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Australian Skeptics

Australian Skeptics is a loose confederation of like-minded organisations across Australia that began in 1980. Australian Skeptics investigate paranormal and pseudoscientific claims using scientific methodologies. This page covers all Australian skeptical groups which are of this mindset. The name "Australian Skeptics" can be confused with one of the more prominent groups, "Australian Skeptics Inc", which is based in Sydney and is one of the central organising groups within Australian Skeptics.

Origins
In 1979, Mark Plummer (later president of Australian Skeptics) sent a letter to the American skeptical magazine The Zetetic in which he expressed interest in beginning a skeptical organisation in Australia. Sydney electronics entrepreneur Dick Smith responded to the letter, and offered to sponsor a visit to Australia by James Randi, the principal investigator for the American-based Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), now known as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), part of the non-profit organisation Center for Inquiry (CFI), which are joint publishers of the Skeptical Inquirer. During this visit, James Randi, Dick Smith, Phillip Adams, Richard Carleton and an unidentified businessman offered a $50,000 prize to anyone who could prove psychic phenomena in front of Randi. A number of contenders, largely water diviners came forward, but all failed to prove their claims in front of independent observers.

The Australian Skeptics formed in 1980 out of this event, with the original purpose of continuing to test claims of the paranormal, with committee members Mark Plummer (president), James Gerrand (secretary), Joe Rubinstein (treasurer), and Allan Christophers,  as well as Bill Cook, John Crellin, Logan Elliot, Peter Kemeny, Loris Purcell, and Mike Wilton. It was at this time that the group adopted the name "Australian Skeptics". The amount of the prize was raised to AU$100,000 and it has been offered since then (see The $100,000 Prize below). Very soon after the original formation of the Australian Skeptics in Victoria, Barry Williams from Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), responded to a call from Dick Smith seeking interest for new members. He became involved, and the New South Wales committee formed. The NSW committee included Barry Williams (president), Tim Mendham (secretary/treasurer), Mel Dickson, Dick Champion, Jean Whittle and others. The Australian Skeptics are the second oldest English language skeptical group in the world after CSICOP in the US. Tim Mendham joined the NSW committee from the very first meeting and went on to become secretary, treasurer, and editor of the magazine.

In 1986, the year after the first national convention in Sydney (see below), Mark Plummer stepped down as national president when he began a new job as an executive officer at CSICOP in the US. At this time the NSW Skeptics group took over the role as the national secretariat and the national committee, but the magazine production remained in Victoria with various editors including James Durand. The national committee did not consist of representative from all the state organisations, but rather was just of the state groups which acted as the national organising committee. "Australian Skeptics incorporated in NSW" (Australian Skeptics Inc. - ASI) became an incorporated association in 1986 in NSW with Barry Williams as president.

ASI still operates today and is responsible for several national activities, such as the publication of The Skeptic magazine and coordination of awards (listed below) and the annual conventions. Today ASI is one of many formal and informal skeptical groups throughout Australia that fall under the general umbrella title of "Australian Skeptics". Over time, other branches around Australia became incorporated including Australian Skeptics (Victorian Branch) Inc, Skeptics (S.A.) Incorporated, Hunter Skeptics Incorporated, Canberra Skeptics and Borderline Skeptics Inc (which caters for skeptics living around the NSW and Victorian border). ASI is the local group in NSW.

In 1995 the Australian Skeptics received a sizeable bequest from the estate of Stanley David Whalley. With these funds the organisation established the "Australian Skeptics Science and Education Foundation", tasked to expose "irrational activities and pseudoscience and to encourage critical thinking and the scientific view". This foundation now funds the "Thornett award for promotion of reason", known affectionately as "the Fred", named after the late Fred Thornett, an influential figure in the skeptical movement in Tasmania and nationally. "The Fred" is a $1000 prize given by ASI for significant contribution to educating or informing the public regarding issues of science and reason. The bequest also allowed for the introduction of a paid position, that of executive officer. This position is answerable to the ASI committee, and traditionally manages accounts, queries from the public and media, editing The Skeptic, and various sundry tasks. Barry Williams was executive officer from 1995 to 2009, followed by Karen Stollznow (2009) and Tim Mendham from 2009 to the present.

In 1989 at a national committee meeting the aims of Australian Skeptics were updated and drafted as follows:
 * To investigate claims of pseudoscientific, paranormal and similarly anomalous phenomena from a responsible, scientific point of view.
 * To publicise the results of these investigations and, where appropriate, to draw attention to the possibility of natural and ordinary explanations of such phenomena.
 * To accept explanations and hypotheses about paranormal occurrences only after good evidence has been adduced, which directly or indirectly supports such hypotheses.
 * To encourage Australians and the Australian news media to adopt a critical attitude towards paranormal claims and to understand that to introduce or to entertain a hypothesis does not constitute confirmation or proof of that hypothesis.
 * To stimulate inquiry and the quest for truth, wherever it leads.

As of 2015, every state and territory within Australia has its own regional branch, and some have their own newsletters, with new local skeptics' groups springing up in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Launceston and Darwin.

Thornett Award for the Promotion of Reason
The Thornett Award for the Promotion of Reason, affectionately known as "The Fred" (much like the Academy Award is known as the "Oscar"), is named after Fred Thornett, a noted member of Australian Skeptics from Tasmania who died in April 2009. The Fred award includes a $2000 cash prize (increased from $1000 in 2018) that is given to the recipient or to a charity or cause of their choice. It is awarded annually to a member of the public or a public figure who has made a significant contribution to educating or informing the public regarding issues of science and reason.

Skeptic of the Year
The Skeptic of the Year award is given annually to someone associated with the skeptical community who has been particularly active over the previous year. ASI coordinates the prize, and the final decision is voted on by representatives from the various Australian Skeptics groups.

Barry Williams Award for Skeptical Journalism
The Barry Williams Award for Skeptical Journalism which recognises "the best piece of journalism (in any medium) that takes a critical and skeptical approach to a topic" within the scope of the Australian Skeptics. The award is named in memory of Barry Williams who died in 2018 and carries a $AU2000 prize. Williams was a past president and executive officer of Australian Skeptics who regularly appeared in the Australian media. The award has been nicknamed "the Wallaby" after the nom-de-plume Sir Jim R Wallaby, used by Williams in some of his more whimsical writing.

Bent Spoon Awards
The Bent Spoon Award is an annual award coordinated by ASI, although the final decision is voted on by representatives from the various groups comprising Australian Skeptics. It is "presented to the perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudoscientific piffle" in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. The award trophy is a piece of gopher wood, supposedly from Noah's Ark, upon which is affixed a spoon rumoured to have been used at the Last Supper. The spoon was allegedly bent by energies unknown to science and gold plated by an Atlantean process. Although awarded annually since 1982, only one copy of the trophy exists, as "anyone wishing to acquire the trophy must remove it from our keeping by paranormal means" and no winner has yet overcome this obstacle.

The award is offered only to Australian individuals or groups, or those who have carried out their activities in Australia. The New Zealand Skeptics have a similar Bent Spoon Award.

∞ In 2012 the Australian Vaccination Network was ordered by the New South Wales Office of Fair Trading to change its name within two months. The order was challenged, but the challenge was dismissed, and in 2014 the group changed its name to the Australian Vaccination-Skeptics Network.

$100,000 Prize
Since its foundation in 1980, Australian Skeptics has been offering a cash prize to anyone who can prove they have psychic or paranormal powers and is able to demonstrate their ability under proper observing conditions. The offer has been made in an effort to seek out the truth of paranormal claims such as those of psychics, healers, witnesses to paranormal events and those selling devices which claim to defy scientific laws. If someone nominates another person, and that person is successful, then 20% of the prize may be awarded to the nominator.

The challenge originally offered $50,000 to any water diviner who was able to demonstrate their powers, and it was later raised, with contributions from various sources, to AU$100,000 offered to anyone who could demonstrate any form of paranormal or psychic ability unknown to science. Up to the end of 2018, more than 200 claims have been seriously investigated but none of them has produced a positive result.

This challenge is now coordinated by ASI and the prize money is backed by the Australian Skeptics Science and Education Foundation. It is open to any contender who can state exactly what their paranormal claim is, and the claim can give a definite yes or no result. They must define under what conditions the claim can be performed, and expect to beat million to one odds in order to claim success. The result of each test is then published in The Skeptic, the magazine of Australian Skeptics. ASI states that should any contender pass the challenge, and be awarded the prize, they want to tell the world and give the claimant proper recognition. If, however, a claim is proved to be unfounded or fraudulent, the association reserve the right to expose this result in an effort to prevent clients from spending time and money on a product or service that cannot deliver what is claimed for it.

Eureka / Critical Thinking Prize
The Australian Museum Eureka Awards is a series of annual awards presented by the Australian Museum in partnership with their sponsors, for excellence in various fields. Until 2005 the Australian Skeptics were major sponsors of the award for critical thinking, which during this period was awarded to: ∞ The 2000 Spring edition of The Skeptic magazine erroneously listed Richard Kocsis as the 1999 winner

After 2005 the Australian Skeptics decided to withdraw from the Eurekas, and award their own critical thinking Prize known as the Australian Skeptics Critical Thinking Prize. The winners are as follows: Both of these prizes have been discontinued.

New South Wales

 * Australian Skeptics Inc.
 * Hunter Skeptics

Victoria

 * Australian Skeptics (Victorian Branch) Inc.
 * Ballarat Skeptics
 * Borderline Skeptics Inc.
 * Citizens for Science
 * Great Ocean Road Skeptics
 * Melbourne Eastern Hills Skeptics in the Pub
 * Melbourne Skeptics
 * Mordi Skeptics
 * Young Australian Skeptics

Queensland

 * Brisbane Skeptic Society Inc.
 * Gold Coast Skeptics
 * Queensland Skeptics Association Inc.

Australian Capital Territory

 * Canberra Skeptics

Western Australia

 * WA Skeptics
 * Perth Skeptics

South Australia

 * Skeptics SA
 * Thinking and Drinking

Tasmania

 * Hobart Skeptics
 * Launceston Skeptics

Northern Territory

 * Darwin Skeptics

National conventions
The Australian Skeptics National Convention is the longest running annual skeptical convention, and has been held annually since 1985.

No Answers in Genesis
No Answers in Genesis is a website affiliated with the Australian Skeptics organisation that provides information to defend the theory of evolution, and, more specifically, counter young Earth creationist arguments put forward by Answers in Genesis. It was founded by Australian atheist and skeptic John Stear, a retired civil servant. The website contains links, essays and other postings that rebut creationist arguments against evolution. Stear states that the site is meant for educational purposes as well as to illustrate the problems with young Earth creationism. The site also contains simple introductions to evolutionary concepts. It mainly has posts on creationism, but now has some essays on "intelligent design". It has two discussion boards.

In June 2005, members of the creationist group Answers in Genesis – Australia debated a team from the Australian Skeptics online on Margo Kingston's web diary section of the Sydney Morning Herald website.

Psychic hoaxes
In 1984 the Australian Skeptics brought magician Bob Steiner to Australia to pose as a psychic under the name "Steve Terbot". He went on The Bert Newton Show with Derryn Hinch who was in on the hoax, and accused him of being a charlatan. He also performed shows to live audiences in Melbourne and Sydney, pretending to be psychic. He later returned to the Bert Newton Show to reveal that he was a magician performing a hoax.

