text:
User:Elian/Proposal

Suggestion of guidelines for a neutralization of articles related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
This is only an additional proposal to the general policy of the Neutral Point of View

 * 1) An article should contain in general more facts than views, so that the reader has the possibility to interprete the presented views for himself with actual knowledge of the facts.
 * 2) Concurring views, e. i. "the" Arab and "the" Israeli side, should be given in general equal space. In existing articles where one side is grossly overrepresented the whole viewpart should be moved to the related talkpage until an equilibrium is reached.
 * 3) Writers should keep in mind, that there is no "Israeli view" and no "Arab view". Try to attribute as detailed as possible, f.e. "Israeli settlers", "Palestinian islamist groups". Views attributed to "some Israelis", "almost all Palestinians" should be based on statistics.
 * 4) Use strong words like "terror", "assasinated" with great care. Writing in one case of "assassination" where you use for the other side just a "killing" means already unconsciously taking party for one side and subtly influencing the reader. If you want to write "and terrorized the..." better  describe precisely the actions that constituted the "terror".
 * 5) Never try in your article to charge up deads/injured/terrible actions of one side against the deads/injured/terrible actions of the other side.
 * 6) (to be continued)

Uriyan's additions and Elian's comments I wish to propose several additional points for the policy you proposed:
 * We should try to ignore propaganda links (from both sides). There are a plenty of them, and they're next to useless. I see no reason why we should link to them, unless it's solid facts they contain.

 * 100% agreed. Now the dangerous question: what is to be considered a propaganda site? I read some discussions on the talkpages where sites were categorized as such because of ommisions of balancing facts, f.e. a site which lists only killed palestinians and no israelis. Using this definition we would also have to classify f.e. (where are the dead palestinians?) as a propaganda site. So I would opt for another strategy, i.e. excluding sites which use hate speech and refer to the opponent in a degrading manner.

 * (a continuation of the last point) If someone says something, it still doesn't have to be true. E.g., King Hussein and Nasser have declared on June 6th, 1967 that American and British aircraft helped Israeli ones to strike Arab targets. An utter lie, it is still repeated by some even though Israel has publicly broadcast the intercepted phone call between the leaders in which they invented the "news"!

 * One suggestion: we don't have to list everything. A simple solution: if the described lie has no real effect onto the described history (by that I mean something like causing some other arab state to declare war, too) we can leave it out. One of the essential things in a good encyclopedia article should be only to describe the relevant, not all facts.

 * We should abide to normal conventions. That is, the area of olive trees razed should be in hectars (or sq. km., not sq. m.!). Figures should be precise, and names (including article names) should follow the English usage. For instance, Al-Quds is the Arabic name of Jerusalem (commonly used name), no reason to have a separate article for it.

 * agreed. (BTW, I think, the al-Quds, at least the wikification, wasn't my change) However, I am used to German transcription, so if you find errors, feel free to correct them.

Wikipedia is about integration (which leads me to the following point:)

 * We should re-factor pages so they cover each issue once in the whole 'pedia. In other words, only one page for discussing whether territories are occupied (elsewhere link to it). I see no particular reason why the same arguments should be duplicated in multiple articles.

 * me neither. I feel the need for a little bit more structure, maybe we could start by a listing with all the articles about the conflict, bringing them into a logical structure (historic events, geographical places, people etc.), then decide how to arrange it and which articles need to be modified.
 * Has any progress been made on a page for all articles? and How would one find it then the search only returns if a page is found?
 * Does the "search" function list all pages containing a term?

 * We should define "terrorism" ad-hoc as "violence against civilians carried out by a non-state organization to achieve a political end". "State terrorism" is such violence carried out by a state.

 * agreed.

 * I see no reason to go into gore. For example, I could describe the way Vadim Norzhitz was torn apart by citizens of Ramallah, how his murderers displayed their bloody hands for the world to behold, and how his pregnant wife gave birth to a child that will never meet his father. I don't think I should write that (even though that would be in order) - because I think the emotional impact of the description is excessive. There's got to be a point where we stop.

 * that was one of my thoughts too. Detailed description of violence is too often used as a propaganda tool and distracts the reader from an objective judgement.

 * "Occupation" is a very loaded word extensively used in Palestinian P.R.-speak. As the issue is very complicated (on the tip of things, Israel's only way to end what most of the world calls "occupation" is by negotiations for the creation of a state - which is already far enough from the usual meaning of the word), I think we should minimize the use of the word in favor of control + discussion of Israeli control + link to Palestinian territories.

 * this question is something I'd like to discuss with you by mail. But I agree with you that when we reorganize the articles the name of the article referring to Westbank and Gaza should be a more neutral "Palestinian territory"

 * Does international law recornize "terroitory" or "Palestine". Calling it territory is political as well since it sugests it is not a "state".  I would rather prefer to use "disputed territory". "Palestinian territory" is also not unbiased (same with "liberated territory").

I probably have some other thoughts but I've got to disconnect at this moment. Please mail me/leave a message at my talk page and inform me about your opinions. Sincerely yours,
 * --Uri 21:15 Oct 7, 2002 (UTC)

In the article for Occupation it states that occupation "involves physically taking possession of an area" and that seems to be a fitting description. It's clearly not an annexation. // Liftarn

Question: what is the English equivalent to the German noun "Schwarzweißmalerei"?

There is a POV that individuals can be arbitrarily (even against their will) classified into ethnic or religious categories and that they have collective rights or obligations or guilt as a result. This POV is implictly assumed throughout the Israel-related pages. Generally accepted human rights concepts are based on individual rights. Who is assigned to a particilar group is often very political. For example there are large numbers of "right of return" immigrants to Israel who are officially classified as "Jews" even though they may be practicing Christians. We should not talk about "Jews" or "Arabs" without mentioning who is doing the classifying.

137.186.217.254 08:30, 13 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Keith from Calgary - WP keeps forgetting I'm logged in - is it a timeout? do I need to type fstr?

 * I don't know if my comments are welcome as a non-project-member, but Elian, you suggest we "Never try in your article to charge up deads/injured/terrible actions of one side against the deads/injured/terrible actions of the other side" but in a conflict where (overall) the deaths are about 90% Palestinian and (since 2001) 75% Palestinian, (and in a conflict, moreover, where popular perception of those statistics is completely reversed)isn't that a profoundly POV principle to adopt? --joveis 19:41, 3 August 2005 (UTC)
 * I would also argue that, far from being characterizable as a "loaded word extensively used in Palestinian P.R.-speak," "The Occupied Terriories" is both the standard terminology for the West Bank and Gaza used in UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, and it is also the most commonly used means in English to refer to the West Bank and Gaza. It's fair and necessary to repeatedly note that Israel disputes the term, but isn't it quite POV to pick an Israel-friendly term like "Palestinian territories" when it's almost never the term used in discussion, within the language or globally?  Besides, if you refer only to the Occupied Territories (and not all of historical Palestine) as the "Palestinian Territories," aren't you being deliberately POV on the question of Palestinian right of return to Israel, with the issues of reparations and repatriation which that involves? --joveis 19:41, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

title: User:Elian/Proposal


text:
User:Elian/NPOV

Hello,

When I discovered Wikipedia I was really fascinated and decided to join the project. One of my first selfimposed limitations before I even knew about the NPOV-policy, however, was not to write about the Israeli-palestinian conflict because I consider myself as biased (having friends who are palestinian refugees).

So far no problem, I worked happily on the German wikipedia (wrote articles about the hebrew language and alphabet, and a lot of philosophy stuff) until someone started to translate the articles about this conflict from the english wikipedia. Then I had a look at these articles and I must say (as many others did, too - see the talk pages):

They don't feel NPOV at all. It's quite difficult to find out why these articles don't feel NPOV. On the surface everything seems to comply with the wikipedia standards. Particular views are labelled as such, there is no obvious propaganda of neither side and though, a very bad feeling remains for me, when I read these articles. This mail is an attempt to sort this out. I know it is almost impossible to write objective about this conflict even if you try hard. It's not the intention of this mail to propose an euphemization of terrorist attacks or suicide bombings, but a plead to treat the victims on both sides of this conflict in a fair way in wikipedia.

