text:
Talk:Hadash

POV
Calling Arab nationalism "fascism" is an editorial comment.  Precesing unsigned comment added by 65.229.164.155 00:23 23 February 2004

Vilner vs. Wilner
Decide how you call the first leader of MAKI, Meir Vilner (this article) or Wilner (the article about MAKI). The Knesset official site and an official communist site both side with the first spelling, while the majority of the results point to the latter. I changed the one on MAKI (to Vilner). Karpada 23:16 13 December 2004

Racism in Editing this page
There is racism in editing this page. Hadash sees its mainly Palestinian supporters as "Palestinian citizens of Israel." This is explicit in al-jabhas website, which is in Arabic. There seems to be a racist campaign to change the description of Palestinian Israeli political parties. This is done through the deletion of anything concerning their view that they are a Palestinian national minority in Israel. --- Fadi

 * The source I provided is from the BBC which is considered reputable and reliable enough for wikipedia.- Moshe Constantine Hassan Al-Silverburg | Talk 01:16, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

Non-Zionist?
Could someone find a citation for the "non-Zionist" claim? As far as I know Hadash supports two seperate states for Jews and Arabs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.98.67.115 (talk • contribs)

 * Not true, I did a bit of checking, it didn't take me long. Hadash supports the creation of a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders it's true, so it doesn't support a single state solution. But it also supports the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel (if they choose not to they should be compensated) and it contends that the state of Israel should lose it's Jewish character and should exist for all of it's citizens, effectively creating a secular state with all Israeli people and religions given equal status. I added several references to the article and did quite a comprehensive tidy up. Hope I haven't trod on any toes. This article could do with a bit of history and background. Alun 12:50, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Hadash is an alliance of multiple parties some of which can be described as non-zionist and some as anti-zionist Shlumpsters (talk) 12:47, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

Bi-national State?
The article originally claimed that Hadash called for a bi-national state (מדינה דו-לאומית), and gave as a reference the Zionism and Israel Information Centre. However, the party's manifesto does not make this demand. Rather, it calls for the recognition of Palestinian Arab citizens as a national minority (מיעוט לאומי) within Israel. This position is actually incompatible with the transformation of Israel into a bi-national state. I think we shoulkd regard the party's own manifesto as more authoritative that a Zionist propaganda gloss, and have amended the article in keeping. RolandR 15:57, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I think this source (the official Maki website) is pretty clear on the issue - calling for "A Palestinian State alongside Israel - Now!" Number 57 19:51, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

 * But that's a different issue. Supporters of a two-state solution to the conflict can have varying positions towards the future nature of the Israeli state, and support for such a solution says nothing about their "domestic" agenda. Some (eg Avigdor Lieberman) are explicitly racist, even supporting transfer of Arab citizens to the resulting Palestinian state. Some, like Azmi Bishara, explicitly call for the transformation of Israel into "a state of its citizens". Hadash is more equivocal; while clearly supporting equal individual rights for non-Jewish citizens, and calling for the recognition of Arabs as a national minority within Israel, it has never opposed the existence of Israel as a "Jewish state", or supported calls for binationalism. RolandR 20:19, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

 * That was my point: Hadash does not call for binationalism but a two-state solution. Number 57 20:48, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
 * It is possible to have both binationalism and a two-state solution. Under this scenario, Israel would be binational and Palestine would be an Arab homeland.  However, I agree that Hadash doesn't seem to be calling for this. Superm401 - Talk 21:25, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Hadashnew.jpg
Image:Hadashnew.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 05:17, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Haaretz addition
If you believe that the addition of one single sentence (sourced clearly and correctly) in the body of the text of the article (not in the infobox or lead) somehow in some way threatens the NPOV of the article, then you must quote from WP:NPOV a section that specifically states how. --Shamir1 (talk) 07:24, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

 * As suggested on your talk page, it is a Balance or Undue weight issue. In dealing with an aspect of the party, you can't just quote one single source on that issue, especially if it is a praise or criticism; you have to balance it with the alternate opinion, and somehow try and assert which one is the more widely held belief. пﮟოьεԻ   5  7  09:25, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

 * There is conflict of undue weight? I think it is very, very, very clear which "is the more widely held belief." (For heaven's sake, I was the editor who added "communism" to the infobox, citing the CRS.) Do you not see what is in the lead? The introduction, the infobox, and the entire rest of the article... This selected quotation isn't necessarily praise or criticism, and even if it was this one sentence (and sourced, cited criticism is allowed) it is dwarfed by the rest of the article. It seems totally comprehensive. --Shamir1 (talk) 16:32, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 one external links on Hadash. 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 https://web.archive.org/20070124162802/http://www.hadash.org.il:80/matzahadash.html to http://www.hadash.org.il/matzahadash.html#4
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090102065908/http://hadash2009.org.il:80/ to http://hadash2009.org.il/

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 15:38, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Controversy or political view?
I don't believe this paragraph should be part of the "controversy" section.

"In December 2015, the Hadash party published a Facebook post condemning the assassination of Hezbollah militant Samir Kuntar and comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria."

I'm my opinion, as someone exterior to the facts narrated and the Israeli situation, that could be defined as nothing more than classical PR done by a party whose intenction is to express its view on current events. The article cited cites just some rival party noise, nothing different to me to any political bickering in this world. On the other hand nothing has been wrote about wide-spread disapproval and/or protests by the civil society, wich is what i would argue is a better measure of a controversy. --217.31.112.85 (talk) 17:38, 11 April 2019 (UTC),jad

“Left wing“ identification
There are multiple issues with describing Hadash, a marxist-Leninist party, as left wing. To start it is A: sourced to Haaretz, a source that has been accused of failing to correct inaccuracies and has been caught whitewashing left of center parties before (see ‘criticism’ on the Haaretz wiki page where these are sourced reliably), and B: Hadash is recognized on this page to be a Marxist Leninist party, an ideology that is considered far left not only overall but on other wiki pages, such as the communist party of the soviet union. Finally, C: in the lead of the article the party is described only as far left, not as left wing. In the name of being smart with source use and article consistency I ask for a consensus to remove the “left wing” from the political position section. Nigel Abe (talk) 19:17, 2 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Regardless of your views, Haaretz is generally regarded to be a reliable source. Number   5  7  19:54, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

 * It’s perfectly fine to view them as generally reliable, my point is in this particular case, due to the facts regarding Hadash being a Marxist-Leninist party, and Haaretz’s past relationship with leftist parties going against them, they aren’t. Nigel Abe (talk) 20:00, 2 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Again, these are your views. Haaretz is treated by Wikipedia as a reliable source. Hadash is coalition of different organisations; Maki (the Communist party and dominant faction) is far-left, but not necessarily all the parts are (see the Knesset description as Hadash being formed by Maki and "other left-wing non-communist groups"). Number   5  7  14:49, 12 March 2020 (UTC)

 * "Far left" is a matter of gradient and it is within "left wing" spectrum. So both are true. The characterization as "far left" is already included in the infobox. --MarioGom (talk) 15:40, 6 March 2020 (UTC)

If I understand your point correctly, by your logic Otzma Yehudit should be labeled as “right wing to far right” and I’m sure we can agree that they are far right only. Nigel Abe (talk) 02:28, 7 March 2020 (UTC)

 * I agree, Hadash is clearly not a left-wing to far-left party, they are far-left 100%, they are a communist progressive anti-Zionist/Non-Zionist party, it's clearly not just "left-wing",it's a far-left party --Arjona123 (talk) 17:38, 5 June 2021 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 19 April 2021
Change number of seats for Hadash in the infobox from 6 to 3. 2001:48F8:405D:457:78F8:B35C:B861:C5D8 (talk) 06:29, 19 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 09:32, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

Far left
The left-wing is redundant to position the party, inasmuch as it is a Leninist Communist pparty, which unequivocally sorts out the difference between mainstream left to Far-left.. If the faction were to be a mainstream left-wing it'd have refuted advocation of those fringe ideologies... 2A0D:6FC7:20E:5EF:F899:DA88:B511:4926 (talk) 13:18, 4 December 2021 (UTC)

Hadash-Ta'al
Hello User:Number 57, the page of Ta'al party lists its alliance with Hadash in the "National affiliation" section of the infobox. Therefore I listed it here too. Roman Reigns Fanboy (talk) 22:12, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
 * That is a fairly recent addition, and I've removed if from there too. Cheers, Number   5  7  22:54, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Alright! Cheers and happy holdays! Roman Reigns Fanboy (talk) 23:31, 29 December 2022 (UTC)

Ofer Cassif suspended
A proposed edit for the Controversien section: In October 2023, the Knesset Ethics Committee suspended Hadash member Ofer Cassif from Knesset for 45 days for his comments about the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war. The committee's explanation included, "repeated violations related to expressions from the content world of the Holocaust".
 * https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-punishes-jewish-lawmaker-for-saying-the-country-asked-for-violence/ar-AA1isq1x
 * https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/israeli-communist-lawmaker-warns-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestinians-is-underway/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jaufrec (talk • contribs) 21:09, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

