diff --git "a/0000.csv" "b/0000.csv" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/0000.csv" @@ -0,0 +1,537 @@ +"The Battle of Grand Gulf was fought on April 29, 1863, during the American Civil War. Union Army forces commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant had failed several times to bypass or capture the Confederate-held city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the Vicksburg campaign. Grant decided to move his army south of Vicksburg, cross the Mississippi River, and then advance on the city. A Confederate division under Brigadier General John S. Bowen prepared defenses—Forts Wade and Cobun—at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, south of Vicksburg. To clear the way for a Union crossing, seven Union Navy ironclad warships from the Mississippi Squadron commanded by Admiral David Dixon Porter bombarded the Confederate defenses at Grand Gulf on April 29. Union fire silenced Fort Wade and killed its commander, but the overall Confederate position held. Grant decided to cross the river elsewhere." +"The next day, Union forces crossed the river at Bruinsburg, Mississippi. A Union victory in the Battle of Port Gibson on May 1 secured the beachhead and forced the abandonment of the position at Grand Gulf, which became a Union supply point. Grant's command moved inland, and after defeating Confederate forces in the Battle of Champion Hill on May 16, began the Siege of Vicksburg two days later. Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, marking a major Confederate defeat and a turning point in the war. The Grand Gulf battlefield is preserved in Grand Gulf Military State Park, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972." +"Early in the American Civil War, the Union military leadership developed the Anaconda Plan, which was a strategy to defeat the Confederate States of America. A significant component of this strategy was controlling the Mississippi River.[1] Much of the Mississippi Valley fell under Union control in early 1862 after the capture of New Orleans, Louisiana, and several land victories.[2] The strategically important city of Vicksburg, Mississippi was still in Confederate hands, serving as a strong defensive position that commanded the river and prevented the Union from separating the two halves of the Confederacy.[3] Union Navy elements were sent upriver from New Orleans in May to try to take the city, a move that was unsuccessful.[4] In late June, a joint army-navy expedition returned to make another campaign against Vicksburg.[5] Union Navy leadership decided that the city could not be taken without more infantrymen, who were not forthcoming. An attempt to cut Williams's Canal across a meander of the river in June and July, bypassing Vicksburg, failed.[6][7]" +"In late November, about 40,000 Union infantry commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant began moving south towards Vicksburg from a starting point in Tennessee. Grant ordered a retreat after a supply depot and part of his supply line were destroyed during the Holly Springs Raid on December 20 and Forrest's West Tennessee Raid. Meanwhile, another arm of the expedition under the command of Major General William T. Sherman left Memphis, Tennessee, on the same day as the Holly Springs Raid and traveled down the Mississippi River. After diverting up the Yazoo River, Sherman's men began skirmishing with Confederate soldiers defending a line of hills above the Chickasaw Bayou. A Union attack on December 29, was defeated decisively at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, and Sherman's men withdrew on January 1, 1863.[8]" +"By late March, further attempts to bypass Vicksburg had failed.[9] Grant then considered three plans: to withdraw to Memphis and retry the overland route through northern Mississippi; to move south along the west side of the Mississippi River, cross below Vicksburg, and then strike for the city; or to make an amphibious assault across the river directly against Vicksburg. An assault across the river risked heavy casualties, and a withdrawal to Memphis could be politically disastrous if the public perceived such a movement as a retreat. Grant then decided upon the downstream crossing.[10] The advance along the west bank of the Mississippi began on March 29, and was spearheaded by Major General John A. McClernand's troops.[11] The movement down the river was masked by decoy operations such as Steele's Greenville expedition,[12] Streight's Raid, and Grierson's Raid.[13] Confederate regional commander John C. Pemberton fell for the Union decoys (especially Grierson's Raid), and lost touch with the true tactical situation, believing Grant was withdrawing.[14]" +"On multiple occasions in mid-1862, Confederate field artillery harassed Union Navy vessels from Grand Gulf, Mississippi, which was located along the Mississippi River to the south of Vicksburg. The town was largely burned by Union troops attempting to suppress the Confederate guns.[15] In early March 1863, the Confederates decided to rebuild fortifications at Grand Gulf, and the brigade of Brigadier General John S. Bowen was transferred there. By the middle of the month, Bowen's troops and several slaves were working on building new defenses and strengthening the existing ones. Heavy cannons were transferred to the position, but before those guns could arrive, a skirmish occurred on March 19, between the Confederate defenders and two Union Navy ships: the sloop-of-war USS Hartford and the schooner USS Albatross. The exchange was not protracted and the Confederates suffered no loss; the Union had eight men killed or wounded on Hartford. Soon afterwards, five heavy guns arrived at Grand Gulf: two 8-inch (203 mm) pieces and three 32-pounder rifled cannons.[16][17]" +"In early April, Bowen became aware of Grant's movement down the west side of the Mississippi River, and sent part of his force under the command of Francis Cockrell across the river on April 4, to counter the Union movement.[18] Bowen informed Pemberton of Grant's advance, but the latter officer disregarded the information.[19] The Union Navy forces cooperating with Grant, which were commanded by David Dixon Porter and known as the Mississippi Squadron, were positioned north of Vicksburg, but there was a need for vessels to move south for operations near Port Hudson, Louisiana,[20][21] as well as to provide a stronger protecting force for the transports that would ferry troops in Grant's planned crossing of the Mississippi River.[21] Beginning two hours after nightfall on April 16, Porter ran several vessels past the batteries at Vicksburg, with the loss of only a transport and a barge.[22] Pemberton learned of the passing of the batteries, and began to develop a clearer picture of the true strategic situation.[23] Grand Gulf was reinforced by Brigadier General Martin E. Green's brigade; when this unit arrived Pemberton elevated the concentration at Grand Gulf to divisional status with Bowen in command. With the addition of a miscellaneous command of 800 men and a four-gun battery sent from Jackson, Mississippi, there were about 4,200 Confederate troops around Grand Gulf.[24]" +"After dark on April 22, more transports were run down the river past Vicksburg: one transport and several barges were lost, and all of the surviving transports were damaged.[25] Porter had been prepared to bombard Grand Gulf on April 23, with McClernand providing an infantry force to land there afterwards, but believing a false report of the Confederates having 12,000 men at Grand Gulf, called off the attack. McClernand observed Grand Gulf later that day, as did Grant the next day. Both determined the Confederate position was not as strong as had been reported. Union forces moved further downriver, and opened a base of operations at Hard Times Landing. By April 28, most of McClernand's men had been loaded onto transports in preparation for the river crossing.[26] Hoping to further distract the Confederates, Grant suggested another feint: this one to be made by Sherman up the Yazoo River.