First, I see a problem with a lot of little formulations. There were so many formulations which hurt: more than 100 killed civilians, women and children constituted the deir yassin "incident" - see edit history of "Irgun", where the Irgun was "supposed to have killed them". I am sure the deads would not consider their murder as "supposedly".

Or "Palestinians claim that the bulk of Palestinian refugees had been inhabitants of Palestine for many generations": doesn't this obvious, totally trivial fact, recognized by the UNO, earn a formulation as a fact, not a claim?

Other things, on the contrary, seem to be facts: "The infiltration, which was usually carried out at night by desperate people, terrorized the Jewish civilians, some of whom lived in former Arab areas. Moreover, while most of the infiltrators didn't come with the intention to kill, many of them did steal property." (Palestinian_infiltration) There is no question that this "stolen property" may have been one year earlier the rightful property of the "infiltrator" before disseized by Israeli law, no, "they steal property".

It's a real question which definition of law applies in the wikipedia: is it the positive law, set by the victorious party in a conflict? Or do we adhere to some internationally defined standards of human rights and international law?

My last example is the part about the origin of suicide bombings in "Terrorism against Israel": First comes a view attributed to some Israelis and Americans that propaganda in palestinian schoolbooks incites terrorism. It is followed by a view attributed to Palestinians "that the homicide bombings are forgiveable and understandable effects of the unsatisfactory situation in which Palestinians live, and that it is the only way to achieve the results they desire." followed by "In contrast, Israelis and Americans point out that millions of people live in similar and worse conditions all over the world, yet these people never resort to waves of homicide bombings."

Okay, the thing with the schoolbooks should be clear for the interested reader, but what the hell is the "unsatisfactory situation"?

The goal of an encyclopedia should not be to justify terrorism, but it is definitely one of its goals to describe accurately what the source of this terrorism is. There are enough studies around the world who show that children growing up in an atmosphere of violence (for example african child soldiers) tend later to attempt to resolve conflicts in a violent way. Doesn't the experience of children seeing their parents beaten, their family home blown up and living under curfews or in permament danger of being shot accidentally when leaving the house merit a mention as possible influence of palestinian terrorism beside the schoolbook debate?

I don't want to go deeper into details, instead I want to point out another problem of non neutral point of view formulation. Regarding only how much space is dedicated to which aspect of an article, the articles about the israeli-palestinian conflict show a strong tendency towards the following behaviour:

Palestinian_exodus: 521 chars of facts 5648 chars "Responsibility of the Arab side for the exodus" 435 "Israeli violence, and threats of such"

Palestinian_refugee: 295 chars of facts 229 chars of palestinian claims 1990 chars "Objections which have been raised by Israel" starting with a denial that palestinians exist at all.

Where is the "arguing for the enemy" that the NPOV-policy demands?

That's the last point of my long posting: people who don't consider themself neutral and objective enough because they are either party in the conflict or strongly biased towards one side should ask themselves seriously if they are able to give a fair account of these things and if they deem themselves not able, refrain from editing. I have serious doubts that for example someone who calls Palestinians "those dratted Arabs" (see Palestinian_territories discussion page) can be considered neutral enough.

Instead, I'd like to call on all people who are not part of the conflict, especially on the historians (because they should be used to present events in a neutral way) to wage an effort to neutralize these articles. This is not always done by inserting "claims" and "supposed", but internationally recognized facts should be presented as such (even if the Israeli government or the Hamas leaders refuse to acknowledge them).

Israel's existence is a fact and denials of this should be treated in wikipedia equally to holocaust denial.

But human rights violation are human rights violations, even if the state Israel says, destroying of palestinian houses is lawful, because a terrorist lived in it. (see B'tselem discussion page) For the terrorist's little three-year-old sister, who is then forced to live on the street, it _is_ a human rights violation and according to the international declaration of human rights it is, too.

Anything else is a verbal attack and a mockery of the victims of this conflict on both sides which doesn't become the neutral wikipedia well.

If someone can't understand why this is troubling me so, I can explain this with an analogy if desired. (I don't do now because this mail is already long enough)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:Elian/NPOV


text:
Talk:Dutch language

Comment
"Dutch language, spoken in Aruba, Belgium, Curaçao, the Netherlands, Sint Maarten, and Suriname." Speling12345 (talk) 3:52, 13 December 2013 (UTC)

Standard language: 3 genders
I am confused by the "two to three genders" in the lead. So there are neuter words which I don't think anyone is disputing. And while many historically feminine and masculine words can be considered "common" in the standard language (=speakers can chose whether these words are referred to as "hij/hem/zijn" (he/him/his) or "zij/ze/haar" (she/her/her)), not all words can. Het Groene Boekje has purely feminine (e.g., ) and purely masculine words, which means that there are three genders in the standard language. Morgengave (talk) 09:24, 29 April 2018 (UTC)
 * IIUC, Het Groene Boekje gives genders as they were historically, and still are in Dutch idiolects and regiolects using all three. However, it has long been "acceptable" (since the 1960s and possibly earlier) to regard as masculine all de-words except those naming biologicaly female beings. As a rule of thumb, Hollandic usually has two genders (de and het, with, as in English which has no grammatical gender, zij, ze, haar only used for female persons or animals) while Southern Dutch (Flemish, Brabantian, etc.) usually has three (hij, ze, het, with de zon (the sun), de gelegenheid (the opportunity), de broederschap (the fraternity), etc. beiing regarded as feminine). I'm not sure where to draw the line between them. — Tonymec (talk) 00:57, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

Dutch for Hindi speakers
The English Wikipedia article states that "English is the only language to use the adjective Dutch for the language of the Netherlands" but the English to Hindi translation of "Dutch" provided by English Wiktionary contradicts this. The Hindi word for Dutch ("डच" / ḍac) derives from the English word "Dutch". The translations into Dhivehi, Marathi, Nepali, and Urdu also appear to share the same root from English. Nicole Sharp (talk) 15:17, 11 March 2022 (UTC)

 * Well, the Hindi word for Dutch is unambiguously an English derivative, this is why it is ignored. The article wants to say that "English is the only language to use Dutch as an own word for the language of the Netherlands", the cognates of the word Dutch, German deutsch, Swedish tysk, Dutch Duits, Italian tedesco, all mean German, while Hindi probably had no word for either Dutch or German, as the Hindi did not know these nations, therefore, when it became important, they started to use the word for them from the language they know had, English. This all means that डच is actually an English word in Hindi i.e., "English is the only…" can be considered right. CERBERUS - ii iv iii (talk) 19:33, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

Official language of the Netherlands
Regarding this edit by User:Nederlandse Leeuw.

The second paragraph of the lede says that Dutch does not have the status of an official language, based on this source from the site De Nederlandse Grundwet.

Now, several sources claim otherwise:

I doubt that these sources are all wrong. The main issue seems to be the purely de facto status of Dutch as official language of the Netherlands since there is no explicit regulation in the constitution or elsewhere. The above-mentioned text in De Nederlandse Grundwet talks about unsuccessful attempts to amend the constitution in this respect, and cites as one of the reasons for an initiative in 1995: "Het artikel beoogde ook de tot dusver ongeschreven regel vast te leggen dat Nederlands de officiële voertaal is." (The article also intended to specify the hitherto unwritten rule that Dutch is the official language").

