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Cirsium vulgare

Cirsium vulgare, the spear thistle, bull thistle, or common thistle, is a species of the Asteraceae genus Cirsium, native throughout most of Europe (north to 66°N, locally 68°N), Western Asia (east to the Yenisei Valley), and northwestern Africa (Atlas Mountains). It is also naturalised in North America, Africa, and Australia and is an invasive weed in several regions. It is the national flower of Scotland.

The plant provides a great deal of nectar for pollinators. It was rated in the top 10 for most nectar production (nectar per unit cover per year) in a UK plants survey conducted by the AgriLand project which is supported by the UK Insect Pollinators Initiative. Marsh thistle, Cirsium palustre, was ranked in first place while this thistle was ranked in sixth place. It also was a top producer of nectar sugar in another study in Britain, ranked third with a production per floral unit of (2300 ± 400 μg).

Description
It is a tall biennial or short-lived monocarpic thistle, forming a rosette of leaves and a taproot up to 70 cm (28 in) long in the first year, and a flowering stem 1–1.5 m (3 ft 4 in - 4 ft 11 in) tall in the second (rarely third or fourth) year. It can grow up to 1.8 m tall. It sometimes will function as an annual, flowering in the first year. The stem is winged, with numerous longitudinal spine-tipped wings along its full length. The leaves are stoutly spined, grey-green, deeply lobed; the basal leaves grow up to 30 cm long, with smaller leaves on the upper part of the flower stem; the leaf lobes are spear-shaped (from which the English name derives). The inflorescence is 2.5-5 cm diameter, pink-purple, with all the florets of similar form (no division into disc and ray florets). The seeds are 5 mm long, with a downy pappus, which assists in wind dispersal. As in other species of Cirsium (but unlike species in the related genus Carduus), the pappus hairs are feathery with fine side hairs.

Ecology
Spear thistle is often a ruderal species, colonising bare disturbed ground, but also persists well on heavily grazed land as it is unpalatable to most grazing animals. Nitrogen-rich soils help increase its proliferation. The flowers are a rich nectar source used by numerous pollinating insects, including honey bees, wool-carder bees, and many butterflies. The seeds are eaten by goldfinches, linnets and greenfinches. The seeds are dispersed by wind, mud, water, and possibly also by ants; they do not show significant long-term dormancy, most germinating soon after dispersal and only a few lasting up to four years in the soil seed bank. Seed is also often spread by human activity such as hay bales.

Weed status
Spear thistle is designated an "injurious weed" under the UK Weeds Act 1959, and a noxious weed in Australia and in nine US states. Spread is only by seed, not by root fragments as in the related creeping thistle C. arvense. It is best cleared from land by hoeing and deep cutting of the taproot before seeds mature; regular cultivation also prevents its establishment.

Despite this label, the plant has beneficial qualities beyond its very high nectar production. It produces seeds eaten by the American goldfinch, down from seed pods that is used by those birds for nesting material. However, despite this serving generalist pollinators and animals, it is highly recommended to plant native thistles and other plants as it can wreak havoc on natural ecosystems.

Other names
Common names include bull thistle, Scots, Scottish, or Scotch thistle, and common thistle.

Uses
The stems can be peeled (removing their spiny surfaces) and then steamed or boiled. The tap roots can be eaten raw or cooked, but are only palatable on young thistles that have not yet flowered. The dried florets steeped in water are used in rural Italy for curdling goats' milk in preparation for making cheese.

In culture
The plant features in some Scottish ceremonies such as the "Riding of the Marches", held annually in Langholm in July. The 1992 specimen measured six feet in length.

Spear thistle is also the emblem of Newton Regis in England.

title: Cirsium vulgare


text:
Semi-submersible platform

A semi-submersible platform is a specialised marine vessel used in offshore roles including as offshore drilling rigs, safety vessels, oil production platforms, and heavy lift cranes. They have good ship stability and seakeeping, better than drillships.

Characteristics
Offshore drilling in water depth greater than around 520 m requires that operations be carried out from a floating vessel, since fixed structures are not practical. Initially in the early 1950s monohull ships such as CUSS I were used, but these were found to have significant heave, pitch and yaw motions in large waves, and the industry needed more stable drilling platforms.

A semi-submersible obtains most of its buoyancy from ballasted, watertight pontoons located below the ocean surface and wave action. Structural columns connect the pontoons and operating deck. The operating deck can be located high above the sea level owing to the good ship stability of the design, and therefore is kept well away from the waves.

With its hull structure submerged at a deep draft, the semi-submersible is less affected by wave loadings than a normal ship. With a small water-plane area, however, the semi-submersible is sensitive to load changes, and therefore must have their onboard mass trimmed to maintain stability. Unlike a submersible, a semi-submersible vessel is not supported by resting on the seabed.

Semi-submersible vessels are able to transform from a deep to a shallow draft by deballasting (removing ballast water from the hull), thereby becoming surface vessels. Usually they are moved from location to location in this configuration. The heavy lift vessels use this capability to submerge the majority of their structure, locate beneath another floating vessel, and then deballast to pick up the other vessel as a cargo.

Early history
The semi-submersible design was first developed for oil platform activities in the early 1960s. Bruce Collipp of Shell is regarded as the inventor.

However, Edward Robert Armstrong may have paved the way with his idea of "seadrome" landing strips for airplanes in the late 1920s, since his idea involved the same use of columns on ballast tanks below the surface and anchored to the ocean floor by steel cables.

The first jackup rigs, for shallow waters, was built in 1954.

The first semisubmersible arrived by accident in 1961. Blue Water Drilling Company owned and operated the four column submersible drilling rig Blue Water Rig No.1 in the Gulf of Mexico for Shell Oil Company. As the pontoons were not sufficiently buoyant to support the weight of the rig and its consumables, it was towed between locations at a draught midway between the top of the pontoons and the underside of the deck. It was observed that the motions at this draught were very small, and Blue Water Drilling and Shell jointly decided that the rig could be operated in the floating mode.

The first purpose built drilling semi-submersible Ocean Driller was launched in 1963.

By 1972, there were 30 semi-submersible units.

Classification
Drilling rig construction has historically occurred in boom periods and therefore "batches" of drilling rigs have been built. Offshore drilling rigs have been loosely classified in nominal "generations" depending upon the year built and water depth capability as follows:

Mobile offshore drilling units (MODU)
Semi-submersible rigs make stable platforms for drilling for offshore oil and gas. They can be towed into position by a tugboat and anchored, or moved by and kept in position by their own azimuth thrusters with dynamic positioning.

The International Maritime Organization MODU Code is an accredited design and operational guideline for mobile offshore drilling units of the semi-submersible type.

Semi-submersible crane vessels (SSCV)

The advantages of the semi-submersible vessel stability were soon recognized for offshore construction when in 1978 Heerema Marine Contractors constructed the two sister crane vessels called Balder and Hermod. These semi-submersible crane vessels (SSCV) consist of two lower hulls (pontoons), three columns on each pontoon and an upper hull. Shortly after J. Ray McDermott and Saipem also introduced SSCVs, resulting in two new enormous vessels DB-102 (now Thialf) and Saipem 7000, capable of lifting respectively 14,200 and 14,000 tons.

During transit an SSCV is de-ballasted to a draught where only part of the lower hull is submerged. During lifting operations, the vessel is ballasted down. This way, the lower hull is well submerged. This reduces the effect of waves and swell. High stability is obtained by placing the columns far apart. The high stability allows them to lift extremely high loads safely.

Offshore support vessels (OSV)
Semi-submersibles are particularly suited to a number of offshore support vessel roles because of their good stability, large deck areas, and variable deck load (VDL).

Notable vessels are as follows:

 * Transocean Marianas – Offshore safety support vessel, built in 1979 and since converted into a drilling vessel, and rechristened Transocean Marianas
 * Iolair – Offshore safety support vessel, built for BP in 1982, Sedco/Phillips SS was the first built to Red Adair's recommendations. Iolair followed.
 * Q4000 – Offshore multiservice vessel, built for Caldive in 2002

Offshore production platforms
When oil fields were first developed in offshore locations, drilling semi-submersibles were converted for use as combined drilling and production platforms. These vessels offered very stable and cost effective platforms. The first semi-submersible floating production platform was the Argyll FPF converted from the Transworld 58 drilling semi-submersible in 1975 for the Hamilton Brothers North Sea Argyll oil field.

As the oil industry progressed into deeper water and harsh environments, purpose-built production semi-submersible platforms were designed. The first purpose-built semi-submersible production platform was for the Balmoral field in the UK North Sea in 1986.

Notable platforms are as follows:

 * Petrobras 36 – Converted from drilling rig Spirit of Columbus and sank in 2001
 * Atlantis PQ – BP and BHP joint venture
 * Thunder Horse PDQ – GVA40000 design, largest semi-submersible platform

Offshore rocket launch and landing platform
Ocean Odyssey was converted from a mobile drilling rig to a launch platform in 1997. In total, 36 rockets were launched from the platform. The last launch happened in 2014, shortly before its owner Sea Launch significantly reduced all operations.

The potential application of converted semi-submersible oil drilling rigs is being explored by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) for launching and landing of Starship. SpaceX has acquired two former offshore oil drilling rigs in 2021, similar to the ENSCO/Valaris 8506 offshore model, but later sold them in 2023 after they were considered unsuitable.

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

title: Semi-submersible platform


text:
Cirsium palustre

Cirsium palustre, the marsh thistle or European swamp thistle, is a herbaceous biennial (or often perennial) flowering plant in the family Asteraceae.

Description
Cirsium palustre is a tall thistle which reaches up to 2 m in height. The strong stems have few branches and are covered in small spines. In its first year the plant grows as a dense rosette, at first with narrow, entire leaves with spiny, dark purple edges; later, larger leaves are lobed. In the subsequent years the plant grows a tall, straight stem, the tip of which branches repeatedly, bearing a candelabra of dark purple flowers, 10 - 20 mm with purple-tipped bracts. In the northern hemisphere these are produced from June to September. The flowers are occasionally white, in which case the purple edges to the leaves are absent.