Later in February 1988 Richard Carleton, a reporter on the TV show 60 Minutes, brought James Randi back to Australia to oversee an elaborate hoax involving a fictional character named Carlos who was reported to be a 2,000-year-old entity who had last appeared in the body of a 12-year-old boy in Venezuela in 1900 was now manifesting through a young American art student named José Alvarez. In reality José had no special abilities, and was actually Randi's partner and assistant. The hoax involved the character Carlos appearing on various television shows in character and culminated in channel nine hosting a large media event at the Sydney Opera House where members from the Australian Skeptics were interviewed in front of a large audience of believers. The Australian Skeptics had not been made aware of the hoax until hours before it was revealed, a few days later, on 60 Minutes. There was outrage amongst the Australian media, to which Randi responded by pointing out that none of the journalists had bothered with even the most elementary fact-checking measures. There were some among the Australian Skeptics who took the view that this hoax had the potential of harming the good relationships that had been formed with certain media organisations, possibly discouraging them from reporting critically on similar stories in the future, and instead leaving such stories to other, less skeptical media organisations.

Historical investigations and demonstrations
Over the years the Australian Skeptics have conducted many investigations and demonstrations. Some examples are as follows:

Divining
In the early 1980s Dick Smith brought James Randi to Australia to conduct a test to determine whether those who conduct water divining have any real abilities. They laid out a grid of plastic irrigation pipes which were able to have water flowing or not flowing, and then challenged water diviners to determine which pipes contained the running water. Prior to the testing, the diviners agreed that the experimental conditions were suitable, however, when they were unable to display any ability, they changed their positions and blamed various external influences for preventing their success. This experiment was repeated several times beginning in 2001 using bottled water and bottled sand hidden within paper bags, with similar results.

Water powered car
In 1983 Ian Bryce and Mark Plummer investigated a patent filed for a "water powered car", designed by Stephen Horvath. The car was well publicised in the media of the day, and promoted by the then Premier of Queensland; Joh Bjelke-Petersen. The investigation concluded that the claim that the car was powered by nuclear fusion was not supported by evidence.

Psychic surgery
In 1981 when James Randi was visiting Australia he demonstrated how psychic surgery can be performed by sleight of hand with no actual surgery taking place. This was then later demonstrated again by the Australian Skeptics at a convention held in Sydney. The publicity from these demonstrations led to other forms of media, including the Australian Penthouse magazine publishing the story.

Fire walking
The Victorian Skeptics have demonstrated several times how firewalking or lying on a bed of nails can be achieved without any harm to the person. As publicity stunts they had various celebrities such as Steve Moneghetti, as well as committee members including Barry Williams, demonstrate fire walking, and then invited members of the public to repeat the stunt.

Telepathy
In 2010, a $100,000 prize challenger named Barrie Hill claimed to have the ability to transfer information by paranormal means, i.e. not through established communications or other physical means, from Australia to the USA. A test protocol was developed and agreed to by both parties. On test day, the Sydney "transmit" team assembled and was ready to execute the test, but in New York, the "receiver", known only as "Sue" and her lawyer "Jamie", did not show up to the agreed location. Hill claimed that they could not be reached by cell phone as they did not use them due to concerns over health. The test was eventually called off. After the first attempt, Hill explained that the receiver team was stuck in an elevator on the test date, and asked for another test. The investigation team insisted on speaking to the receiver, and asked the name. Hill replied it was "An Indian Spirit Guide."

Cold Fusion
On behalf of Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith, the Australian Skeptics performed an investigation of Andrea Rossi's Energy Catalyzer purported cold fusion generator. Several reviewers, including 2 nuclear physicists, had previously observed the device in operation and found it worth more study. Bryce's investigation postulated that extra energy was being added into the system through an unmetered earth ground wire.

Wine Card
In 2014 the Australian Skeptics investigated a product marketed by a Brisbane company known as the 'Premium Wine Card'. The device was the size of a credit card with holes punched in it that one would press against a glass when wine was poured in. The claim is that 'embedded frequencies' in the card improve the taste of wine, and was sold for about sixty-five dollars. Investigators devised an informal test using a placebo wine card, and placed both cards into identical envelopes, after which they invited participants to select which glass of wine was superior. The test was performed with two types of wine of differing price and with tap water. Sixty-six trials were performed. The results showed no correlation between use of the wine card on samples and the preference of the participants.

The Skeptic magazine
The journal of the Australian Skeptics is called The Skeptic. The first issue of The Skeptic came out of Melbourne in January 1981, edited by Mark Plummer and produced by James Gerrand. The first issue was a black and white broadsheet tabloid. For many years the logo was the same logo as the American publication the Skeptical Inquirer only photocopied with the end chopped off. After that first issue, the format was reduced to a standard A4 publication produced on a typewriter. In the early days of the Australian Skeptics there was a strong focus on media and outreach, and the magazine ran a special column in each issue listing all media coverage for that period. After the national secretariat moved up to NSW in 1986, the production of the magazine was moved to the Sydney branch in 1987 with Tim Mendham as the new editor, and at this time the magazine was produced on a computer (a Macintosh) for the first time. About a year before the change, there was a competition held to choose a new logo for the Australian Skeptics, and this new logo was used in the magazines up until the 1990s. In 1988 for the first time the magazine was produced with a cover, showing the title and various art work, and for a few years after that the publication was produced in a different colour for each issue. In 1990 Tim Mendham stepped down as editor and Barry Williams took on the role, intending to only edit one issue in 1991, but then remaining in the role until 2008. Both Karen Stollznow and Steve Roberts were editors briefly in 2009, until editing was handed back to Tim Mendham in June 2009, and with whom it remains today.

Books
The first big project that the Australian Skeptics undertook was in the 1980s when two scientists, Martin Bridgstock and Ken Smith, researched the various claims of creationism, and the Australian Skeptics, along with other authors, published a very successful book detailing their debunking of creationist claims. The book, titled Creationism: An Australian Perspective was first published 1986. At this time creationism was still being taught in science classes in some public schools in Queensland, but this research led to campaigns led by Martin Bridgstock, which resulted in creationism being removed from science classes. Ken Smith and Martin Bridgestock were both awarded the first life memberships in the Australian Skeptics at the 1986 convention for this service.

The Australian Skeptics also re-published the book Gellerism Revealed: The Psychology and Methodology Behind the Geller Effect by Ben Harris, originally published in 1985.

The Canberra Skeptics also published a book titled Skeptical which gave one- to two-page overviews of various skeptical topics.

Booklet
During the creationism in science classes debate, the Australian Skeptics attended a talk by a creationist geologist and collected various leaflets at that event. They responded to the leaflets by setting up a small sub-committee for the purpose of researching and responding to the various points raised in the creationist leaflets. The results of this research were published in a booklet in 1991 titled "Creationism-Scientists Respond".

Criticisms
There are claims the NSW Skeptics have over-reached in claiming the name 'Australian' skeptics, and also that supporters have no democratic standing, the group being akin to an 'invite only' gentlemen's club, amongst other criticisms about how they conduct themselves generally.

title: Australian Skeptics


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MacUser

MacUser was a monthly (formerly biweekly) computer magazine published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. and licensed by Felden in the UK. It ceased publication in 2015.

In 1985 Felix Dennis’ Dennis Publishing, the creators of MacUser in the UK, licensed the name and “mouse-rating” symbol for MacUser to Ziff-Davis Publishing for use in the rest of the world. The UK MacUser was never linked to the US MacUser. When Ziff-Davis merged its Mac holdings into Mac Publishing in September 1997, that new company gained the license to use the MacUser name. However, it opted to keep the Macworld magazine brand-name alive, albeit with MacUser-style mouse ratings. As a result, only the original UK-based MacUser remains, and the UK edition of Macworld is unable to use the mouse rating symbols used by its fellow Macworld editions.

The UK magazine was aimed at Mac users in the design sector, and each issue brought the reader up-to-date with news, reviews, ‘Masterclass’ tutorials and technical advice. Masterclasses take the reader through tasks such as photo retouching, design techniques, and creating movies.

Staff
, notable staff of the magazine included:
 * Editor in Chief - Adam Banks
 * Technical Editor - Keith Martin
 * Contributing Features Editor - Nik Rawlinson
 * Contributing Graphics Editor - Steve Caplin
 * Contributing Products Editor - Kenny Hemphill
 * Contributing Writer - Alan Stonebridge
 * Production editor/sub-editor/layout - Kirsty Fortune
 * Publisher - Paul Rayner

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

title: MacUser


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Thrixspermum

Thrixspermum, commonly known as hairseeds or 白点兰属 (bai dian lan shu), is a genus of flowering plants in the family Orchidaceae. Orchids in this genus are epiphytes, lithophytes or terrestrial plants with flat, leathery leaves and short-lived flowers with the sepals and petals more or less similar to each other. The labellum is rigidly fixed to the column and has three lobes. The side lobes are erect and the middle lobe is thick and fleshy. There are about 190 species distributed from tropical and subtropical Asia to the Western Pacific. Most species grow in lowland or tropical rainforests up to an altitude of 1,200 m.

Description
Orchids in the genus Thrixspermum are epiphytic or lithophytic, rarely terrestrial, monopodial herbs with long thick roots, and flat, fleshy leaves arranged in two ranks with their bases sheathing the stem. The flowers are arranged on a pendulous or arching flowering stem arising from a leaf axil. The flowers are usually short-lived and often open for less than a day. The sepals are free from and more or less similar to each other. The petals are free from each other and similar to, but slightly shorter than the sepals. The labellum is stiffly attached to the column with a pouched base and three lobes, the side lobes erect, usually short and blunt and the middle lobe thick and fleshy. The fruit is a long, thin capsule.

Taxonomy and naming
The genus Thrixspermum was first formally described in 1790 by João de Loureiro in Flora Cochinchinensis. The name Thrixspermum is derived from the Ancient Greek words thrix (θρίξ), meaning "hair" and sperma (σπέρμα) meaning "seed".

