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Tongan language

Tongan (English pronunciation: ;   lea fakatonga) is an Austronesian language of the Polynesian branch native to the island nation of Tonga. It has around 187,000 speakers. It uses the word order verb–subject–object.

Related languages
Tongan is one of the multiple languages in the Polynesian branch of the Austronesian languages, along with Hawaiian, Māori, Samoan and Tahitian, for example. Together with Niuean, it forms the Tongic subgroup of Polynesian.

Tongan is unusual among Polynesian languages in that it has a so-called definitive accent. As with all Polynesian languages, Tongan has adapted the phonological system of proto-Polynesian.

 * 1) Tongan has retained the original proto-Polynesian *h, but has merged it with the original *s as . (The  found in modern Tongan derives from *t before high front vowels). Most Polynesian languages have lost the original proto-Polynesian glottal stop ; however, it has been retained in Tongan and a few other languages including Rapa Nui.
 * 2) In proto-Polynesian, *r and *l were distinct phonemes, but in most Polynesian languages they have merged, represented orthographically as $⟨r⟩$ in most East Polynesian languages, and as $⟨l⟩$ in most West Polynesian languages. However, the distinction can be reconstructed because Tongan kept the *l but lost the *r.

Tongan has heavily influenced the Wallisian language after Tongans colonized the island of ʻUvea in the 15th and 16th centuries.

History
The earliest attempts to transcribe the Tongan language were made by Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire of the Dutch East India Company when they first arrived in 1616. They transcribed a limited number of nouns and verbs using phonetic Dutch spelling and added them to a growing list of Polynesian vocabulary. Abel Tasman, also of the Dutch East India Company, attempted to converse with indigenous Tongans using vocabulary from this list when he arrived on Tongatapu on 20 January 1643, although he was poorly understood, likely using words added from different Polynesian languages.

Alphabet
Tongan is presently written in a subset of the Latin script. In the old, "missionary" alphabet, the order of the letters was modified: the vowels were put first and then followed by the consonants: a, e, i, o, u, etc. That was still so as of the Privy Council decision of 1943 on the orthography of the Tongan language. However, C. M. Churchward's grammar and dictionary favoured the standard European alphabetical order, which, since his time, has been in use exclusively:

Notes:
 * 1) written as g but still pronounced as  (as in Samoan) before 1943
 * 2) unaspirated; written as b before 1943
 * 3) sometimes written as j before 1943 (see below)
 * 4) the glottal stop. It should be written with the modifier letter turned comma (Unicode 0x02BB) and not with the single quote open or with a mixture of quotes open and quotes close. See also okina.

The above order is strictly followed in proper dictionaries. Therefore, ngatu follows nusi, a follows vunga and it also follows z if foreign words occur. Words with long vowels come directly after those with short vowels. Improper wordlists may or may not follow these rules. (For example, the Tonga telephone directory for years now ignores all rules.)

The original j, used for, disappeared in the beginning of the 20th century, merging with. By 1943, j was no longer used. Consequently, many words written with s in Tongan are cognate to those with t in other Polynesian languages. For example, Masisi (a star name) in Tongan is cognate with Matiti in Tokelauan; siale (Gardenia taitensis) in Tongan and tiare in Tahitian. This seems to be a natural development, as in many Polynesian languages derived from Proto-Polynesian.

Consonants
/l/ may also be heard as an alveolar flap sound.

Syllabification

 * Each syllable has exactly one vowel. The number of syllables in a word is exactly equal to the number of vowels it has.
 * Long vowels, indicated with a toloi (macron), count as one, but may in some circumstances be split up in two short ones, in which case, they are both written. Toloi are supposed to be written where needed, in practice this may be seldom done.
 * Each syllable may have no more than one consonant.
 * Consonant combinations are not permitted. The ng is not a consonant combination, since it represents a single sound. As such it can never be split, the proper hyphenation of fakatonga (Tongan) therefore is fa-ka-to-nga.
 * Each syllable must end in a vowel. All vowels are pronounced, but an i at the end of an utterance is usually unvoiced.
 * The fakaua is a consonant. It must be followed (and, except at the beginning of a word, preceded) by a vowel. Unlike the glottal stops in many other Polynesian languages texts, the fakaua is always written. (Only sometimes before 1943.)
 * Stress normally falls on the next-to-last syllable of a word with two or more syllables; example: móhe (sleep), mohénga (bed). If, however, the last vowel is long, it takes the stress; example: kumā (mouse) (stress on the long ā). The stress also shifts to the last vowel if the next word is an enclitic; example: fále (house), falé ni (this house). Finally the stress can shift to the last syllable, including an enclitic, in case of the definitive accent; example: mohengá ((that) particular bed), fale ní (this particular house). It is also here that a long vowel can be split into two short ones; example: pō (night), poó ni (this night), pō ní (this particular night). Or the opposite: maáma (light), māmá ni (this light), maama ní (this particular light). There are some exceptions to the above general rules. The stress accent is normally not written, except where it is to indicate the definitive accent or fakamamafa. But here, too, people often neglect to write it, only using it when the proper stress cannot be easily derived from the context.

Although the acute accent has been available on most personal computers from their early days onwards, when Tongan newspapers started to use computers around 1990 to produce their papers, they were unable to find, or failed to enter, the proper keystrokes, and it grew into a habit to put the accent after the vowel instead of on it: not á but a´. But as this distance seemed to be too big, a demand arose for Tongan fonts where the acute accent was shifted to the right, a position halfway in between the two extremes above. Most papers still follow this practice.

Articles
English uses only two articles:
 * indefinite a
 * definite the

By contrast, Tongan has three articles, and possessives also have a three-level definiteness distinction:
 * indefinite, nonspecific: ha. Example: ko ha fale ('a house', 'any house' - the speaker has no specific house in mind, any house will satisfy this description, e.g. 'I want to buy a house ')
 * indefinite, specific: (h)e. Example: ko e fale ('a (particular) house' - the speaker has a specific house in mind, but the listener is not expected to know which house, e.g. 'I bought a house')
 * definite, specific: (h)e with the shifted ultimate stress. Example: ko e falé ('the house', - the speaker has a specific house in mind and the listener is expected to know which one from context, e.g. 'I bought the house I told you about').

Registers
There are three registers which consist of There are also further distinctions between For example, the phrase "Come and eat!" translates to:
 * ordinary words (the normal language)
 * honorific words (the language for the chiefs)
 * regal words (the language for the king)
 * polite words (used for more formal contexts)
 * derogatory words (used for informal contexts, or to indicate humility)
 * ordinary: hau o kai (come and eat!); Friends, family members and so forth may say this to each other when invited for dinner.
 * honorific: mea mai pea ilo (come and eat!); The proper used towards chiefs, particularly the nobles, but it may also be used by an employee towards his boss, or in other similar situations. When talking about chiefs, however, it is always used, even if they are not actually present, but in other situations only on formal occasions. A complication to the beginning student of Tongan is that such words very often also have an alternative meaning in the ordinary register: mea (thing) and ilo (know, find).
 * regal: hāele mai pea taumafa (come and eat!); Used towards the king or God. The same considerations as for the honorific register apply. Hāele is one of the regal words which have become the normal word in other Polynesian languages.

Pronouns
The Tongan language distinguishes three numbers: singular, dual, and plural. They appear as the three major columns in the tables below.

The Tongan language distinguishes four persons: First person exclusive, first person inclusive, second person and third person. They appear as the four major rows in the tables below. This gives us 12 main groups.