So, should we follow reliable sources in this matter, or do we take the position "no de jure official language" = "no official language". Personally, I opt for the former solution. – Austronesier (talk) 12:05, 22 May 2023 (UTC)

 * @Austronesier It is a valid question, and I've wondered about this. But I think we can regard de jure and "official" as synonyms, because all discussions about whether to make Dutch the "official" language had to do with enshrining it in the Dutch Constitution or some other sort of national/countrywide law.
 * By comparison, the Dutch language has been made co-official in the province of Friesland, as well as co-official in the Caribbean Netherlands or BES islands (as well as the CAS islands), but not on a national/countrywide level. How? By law. We can point to a written text which says that Dutch is official in each of these subnational territories.
 * The fact that, after a plethora of formal opposition, arguments and recommendations against it were made, the formal proposal by the government to make Dutch an / the official language of/in the Netherlands on the national/countrywide level was ultimately withdrawn by the government on 19 February 2018, leads to the conclusion that it still hasn't been made "official". And that this withdrawal is the result of careful considerations of the pros and contras (and the latter seem to have outweighed the former). The government gave up because it was unclear what to do with other languages, and there was "insufficient societal need" (onvoldoende maatschappelijke behoefte) to continue trying to make it official: Minister Ollongren wrote to the House of Representatives that the proposal did not sufficiently take into account other the official languages used in the Netherlands besides Dutch and Frisian, such as English and Papiamentu. The cabinet also saw insufficient societal need for the bill.
 * That means we are still stuck at the level of "unwritten rule". An "unwritten rule" = unofficial. If it were a written rule, it would be de jure, i.e. official. But it's not.
 * I think Wikipedia should be accurate on this point, and not explain de facto as if it means "official", which I consider misleading. To take a ridiculous example: I can claim my dad is the de facto Pope as long as I say: "Well it's not written down in any sort of law or anything, but really, my dad is the Pope." Regardless of how many people may believe in, or how many RS support, my claim that my dad is the de facto Pope, that doesn't make him the official Pope. The same goes for languages. Cheers, Nederlandse Leeuw (talk) 12:50, 22 May 2023 (UTC)
 * In the term "official language", "official" is an attribute that describes the functional range of a specific language, and not the way how it achieved this property. The Oxford Companion to the English Language describes an official language as follows: A used for official purposes, especially as the medium of a national government. (courtesy link for WP Library users: Official language), which corresponds with my understanding of what an official language is (even before I looked it up). Thus, a language can become an official language by being explicitly declared so by law, decree etc. ("de jure"), or it may have assumed this role historically without explicit legislation/regulation ("de facto"). In the discourse surrounding the official language debate in the Netherlands and the United States, "official language" has been restricted to mean the former, but that's not how the term generally is employed (s. above). In the general sense of the term, it aptly characterizes the role of Dutch in the Netherlands as described in heaps of reliable sources. –Austronesier (talk) 15:14, 22 May 2023 (UTC)
 * That may be, but that seems like a personal interpretation that does not pass WP:OR. I also don't buy the implicit argument that the term "official language" means something else in English than the term officiële taal in Dutch. As I said before, Dutch is an official language at certain sub-national levels, but in each of those cases, it is co-official with another language. There is no national/countrywide/kingdomwide "official language" in either the Netherlands or the Kingdom of the Netherlands. If there were, this discussion could not have happened in the first place. If you look at the explanation given by MP Ronald van Raak (who was amongst the parliamentary majority who opposed officialisation), he is pretty clear:
 * The Dutch government wanted to make a statement against the overuse of the English language and therefore made a law to change the Constitution and give the Dutch language a place in it. (But,) Dutch is not the only official language in our country, Frisian is also an official national language. (Namely, in the province of Friesland). I already said back then that if we were to anchor the Dutch language in the Constitution, we would also have to include Frisian. But a month after the law to record the use of Dutch in the Constitution was submitted, new constitutional relations went into effect in the Kingdom: on October 10, 2010, Curaçao and St. Maarten became – Aruba was already a country – autonomous countries within the Kingdom. Bonaire became part of the Netherlands as a public entity. This island is also bilingual and has Papiamentu in addition to Dutch. In addition to Dutch and Frisian we should now also record Papiamentu in the Constitution. However, Saba and Statia also became part of the Netherlands and these islands also have two languages: in addition to Dutch, that is English. That language should now also be included in the Constitution.
 * The government was clearly wrestling with this situation. To create a barrier in the Constitution against the overuse of English in the Dutch language, the new state-based relations would now also require English to be recorded as the official language. Successive ministers like Piet-Hein Donner, Liesbeth Spies and Ronald Plasterk wrestled with this law proposal, until Ollongren finally made the decision to withdraw it.
 * Anyway, you can read the full article here. I don't see an indication that "official language" means something else than officiële taal. It confirms what the sources said: only in a limited number of sub-national levels (that cover c. 16% of the Kingdom's territory, containing c.  5.6% of the Kingdom's population) there are multiple co-official languages. At most, you can say "Dutch is one of the four co-official languages at sub-national level, but there is no national/countrywide/kingdomwide "official language" in either the Netherlands or the Kingdom of the Netherlands". Those who say otherwise have either not checked the legal status, or engage in wishful thinking, and in both cases ignore the 2010s debate which resulted in the withdrawal of the proposal to make Dutch the/a national/countrywide/kingdomwide official language of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Cheers, Nederlandse Leeuw (talk) 16:27, 22 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I have provided three academic sources which say that Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands. has cited another uhm let's say quite relevant source below. I have also cited a dictionary definition for "official language" from a reliable source ( not a "personal interpretation"; the full text linked above explicitly mentions non-statutory official languages). That's not OR. Rather, it is OR to restrict the term "official language" to statutory official languages without a source that explicitly does so. –Austronesier (talk) 17:10, 22 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I'll grant you that technically, De Schutter 1994 is correct that Dutch is an official language in the Netherlands. So are Frisian, English and Papiamentu. That is not the question though: the question is whether Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands. Answer: no. It has no countrywide/kingdomwide official language. Simpson 2008 and Kooij 2009 are incorrect. Nederlandse Leeuw (talk) 22:54, 22 May 2023 (UTC)

Not being grounded in the constitution doesn't mean that it can't be an official language. According to the Rijksoverheid (which should know things like this), Dutch is unambiguously the official language of the Netherlands. First sentence: "Nederlands is de officiële taal van Nederland." Fram (talk) 16:40, 22 May 2023 (UTC)

