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Wonsan

Wonsan, previously known as Wonsanjin (元山津), is a port city and naval base located in Kangwon Province, North Korea, along the eastern side of the Korean Peninsula, on the Sea of Japan and the provincial capital. The port was opened by occupying Japanese forces in 1880. Before 1950–1953 Korean War, it fell within the jurisdiction of the then South Hamgyong province, and during the war, it was the location of the Blockade of Wonsan. The population of the city was estimated at 329,207 in 2013. Notable people from Wonsan include Kim Ki-nam, a diplomat and former Vice Chairman of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

In 2013, it was announced that Wonsan would be converted into a summer destination with resorts and entertainment. Having spent his childhood years there, Kim Jong Un has expressed significant interest in further developing the region, with the construction of new infrastructure such as Kalma Airport, a dual-use civilian international airport and military proving ground. A state corporation, the Wonsan Zone Development Corporation, has been established with feasibility studies for a wide variety of hotels and commercial and industrial development.

Name
Wonsan has also been known as Yonghunghang, Yuanshan in Chinese, Genzan or Gensan in Japanese, and Port Lazareva or Port Lazarev in Russian.

Geography
Wonsan's area is 269 km2. It is located in Kangwon Province, on the westernmost part of the Sea of Japan (East Sea of Korea) and the east end of the Korean peninsula's neck. Mt. Changdok (Changdok-san) and Mt. Nap'al (Nap'al-san) are located to the west of the city. More than 20 small islands flank Wonsan's immediate coastal area, including Hwangt'o Island and Ryo Island. Wonsan is considered an excellent natural port location. Mount Kŭmgang is located near Wonsan.

Administrative divisions
Wonsan serves as the administrative center of Kangwon Province.

The City of Wonsan (Wonsan-si) is divided into 45 tong (neighborhoods) and 14 ri (villages):

 * Changchon-dong
 * Changdŏk-dong
 * Changsan-dong
 * Chŏkchŏn-dong
 * Chŏnjin-dong
 * Chungchŏng-dong
 * Haean-dong
 * Haebang 1-dong
 * Haebang 2-dong
 * Kaesŏn-dong
 * Kalma-dong
 * Kwangsŏk-dong
 * Kwanphung-dong
 * Myŏngsasimri-dong
 * Myŏngsŏk-dong
 * Naewŏnsan-dong
 * Namsan-dong
 * Panghasan-dong
 * Pogmak-dong
 * Poha-dong
 * Pongchun-dong
 * Pongsu-dong
 * Phyŏnghwa-dong
 * Ryŏdo-dong
 * Ryongha-dong
 * Ryul-dong
 * Sambong-dong
 * Sang-dong
 * Segil-dong
 * Sinhŭng-dong
 * Sinphung-dong
 * Sinsŏng-dong
 * Sŏgu-dong
 * Sŏkhyŏn-dong
 * Songchŏn-dong
 * Songhŭng-dong
 * Sŭngri-dong
 * Tŏksŏng-dong
 * Tongmyŏngsan-dong
 * Thap-dong
 * Wau-dong
 * Wŏnnam 1-dong
 * Wŏnnam 2-dong
 * Wŏnsŏk-dong
 * Yangji-dong
 * Changrim-ri
 * Chuksal-li
 * Chungp'yŏng-ri
 * Chilbong-ri
 * Chunsan-ri
 * Hyŏndong-ri
 * Namchŏn-ri
 * Raksu-ri
 * Ryongchŏn-ri
 * Samthae-ri
 * Sangja-ri
 * Sinsŏng-ri
 * Susang-ri
 * Yŏngsam-ri

Climate
The city has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dwa).

Ancient history
Evidence of humans living in the area during the Neolithic period and Bronze age was found in the Chungpyongdong (Now promoted to ri) area, where pottery was found. The area was called Eo eul mae (於乙買) and Chonjung county (泉井郡), when it was under the rule of Goguryeo, and became Jungchon county (井泉郡) after it incorporated into the kingdom of Silla in 681. After Taejo of Goryeo conquered the region, the region was renamed as yongju (湧州) where it was ruled by a special defense administrator. The area was renamed again as Uiju (宜州), and a fortress was constructed in 1108. From 1258 to 1356, it was part of the Ssangseong Prefectures.

Modern history
In 1854, the Russian Empire surveyed the area and found it highly desirable.

Wonsan opened as a trade port in 1880. Its original name was Wonsanjin (元山津), but it was also known by the Russian name of Port Lazarev (Lazaref). Under Japanese rule (1910–45) it was called Gensan (元山). In 1914 the P'yongwon and Kyongwon railway lines were opened, connecting the city to P'yongyang (then known as Heijo) and Seoul (then Keijo or Kyongsong). Thus, the city gradually developed into an eastern product distribution center. Under the Japanese occupation, the city was heavily industrialized and served as an important point in the distribution of trade between Korea and mainland Japan. After the Korean War broke out it was captured by American and South Korean troops on 10 October 1950 during their drive north. When they left ahead of the Chinese counter-attack, the city fell under Chinese control on 9 December 1950. It was heavily bombed and shelled by the United Nations in the Blockade of Wonsan during the Korean War. According to the official US Navy history, Wonsan was under continuous siege and bombardment by the American navy from March 1951 until July 27, 1953, making it the longest siege in modern American naval history. By the war's end, the city was a vast shell.

City centre redevelopment
Kim Jong Un announced in 2015 plans for a $582 million redevelopment of the city center, which is to be entirely demolished and rebuilt. A 5-star hotel, a 17-story Wonsan International Finance Centre, and a $9.6m exhibition hall are expected to be built.

Kim Jong Un maintains a private compound in Wonsan that includes a palace with several guest houses, a harbor with a boathouse, a beach, and a racehorse track.

Provincial borders
Wonsan used to be in South Hamgyong, but when provincial borders were redrawn in 1946, it joined the northern half of Kangwon (which had been split at the 38th parallel north into a zone under Soviet control in the north and one of American control in the south in 1945) and became its capital, as Kangwon's traditional capitals Wonju (1395–1895) and Ch'unch'on (since 1896) both were south of the 38th parallel and south of the Military Demarcation Line that replaced the 38th parallel as a border in 1953.

Food
Due to it being a coastal city, seafood is commonly consumed in Wonsan.

Wonsan is known for many local seafood delicacies including boiled rice with clam meat, a speciality of Kangwon Province.

Economy
Wonsan has an aquatic product processing factory, shipyard, chemistry enterprise, a cement factory, as well as the 4 June Rolling Stock Works, which is one of the DPRK's largest railway rolling stock factories. The Wonsan-Mt. Kumgang International Tourist Zone, announced in 2014, was set to become an investment hub in North Korea. The investment proposal, titled 'Integrated Development of Jung-dong,' aims to construct 4 blocks of 30-storied and 6 blocks of 21-storied apartments for lease in No.1 and No.2 districts. The proposal includes around 2,000 flats with 3-4 living rooms. The area is primarily developed for foreign investors and is adjacent to "Office Work" complexes, including an international financial building, leasing office building, and restaurants specializing in International cuisine. The plan also includes an international finance complex, which was previously referred to as a "financial service center" but has been renamed to "financial complex."

On 15 July 2016, KCNA announced that the Kalma area, located on the central east coast of Korea, will be turned into a tourist resort. The area boasts of four-kilometer-long beach resort, not far away from such scenic spots as Mt. Kumgang, Lake Sijung, Chongsokjong and Lagoon Samil and the Masikryong Ski Resort.

It remained a priority project for the following years until 2020 when the further works on it were completely halted. Most of the work on it is done and it is expected that it would be completed and will be opened for tourists after the country reopens its borders for tourism again. At night, the city is bright and well lit at par with Pyongyang.

Road and rail
The district of Wonsan-si is served by several stations on the Kangwon Line of the Korean State Railway, including a branch to the port; it is also connected to the national road network, and is the terminus of the P'yongyang-Wonsan Tourist Motorway and the Wonsan-Kŭmgangsan Highway.

Urban transit
A trolleybus system with two lines is currently in operation in Wonsan. The system opened on September 8, 1988, from Wonsan station to Changchon-dong. In 2020, there were three new trolleybus lines under construction in the city, which is aimed at reducing the number of fossil fuel-powered vehicles and to prevent air pollution, and a covered depot was opened. Prior to that, the vehicles were parked on the western loop. Services were often interrupted during this time. The new lines were planned to run from Changchon-dong to Kalma station, to Songdowon and to Myongsasimiri-dong. NK News however, incorrectly reported by implying that it was only being revived recently, while in fact, new Chollima-321 trolleybuses had been delivered since 2019. In 2020, the extension from Changchon-dong to Kalma station was completed, while in 2021, a fully new line was opened, and trolleybuses started to run to Songdowon, from Changchon-dong.

A tram line is also under construction, with the trams to be built by the Kim Chong-t'ae Electric Locomotive Works. The trams will be narrow gauge vehicles. This was after Kim Jong Un stressed the need for a tram line at the resort area. The line was completed on November 24, 2020, though passenger service has not started due to the incomplete state of the rest of the resort.

Air
The city has the dual purpose military and civilian Wonsan Airport (IATA: WON) equipped with 01/19 and 15/33 dual runways. Images from Google Earth from July and August 2014 indicated that major expansion was taking place, including the construction of two new runways. There is also an underground air force runway which runs through a mountain, near Wonsan. North Korea's first public air show, the Wonsan International Friendship Air Festival, was held at Wonsan Airport in September 2016.

Sea
Wonsan was also the terminus of the Mangyongbong-92 ferry that operated between Wonsan and Niigata, which was the only direct connection between Japan and North Korea. This service was canceled in 2006 when Japan banned North Korean ships.

Media
Wonsan has at least one provincial newspaper.

The Korean Central Broadcasting Station maintains a 250-kilowatt mediumwave transmitter broadcasting on 882 kHz AM.

Education
Wonsan is home to Songdowon University, Kŭmgang University, Tonghae University, the Jong Jun Thaek University of Economics, Wonsan University of Medicine, the Jo Gun Sil University of Engineering, Wonsan First University of Education, Ri Su Dok University, and the Maritime Patrol Academy, the commissioned officer's training school of the Korean People's Navy.