Subjective and objective
In addition, possessive pronouns are either alienable (reddish) or inalienable (greenish), which Churchward termed subjective and objective. This marks a distinction that has been referred to, in some analyses of other Polynesian languages, as a-possession versus o-possession, respectively, though more Tongan-appropriate version would be e-possession and ho-possession.

Subjective and objective are fitting labels when dealing with verbs: eku taki "my leading" vs. hoku taki "my being led". However, this is less apt when used on nouns. Indeed, in most contexts hoku taki would be interpreted as "my leader", as a noun rather than a verb. What then of nouns that have no real verb interpretation, such as fale "house"?

Churchward himself laid out the distinction thus:

But what about those innumerable cases in which the possessive can hardly be said to correspond either to the subject or to the object of a verb? What, for example, is the rule or the guiding principle, which lies behind the fact that a Tongan says eku paanga for ' my money' but hoku fale for 'my house'?

It may be stated as follows: the use of eku for 'my' implies that I am active, influential, or formative, &c., towards the thing mentioned, whereas the use of hoku for 'my' implies that the thing mentioned is active, influential, or formative, &c., towards me. Or, provided that we give a sufficiently wide meaning to the word 'impress', we may say, perhaps, that eku is used in reference to things upon which I impress myself, while hoku is used in reference to things which impress themselves upon me.

E possessives are generally used for:

 * Goods, money, tools, utensils, instruments, weapons, vehicles, and other possessions which the subject owns or uses (eku paanga, "my money")
 * Animals or birds which the subjects owns or uses (eku fanga puaka, "my pigs")
 * Things which the subject eats, drinks, or smokes (eku meakai, "my food")
 * Things which the subject originates, makes, mends, carries, or otherwise deals with (eku kavenga, "my burden")
 * Persons in the subject's employ, under their control, or in their care (eku tamaioeiki "my male servant")

Ho possessives are generally used for

 * Things which are a part of the subject or 'unalienable' from the subject, such as body parts (hoku sino, "my body")
 * Persons or things which represent the subject (hoku hingoa, "my name")
 * The subject's relatives, friends, associates, or enemies (hoku hoa, "my companion (spouse)")
 * Things which are provided for the subject or devolve to them or fall to their lot (hoku tofia, "my inheritance")
 * In general, persons or things which surround, support, or control the subject, or on which the subject depends (hoku kolo, "my village/town")

There are plenty of exceptions which do not fall under the guidelines above, for instance, eku tamai, "my father". The number of exceptions is large enough to make the alienable and inalienable distinction appear on the surface to be as arbitrary as the grammatical gender distinction for Romance languages, but by and large the above guidelines hold true.

Cardinal pronouns
The cardinal pronouns are the main personal pronouns which in Tongan can either be preposed (before the verb, light colour) or postposed (after the verb, dark colour). The first are the normal alienable possessive pronouns, the latter the stressed alienable pronouns, which are sometimes used as reflexive pronouns, or with kia te in front the inalienable possessive forms. (There is no possession involved in the cardinal pronouns and therefore no alienable or inalienable forms).

Examples of use.
 * all the preposed pronouns of one syllable only (ku, u, ma, te, ta, ke, mo, ne, na) are enclitics which never can take the stress, but put it on the vowel in front of them. Example: ʻoku naú versus ʻokú na (not: ʻoku ná).
 * first person singular, I uses u after kuo, te, ne, and also ka (becomes kau), pea, mo and ʻo; but uses ou after ʻoku; and uses ku after naʻa.
 * first person inclusive (I and you) is somewhat of a misnomer, at least in the singular. The meanings of te and kita can often rendered as one, that is the modesty I.
 * Naʻa ku fehuʻi: I asked
 * Naʻe fehuʻi (ʻe) au: I(!) asked (stressed)
 * ʻOku ou fehuʻi au: I ask myself
 * Te u fehuʻi kiate koe: I shall ask you
 * Te ke tali kiate au: You will answer me
 * Kapau te te fehuʻi: If one would ask
 * Tau ō ki he hulohula?: Are we (all) going to the ball?
 * Sinitalela, mau ō ki he hulohula: Cinderella, we go to the ball (... said the evil stepmother, and she went with two of her daughters, but not Cinderella)

Another archaic aspect of Tongan is the retention of preposed pronouns. They are used much less frequently in Samoan and have completely disappeared in East Polynesian languages, where the pronouns are cognate with the Tongan postposed form minus ki-. (We love you: ʻOku ʻofa kimautolu kia te kimoutolu; Māori: e aroha nei mātou i a koutou).

Possessive pronouns
The possessives for every person and number (1st person plural, 3rd person dual, etc.) can be further divided into normal or ordinary (light colour), emotional (medium colour) and emphatic (bright colour) forms. The latter is rarely used, but the two former are common and further subdivided in definite (saturated colour) and indefinite (greyish colour) forms.

Notes:
 * 1) the ordinary definite possessives starting with he (in italics) drop this prefix after any word except ʻi, ki, mei, ʻe. Example: ko ʻeku tohi, my book; ʻi heʻeku tohi, in my book.
 * 2) all ordinary alienable possessive forms contain a fakauʻa, the inalienable forms do not.
 * 3) the emphatic forms are not often used, but if they are, they take the definitive accent from the following words (see below)
 * 4) first person inclusive (me and you) is somewhat of a misnomer. The meanings of heʻete, hoto, etc. can often rendered as one's, that is the modesty me.
 * 5) the choice between an alienable or inalienable possessive is determined by the word or phrase it refers to. For example: ko ho fale '(it is) your house' (inalienable), ko ho'o tohi, '(it is) your book' (alienable). *Ko ho tohi, ko hoʻo fale* are wrong. Some words can take either, but with a difference in meaning: ko ʻene taki 'his/her leadership'; ko hono taki 'his/her leader'.

Examples of use.
 * ko haʻaku/haku kahoa: my garland (any garland from or for me)
 * ko ʻeku/hoku kahoa: my garland (it is my garland)
 * ko ʻeku/hoku kahoá: my garland, that particular one and no other
 * ko heʻete/hoto kahoa: one's garland {mine in fact, but that is not important}
 * ko siʻaku kahoa: my cherished garland (any cherished garland from or for me)
 * ko siʻeku/siʻoku kahoa: my cherished garland (it is my cherished garland)
 * ko haʻakú/hoʻokú kahoa: garland (emphatically mine) – that particular garland is mine and not someone else's
 * ko homa kahoa: our garlands (exclusive: you and I are wearing them, but not the person we are talking to)
 * ko hota kahoa: our garlands (inclusive: you and I are wearing them, and I am talking to you)

Other pronouns
These are the remainders: the pronominal adjectives (mine), indirect object pronouns or pronominal adverbs (for me) and the adverbial possessives (as me).

Notes: Examples of use:
 * 1) the first syllable in all singular pronominal adjectives (in italics) is reduplicated and can be dropped for somewhat less emphasis
 * the pronominal adjectives put a stronger emphasis on the possessor than the possessive pronouns do
 * the use of the adverbial possessives is rare
 * ko hono valá: it is his/her/its clothing/dress
 * ko e vala ʻona: it is his/her/its (!) clothing/dress
 * ko e vala ʻoʻona: it is his/her/its (!!!) clothing/dress
 * ko hono valá ʻona: it is his/her/its own clothing/dress
 * ko hono vala ʻoná: it is his/her/its own clothing/dress; same as previous
 * ko hono vala ʻoʻoná: it is his/her/its very own clothing/dress
 * ʻoku ʻoʻona ʻa e valá ni: this clothing is his/hers/its
 * ʻoku moʻona ʻa e valá: the clothing is for him/her/it
 * ʻoange ia moʻono valá: give it (to him/her/it) as his/hers/its clothing

Numerals
In Tongan, "telephone-style" numerals can be used: reading numbers by simply saying their digits one by one. For 'simple' two-digit multiples of ten both the 'full-style' and 'telephone-style' numbers are in equally common use, while for other two-digit numbers the 'telephone-style' numbers are almost exclusively in use:

ʻOku fiha ia? (how much (does it cost)?) Paʻanga ʻe ua-nima-noa (T$2.50)

In addition there are special, traditional counting systems for fish, coconuts, yams, etc. (Cf. Classifier (linguistics).)