 * Some informational Q & A web page on Rijksoverheid.nl can claim whatever it wants. That statement has no legal basis whatsoever; neither in the Constitution, nor in any other countrywide/kingdomwide law. All the other statements that follow it actually do. We can point to laws which confirm it. Nederlandse Leeuw (talk) 22:46, 22 May 2023 (UTC)
 * denederlandsegrondwet.nl "Bepaling over de Nederlandse taal (2010-2018)":
 * The proposal De officiële taal van Nederland is het Nederlands. ("The official language of the Netherlands is Dutch.") was withdrawn.
 * [T]he usefulness, necessity and practical added value of the bill were not considered sufficient by the House of Representatives. The House also criticised that Frisian was to be included in the Constitution while English and Papiamentu were to be omitted, while these are also languages spoken in the (Caribbean) Netherlands.
 * The Council of State also saw little benefit in the proposal. In its recommendation, the Council concluded, amongst other things, that there was no compelling reason because it was "not in dispute" that the language of the Netherlands was Dutch. Moreover, the Council felt the provision did not fit with the "austere character" of the Constitution. From a comparative legal inquiry, the Council noted that EU member states often did name their official language(s) in their constitutions, only that there was often a concrete reason for this, while there was none in the case of the Netherlands. Partly because of these arguments, the proposal was withdrawn in 2018.
 * A similar proposal was rejected already on 3 May 1997:
 * Responses from the House of Represetnatives echoed that they could not find any rationale for the "internal necessity" for a provision of the Dutch language in the explanatory memorandum. People also asked why Frisian was left out. Most felt that the initiative was insufficiently supported by arguments.
 * In short, enshrining Dutch as the official language (of communication) of the Netherlands was seen as unnecessary. This was in line with the recommendation of the Council of State.
 * If Dutch were the official language already, these debates couldn't have taken place. It would be a fait accompli. One would have to abolish it first in order to make it the official language (again). The fact that the first proposal was rejected by the House in 1997, and the second proposal was withdrawn by the government itself in 2018, confirms that Dutch is still not the official language of the Netherlands today. Cheers, Nederlandse Leeuw (talk) 23:21, 22 May 2023 (UTC)
 * We already know that attempts to enshrine the status of Dutch as official language in the constitution have failed. This is not the issue here.
 * The question at stake is: is statutory regulation a prerequisite for a language to be called the official language of a country (or any other territorial entity) in Wikivoice? Multiple reliable sources don't confirm such a prerequisite. The Oxford Reference definition does not narrow it down that way (again: Official language – A used for official purposes, especially as the medium of a national government. English is not the statutory or de jure official language of either the UK or the US, but is the de facto official language.) Three academic sources (and there are literally dozens of others) explicitly state that Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands. In order to prove them wrong, you will need to present reliable sources that explicitly state that Dutch is not the official language of the Netherlands. And in order to prove the Oxford Reference definition wrong, you will need to present reliable sources that explicitly state that only a statutory official language may be called an official language, whereas de facto official language may not. I'll be happy to see such sources. In case conflicting definitions of the term "official language" indeed exist, this discussion will reach a different level, viz. from an issue of WP:V to a question of WP:due weight.
 * Until then however, it is not sufficient to rely on sources that only report the non-statutory nature of Dutch when trying to refute its "official language" status; to do so is original research based on a personal definition of the term "official language" which so far has not been supported by reliable sources. –Austronesier (talk) 17:54, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I will ask for wider input in WT:LANG. Maybe I over-rely on the Oxford Reference definition or put too much trust in academic reference works published by Routledge and Elsevier :) –Austronesier (talk) 17:58, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Add: I have certainly said enough at this point when it's time for others to chime in, but I can't escape the charm of these two quotes from a De Gruyter volume:
 * –Austronesier (talk) 18:37, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
 * De jure = official.
 * De facto = unofficial.
 * en:wikt:de facto In fact or in practice; in actual use or existence, regardless of official or legal status. (Often opposed to de jure.) quotations ▼
 * Although the United States currently has no official language, it is largely monolingual with English being the de facto national language.
 * Ok this is really ironic. Our own Wiktionary gives precisely English in the United States as an example of why de facto is opposed to "official". Notice that it says "de facto national language". If "national" could be replaced by "official" here, then the word "official" would be either meaningless or Schrödinger's cat: Foo has no official language, but somehow, miraculously, Bar is the official language of Foo. It simultaneously has no official language and one single official language.
 * Incidentally, the Wikipedia article de facto says the same thing. "De facto" is equated with "unofficial", "de jure" with "official"/"legal"/"by law"/"official law"(which seems tautological, but ok). And again, "national languages" versus "official languages" are the very first example used. The irony burns hard. Nederlandse Leeuw (talk) 00:38, 24 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Collins Dictionary provides 3 definitions of "unofficial" (in relation to Spanish, but that is irrelevant hete), namely: "informal, de facto, unconfirmed".
 * Merriam-Webster provides three definitions for "de facto": "not formally recognised", "not legally constitutes", "not through laws or actions of the state".
 * List of Latin phrases (full). Nederlandse Leeuw (talk) 01:01, 24 May 2023 (UTC)
 * List of Latin phrases (full). Nederlandse Leeuw (talk) 01:01, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

 * We might express the situation by stating that Dutch is the actual ambtstaal of The Netherlands.--MWAK (talk) 07:44, 24 May 2023 (UTC)
 * the simplest and most straightforward translation of ambstaal into English is "official language" (per one reference work – cited above – defined as "a language used for official purposes, especially as the medium of a national government", which encaptures the main shades of Dutch ambstaal).
 * There's is really no need to do OR by trying to derive the meaning of "official language" based on dictionary definitions for the word "official" alone, especially when a reliable source explicitly defines "official language" as a full phrase, and also when others sensibly apply the term as it is commonly understood to the case of Dutch (I am bold enough to say "commonly", because I am not bold enough to call multiple reliable sources written by subject-matter experts wrong, solely based on OR). You really need to provide sources that talk about what an "official language" actually is.
 * There is no Schrödinger's cat, because Foo has no official language, but somehow, miraculously, Bar is the official language of Foo. is not what any source says. You're combining your personal opinion (= "the Netherlands has no official language") with a well-sourced statement ("Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands"); of course the result will be paradoxical, but only because the first statement is wrong (at least at the current state of sourcing). Austronesier (talk) 18:31, 24 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Of course no source says Foo has no official language, but somehow, miraculously, Bar is the official language of Foo., because I made it up as a fictional example (by employing an argumentum ad absurdum). But it is not far off from the premise of your position, namely: "the purely de facto status of Dutch as official language of the Netherlands". That is a contradiction in terms if de facto  and "official" are mutually exclusive terms - which I sought to demonstrate with dictionary definitions.
 * You really need to provide sources that talk about what an "official language" actually is. I did. With reference to denederlandsegrondwet.nl and Van Raak, where it is explained that "official" means that its status is written down in either the Constitution or a regular/ordinary law. It was never just about the Constitution. The Council of State said that Regeling van het gebruik van de officiële taal kon volgens de Raad net zo goed geschieden via een gewone wet. Als toch voor een grondwettelijke bepaling zou worden gekozen, zou kunnen worden volstaan met een regelingsopdracht voor de formele wetgever. (According to the Council, regulation of the use of the official language could just as well be done through an ordinary law. If a constitutional provision were to be chosen after all, a regulation order for the formal legislature would suffice.) This makes clear that no such regular/ordinary law is in place yet either, otherwise they could point to that existing law.
 * How about you?
 * Kooij 2009 never defines the term "official language"
 * De Schutter 1994 never defines the term "official language"
 * Simpson 2008 never defines the term "official language"
 * All three of the original sources you provided just give you a quote declaring Dutch to be "the/an official language of/in the Netherlands", but otherwise they are mostly linguistic or geographical analyses of various Dutch dialects, they do not analyse the legal position at all.
 * van Hooft et al. 2019 also don't say why or how Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands, although its status is not incorporated in the Dutch constitution (Nederlandse Grondwet, n.d.). They only explain that it hasn't been incorporated into the Constitution and why, but not why we should nevertheless consider Dutch "the official language of the Netherlands" anyway. For Friesland they can actually point to the 2014 law. They can't do that for the Netherlands as a whole, because such a law does not exist (as I've been trying to explain).
 * To close with a confession: Until recently, I also thought that Dutch was the official language of the Netherlands, just because I assumed that. I had never checked. I had never asked. It just made sense because lots of countries around us have official languages, often in the Constitution or in a regular/ordinary law. The Netherlands do not. It was a surprise to me. But I read all there was to read about it (which is well-summarised at the denederlandsegrondwet.nl), and I had to draw the conclusion that I and many others are just simply wrong. There is no countrywide/kingdomwide official language. There are only 4 co-official languages in those 4 local cases. c. 94.4% of the Kingdom's population lives in an area that has no official language whatsoever. The constitutional question demonstrated that all 4 would have to be recognised as official languages at the kingdomwide level if Dutch were become an official language at that level. I already put all this information on Dutch Wikipedia on 21 March 2023, nobody complained about it, let alone reverted it. This is accepted knowledge amongst people who have been following these debates. I hadn't, so I was surprised, but I read it all, and I came to the conclusion I had simply been wrong. I had just assumed something without evidence. And this belief appears to be widespread, even in some otherwise reliable sources. But if you really pin someone down to ask how they know that, or how it is "official", there is just no response. Cheers, Nederlandse Leeuw (talk) 19:26, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

Dutch language and practice.
Dutch is one of the easiest languages for an English speaker. Also after learning it you will get a great reward, you will get to learn German, Afrikaans, and Flemish easier, and Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish will be easier to learn at an extent. Practice. Waar is de man. Where is the man. Waar is het koekje. Where is the cookie.

Notice Het and De.

Het is for anything non living and doesn't come from anything living and the word girl is the only word that is in the het section but is living.

De is for anything living and comes from anything living.

So The Wine would be De Wijn.

Why? Because wine comes from grapes, which grapes grow on plants and plants are living.