Sports
The city is home to Unp'asan Sports Club, an association football club that plays in the DPR Korea First Class Sports Group, North Korea's premier league.

Tourism
Wonsan has long been a popular tourism destination for both Koreans and international visitors. Attractions include Songdowon beach, the site of the Songdowon International Children's Union Camp, which maintains exceptionally clear and clean water. Pine trees are abundant in the surrounding area, and it has been designated a national sightseeing point. The nearby Kalma Peninsula is to feature a new hotel and a bathing area.

Wonsan Special Tourist Zone
Announced in 2014, the Wonsan Special Tourist Zone is to cover more than 400 square km and boasts 40 historical relics, 10 sand beaches, 680 tourist attractions, four mineral springs, and several bathing resorts and natural lakes. As part of this development, the Masikryong Ski Resort was built in 2016. A $123m golf course is planned outside the city.

Songdowon
Songdowon is a scenic spot by the East sea, 3 km northwest of downtown Wonsan.

The name Songdowon comes from the fact that when looked down from a high place, the pine trees look like waves. Songdowon is a scenic spot of the East Sea that has been widely known since ancient times, where the clear blue waves of the East Sea, the white sandy field stretching far along the seashore, the thick pine forest along the sandy field, and the flowering dandelion flowers harmonize with each other, creating a reminiscent of a picture.

Songdowon is organized as one large amusement park in an area of about 500 hectares which is divided into about 10 scenic areas such as the beach area, Jangdoksan sightseeing area, and pine forest area.

Myongsasibri
Myongsasibri is a scenic spot on the southeastern seashore of the Karma Peninsula in Wonsan.

The sand dune of the Kalma Peninsula extending into Wonsan Bay is four miles long. The name Myongsasibri comes from a famous sandy field with a length of 10 ri (4 km). It is about 7 km from Namdaechon (Anbyon) fishing port. The width of the sand field is 0.7 km in the narrow part and 1.3 km in the wide part.

Sokwangsa Temple
Sokwangsa Temple is a temple from the late Koryo-Joson dynasties. In 1386, at the end of the Koryo Dynasty, Ungjinjon was first built, and after that, more than 50 large and small buildings were built during the Joson dynasty. Sokwangsa Temple is a valuable cultural heritage that shows the excellent architectural skills of feudal Korea.

Songdowon International Children's Camp
The Songdowon International Children's Camp, located in Wonsan, is a summer camp that hosts around 400 international children annually. The camp has undergone major renovations in 2014, increasing its maximum capacity to 1200 children. The camp offers various activities, including a water park, a football pitch, and a large private beach area. The camp's exterior features dormitories, recreational buildings, a gym, an aquarium where campers can learn about flora and fauna, a history of birds, and a display room for taxidermy animals. The camps also has a well-equipped cooking practice room so that campers can learn to cook various foods on their own. The camp's main events include cultural exchanges between countries, where students perform culturally relevant songs and dances.

Other classes offered at the camp include cooking, boating, football, various educational classes, camping, video games, and other sports. The camp's cost for international children is approximately $300 USD per week.

Lake Sijung
It is a lake on the seaside on the Wonsan-Mt. Kumgang road. it is an ideal place to enjoy sea tours, lake tours, and therapeutic tours at the same time. Lake Sijung was originally a small lagoon on the shores of the East Sea, but was blocked with sand. It is now a beautiful Lake with an area of 2.94 sq. km and a circumference of 11.8 km, and is registered as a natural monument. There are 7 islands in the lake, and in particular, the bottom is covered with high-quality Gamthang, a traditional way of treatment from mud. There are sanatoriums and resting places for experiencing Gamthang. Lake Sijung has a white sandy beach on the East Sea.

Sinphyong-Kumgang Scenic Site
The Sinphyong-Kumgang Scenic Site is located on the Ahobiryong mountain range that extends to the central region of Korea.

Its development began in December 2009 and was completed in four years.

It is located 124 km from Pyongyang, and the total site area is 1820 hectares.

Sinphyong-Kumgang Scenic Site has a total of 70 attractions, including Okryudaegol, Namgang Chongsokjong, Tanphunggol, Kumgang Waterfall Valley, Tohwa Cave, and Nounphogol. Visitors to this place appreciate the unique natural scenery of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Ullim Falls
At 75 metres high, Ullim Falls is one of the most famous waterfalls in Korea. It is so called due to the sound of the waterfall that shakes the valley and travels far.

The water of the fall originates in the Masikryong Mountains and 20-25 cubic metres of water falls down per second in the middle of a steep cliff. Below the falls is a pond, which is 1.5 metres in depth and 30 metres in radius.

It is a favoured cultural recreation ground.

Other famous scenic sites near Wonsan include Chongsokchon and Mt. Kŭmgang. The German Church is the former church of the Tokwon abbey, now used by the Wonsan University of Agriculture.

Sister cities

 * 🇯🇵 Sakaiminato, Tottori, Japan (1992 –2006)
 * 🇲🇽 Puebla, Mexico
 * 🇷🇺 Vladivostok, Russia

title: Wonsan


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Talk:Dave Schulthise

Untitled
I don't think "Yugoslavian" is an ethnicity, exactly, any more than "United-States-of-American" would be if someone suffered head trauma and tried it. Does anyone know more specifically? In the meantime I changed it to "Of Yugoslavian extraction," which at least appears to convey information. --Charles A. L. 02:52, Mar 15, 2004 (UTC)

 * Very sorry about that. It's clear he's very sympathetic to the Serbs, but there's contradictory information about what he actually is, so perhaps we should just get rid of it.  Cool Hand Luke 18:46, 15 Mar 2004 (UTC)

David was a mix of mostly German and Irish.The Schulthise family is of Euro-American descent.

I'm confused about the reference to "Dean" never playing again. Is that a reference to Dave's bandmate or a mistake? MK 05:44, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * Very much a mistake. CHL 19:36, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Would anyone happen to have any details on the suicide? Motives or just more detail on Dave's life up until March, 10 2004? How'd he do it and why? Just curious. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.254.6.229 (talk) 18:28, 2 February 2008 (UTC)
 * While I don't have a cite that'll meet Wikipedia standards, I met him a few months before his suicide. He was working as a live-in nanny for the baby of a couple in upstate New York, and could no longer play the bass.  While he did not seem suicidal at the time, he clearly wasn't happy with his life.  12.45.255.66 (talk) 17:08, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

David had been unhappy for a long time. He wasn't "working" as a nanny-he was living in the home of an old girlfriend who was now married and had a child. He lived there because he became somewhat of a hermit, at my parents' house. He had previously tried to commit suicide twice, previous to his death in 3/04 he attempted suicide and was hospitalized. It was deemed to be in his best interest not to return to where he had remained secreted away from the rest of the world since returning from Bosnia. He was very very depressed that he could not return to Bosnia (due to anti-American sentiment and civil unrest). He was obviously in dire straits mentally- but some people who could have and should have done something about the elephant in the room-instead enabled him to eventually succeed at killing himself. I am his sister, that should be all the citation you need. David filled my mother's darvocet rx over and over without her knowledge, and along with a script he was given for sleep- waited until he had amassed a lethal quantity and then took them all. I have the last picture taken of him in 2/2004 before he committed suicide. Its not very pretty- its obvious he was troubled as he might have weighed 90# if that-in the photo. How anyone could go along with that..look at it every day-I don't know. you can contact me if you want to see the picture as I don't know how to load it here. kathydotfarmeratgmaildotcom I am his sister, that should be all the citation you need.

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title: Talk:Dave Schulthise


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Gustavus Katterfelto

Gustavus Katterfelto (or Katerfelto) (c. 1743–15 November 1799) was a Prussian conjurer, scientific lecturer, and quack who travelled through Georgian England.

Career
Christian William Anthony Katterfelto (known as Gustavus) arrived at Hull in September 1776 along with his wife, daughter, and a black kitten. He advertised in the local newspapers:"On the 26th of September - arrived at Hull where he has ever since performed in the Concert-Room with universal Applause, a Son of Col. Katterfelto of the famous Prussian Regiment of Death-Head Hussars, Professor of Natural Philosophy, Mathematics, Astronomy, Geography, Fortification, Navigation etc. For 15 years past he has travelled thro’most Parts of Europe, and spent a considerable Fortune, purposely to improve himself in Philosophy and Mathematics, and has finished a curious Apparatus for his own Amusement, and for the Instruction of the Public. - He will exhibit in Nicholson's Great Room, Coney-Street York, Tomorrow Evening (Oct.9) and every Evening this Week. The Doors will be opened at Six, and the Performance to begin at Seven. Admittance to the three front Seats 2s each, back Seats 1s only. - His various astonishing Performances are fully expressed in Hand-Bills which will be delivered this Day. He goes from this City to Leeds, Wakefield, Halifax etc."He traveled around Britain until his death in 1799. He performed in London from 1780 to 1784. He was arrested on occasion ("as a rogue and vagabond" at Kendal) for breaking local laws. The widespread flu epidemic of 1782 made him famous as a quack, when he used a solar microscope to show images of microbes he believed were its cause. These "insects" provided him with the catchphrase "Wonders! Wonders! Wonders!" which often headed his advertisements. He lectured in Piccadilly on electricity, magnetism and the invented terms "styangraphy, palenchics, and caprimantic arts" to impress his audience. After allegedly suffering from a bout of flu, he began to promote Dr Batto's medicine which he claimed had cured him in 12 hours. He sided with the contagion theory of disease that had been proposed by some Arab physicians although he called the causal organisms "insects", claiming that many numbers could be found in a drop of water.

Katterfelto was an accomplished conjurer, who performed with a black cat which he advertised as "evil". He claimed to have launched the first hot air balloon fifteen years before the Montgolfier brothers, and claimed to be the greatest natural philosopher since Isaac Newton.

He performed on several occasions for the royal family. The poet William Cowper refers to Katterfelto in The Task. For a while the word "Katerfelto" became synonymous with charlatan.

Katterfelto died in 1799 in Bedale, North Yorkshire where he is buried.

title: Gustavus Katterfelto


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Myrddin Wyllt

Myrddin Wyllt (—"Myrddin the Wild", Merdhyn Gwyls, Marzhin Foll) is a figure in medieval Welsh legend. In Middle Welsh poetry he is accounted a chief bard, the speaker of several poems in The Black Book of Carmarthen and The Red Book of Hergest. He is called Wyllt—"the Wild"—by Elis Gruffydd, and elsewhere Myrddin Emrys ("Ambrosius"), Merlinus Caledonensis ("of Caledonia") or Merlin Sylvestris ("of the woods"). Myrddin Wylt was born in 540 CE.