Ecology
The plant provides a great deal of nectar for pollinators. It was rated first out of the top 10 for most nectar production (nectar per unit cover per year) in a UK plants survey conducted by the AgriLand project which is supported by the UK Insect Pollinators Initiative.

It is native to Europe where it is particularly common on damp ground such as marshes, wet fields, moorland and beside streams. In Canada and the northern United States, it is an introduced species that has become invasive. It grows in dense thickets that can crowd out slower growing native plants.

Cirsium palustre is broadly distributed throughout much of Europe and eastward to central Asia. This thistle's occurrence is linked to the spread of human agriculture from the mid-Holocene era or before. It is a constant plant of several fen-meadow plant associations, including the Juncus subnodulosus-Cirsium palustre fen-meadow. The flowers are visited by a wide variety of insects, featuring a generalised pollination syndrome.

title: Cirsium palustre


text:
Tina Charles (singer)

Tina Charles (born Tina Hoskins; 10 March 1954) is an English singer who achieved success as a disco artist in the mid to late 1970s. Her most successful single was the UK no. 1 hit "I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance)" in 1976.

Early life
Charles was born Tina Hoskins in Whitechapel, London, to actor Charles Hoskins and his wife Hilda. She recovered from meningitis as a newborn. She has a brother, Warren, who was her tour manager during the height of her career.

Career
Charles began her career as a backing singer and session musician, and recorded her first solo single in 1969 with a then-unknown Elton John playing piano. During the early 1970s, she supplied vocals for the Top of the Pops album series of cover versions of contemporary hits. In 1971, she made appearances in the first series of The Two Ronnies, the BBC1 sketch show starring Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, performing songs such as "River Deep – Mountain High" and "Ruby Tuesday".

In 1975, Charles and her friend Linda Lewis were backing vocalists on the Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel chart topping song, "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)". Charles provided the lead vocals for 5000 Volts' 1975 disco hit single "I'm on Fire". Although not publicly acknowledged as a group member at the time due to contractual problems, Charles was considered to have a stronger voice than the group's later official lead singers. The song reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart, and 26 in the Billboard Hot 100.

Charles' big break came soon after in 1975, when Indian-British composer/producer Biddu, who had just enjoyed success with the disco song "Kung Fu Fighting" for Carl Douglas, produced the singles "You Set My Heart on Fire" and "I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance)" for her. The latter single spent three weeks at number one on the UK chart in March 1976, and was a major hit around the world. It won a Juno Award in 1977.

Biddu's collaboration continued on a future album and another song hit: "Dance Little Lady Dance". In total, Charles spent 42 weeks on the UK Singles Chart in 1976 alone, mainly due to these two records. During this time, her touring band included Trevor Horn (for a while her boyfriend), Geoff Downes, and Bruce Woolley.

Further hits, including "Love Me Like a Lover", "Dr Love", "Rendezvous" and "Love Bug", made her a pop star in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, but she was never able to achieve success in the US. Her only solo recording to chart significantly in the US was "You Set My Heart on Fire", which reached number 3 on Record World magazine's 'Disco File Top 20' chart in the autumn of 1975.

In 1978, Charles was a joint winner at the World Popular Song Festival held in Tokyo, performing the tune "Love Rocks". Charles represented the UK, and shared the top prize with Japan's own entry.

By 1980, her career was in decline, and disco music generally was losing some of its public appeal. She attempted to change her disco style for her 1980 album Just One Smile for a more hard edge rock electronic style but the album was virtually ignored. Charles married and had a child, and devoted herself for some years to her family life, putting her singing career on hold. In the mid-1980s, she had a resurgence with a remix of "I Love to Love" which was produced by longtime friend and associate Sanny X.

Since 2000, Charles has performed throughout Europe, where disco music and her hit singles have been reappraised, and she has become a popular live performer. Charles featured in the Top 5 of the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart with "Higher" in 2006. The song was produced by Sanny X. She made a guest appearance with The Producers at their 2007 concert, singing "Slave to the Rhythm". In October 2007, Charles recorded "Hide and Seek" with producer Ian Levine for the album Disco 2008. Her latest album, Listen 2 the Music, was released in March 2008.

In 2010, Charles was signed by the British writer and producer Carl M Cox to his PMG Music production and record label. Other notable acts that have been signed by Cox's label are Sinitta and Amanda Lear. Charles' first single with PMG, "Your Love Is My Light", was released physically on 7 November 2011 and digitally on 14 November. Also in 2010, she went on tour with 5000 Volts, the band with which she experienced her first hit record.

Personal life
Charles married Bernard Webb in 1977, and they divorced in 1979. Their son, Max, was born in London in June 1977. She married Tetoo Hassan in 1993. They lived in Caterham, Surrey, England. Hassan died of cancer in 2013. In 2015, she married David Fancourt. In 2016, they lived in Surrey.

Discography

 * 1976 : I Love to Love
 * 1976 : Dance Little Lady
 * 1977 : Tina Sings
 * 1977 : Heart 'n' Soul
 * 1980 : Just One Smile
 * 2002 : I Love to Love - remix album
 * 2007 : Listen 2 the Music
 * 2008 : Feels Like Sunday

title: Tina Charles (singer)


text:
Cirsium oleraceum

Cirsium oleraceum, the cabbage thistle or Siberian thistle, is a species of thistle in the genus Cirsium within the family Asteraceae, native to central and eastern Europe and Asia, where it grows in wet lowland soils.

Cirsium oleraceum is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 1.5 m tall, the stems unbranched or with only a very few branches. The leaves are broad and ovoid, with a weakly spiny margin, being pinnatipartite. The flowers are produced in dense flower heads which are 2.5–4 cm diameter, pale yellow, but sometimes tinged pink.

Its specific epithet oleraceum means "vegetable/herbal" in Latin and is a form of (oleraceus).

Usage
For cooking: In salads the young stems and leaves are edible, and cultivated for food in Japan and India.

title: Cirsium oleraceum


text:
Electrophilic substitution

Electrophilic substitution reactions are chemical reactions in which an electrophile displaces a functional group in a compound, which is typically, but not always, aromatic. Aromatic substitution reactions are characteristic of aromatic compounds and are common ways of introducing functional groups into benzene rings. Some aliphatic compounds can undergo electrophilic substitution as well.

Electrophilic aromatic substitution
In electrophilic substitution in aromatic compounds, an atom appended to the aromatic ring, usually hydrogen, is replaced by an electrophile. The most important reactions of this type that take place are aromatic nitration, aromatic halogenation, aromatic sulfonation and acylation and alkylating Friedel-Crafts reactions. It further consists of alkylation and acylation.

Electrophilic aliphatic substitution
In electrophilic substitution in aliphatic compounds, an electrophile displaces a functional group. This reaction is similar to nucleophilic aliphatic substitution where the reactant is a nucleophile rather than an electrophile. The four possible electrophilic aliphatic substitution reaction mechanisms are SE1, SE2(front), SE2(back) and SEi (Substitution Electrophilic), which are also similar to the nucleophile counterparts SN1 and SN2. In the SE1 course of action the substrate first ionizes into a carbanion and a positively charged organic residue. The carbanion then quickly recombines with the electrophile. The SE2 reaction mechanism has a single transition state in which the old bond and the newly formed bond are both present.

Electrophilic aliphatic substitution reactions are:
 * Nitrosation
 * Ketone halogenation
 * Keto-enol tautomerism
 * Aliphatic diazonium coupling
 * Carbene insertion into C-H bonds
 * Carbonyl alpha-substitution reactions

title: Electrophilic substitution


text: User talk:69.240.52.187

title: User talk:69.240.52.187


text:
Ghost Dad

Ghost Dad is a 1990 American fantasy comedy film directed by Sidney Poitier (in his final directorial effort) and starring Bill Cosby, in which a widower's spirit is able to communicate with his children after his death. It was a box office disaster.

The film was nominated for three Young Artist Awards.

Plot
Elliot Hopper (Bill Cosby) is a workaholic widower who is about to land the deal of a lifetime at work, which he hopes will win him a promotion and a company car. After he forgets his daughter Diane's birthday, he attempts to make it up to her by promising her she can have his car when he secures the deal at work on the coming Thursday. After being persuaded to give the car to his daughter early, Elliot must hail a taxi from work, which is driven by Satanist Curtis Burch (Raynor Scheine), who drives erratically and is out of control. Attempting to get the taxi stopped, Elliot announces that he is Satan and commands him to stop the taxi, and also attempts to give him his wallet. Shocked to see his "Evil Master", Burch drives off a bridge and into the river.

Elliot emerges from the accident scene, only to learn that he is a ghost when a police officer fails to notice him and a speeding bus goes straight through him. When he gets home he discovers that his three children can see him, but only in a totally dark room, and they cannot hear him at times. He struggles to tell them what happened when he is whisked away to London by paranormal researcher Sir Edith Moser (Ian Bannen), who tells him he is a ghost who has yet to enter the afterlife because "they screwed up"; his soul will not cross over until Thursday.

The pressures of work and family life lead to many comedic events, as Elliot attempts to renew his life insurance policy and complete his company's merger, so his family will be provided for once he crosses over. One day, he must choose between staying in an important work meeting and helping his son Danny with a magic trick at school. He eventually decides that his family's happiness is more important and walks out on his furious boss, Mr. Collins (Barry Corbin), who later smugly fires him. Dejected, Elliot reveals himself as a ghost to his love interest, Joan (Denise Nicholas), whose initial shock soon turns to sympathy.

Edith arrives from London to announce that Elliot is not dead; his spirit jumped out of his body in fright. They also work out that the only previous known case of this happening was Elliot's father. In the excitement to find Elliot's body to reunite his spirit with it, Diane trips on a pair of skates that her little sister, Amanda, left on the stairs; she falls and is seriously injured. The family rush her to the hospital where her spirit has also jumped out of her body. As she delightedly flies around, Elliot begs her to re-enter her body; his own has started to "flicker". When he collapses, Diane becomes concerned and races into the intensive-care unit to find her father's body. She helps him into the room and they discover that Burch had swapped wallets with Elliot, meaning Elliot was wrongly identified by the hospital as Burch. Elliot returns to his body and wakes up; Diane does the same and jumps off the operating table to tell the family what has happened.