[27] Grant had some hesitations about such a feint, believing that reports of it might be misconstrued by the Union public as another Chickasaw Bayou-style defeat, but Sherman continued with the operation.[28] Sherman's movement resulted in the Battle of Snyder's Bluff, which saw Union warships and transports loaded with infantry move up the Yazoo River on April 29, and skirmish with Confederate forces during the next two days.[29] Overall, it was not particularly effective as a distraction.[30]" +"On April 28, Pemberton finally realized the importance of the Union buildup near Grand Gulf. He ordered Carter L. Stevenson to prepare a 5,000-man force to be sent to Grand Gulf at Bowen's discretion, but Stevenson still regarded the Union move south as a feint in preparation for an assault directly against Vicksburg.[31] Bowen lacked a cavalry force for scouting, as the cavalry at Grand Gulf had been sent elsewhere to chase down Grierson's Raid.[32] The work on the defenses at Grand Gulf had resulted in a much stronger position than had been there at the beginning of March.[33] Two forts were the strongpoints of the fortification. The stronger was known as Fort Cobun, and the other as Fort Wade.[34]" +"Fort Cobun was positioned on a 40-foot (12 m) tall bluff known as Point of Rock and had a parapet that was about 40 feet (12 m) in width. It mounted four cannons – two 32-pounder guns, an 8-inch Dahlgren gun, and a 30-pounder Parrott rifle – which were crewed by Battery A, 1st Louisiana Heavy Artillery. Fort Wade was located 0.75 miles (1 km) downriver, on a point 20 feet (6.1 m) above the level of the river and 0.25 miles (0.4 km) away from it. This fort mounted a 100-pounder Blakely rifle, another 8-inch Dahlgren piece, and two more 32-pounders. These pieces were worked by Wade's Missouri Battery and Guibor's Missouri Battery. In between the two forts were two rows of rifle pits and a covered passageway. The 3rd Missouri Infantry Regiment held this position. A secondary line of rifle pits to the rear on a ridge was defended by five smaller Parrott rifles and the 6th Missouri Infantry Regiment. Two more cannons and the 1st Confederate Battalion were positioned on a bluff to guard the mouth of the Big Black River, with some sharpshooters from Arkansas, Dawson's Missouri Battery, and a dismounted cavalry unit positioned further up the Big Black River.[35] Porter believed the Confederates were too well-prepared for an attack against Grand Gulf to be worthwhile, and instead suggested that the army march further south, accompanied by the navy's ironclad warships to cover the movement of its transports. Grant had the area north of Grand Gulf assessed for suitable crossing points, but none could be found. Grant believed that the position would not be difficult to take, so the assault against Grand Gulf would occur as planned.[36]" +"At 7:00 a.m. on April 29, seven Union Navy ironclads led by Porter moved down the river from Hard Times Landing towards the positions at Grand Gulf. Roughly 30,000 Union infantry were in the Hard Times Landing area, of whom about 10,000 were on transports. The men on the transports, which had pulled away from the landing and were sheltered behind a spit of land named Point Coffee, were intended to cross the river and occupy Grand Gulf once the Confederate batteries were subdued.[34][37] Porter instructed his ironclad commanders to take care to avoiding running aground in shallow water. Men from detachments of the 58th Ohio Infantry Regiment and the 29th Illinois Infantry Regiment were stationed on board the ironclads to serve as marines and, if necessary, as a landing force.[38] Of Porter's ironclads, USS Pittsburgh was in the lead, followed by USS Louisville, USS Carondelet, and USS Mound City. A second wave composed of USS Benton, USS Tuscumbia, and USS Lafayette followed. A total of 81 cannons were carried by these vessels, compared to 13 in the Confederate positions. The naval forces also had the advantage in size of artillery: the majority of the Confederate guns were 30-pounders or smaller, as opposed to the median Union piece being a 42-pounder. The ironclads first targeted Fort Cobun, then Pittsburgh, Louisville, Carondelet, and Mound City moved to focus on Fort Wade; the other three remained focused on Fort Cobun. After passing Fort Cobun, the ships turned so that their bows pointed upstream.[39] The lead Union vessels opened fire at about 7:50 a.m., and Fort Cobun responded about 25 minutes later.[40] Currents in the river caught some of the Union vessels, forcing them to spin in circles while the Confederate fired upon them.[41] After the shooting started, the 12th Arkansas Sharpshooter Battalion was moved forward from a reserve position into rifle pits near Fort Cobun.[42]" +"Although Pittsburgh, Louisville, Carondelet, and Mound City each carried 13 guns, the positioning of the guns on the ships allowed a maximum of four guns at a time to be aimed at the Confederate fortifications, reducing the Union firepower. By 10:00 a.m., Fort Wade was knocked out of action. One of the large cannons in Fort Wade had exploded, the fortifications themselves had been severely damaged, and Colonel William F. Wade, commanding the post, had been decapitated by Union fire.[43] The surviving cannons at Fort Wade had been buried under earth from the damaged fortifications.[41] The four Union vessels that had silenced Fort Wade moved upriver to face the remaining Confederate fort, which fought on.[37] A Confederate shot struck Benton, destroying the ship's wheel.[44] Confederate troops in the rifle pits also fired into the Union vessels.[41] Around 1:00 p.m., Fort Cobun decreased its fire due to ammunition shortages. However, Porter and Grant decided not to attempt an amphibious landing against Grand Gulf due to the strength of the Confederate position.[44] Despite the damage and the ammunition shortage, the Confederate batteries were still capable of repulsing a landing from the transports.[45] During the action, Porter had been struck in the back of his head with a shell fragment; the painful wound caused him to use his sword as a cane.[44] The naval vessels had fired more than 2,300 shots during the bombardment.[46]" +"Confederate fire had focused the heaviest on Benton, Pittsburgh, and Tuscumbia.[41] The former vessel had taken 47 hits, Pittsburgh 35, and the latter over 80.[47] Tuscumbia was poorly built (for instance, the spikes holding the ship's iron plating on were not secured with nuts), and had been badly damaged and knocked out of the fighting[48] by engine damage.[49] Historians Michael B. Ballard and Ed Bearss state that the Union forces lost 18 men killed and 57 wounded, for a total of 75,[44][50] with historians William L. Shea and Terrence J. Winschel, along with the historian Timothy B. Smith instead placing Union casualties at 24 killed and 56 wounded, including a few men from the army serving on the warships in a volunteer capacity.[46][51] According to Ballard and Bearss, Confederate losses totaled 22: three dead and 19 wounded;[44][52] historian Donald L. Miller and Shea and Winschel state that the Confederates lost 18 men, the difference being in wounded.[53][46]" +"After the naval bombardment was unable to neutralize the Confederate position at Grand Gulf, the troops on the transports returned to dry land.[46] Later that day, the Union transports and barges were run downriver, under the covering fire of Porter's gunboats.[a] The vessels were able to make it downriver safely; Porter lost one man in the affair and the Confederates lost none.[54] Some of the Union vessels had been hit, but suffered little damage.[56] Grant's infantrymen marched downriver to Disharoon's plantation, where the transports had been gathered after passing Grand Gulf.[53] Two crossing points below Grand Gulf were considered by Grant: Rodney, Mississippi, or Bruinsburg, Mississippi. Bowen expected Union troops to cross at the former. Discussions between Union scouts and an African American, who was possibly named Bob, yielded the information that a usable road ran from Bruinsburg to Port Gibson, so Bruinsburg was selected as the crossing point.