Literature
Tongan has a very rich oral literature and is primarily a spoken, rather than written, language.

One of the first publications of Tongan texts was in William Mariner's grammar and dictionary of the Tongan language, edited and published in 1817 by John Martin as part of volume 2 of Mariner's Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean. Orthography has changed since Mariner's time.

An annotated list of dictionaries and vocabularies of the Tongan language is available at the website of the Bibliographical Society of America under the resource heading 'Breon Mitchell":.

The Bible and the Book of Mormon were translated into Tongan and few other books were written in it.

There are several weekly and monthly magazines in Tongan, but there are no daily newspapers.

Weekly newspapers, some of them twice per week:
 * Ko e Kalonikali ʻo Tonga
 * Ko e Keleʻa
 * Taimi ʻo Tonga
 * Talaki
 * Ko e Tauʻatāina
 * Tonga Maʻa Tonga

Monthly or two-monthly papers, mostly church publications:
 * Taumuʻa lelei (Catholic Church)
 * Tohi fanongonongo (Free Wesleyan)
 * Liahona (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
 * ʻOfa ki Tonga (Tokaikolo)

Calendar
The Tongan calendar was based on the phases of the moon and had 13 months. The main purpose of the calendar, for Tongans, was to determine the time for the planting and cultivation of yams, which were Tonga's most important staple food.

title: Tongan language


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Talk:Amiga Original Chip Set

TODO from article
I moved this from the article (this is where it belongs):

 * TODO:
 * List chips and separate functions of every chip in their new entries.
 * Better explanation of resolutions. lores, hires, overscan, interlace, ham, etc.
 * Merge the above feature list..
 * Organize all better
 * Move to Amiga chipsets and make redirects?

—Frecklefoot 17:23, 18 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * Where should the Amiga specific disk drive controller be presented? Amiga system differs from PC systems
 * CIA chip explanation has not been created
 * Serial port capabilities should be explained somewhere. Perhaps refer to a more generic serial

device. —Shd Mon Jan 3 15:53:49 UTC 2005

A2500
Did the Amiga 2500 ship with OCS or ECS or AGA?? --Tonsofpcs 21:23, 13 August 2005 (UTC)
 * The "A2500" is just a marketing name for an A2000 bundled with an accelerator card (also available separately). So it shipped with whatever A2000s were shipping with at the time. Mirror Vax 00:18, 14 August 2005 (UTC)

ICS (Initial Chip Set)
My early 1985 A1000 (which would go very high on ebay) does NOT have Original Chip Set, but Initial Chip Set! So I would not say that OCS is the very first chip set of the Amiga. -andy 85.176.228.48 (talk) 23:04, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

What happened to Gary??
I had one of the earliest A500s, and I remember opening the case. I'm pretty certain that there was also a chip labelled GARY on the motherboard. I seem to remember reading about the chipset (in Amiga Format or Commodore World), and I think Gary did the I/O. We should not forget about Gary. Jason404 (talk) 12:09, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I've started Amiga custom chips to point out the other members of the team. ;-) Zac67 (talk) 21:43, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

Consider Renaming?
Rename this page from "Original Chip Set" to "Amiga Original Chip Set". Most of the other Amiga chipset pages are titled as "Amiga ..." which conveniently groups them together on the Category:Graphics chips listing. OCS is floating out there alone. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.184.5.252 (talk) 14:20, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

 * Done. Musaran (talk) 20:09, 18 November 2023 (UTC)

Sprites on the same scanline
The copper description says that after modifying sprite registers the sprite "will be drawn again, even on the same scanline." Is this really correct? Don't we need to wait for the next scanline to get a DMA slot for new sprite data? Ebenupton (talk) 22:16, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

 * That is somewhat correct: the sprite can be reused within the very same scanline, but the DMA channel can't fetch new data – the cloned sprite will look exactly like the 1st one. Zac67 (talk) 19:07, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

Paula volume levels
The article has two different numbers for volume. In the lead it gives 65 levels (including 0 for no volume), but later it states volume is a "6 bit value" with 64 levels.

I pulled out my "Amiga Hardware Reference Manual" (an official CBM publication) 6th reprint (August 1988) and it says on pp139-140 that it is a 6 bit value but also says that the range is from 0 to 64 for 65 total possible values. But it also says that you write the volume to bits 0-5 of AUD0VOL, which is 6bits, so only 64 levels (0-63). Thinking there might be errata, and this is corrected in later editions, I looked at the 3rd edition (1991) and the same thing on the same pages.

So, then I checked the technical documentation for Soundtracker and OctaMED and those both support 65 levels (0-64 inclusive). So, that seems to work in practice.

However, there is this source http://amigadev.elowar.com/read/ADCD_2.1/Hardware_Manual_guide/node0017.html which indicates that a seventh bit is used. This source appears to be an online version of the Amiga Developer CD 2.1. 202.92.108.163 (talk) 04:40, 17 June 2024 (UTC -

 * Both might be true. From dim memory, bits 0-5 set the volume from 0-63 and bit 6 forces full volume. Whether 64-127 are all the same I cannot really say, and I don't have a better source than the HRM – that one does state that there's a difference between 64 (0.0 dB), 64 (-0.1 dB) all the way to 0 (minus infinity dB). --Zac67 (talk) 06:37, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Amiga Original Chip Set


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Street furniture

Street furniture is a collective term for objects and pieces of equipment installed along streets and roads for various purposes. It includes benches, traffic barriers, bollards, post boxes, phone boxes, streetlamps, traffic lights, traffic signs, bus stops, tram stops, taxi stands, public lavatories, fountains, watering troughs, memorials, public sculptures, and waste receptacles.

Description and use
Street furniture is a collective term used in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. It refers to objects and pieces of equipment installed along streets and roads for various purposes. The design and placement of furniture should take into account aesthetics, visual identity, function, pedestrian mobility and road safety. For example, street furniture can be positioned to control overspill parking in addition to its primary purpose; for example a bench and a number of bollards may be used to block access to a sidewalk or verges for vehicles. Street furniture is used unofficially as sports equipment for skateboarding, parkour and street workout.