As the reunited family leave the hospital, Elliot spots a yellow taxi parked outside and goes to look inside. He sees Curtis Burch behind the wheel. Delighted to see his "Evil Master", Burch returns Elliot's wallet and tells Elliot he will do whatever Elliot commands. Elliot commands Burch to go to hell and sit on red-hot coals waiting for him "until it snows". Curtis agrees enthusiastically and drives off while Elliot, Joan, Edith, and the family leave the hospital.

Pre-production
Early in development, John Badham was slated to direct the film with Steve Martin as Elliot Hopper. Badham and Martin left the project for unknown reasons, and Universal hired Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby to be their respective replacements.

Novelization
As part of the publicity for the movie, a Ghost Dad novelization written by Mel Cebulash was released the year of the film's debut.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 6% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 3.30/10. The site's critics consensus states: "A startlingly misconceived effort from director Sidney Poitier and star Bill Cosby, Ghost Dad is a listless, glacially-paced comedy that's alternately schmaltzy and incomprehensible." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Rating the movie half a star out of four, Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert characterized it as "a desperately unfunny film—a strained, contrived construction that left me shaking my head in amazement [ . . . ] How could Sidney Poitier, a skilled filmmaker with an actor's sense of timing, have been the director of this mess? How did a production executive go for it? Who ever thought this was a good idea? Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "unctuous, flat and phony, a farce that has the pace of a Broadway bus at rush hour."

Box office
In the film's opening weekend, it earned $4,803,480. Domestically the film earned $24,707,633 and $714,000 at the international box office for a total of $25,421,633.

Home media
Ghost Dad was released on VHS by MCA/Universal Home Video on December 6, 1990. The film was released on DVD by Good Times Video on May 1, 2001, and as a "Studio Selections" DVD by Universal Studios on March 1, 2005.

TV version
Twelve minutes' worth of deleted scenes were shown on television on NBC and on USA Network.

Modern references
On November 1, 2000, Ghost Dad was parodied in The Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror XI", in which Homer Simpson died after consuming broccoli and was required to perform one good deed within 24 hours in order to not be sentenced to an eternity in Hell.

In the Family Guy episode "Brian Does Hollywood", Stewie appears on an episode of Kids Say the Darndest Things, Cosby's show. When Cosby inadvertently hypnotizes Stewie with his own device, Stewie says "Ghost Dad was the best movie I've seen since Leonard Part 6", referencing another infamous flop Cosby made.

In the video game Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, published in January 2008, the protagonist is required to fight and slay "Ghost Dad", who has been terrorizing the ruins of Proto-Neo-New York, in order to lift the fog bank that prevents passage to the Spalding Building. He is featured as a ghost with Bill Cosby's face superimposed shoddily onto its body.

In the Bob's Burgers episode "Crawl Space", Bob answers questions for Louise's friends while acting as a ghost trapped in the walls. One of her friends asks him if he's "the ghost dad from Ghost Dad."

The film was reviewed in an early 2014 episode of Nostalgia Critic.

title: Ghost Dad


text:
User talk:Bklock

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia!

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 * If you need help, post a question at the Help Desk or ask me on my talk page.
 * Explore, be bold in editing pages, and, most importantly, have fun!

Good luck! Jrdioko

P.S. One last helpful hint. To sign your posts like I did above (on talk pages, for example) use the '~' symbol. To insert just your name, type (3 tildes), or, to insert your name and timestamp, use ~ (4 tildes).

title: User talk:Bklock


text:
User talk:Sesqui

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia!

Here are some tips to help you get started:

 * If you haven't already, please add your name to the new user log to let others know a little about yourself.
 * Read the article describing how to edit a page and feel free to experiment in the Sandbox.
 * When editing pages, use the preview button before submitting and try to fill in the summary box for every edit.
 * Eventually, read the Manual of Style and Policies and Guidelines.
 * If you need help, post a question at the Help Desk or ask me on my talk page.
 * Explore, be bold in editing pages, and, most importantly, have fun!

Good luck! Jrdioko

P.S. One last helpful hint. To sign your posts like I did above (on talk pages, for example) use the '~' symbol. To insert just your name, type (3 tildes), or, to insert your name and timestamp, use ~ (4 tildes).

Proposed Image Deletion
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All files in category Unclassified Chemical Structures listed for deletion
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title: User talk:Sesqui


text:
Talk:Maltese language

Message board

 * Hi! Please consider visiting the Malta-related topics notice board. (should this be in a little box or something?) Srl 05:01, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

Maghrebi Arabic
I sorted out the classification in the infobox. Maltese was listed under Arabic language, which would have implied it to be a dialect, when really, it comes under Arabic languages (a language family). I am hoping no one is disputing the factuality of this?

I also removed the Maghrebi Arabic label, since: mɪn'dʒi:klə (talk) 19:00, 14 January 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) Maghrebi Arabic is a variety or the Arabic language - which Maltese is not. Maltese is an Arabic language, not an Arabic one (which would have rendered it a dialect if it was).
 * 2) No reliable linguists classify it under Maghrebi.
 * 3) I was the one who added it to the article in the first place: - incorrectly.

 * Yes, I'm disputing it, as I explained just now at Arabic languages. You're mixing up two different things: status as a language vs. lineage. The 'family' part of the infobox covers lineage. By lineage, Maltese is a descent of Siculo-Arabic, which was a dialect of Maghrebi Arabic, which was a variety of the Arabic macrolanguage, which is one of two branches of the Arabic languages. Your edits make the contrary claim that Maltese is a third branch of the Arabic languages, which is incorrect.

 * Yes, of course Maltese is a separate language from Arabic. I don't think anyone disputes that. It is mutually unintelligible, ethnically distinct, and neither the Maltese nor the Arabs (AFAIK) claim Maltese as a dialect of Arabic. However, this has nothing to do with its lineage, which clearly is Arabic.

 * I'm not wedded to "Maghrebi" particularly, but I think we do need to show that Maltese is a descendant of Arabic, and not a sister language. kwami (talk) 19:06, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Let me put this in perspective for you. English came from Norse. However, when it developed into a separate language, it stopped being classified as Norse, and became a "Germanic language".
 * The same with Maltese. It's ancestor came from Arabic, but when Maltese became its own language and lost mutual intelligibility, it then came to be classified as an Arabic language - not an Arabic dialect.
 * There are also no sources to back up that it is Maghrebi either. mɪn'dʒi:klə (talk) 19:13, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

 * English does not come from Norse. Norse influenced its lexicon and grammar, playing a role more like Sicilian than Arabic in the case of Maltese.
 * The sources are at Siculo-Arabic. kwami (talk) 19:20, 14 January 2009 (UTC)
 * If they're there I'm sure you won't mind quoting them? mɪn'dʒi:klə (talk) 19:28, 14 January 2009 (UTC)
 * ("It is descended from Maghrebi Arabic but has borrowed heavily from Italian"). ("the oldest layer of Maltese has been closely related to the pre-Hilalian type of urban Maghrebi"). Singer, Hans-Rudolf (1980) “Das Westarabische oder Maghribinische” in Wolfdietrich Fischer and Otto Jastrow (eds.) Handbuch der arabischen Dialekte. Martine Haak, Rudolf Erik de Jong, C. H. M. Versteegh (2004) Approaches to Arabic Dialects. Norman A. Stillman (1988) The Language and Culture of the Jews of Sefrou, Morocco. However, there are others who restrict the term "Maghrebi" to the varieties of Arabic which remained in North Africa, so it's to some extent a matter of definition. kwami (talk) 19:49, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

 * We have been through this a thousand times before. Maltese is genetically descended from ARABIC, not from the putative ancestor of an "Arabic language family".  This whole attempt to separate Maltese from its Arabic roots is utterly unjustified and ridiculous.  Show your sources that Maltese is somehow a sister language to Arabic and the entry at "Arabic languages" would be justified.  Otherwise, Maltese should fall under Varieties of Arabic (as it does). (Taivo (talk) 19:46, 14 January 2009 (UTC))

 * Excuse me? How have I tried to imply Maltese is not Arabic? I am the one arguing that it is an Arabic language. Read the conversation next time. mɪn'dʒi:klə (talk) 19:58, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

 * I did read the conversation and you are trying to remove Maltese from "Arabic" and place it as a sister of Arabic in a family called "Arabic languages" which includes Ancient North Arabic. That implies that Maltese is a sister to Arabic and Ancient North Arabic, not a descendant of Arabic and a "nephew" of Ancient North Arabic.  Kwami is 100% correct in his corrections to your assertions.  We have been over this time and time again.  (Taivo (talk) 20:05, 14 January 2009 (UTC))

 * No, that is like saying that French is now seen as a sister to Latin because it is classed as a "Romance language". mɪn'dʒi:klə (talk) 20:10, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Latin is not a Romance language, so classifying French as Romance does not make it a sister to Latin. You really need to read some of this stuff before you use it to argue your point. kwami (talk) 20:15, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

 * First of all, I agree with Taivo and Kwami. Maltese has Maghrebi origines. Kwami has already added several sources about it, I could add more. Second, the comparison with French and Latin is wrong. If both French and Latin would both be classed as Romance languages Mingeyqla would be right, but they are not. Latin is an Italic language, not a Romance language. In fact, Mingeyqla's example shows the opposite. For French, we've got Latin -> Romance -> French and for Maltese we've got Arabic -> Maghrebi Arabic -> Maltese. Rather simplified, but the fact remains that French is Romance and Latin is not. And Maltese is Maghrebi.JdeJ (talk) 20:18, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Oy. And here was I, thinking 2009 would bring some peace. Dancing around the Arabic issue (as distasteful as it is to some editors) doesn't do anything for the article's integrity. Though saying 'Maltese is Maghrebi' is rather silly.. Maltese is Maltese ^^ the roof of this court is too high to be yours (talk) 21:13, 14 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Neither Kwami nor I are tied to the Maghrebi connection. Personally, I think that the distinction between Maghrebi and Masriqi is probably a bit more recent than the separation of Siculo-Arabic from Arabic, but I'm not a specialist in that body of data. (Taivo (talk) 21:31, 14 January 2009 (UTC))