[57]" +"Late on April 29, expecting a Union crossing of the river, Bowen sent a detachment from his command to hold Port Gibson, and the next day sent reinforcements that had arrived from Vicksburg to that place as well.[58] On the morning of April 30, the Bruinsburg crossing began. McClernand's corps and a portion of Major General James B. McPherson's corps led the way. By the next morning, 24,000 Union soldiers had crossed the river without opposition.[59] More of McPherson's men crossed on May 1.[60] Early that morning, the Confederates near Port Gibson encountered McClernand's advancing troops.[61] The ensuing Battle of Port Gibson was a hard-fought Union victory. Winning the battle protected the Union beachhead and rendered Grand Gulf indefensible. Pemberton ordered Bowen to abandon the position, and the Confederates spiked the cannons there early on May 3. Union forces occupied the position after the Confederates withdrew, and it became a supply point during the ongoing campaign.[62] Portions of Sherman's corps crossed the river at Grand Gulf late on May 6 and into May 7.[63]" +"Grant's men swung inland towards the railroad supplying Vicksburg. After the Battle of Raymond on May 12, Grant decided to swing east to disperse the Confederate reinforcements gathering at Jackson.[64] Jackson was taken on May 14,[65] and two days later, Pemberton's attempt to defeat Grant outside of Vicksburg was defeated in the climactic Battle of Champion Hill.[66] The Siege of Vicksburg began on May 18, and ended in a Confederate surrender on July 4. The capture of Vicksburg divided the Confederacy along the Mississippi River, and with the Union victory at the Siege of Port Hudson, gave the Union control of the river. Together with a Confederate defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, the fall of Vicksburg marked a turning point in the war.[67] The war ended in 1865 with a Confederate defeat.[68]" +"The site of the battle is preserved by Grand Gulf Military State Park. The park contains the land where forts Wade and Cobun were located, as well as an observation tower, a museum, and the remains of the old town of Grand Gulf.[69] The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 11, 1972.[70]" +"The Battle of Grand Gulf was fought on April 29, 1863, during the American Civil War. Union Army forces commanded by Ulysses S. Grant had failed several times to bypass or capture the Confederate-held city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Grant decided to move his army south of Vicksburg, cross the Mississippi River, and then advance on the city. A Confederate division under John S. Bowen prepared defenses—Forts Wade and Cobun—at Grand Gulf, Mississippi. To clear the way for a Union crossing, seven ironclad warships from the Mississippi Squadron of the Union Navy commanded by Admiral David Dixon Porter bombarded the Confederate defenses at Grand Gulf. Union fire silenced Fort Wade, but the overall Confederate position held. Grant decided to cross the river elsewhere. The next day, Union forces crossed the river at Bruinsburg, Mississippi. The position at Grand Gulf was abandoned and became a Union supply point. The Grand Gulf battlefield is preserved in Grand Gulf Military State Park. (Full article...)" +"Arsenal Women Football Club have played 36 domestic league seasons and remained in the English top flight since joining in 1992. Based in London, they are the most successful club in English women's football. They formed in 1987, 100 years after the inception of the Arsenal men's team, and were an amateur side for over a decade until the team became semi-professional in 2002. During the 1990s and 2000s, under the management of Vic Akers and other successive coaches, Arsenal experienced an unprecedented period of success dominating English competitions with no sustained opposition. Domestically, Arsenal have won 15 league titles, 14 FA Cups, 17 league cups and five FA Community Shields; the club holds the most titles of each individual domestic competition. Arsenal are the only English side to have won Europe's continental women's football competition, the UEFA Women's Champions League (formally the UEFA Women's Cup), after the club defeated the Swedish side Umeå in the 2007 final. (Full list...)" +"Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula (Zn,Fe)S. It is found in a variety of deposit types, and is found in association with galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite (and other sulfides), calcite, dolomite, quartz, rhodochrosite, and fluorite. Sphalerite is an important ore of zinc, with around 95 percent of all primary zinc extracted from its ore. Due to its variable trace-element content, sphalerite is also an important source of several other metals such as cadmium, gallium, germanium and indium. The zinc in sphalerite is also used to produce brass. This sample was extracted in Creede, Colorado, and features black tetrahedral crystals of sphalerite up to 8 mm (0.31 in) in size, with minor chalcopyrite and calcite, in a 4.5 cm × 3.0 cm × 2.0 cm (1.77 in × 1.18 in × 0.79 in) matrix. This photograph was focus-stacked from 125 separate images." +"Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteer projects:" +This Wikipedia is written in English. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below. +"English is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, whose speakers, called Anglophones, originated in early medieval England.[4][5][6] The namesake of the language is the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain." +"English is the most spoken language in the world, primarily due to the global influences of the former British Empire (succeeded by the Commonwealth of Nations) and the United States of America.[7] English is the third-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish;[8] it is also the most widely learned second language in the world, with more second-language speakers than native speakers." +"English is either the official language or one of the official languages in 59 sovereign states (such as in India, Ireland, and Canada). In some other countries, it is the sole or dominant language for historical reasons without being explicitly defined by law (such as in the United States or United Kingdom).[9] It is a co-official language of the United Nations, the European Union, and many other international and regional organisations. It has also become the de facto lingua franca language of diplomacy, science, technology, international trade, logistics, tourism, aviation, entertainment and the internet.[10] English accounts for at least 70% of total speakers of the Germanic language branch, and as of 2005[update], it was estimated that there were over two billion speakers worldwide.[11]" +"Old English emerged from a group of West Germanic dialects spoken by the Anglo-Saxons. Late Old English borrowed some grammar and core vocabulary from Old Norse, a North Germanic language.[12][13][14] Then, Middle English borrowed words extensively from French dialects, which make up about 28% of Modern English vocabulary, and from Latin, which also provides about 28%.[15] Thus, although most of its total vocabulary now comes from Romance languages, its grammar, phonology, and most commonly-used words keep it genealogically classified under the Germanic branch. English exists on a dialect continuum with Scots and then is most closely related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages." +"English is an Indo-European language and belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages.[16] Old English originated from a Germanic tribal and linguistic continuum along the Frisian North Sea coast, whose languages gradually evolved into the Anglic languages in the British Isles, and into the Frisian languages and Low German/Low Saxon on the continent. The Frisian languages, which together with the Anglic languages form the Anglo-Frisian languages, are the closest living relatives of English. Low German/Low Saxon is also closely related, and sometimes English, the Frisian languages, and Low German are grouped together as the North Sea Germanic (Ingvaeonic) languages, though this grouping remains debated.