Although his legend centres on a known Celtic theme, Myrddin's legend is rooted in history, for he is said to have gone mad after the Battle of Arfderydd (Arthuret) at which Rhydderch Hael of Strathclyde defeated the Brythonic king Gwenddoleu. According to the Annales Cambriae this took place in 573. Myrddin fled into the forest, lived with the beasts and received the gift of prophecy.

Myrddin Wyllt's legend closely resembles that of a north-British figure called Lailoken, which appears in Jocelyn of Furness' 12th-century Life of Kentigern. Scholars differ as to the independence or identity of Lailoken and Myrddin, though there is more agreement as to Myrddin's original independence from later Welsh legends.

Myrddin's grave is reputed to lie near the River Tweed in the village of Drumelzier near Peebles, although nothing remains above ground level at the site.

In Welsh literature
The earliest (pre-12th century) Welsh poems about the Myrddin legend present him as a madman living an existence in the Caledonian Forest. He was born in 540. In the forest he ruminates on his former existence and the events of the Battle of Arfderydd, where Riderch Hael, King of Alt Clut (Strathclyde) slaughtered the forces of Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio, and Myrddin went mad watching this defeat. The Annales Cambriae date this battle to 573, naming Gwenddoleu's adversaries as the sons of Eliffer, presumably Gwrgi and Peredur. This battle, the subsequent assassination of Urien Rheged and the defeat of the Gododdin at Catraeth are cited as reasons for the collapse of the alliance of early British kingdoms in the north before the Angles, Scots and Picts.

Welsh historian John Edward Lloyd suggests there were three traditions that were conflated. The first, “Merlinus Ambrosius” (the Arthurian Merlin), identified by Giraldus Cambrensis as Myrddin Emrys —the Welsh form of Ambrosius—, who was found at Carmarthen and prophesied before Vortigern. The second, “Merlinus Silvester” or “Merlinus Caledonius” who came from the North (Alba) and was a contemporary of Arthur, saw a horrible portent in the sky while fighting in a battle and spent the rest of his days a madman in the woods. The third one is “Myrddin Wyllt”, whom Lloyd identifies with the Lailoken mentioned in Jocelyn of Furness' Life of St. Kentigern.

Although Lailoken is identified with Merlin in the late 15th-century Lailoken and Kentigern, the alternative name may already have been present in the Middle Welsh poem Dialogue of Myrddin with his sister Gwendydd (also named Gwenddydd or Languoreth), for she addresses him several times as Llallwg, for which the diminutive would be Llallwgan.

A version of this legend is preserved in the late-15th-century Lailoken and Kentigern. In this narrative St. Kentigern meets a naked, hairy madman called Lailoken, said by some to be called Merlynum or Merlin, in a deserted place. He has been condemned for his sins to wander in the company of beasts, having been the cause of the deaths of all of the persons killed in the battle fought on the plain between Liddel and Carwannok. Having told his story, the madman leaps up and flees from the presence of the saint back into the wilderness. He appears several times more in the narrative until at last asking St. Kentigern for the Sacrament, prophesying that he was about to die a triple death. After some hesitation, the saint grants the madman's wish, and later that day the shepherds of King Meldred capture him, beat him with clubs, then cast him into the river Tweed where his body is pierced by a stake, thus fulfilling his prophecy.

Legend has it that second part of Carmarthen's name (in Welsh -fyrddin) was derived from Myrddin and identified his place of birth. However, when Britannia was a Roman province, Carmarthen was the civitas capital of the Demetae tribe, known as Moridunum (from Brittonic *mori-dunon meaning "sea fort"), and this is the true source of the town's name. Celticist A. O. H. Jarman suggests that instead the name Myrddin was derived from Carmarthen's name.

Welsh literature has examples of a prophetic literature, predicting the military victory of all of the Celtic peoples of Great Britain who will join and drive the English – and later the Normans – back into the sea. Some of these works were presented as prophecies of Myrddin. The Armes Prydein (one of the earliest mentions of him) contains the line “Myrddin foretells that they will meet”. The tradition was apparently shared with Cornish literature, however only a single Latin translation of a lost Cornish-language original Prophecy of Merlin exists in the Vatican library by John of Cornwall. In the Black Book of Carmarthen the poems Yr Afallennau and Yr Oianau describe Myrddin talking to an apple tree and a pig, prophesying the success or failure of the Welsh army in battles with the Normans in South Wales.

Clas Myrddin, or Merlin's Enclosure, is an early name for Great Britain stated in the Third Series of Welsh Triads.

Geoffrey of Monmouth
The modern depiction of Merlin began with Geoffrey of Monmouth, who portrayed Merlin as a prophet and a madman, and introduced him into Arthurian legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth popularised Merlin the wizard, associated with the town of Carmarthen in South Wales. His book Prophetiae Merlini was intended to be a collection of the prophecies of the Welsh figure of Myrddin, whom he called Merlin. He included the Prophetiae in his more famous second work, the Historia Regum Britanniae. In this work, however, he constructed an account of Merlin's life that placed him in the time of Ambrosius Aurelianus and King Arthur, decades before the lifetime of Myrddin Wyllt. He also attached to him an episode originally ascribed to Ambrosius, and others that appear to be of his own invention.

Geoffrey later wrote the Vita Merlini, an account based more closely on the earlier Welsh stories about Myrddin and his experiences at Arfderyd, and explained that the action was taking place long after Merlin's involvement with Arthur. However, the Vita Merlini did not prove popular enough to counter the version of Merlin in the Historia, which went on to influence most later accounts of the character.

title: Myrddin Wyllt


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The Amps

The Amps were an American alternative rock band formed by Kim Deal in 1995, while her band the Breeders went on hiatus. The group consisted of Deal, on lead vocals and rhythm guitar; Luis Lerma on bass; Nate Farley on lead guitar; and Jim Macpherson of the Breeders on drums. Kelley Deal, Kim's sister, was also briefly involved, but had to leave the band due to drug problems. The group was named when Kim Deal started calling herself Tammy Ampersand for fun, and the band Tammy and the Amps. They recorded the album Pacer in the United States and Ireland.

Pacer was released in October 1995. The group toured the United States, Europe, and Australia with bands including the Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, and Guided by Voices. Critics commented on the loose and rough quality of these performances. The Amps continued as a group until 1996, when Deal changed their name back to the Breeders. By 2000, Macpherson, Lerma, and Farley had left the band; they were all at times involved in various projects with Guided by Voices' Robert Pollard. Deal's next album, the Breeders' Title TK, was released seven years after Pacer.

Background and formation
From 1986 to 1992, Deal was a member of the Pixies and from 1989 onwards, the Breeders. In August 1993, the Breeders released their second album, Last Splash which went platinum in the USA, gold in Canada, and silver in the UK. The other members of the group at that time were Kim's twin sister Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson. By late 1994, after two years of straight touring and recording, and culminating in the Lollapalooza tour, the band members were exhausted; they decided to take some time off from the Breeders, but this hiatus ended up being longer than expected. Kelley was arrested on drug charges in late 1994 and spent time in and out of rehabilitation, while Wiggs became involved in musical projects in New York, including collaborations with members of Luscious Jackson.

Meanwhile, Kim Deal was eager to continue recording and performing. At first she envisioned her next album as a solo record, on which she would play all of the instrument parts. When she was recording initial demos for the project, she asked Kelley to play on some of them, to distract her from her drug difficulties. Since Kelley was now also involved, Deal decided not to go solo, but formed a new group. She recruited Macpherson to play drums, musician Luis Lerma, bass, and Nate Farley, guitar. Later, Kelley dropped out of the project for rehabilitation and moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota. For fun, Deal began calling herself Tammy Ampersand, and the group, Tammy and the Amps. This became simply the Amps.

Recording and touring
The Amps released one album, Pacer which was recorded at several different studios. The first session, at Easley Studios in Memphis was engineered by Davis McCain and Doug Easley. Deal recorded new songs there including what would become Pacer's single, "Tipp City". While she was producing an upcoming record by Guided by Voices she had a recording opportunity; when the group abandoned work on their album, Deal used the leftover studio time for her own songs. Following the Easley Studios session, recording for Pacer continued at six other locations in total, including studios in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dublin, and Deal's hometown of Dayton. Engineers Steve Albini, John Agnello, Bryce Goggin, and others each helped record one or more of these sessions. Pacer came out in October 1995.

The Amps toured throughout 1995 and 1996. Early performances, before releasing Pacer, included June–July 1995 shows in Dayton: one with Guided by Voices at Gilly's and another with Poster Children. They toured with Guided by Voices and Chavez in the United Kingdom in September, in cities such as Sheffield, Glasgow, Brighton, and London; Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders attended the London concert as a birthday present to herself, and afterwards came backstage to meet Deal. The Amps played another show with Guided by Voices in Ohio in October. The Amps performed a series of US concerts in October and November with Sonic Youth, among which were shows in Detroit and Chicago with Helium, in Seattle and Portland with Bikini Kill,  and in Los Angeles with Mike Watt and Sonic Youth. Following the concerts with Sonic Youth, the Amps did a tour of Europe, including a performance in London on December 7. In January 1996, they played the Summersault festival in Australia. That year, the Amps toured with the Foo Fighters in the United States, in locations such as Chicago (with That Dog), Worcester, Massachusetts, and Austin, Texas (with Jawbreaker), as well as playing one more concert with Guided By Voices, in early March in Newport, Kentucky. At this show, Deal had a permanent falling-out with Robert Pollard when Guided By Voices unintentionally used up all the soundcheck time. In 1995 or 1996, they also played shows with the Tasties and Brainiac.

