of other languages across the globe. Its German language services are tailored for German language learners by being spoken at slow speed. * Deutsch * German loan words * German name * German family name etymology * German placename etymology * German exonyms * German as a Minority Language * German in the United States * German spelling reform of 1996 * Germanism * Denglish, * List of English words of German origin * List of pseudo-German words adapted to English * Missingsch * Umlaut, Ã * Various terms used for Germans * * * Michael Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704 * George O. Curme, A Grammar of the German Language (1904, 1922) â the most complete and authoritative work in English * Anthony Fox, The Structure of German (2005) ISBN 0199273995 * W.B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505 * * The Goethe Institute: German Government sponsored organisation for the promotion of the German language and culture. * German Pronouns: Nominative Case * German Pronouns: Accusative Case * The Leo Dictionaries: A German language portal featuring German-English, German-French, German-Spanish, German-Italian and German-Chinese dictionaries, with forums and a search function * Online German Course: A free online German course for absolute beginners.
German_language	Does a tz indicate that the preceding vowel is short?	no	data/set5/a2	German_language German ( , ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide. German is spoken primarily in Germany (first language for more than 95% of the population), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%) together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (D-A-CH-Li-Lux) constituting the countries where German is the majority language. Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Bolzano-Bozen), in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the French Alsace region which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, SÃ¸nderjylland) of Denmark. Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia). A considerable proportion of the native population speak German dialects in Luxembourg and the surrounding areas. Some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street. Examples of German language in Namibian everyday life. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States, Canada, Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where the dialect AlemÃ¡n Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. In Namibia, German Namibians retain German educational institutions. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser HunsrÃ¼ckisch was developed), Santa Catarina, ParanÃ¡, and EspÃrito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico. Nearly all inhabitants of the city of Pomerode in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil speak German. German in the United States is the fifth most spoken language at home (~ 1.4 million) after English, Spanish, Chinese, and French according to the 2000 U.S. Census. US Census 2000 The United States, therefore, has one of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside Europe. The states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English (the second most spoken language in other states is either Spanish or French). An indication of the German presence can be found in the names of such places as Bismarck (state capital), Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg in North Dakota; New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas; and Kiel, Berlin and Germantown in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, (a West Central German variety), and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. A significant group of German Pietists in Iowa formed the Amana Colonies and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. In Canada, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, Statistics Canada 2006 while people of German ancestry (German Canadians) are found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in British Columbia (118,035) and Ontario (230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language Canada's third most spoken after French and English. In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, MazatlÃ¡n, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo. Dialects in North America: The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa Amana German is spoken. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Hutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak first Hutterite German before learning English in the public school, the standard language of the surrounding areas. Many colonies though continue with German Grammar School, separate from the public school, throughout a student's elementary education. The state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Germans arriving in the 1840s from Prussia (particularly the Silesia region). With the prolonged isolation and contact with Australian English some have suggested a unique dialect formed known as Barossa German spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Usage sharply declined with the advent of World War I with the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the twentieth century but now its use is limited to a few older speakers. There is an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of Papua New Guinea, across Micronesia and in northern Australia (i.e. coastal parts of Queensland and Western Australia), by few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars. According to Global Reach (2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is German. Global Statistics, Global Reach. Internet Languages, NVTC. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, "Distribution of languages on the Internet". making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface. Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics. Palmares, Internet Society. FUNREDES Funredes. (1998) and Vilaweb Vilaweb. (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese. The Germanic-speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 962. German-language newspapers in North America in 1922 The history of the language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardization of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (sÃ¤chsische Kanzleisprache) also known as MeiÃner-Deutsch (MeiÃner-German, i.e. of Meissen, founded 929 AD). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterite tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) â which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. In 1901 the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in written form while the Deutsche BÃ¼hnensprache (literally: German stage-language) had already established spelling-rules for German three years earlier which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava(German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German: Pressburg), Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas where only a dialect is spoken, for example Switzerland and Austria. However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age. The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it. The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (BundeslÃ¤nder) would not accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule - everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major yet incomplete revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the new school year of 2006. In 2007, some venerable spellings will be finally invalidated even though they caused little or no trouble. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, like in dass and muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using daÃ and muÃ. The cause of the controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth. (The reformers seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that a considerable part of that culture - namely the entire German literature of the 20th century - is in the old spelling.) The increasing use of English in Germany's higher education system, as well as in business and in popular culture, has led various German academics to state, not necessarily from an entirely negative perspective, that German is a language in decline in its native country. For example, Ursula Kimpel, of the University of TÃ¼bingen, said in 2005 that âGerman universities are offering more courses in English because of the large number of students coming from abroad. German is unfortunately a language in decline. We need and want our professors to be able to teach effectively in English.â Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but also in major cities in other parts of the country. Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss, Austrian Standard German officially in the Austrian education system. D-A-CH-flag, an unofficial flag comprising flags of the three dominant states in the German Sprachraum. Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and Sorbian as minority languages), in Austria (with Slovene, Croatian, and Hungarian), Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of Sopron (Hungary), Krahule (Slovakia) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the Vatican Swiss Guard. German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (South Jutland region), France (Alsace and Moselle regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, Poland (Opole region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt). German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe. Knowledge of German in Europe. German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. German is the main language of about 90â95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). It is therefore the most spoken first language in the EU. It is the second most known foreign language in the EU. After English; It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. Thirty-two percent of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language). This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable or satellite. German was once, and still remains to some extent, a lingua franca in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe. By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked black. Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West-Germanic dialectal varieties. German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German. The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon languages. Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII. Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the Luther Bible by Martin Luther was printed. This translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany. The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated and at home. Today Low Saxon can be divided in two groups: Low Saxon varieties with a reasonable standard German influx and varieties of Standard German with a Low Saxon influence known as Missingsch. High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian, High Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish. Upper German dialects include Northern Austro-Bavarian, Central Austro-Bavarian, Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian, East Franconian, High Alemannic German, Highest Alemannic German, Alsatian and Low Alemannic German. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and SiebenbÃ¼rgisch are High German dialects of Poland and Romania respectively. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script. In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics. The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany. German is an inflected language. German nouns inflect into: * one of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. * one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neutral. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ...ung(-ing), ...schaft(-ship), ...keit or ...heit(-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ...chen or ...lein (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ...ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ...er (-er), e.g. Feier (feminine), Eng. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), Eng. labourer. * two numbers: singular and plural Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in informal speech. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e. In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (Am Freitag bin ich einkaufen gegangen. â "On Friday I went shopping."; Eines Tages war er endlich da. â "One day he finally showed up".) This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish and English), too. Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun compounds where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: HundehÃ¼tte (Eng. dog hut; specifically: doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is RindfleischetikettierungsÃ¼berwachungsaufgabenÃ¼bertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Ãberwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Ãbertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".] Standard German verbs inflect into: * one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.) * three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. * two numbers: singular and plural * three moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive * two voices: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic. * two non-composed tenses (present, preterite) and four composed tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect) * distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus Preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or for the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise. * distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form. * disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]). There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through a relatively small number of prefixes. Some of those prefixes have a meaning themselves (Example: zer- refers to the destruction of things, as in zerreiÃen = to tear apart, zerbrechen = to break apart, zerschneiden = to cut apart), others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves (Example: ver- , as in versuchen = to try, vernehmen = to interrogate, verteilen = to distribute, verstehen = to understand). More examples: haften = to stick, verhaften = to imprison; kaufen = to buy, verkaufen = to sell; hÃ¶ren = to hear, aufhÃ¶ren = to cease; fahren = to drive, erfahren = to get to know, to hear about something. Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In finite verb forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?). Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g. :Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem Ã¼blichen Ãrger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause an . A literal translation of this example might look like this: :He -rived on a Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual disagreements that had been troubling him repeatedly, looking forward to a questionable meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already fixed for him, ar- at home. German requires that a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) appear second in the sentence, preceded by the most important topical phrase. The second most important phrase appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options: : (The old man gives me the book today) : (stress on das Buch) : (stress on heute) : (stress on mir) : (stress on der alte Mann) : : : The position of a noun as a subject or object in a German sentence doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. For example, in the sentence "Man bites dog" it is clear who did what to whom. To exchange the place of the subject with that of the object â "Dog bites man" â changes the meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as in Latin thus indicating whether it is the subject or object of the verb's action. The above example in German would be or with both having exactly the same meaning. If the articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines ( ), the syntax applies as in English â the first noun is the subject and the noun following the predicate is the object. Except for emphasis, adverbs of time have to appear in the third place in the sentence, just after the predicate. Otherwise the speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word order (in Modern English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. ( ) When an auxiliary verb is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.: : (The old man has given me the book yesterday.) : : : The word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common word orders; one is for main clauses and another for subordinate clauses. In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has position 2; in questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded. For example in a subordinate clause introduced by "weil" ("because") the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a main clause. The correct way of saying "because I'm broke" is " ". In the vernacular you may hear instead " " This phenomenon may be caused by mixing the word-order pattern used for the word with the pattern used for an alternative word for "because", , which is used with the main clause order (" "). Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" ( ). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?" The number of infinitives at the end is usually restricted to two, causing the third infinitive or auxiliary verb that would have gone at the very end to be placed instead at the beginning of the chain of verbs. For example in the sentence "Should he move into the house that he just has had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into the house move, that he just renovated had?". ( ). The older form would have been ( ). If there are more than three infinitives, all except the first two are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say the rule is not rigorously applied. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, and Greek, and a smaller amount from French some of which might be reborrowings from Germanic Frankish and most recently English. a phenomenon known in German as Denglisch or in English as Germish or Denglisch At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language in forming equivalents for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem repertory is great. Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Overall, German has fewer Romance-language loanwords than English. The coining of new, autochthonous words gave German a vocabulary of an estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century. In comparison, Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words today. Even today, many low-key scholarly movements try to promote the Ersatz (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or neologous German alternatives. Verein Deutsche Sprache e.V. - Der Anglizismen-Index It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too. In the modern scientific German vocabulary data base in Leipzig (as of July 2003) Willkommen there are nine million words and word groups in 35 million sentences (out of a corpus of 500 million words). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely Ã¤, Ã¶ and Ã¼, as well as the Eszett or scharfes s (sharp s), Ã. Before the German spelling reform of 1996, Ã replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings. In reformed spelling, Ã replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital Ã, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For example, MaÃband (tape measure) is capitalized MASSBAND. An exception is the use of Ã in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, a "Ã" is to be used instead of "SS". (So: "KREÃLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN".) A capital Ã has been proposed and included in Unicode, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In Switzerland, Ã is not used at all. Umlaut vowels (Ã¤, Ã¶, Ã¼) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner Ã can be transcribed as ss. German readers understand those transcriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are considered a makeshift, not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ËraËsfÉlt], Coesfeld [ËkoËsfÉlt] and Itzehoe [ÉªtsÉËhoË], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-day spelling of words other than proper nouns.) There is no general agreement on where these umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e, whereas dictionaries use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book Ãrzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ã is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ãrzte occurs after Arzt but before Asbest (because Ã is treated as A). In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and SÃ¼tterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however were claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. Adolf Reinecke, Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift: ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre ZweckmÃ¤Ãigkeit und vÃ¶lkische Bedeutung, Leipzig, Hasert, 1910 The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. The Fraktur script remains present in everyday life through road signs, pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and oldness. A proper use of the long s, (langes s), Å¿, is essential to write German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces include the long s, also. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting, recently. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in differentiating between the words WachÅ¿tube (=guard-house) and Wachstube (=tube of floor polish). One can decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, easily ("Wach-Å¿tube" vs. "Wachs-tube"). The long s only appears in lower case. German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in short and long varieties, as detailed in the following table: Short is realised as in stressed syllables (including secondary stress), but as in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short can be spelled either with e or with Ã¤ (hÃ¤tte 'would have' and Kette 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open sound of long Ã; in some varieties of standard German, and have merged into , removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like BÃ¤ren/Beeren 'bears/berries' or Ãhre/Ehre 'spike/honour' become homophonous). In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed is not pronounced as , but vocalised to . Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist: * If a vowel (other than i) is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. Hof [hoËf]). * If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster (e.g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e.g. hoffen [ËhÉfÇn]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preciding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled. Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. hat [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; Mond , 'moon' is long despite the second rule). For an i that is neither in the combination ie (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the e in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word StÃ¤dte 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ch can be short (Fach 'compartment', KÃ¼che 'kitchen') or long (Suche 'search', BÃ¼cher 'books') almost at random. Thus, Lache is homographous: (Lache) 'puddle' and (lache) 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.). German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, Ã¤u, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters: Additionally, the digraph ie generally represents the phoneme , which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, a /r/ at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised /r/ is not considered a diphthong: BÃ¤r 'bear', er 'he', wir 'we', Tor 'gate', kurz 'short', WÃ¶rter 'words'. In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a glottal stop [Ê]. * c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [Ê¦] (before Ã¤, Ã¤u, e, i, Ã¶, Ã¼, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, or before consonants). The combination ck is, as in English, used to indicate that the preceding vowel is short. * ch occurs most often and is pronounced either [Ã§] (after Ã¤, ai, Ã¤u, e, ei, eu, i, Ã¶, Ã¼ and after consonants, in the diminutive suffix -chen and at the beginning of a word) or [x] (after a, au, o, u). Ch never occurs at the beginning of an originally German word. In borrowed words with initial Ch there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. For example, the word "Chemie" (chemistry) can be pronounced [keËËmiË], [Ã§eËËmiË] or [ÊeËËmiË] depending on dialect. * dsch is pronounced Ê¤ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only. * f is pronounced [f] as in "father". * h is pronounced [h] like in "home" at the beginning of a syllable. After a vowel it is silent and only lengthens the vowel (e.g. "Reh" = roe deer). * j is pronounced [j] in Germanic words ("Jahr" [jaËÉ]). In younger loanwords, it follows more or less the respective languages' pronunciations. * l is always pronounced [l], never [É«] (the English "Dark L"). * q only exists in combination with u and appears both in Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "QualitÃ¤t"). It is pronounced [kv]. * r is pronounced as a guttural sound (an uvular trill, [Ê]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" [ÊaËzÉn]; "Burg" like [buÊg]). In spoken German however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ÉÉ] - "Burg" [buÉg]). In some southern non-standard varieties, the r is pronounced as a tongue-tip r (the alveolar trill). * s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset (e.g. Sohn [zoËn]), otherwise [s] (e.g. Bus [bÊs]). In Austria and Switzerland, it is always pronounced [s]. A ss [s] indicates that the preceding vowel is short. st and sp at the beginning of words of German origin are pronounced [Êt] and [Êp], respectively. * Ã (a letter unique to German called "Esszet") was a ligature of a double s and of a sz and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e.g. "ich muss" â "ich muÃ"; "ich mÃ¼sste" â "ich mÃ¼Ãte"); within a word it contrasts with ss [s] in indicating that the preceding vowel is long (compare "in MaÃen" [in 'maËsÉn] "with moderation" and "in Massen" [in 'masÉn] "in loads"). The use of Ã has recently been limited by the latest German spelling reform and is no longer used for ss at the end of a syllable; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934. Mittelschulvorbereitung Deutsch * sch is pronounced [Ê] (like "sh" in "Shine"). * tion in Latin loanwords is pronounced tsion. * v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e.g. "Vater" [ËfaËtÉ]) and [v] in most other words (e.g. "Vase" [ËvaËzÇ]). * w is pronounced [v] like in "vacation" (e.g. "was" [vas]). * y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel. * z is always pronounced [Ê¦] (e.g. "zog" [Ê¦oËk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short. German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sounds, which the English language has inherited from Anglo Saxon, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th century. It is sometimes possible to find parallels between German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" â in German "Dank", "this" and "that" â "dies" and "das", "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) â "du", "think" â "denken", "thirsty" â "durstig" and many other examples. Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f, or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" â "lachen", "through" and "thorough" â "durch", "high" â "hoch", "naught" â "nichts", etc. A sizeable fraction of English vocabulary is cognate to German words, although the common ancestry may be somewhat obscured by various shifts in phonetics (eg. the High German consonant shift), meaning and orthography. For example: * the High German consonant shift pâff led to such cognates as Ger. Schiff with Eng. ship. Ger. Baum (meaning "tree") is cognate to Eng. beam as may be seen in the name of trees such as the hornbeam and the whitebeam. :For a list of German loanwords in English, see In the English language, there are also many words taken from German without any letter change, e.g.: The use and learning of the German language is promoted by a number of organisations. The government-backed Goethe Institute (named after the famous German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) aims to enhance the knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example the Goethe Institute teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is the equivalent of the British BBC World Service and provides radio and television broadcasts in German and a variety of other languages across the globe. Its German language services are tailored for German language learners by being spoken at slow speed. * Deutsch * German loan words * German name * German family name etymology * German placename etymology * German exonyms * German as a Minority Language * German in the United States * German spelling reform of 1996 * Germanism * Denglish, * List of English words of German origin * List of pseudo-German words adapted to English * Missingsch * Umlaut, Ã * Various terms used for Germans * * * Michael Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704 * George O. Curme, A Grammar of the German Language (1904, 1922) â the most complete and authoritative work in English * Anthony Fox, The Structure of German (2005) ISBN 0199273995 * W.B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505 * * The Goethe Institute: German Government sponsored organisation for the promotion of the German language and culture. * German Pronouns: Nominative Case * German Pronouns: Accusative Case * The Leo Dictionaries: A German language portal featuring German-English, German-French, German-Spanish, German-Italian and German-Chinese dictionaries, with forums and a search function * Online German Course: A free online German course for absolute beginners.
German_language	Are there 622,650 speakers of German In Canada?	Yes	data/set5/a2	German_language German ( , ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide. German is spoken primarily in Germany (first language for more than 95% of the population), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%) together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (D-A-CH-Li-Lux) constituting the countries where German is the majority language. Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Bolzano-Bozen), in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the French Alsace region which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, SÃ¸nderjylland) of Denmark. Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia). A considerable proportion of the native population speak German dialects in Luxembourg and the surrounding areas. Some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street. Examples of German language in Namibian everyday life. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States, Canada, Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where the dialect AlemÃ¡n Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. In Namibia, German Namibians retain German educational institutions. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser HunsrÃ¼ckisch was developed), Santa Catarina, ParanÃ¡, and EspÃrito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico. Nearly all inhabitants of the city of Pomerode in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil speak German. German in the United States is the fifth most spoken language at home (~ 1.4 million) after English, Spanish, Chinese, and French according to the 2000 U.S. Census. US Census 2000 The United States, therefore, has one of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside Europe. The states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English (the second most spoken language in other states is either Spanish or French). An indication of the German presence can be found in the names of such places as Bismarck (state capital), Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg in North Dakota; New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas; and Kiel, Berlin and Germantown in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, (a West Central German variety), and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. A significant group of German Pietists in Iowa formed the Amana Colonies and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. In Canada, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, Statistics Canada 2006 while people of German ancestry (German Canadians) are found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in British Columbia (118,035) and Ontario (230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language Canada's third most spoken after French and English. In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, MazatlÃ¡n, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo. Dialects in North America: The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa Amana German is spoken. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Hutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak first Hutterite German before learning English in the public school, the standard language of the surrounding areas. Many colonies though continue with German Grammar School, separate from the public school, throughout a student's elementary education. The state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Germans arriving in the 1840s from Prussia (particularly the Silesia region). With the prolonged isolation and contact with Australian English some have suggested a unique dialect formed known as Barossa German spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Usage sharply declined with the advent of World War I with the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the twentieth century but now its use is limited to a few older speakers. There is an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of Papua New Guinea, across Micronesia and in northern Australia (i.e. coastal parts of Queensland and Western Australia), by few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars. According to Global Reach (2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is German. Global Statistics, Global Reach. Internet Languages, NVTC. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, "Distribution of languages on the Internet". making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface. Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics. Palmares, Internet Society. FUNREDES Funredes. (1998) and Vilaweb Vilaweb. (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese. The Germanic-speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 962. German-language newspapers in North America in 1922 The history of the language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardization of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (sÃ¤chsische Kanzleisprache) also known as MeiÃner-Deutsch (MeiÃner-German, i.e. of Meissen, founded 929 AD). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterite tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) â which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. In 1901 the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in written form while the Deutsche BÃ¼hnensprache (literally: German stage-language) had already established spelling-rules for German three years earlier which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava(German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German: Pressburg), Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas where only a dialect is spoken, for example Switzerland and Austria. However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age. The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it. The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (BundeslÃ¤nder) would not accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule - everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major yet incomplete revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the new school year of 2006. In 2007, some venerable spellings will be finally invalidated even though they caused little or no trouble. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, like in dass and muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using daÃ and muÃ. The cause of the controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth. (The reformers seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that a considerable part of that culture - namely the entire German literature of the 20th century - is in the old spelling.) The increasing use of English in Germany's higher education system, as well as in business and in popular culture, has led various German academics to state, not necessarily from an entirely negative perspective, that German is a language in decline in its native country. For example, Ursula Kimpel, of the University of TÃ¼bingen, said in 2005 that âGerman universities are offering more courses in English because of the large number of students coming from abroad. German is unfortunately a language in decline. We need and want our professors to be able to teach effectively in English.â Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but also in major cities in other parts of the country. Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss, Austrian Standard German officially in the Austrian education system. D-A-CH-flag, an unofficial flag comprising flags of the three dominant states in the German Sprachraum. Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and Sorbian as minority languages), in Austria (with Slovene, Croatian, and Hungarian), Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of Sopron (Hungary), Krahule (Slovakia) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the Vatican Swiss Guard. German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (South Jutland region), France (Alsace and Moselle regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, Poland (Opole region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt). German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe. Knowledge of German in Europe. German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. German is the main language of about 90â95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). It is therefore the most spoken first language in the EU. It is the second most known foreign language in the EU. After English; It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. Thirty-two percent of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language). This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable or satellite. German was once, and still remains to some extent, a lingua franca in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe. By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked black. Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West-Germanic dialectal varieties. German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German. The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon languages. Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII. Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the Luther Bible by Martin Luther was printed. This translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany. The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated and at home. Today Low Saxon can be divided in two groups: Low Saxon varieties with a reasonable standard German influx and varieties of Standard German with a Low Saxon influence known as Missingsch. High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian, High Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish. Upper German dialects include Northern Austro-Bavarian, Central Austro-Bavarian, Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian, East Franconian, High Alemannic German, Highest Alemannic German, Alsatian and Low Alemannic German. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and SiebenbÃ¼rgisch are High German dialects of Poland and Romania respectively. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script. In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics. The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany. German is an inflected language. German nouns inflect into: * one of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. * one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neutral. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ...ung(-ing), ...schaft(-ship), ...keit or ...heit(-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ...chen or ...lein (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ...ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ...er (-er), e.g. Feier (feminine), Eng. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), Eng. labourer. * two numbers: singular and plural Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in informal speech. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e. In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (Am Freitag bin ich einkaufen gegangen. â "On Friday I went shopping."; Eines Tages war er endlich da. â "One day he finally showed up".) This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish and English), too. Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun compounds where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: HundehÃ¼tte (Eng. dog hut; specifically: doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is RindfleischetikettierungsÃ¼berwachungsaufgabenÃ¼bertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Ãberwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Ãbertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".] Standard German verbs inflect into: * one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.) * three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. * two numbers: singular and plural * three moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive * two voices: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic. * two non-composed tenses (present, preterite) and four composed tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect) * distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus Preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or for the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise. * distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form. * disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]). There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through a relatively small number of prefixes. Some of those prefixes have a meaning themselves (Example: zer- refers to the destruction of things, as in zerreiÃen = to tear apart, zerbrechen = to break apart, zerschneiden = to cut apart), others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves (Example: ver- , as in versuchen = to try, vernehmen = to interrogate, verteilen = to distribute, verstehen = to understand). More examples: haften = to stick, verhaften = to imprison; kaufen = to buy, verkaufen = to sell; hÃ¶ren = to hear, aufhÃ¶ren = to cease; fahren = to drive, erfahren = to get to know, to hear about something. Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In finite verb forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?). Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g. :Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem Ã¼blichen Ãrger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause an . A literal translation of this example might look like this: :He -rived on a Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual disagreements that had been troubling him repeatedly, looking forward to a questionable meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already fixed for him, ar- at home. German requires that a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) appear second in the sentence, preceded by the most important topical phrase. The second most important phrase appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options: : (The old man gives me the book today) : (stress on das Buch) : (stress on heute) : (stress on mir) : (stress on der alte Mann) : : : The position of a noun as a subject or object in a German sentence doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. For example, in the sentence "Man bites dog" it is clear who did what to whom. To exchange the place of the subject with that of the object â "Dog bites man" â changes the meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as in Latin thus indicating whether it is the subject or object of the verb's action. The above example in German would be or with both having exactly the same meaning. If the articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines ( ), the syntax applies as in English â the first noun is the subject and the noun following the predicate is the object. Except for emphasis, adverbs of time have to appear in the third place in the sentence, just after the predicate. Otherwise the speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word order (in Modern English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. ( ) When an auxiliary verb is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.: : (The old man has given me the book yesterday.) : : : The word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common word orders; one is for main clauses and another for subordinate clauses. In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has position 2; in questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded. For example in a subordinate clause introduced by "weil" ("because") the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a main clause. The correct way of saying "because I'm broke" is " ". In the vernacular you may hear instead " " This phenomenon may be caused by mixing the word-order pattern used for the word with the pattern used for an alternative word for "because", , which is used with the main clause order (" "). Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" ( ). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?" The number of infinitives at the end is usually restricted to two, causing the third infinitive or auxiliary verb that would have gone at the very end to be placed instead at the beginning of the chain of verbs. For example in the sentence "Should he move into the house that he just has had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into the house move, that he just renovated had?". ( ). The older form would have been ( ). If there are more than three infinitives, all except the first two are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say the rule is not rigorously applied. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, and Greek, and a smaller amount from French some of which might be reborrowings from Germanic Frankish and most recently English. a phenomenon known in German as Denglisch or in English as Germish or Denglisch At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language in forming equivalents for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem repertory is great. Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Overall, German has fewer Romance-language loanwords than English. The coining of new, autochthonous words gave German a vocabulary of an estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century. In comparison, Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words today. Even today, many low-key scholarly movements try to promote the Ersatz (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or neologous German alternatives. Verein Deutsche Sprache e.V. - Der Anglizismen-Index It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too. In the modern scientific German vocabulary data base in Leipzig (as of July 2003) Willkommen there are nine million words and word groups in 35 million sentences (out of a corpus of 500 million words). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely Ã¤, Ã¶ and Ã¼, as well as the Eszett or scharfes s (sharp s), Ã. Before the German spelling reform of 1996, Ã replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings. In reformed spelling, Ã replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital Ã, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For example, MaÃband (tape measure) is capitalized MASSBAND. An exception is the use of Ã in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, a "Ã" is to be used instead of "SS". (So: "KREÃLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN".) A capital Ã has been proposed and included in Unicode, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In Switzerland, Ã is not used at all. Umlaut vowels (Ã¤, Ã¶, Ã¼) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner Ã can be transcribed as ss. German readers understand those transcriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are considered a makeshift, not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ËraËsfÉlt], Coesfeld [ËkoËsfÉlt] and Itzehoe [ÉªtsÉËhoË], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-day spelling of words other than proper nouns.) There is no general agreement on where these umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e, whereas dictionaries use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book Ãrzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ã is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ãrzte occurs after Arzt but before Asbest (because Ã is treated as A). In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and SÃ¼tterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however were claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. Adolf Reinecke, Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift: ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre ZweckmÃ¤Ãigkeit und vÃ¶lkische Bedeutung, Leipzig, Hasert, 1910 The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. The Fraktur script remains present in everyday life through road signs, pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and oldness. A proper use of the long s, (langes s), Å¿, is essential to write German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces include the long s, also. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting, recently. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in differentiating between the words WachÅ¿tube (=guard-house) and Wachstube (=tube of floor polish). One can decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, easily ("Wach-Å¿tube" vs. "Wachs-tube"). The long s only appears in lower case. German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in short and long varieties, as detailed in the following table: Short is realised as in stressed syllables (including secondary stress), but as in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short can be spelled either with e or with Ã¤ (hÃ¤tte 'would have' and Kette 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open sound of long Ã; in some varieties of standard German, and have merged into , removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like BÃ¤ren/Beeren 'bears/berries' or Ãhre/Ehre 'spike/honour' become homophonous). In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed is not pronounced as , but vocalised to . Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist: * If a vowel (other than i) is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. Hof [hoËf]). * If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster (e.g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e.g. hoffen [ËhÉfÇn]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preciding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled. Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. hat [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; Mond , 'moon' is long despite the second rule). For an i that is neither in the combination ie (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the e in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word StÃ¤dte 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ch can be short (Fach 'compartment', KÃ¼che 'kitchen') or long (Suche 'search', BÃ¼cher 'books') almost at random. Thus, Lache is homographous: (Lache) 'puddle' and (lache) 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.). German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, Ã¤u, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters: Additionally, the digraph ie generally represents the phoneme , which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, a /r/ at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised /r/ is not considered a diphthong: BÃ¤r 'bear', er 'he', wir 'we', Tor 'gate', kurz 'short', WÃ¶rter 'words'. In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a glottal stop [Ê]. * c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [Ê¦] (before Ã¤, Ã¤u, e, i, Ã¶, Ã¼, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, or before consonants). The combination ck is, as in English, used to indicate that the preceding vowel is short. * ch occurs most often and is pronounced either [Ã§] (after Ã¤, ai, Ã¤u, e, ei, eu, i, Ã¶, Ã¼ and after consonants, in the diminutive suffix -chen and at the beginning of a word) or [x] (after a, au, o, u). Ch never occurs at the beginning of an originally German word. In borrowed words with initial Ch there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. For example, the word "Chemie" (chemistry) can be pronounced [keËËmiË], [Ã§eËËmiË] or [ÊeËËmiË] depending on dialect. * dsch is pronounced Ê¤ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only. * f is pronounced [f] as in "father". * h is pronounced [h] like in "home" at the beginning of a syllable. After a vowel it is silent and only lengthens the vowel (e.g. "Reh" = roe deer). * j is pronounced [j] in Germanic words ("Jahr" [jaËÉ]). In younger loanwords, it follows more or less the respective languages' pronunciations. * l is always pronounced [l], never [É«] (the English "Dark L"). * q only exists in combination with u and appears both in Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "QualitÃ¤t"). It is pronounced [kv]. * r is pronounced as a guttural sound (an uvular trill, [Ê]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" [ÊaËzÉn]; "Burg" like [buÊg]). In spoken German however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ÉÉ] - "Burg" [buÉg]). In some southern non-standard varieties, the r is pronounced as a tongue-tip r (the alveolar trill). * s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset (e.g. Sohn [zoËn]), otherwise [s] (e.g. Bus [bÊs]). In Austria and Switzerland, it is always pronounced [s]. A ss [s] indicates that the preceding vowel is short. st and sp at the beginning of words of German origin are pronounced [Êt] and [Êp], respectively. * Ã (a letter unique to German called "Esszet") was a ligature of a double s and of a sz and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e.g. "ich muss" â "ich muÃ"; "ich mÃ¼sste" â "ich mÃ¼Ãte"); within a word it contrasts with ss [s] in indicating that the preceding vowel is long (compare "in MaÃen" [in 'maËsÉn] "with moderation" and "in Massen" [in 'masÉn] "in loads"). The use of Ã has recently been limited by the latest German spelling reform and is no longer used for ss at the end of a syllable; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934. Mittelschulvorbereitung Deutsch * sch is pronounced [Ê] (like "sh" in "Shine"). * tion in Latin loanwords is pronounced tsion. * v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e.g. "Vater" [ËfaËtÉ]) and [v] in most other words (e.g. "Vase" [ËvaËzÇ]). * w is pronounced [v] like in "vacation" (e.g. "was" [vas]). * y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel. * z is always pronounced [Ê¦] (e.g. "zog" [Ê¦oËk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short. German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sounds, which the English language has inherited from Anglo Saxon, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th century. It is sometimes possible to find parallels between German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" â in German "Dank", "this" and "that" â "dies" and "das", "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) â "du", "think" â "denken", "thirsty" â "durstig" and many other examples. Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f, or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" â "lachen", "through" and "thorough" â "durch", "high" â "hoch", "naught" â "nichts", etc. A sizeable fraction of English vocabulary is cognate to German words, although the common ancestry may be somewhat obscured by various shifts in phonetics (eg. the High German consonant shift), meaning and orthography. For example: * the High German consonant shift pâff led to such cognates as Ger. Schiff with Eng. ship. Ger. Baum (meaning "tree") is cognate to Eng. beam as may be seen in the name of trees such as the hornbeam and the whitebeam. :For a list of German loanwords in English, see In the English language, there are also many words taken from German without any letter change, e.g.: The use and learning of the German language is promoted by a number of organisations. The government-backed Goethe Institute (named after the famous German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) aims to enhance the knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example the Goethe Institute teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is the equivalent of the British BBC World Service and provides radio and television broadcasts in German and a variety of other languages across the globe. Its German language services are tailored for German language learners by being spoken at slow speed. * Deutsch * German loan words * German name * German family name etymology * German placename etymology * German exonyms * German as a Minority Language * German in the United States * German spelling reform of 1996 * Germanism * Denglish, * List of English words of German origin * List of pseudo-German words adapted to English * Missingsch * Umlaut, Ã * Various terms used for Germans * * * Michael Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704 * George O. Curme, A Grammar of the German Language (1904, 1922) â the most complete and authoritative work in English * Anthony Fox, The Structure of German (2005) ISBN 0199273995 * W.B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505 * * The Goethe Institute: German Government sponsored organisation for the promotion of the German language and culture. * German Pronouns: Nominative Case * German Pronouns: Accusative Case * The Leo Dictionaries: A German language portal featuring German-English, German-French, German-Spanish, German-Italian and German-Chinese dictionaries, with forums and a search function * Online German Course: A free online German course for absolute beginners.