[13] Old English evolved into Middle English, which in turn evolved into Modern English.[17] Particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into a number of other Anglic languages, including Scots[18] and the extinct Fingallian dialect and Yola language of Ireland.[19]" +"Like Icelandic and Faroese, the development of English in the British Isles isolated it from the continental Germanic languages and influences, and it has since diverged considerably. English is not mutually intelligible with any continental Germanic language, differing in vocabulary, syntax, and phonology, although some of these, such as Dutch or Frisian, do show strong affinities with English, especially with its earlier stages.[20]" +"Unlike Icelandic and Faroese, which were isolated, the development of English was influenced by a long series of invasions of the British Isles by other peoples and languages, particularly Old Norse and French dialects. These left a profound mark of their own on the language, so that English shows some similarities in vocabulary and grammar with many languages outside its linguistic clades—but it is not mutually intelligible with any of those languages either. Some scholars have argued that English can be considered a mixed language or a creole—a theory called the Middle English creole hypothesis. Although the great influence of these languages on the vocabulary and grammar of Modern English is widely acknowledged, most specialists in language contact do not consider English to be a true mixed language.[21][22]" +"English is classified as a Germanic language because it shares innovations with other Germanic languages such as Dutch, German, and Swedish.[23] These shared innovations show that the languages have descended from a single common ancestor called Proto-Germanic. Some shared features of Germanic languages include the division of verbs into strong and weak classes, the use of modal verbs, and the sound changes affecting Proto-Indo-European consonants, known as Grimm's and Verner's laws. English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as the palatalisation of consonants that were velar consonants in Proto-Germanic (see Phonological history of Old English § Palatalization).[24]" +"The earliest varieties of an English language, collectively known as Old English or ""Anglo-Saxon"", evolved from a group of North Sea Germanic dialects brought to Britain in the 5th century. Old English dialects were later influenced by Old Norse-speaking Viking invaders and settlers, starting in the 8th and 9th centuries. Middle English began in the late 11th century after the Norman Conquest of England, when a considerable amount of Old French vocabulary, was incorporated into English over some three centuries.[25][26]" +"Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the start of the Great Vowel Shift and the Renaissance trend of borrowing further Latin and Greek words and roots, concurrent with the introduction of the printing press to London. This era notably culminated in the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare.[27][28] The printing press greatly standardised English spelling,[citation needed] which has remained largely unchanged since then, despite a wide variety of later sound shifts in English dialects." +"Modern English has spread around the world since the 17th century as a consequence of the worldwide influence of the British Empire and the United States. Through all types of printed and electronic media in these countries, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and professional contexts such as science, navigation, and law.[4] Its modern grammar is the result of a gradual change from a typical Indo-European dependent-marking pattern with a rich inflectional morphology and relatively free word order to a mostly analytic pattern with little inflection and a fairly fixed subject–verb–object word order.[29] Modern English relies more on auxiliary verbs and word order for the expression of complex tenses, aspects and moods, as well as passive constructions, interrogatives, and some negation." +"The earliest form of English is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon (c. 550–1066). Old English developed from a set of West Germanic dialects, often grouped as Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic, and originally spoken along the coasts of Frisia, Lower Saxony and southern Jutland by Germanic peoples known to the historical record as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes.[30] From the 5th century, the Anglo-Saxons settled Britain as the Roman economy and administration collapsed. By the 7th century, this Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in Britain, replacing the languages of Roman Britain (43–409): Common Brittonic, a Celtic language, and British Latin, brought to Britain by the Roman occupation.[31][32][33] At this time, these dialects generally resisted influence from the then-local Brittonic and Latin languages. England and English (originally Ænglaland and Ænglisc) are both named after the Angles.[34]" +"Old English was divided into four dialects: the Anglian dialects (Mercian and Northumbrian) and the Saxon dialects (Kentish and West Saxon).[35] Through the educational reforms of King Alfred in the 9th century and the influence of the kingdom of Wessex, the West Saxon dialect became the standard written variety.[36] The epic poem Beowulf is written in West Saxon, and the earliest English poem, Cædmon's Hymn, is written in Northumbrian.[37] Modern English developed mainly from Mercian, but the Scots language developed from Northumbrian. A few short inscriptions from the early period of Old English were written using a runic script.[38] By the 6th century, a Latin alphabet was adopted, written with half-uncial letterforms. It included the runic letters wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ and thorn ⟨þ⟩, and the modified Latin letters eth ⟨ð⟩, and ash ⟨æ⟩.[38][39]" +"Old English is essentially a distinct language from Modern English and is virtually impossible for 21st-century unstudied English-speakers to understand. Its grammar was similar to that of modern German: nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs had many more inflectional endings and forms, and word order was much freer than in Modern English. Modern English has case forms in pronouns (he, him, his) and has a few verb inflections (speak, speaks, speaking, spoke, spoken), but Old English had case endings in nouns as well, and verbs had more person and number endings.[40][41][42] Its closest relative is Old Frisian, but even some centuries after the Anglo-Saxon migration, Old English retained considerable mutual intelligibility with other Germanic varieties. Even in the 9th and 10th centuries, amidst the Danelaw and other Viking invasions, there is historical evidence that Old Norse and Old English retained considerable mutual intelligibility,[43] although probably the northern dialects of Old English were more similar to Old Norse than the southern dialects. Theoretically, as late as the 900s AD, a commoner from certain (northern) parts of England could hold a conversation with a commoner from certain parts of Scandinavia. Research continues into the details of the myriad tribes in peoples in England and Scandinavia and the mutual contacts between them.