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Nynorsk

Nynorsk (lit. 'New Norwegian') is one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language (Landsmål), parallel to the Dano-Norwegian written standard known as Riksmål. The name Nynorsk was introduced in 1929. After a series of reforms, it is still the written standard closer to Landsmål, whereas Bokmål is closer to Riksmål and Danish.

Between 10 and 15 percent of Norwegians (primarily in the west around the city of Bergen) have Nynorsk as their official language form, estimated by the number of students attending secondary schools. Nynorsk is also taught as a mandatory subject in both high school and middle school for all Norwegians who do not have it as their own language form.

History
Norway had its own written and oral language—Norwegian. After the Kalmar Union, Norway became a less important part of Denmark. At that time, Danish was declared the written language of Norway until 1814, and Danish with Norwegian intonation and pronunciation was on occasion spoken in the cities (see Dano-Norwegian). With the independence of Norway from Denmark, Danish became a foreign language and thus lost much of its prestige, and a conservative, written form of Norwegian, Landsmål, had been developed by 1850. By this time, however, the Danish language had been gradually reformed into the written language Riksmål, and no agreement was reached on which of the two forms to use. In 1885, the parliament declared the two forms official and equal.

Efforts were made to fuse the two written forms into one language. A result was that Landsmål and Riksmål lost their official status in 1929, and were replaced by the written forms Nynorsk and Bokmål, which were intended to be temporary intermediary stages before their final fusion into one hypothesised official Norwegian language known at the time as Samnorsk. This project was later abandoned and Nynorsk and Bokmål remain the two officially sanctioned standards of what is today called the Norwegian language.

Both written languages are in reality fusions between the Norwegian and Danish languages as they were spoken and written around 1850, with Nynorsk closer to Norwegian and Bokmål closer to Danish. The official standard of Nynorsk has been significantly altered during the process to create the common language form Samnorsk. A minor purist fraction of the Nynorsk population has stayed firm with the historical Aasen norm where these alterations of Nynorsk were rejected, which is known as Høgnorsk (High Norwegian, analogous to High German). Ivar Aasen-sambandet is an umbrella organization of associations and individuals promoting the use of Høgnorsk, whereas Noregs Mållag and Norsk Målungdom advocate the use of Nynorsk in general.

The Landsmål (Landsmaal) language standard was constructed by the Norwegian linguist Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian-based alternative to Danish, which was commonly written, and to some extent spoken, in Norway at the time.

The word Nynorsk also has another meaning. In addition to being the name of the present, official written language standard, Nynorsk can also refer to the Norwegian language in use after Old Norwegian, 11th to 14th centuries, and Middle Norwegian, 1350 to about 1550. The written Norwegian that was used until the period of Danish rule (1536-1814), closely resembles Nynorsk (New Norwegian). A major source of old written material is Diplomatarium Norvegicum in 22 printed volumes.

In 2023 Jon Fosse received the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was the first person awarded this prize to write in Nynorsk.

Early Nynorsk studies and dictionaries

After the transition from Middle Norwegian to New Norwegian/Nynorsk (c. 1525), several studies of the language were assembled. The oldest of these is a language overview and collection of proverbs from the early 1600s Vest-Agder. Later in the century, a dictionary from Robyggjelaget was written. Neither of these works were printed until more recently. In 1646, however, Christen Jensøn (1610-1653), born in Askvoll, Norway, released a dictionary which documented the Nynorsk language in Sunnfjord.

In 1749, Erik Pontoppidan released a dictionary of Norwegian words that were incomprehensible to Danish people, Glossarium Norvagicum Eller Forsøg paa en Samling Af saadanne rare Norske Ord Som gemeenlig ikke forstaaes af Danske Folk, Tilligemed en Fortegnelse paa Norske Mænds og Qvinders Navne. Pontoppidan's dictionary was criticised by Torleiv Hannaas for being a somewhat haphazard collection of rarities, and for being written by someone who was not proficient in Nynorsk, in contrast with Jensøn's dictionary. It is agreed, and also admitted by Pontoppidan himself, that the scope of Pontoppidan's work was not to provide a complete or rigid study of Nynorsk, but to make an attempt to further the understanding of the language.

Ivar Aasen's work
A systematic study of the Norwegian language was made by Ivar Aasen in the mid 19th century. After the dissolution of Denmark–Norway and the establishment of the union between Sweden and Norway in 1814, Norwegians considered that neither Danish, by now a foreign language, nor by any means Swedish, were suitable written norms for Norwegian affairs. The linguist Knud Knudsen proposed a gradual Norwegianisation of Danish. Ivar Aasen, however, favoured a more radical approach, based on the principle that the spoken language of people living in the Norwegian countryside, who made up the vast majority of the population, should be regarded as more Norwegian than that of upper-middle class city-dwellers, who for centuries had been substantially influenced by the Danish language and culture. This idea was not unique to Aasen, and can be seen in the wider context of Norwegian romantic nationalism. In the 1840s, Aasen traveled across rural Norway and studied its dialects. He preferred the rural dialects of Vestlandet and inland Østlandet, whilst avoiding the city dialects and focusing less on the dialects of southern Østlandet and southern coast of Skagerrak, which he considered to be too much corrupted by Danish. In 1848 and 1850, he published the first Norwegian grammar and dictionary, respectively, which described a standard that Aasen called Landsmål. New versions detailing the written standard were published in 1864 and 1873, and in the 20th century by Olav Beito in 1970.

During the same period, Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb standardised the orthography of the Faroese language. Spoken Faroese is closely related to Landsmål and dialects in Norway proper, and Lucas Debes and Peder Hansen Resen classified the Faroese tongue as Norwegian in the late 17th century. Ultimately, however, Faroese was established as a separate language.

Aasen's work is based on the idea that Norwegian dialects had a common structure that made them a separate language alongside Danish and Swedish. The central point for Aasen therefore became to find and show the structural dependencies between the dialects. In order to abstract this structure from the variety of dialects, he developed some basic criteria, which he called the most perfect form. He defined this form as the one that best showed the connection to related words, with similar words, and with the forms in Old Norwegian. No single dialect had all the perfect forms, each dialect had preserved different aspects and parts of the language. Through such a systematic approach, one could arrive at a uniting expression for all Norwegian dialects, what Aasen called the fundamental dialect, and Einar Haugen has called Proto-Norwegian.

The idea that the study should end up in a new written language marked his work from the beginning. A fundamental idea for Aasen was that the fundamental dialect should be Modern Norwegian, not Old Norwegian or Old Norse. Therefore, he did not include grammatical categories which were extinct in all dialects. At the same time, the categories that were inherited from the old language and were still present in some dialects should be represented in the written standard. Haugen has used the word reconstruction rather than construction about this work.

Conflict
From the outset, Nynorsk was met with resistance among those who believed that the Dano-Norwegian then in use was sufficient. With the advent and growth of mass media, exposure to the standard languages increased, and Bokmål's position is dominant in many situations. This may explain why negative attitudes toward Nynorsk persist, as is seen with many minority languages. This is especially prominent among students, who are required to learn both of the official written languages. There are however many individual reasons for both positive and negative attitudes towards Nynorsk. Many claim that obligatory learning of both language forms is unnecessary, and that students would be better off spending their time on learning a foreign language, or simply focusing on one of the language forms.

Some critics of obligatory Nynorsk and Bokmål as school subjects have been very outspoken about their opposition. For instance, during the 2005 election, the Norwegian Young Conservatives made an advertisement where a candidate for parliament threw a copy of the Nynorsk dictionary into a barrel of flames. After strong reactions to this book burning, they apologized and chose not to use the video.

Geographical distribution

Bokmål has a much larger basis in the cities and generally outside of the western part of the country. Most Norwegians do not speak either Nynorsk or Bokmål as written, but a Norwegian dialect that identifies their origins. Nynorsk shares many of the problems that minority languages face.

In Norway, each municipality and county can choose to declare either of the two language standards as the official language or remain "standard-neutral". As of 2020, 90 municipalities had declared Nynorsk the official standard, while 118 had chosen Bokmål; another 148 were "neutral" between the two, numbers that have been stable since the 1970s. As for counties, three have declared Nynorsk as their official standard: Møre og Romsdal, Telemark and Vestland. Most municipalities in Rogaland and few in the "standard-neutral" counties have declared Nynorsk as their official standard. Ålesund was the largest municipality with Nynorsk as its official language form, until the area of Haram, Norway (a Nynorsk-majority area) was separated from the rest of the municipality from 1 January 2024, and the remaining Ålesund municipality opted for "standard-neutrality".

The main standard used in primary schools is decided by referendum within the local school district. The number of school districts and pupils using primarily Nynorsk has decreased from its height in the 1940s, even in Nynorsk municipalities. Nynorsk is also part of the school curriculum in high school and elementary school for all students in Norway, where students are taught to write it.

The prevailing regions for Nynorsk are the rural areas of the western counties of Rogaland, Vestland and Møre og Romsdal, where an estimated 90% of the population writes Nynorsk. Some of the rural parts of Innlandet, Buskerud, Telemark and Agder also write primarily in Nynorsk. In the Sunnmøre region of Møre og Romsdal, all municipalities (except the Bokmål-majority Ålesund) have stated Nynorsk as the official standard. In Vestland, almost all municipalities have declared Nynorsk as the official standard – the city of Bergen being one of only two exceptions.

Status of the language form
Written Nynorsk is found in all the same types of places and for the same uses (newspapers, commercial products, computer programs, etc.) as other written languages. Most of the biggest newspapers in Norway have certain articles written in Nynorsk, like VG and Aftenposten, but are mainly Bokmål. There are also nationwide newspapers where Nynorsk is the only Norwegian-language form of publication, among them are Dag & Tid and Framtida.no. Many local newspapers have also chosen Nynorsk as the only language form of publication, like Firdaposten, Hallingdølen, Hordaland and Bø blad. Many newspapers are also officially neutral, conforming to either Nynorsk or Bokmål in an article as they see fit, like Klassekampen and Bergens Tidende. Commercial products produced in the Nynorsk areas of Norway are also often distributed with Nynorsk text, like types of Gamalost. Many computer programs and apps that serve the whole country often present a choice between Bokmål and Nynorsk, especially those produced by the Norwegian government.