German_language	Are there also large populations of German ancestry In Mexico?	yes	data/set5/a2	German_language German ( , ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide. German is spoken primarily in Germany (first language for more than 95% of the population), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%) together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (D-A-CH-Li-Lux) constituting the countries where German is the majority language. Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Bolzano-Bozen), in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the French Alsace region which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, SÃ¸nderjylland) of Denmark. Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia). A considerable proportion of the native population speak German dialects in Luxembourg and the surrounding areas. Some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street. Examples of German language in Namibian everyday life. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States, Canada, Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where the dialect AlemÃ¡n Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. In Namibia, German Namibians retain German educational institutions. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser HunsrÃ¼ckisch was developed), Santa Catarina, ParanÃ¡, and EspÃrito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico. Nearly all inhabitants of the city of Pomerode in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil speak German. German in the United States is the fifth most spoken language at home (~ 1.4 million) after English, Spanish, Chinese, and French according to the 2000 U.S. Census. US Census 2000 The United States, therefore, has one of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside Europe. The states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English (the second most spoken language in other states is either Spanish or French). An indication of the German presence can be found in the names of such places as Bismarck (state capital), Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg in North Dakota; New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas; and Kiel, Berlin and Germantown in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, (a West Central German variety), and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. A significant group of German Pietists in Iowa formed the Amana Colonies and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. In Canada, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, Statistics Canada 2006 while people of German ancestry (German Canadians) are found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in British Columbia (118,035) and Ontario (230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language Canada's third most spoken after French and English. In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, MazatlÃ¡n, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo. Dialects in North America: The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa Amana German is spoken. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Hutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak first Hutterite German before learning English in the public school, the standard language of the surrounding areas. Many colonies though continue with German Grammar School, separate from the public school, throughout a student's elementary education. The state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Germans arriving in the 1840s from Prussia (particularly the Silesia region). With the prolonged isolation and contact with Australian English some have suggested a unique dialect formed known as Barossa German spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Usage sharply declined with the advent of World War I with the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the twentieth century but now its use is limited to a few older speakers. There is an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of Papua New Guinea, across Micronesia and in northern Australia (i.e. coastal parts of Queensland and Western Australia), by few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars. According to Global Reach (2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is German. Global Statistics, Global Reach. Internet Languages, NVTC. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, "Distribution of languages on the Internet". making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface. Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics. Palmares, Internet Society. FUNREDES Funredes. (1998) and Vilaweb Vilaweb. (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese. The Germanic-speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 962. German-language newspapers in North America in 1922 The history of the language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardization of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (sÃ¤chsische Kanzleisprache) also known as MeiÃner-Deutsch (MeiÃner-German, i.e. of Meissen, founded 929 AD). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterite tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) â which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. In 1901 the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in written form while the Deutsche BÃ¼hnensprache (literally: German stage-language) had already established spelling-rules for German three years earlier which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava(German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German: Pressburg), Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas where only a dialect is spoken, for example Switzerland and Austria. However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age. The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it. The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (BundeslÃ¤nder) would not accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule - everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major yet incomplete revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the new school year of 2006. In 2007, some venerable spellings will be finally invalidated even though they caused little or no trouble. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, like in dass and muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using daÃ and muÃ. The cause of the controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth. (The reformers seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that a considerable part of that culture - namely the entire German literature of the 20th century - is in the old spelling.) The increasing use of English in Germany's higher education system, as well as in business and in popular culture, has led various German academics to state, not necessarily from an entirely negative perspective, that German is a language in decline in its native country. For example, Ursula Kimpel, of the University of TÃ¼bingen, said in 2005 that âGerman universities are offering more courses in English because of the large number of students coming from abroad. German is unfortunately a language in decline. We need and want our professors to be able to teach effectively in English.â Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but also in major cities in other parts of the country. Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss, Austrian Standard German officially in the Austrian education system. D-A-CH-flag, an unofficial flag comprising flags of the three dominant states in the German Sprachraum. Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and Sorbian as minority languages), in Austria (with Slovene, Croatian, and Hungarian), Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of Sopron (Hungary), Krahule (Slovakia) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the Vatican Swiss Guard. German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (South Jutland region), France (Alsace and Moselle regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, Poland (Opole region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt). German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe. Knowledge of German in Europe. German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. German is the main language of about 90â95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). It is therefore the most spoken first language in the EU. It is the second most known foreign language in the EU. After English; It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. Thirty-two percent of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language). This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable or satellite. German was once, and still remains to some extent, a lingua franca in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe. By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked black. Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West-Germanic dialectal varieties. German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German. The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon languages. Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII. Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the Luther Bible by Martin Luther was printed. This translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany. The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated and at home. Today Low Saxon can be divided in two groups: Low Saxon varieties with a reasonable standard German influx and varieties of Standard German with a Low Saxon influence known as Missingsch. High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian, High Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish. Upper German dialects include Northern Austro-Bavarian, Central Austro-Bavarian, Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian, East Franconian, High Alemannic German, Highest Alemannic German, Alsatian and Low Alemannic German. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and SiebenbÃ¼rgisch are High German dialects of Poland and Romania respectively. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script. In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics. The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany. German is an inflected language. German nouns inflect into: * one of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. * one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neutral. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ...ung(-ing), ...schaft(-ship), ...keit or ...heit(-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ...chen or ...lein (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ...ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ...er (-er), e.g. Feier (feminine), Eng. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), Eng. labourer. * two numbers: singular and plural Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in informal speech. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e. In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (Am Freitag bin ich einkaufen gegangen. â "On Friday I went shopping."; Eines Tages war er endlich da. â "One day he finally showed up".) This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish and English), too. Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun compounds where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: HundehÃ¼tte (Eng. dog hut; specifically: doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is RindfleischetikettierungsÃ¼berwachungsaufgabenÃ¼bertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Ãberwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Ãbertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".] Standard German verbs inflect into: * one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.) * three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. * two numbers: singular and plural * three moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive * two voices: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic. * two non-composed tenses (present, preterite) and four composed tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect) * distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus Preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or for the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise. * distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form. * disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]). There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through a relatively small number of prefixes. Some of those prefixes have a meaning themselves (Example: zer- refers to the destruction of things, as in zerreiÃen = to tear apart, zerbrechen = to break apart, zerschneiden = to cut apart), others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves (Example: ver- , as in versuchen = to try, vernehmen = to interrogate, verteilen = to distribute, verstehen = to understand). More examples: haften = to stick, verhaften = to imprison; kaufen = to buy, verkaufen = to sell; hÃ¶ren = to hear, aufhÃ¶ren = to cease; fahren = to drive, erfahren = to get to know, to hear about something. Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In finite verb forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?). Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g. :Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem Ã¼blichen Ãrger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause an . A literal translation of this example might look like this: :He -rived on a Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual disagreements that had been troubling him repeatedly, looking forward to a questionable meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already fixed for him, ar- at home. German requires that a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) appear second in the sentence, preceded by the most important topical phrase. The second most important phrase appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options: : (The old man gives me the book today) : (stress on das Buch) : (stress on heute) : (stress on mir) : (stress on der alte Mann) : : : The position of a noun as a subject or object in a German sentence doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. For example, in the sentence "Man bites dog" it is clear who did what to whom. To exchange the place of the subject with that of the object â "Dog bites man" â changes the meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as in Latin thus indicating whether it is the subject or object of the verb's action. The above example in German would be or with both having exactly the same meaning. If the articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines ( ), the syntax applies as in English â the first noun is the subject and the noun following the predicate is the object. Except for emphasis, adverbs of time have to appear in the third place in the sentence, just after the predicate. Otherwise the speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word order (in Modern English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. ( ) When an auxiliary verb is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.: : (The old man has given me the book yesterday.) : : : The word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common word orders; one is for main clauses and another for subordinate clauses. In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has position 2; in questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded. For example in a subordinate clause introduced by "weil" ("because") the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a main clause. The correct way of saying "because I'm broke" is " ". In the vernacular you may hear instead " " This phenomenon may be caused by mixing the word-order pattern used for the word with the pattern used for an alternative word for "because", , which is used with the main clause order (" "). Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" ( ). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?" The number of infinitives at the end is usually restricted to two, causing the third infinitive or auxiliary verb that would have gone at the very end to be placed instead at the beginning of the chain of verbs. For example in the sentence "Should he move into the house that he just has had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into the house move, that he just renovated had?". ( ). The older form would have been ( ). If there are more than three infinitives, all except the first two are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say the rule is not rigorously applied. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, and Greek, and a smaller amount from French some of which might be reborrowings from Germanic Frankish and most recently English. a phenomenon known in German as Denglisch or in English as Germish or Denglisch At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language in forming equivalents for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem repertory is great. Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Overall, German has fewer Romance-language loanwords than English. The coining of new, autochthonous words gave German a vocabulary of an estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century. In comparison, Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words today. Even today, many low-key scholarly movements try to promote the Ersatz (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or neologous German alternatives. Verein Deutsche Sprache e.V. - Der Anglizismen-Index It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too. In the modern scientific German vocabulary data base in Leipzig (as of July 2003) Willkommen there are nine million words and word groups in 35 million sentences (out of a corpus of 500 million words). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely Ã¤, Ã¶ and Ã¼, as well as the Eszett or scharfes s (sharp s), Ã. Before the German spelling reform of 1996, Ã replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings. In reformed spelling, Ã replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital Ã, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For example, MaÃband (tape measure) is capitalized MASSBAND. An exception is the use of Ã in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, a "Ã" is to be used instead of "SS". (So: "KREÃLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN".) A capital Ã has been proposed and included in Unicode, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In Switzerland, Ã is not used at all. Umlaut vowels (Ã¤, Ã¶, Ã¼) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner Ã can be transcribed as ss. German readers understand those transcriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are considered a makeshift, not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ËraËsfÉlt], Coesfeld [ËkoËsfÉlt] and Itzehoe [ÉªtsÉËhoË], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-day spelling of words other than proper nouns.) There is no general agreement on where these umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e, whereas dictionaries use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book Ãrzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ã is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ãrzte occurs after Arzt but before Asbest (because Ã is treated as A). In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and SÃ¼tterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however were claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. Adolf Reinecke, Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift: ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre ZweckmÃ¤Ãigkeit und vÃ¶lkische Bedeutung, Leipzig, Hasert, 1910 The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. The Fraktur script remains present in everyday life through road signs, pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and oldness. A proper use of the long s, (langes s), Å¿, is essential to write German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces include the long s, also. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting, recently. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in differentiating between the words WachÅ¿tube (=guard-house) and Wachstube (=tube of floor polish). One can decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, easily ("Wach-Å¿tube" vs. "Wachs-tube"). The long s only appears in lower case. German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in short and long varieties, as detailed in the following table: Short is realised as in stressed syllables (including secondary stress), but as in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short can be spelled either with e or with Ã¤ (hÃ¤tte 'would have' and Kette 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open sound of long Ã; in some varieties of standard German, and have merged into , removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like BÃ¤ren/Beeren 'bears/berries' or Ãhre/Ehre 'spike/honour' become homophonous). In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed is not pronounced as , but vocalised to . Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist: * If a vowel (other than i) is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. Hof [hoËf]). * If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster (e.g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e.g. hoffen [ËhÉfÇn]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preciding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled. Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. hat [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; Mond , 'moon' is long despite the second rule). For an i that is neither in the combination ie (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the e in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word StÃ¤dte 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ch can be short (Fach 'compartment', KÃ¼che 'kitchen') or long (Suche 'search', BÃ¼cher 'books') almost at random. Thus, Lache is homographous: (Lache) 'puddle' and (lache) 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.). German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, Ã¤u, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters: Additionally, the digraph ie generally represents the phoneme , which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, a /r/ at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised /r/ is not considered a diphthong: BÃ¤r 'bear', er 'he', wir 'we', Tor 'gate', kurz 'short', WÃ¶rter 'words'. In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a glottal stop [Ê]. * c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [Ê¦] (before Ã¤, Ã¤u, e, i, Ã¶, Ã¼, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, or before consonants). The combination ck is, as in English, used to indicate that the preceding vowel is short. * ch occurs most often and is pronounced either [Ã§] (after Ã¤, ai, Ã¤u, e, ei, eu, i, Ã¶, Ã¼ and after consonants, in the diminutive suffix -chen and at the beginning of a word) or [x] (after a, au, o, u). Ch never occurs at the beginning of an originally German word. In borrowed words with initial Ch there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. For example, the word "Chemie" (chemistry) can be pronounced [keËËmiË], [Ã§eËËmiË] or [ÊeËËmiË] depending on dialect. * dsch is pronounced Ê¤ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only. * f is pronounced [f] as in "father". * h is pronounced [h] like in "home" at the beginning of a syllable. After a vowel it is silent and only lengthens the vowel (e.g. "Reh" = roe deer). * j is pronounced [j] in Germanic words ("Jahr" [jaËÉ]). In younger loanwords, it follows more or less the respective languages' pronunciations. * l is always pronounced [l], never [É«] (the English "Dark L"). * q only exists in combination with u and appears both in Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "QualitÃ¤t"). It is pronounced [kv]. * r is pronounced as a guttural sound (an uvular trill, [Ê]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" [ÊaËzÉn]; "Burg" like [buÊg]). In spoken German however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ÉÉ] - "Burg" [buÉg]). In some southern non-standard varieties, the r is pronounced as a tongue-tip r (the alveolar trill). * s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset (e.g. Sohn [zoËn]), otherwise [s] (e.g. Bus [bÊs]). In Austria and Switzerland, it is always pronounced [s]. A ss [s] indicates that the preceding vowel is short. st and sp at the beginning of words of German origin are pronounced [Êt] and [Êp], respectively. * Ã (a letter unique to German called "Esszet") was a ligature of a double s and of a sz and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e.g. "ich muss" â "ich muÃ"; "ich mÃ¼sste" â "ich mÃ¼Ãte"); within a word it contrasts with ss [s] in indicating that the preceding vowel is long (compare "in MaÃen" [in 'maËsÉn] "with moderation" and "in Massen" [in 'masÉn] "in loads"). The use of Ã has recently been limited by the latest German spelling reform and is no longer used for ss at the end of a syllable; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934. Mittelschulvorbereitung Deutsch * sch is pronounced [Ê] (like "sh" in "Shine"). * tion in Latin loanwords is pronounced tsion. * v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e.g. "Vater" [ËfaËtÉ]) and [v] in most other words (e.g. "Vase" [ËvaËzÇ]). * w is pronounced [v] like in "vacation" (e.g. "was" [vas]). * y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel. * z is always pronounced [Ê¦] (e.g. "zog" [Ê¦oËk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short. German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sounds, which the English language has inherited from Anglo Saxon, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th century. It is sometimes possible to find parallels between German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" â in German "Dank", "this" and "that" â "dies" and "das", "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) â "du", "think" â "denken", "thirsty" â "durstig" and many other examples. Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f, or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" â "lachen", "through" and "thorough" â "durch", "high" â "hoch", "naught" â "nichts", etc. A sizeable fraction of English vocabulary is cognate to German words, although the common ancestry may be somewhat obscured by various shifts in phonetics (eg. the High German consonant shift), meaning and orthography. For example: * the High German consonant shift pâff led to such cognates as Ger. Schiff with Eng. ship. Ger. Baum (meaning "tree") is cognate to Eng. beam as may be seen in the name of trees such as the hornbeam and the whitebeam. :For a list of German loanwords in English, see In the English language, there are also many words taken from German without any letter change, e.g.: The use and learning of the German language is promoted by a number of organisations. The government-backed Goethe Institute (named after the famous German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) aims to enhance the knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example the Goethe Institute teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is the equivalent of the British BBC World Service and provides radio and television broadcasts in German and a variety of other languages across the globe. Its German language services are tailored for German language learners by being spoken at slow speed. * Deutsch * German loan words * German name * German family name etymology * German placename etymology * German exonyms * German as a Minority Language * German in the United States * German spelling reform of 1996 * Germanism * Denglish, * List of English words of German origin * List of pseudo-German words adapted to English * Missingsch * Umlaut, Ã * Various terms used for Germans * * * Michael Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704 * George O. Curme, A Grammar of the German Language (1904, 1922) â the most complete and authoritative work in English * Anthony Fox, The Structure of German (2005) ISBN 0199273995 * W.B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505 * * The Goethe Institute: German Government sponsored organisation for the promotion of the German language and culture. * German Pronouns: Nominative Case * German Pronouns: Accusative Case * The Leo Dictionaries: A German language portal featuring German-English, German-French, German-Spanish, German-Italian and German-Chinese dictionaries, with forums and a search function * Online German Course: A free online German course for absolute beginners.