[43]" +"The translation of Matthew 8:20 from 1000 shows examples of case endings (nominative plural, accusative plural, genitive singular) and a verb ending (present plural):" +"From the 8th to the 11th centuries, Old English gradually transformed through language contact with Old Norse in some regions. The waves of Norse (Viking) colonisation of northern parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries put Old English into intense contact with Old Norse, a North Germanic language. Norse influence was strongest in the north-eastern varieties of Old English spoken in the Danelaw area around York, which was the centre of Norse colonisation; today these features are still particularly present in Scots and Northern English. The centre of Norsified English was in the Midlands around Lindsey. After 920 CE, when Lindsey was reincorporated into the Anglo-Saxon polity, English spread extensively throughout the region." +"An element of Norse influence that continues in all English varieties today is the third person pronoun group beginning with th- (they, them, their) which replaced the Anglo-Saxon pronouns with h- (hie, him, hera).[45] Other core Norse loanwords include ""give"", ""get"", ""sky"", ""skirt"", ""egg"", and ""cake"", typically displacing a native Anglo-Saxon equivalent. Old Norse in this era retained considerable mutual intelligibility with some dialects of Old English, particularly northern ones." +"Englischmen þeyz hy hadde fram þe bygynnyng þre manner speche, Souþeron, Northeron, and Myddel speche in þe myddel of þe lond, ... Noþeles by comyxstion and mellyng, furst wiþ Danes, and afterward wiþ Normans, in menye þe contray longage ys asperyed, and som vseþ strange wlaffyng, chyteryng, harryng, and garryng grisbytting.Although, from the beginning, Englishmen had three manners of speaking, southern, northern and midlands speech in the middle of the country, ... Nevertheless, through intermingling and mixing, first with Danes and then with Normans, amongst many the country language has arisen, and some use strange stammering, chattering, snarling, and grating gnashing." +"Middle English is often arbitrarily defined as beginning with the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066, but it developed further in the period from 1200 to 1450." +"With the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the now-Norsified Old English language was subject to another wave of intense contact, this time with Old French, in particular Old Norman French. The Norman French spoken by the elite in England eventually developed into the Anglo-Norman language.[25] Because Norman was spoken primarily by the elites and nobles, while the lower classes continued speaking English, the main influence of Norman was the introduction of a wide range of loanwords related to politics, legislation and prestigious social domains.[14] Middle English also greatly simplified the inflectional system, probably in order to reconcile Old Norse and Old English, which were inflectionally different but morphologically similar. The distinction between nominative and accusative cases was lost except in personal pronouns, the instrumental case was dropped, and the use of the genitive case was limited to indicating possession. The inflectional system regularised many irregular inflectional forms,[47] and gradually simplified the system of agreement, making word order less flexible.[48]" +"In Wycliff'e Bible of the 1380s, the verse Matthew 8:20 was written: Foxis han dennes, and briddis of heuene han nestis.[49] Here the plural suffix -n on the verb have is still retained, but none of the case endings on the nouns are present. By the 12th century Middle English was fully developed, integrating both Norse and French features; it continued to be spoken until the transition to early Modern English around 1500. Middle English literature includes Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. In the Middle English period, the use of regional dialects in writing proliferated, and dialect traits were even used for effect by authors such as Chaucer.[50]" +"The next period in the history of English was Early Modern English (1500–1700). Early Modern English was characterised by the Great Vowel Shift (1350–1700), inflectional simplification, and linguistic standardisation." +"The Great Vowel Shift affected the stressed long vowels of Middle English. It was a chain shift, meaning that each shift triggered a subsequent shift in the vowel system. Mid and open vowels were raised, and close vowels were broken into diphthongs. For example, the word bite was originally pronounced as the word beet is today, and the second vowel in the word about was pronounced as the word boot is today. The Great Vowel Shift explains many irregularities in spelling since English retains many spellings from Middle English, and it also explains why English vowel letters have very different pronunciations from the same letters in other languages.[51][52]" +"English began to rise in prestige, relative to Norman French, during the reign of Henry V. Around 1430, the Court of Chancery in Westminster began using English in its official documents, and a new standard form of Middle English, known as Chancery Standard, developed from the dialects of London and the East Midlands. In 1476, William Caxton introduced the printing press to England and began publishing the first printed books in London, expanding the influence of this form of English.[53] Literature from the Early Modern period includes the works of William Shakespeare and the translation of the Bible commissioned by King James I. Even after the vowel shift the language still sounded different from Modern English: for example, the consonant clusters /kn ɡn sw/ in knight, gnat, and sword were still pronounced. Many of the grammatical features that a modern reader of Shakespeare might find quaint or archaic represent the distinct characteristics of Early Modern English.[54]" +"In the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, written in Early Modern English, Matthew 8:20 says, ""The Foxes haue holes and the birds of the ayre haue nests.""[44] This exemplifies the loss of case and its effects on sentence structure (replacement with subject–verb–object word order, and the use of of instead of the non-possessive genitive), and the introduction of loanwords from French (ayre) and word replacements (bird originally meaning ""nestling"" had replaced OE fugol).[44]" +"By the late 18th century, the British Empire had spread English through its colonies and geopolitical dominance. Commerce, science and technology, diplomacy, art, and formal education all contributed to English becoming the first truly global language. English also facilitated worldwide international communication.[27][4] English was adopted in parts of North America, parts of Africa, Oceania, and many other regions. When they obtained political independence, some of the newly independent states that had multiple indigenous languages opted to continue using English as the official language to avoid the political and other difficulties inherent in promoting any one indigenous language above the others.[55][56][57] In the 20th century the growing economic and cultural influence of the United States and its status as a superpower following the Second World War has, along with worldwide broadcasting in English by the BBC[58] and other broadcasters, caused the language to spread across the planet much faster.[59][60] In the 21st century, English is more widely spoken and written than any language has ever been.[61]" +"As Modern English developed, explicit norms for standard usage were published, and spread through official media such as public education and state-sponsored publications. In 1755 Samuel Johnson published his A Dictionary of the English Language, which introduced standard spellings of words and usage norms. In 1828, Noah Webster published the American Dictionary of the English language to try to establish a norm for speaking and writing American English that was independent of the British standard. Within Britain, non-standard or lower class dialect features were increasingly stigmatised, leading to the quick spread of the prestige varieties among the middle classes.[62]" +"In modern English, the loss of grammatical case is almost complete (it is now only found in pronouns, such as he and him, she and her, who and whom), and SVO word order is mostly fixed.[62] Some changes, such as the use of do-support, have become universalised. (Earlier English did not use the word ""do"" as a general auxiliary as Modern English does; at first it was only used in question constructions, and even then was not obligatory.