There are also requirements by law that many Norwegian institutions have to follow. These laws are in order to keep Nynorsk and Bokmål as equals, which has been seen as an important case since the creation of the language forms. For instance the State-owned broadcaster NRK is required by law to have at least 25% of their content in Nynorsk. This means that at least one quarter of their content on broadcast and online media has to be in Nynorsk. There is also a requirement for state organs and universities to have content written in Nynorsk. Every student in the country should be presented the opportunity to take their exam in either Nynorsk or Bokmål.

Spoken Nynorsk
Nynorsk is first and foremost a written language form but it does appear as a spoken language. Spoken Nynorsk is often referred to as normed Nynorsk speech. Bokmål speech in Eastern Norway often conforms to Urban East Norwegian, whereas Bokmål speech in Bergen and Trondheim is called pen-bergensk (lit. fine Bergenish) and pen-trøndersk (lit. fine Trondheimish), respectively. Normed Nynorsk speech is mostly used in scripted contexts, like news broadcasts from television stations, such as NRK and TV2. It's also widely used in theaters, like Det Norske Teatret and by teachers. Since the 1970s, the motto of the Nynorsk movement has largely been "speak dialect, write Nynorsk", which has marginalized the use of normed Nynorsk speech to mainly scripted contexts. This is in contrast to the normed Bokmål speech which many speakers use in all social settings. Outside of scripts, it is quite common to rather speak a Norwegian dialect. Compared to many other countries, dialects have a higher social status in Norway and are often used even in official contexts. At the same time, it is not uncommon for dialect speakers to use a register closer to the Nynorsk writing standard when deemed suitable, especially in formal contexts.

Grammar
Nynorsk is a North Germanic language, close in form to both Icelandic and the other form of written Norwegian (Bokmål). Nynorsk grammar is closer in grammar to Old West Norse than Bokmål is, as the latter was influenced by Danish.

Nouns
Grammatical genders are inherent properties of nouns, and each gender has its own forms of inflection.

Standard Nynorsk and all Norwegian dialects, with the notable exception of the Bergen dialect, have three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. The situation is slightly more complicated in Bokmål, which has inherited the Danish two-gender system. Written Danish retains only the neuter and the common gender. Though the common gender took what used to be the feminine inflections in Danish, it matches the masculine inflections in Norwegian. The Norwegianization in the 20th century brought the three-gender system into Bokmål, but the process was never completed. In Nynorsk these are important distinctions, in contrast to Bokmål, in which all feminine nouns may also become masculine (due to the incomplete transition to a three-gender system) and inflect using its forms, and indeed a feminine word may be seen in both forms, for example boka or boken ("the book") in Bokmål. This means that en liten stjerne – stjernen ("a small star – the star", only masculine forms) and ei lita stjerne – stjerna (only feminine forms) both are correct Bokmål, as well as every possible combination: en liten stjerne – stjerna, ei liten stjerne – stjerna or even ei lita stjerne – stjernen. Choosing either two or three genders throughout the whole text is not a requirement either, so one may choose to write tida ("the time" f) and boken ("the book" m) in the same work in Bokmål. This is not allowed in Nynorsk, where the feminine forms have to be used wherever they exist.

In Nynorsk, unlike Bokmål, masculine and feminine nouns are differentiated not only in the singular form but also in the plural forms. For example: That is, nouns generally follow these patterns, where all definite articles/plural indefinite articles are suffixes: The gender of each noun normally follows certain patterns. For instance will all nouns ending in -nad be masculine, like the word jobbsøknad (job application). Almost all nouns ending in -ing will be feminine, like the word forventning (expectation). The -ing nouns also get an irregular inflection pattern, with -ar and -ane in the plural indefinite and plural definite (just like the masculine) but inflected like a feminine noun in every other way. There are a few other common nouns that have an irregular inflection too, like mann which means man and is a masculine word, but for plural it gets an umlaut (just like English): menn (men) and it gets a plural definite that follows the inflection pattern of a feminine word: mennene (the men). The word son which means son is another word that is inflected just like a masculine word except for the plural, where it is inflected like a feminine noun with an umlaut: søner (sons), sønene (the sons).

Here is a short list of irregular nouns, many of which are irregular in Bokmål too and some of which even follow the same irregular inflection as in Bokmål (like the word in the first row: ting):

Genitive of nouns
Expressing ownership of a noun (like "the girl's car") is very similar to how it is in Bokmål, but the use of the reflexive possessive pronouns sin, si, sitt, sine are more extensive than in Bokmål due to the preservation of historical grammatical case expressions.

Compound words
Compound words are constructed in exactly the same way as Bokmål.

Inflection
A grammatical gender is not characterized by noun inflection alone; each gender can have further inflectional forms. That is, gender can determine the inflection of other parts of speech which agree grammatically with a noun. This concerns determiners, adjectives and past participles.

The inflection patterns and words are quite similar to those of Bokmål, but unlike Bokmål the feminine forms are not optional, they have to be used. As for adjectives and determiners, the list of words with a feminine inflection form are quite few compared to those for the masculine and neuter after the 2012 language revision. All the past participles for strong verbs are for instance no longer inflected for the feminine (with an inflection ending -i) and there is just a handful of adjectives left with a feminine form, one of which is the adjective liten as is shown in the inflection table below.

Adjectives
Adjectives have to agree with the noun in both gender and number just like Bokmål. Unlike Bokmål, Nynorsk has a more completed system of adjective agreement comparable to that of the Swedish language (see Nynorsk past participles). Just like in Bokmål, adjectives have to agree after certain copula verbs, like in this case the verb for "to be": vere (er is its present tense). Other important copula verbs where predicative agreement happens are verte and bli (both mean "become"). Other copula verbs are also ser ut (looks like) and the reflexive verbs in Nynorsk. When verbs are used other than these copula verbs, the adjectives like in the example above will no longer be adjectives but an adverb. The adverb form of an adjective is the same as the neuter form of the adjective, just like in Bokmål. For instance Han gjør lite (he does little). Adverbs are not inflected, like most European languages. The system of agreement after copula verbs in the Scandinavian languages is a remnant of the grammatical case system. The verbs where the subject and predicate of the verb had the same case are known as copula verbs. The system of grammatical case disappeared but there was still specific gender forms that was left. Most adjectives will follow this pattern of inflection for adjectives, which is the same as in Bokmål: Examples of adjectives that follow this pattern are adjectives like fin (nice), klar (ready/clear), rar (weird).

Adjectives/perfect participles that end in a diphthong (like the word grei, which means straightforward/fine) will follow this inflection pattern:

Comparison
All adjective comparison follow this pattern:

Participles
Past participles of verbs, which are when the verb functions as an adjective, are inflected just like an adjective. This is very similar to the system of agreement in the Swedish language, where all participles have an inflection for gender, number and definiteness. In contrast, participles in Bokmål are only in general inflected for number and definiteness and shares many of the inflections it got from the Danish language. The inflections of these participles are inferred from the verb conjugation class they pertain to, described in the verb section. In Nynorsk, the verb skrive (to write, strong verb) has the following forms:

Strong verbs had an optional feminine form -i prior to the 2012 language revision that still are used among some users.

Some of the weak verbs have to agree in only number (just like in Bokmål), while many have to agree in both gender and number (like in Swedish). The weak verbs are inflected according to their conjugation class (see Nynorsk verb conjugation).

All a-verbs get the following inflections:

All e-verbs (with -de in preterite) and j-verbs get the following inflections:

All other e-verbs (those with -te in preterite) get the following inflections:

All short verbs get the following inflections:

Present participles are like all other living Scandinavian languages not inflected in Nynorsk. In general, they are formed with the suffix -ande on the verb stem; Ein skrivande student (a writing student).

Definiteness inflection
As can be seen from the inflection tables for adjectives and past participles, they all have their own inflection for definiteness. Just like Bokmål, when adjectives and past participles are accompanied by the articles in the following table below, the adjective/past participle gets the definite inflection and the following noun also gets the definite inflection - a form of double definiteness. Nynorsk requires the use of double definiteness, where as in Bokmål this is not required due to its Danish origins, but the usage in Bokmål depends on the formality of the text. That is, in Bokmål it is perfectly fine to write I første avsnitt (which means; "in the first paragraph"), while the same sentence in Nynorsk would be I det første avsnittet which is also the most common way to construct the sentence in the Norwegian dialects and is also legal Bokmål.

Like most Scandinavian languages, when the noun is definite and is described by an adjective like the phrase "the beautiful mountains", there is a separate definite article dependent on the gender/number of the noun. In Nynorsk these articles are: den/det/dei. The following noun and adjective both gets a definite inflection. When there is no adjective and the articles den/det/dei are used in front of the noun (like dei fjella, English; "those mountains"), the articles are inferred as the demonstrative "that"/"those" depending on if the noun is plural or not. The difference between the demonstrative "that" and the article "the" is in general inferred from context when there is an adjective involved.

Determiners
The determinatives have inflection patterns quite similar to Bokmål, the only difference being that the masculine form is often used for the feminine in Bokmål. Examples:

 * Min eigen bil (My own car)
 * Mi eiga hytte (My own cabin)
 * Mitt eige hus (My own house)
 * Mine eigne bilar (My own cars)

Bil (car) is a masculine noun, hytte (cabin) is a feminine noun and hus (house) is a neuter noun. They all have to agree with the determinatives min and eigen in gender and number. Examples:

 * Eg har ingen bil (I have no car)
 * Eg har inga hytte (I have no cabin)
 * Eg har inkje hus (I have no house)
 * Eg har ingen hytter (I have no cabins)

Bil (car) is a masculine noun, hytte (cabin) is a feminine noun and hus (house) is a neuter noun. They all have to agree with the determinative ingen in gender and number. These words are used in a variety of contexts, as in Bokmål.

Nokon/noka means someone/any, while noko means something and nokre/nokon means some (plural).

Examples:

 * Eg har ikkje sett nokon bil (I have not seen any car)
 * Eg har ikkje sett noka hytte (I have not seen any cabin)
 * Eg har ikkje sett noko hus (I have not seen any house)
 * Eg har ikkje sett nokre/nokon bilar (I have not seen any cars)

Bil (car) is a masculine noun, hytte (cabin) is a feminine noun and hus (house) is a neuter noun. They all have to agree with the determinative nokon in gender and number.