Hadash is an anti-Zionist party
Hadash does not define itself as a non-Zionist party; the source used here doesn't even mention Zionism. I speak Hebrew but you can translate the whole thing to English and see that there's no mention of Zionism. However, Hadash has been referred to as an anti-Zionist party, and its members oppose Zionism (Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). I'd argue that the "non-Zionism" mentioned here should be replaced by "anti-Zionism". Bakbik1234 (talk) 17:24, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

 * And if adding "anti-Zionism" is too controversial here, then don't mention Zionism in their ideology at all. Bakbik1234 (talk) 17:39, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

Excessive name-related detail in the introduction
Currently around two-thirds of the introduction is detailing the party's name in Hebrew and Arabic. I don't think this is a useful use of space, and converted it to a note. However, this was reverted. Do we really need to use up so much space in the introduction on this? Number  5  7  21:52, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Hadash


text:
Chewa language

Chewa (also known as Nyanja, ) is a Bantu language spoken in Malawi and a recognised minority in Zambia and Mozambique. The noun class prefix chi- is used for languages, so the language is usually called Chichewa and Chinyanja (spelled Cinianja in Portuguese). In Malawi, the name was officially changed from Chinyanja to Chichewa in 1968 at the insistence of President Hastings Kamuzu Banda (himself of the Chewa people), and this is still the name most commonly used in Malawi today. In Zambia, the language is generally known as Nyanja or Cinyanja/Chinyanja '(language) of the lake' (referring to Lake Malawi).

Chewa belongs to the same language group (Guthrie Zone N) as Tumbuka, Sena and Nsenga.Throughout the history of Malawi, only Chewa and Tumbuka have at one time been the primary dominant national languages used by government officials and in school curricula. However, the Tumbuka language suffered a lot during the rule of President Hastings Kamuzu Banda, since in 1968 as a result of his one-nation, one-language policy it lost its status as an official language in Malawi. As a result, Tumbuka was removed from the school curriculum, the national radio, and the print media. With the advent of multi-party democracy in 1994, Tumbuka programmes were started again on the radio, but the number of books and other publications in Tumbuka remains low.

Distribution
Chewa is the most widely known language of Malawi, spoken mostly in the Central and Southern Regions of that country. It is also spoken in Eastern Province of  Zambia, as well as in Mozambique, especially in the provinces of Tete and Niassa. It was one of the 55 languages featured on the Voyager spacecraft.

History
The Chewa were a branch of the Maravi people who lived in the Eastern Province of Zambia and in northern Mozambique as far south as the River Zambezi from the 16th century or earlier.

The name "Chewa" (in the form Chévas) was first recorded by António Gamitto, who at the age of 26 in 1831 was appointed as second-in-command of an expedition from Tete to the court of King Kazembe in what became Zambia. His route took him through the country of King Undi west of the Dzalanyama mountains, across a corner of present-day Malawi and on into Zambia. Later he wrote an account including some ethnographic and linguistic notes and vocabularies. According to Gamitto, the Malawi or Maravi people (Maraves) were those ruled by King Undi south of the Chambwe stream (not far south of the present border between Mozambique and Zambia), while the Chewa lived north of the Chambwe.

Another, more extensive, list of 263 words and phrases of the language was made by the German missionary Sigismund Koelle who, working in Sierra Leone in West Africa, interviewed some 160 former slaves and recorded vocabularies in their languages. He published the results in a book called Polyglotta Africana in 1854. Among other slaves was one Mateke, who spoke what he calls "Maravi". Mateke's language is clearly an early form of Nyanja, but in a southern dialect. For example, the modern Chichewa phrase zaka ziwiri 'two years' was dzaka dziŵiri in Mateke's speech, whereas for Johannes Rebmann's informant Salimini, who came from the Lilongwe region, it was bzaka bziŵiri. The same dialect difference survives today in the word dzala or bzala '(to) plant'.

Apart from the few words recorded by Gamitto and Koelle, the first extensive record of the Chewa language was made by Johannes Rebmann in his Dictionary of the Kiniassa Language, published in 1877 but written in 1853–4. Rebmann was a missionary living near Mombasa in Kenya, and he obtained his information from a Malawian slave, known by the Swahili name Salimini, who had been captured in Malawi some ten years earlier. Salimini, who came from a place called Mphande apparently in the Lilongwe region, also noted some differences between his own dialect, which he called Kikamtunda, the "language of the plateau", and the Kimaravi dialect spoken further south; for example, the Maravi gave the name mombo to the tree which he himself called kamphoni.

The first grammar, A Grammar of the Chinyanja language as spoken at Lake Nyasa with Chinyanja–English and English–Chinyanja vocabulary, was written by Alexander Riddel in 1880. Further early grammars and vocabularies include A grammar of Chinyanja, a language spoken in British Central Africa, on and near the shores of Lake Nyasa by George Henry (1891) and M.E. Woodward's A vocabulary of English–Chinyanja and Chinyanja–English: as spoken at Likoma, Lake Nyasa (1895). The whole Bible was translated into the Likoma Island dialect of Nyanja by William Percival Johnson and published as Chikalakala choyera: ndicho Malangano ya Kale ndi Malangano ya Chapano in 1912. Another Bible translation, known as the Buku Lopatulika ndilo Mau a Mulungu, was made in a more standard Central Region dialect about 1900–1922 by missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Mission and Church of Scotland with the help of some Malawians. This has recently (2016) been reissued in a revised and slightly modernised version.

Another early grammar, concentrating on the Kasungu dialect of the language, was Mark Hanna Watkins' A Grammar of Chichewa (1937). This book, the first grammar of any African language to be written by an American, was a work of cooperation between a young black PhD student and young student from Nyasaland studying in Chicago, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who in 1966 was to become the first President of the Republic of Malawi. This grammar is also remarkable in that it was the first to mark the tones of the words. Modern monographs on aspects of Chichewa grammar include Mtenje (1986), Kanerva (1990), Mchombo (2004) and Downing & Mtenje (2017).

In recent years the language has changed considerably, and a dichotomy has grown between the traditional Chichewa of the villages and the language of city-dwellers.

Vowels
Chewa has five short vowel sounds: a, ɛ, i, ɔ, u; these are written a, e, i, o, u. Long vowels are sometimes found, e.g. áákúlu 'big' (class 2), kufúula 'to shout'. When a word comes at the end of a phrase, its penultimate vowel tends to be lengthened, except for non-Chewa names and words, such as Muthárika or ófesi, in which the penultimate vowel always remains short. The added 'u' or 'i' in borrowed words such as láputopu 'laptop' or íntaneti 'internet' tends to be very short.

Vowels are generally lengthened in the penultimate syllable of a prosodic phrase.

Consonants
Chewa consonants can be simple (directly preceding a vowel) or may be followed by w or y:

 * b, kh, g, f, m, s etc.
 * bw, khw, gw, fw, mw, sw etc.
 * bz, tch, j, fy, ny, sh etc.

In the orthography, the place of by is taken by the affricate bz, the place of gy is taken by j, and that of sy by sh.

Voiced and aspirated consonants, as well as [f] and [s], can also be preceded by a homorganic nasal:
 * mb, ngw, nj, mv, nz etc.
 * mph,, , mf, ns etc.

It is debated whether these are consonant clusters, or whether Chichewa has prenasalized, palatalized and labialized consonants. The most straightforward analysis is that they are clusters. The consonant inventory under a cluster analysis is as follows:

Consonants in parentheses are marginal or found mainly in loanwords. The lateral is an approximant word-initially and a flap  medially.

If the more complex syllable onsets are analyzed as single consonants, the inventory is as follows:

The spelling used here is that introduced in 1973, which is the one generally in use in the Malawi at the present time, replacing the Chinyanja Orthography Rules of 1931.