Species
The following is a list of species of Thrixspermum recognised by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families as at January 2019:

 * Thrixspermum aberrans Schltr. 1913
 * Thrixspermum acuminatissimum (Rchb. f.) Rchb.f. 1868
 * Thrixspermum acuminatissimum subsp. acuminatissimum
 * Thrixspermum acuminatissimum subsp. affine (Schltr.) P.O'Byrne & Gokusing (2016)
 * Thrixspermum acutilobum J.J.Sm. 1921
 * Thrixspermum agamense J.J.Sm. 1927
 * Thrixspermum agusanense Ames 1915
 * Thrixspermum alabense J.J.Wood (2010)
 * Thrixspermum amesianum L.O.Williams 1938
 * Thrixspermum amplexicaule (Bl.) Rchb. f. 1867
 * Thrixspermum anceps (Blume) Rchb.f. (1868)
 * Thrixspermum ancoriferum (Guillaumin) Garay (1972)
 * Thrixspermum angustatum L.O.Williams 1938)
 * Thrixspermum angustifolium (Blume) Rchb.f. (1868)
 * Thrixspermum anjunganense P.O'Byrne (2016)
 * Thrixspermum annamense ( Guillaum. ) Garay 1972
 * Thrixspermum arachnitiforme Schltr. 1921
 * Thrixspermum aurantiacum J.J.Sm. 1920
 * Thrixspermum bicolor P.O'Byrne, P.T.Ong & J.J.Verm. (2015)
 * Thrixspermum borneense (Rolfe) Ridl. (1896)
 * Thrixspermum bosuangii P.O'Byrne & Gokusing (2016)
 * Thrixspermum brevibracteatum J.J.Sm. 1928
 * Thrixspermum brevicapsularis Holttum 1947
 * Thrixspermum brevicaule Carr 1929
 * Thrixspermum brevipes Schltr. 1913
 * Thrixspermum breviscapum (Carr) Kocyan & Schuit. (2014)
 * Thrixspermum bromeliforme W.Suarez (2009)
 * Thrixspermum brunnescens (Ridl.) J.J.Sm. (1933)
 * Thrixspermum calceolus (Lindl.) Rchb.f. (1868)
 * Thrixspermum canaliculatum J.J.Sm. (1914)
 * Thrixspermum carinatifolium (Ridl.) Schltr. (1911)
 * Thrixspermum carnosum (K.Schum.) Schltr. (1911)
 * Thrixspermum caudatum P.O'Byrne & Gokusing (2016)
 * Thrixspermum celebicum Schltr. 1911
 * Thrixspermum centipeda Lour 1790
 * Thrixspermum cerinum (Ridl.) J.J.Sm. (1933)
 * Thrixspermum chanianum P.O'Byrne & Gokusing (2016)
 * Thrixspermum clavatum (J.Koenig) Garay (1972)
 * Thrixspermum clavilobum J.J.Sm. 1928
 * Thrixspermum collinum Schltr. 1913
 * Thrixspermum complanatum (J.Koenig) Schltr. (1911)
 * Thrixspermum congestum (Bailey) Dockrill  1967
 * Thrixspermum conigerum J.J.Sm. (1921)
 * Thrixspermum cootesii W.Suarez (2009)
 * Thrixspermum cordulatum J.J.Sm. 1927
 * Thrixspermum corneri Holttum 1947
 * Thrixspermum crassifolium Ridl.
 * Thrixspermum crassilabre (King & Pantl.) Ormerod 2004
 * Thrixspermum crescentiforme Ames & C.Schweinf.  1920
 * Thrixspermum cryptophallon P.O'Byrne & J.J.Verm. (2015)
 * Thrixspermum cymboglossum Schltr. 1911
 * Thrixspermum denticulatum Schltr. 1906
 * Thrixspermum doctersii J.J.Sm. 1914
 * Thrixspermum duplocallosum Holttum 1947
 * Thrixspermum elmeri L.O.Williams 1938
 * Thrixspermum elongatum Ames 1915
 * Thrixspermum erythrolomum P.O'Byrne & J.J.Verm. (2008)
 * Thrixspermum eximium L.O.Williams 1938
 * Thrixspermum fantasticum L.O.Williams 1938
 * Thrixspermum fernandeziae Cootes, Cabactulan & M.Leon (2017)
 * Thrixspermum filifolium Schltr. 1911
 * Thrixspermum filiforme (Hook.f.) Kuntze (1891)
 * Thrixspermum fimbriatum (Ridl.) J.J.Wood 1994
 * Thrixspermum flaccidum J.J.Sm. 1920
 * Thrixspermum fleuryi (Gagnep.) Tang & F.T.Wang (1951)
 * Thrixspermum formosanum (Hayata) Schltr. (1919)
 * Thrixspermum fragrans Ridl. 1921
 * Thrixspermum fulgens (Ridl.) Schltr. (1911)
 * Thrixspermum fuscum (Ridl.) Merr. (1921)
 * Thrixspermum gombakense J.J.Sm. 1928
 * Thrixspermum gracilicaule Schltr. 1907
 * Thrixspermum graeffei Rchb.f.
 * Thrixspermum grandiflorum P.O'Byrne & J.J.Verm. (2008)
 * Thrixspermum hiepii Aver. & Averyanova(2006)
 * Thrixspermum hystrix (Blume) Rchb.f.(1874)
 * Thrixspermum incurvicalcar J.J.Sm. 1926
 * Thrixspermum indicum Vik.Kumar, D.Verma & A.N.Rao (2017)
 * Thrixspermum indragiriense Schltr. 1907
 * Thrixspermum inquinatum J.J.Sm. 1907
 * Thrixspermum integrum L.O.Williams 1938
 * Thrixspermum iodochilus Ridl. 1922
 * Thrixspermum japonicum (Miq.) Rchb. f. 1878
 * Thrixspermum javanicum J.J.Sm. 1921
 * Thrixspermum kipandicum P.O'Byrne & Gokusing (2016)
 * Thrixspermum kjellbergii J.J.Sm. 1933
 * Thrixspermum kocyanii J.J.Wood & A.L.Lamb (2011)
 * Thrixspermum lampongense J.J.Sm. 1917
 * Thrixspermum lanatum P.O'Byrne & Gokusing (2016)
 * Thrixspermum latifolium J.J.Sm. 1917
 * Thrixspermum latisaccatum J.J.Sm. 1920
 * Thrixspermum lengguanianum P.T.Ong & P.O'Byrne (2011)
 * Thrixspermum leucorachne Ridl.
 * Thrixspermum ligulatum L.O.Williams 1938
 * Thrixspermum linearifolium Ames 1915
 * Thrixspermum lingiae P.O'Byrne & Gokusing (2016)
 * Thrixspermum linusii J.J.Wood & A.L.Lamb (2011)
 * Thrixspermum lombokense J.J.Sm. 1925
 * Thrixspermum longicauda Ridl.
 * Thrixspermum longilobum J.J.Sm. 1920
 * Thrixspermum longipedicellatum (Joongku Lee, T.B.Tran & R.K.Choudhary) Kocyan & Schuit. (2014)
 * Thrixspermum longipilosum J.J.Sm. 1922
 * Thrixspermum loogemanianum Schltr. 1911
 * Thrixspermum lucidum Schltr. 1911
 * Thrixspermum luciferum P.O'Byrne & J.J.Verm. (2004)
 * Thrixspermum maculatum Schltr. 1906
 * Thrixspermum majus (Carr) Kocyan & Schuit. (2014)
 * Thrixspermum malayanum J.J.Sm. 1921
 * Thrixspermum megacarpum P.O'Byrne, A.L.Lamb & P.T.Ong (2015)
 * Thrixspermum merapohense P.O'Byrne & P.T.Ong (2015)
 * Thrixspermum mergitiferum P.O'Byrne & J.J.Verm. (2004)
 * Thrixspermum merguense (Hook.f .) Kuntze 1996
 * Thrixspermum milneri P.O'Byrne & Gokusing (2016)
 * Thrixspermum montanum Ridl. 1913
 * Thrixspermum multicolor (Ridl.) Merr. (1921)
 * Thrixspermum musciflorum A.S.Rao & Joseph 1971
 * Thrixspermum obtusum (Blume) Rchb.f. (1868)
 * Thrixspermum ochraceum P.O'Byrne, P.T.Ong & J.J.Verm. (2015)
 * Thrixspermum odoratum X.Q.Song, Q.W.Meng & Y.B.Luo (2009)
 * Thrixspermum olidum P.O'Byrne (2016)
 * Thrixspermum pachychilum P.O'Byrne & Gokusing (2016)
 * Thrixspermum pardale (Ridl.) Schltr. (1911)
 * Thrixspermum patens J.J.Sm. 1921
 * Thrixspermum pauciflorum (Hook.f.) Kuntze (1891)
 * Thrixspermum pensile Schltr. 1911
 * Thrixspermum pinocchio P.O'Byrne & J.J.Verm. (2008)
 * Thrixspermum platycaule Holttum (1947)
 * Thrixspermum platystachys (F.M. Bailey) Schltr. 1911
 * Thrixspermum poilanei (Gagnep.) Tang & F.T.Wang (1951)
 * Thrixspermum ponapense Tuyama 1940
 * Thrixspermum psiloglottis (Ridl.) Schltr. (1911)
 * Thrixspermum pugionifolium (Hook.f.) Schltr. (1911)
 * Thrixspermum pulchellum (Thwaites) Schltr. (1911)
 * Thrixspermum pulchrum Carr 1932
 * Thrixspermum pulverulentum (Carr) Kocyan & Schuit. (2014)
 * Thrixspermum punctatum (Ridl.) J.J.Sm. (1933)
 * Thrixspermum purpurascens Rchb. f.
 * Thrixspermum pusillum (Guillaumin) Garay (1972)
 * Thrixspermum pygmaeum (King & Pantl.) Holttum (1960)
 * Thrixspermum quinquelobum Ames 1915
 * Thrixspermum raciborskii J.J.Sm
 * Thrixspermum raciborskii subsp. brevipollinium P.O'Byrne & Ent (2016)
 * Thrixspermum raciborskii subsp. raciborskii
 * Thrixspermum recurvum (Hook.f.) Kuntze (1891)
 * Thrixspermum remotiflorum J.J.Sm. 1906
 * Thrixspermum rimauense J.J.Wood & A.L.Lamb (2011)
 * Thrixspermum rimiae P.O'Byrne & Ent (2016)
 * Thrixspermum robinsonii Ames 1915
 * Thrixspermum roseum J.J.Sm. 1918
 * Thrixspermum rostratum Ames 1915
 * Thrixspermum rubrocalcaratum P.O'Byrne & Gokusing (2016)
 * Thrixspermum saccatum P.O'Byrne & J.J.Verm. (2008)
 * Thrixspermum sagoense J.J.Sm. 1928
 * Thrixspermum samarindae Schltr. 1906
 * Thrixspermum sarawakense Ames (1921)
 * Thrixspermum sarcophyllum Garay (1974)
 * Thrixspermum saruwatarii (Hayata) Schltr. 1919
 * Thrixspermum scandens P.O'Byrne (2016)
 * Thrixspermum scopa (Rchb.f. ex Hook.f.) Holttum (1947)
 * Thrixspermum scortechinii (Hook.f.) Kuntze (1891)
 * Thrixspermum semiteretifolium J.J.Wood & A.L.Lamb (2010)
 * Thrixspermum simum J.J.Sm. 1927
 * Thrixspermum squarrosum J.J.Sm. 1921
 * Thrixspermum stelidioides Aver. & Averyanova (2006)
 * Thrixspermum subteres J.J.Sm.
 * Thrixspermum subulatum (Blume) Rchb.f. (1868)
 * Thrixspermum sumatranum J.J.Sm. 1920
 * Thrixspermum sutepense (Rolfe ex Downie) Tang & F.T.Wang (1951)
 * Thrixspermum tahanense Carr 1930
 * Thrixspermum taianum P.O'Byrne & P.T.Ong (2015)
 * Thrixspermum tenuicalcar Carr 1932
 * Thrixspermum teretifolium P.O'Byrne & J.J.Verm. (2008)
 * Thrixspermum torajaense P.O'Byrne 1998
 * Thrixspermum tortum J.J.Sm. 1914
 * Thrixspermum triangulare Ames & C.Schweinf. 1920
 * Thrixspermum trichoglottis (Hook.f.)Kuntze 1896
 * Thrixspermum tsii W.H.Chen  &  Y.M.Shui 2005
 * Thrixspermum tubulatum P.O'Byrne (2016)
 * Thrixspermum tylophorum Schltr. 1911
 * Thrixspermum validum J.J.Sm. 1908
 * Thrixspermum vanoverberghii Ames 1914
 * Thrixspermum ventricosum J.J.Wood & A.L.Lamb (2011)
 * Thrixspermum walkeri Seidenf. &  P.Ormerod  1995
 * Thrixspermum warianum Schltr. 1913
 * Thrixspermum weberi Ames 1922
 * Thrixspermum wenzelii Ames 1915
 * Thrixspermum westenenkii (J.J.Sm.) Kocyan & Schuit. (2014)
 * Thrixspermum williamsianum (Kores) Ormerod (1996)
 * Thrixspermum xantholeucum Schltr.
 * Thrixspermum xantholomum P.O'Byrne & J.J.Verm. (2008)
 * Thrixspermum zollingeri (Rchb.f.) Rchb.f. (1868)

Distribution
Orchids in the genus Thrixspermum are found in China, Japan (including the Ryukyu Islands), Korea, Taiwan, India (including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, northern Australia (including Christmas Island), Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Vanuatu and the Caroline Islands. About fourteen species, two of which are endemic occur in China, nine are found in Taiwan and three in Australia.

title: Thrixspermum


text:
Loon (rapper)

Amir Junaid Muhadith (born Chauncey Lamont Hawkins; June 20, 1975), better known by his stage name Loon, is an American former rapper. He is best known for his work with rapper Puff Daddy and tenure at his label, Bad Boy Records; Loon most notably guest appeared on his 2002 singles "I Need a Girl (Part One)" and "I Need a Girl (Part Two)," which peaked at numbers two and four on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively.