Items

 * Street name signs identify streets for the unfamiliar, especially benefiting visitors, postal workers and the emergency services. They may also indicate the district in which a street lies.
 * Benches are usually found in central parts of settlements, such as plazas and parks. They are often provided by the local councils or contributors to serve as a place to rest and admire views. Armrests in between are sometimes provided to discourage lying down and/or unwanted closeness, which can be seen or intended as hostile architecture.
 * Bollards are posts, short poles, or pillars placed to prevent vehicle movement into areas where they are not desired, and to protect buildings and other site features.
 * Litter bins or garbage cans, are strategically placed to try to entice people into not littering on the streets.
 * Post boxes, also known as mail boxes, are found throughout the world, and have a variety of forms.
 * Phone boxes or telephone booths or phone booths are prominent in most cities. While they range drastically in the amount of cover they offer users (e.g. many only cover the phone itself while others provide full booths) they are typically easy to spot. The widespread use of mobile phones has resulted in a decrease in their numbers.
 * Streetlamps or street lights' are designed to illuminate the surrounding area at night, serving not only as a deterrent to criminals but more importantly to allow people to see where they're going. The colour of streetlamp bulbs differ, but are generally white or yellow.
 * Traffic lights (or traffic signals) usually include three colours: green indicates vehicles should proceed through an intersection; amber indicates vehicles should prepare to stop; and red indicates vehicles should not enter the intersection. They are generally mounted on poles or gantries or hung from wires.
 * Traffic signs communicate road conditions to inform safe driver behaviours. Postings may specify aspects such as speed limits, intersection protocols, slippery road conditions or reduced visibility. Direction signs tell the reader the way to a location through diagrams or written instructions. Signs may be illuminated to aid nighttime users.
 * Public lavatories offer restroom facilities, either for free or for a fee.
 * Fire hydrants.
 * Parking meters.
 * Poster poles or advertising columns provide space for advertising.
 * Waste containers or litter bins are receptacles for public garbage disposal. Collection and separation of recyclable materials is becoming more common in urban centers.
 * Emergency telephone boxes allow members of the public to directly contact emergency service operators.
 * Street curbstones.
 * Paving stones, brick rosettes or granite cobbles, sometimes even wood.
 * Anti sit-lie dispositives prevent people (i.e. homeless) from sitting or lying down.
 * Defunct village pump spouts and village lock-ups, both common in the United Kingdom
 * Outdoor vending machines, such as newspaper vending machines
 * Planter boxes and other apparatuses for plant life and landscaping

Outdoor advertising

 * Posters are a part of out-of-home media (also referred to as OOH). The presentation of backlit posters is done in display boxes or street furniture components like mega-displays or billboards. To install these street furniture components on public ground, city councils have to approve them. To get these permissions (Europe, Asia and part of the US) services and fees are offered to the cities by the outdoor advertisers.
 * In Europe there is a heavy competition to advertise in public spaces. This is due to the high potential for exposure and influence.
 * Public advertising amenities must fit the broader architecture and urban planning rules of their cities. These requirements lead to interesting design approaches for poster presentation in different formats.
 * Street furniture families were designed to fit these needs. Over the years they were completed with additional components like restrooms and automatic toilet facilities and kiosks to name a few.
 * To finance this infrastructure long-term contracts (10 to 15 years) are signed between cities and outdoor advertising companies.
 * Cities are often put in a situation to decide on new concepts when they are not familiar with the issues, since new contracts occur only very seldom. This knowledge gap is closed by a special advisor—the street furniture report.
 * This advisor gives cities some independent ideas on how to act in this surrounding (rather than reacting) since public grounds can not be enlarged.

Local significance

Street furniture itself has become as much a part of many nations' identities as dialects and national events, so much so that one can usually recognise the location by their design; famous examples of this include:
 * The red telephone boxes and pillar boxes of Britain
 * The residential mail boxes of the United States
 * The street lights and metro entrances of Paris.

Historical street furniture

Since most items of street furniture are of a utilitarian nature, authorities generally keep them up-to-date and replace them regularly (usually to conform to regulations, safety codes, etc.). Because of this, old, outdated, obsolete, or even non-functional street furniture can be rare sights and hold a special fascination and inspire nostalgia for many people.

The Tiergarten park in Berlin has a collection of antique streetlamps from around the world, both gas and electric.

Telecommunication
Some concealed cell sites disguise the tower with a structure that can fit into street furniture.

Large displays in central streets can provide information, advertise events or products, or warn citizens about potential problems. Interactive displays can show information on key places and monuments and allow parking payments. They can serve as a cell site with low visual impact.

Some cell sites have a structure that make it look pleasant. In this case it is not concealed but highlighted, becoming a part of the street furniture that can be admired by citizens.

The use of power from renewable sources may be a design criterion.

title: Street furniture


text:
User talk:Daljo628

Hello Daljo, welcome to Wikipedia. Here are some useful links in case you haven't already found them;

 * How to edit a page
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 * Manual of Style

If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian!

Angela 17:27, 18 Nov 2003 (UTC)

title: User talk:Daljo628


text:
Tonga language

Tonga may refer to five different languages:
 * Tongan language, or Tonga (ISO 639-3: ) – a Polynesian language spoken in Tonga in the South Pacific
 * Tonga language (Zambia and Zimbabwe), or Chitonga (ISO 639-3: ) – a Bantu language spoken in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique
 * Tonga language (Malawi), or Chitonga (ISO 639-3: ) – a Bantu language spoken in Malawi
 * Tonga language (Mozambique), or Gitonga (ISO 639-3: ) – a Bantu language spoken in Mozambique
 * Ten'edn, also known as Tonga or Mos (ISO 639-3: ) – a Mon-Khmer language spoken in Thailand and Malaysia

title: Tonga language


text:
User talk:Montrealais/Talk archive 4

 * Talk archive 1
 * Talk archive 2
 * Talk archive 3
 * Talk archive 5
 * Talk archive 6

List of islands
Hi Montrealais - the various "lists of islands" underwent some reorganisation a while ago (by Mic and me). An implicit idea was, I believe, for List of islands in the Atlantic Ocean to include essentially those deep-water islands that are not covered by country-specific lists. Therefore it might be better to have Canadian islands of the Atlantic listed on a page of their own. Just a thought, and if you have any better ideas how to organise a couple million islands of the world, feel free... ;-) Kosebamse 05:08, 21 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * Okay. It's a little counterintuitive to me not to have Newfoundland in a list of Atlantic islands. But this problem could be obviated with a little cross-referencing (for example, links to List of islands in Canada since Canada has an Atlantic coast), and an explanation such as you mention. I'll see about it. -Montréalais

The category system for these lists is certainly not too elaborate. Mic's idea was to crossreference every page to adjacent areas (so that, say, islands of sweden would link to islands of the baltic sea and vice versa) and to list of islands. Perhaps we should have an explanation to that effect on each of the pages as it seems to be not intuitive. Another plan is to make these "lists of" into real articles so that we would be justified to rename them "islands of", but for that, it would take a geographer, which I am not. Thanks for helping! Kosebamse 17:05, 21 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Poznan & Teschen
User:RickK, User:Wik and others are currently in the state of an edit war. The issue is listed on Current disputes over articles. I am in favor of asking for protection of the affected pages – lasting untill the combatants have been able to agree on a compromize. According to my judgement, the last versions by User:CC might be a good choise to protect. I base this on that user's degree of seriousness and maturity (although I personally might have some relevant disagreements with User:CC). --Ruhrjung 06:35, 26 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Angela took care of this.--Ruhrjung 06:57, 26 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Kingdom of Jerusalem
Hi, the arms are a great addition to the Kingdom of Jerusalem article! Where did you find them? I've only ever seen them on the Flags of the World website. Adam Bishop 04:47, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * I built them myself, following blazons from various sources. And thank you :) - Montréalais 06:08, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Province table
I disagree with you about removing the province tables. I find them intensely convenient for navigating between provinces and I think it's unwieldy to present them on a separate page only. I find your reason for removing it rather dogmatic. - Montréalais 06:31, 18 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * The information is not needed and the presentation is large and clunky. I don't think that's dogmatic at all.  We don't need to clutter up every article with tables of links to related articles.  Daniel Quinlan 12:16, Nov 18, 2003 (UTC)