Notes on the consonants

 * In most words, Chewa b and d (when not prenasalised) are pronounced implosively, by sucking slightly. However, there is also a plosive b and d, mostly found in foreign words, such as bála 'bar', yôdúla 'expensive' (from Afrikaans duur) (in contrast to the implosive b and d in native words such as bála 'wound' and yôdúla 'which cuts'). A plosive d is also found in kudínda 'to stamp (a document)' and mdidi 'confident step'.
 * The affricate sounds bv and pf were formerly commonly heard but are now generally replaced by v and f, e.g. (b)vúto 'problem', (p)fúpa 'bone'. In the Mtanthauziramawu wa Chinyanja dictionary produced by the University of Malawi, the spellings bv and pf are not used in any of the headwords, but bv is used two or three times in the definitions.
 * The combination bz is described by Atkins as an "alveolar-labialised fricative". The combination sounds approximately as or . Similarly ps is pronounced approximately as  or.
 * The sounds written ch, k, p and t are pronounced less forcibly than the English equivalents and generally without aspiration. Stevick notes that in relaxed speech, the first three are sometimes replaced with the voiced fricatives, and , and t can be heard as a voiced flap. In the combination -ti (e.g. angáti? 'how many'), t may be lightly aspirated.
 * h is also used in Chewa but mostly only in loanwords such as hotéra 'hotel', hátchi 'horse', mswahála 'monthly allowance given to chiefs'.
 * j is described by Scotton and Orr as being pronounced "somewhat more forward in the mouth" than in English and as sounding "somewhere between an English d and j".
 * l and r are the same phoneme, representing a retroflex tap, approximately between and . According to the official spelling rules, the sound is written as 'r' after 'i' or 'e', otherwise 'l'. It is also written with 'l' after a prefix containing 'i', as in lilíme 'tongue'.
 * m is syllabic in words where it is derived from mu, e.g. m'balé 'relative' (3 syllables), mphunzitsi 'teacher' (4 syllables), anáḿpatsa 'he gave him' (5 syllables). However, in class 9 words, such as mphátso 'gift', mbale 'plate', or mfíti 'witch', and also in the class 1 word mphaká 'cat', the m is pronounced very short and does not form a separate syllable. In Southern Region dialects of Malawi, the syllabic m in words like mkángo 'lion' is pronounced in a homorganic manner, i.e.  (with three syllables), but in the Central Region, it is pronounced as it is written, i.e..
 * n, in combinations such as nj,, nkh etc., is assimilated to the following consonant, that is, it is pronounced or  as appropriate. In words of class 9, such as njóka 'snake' or nduná 'minister' it is pronounced very short, as part of the following syllable. However, [n] can also be syllabic, when it is contracted from ndi 'it is' or ndí 'and', e.g. ń'kúpíta 'and to go'; also in the remote past continuous tense, e.g. ankápítá 'he used to go'. In some borrowed words such as bánki or íntaneti the combinations nk and nt with non-syllabic n can be found but not in native words.
 * ng is pronounced as in 'finger' and ng’ is pronounced  as in 'singer'. Both of these consonants can occur at the beginning of a word: ngoma 'kudu', ng'ombe 'cow or ox'.
 * w in the combinations awu, ewu, iwu, owa, uwa (e.g. mawú 'voice', msewu 'road', liwú 'sound', lowa 'enter', duwa 'flower') although often written is generally not pronounced. Combinations such as gwo or mwo are not found; thus ngwábwino (short for ndi wábwino) 'he is good' but ngóípa (short for ndi wóípa) 'he is bad'; mwalá 'stone' but móto 'fire'.
 * ŵ, a "closely lip-rounded with the tongue in the close-i position", was formerly used in Central Region dialects but is now rarely heard, usually being replaced by 'w'. ("It is doubtful whether the majority of speakers have  in their phoneme inventory" (Kishindo).) The symbol 'ŵ' is generally omitted in current publications such as newspapers. In the dialects that use the sound, it is found only before a, i, and e, while before o and u it becomes . To some linguists (e.g. Watkins) it sounds similar to the Spanish.
 * zy (as in zyoliká 'be upside down like a bat') can be pronounced.

Tones
Like most other Bantu languages, Chewa is a tonal language; that is to say, the pitch of the syllables (high or low) plays an important role in it. Tone is used in various ways in the language. First of all, each word has its own tonal pattern, for example:
 * munthu 'person' (Low, Low)
 * galú 'dog' (Rising, Mid)
 * mbúzi 'goat' (Falling, Low)
 * chímanga 'maize' (High, Low, Low)

Usually there is only one high tone in a word (generally on one of the last three syllables), or none. However, in compound words there can be more than one high tone, for example:
 * chákúdyá 'food' (High, High, High; derived from chá + kudyá, 'a thing of eating')

A second important use of tone is in the verb. Each tense of the verb has its own characteristic tonal pattern (negative tenses usually have a different pattern from positive ones). For example, the present habitual has high tones on the initial syllable and the penultimate, the other syllables being low:
 * ndí-ma-thandíza 'I (usually) help'

The recent past continuous and present continuous, on the other hand, have a tone on the third syllable:
 * ndi-ma-thándiza 'I was helping'
 * ndi-ku-thándiza 'I am helping'

Tones can also indicate whether a verb is being used in a main clause or in a dependent clause such as a relative clause:
 * sabatá yatha 'the week has ended'
 * sabatá yátha 'the week which has ended (i.e. last week)'

A third use of tones in Chewa is to show phrasing and sentence intonation. For example, immediately before a pause in the middle of a sentence the speaker's voice tends to rise up; this rise is referred to as a boundary tone. Other intonational tones are sometimes heard, for example a rising or falling tone at the end of a yes-no question.

Noun classes
Chewa nouns are divided for convenience into a number of classes, which are referred to by the Malawians themselves by names such as "Mu-A-", but by Bantu specialists by numbers such as "1/2", corresponding to the classes in other Bantu languages. Conventionally, they are grouped into pairs of singular and plural. However, irregular pairings are also possible, especially with loanwords; for example, bánki 'bank', which takes the concords of class 9 in the singular, has a plural mabánki (class 6).

When assigning nouns to a particular class, initially the prefix of the noun is used. Where there is no prefix, or where the prefix is ambiguous, the concords (see below) are used as a guide to the noun class. For example, katúndu 'possessions' is put in class 1, since it takes the class 1 demonstrative uyu 'this'.

Some nouns belong to one class only, e.g. tomáto 'tomato(es)' (class 1), mowa 'beer' (class 3), malayá 'shirt(s)' (class 6), udzudzú 'mosquito(es)' (class 14), and do not change between singular and plural. Despite this, such words can still be counted if appropriate: tomáto muwíri 'two tomatoes', mowa uwíri 'two beers', malayá amódzi 'one shirt', udzudzú umódzi 'one mosquito'.

Class 11 (Lu-) is not found in Chewa. Words like lumo 'razor' and lusó 'skill' are considered to belong to class 5/6 (Li-Ma-) and take the concords of that class.

(1a/2): galú pl. agalú 'dog'. Class 1a refers to nouns which have no m- prefix. The plural a- is used only for humans and animals. It can also be used for respect, e.g. aphunzitsi áthu 'our teacher' (1a/6): kíyi pl. makíyi 'key'; gúle pl. magúle 'dance' (1a): tomáto 'tomato(es)'; katúndu 'luggage, furniture'; feteréza 'fertilizer' (no pl.) (3): mowa 'beer'; móto 'fire'; bowa 'mushroom(s)' (no pl.) Often the first consonant is softened or omitted in the plural in this class. (6): madzí 'water', mankhwála 'medicine', maló 'place' (no sg.) (7): chímanga 'maize'; chikóndi 'love' (no pl.) (10): ndevu 'beard'; ndíwo 'relish'; nzerú 'intelligence' (no sg.) (9/6): bánki pl. mabánki 'bank' (12): kasamalidwe 'method of taking care'; kavinidwe 'way of dancing' (no pl.) (13): tuló 'sleep' (no sg.) (14/6): utá pl. mautá 'bow'
 * Mu-A- (1/2): munthu pl. anthu 'person'; mphunzitsi pl. aphunzitsi 'teacher'; mwaná pl. aná 'child'
 * Mu-Mi- (3/4): mudzi pl. midzi 'village'; mténgo pl. miténgo 'tree'; moyo pl. miyoyo 'life'; msika pl. misika 'village'
 * Li-Ma- (5/6): dzína pl. maína 'name'; vúto pl. mavúto 'problem'; khásu pl. makásu 'hoe'; díso pl. masó 'eye'
 * Chi-Zi- (7/8): chinthu pl. zinthu 'thing'; chaká pl. zaká 'year'
 * I-Zi- (9/10): nyumbá pl. nyumbá 'house'; mbúzi pl. mbúzi 'goat'
 * Ka-Ti- (12/13): kamwaná pl. tianá 'baby'; kanthu pl. tinthu 'small thing'
 * U-Ma- (14): usíku 'night time'; ulimi 'farming'; udzudzú 'mosquito(es)' (no pl.)

Infinitive class:
 * Ku- (15): kuóna 'to see, seeing'

Locative classes:
 * Pa- (16): pakamwa 'mouth'
 * Ku- (17): kukhosi 'neck'
 * Mu- (18): mkamwa 'inside the mouth'

Concords
Pronouns, adjectives, and verbs have to show agreement with nouns in Chichewa. This is done by means of prefixes, for example:
 * Uyu ndi mwaná wángá 'this is my child' (class 1)
 * Awa ndi aná ángá 'these are my children' (class 2)
 * Ichi ndi chímanga chánga 'this is my maize' (class 7)
 * Iyi ndi nyumbá yángá 'this is my house' (class 9)

Class 2 (the plural of class 1) is often used for respect when referring to elders. According to Corbett and Mtenje, a word like bambo 'father', even though it is singular, will take plural concords (e.g. bambo anga akuyenda, ndikuwaona 'my father is walking, I see him'); they note that to use the singular object-marker -mu- would be 'grossly impolite'.