Verb conjugation
As in other continental Scandinavian languages, verb conjugation in Nynorsk is quite simple as verbs are not conjugated by person, unlike English and other Indo-European languages. Verbs are divided into two conjugation classes: strong and weak verbs. The weak verbs are further divided into different categories: a-verbs, j-verbs, short verbs and e-verbs (some e-verbs with -de in the preterite tense and some with -te in the preterite tense). The conjugation class decides what inflection the verb will get for the different tenses and what kind of past participle inflection it gets. E-verbs with -de in the preterite will for instance be inflected in both gender and number for the past participles; while those with -te will be inflected only in number, as described in the past participle section. Unlike Bokmål, Nynorsk has a more marked difference between strong and weak verbs—a common pattern in dialects across Norway. The system resembles the Swedish verb conjugation system. To identify what conjugation class a verb pertains to; j-verbs will have -je or -ja in the infinitive, e-verbs have -er in the present tense, a-verbs have -ar in the present tense and -a in the preterite. Strong verbs have no ending in their present and preterite forms. The only difference between these forms is ablaut. Just like in Bokmål and in most other Germanic languages, there is no difference between the simple tenses and the continuous tenses in Nynorsk. This means for instance that drikk will cover both of the English present forms "drink" and "drinking".

All users can choose to follow a system of either an -e or an -a ending on the infinitives of verbs. That is, one can for instance choose to write either å skrive or å skriva (the latter is common in west Norwegian dialects). There is also a system where one can use both -a endings and -e endings at certain verbs, this system is known as kløyvd infinitiv.

As can be shown from the conjugation tables, the removal of the vocal ending of the infinitive creates the imperative form of the verb kjøp deg ei ny datamaskin! (buy yourself a new computer!). This is true for all weak and strong verbs.

Ergative verbs
There are ergative verbs in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. A verb in Norwegian that is ergative has two different conjugations, either weak or strong. The two different conjugation patterns, though similar, have two different meanings. A verb with a weak conjugation as in the section above, will have an object, that is, the weak conjugated verb is transitive. The verb with strong conjugation will not have an object. The strongly conjugated verbs are intransitive. The system of ergative verbs is more pronounced in Nynorsk than in Bokmål. An ergative verb in Bokmål will have two different conjugations only for the preterite tense for strong verbs due to the influence of Danish that did not have strong ergative verbs, while all ergative verbs in Nynorsk have two different conjugations for all tenses like Swedish. Ergative verbs are also very common in Norwegian dialects, like in the following example. Other verbs that are ergative are often j-verbs; liggje (to lie down), leggje (to lay down). These are differentiated for all tenses, just like Bokmål.

Passive construction
Just like the other Scandinavian languages and Bokmål, there is passive construction of verbs. In general, the passive is created by taking the verb stem and adding the suffix -ast. For instance the verb hente (English: fetch) has the passive form hentast. This suffix was inherited from Old Norse and is the same suffix that exists in modern-day Icelandic. In fact, all the verb forms berast, reddast, opnast, seljast in the table below are Icelandic verb forms too.

In contrast to Bokmål, the passive forms of verbs are only used after auxiliary verbs in Nynorsk, and never without them. Without an auxiliary verb there would rather be a passive construction by the use of the verbs vere/bli/verte (to be/to become) and then the past participle verb form. For instance, the following sentence is not a valid sentence in Nynorsk: Pakka hentast i dag (the package will be fetched today), there would rather be a construction like Pakka vert henta i dag. This is due to the reduction of sentences that are ambiguous in meaning and due to the historic legacy of Old Norse. Bokmål and certain languages like Swedish and Danish have evolved another passive construction where the passive is not reflexive. In the general case, this can lead to confusion as to han slåast means that "he is fighting"» or that "he is being hit", a reflexive or a non reflexive meaning. Nynorsk has two different forms that separate this meaning for the verb slå (slåast and slåst), but in the general case it does not. Nynorsk solves this general ambiguity by mainly allowing a reflexive meaning, which is also the construction that has the most historical legacy behind it. This was also the only allowed construction in Old Norse.

There are reflexive verbs in Nynorsk just like the other Scandinavian languages, and these are not the same as passives. Examples are synast (think, looks like), kjennast (feels), etc. The reflexive verbs have their own conjugation for all tenses, which passives do not. A dictionary will usually show an inflection table if the verb is reflexive, and if it is passive the only allowed form is the word alone with an -ast suffix.

Reflexive verbs
Reflexive verbs like å kjennast (to feel) are conjugated this way In general, all reflexive verbs are conjugated by this pattern. These have a reflexive meaning, see the examples below. Every reflexive verb is also a copula verb, so they have adjective agreement with adjectives like kald (cold), just like in Bokmål and the other Scandinavian languages.

T as final sound
One of the past participle and the preterite verb ending in Bokmål is -et. Aasen originally included these ts in his Landsmål norms, but since these are silent in the dialects, it was struck out in the first officially issued specification of Nynorsk of 1901.

Examples may compare the Bokmål forms skrevet ('written', past participle) and hoppet ('jumped', both past tense and past participle), which in written Nynorsk are skrive (Landsmål skrivet) and hoppa (Landsmål hoppat). The form hoppa is also permitted in Bokmål.

Other examples from other classes of words include the neuter singular form anna of annan ('different', with more meanings) which was spelled annat in Landsmål, and the neuter singular form ope of open ('open') which originally was spelled opet. Bokmål, in comparison, still retains these ts through the equivalent forms annet and åpent.

Pronouns
The personal pronouns in Nynorsk are the only case inflected class in Nynorsk, just like English. As can be seen from the inflection table, the words for "mine", "yours" etc. have to agree in gender with the object as described in the determiners section.

Like in Icelandic and Old Norse (and unlike Bokmål, Danish and Swedish), nouns are referred to by han, ho, det (he, she, it) based on the gender of the noun, like the following:

Ordering of possessive pronouns
The main ordering of possessive pronouns is where the possessive pronoun is placed after the noun, while the noun has the definite article, just like in the example from the table above; boka mi (my book). If one wishes to emphasize ownership, the possessive pronoun may come first; mi bok (my' book). If there is an adjective involved, the possessive pronoun also may come first, especially if the pronoun or adjective is emphasized; mi eiga hytte (my own cabin), mi første bok or den første boka mi (my first book). In all other cases the main ordering will be used. This is in contrast to other continental Scandinavian languages, like Danish and Swedish, where the possessive comes first regardless, just like English. This system of ordering possessive pronouns in Nynorsk is more similar to how it is in the Icelandic language today.

Adverbs
Adverbs are in general formed the same way as in Bokmål and other Scandinavian languages.

Syntax
The syntax of Nynorsk is mainly the same as in Bokmål. They are for instance both SVO.

Word forms compared with Bokmål Norwegian
Many words in Nynorsk are similar to their equivalents in Bokmål, with differing form, for example:

The distinction between Bokmål and Nynorsk is that while Bokmål has for the most part derived its forms from the written Danish language or the common Danish-Norwegian speech, Nynorsk has its orthographical standards from Aasen's reconstructed "base dialect", which are intended to represent the distinctive dialectical forms.

title: Nynorsk


text:
Lake Cadibarrawirracanna

Lake Cadibarrawirracanna, informally known as Lake Cadi, is a salt lake located in the Australian state of South Australia in the locality of Anna Creek in the state's Far North region about 735 km north-west of the state capital of Adelaide.

A South Australian government source describes the lake as having a length of 20 mi, a width of 6 mi and an area of 85 mi2.

Lake Cadibarrawirracanna, meaning the stars were dancing, is said to be the second longest official place name in Australia. In Arabana language, it is "Kardipirla warrakanha", where kardipirla is stars, warra- is dance, play, -ka is simple past tense, and -nha is a proper noun marker.

The lake is located within the boundaries of the Anna Creek Station pastoral lease and has public access established under the Pastoral Land Management and Conservation Act 1989 via an access road connecting to the Coober Pedy to William Creek Road about 6.5 km to the south. The intersection with the access road is about 88 km from Coober Pedy in the west and about 77 km from William Creek in the east.

The lake is the subject of a song named "Carra Barra Wirra Canna" written by Morva Cogan and which was recorded in the 1960s by the Australian singer and musician, Rolf Harris.

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

title: Lake Cadibarrawirracanna


text:
Talk:Michael Collins (Irish patriot)

From WP:RfD:

 * Michael Collins (Irish patriot) and Michael Collins (revolutionary)- unnecessary redirects. Harro5 02:38, May 21, 2005 (UTC)
 * Please explain which of the 6 reasons for deletion at the top of this page apply to these redirects. We don't just delete redirects for the sake of it, as people might still find them useful. sjorford →•← 10:47, 23 May 2005 (UTC)
 * I support deleting them. Although none of the 6 reasons above apply, two other reasons do apply.
 * 7. They were not created as redirects and the intent for which they were created no longer applies.  They were intended in 2002 and Jan 2003 as pages for the information now held in 'Michael Collins (Irish leader).  That was aeons ago in WikiYears and the conventions on page naming have evolved, the content has been moved, and there are no attempts to move it back..
 * None of the conditons for preventing deletion appy. Even Point 3 - Aid to search does not apply as this link and this link demonstrate. Rye1967 03:38, May 24, 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep they are very old redirects and might be linked externally. They also aid accidental linking. - SimonP 14:55, May 27, 2005 (UTC)
 * Weak keep, the former is POV but both assist in internal and external searches. -Sean Curtin 01:01, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Michael Collins (Irish patriot)


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Golden Earring

Golden Earring was a Dutch rock band, founded in 1961 in The Hague as The Tornados. They achieved worldwide fame with their international hit songs "Radar Love" in 1973, which went to number one on the Dutch chart, reached the top ten in the United Kingdom, and went to number thirteen on the United States chart, "Twilight Zone" in 1982, and "When the Lady Smiles" in 1984. During their career they had nearly 30 top-ten singles on the Dutch charts and released 25 studio albums.

The band went through a number of early personnel changes until settling on a stable lineup in 1970, consisting of Rinus Gerritsen (bass and keyboards), George Kooymans (vocals and guitar), Barry Hay (vocals, guitar, flute and saxophone), and Cesar Zuiderwijk (drums and percussion), which remained unchanged until the band broke in 2021 when Kooymans was diagnosed with ALS. A number of other musicians also appeared in short stints with the band over its history.