Reviewers described live concerts by the Amps as unpolished and relaxed. The Chronicle's Drema Crist praised their show at an unidentified location as "fun-spirited and silly". Greg Kot of The Chicago Tribune described one of their Chicago performances as "off-kilter" and wrote that "Deal's pungent vocals were swallowed up by the guitars, and the foursome's slight melodies were lost amid all the bashing." A review in The Chicago Reader of the same concert noted that "The Amps play with a low-key, hangout sound." The Phoenix's Matt Ashare felt that at their December 1995 show in Boston "the Amps didn't click in a way that would suggest that this was Deal's new, full-time band"; he added that it was "an unpretentiously gritty way for Deal to let off some steam while the Breeders [took] a little break". In Boston Rock, this concert was characterized as "sloppy" but "charm[ing] ... hanging loosely off Kim's gruff vocals and ebullient personality".

Reforming the Breeders
Later in 1996, Deal changed the name of the group back to the Breeders and the band originally had almost the same line-up as the Amps. Until then Deal had been waiting for Wiggs and Kelley to rejoin the Breeders and record a new album together, and had held back from reforming the Breeders out of respect for them. In May 1996, Wiggs revealed that she would not be involved in any immediate Breeders activity; Kelley also chose to stay in Saint Paul, to be close to her rehabilitation facility. Deal then decided that she did not want to wait any longer to reform the group, partly because the Breeders' repertoire was larger than the Amps', thereby allowing longer concerts. Deal added violinist Carrie Bradley (who had played on the Breeders' Pod album), and with Macpherson, Lerma, and Farley, played some shows in 1996 with Primus.

By 1998, Kelley had rejoined and Macpherson had left the group, and by 2000 Lerma and Farley had also left. With a line-up including the Deal sisters and new members Mando Lopez and Jose Medeles, the Breeders released the albums Title TK in 2002 and Mountain Battles in 2008. Meanwhile Macpherson was a member of Guided by Voices from 1998 to 2001, and participated in other projects with Guided By Voices' Robert Pollard until 2005. Lerma and Farley have been members of the Tasties, and in 1999 participated in Pollard's Lexo and the Leapers side project group; Farley was also a member of Guided by Voices from 1999 to 2004. In 2013, the Last Splash-era Breeders line-up of Kim and Kelley Deal, Macpherson, and Wiggs reunited to tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of that album.

Members

 * Kim Deal – vocals, guitars
 * Kelley Deal – guitars
 * Luis Lerma – bass
 * Nate Farley – guitars
 * Jim Macpherson – drums

title: The Amps


text:
Crafty

Crafty is a chess program written by UAB professor Dr. Robert Hyatt, with continual development and assistance from Michael Byrne, Tracy Riegle, and Peter Skinner. It is directly derived from Cray Blitz, winner of the 1983 and 1986 World Computer Chess Championships. Tord Romstad, co-author of Stockfish, described Crafty as "arguably the most important and influential chess program ever".

Crafty finished in second place in the 2010 Fifth Annual ACCA Americas' Computer Chess Championships. Crafty lost only one game, namely to the first-place winner, Thinker.

Crafty also finished in second place in the 2010 World Computer Rapid Chess Championships. Crafty won seven out of nine games, finishing just behind the first-place winner Rybka by only ½ point.

In the World Computer Chess Championships 2004, running on slightly faster hardware than all other programs, Crafty took fourth place with the same number of points as the third-place finisher, Fritz 8. On the November 2007 SSDF ratings list, Crafty was 34th with an estimated Elo rating of 2608.

Crafty uses the Chess Engine Communication Protocol and can run under the popular chess interfaces XBoard and Winboard.

Crafty is written in ANSI C with assembly language routines available on some CPUs, and is very portable. The source code is available, but the software is for "personal use" only and redistribution is only allowed under certain conditions.

Crafty pioneered the use of rotated bitboard data structures to represent the chess board, and was one of the first chess programs to support multiple processors. It also includes negascout search, the killer move heuristic, static exchange evaluation, quiescence search, alpha-beta pruning, a transposition table, a refutation table, an evaluation cache, selective extensions, recursive null-move search, and many other features. Special editions of the program include enhanced features such as an opening book, positional learning, and an endgame tablebase.

Crafty was one of the programs included in the SPEC CPU2000 benchmark test. It is also included as an additional engine in Fritz.

Graphical front-ends

 * GNOME Chess

title: Crafty


text:
USS Mullinnix

USS Mullinnix (DD-944) was a Forrest Sherman-class destroyer of the United States Navy. She was named for Admiral Henry M. Mullinnix USN (1892–1943), who was killed in action during World War II, when the aircraft carrier USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56) was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine JAPANESE SUBMARINE I-175 and sank southwest of Butaritari Island on 24 November 1943.

Mullinnix was built by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation's Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts, and launched by Mrs. Kathryn F. Mullinnix.

Mullinnix conducted patrol duty in the Caribbean during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, participated in the Gemini program recovery operations in March 1966, and served as plane guard for aircraft carriers on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, participated in Sea Dragon operations, patrolled on search and rescue duties, and carried out naval gunfire support missions during the Vietnam War.

Mullinix and her sister ship USS Edson (DD-946) appeared in The Twilight Zone episode "The Thirty-Fathom Grave."

title: USS Mullinnix


text:
Gemini Observatory

The Gemini Observatory comprises two 8.1-metre (26.6 ft) telescopes, Gemini North and Gemini South, situated in Hawaii and Chile, respectively. These twin telescopes offer extensive coverage of the northern and southern skies and rank among the most advanced optical/infrared telescopes available to astronomers. (See List of largest optical reflecting telescopes).

The observatory is owned and operated by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States, the National Research Council of Canada, CONICYT of Chile, MCTI of Brazil, MCTIP of Argentina, and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) of Republic of Korea. The NSF is the primary funding contributor, providing about 70% of the required resources. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) manages the operations and maintenance of the observatory through a cooperative agreement with the NSF, acting as the Executive Agency on behalf of the international partners. NSF’s NOIRLab is the US national center for ground-based, nighttime optical astronomy and operates Gemini as one of it's programs.

The Gemini telescopes are equipped with modern instruments and excel in optical and near-infrared performance. They utilize adaptive optics technology to counteract atmospheric blurring. Notably, Gemini leads in wide-field adaptive optics assisted infrared imaging and has recently commissioned the Gemini Planet Imager, enabling researchers to directly observe and study exoplanets with extreme faintness compared to their host stars. Gemini supports research across various domains of modern astronomy, including the Solar System, exoplanets, star formation and evolution, galaxy structure and dynamics, supermassive black holes, distant quasars, and the structure of the Universe on large scales.

Previously, Australia and the United Kingdom were also involved in the Gemini Observatory partnership. However, the UK withdrew its funding at the end of 2012. In response, the observatory has significantly reduced operating costs, streamlined operations, and implemented energy-saving measures at both sites. Additionally, both telescopes are now operated remotely from Base Facility Operations centers located in Hilo, Hawaii, and La Serena, Chile. In 2018, KASI has signed an agreement to become a full participant of the Gemini Observatory.

Overview
The Gemini Observatory's international Headquarters and Northern Operations Center is located in Hilo, Hawaii at the University of Hawaii at Hilo University Park. The Southern Operations Center is located on the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) campus near La Serena, Chile.

 * The "Gemini North" telescope, officially called the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini Telescope is located on Hawaii's Mauna Kea, along with many other telescopes. That location provides excellent viewing conditions due to the superb atmospheric conditions (stable, dry, and rarely cloudy) above the 4200 m dormant volcano. It saw first light in 1999 and began scientific operations in 2000.

 * The "Gemini South" telescope is located at over 2700 m elevation on a mountain in the Chilean Andes called Cerro Pachón. Very dry air and negligible cloud cover make this another prime telescope location (again shared by several other observatories, including the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR) and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory). Gemini South saw first light in 2000.

Together, the two telescopes cover almost all of the sky except for two areas near the celestial poles: Gemini North cannot point north of declination +89 degrees, and Gemini South cannot point south of declination −89 degrees.

Both Gemini telescopes employ a range of technologies to provide world-leading performance in optical and near-infrared astronomy, including laser guide stars, adaptive optics, multi conjugate adaptive optics, and multi-object spectroscopy. In addition, very high-quality infrared observations are possible due to the advanced protected silver coating applied to each telescope's mirrors, the small secondary mirrors in use (resulting in an f16 focal ratio), and the advanced ventilation systems installed at each site.

History
It is estimated that the two telescopes cost approximately US$187 million to construct, and a night on each Gemini telescope is worth tens of thousands of U.S. dollars.

The two 8-meter mirror blanks, each weighing over 24 ST, were fabricated from Corning's Ultra Low Expansion glass. Each blank was constructed by the fusing together of and subsequent sagging of a series of smaller hexagonal pieces. This work was performed at Corning's Canton Plant facility located in upstate New York. The blanks were then transported via ship to REOSC, located south of Paris for final grinding and polishing.

One decision made during design to save money was eliminating the two Nasmyth platforms. This makes instruments like high resolution spectrographs and adaptive optics systems much more difficult to construct, due to the size and mass requirement inherent with Cassegrain instruments. A further challenge in designing large instruments is the requirement to have a specific mass and center-of-mass position to maintain the overall balance of the telescope.

UK funding crisis
In November 2007 it was announced that the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) had proposed that, to save £4 million annually, it would aim to leave the telescope's operating consortium. At a consortium meeting in January 2008, the conclusion was made that the UK would officially withdraw from the Gemini Partnership and the Gemini Observatory Agreement effective February 28, 2007. This decision significantly disrupted observatory budgets, and resulted in the cancellation of at least one instrument in development at that time, the Precision Radial Velocity Spectrograph.

Since the reason for the UK breaking its part of the agreement seemed to be entirely financial, there was public outcry, including the "Save Astronomy" movement which asked citizens to speak up against the astronomy budget cuts. The UK rethought their decision to withdraw from Gemini, and requested reinstatement into the agreement, and were officially welcomed back on February 27, 2008. However, in December 2009 it was announced that the UK would indeed leave the Gemini partnership in 2012, as well as terminating several other international science partnerships, due to continuing funding limitations.

Directorship
The first director of Gemini was Matt Mountain, who after holding the post for eleven years left in September 2005 to become director of Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). He was succeeded by Jean-René Roy, who served for nine months, after which time Doug Simons held the directorship from June 2006 to May 2011. He in turn was succeeded by an interim appointment of the then-retired Fred Chaffee, former director of W. M. Keck Observatory. Chaffee was succeeded in August 2012 by Markus Kissler-Patig, who held the post until June 2017. Laura Ferrarese succeeded Dr. Kissler-Patig in July 2017 with an interim appointment. The current director is Jennifer Lotz since September 6, 2018. jennifer Lotz left in 2024 and is replaced by Scott Dahm as an interim director in January 2024.