Thanks for reading! Bye, Joshua. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 100.43.104.127 (talk) 04:39, 15 December 2023 (UTC)

 * Yours is an interesting hypothesis but one easily falsified. A konijn (bunny) is living but nevertheless het konijn. A ster (star) is a non-living object (by the usual standards) yet de ster.

 * Though some very simple Dutch sentences are understandable to an intelligent English-speaking reader (Aan de arm van een man zitten een hand en vingers), a correct pronunciation and grammar are often difficult to attain. And Flemish is not a language :o).--MWAK (talk) 08:03, 15 December 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Dutch language


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User talk:Elian/Proposal here

Elian, this sounds like a good start. We could count words representing various views, and if one view seems to be getting "too many words", we could (a) move the unbalanced text to talk, or (b) condense the lengthy view. I'm pretty good at shortening long text. That is, if someone else wrote it! My own text usually turns out 2 or 3 times longer than necessary... --Ed Poor

title: User talk:Elian/Proposal here


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Morphological derivation

Morphological derivation, in linguistics, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix, such as un- or -ness. For example, unhappy and happiness derive from the root word happy.

It is differentiated from inflection, which is the modification of a word to form different grammatical categories without changing its core meaning: determines, determining, and determined are from the root determine.

Derivational patterns
Derivational morphology often involves the addition of a derivational suffix or other affix. Such an affix usually applies to words of one lexical category (part of speech) and changes them into words of another such category. For example, one effect of the English derivational suffix -ly is to change an adjective into an adverb (slow → slowly).

Here are examples of English derivational patterns and their suffixes:

 * adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)
 * adjective-to-verb: -en (weak → weaken)
 * adjective-to-adjective: -ish (red → reddish)
 * adjective-to-adverb: -ly (personal → personally)
 * noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational)
 * noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify)
 * verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable)
 * verb-to-noun (abstract): -ance (deliver → deliverance)
 * verb-to-noun (agent): -er (write → writer)

However, derivational affixes do not necessarily alter the lexical category; they may change merely the meaning of the base and leave the category unchanged. A prefix (write →  re-write; lord → over-lord) rarely changes the lexical category in English. The prefix un- applies to adjectives (healthy → unhealthy) and some verbs (do → undo) but rarely to nouns. A few exceptions are the derivational prefixes en- and be-. En- (replaced by em- before labials) is usually a transitive marker on verbs, but it can also be applied to adjectives and nouns to form transitive verbs: circle (verb) → encircle (verb) but rich (adj) → enrich (verb), large (adj) → enlarge (verb), rapture (noun) → enrapture (verb), slave (noun) → enslave (verb).

When derivation occurs without any change to the word, such as in the conversion of the noun breakfast into the verb to breakfast, it's known as conversion, or zero derivation.

Derivation that results in a noun may be called nominalization. It may involve the use of an affix (such as with employ → employee), or it may occur via conversion (such as with the derivation of the noun run from the verb to run). In contrast, a derivation resulting in a verb may be called verbalization (such as from the noun butter to the verb to butter).

Some words have specific exceptions to these patterns. For example, inflammable actually means flammable, and de-evolution is spelled with only one e, as devolution.

Derivation and inflection
Derivation can be contrasted with inflection, in that derivation produces a new word (a distinct lexeme), whereas inflection produces grammatical variants (or forms) of the same word.

Generally speaking, inflection applies in more or less regular patterns to all members of a part of speech (for example, nearly every English verb adds -s for the third person singular present tense), while derivation follows less consistent patterns (for example, the nominalizing suffix -ity can be used with the adjectives modern and dense, but not with open or strong). However, it is important to note that derivations and inflections can share homonyms, that being, morphemes that have the same sound, but not the same meaning. For example, when the affix -er, is added to an adjective, as in small-er, it acts as an inflection, but when added to a verb, as in cook-er, it acts as a derivation.

A derivation can produce a lexeme with a different part of speech but does not necessarily. For example, the derivation of the word "uncommon" from "common" + un- (a derivational morpheme) does not change its part of speech (both are adjectives).

An important distinction between derivational and inflectional morphology lies in the content/function of a listeme. Derivational morphology changes both the meaning and the content of a listeme, while inflectional morphology doesn't change the meaning, but changes the function.

A non-exhaustive list of derivational morphemes in English: -ful, -able, im-, un-, -ing, -er

A non-exhaustive list of inflectional morphemes in English: -er, -est, -ing, -en, -ed, -s

Derivation and other types of word formation
Derivation can be contrasted with other types of word formation such as compounding.

Derivational affixes are bound morphemes – they are meaningful units, but can only normally occur when attached to another word. In that respect, derivation differs from compounding by which free morphemes are combined (lawsuit, Latin professor). It also differs from inflection in that inflection does not create new lexemes but new word forms (table → tables; open → opened).

Productivity
Derivational patterns differ in the degree to which they can be called productive. A productive pattern or affix is one that is commonly used to produce novel forms. For example, the negating prefix un- is more productive in English than the alternative in-; both of them occur in established words (such as unusual and inaccessible), but faced with a new word which does not have an established negation, a native speaker is more likely to create a novel form with un- than with in-. The same thing happens with suffixes. For example, if comparing two words Thatcherite and Thatcherist, the analysis shows that both suffixes -ite and -ist are productive and can be added to proper names, moreover, both derived adjectives are established and have the same meaning. But the suffix -ist is more productive and, thus, can be found more often in word formation not only from proper names.

title: Morphological derivation


text: Talk:Curtiss C-46 Commando

title: Talk:Curtiss C-46 Commando


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Classicism

Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthetic attitude dependent on principles based in the culture, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, with the emphasis on form, simplicity, proportion, clarity of structure, perfection, restrained emotion, as well as explicit appeal to the intellect. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint and compression we are simply objecting to the classicism of classic art. A violent emphasis or a sudden acceleration of rhythmic movement would have destroyed those qualities of balance and completeness through which it retained until the present century its position of authority in the restricted repertoire of visual images." Classicism, as Clark noted, implies a canon of widely accepted ideal forms, whether in the Western canon that he was examining in The Nude (1956).

Classicism is a force which is often present in post-medieval European and European influenced traditions; however, some periods felt themselves more connected to the classical ideals than others, particularly the Age of Enlightenment, when Neoclassicism was an important movement in the visual arts.

General term
Classicism is a specific genre of philosophy, expressing itself in literature, architecture, art, and music, which has Ancient Greek and Roman sources and an emphasis on society. It was particularly expressed in the Neoclassicism of the Age of Enlightenment.

Classicism is a recurrent tendency in the Late Antique period, and had a major revival in Carolingian and Ottonian art. There was another, more durable revival in the Italian Renaissance when the fall of Byzantium and rising trade with the Islamic cultures brought a flood of knowledge about, and from, the antiquity of Europe. Until that time, the identification with antiquity had been seen as a continuous history of Christendom from the conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine I. Renaissance classicism introduced a host of elements into European culture, including the application of mathematics and empiricism into art, humanism, literary and depictive realism, and formalism. Importantly it also introduced Polytheism, or "paganism", and the juxtaposition of ancient and modern.

The classicism of the Renaissance led to, and gave way to, a different sense of what was "classical" in the 16th and 17th centuries. In this period, classicism took on more overtly structural overtones of orderliness, predictability, the use of geometry and grids, the importance of rigorous discipline and pedagogy, as well as the formation of schools of art and music. The court of Louis XIV was seen as the center of this form of classicism, with its references to the gods of Olympus as a symbolic prop for absolutism, its adherence to axiomatic and deductive reasoning, and its love of order and predictability.

This period sought the revival of classical art forms, including Greek drama and music. Opera, in its modern European form, had its roots in attempts to recreate the combination of singing and dancing with theatre thought to be the Greek norm. Examples of this appeal to classicism included Dante, Petrarch, and Shakespeare in poetry and theatre. Tudor drama, in particular, modeled itself after classical ideals and divided works into Tragedy and Comedy. Studying Ancient Greek became regarded as essential for a well-rounded education in the liberal arts.