German_language	Would BundeslÃ¤nder not accept North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria ?	yes	data/set5/a2	German_language German ( , ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide. German is spoken primarily in Germany (first language for more than 95% of the population), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%) together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (D-A-CH-Li-Lux) constituting the countries where German is the majority language. Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Bolzano-Bozen), in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the French Alsace region which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, SÃ¸nderjylland) of Denmark. Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia). A considerable proportion of the native population speak German dialects in Luxembourg and the surrounding areas. Some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street. Examples of German language in Namibian everyday life. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States, Canada, Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where the dialect AlemÃ¡n Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. In Namibia, German Namibians retain German educational institutions. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser HunsrÃ¼ckisch was developed), Santa Catarina, ParanÃ¡, and EspÃrito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico. Nearly all inhabitants of the city of Pomerode in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil speak German. German in the United States is the fifth most spoken language at home (~ 1.4 million) after English, Spanish, Chinese, and French according to the 2000 U.S. Census. US Census 2000 The United States, therefore, has one of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside Europe. The states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English (the second most spoken language in other states is either Spanish or French). An indication of the German presence can be found in the names of such places as Bismarck (state capital), Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg in North Dakota; New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas; and Kiel, Berlin and Germantown in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, (a West Central German variety), and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. A significant group of German Pietists in Iowa formed the Amana Colonies and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. In Canada, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, Statistics Canada 2006 while people of German ancestry (German Canadians) are found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in British Columbia (118,035) and Ontario (230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language Canada's third most spoken after French and English. In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, MazatlÃ¡n, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo. Dialects in North America: The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa Amana German is spoken. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Hutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak first Hutterite German before learning English in the public school, the standard language of the surrounding areas. Many colonies though continue with German Grammar School, separate from the public school, throughout a student's elementary education. The state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Germans arriving in the 1840s from Prussia (particularly the Silesia region). With the prolonged isolation and contact with Australian English some have suggested a unique dialect formed known as Barossa German spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Usage sharply declined with the advent of World War I with the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the twentieth century but now its use is limited to a few older speakers. There is an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of Papua New Guinea, across Micronesia and in northern Australia (i.e. coastal parts of Queensland and Western Australia), by few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars. According to Global Reach (2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is German. Global Statistics, Global Reach. Internet Languages, NVTC. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, "Distribution of languages on the Internet". making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface. Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics. Palmares, Internet Society. FUNREDES Funredes. (1998) and Vilaweb Vilaweb. (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese. The Germanic-speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 962. German-language newspapers in North America in 1922 The history of the language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardization of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (sÃ¤chsische Kanzleisprache) also known as MeiÃner-Deutsch (MeiÃner-German, i.e. of Meissen, founded 929 AD). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterite tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) â which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. In 1901 the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in written form while the Deutsche BÃ¼hnensprache (literally: German stage-language) had already established spelling-rules for German three years earlier which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava(German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German: Pressburg), Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas where only a dialect is spoken, for example Switzerland and Austria. However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age. The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it. The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (BundeslÃ¤nder) would not accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule - everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major yet incomplete revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the new school year of 2006. In 2007, some venerable spellings will be finally invalidated even though they caused little or no trouble. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, like in dass and muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using daÃ and muÃ. The cause of the controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth. (The reformers seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that a considerable part of that culture - namely the entire German literature of the 20th century - is in the old spelling.) The increasing use of English in Germany's higher education system, as well as in business and in popular culture, has led various German academics to state, not necessarily from an entirely negative perspective, that German is a language in decline in its native country. For example, Ursula Kimpel, of the University of TÃ¼bingen, said in 2005 that âGerman universities are offering more courses in English because of the large number of students coming from abroad. German is unfortunately a language in decline. We need and want our professors to be able to teach effectively in English.â Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but also in major cities in other parts of the country. Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss, Austrian Standard German officially in the Austrian education system. D-A-CH-flag, an unofficial flag comprising flags of the three dominant states in the German Sprachraum. Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and Sorbian as minority languages), in Austria (with Slovene, Croatian, and Hungarian), Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of Sopron (Hungary), Krahule (Slovakia) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the Vatican Swiss Guard. German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (South Jutland region), France (Alsace and Moselle regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, Poland (Opole region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt). German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe. Knowledge of German in Europe. German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. German is the main language of about 90â95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). It is therefore the most spoken first language in the EU. It is the second most known foreign language in the EU. After English; It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. Thirty-two percent of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language). This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable or satellite. German was once, and still remains to some extent, a lingua franca in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe. By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked black. Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West-Germanic dialectal varieties. German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German. The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon languages. Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII. Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the Luther Bible by Martin Luther was printed. This translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany. The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated and at home. Today Low Saxon can be divided in two groups: Low Saxon varieties with a reasonable standard German influx and varieties of Standard German with a Low Saxon influence known as Missingsch. High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian, High Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish. Upper German dialects include Northern Austro-Bavarian, Central Austro-Bavarian, Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian, East Franconian, High Alemannic German, Highest Alemannic German, Alsatian and Low Alemannic German. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and SiebenbÃ¼rgisch are High German dialects of Poland and Romania respectively. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script. In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics. The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany. German is an inflected language. German nouns inflect into: * one of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. * one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neutral. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ...ung(-ing), ...schaft(-ship), ...keit or ...heit(-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ...chen or ...lein (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ...ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ...er (-er), e.g. Feier (feminine), Eng. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), Eng. labourer. * two numbers: singular and plural Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in informal speech. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e. In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (Am Freitag bin ich einkaufen gegangen. â "On Friday I went shopping."; Eines Tages war er endlich da. â "One day he finally showed up".) This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish and English), too. Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun compounds where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: HundehÃ¼tte (Eng. dog hut; specifically: doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is RindfleischetikettierungsÃ¼berwachungsaufgabenÃ¼bertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Ãberwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Ãbertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".] Standard German verbs inflect into: * one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.) * three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. * two numbers: singular and plural * three moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive * two voices: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic. * two non-composed tenses (present, preterite) and four composed tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect) * distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus Preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or for the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise. * distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form. * disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]). There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through a relatively small number of prefixes. Some of those prefixes have a meaning themselves (Example: zer- refers to the destruction of things, as in zerreiÃen = to tear apart, zerbrechen = to break apart, zerschneiden = to cut apart), others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves (Example: ver- , as in versuchen = to try, vernehmen = to interrogate, verteilen = to distribute, verstehen = to understand). More examples: haften = to stick, verhaften = to imprison; kaufen = to buy, verkaufen = to sell; hÃ¶ren = to hear, aufhÃ¶ren = to cease; fahren = to drive, erfahren = to get to know, to hear about something. Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In finite verb forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?). Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g. :Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem Ã¼blichen Ãrger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause an . A literal translation of this example might look like this: :He -rived on a Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual disagreements that had been troubling him repeatedly, looking forward to a questionable meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already fixed for him, ar- at home. German requires that a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) appear second in the sentence, preceded by the most important topical phrase. The second most important phrase appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options: : (The old man gives me the book today) : (stress on das Buch) : (stress on heute) : (stress on mir) : (stress on der alte Mann) : : : The position of a noun as a subject or object in a German sentence doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. For example, in the sentence "Man bites dog" it is clear who did what to whom. To exchange the place of the subject with that of the object â "Dog bites man" â changes the meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as in Latin thus indicating whether it is the subject or object of the verb's action. The above example in German would be or with both having exactly the same meaning. If the articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines ( ), the syntax applies as in English â the first noun is the subject and the noun following the predicate is the object. Except for emphasis, adverbs of time have to appear in the third place in the sentence, just after the predicate. Otherwise the speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word order (in Modern English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. ( ) When an auxiliary verb is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.: : (The old man has given me the book yesterday.) : : : The word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common word orders; one is for main clauses and another for subordinate clauses. In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has position 2; in questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded. For example in a subordinate clause introduced by "weil" ("because") the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a main clause. The correct way of saying "because I'm broke" is " ". In the vernacular you may hear instead " " This phenomenon may be caused by mixing the word-order pattern used for the word with the pattern used for an alternative word for "because", , which is used with the main clause order (" "). Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" ( ). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?" The number of infinitives at the end is usually restricted to two, causing the third infinitive or auxiliary verb that would have gone at the very end to be placed instead at the beginning of the chain of verbs. For example in the sentence "Should he move into the house that he just has had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into the house move, that he just renovated had?". ( ). The older form would have been ( ). If there are more than three infinitives, all except the first two are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say the rule is not rigorously applied. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, and Greek, and a smaller amount from French some of which might be reborrowings from Germanic Frankish and most recently English. a phenomenon known in German as Denglisch or in English as Germish or Denglisch At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language in forming equivalents for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem repertory is great. Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Overall, German has fewer Romance-language loanwords than English. The coining of new, autochthonous words gave German a vocabulary of an estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century. In comparison, Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words today. Even today, many low-key scholarly movements try to promote the Ersatz (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or neologous German alternatives. Verein Deutsche Sprache e.V. - Der Anglizismen-Index It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too. In the modern scientific German vocabulary data base in Leipzig (as of July 2003) Willkommen there are nine million words and word groups in 35 million sentences (out of a corpus of 500 million words). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely Ã¤, Ã¶ and Ã¼, as well as the Eszett or scharfes s (sharp s), Ã. Before the German spelling reform of 1996, Ã replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings. In reformed spelling, Ã replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital Ã, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For example, MaÃband (tape measure) is capitalized MASSBAND. An exception is the use of Ã in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, a "Ã" is to be used instead of "SS". (So: "KREÃLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN".) A capital Ã has been proposed and included in Unicode, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In Switzerland, Ã is not used at all. Umlaut vowels (Ã¤, Ã¶, Ã¼) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner Ã can be transcribed as ss. German readers understand those transcriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are considered a makeshift, not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ËraËsfÉlt], Coesfeld [ËkoËsfÉlt] and Itzehoe [ÉªtsÉËhoË], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-day spelling of words other than proper nouns.) There is no general agreement on where these umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e, whereas dictionaries use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book Ãrzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ã is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ãrzte occurs after Arzt but before Asbest (because Ã is treated as A). In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and SÃ¼tterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however were claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. Adolf Reinecke, Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift: ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre ZweckmÃ¤Ãigkeit und vÃ¶lkische Bedeutung, Leipzig, Hasert, 1910 The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. The Fraktur script remains present in everyday life through road signs, pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and oldness. A proper use of the long s, (langes s), Å¿, is essential to write German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces include the long s, also. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting, recently. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in differentiating between the words WachÅ¿tube (=guard-house) and Wachstube (=tube of floor polish). One can decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, easily ("Wach-Å¿tube" vs. "Wachs-tube"). The long s only appears in lower case. German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in short and long varieties, as detailed in the following table: Short is realised as in stressed syllables (including secondary stress), but as in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short can be spelled either with e or with Ã¤ (hÃ¤tte 'would have' and Kette 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open sound of long Ã; in some varieties of standard German, and have merged into , removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like BÃ¤ren/Beeren 'bears/berries' or Ãhre/Ehre 'spike/honour' become homophonous). In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed is not pronounced as , but vocalised to . Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist: * If a vowel (other than i) is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. Hof [hoËf]). * If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster (e.g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e.g. hoffen [ËhÉfÇn]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preciding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled. Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. hat [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; Mond , 'moon' is long despite the second rule). For an i that is neither in the combination ie (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the e in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word StÃ¤dte 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ch can be short (Fach 'compartment', KÃ¼che 'kitchen') or long (Suche 'search', BÃ¼cher 'books') almost at random. Thus, Lache is homographous: (Lache) 'puddle' and (lache) 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.). German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, Ã¤u, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters: Additionally, the digraph ie generally represents the phoneme , which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, a /r/ at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised /r/ is not considered a diphthong: BÃ¤r 'bear', er 'he', wir 'we', Tor 'gate', kurz 'short', WÃ¶rter 'words'. In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a glottal stop [Ê]. * c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [Ê¦] (before Ã¤, Ã¤u, e, i, Ã¶, Ã¼, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, or before consonants). The combination ck is, as in English, used to indicate that the preceding vowel is short. * ch occurs most often and is pronounced either [Ã§] (after Ã¤, ai, Ã¤u, e, ei, eu, i, Ã¶, Ã¼ and after consonants, in the diminutive suffix -chen and at the beginning of a word) or [x] (after a, au, o, u). Ch never occurs at the beginning of an originally German word. In borrowed words with initial Ch there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. For example, the word "Chemie" (chemistry) can be pronounced [keËËmiË], [Ã§eËËmiË] or [ÊeËËmiË] depending on dialect. * dsch is pronounced Ê¤ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only. * f is pronounced [f] as in "father". * h is pronounced [h] like in "home" at the beginning of a syllable. After a vowel it is silent and only lengthens the vowel (e.g. "Reh" = roe deer). * j is pronounced [j] in Germanic words ("Jahr" [jaËÉ]). In younger loanwords, it follows more or less the respective languages' pronunciations. * l is always pronounced [l], never [É«] (the English "Dark L"). * q only exists in combination with u and appears both in Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "QualitÃ¤t"). It is pronounced [kv]. * r is pronounced as a guttural sound (an uvular trill, [Ê]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" [ÊaËzÉn]; "Burg" like [buÊg]). In spoken German however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ÉÉ] - "Burg" [buÉg]). In some southern non-standard varieties, the r is pronounced as a tongue-tip r (the alveolar trill). * s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset (e.g. Sohn [zoËn]), otherwise [s] (e.g. Bus [bÊs]). In Austria and Switzerland, it is always pronounced [s]. A ss [s] indicates that the preceding vowel is short. st and sp at the beginning of words of German origin are pronounced [Êt] and [Êp], respectively. * Ã (a letter unique to German called "Esszet") was a ligature of a double s and of a sz and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e.g. "ich muss" â "ich muÃ"; "ich mÃ¼sste" â "ich mÃ¼Ãte"); within a word it contrasts with ss [s] in indicating that the preceding vowel is long (compare "in MaÃen" [in 'maËsÉn] "with moderation" and "in Massen" [in 'masÉn] "in loads"). The use of Ã has recently been limited by the latest German spelling reform and is no longer used for ss at the end of a syllable; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934. Mittelschulvorbereitung Deutsch * sch is pronounced [Ê] (like "sh" in "Shine"). * tion in Latin loanwords is pronounced tsion. * v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e.g. "Vater" [ËfaËtÉ]) and [v] in most other words (e.g. "Vase" [ËvaËzÇ]). * w is pronounced [v] like in "vacation" (e.g. "was" [vas]). * y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel. * z is always pronounced [Ê¦] (e.g. "zog" [Ê¦oËk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short. German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sounds, which the English language has inherited from Anglo Saxon, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th century. It is sometimes possible to find parallels between German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" â in German "Dank", "this" and "that" â "dies" and "das", "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) â "du", "think" â "denken", "thirsty" â "durstig" and many other examples. Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f, or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" â "lachen", "through" and "thorough" â "durch", "high" â "hoch", "naught" â "nichts", etc. A sizeable fraction of English vocabulary is cognate to German words, although the common ancestry may be somewhat obscured by various shifts in phonetics (eg. the High German consonant shift), meaning and orthography. For example: * the High German consonant shift pâff led to such cognates as Ger. Schiff with Eng. ship. Ger. Baum (meaning "tree") is cognate to Eng. beam as may be seen in the name of trees such as the hornbeam and the whitebeam. :For a list of German loanwords in English, see In the English language, there are also many words taken from German without any letter change, e.g.: The use and learning of the German language is promoted by a number of organisations. The government-backed Goethe Institute (named after the famous German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) aims to enhance the knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example the Goethe Institute teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is the equivalent of the British BBC World Service and provides radio and television broadcasts in German and a variety of other languages across the globe. Its German language services are tailored for German language learners by being spoken at slow speed. * Deutsch * German loan words * German name * German family name etymology * German placename etymology * German exonyms * German as a Minority Language * German in the United States * German spelling reform of 1996 * Germanism * Denglish, * List of English words of German origin * List of pseudo-German words adapted to English * Missingsch * Umlaut, Ã * Various terms used for Germans * * * Michael Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704 * George O. Curme, A Grammar of the German Language (1904, 1922) â the most complete and authoritative work in English * Anthony Fox, The Structure of German (2005) ISBN 0199273995 * W.B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505 * * The Goethe Institute: German Government sponsored organisation for the promotion of the German language and culture. * German Pronouns: Nominative Case * German Pronouns: Accusative Case * The Leo Dictionaries: A German language portal featuring German-English, German-French, German-Spanish, German-Italian and German-Chinese dictionaries, with forums and a search function * Online German Course: A free online German course for absolute beginners.
German_language	Have adverbs of time to appear in the third place in the sentence , just after the predicate ?	Yes	data/set5/a2	German_language German ( , ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide. German is spoken primarily in Germany (first language for more than 95% of the population), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%) together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (D-A-CH-Li-Lux) constituting the countries where German is the majority language. Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Bolzano-Bozen), in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the French Alsace region which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, SÃ¸nderjylland) of Denmark. Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia). A considerable proportion of the native population speak German dialects in Luxembourg and the surrounding areas. Some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street. Examples of German language in Namibian everyday life. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States, Canada, Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where the dialect AlemÃ¡n Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. In Namibia, German Namibians retain German educational institutions. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser HunsrÃ¼ckisch was developed), Santa Catarina, ParanÃ¡, and EspÃrito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico. Nearly all inhabitants of the city of Pomerode in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil speak German. German in the United States is the fifth most spoken language at home (~ 1.4 million) after English, Spanish, Chinese, and French according to the 2000 U.S. Census. US Census 2000 The United States, therefore, has one of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside Europe. The states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English (the second most spoken language in other states is either Spanish or French). An indication of the German presence can be found in the names of such places as Bismarck (state capital), Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg in North Dakota; New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas; and Kiel, Berlin and Germantown in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, (a West Central German variety), and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. A significant group of German Pietists in Iowa formed the Amana Colonies and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. In Canada, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, Statistics Canada 2006 while people of German ancestry (German Canadians) are found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in British Columbia (118,035) and Ontario (230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language Canada's third most spoken after French and English. In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, MazatlÃ¡n, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo. Dialects in North America: The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa Amana German is spoken. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Hutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak first Hutterite German before learning English in the public school, the standard language of the surrounding areas. Many colonies though continue with German Grammar School, separate from the public school, throughout a student's elementary education. The state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Germans arriving in the 1840s from Prussia (particularly the Silesia region). With the prolonged isolation and contact with Australian English some have suggested a unique dialect formed known as Barossa German spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Usage sharply declined with the advent of World War I with the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the twentieth century but now its use is limited to a few older speakers. There is an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of Papua New Guinea, across Micronesia and in northern Australia (i.e. coastal parts of Queensland and Western Australia), by few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars. According to Global Reach (2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is German. Global Statistics, Global Reach. Internet Languages, NVTC. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, "Distribution of languages on the Internet". making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface. Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics. Palmares, Internet Society. FUNREDES Funredes. (1998) and Vilaweb Vilaweb. (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese. The Germanic-speaking area of the Holy Roman Empire around 962. German-language newspapers in North America in 1922 The history of the language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardization of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (sÃ¤chsische Kanzleisprache) also known as MeiÃner-Deutsch (MeiÃner-German, i.e. of Meissen, founded 929 AD). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterite tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) â which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. In 1901 the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in written form while the Deutsche BÃ¼hnensprache (literally: German stage-language) had already established spelling-rules for German three years earlier which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava(German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German: Pressburg), Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas where only a dialect is spoken, for example Switzerland and Austria. However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age. The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it. The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (BundeslÃ¤nder) would not accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule - everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major yet incomplete revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the new school year of 2006. In 2007, some venerable spellings will be finally invalidated even though they caused little or no trouble. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, like in dass and muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using daÃ and muÃ. The cause of the controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth. (The reformers seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that a considerable part of that culture - namely the entire German literature of the 20th century - is in the old spelling.) The increasing use of English in Germany's higher education system, as well as in business and in popular culture, has led various German academics to state, not necessarily from an entirely negative perspective, that German is a language in decline in its native country. For example, Ursula Kimpel, of the University of TÃ¼bingen, said in 2005 that âGerman universities are offering more courses in English because of the large number of students coming from abroad. German is unfortunately a language in decline. We need and want our professors to be able to teach effectively in English.â Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but also in major cities in other parts of the country. Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss, Austrian Standard German officially in the Austrian education system. D-A-CH-flag, an unofficial flag comprising flags of the three dominant states in the German Sprachraum. Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and Sorbian as minority languages), in Austria (with Slovene, Croatian, and Hungarian), Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of Sopron (Hungary), Krahule (Slovakia) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the Vatican Swiss Guard. German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (South Jutland region), France (Alsace and Moselle regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, Poland (Opole region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt). German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe. Knowledge of German in Europe. German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. German is the main language of about 90â95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). It is therefore the most spoken first language in the EU. It is the second most known foreign language in the EU. After English; It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. Thirty-two percent of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language). This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable or satellite. German was once, and still remains to some extent, a lingua franca in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe. By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked black. Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West-Germanic dialectal varieties. German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German. The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon languages. Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII. Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the Luther Bible by Martin Luther was printed. This translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany. The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated and at home. Today Low Saxon can be divided in two groups: Low Saxon varieties with a reasonable standard German influx and varieties of Standard German with a Low Saxon influence known as Missingsch. High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian, High Franconian, Lorraine Franconian, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon, High Prussian, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is Hochdeutsch, that is, High German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish. Upper German dialects include Northern Austro-Bavarian, Central Austro-Bavarian, Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian, East Franconian, High Alemannic German, Highest Alemannic German, Alsatian and Low Alemannic German. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and SiebenbÃ¼rgisch are High German dialects of Poland and Romania respectively. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script. In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics. The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany. German is an inflected language. German nouns inflect into: * one of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. * one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neutral. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ...ung(-ing), ...schaft(-ship), ...keit or ...heit(-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ...chen or ...lein (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ...ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ...er (-er), e.g. Feier (feminine), Eng. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), Eng. labourer. * two numbers: singular and plural Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in informal speech. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e. In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (Am Freitag bin ich einkaufen gegangen. â "On Friday I went shopping."; Eines Tages war er endlich da. â "One day he finally showed up".) This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish and English), too. Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun compounds where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: HundehÃ¼tte (Eng. dog hut; specifically: doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is RindfleischetikettierungsÃ¼berwachungsaufgabenÃ¼bertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Ãberwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Ãbertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".] Standard German verbs inflect into: * one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.) * three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. * two numbers: singular and plural * three moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive * two voices: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic. * two non-composed tenses (present, preterite) and four composed tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect) * distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus Preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or for the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise. * distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form. * disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]). There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through a relatively small number of prefixes. Some of those prefixes have a meaning themselves (Example: zer- refers to the destruction of things, as in zerreiÃen = to tear apart, zerbrechen = to break apart, zerschneiden = to cut apart), others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves (Example: ver- , as in versuchen = to try, vernehmen = to interrogate, verteilen = to distribute, verstehen = to understand). More examples: haften = to stick, verhaften = to imprison; kaufen = to buy, verkaufen = to sell; hÃ¶ren = to hear, aufhÃ¶ren = to cease; fahren = to drive, erfahren = to get to know, to hear about something. Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In finite verb forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?). Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g. :Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem Ã¼blichen Ãrger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause an . A literal translation of this example might look like this: :He -rived on a Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual disagreements that had been troubling him repeatedly, looking forward to a questionable meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already fixed for him, ar- at home. German requires that a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) appear second in the sentence, preceded by the most important topical phrase. The second most important phrase appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options: : (The old man gives me the book today) : (stress on das Buch) : (stress on heute) : (stress on mir) : (stress on der alte Mann) : : : The position of a noun as a subject or object in a German sentence doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. For example, in the sentence "Man bites dog" it is clear who did what to whom. To exchange the place of the subject with that of the object â "Dog bites man" â changes the meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as in Latin thus indicating whether it is the subject or object of the verb's action. The above example in German would be or with both having exactly the same meaning. If the articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines ( ), the syntax applies as in English â the first noun is the subject and the noun following the predicate is the object. Except for emphasis, adverbs of time have to appear in the third place in the sentence, just after the predicate. Otherwise the speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word order (in Modern English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. ( ) When an auxiliary verb is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.: : (The old man has given me the book yesterday.) : : : The word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common word orders; one is for main clauses and another for subordinate clauses. In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has position 2; in questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded. For example in a subordinate clause introduced by "weil" ("because") the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a main clause. The correct way of saying "because I'm broke" is " ". In the vernacular you may hear instead " " This phenomenon may be caused by mixing the word-order pattern used for the word with the pattern used for an alternative word for "because", , which is used with the main clause order (" "). Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" ( ). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?" The number of infinitives at the end is usually restricted to two, causing the third infinitive or auxiliary verb that would have gone at the very end to be placed instead at the beginning of the chain of verbs. For example in the sentence "Should he move into the house that he just has had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into the house move, that he just renovated had?". ( ). The older form would have been ( ). If there are more than three infinitives, all except the first two are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say the rule is not rigorously applied. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, and Greek, and a smaller amount from French some of which might be reborrowings from Germanic Frankish and most recently English. a phenomenon known in German as Denglisch or in English as Germish or Denglisch At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language in forming equivalents for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem repertory is great. Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Overall, German has fewer Romance-language loanwords than English. The coining of new, autochthonous words gave German a vocabulary of an estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century. In comparison, Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words today. Even today, many low-key scholarly movements try to promote the Ersatz (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or neologous German alternatives. Verein Deutsche Sprache e.V. - Der Anglizismen-Index It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too. In the modern scientific German vocabulary data base in Leipzig (as of July 2003) Willkommen there are nine million words and word groups in 35 million sentences (out of a corpus of 500 million words). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely Ã¤, Ã¶ and Ã¼, as well as the Eszett or scharfes s (sharp s), Ã. Before the German spelling reform of 1996, Ã replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings. In reformed spelling, Ã replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital Ã, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For example, MaÃband (tape measure) is capitalized MASSBAND. An exception is the use of Ã in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, a "Ã" is to be used instead of "SS". (So: "KREÃLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN".) A capital Ã has been proposed and included in Unicode, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In Switzerland, Ã is not used at all. Umlaut vowels (Ã¤, Ã¶, Ã¼) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner Ã can be transcribed as ss. German readers understand those transcriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are considered a makeshift, not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ËraËsfÉlt], Coesfeld [ËkoËsfÉlt] and Itzehoe [ÉªtsÉËhoË], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-day spelling of words other than proper nouns.) There is no general agreement on where these umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e, whereas dictionaries use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book Ãrzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ã is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ãrzte occurs after Arzt but before Asbest (because Ã is treated as A). In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and SÃ¼tterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however were claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. Adolf Reinecke, Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift: ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre ZweckmÃ¤Ãigkeit und vÃ¶lkische Bedeutung, Leipzig, Hasert, 1910 The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. The Fraktur script remains present in everyday life through road signs, pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and oldness. A proper use of the long s, (langes s), Å¿, is essential to write German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces include the long s, also. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting, recently. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in differentiating between the words WachÅ¿tube (=guard-house) and Wachstube (=tube of floor polish). One can decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, easily ("Wach-Å¿tube" vs. "Wachs-tube"). The long s only appears in lower case. German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in short and long varieties, as detailed in the following table: Short is realised as in stressed syllables (including secondary stress), but as in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short can be spelled either with e or with Ã¤ (hÃ¤tte 'would have' and Kette 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open sound of long Ã; in some varieties of standard German, and have merged into , removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like BÃ¤ren/Beeren 'bears/berries' or Ãhre/Ehre 'spike/honour' become homophonous). In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed is not pronounced as , but vocalised to . Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist: * If a vowel (other than i) is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. Hof [hoËf]). * If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster (e.g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e.g. hoffen [ËhÉfÇn]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preciding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled. Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. hat [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; Mond , 'moon' is long despite the second rule). For an i that is neither in the combination ie (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the e in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word StÃ¤dte 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ch can be short (Fach 'compartment', KÃ¼che 'kitchen') or long (Suche 'search', BÃ¼cher 'books') almost at random. Thus, Lache is homographous: (Lache) 'puddle' and (lache) 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.). German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, Ã¤u, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters: Additionally, the digraph ie generally represents the phoneme , which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, a /r/ at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised /r/ is not considered a diphthong: BÃ¤r 'bear', er 'he', wir 'we', Tor 'gate', kurz 'short', WÃ¶rter 'words'. In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a glottal stop [Ê]. * c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [Ê¦] (before Ã¤, Ã¤u, e, i, Ã¶, Ã¼, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, or before consonants). The combination ck is, as in English, used to indicate that the preceding vowel is short. * ch occurs most often and is pronounced either [Ã§] (after Ã¤, ai, Ã¤u, e, ei, eu, i, Ã¶, Ã¼ and after consonants, in the diminutive suffix -chen and at the beginning of a word) or [x] (after a, au, o, u). Ch never occurs at the beginning of an originally German word. In borrowed words with initial Ch there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. For example, the word "Chemie" (chemistry) can be pronounced [keËËmiË], [Ã§eËËmiË] or [ÊeËËmiË] depending on dialect. * dsch is pronounced Ê¤ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only. * f is pronounced [f] as in "father". * h is pronounced [h] like in "home" at the beginning of a syllable. After a vowel it is silent and only lengthens the vowel (e.g. "Reh" = roe deer). * j is pronounced [j] in Germanic words ("Jahr" [jaËÉ]). In younger loanwords, it follows more or less the respective languages' pronunciations. * l is always pronounced [l], never [É«] (the English "Dark L"). * q only exists in combination with u and appears both in Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "QualitÃ¤t"). It is pronounced [kv]. * r is pronounced as a guttural sound (an uvular trill, [Ê]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" [ÊaËzÉn]; "Burg" like [buÊg]). In spoken German however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ÉÉ] - "Burg" [buÉg]). In some southern non-standard varieties, the r is pronounced as a tongue-tip r (the alveolar trill). * s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset (e.g. Sohn [zoËn]), otherwise [s] (e.g. Bus [bÊs]). In Austria and Switzerland, it is always pronounced [s]. A ss [s] indicates that the preceding vowel is short. st and sp at the beginning of words of German origin are pronounced [Êt] and [Êp], respectively. * Ã (a letter unique to German called "Esszet") was a ligature of a double s and of a sz and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e.g. "ich muss" â "ich muÃ"; "ich mÃ¼sste" â "ich mÃ¼Ãte"); within a word it contrasts with ss [s] in indicating that the preceding vowel is long (compare "in MaÃen" [in 'maËsÉn] "with moderation" and "in Massen" [in 'masÉn] "in loads"). The use of Ã has recently been limited by the latest German spelling reform and is no longer used for ss at the end of a syllable; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934. Mittelschulvorbereitung Deutsch * sch is pronounced [Ê] (like "sh" in "Shine"). * tion in Latin loanwords is pronounced tsion. * v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e.g. "Vater" [ËfaËtÉ]) and [v] in most other words (e.g. "Vase" [ËvaËzÇ]). * w is pronounced [v] like in "vacation" (e.g. "was" [vas]). * y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel. * z is always pronounced [Ê¦] (e.g. "zog" [Ê¦oËk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short. German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sounds, which the English language has inherited from Anglo Saxon, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th century. It is sometimes possible to find parallels between German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" â in German "Dank", "this" and "that" â "dies" and "das", "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) â "du", "think" â "denken", "thirsty" â "durstig" and many other examples. Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f, or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" â "lachen", "through" and "thorough" â "durch", "high" â "hoch", "naught" â "nichts", etc. A sizeable fraction of English vocabulary is cognate to German words, although the common ancestry may be somewhat obscured by various shifts in phonetics (eg. the High German consonant shift), meaning and orthography. For example: * the High German consonant shift pâff led to such cognates as Ger. Schiff with Eng. ship. Ger. Baum (meaning "tree") is cognate to Eng. beam as may be seen in the name of trees such as the hornbeam and the whitebeam. :For a list of German loanwords in English, see In the English language, there are also many words taken from German without any letter change, e.g.: The use and learning of the German language is promoted by a number of organisations. The government-backed Goethe Institute (named after the famous German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) aims to enhance the knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example the Goethe Institute teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is the equivalent of the British BBC World Service and provides radio and television broadcasts in German and a variety of other languages across the globe. Its German language services are tailored for German language learners by being spoken at slow speed. * Deutsch * German loan words * German name * German family name etymology * German placename etymology * German exonyms * German as a Minority Language * German in the United States * German spelling reform of 1996 * Germanism * Denglish, * List of English words of German origin * List of pseudo-German words adapted to English * Missingsch * Umlaut, Ã * Various terms used for Germans * * * Michael Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704 * George O. Curme, A Grammar of the German Language (1904, 1922) â the most complete and authoritative work in English * Anthony Fox, The Structure of German (2005) ISBN 0199273995 * W.B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505 * * The Goethe Institute: German Government sponsored organisation for the promotion of the German language and culture. * German Pronouns: Nominative Case * German Pronouns: Accusative Case * The Leo Dictionaries: A German language portal featuring German-English, German-French, German-Spanish, German-Italian and German-Chinese dictionaries, with forums and a search function * Online German Course: A free online German course for absolute beginners.