Early years (1961–1969)
What became Golden Earring was formed in 1961 in The Hague by 13-year-old George Kooymans and his 15-year-old neighbor, Rinus Gerritsen. Originally called "the Tornados", the name was changed to the Golden Earrings when they discovered that the name the Tornados was already in use by another group. The name "the Golden Earrings" was taken from an instrumental called "Golden Earrings" performed by the British group the Hunters, for whom they served as opening and closing act. Initially a pop-rock band with Frans Krassenburg on lead vocals and Jaap Eggermont on drums, the Golden Earrings had a hit with their debut single "Please Go", recorded in 1965. Dissatisfied with Dutch recording studios, the band's manager and co-discoverer Fred Haayen arranged for the next single to be recorded at the Pye Records studios in London. The record cut at Pye, "That Day", reached number two on the Dutch charts. The definite article was dropped from the name in 1967, and the plural "s" was dropped in 1969.

In 1968, Barry Hay joined the band, replacing Krassenburg as frontman. Two years later, the band earned their first number one hit in the Netherlands with the song "Dong Dong Diki Digi Dong". In the United States, ground work for entering the US market was being laid by East Coast FM radio disc jockey and music critic Neil Kempfer-Stocker, who is credited as the first radio DJ to play the band in the US. This single was followed by a successful psychedelic album Eight Miles High, which featured a 19-minute version of the title track, a cover of the 1966 hit song by the Byrds. The song, played throughout their US tour, became the core performance of their live shows, and their experience in the US led them to make their studio albums resemble their live shows, rather than the other way around. The band's American records during this period were issued by the Perception Records label in New York, and the band's Golden Earring LP, known as Wall of Dolls, and single "Back Home" performed poorly in the US but became a number 1 hit in the Netherlands.

International fame (1970s and 1980s)
In 1969, drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk joined the band, completing what has become Golden Earring's classic line-up. The band enjoyed brief international fame in the 1970s when the single version of "Radar Love" (1973), from the gold-certified album Moontan, became a hit in both Europe and the US. Golden Earring embarked on their first major US tour in 1969–1970. Owing to American influences, their music evolved towards hard rock, and they performed along with Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Procol Harum, and Eric Clapton. Between 1969 and 1984, Golden Earring completed 13 US tours. During this period, they performed as the opening act for Santana, King Crimson, the Doobie Brothers, Rush and .38 Special. During 1973–74, when "Radar Love" was a hit, they had Kiss and Aerosmith as their opening acts. While signed to the UK Track Records label, the band rented the superb quadraphonic sound system normally used exclusively by the Who.

Golden Earring enjoyed a brief period of US stardom, but were unable to secure further chart success until 1982's "Twilight Zone". The music video of the song, directed by Dick Maas, was played on the recently launched MTV in the United States, and helped the song to become a US hit, spending 27 weeks on the Billboard chart.

"When the Lady Smiles" became an international hit in 1984, reaching No. 3 in Canada and becoming the band's fifth number one hit in their native country, but was not successful in the United States, reaching no higher than #76 on the US Singles Chart. The video was banned from MTV because of its "unholy desires about a nun and a lobotomy"; this was Dick Maas's second video for the band, and helped launch his career as a film director. While touring the US in 1984, the band played at the Great Arena Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey on May 11 and were in the midst of their performance when a fire broke out at the Haunted Castle on the opposite side of the theme park, killing eight teenagers. Following this tour, Golden Earring turned their focus toward Europe where they continued to attract standing-room-only crowds. The group paused briefly after the release of The Hole in 1986 to focus on other projects, with Hay and Kooymans both releasing solo albums (Victory of Bad Taste and Solo, respectively) the following year. The group then reconvened to record their final album of the 1980s, releasing Keeper of the Flame in 1989.

Later years (1990s–2021)
In 1991, Golden Earring had another hit in the Netherlands with "Going to the Run", a rock-ballad about a Hells Angels motorcycle gang member who was a friend of the band and died in a crash. The Russian rock band Aria made a successful cover of "Going to the Run" as "Беспечный ангел" ("Careless Angel"). Between 1992 and 2004, the band released three acoustic live unplugged albums, which became quick successes. The acoustic albums feature unplugged versions of famous hits of the band, and have been some of the band's best-selling albums, such as The Naked Truth, which sold over 500,000 copies in the Netherlands.

Golden Earring performed over 200 concerts a year, mainly in their home country and occasionally in Belgium, Germany, and the UK. These energetic live performances have been recorded on several live albums—Live, recorded at London's Rainbow Theater in 1977; 2nd Live, 1981; Something Heavy Going Down, 1984 (also released on DVD as Live from the Twilight Zone); and Last Blast of the Century, a live recording of their last concert of the 20th century (available on both CD and DVD). Furthermore, the band's acoustic live albums include The Naked Truth (1992), Naked II (1997) and Naked III (2005). Their latest live album, Live from Ahoy 2006, is a DVD with bonus CD.

Golden Earring celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2011, which the Dutch postal service honored with a stamp that contained a music link: when a smartphone with a special app is held up to the music stamp, Golden Earring's "Radar Love" plays.

On 11 May 2012, the band released what was to prove to be their final studio album, Tits 'n Ass. The album was recorded in London during summer of 2011 with producer Chris Kimsey and peaked at No. 1 in the Dutch albums chart twice. The album's song "Still Got the Keys to My First Cadillac" was issued as a single. A video for the song featured young impersonators of Golden Earring.

On 5 February 2021, the band's manager announced to the Dutch press that their active career was over due to George Kooymans' serious illness.

Personnel

 * Rinus Gerritsen – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica (1961–2021)
 * George Kooymans – guitar, vocals (1961–2021)
 * Barry Hay – vocals, guitar, flute, saxophone (1967–2021)
 * Cesar Zuiderwijk – drums, percussion (1970–2021)
 * Fred van der Hilst – drums, percussion (1962–1965)
 * Hans van Herwerden – guitar (1962–1963)
 * Peter de Ronde – guitar (1963–1966)
 * Frans Krassenburg – vocals (1964–1967)
 * Jaap Eggermont – drums, percussion (1965–1969)
 * Sieb Warner – drums, percussion (1969–1970)
 * Bertus Borgers – saxophone (1973–1976)
 * Eelco Gelling – guitar (1973–1975, 1976–1978)
 * Robert Jan Stips – keyboards, synthesizers (1974–1976, 1977–1978, 1980, 1982, 1986)
 * John Lagrand – harmonica (1979)

Discography

 * Just Ear-rings (1965)
 * Winter-Harvest (1967)
 * Miracle Mirror (1968)
 * On the Double (1969)
 * Eight Miles High (1969)
 * Golden Earring (1970)
 * Seven Tears (1971)
 * Together (1972)
 * Moontan (1973)
 * Switch (1975)
 * To the Hilt (1976)
 * Contraband (1976)
 * Grab It for a Second (1978)
 * No Promises...No Debts (1979)
 * Prisoner of the Night (1980)
 * Cut (1982)
 * N.E.W.S. (1984)
 * The Hole (1986)
 * Keeper of the Flame (1989)
 * Bloody Buccaneers (1991)
 * Face It (1994)
 * Love Sweat (1995)
 * Paradise in Distress (1999)
 * Millbrook U.S.A. (2003)
 * Tits 'n Ass (2012)
 * The Hague (EP) (2015)

title: Golden Earring


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Hell, Norway

Hell (, Trøndersk: ) is a village in the Lånke area of the municipality of Stjørdal in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located in the western part of the municipality, about 3 km south of the town of Stjørdalshalsen. The 1.04 km2 village has a population (2018) of 1,589 and a population density of 1528 PD/km2.

Hell is a post town with two post codes: 7517 for delivery route addresses and 7570 for post-office boxes. Hell currently has a grocery store, gas station, a fast food shop, and a retirement home. Until late 1995, the European route E6 highway was aligned through Hell and across the Hell bridge to Sandfærhus (nearby is the Trondheim Airport, Værnes). The new road now goes around the village.

Etymology

The village of Hell has become a minor tourist attraction because of its name, as visitors often have their photograph taken in front of the station sign. A smaller building on the railway station has been given the sign gods-expedition, which is the archaic spelling of the word for "goods handling" (godsekspedisjon would be the spelling in the contemporary Norwegian language).

The name Hell stems from the Old Norse word hellir, which means "overhang" or "cliff cave". It has a more common homonym in modern Norwegian that means "luck". The Old Norse word Hel is the same as today's English Hell, and as a proper noun, Hel was the ruler of Hel. In modern Norwegian, the word for hell is helvete.

Among English-speaking tourists, popular postcards depict the station with a heavy frost on the ground, making a visual joke about "Hell frozen over". Temperatures in Hell can reach -25 C during winter.

British punk band The Boys recorded their third album in the village, and as a result named it To Hell with the Boys.

Climate
Trondheim Airport Værnes is used as the official meteorological office for this region. Temperatures in both the winter and summer are moderate due to the geography of the location: the average January highs are still above freezing despite a high latitude. Hell has a humid continental climate that is close to being subarctic and also close to being oceanic.

Amenities
Hell railway station is situated at a railway junction where the Nordland Line north to Bodø branches off from the Meråkerbanen between Trondheim and Storlien, Sweden. Hell Station is currently a staffed railway station.

The Hell Kjøpesenter mall is located at Sandfærhus north of the Stjørdalselva river, rather than in Hell/Lånke, and thus the name is a misnomer.

A blues festival takes place every year at Hell Station in September, The original festival (Hell Blues Festival) started in 1992, then changed its name to Hell Music Festival in 2006 to open their doors for music other than blues. The Hell Music Festival in 2007 failed to attract many concert-goers, however, and the festival declared bankruptcy the same year. In 2008 a new festival was started, entitled "Blues in Hell", going back to the original concept.

Since 2011, the circuit in the village has hosted a round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship (and from 2014 the FIA World Rallycross Championship).

Notable person
Mona Grudt, Miss Norway 1990 and Miss Universe 1990, is from a small town near Hell. During the 1990 Miss Universe competition, she listed herself as "The beauty queen from Hell" as a publicity stunt.

title: Hell, Norway


text:
Sarah Aaronsohn

Sarah Aaronsohn; 5 January 1890 – 9 October 1917) was a member of Nili, a ring of Jewish spies working for the British in World War I, and a sister of agronomist Aaron Aaronsohn. She is often referred to as the "heroine of Nili."

Biography
Sarah Aaronsohn was born in Zichron Yaakov, which at the time was part of Ottoman Syria. Her parents were Zionists from Romania who had come to Ottoman Palestine as some of the first settlers of the First Aliyah and were founders of the moshava where Aaronsohn was born. Encouraged by her brother Aaron, she studied languages and was fluent in Hebrew, Yiddish, Turkish and French, had reasonable command of Arabic and taught herself English. On 31 March 1914, she was married in Atlit to Haim Abraham, an older and affluent merchant from Bulgaria, and lived briefly with him in Istanbul; but the marriage was an unhappy one and she returned home to Zichron Yaakov in December 1915.