I've just read this article and also the maltese version of it. For me it's clear that Maltese is a Maghrebi Arabic although I am not an expert. I am Moroccan and it was easy for me to undersatnd nearly 70% of a text written in maltese (after reading the alphabet of course). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.140.41.236 (talk) 21:01, 25 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Maltese has more in common with Lebanese varieties if anything. Maybe you're Lebanese and don't even know it. Lol? LoL. Ελληνικά όρος ή φράση (talk) 00:57, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

No it has not, if anything, the Arabic variety most closely related to Maltese is Tunisian Arabic. Just look at verb conjugation in Tunisian Arabic. I know it is not enough of a proof, but it should be enough to set the facts straight since the most distinctive thing about the varieties of Arabic is the verb conjugation of each variety. 192.108.115.2 (talk) 02:34, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I have no special knowledge on this subject, but I am wondering whether there is an agenda behind distancing Maltese from Arabic. Just from 'general knowledge' (coming from the UK) I was under the impression that Maltese was a variety of Arabic, albeit influenced by Italian (i.e. Sicilian). I've noticed that in a number of articles Maltese is curiously labelled as "Semitic" and the "A" word is studiously avoided. Then I read this thread....What's the scoop? I'm just curious more than anything. DeCausa (talk) 22:57, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Some of the arguments here are incorrect, especially the claim that Maltese and Arabic are mutually unintelligible. Indeed the italian and english loans are incompatible with Arabic, but when it comes to the arabic words Maltese is mutually intelligble with Maghrebi. Indeed Il_Cantilena (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Cantilena) is astonishingly intelligible for a maghrebi, while maybe not so for a mashreqi. Kind regards, — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.72.181.199 (talk) 19:47, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

Pronunciation of the Letter Z
In the alphabet table, the Approximate English pronunciation of the letter Z is given as: "pizza; when doubled may change to lots."

Everyone I know here in the US pronounces the zz in pizza exactly like the ts in lots. Maybe someone who knows Maltese and English can come up with a better example for English speakers of how the pronunciation of zz differs from z in Maltese.--Jim10701 (talk) 23:41, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

 * I usually hear "pizza" with /ts/ as well. This page gives "pads" as an English example of something approximating [d͡z].
 * Also, if Maltese r is trilled this should be mentioned in the pronunciation guide, and "law" for [o] may only work for certain varieties of English (e.g. Received Pronunciation). Lfh (talk) 17:51, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Spoken in?
A common issue in many articles but I wonder about the "Spoken in" list at the top. Certainly I have no trouble believing that there are significant groups of speakers in all of these countries but, IMHO, it is misleading to include so many nations where the language has no real status, even unofficially. I believe that such lists should be restricted to locations where the language has a very large community that uses it as a first language (very large meaning something more than a couple of small neighborhoods buried in major cities). For example, one can say that German is a language of Switzerland and Italy, but calling it a language of these United States, for example, would be misleading despite the fact that there are many German speakers in the U.S. and in the early 20th century there actually were large German-speaking communities.

--Mcorazao (talk) 20:55, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I agree with your concern. Unfortunately, the primary source for "spoken in" data is often Ethnologue or national census data.  Nearly every language in the world with more than 10000 speakers could list the United States, for example.  It is, I agree, quite silly to see fifty flags (not even just a list of names, but the darn national flags as well) flying next to a language of only 100,000 speakers who have relatives throughout the world.  But try to trim those needless flags away or trim that list of countries and watch the nationalistic fervor burn bright!  (Taivo (talk) 21:00, 5 February 2010 (UTC))
 * Is it necessarily a "nationalistic" perspective that colours such reactions? I'd be interested to see that claim substantiated, because for all the problems nationalism causes on Wiki, it seems the main fuel behind much maintenance over loads of projects/articles. An interesting tightrope to walk, and a situation not particularly helped by being smug. Ελληνικά όρος ή φράση (talk) 13:47, 6 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Experience in other articles is a hard teacher. Nationalistic insistence in these language templates in my experience generally involves 1) exaggerated population figures (that usually include either the entire ethnic population or all the potential L2 speakers in the world); 2) the pretty flags (just because they're pretty); and 3) the presence or (even) absence of a language in a given country (no matter how small the immigrant community is).  I've been involved recently with an Armenian national who insists that there are no Azerbaijani speakers in Armenia even though there reliable references to the contrary.  Nationalism definitely has a valid place in the world, but it's not always helpful or accurate.  Would you be willing to remove the US and Canadian flags here because that's not the "native home" of Maltese?  (Taivo (talk) 14:33, 6 February 2010 (UTC))
 * The listings just represent other countries where Maltese people speak Maltese, and are documented as doing so. Canadian initiatives (working with the EU to promote Maltese amongst Maltese communities) are attested to. I don't see why you're hostile to that being represented. Or do you just object to "pretty flags", and if so, are you anti-pretty, contra-flags, or both? Ελληνικά όρος ή φράση (talk) 15:57, 6 February 2010 (UTC)
 * You misunderstand this discussion, I fear. Mcorazao made the comment that (s)he thinks that the language template should list only countries where the language is "native", that is, the homeland for the language.  I happen to agree with that.  No one said that there aren't documented Maltese speakers in the US and Canada.  No argument there.  The point is simply about the function of and philosophy behind the list of countries in the language template.  Yes, I think that the use of flags in the list of countries is silly.  I guarantee that the majority of people will recognize the word "Chad" in a list of names ages before they would recognize its flag in a parade of flags.  Why are they in the language template?  Because they are "pretty" and people like pretty colors in things.  (Taivo (talk) 16:28, 6 February 2010 (UTC))
 * Meh. Is there any use cluttering this talkpage with what you'd 'rather' the standards be? Surely there's a better venue for such suggestions, somewhere where your proposed changes might actually be approved and implemented. As things are, nothing here will change. And as one of the people who quite likes a little colour in life, I reject the implication that such an appreciation (through national flags!) is silly. A little more civility is in order. Ελληνικά όρος ή φράση (talk) 16:36, 6 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually, I don't think anything could change even if a discussion were started and approved. And I was being civil.  Being uncivil would call people who use flags "stupid".  I don't think they're stupid at all.  The "practice" (not the people) is silly because it really serves no purpose in an encyclopedia.  I was definitely not calling you silly.  Some reasonably intelligent people like color in needless places, some people think it's silly.  If you want to delete this whole thread from this Talk page, that's fine by me because you're right, it's not directly germane to the article's topic.  (Taivo (talk) 18:16, 6 February 2010 (UTC))

Maltese vowel "o" - International Phonetic Alphabet
Maltese letter: o

 * long, like aw in law: sod (IPA: ɔ) - sod means "solid" (it comes from Italian sodo: IPA: 'sɔdo)
 * short, like o in got: bott (IPA: ɒ) - bott means "box" (it comes from French boîte or from Sicilian buatta)

Source: http://www.aboutmalta.com/language/maltesegrammar.htm

Other sources:
 * Pronunciation of "law": http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/law (IPA: lɔ)
 * Pronunciation of "got": http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/got (IPA: gɒt)
 * Pronunciation of "got" (especially in formal contexts, in Brittish English anyway) (IPA: gɔt)

Best regards

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Sarvaturi (talk • contribs) 11:56, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

Edit request from 86.26.187.254, 28 November 2010
please change QALP to QALB please change KELP to KELB

86.26.187.254 (talk) 22:57, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

🇪🇸 Can you please explain the reason for this change? Those appear to the be standard modern Arabic spellings, not the Maltese spelling. If, however, that info is out of date or incorrect, please explain. Qwyrxian (talk) 04:34, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

Żammit
The article includes both Żammit, with its Malto-Polish zed, and Zammit. Varlaam (talk) 16:47, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

What was spoken on Malta before?
I couldn't find info on this in the article, but it would sure be interesting to see. FunkMonk (talk) 03:10, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

 * At the time of the Arabic conquest? Presumably an early Romance language (and perhaps Greek by some), since Punic is exceedingly unlikely to have survived into the 9th century. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 21:58, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

 * Interesting. Perhaps this should be mentioned, if it is discussed in any sources? FunkMonk (talk) 00:51, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

 * I have no idea what the sources say, if anything; my idea that Romance and Greek were spoken on Malta in the 9th century is just an educated guess (judging from the history and parallels in other regions formerly in the Roman Empire, especially nearby regions). Malta and History of Malta don't say anything about the linguistic history directly, and perhaps nothing is known because no evidence is known to exist that could be used to infer anything about the vernacular language back then, let alone direct statements by contemporaneans. Sorry for not being more helpful, I'd love to know more about this issue myself. After all, the idea of Punic influence on Maltese has apparently seen quite some discussion in the literature, but I haven't seen any comments by scholars on the reconstructible linguistic situation at the time of the Arabic conquest, which is, after all, crucial to the question. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 13:37, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

 * Phoenician language states: "Phoenician ... was also spoken in the area of Phoenician colonization along the coasts of the South-Western Mediterranean, including, notably, those of modern Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, as well as Malta, the west of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and southernmost Spain." Dan ☺ 13:29, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

 * Yeah, I've seen that. As Punic language explains, the Cippi of Melqart are the best indication we have that Punic (the Carthaginian form of Phoenician) was indeed spoken on Malta at some point, as expected for historical reasons anyway.