As I said, they're very useful. I was trying to work on the provinces last night and it was a giant pain in the butt to have to click back and forth. How about something like:

Canada - Provinces and territories: Alberta - B.C. - Manitoba - New Brunswick - Nfld.-Lab. Nova Scotia - Ontario - P.E.I. - Quebec - Saskatchewan Northwest Territories - Nunavut - Yukon

I get my list, you get rid of the table, and everyone's happy. What do you think? - Montréalais 16:39, 18 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * It's still the same table, just implemented without a "table" tag. Do you think I'm opposed to tables out of some weird HTML principle.  No, I'm opposed because it's bad layout and style.  I expected that's exactly why you added the navigation table, because you're working on the articles and making similar changes to each article.  Your "navigation aids" are ugly, large, and klunky.  Tables aren't made to present links.  It sounds more like you need a tabbed browser (like Mozilla or Galeon) or bookmarks than anything else.  Tabbed browsing makes it even easier to click back and forth and without polluting articles with specialized links for your own navigation needs.  Daniel Quinlan 22:28, Nov 18, 2003 (UTC)

Excuse me, they're not for my navigation needs - I'm just saying I found the articles difficult to use without them. I think a user who wants to read about the Canadian provinces would find it useful to be able to click from province to province. If we were talking about fifty states, I could see what you mean, but really, there are thirteen of them disposed over four lines. I don't see how that's clunky, and I don't see how they're a blot on the article's escutcheon. - Montréalais 03:59, 19 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Christian Cross
Dude, you renamed the image on the page for christian cross into Latin cross. That is probably correct, 'cause I trust your writing, but could you please put in some text as to why it is called the "Latin cross"? Nixdorf 19:38, 18 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * Added something. - Montréalais 19:50, 18 Nov 2003 (UTC)

---

Patient Zero
I have unprotected Patient Zero as there was no reason given on Protected page and because as someone who had been involved in editing the page, you should not have been the one to protect it. If it needs to be reprotected, may I request that you ask someone not involved in the edit war to do this. Thanks. Angela 23:04, 2 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * I don't know if it counts as an "edit war" - an anonymous poster was repeatedly adding comments with no visible factual basis. In my mind, that puts me in the position of the Billy Goats Gruff, if you know what I mean. However, I will review the rules for protected pages. - Montréalais 22:03, 3 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Naskapi
Regarding the Naskapis. I noticed that you modified the spelling of the Mi'kmaq. I believe you are correct. Most of the time, that is how it is spelled in English. However, I am not sure if we should remove the Naskapis as a distinct nation. I read somewhere that the Montagnais and the Naskapis spoke a similar language, however this source (http://www.indianamarketing.com/anglais/anations/naskap.htm ) and also this one (http://www.nativetrail.com/en/first_peoples/naskapis.html seems to say that they have their own culture and language. Which is true, do you know? - Mathieugp

 * Okay. I thought that Montaignais and Naskapi were somehow imposed distinctions and that they preferred to both be Innu, but perhaps I read too much into the article. Feel free to restore them if you see fit. - Montréalais 22:03, 3 Dec 2003 (UTC)

--

The Naskapi and the Montaignais are very very different people. They refuse to cohabitate on the the same reservation, and have two separate reservations outside of the town of Schefferville, Quebec. Their cultures, customs and languages are very different, and the Naskapi are much closer related to the peoples of Davis Inlet, in Labrador.

~Benjamin Jancewicz

Montreal metro map on Wikitravel
So, I'm pretty careful about not trying to recruit Wikipedians to work on Wikitravel, but in your case I'm going to break my rule.

I think you might have posted some info on our Montreal page, which is greatly appreciated (especially by this newbie Montrealer!).

However, I have to ask: your Montreal metro map is really well-done and useful for travellers. I'm wondering: would you consider releasing it under our copyleft license? We use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, which is copyleft, but doesn't carry some of the more onerous restrictions of the GFDL (see Why Wikitravel isn't GFDL for details). So, it'd have to be under the CC by-sa.

If you're not comfortable with a dual license, or if you're just not hip to anything but the GFDL, that's totally OK and reasonable. I just figured it would be worth asking. --ESP 05:38, 8 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Responded to you at User talk:EvanProdromou. - Montréalais 06:25, 8 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Nef pour quatorze reines
I'm not being sarcastic. But I really cannot see where the artwork is.... Is it the grey pavement? Or the trees that the artist planted? I looked six times! :-? --Menchi (Talk)ü| â 07:32, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)

The park is landscaped with fourteen curved ridges emerging from the pathway; at the junction of each ridge with the path, there is a tapered cube-shape bench. Each ridge has metal shapes on it. Each cube is cut in the shape of the initial letter of one of the women, with the metal on the ridge forming the letters of the rest of her name. Next spring, I'll try to get some type of improved image of it. - Montréalais 08:34, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Can't wait for the photos + I see now. Thanks! --Menchi (Talk)ü| â 08:37, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Libby Davies
Thanks for correcting my last edit in regards to the Libby Davies article. I guess i've heard the word queer as a negative term for so long that it takes a little training to see the word as a positive. iHoshie 01:47, 13 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * No worries. See Queer for more information. I identify as Queer and genderqueer myself. - Montréalais 02:37, 13 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Fretty and Masculy
I am a bit confused as to how to deal with the subjects of "fretty" and "masculy". Should it be under seme on the variations of the field page? --Daniel C. Boyer 15:32, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Perhaps not under semé. - Montréalais 01:36, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Image:Saskcoat-thb.jpg
Regarding the copyright of the image, is it OK to use this also on other Wikipedias by the permission given to you or do we need to ask for a separate permission for each language? -- Jpta 12:58, 2 Feb 2004 (UTC)
 * I didn't ask that specific question; but I did ask permission to use it on Wikipedia, not the English Wikipedia. - Montréalais 20:24, 2 Feb 2004 (UTC)~

Flag of Canada
Many years ago, in Flag of Canada, you wrote that it has a "Canadian pale, being a pale 1/2 the width of the field rather than 1/3". I don't understand what a "pale" is and couldn't find easy references. Can you clarify? Thanks. Samw 12:05, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

 * Done. A pale is a vertical stripe in heraldry. - Montréalais 18:17, 16 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Japanese place names
A couple of Wikipedians have taken it upon themselves to rename Hiroshima to Hiroshima, Hiroshima, and do likewise for every other Japanese city. Please help me beat some sense into them by voting at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Japanese districts and municipalites. -- Sekicho 22:47, Mar 3, 2004 (UTC)

Spanish Political Parties
Salut/Hello/Hola

You did such a wonderful job of the Autonomous Communities of Spain that I was wondering if you'd like to help improve List of political parties in Spain. — Miguel 22:29, 2004 Mar 6 (UTC)

Mount Royal photo missing?
Your photo at Mount Royal is now a broken link.

most things have an end
Sorry about this end, however. Divorces are always sort of a trauma. One way or another. ;-( --Ruhrjung 08:22, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Madrid 11 attacks
I just wanted to thank you for your edits at that article. You imagine it is quite important for us in Spain. Pfortuny 18:21, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Spain is my favourite country in the world besides my own; I visited in 2002 and fell in love. The attacks hurt me deeply. - Montréalais

title: User talk:Montrealais/Talk archive 4


text:
Tsonga language

Tsonga or, natively, Xitsonga, as an endonym, is a Bantu language spoken by the Tsonga people of South Africa. It is mutually intelligible with Tswa and Ronga and the name "Tsonga" is often used as a cover term for all three, also sometimes referred to as Tswa-Ronga. The Xitsonga language has been standardised for both academic and home use. Tsonga is an official language of the Republic of South Africa, and under the name "Shangani" it is recognised as an official language in the Constitution of Zimbabwe. All Tswa-Ronga languages are recognised in Mozambique. It is not official in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland).