The Renaissance also explicitly returned to architectural models and techniques associated with Greek and Roman antiquity, including the golden rectangle as a key proportion for buildings, the classical orders of columns, as well as a host of ornament and detail associated with Greek and Roman architecture. They also began reviving plastic arts such as bronze casting for sculpture, and used the classical naturalism as the foundation of drawing, painting and sculpture.

The Age of Enlightenment identified itself with a vision of antiquity which, while continuous with the classicism of the previous century, was shaken by the physics of Sir Isaac Newton, the improvements in machinery and measurement, and a sense of liberation which they saw as being present in the Greek civilization, particularly in its struggles against the Persian Empire. The ornate, organic, and complexly integrated forms of the baroque were to give way to a series of movements that regarded themselves expressly as "classical" or "neo-classical", or would rapidly be labelled as such. For example, the painting of Jacques-Louis David was seen as an attempt to return to formal balance, clarity, manliness, and vigor in art.

The 19th century saw the classical age as being the precursor of academicism, including such movements as uniformitarianism in the sciences, and the creation of rigorous categories in artistic fields. Various movements of the Romantic period saw themselves as classical revolts against a prevailing trend of emotionalism and irregularity, for example the Pre-Raphaelites. By this point, classicism was old enough that previous classical movements received revivals; for example, the Renaissance was seen as a means to combine the organic medieval with the orderly classical. The 19th century continued or extended many classical programs in the sciences, most notably the Newtonian program to account for the movement of energy between bodies by means of exchange of mechanical and thermal energy.

The 20th century saw a number of changes in the arts and sciences. Classicism was used both by those who rejected, or saw as temporary, transfigurations in the political, scientific, and social world and by those who embraced the changes as a means to overthrow the perceived weight of the 19th century. Thus, both pre-20th century disciplines were labelled "classical" and modern movements in art which saw themselves as aligned with light, space, sparseness of texture, and formal coherence.

In the present day philosophy classicism is used as a term particularly in relation to Apollonian over Dionysian impulses in society and art; that is a preference for rationality, or at least rationally guided catharsis, over emotionalism.

In the theatre
Classicism in the theatre was developed by 17th century French playwrights from what they judged to be the rules of Greek classical theatre, including the "Classical unities" of time, place and action, found in the Poetics of Aristotle.

 * Unity of time referred to the need for the entire action of the play to take place in a fictional 24-hour period
 * Unity of place meant that the action should unfold in a single location
 * Unity of action meant that the play should be constructed around a single 'plot-line', such as a tragic love affair or a conflict between honour and duty.

Examples of classicist playwrights are Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine and Molière. In the period of Romanticism, Shakespeare, who conformed to none of the classical rules, became the focus of French argument over them, in which the Romantics eventually triumphed; Victor Hugo was among the first French playwrights to break these conventions.

The influence of these French rules on playwrights in other nations is debatable. In the English theatre, Restoration playwrights such as William Wycherley and William Congreve would have been familiar with them. William Shakespeare and his contemporaries did not follow this Classicist philosophy, in particular since they were not French and also because they wrote several decades prior to their establishment. Those of Shakespeare's plays that seem to display the unities, such as The Tempest, probably indicate a familiarity with actual models from classical antiquity.

Most famous 18th-century Italian playwright and libretist Carlo Goldoni created a hybrid style of playwriting (combining the model of Molière with the strengths of Commedia dell'arte and his own wit and sincerity).

In literature
The literary classicism drew inspiration from the qualities of proportion of the major works of ancient Greek and Latin literature.

The 17th–18th centuries significant Classical writers (principally, playwrights and poets) include Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, John Dryden, William Wycherley, William Congreve, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison, Alexander Pope, Voltaire, Carlo Goldoni, and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock.

In architecture
Classicism in architecture developed during the Italian Renaissance, notably in the writings and designs of Leon Battista Alberti and the work of Filippo Brunelleschi. It places emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts as they are demonstrated in the architecture of Classical antiquity and, in particular, the architecture of Ancient Rome, of which many examples remained.

Orderly arrangements of columns, pilasters and lintels, as well as the use of semicircular arches, hemispherical domes, niches and aedicules replaced the more complex proportional systems and irregular profiles of medieval buildings. This style quickly spread to other Italian cities and then to France, Germany, England, Russia and elsewhere.

In the 16th century, Sebastiano Serlio helped codify the classical orders and Andrea Palladio's legacy evolved into the long tradition of Palladian architecture. Building off of these influences, the 17th-century architects Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren firmly established classicism in England.

For the development of classicism from the mid-18th-century onwards, see Neoclassical architecture.

In the fine arts

 * For Greek art of the 5th century B.C.E., see Classical art in ancient Greece and the Severe style

Italian Renaissance painting and sculpture are marked by their renewal of classical forms, motifs and subjects. In the 15th century Leon Battista Alberti was important in theorizing many of the ideas for painting that came to a fully realized product with Raphael's School of Athens during the High Renaissance. The themes continued largely unbroken into the 17th century, when artists such as Nicolas Poussin and Charles Le Brun represented of the more rigid classicism. Like Italian classicizing ideas in the 15th and 16th centuries, it spread through Europe in the mid to late 17th century.

Later classicism in painting and sculpture from the mid-18th and 19th centuries is generally referred to as Neoclassicism.

Political philosophy
Classicism in political philosophy dates back to the ancient Greeks. Western political philosophy is often attributed to the great Greek philosopher Plato. Although political theory of this time starts with Plato, it quickly becomes complex when Plato's pupil, Aristotle, formulates his own ideas. "The political theories of both philosophers are closely tied to their ethical theories, and their interest is in questions concerning constitutions or forms of government."

However, Plato and Aristotle are not the seedbed but simply the seeds that grew from a seedbed of political predecessors who had debated this topic for centuries before their time. For example, Herodotus sketched out a debate between Theseus, a king of the time, and Creon's messenger. The debate simply shows proponents of democracy, monarchy, and oligarchy and how they all feel about these forms of government. Herodotus' sketch is just one of the beginning seedbeds for which Plato and Aristotle grew their own political theories.

Another Greek philosopher who was pivotal in the development of Classical political philosophy was Socrates. Although he was not a theory-builder, he often stimulated fellow citizens with paradoxes that challenged them to reflect on their own beliefs. Socrates thought "the values that ought to determine how individuals live their lives should also shape the political life of the community." he believed the people of Athens involved wealth and money too much into the politics of their city. He judged the citizens for the way they amassed wealth and power over simple things like projects for their community.

Just like Plato and Aristotle, Socrates did not come up with these ideas alone. Socrates ideals stem back from Protagoras and other 'sophists'. These 'teachers of political arts' were the first to think and act as Socrates did. Where the two diverge is in the way they practiced their ideals. Protagoras' ideals were loved by Athens. Whereas Socrates challenged and pushed the citizens and he was not as loved.

In the end, ancient Greece is to be credited with the foundation of Classical political philosophy.

title: Classicism


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Bart Township, Pennsylvania

Bart Township is a township in southeastern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 3,181, up from 3,094 at the 2010 census.

According to the 2020 "ACS 5-Year Estimates Data Profiles", 43.7% of the township's population spoke only English, while 56.3 spoke an "other [than Spanish] Indo-European language" (basically Pennsylvania German/German).

Founding
The name of Bart Township apparently comes from a reinterpretation of the abbreviation "Bart." for "Baronet". This abbreviation was used by former Colonial Governor Sir William Keith, Bart. After being forced out of the Governorship by Hannah Penn, Sir William Keith, Bart. won election as an Assemblyman in Philadelphia. In March 1728, Sir William Keith, Bart. left Pennsylvania in a hurry—he was running out on his debts. He left for England, never to return He abandoned his wife, Lady Keith, who is buried in Christ Church Cemetery in Philadelphia.

What is now Bart Township was part of Sadsbury, Chester County before the formation of Lancaster County.

In 1744, Sadsbury Township was split into two; the western part was organized as Bart Township and the eastern part remained Sadsbury Township. In 1854, Bart Township was split into two, with the western part organized as Eden Township, and the eastern part remaining Bart Township.