Governance and oversight
The Observatory is governed by the Gemini Board, as defined by the Gemini International Agreement. The Board sets budgetary policy bounds for the Observatory and carries out broad oversight functions, with advice from a Science and Technology Advisory sub-Committee (the STAC) and a Finance sub-Committee. The U.S. holds six of the 13 voting seats on the Gemini Board. The U.S. members of the Board typically serve three year terms and are recruited and nominated by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which represents the US community in all aspects of Gemini operations and development. Gemini is currently managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc., on behalf of the partnership through an award from NSF. AURA has operated Gemini since its construction in the 1990s.

NSF serves as the Executive Agency and acts on behalf of the international participants. NSF has one seat on the Gemini Board; an additional NSF staff member serves as the Executive Secretary to the board. Programmatic management is the responsibility of an NSF Program Officer. The Program Officer monitors operations and development activities at the Observatory, nominates U.S. scientists to Gemini advisory committees, conducts reviews on behalf of the partnership, and approves funding actions, reports, and contracts.

Adaptive optics
Both Gemini telescopes employ sophisticated state-of-the-art adaptive optics systems. Gemini-N routinely uses the ALTAIR system, built in Canada, which achieves a 30–45% Strehl ratio on a 22.5-arcsecond-square field and can feed NIRI, NIFS or GNIRS; it can use natural or laser guide stars. In conjunction with NIRI it was responsible for the discovery of HR8799b.

At Gemini-S the Gemini Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics System (GeMS) may be used with the FLAMINGOS-2 near-infrared imager and spectrometry, or the Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager (GSAOI), which provides uniform, diffraction-limited image quality to arcminute-scale fields of view. GeMS achieved first light on December 16, 2011. Using a constellation of five laser guide stars, it achieved FWHM of 0.08 arc-seconds in H band over a field of 87 arc-seconds square.

An adaptive secondary mirror has been considered for Gemini, which would provide reasonable adaptive-optics corrections (equivalent to natural seeing at the 20th-percentile level for 80% of the time) to all instruments on the telescope to which it is attached. However,, there are no plans to implement such an upgrade to either telescope.

Instruments

In recent years the Gemini Board has directed the observatory to support only four instruments at each telescope. Because Gemini-N and Gemini-S are essentially identical, the observatory is able to move instruments between the two sites, and does so on a regular basis. Two of the most popular instruments are the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrographs (GMOS) on each of the telescopes. Built in Edinburgh, Scotland by the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, these instruments provide multi-object spectroscopy, long-slit spectroscopy, imaging, and integral field spectroscopy at optical wavelengths. The detectors in each instrument have recently been upgraded with Hamamatsu Photonics devices, which significantly improve performance in the far red part of the optical spectrum (700–1,000 nm).

Near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy are provided by the NIRI, NIFS, GNIRS, FLAMINGOS-2, and GSAOI instruments. The availability and detailed descriptions of these instruments is documented on the Gemini Observatory Web site.

One of the most exciting new instruments at Gemini is GPI, the Gemini Planet Imager. GPI was built by a consortium of US and Canadian institutions to fulfill the requirements of the ExAOC Extreme Adaptive Optics Coronagraph proposal. GPI is an extreme adaptive-optics imaging polarimeter/integral-field spectrometer, which provides diffraction-limited data between 0.9 and 2.4 microns. GPI is able to directly image planets around nearby stars that are one-millionth as bright as their host star.

Gemini also supports a vigorous visitor instrument program. Instruments may be brought to either telescope for short periods of time and used for specific observing programs by the instrument teams. In return for access to Gemini, the instruments are then made available to the entire Gemini community, so that they may be used for other science projects. Instruments that have made use of this program include the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI), the Phoenix near-infrared echelle spectrometer, and the TEXES mid-infrared spectrometer. The ESPaDOnS spectrograph situated in the basement of the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) is also being used as a "visitor instrument", even though it never moves from CFHT. The instrument is connected to Gemini-North via a 270 meter long optic fibre. Known as GRACES, this arrangement provides very high resolution optical spectroscopy on an 8-meter class telescope.

Gemini's silver coating and infrared optimization allow sensitive observations in the mid-infrared part of the spectrum (5–27 μm). Historically, mid-infrared observations have been obtained using T-ReCS at Gemini South and Michelle at Gemini North. Both instruments have imaging and spectroscopic capabilities, though neither is currently being used at Gemini.

Instrumentation development issues
The first phase of Gemini instrumentation development did not run smoothly; schedules slipped by several years, and budgets sometimes overran by as much as a factor of two. In 2003 the instrument-development process was re-analysed in the Aspen report; for example, an incentive program was introduced where instrument developers were guaranteed substantial allocations of telescope time if they delivered the instrument on time and lose it as the instrument is delayed.

A wide-field multi-object spectrograph achieved substantial scientific support, but would have required major changes to the design of the telescope – effectively it would have required one of the telescopes to be devoted to that instrument. The project was terminated in 2009.

Second-round instrumentation development
In January 2012, the Gemini Observatory started a new round of instrumentation development. This process has since resulted in the development of a high-resolution optical spectrograph known as GHOST, with commissioning beginning in April 2022 and on-sky science commissioning planned for June 2022.

Observing and community support
The Gemini Observatory's primary mission is to serve the general astronomical communities in all of the participant countries; indeed, the Observatory provides the bulk of general access to large optical/infrared telescopes for many of the participants, and represents the only public-access 8 meter class facility in the U.S. The observatory reaches out to its community through National Gemini Offices (NGOs), the U.S. office being located in Tucson at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. The NGOs provide general support to the users, from proposal preparation through data acquisition, reduction, and analysis.

In any given year the two telescopes typically provided data for over 400 discrete science projects, over two-thirds of which are led by U.S. astronomers. About 50-70 percent of the top-ranked "Band 1" proposals reach 100 percent completion in any given year. Of order 90 percent of the available (clear weather) time is used for science, the rest being allocated to scheduled maintenance or lost to unforeseen technical faults.

Gemini has in recent years developed innovative new observing modes. These include the ‘Large and Long’ program to support requests for large amounts of telescope time and the ‘Fast Turnaround’ program to provide quick access to the telescope. These and other modes have been approved by the Gemini Board of Directors and are proving popular with the user community. In 2015 up to 20 percent of available telescope time was used for Large and Long programs, which in terms of hours of observing attracted five times more user demand than could be accommodated. In the same period approximately 10 percent of telescope time was assigned to the Fast Turnaround program, which in the second half of 2015 was over-subscribed by a factor of 1.6. In 2015 the remaining U.S. time allocation on Gemini was over-subscribed by a factor of approximately 2, consistent with recent years.

Prospects (2017 onwards)
In 2010, the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) conducted its sixth decadal survey in astronomy and astrophysics to recommend key science questions and new initiatives for the current decade. Since both the NRC recommendations and current programs could not be accommodated within subsequent budget projections, the National Science Foundation's Division of Astronomical Sciences, through the Advisory Committee of the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), conducted a community-based portfolio review to make implementation recommendations that would best respond to the decadal survey science questions. The resulting report, Advancing Astronomy in the Coming Decade: Opportunities and Challenges, was released in August 2012 and included recommendations related to all of the major telescope facilities funded by NSF. The Portfolio Review Committee report ranked Gemini Observatory as a critical component of the U.S.'s future astronomical research resources and recommended that the U.S. retain a majority share in the international partnership for at least the next several years. However, given the constraints that were considered, the Committee recommended that the U.S. contribution to Gemini operations be capped in 2017 and beyond.

NSF has since commissioned a National Research Council study, titled "A Strategy to Optimize the U.S. Optical/Infrared System in the Era of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope". The report made a recommendation that NSF work with its partners in Gemini to ensure that Gemini-South is well positioned for faint-object spectroscopy early in the era of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). Observatory support for the development of a next-generation medium-resolution spectrograph over the next 5–6 years addresses this recommendation directly.

With the signing of the new International Agreement in late 2015, support from the five signatories (the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile) is secured for the period 2016–2021. Australia withdrew from the Gemini Observatory partnership in 2015, and Korea has joined the partnership in 2018. The currently effective International Agreement signed in 2020 November has the six signatories (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Korea, and the US), and the Agreement is effective till the end of 2026.

Observations and research
The Gemini was one of the telescopes that observed the turn-on of a nuclear transient, along with the Swift space telescope (aka Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory since 2018) and the Hiltner telescope (MDM observatory). The transient event was called PS1-13cbe and was located in the Galaxy SDSS J222153.87+003054.2

Incidents
On 22 October 2022, the 8.1m primary mirror of the Gemini North telescope was damaged when it touched an earthquake restraint while on a wash cart, being moved for stripping the silver coating before recoating. Two chips were created, on the bottom edge and at the margin of the main mirror. This has since been repaired after several months of downtime and was back observing the sky on 2 June 2023 with apparently no loss of performance or quality.

title: Gemini Observatory


text:
Coulter pine

Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri), or big-cone pine, is a native of the coastal mountains of Southern California in the United States and northern Baja California in Mexico. Isolated groves are found as far north as Clearlake, California on the flanks of Mt. Konocti and Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve. It is named after Thomas Coulter, an Irish botanist and physician. The Coulter pine produces some of the heaviest cones of any pine tree, up to 5 kg and among conifers is exceeded only by the cones of Araucaria bidwillii.

Although it has a limited range in the wild, the Coulter pine is a popular ornamental tree and is grown in many countries.

Description
Pinus coulteri is a substantial coniferous evergreen tree in the genus Pinus. The size ranges from 10 – tall, and a trunk diameter up to 1 m. The trunk is vertical and branches horizontal to upcurved. The leaves are needle-like, in bundles of three, glaucous gray-green, 15 – long and stout, 2 mm thick.

The outstanding characteristic of this tree is the large, spiny cones which are 20 – long (occasionally as much as twenty inches (51 centimeters) length has been observed), 23 centimeters (nine inches) in width, and weigh 2 – when fresh. Each segment, or "scale", of the cone is tipped with a talon-like hook. Coulter pines produce the largest cones of any pine tree species and people are advised to wear hardhats when working in Coulter pine groves, although the slender cones of the sugar pine are longer. The large size of the cones, combined with the claw-like scales, has earned them the nickname "widowmakers" among locals.