Prior, he formed the New York City-based hip hop group Harlem World in 1995, with whom he released one studio album—The Movement (1999)—to commercial success until their disbandment in 1999. As a solo act, Loon signed with Arista Records, and later Bad Boy Records that same year to release his eponymous debut studio album (2003). It was met with commercial success and peaked at number six on the Billboard 200, although critical response was mixed. He then parted ways with the label in the following year due to his conversion to Islam, and released three independent albums until his retirement from recording altogether in 2009.

Career
Chauncey Lamont Hawkins was born in Harlem, New York. He began his musical career as a member of Mase's rap collective Harlem World in 1995, and signed with Arista Records after their 1999 disbandment. He also began working severally with group cohort Mase; due to Mase signing with P. Diddy's Bad Boy Records, Loon was led by proximity to sign with the label himself, as it was also an imprint of Arista.

He made his first solo appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 for his guest feature on label mate Faith Evans' 2001 single "You Gets No Love" alongside Diddy, which peaked at number 38 on the chart. Bad Boy parted ways with Arista the following year, and the Bad Boy roster, including Loon, was thereafter moved to Universal Records. 2002 also saw Loon guest performing on the commercially successful singles "I Need a Girl (Part One)" and "I Need a Girl (Part Two)" both by Diddy, as well as "I Do (Wanna Get Close to You)" by 3LW and "Hit the Freeway" by Toni Braxton; the former two peaked at numbers two and four on the chart, respectively. During his time with Bad Boy, Loon served as a ghostwriter on songs by or featuring Diddy, having co-written Mario Winans' 2004 single "I Don't Wanna Know" as well as Diddy's 2001 eponymous single.

His 2003 debut commercial single, "Down For Me" (featuring Mario Winans) peaked at number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains his highest charting song as a lead artist. It's follow-up, "How You Like That" (featuring Kelis) peaked at number 88 on the chart. Both preceded the release of his self-titled debut studio album in October of that year, which peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 and saw mixed reviews. Loon left Bad Boy Records in the following year to launch his own record label, Boss Up Entertainment. He then retired from the music industry entirely in 2009.

Conversion to Islam
Loon converted to Islam in December 2008 after a trip to Abu Dhabi, and Dubai, UAE. Born Chauncey Lamont Hawkins, he officially changed his name to Amir Junaid Muhadith after traveling to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest site of Islam, to perform Umrah. After having converted to Islam, he subsequently ended his music career and would later relocate to Cairo, Egypt where he lived until 2011, and then lastly moved back to the United States of America from 2011 to 2022, and stayed in the United States of America in 2022.

Legal issues
On November 22, 2011, Muhadith was arrested while on a trip to Brussels. He was extradited to the United States in May 2012 and was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment in July 2013 for conspiracy with intent to traffic one or more kilograms of heroin. Many reports have advocated for and confirmed his innocence.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic effects in prison centers, Muhadith was granted early release on July 29, 2020.

Guest appearances

 * 1998: "Back Up Off The Wall" Brand Nubian (uncredited)
 * 2002: "How U Want Dat" (Remix) by the Game
 * 2003: "Tru Rider" (Mowett feat. Loon)
 * 2003: "Gangsta Sh*t" (Snoop Dogg feat. Loon)
 * 2004: “Whatchu Sayin’” (Truth Hurts feat. Loon)
 * 2005: "Smile for Me" (Massari feat. Loon)
 * 2009: "What You Say" (Loon feat. Christopher)
 * 2009: "No Way Nobody" (Karl Wolf feat. Loon)

Filmography

 * Films

title: Loon (rapper)


text:
Category:Royal Air Force stations in Singapore

__NOGALLERY__


text:
User talk:216.226.52.130

March 2016
Hello, I'm Flyer22 Reborn. I wanted to let you know that one or more of your recent contributions to V (TV network) has been undone because it did not appear constructive. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Flyer22 Reborn (talk) 19:38, 9 March 2016 (UTC)
 * If this is a shared IP address, and you did not make the edits, consider creating an account for yourself so you can avoid further irrelevant notices.

title: User talk:216.226.52.130


text:
Miina Härma

Miina Härma (born Miina Hermann; February 9, 1864 – November 16, 1941) was an Estonian composer. She was the second Estonian musician with higher education.

Her greatest contribution is perhaps the fact that she took organ music to the countryside, as virtually no skilled organists gave concerts outside of towns.

During her 60-year creative career, she wrote more than 200 choral songs, 10 cavatinas, a canto, "Kalev and Linda" and much more. She composed mainly vocal music.

Biography
Härma was born Miina Hermann in 1864 in Kõrveküla, Livonia, Russian Empire to a local teacher and his wife. There were seven children in the family. Both of her parents were musically educated.

Härma began to learn music on her own with a small organ her father bought her. When she was 15, Härma began studying with K. A. Hermann, who gave her lessons in both musical composition and piano. In 1883, Härma entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory as its only organ student that year. She graduated in 1890, but continued to live in Saint Petersburg because it was very hard to find work in the Baltic governorates. In 1894, the fifth Estonian Song Festival took place, which led to the formation of Härma's own choir.

In 1903, as financial problems overwhelmed her, Härma moved to Kronstadt, Governorate of Saint Petersburg. She had to leave the city in 1915 because of the beginning of the First World War, as no civilians were allowed to stay there.

Despite the fact that music had rapidly developed in Tartu, it was still hard to find a job as a music teacher, since there were almost no students due to the war. In 1917, Härma became a music teacher in a school that is now the Miina Härma Gymnasium.

Härma died on November 16, 1941, in Tartu. She is buried in the Raadi Cemetery.

title: Miina Härma


text:
Jessie Rooke

Jessie Spink Rooke (10 September 1845 – 4 January 1906) was a suffragette and temperance reformer in Tasmania, Australia, and one of the first Tasmanian women to gain recognition outside Tasmania.

Life
Jessie Rooke was born in London on September 10, 1845, to William Walker and Catherine Scollay. Rooke moved to Melbourne, and in 1867, she married New Zealander Peter Charles Reid. After he died, she married widower Charles Rooke on August 14, 1883. The Rookes moved to Tasmania in the early 1890s, and Jessie Rooke became involved with the Burnie Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). She was elected president in 1894.

The WCTU emerged as leaders of the Tasmanian suffrage campaign. In 1896 Rooke toured Tasmania with suffrage superintendent Georgina Kermode. They arranged public meetings of women, collecting campaign funds, distributing pamphlets, and collecting signatures on a petition calling for the vote to be extended to women. The petition was presented to the Tasmanian parliament at the end of 1896. In 1898 Rooke toured Tasmania again with South Australian Elizabeth Nicholls. They visited 30 towns collecting signatures on a petition. Although suffrage bills were defeated in both 1896 and 1897, the Electoral Act of 1903 granted Tasmanian women the right to vote.

In 1898, Rooke became president of the Tasmanian WCTU branch, and in 1903, president of the Australian WCTU.

Rooke was a delegate to the 1902 International Council of Women Conference in Washington, and, in 1903, she founded the Tasmanian Women's Suffrage Association, which mobilized women for the next election.

Rooke remained president of the WCTU until her death in 1906 from congestive heart failure.

title: Jessie Rooke


text:
1861 in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during 1861 in South Africa.

Incumbents

 * Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa:
 * Sir George Grey (until 14 August).
 * Sir Robert Wynyard (acting from 15 August).
 * Lieutenant-governor of the Colony of Natal: John Scott.
 * State President of the Orange Free State: Marthinus Wessel Pretorius.
 * President of the Executive Council of the South African Republic: Stephanus Schoeman (acting).

Events

 * August
 * 15 – Sir Robert Wynyard becomes acting Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa.

 * September
 * 16 – Roman Rock Lighthouse at the entrance to Simon's Town begins operating after taking 4 years to build.

Births

 * 10 November – Robert T. A. Innes, astronomer and secretary-accountant at the Cape observatory. (d. 1933)
 * Sefako Mapogo Makgatho, the second African National Congress president. (d. 1951)

title: 1861 in South Africa


text:
Gaspereau, Nova Scotia

Gaspereau is a rural community located in Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada.

It is located about 3 km south of the town of Wolfville on the Gaspereau River. The name "Gaspereau" is often used to refer to all of the communities along the 15 km Gaspereau Valley which include Gaspereau, Wallbrook, Melanson, Benjamin Bridge and White Rock.

The name is derived from the Gaspereau fish, Alosa pseudoharengus, which migrates up the river every spring. The fishing of Gaspereau has been important to human settlement of the Gaspereau Valley for thousands of years. When the Acadians came here around 1680, they named the fish and the area "Gasparot". There is still a commercial fishery for Gaspereau in the river.

The term "Rivière des Gasparots" is mentioned in a 1701 census of Acadia.

Gaspereau is primarily an agricultural community, hosting dairy farms and apple orchards. In recent years many grape vineyards have been established and there is more than one winery in the village. Gaspereau Vineyards, opened in 2004, and L'Acadie Vineyards, opened in 2008, are both popular destinations in the village of Gaspereau.

The Gaspereau River is also known for tubing. During the hot summer months residents and visitors float on inner-tubes down through lush, tranquil river scenery when the river is high. Visitors can often rent tubes from nearby houses, but they should also be aware that the river is part of nature, not a theme-park: depending on the activity of the hydro dam that controls water levels and flow in the river there can be areas of powerful flow, overhanging obstacles or protruding rocks. Non-swimmers should wear life jackets and be in the company of competent swimmers.