 * I can even offer a conjecture as to what kind of Romance was spoken on Malta. As explained in Romance languages and Romance languages, there is a subgroup of Romance, sometimes called Southern Romance, where Latin vowel quantities were lost by a merger of corresponding long and short vowels, incidentally just as in Greek from the 2nd century BC on (this development is first attested in Egypt). (The vowel merger in other Romance languages is less straightforward.) The most familiar member of this group is Sardinian. While modern Corsican (which includes some dialect groups spoken in northern Sardinia) is derived from the speech of Tuscany (presumably specifically the medieval dialect of Pisa) and thus much more closely related to Standard Italian than to Sardinian, the popular speech in Corsica in the early medieval period seems to have been much more like Sardinian and appears to have influenced Corsican in the form of a substratum. Literature written in Roman Africa and Romance loanwords in Berber suggest that African Romance merged the Latin long and short vowels in the same way. Intriguingly, a group of dialects spoken in the area along the border of Calabria and Basilicata, according to Heinrich Lausberg, appears to display the same vowel merger, and in his honour, the region is known as the Lausberg Zone. As far as I know, word-final -t is preserved in the region, as well, like in Sardinian, and unlike neighbouring Italian dialects. While Sicilian (which is not only spoken on the island of Sicily, but also on the neighbouring mainland) must have gone through a phase where its vowel system was like the system characterising the more usual Italian dialects as well as the Western Romance languages (where short i merged with long e and short u with long o), Sicilian vowel system mentions texts (though their geographic origin is not given) which exhibit the Sardinian-type merger, just like the Lausberg Zone dialects of Southern Italy. There are other peculiar features (such as retroflex dd in words where Latin has ll, and words apparently borrowed from an unattested language which must have been spoken in the general region in antiquity) which Sardinian and Sicilian have in common typologically (i. e., superficially), and which suggest a common non-Indo-European substratum, but more immediately the explanation which suggests itself is that a language strongly resembling Sardinian was spoken in southernmost Italy and Sicily in medieval times (just like in Corsica), and which was subsequently ousted by a language more like Neapolitan (Southern Italian), which in some ways (such as the vowel system, in particular) was much more like Standard Italian, and the interaction of which with the Sardinian-type language resulted in modern Sicilian, explaining the confusing state of affairs.

 * In light of the fact that Malta lies exactly in between Sardinia, Calabria/Sicily and the region which comprises the ancient Roman province of Africa, the core region of the part of the Roman Empire which was situated on the continent of Africa (apart from Egypt), as this was the former heart of the Carthaginian Republic, and that Malta shared the Punic and Greek (recall what I said about Greek in Egypt) influences of the whole Africa-Sardinia-Corsica-Sicily region, the most suggestive and attractive conjecture that we can make about the dialect of Romance formerly spoken on Malta is that it resembled Sardinian a great deal (medieval Sardinian in particular). --Florian Blaschke (talk) 00:38, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

Speculation is rife. Florian suggests an early Romance (or late Latin?) language, with some Greek. Dan suggests some dialect/descendant of Phoenician. Maltese itself is most closely related to the urban north African dialects of Arabic, coincidentally the regions that were colonised by the Phoenicians. The history of Malta between the fall of the West Roman Empire and conquest by Arabs is very sparsely documented. I'm not even entirely sure it was continuously populated during that period.

The "Late Roman" language was almost certainly a descendant of Latin, similar to a Sardinian/Sicilian/South Italian dialect. The island may or may not have been depopulated during the 1st millennium, and then either repopulated or conquered by one or more waves of Arabs, presumably from North Africa, explaining the linguistic relationship to that region. The idea of Maltese being a direct descendant of Phoenician without a north African intermediary is improbable, as there is no evidence I know of that an Arabic-like language existed there during the Roman period. Rhialto (talk) 12:21, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

 * I haven't seen anyone above claim Maltese to be a descendant of Phoenician. But if someone were to claim that, it wouldn't be "improbable", but "impossible". Maltese is definitely derived from Arabic. Whether there was an Afro-Asiatic substrate is another question. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.201.22.180 (talk) 08:11, 25 November 2016 (UTC)

Arabic origin of Maltese names
Interesting article: http://malta.academia.edu/MarioCassar/Papers/99102/Vestiges_of_Arabic_Nomencalture_in_Maltese_Surnames

Edit request on 3 February 2013
Moreover, Maltese is also closely related to Tunisian Arabic even though Maltese is not considered as a dialect of Arabic

Mtatty89 (talk) 15:48, 3 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Pictogram voting question.svg Question: Where are you looking to have this in the article? --Jnorton7558 (talk) 21:23, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

siculo-arabic
caponata, cassata and zafferana are not really derived from arabic:

-caponata seem to derive from catalan;

-cassata probably derive from latin caseata;

-while zafferana come from persian via latin.

someone should fix it — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.40.98.119 (talk) 05:09, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

Ħħ pronunciation
Ħħ can be pronounced [ħ], as in standard Maltese and also [χ] or [x], as in western dialects. Both are correct. --Child of Garrett (talk) 14:46, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

Possible copyright problem
This article has been revised as part of a large-scale clean-up project of multiple article copyright infringement. (See the investigation subpage) Earlier text must not be restored, unless it can be verified to be free of infringement. For legal reasons, Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions must be deleted. Contributors may use sources as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 18:32, 6 February 2014 (UTC)

Edit request 15 February 2014
After (or in) the sentence "The oldest known document in Maltese is "Il Cantilena" (Maltese: Xidew il-Qada) by Pietro Caxaro." in the history section, please add the date of this document. The article Il Cantilena says it "dates from the 15th century (no later than 1485, the death of its author, and probably from the 1470s)". 149.241.77.1 (talk) 12:42, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

The template is wrong to say I have a conflict of interest. I only cannot make this edit because the article is protected. 149.241.77.1 (talk) 12:44, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

They are Arabic people
i want to add arabic people category.because they speak an arabic dialect. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Daru Dakitu (talk • contribs) 11:55, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

 * That doesn't mean they're Arabs. — kwami (talk) 03:21, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 22 August 2014
Please add to the external links. It will add a link to the phrasebook for the language at Wikivoyage. Thanks.

130.88.141.34 (talk) 09:59, 22 August 2014 (UTC)

✅ - Arjayay (talk) 10:44, 22 August 2014 (UTC)

phoneme [ħ]
I'm not an expert, but from the Maltese that I have heard, the sound [ħ] does not actually occur in Maltese. It's doubtless much weaker than in Arabic. It sounds like a perfect [h] to me, but maybe it's something in between, like [h~ħ]. But certainly not a real [ħ].
 * It depends on the dialect, but yes, [h] is a very common pronunciation, particularly before vowels. [ħ] is also common, however. In a few dialects it's even [x]. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.201.22.180 (talk) 08:03, 25 November 2016 (UTC)

Adjectives
The grammar section says that "adjectives of Semitic origin" take the article, and that only Romance adjectives don't. However, only short original adjectives take the article, while derived ones don't, even if they are of Semitic origin: il-lingwa miktuba ("the written language").

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Is Maltese an Arabic dialect?
Hello,

I would like to know if the Maltese language is an Arabic dialect or not.

Kind regards, — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.78.190.93 (talk) 04:04, 16 October 2016 (UTC)

Answer: Maltese once started out as an Arabic dialect but it is no longer so. The reason for this being the great influence from European languages namely Sicilian, Italian and English successively. It is now a separate, autonomous language although its basic stratum is still Arabic. Thus, the native speakers of Maltese (I'm one of them) cannot understand Arabic except for a few words maybe. Kind regards.

Answer:
 * It is the Maltese language. Newspapers and books are written in it, it's taught in schools, it's official in Malta and the EU. That sets it apart from Arabic dialects. -- But if you ask about the origin: then, yes, it is derived from an Arabic dialect, namely Sicilian Arabic (now extinct), which is very similar to Tunisian Arabic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.201.22.180 (talk) 08:14, 25 November 2016 (UTC)

 * Thank you very much for your reply. I would like to know if the Maltese are able to understand (and talk to) people from the Maghreb region (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) in Maltese or Arabic dialects. And for example can Maltese unterstand Arabic TV channels from these Arab countries? As well as can Tunisian understand TV channels in Maltese language?

 * Kind regards, — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.173.157.69 (talk) 11:14, 8 July 2017 (UTC)

 * Tunisians can read Maltese fairly well if they have been introduced to the writing system (for example, x = sh, etc.). They may have some problems with the Italian words present in Maltese, but since most Tunisians know perfect French they can also understand many of these words. Another possibility is texts with few Italian words, like the Maltese Bible.
 * When it comes to spoken Maltese, I think it's more difficult, but they will understand sentences here and there. For other Maghrebinians it's similar, except that they will understand less than Tunisians. I don't really know how much Arabic is understood by Maltese people. These things aren't always symmetrical. So it could be that they have more trouble, or less. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.188.179.143 (talk) 18:38, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

 * If both sides avoid Romance and English loanwords, I suspect inter-intelligibility would be quite high. The inherited Arabic part of Maltese is essentially a variety of Maghrebi Arabic, after all. Tunisian Arabic and Maltese sans loanwords should be no less mutually intelligible than Tunisian and Algerian Arabic – at least in my theoretical expectation. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 02:00, 9 May 2020 (UTC)

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Maltese Language
This is a Simetrical language for more info call or msg on 77643698 I am Jeony — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.133.79.128 (talk) 17:51, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

Improvement for demographics numbers
Hi all,

I am new to the community, so sorry in case I am not writing in the correct area. Unfortunately, the article about Maltese is semi-protected, so I cannot edit it. Maybe, an experienced user can read through my thoughts and edit the article accordingly. Thank you very much!

The article states under "Demografics": "Indeed, nowadays 520,000 people across the world speak Maltese, while Malta has a population of only 445,426 people, which means that the remaining figure of 76,574 people can be attributed to the Maltese diaspora. [25]" In my opinion there are two major problems with this statistics. First, it is totally useless to substract the population of Malta from the estimated number of speakers and then state a exact number of 76,574 people can be attributed to the Maltese diaspora. This implies that you could give such a concrete number although it is totally nonsense as the first figure is an estimate. Secondly, the remaining figure can be attributed certainly not only to the Maltese diaspora. I guess there are at least a few thousand of people who are not Maltese who can nevertheless speak the language. I am not one of them and I do not have any prove for this, but in my opinion common sense does not allow for such as statement as the one above.

This are my humble thoughts. Thanks for your consideration!