Modern history
On October 2, 2006, a lone gunman, identified as Charles Carl Roberts IV, shot ten Amish schoolgirls, killing five of them, in an attack on West Nickel Mines Parochial School, an Amish one-room school in Nickel Mines, Bart Township. Roberts then shot and killed himself as police responded.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 16.2 sqmi, all land. It includes the communities of Nickel Mines, Georgetown (Bart P.O.), Mount Pleasant, Green Tree, Ninepoints, and Bartville.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 3,003 people, 820 households, and 700 families residing in the township. The population density was 185.3 PD/sqmi. There were 836 housing units at an average density of 51.6 /mi2. The racial makeup of the township was 98.60% White, 0.80% Black or African American, 0.27% Native American, 0.17% from other races, and 0.17% from two or more races. 0.13% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 820 households, out of which 45.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 77.9% were married couples living together, 4.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 14.6% were non-families. 12.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.66 and the average family size was 4.04.

In the township the population was spread out, with 37.4% under the age of 18, 11.0% from 18 to 24, 23.5% from 25 to 44, 18.7% from 45 to 64, and 9.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 27 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.5 males.

The median income for a household in the township was $45,250, and the median income for a family was $47,604. Males had a median income of $33,387 versus $21,379 for females. The per capita income for the township was $14,399. About 10.3% of families and 13.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.7% of those under age 18 and 11.0% of those age 65 or over.

Education
Bart Township is served by the Solanco School District.

title: Bart Township, Pennsylvania


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Brickerville, Pennsylvania

Brickerville is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Elizabeth Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States, with a ZIP code of 17543. The population was 1,309 at the 2010 census.

Geography
Brickerville is located in northern Lancaster County at 40.22593°N, -76.30246°W, in the eastern part of Elizabeth Township. U.S. Route 322 (28th Division Highway) passes through the center of town, leading west-northwest 35 mi to Harrisburg, the state capital, and southeast 7 mi to Ephrata. Pennsylvania Route 501 (Furnace Hills Pike) crosses US 322 in Brickerville, leading north 6 mi to Schaefferstown and south 5 mi to Lititz. Lancaster, the county seat, is 13 mi south of Brickerville via PA 501.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 5.7 km2, of which 0.05 sqkm, or 0.84%, are water. The community sits on a ridge which drains northeast to Furnace Run, a tributary of Middle Creek, and south to Hammer Creek. Middle Creek and Hammer Creek are tributaries of Cocalico Creek, part of the Conestoga River watershed draining to the Susquehanna River.

Demographics
At the 2000 census there were 1,287 people, 433 households, and 374 families living in the CDP. The population density was 580.0 PD/sqmi. There were 438 housing units at an average density of 197.4 /mi2. The racial makeup of the CDP was 99.07% White, 0.16% Black or African American, 0.08% Native American, 0.31% Asian, 0.16% from other races, and 0.23% from two or more races. 1.79% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 433 households, 38.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 80.4% were married couples living together, 4.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 13.4% were non-families. 10.4% of households were made up of individuals, and 4.4% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.97 and the average family size was 3.19.

The age distribution was 27.8% under the age of 18, 9.0% from 18 to 24, 29.7% from 25 to 44, 25.3% from 45 to 64, and 8.2% 65 or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 107.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.2 males.

The median household income was $51,000 and the median family income was $54,167. Males had a median income of $40,583 versus $28,533 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $19,052. About 5.4% of families and 8.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.0% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

title: Brickerville, Pennsylvania


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Christiana, Pennsylvania

Christiana is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,100 at the time of the 2020 census.

In 1851, it was the site of the Battle of Christiana, also called the Christiana riot.

History
Present-day Christiana was once known as Nobleville. The present name is after Christiana Noble, the wife of a first settler.

On September 11, 1851, Christiana was the site of the Battle of Christiana (also called the Christiana Riot), in which the local residents defended with firearms a fugitive slave, killing the slaveowner. Southerners demanded the hanging of those responsible, who were accused of treason and making war on the United States, but after the first defendant was acquitted, the government dropped the case. The trial was the first nationally covered challenge to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

Geography
Christiana is located in eastern Lancaster County at 39.95528°N, -75.99611°W (39.955262, -75.996208).

It is bordered to the north, west, and south by Sadsbury Township and to the east by West Sadsbury Township in Chester County.

Pennsylvania Route 372 passes through the center of the borough, leading east 5 mi to Parkesburg and west 11 mi to Quarryville. Lancaster is 19 mi to the northwest via Pennsylvania Route 41, and U.S. Route 30.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 1.37 km2, all land.

The borough is in the valley of Pine Creek, which forms the Lancaster County/Chester County line, and which flows south to form Octoraro Creek, a southward-flowing tributary of the Susquehanna River.

Demographics
Christiana is the least populous borough in Lancaster County.

As of the 2000 census, there were 1,124 people, 383 households, and 284 families residing in the borough.

The population density was 2,121.6 PD/sqmi. There were 391 housing units at an average density of 738.0 /mi2.

The racial makeup of the borough was 96.09% White, 1.87% Black or African American, 0.18% Native American, 0.27% from other races, and 1.60% from two or more races. 4.00% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 383 households, out of which 33.2% had children under the age of eighteen living with them; 58.7% were married couples living together, 11.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.6% were non-families. 22.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.1% had someone living alone who was sixty-five years of age or older.

The average household size was 2.55 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the borough, the population was spread out, with 22.8% under the age of eighteen, 7.3% from eighteen to twenty-four, 26.8% from twenty-five to forty-four, 20.3% from forty-five to sixty-four, and 22.9% who were sixty-five years of age or older. The median age was forty years.

For every one hundred females, there were 85.2 males. For every one hundred females who were aged eighteen or older, there were 78.2 males.

The median income for a household in the borough was $48,333, and the median income for a family was $50,583. Males had a median income of $35,125 compared with that of $25,000 for females.

The per capita income for the borough was $18,764.

Roughly 3.8% of families and 6.3% of the population were living below the poverty line, including 13.5% of those who were under the age of eighteen and 1.6% of those who were aged sixty-five or older.

Education
The borough is served by the Octorara Area School District.

Notable Events

 * Gathering of the Queers,
 * William Walton Griest, former U.S. Congressman

title: Christiana, Pennsylvania


text:
Conestoga Township, Pennsylvania

Conestoga Township is a township in west central Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. At the 2020 census, the population was 3,922.

History
Conestoga Township was formed in 1712 as part of Chester County. Lancaster County was not formed until 1729. Pequea Township was formed from Conestoga Township.

Conestoga wagons are named for the township, but it cannot be proven that the first such wagons were built in the township. But these wagons were indeed built in Conestoga Township.

The Colemanville Covered Bridge and Big and Little Indian Rock Petroglyphs are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 16.4 sqmi, of which 14.6 sqmi is land and 1.8 sqmi (11.02%) is water. It includes the communities of Slackwater, Rockhill, Stone Hill, Conestoga, Safe Harbor, and Colemanville.

Demographics
At the 2000 census, there were 3,749 people, 1,374 households, and 1,067 families living in the township. The population density was 256.3 /mi2. There were 1,409 housing units at an average density of 96.3 /mi2. The racial makeup of the township was 98.32% White, 0.32% Black or African American, 0.13% Native American, 0.16% Asian, 0.21% Pacific Islander, 0.13% from other races, and 0.72% from two or more races. 0.99% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 1,374 households, 36.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.2% were married couples living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.3% were non-families. 17.3% of households were made up of individuals, and 5.7% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.10.

The age distribution was 26.9% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 29.5% from 25 to 44, 26.3% from 45 to 64, and 9.9% 65 or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.0 males.

The median household income was $51,895 and the median family income was $57,768. Males had a median income of $37,284 versus $25,956 for females. The per capita income for the township was $21,939. About 2.2% of families and 3.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.2% of those under age 18 and 2.9% of those age 65 or over.

title: Conestoga Township, Pennsylvania


text:
Conoy Township, Pennsylvania

Conoy Township is a township in northwestern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 3,373.