The various prefixes are shown on the table below:

There are 17 different noun classes, but because some of them share concords there are in fact only 12 distinct sets of prefixes.

Examples of the use of concords
In the examples below, the concords are illustrated mainly with nouns of classes 1 and 2.

Demonstratives 'this' and 'that'

 * uyu ndaní? 'who is this?'; awa ndaní? 'who are these?' (or: 'who is this gentleman?' (respectful))
 * mwaná uyu (mwanáyu) 'this child'; aná awa (anáwa) 'these children'
 * mwaná uyo (mwanáyo) 'that child'; aná awo (anáwo) 'those children'

The shortened forms are more common.

Pronominal yé, (w)ó etc.
Prefixed by a supporting vowel, or by ná 'with' or ndi 'it is', these make the pronouns 'he/she' and 'they':
 * iyé 'he/she'; iwó 'they' (or 'he/she' (respectful))
 * náye 'with him/her'; náwo 'with them' (or 'with him/her' (respectful))
 * ndiyé 'it is he/she'; ndiwó 'it is they'

For classes other than classes 1 and 2, a demonstrative is used instead of a freestanding pronoun, for example in class 6 ichi or icho. But forms prefixed by ná- and ndi- such as nácho and ndichó are found.

yénse, yékha, yémwe
The three pronominal adjectives yénse 'all', yékha 'alone', yémwe 'that same' (or 'who') have the same pronominal concords yé- and (w)ó-, this time as prefixes:
 * Maláwi yénse 'the whole of Malawi'
 * aná ónse 'all the children'
 * yékha 'on his/her own'
 * ókha 'on their own'
 * mwaná yemwéyo 'that same child'
 * aná omwéwo 'those same children'

In classes 2 and 6, ó- often becomes wó- (e.g. wónse for ónse etc.).

The commonly used word álíyensé 'every' is compounded from the verb áli 'who is' and yénse 'all'. Both parts of the word have concords:
 * mwaná álíyensé 'every child'
 * aná awíri álíonsé 'every two children'
 * nyumbá ílíyonsé 'every house' (class 4)
 * chaká chílíchonsé 'every year' (class 7)

Subject prefix
As with other Bantu languages, all Chewa verbs have a prefix which agrees with the subject of the verb. In modern Chewa, the class 2 prefix (formerly ŵa-) has become a-, identical with the prefix of class 1:
 * mwaná ápita 'the child will go'; aná ápita 'the children will go'

The perfect tense (wapita 'he/she has gone', apita 'they have gone') has different subject prefixes from the other tenses (see below).

améne 'who'
The relative pronoun améne 'who' and demonstrative améneyo use the same prefixes as a verb:
 * mwaná améne 'the child who'
 * aná améne 'the children who'
 * mwaná améneyo 'that child'
 * aná aménewo 'those children'
 * nyumbá iméneyo 'that house'
 * nyumbá ziménezo 'those houses'

Object infix
The use of an object infix is not obligatory in Chewa (for example, ndagula means 'I have bought (them)'). If used, it comes immediately before the verb root, and agrees with the object:
 * ndamúona 'I have seen him/her'; ndawáona 'I have seen them' (sometimes shortened to ndaáona).

The object infix of classes 16, 17, and 18 is usually replaced by a suffix: ndaonámo 'I have seen inside it'.

The same infix with verbs with the applicative suffix -ira represents the indirect object, e.g. ndamúlembera 'I have written to him'.

Numeral concords
Numeral concords are used with numbers -módzi 'one', -wíri 'two', -tátu 'three', -náyi 'four', -sanu 'five', and the words -ngáti? 'how many', -ngápo 'several':
 * mwaná mmódzi 'one child'; aná awíri 'two children'; aná angáti? 'how many children?'

The class 1 prefix m- becomes mu- before -wiri: tomáto muwíri 'two tomatoes'.

The number khúmi 'ten' has no concord.

Demonstratives uja and uno
The demonstrative pronouns uja 'that one you know' and uno 'this one we are in' take the concords u- and a- in classes 1 and 2. For semantic reasons, class 1 uno is rare:
 * mwaná uja 'that child (the one you know)'; aná aja 'those children' (those ones you know)
 * mwezí uno 'this month (we are in)' (class 3); masíkú ano 'these days'; ku Maláwí kuno 'here in Malawi (where we are now)' (class 17).

Perfect tense subject prefix
The same concords w- (derived from u-) and a-, combined with the vowel a, make the subject prefix of the perfect tense. In the plural the two prefixes a-a- combine into a single vowel:
 * mwaná wapita 'the child has gone; aná apita 'the children have gone'

Possessive concord
The concords w- (derived from u-) and a- are also found in the word á 'of':
 * mwaná wá Mphátso 'Mphatso's child'; aná á Mphátso 'Mphatso's children'

The same concords are used in possessive adjectives -ánga 'my', -áko 'your', -áke 'his/her/its/their', -áthu 'our', -ánu 'your (plural or respectful singular), -áwo 'their'/'his/her' (respectful):
 * mwaná wángá 'my child'; aná ángá 'my children'

-áwo 'their' is used only of people (-áke is used for things).

Wá 'of' can be combined with nouns or adverbs to make adjectives:
 * mwaná wánzérú 'an intelligent child'; aná ánzérú 'intelligent children'
 * mwaná ábwino a good child'; aná ábwino 'good children'

In the same way wá 'of' combines with the ku- of the infinitive to make verbal adjectives. Wá + ku- usually shortens to wó-, except where the verb root is monosyllabic:
 * mwaná wókóngola 'a beautiful child'; aná ókóngola 'beautiful children'
 * mwaná wákúbá 'a thieving child'; aná ákúbá 'thieving children'

-ína 'other' and -ení-éní 'real'
The same w- and a- concords are found with the words -ína 'other' and -ení-éní 'real'. In combination with these words the plural concord a- is converted to e-:
 * mwaná wína 'a certain child, another child'; aná éna 'certain children, other children'
 * mwaná weníwéní 'a real child'; aná eníéní 'real children'

Double-prefix adjectives
Certain adjectives (-kúlu 'big', -ng'óno 'small'; -(a)múna 'male', -kázi 'female'; -táli 'long', 'tall', -fúpi 'short'; -wisi 'fresh') have a double prefix, combining the possessive concord (wá-) and the number concord (m- or mw-):
 * mwaná wáḿkúlu 'a big child'; aná áákúlu 'big children'
 * mwaná wáḿng'óno 'a small child'; aná ááng'óno 'little children'
 * mwaná wámwámúna 'a male child'; aná áámúna 'male children'
 * mwaná wáḿkázi 'a female child'; aná áákázi 'female children'

Historic changes
Early dictionaries, such as those of Rebmann, and of Scott and Hetherwick, show that formerly the number of concords was greater. The following changes have taken place:
 * Class 2 formerly had the concord ŵa- (e.g. ŵanthu aŵa 'these people'), but this has now become a- for most speakers.
 * Class 8, formerly using dzi- (Southern Region) or bzi/bvi/vi- (Central Region) (e.g. bzaká bziŵíri 'two years'), has now adopted the concords of class 10.
 * Class 6, formerly with ya- concords (e.g. mazira aya 'these eggs'), now has the concords of class 2.
 * Class 11 (lu-) had already been assimilated to class 5 even in the 19th century, although it still exists in some dialects of the neighbouring language Tumbuka.
 * Class 14, formerly with bu- concords (e.g. ufá bwángá 'my flour'), now has the same concords as class 3.
 * Class 13 (ti-) had tu- in Rebmann's time (e.g. tumpeni utu 'these small knives'). This prefix still survives in words like tuló 'sleep'.

In addition, classes 4 and 9, and classes 15 and 17 have identical concords, so the total number of concord sets (singular and plural) is now twelve.