Theelementsofstyle (talk) 08:49, 21 February 2018 (UTC)

yeah, in addition not everyone who lives on/in Malta is necessarily a fully fluent first-language speaker of Maltese — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:6C44:237F:ACCB:44D1:46D3:94B9:5F7F (talk) 21:27, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

Maltese Vocabulary is predominantly Sicilian (Siculo Arabic + Sicilian Latin)
Maltese Vocabulary: Dividing Sicilian influence into Arabic and Italian is misleading, as Sicily is the main linguistic source, opposed to direct Arabic or Italian influence, which is minimal at most. Sicilian is a sister language of Italian, Siculo Arabic is the language of the assimilated population of Emirate Sicily (not literal Arabic as the article mentions), it might have more Classical Arabic words because it was taught directly as such to the assimilated Sicilians, in addition to assimilated Greeks, Berber and Slavs who were living in Sicily at that time. A group of those assimilated people brought the Sicilian versions of Arabic and Latin with them. IlsienMalti (talk) 13:47, 26 March 2018 (UTC)
 * One third (Siculo Arabic)
 * One third (Sicilian Latin)

Long Vowels
It says: Maltese has five short vowels, /ɐ ɛ ɪ ɔ ʊ/, written a e i o u; six long vowels, /ɐː ɛː ɪː iː ɔː ʊː/, written a, e, ie, i, o, u, of which all but ie /ɪː/ require an orthographic għ or h to show they're long [emphasis mine, wathiik]; and seven diphthongs, /ɐɪ ɐʊ ɛɪ ɛʊ ɪʊ ɔɪ ɔʊ/, written aj or għi, aw or għu, ej or għi, ew, iw, oj, and ow or għu.[41]

This seems a bit doubtful to me, since is transcribed (en.wiktionary.org) with a long /u:/. -> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/qattus Wathiik (talk) 12:28, 25 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Is there really no English equivalent to the Maltese digraph IE (ie)? I would of thought it is pretty much pronounced in words like variety, oriental, Vietnam, Vienna...PametUGlavu (talk) 17:59, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Maltese literature
Maltese literature could do with more of a mention in this article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.52.209.206 (talk) 20:15, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

Variety of Arabic?
The citation for Maltese being a variety of Arabic is the Maltese constitution, which makes no mention of this. Should this be removed or can another source be found to replace the current one?

TheHolyCrunch (talk) 22:28, 2 February 2020 (UTC)

Pronunciation
The current article text states:

 * "When two syllables are equally heavy, the penultimate takes the stress, but otherwise the heavier syllable does, e.g. bajjad 'he painted' vs bajjad  'a painter'."

The wording seems imprecise in at least the following senses:

 * 1) there might be only one syllable in a word;
 * 2) there might be more than two equally heavy syllables in one word;
 * 3) "the penultimate takes the stress" could refer to either the penultimate of the - implicitly supposedly no more than - two equally heavy syllables, or to the penultimate syllable in the word.

A seemingly more accurate description can be found elsewhere at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095447018301712 and https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0095447018301712?token=336806B5D78A9545385559641E0699A290993774BE4A01C1B71A6DDDD078482EAAF31058853C452F474679E88F6B9718, which reads:

 * "In Maltese, lexical stress is assigned on phonological grounds to the final, penultimate or antepenultimate syllable. It falls on the heavy (V: or VC) syllable closest to the right edge of the word, except in words having a closed final syllable, which can only be stressed if it is superheavy (V:C or VCC). In words in which there is no heavy syllable, lexical stress is penultimate by default (Vella, 2009)."

The only incompleteness I have so far detected in this description is that its final sentence seems to ignore one-syllable words without a heavy syllable, if at all such words exist in Maltese. But otherwise it looks like a good starting point to be put in place of the current description. Any motivated objections?Redav (talk) 17:22, 4 October 2020 (UTC)

Latinised?
Maltese is a Latinised variety of spoken historical Arabic through its descent from Siculo-Arabic, which developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect during the Emirate of Sicily between 831 and 1091.

So, Maltese originates in Sicilian Arabic which itself came into exitence in the 9th century. As Latin had long been dead at that time, how can Maltese be a "Latinised" variety of Arabic? Yupanqui (talk) 12:14, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Gender marking suffixes may actually shift stress
The current article contains:

"(Suffixes marking gender, possession, and verbal plurals do not cause the stress to shift)."

At the same time, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C4%A7amri and https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C4%A7amrija#Maltese show:

 * ħamri (masculine) is pronounced /ˈħam.rɪ/;
 * ħamrija (female) is pronounced /ħamˈriːja/ (as I have actually been able to witness today),

and -ja is a suffix marking gender (or: gender marking suffix ;-)), while at the same time stress is shifted one syllable towards the end of the word.

Other examples are: Malti(ja), Għawdxi(ja), and probably also qalbi(ja), xemxi(ja), qamri(ja), baħri(ja), etc.

So, the statement in brackets seems incorrect to me, and at the very least, needs reformulating.Redav (talk) 00:15, 27 May 2021 (UTC)

Pronunciation examples may be misleading to English speakers who aspirate their stops
Might I propose replacing as follows:

 * kettle → skill
 * part → spill
 * tired → still

in the pronunciation guide under "Approximate English pronunciation" by different words? (Most/many/several) English accents have (heavily) aspirated stops in the words currently in the table, whereas I do not hear (any) such (heavy) aspiration in spoken Maltese. (Try listening to e.g. https://onlineradiobox.com/mt/radiomalta/?cs=mt.radiomalta.)Redav (talk) 00:29, 27 May 2021 (UTC)

Pronunciation of ⟨r⟩
I am aware this is an approximation, but if ⟨r⟩ in Maltese is (in some circumstances) pronounced [r], why does the pronunciation guide approximate it with GA English butter, pronounced [ɾ]? I suggest it sound be replaced with something like the Spanish perro. Dazzling Gleam (talk 13:01, 18 November 2021 (UTC)

Maltese, in the perspection of Ruthenian languges
I think we should cut the language family to Central Semitic, because there's no people called Maltese language as "Arab language". This is same to Ruthenian language to Ukrainian, Belarussian, and Rusyn. -GogoLion (talk) 14:38, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

Maltese
Orajt 77.71.217.127 (talk) 16:43, 6 February 2023 (UTC)

"in place of"
They are mostly derived from Sicilian and thus exhibit Sicilian phonetic characteristics, such as /u/ in place of /o/, and /i/ in place of /e/ (e.g. tiatru not teatro and fidi not fede).

In this section the word "in place of" misleads the reader into thinking that Italian "o" is the typical Latin ending, whereas the Sicilian "U" is in fact the original Latin ending "Bonum", etc. Perhaps we should rephrase to "rather than" or "Sicilian phonetics rather than Italian phonetics" so the reader doesn't believe that the U is in fact an evolution from Italian. Paolorausch (talk) 11:03, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Maltese language


text:
National Caucus of Labor Committees

The National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC) is a political organization in the United States founded and controlled by political activist Lyndon LaRouche until his 2019 death. LaRouche sometimes described the NCLC as a "philosophical association". It is the main organization within the LaRouche movement. LaRouche was the association's leader, and the political views of the NCLC are virtually indistinguishable from those of LaRouche.

The highest group within the NCLC is the National Executive Committee (NEC), described as the "inner leadership circle", or "an elite circle of insiders", which "oversees policy". The next most senior group is the National Committee (NC), which is reportedly "one step beneath the NEC".

Formation
The NCLC had it origins in the 1968 convention of the Students for a Democratic Society. It comprised people who had been expelled from the Maoist Progressive Labor Party, an SDS faction, and students from Columbia University in New York City. It called itself the "SDS Labor Committee" or the "National Caucus of SDS Labor Committees". Led by LaRouche, it included "New Left lieutenants" Ed Spannaus, Nancy Spannaus, and Tony Papert, as well as Paul Milkman, Paul Gallagher, Leif Johnson, Tony Chaitkin, and Steve Fraser. The Labor Committee was known for promoting a "socialist re-industrialization" of the economy, combined with confiscatory taxes on what it saw as wasteful and parasitic investment. It was expelled from SDS for taking the side of the teachers' union in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville strike. It was originally a New Left organization influenced by Trotskyist ideas as well as those of other Marxists such as Rosa Luxemburg, but opposed other New Left organizations which LaRouche said were dominated by the Ford Foundation, Institute for Policy Studies and Herbert Marcuse.

The organization became the NCLC in January 1969. According to the Los Angeles Times, LaRouche writes in his autobiography that in 1971 the NCLC formed "intelligence units", and the following year started training members in paramilitary tactics.

Operation Mop Up
According to The Village Voice and The Washington Post, the NCLC became embroiled in the early 1970s in conflicts with other leftist groups, culminating in "Operation Mop-Up," which consisted of a series of physical attacks on members of rival left wing groups.

During "Operation Mop-Up," LaRouche's New Solidarity reported NCLC confrontations with members of the Communist Party and Socialist Workers Party. One incident took place April 23, 1973 at a debate featuring Labor Committee mayoral candidate Tony Chaitkin. The meeting erupted in a brawl, with chairs flying. Six people were treated for injuries at a local hospital. Following this incident, New Solidarity warned:

"The clown show is over. The Labor Committee warns the Socialist Workers Party and its comrades-in-hysteria: when you did all the fighting for the Communist Party at the mayoral forum, we held back – we gave you a mild warning, though several of your members were bloodied and broken. But should you repeat as goons for the CP, we will put all of you in the hospital; we will deal with you as we are dealing with the Communist Party."

In November 1973, the FBI issued an internal memorandum that was later released under the Freedom of Information Act. Jeffrey Steinberg, LaRouche spokesperson and NCLC "director of counterintelligence", described it as the "COINTELPRO memo", which he says showed "that the FBI was considering supporting an assassination attempt against LaRouche by the Communist Party USA." LaRouche wrote in 1998: "The U.S. Communist Party was committed to putting the Labor Committees out of existence physically... Local law enforcement was curiously uncooperative, as they had been during prior physical attacks on myself and my friends. We knew that a 'fix' was in somewhere, probably from the FBI... We were left to our own resources. Tired of the beatings, we decided we had better prepare to defend ourselves if necessary."