On her way from Istanbul to Haifa, Aaronsohn witnessed part of the Armenian genocide. She testified to seeing hundreds of bodies of Armenian men, women, children, and babies; sick Armenians being loaded onto trains; with the dead being tossed out and replaced by the living. After her trip to Haifa, any allusions to Armenians upset her greatly. According to Chaim Herzog, Aaronsohn decided to assist British forces as a result of what she had witnessed.

Pro-British espionage
Aaronsohn, her sister Rivka Aaronsohn, and her brothers Aaron Aaronsohn and Alexander Aaronsohn, with their friend (and fiancé of Rivka) Avshalom Feinberg formed and led the Nili spy organization. Aaronsohn oversaw operations in Palestine of the spy ring and passed information to British agents offshore. Sometimes she travelled widely through Ottoman territory collecting information useful to the British, and brought it directly to them in Egypt. In 1917, her brother Alexander urged her to remain in British-controlled Egypt, expecting hostilities from Ottoman authorities; but Aaronsohn returned to Zichron Yaakov to continue Nili activities. Nili developed into the largest pro-British espionage network in the Middle East, with a network of about 40 spies.

Torture and suicide
In September 1917, the Ottomans intercepted her carrier pigeon carrying a message to the British and decrypted the Nili code. In October, the Ottomans surrounded Zichron Yaakov and arrested numerous people, including Aaronsohn. Her captors tortured her father in front of her. She endured four days of torture herself, but she gave no information beyond what she thought of her torturers. Before she was to be transferred to Damascus for further torture, she asked permission to return to her home in Zichron Yaakov to change her blood-stained clothes. While there, she managed to shoot herself with a pistol concealed under a tile in the bathroom. According to Scott Anderson, in his book Lawrence in Arabia, Aaronsohn shot herself in the mouth on Friday 5 October 1917. "Even this did not end the torment of Sarah Aaronsohn. While the bullet destroyed her mouth and severed her spinal cord, it missed her brain.  For four days she lingered in agony." In Spies in Palestine, James Srodes quotes the diary of Dr. Hillel Yaffe as saying that Sarah pleaded with him, "For heaven's sake, put an end to my life. I beg you, kill me…I can't suffer any longer…." Instead, Dr. Yaffee administered morphine. She died on 9 October 1917. In her last letter, she expressed her hope that her activities in Nili would bring nearer the realization of a national home for the Jews in Eretz Israel.

Because of the Jewish views on suicide, Aaronsohn was denied a traditional burial in a Jewish cemetery. However, refusing a Jewish burial for her was unpopular. As a compromise, a small fence was placed around her grave in the cemetery (symbolically removing her grave from the surrounding hallowed ground).

Legacy
Aaronsohn was the first example of a "secular, active death of a Jewish-Zionist woman for the nation, unprecedented in both religious martyrdom and in the Zionist tradition established in Palestine." Annual pilgrimages to her tomb in Zikhron's cemetery started in 1935. After the Six-Day War of 1967, the memory of Aaronsohn and of Nili became a part of Israel's cult of heroism, officially recognized by the Labor Party and celebrated in children's literature.

title: Sarah Aaronsohn


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Nili

NILI (נִילי) was a Jewish espionage network which assisted the United Kingdom in its fight against the Ottoman Empire in the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem between 1915 and 1917, during World War I. NILI was centered in Zikhron Ya'akov, with branches in Hadera and other Moshava. Nili is an acronym which stands for the Hebrew phrase from the First Book of Samuel: "Netzah Yisrael Lo Yeshaker", which translates as "the Eternal One of Israel will not lie". The British government code-named NILI the "A Organization", according to a 1920 misfiled memorandum in the British National Archives, as described in the book Spies in Palestine by James Srodes.

During the Armenian genocide, the group opposed the Yishuv leadership at the time, and tried to intervene on behalf of the Armenians.

In choosing to side with the British Empire, the members of Nili went against the majority view of their fellow Jews from the Yishuv, who feared fierce persecution. These fears almost materialised when the spy ring was discovered, and the Jews of Palestine escaped the tragic fate of the Armenians only due to the intervention of the Vatican, the German government and General Erich von Falkenhayn, commander of the Ottoman-German troops in Palestine.

Establishment
Sarah Aaronsohn, her brothers Aaron and Alexander, and their sister Rivka, together with their friend (and Rivka's fiancé) Avshalom Feinberg formed and led Nili.

In 1915, even before the group commenced operations, the Ottomans imprisoned Feinberg on suspicion of spying, which was not true at the time. When Feinberg was arrested for espionage and held in Beersheba, Yosef Lishansky joined Nili in December 1915. Because he was active in the south, he was recruited by Feinberg to pass information to and from Sarah Aaronsohn, who was operating from Atlit.

From March to October 1915, a plague of locusts stripped areas in and around Palestine of almost all vegetation. The Turkish authorities, worried about feeding their troops, turned to world-famous botanist and the region's leading agronomist, Aaron Aaronsohn, who requested the release of his friend and assistant, Avshalom Feinberg. The team fighting the locust invasion was given permission to move around the country, enabling them to collect strategic information about Ottoman camps and troop deployment.

For months, the group was not taken seriously by British intelligence, and attempts by Aaron Aaronsohn and Avshalom Feinberg to establish communication channels in Cairo and Port Said failed. Only after Aaronsohn arrived in London (by way of Berlin and Copenhagen) and owing to his reputation, was he able to obtain cooperation from the diplomat Sir Mark Sykes.

Sarah oversaw operations in Palestine from Zikhron Ya'akov.

Demise
Attempting to reach Egypt on foot, Avshalom Feinberg was killed and Yosef Lishansky was wounded but managed to reach British lines.

From February to September 1917, the steam yacht Managem regularly sailed to the Palestinian coast near Atlit. Lishansky swam ashore to collect Nili information and to pass money sent by American Jews to the starving Yishuv. However, the presence of German submarines made the trips too risky and the group switched to homing pigeons.

In the fall of 1917, the Bosnian mudir of Qisarya, Ahmad Bek Kat-huda Ćehajić, exposed Nili when he intercepted one of its carrier pigeons. The Ottomans were able to decipher the Nili code (based on Hebrew, Aramaic, French, and English) within one week. As a result, the Ottomans were able to unravel the spy network, whereupon the leadership of the Yishuv and the Hashomer disassociated itself from Nili. One Nili member, Na'aman Belkind, was captured by the Ottomans and reportedly revealed information about the group.

In October 1917, the Ottomans surrounded Zikhron Ya'akov and arrested numerous people, including Sarah Aaronsohn, who committed suicide after four days of torture. Other prisoners were incarcerated in Damascus. Lishansky and Belkind were hanged.

Controversies
Nili's "irresponsibility" for not coordinating their operations with the Zionist leadership, thereby endangering the Yishuv, was the cause of a longstanding controversy among the Jewish community of the British Mandate of Palestine and subsequently of the State of Israel. The issue was officially resolved in November 1967, when Feinberg's remains were reinterred on Mount Herzl with full military honors, with eulogies delivered by both Speaker of the Knesset and chief chaplain of the IDF.

Remembrance
The Aaronsohn home in Zikhron Ya'akov, Beit Aaronsohn, has been preserved as a museum and memorial to Nili. West of Zikhron Ya'akov is a moshav called Givat Nili. The settlement Nili in the western Binyamin region is also named for Nili. Many streets throughout Israel bear the Nili name. In December 2015. the Israel Post marked the centenary of Nili with a special stamp issue.

title: Nili


text:
Dewberry

The dewberries are a group of species in the genus Rubus, section Rubus, closely related to the blackberries. They are small trailing (rather than upright or high-arching) brambles with aggregate fruits, reminiscent of the raspberry, but are usually purple to black instead of red.

Description
The plants do not have upright canes like some other Rubus species, but have stems that trail along the ground, putting forth new roots along the length of the stem. The stems are covered with fine spines or stickers. Around March and April, the plants start to grow white flowers that develop into small green berries. The tiny green berries grow red and then a deep purple-blue as they ripen. When the berries are ripe, they are tender and difficult to pick in any quantity without squashing them. The berries are sweet and often less seedy than blackberries.

In the winter the leaves often remain on the stems, but may turn dark red.

The European dewberry, Rubus caesius, grows more upright like other brambles. Its fruits are a deep, almost black, purple and are coated with a thin layer or 'dew' of waxy droplets. Thus, they appear sky-blue (caesius being Latin for pale blue). Its fruits are small and retain a markedly tart taste even when fully ripe.

Species

 * Rubus Section Caesii, European dewberry
 * European dewberry, Rubus caesius L.
 * Rubus Section Flagellares, American dewberries
 * Rubus aboriginum Rydb., synonyms:
 * Rubus almus (L.H. Bailey) L.H.Bailey
 * Rubus austrinus L.H.Bailey
 * Rubus bollianus L.H.Bailey
 * Rubus clair-brownii' L.H.Bailey
 * Rubus decor L.H. Bailey
 * Rubus flagellaris Willd. var. almus L.H.Bailey
 * Rubus foliaceus L.H. Bailey
 * Rubus ignarus L.H. Bailey
 * Rubus ricei L.H. Bailey
 * Aberdeen dewberry, Rubus depavitus L.H.Bailey
 * Northern dewberry, Rubus flagellaris Willd.
 * Swamp dewberry, Rubus hispidus L.
 * Upland dewberry, Rubus invisus (L.H.Bailey) Britton
 * Pacific dewberry, Rubus ursinus Cham. & Schltdl.
 * Southern dewberry Rubus trivialis L.H.Bailey

Distribution and habitat
Dewberries are common throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere and are thought of as a beneficial weed. Rubus caesius is frequently restricted to coastal communities, especially sand dune systems.

Ecology
The leaves are sometimes eaten by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including peach blossom moths.