Gaspereau is also home to a canal (referred to as "The Canal" or "The Gaspereau Canal" or "White Rock Canal"). The 1.5 km long canal brings water from the White Rock reservoir to the hydroelectricity generating station.

title: Gaspereau, Nova Scotia


text:
Talk:Voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative

German
I would like to avoid original research here as much as possible, but there is an interesting phenomenon I think should be noted. In German language classes in the US (and presumably other English speaking countries as well), Standard German pronunciation is taught. Therefore ich-Laut is [ç]. I have observed (as have my German teachers and a few Germans I have spoken to about the matter) that many English speakers, particularly those with little or no formal training in German, pronounce ich-Laut as. When I have noticed it myself and asked the speakers where they learned German, they have said that they learned a few German phrases from Germans from the south of Germany. Unfortunately, this has been only on two occasions and both were before I was aware of the distinct pronunication in the Rhineland dialect, so I didn't ask for more specific location. I went ahead and qualified the statement about English speakers having difficulty discerning from  or [ç] with this example from German, but it could probably use some peer review. Also, if anyone knows of a good reference about acquisition of German as a second language by English speakers or studies of German with an English/American accent, this would be very helpful. CyborgTosser (Only half the battle) 13:13, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Almost all the learners of German I have ever met (from the UK or France) pronounce the ich-Laut as . If challenged, they try to blame it on regional German, but the real reason is obviously that /ç/ is hard to pronounce, and  sounds vaguely similar; so they just substitute it.  — Chameleon 15:12, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
 * It all sounds like unverfiable speculation to me and probably confuses more than it helps. I seriously doubt the vast majority of native English speakers ever manage produce an acceptable [ç] or . I think we should simply skip the "In English" section when there are neither phonemes nor naturally occuring allophones of a particular sound. We'll probably just wind up with people thinking that it's pronounced and never be the wiser.
 * Time to get bold...
 * Peter Isotalo 22:59, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I have no problem with [ç] or, and yet the ich I heard in Dresden sounded closer to English than to either of those (though I must admit that I didn't listen terribly carefully). East Germans, in both Dresden and Berlin, have told me that this is a regional pronunciation. I don't know that it truly was , and of course it's a long way from the Rhineland, but maybe that's what some of these people are talking about. kwami 00:31, 2005 July 26 (UTC)
 * Well it really shouldn't be that hard though, right? Since most North American English speakers pronounce  like [çi:] instead of just the underlying [hi:] so we actually have this sound, I guess we just don't realize it? MorrowSol 18:43, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

I was born in Saarland (South West Germany) and so I never knew what was the difference between ch (in Standart German [ç]) and sch (in Standart German ), until I moved to Northern Germany, as in Saarland both were pronounced equally. By the way, many Germans from Saarland and Palatinate still confuse it, when they try to speak Standart German; the most popular example might be former chancellor Helmut Kohl, who pronounces every sch as [ç], thinking this would be Standart German. 84.132.225.231 18:18, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

 * It's not really "thinking", I'd rather call it overcompensation. It's because these western dialects don't distinguish between "ich" and "isch". Goethe, e.g., rhymed "ch" with "sch", but I can't think of an example off the top of my head. (Purportedly, this is why his last words "Mehr Licht!" were actually meant as a complaint about his bed, which he didn't get to finish: "Mer liegt so schlecht!".) For this reason, our comment about the Rhineland is not correct as it stands; at least it needs to mention that people there pronounce "sch" in the same way. Moreover, I'm not even sure that they really pronounce - my impression was rather that it's . (Either way, the two are hard to distinguish for a German since there is no phonemic difference.) I'll mark it with fact and ask on de:Diskussion:Stimmloser alveolopalataler Frikativ about it. — Sebastian 02:07, 19 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't really know German except for a few words/phrases, but I listen to Rammstein a lot and Till's /ç/ does sound an awful lot like /ɕ~ʃ/. Just thought you should know.Cameron Nedland 19:26, 27 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Maybe I'm deaf but I've never noticed that - in fact, I'm quite sure that Till does NOT have the merger and uses an actual for standard . I'm not sure whether this is his native pronunciation or just a learned standard pronunciation - not that it really matters either way. Sol505000 (talk) 21:43, 25 October 2021 (UTC)
 * There - . Non-sibilant, medio-palatal. Unmistakable. And if I'm wrong about this, then at BEST he says, with a non-labialized alveolo-palatal sibilant. He absolutely does not have a merger with which to him and most Germans has little to no palatalization and features a noticeable labialization (which, if increased, would make  sound like ).
 * This makes me wonder whether (an actual Polish $⟨ś⟩$ without any labialization) for  is actually non-standard. After all, the fricative variant of Swedish  is invariably transcribed with ⟨ʝ⟩, even though  also exists as its allophone - but in transcription, the two are never distinguished. Furthermore, Urban East Norwegian  is "often alveolo-palatal", per Kristoffersen (2000). So the fact that the sign ⟨ç⟩ is used in transcriptions of German doesn't mean that the fricative can only be mediopalatal. We need serious research (unless it's already been done and I'm not aware of it) into the phonetic nature of German  and  as they are pronounced by speakers considered to speak Standard German (meaning: non-regional German Standard German). Recasens would be perfect for the job, no? Sol505000 (talk) 14:35, 27 October 2021 (UTC)

Mandarin
I've tried to fix the representation of Pinyin x. This dorso-palatal monstrosity is far from a simple. It is a coarticulation of two fricatives, one that varies (between different idio- or perhaps dialects, I don't know) between [ç] and the midpoint between [ç] and [x], and another that varies between and perhaps. In addition, it has a [j]-like offglide, like many dorso-palatal consonants (for example Italian gn and gl). So I suspect the most correct IPA representation could be with the tie bar extending over all three.

I have also forced Internet Explorer to use Arial Unicode MS to display the characters that would otherwise be shown as squares (both in the article and this page). The trick is to write { { I P A |  } } around the symbols (or around the [] or //).

Apart from that I have added the American example. It goes without saying that I'd appreciate it if a native speaker elaborated that!

Addition 15:43: I have added Polish, the poster child for. I will try to add Belorussian next. Does someone know whether Italian sci is in at least some dialects?

David Marjanović david.marjanovic_at_gmx.at 15:23 CET-summertime 2005/9/10

 * Where are you getting this? First of all, doubly articulated fricatives are not known to occur in any language. They have been claimed several times, but always turn out to be something else when investigated.

 * I don't know how else to explain how it sounds. Do you have Skype?
 * (And for that matter I doubt that the sounds in question occur in any other language... x seems to exist in one Swedish dialect as a realization of, but here I'm judging merely from written descriptions in Wikipedia.)

 * Secondly, Ladefoged made palatograms and several other measurements of from three Mandarin speakers.

 * Maybe they didn't come from the same region as the speakers on the tapes of the Chinese textbooks I've used, and as at least some of the Chinese I've heard speak in Vienna's subway, and on TV... or they simply weren't speaking pure Pǔtōnghuà. "Mandarin" is a rather loose term.

 * Third, the occlusion in Mandarin q is coronal, not dorsal, even in the third speaker.

 * Difficult to explain how this could sound like what I hear.

 * That is, it should be transcribed as a [t] with some diacritic. Ladefoged has . [c] would mean that the tip/blade of the tongue was not used.

 * Indeed not. The tip of the tongue touches the lower alveoli in x, q and j. This is even mentioned in writing in one of my textbooks (otherwise they're all not very exact on phonetics).

 * Fourth, the tie bar needs to go between the segments, not after them.

 * Sorry, I made it so that it looks convincing in Arial Unicode MS, which is known to have a bug there.

 * Also, the [j] should be outside the tie bar; it is physically impossible to pronounce it within (unlike a double fricative, which is merely very difficult). kwami 18:57, 2005 September 10 (UTC)

 * In addition to being simultaneous [ç] and, it has a [j]-like offglide like French gn, which I would write with a tie-bar (and feel bad about it because the j probably needs some sophisticated diacritic). So the transcription of x should contain two tie-bars, one above the other and spanning over both the first tie-bar and the j.

 * P.S. If an American pronounced estimate with a, I would think they had a speach defect. It would sound like a lithp. kwami 19:11, 2005 September 10 (UTC)

 * It's not a true, it's somewhere between that and . You know how Bush says "misundreshtmate", don't you?
 * David 00:18 CET-summertime 2005/9/27
 * It's not a lisp at all. A lisp would be the tl in Nahuatl. It's an apical s. It's found in Spanish (that's why people claim the Spanish lisp), Greek and Dutch. --2.245.215.41 (talk) 14:01, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

Sound file accuracy
I have reason to believe that the sound that is pronounced in the ogg file (sound sample) approaches a Voiceless postalveolar fricative consonant, rather than a Voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative. It would be greatly appreciated if a phonetician would look over this article.Danielsavoiu 11:32, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Indeed, the sound file is garbage. Who will corect that? The correct pronunciation can be found here: [Https://haakonkrohn.com/ipa/index.html#current https://haakonkrohn.com/ipa/index.html#current] 82.77.245.21 (talk) 11:08, 27 November 2023 (UTC)

The sound file is the same as used on the page for Voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant. It is not the correct file for this page.

Russian: щ sound
The current article reads: In Russian, щ represents /ɕɕ/ or /ɕtɕ/ which I think is very vague and inexact. AFAICS modern Russian does not anymore use the /ɕtɕ/ variant at all - please prove me wrong: /ɕɕ/ everywhere - with one exception: to the vegetable soup, Germans say Borschtsch (Russian Борщ), using the older transliteration. -andy 80.129.116.55 00:20, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * As a native speaker I must admit: it's really so: only /ɕɕ/ everywhere. Even in Борщ. --Koryakov Yuri 22:38, 25 April 2007 (UTC)
 * As a non-native I was taught /ɕtɕ/ (transcribed 'shch', as though it were Polish 'szcz'), only to find that native Russian-speakers always corrected me, saying it should be /ɕɕ/ - the classic example being the 'other Russian soup' щи - not 'shchi' but 'shhi'.213.127.210.95 (talk) 21:53, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, it's a classic Polish (maybe not only Polish) mispronunciation of Russian . Sol505000 (talk) 21:25, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

Dutch?
What about Dutch, folks? They do not pronounce an "ordinary" s either! It resembles the /ɕ/ a lot! Look at the pronunciation of this town: 's-Hertogenbosch. The Dutchman who pronunces this in the audio sample does NOT pronunce the s as normal s in English, but something in-between! Or doesn't he? -andy 80.129.116.55 00:31, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * It's an apical s. --2.245.215.41 (talk) 14:02, 15 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes, I live in Holland, and I sometimes think the Dutch 's' sound resembles the 'lisping' sound made by people with badly fitting false teeth!213.127.210.95 (talk) 21:58, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Dutch is not lisped, but retracted. Mr KEBAB (talk) 15:25, 30 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Correct, Dutch S is retracted, causing English speakers to think it sounds rather like the initial sound of ship or else of huge. Nothing wrong with retracted S, classic Latin had it as well. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:CB0C:CD:D800:C82A:B6A7:96B0:E84F (talk) 12:46, 4 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Huge? I'm sorry but it sounds nothing like the retracted sibilant found in Dutch (or Danish, European Spanish, etc.). The initial consonant of English huge is much more back than that, being a lot like the voiceless soft g (well, actually ch, judging by the most common spelling of the sound) found in southern dialects of Dutch.
 * Nobody said that there was anything wrong with it. Actually, the retracted nature of Dutch alveolar sibilants receives relatively little comments from laymen (as far as I know anyway), who mostly comment on the hard G, the voiceless uvular fricative (which is very funny because it's found in French as an allophone of, and French is hardly ever described as harshly/unpleasant sounding, quite the opposite actually). Sol505000 (talk) 21:26, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

Japanese
I have just listened to the example in infobox and to Japanese example below in the list and must say they are different sounds. Japanese "shi" sounds quite like Russian si/си [sʲi] not like schchi/щи [ɕɕi], that is it's rather a palatalized "s" than real alveolo-palatal. Isn't it? --Koryakov Yuri 22:36, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

co-articulated
The consonant template lists this as a co-articulated fricative, but I can hardly find any information concerning its co-articulated nature. I actually think it seems to be a coarticulation between /s/ and ʂ/ʃ, but perhaps this is marred from the perspective of the Singapore Mandarin dialect, so any opinions? Elle vécut heureuse à jamais  (Be eudaimonic!) 07:29, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