Ecology
The Coulter pine is closely related to the foothill pine, Pinus sabiniana. It is more distantly related to Jeffrey pine with which it shares habitats, and the ponderosa pine. Coulter pines tend to grow in drier environments than ponderosa and Jeffery pines.

This erect, medium-sized pine prefers south-facing slopes between 200 – elevation, and tolerates dry rocky soil. Pinus coulteri most often appears in mixed forests. The Coulter pine occurs in a number of forest plant associations; for example, at higher elevations forestation of the San Jacinto Mountains Coulter Pine is co-dominant with the California black oak. Woodpeckers often forage on the species, and peel the bark to access insects underneath.

Uses
Wildlife, especially squirrels, gather the large seeds. They were also once eaten by Native Americans.

The wood is weak and soft, so that the species is little used other than for firewood.

Pinus coulteri is cultivated as an ornamental tree, planted in parks and large gardens, and drought tolerant landscaping. The Coulter pine has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

title: Coulter pine


text:
Talk:Myrddin Wyllt

Conversion to Christianity
I'm not seeing any reference to Myrddin's conversion to Christianity, yet two images of such are provided of something similar in Scotland? I'm going to remove these as they seem to be attempts to claim that Myrddin was a Christian, which is unsourced. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fabianzzz (talk • contribs) 23:41, 14 June 2017 (UTC)

 * Isnt that a bit hasty for a deletion? It may be that better sourcing is needed - but I'd have though that a stained glass window showing Myrddin's conversion is, in itself, a pretty good source? Myrddin / Arthur are pretty inextricably tied in with celtic Christianity, as the Lailoken paragraph indicates.  I'm not a sufficiently experienced editor to know what to do to reintroduce this deletion without causing a problem  Gilgamesh4 (talk) 08:15, 15 June 2017 (UTC)

But it isn't Myrddin's conversion, it is Merlin's conversion. Lailoken and Kentigern is a later story, and isn't the original. There are no sources for the original Myrddin's conversion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fabianzzz (talk • contribs) 10:33, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

 * Fair point - How would you feel about an extra sentence at the end of the first section? - "Myrddin's grave is reputed to lie near the River Tweed in the village of Drumelzier near Peebles, although nothing remains above ground level at the site. (Stobo Kirk, four miles from Drumelzier, has an altar stone and stained glass linking to the medieval Merlin, rather than Myrddin Wyllt, but reflecting his association with the Tweed valley)".
 * (So no reference to the Merlin conversion - but not discarding the Stobo Kirk associations all together) Gilgamesh4 (talk) 19:29, 16 July 2017 (UTC)

proof
Myrddin Wyllt was a historical person - is there any proof of this? RickK | Talk 02:56, 15 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * I don't know, RickK, but I came here to ask a question which is probably related - is Myrddin Wyllt's threefold death a sign that he is a legendary/mythic figure, give its correspondence to the threefold ritual killings mentioned in the Celts and human sacrifice article?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.92.189.235 (talk) 01:18, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

 * I have a question. what's the source of _Myrddin's_ threefold death? In Geoffrey, he predicts a three-fold death for somebody else. He outs Rhydderch's wife's adultery and to prove that he doesn't know what he's talking about, she has a boy shown to him three times, twice in disguise, and Myrddin predicts a different death for each.

100.15.127.199 (talk) 21:28, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

 * I doubt it. He's well connected with historic events and figures. The ritual death probably bled in because he was a druid. ---G.T.N. (talk) 21:59, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

pronunciation keys for Welsh words
This page need pronunciation keys for the Welsh words. (contributed by 09:47, 6 August 2007 YHVHYHVH)

This article and Lailoken
This article (Myrddin Wyllt) and the article on Lailoken seem to agree that Myrddin and Lailoken may have been the same historical personage, but they seem to be fighting over which name is the "correct" one. Lailoken says "Lailoken may be the original figure behind the legends of Myrddin Wyllt...", while this article says that Myrddin Wyllt was "a historical personage" and Lailoken and Kentigern is merely "a version of this legend". I have no idea which is closer to the truth, but either somebody should figure out the two personages' relationship to each other and clarify it consistently in both articles, or else maybe the two articles should be merged. --Quuxplusone (talk) 05:37, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

 * It's confusing, but Rachel Bromwich discusses this in a note on Myrddin Wyllt in her edition of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein. Accordin to her, Myrddin is figure in his own cycle of stories and prophetic poetry, and that Lailoken appears in material about Saint Kentigern. Both are said to have gone mad and taken to the woods after the battle of Arderydd and so the stories are obviously related. A. O. H. Jarman argues that Lailoken was the original name, and that the story originated in the Old North where it is set. According to him, the story later became localized in South Wales and the prophet got a new name due to the folk etymology of Carmarthen (spuriously said to mean "Fort Myrddin"). Bromwich notes that there is one problem with Jarman's argument - that the name Myrddin appears the poem Y Gododdin (though this could be a late interpolation). She says the relationship between Myrddin and Lailoken is one of the "basic problems" of the Myrddin cycle.
 * All that said, clearly the matter does need to get cleared up at Wikipedia. I think a merge may be in order, as discussing either character is impossible without discussing the other, and because they may have the same genesis anyway. I'll try to get on it.--Cúchullain t/ c 06:09, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

 * you know how Moshe's father-in-law seems to have more than one name? that's a feature of an oral tradition that is transmitting in multiple daughter cultures, each of which has its own name for the character. the same feature leads to each of the four mother groups of the Greeks having their own in-turf place where Deucalion and Pyrrha landed. Likewise the Gilgamesh and Atra-Hasis tales are so much alike, they probably have a common forebear, they just use different names for the main character. Myrddin may be a historical figure, but he is part of Welsh tradition and Kentigern is a missionary to the Scots.

100.15.127.199 (talk) 21:00, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Twin Sister Gwendydd
The sources tell us tha Myrddin was twin brother of only one Gwendydd. She, using the name of Languoreth ("The Full of Gold"), calls Myrddin "twin brother" several times at the "Dialogue Between Myrddin and His Sister". The hypothesis of two sister is also not strong against the date analysis. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Galdaran (talk • contribs) 21:44, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

This article needs more citations:
Hey everyone:

We need to get more citations for this article. I know it's harder to get paper citations for information in an article, but we need to preserve important cultural information like this, and the best way to do that is to make sure it's digitized and is well sourced.

Hello, you obviously haven't read Vita Merlini to say he lived a wretched existence in the woodlands. He has a passion for the woodlands and chooses to live there (himself) in fact others can't persuade him otherwise. It may be wretched to some, or whoever typed this, but this was a choice- the magic of his poetry and prophesying lies within the woodlands.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Thomrenault (talk • contribs) 22:08, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

threefold death
Multiple ways of securing one's death was a known way of human sacrifice among druids. I'm surprised no-one saw a connection there...--Satrughna (talk) 21:40, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

myrddin and Lancelot
The madness of Myrddin sounds oddly like Lancelot running mad after Gwynhyfawr's cruelty to him. Has anybody written a paper about that? 100.15.127.199 (talk) 15:42, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Myrddin Wyllt


text:
USS Hull (DD-945)

USS Hull (DD-945), named for Commodore Isaac Hull USN (1773 to 1843), was a Forrest Sherman-class destroyer built by the Bath Iron Works Corporation at Bath in Maine. Laid down on 12 September 1956 and launched 10 August 1957, by Mrs. Albert G. Mumma.

History
She was commissioned 3 July 1958 and transited the Panama Canal a few months later to begin a long career with the Pacific Fleet. Between April and August 1959 Hull conducted the first of her fifteen deployments to serve with the Seventh Fleet in the Western Pacific. She made three more cruises in that area in 1960, 1961–1962 and 1963–1964. During October and November 1962 the destroyer escorted Pacific-based amphibious forces to the Panama Canal Zone as part of the US Navy's Cuban Missile Crisis operations. Hull's 1965 Seventh Fleet tour was the first of six Vietnam War deployments, during which she fired tens of thousands of five-inch shells in support of forces ashore and helped rescue several downed U.S. aviators. Additionally, Hull served as plane guard for carriers on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, participated in Operation Sea Dragon operations, and patrolled on search and rescue duties and carried out Naval Gunfire Support missions during the Vietnam War.

Hull made her eleventh WestPac cruise in 1973, after the direct U.S. role in the Vietnam War had ended. During her major overhaul in 1974–75, her forward 5 in/54 Mark 42 gun mount was replaced with an 8 in/55 Mark 71 gun mount. This Major Caliber Lightweight Gun ("MCLWG") was the result of a project dating back to the 1960s, when it was realized that heavy gunfire support for amphibious operations would die with the existing force of heavy cruisers unless a big gun could be developed for destroyer-size ships. A prototype gun and mounting had been built and tested ashore during the early 1970s. Hull was its test ship for seagoing trials, after which it was expected that several of these guns would be installed on board destroyers of the new Spruance class.

Hull's eight-inch gun began firing tests in April 1975. These lasted into the following year, and were reportedly successful. The ship carried the Mark 71 mounting during her 1976-77 and 1978 deployments to the Western Pacific, and conducted more firing tests during that time. However, the MCLWG project was cancelled in 1978. The prototype gun was removed from Hull during her 1979-80 overhaul and she spent the rest of her days with the three five-inch gun mounts that were typical of her class.

In February–September 1981 Hull served again in Asian waters. She began her final deployment in September 1982, steaming to the Western Pacific by way of Alaska, rescuing five Vietnamese refugees at sea in October and then moving further west to serve in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea as part of the battle group built around the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Enterprise.

Fate
Returning to the United States West Coast in April 1983, Hull immediately commenced inactivation preparations. She was decommissioned on 11 July 1983 and stricken on 15 October 1983. During a weapon and tactics test, she was sunk on 7 April 1998. The test was designed around a Harpoon missile fired from a Lockheed S-3B Viking, but many different weapons were used throughout the exercise. Her final resting place is 32.58358°N, -120.53342°W at a depth of 2,096 fathom.

title: USS Hull (DD-945)


text:
USS Edson

USS Edson (DD-946) is a Forrest Sherman-class destroyer, formerly of the United States Navy, built by Bath Iron Works in Maine in 1958. Her home port was Long Beach, California and she initially served in the Western Pacific/Far East, operating particularly in the Taiwan Strait and off the coast of Vietnam. Her exceptionally meritorious service in 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin was recognized with the first of three Navy Unit Commendations. During the following years she was shelled by North Vietnamese land forces, and apparently received friendly fire from the US Air Force.