Uses
The leaves can be used to make a herbal tea, and the berries are edible and taste sweet. They can be eaten raw, or used to make cobbler, jam, or pie.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the town of Cameron, North Carolina, was known as the "dewberry capital of the world" for large scale cultivation of this berry which was shipped out for widespread consumption. Local growers made extensive use of the railroads in the area to ship them nationally and internationally.

title: Dewberry


text:
Friday (1995 film)

Friday is a 1995 American buddy comedy film directed by F. Gary Gray and written by Ice Cube and DJ Pooh. The first installment in the Friday trilogy, the film stars Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long, Tiny "Zeus" Lister Jr., Regina King, Anna Maria Horsford, Bernie Mac, and John Witherspoon. Set in South Central Los Angeles, it follows unemployed friends Craig Jones and Smokey, who face troubles after becoming indebted to a local drug dealer while also contending with the neighborhood bully.

While developing the film, Ice Cube and DJ Pooh expressed discontent regarding the portrayal of the hood in film, which they came to see as violent and menacing. As a result, they wished to counteract this, drawing on personal experiences when crafting the characters and plot points. Preparations for the film began after the pair were able to secure funding from New Line Cinema, who granted finance in exchange for a seasoned comedian in one of the lead roles; Ice Cube and DJ Pooh quickly settled on Tucker during casting, which helped skyrocket Tucker to stardom. The film was Gray's film directorial debut, who was previously known as a music video director.

Friday was theatrically released in the United States on April 26, 1995. It received positive reviews from critics, many of whom praised the comedic sequences, writing, and acting performances. The film was also a commercial success, grossing $27 million worldwide. It then obtained a large cult following, inspiring internet memes and pop-culture references. It launched a media franchise with the sequels Next Friday (2000) and Friday After Next (2002).

Plot
Craig Jones, a recently fired and unemployed slacker, living in South Central Los Angeles, spends Friday with his best friend Smokey, a small-time drug peddler. The pair smoke a brokered consignment of marijuana, which Smokey was tasked to sell for Smokey's drug supplier Big Worm.

Big Worm attempts to collect his money from Smokey, who accidentally involves Craig, subjecting both to Big Worm's ultimatum: if they don't repay him $200 by 10:00 PM that evening, Craig and Smokey will be killed.

Craig attempts to borrow money from a number of people, including his mother Betty, his sister Dana, and jealous girlfriend Joi, and Joi refuses under the assumption that Craig is being unfaithful with local drug addict and mooch Felisha and her sister Debbie. Craig retrieves a gun to walk Smokey home, but his father Willie tells him that he needs to use his fists instead of weapons to help himself.

Smokey sells some drugs to Hector, a former smoking buddy, while Deebo, the neighborhood bully, forces Smokey to break into their neighbor Stanley's house to burglarize and they manage to steal $200 that Deebo decides to keep for himself.

Smokey attempts to retrieve the money from Deebo, who is asleep with Felisha at her house, but fails due to interference from the petty thief Ezal. Seeing Deebo awake, Craig and Smokey notice a car driving slowly, and, suspecting a drive-by shooting, they hide in Craig's room for the evening. After failing to contact Big Worm, and with 10:00 PM approaching, they return outside but are forced to evade Big Worm's men as they're sitting in a black van with its headlights off, starting a shootout.

After the shootout, the neighbors come out of their houses upon hearing the gunshots. Debbie confronts Deebo for beating Felisha, assuming Felisha was behind Smokey's attempted theft. As Craig and Smokey arrive, Deebo angrily punches Debbie, knocking her to the ground, leading to a physical altercation between him and Craig, with Craig being victorious by defeating him on Debbie's behalf.

Smokey steals $200 from the incapacitated Deebo as Red retrieves his stolen gold chain and bicycle. Debbie tends to Craig's wounds, leading him to break up with Joi on the phone while his father informs him his former supervisor called wanting to see him tomorrow.

Smokey settles his debt with Big Worm, telling him he will no longer sell drugs and is set to enter rehabilitation. Smokey then smokes a joint and ends the movie by looking at the camera and saying "I was just bullshittin'! And you know this, man!"

Cast

 * Ice Cube as Craig Jones, a 22-year-old slacker.
 * Chris Tucker as Smokey, Craig's friend who is a drug peddler.
 * Nia Long as Debbie, Craig's love interest a neighborhood girl.
 * Tiny "Zeus" Lister Jr. as Deebo, the neighborhood bully.
 * John Witherspoon as Willie Jones, an animal control officer and Craig & Dana's strict but well-meaning father.
 * Anna Maria Horsford as Betty Jones, the wife of Willie and the mother of Craig and Dana.
 * Regina King as Dana Jones, the sister of Craig.
 * Paula Jai Parker as Joi, the jealous girlfriend of Craig.
 * Bernie Mac as Pastor Clever, a pastor in Craig's neighborhood.
 * Angela Means as Felisha, the sister of Debbie who lives with their parents
 * Faizon Love as Big Worm, a drug supplier that Smokey works for.
 * Anthony Johnson as Ezal, a petty thief.
 * Yvette Wilson as Rita
 * Vickilyn Reynolds as Joann, Smokey's mother.
 * DJ Pooh as Red, one of Craig's neighbors whose bicycle was stolen by Deebo.
 * Tony Cox as Mr. Parker, one of the Jones family's neighbors.
 * Kathleen Bradley as Mrs. Parker, one of the Jones family's neighbors.
 * Demetrius Navarro as Hector, Smokey's smoking buddy.
 * Reynaldo Rey as Red's father
 * Ronn Riser as Stanley, one of the Jones family's neighbors.
 * Justin Renover as Kid #1
 * Meagan Good as Kid #2
 * Terri J. Vaughn as China
 * F. Gary Gray as a worker at a store
 * James Bose Smith as Lil Chris

LaWanda Page cameos as a Jehovah's Witness that Craig shuts the door on. Michael Clarke Duncan appears in an uncredited role as a craps player; his film debut. Rap musician WC appears as a drive-by shooter working for Big Worm.

Production
Before Friday's release, movies such as Boyz n the Hood (also starring Ice Cube) and Colors portrayed life in the hood as violent and menacing. Ice Cube and DJ Pooh felt that these films did not portray the full picture of living in the hood, missing a more lighthearted element, with Ice Cube later saying, "we had fun in the hood. We used to trip off the neighborhood." Therefore, Cube and DJ Pooh decided to create a film that would portray that environment.

The script was only the third Ice Cube had ever written; the previous two were undeveloped. With the film, Ice Cube intended to make a "hood classic", one that could be "[watched] over and over and over again". According to Ice Cube, a majority of the film is autobiographical, with much of it being based on events that occurred in his neighborhood growing up. Smokey was based on DJ Pooh's stint as a drug dealer, while Craig being fired on his day off was based on Ice Cube's cousin, who was working as a delivery driver for United Parcel Service (UPS) at the time.

Prior to writing, the duo realized their inexperience as filmmakers was unlikely to attract major film studios, and floated the idea of self-financing the film. For a time, the idea of making the film in black and white to save money was considered, before the pair decided on approaching New Line Cinema about producing the film, who had achieved success with the House Party series; a film-type the duo aimed to replicate.

New Line Cinema agreed to finance the production, but requested that the role of Smokey, initially to be played by DJ Pooh, be played by someone with more experience. Chris Rock and Tommy Davidson were also considered for the role of Smokey. Ice Cube and Pooh immediately decided on Tucker, after discovering the comic through Def Comedy Jam. However, Tucker's first audition was poorly received, but was granted more time to try again at a later date. Tucker soon contacted Angela Means, aiming to work with her acting coach, but she invited him to a workshop session over dinner to help him secure the role. According to Means, "by the time that spaghetti was gone, Chris was Smokey."

Ice Cube was granted license to select the film's director, and decided on F. Gary Gray, who was a music video director. Gray had previously worked with Ice Cube on a number of occasions and was also aiming to establish a foothold in Hollywood through a short film. Ice Cube instead offered him the role for Friday, attracted to the fact that he and Gray had similar backgrounds, feeling the director would accurately capture the film's aesthetic.

Gray said that Ice Cube starring in a comedy "scared the shit out of me," as he doubted whether audiences would buy into Cube portraying a role so different from his public persona. Gray explained, "Ice Cube was the toughest man in America, and when you take someone [who] delivers hard-hitting social issues in hardcore gangsta rap, and who has a hardcore view on politics, you would never think comedy."

Release
Friday was released on April 26, 1995, in the United States, June 30, 1995, in the United Kingdom, and October 5, 1995, in Australia. The film saw a limited, theatrical re-release in honor of its 20th anniversary on April 20, 2015, for one night only.

Home media
The film was released on VHS on October 10, 1995, on DVD on March 2, 1999, and on Blu-ray on September 8, 2009.

Reception
Friday grossed $6,589,341 on its opening weekend debuting at #2 in the box office in 865 theaters, averaging $7,617 per theater. The film grossed $27,467,564 in North America, against a budget of $3.5 million.

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 76% based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "What Friday might lack in taut construction or directorial flair, it more than makes up with its vibrant (albeit consistently crass) humor and the charming, energetic performances of its leads." Metacritic gives the film a score of 54 out of 100, based on 9 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Legacy
The film has obtained a large cult following since its release. A scene in the film is the source of the internet meme "Bye, Felicia"—which is a phrase meant to dismiss an inconsequential person. Former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison and San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel are both nicknamed Deebo in reference to the character from the film.

Director Quentin Tarantino counted Friday as one of his 20 favorite movies from 1992 to 2009.

Sequels
The film's success spawned two sequels: Next Friday (2000) and Friday After Next (2002). A fourth installment, tentatively titled Last Friday, has been in the works for several years. The film also inspired an animated series, titled Friday: The Animated Series, which aired in summer 2007.

The sequel Next Friday was the most successful in the franchise grossing a total of $59.8 million worldwide.

title: Friday (1995 film)


text:
Box camera

A box camera is a simple type of camera, the most common form being a cardboard or plastic box with a lens in one end and film at the other. They were sold in large numbers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The lenses are often single element designs meniscus fixed focus lens, or in better quality box cameras a doublet lens with minimal (if any) possible adjustments to the aperture or shutter speeds. Because of the inability to adjust focus, the small lens aperture and the low sensitivity of the sensitive materials available, these cameras work best in brightly lit day-lit scenes when the subject is within the hyperfocal distance for the lens and of subjects that move little during the exposure. Eventually, box cameras with photographic flash, shutter and aperture adjustment were introduced, allowing indoor photos.