Giraffe	Do both sexes of giraffe have horns?	Yes	data/set1/a5	Giraffe The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,800 pounds). The record-sized bull, shot in Kenya in 1934, was 5.87 m (19.2 ft) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). San Diego Zoo giraffe fact sheet Retrieved 14 August 2006. Females are generally slightly shorter, and weigh less than the males do. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa. Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. They prefer areas enriched with acacia growth. They drink large quantities of water and, as a result, they can spend long periods of time in dry, arid areas. When searching for more food they will venture into areas with denser foliage. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. Camelopard The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it. The Arabic word Ø§ÙØ²Ø±Ø§ÙØ© ziraafa or zurapha, meaning "assemblage" (of animals), or just "tall", was used in English from the sixteenth century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. Comparison of the African Miocene giraffids: Palaeotragus (two top) and Climacoceras (two bottom) Giraffids evolved from a 3 metre (10 ft) tall antelope-like mammal which roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. Stevens, J. (1993). Familiar Strangers. International Wildlife, 23, 6-10. The earliest giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still resembled deer, having large antler-like ossicones. It first appeared in the early Miocene period. As the lineage went on the genuses Palaeotragus and Samotherium appeared in the early to mid-Miocene. One species of Palaeotragus developed more giraffe-like ossicones. They both were tall at the shoulder but still had short necks. From there the genus Giraffa evolved in the Pliocene period and Okapia evolved in the Pleistocene. The modern long-necked giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, appeared 1 million years ago. There are nine generally accepted subspecies, differentiated by colour and pattern variations and range: * Reticulated or Somali Giraffe (G.c. reticulata) â large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia. * Angolan or Smoky Giraffe (G.c. angolensis) â large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: Angola, Zambia. * Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum) â smaller, more irregular spots that cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan. * Masai or Kilimanjaro Giraffe (G.c. tippelskirchi) â jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania. * Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis) large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo. * Rothschild Giraffe or Baringo Giraffe or Ugandan Giraffe (G.c. rothschildi) â deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya. * South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffa) â rounded or blotched spots, some with star-like extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. * Thornicroft or Rhodesian Giraffe (G.c. thornicrofti) â star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia. * West African or Nigerian Giraffe (G.c. peralta) â numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: Niger, Cameroon. Some scientists regard Kordofan and West African Giraffes as a single subspecies; similarly with Nubian and Rothschild's Giraffes, and with Angolan and South African Giraffes. Further, some scientists regard all populations except the Masai Giraffes as a single subspecies. By contrast, scientists have proposed four other subspecies â Cape Giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado Giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo Giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal Giraffe (G.c. wardi) â but none of these is widely accepted. Though giraffes of these populations interbreed freely under conditions of captivity, suggesting that they are subspecific populations, genetic testing published in 2007 David Brown, Rick A Brenneman, et al., "Extensive Population Genetic Structure in the Giraffe", BioMedCentral Biology. Reported in BBC News, "Not one but 'six giraffe species'", 21 December 2007 and in ScienceDaily, "Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight", 21 December 2007 has been interpreted to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding, even though no natural obstacles, like mountain ranges or impassable rivers block their mutual access. In fact, the study found that the two giraffe populations that live closest to each otherâ the reticulated giraffe (G. camelopardalis reticulata) of north Kenya, and the Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in south Kenyaâ separated genetically between 0.13 and 1.62 million years BP, judging from genetic drift in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. The implications for conservation of as many as eleven such cryptic species and sub-species were summarised by David Brown for BBC "Lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection." Giraffe skeleton as illustrated by Richard Lydekker. Male giraffes are around 4.8-5.5 m (16-19 ft) tall at the horn tips, and normally weigh 1300-1700 kg (2900-3800 lb) Females are 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) shorter and weigh about 200-400 kg (400-800 lb) less than males. Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top â an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe Giraffe in captivity at the Melbourne Zoo Giraffes have long necks which they use to browse tree leaves. They possess seven vertebrae in the neck (the usual number for a mammal) that are elongated. The vertebrae are separated by highly flexible joints. The base of the neck has spines which project upward and form a hump over the shoulders. They have anchor muscles that hold the neck upright. Giraffes also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast, up to 55 km/h. Articlebase The Kenyan Giraffe It can not sustain a lengthy chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down. Giraffes are difficult and dangerous prey. The giraffe defends itself with a powerful kick. A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. Lions are the only predators which pose a serious threat to an adult giraffe. Giraffes bending down to drink Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain. In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in the same way as a pilot's g-suit. thumb Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffes will mingle with the other herbivores in the African bush. Their company is beneficial, since they are tall enough to have a much wider scope of an area and will watch for predators. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Mating Angolan Giraffes at Chudop waterhole, Etosha, Namibia. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week-old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. The young can fall prey to lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity (Encyclopedia of Animals). Two males necking. As noted above, males often engage in necking, which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to estrous females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Robert E. Simmons and Lue Scheepers: Winning by a neck: Sexual selection in the evolution of giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148 (1996): pp. 771-786. After a necking duel, a giraffe can land a powerful blow with his head â occasionally knocking a male opponent to the ground. These fights rarely last more than a few minutes or end in physical harm. Another function of necking is sexual, in which two males caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males are more frequent than heterosexual coupling. Coe, M.J. (1967). "Necking" behavior in the giraffe." Journal of Zoology, London 151: 313-321. In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behaviour with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; pp.391-393. Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. Jentz, D.C. & A.B. Gull 1978. Towards a definition of abnormal activity: stereotypic behaviours in captive primates. Mamm. Ecol. 12: 145â154. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects. Harrison, J.C, Q.F. George & C.C. Cronk 2001. Stereotypic behaviour in zoo animals. J. Zoo Sc. 23: 71â86. Due to the obvious social and cultural discomfort associated with the addition of milk delivery devices, animal enclosures are often enriched with other stimuli, such as food and mental distractions (toys, scent markings etc.). This operates as a distraction, removing the giraffeâs focus from its instinctual tendencies towards suckling, resulting in tongue lolling and licking of objects in close proximity. Giraffes use their long, prehensile tongues to extend their reach. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genus Mimosa; but it appears that it can live without inconvenience on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. As ruminants, they first chew their food, swallow for processing and then visibly regurgitate the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. Male giraffe making a cough-like mating call at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, Rhode Island A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 cm/18 in). The tongue is tough due to the giraffe's diet, which can include tree thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba, and possess a specially-adapted tongue and lips that are tough enough to withstand the vicious thorns of this plant. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - What is sleep Although generally quiet and not vocal, giraffes have been heard to make various sounds. Courting males will emit loud coughs. Females will call their young by whistling or bellowing. Calves will bleat, moo, or make mewing sounds. In addition, giraffes will grunt, snort, hiss, or make strange flute-like sounds. Recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. Infrasound From the Giraffe Lone giraffe at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya Giraffes are hunted for their hides, hair, and meat. In addition, habitat destruction also hurts the giraffe. In the Sahel trees are cut down for firewood and to make way for livestock. Normally, giraffes are able to cope with livestock since they feed in the trees above their heads. The giraffe population is shrinking in West Africa. However, the populations in eastern and southern Africa are stable and, due to the popularity of privately-owned game ranches and sanctuaries (i.e. Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary), are expanding. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. The total African giraffe population has been estimated to range from 110,000 to 150,000. Kenya (45,000), Tanzania (30,000), and Botswana (12,000), have the largest national populations. East, R. 1998, in: African Antelope Database 1998. IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group Report. An unexpected danger to giraffes in captivity is that, as they are typically the tallest objects in a zoo, giraffes are at increased risk of being struck by lightning. In the wild, this hazard is reduced by the presence of trees; as well, the giraffe's natural habitat range has an extremely low occurrence of lightning -- NASA's satellite lightning detection system indicates that the area receives an average of less than one cloud-to-ground flash per square kilometre per year. Lightning strikes giraffes Painting of a giraffe taken to China from Africa during the Ming Dynasty Giraffes can be seen in paintings, including the famous painting of a giraffe which was taken from Africa to China in 1414. The giraffe was placed in a Ming Dynasty zoo. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence, being reputedly the first living giraffe to be seen in Italy since the days of Ancient Rome. Another famous giraffe, called Zarafa, was brought from Africa to Paris in the early 1800s and kept in a menagerie for 18 years. Giraffe is a novel by the author J. M. Ledgard. The work concerns a true incident in which 49 giraffes were slaughtered in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1975 following the suspected outbreak of disease amongst the group. The novel contains extensive information about the species, including the long history of European fascination with the beast and its captivity in zoos. Notable fictional giraffes include: * Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was originally portrayed as a cartoon giraffe but in the 2001 commercials he was portrayed as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television. * Longrack of the Transformers universe * Girafarig from the PokÃ©mon franchise * Melman from ''Madagascar * Video - Giraffe birth at the San Francisco Zoo * Giraffes: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation ARKive - images and movies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Introduction to the history of the Giraffe in Middle Ages (French) * Animal Diversity Web - Giraffa camelopardalis * Giraffe Recruitment * Giraffe Central web directory * IUCN Red List of Threatened Species * PBS Nature: Tall Blondes (Giraffes) * Matt's World of Wicked Giraffes * Mating System * Giraffe Info Sheet * Long-term suppression of fertility in female giraffe using the GnRH agonist deslorelin as a long-acting implant *
Giraffe	Do both sexes of giraffe have horns?	yes	data/set1/a5	Giraffe The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,800 pounds). The record-sized bull, shot in Kenya in 1934, was 5.87 m (19.2 ft) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). San Diego Zoo giraffe fact sheet Retrieved 14 August 2006. Females are generally slightly shorter, and weigh less than the males do. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa. Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. They prefer areas enriched with acacia growth. They drink large quantities of water and, as a result, they can spend long periods of time in dry, arid areas. When searching for more food they will venture into areas with denser foliage. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. Camelopard The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it. The Arabic word Ø§ÙØ²Ø±Ø§ÙØ© ziraafa or zurapha, meaning "assemblage" (of animals), or just "tall", was used in English from the sixteenth century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. Comparison of the African Miocene giraffids: Palaeotragus (two top) and Climacoceras (two bottom) Giraffids evolved from a 3 metre (10 ft) tall antelope-like mammal which roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. Stevens, J. (1993). Familiar Strangers. International Wildlife, 23, 6-10. The earliest giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still resembled deer, having large antler-like ossicones. It first appeared in the early Miocene period. As the lineage went on the genuses Palaeotragus and Samotherium appeared in the early to mid-Miocene. One species of Palaeotragus developed more giraffe-like ossicones. They both were tall at the shoulder but still had short necks. From there the genus Giraffa evolved in the Pliocene period and Okapia evolved in the Pleistocene. The modern long-necked giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, appeared 1 million years ago. There are nine generally accepted subspecies, differentiated by colour and pattern variations and range: * Reticulated or Somali Giraffe (G.c. reticulata) â large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia. * Angolan or Smoky Giraffe (G.c. angolensis) â large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: Angola, Zambia. * Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum) â smaller, more irregular spots that cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan. * Masai or Kilimanjaro Giraffe (G.c. tippelskirchi) â jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania. * Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis) large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo. * Rothschild Giraffe or Baringo Giraffe or Ugandan Giraffe (G.c. rothschildi) â deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya. * South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffa) â rounded or blotched spots, some with star-like extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. * Thornicroft or Rhodesian Giraffe (G.c. thornicrofti) â star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia. * West African or Nigerian Giraffe (G.c. peralta) â numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: Niger, Cameroon. Some scientists regard Kordofan and West African Giraffes as a single subspecies; similarly with Nubian and Rothschild's Giraffes, and with Angolan and South African Giraffes. Further, some scientists regard all populations except the Masai Giraffes as a single subspecies. By contrast, scientists have proposed four other subspecies â Cape Giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado Giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo Giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal Giraffe (G.c. wardi) â but none of these is widely accepted. Though giraffes of these populations interbreed freely under conditions of captivity, suggesting that they are subspecific populations, genetic testing published in 2007 David Brown, Rick A Brenneman, et al., "Extensive Population Genetic Structure in the Giraffe", BioMedCentral Biology. Reported in BBC News, "Not one but 'six giraffe species'", 21 December 2007 and in ScienceDaily, "Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight", 21 December 2007 has been interpreted to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding, even though no natural obstacles, like mountain ranges or impassable rivers block their mutual access. In fact, the study found that the two giraffe populations that live closest to each otherâ the reticulated giraffe (G. camelopardalis reticulata) of north Kenya, and the Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in south Kenyaâ separated genetically between 0.13 and 1.62 million years BP, judging from genetic drift in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. The implications for conservation of as many as eleven such cryptic species and sub-species were summarised by David Brown for BBC "Lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection." Giraffe skeleton as illustrated by Richard Lydekker. Male giraffes are around 4.8-5.5 m (16-19 ft) tall at the horn tips, and normally weigh 1300-1700 kg (2900-3800 lb) Females are 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) shorter and weigh about 200-400 kg (400-800 lb) less than males. Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top â an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe Giraffe in captivity at the Melbourne Zoo Giraffes have long necks which they use to browse tree leaves. They possess seven vertebrae in the neck (the usual number for a mammal) that are elongated. The vertebrae are separated by highly flexible joints. The base of the neck has spines which project upward and form a hump over the shoulders. They have anchor muscles that hold the neck upright. Giraffes also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast, up to 55 km/h. Articlebase The Kenyan Giraffe It can not sustain a lengthy chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down. Giraffes are difficult and dangerous prey. The giraffe defends itself with a powerful kick. A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. Lions are the only predators which pose a serious threat to an adult giraffe. Giraffes bending down to drink Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain. In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in the same way as a pilot's g-suit. thumb Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffes will mingle with the other herbivores in the African bush. Their company is beneficial, since they are tall enough to have a much wider scope of an area and will watch for predators. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Mating Angolan Giraffes at Chudop waterhole, Etosha, Namibia. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week-old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. The young can fall prey to lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity (Encyclopedia of Animals). Two males necking. As noted above, males often engage in necking, which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to estrous females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Robert E. Simmons and Lue Scheepers: Winning by a neck: Sexual selection in the evolution of giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148 (1996): pp. 771-786. After a necking duel, a giraffe can land a powerful blow with his head â occasionally knocking a male opponent to the ground. These fights rarely last more than a few minutes or end in physical harm. Another function of necking is sexual, in which two males caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males are more frequent than heterosexual coupling. Coe, M.J. (1967). "Necking" behavior in the giraffe." Journal of Zoology, London 151: 313-321. In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behaviour with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; pp.391-393. Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. Jentz, D.C. & A.B. Gull 1978. Towards a definition of abnormal activity: stereotypic behaviours in captive primates. Mamm. Ecol. 12: 145â154. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects. Harrison, J.C, Q.F. George & C.C. Cronk 2001. Stereotypic behaviour in zoo animals. J. Zoo Sc. 23: 71â86. Due to the obvious social and cultural discomfort associated with the addition of milk delivery devices, animal enclosures are often enriched with other stimuli, such as food and mental distractions (toys, scent markings etc.). This operates as a distraction, removing the giraffeâs focus from its instinctual tendencies towards suckling, resulting in tongue lolling and licking of objects in close proximity. Giraffes use their long, prehensile tongues to extend their reach. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genus Mimosa; but it appears that it can live without inconvenience on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. As ruminants, they first chew their food, swallow for processing and then visibly regurgitate the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. Male giraffe making a cough-like mating call at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, Rhode Island A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 cm/18 in). The tongue is tough due to the giraffe's diet, which can include tree thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba, and possess a specially-adapted tongue and lips that are tough enough to withstand the vicious thorns of this plant. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - What is sleep Although generally quiet and not vocal, giraffes have been heard to make various sounds. Courting males will emit loud coughs. Females will call their young by whistling or bellowing. Calves will bleat, moo, or make mewing sounds. In addition, giraffes will grunt, snort, hiss, or make strange flute-like sounds. Recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. Infrasound From the Giraffe Lone giraffe at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya Giraffes are hunted for their hides, hair, and meat. In addition, habitat destruction also hurts the giraffe. In the Sahel trees are cut down for firewood and to make way for livestock. Normally, giraffes are able to cope with livestock since they feed in the trees above their heads. The giraffe population is shrinking in West Africa. However, the populations in eastern and southern Africa are stable and, due to the popularity of privately-owned game ranches and sanctuaries (i.e. Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary), are expanding. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. The total African giraffe population has been estimated to range from 110,000 to 150,000. Kenya (45,000), Tanzania (30,000), and Botswana (12,000), have the largest national populations. East, R. 1998, in: African Antelope Database 1998. IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group Report. An unexpected danger to giraffes in captivity is that, as they are typically the tallest objects in a zoo, giraffes are at increased risk of being struck by lightning. In the wild, this hazard is reduced by the presence of trees; as well, the giraffe's natural habitat range has an extremely low occurrence of lightning -- NASA's satellite lightning detection system indicates that the area receives an average of less than one cloud-to-ground flash per square kilometre per year. Lightning strikes giraffes Painting of a giraffe taken to China from Africa during the Ming Dynasty Giraffes can be seen in paintings, including the famous painting of a giraffe which was taken from Africa to China in 1414. The giraffe was placed in a Ming Dynasty zoo. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence, being reputedly the first living giraffe to be seen in Italy since the days of Ancient Rome. Another famous giraffe, called Zarafa, was brought from Africa to Paris in the early 1800s and kept in a menagerie for 18 years. Giraffe is a novel by the author J. M. Ledgard. The work concerns a true incident in which 49 giraffes were slaughtered in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1975 following the suspected outbreak of disease amongst the group. The novel contains extensive information about the species, including the long history of European fascination with the beast and its captivity in zoos. Notable fictional giraffes include: * Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was originally portrayed as a cartoon giraffe but in the 2001 commercials he was portrayed as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television. * Longrack of the Transformers universe * Girafarig from the PokÃ©mon franchise * Melman from ''Madagascar * Video - Giraffe birth at the San Francisco Zoo * Giraffes: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation ARKive - images and movies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Introduction to the history of the Giraffe in Middle Ages (French) * Animal Diversity Web - Giraffa camelopardalis * Giraffe Recruitment * Giraffe Central web directory * IUCN Red List of Threatened Species * PBS Nature: Tall Blondes (Giraffes) * Matt's World of Wicked Giraffes * Mating System * Giraffe Info Sheet * Long-term suppression of fertility in female giraffe using the GnRH agonist deslorelin as a long-acting implant *
Giraffe	Do giraffes give birth standing up?	Yes	data/set1/a5	Giraffe The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,800 pounds). The record-sized bull, shot in Kenya in 1934, was 5.87 m (19.2 ft) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). San Diego Zoo giraffe fact sheet Retrieved 14 August 2006. Females are generally slightly shorter, and weigh less than the males do. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa. Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. They prefer areas enriched with acacia growth. They drink large quantities of water and, as a result, they can spend long periods of time in dry, arid areas. When searching for more food they will venture into areas with denser foliage. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. Camelopard The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it. The Arabic word Ø§ÙØ²Ø±Ø§ÙØ© ziraafa or zurapha, meaning "assemblage" (of animals), or just "tall", was used in English from the sixteenth century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. Comparison of the African Miocene giraffids: Palaeotragus (two top) and Climacoceras (two bottom) Giraffids evolved from a 3 metre (10 ft) tall antelope-like mammal which roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. Stevens, J. (1993). Familiar Strangers. International Wildlife, 23, 6-10. The earliest giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still resembled deer, having large antler-like ossicones. It first appeared in the early Miocene period. As the lineage went on the genuses Palaeotragus and Samotherium appeared in the early to mid-Miocene. One species of Palaeotragus developed more giraffe-like ossicones. They both were tall at the shoulder but still had short necks. From there the genus Giraffa evolved in the Pliocene period and Okapia evolved in the Pleistocene. The modern long-necked giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, appeared 1 million years ago. There are nine generally accepted subspecies, differentiated by colour and pattern variations and range: * Reticulated or Somali Giraffe (G.c. reticulata) â large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia. * Angolan or Smoky Giraffe (G.c. angolensis) â large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: Angola, Zambia. * Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum) â smaller, more irregular spots that cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan. * Masai or Kilimanjaro Giraffe (G.c. tippelskirchi) â jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania. * Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis) large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo. * Rothschild Giraffe or Baringo Giraffe or Ugandan Giraffe (G.c. rothschildi) â deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya. * South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffa) â rounded or blotched spots, some with star-like extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. * Thornicroft or Rhodesian Giraffe (G.c. thornicrofti) â star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia. * West African or Nigerian Giraffe (G.c. peralta) â numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: Niger, Cameroon. Some scientists regard Kordofan and West African Giraffes as a single subspecies; similarly with Nubian and Rothschild's Giraffes, and with Angolan and South African Giraffes. Further, some scientists regard all populations except the Masai Giraffes as a single subspecies. By contrast, scientists have proposed four other subspecies â Cape Giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado Giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo Giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal Giraffe (G.c. wardi) â but none of these is widely accepted. Though giraffes of these populations interbreed freely under conditions of captivity, suggesting that they are subspecific populations, genetic testing published in 2007 David Brown, Rick A Brenneman, et al., "Extensive Population Genetic Structure in the Giraffe", BioMedCentral Biology. Reported in BBC News, "Not one but 'six giraffe species'", 21 December 2007 and in ScienceDaily, "Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight", 21 December 2007 has been interpreted to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding, even though no natural obstacles, like mountain ranges or impassable rivers block their mutual access. In fact, the study found that the two giraffe populations that live closest to each otherâ the reticulated giraffe (G. camelopardalis reticulata) of north Kenya, and the Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in south Kenyaâ separated genetically between 0.13 and 1.62 million years BP, judging from genetic drift in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. The implications for conservation of as many as eleven such cryptic species and sub-species were summarised by David Brown for BBC "Lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection." Giraffe skeleton as illustrated by Richard Lydekker. Male giraffes are around 4.8-5.5 m (16-19 ft) tall at the horn tips, and normally weigh 1300-1700 kg (2900-3800 lb) Females are 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) shorter and weigh about 200-400 kg (400-800 lb) less than males. Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top â an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe Giraffe in captivity at the Melbourne Zoo Giraffes have long necks which they use to browse tree leaves. They possess seven vertebrae in the neck (the usual number for a mammal) that are elongated. The vertebrae are separated by highly flexible joints. The base of the neck has spines which project upward and form a hump over the shoulders. They have anchor muscles that hold the neck upright. Giraffes also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast, up to 55 km/h. Articlebase The Kenyan Giraffe It can not sustain a lengthy chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down. Giraffes are difficult and dangerous prey. The giraffe defends itself with a powerful kick. A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. Lions are the only predators which pose a serious threat to an adult giraffe. Giraffes bending down to drink Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain. In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in the same way as a pilot's g-suit. thumb Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffes will mingle with the other herbivores in the African bush. Their company is beneficial, since they are tall enough to have a much wider scope of an area and will watch for predators. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Mating Angolan Giraffes at Chudop waterhole, Etosha, Namibia. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week-old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. The young can fall prey to lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity (Encyclopedia of Animals). Two males necking. As noted above, males often engage in necking, which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to estrous females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Robert E. Simmons and Lue Scheepers: Winning by a neck: Sexual selection in the evolution of giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148 (1996): pp. 771-786. After a necking duel, a giraffe can land a powerful blow with his head â occasionally knocking a male opponent to the ground. These fights rarely last more than a few minutes or end in physical harm. Another function of necking is sexual, in which two males caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males are more frequent than heterosexual coupling. Coe, M.J. (1967). "Necking" behavior in the giraffe." Journal of Zoology, London 151: 313-321. In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behaviour with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; pp.391-393. Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. Jentz, D.C. & A.B. Gull 1978. Towards a definition of abnormal activity: stereotypic behaviours in captive primates. Mamm. Ecol. 12: 145â154. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects. Harrison, J.C, Q.F. George & C.C. Cronk 2001. Stereotypic behaviour in zoo animals. J. Zoo Sc. 23: 71â86. Due to the obvious social and cultural discomfort associated with the addition of milk delivery devices, animal enclosures are often enriched with other stimuli, such as food and mental distractions (toys, scent markings etc.). This operates as a distraction, removing the giraffeâs focus from its instinctual tendencies towards suckling, resulting in tongue lolling and licking of objects in close proximity. Giraffes use their long, prehensile tongues to extend their reach. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genus Mimosa; but it appears that it can live without inconvenience on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. As ruminants, they first chew their food, swallow for processing and then visibly regurgitate the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. Male giraffe making a cough-like mating call at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, Rhode Island A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 cm/18 in). The tongue is tough due to the giraffe's diet, which can include tree thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba, and possess a specially-adapted tongue and lips that are tough enough to withstand the vicious thorns of this plant. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - What is sleep Although generally quiet and not vocal, giraffes have been heard to make various sounds. Courting males will emit loud coughs. Females will call their young by whistling or bellowing. Calves will bleat, moo, or make mewing sounds. In addition, giraffes will grunt, snort, hiss, or make strange flute-like sounds. Recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. Infrasound From the Giraffe Lone giraffe at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya Giraffes are hunted for their hides, hair, and meat. In addition, habitat destruction also hurts the giraffe. In the Sahel trees are cut down for firewood and to make way for livestock. Normally, giraffes are able to cope with livestock since they feed in the trees above their heads. The giraffe population is shrinking in West Africa. However, the populations in eastern and southern Africa are stable and, due to the popularity of privately-owned game ranches and sanctuaries (i.e. Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary), are expanding. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. The total African giraffe population has been estimated to range from 110,000 to 150,000. Kenya (45,000), Tanzania (30,000), and Botswana (12,000), have the largest national populations. East, R. 1998, in: African Antelope Database 1998. IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group Report. An unexpected danger to giraffes in captivity is that, as they are typically the tallest objects in a zoo, giraffes are at increased risk of being struck by lightning. In the wild, this hazard is reduced by the presence of trees; as well, the giraffe's natural habitat range has an extremely low occurrence of lightning -- NASA's satellite lightning detection system indicates that the area receives an average of less than one cloud-to-ground flash per square kilometre per year. Lightning strikes giraffes Painting of a giraffe taken to China from Africa during the Ming Dynasty Giraffes can be seen in paintings, including the famous painting of a giraffe which was taken from Africa to China in 1414. The giraffe was placed in a Ming Dynasty zoo. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence, being reputedly the first living giraffe to be seen in Italy since the days of Ancient Rome. Another famous giraffe, called Zarafa, was brought from Africa to Paris in the early 1800s and kept in a menagerie for 18 years. Giraffe is a novel by the author J. M. Ledgard. The work concerns a true incident in which 49 giraffes were slaughtered in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1975 following the suspected outbreak of disease amongst the group. The novel contains extensive information about the species, including the long history of European fascination with the beast and its captivity in zoos. Notable fictional giraffes include: * Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was originally portrayed as a cartoon giraffe but in the 2001 commercials he was portrayed as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television. * Longrack of the Transformers universe * Girafarig from the PokÃ©mon franchise * Melman from ''Madagascar * Video - Giraffe birth at the San Francisco Zoo * Giraffes: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation ARKive - images and movies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Introduction to the history of the Giraffe in Middle Ages (French) * Animal Diversity Web - Giraffa camelopardalis * Giraffe Recruitment * Giraffe Central web directory * IUCN Red List of Threatened Species * PBS Nature: Tall Blondes (Giraffes) * Matt's World of Wicked Giraffes * Mating System * Giraffe Info Sheet * Long-term suppression of fertility in female giraffe using the GnRH agonist deslorelin as a long-acting implant *