Formation of tenses
Tenses in Chichewa are differentiated in two ways, by their tense-marker (or tense-infix), and by their tonal pattern. Sometimes two tenses have the same tense-marker and differ in their tonal pattern alone. In the following examples, the tense-marker is underlined:
 * ndi- ku -gúla 'I am buying'
 * ndí- ma -gúla 'I usually buy'
 * ndi- ma -gúla 'I was buying', 'I used to buy'
 * ndí- dzá -gula 'I will buy (tomorrow or in future)'
 * ndí- ká -gula 'I will buy (when I get there)'

One tense has no tense-marker:
 * ndí-gula 'I will buy (soon)'

Tenses can be modified further by adding certain other infixes, called 'aspect-markers', after the tense-marker. These are -má- 'always, usually' -ká- 'go and', -dzá 'come and' or 'in future', and -ngo- 'only', 'just'. These infixes can also be used on their own, as tense-markers in their own right (compare the use of -ma- and -dza- in the list of tenses above). For example:
 * ndi-ku-má-gúlá 'I am always buying'
 * ndi-ná-ká-gula 'I went and bought'
 * ndí-má-ngo-gúla 'I just usually buy'

Compound tenses, such as the following, are also found in Chichewa:
 * nd-a-khala ndí-kú-gúla 'I have been buying'

Subject-marker
Chichewa verbs (with the exception of the imperative mood and infinitive) begin with a prefix agreeing grammatically with the subject. This prefix is referred to by some grammarians as the 'subject-marker'.
 * (ife) ti -ku-píta 'we are going'
 * mténgo w -a-gwa (for *u -a-gwa) 'the tree has fallen'

The subject-marker can be:
 * Personal: ndi- 'I', u- 'you (singular)', a- 'he, she', ti- 'we', mu- 'you (plural or polite)', a- 'they'; 'he/she (respectful or polite). (In the perfect tense, the subject-marker for 'he, she' is w-: w-a-pita 'he has gone'.)
 * Impersonal: a- (class 1, 2 or 6), u- (class 3 or 14), i- (class 4 or 9), li- (class 5), etc.
 * Locative: ku-, pa-, mu-

An example of a locative subject-marker is:
 * m'madzí mu li nsómba 'in the water there are fish'

Both the 2nd and the 3rd person plural pronouns and subject-markers are used respectfully to refer to a single person:
 * mukupíta 'you are going' (plural or respectful)
 * apita 'they have gone' or 'he/she has gone' (respectful)

Except in the perfect tense, the 3rd person subject marker when used of people is the same whether singular or plural. So in the present tense the 3rd person subject-marker is a-:
 * akupíta 'he/she is going'
 * akupíta 'they are going', 'he/she is going' (respectful)

But in the perfect tense wa- (singular) contrasts with a- (plural or respectful):
 * wapita 'he/she has gone'
 * apita 'they have gone', 'he/she has gone' (respectful)

When the subject is a noun not in class 1, the appropriate class prefix is used even if referring to a person:
 * mfúmu i kupíta 'the chief is going' (class 9)
 * tianá ti kupíta 'the babies are going' (class 13)

Object-marker
An object-marker can also optionally be added to the verb; if one is added it goes immediately before the verb-stem. The 2nd person plural adds -ni after the verb:
 * ndí-ma- ku -kónda 'I love you' (ndi = 'I', ku = 'you')
 * ndí-ma- ku -kónda- ni 'I love you' (plural or formal)

The object-marker can be:
 * Personal: -ndi- 'me', -ku- 'you', -mu- or -m'- 'him, her', -ti- 'us', -wa- or -a- 'them', 'him/her (polite)'.
 * Impersonal: -mu- (class 1), -wa- (class 2), -u- (class 3 or 14), etc.
 * Locative: e.g. m'nyumbá mu-ku- mú -dzíwa 'you know the inside of the house'; but usually a locative suffix is used instead: nd-a-oná- mo 'I have seen inside it'
 * Reflexive: -dzi- 'himself', 'herself', 'themselves', 'myself', etc.

When used with a toneless verb tense such as the perfect, the object-marker has a high tone, but in some tenses such as the present habitual, the tone is lost:
 * nd-a- mú -ona 'I have seen him'
 * ndí-ma- mu -óna 'I usually see him'

With the imperative or subjunctive, the tone of the object-marker goes on the syllable following it, and the imperative ending changes to -e:
 * ndi -pátse-ni mpungá 'could you give me some rice?'
 * ndi -thándízé-ni! 'help me!'
 * mu- mu -thándízé 'you should help him'

Variety of tenses
Chewa has a large number of tenses, some of which differ in some respects from the tenses met with in European languages. The distinction between one tense and another is made partly by the use of infixes, such as -na- and -ku-, and partly by the intonation of the verb, since each tense has its own particular tonal pattern.

Near vs. remote
There are five time-frames (remote past, near past, present, near future, and remote future). The distinction between near and remote tenses is not exact. The remote tenses are not used of events of today or last night, but the near tenses can sometimes be used of events of earlier or later than today:
 * ndi-ná-gula 'I bought (yesterday or some days ago)' (remote perfect)
 * nd-a-gula 'I have bought (today)' (perfect)
 * ndi-ku-gúla 'I am buying (now)' (present)
 * ndí-gula 'I'll buy (today)' (near future)
 * ndi-dzá-gula 'I'll buy (tomorrow or later)' (remote future)

Perfect vs. past
Another distinction is between perfect and past. The two perfect tenses imply that the event described had an outcome which still obtains now. The two past tenses usually imply that the result of the action has been reversed in some way:

Recent time (today):

 * nd-a-gula 'I have bought it' (and still have it) (Perfect)
 * ndi-na-gúla 'I bought it (but no longer have it)' (Recent Past)

Remote time (yesterday or earlier):

 * ndi-ná-gula or ndi-dá-gula 'I bought it' (and still have it) (Remote Perfect)
 * ndí-ná-a-gúla or ndí-dá-a-gúla 'I bought it (but no longer have it)' (Remote Past)

When used in narrating a series of events, however, these implications are somewhat relaxed: the Remote Perfect is used for narrating earlier events, and the Recent Past for narrating events of today.

Perfective vs. imperfective
Another important distinction in Chewa is between perfective and imperfective aspect. Imperfective tenses are used for situations, events which occur regularly, or events which are temporarily in progress:

 * ndi-nká-gúlá 'I used to buy', 'I was buying (a long time ago)'
 * ndi-ma-gúla 'I was buying (today)', 'I used to buy (a long time ago)'
 * ndí-zi-dza-gúla 'I will be buying (regularly)'

In the present tense only, there is a further distinction between habitual and progressive:

 * ndí-ma-gúla 'I buy (regularly)'
 * ndi-ku-gúla 'I am buying (currently)'

Other tenses
One future tense not found in European languages is the -ká- future, which 'might presuppose an unspoken conditional clause':

 * ndí-ká-gula 'I will buy' (if I go there, or when I get there)

There are also various subjunctive and potential mood tenses, such as:

 * ndi-gulé 'I should buy'
 * ndi- zí -gúlá 'I should be buying'
 * ndi- dzá -gúlé 'I should buy (in future)'
 * ndi- nga -gule 'I can buy'
 * ndi- kadá -gula 'I would have bought'

Negative tenses
Negative tenses, if they are main verbs, are made with the prefix sí-. They differ in intonation from the positive tenses. The negative of the -ná- tense has the ending -e instead of -a:
 * sí-ndí-gula 'I don't buy'
 * sí-ndi-na-gúle 'I didn't buy'

Tenses which mean 'will not' or 'have not yet' have a single tone on the penultimate syllable:
 * si-ndi-dza-gúla 'I won't buy'
 * si-ndi-na-gúle 'I haven't bought (it) yet'

Infinitives, participial verbs, and the subjunctive make their negative with -sa-, which is added after the subject-prefix instead of before it. They similarly have a single tone on the penultimate syllable:
 * ndi-sa-gúle 'I should not buy'
 * ku-sa-gúla 'not to buy'

Dependent clause tenses
The tenses used in certain kinds of dependent clauses (such as relative clauses and some types of temporal clauses) differ from those used in main clauses. Dependent verbs often have a tone on the first syllable. Sometimes this change of tone alone is sufficient to show that the verb is being used in a dependent clause. Compare for example:
 * a-ku-gúla 'he is buying'
 * á-kú-gúla 'when he is buying' or 'who is buying'

Other commonly used dependent tenses are the following:
 * ndí-tá-gúla 'after I bought/buy'
 * ndí-sa-na-gúle 'before I bought/buy'

There is also a series of tenses using a toneless -ka- meaning 'when' of 'if', for example:
 * ndi-ka-gula 'when/if I buy'
 * ndi-ka-dzá-gula 'if in future I buy'
 * ndi-ka-má-gúlá 'whenever I buy'
 * ndí-ka-da-gúla 'if I had bought'

Verb extensions
After the verb stem one or more extensions may be added. The extensions modify the meaning of the verb, for example:
 * gul-a 'buy'
 * gul-ir-a 'buy for' or 'buy with' (applicative)
 * gul-ir-an-a 'buy for one another' (applicative + reciprocal)
 * gul-ik-á 'get bought', 'be for sale' (stative)
 * gul-its-a 'cause to get bought, i.e. sell' (causative)
 * gul-its-idw-a 'be sold (by someone)' (causative + passive)