Following an onboard fire in 1974, Edson returned to the West Pacific and was later commended for her roles in the evacuation of Phnom Penh and Saigon.

She was decommissioned in 1988, but the following year became a museum ship at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York. Returning to Navy lay-up in 2004, it was agreed in 2012 that she should again become a museum ship, at Bay City, Michigan. A National Historic Landmark, she is one of only two surviving Forrest Sherman-class destroyers, the other being the USS Turner Joy.

Commissioning and initial service
USS Edson was named for Major General Merritt "Red Mike" Edson USMC (1897–1955), who was awarded the Medal of Honor (while serving as Commanding Officer of the First Marine Raider Battalion on Guadalcanal) and the Navy Cross and Silver Star for other actions in World War II.

Edson was laid down on 3 December 1956 by Bath Iron Works Corporation and launched on 4 January 1958, sponsored by Mrs. M. A. Edson, widow of General Edson; and commissioned on 7 November 1958.

Edson called at Ciudad Trujillo and Caribbean ports while conducting shakedown training en route to Callao, Peru, where she lay from 18 to 21 February 1959 delivering supplies for the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru. She reached Naval Station Long Beach, California, her home port, on 2 March, and through the remainder of the year perfected her readiness with exercises along the west coast. On 5 January 1960, she sailed from Long Beach for her first deployment in the Far East, during which she patrolled in the Taiwan Straits and took part in amphibious operations off Okinawa, and exercises of various types off Japan. On 29 April, she rescued three aviators from USS Ranger (CV-61), whose A-3D aircraft crash landed in the ocean. Edson returned to Long Beach on 31 May for an overhaul which continued through October. Edson spent the remainder of 1960 conducting training off San Diego.

WESTPAC deployments
In June 1961 Edson, together with the other ships of DESDIV 231, sailed to Portland, Oregon, to represent the U.S. Navy at the annual Rose Festival. On 11 August 1961, Edson sailed from Long Beach harbor to start her second WESTPAC deployment. She spent three months in operations with the attack carriers USS Ranger and USS Ticonderoga and spent the month of December patrolling the straits between Taiwan and the mainland of Communist China.

On Friday, 13 March 1964, Edson departed for her third WESTPAC deployment. After the transit, Edson began duties with the Taiwan Patrol Force, CTF 72. The end of May and the months of June and July 1964 were filled with carrier operations, Gunfire Support Training in the Philippines, and operation LICTAS, a joint SEATO operation off the coast of the Philippines. August found Edson in the Gulf of Tonkin on special operations. It was here she was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation for exceptionally meritorious service in support of operations in the Gulf of Tonkin during the period 2–5 August 1964. On her fifth deployment in 1967, she received a hit from a North Vietnamese shore battery while providing a naval gunfire support mission.

Edson served as plane guard for aircraft carriers on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, participated in Sea Dragon operations, patrolled on search and rescue duties, and carried out Naval Gunfire Support missions during the Vietnam War. On 17 June 1968 she apparently took friendly fire from the US Air Force, along with several other U.S. and Australian ships.

On 12 December 1974, Edson suffered a fire in the after fireroom while training with USS Coral Sea (CV-43). The fire was caused by the ignition of oil which was spraying from a rupture in a lube oil gauge line. The area was secured and fire extinguished with no personnel casualties.

In January 1975, after repairs in Hawaii, Edson continued on to WESTPAC and in April she participated in Operation Eagle Pull (evacuation of Phnom Penh, Cambodia) and Operation Frequent Wind (evacuation of Saigon, Vietnam), earning two Meritorious Unit Commendations.

Edson was decommissioned on 15 December 1988, and towed to the Philadelphia Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility for storage. At the time of her decommissioning, she was the last all-gun destroyer in the United States Navy.

Museum
Edson served as a museum ship at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City from 30 June 1989 to 14 June 2004 when she was replaced by a Concorde airliner. The ship was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1990.

In 2004 the ship was towed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where hull repairs were completed, and then towed back to the Philadelphia Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility for storage. The Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum at Bay City, Michigan, and the Wisconsin Naval Ship Association at Sheboygan, Wisconsin, both submitted applications to the Naval Sea Systems Command to relocate Edson and reinstate her as a museum ship in their respective locations. The Bay City proposal was successful.

The Navy declared USS Edson seaworthy on 17 July 2012 and she was cleared to begin her journey to Michigan on 18 July with arrival at the museum site on 7 August 2012. After roughly a year at a temporary mooring at Wirt Stone docks, she was floated up the Saginaw river to her permanent mooring site, and on Tuesday, 7 May 2013 at 15:01 hours, USS Edson arrived at her permanent mooring site in Bangor Township, Michigan, at 43.61389°N, -83.86889°W.

title: USS Edson


text:
Shoshoni language

Shoshoni, also written as Shoshoni-Gosiute and Shoshone (Shoshoni: soni ' ta̲i̲kwappe, newe ta̲i̲kwappe or neme ta̲i̲kwappeh), is a Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family, spoken in the Western United States by the Shoshone people. Shoshoni is primarily spoken in the Great Basin, in areas of Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and Idaho.

The consonant inventory of Shoshoni is rather small, but a much wider range of surface forms of these phonemes appear in the spoken language. The language has six vowels, distinguished by length. Shoshoni is a strongly suffixing language, and it inflects for nominal number and case and for verbal aspect and tense using suffixes. Word order is relatively free but shows a preference toward SOV order.

The endonyms newe ta̲i̲kwappe and Sosoni' ta̲i̲kwappe mean "the people's language" and "the Shoshoni language," respectively. Shoshoni is classified as threatened, although attempts at revitalization are underway.

Classification and dialects
Shoshoni is the northernmost member of the large Uto-Aztecan language family, which includes nearly sixty living languages, spoken in the Western United States down through Mexico and into El Salvador. Shoshoni belongs to the Numic subbranch of Uto-Aztecan. The word Numic comes from the cognate word in all Numic languages for "person". For example, in Shoshoni the word is neme or, depending on the dialect, newe, in Timbisha it is nümü , and in Southern Paiute, nuwuvi.

Shoshoni's closest relatives are the Central Numic languages Timbisha and Comanche. Timbisha, or Panamint, is spoken in southeastern California by members of the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, but it is considered a distinct language from Shoshoni. The Comanche split from the Shoshone around 1700, and consonant changes over the past few centuries have limited mutual intelligibility of Comanche and Shoshoni.

Principal dialects of Shoshoni are Western Shoshoni in Nevada, Gosiute in western Utah, Northern Shoshoni in southern Idaho and northern Utah, and Eastern Shoshoni in Wyoming. The main differences between these dialects are phonological.

Status
The number of people who speak Shoshoni has been steadily dwindling since the late 20th century. In the early 21st century, fluent speakers number only several hundred to a few thousand people, while an additional population of about 1,000 know the language to some degree but are not fluent. The Duck Valley and Gosiute communities have established programs to teach the language to their children. Ethnologue lists Shoshoni as "threatened" as it notes that many of the speakers are 50 and older. UNESCO has classified the Shoshoni language as "severely endangered" in Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. The language is still being taught to children in a small number of isolated locations. The tribes have a strong interest in language revitalization, but efforts to preserve the language are scattered, with little coordination. However, literacy in Shoshoni is increasing. Shoshoni dictionaries have been published and portions of the Bible were translated in 1986.

As of 2012, Idaho State University offers elementary, intermediate, and conversational Shoshoni language classes, in a 20-year project to preserve the language. Open-source Shosoni audio is available online to complement classroom instruction, as part of the university's long-standing Shoshoni Language Project.

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribe teaches Shoshoni to its children and adults as part of its Language and Culture Preservation Program. On the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, elders have been active in digital language archiving. Shoshoni is taught using Dr. Steven Greymorning's Accelerated Second Language Acquisition techniques.

A summer program known as the Shoshone/Goshute Youth Language Apprenticeship Program (SYLAP), held at the University of Utah's Center for American Indian Languages since 2009, has been featured on NPR's Weekend Edition. Shoshoni youth serve as interns, assisting with digitization of Shoshoni language recordings and documentation from the Wick R. Miller collection, in order to make the materials available for tribal members. The program released the first Shoshone language video game in August 2013.

In July 2012, Blackfoot High School in Southeastern Idaho announced it would offer Shoshoni language classes. The Chief Tahgee Elementary Academy, a Shoshone-Bannock charter school teaching English and Shoshoni, opened at Fort Hall in 2013.

Vowels
Shoshoni has a typical Numic vowel inventory of five vowels. In addition, there is the common diphthong, which functions as a simple vowel and varies rather freely with ; however, certain morphemes always contain and others always contain. All vowels occur as short or long, but / is rare.

Consonants
Shoshoni has a typical Numic consonant inventory.

Syllable structure
Shoshoni syllables are of the form (C)V(V)(C). For instance: nɨkka "dance" (CVC CV), ɨkkoi "sleep" (VC CVV), and paa "water" (CVV). Shoshoni does not allow onset clusters.

Typical Shoshoni roots are of the form CV(V)CV(V). Examples include kasa "wing" and papi "older brother."

Stress
Stress in Shoshoni is regular but not distinctive. Primary stress usually falls on the first syllable (more specifically, the first mora) of a word; however, primary stress tends to fall on the second syllable if that syllable is long. For instance, natsattamahkantɨn [ˈnazattamaxandɨ] "tied up" bears primary stress on the first syllable; however, kottoohkwa "made a fire" bears primary stress on the second syllable, with long vowel, instead of the first syllable with short vowel.

As in other Numic languages, stress in Shoshoni is distributed based on mora-counting. Short Shoshoni vowels have one mora, while long vowels and vowel clusters ending in have two morae. Following the primary stress, every other mora receives secondary stress. If stress falls on the second mora in a long vowel, the stress is transferred to the first mora in the long vowel and mora counting continues from there. For example, natsattamahkantɨn "tied up" bears the stress pattern, with stress falling on every other mora.