Purpose
The Kodak camera introduced in 1888 was the first box camera to become widely adopted by the public and its design became the archetype for box camera designs introduced by many different manufacturers. The use of flexible roll film meant that the cameras were light and portable and could be used without the encumbrance of tripods and the attendant difficulty of using glass photographic plates which were typical of professional cameras. Before the introduction of the Kodak, photographers were responsible for making their own arrangements for the development and printing of their pictures. The first Kodak came pre-loaded with film and the customer returned the camera to Kodak for processing and to be reloaded with film for the customer. In 1900, a Yale plate box camera cost US$2 (about $ in dollars). and a Kodak rollfilm box sold for US$1 (about $ in dollars)

Typical box cameras

 * The Kodak introduced in May 1888 first commercially successful box camera for roll film—the advertising slogan being You press the button – we do the rest.
 * The Kodak Brownie, a long lasting series of classical box cameras using roll film.
 * The Ansco Panda was designed to compete directly with the Brownies. It used 620 film.
 * The Kodak Instamatic using 126 film, later 110 film.
 * The modern disposable camera using 135 film.
 * The Zeiss Ikon Box-Tengor for roll film.

Other box cameras
Although many cameras of the mid nineteenth century were wooden and "boxy" in appearance with a brass fitted lens on the front they should not be confused with the mass-produced box cameras that exploded in popularity after the introduction of the first Kodak.

Le Phoebus 1870 The "Le Phoebus" camera was typical, it was built of mahogany wood with a brass mounted lens in a rack-and-pinion focuser to adjust the projected image sharply onto a ground glass at the back. Most cameras like this used glass plates. The lens did not come equipped with a shutter; instead, the lenscap was removed and replaced to control the exposure time.

Pocket Kodak 1895–1896 Pocket Kodaks were small (2 and 3/16 x 3 x 4 inches) and lightweight (6 ounces), and took roughly 2 inch exposures on 102 size rollfilm. This camera had a new feature, a small view box that told how many exposures of film were left. They were first available in 1895 with either black or red leather covering.

Crown Camera 1896 Patent GB189602965 was granted on February 10, 1896 to Thomas Peter Bethell of Crown Works, Boundary Place, Liverpool for a simple construction of camera to be made of cardboard of metal, or a combination of both. The Crown Camera had a quarter-plate cardboard-body with two waist level finders, cardboard rubber-band powered shutter, four-position rotary stops marked 1 2 3 4, a single meniscus lens, removable ground glass screen, rear sliding sheath and leather carrying strap.

le Papillon 1905–1908 Meaning "the butterfly," le Papillon was a small French stereo camera which made 45mm x 107mm stereoscopic images on glass plates in single plateholders.

No. 00 Cartridge Premo Camera, 1916–1922 The No. 00 Cartridge Premo was Kodak's smallest box camera ever. It was only 2½ inches tall. It uses a simple rotary shutter with meniscus lens, and does not have a viewfinder. The photographer must use the leatherette covering to attempt to see the subject of the photograph.

title: Box camera


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Talk:Indian National Congress

Congress ideology
Congress is a Big tent party with many factions. Big tent, Secularism and Civic nationalism are core ideology of Congress. It cannot fully consider it a liberal party. There are conservative figures like Vallabhbhai Patel. So, remove Liberalism (India). Different leaders follow different economic policies. Nehru followed a socialist or democratic socialist economic policies. Manmohan Singh and PV Narasima Rao followed Economic liberal economic policies. So, remove Social democracy. It's not a Centre-left party it's a Centrist or Big Tent partyVallabhbhai Patelngress. Imran Rashid Khan (talk) 17:48, 12 June 2024 (UTC)

 * See Democratic Party (United States) here no fixed ideology or political position is given. Imran Rashid Khan (talk) 17:49, 12 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Thank you for bringing this to our attention. The party has undergone several changes since independence. Yes, we can add a section within the Ideological section detailing the significant changes the party has undergone so far with respect to Ideology. Please let us know if this sounds convincing. Thanks. 25 CENTS VICTORIOUS  🍁 13:00, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 21 June 2024
Can someone please add Progressivism idealogy in th infobox as these below sources state Congress supports Progressive idealogy. Source 1 Source 2 Source 3. These sources do says that the party has and do adhere to progreesive thoughts. Any though. Thanks 2409:40E0:3F:40B8:F08D:FF3F:7A93:D4EF (talk) 06:18, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

India's first political party
India's first political party is Akil Bharath hindu mahasabha since is 1882 2405:201:E00C:30AF:3033:5F8B:F3B:CDE0 (talk) 11:59, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

 * It was founded in 1915 by Malviya as a conservative pressure group within the Congress. Much later in the 1930s, it became a distinct political organization.  Fowler&fowler  «Talk»  15:41, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
 * See Hindu Mahasabha. Fowler&fowler  «Talk»  15:42, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Please change letter size
Change Centre-left to centre-left Homo sapiens politician (talk) 01:43, 9 July 2024 (UTC)

Colour of the party
There is no proof of any official colour of the party, the customary colour have been sky blue. Many parties in India uses saffron, white and green (from Indian tricolour flag) as their colours. Every national party in India uses a single colour only. is wrongfully adding the colours of the party in the infobox. I asked them to provide any reference for their claim, but they did not do so and just kept undoing my edits. 19 May, 25 May, 29 May, 13 July The wrong colours were added on 6 May by in this edit. Only two months have passed since the new colours were added, before that the blue colour was there for years. Until consensus is reached the version of the article (mainy of the colours) which was before 6 May should be published. Bairagi Ram (talk) 16:28, 13 July 2024 (UTC)

 * Pls read WP:FORUM, where is source mentioning that there is not official colour of the party? Please read this  The Indian national colours of the Indian flag serve as the official visual identification of the Indian National Congress throughout it's history, only until recently has the party started to be using alternative customary colours . Here are the some sources . They used the Swaraj Flag and became the symbol of India's demand for Self-rule led by the Indian National Congress before independence, it was their official flag. They used tricolour as their official colour. The current blue colour is being used just recently, some years back it was aqua blue here in infobox. Also please read this and  ZenDragoX (User) (Contact) 12:54, 14 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Indian National Congress


text:
Congress Party

Congress Party may refer to:

 * Indian National Congress, a major political party in India
 * Congress Party (Barbados), a minor defunct political party in Barbados
 * Botswana Congress Party, a political party in Botswana
 * YSR Congress Party, a regional political party in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India
 * Nationalist Congress Party, a political party of India
 * Congress Party for the Independence of Madagascar, a communist political party in Madagascar
 * Nepali Congress, a major political party in Nepal
 * Congress Party (Egypt), a political party in Egypt

title: Congress Party


text:
Talk:Eldred v. Ashcroft

This article is ripe for some serious pruning. Since the Court has ruled, most of this information is now unnecessary. (Some of it was already. For example, the change from Reno to Ashcroft.)

 * Go for it! --Eloquence 14:48 Jan 16, 2003 (UTC)

 * The Reno thing is useful, as are the district and appeals court opinions. Don't take them out.  Though you could move more of the substance of the article to the front, and leave that stuff lower down in a sort of "blow by blow" section.  In general, don't remove information-- just push it farther down in the article. Dachshund

I noticed an inconsistancy in the use of terms, and I don't know which one is correct. In the District Court section, the article refers to the principle of "public trust", but in the Court of Appeals section, the article uses the term "public interest." They seem to be referring to the same thing. adam

I'm not sure what Free Culture was supposed to point to, but it leads to a disambig page now. Book, subculture or website, guys? IMFromKathlene 04:14, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Eldred v. Ashcroft. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20041222003647/http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/02pdf/01-618.pdf to http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/02pdf/01-618.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 16:23, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

Clarity and Relevance
I think at the moment the article is not very clear in stating - since the very beginning - what the case is about and who won. Also in the background it is not clear which were the arguments. I think it should be mention that Lawrence Lessig argued the unconstitutionality of the law and it is also important to refer to the birth of Creative Commons. This case is cited as an important step towards the establishment of free licenses; this is important also to state the relevance of this article. I try to adjust the text with references. iopensa (talk) 07:56, 6 October 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Eldred v. Ashcroft


text:
Sonia Gandhi

Sonia Gandhi (, ; ; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independence history. She took over as the party leader in 1998, seven years after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, her husband and a former Prime Minister of India, and remained in office until 2017 after serving for twenty-two years. She returned to the post in 2019 and remained the President for another three years.

Born in a small village near Vicenza, Italy, Gandhi was raised in a Roman Catholic family. After completing her primary education at local schools, she moved for language classes to Cambridge, England, where she met Rajiv Gandhi, and later married him in 1968. She then moved to India and started living with her mother-in-law, the then-Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, at the latter's New Delhi residence. Sonia Gandhi, however, kept away from the public sphere, even during the years of her husband's premiership.

Following her husband's assassination, Gandhi was invited by Congress leaders to lead the party, but she declined. She agreed to join politics in 1997 after much pleading from the party; the following year, she was nominated for party president, and elected over Jitendra Prasada. Under her leadership, the Congress went on to form the government post the 2004 elections in coalition with other centre-left political parties. Gandhi has since been credited for being instrumental in formulating the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), which was re-elected to power in 2009. Gandhi declined the premiership following the 2004 victory; she instead led the ruling alliance and the National Advisory Council.

Over the course of her career, Gandhi presided over the advisory councils credited for the formation and subsequent implementation of such rights-based development and welfare schemes as the Right to Information, Food Security Bill, and MGNREGA, as she drew criticism related to the National Herald case. Her foreign birth has also been a subject of much debate and controversy. Gandhi's active participation in politics began to reduce during the latter half of the UPA government's second term owing to health concerns. She stepped down as the Congress president in December 2017 but returned to lead the party in August 2019. Although she has not held any public office in the government of India, Gandhi has been widely described as one of the most powerful politicians in the country, and is often listed among the most powerful women in the world.

Early life
Sonia Maino was born on 9 December 1946 to Stefano and Paola Maino in Lusiana (in Maini street), a historically Cimbrian-speaking village about 35 km from Vicenza in Veneto, Italy. She was one of three siblings: Sonia, Nadia and Anoushka, raised in a traditional Roman Catholic Christian family. Sonia spent her adolescence in Orbassano, a town near Turin. She attained primary education attending the local Catholic schools; one of her early teachers described her as "a diligent little girl, [who] studied as much as was necessary".

Stefano, who was a building mason, established a small construction business in Orbassano. He had fought against the Soviet military alongside Hitler's Wehrmacht on the eastern front in World War II, was a loyal supporter of Benito Mussolini and Italy's National Fascist Party. The family house had leather bound books on writings and speeches of Mussolini. Stefano had named Sonia and her elder sister Nadia in the memory of the Italian participation in the Eastern Front. He died in 1983. Gandhi has two sisters who still reside in Orbassano.