The extensions -ul-/-ol- and its intransitive form -uk-/-ok- are called 'reversive'. They give meanings such as 'open', 'undo', 'unstick', 'uncover':
 * tseg-ul-a 'open (something)'
 * tseg-uk-á 'become open'
 * thy-ol-a 'break something off'
 * thy-ok-á 'get broken off'
 * mas-ul-a 'undo, loosen'
 * mas-uk-á 'become loose, relaxed'

Most extensions, apart from the reciprocal -an- 'one another', have two possible forms, e.g. -ir-/-er-, -idw-/-edw-, -its-/-ets-, -iz-/-ez-, -ul-/-ol-, -uk-/-ok-. The forms with i and u are used when the verb stem has a, i, or u. u can also follow e:
 * kan-ik-á 'fail to happen'
 * phik-ir-a 'cook for someone'
 * gul-its-a 'sell'
 * sungun-ul-a 'melt (transitive)'
 * tseg-ul-a 'open'

The forms with e are used if the verb stem is monosyllabic or has an e or o in it:
 * dy-er-a 'eat with'
 * bwer-ez-a 'repeat'
 * chok-er-a 'come from'

Extensions with o are used only with a monosyllabic stem or one with o:
 * thy-ok-á 'get broken off'
 * ton-ol-a 'remove grains of corn from the cob'

The extension -its-, -ets- with a low tone is causative, but when it has a high tone it is intensive. The high tone is heard on the final syllable of the verb:
 * yang'an-its-its-á 'look carefully'
 * yes-ets-á 'try hard'

The applicative -ir-, -er- can also sometimes be intensive, in which case it has a high tone:
 * pit-ir-ir-á 'carry on, keep going'

Verbs with -ik-, -ek-, -uk-, -ok- when they have a stative or intransitive meaning also usually have a high tone:
 * chit-ik-á 'happen'
 * sungun-uk-á 'melt (intransitive), get melted'

However, there are some low-toned exceptions such as on-ek-a 'seem' or nyam-uk-a 'set off'.

Story-writers and playwrights
The following have written published stories, novels, or plays in the Chewa language:
 * William Chafulumira
 * Samuel Josia Ntara or Nthala
 * John Gwengwe
 * E.J. Chadza
 * Lula Pensulo
 * Steve Chimombo
 * Whyghtone Kamthunzi
 * Francis Moto
 * Bonwell Kadyankena Rodgers
 * Willie Zingani
 * Barnaba Zingani
 * Jolly Maxwell Ntaba

Poets

 * Jack Mapanje
 * E.J. Chadza
 * Benedicto Wokomaatani Malunga
 * Innocent Masina Nkhonyo

Town Nyanja (Zambia)
An urban variety of Nyanja, sometimes called Town Nyanja, is the lingua franca of the Zambian capital Lusaka and is widely spoken as a second language throughout Zambia. This is a distinctive Nyanja dialect with some features of Nsenga, although the language also incorporates large numbers of English-derived words, as well as showing influence from other Zambian languages such as Bemba. Town Nyanja has no official status, and the presence of large numbers of loanwords and colloquial expressions has given rise to the misconception that it is an unstructured mixture of languages or a form of slang. The fact that the standard Nyanja used in schools differs dramatically from the variety actually spoken in Lusaka has been identified as a barrier to the acquisition of literacy among Zambian children.

The concords in Town Nyanja differ from those in Chichewa described above. For example, classes 5 and 6 both have the concord ya- instead of la- and a-; class 8 has va- instead of za-; and 13 has twa- instead of ta-. In addition, the subject and object marker for "I" is ni- rather than ndi-, and that for "they" is βa- (spelled "ba-") rather than a-.

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

title: Chewa language


text:
Thirteenth floor

The thirteenth floor is a designation of a level of a multi-level building that is often omitted in countries where the number is considered unlucky. Omitting the 13th floor may take a variety of forms; the most common include denoting what would otherwise be considered the thirteenth floor as level 14, giving the thirteenth floor an alternate designation such as "12A" or "M" (the thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet), or closing the 13th floor to public occupancy or access (e.g., by designating it as a mechanical floor).

Reasons for omitting a thirteenth floor include triskaidekaphobia on the part of the building's owner or builder, or a desire by the building owner or landlord to prevent problems that may arise with superstitious tenants, occupants, or customers. In 2002, based on an internal review of records, Dilip Rangnekar of Otis Elevators estimated that 85% of the buildings with at least thirteen floors with Otis brand elevators did not have a floor named the 13th floor. Early tall-building designers, fearing a fire on the 13th floor, or fearing tenants' superstitions about the rumor, decided to omit having a 13th floor listed on their elevator numbering. This practice became commonplace, and eventually found its way into American mainstream culture and building design.

Vancouver city planners have banned the practice of skipping 4s and 13s, since it could lead to mistakes by first responders, for example going to the wrong floor.

Origin
The origin of skipping the thirteenth floor when installing elevators is not known. However, during the advent of early skyscrapers, New York architectural critics warned developers not to exceed the height of the 13th floor. These critics insisted that buildings rising above the 13th floor (130 ft) would lead to increased street congestion, ominous shadows and lower property values. Nevertheless, in a work published in 1939, sociologist Otto Neurath compared the use of money in an economy, which he saw as unnecessary, to the superstition of not installing the thirteenth floor: merely a social convention.

Skipped
Most commonly, 13 is skipped, as in: 12, 14, 15... The floor labeled "14" on the elevator is the thirteenth floor and the number 13 is skipped on the elevator console. In such buildings, floors after 12 are nominally incorrect, with their labeled floor being one higher than the actual floor.

12A, 12B, 14A, and 14B
Sometimes to keep numbers consistent the 13th floor is simply renumbered as 12A or 12B, as in: 12, 12A, 14.., or 12, 12B, 14; this does not affect the numbers of the higher floors. Likewise, 14 could be used for the 13th floor and 14A or 14B could be used for the 14th floor.

Special designations
Other buildings will often use names for certain floors to avoid giving a floor on the building the number 13 designation. One such example is the Radisson Hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where the 13th floor is called the pool floor. Another example is the Sheraton on the Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario, where the 13th floor consists solely of a restaurant. A third example is the Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, where the 13th floor is the mezzanine floor.

Uninhabited 13th floor
Sometimes, the floor is put to some other use, such as a mechanical floor. Such usage is sometimes the subject of conspiracy theories (see below).

Letter M
In Richmond, Virginia, the Monroe Park Towers has a 13th floor, but it is used for mechanical equipment and is only accessible from the freight elevator or the stairs. The M designation on the elevator buttons of the freight elevator can also be construed as meaning the Mechanical level in this particular building, or as a Mezzanine level.

Split-level apartments
Sometimes, a tenement block will contain split-level apartments where the units themselves contain internal staircases and the main elevators for the building therefore do not stop on every floor. One example is Princess Towers in Kingston, Ontario, which has $16 1/2$ stories excluding the roof-top. The elevators stop at B (basement), G (ground), 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15th floors only. In this case, the unmarked 11th and 13th floors are accessed within units on the marked 12th floor.

Research
In a 2007 Gallup poll, 13 percent of American adults reported that they would be bothered if given a hotel room on the thirteenth floor, while 9 percent indicated that they would be sufficiently bothered to request a room on a different floor. Research on thirteenth-floor effects on real estate values presents a mixed picture. Several prominent American real estate developers have claimed that they are unaware of any reduction in the value of thirteenth-floor offices or apartments. On the other hand, in studies conducted in Russia, Antipov and Pokryshevskaya, and Burakov found that thirteenth-floor apartments were less likely to sell compared to apartments on twelfth or fourteenth floors. This effect, however, was eliminated if developers offered buyers a 10% or greater discount on the cost of thirteenth-floor apartments.

Variant
Similarly, new buildings in some parts of China avoid the fourth, fourteenth, twenty-fourth, etc. floors, as the word "four" (Hanzi: 四) sounds like "death" (死) – pronounced "sì" and "sǐ", respectively in Mandarin, the predominant language for the country, and most other varieties of Chinese. A small number of buildings also follow the American tradition of omitting the thirteenth floor, with the fifteenth floor immediately following the twelfth. Another variant found in Vietnam is naming floors 13 and 14 as floors "12A" and "12B" respectively.

In South Korea, buildings tend to include the fourth floor in spite of similar pronunciation issues in the Korean language, though some newer buildings may substitute the letter F in the place of the number 4.

In Italy, where 17 is considered unlucky, cruise ships built and operated by MSC Cruises lack a Deck 17.

Thirteenth room
In some buildings, 13 is also skipped as a room number. The 13-room (as of 1946) Boots Court Motel on U.S. Route 66 is one example; its rooms are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 14.