History
Conoy Township was formed in 1842 from West Donegal Township. Conoy is an Indian name. An early settler was the French-Canadian fur trader Peter Bisaillon, who was granted 700 acres near Conoy Creek in 1719.

Locust Grove was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 18.6 sqmi, of which 14.8 sqmi is land and 3.7 sqmi (20.04%) is water. It includes the communities of Falmouth, Bainbridge, Stacktown, Locust Grove, and Billmeyer.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 3,067 people, 1,103 households, and 873 families living in the township. The population density was 206.6 PD/sqmi. There were 1,130 housing units at an average density of 76.1 /mi2. The racial makeup of the township was 98.96% White, 0.03% Black or African American, 0.13% Native American, 0.16% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.29% from other races, and 0.39% from two or more races. 0.85% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 1,103 households, out of which 39.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 68.0% were married couples living together, 6.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 20.8% were non-families. 17.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.78 and the average family size was 3.14.

In the township the population was spread out, with 28.3% under the age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 24, 33.6% from 25 to 44, 22.6% from 45 to 64, and 8.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 104.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.7 males.

The median income for a household in the township was $48,775, and the median income for a family was $56,632. Males had a median income of $36,849 versus $26,406 for females. The per capita income for the township was $20,157. About 3.0% of families and 3.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.0% of those under age 18 and 7.1% of those age 65 or over.

Education
Public education is run by the Elizabethtown Area School District; the only public school in the township is Bainbridge Elementary School, which serves kindergarten through third grade.

title: Conoy Township, Pennsylvania


text:
Talk:Denver, Pennsylvania

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Talk:Brownstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania

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Talk:Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania

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Bird in Hand is a CDP
Not an unincorporated community, at least, the 2010 census says, its a CDP http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/files/Gaz_places_national.txtCoal town guy (talk) 17:33, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

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Zonker Harris

Zonker Harris (his full name is revealed in Doonesbury: A Musical Comedy to be Edgar Zonker Harris) is the stereotypical unfocused confused hippie character in Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury. He made his first appearance as a perennial pot-smoking pest plaguing B.D.'s football team in 1971. He moved with Mike, B.D., and the gang to a rural commune (named Walden in homage to Thoreau's 19th century idyll).

Family
Zonker's family consists of his mother, father, "Uncle" Duke, his nephew Zipper, and his sister, Louise. His mother and father have a habit of fighting, which leads to the mother leaving for a short time to clear her head (but always returning in time to water the plants). Whenever this happens, Zonker's father becomes upset and visits Zonker, within minutes of the argument. Although Zonker's sister never appears in the series, she is the mother of Zipper Harris, Zonker's nephew.

Zonker's ancestors from Colonial America are mentioned several times in the series. Nathan Harris was a minuteman (who could literally be ready in one minute) as well as an activist for civil rights and was responsible for "freeing" a nearby slave (who was under the impression that they were in Virginia, where slavery was still legal. They were, in fact, in Massachusetts). Nathan's wife, Amy Harris, was equally revolutionary, fighting for women's equality in the Constitution and taking up an apprenticeship with Paul Revere to become a silversmith. Neither cause worked out very well however, as men weren't interested in women's civil rights and she was unable to even cast simple pewter tankards. She quits her apprenticeship when Nathan assures her that he needs her as a companion and equal as well as a wife.

History
While at Walden Commune, Zonker spent most of his time watching TV, getting high, and swimming around in a minuscule body of water called "Walden Puddle", which he considered to be a sacred and holy place. In his early years in the strip, Zonker had the ability to talk to plants. (Mike also talked to the plants during Zonker's stint as Lieutenant Governor of American Samoa.) In later stories, Zonker appeared to lose this ability, but it has sprung back up occasionally, and he has been seen conversing with a marijuana plant, and a scrawny Christmas tree in recent years. Other than these few exceptions, this power seems to have left him, and he misses it terribly. When wondering out loud why he had it in the first place, he was told "It was the drugs, man". Ironically, it was a plant that informed him of this.

Zonker is habitually unemployed, and is very protective of his slacker lifestyle. He has taken on temporary jobs as a bartender and a postman, but always leaves these careers as soon as he gets bored with them. The only "work" to which he has shown any diligence is acquiring a suntan. Throughout the 1980s, he spent more and more of his time trying to develop "the perfect tan", and even became a celebrity (on par with a professional athlete) for his accomplishments, with George Hamilton as his idol. Eventually he wised up to the damage the sun was doing to his skin, and has since appeared in public service announcements about sun safety.

After his graduation from Walden, Zonker eventually enrolled in "The Baby Doc College of Physicians" (which was run by Uncle Duke, an old family friend). However, he dropped out after winning $23 million from a lottery ticket. Shortly afterward, he had to spend most of it on saving Duke from being a zombified slave, but had enough left over to buy a British title (His Lordship the Viscount St. Austell-in-the-Moor Biggleswade-Brixham), which caused him to be called to England as a tie-breaker for a vote in the House of Lords over one of Margaret Thatcher's tax bills. He stayed at another lord's castle for several months, oblivious to many not-so-subtle hints to leave, and was eventually forcibly removed by a butler. He ended up as a live-in nanny for Mike and J.J. Doonesbury (who kicked him out in the early 1990s).

Lifestyle
Zonker spent several years as a live-in babysitter for B.D. and Boopsie's daughter Samantha in Connecticut. As they live on the former Walden Commune, Zonker was reunited with his beloved puddle. He contributed to the household by working at McFriendly's, apparently a portmanteau of McDonald's and Friendly's restaurants.

In 2012, with the legalization of marijuana in Colorado, Zonker and his nephew Zipper began to conceive a plan to move to Boulder and start a marijuana farm. They did this in early 2014.

Occasionally he travels back to his birthplace of California to commune with "Old Surfer Dude", an elderly man who preaches the virtues of the surfer lifestyle in a style reminiscent of both a kung fu master and Yoda. He has been in conflict for many years with David Geffen for denying the public access to his beaches, in conflict with California law. Geffen finally relented in 2005. There is an access way in Malibu named after Zonker.

Zonker is entirely uninterested in sex and romance and has never pursued a romantic relationship. He claims that this is because his heart was broken by a girl when he was ten years old, and that this convinced him that love wasn't worth the trouble.

Zonker often supports political causes that are out of the mainstream. Zonker voted for Ross Perot in 1992 and worked for his Uncle Duke's 2000 presidential campaign. In a March 2010 strip, he told a Tea Party supporter that he has "always stuck it to the man".

Wesleyan University students hold an unofficial yearly event in April called Zonker Harris Day, celebrating psychedelic music and culture, with the Doonesbury character as a mascot. In early 2008, the new Wesleyan University president, Michael S. Roth, declared Zonker Harris Day to be "stupid", and the Residential Life office officially opposed its "hippie-druggie" image. Funding for the event was banned pending a new title. After prolonged disagreement, students renamed the event "Ze Who Shall Not Be Named Day". With a new name, the former Zonker Harris Day was held as usual on April 19, 2008. The students protested what they viewed to be unnecessary and irrelevant censorship, while the administration maintained that Zonker Harris Day gave the university a poor image. A series of strips in late 2010 parodied this, with Zonker (having been told of the event's renaming) debating whether or not to personally intervene, especially in light of the major conflict on his calendar in April – the Royal Wedding of Prince William. In 2011, the name of the festival was reinstated. The University of Miami named the scout team the Zonkers.

References and in-jokes

 * Named after Steven "Zonker" Lambrecht, one of the Merry Pranksters described in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
 * In the LucasArts computer game Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Guybrush Threepwood – now sporting a long ponytail and a beard – attends a fancy dress party at Elaine Marley's mansion on Booty Island, attired in a dress. If the player makes him look in Elaine's mirror, Guybrush says "Hey, it's Zonker Harris in a dress!"
 * The flavor of Ben & Jerry's named "Doonesberry", both a pun and tribute to the strip, shows Zonker mixing the ice cream in place of the standard pictures of Ben & Jerry.

title: Zonker Harris