1974–1986
By the mid-1970s, the NCLC had abandoned Marxism altogether, in favor of what its members described as an American System approach. Press accounts describe shift to the right, with the NCLC establishing ties to the Ku Klux Klan and the Liberty Lobby. The conservative Heritage Foundation issued a report which states that "neither the Left nor the Right has a thoroughly-documented explanation of the organization's nature or purposes."

According to the Los Angeles Times, LaRouche said he met with representatives of the Soviet Union at the United Nations in 1974 and 1975 in order to discuss attacks by the Communist Party USA on the NCLC, and to propose that the CPUSA should be merged into the NCLC. He denied receiving any assistance from the Soviets.

The NCLC established a paramilitary "officers training camp" in Argyle, New York in 1974, according to an FBI report. Members learned about "small unit tactics and strategy", and trained with nunchaku. The FBI documents reportedly also mention "beatings" and "brainwashings", claim that the group moved from far-left to far-right, and complain that NCLC sent in tips about wild conspiracies.

In 1974, NCLC members admitted they had been harassing FBI agents for years.

According to LaRouche in 1995, during the period 1976-1978 the NCLC ceased being a dues-paying membership organization, and made the transition to a "purely philosophical-legal organization," whose principal activities were either philosophical or in connection with legal cases against the COINTELPRO and related offenses of the FBI and associated agencies.

In 1977, Costas Axios, NCLC chief of staff for New York, said of the NCLC: "We are socialist, but first we must establish an industrialist capitalist republic and rid this country of the Rockefeller anti-industrial, antitechnology monetarist dictatorship of today." According to The Washington Post, FBI memoranda of the time described the NCLC as a "clandestinely oriented group of political schizophrenics who have a paranoid preoccupation with Nelson Rockefeller and the CIA", and as a "violence-oriented Marxist revolutionary organization."

The Los Angeles Times reported that by 1981, the NCLC was overseeing a network of companies and organizations that were budgeted to bring in $11.7 million in gross receipts annually. One company, Campaigner Publications Inc., was reported to have grossed $4.5 million in a four-month period. In a purported internal memo from 1981 LaRouche explained his position within the organization by saying, "I do not wish to hear, ever again, that I must wait until our legal council (sic) has assessed the wisdom of one of my decisions or that some members personal sensitivities must be taken into account...I promise you that I shall function, unrestrained, as a commanding general of a combat organization. Anyone who opposes my orders will, in the moral sense, be shot on the spot for insubordination."

In 1984 the headquarters were moved from Manhattan to Leesburg, Virginia, a suburb of Washington D.C.

The NCLC was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice in 1986 and its offices were searched. Federal prosecutors alleged that LaRouche "dominates and controls" the NCLC. A U.S. government memo reportedly said that "the primary purpose" of the NCLC is to support LaRouche in a lavish lifestyle and to "courier large sums of cash to secret depositories." Over a dozen NCLC members, including LaRouche himself, were eventually indicted. (See also LaRouche criminal trials)

Electoral politics
The NCLC launched the U.S. Labor Party (USLP), a registered political party, in 1972 as its electoral arm and ran LaRouche for President of the United States on the USLP ticket in 1976 along with numerous candidates for lower office.

In 1979 LaRouche changed his political strategy to one of running in Democratic primaries rather than as a third party candidate. This resulted in the USLP being replaced by the National Democratic Policy Committee (NDPC,) a political action committee unassociated with the Democratic National Committee.

International work
The International Caucus of Labor Committees (ICLC) was founded as the philosophical nucleus for LaRouche movement operations worldwide. According to LaRouche the ICLC follows the  "model of American founding father Benjamin Franklin's 'Junto' organization."

The ICLC has affiliates in Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden, Australia, Philippines, along with Mexico and several South American countries.

Selected members
Included are present and former NCLC or ICLC members who have authored books, edited publications, or led LaRouche-affiliated organizations or companies.
 * Michael Billington, author of Reflections of an American Political Prisoner, Asia editor for Executive Intelligence Review
 * Mark Calney, Northwest coordinator for the NDPC, author of Robert Burns and the Ideas of the American Revolution
 * Claudio Cesani, editor-in-chief of New Solidarity magazine.
 * Anton Chaitkin, founding member of the NCLC, author of Treason in America, co-author of The Unauthorized Biography of George Bush, and history editor for Executive Intelligence Review
 * Marsha Freeman, associate editor of 21st Century Science & Technology, author of How we got to the moon : the story of the German space pioneers
 * Paul Gallagher, executive director of the former Fusion Energy Foundation (FEF)
 * Khushro Ghandhi, president of Prevent AIDS Now Initiative Committee (California state ballot initiative, 1986)
 * John Grauerholz, head of the Biological Holocaust Task Force
 * Nora Hamerman, EIR editor-in-chief
 * Warren Hamerman, chairman of the NDPC
 * Laurence Hecht, editor-in-chief of 21st Century Science and Technology magazine
 * Linda de Hoyos, president of EIR News Service
 * Konstandinos Kalimtgis (AKA Costas Axios ), NCLC chief of staff, co-author of Dope, Inc.: Britain's Opium War Against the U.S.
 * Kenneth Kronberg (1948–2007), former editor of Fidelio, member of the National Committee from 1974 to 2007.
 * Helga Zepp LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute
 * H Graham Lowry, author of How the nation was won : America's untold story, 1630-1754
 * Quincy O'Neal, chairman of the Franklin Roosevelt Legacy Democratic Club
 * Tony Papert, early leader of the SDS Labor Committee, founding member of the NCLC
 * Amelia Boynton Robinson, vice president of the Schiller Institute, author of Bridge Across Jordan
 * J. Philip Rubinstein, president of Caucus Distributors, New York regional NCLC leader, National Committee member
 * Allen Salisbury, head of the Revolutionary Youth Movement, author of The Civil War and the American System.
 * John Sigerson, president of the Schiller Institute in the U.S., director of the Schiller Institute Chorus, co-author of A Manual on the Rudiments of Tuning and Registration.
 * Edward Spannaus, founding member of the NCLC, treasurer of LaRouche's 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns, LaRouche's legal coordinator
 * Nancy Spannaus, editor-in-chief, New Federalist, former Editor-in-Chief, New Solidarity, founding member of the Schiller Institute, co-author of The Political economy of the American Revolution
 * Jeffrey Steinberg, counterintelligence director for Executive Intelligence Review, co-author of Dope, inc. : Britain's opium war against the U.S.
 * Webster Tarpley, former president of the Schiller Institute in the U.S., co-author of The Unauthorized Biography of George Bush
 * Jonathan Tennenbaum, head of the European Fusion Energy Forum, scientific advisor to the Schiller Institute, the Executive Intelligence Review, and Lyndon LaRouche, member of the scientific advisory board of 21st Century Science & Technology, author of Kernenergie: das weibliche Technik,
 * Carol White, former editor-in-chief, 21st Century Science & Technology, author, The New Dark Ages Conspiracy : Britain's Plot to Destroy Civilization and Energy Potential: Toward a New Electromagnetic Field Theory
 * Christopher White, EIR Director, co-author of The Political economy of the American Revolution
 * Kathy Wolfe, spokeswoman of U.S. Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche, co-author of A Manual on the Rudiments of Tuning and Registration.
 * Criton Zoakos, NCLC intelligence director, EIR editor-in-chief

title: National Caucus of Labor Committees


text:
Brigantes

The Brigantes were Ancient Britons who in pre-Roman times controlled the largest section of what would become Northern England. Their territory, often referred to as Brigantia, was centred in what was later known as Yorkshire. The Greek geographer Ptolemy named the Brigantes as a people in Ireland also, where they could be found around what is now Wexford, Kilkenny and Waterford, while another people named Brigantii is mentioned by Strabo as a sub-tribe of the Vindelici in the region of the Alps.

Within Britain, the territory which the Brigantes inhabited was bordered by that of four other peoples: the Carvetii in the northwest, the Parisii to the east and, to the south, the Corieltauvi and the Cornovii. To the north was the territory of the Votadini, which straddled the present day border between England and Scotland.

Etymology
The name Brigantes (Βρίγαντες in Ancient Greek) shares the same Proto-Celtic root as the goddess Brigantia, *brigant- meaning "high, elevated", and it is unclear whether settlements called Brigantium were so named as "high ones" in a metaphorical sense of nobility, or literally as "highlanders", referring to the Pennines, or inhabitants of physically elevated fortifications. (IEW, s.v. "bʰerǵʰ-"). The word is related to German Burgund and Iranian Alborz (OIr. Hara Berezaiti).

In modern Welsh the word braint means 'privilege, prestige' and comes from the same root *brigantī. Other related forms from the modern Celtic languages are: Welsh brenin 'king' (< *brigantīnos); Welsh/Cornish/Breton bri 'prestige, reputation, honour, dignity', Scottish Gaelic brìgh 'pith, power', Irish brí 'energy, significance', Manx bree 'power, energy' (all < *brīg-/brigi-); and Welsh/Cornish/Breton bre 'hill' (< *brigā). The name Bridget from Old Irish Brigit (Modern Irish Bríd) also comes from Brigantī, as does the English river name Brent and the connected area Brentford.

There are several ancient settlements named Brigantium around Europe, such as Berganza in Álava (Spain), A Coruña and Bergantiños in Galicia (Spain), Bragança and Braga in Portugal and Briançon, Brigetio on the border of Slovakia and Hungary, Brigobanne situated on the Breg river and near the Brigach river in south Germany (pre-Roman Vindelicia ) and Bregenz in the Alps. From the same origin also stems the name of the Italian sub-region of Brianza.

In chronostratigraphy, the British sub-stage of the Carboniferous period, the Brigantian, derives its name from the Brigantes.