 * It's essentially a palatalized [ʃ]. Co-articulation does not necessarily refer to two fricativ articulations. -- Trɔpʏliʊm • blah 22:17, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Does one not find the sound in initial position in human?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language#Phonology —Preceding unsigned comment added by 159.134.221.29 (talk • contribs)

 * I'm sorry but I'm confused by the title... "in human?" What does this mean? If it occurs in human languages in initial position? And what do you mean by "initial position", anyway? The syllable onset? Beginning of a word? If either, then how about the name of the city Xi'an in China spoken out in Mandarin? mike4ty4 (talk) 09:25, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
 * My guess is that the question is if the first sound of the English word human isn't a voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative. No, it's not.  For quite a few people, the first sound of human is a voiceless palatal approximant or a voiceless palatal fricative.  — Æµ§œš¹  [aɪm ˈfɻɛ̃ⁿdˡi]  22:24, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Listening to the first album of Björk in America, Debut (Human Behavior = youtube. com/watch?v=urrbhgC8PB0), all of the sounds she does at sound very clearly like a strong carioca accent, or a strong carioca-postalveolar-sibilant-merging-like European Portuguese accent (I just can't fully tell the voice of it, don't know if what she says in the place of "human" sounds like xuman or juman, way more like the latter but not as voiced as my, perhaps a Germanic thing).
 * That is, our sounds are somewhat in-between but perceptibly distant from English, French and German sh/sch, as well German ich-Laut, and she's closer to the Portuguese x/ch/coda s or j/g/voiced coda s of my speech (that is pretty Vernacular Brazilian when colloquial and pretty General Brazilian when not) than even a Japanese shi/ji.
 * It is not a native speaker (ohhhh!), so it doesn't matter much. Hearing to a humorous video on Swedish phonology, is really the sound of Björk's 1993 speech (but [fully?] voiceless instead), most Brazilian x/ch and our carioca and Portuguese coda /s/. Lguipontes (talk) 06:22, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

Removal of Korean Stress Mark [ɕid͡ʑaŋ]
I have removed the stress mark found in [ɕiˈd͡ʑaŋ]. Please see: [] Finitoultero (talk) 00:51, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

/ʃ/, /ɕ/, /ʂ/
Would I be wrong to say that these three phonemes are basically equal, varying only in three degrees of "retroflexation"? The first sound, /ʃ/, would be with no retroflexation at all: the tongue stays straight in the mouth. The next fricative, /ɕ/, would to be pronounced with the tongue slightly curled up and the last, /ʂ/, with the tongue in a "total retroflex" position. Wisapi (talk) 00:37, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
 * No. Only  is retroflex.  Take a look at postalveolar consonant and retroflex consonant.  The three sounds do have a number of commonalities, but retroflexion is not one of them.
 * However, because is used to represent sounds that aren't necessarily true retroflexes and because retroflexes tend to resist palatalization, you could say that they differ in degrees of palatalization so that  is the least palatalized and  is the most palatalized.  This isn't necessarily how languages categorize the three sounds, though.  You might also want to check out this conversation about Polish, which seems to have all three sounds. — Æµ§œš¹  [aɪm ˈfɹ̠ˤʷɛ̃ɾ̃ˡi]  00:57, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Hm, right. Your sources answered lots of questions but raised two. Firstly, if [ʂ] is not always pronounced as a true retroflex by means of palatalization, which cannot cooccur with retroflexes, than why does it turn progressively into a [ʃ] and not a [ɕ], if [ʃ] is also not palatized? Secondly, how can there be two distinct phones [ʃʲ] and [ɕ]? I know that the guy who claimed these phonemes were told apart in Polish retracted it afterwards, but whereas this was regarded as a far-fetched possibility, it wasn't still viewed as an absurdity like distinguishing two identical phonemes. Wisapi (talk) 02:02, 10 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually, is palatalized, just not as much as .   and  are phonetically identical.
 * The way it seems to work in Polish is that the relationship between and  is the same as, say, between  and .  Because Polish  is often transcribed as, the user used   to represent what is actually .  I've probably made it more confusing for you, haven't I?  — Æµ§œš¹  [aɪm ˈfɹ̠ˤʷɛ̃ɾ̃ˡi]  03:56, 10 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Oh, no. Thanks alot. With a little pondering on my part, you actually made yourself very clear. Wisapi (talk) 14:02, 10 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I think the order regarding the position of the tongue is ɕ, ʃ, ʂ; ɕ being the most forward.--2.245.183.124 (talk) 19:43, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
 * No, it is not. ɕ is the further back. --JorisvS (talk) 22:04, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Depends on if you're tracking the position of the tongue-palate contact point or the position of the tongue tip! With some specific pronunciations of [ɕ] and [ʃ] you indeed get the front-to-back order ɕ→ʃ→ʂ for the latter. (: -- Trɔpʏliʊm • blah 03:15, 30 November 2013 (UTC)

what about the English word "human"? doesn't this start with /ɕu/? It is not correct to write this as /hju/ 75.80.2.185 (talk) 06:44, 29 April 2017 (UTC)  Scholarchanter 29 April 2017

 * 1. That's ç the voiceless palatal non sibilant fricative
 * 2. /hju/ is correct and /çu/ is allophonic 2603:6080:9D03:D979:F4F5:E120:569F:E1D4 (talk) 22:26, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

incorrect illustration?
The article says articulated with the front of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, but the illustration shows the tip of the tongue close to the lower teeth. --Espoo (talk) 07:49, 28 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Response: In Phonetics, the tongue "front" is what most people would consider to be the middle. The tongue tip is called just that- the tip. Confusing, yes, I know! For this reason sometimes the tongue "front" is called the tongue center. See this graphic: http://classes.design.ucla.edu/Spring08/150B/images/yoko_ohama/080515-4.png Larkale07 (talk) 00:06, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

Sound file
The sound file of this sound and that of voiceless postalveolar fricative sound the same.

 * ʃ
 * ɕ
 * — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.211.122.65 (talk • contribs)
 * Yes, these are similar sounds, so they should sound similar. — Æµ§œš¹  [aɪm ˈfɹ̠ˤʷɛ̃ɾ̃ˡi]  21:52, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

 * What about the audio samples here? Now can you hear the difference?  I think those ones are better. 208.104.45.20 (talk) 07:59, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Catalan vs Chinese
I'm a catalan native and a chinese student and even if the chinese sound is really an alveolo-palatal, the catalan is more correctly described as the palato-alveolar.

This seems to be though a confusion between alveolo-palatals and palato-alveolars.

The source cited for calling the palato-alveolar an alveolo-palatal  in catalan, seems to use the word alveolopalatal rather freely, as it calls others like  (catalan ll) and  (catalan ny) also as alveopalatals.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_phonology#Consonants phonetic notes section where this misunderstanding is explained.

The wrong source to cite is: Recasens, Daniel; Pallarès, Maria Dolores (2001), "Coarticulation, Assimilation and Blending in Catalan Consonant Clusters", Journal of Phonetics 29 (3): 273–301

http://pagines.uab.cat/danielrecasens/sites/pagines.uab.cat.danielrecasens/files/clusters%20JPh.pdf — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.12.21.174 (talk • contribs)
 * You haven't explained why this is wrong. Palatals and laterals can be (and are in the case of Catalan), alveolo-palatal.  The author in question, Daniel Recasens, is very thorough about showing that Catalan's postalveolar fricatives are alveolo-palatal. — Æµ§œš¹  [ãːɱ ˈfɹ̠ˤʷɪ̃ə̃nlɪ]  15:42, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

 * Well, better late than never:
 * "Electropalatographic data for five speakers of Eastern Catalan reported in Recasens & Pallarès (2001: 84f.) reveal that Catalan /ʃ/ is articulated essentially at the postalveolo-prepalatal zone for all speakers and involves much dorsal contact at both sides of the palate behind the constriction. Moreover, speakers seem to be having the tongue tip down during the production of this laminal or lamino-predorsal consonant, as suggested by the fact that the two frontmost rows of electrodes of the articial palate remain completely unactivated and that the frontmost lateral contact has a V-like shape. Based on these data, we believe that Catalan /ʃ/ ought to be labeled ‘alveolopalatal’ which is consistent with the presence of other alveolopalatal consonants such as /ɲ/ and /ʎ/ in the language. Accordingly, we will use this term to refer to /ʃ, ʒ/ and to /tʃ, dʒ/ in this paper." (Recasens & Espinosa 2007:145)
 * "The fricative /ʃ/, on the other hand, is laminal and centroalveolar or postalveolar in Valencian, and laminal or lamino-predorsal and postalveolar or alveolopalatal in Majorcan (and thus close to Eastern Catalan /ʃ/ in the latter dialect). It appears that the tongue tip is lowered in Majorcan and may be more or less raised in Valencian." (Recasens & Espinosa 2007:167) — Lfdder (talk) 23:45, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

sjæl and kjol
The Danish sjæl and the Swedish kjol can not both be a correct example, as the initial sounds are not pronounced the same.--EvenT (talk) 20:49, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Danish phonology seems to suggest that sj would be . There also seems to be dialectal variation in the pronunciation of kj.  — Æµ§œš¹  [ãːɱ ˈfɹ̠ˤʷɪ̃ə̃nlɪ]  21:04, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
 * In Danish it's for  and  for . Peter238 (talk) 20:41, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I agree, the Swedish kjol is correct but Danish sjæl is not. At least not in any version I have ever heard. These are sounds that non-native speakers often have trouble distinguishing, so I suspect that's the problem here. Wikipedia's phonology articles unfortunately tend to be inconsistend and contradictory, so just copying between them is not enough or we'll just spread misconceptions. This article needs to be edited by a native Danish speaker. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.225.76.127 (talk) 14:49, 27 December 2018 (UTC)
 * No, it does not. Grønnum states clearly that the sounds in question are for  and  for . We go by reliable, reputable sources - see WP:RS. Sol505000 (talk) 21:33, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

Should be contrast with ʃ
I think there should be a mention of how this is different from [ʃ]. The sounds are just so similar, and the audience is English speakers which are familiar with [ʃ] and so often think [ɕ] and [ʃ] are the same sound. Heck, most English approximations for [ɕ] use "sh".

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some people with sibilance problems use [ɕ] for /ʃ/. — trlkly 20:39, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
 * The difference is that the body of the tongue is more raised than in . I'll add that in a moment. Peter238 (talk) 20:41, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes, AND, in addition to that, there's usually little to no lip rounding on, which adds to the overall 'softness' of the sound. Sol505000 (talk) 22:09, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

счастье
The IPA rendering of the first vowel as <æ> (which is the sound in English 'black') - [ˈɕːæsʲtʲjə] - is surely wrong, since that sound doesn't exist in standard Russian, or as far as I know in any form of Russian.213.127.210.95 (talk) 21:46, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
 * [æ] is indeed correct. A soft consonant in Russian affects the following vowel. This is something native speakers usually don't perceive. --Explosivo (talk) 23:42, 7 May 2016 (UTC)

Portuguese
Can someone look at the sources, and tell which dialects are actually described, and whether the sources are actually reliable? AFAICS, there's no mentioning European Portuguese there, and putting it with a question mark is hardly appropriate here.