Giraffe	Do giraffes give birth standing up?	yes	data/set1/a5	Giraffe The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,800 pounds). The record-sized bull, shot in Kenya in 1934, was 5.87 m (19.2 ft) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). San Diego Zoo giraffe fact sheet Retrieved 14 August 2006. Females are generally slightly shorter, and weigh less than the males do. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa. Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. They prefer areas enriched with acacia growth. They drink large quantities of water and, as a result, they can spend long periods of time in dry, arid areas. When searching for more food they will venture into areas with denser foliage. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. Camelopard The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it. The Arabic word Ø§ÙØ²Ø±Ø§ÙØ© ziraafa or zurapha, meaning "assemblage" (of animals), or just "tall", was used in English from the sixteenth century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. Comparison of the African Miocene giraffids: Palaeotragus (two top) and Climacoceras (two bottom) Giraffids evolved from a 3 metre (10 ft) tall antelope-like mammal which roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. Stevens, J. (1993). Familiar Strangers. International Wildlife, 23, 6-10. The earliest giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still resembled deer, having large antler-like ossicones. It first appeared in the early Miocene period. As the lineage went on the genuses Palaeotragus and Samotherium appeared in the early to mid-Miocene. One species of Palaeotragus developed more giraffe-like ossicones. They both were tall at the shoulder but still had short necks. From there the genus Giraffa evolved in the Pliocene period and Okapia evolved in the Pleistocene. The modern long-necked giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, appeared 1 million years ago. There are nine generally accepted subspecies, differentiated by colour and pattern variations and range: * Reticulated or Somali Giraffe (G.c. reticulata) â large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia. * Angolan or Smoky Giraffe (G.c. angolensis) â large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: Angola, Zambia. * Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum) â smaller, more irregular spots that cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan. * Masai or Kilimanjaro Giraffe (G.c. tippelskirchi) â jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania. * Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis) large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo. * Rothschild Giraffe or Baringo Giraffe or Ugandan Giraffe (G.c. rothschildi) â deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya. * South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffa) â rounded or blotched spots, some with star-like extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. * Thornicroft or Rhodesian Giraffe (G.c. thornicrofti) â star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia. * West African or Nigerian Giraffe (G.c. peralta) â numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: Niger, Cameroon. Some scientists regard Kordofan and West African Giraffes as a single subspecies; similarly with Nubian and Rothschild's Giraffes, and with Angolan and South African Giraffes. Further, some scientists regard all populations except the Masai Giraffes as a single subspecies. By contrast, scientists have proposed four other subspecies â Cape Giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado Giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo Giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal Giraffe (G.c. wardi) â but none of these is widely accepted. Though giraffes of these populations interbreed freely under conditions of captivity, suggesting that they are subspecific populations, genetic testing published in 2007 David Brown, Rick A Brenneman, et al., "Extensive Population Genetic Structure in the Giraffe", BioMedCentral Biology. Reported in BBC News, "Not one but 'six giraffe species'", 21 December 2007 and in ScienceDaily, "Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight", 21 December 2007 has been interpreted to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding, even though no natural obstacles, like mountain ranges or impassable rivers block their mutual access. In fact, the study found that the two giraffe populations that live closest to each otherâ the reticulated giraffe (G. camelopardalis reticulata) of north Kenya, and the Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in south Kenyaâ separated genetically between 0.13 and 1.62 million years BP, judging from genetic drift in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. The implications for conservation of as many as eleven such cryptic species and sub-species were summarised by David Brown for BBC "Lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection." Giraffe skeleton as illustrated by Richard Lydekker. Male giraffes are around 4.8-5.5 m (16-19 ft) tall at the horn tips, and normally weigh 1300-1700 kg (2900-3800 lb) Females are 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) shorter and weigh about 200-400 kg (400-800 lb) less than males. Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top â an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe Giraffe in captivity at the Melbourne Zoo Giraffes have long necks which they use to browse tree leaves. They possess seven vertebrae in the neck (the usual number for a mammal) that are elongated. The vertebrae are separated by highly flexible joints. The base of the neck has spines which project upward and form a hump over the shoulders. They have anchor muscles that hold the neck upright. Giraffes also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast, up to 55 km/h. Articlebase The Kenyan Giraffe It can not sustain a lengthy chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down. Giraffes are difficult and dangerous prey. The giraffe defends itself with a powerful kick. A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. Lions are the only predators which pose a serious threat to an adult giraffe. Giraffes bending down to drink Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain. In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in the same way as a pilot's g-suit. thumb Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffes will mingle with the other herbivores in the African bush. Their company is beneficial, since they are tall enough to have a much wider scope of an area and will watch for predators. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Mating Angolan Giraffes at Chudop waterhole, Etosha, Namibia. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week-old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. The young can fall prey to lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity (Encyclopedia of Animals). Two males necking. As noted above, males often engage in necking, which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to estrous females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Robert E. Simmons and Lue Scheepers: Winning by a neck: Sexual selection in the evolution of giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148 (1996): pp. 771-786. After a necking duel, a giraffe can land a powerful blow with his head â occasionally knocking a male opponent to the ground. These fights rarely last more than a few minutes or end in physical harm. Another function of necking is sexual, in which two males caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males are more frequent than heterosexual coupling. Coe, M.J. (1967). "Necking" behavior in the giraffe." Journal of Zoology, London 151: 313-321. In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behaviour with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; pp.391-393. Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. Jentz, D.C. & A.B. Gull 1978. Towards a definition of abnormal activity: stereotypic behaviours in captive primates. Mamm. Ecol. 12: 145â154. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects. Harrison, J.C, Q.F. George & C.C. Cronk 2001. Stereotypic behaviour in zoo animals. J. Zoo Sc. 23: 71â86. Due to the obvious social and cultural discomfort associated with the addition of milk delivery devices, animal enclosures are often enriched with other stimuli, such as food and mental distractions (toys, scent markings etc.). This operates as a distraction, removing the giraffeâs focus from its instinctual tendencies towards suckling, resulting in tongue lolling and licking of objects in close proximity. Giraffes use their long, prehensile tongues to extend their reach. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genus Mimosa; but it appears that it can live without inconvenience on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. As ruminants, they first chew their food, swallow for processing and then visibly regurgitate the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. Male giraffe making a cough-like mating call at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, Rhode Island A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 cm/18 in). The tongue is tough due to the giraffe's diet, which can include tree thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba, and possess a specially-adapted tongue and lips that are tough enough to withstand the vicious thorns of this plant. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - What is sleep Although generally quiet and not vocal, giraffes have been heard to make various sounds. Courting males will emit loud coughs. Females will call their young by whistling or bellowing. Calves will bleat, moo, or make mewing sounds. In addition, giraffes will grunt, snort, hiss, or make strange flute-like sounds. Recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. Infrasound From the Giraffe Lone giraffe at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya Giraffes are hunted for their hides, hair, and meat. In addition, habitat destruction also hurts the giraffe. In the Sahel trees are cut down for firewood and to make way for livestock. Normally, giraffes are able to cope with livestock since they feed in the trees above their heads. The giraffe population is shrinking in West Africa. However, the populations in eastern and southern Africa are stable and, due to the popularity of privately-owned game ranches and sanctuaries (i.e. Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary), are expanding. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. The total African giraffe population has been estimated to range from 110,000 to 150,000. Kenya (45,000), Tanzania (30,000), and Botswana (12,000), have the largest national populations. East, R. 1998, in: African Antelope Database 1998. IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group Report. An unexpected danger to giraffes in captivity is that, as they are typically the tallest objects in a zoo, giraffes are at increased risk of being struck by lightning. In the wild, this hazard is reduced by the presence of trees; as well, the giraffe's natural habitat range has an extremely low occurrence of lightning -- NASA's satellite lightning detection system indicates that the area receives an average of less than one cloud-to-ground flash per square kilometre per year. Lightning strikes giraffes Painting of a giraffe taken to China from Africa during the Ming Dynasty Giraffes can be seen in paintings, including the famous painting of a giraffe which was taken from Africa to China in 1414. The giraffe was placed in a Ming Dynasty zoo. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence, being reputedly the first living giraffe to be seen in Italy since the days of Ancient Rome. Another famous giraffe, called Zarafa, was brought from Africa to Paris in the early 1800s and kept in a menagerie for 18 years. Giraffe is a novel by the author J. M. Ledgard. The work concerns a true incident in which 49 giraffes were slaughtered in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1975 following the suspected outbreak of disease amongst the group. The novel contains extensive information about the species, including the long history of European fascination with the beast and its captivity in zoos. Notable fictional giraffes include: * Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was originally portrayed as a cartoon giraffe but in the 2001 commercials he was portrayed as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television. * Longrack of the Transformers universe * Girafarig from the PokÃ©mon franchise * Melman from ''Madagascar * Video - Giraffe birth at the San Francisco Zoo * Giraffes: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation ARKive - images and movies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Introduction to the history of the Giraffe in Middle Ages (French) * Animal Diversity Web - Giraffa camelopardalis * Giraffe Recruitment * Giraffe Central web directory * IUCN Red List of Threatened Species * PBS Nature: Tall Blondes (Giraffes) * Matt's World of Wicked Giraffes * Mating System * Giraffe Info Sheet * Long-term suppression of fertility in female giraffe using the GnRH agonist deslorelin as a long-acting implant *
Giraffe	Are giraffes hunted for their hides?	Yes	data/set1/a5	Giraffe The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,800 pounds). The record-sized bull, shot in Kenya in 1934, was 5.87 m (19.2 ft) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). San Diego Zoo giraffe fact sheet Retrieved 14 August 2006. Females are generally slightly shorter, and weigh less than the males do. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa. Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. They prefer areas enriched with acacia growth. They drink large quantities of water and, as a result, they can spend long periods of time in dry, arid areas. When searching for more food they will venture into areas with denser foliage. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. Camelopard The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it. The Arabic word Ø§ÙØ²Ø±Ø§ÙØ© ziraafa or zurapha, meaning "assemblage" (of animals), or just "tall", was used in English from the sixteenth century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. Comparison of the African Miocene giraffids: Palaeotragus (two top) and Climacoceras (two bottom) Giraffids evolved from a 3 metre (10 ft) tall antelope-like mammal which roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. Stevens, J. (1993). Familiar Strangers. International Wildlife, 23, 6-10. The earliest giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still resembled deer, having large antler-like ossicones. It first appeared in the early Miocene period. As the lineage went on the genuses Palaeotragus and Samotherium appeared in the early to mid-Miocene. One species of Palaeotragus developed more giraffe-like ossicones. They both were tall at the shoulder but still had short necks. From there the genus Giraffa evolved in the Pliocene period and Okapia evolved in the Pleistocene. The modern long-necked giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, appeared 1 million years ago. There are nine generally accepted subspecies, differentiated by colour and pattern variations and range: * Reticulated or Somali Giraffe (G.c. reticulata) â large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia. * Angolan or Smoky Giraffe (G.c. angolensis) â large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: Angola, Zambia. * Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum) â smaller, more irregular spots that cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan. * Masai or Kilimanjaro Giraffe (G.c. tippelskirchi) â jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania. * Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis) large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo. * Rothschild Giraffe or Baringo Giraffe or Ugandan Giraffe (G.c. rothschildi) â deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya. * South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffa) â rounded or blotched spots, some with star-like extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. * Thornicroft or Rhodesian Giraffe (G.c. thornicrofti) â star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia. * West African or Nigerian Giraffe (G.c. peralta) â numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: Niger, Cameroon. Some scientists regard Kordofan and West African Giraffes as a single subspecies; similarly with Nubian and Rothschild's Giraffes, and with Angolan and South African Giraffes. Further, some scientists regard all populations except the Masai Giraffes as a single subspecies. By contrast, scientists have proposed four other subspecies â Cape Giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado Giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo Giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal Giraffe (G.c. wardi) â but none of these is widely accepted. Though giraffes of these populations interbreed freely under conditions of captivity, suggesting that they are subspecific populations, genetic testing published in 2007 David Brown, Rick A Brenneman, et al., "Extensive Population Genetic Structure in the Giraffe", BioMedCentral Biology. Reported in BBC News, "Not one but 'six giraffe species'", 21 December 2007 and in ScienceDaily, "Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight", 21 December 2007 has been interpreted to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding, even though no natural obstacles, like mountain ranges or impassable rivers block their mutual access. In fact, the study found that the two giraffe populations that live closest to each otherâ the reticulated giraffe (G. camelopardalis reticulata) of north Kenya, and the Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in south Kenyaâ separated genetically between 0.13 and 1.62 million years BP, judging from genetic drift in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. The implications for conservation of as many as eleven such cryptic species and sub-species were summarised by David Brown for BBC "Lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection." Giraffe skeleton as illustrated by Richard Lydekker. Male giraffes are around 4.8-5.5 m (16-19 ft) tall at the horn tips, and normally weigh 1300-1700 kg (2900-3800 lb) Females are 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) shorter and weigh about 200-400 kg (400-800 lb) less than males. Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top â an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe Giraffe in captivity at the Melbourne Zoo Giraffes have long necks which they use to browse tree leaves. They possess seven vertebrae in the neck (the usual number for a mammal) that are elongated. The vertebrae are separated by highly flexible joints. The base of the neck has spines which project upward and form a hump over the shoulders. They have anchor muscles that hold the neck upright. Giraffes also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast, up to 55 km/h. Articlebase The Kenyan Giraffe It can not sustain a lengthy chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down. Giraffes are difficult and dangerous prey. The giraffe defends itself with a powerful kick. A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. Lions are the only predators which pose a serious threat to an adult giraffe. Giraffes bending down to drink Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain. In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in the same way as a pilot's g-suit. thumb Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffes will mingle with the other herbivores in the African bush. Their company is beneficial, since they are tall enough to have a much wider scope of an area and will watch for predators. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Mating Angolan Giraffes at Chudop waterhole, Etosha, Namibia. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week-old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. The young can fall prey to lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity (Encyclopedia of Animals). Two males necking. As noted above, males often engage in necking, which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to estrous females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Robert E. Simmons and Lue Scheepers: Winning by a neck: Sexual selection in the evolution of giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148 (1996): pp. 771-786. After a necking duel, a giraffe can land a powerful blow with his head â occasionally knocking a male opponent to the ground. These fights rarely last more than a few minutes or end in physical harm. Another function of necking is sexual, in which two males caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males are more frequent than heterosexual coupling. Coe, M.J. (1967). "Necking" behavior in the giraffe." Journal of Zoology, London 151: 313-321. In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behaviour with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; pp.391-393. Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. Jentz, D.C. & A.B. Gull 1978. Towards a definition of abnormal activity: stereotypic behaviours in captive primates. Mamm. Ecol. 12: 145â154. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects. Harrison, J.C, Q.F. George & C.C. Cronk 2001. Stereotypic behaviour in zoo animals. J. Zoo Sc. 23: 71â86. Due to the obvious social and cultural discomfort associated with the addition of milk delivery devices, animal enclosures are often enriched with other stimuli, such as food and mental distractions (toys, scent markings etc.). This operates as a distraction, removing the giraffeâs focus from its instinctual tendencies towards suckling, resulting in tongue lolling and licking of objects in close proximity. Giraffes use their long, prehensile tongues to extend their reach. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genus Mimosa; but it appears that it can live without inconvenience on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. As ruminants, they first chew their food, swallow for processing and then visibly regurgitate the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. Male giraffe making a cough-like mating call at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, Rhode Island A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 cm/18 in). The tongue is tough due to the giraffe's diet, which can include tree thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba, and possess a specially-adapted tongue and lips that are tough enough to withstand the vicious thorns of this plant. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - What is sleep Although generally quiet and not vocal, giraffes have been heard to make various sounds. Courting males will emit loud coughs. Females will call their young by whistling or bellowing. Calves will bleat, moo, or make mewing sounds. In addition, giraffes will grunt, snort, hiss, or make strange flute-like sounds. Recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. Infrasound From the Giraffe Lone giraffe at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya Giraffes are hunted for their hides, hair, and meat. In addition, habitat destruction also hurts the giraffe. In the Sahel trees are cut down for firewood and to make way for livestock. Normally, giraffes are able to cope with livestock since they feed in the trees above their heads. The giraffe population is shrinking in West Africa. However, the populations in eastern and southern Africa are stable and, due to the popularity of privately-owned game ranches and sanctuaries (i.e. Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary), are expanding. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. The total African giraffe population has been estimated to range from 110,000 to 150,000. Kenya (45,000), Tanzania (30,000), and Botswana (12,000), have the largest national populations. East, R. 1998, in: African Antelope Database 1998. IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group Report. An unexpected danger to giraffes in captivity is that, as they are typically the tallest objects in a zoo, giraffes are at increased risk of being struck by lightning. In the wild, this hazard is reduced by the presence of trees; as well, the giraffe's natural habitat range has an extremely low occurrence of lightning -- NASA's satellite lightning detection system indicates that the area receives an average of less than one cloud-to-ground flash per square kilometre per year. Lightning strikes giraffes Painting of a giraffe taken to China from Africa during the Ming Dynasty Giraffes can be seen in paintings, including the famous painting of a giraffe which was taken from Africa to China in 1414. The giraffe was placed in a Ming Dynasty zoo. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence, being reputedly the first living giraffe to be seen in Italy since the days of Ancient Rome. Another famous giraffe, called Zarafa, was brought from Africa to Paris in the early 1800s and kept in a menagerie for 18 years. Giraffe is a novel by the author J. M. Ledgard. The work concerns a true incident in which 49 giraffes were slaughtered in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1975 following the suspected outbreak of disease amongst the group. The novel contains extensive information about the species, including the long history of European fascination with the beast and its captivity in zoos. Notable fictional giraffes include: * Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was originally portrayed as a cartoon giraffe but in the 2001 commercials he was portrayed as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television. * Longrack of the Transformers universe * Girafarig from the PokÃ©mon franchise * Melman from ''Madagascar * Video - Giraffe birth at the San Francisco Zoo * Giraffes: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation ARKive - images and movies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Introduction to the history of the Giraffe in Middle Ages (French) * Animal Diversity Web - Giraffa camelopardalis * Giraffe Recruitment * Giraffe Central web directory * IUCN Red List of Threatened Species * PBS Nature: Tall Blondes (Giraffes) * Matt's World of Wicked Giraffes * Mating System * Giraffe Info Sheet * Long-term suppression of fertility in female giraffe using the GnRH agonist deslorelin as a long-acting implant *
Giraffe	Are giraffes hunted for their hides?	Yes	data/set1/a5	Giraffe The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,800 pounds). The record-sized bull, shot in Kenya in 1934, was 5.87 m (19.2 ft) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). San Diego Zoo giraffe fact sheet Retrieved 14 August 2006. Females are generally slightly shorter, and weigh less than the males do. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa. Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. They prefer areas enriched with acacia growth. They drink large quantities of water and, as a result, they can spend long periods of time in dry, arid areas. When searching for more food they will venture into areas with denser foliage. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. Camelopard The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it. The Arabic word Ø§ÙØ²Ø±Ø§ÙØ© ziraafa or zurapha, meaning "assemblage" (of animals), or just "tall", was used in English from the sixteenth century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. Comparison of the African Miocene giraffids: Palaeotragus (two top) and Climacoceras (two bottom) Giraffids evolved from a 3 metre (10 ft) tall antelope-like mammal which roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. Stevens, J. (1993). Familiar Strangers. International Wildlife, 23, 6-10. The earliest giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still resembled deer, having large antler-like ossicones. It first appeared in the early Miocene period. As the lineage went on the genuses Palaeotragus and Samotherium appeared in the early to mid-Miocene. One species of Palaeotragus developed more giraffe-like ossicones. They both were tall at the shoulder but still had short necks. From there the genus Giraffa evolved in the Pliocene period and Okapia evolved in the Pleistocene. The modern long-necked giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, appeared 1 million years ago. There are nine generally accepted subspecies, differentiated by colour and pattern variations and range: * Reticulated or Somali Giraffe (G.c. reticulata) â large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia. * Angolan or Smoky Giraffe (G.c. angolensis) â large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: Angola, Zambia. * Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum) â smaller, more irregular spots that cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan. * Masai or Kilimanjaro Giraffe (G.c. tippelskirchi) â jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania. * Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis) large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo. * Rothschild Giraffe or Baringo Giraffe or Ugandan Giraffe (G.c. rothschildi) â deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya. * South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffa) â rounded or blotched spots, some with star-like extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. * Thornicroft or Rhodesian Giraffe (G.c. thornicrofti) â star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia. * West African or Nigerian Giraffe (G.c. peralta) â numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: Niger, Cameroon. Some scientists regard Kordofan and West African Giraffes as a single subspecies; similarly with Nubian and Rothschild's Giraffes, and with Angolan and South African Giraffes. Further, some scientists regard all populations except the Masai Giraffes as a single subspecies. By contrast, scientists have proposed four other subspecies â Cape Giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado Giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo Giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal Giraffe (G.c. wardi) â but none of these is widely accepted. Though giraffes of these populations interbreed freely under conditions of captivity, suggesting that they are subspecific populations, genetic testing published in 2007 David Brown, Rick A Brenneman, et al., "Extensive Population Genetic Structure in the Giraffe", BioMedCentral Biology. Reported in BBC News, "Not one but 'six giraffe species'", 21 December 2007 and in ScienceDaily, "Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight", 21 December 2007 has been interpreted to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding, even though no natural obstacles, like mountain ranges or impassable rivers block their mutual access. In fact, the study found that the two giraffe populations that live closest to each otherâ the reticulated giraffe (G. camelopardalis reticulata) of north Kenya, and the Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in south Kenyaâ separated genetically between 0.13 and 1.62 million years BP, judging from genetic drift in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. The implications for conservation of as many as eleven such cryptic species and sub-species were summarised by David Brown for BBC "Lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection." Giraffe skeleton as illustrated by Richard Lydekker. Male giraffes are around 4.8-5.5 m (16-19 ft) tall at the horn tips, and normally weigh 1300-1700 kg (2900-3800 lb) Females are 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) shorter and weigh about 200-400 kg (400-800 lb) less than males. Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top â an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe Giraffe in captivity at the Melbourne Zoo Giraffes have long necks which they use to browse tree leaves. They possess seven vertebrae in the neck (the usual number for a mammal) that are elongated. The vertebrae are separated by highly flexible joints. The base of the neck has spines which project upward and form a hump over the shoulders. They have anchor muscles that hold the neck upright. Giraffes also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast, up to 55 km/h. Articlebase The Kenyan Giraffe It can not sustain a lengthy chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down. Giraffes are difficult and dangerous prey. The giraffe defends itself with a powerful kick. A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. Lions are the only predators which pose a serious threat to an adult giraffe. Giraffes bending down to drink Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain. In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in the same way as a pilot's g-suit. thumb Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffes will mingle with the other herbivores in the African bush. Their company is beneficial, since they are tall enough to have a much wider scope of an area and will watch for predators. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Mating Angolan Giraffes at Chudop waterhole, Etosha, Namibia. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week-old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. The young can fall prey to lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity (Encyclopedia of Animals). Two males necking. As noted above, males often engage in necking, which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to estrous females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Robert E. Simmons and Lue Scheepers: Winning by a neck: Sexual selection in the evolution of giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148 (1996): pp. 771-786. After a necking duel, a giraffe can land a powerful blow with his head â occasionally knocking a male opponent to the ground. These fights rarely last more than a few minutes or end in physical harm. Another function of necking is sexual, in which two males caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males are more frequent than heterosexual coupling. Coe, M.J. (1967). "Necking" behavior in the giraffe." Journal of Zoology, London 151: 313-321. In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behaviour with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; pp.391-393. Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. Jentz, D.C. & A.B. Gull 1978. Towards a definition of abnormal activity: stereotypic behaviours in captive primates. Mamm. Ecol. 12: 145â154. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects. Harrison, J.C, Q.F. George & C.C. Cronk 2001. Stereotypic behaviour in zoo animals. J. Zoo Sc. 23: 71â86. Due to the obvious social and cultural discomfort associated with the addition of milk delivery devices, animal enclosures are often enriched with other stimuli, such as food and mental distractions (toys, scent markings etc.). This operates as a distraction, removing the giraffeâs focus from its instinctual tendencies towards suckling, resulting in tongue lolling and licking of objects in close proximity. Giraffes use their long, prehensile tongues to extend their reach. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genus Mimosa; but it appears that it can live without inconvenience on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. As ruminants, they first chew their food, swallow for processing and then visibly regurgitate the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. Male giraffe making a cough-like mating call at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, Rhode Island A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 cm/18 in). The tongue is tough due to the giraffe's diet, which can include tree thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba, and possess a specially-adapted tongue and lips that are tough enough to withstand the vicious thorns of this plant. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - What is sleep Although generally quiet and not vocal, giraffes have been heard to make various sounds. Courting males will emit loud coughs. Females will call their young by whistling or bellowing. Calves will bleat, moo, or make mewing sounds. In addition, giraffes will grunt, snort, hiss, or make strange flute-like sounds. Recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. Infrasound From the Giraffe Lone giraffe at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya Giraffes are hunted for their hides, hair, and meat. In addition, habitat destruction also hurts the giraffe. In the Sahel trees are cut down for firewood and to make way for livestock. Normally, giraffes are able to cope with livestock since they feed in the trees above their heads. The giraffe population is shrinking in West Africa. However, the populations in eastern and southern Africa are stable and, due to the popularity of privately-owned game ranches and sanctuaries (i.e. Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary), are expanding. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. The total African giraffe population has been estimated to range from 110,000 to 150,000. Kenya (45,000), Tanzania (30,000), and Botswana (12,000), have the largest national populations. East, R. 1998, in: African Antelope Database 1998. IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group Report. An unexpected danger to giraffes in captivity is that, as they are typically the tallest objects in a zoo, giraffes are at increased risk of being struck by lightning. In the wild, this hazard is reduced by the presence of trees; as well, the giraffe's natural habitat range has an extremely low occurrence of lightning -- NASA's satellite lightning detection system indicates that the area receives an average of less than one cloud-to-ground flash per square kilometre per year. Lightning strikes giraffes Painting of a giraffe taken to China from Africa during the Ming Dynasty Giraffes can be seen in paintings, including the famous painting of a giraffe which was taken from Africa to China in 1414. The giraffe was placed in a Ming Dynasty zoo. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence, being reputedly the first living giraffe to be seen in Italy since the days of Ancient Rome. Another famous giraffe, called Zarafa, was brought from Africa to Paris in the early 1800s and kept in a menagerie for 18 years. Giraffe is a novel by the author J. M. Ledgard. The work concerns a true incident in which 49 giraffes were slaughtered in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1975 following the suspected outbreak of disease amongst the group. The novel contains extensive information about the species, including the long history of European fascination with the beast and its captivity in zoos. Notable fictional giraffes include: * Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was originally portrayed as a cartoon giraffe but in the 2001 commercials he was portrayed as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television. * Longrack of the Transformers universe * Girafarig from the PokÃ©mon franchise * Melman from ''Madagascar * Video - Giraffe birth at the San Francisco Zoo * Giraffes: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation ARKive - images and movies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Introduction to the history of the Giraffe in Middle Ages (French) * Animal Diversity Web - Giraffa camelopardalis * Giraffe Recruitment * Giraffe Central web directory * IUCN Red List of Threatened Species * PBS Nature: Tall Blondes (Giraffes) * Matt's World of Wicked Giraffes * Mating System * Giraffe Info Sheet * Long-term suppression of fertility in female giraffe using the GnRH agonist deslorelin as a long-acting implant *