In popular culture
Some conspiracy theorists have suggested that the thirteenth floor in government buildings is not really missing, but actually contains top-secret governmental departments, or more generally that it is proof of something sinister or clandestine going on. This implication is often carried over, implicitly or explicitly, into popular culture; for example in:
 * The films The Thirteenth Floor, Nightmare on the 13th Floor, and 1408.
 * The hidden research and development labs of Network 23 in the television program Max Headroom.
 * The top-secret research and development division of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the fifth book of the series, Mostly Harmless.
 * The computer game Floor 13 by Virgin Interactive.
 * The sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf where "floor 13" referred to a secret brig which was several decks high.
 * The book Company by Max Barry.
 * The Superman story in Action Comics #448 (June 1975) featured a secret thirteenth floor used to teleport alien tourists from another planet to visit Earth.
 * The "Night of Owls" storyline in Batman features the thirteenth floors of Gotham's buildings being used as bases by the assassins of a secret society that has ruled Gotham for generations.
 * The level "The 13th Floor" in the computer game Tomb Raider: Chronicles.
 * The episode "Grey 17 Is Missing" of the TV series Babylon 5 has a similar theme of a "missing" floor number actually containing a hidden floor with dark secrets.
 * The psychedelic rock band The 13th Floor Elevators.
 * The Rockford Files episode "Sticks and Stones May Break Your Bones, But Waterbury Will Bury You".
 * The first-season episode "Ghost In The Machine" of the TV series The X-Files features a scene where the Central Operating System reads aloud each distinct level, omitting the thirteenth floor as the elevator ascends.
 * In the Marvel Comics event storyline Iron Man 2020, an army of rebel robots and artificial intelligences have a safe haven in the form of an extra-dimensional plane of existence made of solid light called the Thirteenth Floor that can be reached through any elevator in Manhattan, and access to it manifests in the form of a button for the thirteen floor that only cyber beings can see that appears off to the side of a regular floor button panel.
 * In the film No Country For Old Men Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson) mentions to Man who hires Wells (Stephen Root) that one floor in a building seems to be missing.
 * In the Canadian cartoon series, Freaky Stories, an accountant becomes obsessed with finding the 13th floor, only become trapped with dozens of like-minded men by their collective obsession.

title: Thirteenth floor


text:
Talk:Peter Hain

Place of Birth
Why do I think he was born in New Zealand? (I know that seems an odd question, but right up to reading this entry this week, I had believed he had been born in New Zealand (or, at least, that his parents were from New Zealand))

DrWhoFan 07:40, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Parents
In what country were his parents banned. What country did they flee from. Surely South Africa not Kenya - which is how it reads. Paul Beardsell 00:26, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

 * Yes, South Africa. I hope it's now clear in the article. --rbrwrˆ

Mugabe

 * "Robert Mugabe, whom he helped into power, attacked him as a "racist" for backing Zimbabwe's white farmers' rights."

I am confused about this bit. Peter Hain helped Mugabe into power? — Trilobite (Talk) 17:44, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Current event - Peerage Bribe
Plaid Cymru MP Elfyn Llwyd has accused Hain of offering Peter Law, the deceased independent MP for Blaenau Gwent, a peerage in order not to stand against the Labour candidate.

Photo
Can we find a better quality, bigger photo? Matthewfelgate 18:08, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Edits
I made some edits to this page including adding some dividers because I thought it was rather a big bulk of text. Please refine these dividers as you see fit :) Matthewfelgate 18:11, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Inappropriate material
I have removed the following:

"He also gave a eulogy and the funeral of a convicted and executed station bomber and has subsequently condemned station bombers in the United Kingdom. He fought against detention without trial and house arrest for terrorists, their sympathises and supporters in South Africa, but has supported those same laws in the United Kingdom against Muslims."

Both the tone and content are totally inappropriate for an encyclopedia. It tries to equate the actions of Islamic terrorists in Britain today with anti-apathied campaigners in South Africa. Quite apart from anyone's views on that, an encyclopedia entry on Peter Hain is not the place for it.

i think it show that churchill old adage is true, "Anyone who isn’ta liberal by age 20 has no heart. Anyone who isn’ta conservative by age 40 has no brain" or that the older we get the more rightwing we become, its true of most current labour figures except Tony Benn, i think a more neutral worded reflection of that does belong in the article, to juxtapose his background, suspected terrorist, Asylum seeker, ex con against his political positions. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.26.99.176 (talk) 13:46, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Chelsea FC Fan?
I've proposed List_of_famous_people_who_are_fans_of_Chelsea_FC for deletion as it stands but I thought it might make sense to put that into the bios of those on the list. The list says that Hain is a fan and They Work For You seems to corroborate that. But it doesn't really seem to be appropriate or significant to put it in anywhere in this article (besides adding a trivia section which I found horrid) so I didn't add it. Can anyone else think of a way to add it in? Crito2161 02:54, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Lack of altruism

 * Peter Hain has a dark complexion and appears not to be a pure blooded white.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.138.131.19 (talk) 17:00, 14 December 2006 (UTC).

Satsuma

 * The dark complexion is a standing joke in journalistic circles.

War Avoidance Team
I've moved this paragraph to the mainline and copyedited it - but I don't recall coming across this issue before so I've flagged it for citation. All relevant wiki material seems to be by one hand - could others verify please? Many thanks Grblundell 14:38, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Asylum Seeker
Did he enter the UK as an asylum-seeker? Fleeing perscution in South Africa? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.26.104.199 (talk) 15:39, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

Conspiracy
The conspiracy theory put in the main article recently needs substantiation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.41.51.240 (talk) 11:57, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

 * It seems that 'the conspiracy' against Peter Hain is widespread. --Gibnews (talk) 12:26, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

1973
Peter Hain was given his first degree in 1973. This is two years later than expected. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.145.232.26 (talk) 14:24, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Hain seems to have studied mechanical engineering for two years. He then seems to have switched to politics.
 * After three years studying politics, he was then awarded the politics degree.
 * His first degree was in Economics and Political Science. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.183.203.240 (talk) 15:16, 13 July 2012 (UTC)

Putney candidate
There seems to be no mention of Hain contesting Putney in the 1983 and 1987 general elections. I shall insert a sentence mentioning this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.139.87.244 (talk) 21:55, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Tatchell and Hain
I have removed the statement

for his part Tatchell attacked Hain as a "racist" for appeasement of Mugabe.[7]

as it seems to be based on what I think is a misunderstanding of the referred text - and makes a logical jump not implicit in the source.

The source given is http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4187855.ece, and I think the relevant part is

''Outraged, Mugabe flipped. He got his foreign minister to blame me for orchestrating the protest. Preposterous though that was, Mugabe convinced himself he was again the victim of a fiendish British plot. Later, on the BBC, he told an incredulous David Dimbleby that I was Tatchell’s “wife”. News to my real wife.''

And to Tatchell.

''He subsequently denounced me as a “racist” – a poignant moment indeed. With many other antiapartheid activists I had been thrilled at Mugabe’s 1980 landslide win in the country’s first democratic election, after generations of oppressive white-minority rule''

I think that Gibnews has interpreted the 'He' at the start of the third quoted paragraph as referring to Tatchell, but it seems to me from the rest of that paragraph that the 'He' in question is Mugabe. So I have reverted.

Even if it was Tatchell who called Hain a racist, I can see no evidence in the article that it was because of Hain's appeasement. So that statement must surely go too.

I have not yet found a reference to substantiate the statement, but I know that there may be one out there. But in the absence of a reference, I think it has to go.

Regards Grblundell (talk) 16:35, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

 * That statement by Hain in 'The Times' is in itself racist. I suggest some further research to determine who called him that at the time rather than just omitting it, because someone certainly did.  I first took it to be Muggabe, but re-reading the article it made more sense that it was Tatchell - however the latter is widely reported so more research needed. --Gibnews (talk) 22:23, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

British
112.201.205.64 has made an un-sourced edit. No proof has been produced that one or both parents are "of British blood". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.171.93.255 (talk) 13:09, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Nationality
Given that he was born in Kenya and subsequently lived in South Africa, what nationality did he hold in his early years ? If he originally held Kenyan or South African nationality, when did he take out British citizenship ? RGCorris (talk) 12:36, 12 July 2010 (UTC)
 * He might have acquired British citizenship from two grand-parents born in Scotland, but the facts need careful checking.
 * He probably never held Kenyan nationality. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.139.101.21 (talk) 15:11, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

Phone hacking
Peter Hain has been mentioned as a possible victim of phone hacking. See the BBC on 30/11/2011. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.176.7.150 (talk) 16:49, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

Additional info
See powerbase.info for additional information. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.154.25.93 (talk) 11:54, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

Request for Comments
There is an RfC on the question of using "Religion: None" vs. "Religion: None (atheist)" in the infobox on this and other similar pages.

The RfC is at Template talk:Infobox person.