Mr KEBAB (talk) 23:14, 25 May 2016 (UTC)

 * I'm okay with removing European Portuguese. I have seen a source for it years ago, but I've lost my hard disk / browser history ever since many times, it could have been deleted now. European Portuguese is cited in the Daniela source as the famous explanation for the palatalization ubiquitous to Rio de Janeiro speech. The dialect with which Japanese speakers have difficulty in a disagreeing source is Curitiba's, famous for its often parodized Spanish-like pronunciation of leite quente and overall linguistic conservatism, it shouldn't be used as an a reference for the speech of e.g. Rio de Janeiro state where 99% of native speakers palatalize and  in all contexts, or São Paulo which the Cora Coralina source cites as the original linguistic epicenter of denti-alveolar stop palatalization. Srtª PiriLimPomPom (talk) 04:43, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks, but please stick to discussing only the alveolo-palatal pronunciation, only how it is described by reliable sources. It will make our messages shorter.
 * - As far as the Daniela reference is concerned, all I could find on European Portuguese there is on page 21 in which EP is described as having "palatal" (this can signify either alveolo-palatal or palato-alveolar pronunciation - the source doesn't say). As far as the alveolo-palatal realizations are concerned, the only reference to them on that page is in context of Carioca pronunciation.
 * - Are you saying that the Flavio & Medina source is unreliable? Why did you use it then? AFAICS, the source uses the term "alveolo-palatal" and the corresponding symbols only when transcribing Japanese or Portuguese spoken by non-native speakers from Japan. That clearly makes it unreliable as far as sourcing any dialect is concerned.
 * - I can't access the Cora Coralina source.
 * - Ok, now what about Leite, UFPA and Dos Santos? None of these sources seem to use the term "alveolo-palatal" at all. Mr KEBAB (talk) 14:33, 26 May 2016 (UTC)

 * It's not unreliable, it is only studying the production taking place in a single Brazilian dialect, taking the assumption that the postalveolar production in the Brazilian Portuguese dialect spoken in Curitiba can be thought of as the generality rather than the exception.
 * As for the other sources, Leite does not differentiate between the articulation of our postalveolar consonants and alveolo-palatal ones, furthering the belief that they are further palatalized than the typical European language pronunciations of . The other sources are here to provide support for my transcription choices (detailing when coda is or is not palatalized).
 * I used Flavio & Medina to be intellectually honest about it being a controversy, due to the little attention given to the minute details of cross-dialectal production of palatalization in BP, which did not receive the same attention of Catalan's alveolo-palatal pronunciation. Srtª PiriLimPomPom (talk) 17:08, 26 May 2016 (UTC)

 * Saying BP's consonants are palatoalveolar is as outlandish as saying they are alveolopalatal, in my humble opinion. Our pronunciation is significantly "wetter" than palatoalveolar (most particularly Rio de Janeiro  and ) and Brazilian phonological papers insist on calling them palatal. As far as I know, no one ever contrasted the two possibilities in major studies but Flavio & Medina's. Srtª PiriLimPomPom (talk) 04:11, 27 May 2016 (UTC)

 * (Sorry for the slight delay, this is the third time I'm writing this message - Firefox is pure evil :

 * Once again, please focus on what the sources say, not your subjective interpretation of them or your personal experience in general - we can't use any of that as a source on Wikipedia (see WP:OR), so you shouldn't write about that here at all (see WP:NOTAFORUM). I'm afraid that you're now leaving me no choice but to remove the off-topic parts of your message, as it makes our discussion harder to read for other users. Anyone who wishes to know what exactly has been removed should click here.

 * Back on topic:

 * - I know now that the Flavio & Medina is unreliable (as far as sourcing the alveolo-palatal realization is concerned), because the only time it refers to the alveolo-palatal pronunciation is in context of the Japanese language and the non-native pronunciation of Portuguese by Japanese students. If anything, it states that BP postalveolars are not alveolo-palatal, which is a blatant reference falsification (i.e. saying the opposite of what the source says).

 * - Neither Leite nor other sources (UFPA and Dos Santos, if they're like Leite) should be used here if they don't directly discuss the alveolo-palatal pronunciation. The exact transcription of the words is not a big deal I think.

 * - This is from Luizdl's talk page:

 * - Guimarães (2004) (i.e. our "Daniela" source) calls them "alveolopalatal", but I think that's not enough (but other editors may disagree).

 * - Silva (2003:32) is the only author that describes Portuguese postalveolars as being "pre-dorso palatal", and calls them "alveolo-palatals or postalveolars". This is the only source we could use.

 * I will reinstate Portuguese, using Silva (2003) as source. Mr KEBAB (talk) 14:51, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

 * I decided for using Guimarães (2004) in the article. Mr KEBAB (talk) 15:02, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

 * Would it be a trouble for you to reinstate Portuguese in the tɕ and dʑ articles as well? Srtª PiriLimPomPom (talk) 15:30, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

 * Can't remember, let me check. Will get back to you in a few days, maybe sooner. Mr KEBAB (talk) 16:09, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

 * Sorry for not replying sooner. As far as I remember, we'd need to check the citations before we re-add Portuguese to the affricate articles. I can't do that right now, so you might want to ask someone else. Mr KEBAB (talk) 18:52, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

 * I think other Portuguese speakers here in Wikipedia are too cautious with the notion that our consonants are alveolo-palatal because the differences from palato-alveolars are minimal, people refer to them with the same terms (most particularly in Portuguese) and to say that we have one instead of the other is not established in the academia. (I think there's also a lot of dialectal difference in that, with accents more influenced by Japanese, Amerindian and Gallo-Italian languages being more alveolo-palatal and others more influenced by German, Spanish and standard Italian being more palato-alveolar; I'm unsure about European Portuguese and West African languages.) Srtª PiriLimPomPom (talk) 18:51, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

 * Sorry, more OR is not helpful. We need sources. Mr KEBAB (talk) 22:07, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

 * This source demonstrates an assimilation of /stʃ/ to [sˈʃː] or [ʃˈʃː] (actually the onset of the affricate loses its stop status but does not necessarily become a sibilant) due to an increasing palatalization process. It should follow that if BP possesses [ɕ] and [ʑ], then it also possesses [ɕtɕ] and perhaps [ʑdʑ].

 * At the same time... "Liker et al. (2007) procuraram determinar se havia diferença no ponto de articulação entre a africada e a oclusiva alveolar intervocálica. Segundo os autores, a africada é mais recuada do que a oclusiva alveolar. Essa interpretação, entendemos nós, se deve ao uso do recurso estatístico, COG8, que leva em conta todos os pontos de contato da parte anterior do palato. A sequência de palatogramas que ilustram o artigo, se for representativa, mostra que se trata mais de diferença de área de contato do que de diferença de ponto de articulação, estando o ponto de contato da oclusiva dentro da área de contato da africada."

 * "... According to the autors, the affricate is further back in the mouth than the alveolar stop. ... The sequence of palatograms that illustrate this article, if representative, demonstrate that the difference is more about contact area than about a difference in point of articulation, as long as the point of contact of the stop is within the general area of contact of the affricate" which means that [Vtʃ] and [Vdʒ] have alveolar onsets while [|S|tʃ] and [|S|dʒ] have onsets further back in the mouth.

 * I was getting really sad and disappointed, but then suddenly, "Finalmente, podemos especular que, pelas informações palatográficas e para este locutor, a fricativa alveolar-pós-alveolar é laminar e a fricativa pós-alveolar é pré-dorsal, uma vez que, para esta última, os contatos se iniciam da 1a. linha pós-alveolar. A africada alvéolo-palatal é laminar-pré-dorsal." so they're at least saying that we have a case of [ɕtɕ] unless I'm misinterpreting it?

 * revistas.ufpr.br/letras/article/download/43382/28616 Srtª PiriLimPomPom (talk) 21:21, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

 * "Palato-alveolar sounds are normally described as having a convex (a bunched-up or domed) tongue. The front, central part of the tongue is somewhat raised compared to the tip, back and sides, which gives it a weak palatalization. (...) For alveolo-palatal sounds, the front half of the tongue is flat and raised so that it closely parallels the upper surface of the mouth, from the teeth to the hard palate. Behind that is a sudden convex bend." In this case the onset is produced in a very laminal articulation while the sibilant portion is produced in a pre-dorsal articulation which, on account of very dissimilar transition, is created by a flat tongue (a more palato-alveolar [tʃ] would be more uniform due to the convex tongue). This makes sense considering it's not a distinct consonantal set, but a less effortful way of producing laminal denti-alveolar /ti/ and /di/.

 * Further evidencing this is the fact that they keep mentioning an 'alveolar-post-alveolar' fricative, but a retracted laminar [s̠] as Brazilian /ʃ/ or |S| is unlikely (and unheard of in the first case), and so is a palatalized [sʲ]. This likely indicates a palato-alveolar consonant, while [actual] 'postalveolar' in this case refers to alveolo-palatal. Srtª PiriLimPomPom (talk) 21:50, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

 * Another source mentioning the assimilation-lenition process [sti ~ ʃti] > [stʃi ~ ʃti] > [ʃtʃi] > [ʃ.ʃi] > [ʃi] http://www.revel.inf.br/files/74eaf582ace84ddf6f366f852cb05b88.pdf Srtª PiriLimPomPom (talk) 22:05, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

 * I saw this a few days ago. In fact I first saw the content in the article before it was correctly removed. As for the sources, these are students' manuscripts for a variety of degrees, and whereas it would be fair to presume that it is of 'academic standard', I am not certain where they rank in terms of reliable sources. I confess that I never came across that in the relevant information here in the project pages on sources. Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks. I have my doubts about the suitability of one of the studies, as it is about Japanese people learning Portuguese. The source is no longer available online. Regards, Rui ''Gabriel'' Correia (talk) 00:39, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

Laminal Vs Apical
The voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant is stated to have a laminal tongue shape? I'm curious if there is an apical variant, does anyone know? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 187.59.159.233 (talk) 21:26, 25 February 2018 (UTC)
 * A constriction at both the alveolar ridge and the hard palate must inevitably involve a wide portion of the tongue, so no, I don't think there could be an apical variant. Nardog (talk) 06:05, 26 February 2018 (UTC)
 * An 'apical ' is actually, so they sound nothing like each other. Mr KEBAB (talk) 16:19, 26 February 2018 (UTC)
 * 'Nothing like each other' is a rather big exaggeration. To a speaker of a language with just one postalveolar sibilant, any -like sibilant sounds like the same sound, more or less. And things get a lot more complicated when the alleged in the language are retracted, as in Dutch or Danish. Sol505000 (talk) 21:22, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