[63] Now, do-support with the verb have is becoming increasingly standardised.) The use of progressive forms in -ing, appears to be spreading to new constructions, and forms such as had been being built are becoming more common. Regularisation of irregular forms also slowly continues (e.g. dreamed instead of dreamt), and analytical alternatives to inflectional forms are becoming more common (e.g. more polite instead of politer). British English is also undergoing change under the influence of American English, fuelled by the strong presence of American English in the media and the prestige associated with the United States as a world power.[64][65][66]" +"As of 2016[update], 400 million people spoke English as their first language, and 1.1 billion spoke it as a secondary language.[67] English is the largest language by number of speakers. English is spoken by communities on every continent and on islands in all the major oceans.[68]" +"The countries where English is spoken can be grouped into different categories according to how English is used in each country. The ""inner circle""[69] countries with many native speakers of English share an international standard of written English and jointly influence speech norms for English around the world. English does not belong to just one country, and it does not belong solely to descendants of English settlers. English is an official language of countries populated by few descendants of native speakers of English. It has also become by far the most important language of international communication when people who share no native language meet anywhere in the world." +"The Indian linguist Braj Kachru distinguished countries where English is spoken with a three circles model.[69] In his model," +"Kachru based his model on the history of how English spread in different countries, how users acquire English, and the range of uses English has in each country. The three circles change membership over time.[70]" +"Countries with large communities of native speakers of English (the inner circle) include Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, where the majority speaks English, and South Africa, where a significant minority speaks English. The countries with the most native English speakers are, in descending order, the United States (at least 231 million),[71] the United Kingdom (60 million),[72][73][74] Canada (19 million),[75] Australia (at least 17 million),[76] South Africa (4.8 million),[77] Ireland (4.2 million), and New Zealand (3.7 million).[78] In these countries, children of native speakers learn English from their parents, and local people who speak other languages and new immigrants learn English to communicate in their neighbourhoods and workplaces.[79] The inner-circle countries provide the base from which English spreads to other countries in the world.[70]" +"Estimates of the numbers of second language and foreign-language English speakers vary greatly from 470 million to more than 1 billion, depending on how proficiency is defined.[9] Linguist David Crystal estimates that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.[80] In Kachru's three-circles model, the ""outer circle"" countries are countries such as the Philippines,[81] Jamaica,[82] India, Pakistan, Singapore,[83] Malaysia and Nigeria[84][85] with a much smaller proportion of native speakers of English but much use of English as a second language for education, government, or domestic business, and its routine use for school instruction and official interactions with the government.[86]" +"Those countries have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. They have many more speakers of English who acquire English as they grow up through day-to-day use and listening to broadcasting, especially if they attend schools where English is the medium of instruction. Varieties of English learned by non-native speakers born to English-speaking parents may be influenced, especially in their grammar, by the other languages spoken by those learners.[79] Most of those varieties of English include words little used by native speakers of English in the inner-circle countries,[79] and they may show grammatical and phonological differences from inner-circle varieties as well. The standard English of the inner-circle countries is often taken as a norm for use of English in the outer-circle countries.[79]" +"In the three-circles model, countries such as Poland, China, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Egypt, and other countries where English is taught as a foreign language, make up the ""expanding circle"".[87] The distinctions between English as a first language, as a second language, and as a foreign language are often debatable and may change in particular countries over time.[86] For example, in the Netherlands and some other countries of Europe, knowledge of English as a second language is nearly universal, with over 80 percent of the population able to use it,[88] and thus English is routinely used to communicate with foreigners and often in higher education. In these countries, although English is not used for government business, its widespread use puts them at the boundary between the ""outer circle"" and ""expanding circle"". English is unusual among world languages in how many of its users are not native speakers but speakers of English as a second or foreign language.[89]" +"Many users of English in the expanding circle use it to communicate with other people from the expanding circle, so that interaction with native speakers of English plays no part in their decision to use the language.[90] Non-native varieties of English are widely used for international communication, and speakers of one such variety often encounter features of other varieties.[91] Very often today a conversation in English anywhere in the world may include no native speakers of English at all, even while including speakers from several different countries. This is particularly true of the shared vocabulary of mathematics and the sciences.[92]" +"Pie chart showing the percentage of native English speakers living in ""inner circle"" English-speaking countries. Native speakers are now substantially outnumbered worldwide by second-language speakers of English (not counted in this chart)." +"English is a pluricentric language, which means that no one national authority sets the standard for use of the language.[93][94][95][96] Spoken English, including English used in broadcasting, generally follows national pronunciation standards that are established by custom rather than by regulation. International broadcasters are usually identifiable as coming from one country rather than another through their accents,[97] but newsreader scripts are also composed largely in international standard written English. The norms of standard written English are maintained purely by the consensus of educated English speakers around the world, without any oversight by any government or international organisation.[98]" +"American listeners generally readily understand most British broadcasting, and British listeners readily understand most American broadcasting. Most English speakers around the world can understand radio programmes, television programmes, and films from many parts of the English-speaking world.[99] Both standard and non-standard varieties of English can include both formal or informal styles, distinguished by word choice and syntax and use both technical and non-technical registers.[100]" +"The settlement history of the English-speaking inner circle countries outside Britain helped level dialect distinctions and produce koineised forms of English in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.[101] The majority of immigrants to the United States without British ancestry rapidly adopted English after arrival. Now the majority of the United States population are monolingual English speakers,[71][102] and English has been given official or co-official status by 30 of the 50 state governments, as well as all five territorial governments of the US, though there has never been an official language at the federal level.