Gandhi completed her schooling at the age of 13; her final report card read: "intelligent, diligent, committed [...] would succeed well at the high school for teachers". She aspired to become a flight attendant. In 1964, she went to study English at the Bell Educational Trust's language school in the city of Cambridge. The following year, she met Rajiv Gandhi at the Varsity Restaurant, where she was working as a part-time waitress, while he was enrolled for an engineering degree in the Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. In this context, the Times, London reported, "Mrs Gandhi was an 18-year-old student at a small language college in Cambridge in 1965, [...] when she met a handsome young engineering student". The couple married in 1968, in a Hindu ceremony, following which she moved into the house of her mother-in-law and then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

The couple had two children, Rahul Gandhi (born 1970) and Priyanka Vadra (born 1972). Despite belonging to the influential Nehru family, Sonia and Rajiv avoided all involvement in politics. Rajiv worked as an airline pilot while Sonia took care of her family. She spent considerable amount of time with her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi; she recalled her experience in a 1985 interview with the Hindi-language magazine Dharmyug, "She [Indira] showered me with all her affection and love". Soon after the latter's ousting from office in 1977 in the aftermath of the Indian Emergency, the Rajiv family contemplated moving abroad for a short time. When Rajiv entered politics in 1982 after the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash on 23 June 1980, Sonia continued to focus on her family and avoided all contact with the public.

Rajiv Gandhi's premiership (1984–1990)
Sonia Gandhi's involvement with Indian public life began after the assassination of her mother-in-law and her husband's election as prime minister. As the prime minister's wife she acted as his official hostess and also accompanied him on a number of state visits.

In 1984, she actively campaigned against her husband's sister-in-law Maneka Gandhi who was running against Rajiv in Amethi. At the end of Rajiv Gandhi's five years in office, the Bofors scandal broke out. Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman believed to be involved, was said to be a friend of Sonia Gandhi, having access to the Prime Minister's official residence. The BJP has alleged that she appeared on the voters' list in New Delhi prior to obtaining Indian citizenship in April 1983, in contravention of Indian law.

Former senior Congress leader and former President of India Pranab Mukherjee said that she surrendered her Italian passport to the Italian Embassy on 27 April 1983. Italian nationality law did not permit dual nationality until 1992. So, by acquiring Indian citizenship on 30 April 1983, she would automatically have lost Italian citizenship.

Active politics and Congress President (1991–1998)
After Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991 and Sonia Gandhi refused to succeed him as the Congress president and prime minister, the party settled on the choice of P. V. Narasimha Rao who subsequently became Prime Minister after winning elections that year. Over the next few years, however, the Congress fortunes continued to dwindle and it lost the 1996 elections. Several senior leaders such as Madhavrao Sindhia, Rajesh Pilot, Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Arjun Singh, Mamata Banerjee, G. K. Moopanar, P. Chidambaram and Jayanthi Natarajan were in open revolt against incumbent President Sitaram Kesri and many of whom quit the party, splitting the Congress into many factions.

In an effort to revive the party's sagging fortunes, she joined the Congress Party as a primary member in the Calcutta Plenary Session in 1997 and became party leader in 1998.

In May 1999, three senior leaders of the party (Sharad Pawar, P. A. Sangma, and Tariq Anwar) challenged her right to try to become India's Prime Minister because of her foreign origins. In response, she offered to resign as party leader, resulting in an outpouring of support and the expulsion from the party of the three rebels who went on to form the Nationalist Congress Party.

Within 62 days of joining as a primary member, she was offered the party President post which she accepted.

She contested Lok Sabha elections from Bellary, Karnataka and Amethi, Uttar Pradesh in 1999. She won both seats but chose to represent Amethi. In Bellary, she had defeated veteran BJP leader, Sushma Swaraj.

Leader of the Opposition (1999–2003)
She was elected the Leader of the Opposition of the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999.

When the BJP-led NDA formed a government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, she took the office of the Leader of the Opposition. In 2000, she defeated Jitendra Prasada by a huge margin of 97% in the Congress President Election. She had been repeatedly selected for the position without any election being held. As Leader of the Opposition, she called a no-confidence motion against the NDA government led by Vajpayee in 2003.

Electoral success and NAC chairmanship (2004–2014)
In the 2004 general elections, Gandhi launched a nationwide campaign, crisscrossing the country on the Aam Aadmi (ordinary man) slogan in contrast to the 'India Shining' slogan of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) alliance. She countered the BJP asking "Who is India Shining for?". In the election, she was re-elected by a 200,000-vote margin over her nearest rival, in the Rae Bareli. Following the unexpected defeat of the NDA, she was widely expected to be the next Prime Minister of India. On 16 May, she was unanimously chosen to lead a coalition government of 15 parties supported by the left, and it was subsequently named as United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

The defeated NDA protested once again about her 'foreign origin' and senior NDA leader Sushma Swaraj threatened to shave her head and "sleep on the ground", among other things, should Sonia become prime minister.

The NDA claimed that there were legal reasons that barred her from the Prime Minister's post.

They pointed, in particular, to Section 5 of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1955, which they claimed implied 'reciprocity'. This was contested by others and eventually the suits were dismissed by the Supreme Court of India.

A few days after the election, Gandhi recommended Manmohan Singh as her choice as prime minister, which the party leaders accepted. Her supporters compared it to the old Indian tradition of renunciation, while her opponents attacked it as a political stunt.

On 23 March 2006, Gandhi announced her resignation from the Lok Sabha and also as chairperson of the National Advisory Council under the office-of-profit controversy and the speculation that the government was planning to bring an ordinance to exempt the post of chairperson of National Advisory Council from the purview of office of profit. She was re-elected from her constituency Rae Bareli in May 2006 by a margin of over 400,000 votes.

As chairperson of the National Advisory Committee and the UPA, she played an important role in making the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Right to Information Act into law.

She addressed the United Nations on 2 October 2007, Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary which is observed as the international day of non-violence after a UN resolution passed on 15 July 2007.

Under her leadership, the Congress-led UPA won a decisive majority in the 2009 general elections with Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister. The Congress itself won 206 Lok Sabha seats, which was then the highest total by any party since 1991. She was re-elected to a third term as a member of parliament representing Rae Bareli.

In 2013, Gandhi became the first person to serve as Congress President for 15 years consecutively. In the same year, Gandhi condemned the Supreme Court judgement supporting Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and backed LGBT rights.

2014–present
In the 2014 general election, she held her seat in Rae Bareli. However, the Indian National Congress and the Congress-led UPA electoral alliance suffered their worst result in a general election ever, winning only 44 and 59 seats respectively.

When Rahul Gandhi was expected to take over as Congress president, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury picked Sonia over Rahul, calling her the "glue that binds the opposition" during an interview November 2017. Rahul took over as the 49th Congress president on 16 December 2017.

Gandhi returned to active politics for the Indian National Congress' campaign for the 2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election. Having stayed away from campaigning for elections since 2016, Gandhi addressed a rally at Bijapur, which comprised five legislative assembly constituencies; while Congress emerged as the second largest party in the election with 78 seats behind the BJP, the former won four or the five assembly seats from Bijapur. Gandhi also played an active role in orchestrating a post-poll alliance with the Janata Dal (Secular).

Rahul Gandhi, taking responsibility for Congress party's second consecutive loss in general elections held in 2019, resigned from the post of President on 25 May. Following the resignation, party leaders began deliberations for a suitable candidate to replace him. The Congress Working Committee met on 10 August to take a final call on the matter and passed a resolution asking Sonia Gandhi to take over as interim president until a consensus candidate could be picked.

Following her appointment, Gandhi undertook a restructuring of the Congress' state units and appointed Kumari Selja and Eknath Gaikwad as the presidents of the party's Haryana and Mumbai units. Several other changes were also made in the party's organisational units in states slated for elections including Haryana, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand.

In February 2020, Gandhi held a press conference where she demanded that Home Minister Amit Shah should resign for failing to stop the North East Delhi riots. She asked for the deployment of an adequate number of security forces. In 2022, it was reported that Sonia Gandhi supports Ashok Gehlot leading Congress as Congress president in the next Indian general election. But, Gehlot was not content on that election and Mallikarjun Kharge elected as a new Congress president.

Entry to Rajya Sabha
In February 2024, Sonia Gandhi opted out of the 2024 Indian general elections citing health and age issues. Gandhi filed her nomination to contest for Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. During this event she was accompanied by Rahul Gandhi, Ashok Gehlot and other senior members of the party. Sonia Gandhi was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan on 20 February 2024.

Personal life
Sonia is the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, elder son of Indira Gandhi. She has two children, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

In August 2011, she underwent successful surgery for cervical cancer in the United States at Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She returned to India on 9 September after her treatment.

According to an affidavit filed during the 2014 Indian general election, Gandhi had declared assets worth inr 92800000, with inr 28100000 in movable and inr 64700000 in immovable properties. This was an almost six-fold increase since her declaration in the last election in 2009; party officials attributed this to a switch from book value to market value for asset valuation.

Gandhi's mother, Paola Maino, died due to an illness at her home in Italy on 27 August 2022, at the age of about 90.

Honours and recognition
Gandhi was seen as the most powerful politician of India from 2004 to 2014, and variously listed among the most powerful people and women listings by magazines.

In 2013, Sonia Gandhi was ranked 21st among world's most powerful and 9th most powerful woman by Forbes Magazine.

In 2007, she was named the third most powerful woman in the world by the same magazine and was ranked 6th in exclusive list in 2007.

In 2010, Gandhi was ranked as the ninth most powerful person on the planet by Forbes magazine. She was ranked 12 in 2012 in Forbes' powerful people list.

Sonia was also named among the Time 100 most influential people in the world for 2007 and 2008. New Statesman listed Sonia Gandhi at number 29 in their annual survey of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures" in 2010.

Bibliography of Sonia Gandhi

 * Sonia Gandhi – An Extraordinary Life, An Indian Destiny (2011), a biography written by Rani Singh.
 * Sonia Gandhi: Tryst with India by Nurul Islam Sarkar.
 * The Red Sari: A Dramatized Biography of Sonia Gandhi (El Sari Rojo) by Javier Moro
 * Sonia: A Biography by Rasheed Kidwai
 * The Accidental Prime Minister by Sanjaya Baru, 2014

title: Sonia Gandhi