With some dialectical variation, mora counting resets at the border between stems in compound words. Final syllables need not be stressed and may undergo optional final vowel devoicing.

Phonological processes
Given here are a few examples of regular, well-documented phonological rules in Shoshoni:

 * Short, unclustered, unstressed vowels, when part of final syllables and followed by, are devoiced. These same vowels, when preceded by , are usually devoiced. These processes represent Shoshoni "organic devoicing." For instance, tɨkkahkwan → "ate up".
 * Final vowels may be devoiced optionally, representing Shoshoni "inorganic devoicing." If the final vowel is devoiced, the long or short consonant preceding it is also devoiced. Thus, kammu → "jackrabbit".
 * Stops, affricates, and nasals are voiced and lenited between vowels. The stops and affricate become voiced fricatives; the nasals become nasalized glides. Thus papi → "brother", tatsa →  "summer," and imaa →  "tomorrow".
 * Stops, affricates, and nasals are lenited, but remain unvoiced, when they are preceded by underlying . This is deleted in the surface form. Thus, paikkahkwa →  "killed".
 * Stops, affricates, and nasals are voiced when part of an intervocalic nasal cluster. Thus, pampi → "head" and wantsi →  "antelope".

Morphology
Shoshoni is a synthetic, agglutinative language, in which words, especially verbs, tend to be complex with several morphemes strung together. Shoshoni is a primarily suffixing language.

Absolutive suffixes
Many nouns in Shoshoni have an absolutive suffix (unrelated to the absolutive case). The absolutive suffix is normally dropped when the noun is the first element in a compound, when the noun is followed by a suffix or postposition, or when the noun is incorporated into a verb. For instance, the independent noun sɨhɨpin "willow" has the absolutive suffix -pin; the root loses this suffix in the form sɨhɨykwi "to gather willows". The correlation between any particular noun stem and which of the seven absolutive suffixes it has is irregular and unpredictable. The absolutive suffixes are as follows:

 * -pin
 * -ppɨh
 * -ppɨ
 * -pittsih, -pittsɨh
 * -mpih
 * -pai
 * -ttsih

Number and case
Shoshoni is a nominative-accusative language. Shoshoni nouns inflect for three cases (subjective, objective, and possessive) and for three numbers (singular, dual, and plural).

Number is marked by suffixes on all human nouns and optionally on other animate nouns. The regular suffixes for number are listed in the table below. The Shoshoni singular is unmarked. Case is also marked by suffixes, which vary depending on the noun. Subjective case is unmarked. Many nouns also have a zero objective case marker; other possible objective markers are -tta, -a, and -i. These suffixes correspond with the possessive case markers -n, -ttan or -n, -an, or -n (in Western Shoshoni; this last suffix also appears as -an in Gosiute and is replaced by -in in Northern Shoshoni). These case markers can be predicted only to a degree based on phonology of the noun stem.

Derivational morphology
Nominal derivational morphology is also often achieved through suffixing. For instance, the instrumental suffix -(n)nompɨh is used with verb stems to form nouns used for the purpose of the verb: katɨnnompɨh "chair" is derived from katɨ "sit"; puinompɨh "binoculars" is derived from pui "see". The characterization suffix -kantɨn be used with a root noun to derive a noun characterized by the root: hupiakantɨn "singer" is derived from hupia "song"; puhakantɨn "shaman" is derived from puha "power", as one characterized by power.

Number
Shoshoni verbs may mark for number, mainly through reduplication or suppletion. The dual is commonly marked through reduplication of the first syllable of the verb stem, so that singular kimma "come" becomes kikimma in the dual (and remains kima in the plural). A suppletive form is often used for the dual or plural forms of the verb; for instance, singular yaa "carry" becomes hima in both the dual and plural. Suppletion and reduplication frequently work in tandem to express number: singular nukki "run" becomes the reduplicated nunukki in the dual and the suppleted nutaa in the plural; singular yɨtsɨ "fly" is reduplicated, suppleted dual yoyoti and suppleted plural yoti.

Instrumental prefixes
Shoshoni uses prefixes to add a specific instrumental element to a verb. For instance, the instrumental prefix to"- "with the hand or fist" can be used with the verb tsima "scrape" to yield tottsima "wipe," as in pɨn puihkatti tottsimma yakaitɨn "he wiped at his eyes, crying".

Common instrumental prefixes include:

 * kɨ"- "with the teeth or mouth"
 * ku"- "by heat"
 * ma- "with a non-grasping hand"
 * mu"- "with the nose or front of body"
 * ni"- "with the voice"
 * pi"- "with the buttocks or back of body"
 * sɨ"- "by cold"
 * sun- "with the mind"
 * ta"- "with the feet"
 * ta"- "with a hard instrument or rock"
 * to"- "with the hand or fist"
 * tsa"- "with a grasping hand"
 * tsi"- "with a sharp point"
 * tso"- "with the head"
 * wɨ"- "with a long instrument or body"; generic instrumental

Word order
Subject-object-verb (SOV) is the typical word order for Shoshoni.

nɨ hunanna puinnu

I badger see

"I saw a badger"

nɨwɨ sakkuhtɨn paittsɨkkinna

person there {was hollering}

"the person was making a fuss there"

In ditransitive sentences, the direct and indirect object are marked with the objective case. The indirect object can occur before the direct object, or vice versa. For example, in nɨ tsuhnippɨha satiia uttuhkwa "I gave the bone to the dog", tsuhnippɨh "bone" and satii "dog" take the objective case suffix -a.

The subject is not a mandatory component of a grammatical Shoshoni sentence. Therefore, impersonal sentences without subjects are allowed; those sentences have an object-verb word order.

ɨtɨinna

hot-CONT

"it [the weather] is hot"

In particular, it is common for the subject to be deleted when a coreferential pronoun appears elsewhere in the sentence. For example, pɨnnan haintsɨha kai paikkawaihtɨn "he won't kill his (own) friend" uses the coreferential possessive pronoun pɨnnan and lacks a word for "he" as an explicit subject. Likewise, the subject can be deleted from the sentence when the subject can be inferred from context. For example, in a narrative about one man who shoots another, u paikkahkwa "he killed him" (literally, "him killed") is acceptable, because the killer is clear from the context of the narrative.

State-of-being sentences express “be” by excluding an overt verb, resulting in a basic subject-object order.

usɨ um pii

that his mother

"that is his mother"

Sentence meaning is not dependent on word order in Shoshoni. For example, if the subject is an unstressed pronoun then it is grammatical for the subject to follow the object of the sentence.

Constituent order
The basic order of constituent morphemes in Shoshoni verbs is as follows: "(Valence) - (Instrumental) - Stem - (Causative/Benefactive) - (Secondary Verb) - (Directional) - (Prefinal Aspect) - (Aspect) - (Imperative) - (Number) - (Subordination)"Any verb form must include a verb stem, but other prefixes and suffixes may not be present, depending on the particular verb form.

Relative clauses
Relative clauses tend to share the same head noun as the main clause, and the case of this noun must agree in both clauses. When the subject of the relative clause matches the subject of the main clause, the verb of the relative clause takes on the same-subject subordination suffix -tɨn or -h/kkantɨn, depending on whether the events of the clauses occur simultaneously or not. These suffixes agree with the head noun of the main clause in both case and number. For example, wa'ippɨ yakaitɨn pitɨnuh "the woman who was crying arrived," where the subject wa'ippɨ "woman" is the same for both clauses and yakai- "cry" in the relative clause takes the suffix -tɨn.

However, when the subject of the relative clause is not the head noun of the main clause, the subject of the relative clause takes the possessive case and a different set of verbal suffixes are used; the head noun may be deleted from the relative clause altogether. These different-subject subordinate suffixes also mark verb tense and aspect: in the nominative case, they are -na if present, -h/kkan if stative, -h/kkwan if momentaneous, -ppɨh if perfect, -tu'ih if future, and -ih if unmarked.

aitɨn painkwi nɨhɨn tɨkkanna pitsikkammanna

this fish our eating tastes-rotten

"this fish that we are eating tastes rotten"

The subject "we" of the relative clause appears as the possessive pronoun nɨhɨn "our," and tɨkka- "eat" takes the suffix -nna to indicate the present action of eating.

Switch reference
Shoshoni exhibits switch reference, in which a non-relative, subordinate clause is marked when its subject is a pronoun that differs from the subject of the main clause. In such subordinate clauses, the subject takes the objective case and the verb takes on a switch reference suffix: -ku if the events of both clauses occur simultaneously, -h/kkan if the events of the subordinate clause occur first, or the combined -h/kkanku if the events of the subordinate clause occur over an extended amount of time. For example, sunni naaku wihyu nɨnɨttsi utɨɨkatti tattɨkwa "when that happened, something scary came to them." In the relative clause sunni naaku "when that happened", the verb naa- "be" or "happen" takes on the suffix -ku to indicate that the relative and main clauses co-occur in the narrative.

Writing system
Shoshoni lacks a single agreed-upon writing system. Multiple orthographies exist, with differing levels of acceptance among Shoshoni speakers. Among the Shoshone, there are conflicting views on whether Shoshoni should be written at all.

Traditionalists advocate to keep Shoshoni an oral language, better protected from outsiders who might exploit the language. Meanwhile, progressives argue that writing the language down will better preserve it and make it useful today.

The older Crum-Miller system and the Idaho State University system (or Gould system) are the two main Shoshoni writing systems in use.

The Crum-Miller orthography was developed in the 1960s by Beverly Crum, a Shoshone elder and linguist, and Wick Miller, a non-Native anthropologist and linguist. The system is largely phonemic, with specific symbols mapping to specific phonemes, which reflects the underlying sounds but not necessarily surface pronunciations. The newer Idaho State system was developed by the Shoshone elder Drusilla Gould and the non-Native linguist Christopher Loether and is used more commonly in southern Idaho. Compared to the Crum-Miller system, the Idaho State system is more phonetic, with spellings more closely reflecting the surface pronunciations of words, but it lacks the deeper phonemic information that the Crum-Miller system provides.

Online Shoshoni dictionaries are available for everyday use.

title: Shoshoni language


text: File:Apogee Software.png

title: File:Apogee Software.png