History
There are no written records of the Brigantes before the Roman conquest of Britain; it is therefore hard to assess how long they had existed as a political entity prior to that. Most key archaeological sites in the region seem to show continued, undisturbed occupation from an early date, so their rise to power may have been gradual rather than a sudden, dramatic conquest, or it may be linked to the burning of the large hill fort at Castle Hill, Huddersfield, c. 430 BC. Territorially the largest tribe in Britain, the Brigantes encompassed sub-tribes or septs such as the Gabrantovices on the Yorkshire Coast, and the Textoverdi in the upper valley of the River South Tyne near Hadrian's Wall. The names Portus Setantiorum and Coria Lopocarum suggest other groups, the Setantii and the Lopocares located on the Lancashire coast and the River Tyne respectively. A name Corionototae is also recorded but since the name seems to derive from *Corion Toutas meaning "tribal army" or "people's army" it may have been a name for a military force or resistance against the Romans rather than any tribe or sub-tribe. The Carvetii who occupied what is now Cumbria may have been another sub-tribe, or they may have been separate from the Brigantes. This is often disputed as the Carvetii made up a separate civitas under Roman rule.

Roman era
During the Roman invasion, in 47 AD, the governor of Britain, Publius Ostorius Scapula, was forced to abandon his campaign against the Deceangli of North Wales because of "disaffection" among the Brigantes, whose leaders had been allies of Rome. A few of those who had taken up arms were killed and the rest were pardoned. In 51, the defeated resistance leader Caratacus sought sanctuary with the Brigantian queen, Cartimandua, but she showed her loyalty to the Romans by handing him over in chains. She and her husband Venutius are described as loyal and "defended by Roman arms", but they later divorced, Venutius taking up arms first against his ex-wife, then her Roman protectors. During the governorship of Aulus Didius Gallus (52–57) he gathered an army and invaded her kingdom. The Romans sent troops to defend Cartimandua, and they defeated Venutius' rebellion. After the divorce, Cartimandua married Venutius' armour-bearer, Vellocatus, and raised him to the kingship. Venutius staged another rebellion in 69, taking advantage of Roman instability in the Year of the Four Emperors. This time the Romans were only able to send auxiliaries, who succeeded in evacuating Cartimandua but left Venutius and his anti-Roman supporters in control of the kingdom.

The extensive Iron Age fortifications at Stanwick in North Yorkshire were excavated in the 1950s by Mortimer Wheeler who concluded that Venutius probably had this site as his capital, but Durham University's later excavations from 1981 to 1986 led Colin Haselgrove and Percival Turnbull to suggest a slightly earlier dating with Stanwick a centre of power for Cartimandua instead.

After the accession of Vespasian, Quintus Petillius Cerialis was appointed governor of Britain and the conquest of the Brigantes was begun. It seems to have taken many decades to complete. Gnaeus Julius Agricola (governor 78–84) appears to have engaged in warfare in Brigantian territory. The Roman poet Juvenal, writing in the early 2nd century, depicts a Roman father urging his son to win glory by destroying the forts of the Brigantes. There appears to have been a rebellion in the north sometime in the early reign of Hadrian, but details are unclear. A rising of the Brigantes has often been posited as the explanation for the disappearance of the Ninth Legion, stationed at York. It is possible that one of the purposes of Hadrian's Wall (begun in 122) was to keep the Brigantes from making discourse with the tribes in what is now the lowlands of Scotland on the other side. The emperor Antoninus Pius (138–161) is said by Pausanias to have defeated them after they began an unprovoked war against Roman allies, perhaps as part of the campaign that led to the building of the Antonine Wall (142–144).

Tacitus, in a speech put into the mouth of the Caledonian leader Calgacus, refers to the Brigantes, "under a woman's leadership", almost defeating the Romans.

Settlements
Ptolemy named nine principal poleis (cities) or towns belonging to the Brigantes; these were:

Other settlements known in Brigantian territory include:

 * Wincobank, on the border of Sheffield
 * Bremetenacum Veteranorum (Ribchester, Lancashire)
 * Calcaria (Tadcaster, North Yorkshire) – mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary and the Ravenna Cosmography
 * Luguvalium (Carlisle, Cumbria) – probably a settlement of the Carvetii
 * Coria (Corbridge, Northumberland) – perhaps a settlement of the Lopocares

Brigantes in Ireland
The Brigantes are attested in Ireland as well as Britain in Ptolemy's 2nd century Geographia, but it is not clear what link, if any, existed between the Irish and the British Brigantes. T. F. O'Rahilly proposed that the Irish branch was the origin of the later Uí Bairrche clan, believing that they belonged to the Érainn (Ptolemy's Iverni) who he hypothesized were originally descendant from the Gaulish and British Belgae according to his model of Irish prehistory. Professor John T. Koch posits links between the British and Irish groups, identifying the Romano-British goddess Brigantia with the Irish Brigid and pointing to a possibly Roman or Romano-British burial in Stonyford, County Kilkenny. He identifies the Irish Brigantes with the early mediaeval Uí Brigte clan.

In popular culture

 * The 2010 film Centurion follows the destiny of the Ninth Legion, seen from the perspective of centurion Quintus Dias. Both the Ninth and Dias become embroiled in the machinations of Etain (Olga Kurylenko), a Brigantes warrior, acting as a scout, when she subsequently betrays them to the Picts.
 * In the 1954 novel The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff, one of the main characters is Esca, the captured son of a chieftain of the Brigantes, who travels with the Roman soldier Marcus Aquila north of Hadrian's Wall to discover what happened to the Legio IX Hispana. The character was played by Christian Rodska in the 1977 BBC adaptation and Jamie Bell in the 2011 film adaptation The Eagle.
 * In 2020, the English rugby league club, Wigan Warriors, referenced a Brigantian warrior in their new club logo claiming that the Brigantes "had roots and lineage in the town of Wigan".
 * The 1982 science fiction novel Battlefield Earth, by L. Ron Hubbard, includes a group of minor characters in the distant future who call themselves the Brigantes. They are presented as treacherous mercenaries and cannibals from somewhere in Africa, and no connection to the historical Brigantes or the meaning of their chosen name is ever explained.

title: Brigantes


text: User talk:69.20.146.31

title: User talk:69.20.146.31


text:
War of Jennifer's Ear

The War of Jennifer's Ear is the name given to a 1992 controversy in United Kingdom politics, between the opposition Labour Party and the governing Conservative Party. The name is an allusion to the War of Jenkins' Ear, an actual armed conflict of the 18th century.

Election broadcast
In the midst of the 1992 general election campaign, on 24 March, Labour ran a party election broadcast about a five-year-old girl with glue ear who waited a year for the simple operation to insert vents. This case was contrasted with the case of a girl a with a similar condition who was able to afford private treatment – of the kind that had been granted tax breaks by the Conservatives – and was able to resolve her problem quickly. The party highlighted the alleged mismanagement and underfunding of the National Health Service (NHS) under the Conservative government. Labour leader Neil Kinnock employed the slogan: "If you want to vote Conservative, don't fall ill". Under British election regulations, such broadcasts are rationed by formula among main parties, and terrestrial broadcasters are obliged to run them on set days, in peak time schedules. Each broadcast therefore has more impact on political debate than in unregulated systems.

The story of the broadcast was described by one press officer – Julie Hall, Neil Kinnock's press secretary, as based on an actual case. In fact while a particular case had been the starting point of the creative team that had produced the broadcast – working from a letter by the girl's parent to Robin Cook, the shadow health secretary, they denied it was meant to be a recounting of her case.

Conflicting accounts of the details of the case quickly surfaced, with the supposed inspiration for the ad being then-five-year old Jennifer Bennett. Allegedly, the grandfather of the girl in question was a Conservative MP who informed the party of Labour's plans, allowing it to prepare an investigative response ahead of time. The mass circulation tabloid, The Sun, ran the story: "If Kinnock will tell lies about a sick little girl, will he ever tell the truth about anything?". This was one of several anti-Kinnock headlines that the tabloid ran in the run-up to the 1992 general election, and it has often been said that The Sun's unshakeable support for the Tories and opposition to Labour helped win the election for the Tories. The story though was broken by Peter Hitchens, then of the Daily Express.

Aftermath
In subsequent press discussion, Labour's point about healthcare was overshadowed by debate about the ethics of involving a young girl in national politics, and over which side made her identity public. The view inside the Labour Party was, however, that the huge volume of coverage the story generated in the UK's local and regional media did the party tremendous good. However, as told by Philip Gould the controversy made the party back off the issue of health at a national level.

The Conservative Party went on to win the 1992 election with a narrow majority of 21 seats. Labour leader Neil Kinnock resigned three days afterwards. Jennifer's father, John Bennett, went on to become a critic of the health provision achieved by Tony Blair's Labour government.

Other 'health war' controversies
The War of Jennifer's Ear now serves as the type specimen in British political discussions, for political rhetoric that leans on specific cases, as opposed to broad statistics, particularly in the context of debates over healthcare. Such foundations are acknowledged to be hazardous for politicians to employ in any decisive argument. The tactic has nonetheless been repeated on several occasions, at each of which headline writers attempt to formulate a new version of the 'war of' label:
 * Mavis Skeet (2000) – A cancer patient died in Leeds after four times having surgery postponed by a lack of available intensive care beds. The scandal was raised by a newspaper, and resulted in significant government reviews.
 * Rose Addis (2002) – Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith criticised the government's record by illustrating the case of a 94-year-old woman who he claimed had been neglected in a hospital. The hospital's Medical Director, Dr Malone-Lee pointed out that she had been seen, but that she had "a particular reservation about some of the nurses" and refused to let them attend to her. This was interpreted as a suggestion that Addis' objections had been racially based, which the hospital later made clear was not the case.
 * Anonymous (2004) – Conservative leader Michael Howard complained that a Folkestone constituent of his was told to wait 20 months for vital radiotherapy. The issue cooled off after he discovered that a clerical error had occurred – the wait was in fact scheduled to be 20 weeks.
 * Margaret Dixon (2005) – Conservative leader Michael Howard attempted to show, in the run-up to the 2005 general election, that the incumbent Labour Party was failing the NHS. Dixon, from Warrington, was cited to illustrate the increase in cancelled operations, a statistic that was dismissed as the consequence of increases in overall operations performed.
 * "Jack" (2019) - Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused to look at a photograph of a boy who allegedly had to sleep on the floor whilst waiting to be seen at a Leeds hospital. An ITV news reporter attempted to show Johnson the picture on his phone, but he refused to look, before taking the device and putting it in his pocket. The boy was being assessed for suspected pneumonia.

title: War of Jennifer's Ear