Please help us determine consensus on this issue. --Guy Macon (talk) 20:29, 23 April 2015 (UTC)

Welcome
The new information about some of Peter Hain's ancestors is no doubt true, but needs citations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.75.92.140 (talk) 17:16, 10 May 2016 (UTC)

Time
It is chronologically impossible for Hain to have been framed by anyone in 1975. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.79.45.133 (talk) 17:38, 24 November 2017 (UTC)

Life peerages & infoboxes
Please do come along and discuss at: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Politics of the United Kingdom DBD 18:54, 13 April 2018 (UTC)

Criminal conviction in lead
I'm happy for the criminal conviction to be in the lead, but I don't think it should be in the first sentence. I've moved it to the next paragraph. Bellowhead678 (talk) 15:39, 3 August 2021 (UTC)
 * could you reply here please? Bellowhead678 (talk) 07:10, 6 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I'm happy with that as a compromise, but I do think that there is further valuable context that it was as a result of a private prosecution, not a prosecution by the state. I'm not sure there's room to include that unless someone can come up with a particularly elegant construction. ninety:one 21:55, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Peter Hain


text:
User:AsianAstronaut

Basic Information

 * Name: Tim
 * Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA
 * Age: 26
 * Occupation: Campus Security Administrator
 * Interests: Astrophysics, Physics
 * Communication (in order of preference):
 * [mailto:tim.giesecke@gmail.com E-mail]
 * Talk Page

Articles

 * Wrote Firstly
 * Noodling
 * The Roosters
 * Dai-Tokyo Binbo Seikatsu Manual
 * Wrote Mostly
 * Yamada Youji

Other
/Sandbox

title: User:AsianAstronaut


text:
Scholar's mate

In chess, scholar's mate is the checkmate achieved by the following moves, or similar:

 * 1. e4 e5
 * 2. Qh5 Nc6
 * 3. Bc4 Nf6
 * 4. Qxf7

The same mating pattern may be reached by various move orders. For example, White might play 2.Bc4. In all variations, the basic idea is the same: the queen and bishop combine in a simple, occurring on f7 for White or on f2 for Black.

Scholar's mate is sometimes referred to as the four-move checkmate, although there are other ways for checkmate to occur in four moves.

History
Scholar's mate was named and described in The Royall Game of Chesse-Play, a 1656 text by Francis Beale which adapted the work of the early chess writer Gioachino Greco. The example given above is an adaptation of that reported by Beale.

"The Schollers Mate.

White kings pawne one house.

Black kings pawne the same.

White Queen to the contrary kings Rookes fourth house

Black Queens knight to her Bishops third house

White kings Bishop to the queens Bishops fourth house

Black kings knight to the kings Bishops third house

White queen takes the contrary kings Bishops pawne gives mate."

All of the details are coherent from the modern perspective except for the first moves by each player—if Black's pawn advances only one square, this prevents White's bishop from supporting the white queen to give mate. Beale's text was an early modern account of the rules and tactics of chess, including concepts such as the ability of a pawn to advance two squares on its first move, the en passant capture,, and exchanges. However, the document treated a then-exotic subject during the early days of printing; consequently the publisher attached a list of errata at the back, following publication. Thus, the text "one houſe" describing the first move (advancing one square) may have been a mistake.

During the eighth round of the World Rapid Chess Championship 2023, Surya Shekhar Ganguly as white was checkmated in 8 moves by Mukhiddin Madaminov in a Scotch Game that ended in a scholar's mate.

Scotch Game (ECO C45) 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Qf6 5.Nf3 Bb4+ 6.c3 Bc5 7.Bd3 Ne5 8.Nxe5 Qxf2#

Prevention
Unlike fool's mate, which rarely occurs at any level, games ending in scholar's mate are quite common among beginners. It is not difficult to parry, however.

On move 1
After 1.e4, Black can play a semi-open defense instead of 1...e5. Openings such as the French Defense (1...e6) or the Scandinavian Defense (1...d5) render the scholar's mate unviable, while other openings such as the Sicilian Defense (1...c5) make 2.Bc4 a bad move (1.e4 c5 2.Bc4 e6, intending ...d5, gaining by attacking the c4-bishop and attaining easy ).

On moves 2 and 3
Black's defense depends on whether White goes for 2. Qh5 (the Danvers Opening) or 2. Bc4 (the Bishop's Opening).

After 2. Qh5
White does not threaten Qxf7# yet, but does threaten Qxe5+. The cleanest way to defend against this is 2...Nc6, developing a knight and protecting the pawn. (2...d6 is also good.) After 3. Bc4, Black can stop the mate with 3...g6; White can threaten mate again with 4. Qf3, but this can be stopped with 4...Nf6. Black can later fianchetto the f8-bishop (...Bg7).

After 2. Bc4
The most popular response to 2. Bc4 is 2...Nf6, the Berlin Defence, which immediately renders the scholar's mate non-viable.

In the continuation 2...Bc5 (the Classical Defence) 3. Qh5, Black can defend against both scholar's mate and the threatened 4. Qxe5+ with 3...Qe7, intending to gain a tempo later with 4...Nf6. The further continuation 4. Nf3 (threatening Nxe5) Nc6 5. Ng5 g6 (diagram) 6. Qf3? Qxg5 7. Qxf7+ Kd8 leaves White with no checkmate and no good way to defend against both ...Nd4, threatening the c2-pawn, and ...Qf6, exchanging queens.

In other openings
Although a quick mate on f7 is almost never seen in play above beginner level, the basic idea underlying it—that f7 and f2, squares defended only by the kings, are weak and therefore good targets for early attack—is the motivating principle behind a number of chess openings.

 * After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 (the Two Knights Defense), White's most popular continuation is 4.Ng5, attacking f7, which is awkward for Black to defend. The Fried Liver Attack even involves a sacrifice of the knight on f7.
 * In the Frankenstein–Dracula Variation of the Vienna Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4), threatening checkmate with 4.Qh5 is the only way for White to play for an advantage.
 * The Modern Defense, Monkey's Bum variation involves White threatening a Scholar's mate with an early Qf3.

Other names
Among English speakers, the scholar's mate is also known as schoolboy's mate (which in modern English perhaps better connotes the sense of "novice" intended by the word scholar's) and Blitzkrieg (German for "lightning war", meaning a quick victory).

The names of the scholar's mate in other languages are as follows:
 * in Basque, Catalan, Czech, Dutch, Estonian, Esperanto, French, German, Portuguese, Slovak, Spanish, Turkish: shepherd's mate
 * in Czech, Croatian, Danish, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Polish, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian: shoemaker's mate
 * in Belarusian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, Ukrainian: children's mate
 * in Bosnian, Danish, Finnish, Macedonian, Norwegian, Serbian, Swedish: school mate
 * in Arabic, Greek, Persian: Napoleon's mate (plan, trap, move)
 * in Italian: barber's mate

title: Scholar's mate


text:
User:Zoodoo

I'm a college sophomore who lives in Los Angeles, California. As of recent, I have not contributed anything to Wikipedia, but I plan to as soon as I find some time.

title: User:Zoodoo


text:
Talk:Eraser

"rubber" = condom
In common American slang, 'rubber' is used as a synonym for a condom. Should that be mentioned here? Possibly with a link to condom. T-bonham (talk) 18:55, 4 July 2016 (UTC)
 * If this article was about a prophylactic then sure, but prophylactically adding that phrase serves no purpose. The rubber link redirects to the appropriate non–American term.-- ☾Loriendrew☽  ☏(ring-ring)  01:28, 5 July 2016 (UTC)
 * I believe that it should be in some way mentioned, at least when searching "rubber" on Wikipedia. 89.161.45.37 (talk) 13:38, 23 August 2018 (UTC)
 * It's already mentioned at Rubber (disambiguation). By the way, please don't change spellings from one correct version of English to another without good reason.  See WP:ENGVAR for our policy.   Dbfirs  15:12, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

Unnecessary advertising
On Wikipedia, no advertising is able to be on a page, right? If so, why is the sample of an eraser erasing an error in the name “Wikipedia”? This is very hypocritical. Cheers, Submarine112 Mister <small>Sub</small><big>marine</big> (talk) 03:06, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

Microplastic?
Should the environmental effects of producing and using erasers, especially the types made of plastics be mentioned? The crumbs of micro plastic from used erasers can easily be spread to the local environment... 2A05:F6C2:5FF:0:F5FA:7539:F2DF:318E (talk) 07:27, 9 December 2023 (UTC)
 * If reliable sourcing can be shown to support a claim that eraser crumbs are a significant source of microplastics persisting in the environment, that could be mentioned. I suspect that erasers' contribution is orders of magnitude less than that of textiles and tires, to mention two prominent sources of this kind of pollution. Just plain Bill (talk) 20:58, 9 December 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Eraser