Giraffe	What areas can giraffes inhabit?	savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands	data/set1/a5	Giraffe The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,800 pounds). The record-sized bull, shot in Kenya in 1934, was 5.87 m (19.2 ft) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). San Diego Zoo giraffe fact sheet Retrieved 14 August 2006. Females are generally slightly shorter, and weigh less than the males do. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa. Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. They prefer areas enriched with acacia growth. They drink large quantities of water and, as a result, they can spend long periods of time in dry, arid areas. When searching for more food they will venture into areas with denser foliage. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. Camelopard The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it. The Arabic word Ø§ÙØ²Ø±Ø§ÙØ© ziraafa or zurapha, meaning "assemblage" (of animals), or just "tall", was used in English from the sixteenth century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. Comparison of the African Miocene giraffids: Palaeotragus (two top) and Climacoceras (two bottom) Giraffids evolved from a 3 metre (10 ft) tall antelope-like mammal which roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. Stevens, J. (1993). Familiar Strangers. International Wildlife, 23, 6-10. The earliest giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still resembled deer, having large antler-like ossicones. It first appeared in the early Miocene period. As the lineage went on the genuses Palaeotragus and Samotherium appeared in the early to mid-Miocene. One species of Palaeotragus developed more giraffe-like ossicones. They both were tall at the shoulder but still had short necks. From there the genus Giraffa evolved in the Pliocene period and Okapia evolved in the Pleistocene. The modern long-necked giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, appeared 1 million years ago. There are nine generally accepted subspecies, differentiated by colour and pattern variations and range: * Reticulated or Somali Giraffe (G.c. reticulata) â large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia. * Angolan or Smoky Giraffe (G.c. angolensis) â large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: Angola, Zambia. * Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum) â smaller, more irregular spots that cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan. * Masai or Kilimanjaro Giraffe (G.c. tippelskirchi) â jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania. * Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis) large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo. * Rothschild Giraffe or Baringo Giraffe or Ugandan Giraffe (G.c. rothschildi) â deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya. * South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffa) â rounded or blotched spots, some with star-like extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. * Thornicroft or Rhodesian Giraffe (G.c. thornicrofti) â star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia. * West African or Nigerian Giraffe (G.c. peralta) â numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: Niger, Cameroon. Some scientists regard Kordofan and West African Giraffes as a single subspecies; similarly with Nubian and Rothschild's Giraffes, and with Angolan and South African Giraffes. Further, some scientists regard all populations except the Masai Giraffes as a single subspecies. By contrast, scientists have proposed four other subspecies â Cape Giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado Giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo Giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal Giraffe (G.c. wardi) â but none of these is widely accepted. Though giraffes of these populations interbreed freely under conditions of captivity, suggesting that they are subspecific populations, genetic testing published in 2007 David Brown, Rick A Brenneman, et al., "Extensive Population Genetic Structure in the Giraffe", BioMedCentral Biology. Reported in BBC News, "Not one but 'six giraffe species'", 21 December 2007 and in ScienceDaily, "Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight", 21 December 2007 has been interpreted to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding, even though no natural obstacles, like mountain ranges or impassable rivers block their mutual access. In fact, the study found that the two giraffe populations that live closest to each otherâ the reticulated giraffe (G. camelopardalis reticulata) of north Kenya, and the Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in south Kenyaâ separated genetically between 0.13 and 1.62 million years BP, judging from genetic drift in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. The implications for conservation of as many as eleven such cryptic species and sub-species were summarised by David Brown for BBC "Lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection." Giraffe skeleton as illustrated by Richard Lydekker. Male giraffes are around 4.8-5.5 m (16-19 ft) tall at the horn tips, and normally weigh 1300-1700 kg (2900-3800 lb) Females are 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) shorter and weigh about 200-400 kg (400-800 lb) less than males. Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top â an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe Giraffe in captivity at the Melbourne Zoo Giraffes have long necks which they use to browse tree leaves. They possess seven vertebrae in the neck (the usual number for a mammal) that are elongated. The vertebrae are separated by highly flexible joints. The base of the neck has spines which project upward and form a hump over the shoulders. They have anchor muscles that hold the neck upright. Giraffes also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast, up to 55 km/h. Articlebase The Kenyan Giraffe It can not sustain a lengthy chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down. Giraffes are difficult and dangerous prey. The giraffe defends itself with a powerful kick. A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. Lions are the only predators which pose a serious threat to an adult giraffe. Giraffes bending down to drink Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain. In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in the same way as a pilot's g-suit. thumb Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffes will mingle with the other herbivores in the African bush. Their company is beneficial, since they are tall enough to have a much wider scope of an area and will watch for predators. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Mating Angolan Giraffes at Chudop waterhole, Etosha, Namibia. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week-old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. The young can fall prey to lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity (Encyclopedia of Animals). Two males necking. As noted above, males often engage in necking, which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to estrous females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Robert E. Simmons and Lue Scheepers: Winning by a neck: Sexual selection in the evolution of giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148 (1996): pp. 771-786. After a necking duel, a giraffe can land a powerful blow with his head â occasionally knocking a male opponent to the ground. These fights rarely last more than a few minutes or end in physical harm. Another function of necking is sexual, in which two males caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males are more frequent than heterosexual coupling. Coe, M.J. (1967). "Necking" behavior in the giraffe." Journal of Zoology, London 151: 313-321. In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behaviour with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; pp.391-393. Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. Jentz, D.C. & A.B. Gull 1978. Towards a definition of abnormal activity: stereotypic behaviours in captive primates. Mamm. Ecol. 12: 145â154. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects. Harrison, J.C, Q.F. George & C.C. Cronk 2001. Stereotypic behaviour in zoo animals. J. Zoo Sc. 23: 71â86. Due to the obvious social and cultural discomfort associated with the addition of milk delivery devices, animal enclosures are often enriched with other stimuli, such as food and mental distractions (toys, scent markings etc.). This operates as a distraction, removing the giraffeâs focus from its instinctual tendencies towards suckling, resulting in tongue lolling and licking of objects in close proximity. Giraffes use their long, prehensile tongues to extend their reach. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genus Mimosa; but it appears that it can live without inconvenience on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. As ruminants, they first chew their food, swallow for processing and then visibly regurgitate the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. Male giraffe making a cough-like mating call at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, Rhode Island A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 cm/18 in). The tongue is tough due to the giraffe's diet, which can include tree thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba, and possess a specially-adapted tongue and lips that are tough enough to withstand the vicious thorns of this plant. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - What is sleep Although generally quiet and not vocal, giraffes have been heard to make various sounds. Courting males will emit loud coughs. Females will call their young by whistling or bellowing. Calves will bleat, moo, or make mewing sounds. In addition, giraffes will grunt, snort, hiss, or make strange flute-like sounds. Recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. Infrasound From the Giraffe Lone giraffe at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya Giraffes are hunted for their hides, hair, and meat. In addition, habitat destruction also hurts the giraffe. In the Sahel trees are cut down for firewood and to make way for livestock. Normally, giraffes are able to cope with livestock since they feed in the trees above their heads. The giraffe population is shrinking in West Africa. However, the populations in eastern and southern Africa are stable and, due to the popularity of privately-owned game ranches and sanctuaries (i.e. Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary), are expanding. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. The total African giraffe population has been estimated to range from 110,000 to 150,000. Kenya (45,000), Tanzania (30,000), and Botswana (12,000), have the largest national populations. East, R. 1998, in: African Antelope Database 1998. IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group Report. An unexpected danger to giraffes in captivity is that, as they are typically the tallest objects in a zoo, giraffes are at increased risk of being struck by lightning. In the wild, this hazard is reduced by the presence of trees; as well, the giraffe's natural habitat range has an extremely low occurrence of lightning -- NASA's satellite lightning detection system indicates that the area receives an average of less than one cloud-to-ground flash per square kilometre per year. Lightning strikes giraffes Painting of a giraffe taken to China from Africa during the Ming Dynasty Giraffes can be seen in paintings, including the famous painting of a giraffe which was taken from Africa to China in 1414. The giraffe was placed in a Ming Dynasty zoo. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence, being reputedly the first living giraffe to be seen in Italy since the days of Ancient Rome. Another famous giraffe, called Zarafa, was brought from Africa to Paris in the early 1800s and kept in a menagerie for 18 years. Giraffe is a novel by the author J. M. Ledgard. The work concerns a true incident in which 49 giraffes were slaughtered in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1975 following the suspected outbreak of disease amongst the group. The novel contains extensive information about the species, including the long history of European fascination with the beast and its captivity in zoos. Notable fictional giraffes include: * Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was originally portrayed as a cartoon giraffe but in the 2001 commercials he was portrayed as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television. * Longrack of the Transformers universe * Girafarig from the PokÃ©mon franchise * Melman from ''Madagascar * Video - Giraffe birth at the San Francisco Zoo * Giraffes: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation ARKive - images and movies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Introduction to the history of the Giraffe in Middle Ages (French) * Animal Diversity Web - Giraffa camelopardalis * Giraffe Recruitment * Giraffe Central web directory * IUCN Red List of Threatened Species * PBS Nature: Tall Blondes (Giraffes) * Matt's World of Wicked Giraffes * Mating System * Giraffe Info Sheet * Long-term suppression of fertility in female giraffe using the GnRH agonist deslorelin as a long-acting implant *
Giraffe	What areas can giraffes inhabit?	inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands	data/set1/a5	Giraffe The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,800 pounds). The record-sized bull, shot in Kenya in 1934, was 5.87 m (19.2 ft) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). San Diego Zoo giraffe fact sheet Retrieved 14 August 2006. Females are generally slightly shorter, and weigh less than the males do. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa. Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. They prefer areas enriched with acacia growth. They drink large quantities of water and, as a result, they can spend long periods of time in dry, arid areas. When searching for more food they will venture into areas with denser foliage. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. Camelopard The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it. The Arabic word Ø§ÙØ²Ø±Ø§ÙØ© ziraafa or zurapha, meaning "assemblage" (of animals), or just "tall", was used in English from the sixteenth century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. Comparison of the African Miocene giraffids: Palaeotragus (two top) and Climacoceras (two bottom) Giraffids evolved from a 3 metre (10 ft) tall antelope-like mammal which roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. Stevens, J. (1993). Familiar Strangers. International Wildlife, 23, 6-10. The earliest giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still resembled deer, having large antler-like ossicones. It first appeared in the early Miocene period. As the lineage went on the genuses Palaeotragus and Samotherium appeared in the early to mid-Miocene. One species of Palaeotragus developed more giraffe-like ossicones. They both were tall at the shoulder but still had short necks. From there the genus Giraffa evolved in the Pliocene period and Okapia evolved in the Pleistocene. The modern long-necked giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, appeared 1 million years ago. There are nine generally accepted subspecies, differentiated by colour and pattern variations and range: * Reticulated or Somali Giraffe (G.c. reticulata) â large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia. * Angolan or Smoky Giraffe (G.c. angolensis) â large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: Angola, Zambia. * Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum) â smaller, more irregular spots that cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan. * Masai or Kilimanjaro Giraffe (G.c. tippelskirchi) â jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania. * Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis) large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo. * Rothschild Giraffe or Baringo Giraffe or Ugandan Giraffe (G.c. rothschildi) â deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya. * South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffa) â rounded or blotched spots, some with star-like extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. * Thornicroft or Rhodesian Giraffe (G.c. thornicrofti) â star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia. * West African or Nigerian Giraffe (G.c. peralta) â numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: Niger, Cameroon. Some scientists regard Kordofan and West African Giraffes as a single subspecies; similarly with Nubian and Rothschild's Giraffes, and with Angolan and South African Giraffes. Further, some scientists regard all populations except the Masai Giraffes as a single subspecies. By contrast, scientists have proposed four other subspecies â Cape Giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado Giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo Giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal Giraffe (G.c. wardi) â but none of these is widely accepted. Though giraffes of these populations interbreed freely under conditions of captivity, suggesting that they are subspecific populations, genetic testing published in 2007 David Brown, Rick A Brenneman, et al., "Extensive Population Genetic Structure in the Giraffe", BioMedCentral Biology. Reported in BBC News, "Not one but 'six giraffe species'", 21 December 2007 and in ScienceDaily, "Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight", 21 December 2007 has been interpreted to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding, even though no natural obstacles, like mountain ranges or impassable rivers block their mutual access. In fact, the study found that the two giraffe populations that live closest to each otherâ the reticulated giraffe (G. camelopardalis reticulata) of north Kenya, and the Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in south Kenyaâ separated genetically between 0.13 and 1.62 million years BP, judging from genetic drift in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. The implications for conservation of as many as eleven such cryptic species and sub-species were summarised by David Brown for BBC "Lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection." Giraffe skeleton as illustrated by Richard Lydekker. Male giraffes are around 4.8-5.5 m (16-19 ft) tall at the horn tips, and normally weigh 1300-1700 kg (2900-3800 lb) Females are 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) shorter and weigh about 200-400 kg (400-800 lb) less than males. Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top â an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe Giraffe in captivity at the Melbourne Zoo Giraffes have long necks which they use to browse tree leaves. They possess seven vertebrae in the neck (the usual number for a mammal) that are elongated. The vertebrae are separated by highly flexible joints. The base of the neck has spines which project upward and form a hump over the shoulders. They have anchor muscles that hold the neck upright. Giraffes also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast, up to 55 km/h. Articlebase The Kenyan Giraffe It can not sustain a lengthy chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down. Giraffes are difficult and dangerous prey. The giraffe defends itself with a powerful kick. A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. Lions are the only predators which pose a serious threat to an adult giraffe. Giraffes bending down to drink Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain. In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in the same way as a pilot's g-suit. thumb Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffes will mingle with the other herbivores in the African bush. Their company is beneficial, since they are tall enough to have a much wider scope of an area and will watch for predators. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Mating Angolan Giraffes at Chudop waterhole, Etosha, Namibia. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week-old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. The young can fall prey to lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity (Encyclopedia of Animals). Two males necking. As noted above, males often engage in necking, which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to estrous females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Robert E. Simmons and Lue Scheepers: Winning by a neck: Sexual selection in the evolution of giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148 (1996): pp. 771-786. After a necking duel, a giraffe can land a powerful blow with his head â occasionally knocking a male opponent to the ground. These fights rarely last more than a few minutes or end in physical harm. Another function of necking is sexual, in which two males caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males are more frequent than heterosexual coupling. Coe, M.J. (1967). "Necking" behavior in the giraffe." Journal of Zoology, London 151: 313-321. In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behaviour with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; pp.391-393. Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. Jentz, D.C. & A.B. Gull 1978. Towards a definition of abnormal activity: stereotypic behaviours in captive primates. Mamm. Ecol. 12: 145â154. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects. Harrison, J.C, Q.F. George & C.C. Cronk 2001. Stereotypic behaviour in zoo animals. J. Zoo Sc. 23: 71â86. Due to the obvious social and cultural discomfort associated with the addition of milk delivery devices, animal enclosures are often enriched with other stimuli, such as food and mental distractions (toys, scent markings etc.). This operates as a distraction, removing the giraffeâs focus from its instinctual tendencies towards suckling, resulting in tongue lolling and licking of objects in close proximity. Giraffes use their long, prehensile tongues to extend their reach. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genus Mimosa; but it appears that it can live without inconvenience on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. As ruminants, they first chew their food, swallow for processing and then visibly regurgitate the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. Male giraffe making a cough-like mating call at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, Rhode Island A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 cm/18 in). The tongue is tough due to the giraffe's diet, which can include tree thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba, and possess a specially-adapted tongue and lips that are tough enough to withstand the vicious thorns of this plant. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - What is sleep Although generally quiet and not vocal, giraffes have been heard to make various sounds. Courting males will emit loud coughs. Females will call their young by whistling or bellowing. Calves will bleat, moo, or make mewing sounds. In addition, giraffes will grunt, snort, hiss, or make strange flute-like sounds. Recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. Infrasound From the Giraffe Lone giraffe at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya Giraffes are hunted for their hides, hair, and meat. In addition, habitat destruction also hurts the giraffe. In the Sahel trees are cut down for firewood and to make way for livestock. Normally, giraffes are able to cope with livestock since they feed in the trees above their heads. The giraffe population is shrinking in West Africa. However, the populations in eastern and southern Africa are stable and, due to the popularity of privately-owned game ranches and sanctuaries (i.e. Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary), are expanding. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. The total African giraffe population has been estimated to range from 110,000 to 150,000. Kenya (45,000), Tanzania (30,000), and Botswana (12,000), have the largest national populations. East, R. 1998, in: African Antelope Database 1998. IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group Report. An unexpected danger to giraffes in captivity is that, as they are typically the tallest objects in a zoo, giraffes are at increased risk of being struck by lightning. In the wild, this hazard is reduced by the presence of trees; as well, the giraffe's natural habitat range has an extremely low occurrence of lightning -- NASA's satellite lightning detection system indicates that the area receives an average of less than one cloud-to-ground flash per square kilometre per year. Lightning strikes giraffes Painting of a giraffe taken to China from Africa during the Ming Dynasty Giraffes can be seen in paintings, including the famous painting of a giraffe which was taken from Africa to China in 1414. The giraffe was placed in a Ming Dynasty zoo. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence, being reputedly the first living giraffe to be seen in Italy since the days of Ancient Rome. Another famous giraffe, called Zarafa, was brought from Africa to Paris in the early 1800s and kept in a menagerie for 18 years. Giraffe is a novel by the author J. M. Ledgard. The work concerns a true incident in which 49 giraffes were slaughtered in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1975 following the suspected outbreak of disease amongst the group. The novel contains extensive information about the species, including the long history of European fascination with the beast and its captivity in zoos. Notable fictional giraffes include: * Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was originally portrayed as a cartoon giraffe but in the 2001 commercials he was portrayed as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television. * Longrack of the Transformers universe * Girafarig from the PokÃ©mon franchise * Melman from ''Madagascar * Video - Giraffe birth at the San Francisco Zoo * Giraffes: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation ARKive - images and movies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Introduction to the history of the Giraffe in Middle Ages (French) * Animal Diversity Web - Giraffa camelopardalis * Giraffe Recruitment * Giraffe Central web directory * IUCN Red List of Threatened Species * PBS Nature: Tall Blondes (Giraffes) * Matt's World of Wicked Giraffes * Mating System * Giraffe Info Sheet * Long-term suppression of fertility in female giraffe using the GnRH agonist deslorelin as a long-acting implant *
Giraffe	What will a giraffe use to clean off any bugs that appear on its face?	extremely long tongue	data/set1/a5	Giraffe The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,800 pounds). The record-sized bull, shot in Kenya in 1934, was 5.87 m (19.2 ft) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). San Diego Zoo giraffe fact sheet Retrieved 14 August 2006. Females are generally slightly shorter, and weigh less than the males do. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa. Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. They prefer areas enriched with acacia growth. They drink large quantities of water and, as a result, they can spend long periods of time in dry, arid areas. When searching for more food they will venture into areas with denser foliage. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. Camelopard The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it. The Arabic word Ø§ÙØ²Ø±Ø§ÙØ© ziraafa or zurapha, meaning "assemblage" (of animals), or just "tall", was used in English from the sixteenth century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. Comparison of the African Miocene giraffids: Palaeotragus (two top) and Climacoceras (two bottom) Giraffids evolved from a 3 metre (10 ft) tall antelope-like mammal which roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. Stevens, J. (1993). Familiar Strangers. International Wildlife, 23, 6-10. The earliest giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still resembled deer, having large antler-like ossicones. It first appeared in the early Miocene period. As the lineage went on the genuses Palaeotragus and Samotherium appeared in the early to mid-Miocene. One species of Palaeotragus developed more giraffe-like ossicones. They both were tall at the shoulder but still had short necks. From there the genus Giraffa evolved in the Pliocene period and Okapia evolved in the Pleistocene. The modern long-necked giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, appeared 1 million years ago. There are nine generally accepted subspecies, differentiated by colour and pattern variations and range: * Reticulated or Somali Giraffe (G.c. reticulata) â large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia. * Angolan or Smoky Giraffe (G.c. angolensis) â large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: Angola, Zambia. * Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum) â smaller, more irregular spots that cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan. * Masai or Kilimanjaro Giraffe (G.c. tippelskirchi) â jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania. * Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis) large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo. * Rothschild Giraffe or Baringo Giraffe or Ugandan Giraffe (G.c. rothschildi) â deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya. * South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffa) â rounded or blotched spots, some with star-like extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. * Thornicroft or Rhodesian Giraffe (G.c. thornicrofti) â star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia. * West African or Nigerian Giraffe (G.c. peralta) â numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: Niger, Cameroon. Some scientists regard Kordofan and West African Giraffes as a single subspecies; similarly with Nubian and Rothschild's Giraffes, and with Angolan and South African Giraffes. Further, some scientists regard all populations except the Masai Giraffes as a single subspecies. By contrast, scientists have proposed four other subspecies â Cape Giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado Giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo Giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal Giraffe (G.c. wardi) â but none of these is widely accepted. Though giraffes of these populations interbreed freely under conditions of captivity, suggesting that they are subspecific populations, genetic testing published in 2007 David Brown, Rick A Brenneman, et al., "Extensive Population Genetic Structure in the Giraffe", BioMedCentral Biology. Reported in BBC News, "Not one but 'six giraffe species'", 21 December 2007 and in ScienceDaily, "Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight", 21 December 2007 has been interpreted to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding, even though no natural obstacles, like mountain ranges or impassable rivers block their mutual access. In fact, the study found that the two giraffe populations that live closest to each otherâ the reticulated giraffe (G. camelopardalis reticulata) of north Kenya, and the Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in south Kenyaâ separated genetically between 0.13 and 1.62 million years BP, judging from genetic drift in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. The implications for conservation of as many as eleven such cryptic species and sub-species were summarised by David Brown for BBC "Lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection." Giraffe skeleton as illustrated by Richard Lydekker. Male giraffes are around 4.8-5.5 m (16-19 ft) tall at the horn tips, and normally weigh 1300-1700 kg (2900-3800 lb) Females are 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) shorter and weigh about 200-400 kg (400-800 lb) less than males. Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top â an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe Giraffe in captivity at the Melbourne Zoo Giraffes have long necks which they use to browse tree leaves. They possess seven vertebrae in the neck (the usual number for a mammal) that are elongated. The vertebrae are separated by highly flexible joints. The base of the neck has spines which project upward and form a hump over the shoulders. They have anchor muscles that hold the neck upright. Giraffes also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast, up to 55 km/h. Articlebase The Kenyan Giraffe It can not sustain a lengthy chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down. Giraffes are difficult and dangerous prey. The giraffe defends itself with a powerful kick. A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. Lions are the only predators which pose a serious threat to an adult giraffe. Giraffes bending down to drink Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain. In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in the same way as a pilot's g-suit. thumb Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffes will mingle with the other herbivores in the African bush. Their company is beneficial, since they are tall enough to have a much wider scope of an area and will watch for predators. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Mating Angolan Giraffes at Chudop waterhole, Etosha, Namibia. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week-old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. The young can fall prey to lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity (Encyclopedia of Animals). Two males necking. As noted above, males often engage in necking, which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to estrous females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Robert E. Simmons and Lue Scheepers: Winning by a neck: Sexual selection in the evolution of giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148 (1996): pp. 771-786. After a necking duel, a giraffe can land a powerful blow with his head â occasionally knocking a male opponent to the ground. These fights rarely last more than a few minutes or end in physical harm. Another function of necking is sexual, in which two males caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males are more frequent than heterosexual coupling. Coe, M.J. (1967). "Necking" behavior in the giraffe." Journal of Zoology, London 151: 313-321. In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behaviour with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; pp.391-393. Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. Jentz, D.C. & A.B. Gull 1978. Towards a definition of abnormal activity: stereotypic behaviours in captive primates. Mamm. Ecol. 12: 145â154. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects. Harrison, J.C, Q.F. George & C.C. Cronk 2001. Stereotypic behaviour in zoo animals. J. Zoo Sc. 23: 71â86. Due to the obvious social and cultural discomfort associated with the addition of milk delivery devices, animal enclosures are often enriched with other stimuli, such as food and mental distractions (toys, scent markings etc.). This operates as a distraction, removing the giraffeâs focus from its instinctual tendencies towards suckling, resulting in tongue lolling and licking of objects in close proximity. Giraffes use their long, prehensile tongues to extend their reach. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genus Mimosa; but it appears that it can live without inconvenience on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. As ruminants, they first chew their food, swallow for processing and then visibly regurgitate the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. Male giraffe making a cough-like mating call at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, Rhode Island A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 cm/18 in). The tongue is tough due to the giraffe's diet, which can include tree thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba, and possess a specially-adapted tongue and lips that are tough enough to withstand the vicious thorns of this plant. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - What is sleep Although generally quiet and not vocal, giraffes have been heard to make various sounds. Courting males will emit loud coughs. Females will call their young by whistling or bellowing. Calves will bleat, moo, or make mewing sounds. In addition, giraffes will grunt, snort, hiss, or make strange flute-like sounds. Recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. Infrasound From the Giraffe Lone giraffe at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya Giraffes are hunted for their hides, hair, and meat. In addition, habitat destruction also hurts the giraffe. In the Sahel trees are cut down for firewood and to make way for livestock. Normally, giraffes are able to cope with livestock since they feed in the trees above their heads. The giraffe population is shrinking in West Africa. However, the populations in eastern and southern Africa are stable and, due to the popularity of privately-owned game ranches and sanctuaries (i.e. Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary), are expanding. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. The total African giraffe population has been estimated to range from 110,000 to 150,000. Kenya (45,000), Tanzania (30,000), and Botswana (12,000), have the largest national populations. East, R. 1998, in: African Antelope Database 1998. IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group Report. An unexpected danger to giraffes in captivity is that, as they are typically the tallest objects in a zoo, giraffes are at increased risk of being struck by lightning. In the wild, this hazard is reduced by the presence of trees; as well, the giraffe's natural habitat range has an extremely low occurrence of lightning -- NASA's satellite lightning detection system indicates that the area receives an average of less than one cloud-to-ground flash per square kilometre per year. Lightning strikes giraffes Painting of a giraffe taken to China from Africa during the Ming Dynasty Giraffes can be seen in paintings, including the famous painting of a giraffe which was taken from Africa to China in 1414. The giraffe was placed in a Ming Dynasty zoo. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence, being reputedly the first living giraffe to be seen in Italy since the days of Ancient Rome. Another famous giraffe, called Zarafa, was brought from Africa to Paris in the early 1800s and kept in a menagerie for 18 years. Giraffe is a novel by the author J. M. Ledgard. The work concerns a true incident in which 49 giraffes were slaughtered in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1975 following the suspected outbreak of disease amongst the group. The novel contains extensive information about the species, including the long history of European fascination with the beast and its captivity in zoos. Notable fictional giraffes include: * Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was originally portrayed as a cartoon giraffe but in the 2001 commercials he was portrayed as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television. * Longrack of the Transformers universe * Girafarig from the PokÃ©mon franchise * Melman from ''Madagascar * Video - Giraffe birth at the San Francisco Zoo * Giraffes: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation ARKive - images and movies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Introduction to the history of the Giraffe in Middle Ages (French) * Animal Diversity Web - Giraffa camelopardalis * Giraffe Recruitment * Giraffe Central web directory * IUCN Red List of Threatened Species * PBS Nature: Tall Blondes (Giraffes) * Matt's World of Wicked Giraffes * Mating System * Giraffe Info Sheet * Long-term suppression of fertility in female giraffe using the GnRH agonist deslorelin as a long-acting implant *
Giraffe	What will a giraffe use to clean off any bugs that appear on its face?	It's extremely long tongue	data/set1/a5	Giraffe The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,800 pounds). The record-sized bull, shot in Kenya in 1934, was 5.87 m (19.2 ft) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). San Diego Zoo giraffe fact sheet Retrieved 14 August 2006. Females are generally slightly shorter, and weigh less than the males do. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa. Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. They prefer areas enriched with acacia growth. They drink large quantities of water and, as a result, they can spend long periods of time in dry, arid areas. When searching for more food they will venture into areas with denser foliage. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. Camelopard The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it. The Arabic word Ø§ÙØ²Ø±Ø§ÙØ© ziraafa or zurapha, meaning "assemblage" (of animals), or just "tall", was used in English from the sixteenth century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. Comparison of the African Miocene giraffids: Palaeotragus (two top) and Climacoceras (two bottom) Giraffids evolved from a 3 metre (10 ft) tall antelope-like mammal which roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. Stevens, J. (1993). Familiar Strangers. International Wildlife, 23, 6-10. The earliest giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still resembled deer, having large antler-like ossicones. It first appeared in the early Miocene period. As the lineage went on the genuses Palaeotragus and Samotherium appeared in the early to mid-Miocene. One species of Palaeotragus developed more giraffe-like ossicones. They both were tall at the shoulder but still had short necks. From there the genus Giraffa evolved in the Pliocene period and Okapia evolved in the Pleistocene. The modern long-necked giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, appeared 1 million years ago. There are nine generally accepted subspecies, differentiated by colour and pattern variations and range: * Reticulated or Somali Giraffe (G.c. reticulata) â large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia. * Angolan or Smoky Giraffe (G.c. angolensis) â large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: Angola, Zambia. * Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum) â smaller, more irregular spots that cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan. * Masai or Kilimanjaro Giraffe (G.c. tippelskirchi) â jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania. * Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis) large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo. * Rothschild Giraffe or Baringo Giraffe or Ugandan Giraffe (G.c. rothschildi) â deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya. * South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffa) â rounded or blotched spots, some with star-like extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. * Thornicroft or Rhodesian Giraffe (G.c. thornicrofti) â star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia. * West African or Nigerian Giraffe (G.c. peralta) â numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: Niger, Cameroon. Some scientists regard Kordofan and West African Giraffes as a single subspecies; similarly with Nubian and Rothschild's Giraffes, and with Angolan and South African Giraffes. Further, some scientists regard all populations except the Masai Giraffes as a single subspecies. By contrast, scientists have proposed four other subspecies â Cape Giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado Giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo Giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal Giraffe (G.c. wardi) â but none of these is widely accepted. Though giraffes of these populations interbreed freely under conditions of captivity, suggesting that they are subspecific populations, genetic testing published in 2007 David Brown, Rick A Brenneman, et al., "Extensive Population Genetic Structure in the Giraffe", BioMedCentral Biology. Reported in BBC News, "Not one but 'six giraffe species'", 21 December 2007 and in ScienceDaily, "Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight", 21 December 2007 has been interpreted to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding, even though no natural obstacles, like mountain ranges or impassable rivers block their mutual access. In fact, the study found that the two giraffe populations that live closest to each otherâ the reticulated giraffe (G. camelopardalis reticulata) of north Kenya, and the Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in south Kenyaâ separated genetically between 0.13 and 1.62 million years BP, judging from genetic drift in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. The implications for conservation of as many as eleven such cryptic species and sub-species were summarised by David Brown for BBC "Lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection." Giraffe skeleton as illustrated by Richard Lydekker. Male giraffes are around 4.8-5.5 m (16-19 ft) tall at the horn tips, and normally weigh 1300-1700 kg (2900-3800 lb) Females are 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) shorter and weigh about 200-400 kg (400-800 lb) less than males. Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top â an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe Giraffe in captivity at the Melbourne Zoo Giraffes have long necks which they use to browse tree leaves. They possess seven vertebrae in the neck (the usual number for a mammal) that are elongated. The vertebrae are separated by highly flexible joints. The base of the neck has spines which project upward and form a hump over the shoulders. They have anchor muscles that hold the neck upright. Giraffes also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast, up to 55 km/h. Articlebase The Kenyan Giraffe It can not sustain a lengthy chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down. Giraffes are difficult and dangerous prey. The giraffe defends itself with a powerful kick. A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. Lions are the only predators which pose a serious threat to an adult giraffe. Giraffes bending down to drink Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain. In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in the same way as a pilot's g-suit. thumb Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffes will mingle with the other herbivores in the African bush. Their company is beneficial, since they are tall enough to have a much wider scope of an area and will watch for predators. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Mating Angolan Giraffes at Chudop waterhole, Etosha, Namibia. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week-old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. The young can fall prey to lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity (Encyclopedia of Animals). Two males necking. As noted above, males often engage in necking, which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to estrous females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Robert E. Simmons and Lue Scheepers: Winning by a neck: Sexual selection in the evolution of giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148 (1996): pp. 771-786. After a necking duel, a giraffe can land a powerful blow with his head â occasionally knocking a male opponent to the ground. These fights rarely last more than a few minutes or end in physical harm. Another function of necking is sexual, in which two males caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males are more frequent than heterosexual coupling. Coe, M.J. (1967). "Necking" behavior in the giraffe." Journal of Zoology, London 151: 313-321. In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behaviour with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; pp.391-393. Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. Jentz, D.C. & A.B. Gull 1978. Towards a definition of abnormal activity: stereotypic behaviours in captive primates. Mamm. Ecol. 12: 145â154. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects. Harrison, J.C, Q.F. George & C.C. Cronk 2001. Stereotypic behaviour in zoo animals. J. Zoo Sc. 23: 71â86. Due to the obvious social and cultural discomfort associated with the addition of milk delivery devices, animal enclosures are often enriched with other stimuli, such as food and mental distractions (toys, scent markings etc.). This operates as a distraction, removing the giraffeâs focus from its instinctual tendencies towards suckling, resulting in tongue lolling and licking of objects in close proximity. Giraffes use their long, prehensile tongues to extend their reach. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genus Mimosa; but it appears that it can live without inconvenience on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. As ruminants, they first chew their food, swallow for processing and then visibly regurgitate the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. Male giraffe making a cough-like mating call at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, Rhode Island A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 cm/18 in). The tongue is tough due to the giraffe's diet, which can include tree thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba, and possess a specially-adapted tongue and lips that are tough enough to withstand the vicious thorns of this plant. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - What is sleep Although generally quiet and not vocal, giraffes have been heard to make various sounds. Courting males will emit loud coughs. Females will call their young by whistling or bellowing. Calves will bleat, moo, or make mewing sounds. In addition, giraffes will grunt, snort, hiss, or make strange flute-like sounds. Recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. Infrasound From the Giraffe Lone giraffe at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya Giraffes are hunted for their hides, hair, and meat. In addition, habitat destruction also hurts the giraffe. In the Sahel trees are cut down for firewood and to make way for livestock. Normally, giraffes are able to cope with livestock since they feed in the trees above their heads. The giraffe population is shrinking in West Africa. However, the populations in eastern and southern Africa are stable and, due to the popularity of privately-owned game ranches and sanctuaries (i.e. Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary), are expanding. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. The total African giraffe population has been estimated to range from 110,000 to 150,000. Kenya (45,000), Tanzania (30,000), and Botswana (12,000), have the largest national populations. East, R. 1998, in: African Antelope Database 1998. IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group Report. An unexpected danger to giraffes in captivity is that, as they are typically the tallest objects in a zoo, giraffes are at increased risk of being struck by lightning. In the wild, this hazard is reduced by the presence of trees; as well, the giraffe's natural habitat range has an extremely low occurrence of lightning -- NASA's satellite lightning detection system indicates that the area receives an average of less than one cloud-to-ground flash per square kilometre per year. Lightning strikes giraffes Painting of a giraffe taken to China from Africa during the Ming Dynasty Giraffes can be seen in paintings, including the famous painting of a giraffe which was taken from Africa to China in 1414. The giraffe was placed in a Ming Dynasty zoo. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence, being reputedly the first living giraffe to be seen in Italy since the days of Ancient Rome. Another famous giraffe, called Zarafa, was brought from Africa to Paris in the early 1800s and kept in a menagerie for 18 years. Giraffe is a novel by the author J. M. Ledgard. The work concerns a true incident in which 49 giraffes were slaughtered in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1975 following the suspected outbreak of disease amongst the group. The novel contains extensive information about the species, including the long history of European fascination with the beast and its captivity in zoos. Notable fictional giraffes include: * Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was originally portrayed as a cartoon giraffe but in the 2001 commercials he was portrayed as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television. * Longrack of the Transformers universe * Girafarig from the PokÃ©mon franchise * Melman from ''Madagascar * Video - Giraffe birth at the San Francisco Zoo * Giraffes: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation ARKive - images and movies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Introduction to the history of the Giraffe in Middle Ages (French) * Animal Diversity Web - Giraffa camelopardalis * Giraffe Recruitment * Giraffe Central web directory * IUCN Red List of Threatened Species * PBS Nature: Tall Blondes (Giraffes) * Matt's World of Wicked Giraffes * Mating System * Giraffe Info Sheet * Long-term suppression of fertility in female giraffe using the GnRH agonist deslorelin as a long-acting implant *
Giraffe	How do giraffes defend themselves?	with a powerful kick	data/set1/a5	Giraffe The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,800 pounds). The record-sized bull, shot in Kenya in 1934, was 5.87 m (19.2 ft) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). San Diego Zoo giraffe fact sheet Retrieved 14 August 2006. Females are generally slightly shorter, and weigh less than the males do. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa. Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. They prefer areas enriched with acacia growth. They drink large quantities of water and, as a result, they can spend long periods of time in dry, arid areas. When searching for more food they will venture into areas with denser foliage. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. Camelopard The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it. The Arabic word Ø§ÙØ²Ø±Ø§ÙØ© ziraafa or zurapha, meaning "assemblage" (of animals), or just "tall", was used in English from the sixteenth century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. Comparison of the African Miocene giraffids: Palaeotragus (two top) and Climacoceras (two bottom) Giraffids evolved from a 3 metre (10 ft) tall antelope-like mammal which roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. Stevens, J. (1993). Familiar Strangers. International Wildlife, 23, 6-10. The earliest giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still resembled deer, having large antler-like ossicones. It first appeared in the early Miocene period. As the lineage went on the genuses Palaeotragus and Samotherium appeared in the early to mid-Miocene. One species of Palaeotragus developed more giraffe-like ossicones. They both were tall at the shoulder but still had short necks. From there the genus Giraffa evolved in the Pliocene period and Okapia evolved in the Pleistocene. The modern long-necked giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, appeared 1 million years ago. There are nine generally accepted subspecies, differentiated by colour and pattern variations and range: * Reticulated or Somali Giraffe (G.c. reticulata) â large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia. * Angolan or Smoky Giraffe (G.c. angolensis) â large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: Angola, Zambia. * Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum) â smaller, more irregular spots that cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan. * Masai or Kilimanjaro Giraffe (G.c. tippelskirchi) â jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania. * Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis) large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo. * Rothschild Giraffe or Baringo Giraffe or Ugandan Giraffe (G.c. rothschildi) â deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya. * South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffa) â rounded or blotched spots, some with star-like extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. * Thornicroft or Rhodesian Giraffe (G.c. thornicrofti) â star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia. * West African or Nigerian Giraffe (G.c. peralta) â numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: Niger, Cameroon. Some scientists regard Kordofan and West African Giraffes as a single subspecies; similarly with Nubian and Rothschild's Giraffes, and with Angolan and South African Giraffes. Further, some scientists regard all populations except the Masai Giraffes as a single subspecies. By contrast, scientists have proposed four other subspecies â Cape Giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado Giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo Giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal Giraffe (G.c. wardi) â but none of these is widely accepted. Though giraffes of these populations interbreed freely under conditions of captivity, suggesting that they are subspecific populations, genetic testing published in 2007 David Brown, Rick A Brenneman, et al., "Extensive Population Genetic Structure in the Giraffe", BioMedCentral Biology. Reported in BBC News, "Not one but 'six giraffe species'", 21 December 2007 and in ScienceDaily, "Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight", 21 December 2007 has been interpreted to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding, even though no natural obstacles, like mountain ranges or impassable rivers block their mutual access. In fact, the study found that the two giraffe populations that live closest to each otherâ the reticulated giraffe (G. camelopardalis reticulata) of north Kenya, and the Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in south Kenyaâ separated genetically between 0.13 and 1.62 million years BP, judging from genetic drift in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. The implications for conservation of as many as eleven such cryptic species and sub-species were summarised by David Brown for BBC "Lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection." Giraffe skeleton as illustrated by Richard Lydekker. Male giraffes are around 4.8-5.5 m (16-19 ft) tall at the horn tips, and normally weigh 1300-1700 kg (2900-3800 lb) Females are 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) shorter and weigh about 200-400 kg (400-800 lb) less than males. Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top â an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe Giraffe in captivity at the Melbourne Zoo Giraffes have long necks which they use to browse tree leaves. They possess seven vertebrae in the neck (the usual number for a mammal) that are elongated. The vertebrae are separated by highly flexible joints. The base of the neck has spines which project upward and form a hump over the shoulders. They have anchor muscles that hold the neck upright. Giraffes also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast, up to 55 km/h. Articlebase The Kenyan Giraffe It can not sustain a lengthy chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down. Giraffes are difficult and dangerous prey. The giraffe defends itself with a powerful kick. A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. Lions are the only predators which pose a serious threat to an adult giraffe. Giraffes bending down to drink Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain. In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in the same way as a pilot's g-suit. thumb Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffes will mingle with the other herbivores in the African bush. Their company is beneficial, since they are tall enough to have a much wider scope of an area and will watch for predators. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Mating Angolan Giraffes at Chudop waterhole, Etosha, Namibia. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week-old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. The young can fall prey to lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity (Encyclopedia of Animals). Two males necking. As noted above, males often engage in necking, which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to estrous females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Robert E. Simmons and Lue Scheepers: Winning by a neck: Sexual selection in the evolution of giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148 (1996): pp. 771-786. After a necking duel, a giraffe can land a powerful blow with his head â occasionally knocking a male opponent to the ground. These fights rarely last more than a few minutes or end in physical harm. Another function of necking is sexual, in which two males caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males are more frequent than heterosexual coupling. Coe, M.J. (1967). "Necking" behavior in the giraffe." Journal of Zoology, London 151: 313-321. In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behaviour with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; pp.391-393. Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. Jentz, D.C. & A.B. Gull 1978. Towards a definition of abnormal activity: stereotypic behaviours in captive primates. Mamm. Ecol. 12: 145â154. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects. Harrison, J.C, Q.F. George & C.C. Cronk 2001. Stereotypic behaviour in zoo animals. J. Zoo Sc. 23: 71â86. Due to the obvious social and cultural discomfort associated with the addition of milk delivery devices, animal enclosures are often enriched with other stimuli, such as food and mental distractions (toys, scent markings etc.). This operates as a distraction, removing the giraffeâs focus from its instinctual tendencies towards suckling, resulting in tongue lolling and licking of objects in close proximity. Giraffes use their long, prehensile tongues to extend their reach. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genus Mimosa; but it appears that it can live without inconvenience on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. As ruminants, they first chew their food, swallow for processing and then visibly regurgitate the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. Male giraffe making a cough-like mating call at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, Rhode Island A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 cm/18 in). The tongue is tough due to the giraffe's diet, which can include tree thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba, and possess a specially-adapted tongue and lips that are tough enough to withstand the vicious thorns of this plant. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - What is sleep Although generally quiet and not vocal, giraffes have been heard to make various sounds. Courting males will emit loud coughs. Females will call their young by whistling or bellowing. Calves will bleat, moo, or make mewing sounds. In addition, giraffes will grunt, snort, hiss, or make strange flute-like sounds. Recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. Infrasound From the Giraffe Lone giraffe at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya Giraffes are hunted for their hides, hair, and meat. In addition, habitat destruction also hurts the giraffe. In the Sahel trees are cut down for firewood and to make way for livestock. Normally, giraffes are able to cope with livestock since they feed in the trees above their heads. The giraffe population is shrinking in West Africa. However, the populations in eastern and southern Africa are stable and, due to the popularity of privately-owned game ranches and sanctuaries (i.e. Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary), are expanding. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. The total African giraffe population has been estimated to range from 110,000 to 150,000. Kenya (45,000), Tanzania (30,000), and Botswana (12,000), have the largest national populations. East, R. 1998, in: African Antelope Database 1998. IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group Report. An unexpected danger to giraffes in captivity is that, as they are typically the tallest objects in a zoo, giraffes are at increased risk of being struck by lightning. In the wild, this hazard is reduced by the presence of trees; as well, the giraffe's natural habitat range has an extremely low occurrence of lightning -- NASA's satellite lightning detection system indicates that the area receives an average of less than one cloud-to-ground flash per square kilometre per year. Lightning strikes giraffes Painting of a giraffe taken to China from Africa during the Ming Dynasty Giraffes can be seen in paintings, including the famous painting of a giraffe which was taken from Africa to China in 1414. The giraffe was placed in a Ming Dynasty zoo. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence, being reputedly the first living giraffe to be seen in Italy since the days of Ancient Rome. Another famous giraffe, called Zarafa, was brought from Africa to Paris in the early 1800s and kept in a menagerie for 18 years. Giraffe is a novel by the author J. M. Ledgard. The work concerns a true incident in which 49 giraffes were slaughtered in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1975 following the suspected outbreak of disease amongst the group. The novel contains extensive information about the species, including the long history of European fascination with the beast and its captivity in zoos. Notable fictional giraffes include: * Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was originally portrayed as a cartoon giraffe but in the 2001 commercials he was portrayed as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television. * Longrack of the Transformers universe * Girafarig from the PokÃ©mon franchise * Melman from ''Madagascar * Video - Giraffe birth at the San Francisco Zoo * Giraffes: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation ARKive - images and movies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Introduction to the history of the Giraffe in Middle Ages (French) * Animal Diversity Web - Giraffa camelopardalis * Giraffe Recruitment * Giraffe Central web directory * IUCN Red List of Threatened Species * PBS Nature: Tall Blondes (Giraffes) * Matt's World of Wicked Giraffes * Mating System * Giraffe Info Sheet * Long-term suppression of fertility in female giraffe using the GnRH agonist deslorelin as a long-acting implant *