History
The Xitsonga language was studied in great detail by the Swiss missionary, Henri-Alexandre Junod between the years 1890 and 1920, who made the conclusion that the Xitsonga language (which he called the "Thonga language" at the time) began to develop in Mozambique even before the 1400s. In his own words, Junod states the following:

"My conclusion is then that the Thonga language was already-spoken by the primitive occupants of the country more than 500 years ago and that, together with a certain number of customs, it formed the great bond which bound the Thonga clans together in past centuries."

Further studies were carried out by Junod and other Swiss missionaries such as Henri Berthoud and Ernest Creux, who began to unify the language in order to have a standard way of writing and reading. "Shigwamba" was a term used by the missionaries in order to group the language under a unified identity, however the name was unfamiliar to many of the Tsonga people and had to be replaced with "Thonga/Tsonga". Harries makes reference to this:

"As the term Gwamba was unknown outside the Spelonken, Henri Berthoud recommended that the mission abandon the term and replace it with the widely accepted genericism, Tonga/Thonga."

Swiss missionaries worked with the Tsonga people, assisting in the translation of the Bible from English and Sesotho into Tsonga. Paul Berthoud published the first book in 1883, thanks to assistance from translations by Mpapele (Mbizana) and Mandlati (Zambia). The two men were active in teaching and translating the language to the missionaries since none of the missionaries were familiar with it and had to dedicate much of their time to learn it. The language of the Tsonga people and the dialects were put into print and the first books were published. The language was later on finally registered as "Xitsonga" within the Constitution of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996) and it was declared an official language. The standardization of the Xitsonga language as a result made it possible for the Tsonga people to develop a common way of speaking and writing.

Etymology
The name "Tsonga" is the root of Xitsonga (culture, language or ways of the Tsonga), Mutsonga (a Tsonga person), Vatsonga (Tsonga people), etc. In the language of the Vatsonga themselves, the root never appears by itself. It is Tsonga for the ease and accessibility of the wider international community.

As for the origins of the name, there are three theories. The first states that Tsonga is another pronunciation for Dzonga, which means "South" and also the name of one of the dialects of Xitsonga. The second theory is that it is an alternate spelling of the old ancestral name of the Chopi and Tembe groups, Tonga/Thonga. The other Zulu explanation for the alternative spelling of "Thonga" is that the Tembe and Rhonga people, who were the first to arrive at the Delagoa Bay and around the Natal Bay, transitioned the Rhonga "Rh" into the Zulu form of "Th". An example is rhuma (Tsonga word for "send") becomes thuma (Zulu word for the same action). The third and most accepted is that it is another pronunciation for "Rhonga", the root for the word "vurhonga" for east or the direction where the sun rises. Vurhonga also means dawn in Xitsonga. Rhonga (commonly and wrongly spelt as Ronga) is one of the Tsonga languages. The physical evidence of most Tsonga people residing along the eastern coast of Africa in the south, extending inland in a westward direction, makes this explanation especially inviting. However Junod had initially used the Ronga appellation but had also realized that the northern clans did not frequently use the name 'Ronga' as their identity name, but most certainly Tsonga is a derivation of Ronga.

Much of the written history about the Tsonga regards the aftermath of the mfecane where the Nguni people overran many of the pre-existing African tribes of South Africa, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.

Languages and dialects
Tsonga is a Bantu language (Guthrie code S.53), closely related to other members to the Tswa-Ronga group (S.50):
 * 1) Ronga (Rhonga) dialects are Kalanga (Xinyisa, Xindindindi (Xizingili), Putru, and Xinyondroma.
 * 2) Tsonga (Gwamba, Gwapa) dialects are Bila (Vila), Djonga (Dzonga, Jonga), Hlanganu (Langanu, Nhlanganu), Hlave (Mbayi, Nkuna, Pai), Kande, Khosa, Luleke, N'walungu (Ngwalungu), Nkuma, Songa, Valoyi, Xika, and Xonga.
 * 3) Tswa (Tshwa) dialects are Dzibi (Dzivi), Dzibi-Dzonga (Dzivi-Dzonga), Tshwa, Hlengwe (Lengwe, Lhenge), Khambani, Makwakwe-Khambani, Mandla, Ndxhonge, and Nhayi (Nyai, Nyayi).

Some dialects are subdialects but have been mentioned here for completeness. For example, Valoyi and Luleke comprise the N'walungu dialect. There is no Gwamba dialect as Gwamba is another name for Xitsonga itself. Formally Xitsonga has been called Gwamba. Tswa-Ronga dialects not considered part of the family include Pulana (Xipulana, Sepulane). What is commonly referred to as "Shangana/Changana" is not a recognized language in South Africa and is not a dialect that falls within the Xitsonga language group, as its distinctiveness stems mainly from the use of the Nguni language and grammar.

Only six Thonga/Tsonga dialects exist and these were identified by the dawn of the 1900s. These are namely xiRonga, xiHlanganu, xiBila, xiDjonga, xiN'walungu, and xiHlengwe. All other variations within South Africa are sub-dialects of the aforementioned. The dialects most spoken in the rural communities of Limpopo are the N'walungu, Bila, Hlengwe, and the Hlanganu dialects. The Xitsonga vocabulary and phonetic permutations are also largely based on these dialects (cf. Junod 1912, p. 470-473)

For "language of", the various languages and dialects employ one or more of the following prefixes: Bi-, Chi-, Ci-, Gi-, Ici-, Ki-, Ma-, Shee-, Shi-, Txi-, Va-, Wa-, and Xi-. For "people of", they use either "Ba-" or "Va-".

Phonology
Tsonga has a distinction between modal and breathy voiced consonants: vs  among the obstruents (the one exception being ), and  vs  among the sonorants (the one exception being ). The segmental inventory is as follows:

Vowels
Long vowels are written double. Nasalized vowels are not distinguished in writing; are only found in words for 'yes' and 'no', while  is found in a few mimetic words. Mid vowels can vary from close-mid to open-mid; they are generally close-mid before a high vowel,  or, and low-mid  otherwise. Vowels may be realized as murmured when following breathy consonants.

Consonants
Many of these consonants may be preceded by a nasal, but they are not prenasalized consonants: at least in word-initial position, they are nasal–obstruent sequences where the nasals are syllabic.

Different consonant sounds may alternate the place of articulation. A number of Tsonga speakers vary the affricates from alveolar to retroflex ; the latter are weakly whistled in Tsonga proper and in Changana dialect. Labiodental and dental  appear in homorganic consonant clusters.

Unlike some of the Nguni languages, Tsonga has very few words with click consonants, and these vary in place between dental and postalveolar. Examples are: ngqondo (mind), gqoka (wear/dress), guqa (kneel), riqingo (phone), qiqi (earring), qamba (compose), Mugqivela (Saturday).

Grammar
The grammar is generally typical of Bantu languages with a subject–verb–object order. The structure changes to subject—object—verb when addressing another person:

Verbs
Almost all infinitives have the prefix ku- and end with -a.

The main exception to this is the verb ku ri – "to say" It corresponds to "ti" in many other Bantu languages. Examples of its usage include:

u ri yini? – What do you say? (What are you saying?)

ndzi ri ka n'wina – I say to you all.