[103][104]" +"English has ceased to be an ""English language"" in the sense of belonging only to people who are ethnically English.[107][108] Use of English is growing country-by-country internally and for international communication. Most people learn English for practical rather than ideological reasons.[109] Many speakers of English in Africa have become part of an ""Afro-Saxon"" language community that unites Africans from different countries.[110]" +"As decolonisation proceeded throughout the British Empire in the 1950s and 1960s, former colonies often did not reject English but rather continued to use it as independent countries setting their own language policies.[56][57][111] For example, the view of the English language among many Indians has gone from associating it with colonialism to associating it with economic progress, and English continues to be an official language of India.[112] English is also widely used in media and literature, and the number of English language books published annually in India is the third largest in the world after the US and UK.[113] However, English is rarely spoken as a first language, numbering only around a couple hundred-thousand people, and less than 5% of the population speak fluent English in India.[114][115] David Crystal claimed in 2004 that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world,[116] but the number of English speakers in India is uncertain, with most scholars concluding that the United States still has more speakers of English than India.[117]" +"Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca,[59][118] is also regarded as the first world language.[119][120] English is the world's most widely used language in newspaper publishing, book publishing, international telecommunications, scientific publishing, international trade, mass entertainment, and diplomacy.[120] English is, by international treaty, the basis for the required controlled natural languages[121] Seaspeak and Airspeak, used as international languages of seafaring[122] and aviation.[123] English used to have parity with French and German in scientific research, but now it dominates that field.[124] It achieved parity with French as a language of diplomacy at the Treaty of Versailles negotiations in 1919.[125] By the time of the foundation of the United Nations at the end of World War II, English had become pre-eminent[126] and is now the main worldwide language of diplomacy and international relations.[127] It is one of six official languages of the United Nations.[128] Many other worldwide international organisations, including the International Olympic Committee, specify English as a working language or official language of the organisation." +"Many regional international organisations such as the European Free Trade Association, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),[60] and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) set English as their organisation's sole working language even though most members are not countries with a majority of native English speakers. While the European Union (EU) allows member states to designate any of the national languages as an official language of the Union, in practice English is the main working language of EU organisations.[129]" +"Although in most countries English is not an official language, it is currently the language most often taught as a foreign language.[59][60] In the countries of the EU, English is the most widely spoken foreign language in nineteen of the twenty-five member states where it is not an official language (that is, the countries other than Ireland and Malta). In a 2012 official Eurobarometer poll (conducted when the UK was still a member of the EU), 38 percent of the EU respondents outside the countries where English is an official language said they could speak English well enough to have a conversation in that language. The next most commonly mentioned foreign language, French (which is the most widely known foreign language in the UK and Ireland), could be used in conversation by 12 percent of respondents.[130]" +"A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of occupations and professions such as medicine[131] and computing. English has become so important in scientific publishing that more than 80 percent of all scientific journal articles indexed by Chemical Abstracts in 1998 were written in English, as were 90 percent of all articles in natural science publications by 1996 and 82 percent of articles in humanities publications by 1995.[132]" +"International communities such as international business people may use English as an auxiliary language, with an emphasis on vocabulary suitable for their domain of interest. This has led some scholars to develop the study of English as an auxiliary language. The trademarked Globish uses a relatively small subset of English vocabulary (about 1500 words, designed to represent the highest use in international business English) in combination with the standard English grammar.[133] Other examples include Simple English." +"The increased use of the English language globally has had an effect on other languages, leading to some English words being assimilated into the vocabularies of other languages. This influence of English has led to concerns about language death,[134] and to claims of linguistic imperialism,[135] and has provoked resistance to the spread of English; however the number of speakers continues to increase because many people around the world think that English provides them with opportunities for better employment and improved lives.[136]" +"Though some mention a possibility of divergence of English dialects into mutually unintelligible languages, most think a more likely outcome is that English will continue to function as a koineised language, in which the standard form unifies speakers from around the world.[137] English is used as the language for wider communication in countries around the world.[138] Thus English has grown in worldwide use much more than any constructed language proposed as an international auxiliary language, including Esperanto.[139][140]" +"The phonetics and phonology of the English language differ from one dialect to another, usually without interfering with mutual communication. Phonological variation affects the inventory of phonemes (i.e. speech sounds that distinguish meaning), and phonetic variation consists in differences in pronunciation of the phonemes.[141] This overview mainly describes the standard pronunciations of the United Kingdom and the United States: Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA). (See § Dialects, accents and varieties, below.)" +The phonetic symbols used below are from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).[142][143][144] +"Most English dialects share the same 24 consonant phonemes. The consonant inventory shown below is valid for California English,[145] and for RP.[146]" +* The sound /ŋ/ can only occur as a coda. +** Conventionally transcribed /r/ +"In the table, when obstruents (stops, affricates, and fricatives) appear in pairs, such as /p b/, /tʃ dʒ/, and /s z/, the first is fortis (strong) and the second is lenis (weak). Fortis obstruents, such as /p tʃ s/ are pronounced with more muscular tension and breath force than lenis consonants, such as /b dʒ z/, and are always voiceless. Lenis consonants are partly voiced at the beginning and end of utterances, and fully voiced between vowels. Fortis stops such as /p/ have additional articulatory or acoustic features in most dialects: they are aspirated [pʰ] when they occur alone at the beginning of a stressed syllable, often unaspirated in other cases, and often unreleased [p̚] or pre-glottalised [ʔp] at the end of a syllable. In a single-syllable word, a vowel before a fortis stop is shortened: thus nip has a noticeably shorter vowel (phonetically, but not phonemically) than nib [nɪˑb̥] (see below).