Giraffe	How do giraffes defend themselves?	With powerful kicks	data/set1/a5	Giraffe The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,800 pounds). The record-sized bull, shot in Kenya in 1934, was 5.87 m (19.2 ft) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). San Diego Zoo giraffe fact sheet Retrieved 14 August 2006. Females are generally slightly shorter, and weigh less than the males do. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa. Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. They prefer areas enriched with acacia growth. They drink large quantities of water and, as a result, they can spend long periods of time in dry, arid areas. When searching for more food they will venture into areas with denser foliage. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. Camelopard The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it. The Arabic word Ø§ÙØ²Ø±Ø§ÙØ© ziraafa or zurapha, meaning "assemblage" (of animals), or just "tall", was used in English from the sixteenth century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. Comparison of the African Miocene giraffids: Palaeotragus (two top) and Climacoceras (two bottom) Giraffids evolved from a 3 metre (10 ft) tall antelope-like mammal which roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. Stevens, J. (1993). Familiar Strangers. International Wildlife, 23, 6-10. The earliest giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still resembled deer, having large antler-like ossicones. It first appeared in the early Miocene period. As the lineage went on the genuses Palaeotragus and Samotherium appeared in the early to mid-Miocene. One species of Palaeotragus developed more giraffe-like ossicones. They both were tall at the shoulder but still had short necks. From there the genus Giraffa evolved in the Pliocene period and Okapia evolved in the Pleistocene. The modern long-necked giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, appeared 1 million years ago. There are nine generally accepted subspecies, differentiated by colour and pattern variations and range: * Reticulated or Somali Giraffe (G.c. reticulata) â large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia. * Angolan or Smoky Giraffe (G.c. angolensis) â large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: Angola, Zambia. * Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum) â smaller, more irregular spots that cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan. * Masai or Kilimanjaro Giraffe (G.c. tippelskirchi) â jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania. * Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis) large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo. * Rothschild Giraffe or Baringo Giraffe or Ugandan Giraffe (G.c. rothschildi) â deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya. * South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffa) â rounded or blotched spots, some with star-like extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. * Thornicroft or Rhodesian Giraffe (G.c. thornicrofti) â star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia. * West African or Nigerian Giraffe (G.c. peralta) â numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: Niger, Cameroon. Some scientists regard Kordofan and West African Giraffes as a single subspecies; similarly with Nubian and Rothschild's Giraffes, and with Angolan and South African Giraffes. Further, some scientists regard all populations except the Masai Giraffes as a single subspecies. By contrast, scientists have proposed four other subspecies â Cape Giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado Giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo Giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal Giraffe (G.c. wardi) â but none of these is widely accepted. Though giraffes of these populations interbreed freely under conditions of captivity, suggesting that they are subspecific populations, genetic testing published in 2007 David Brown, Rick A Brenneman, et al., "Extensive Population Genetic Structure in the Giraffe", BioMedCentral Biology. Reported in BBC News, "Not one but 'six giraffe species'", 21 December 2007 and in ScienceDaily, "Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight", 21 December 2007 has been interpreted to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding, even though no natural obstacles, like mountain ranges or impassable rivers block their mutual access. In fact, the study found that the two giraffe populations that live closest to each otherâ the reticulated giraffe (G. camelopardalis reticulata) of north Kenya, and the Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in south Kenyaâ separated genetically between 0.13 and 1.62 million years BP, judging from genetic drift in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. The implications for conservation of as many as eleven such cryptic species and sub-species were summarised by David Brown for BBC "Lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection." Giraffe skeleton as illustrated by Richard Lydekker. Male giraffes are around 4.8-5.5 m (16-19 ft) tall at the horn tips, and normally weigh 1300-1700 kg (2900-3800 lb) Females are 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) shorter and weigh about 200-400 kg (400-800 lb) less than males. Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top â an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe Giraffe in captivity at the Melbourne Zoo Giraffes have long necks which they use to browse tree leaves. They possess seven vertebrae in the neck (the usual number for a mammal) that are elongated. The vertebrae are separated by highly flexible joints. The base of the neck has spines which project upward and form a hump over the shoulders. They have anchor muscles that hold the neck upright. Giraffes also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast, up to 55 km/h. Articlebase The Kenyan Giraffe It can not sustain a lengthy chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down. Giraffes are difficult and dangerous prey. The giraffe defends itself with a powerful kick. A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. Lions are the only predators which pose a serious threat to an adult giraffe. Giraffes bending down to drink Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain. In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in the same way as a pilot's g-suit. thumb Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffes will mingle with the other herbivores in the African bush. Their company is beneficial, since they are tall enough to have a much wider scope of an area and will watch for predators. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Mating Angolan Giraffes at Chudop waterhole, Etosha, Namibia. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week-old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. The young can fall prey to lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity (Encyclopedia of Animals). Two males necking. As noted above, males often engage in necking, which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to estrous females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Robert E. Simmons and Lue Scheepers: Winning by a neck: Sexual selection in the evolution of giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148 (1996): pp. 771-786. After a necking duel, a giraffe can land a powerful blow with his head â occasionally knocking a male opponent to the ground. These fights rarely last more than a few minutes or end in physical harm. Another function of necking is sexual, in which two males caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males are more frequent than heterosexual coupling. Coe, M.J. (1967). "Necking" behavior in the giraffe." Journal of Zoology, London 151: 313-321. In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behaviour with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; pp.391-393. Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. Jentz, D.C. & A.B. Gull 1978. Towards a definition of abnormal activity: stereotypic behaviours in captive primates. Mamm. Ecol. 12: 145â154. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects. Harrison, J.C, Q.F. George & C.C. Cronk 2001. Stereotypic behaviour in zoo animals. J. Zoo Sc. 23: 71â86. Due to the obvious social and cultural discomfort associated with the addition of milk delivery devices, animal enclosures are often enriched with other stimuli, such as food and mental distractions (toys, scent markings etc.). This operates as a distraction, removing the giraffeâs focus from its instinctual tendencies towards suckling, resulting in tongue lolling and licking of objects in close proximity. Giraffes use their long, prehensile tongues to extend their reach. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genus Mimosa; but it appears that it can live without inconvenience on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. As ruminants, they first chew their food, swallow for processing and then visibly regurgitate the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. Male giraffe making a cough-like mating call at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, Rhode Island A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 cm/18 in). The tongue is tough due to the giraffe's diet, which can include tree thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba, and possess a specially-adapted tongue and lips that are tough enough to withstand the vicious thorns of this plant. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - What is sleep Although generally quiet and not vocal, giraffes have been heard to make various sounds. Courting males will emit loud coughs. Females will call their young by whistling or bellowing. Calves will bleat, moo, or make mewing sounds. In addition, giraffes will grunt, snort, hiss, or make strange flute-like sounds. Recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. Infrasound From the Giraffe Lone giraffe at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya Giraffes are hunted for their hides, hair, and meat. In addition, habitat destruction also hurts the giraffe. In the Sahel trees are cut down for firewood and to make way for livestock. Normally, giraffes are able to cope with livestock since they feed in the trees above their heads. The giraffe population is shrinking in West Africa. However, the populations in eastern and southern Africa are stable and, due to the popularity of privately-owned game ranches and sanctuaries (i.e. Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary), are expanding. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. The total African giraffe population has been estimated to range from 110,000 to 150,000. Kenya (45,000), Tanzania (30,000), and Botswana (12,000), have the largest national populations. East, R. 1998, in: African Antelope Database 1998. IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group Report. An unexpected danger to giraffes in captivity is that, as they are typically the tallest objects in a zoo, giraffes are at increased risk of being struck by lightning. In the wild, this hazard is reduced by the presence of trees; as well, the giraffe's natural habitat range has an extremely low occurrence of lightning -- NASA's satellite lightning detection system indicates that the area receives an average of less than one cloud-to-ground flash per square kilometre per year. Lightning strikes giraffes Painting of a giraffe taken to China from Africa during the Ming Dynasty Giraffes can be seen in paintings, including the famous painting of a giraffe which was taken from Africa to China in 1414. The giraffe was placed in a Ming Dynasty zoo. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence, being reputedly the first living giraffe to be seen in Italy since the days of Ancient Rome. Another famous giraffe, called Zarafa, was brought from Africa to Paris in the early 1800s and kept in a menagerie for 18 years. Giraffe is a novel by the author J. M. Ledgard. The work concerns a true incident in which 49 giraffes were slaughtered in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1975 following the suspected outbreak of disease amongst the group. The novel contains extensive information about the species, including the long history of European fascination with the beast and its captivity in zoos. Notable fictional giraffes include: * Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was originally portrayed as a cartoon giraffe but in the 2001 commercials he was portrayed as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television. * Longrack of the Transformers universe * Girafarig from the PokÃ©mon franchise * Melman from ''Madagascar * Video - Giraffe birth at the San Francisco Zoo * Giraffes: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation ARKive - images and movies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Introduction to the history of the Giraffe in Middle Ages (French) * Animal Diversity Web - Giraffa camelopardalis * Giraffe Recruitment * Giraffe Central web directory * IUCN Red List of Threatened Species * PBS Nature: Tall Blondes (Giraffes) * Matt's World of Wicked Giraffes * Mating System * Giraffe Info Sheet * Long-term suppression of fertility in female giraffe using the GnRH agonist deslorelin as a long-acting implant *
Giraffe	Do male giraffes weigh more than female giraffes?	Yes	data/set1/a5	Giraffe The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,800 pounds). The record-sized bull, shot in Kenya in 1934, was 5.87 m (19.2 ft) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). San Diego Zoo giraffe fact sheet Retrieved 14 August 2006. Females are generally slightly shorter, and weigh less than the males do. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa. Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. They prefer areas enriched with acacia growth. They drink large quantities of water and, as a result, they can spend long periods of time in dry, arid areas. When searching for more food they will venture into areas with denser foliage. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. Camelopard The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it. The Arabic word Ø§ÙØ²Ø±Ø§ÙØ© ziraafa or zurapha, meaning "assemblage" (of animals), or just "tall", was used in English from the sixteenth century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. Comparison of the African Miocene giraffids: Palaeotragus (two top) and Climacoceras (two bottom) Giraffids evolved from a 3 metre (10 ft) tall antelope-like mammal which roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. Stevens, J. (1993). Familiar Strangers. International Wildlife, 23, 6-10. The earliest giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still resembled deer, having large antler-like ossicones. It first appeared in the early Miocene period. As the lineage went on the genuses Palaeotragus and Samotherium appeared in the early to mid-Miocene. One species of Palaeotragus developed more giraffe-like ossicones. They both were tall at the shoulder but still had short necks. From there the genus Giraffa evolved in the Pliocene period and Okapia evolved in the Pleistocene. The modern long-necked giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, appeared 1 million years ago. There are nine generally accepted subspecies, differentiated by colour and pattern variations and range: * Reticulated or Somali Giraffe (G.c. reticulata) â large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia. * Angolan or Smoky Giraffe (G.c. angolensis) â large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: Angola, Zambia. * Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum) â smaller, more irregular spots that cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan. * Masai or Kilimanjaro Giraffe (G.c. tippelskirchi) â jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania. * Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis) large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo. * Rothschild Giraffe or Baringo Giraffe or Ugandan Giraffe (G.c. rothschildi) â deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya. * South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffa) â rounded or blotched spots, some with star-like extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. * Thornicroft or Rhodesian Giraffe (G.c. thornicrofti) â star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia. * West African or Nigerian Giraffe (G.c. peralta) â numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: Niger, Cameroon. Some scientists regard Kordofan and West African Giraffes as a single subspecies; similarly with Nubian and Rothschild's Giraffes, and with Angolan and South African Giraffes. Further, some scientists regard all populations except the Masai Giraffes as a single subspecies. By contrast, scientists have proposed four other subspecies â Cape Giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado Giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo Giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal Giraffe (G.c. wardi) â but none of these is widely accepted. Though giraffes of these populations interbreed freely under conditions of captivity, suggesting that they are subspecific populations, genetic testing published in 2007 David Brown, Rick A Brenneman, et al., "Extensive Population Genetic Structure in the Giraffe", BioMedCentral Biology. Reported in BBC News, "Not one but 'six giraffe species'", 21 December 2007 and in ScienceDaily, "Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight", 21 December 2007 has been interpreted to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding, even though no natural obstacles, like mountain ranges or impassable rivers block their mutual access. In fact, the study found that the two giraffe populations that live closest to each otherâ the reticulated giraffe (G. camelopardalis reticulata) of north Kenya, and the Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in south Kenyaâ separated genetically between 0.13 and 1.62 million years BP, judging from genetic drift in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. The implications for conservation of as many as eleven such cryptic species and sub-species were summarised by David Brown for BBC "Lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection." Giraffe skeleton as illustrated by Richard Lydekker. Male giraffes are around 4.8-5.5 m (16-19 ft) tall at the horn tips, and normally weigh 1300-1700 kg (2900-3800 lb) Females are 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) shorter and weigh about 200-400 kg (400-800 lb) less than males. Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top â an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe Giraffe in captivity at the Melbourne Zoo Giraffes have long necks which they use to browse tree leaves. They possess seven vertebrae in the neck (the usual number for a mammal) that are elongated. The vertebrae are separated by highly flexible joints. The base of the neck has spines which project upward and form a hump over the shoulders. They have anchor muscles that hold the neck upright. Giraffes also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast, up to 55 km/h. Articlebase The Kenyan Giraffe It can not sustain a lengthy chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down. Giraffes are difficult and dangerous prey. The giraffe defends itself with a powerful kick. A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. Lions are the only predators which pose a serious threat to an adult giraffe. Giraffes bending down to drink Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain. In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in the same way as a pilot's g-suit. thumb Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffes will mingle with the other herbivores in the African bush. Their company is beneficial, since they are tall enough to have a much wider scope of an area and will watch for predators. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Mating Angolan Giraffes at Chudop waterhole, Etosha, Namibia. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week-old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. The young can fall prey to lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity (Encyclopedia of Animals). Two males necking. As noted above, males often engage in necking, which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to estrous females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Robert E. Simmons and Lue Scheepers: Winning by a neck: Sexual selection in the evolution of giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148 (1996): pp. 771-786. After a necking duel, a giraffe can land a powerful blow with his head â occasionally knocking a male opponent to the ground. These fights rarely last more than a few minutes or end in physical harm. Another function of necking is sexual, in which two males caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males are more frequent than heterosexual coupling. Coe, M.J. (1967). "Necking" behavior in the giraffe." Journal of Zoology, London 151: 313-321. In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behaviour with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; pp.391-393. Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. Jentz, D.C. & A.B. Gull 1978. Towards a definition of abnormal activity: stereotypic behaviours in captive primates. Mamm. Ecol. 12: 145â154. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects. Harrison, J.C, Q.F. George & C.C. Cronk 2001. Stereotypic behaviour in zoo animals. J. Zoo Sc. 23: 71â86. Due to the obvious social and cultural discomfort associated with the addition of milk delivery devices, animal enclosures are often enriched with other stimuli, such as food and mental distractions (toys, scent markings etc.). This operates as a distraction, removing the giraffeâs focus from its instinctual tendencies towards suckling, resulting in tongue lolling and licking of objects in close proximity. Giraffes use their long, prehensile tongues to extend their reach. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genus Mimosa; but it appears that it can live without inconvenience on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. As ruminants, they first chew their food, swallow for processing and then visibly regurgitate the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. Male giraffe making a cough-like mating call at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, Rhode Island A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 cm/18 in). The tongue is tough due to the giraffe's diet, which can include tree thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba, and possess a specially-adapted tongue and lips that are tough enough to withstand the vicious thorns of this plant. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - What is sleep Although generally quiet and not vocal, giraffes have been heard to make various sounds. Courting males will emit loud coughs. Females will call their young by whistling or bellowing. Calves will bleat, moo, or make mewing sounds. In addition, giraffes will grunt, snort, hiss, or make strange flute-like sounds. Recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. Infrasound From the Giraffe Lone giraffe at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya Giraffes are hunted for their hides, hair, and meat. In addition, habitat destruction also hurts the giraffe. In the Sahel trees are cut down for firewood and to make way for livestock. Normally, giraffes are able to cope with livestock since they feed in the trees above their heads. The giraffe population is shrinking in West Africa. However, the populations in eastern and southern Africa are stable and, due to the popularity of privately-owned game ranches and sanctuaries (i.e. Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary), are expanding. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. The total African giraffe population has been estimated to range from 110,000 to 150,000. Kenya (45,000), Tanzania (30,000), and Botswana (12,000), have the largest national populations. East, R. 1998, in: African Antelope Database 1998. IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group Report. An unexpected danger to giraffes in captivity is that, as they are typically the tallest objects in a zoo, giraffes are at increased risk of being struck by lightning. In the wild, this hazard is reduced by the presence of trees; as well, the giraffe's natural habitat range has an extremely low occurrence of lightning -- NASA's satellite lightning detection system indicates that the area receives an average of less than one cloud-to-ground flash per square kilometre per year. Lightning strikes giraffes Painting of a giraffe taken to China from Africa during the Ming Dynasty Giraffes can be seen in paintings, including the famous painting of a giraffe which was taken from Africa to China in 1414. The giraffe was placed in a Ming Dynasty zoo. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence, being reputedly the first living giraffe to be seen in Italy since the days of Ancient Rome. Another famous giraffe, called Zarafa, was brought from Africa to Paris in the early 1800s and kept in a menagerie for 18 years. Giraffe is a novel by the author J. M. Ledgard. The work concerns a true incident in which 49 giraffes were slaughtered in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1975 following the suspected outbreak of disease amongst the group. The novel contains extensive information about the species, including the long history of European fascination with the beast and its captivity in zoos. Notable fictional giraffes include: * Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was originally portrayed as a cartoon giraffe but in the 2001 commercials he was portrayed as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television. * Longrack of the Transformers universe * Girafarig from the PokÃ©mon franchise * Melman from ''Madagascar * Video - Giraffe birth at the San Francisco Zoo * Giraffes: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation ARKive - images and movies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Introduction to the history of the Giraffe in Middle Ages (French) * Animal Diversity Web - Giraffa camelopardalis * Giraffe Recruitment * Giraffe Central web directory * IUCN Red List of Threatened Species * PBS Nature: Tall Blondes (Giraffes) * Matt's World of Wicked Giraffes * Mating System * Giraffe Info Sheet * Long-term suppression of fertility in female giraffe using the GnRH agonist deslorelin as a long-acting implant *
Giraffe	Do male giraffes weigh more than female giraffes?	yes	data/set1/a5	Giraffe The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms (3,800 pounds). The record-sized bull, shot in Kenya in 1934, was 5.87 m (19.2 ft) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). San Diego Zoo giraffe fact sheet Retrieved 14 August 2006. Females are generally slightly shorter, and weigh less than the males do. The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Its range extends from Chad to South Africa. Giraffes can inhabit savannas, grasslands, or open woodlands. They prefer areas enriched with acacia growth. They drink large quantities of water and, as a result, they can spend long periods of time in dry, arid areas. When searching for more food they will venture into areas with denser foliage. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. Camelopard The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it. The Arabic word Ø§ÙØ²Ø±Ø§ÙØ© ziraafa or zurapha, meaning "assemblage" (of animals), or just "tall", was used in English from the sixteenth century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. Comparison of the African Miocene giraffids: Palaeotragus (two top) and Climacoceras (two bottom) Giraffids evolved from a 3 metre (10 ft) tall antelope-like mammal which roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. Stevens, J. (1993). Familiar Strangers. International Wildlife, 23, 6-10. The earliest giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still resembled deer, having large antler-like ossicones. It first appeared in the early Miocene period. As the lineage went on the genuses Palaeotragus and Samotherium appeared in the early to mid-Miocene. One species of Palaeotragus developed more giraffe-like ossicones. They both were tall at the shoulder but still had short necks. From there the genus Giraffa evolved in the Pliocene period and Okapia evolved in the Pleistocene. The modern long-necked giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, appeared 1 million years ago. There are nine generally accepted subspecies, differentiated by colour and pattern variations and range: * Reticulated or Somali Giraffe (G.c. reticulata) â large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia. * Angolan or Smoky Giraffe (G.c. angolensis) â large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: Angola, Zambia. * Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum) â smaller, more irregular spots that cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan. * Masai or Kilimanjaro Giraffe (G.c. tippelskirchi) â jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania. * Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis) large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo. * Rothschild Giraffe or Baringo Giraffe or Ugandan Giraffe (G.c. rothschildi) â deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya. * South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffa) â rounded or blotched spots, some with star-like extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. * Thornicroft or Rhodesian Giraffe (G.c. thornicrofti) â star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia. * West African or Nigerian Giraffe (G.c. peralta) â numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: Niger, Cameroon. Some scientists regard Kordofan and West African Giraffes as a single subspecies; similarly with Nubian and Rothschild's Giraffes, and with Angolan and South African Giraffes. Further, some scientists regard all populations except the Masai Giraffes as a single subspecies. By contrast, scientists have proposed four other subspecies â Cape Giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado Giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo Giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal Giraffe (G.c. wardi) â but none of these is widely accepted. Though giraffes of these populations interbreed freely under conditions of captivity, suggesting that they are subspecific populations, genetic testing published in 2007 David Brown, Rick A Brenneman, et al., "Extensive Population Genetic Structure in the Giraffe", BioMedCentral Biology. Reported in BBC News, "Not one but 'six giraffe species'", 21 December 2007 and in ScienceDaily, "Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain Sight", 21 December 2007 has been interpreted to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding, even though no natural obstacles, like mountain ranges or impassable rivers block their mutual access. In fact, the study found that the two giraffe populations that live closest to each otherâ the reticulated giraffe (G. camelopardalis reticulata) of north Kenya, and the Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in south Kenyaâ separated genetically between 0.13 and 1.62 million years BP, judging from genetic drift in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. The implications for conservation of as many as eleven such cryptic species and sub-species were summarised by David Brown for BBC "Lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection." Giraffe skeleton as illustrated by Richard Lydekker. Male giraffes are around 4.8-5.5 m (16-19 ft) tall at the horn tips, and normally weigh 1300-1700 kg (2900-3800 lb) Females are 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) shorter and weigh about 200-400 kg (400-800 lb) less than males. Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Both sexes have horns, although the horns of a female are smaller. The prominent horns are formed from ossified cartilage, and are called ossicones. The appearance of horns is a reliable method of identifying the sex of giraffes, with the females displaying tufts of hair on the top of the horns, where as males' horns tend to be bald on top â an effect of necking in combat. Males sometimes develop calcium deposits which form bumps on their skull as they age, which can give the appearance of up to three additional horns. San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe Giraffe in captivity at the Melbourne Zoo Giraffes have long necks which they use to browse tree leaves. They possess seven vertebrae in the neck (the usual number for a mammal) that are elongated. The vertebrae are separated by highly flexible joints. The base of the neck has spines which project upward and form a hump over the shoulders. They have anchor muscles that hold the neck upright. Giraffes also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast, up to 55 km/h. Articlebase The Kenyan Giraffe It can not sustain a lengthy chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down. Giraffes are difficult and dangerous prey. The giraffe defends itself with a powerful kick. A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. Lions are the only predators which pose a serious threat to an adult giraffe. Giraffes bending down to drink Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and measure about 60 cm (2 ft) long, must generate approximately double the normal blood pressure for an average large mammal to maintain blood flow to the brain. In the upper neck, a complex pressure-regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in the same way as a pilot's g-suit. thumb Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffes will mingle with the other herbivores in the African bush. Their company is beneficial, since they are tall enough to have a much wider scope of an area and will watch for predators. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Mating Angolan Giraffes at Chudop waterhole, Etosha, Namibia. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week-old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. The young can fall prey to lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity (Encyclopedia of Animals). Two males necking. As noted above, males often engage in necking, which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to estrous females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Robert E. Simmons and Lue Scheepers: Winning by a neck: Sexual selection in the evolution of giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148 (1996): pp. 771-786. After a necking duel, a giraffe can land a powerful blow with his head â occasionally knocking a male opponent to the ground. These fights rarely last more than a few minutes or end in physical harm. Another function of necking is sexual, in which two males caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males are more frequent than heterosexual coupling. Coe, M.J. (1967). "Necking" behavior in the giraffe." Journal of Zoology, London 151: 313-321. In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behaviour with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; pp.391-393. Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. Jentz, D.C. & A.B. Gull 1978. Towards a definition of abnormal activity: stereotypic behaviours in captive primates. Mamm. Ecol. 12: 145â154. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects. Harrison, J.C, Q.F. George & C.C. Cronk 2001. Stereotypic behaviour in zoo animals. J. Zoo Sc. 23: 71â86. Due to the obvious social and cultural discomfort associated with the addition of milk delivery devices, animal enclosures are often enriched with other stimuli, such as food and mental distractions (toys, scent markings etc.). This operates as a distraction, removing the giraffeâs focus from its instinctual tendencies towards suckling, resulting in tongue lolling and licking of objects in close proximity. Giraffes use their long, prehensile tongues to extend their reach. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genus Mimosa; but it appears that it can live without inconvenience on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. As ruminants, they first chew their food, swallow for processing and then visibly regurgitate the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. Male giraffe making a cough-like mating call at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, Rhode Island A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 cm/18 in). The tongue is tough due to the giraffe's diet, which can include tree thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba, and possess a specially-adapted tongue and lips that are tough enough to withstand the vicious thorns of this plant. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 10 minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - What is sleep Although generally quiet and not vocal, giraffes have been heard to make various sounds. Courting males will emit loud coughs. Females will call their young by whistling or bellowing. Calves will bleat, moo, or make mewing sounds. In addition, giraffes will grunt, snort, hiss, or make strange flute-like sounds. Recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. Infrasound From the Giraffe Lone giraffe at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya Giraffes are hunted for their hides, hair, and meat. In addition, habitat destruction also hurts the giraffe. In the Sahel trees are cut down for firewood and to make way for livestock. Normally, giraffes are able to cope with livestock since they feed in the trees above their heads. The giraffe population is shrinking in West Africa. However, the populations in eastern and southern Africa are stable and, due to the popularity of privately-owned game ranches and sanctuaries (i.e. Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary), are expanding. The giraffe is a protected species in most of its range. The total African giraffe population has been estimated to range from 110,000 to 150,000. Kenya (45,000), Tanzania (30,000), and Botswana (12,000), have the largest national populations. East, R. 1998, in: African Antelope Database 1998. IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group Report. An unexpected danger to giraffes in captivity is that, as they are typically the tallest objects in a zoo, giraffes are at increased risk of being struck by lightning. In the wild, this hazard is reduced by the presence of trees; as well, the giraffe's natural habitat range has an extremely low occurrence of lightning -- NASA's satellite lightning detection system indicates that the area receives an average of less than one cloud-to-ground flash per square kilometre per year. Lightning strikes giraffes Painting of a giraffe taken to China from Africa during the Ming Dynasty Giraffes can be seen in paintings, including the famous painting of a giraffe which was taken from Africa to China in 1414. The giraffe was placed in a Ming Dynasty zoo. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1486. It caused a great stir on its arrival in Florence, being reputedly the first living giraffe to be seen in Italy since the days of Ancient Rome. Another famous giraffe, called Zarafa, was brought from Africa to Paris in the early 1800s and kept in a menagerie for 18 years. Giraffe is a novel by the author J. M. Ledgard. The work concerns a true incident in which 49 giraffes were slaughtered in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1975 following the suspected outbreak of disease amongst the group. The novel contains extensive information about the species, including the long history of European fascination with the beast and its captivity in zoos. Notable fictional giraffes include: * Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was originally portrayed as a cartoon giraffe but in the 2001 commercials he was portrayed as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television. * Longrack of the Transformers universe * Girafarig from the PokÃ©mon franchise * Melman from ''Madagascar * Video - Giraffe birth at the San Francisco Zoo * Giraffes: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation ARKive - images and movies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Introduction to the history of the Giraffe in Middle Ages (French) * Animal Diversity Web - Giraffa camelopardalis * Giraffe Recruitment * Giraffe Central web directory * IUCN Red List of Threatened Species * PBS Nature: Tall Blondes (Giraffes) * Matt's World of Wicked Giraffes * Mating System * Giraffe Info Sheet * Long-term suppression of fertility in female giraffe using the GnRH agonist deslorelin as a long-acting implant *

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