In many instances the ri is often omitted and thus ku on its own can also mean "say".

Va ri ndza penga – They say I'm crazy.

Va ri yini? – What do they say? (What are they saying?)

Present tense

The present tense is formed by simply using the personal pronoun along with the verb.

Ndzi lava mali – I want money,

Hi tirha siku hinkwaro – We work all day,

Mi(u) lava mani? – Who are you looking for?

U kota ku famba – S/He knows how to walk.

Present progressive

Generally, to indicate ongoing actions in the present one takes the personal pronoun, drops the i and adds a.

Ndzi nghena (e)ndlwini – I am entering the house,

Ha tirha sweswi – We are working right now,

Ma hemba – You (plural) are lying,

Wa hemba – You (singular) are lying,

Wa hemba – S/He is lying,

With the plural va (they) there is no difference. Thus va hemba = "they lie" and "they are lying".

Past tense

This is for in one of three ways, depending on the word.

(i) Generally, one drops the a from the verb and adds the prefix -ile

Ndzi nghenile ndlwini – I entered the house,

Hi tirhile siku hinkwaro – We worked all day,

U hembile – You lied,

U hembile – S/He lied,

Va hembile – They lied.

(ii) With verbs that end with -ala, the past tense changes to -ele or -ale.

ku rivala – to forget,

Ndzi rivele – I forgot, U rivele – you forgot, Va rivele – they forgot,

Ku nyamalala – To disappear,

U nyamalarile – S/He – disappeared,

Words used to describe a state of being also use the past tense.

Ku karhala – To be tired,

Ndzi karhele – I am tired, U karhele – S/He is tired, Va karhele – They are tired.

(iii) In many cases merely changing the last a in the verb to an e indicates past action.

Ku fika – To arrive,

U fike tolo – S/He arrived yesterday,

Ndzi fike tolo – I arrived yesterday,

Hi tirhe siku hinkwaro – We worked all day,

Ndzi nghene (e)ndlwini – I entered the house.

Future tense

This is formed by the adding ta in between the personal pronoun and the verb.

Ndzi ta nghena (e)ndlwini – I will enter the house,

Hi ta tirha siku hinkwaro – We will work all day,

Va ta tirha siku hinkwaro – They will work all day,

Mi ta tirha siku hinkwaro – You (plural) will work all day.

Noun classes
Tsonga has several classes, much like other Bantu languages, which are learned through memorisation mostly. These are:

 * In classes 9 and 10, yi is present when the noun stem has one syllable, and is absent otherwise.

Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns in Tsonga are very similar to those of many other Bantu languages, with a few variations.

These may be classified as first person (the speaker), second person (the one spoken to), and third person (the one spoken about). They are also classified by grammatical number, i.e., singular and plural. There is no distinction between subject and object.

Each pronoun has a corresponding concord or agreement morpheme.

Vocabulary
The vocabulary of Xitsonga is essentially similar not only to most South African languages but also other Eastern Bantu languages, for example, Kiswahili.

Borrowings
Tsonga, like many other African languages, have been influenced by various European colonial languages. Tsonga vocabulary includes words borrowed from English, Afrikaans, and Portuguese. Also, due to the assimilation of the Shangaan nation, it has taken some words from Nguni languages.

Words borrowed from English
 * Thelevhixini (Mavonakule) – television
 * Rhediyo (Xiyanimoya) – Radio
 * Xitulu – chair (Stool)
 * Wachi (Xikomba-nkarhi) – watch (to tell time)
 * Movha (Xipandza-mananga) – car (automobile)
 * Sokisi – socks
 * Nghilazi – glass
 * Tliloko – clock(bell)
 * Masipala – municipal (plural: vamasipala)
 * Makhiya/swikhiya (Xilotlela) – keys

Words borrowed from Afrikaans
 * lekere – sweets (lekkers)
 * fasitere – window (venster)
 * lepula – spoon (lepel)
 * kereke – church (kerk)
 * buruku – trousers (broek)
 * domu – idiot (dom)
 * tafula – table (tafel)
 * xipuku – ghost (spook)

Words borrowed from other Nguni languages:
 * riqingho – phone
 * ku qonda – to head towards (not standard = ku kongoma)
 * ku gcina – to end (not standard = ku hetelela)
 * ku zama – to try (not standard = ku ringeta)

Xitsonga Latin Alphabet
Xitsonga uses the Latin alphabet. However, certain sounds are spelled using a combination of letters, which either do not exist in Indo-European languages, or may be meant to distinguish the language somewhat.

An example of this is the letter "x" taken from Portuguese orthography, which is pronounced. Therefore, the following words, [ʃuʃa], [ʃikolo], [ʃilo], are written in Tsonga as -xuxa, xikolo, and xilo.

Other spelling differences include the letter "c", which is pronounced. However, where the emphasis of a word is on the following vowel the letter is hardened by adding "h" this the Tsonga word -chava (fear)

A sound equivalent to the Welsh "ll" is written "hl" in Tsonga, e.g. -hlangana (meet), -hlasela (attack), -hleka (laugh)

A whistling sound common in the language is written "sw" or "sv" in Zimbabwean ChiShona. This sound actually belongs to the "x-sw" class within the language. E.g.:
 * sweswi (now)
 * xilo (thing) – swilo (things)
 * xikolo (school) – swikolo (schools)
 * Xikwembu (God) – swikwembu (gods)

Another whistling sound is spelled "dy" but has no English equivalent, the closest being the "dr" sound in the English word "drive"

Xitsonga has been standardised as a written language. However, there are many dialects within the language that may not pronounce words as written. For example, the Tsonga bible uses the word byela (tell), pronounced bwe-la, however a large group of speakers would say "dzvela" instead.

The Lord's Prayer as written in the Xitsonga Bible (Bibele)

Tata wa hina la nge matilweni, vito ra wena a ri hlawuriwe; a ku te ku fuma ka wena; ku rhandza ka wena a ku endliwe misaveni; tani hi loko ku endliwa matilweni; u hi nyika namuntlha vuswa bya hina bya siku rin'wana ni rin'wana; u hi rivalela swidyoho swa hina, tani hi loko na hina hi rivalela lava hi dyohelaka; u nga hi yisi emiringweni kambe u hi ponisa eka Lowo biha, hikuva ku fuma, ni matimba, ni ku twala i swa wena hi masiku ni masiku. Amen.

Xiyinhlanharhu xa Mipfawulo
The sintu writing system, Isibheqe Sohlamvu/Ditema tsa Dinoko, also known technically in Xitsonga as Xiyinhlanharhu xa Mipfawulo, is used for all Xitsonga varieties. The class 7/8 noun pairs above are represented as follows:

Proverbs
Like many other languages, Xitsonga has many proverbs; these appear in different classes. They appear in a group of animals, trees and people.

Software and localisation

 * PanAfriL10n page on Tsonga
 * Tsonga on translatewiki.net
 * Xitsonga Online Dictionary on Xitsonga.org Now discontinued 2024.

title: Tsonga language


text:
Tsonga

Tsonga may refer to:

 * Tsonga language, a Bantu language spoken in southern Africa
 * Tsonga people, a large group of people living mainly in southern Mozambique and South Africa.
 * Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (born 1985), French tennis player

title: Tsonga


text:
Acorus

Acorus is a genus of monocot flowering plants. This genus was once placed within the family Araceae (aroids), but more recent classifications place it in its own family Acoraceae and order Acorales, of which it is the sole genus of the oldest surviving line of monocots. Some older studies indicated that it was placed in a lineage (the order Alismatales), that also includes aroids (Araceae), Tofieldiaceae, and several families of aquatic monocots (e.g., Alismataceae, Posidoniaceae). However, modern phylogenetic studies demonstrate that Acorus is sister to all other monocots. Common names include calamus and sweet flag.