Sjabloon in Dutch with /ɕ/ ????
This phoneme does not occur as the initial sound of sjabloon (unless the speaker happens to be chewing on taffy at the same time). In diminutives such as koninkje the kj is softened to /ɕ/. 2A01:CB0C:CD:D800:C82A:B6A7:96B0:E84F (talk) 12:48, 4 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Yes, it does per The Phonetics of English and Dutch. File:Nl-sjabloon.ogg quite clearly features an initial alveolo-palatal ! And so do File:Nl-sjees.ogg, File:Nl-sjabloonachtigst.ogg , File:Nl-sjouwt op.ogg , File:Nl-sjalotje.ogg  (this one also features the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate ), File:Nl-Sjoukje.ogg  as well as File:Nl-sjaniem rabot.ogg . The authors of the aforementioned book state that Dutch postalveolars are alveolo-palatal, unlike their English counterparts which are palato-alveolar. At least in the Netherlands. In Belgium, they say that they are commonly palato-alveolar. This is directly related to the realization of  as postalveolar (retracted) in the Netherlands, and as ordinary alveolar  in Belgium: in the Netherlands, $⟨sj⟩$ as well as the marginal $⟨zj⟩$ (and the corresponding affricates, of course) are delabialized and further palatalized to avoid the clash with  (the clash that actually occurs in the Amsterdam dialect, which AFAIK is much more non-standard than the local realization of the long open vowel as ). I say "deliabialized and further palatalized" only in relation to Belgian Standard Dutch, I have no idea whether Dutch  were historically plain alveolar sibilants (rather than being retracted) and whether  were historically palato-alveolar, rather than alveolo-palatal. I'd bet a lot of money on that not being the case.
 * Zygis (2003) cited in the article discusses how the Slavic languages with alveolo-palatals tend to feature retroflex, rather than palato-alveolar $⟨š/sz, ž/ż, č/cz, dž/dż⟩$. I wonder if we couldn't use her paper to change ⟨ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ⟩ to ⟨ɕ, ʑ, tɕ, dʑ⟩ in languages with retracted sibilants (Galician, European Spanish, Astur-Leonese/Mirandese, etc.) After all, retracted (a fancy name to say postalveolar) sibilants are much more dull than the ordinary dental/alveolar ones and sound a lot like the retroflexes found in Polish, especially in contact with consonants. And we already have sources to change the way we transcribe Dutch and Catalan. Danish transcriptions on Wikipedia already use ⟨ɕ, tɕ⟩. I'll make a RfC soon with all the sources I can come up with.
 * And koninkje features the voiceless palatal affricate (actually post-palatal), again per that book. The fricative portion of that affricate consonant sounds much more dull than, being non-sibilant and much more back.
 * Interestingly, I do not hear an affricate in File:Nl-Sjoukje.ogg. It's an ordinary with little devoicing of the approximant, the way I hear it anyway. It doesn't really deserve to be called an affricate. Again, this may be region- or speaker-specific, or there may be a free variation between a slight devoicing of the approximant and a full-on affrication of the preceding stop. I don't know, really. Sol505000 (talk) 21:14, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

In Received Pronunciation
$⟨ɕ⟩$ stands for any voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative. It can be labialized, aspirated, long, short or partially voiced at the end or at the beginning. It may be weakly fricated or strongly fricated. The fact that in the traditional RP pronunciation of tuesday doesn't fit your idea of how  sounds like (or should sound like, which is even worse [no offense]) doesn't mean that the sound is not correctly described as a voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative. It's probably more weakly fricated than, say, Polish or Dutch and probably has some voicing at the end. In the German tradition, it'd probably be transcribed, with ⟨ʑ̥⟩ denoting a voiceless lenis fricative. But how can it really be lenis if it is the only alveolo-palatal fricative in the dialect? For a consonant to be lenis, there has to be a fortis (fully voiceless and more strongly fricated) counterpart, no? Phonologically, it is an approximant that is phonetically devoiced and raised (=turned into a fricative) by the preceding fortis/voiceless alveolar stop. Plus, ⟨ʑ̥⟩ is not an official way to transcribe a lenis (rather, it's just a way of transcribing a  without a full voicing, which may or may not be synonymous with the canonical IPA value of the symbol ⟨ɕ⟩, which denotes a fully voiceless fricative). A more standard way of transcribing that is probably (with the lowering diacritic, indicating a decreased amount of friction in comparison with the canonical IPA value of the symbol ⟨ɕ⟩). But again, none of that is in the source. Sol505000 (talk) 22:24, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

Ambiguous text part
The indication: "the area behind the alveolar ridge (the gum line)" is ambiguous. It does not make clear whether:

 * the area behind the alveolar ridge = the gum line;
 * or: the alveolar ridge = the gum line,

and somehow I am not enabled to change the text to:

"the area behind the alveolar ridge (the alveolar ridge being the gum line)".Redav (talk) 17:35, 12 July 2024 (UTC)


text:
Canopus, Egypt

Canopus (كانوب ,Ⲕⲁⲛⲱⲡⲟⲥ, ; Κάνωπος, ), also known as Canobus (Κάνωβος, ), was an ancient Egyptian coastal town, located in the Nile Delta. Its site is in the eastern outskirts of modern-day Alexandria, around 25 km from the center of that city. Canopus was located on the western bank at the mouth of the westernmost branch of the Delta – known as the Canopic or Heracleotic branch. It belonged to the seventh Egyptian Nome, known as Menelaites, and later as Canopites, after it. It was the principal port in Egypt for Greek trade before the foundation of Alexandria, along with Naucratis and Heracleion. Its ruins lie near the present Egyptian town of Abu Qir.

Land in the area of Canopus was subject to rising sea levels, earthquakes, tsunamis, and large parts of it seem to have succumbed to liquefaction sometime at the end of the 2nd century BC. The eastern suburbs of Canopus collapsed, their remains being today submerged in the sea, with the western suburbs being buried beneath the modern coastal city of Abu Qir.

Name
The settlement's Egyptian name was written in Demotic as (, sometimes romanized Peguat or Pikuat). The Greeks called it Canopus (Κάνωπος, Kánōpos) after a legendary commander of the era of the Trojan War supposedly buried there. The English form of the name derives from the Latinized form used under Roman rule.

Ancient Egypt
Canopus was the site of a temple to the Egyptian god Serapis.

The name of Canopus appears in the first half of the 6th century BC in a poem by Solon. Early Egyptological excavations some 2 or 3 km from the area known today as Abu Qir have revealed extensive traces of the city with its quays, and granite monuments with the name of Ramesses II, but they may have been brought in for the adornment of the place at a later date. The exact date of the foundation of Canopus is unknown, but Herodotus refers to it as an ancient port. Homeric myth claims that it was founded by Menelaus, and named after Canopus, the pilot of his ship, who died there after being bitten by a serpent. Legend describes how Menelaus built a monument to his memory on the shore, around which the town later grew up. There is unlikely to be any connection with "canopy". A temple to Osiris was built by king Ptolemy III Euergetes, but according to Herodotus, very near to Canopus was an older shrine, a temple of Heracles that served as an asylum for fugitive slaves. Osiris was worshipped at Canopus under a peculiar form: that of a vase with a human head. Through an old misunderstanding, the name "canopic jars" was applied by early Egyptologists to the vases with human and animal heads in which the internal organs were placed by the Egyptians after embalming.

The ancient city of Canopus is attested to, in part, by the Decree of Canopus. The decree mentions the temple of Canopus and an important rite in which, once a year, [an effigy of] Osiris is transported from Heracleium to Canopus. Specifically, the decree says, "...to consecrate the same goddess like Osiris, in the temple of Canopus,...we shall draw along Osiris during the drawing along of the barge to the same temple, at the season of the year, from the temple which is in Heracleium, on the twenty-ninth of the month of Choac".

Hellenistic period
In Ptolemy III Euergetes' ninth regnal year (239 BC), a great assembly of priests at Canopus passed an honorific decree (the "Decree of Canopus") that, inter alia, conferred various new titles on the king and his consort, Berenice. Three examples of this decree are now known (plus some fragments), inscribed in Egyptian (in both hieroglyphic and demotic) and in classical Greek, and they were second only to the more famous Rosetta Stone in providing the key to deciphering the ancient Egyptian language. This was the earliest of the series of bilingual inscriptions of the "Rosetta Stone Series", also known as the Ptolemaic Decrees. There are three such Decrees altogether.

The town had a large trade in henna.

Roman period
In Roman times, the town was notorious for its dissoluteness. Seneca wrote of the luxury and vice of Canopus, though he also mentioned that "Canopus does not keep any man from living simply". Juvenal's Satire VI referred to the "debauchery" that prevailed there. The emperor Hadrian built a villa at Tivoli, 18 miles away from Rome, where he replicated for his enjoyment architectural patterns from all parts of the Roman Empire. One of these (and the most excavated and studied today) was borrowed from Canopus.

Modern town
The Egyptian town of Abu Qir ("Father Cyrus"), honoring two Christian martyrs, is located a few kilometres away from the ruins of Canopus. It is a town (around 1900 with 1000 inhabitants), at the end of a little peninsula north-east of Alexandria. It has a trade in quails, which are caught in nets hung along the shore. Off Aboukir on 1 August 1798, the French Mediterranean fleet was destroyed within the roads by British Admiral Horatio Nelson. On 25 July 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte destroyed there a Turkish army 18,000 strong; and on 8 March 1801, the French garrison of 1,800 men was defeated by 20,000 English and Ottoman Turks commanded by Abercromby.

See of Canopus
Egypt had many martyrs in the Diocletianic Persecution, among others St. Athanasia with her three daughters, and St. Cyrus and John. There was here a monastery called Metanoia, founded by monks from Tabennisi, where many a patriarch of Alexandria took shelter during the religious quarrels of the 5th century. 2 mi east of Canopus was the famous Pharaonic temple of Manouthin, afterwards destroyed by monks, and a church on the same spot dedicated to the Four Evangelists. St. Cyril of Alexandria solemnly transported the relics of the holy martyrs Cyrus and John into the church, which became an important place of pilgrimage. It was here that St. Sophronius of Jerusalem was healed of an ophthalmy that had been declared incurable by the physicians (610–619), whereupon he wrote the panegyric of the two saints with a compilation of seventy miracles worked in their sanctuary (Migne, Patrologia Graeca, LXXXVII, 3379–676) Canopus formed, with Menelaus and Schedia, a suffragan see subject to Alexandria in the Roman province of Aegyptus Prima; it is usually called Schedia in the Notitiae episcopatuum. Two titulars are mentioned by Lequien (II, 415), one in 325, the other in 362.

Archaeology

Over time the land around Canopus was weakened by a combination of earthquakes, tsunamis and rising sea levels. The eastern suburbs succumbed to liquefaction of the soil. The western suburbs eventually became the present day Egyptian coastal city of Abu Qir.

In 1933, a RAF commander who was flying over Abu Qir Bay thought he was seeing ruins in the bay and informed Egyptian scholar Prince Omar Toussoun who subsequently undertook archaeological investigations and with the help of fishermen found an archeological site 1,8 km from shore.

Since 1992, the IEASM led by French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio has been surveying the Abu Qir Bay. The undersea ruins were eventually identified as the lost city of Canopus after excavations.

Underwater archaeology at the eastern portion of Canopus, 16 mi northeast of Alexandria in Abu Qir Bay, has provided numerous important discoveries including the following:

 * A portion of a human-sized sphinx
 * The head of a four-to-five-meter-tall marble statue of the god Serapis
 * A three-meter-wide, 103-meter-long masonry wall of a major building, almost certainly the Temple of Serapis, a Serapeum
 * A nearly intact life-sized statue, in black granite, of a Ptolemaic queen, in a transitional Greek-Egyptian style
 * Remains of the ancient ceremonial canal which linked Heracleium [Heracleion] and Canopus
 * Offerings, in the form of small votive statues, which were tossed into the canal
 * The nearly complete wooden remains of a ceremonial boat, or barge, in sycamore, a wood associated with the god Osiris. The canal and boat are believed to have been used to carry an effigy of Osiris in celebrating the sacred Mysteries of Osiris, a foundational ceremony for the ancient Egyptian religion.
 * Parts of a nearly complete Naos of the Decades, an ancient Egyptian stone monument providing a guide to the heavens and a portion of the Egyptian creation myths
 * A imperial-period Roman statue of Nilus, the Nile personified
 * Pagan statues with damage done in 391 CE by order of the Christian Emperor Theodosius I, i.e., acts of iconoclasm
 * Artifacts such as coins and jewelry from the site's Christian era
 * Fractured Christian-era masonry structures providing evidence of a massive earthquake

title: Canopus, Egypt


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title: File:Pinus resinosa cone.JPG


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title: User talk:81.156.209.20