The genus is native to North America and northern and eastern Asia, and naturalised in southern Asia and Europe from ancient cultivation. The known wild populations are diploid except for some tetraploids in eastern Asia, while the cultivated plants are sterile triploids, probably of hybrid origin between the diploid and tetraploid forms.

Characteristics
The inconspicuous flowers are arranged on a lateral spadix (a thickened, fleshy axis). Unlike aroids, there is no spathe (large bract, enclosing the spadix). The spadix is 4–10 cm long and is enclosed by the foliage. The bract can be ten times longer than the spadix. The leaves are linear with entire margin.

Taxonomy
Although the family Acoraceae was originally described in 1820, since then Acorus has traditionally been included in Araceae in most classification systems, as in the Cronquist system. The family has recently been resurrected as molecular systematic studies have shown that Acorus is not closely related to Araceae or any other monocot family, leading plant systematists to place the genus and family in its own order. This placement currently lacks support from traditional plant morphology studies, and some taxonomists still place it as a subfamily of Araceae, in the order Alismatales. The APG III system recognizes order Acorales, distinct from the Alismatales, and as the sister group to all other monocots. This relationship is confirmed by more recent phylogenetic studies. Treatment in the APG IV system is unchanged from APG III.

Species
In older literature and on many websites, there is still much confusion, with the name Acorus calamus equally but wrongfully applied to Acorus americanus (formerly Acorus calamus var. americanus).

As of July 2014, the Kew Checklist accepts only 2 species, one of which has three accepted varieties:

 * Acorus calamus L. – common sweet flag; sterile triploid (3n = 36); probably of cultivated origin. It is native to Europe, temperate India and the Himalayas and southern Asia, widely cultivated and naturalised elsewhere.
 * Acorus calamus var. angustatus Besser - Siberia, China, Russian Far East, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Himalayas, Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, Philippines, Indonesia
 * Acorus calamus var. calamus - Siberia, Russian Far east, Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, Himalayas; naturalized in Europe, North America, Java and New Guinea
 * Acorus americanus Raf. - Canada, northern United States, Buryatiya region of Russia
 * Acorus gramineus Sol. ex Aiton – Japanese sweet flag or grassy-leaved sweet flag; fertile diploid (2n = 18); - China, Himalayas, Japan, Korea, Indochina, Philippines, Primorye

Acorus from Europe, China and Japan have been planted in the United States.

Etymology
The name 'acorus' is derived from the Greek word 'acoron', a name used by Dioscorides, which in turn was derived from 'coreon', meaning 'pupil', because it was used in herbal medicine as a treatment for inflammation of the eye.

Distribution and habitat
These plants are found in wetlands, particularly marshes, where they spread by means of thick rhizomes. Like many other marsh plants, they depend upon aerenchyma to transport oxygen to the rooting zone. They frequently occur on shorelines and floodplains where water levels fluctuate seasonally.

Ecology
The native North American species appears in many ecological studies. Compared to other species of wetland plants, they have relatively high competitive ability. Although many marsh plants accumulate large banks of buried seeds, seed banks of Acorus may not accumulate in some wetlands owing to low seed production. The seeds appear to be adapted to germinate in clearings; after a period of cold storage, the seeds will germinate after seven days of light with fluctuating temperature, and somewhat longer under constant temperature. A comparative study of its life history traits classified it as a "tussock interstitial", that is, a species that has a dense growth form and tends to occupy gaps in marsh vegetation, not unlike Iris versicolor.

Toxicity
Products derived from Acorus calamus were banned in 1968 as food additives by the United States Food and Drug Administration. The questionable chemical derived from the plant was β-asarone. Confusion exists whether all strains of A. calamus contain this substance.

Four varieties of A. calamus strains exist in nature: diploid, triploid, tetraploid and hexaploid. Diploids do not produce the carcinogenic β-asarone. Diploids are known to grow naturally in Eastern Asia (Mongolia and C Siberia) and North America. The triploid cytotype probably originated in the Himalayan region, as a hybrid between the diploid and tetraploid cytotypes. The North American Calamus is known as Acorus calamus var. americanus or more recently as simply Acorus americanus. Like the diploid strains of A. calamus in parts of the Himalayas, Mongolia, and C Siberia, the North American diploid strain does not contain the carcinogenic β-asarone. Research has consistently demonstrated that "β-asarone was not detectable in the North American spontaneous diploid Acorus [calamus var. americanus]".

Uses
The parallel-veined leaves of some species contain ethereal oils that give a sweet scent when dried. Fine-cut leaves used to be strewn across the floor in the Middle Ages, both for the scent, and for presumed efficacy against pests.

title: Acorus


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Fraunhofer lines

The Fraunhofer lines are a set of spectral absorption lines. They are dark absorption lines, seen in the optical spectrum of the Sun, and are formed when atoms in the solar atmosphere absorb light being emitted by the solar photosphere. The lines are named after German physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer, who observed them in 1814.

Discovery
In 1802, English chemist William Hyde Wollaston was the first person to note the appearance of a number of dark features in the solar spectrum. In 1814, Joseph von Fraunhofer independently rediscovered the lines and began to systematically study and measure their wavelengths. He mapped over 570 lines, designating the most prominent with the letters A through K and weaker lines with other letters. Modern observations of sunlight can detect many thousands of lines.

About 45 years later, Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen noticed that several Fraunhofer lines coincide with characteristic emission lines identified in the spectra of heated chemical elements. They inferred that dark lines in the solar spectrum are caused by absorption by chemical elements in the solar atmosphere. Some of the observed features were identified as telluric lines originating from absorption by oxygen molecules in the Earth's atmosphere.

Naming
The major Fraunhofer lines, and the elements they are associated with, are shown in the following table:

The Fraunhofer C, F, G′, and h lines correspond to the alpha, beta, gamma, and delta lines of the Balmer series of emission lines of the hydrogen atom. The Fraunhofer letters are now rarely used for those lines.

The D1 and D2 lines form a pair known as the "sodium doublet", the centre wavelength of which (589.29 nm) is given the designation letter "D". This historical designation for this line has stuck and is given to all the transitions between the ground state and the first excited state of the other alkali atoms as well. The D1 and D2 lines correspond to the fine-structure splitting of the excited states.

The Fraunhofer H and K letters are also still used for the calcium$2$ doublet in the violet part of the spectrum, important in astronomical spectroscopy.

There is disagreement in the literature for some line designations; for example, the Fraunhofer d line may refer to the cyan iron line at 466.814 nm, or alternatively to the yellow helium line (also labeled D3) at 587.5618 nm. Similarly, there is ambiguity regarding the e line, since it can refer to the spectral lines of both iron (Fe) and mercury (Hg). In order to resolve ambiguities that arise in usage, ambiguous Fraunhofer line designations are preceded by the element with which they are associated (e.g., Mercury e line and Helium d line).

Because of their well-defined wavelengths, Fraunhofer lines are often used to specify standard wavelengths for characterising the refractive index and dispersion properties of optical materials.

title: Fraunhofer lines


text:
Nangka

Nangka may refer to:
 * Jackfruit
 * Nangka (state constituency), represented in the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly
 * Typhoon Nangka, a name used for tropical cyclones in the northwestern Pacific Ocean

title: Nangka