[147]" +"In RP, the lateral approximant /l/, has two main allophones (pronunciation variants): the clear or plain [l], as in light, and the dark or velarised [ɫ], as in full.[148] GA has dark l in most cases.[149]" +"All sonorants (liquids /l, r/ and nasals /m, n, ŋ/) devoice when following a voiceless obstruent, and they are syllabic when following a consonant at the end of a word.[150]" +"The pronunciation of vowels varies a great deal between dialects and is one of the most detectable aspects of a speaker's accent. The table below lists the vowel phonemes in Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA), with examples of words in which they occur from lexical sets compiled by linguists. The vowels are represented with symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet; those given for RP are standard in British dictionaries and other publications.[151]" +"In RP, vowel length is phonemic; long vowels are marked with a triangular colon ⟨ː⟩ in the table above, such as the vowel of need [niːd] as opposed to bid [bɪd]. In GA, vowel length is non-distinctive." +"In both RP and GA, vowels are phonetically shortened before fortis consonants in the same syllable, like /t tʃ f/, but not before lenis consonants like /d dʒ v/ or in open syllables: thus, the vowels of rich [rɪtʃ], neat [nit], and safe [seɪ̯f] are noticeably shorter than the vowels of ridge [rɪˑdʒ], need [niˑd], and save [seˑɪ̯v], and the vowel of light [laɪ̯t] is shorter than that of lie [laˑɪ̯]. Because lenis consonants are frequently voiceless at the end of a syllable, vowel length is an important cue as to whether the following consonant is lenis or fortis.[152]" +"The vowel /ə/ only occurs in unstressed syllables and is more open in quality in stem-final positions.[153][154] Some dialects do not contrast /ɪ/ and /ə/ in unstressed positions, such that rabbit and abbot rhyme and Lenin and Lennon are homophonous, a dialectal feature called the weak vowel merger.[155] GA /ɜr/ and /ər/ are realised as an r-coloured vowel [ɚ], as in further [ˈfɚðɚ] (phonemically /ˈfɜrðər/), which in RP is realised as [ˈfəːðə] (phonemically /ˈfɜːðə/).[156]" +"An English syllable includes a syllable nucleus consisting of a vowel sound. Syllable onset and coda (start and end) are optional. A syllable can start with up to three consonant sounds, as in sprint /sprɪnt/, and end with up to five, as in (for some dialects) angsts /aŋksts/. This gives an English syllable the following structure, (CCC)V(CCCCC), where C represents a consonant and V a vowel; the word strengths /strɛŋkθs/ is thus close to the most complex syllable possible in English. The consonants that may appear together in onsets or codas are restricted, as is the order in which they may appear. Onsets can only have four types of consonant clusters: a stop and approximant, as in play; a voiceless fricative and approximant, as in fly or sly; s and a voiceless stop, as in stay; and s, a voiceless stop, and an approximant, as in string.[157] Clusters of nasal and stop are only allowed in codas. Clusters of obstruents always agree in voicing, and clusters of sibilants and of plosives with the same point of articulation are prohibited. Several consonants have limited distributions: /h/ can only occur in syllable-initial position, and /ŋ/ only in syllable-final position.[158]" +"Stress plays an important role in English. Certain syllables are stressed, while others are unstressed. Stress is a combination of duration, intensity, vowel quality, and sometimes changes in pitch. Stressed syllables are pronounced longer and louder than unstressed syllables, and vowels in unstressed syllables are frequently reduced while vowels in stressed syllables are not.[159] Some words, primarily short function words but also some modal verbs such as can, have weak and strong forms depending on whether they occur in stressed or non-stressed position within a sentence." +"Stress in English is phonemic, and some pairs of words are distinguished by stress. For instance, the word contract is stressed on the first syllable (/ˈkɒntrækt/ KON-trakt) when used as a noun, but on the last syllable (/kənˈtrækt/ kən-TRAKT) for most meanings (for example, ""reduce in size"") when used as a verb.[160][161][162] Here stress is connected to vowel reduction: in the noun ""contract"" the first syllable is stressed and has the unreduced vowel /ɒ/, but in the verb ""contract"" the first syllable is unstressed and its vowel is reduced to /ə/. Stress is also used to distinguish between words and phrases, so that a compound word receives a single stress unit, but the corresponding phrase has two: e.g. a burnout (/ˈbɜːrnaʊt/) versus to burn out (/ˈbɜːrn ˈaʊt/), and a hotdog (/ˈhɒtdɒɡ/) versus a hot dog (/ˈhɒt ˈdɒɡ/).[163]" +"In terms of rhythm, English is generally described as a stress-timed language, meaning that the amount of time between stressed syllables tends to be equal.[164] Stressed syllables are pronounced longer, but unstressed syllables (syllables between stresses) are shortened. Vowels in unstressed syllables are shortened as well, and vowel shortening causes changes in vowel quality: vowel reduction.[165]" +"Varieties of English vary the most in pronunciation of vowels. The best-known national varieties used as standards for education in non-English-speaking countries are British (BrE) and American (AmE). Countries such as Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa have their own standard varieties which are less often used as standards for education internationally. Some differences between the various dialects are shown in the table ""Varieties of Standard English and their features"".[166]" +"English has undergone many historical sound changes, some of them affecting all varieties, and others affecting only a few. Most standard varieties are affected by the Great Vowel Shift, which changed the pronunciation of long vowels, but a few dialects have slightly different results. In North America, a number of chain shifts such as the Northern Cities Vowel Shift and Canadian Shift have produced very different vowel landscapes in some regional accents.[167]" +"Some dialects have fewer or more consonant phonemes and phones than the standard varieties. Some conservative varieties like Scottish English have a voiceless [ʍ] sound in whine that contrasts with the voiced [w] in wine, but most other dialects pronounce both words with voiced [w], a dialect feature called wine–whine merger. The voiceless velar fricative sound /x/ is found in Scottish English, which distinguishes loch /lɔx/ from lock /lɔk/. Accents like Cockney with ""h-dropping"" lack the glottal fricative /h/, and dialects with th-stopping and th-fronting like African-American Vernacular and Estuary English do not have the dental fricatives /θ, ð/, but replace them with dental or alveolar stops /t, d/ or labiodental fricatives /f, v/.[168][169] Other changes affecting the phonology of local varieties are processes such as yod-dropping, yod-coalescence, and reduction of consonant clusters.[170][page needed]" +"General American and Received Pronunciation vary in their pronunciation of historical /r/ after a vowel at the end of a syllable (in the syllable coda). GA is a rhotic dialect, meaning that it pronounces /r/ at the end of a syllable, but RP is non-rhotic, meaning that it loses /r/ in that position. English dialects are classified as rhotic or non-rhotic depending on whether they elide /r/ like RP or keep it like GA.[171]" +"There is complex dialectal variation in words with the open front and open back vowels /æ ɑː ɒ ɔː/. These four vowels are only distinguished in RP, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In GA, these vowels merge to three /æ ɑ ɔ/,[172] and in Canadian English, they merge to two /æ ɑ/.[173] In addition, the words that have each vowel vary by dialect. The table ""Dialects and open vowels"" shows this variation with lexical sets in which these sounds occur." +"As is typical of an Indo-European language, English follows accusative morphosyntactic alignment. Unlike other Indo-European languages though, English has largely abandoned the inflectional case system in favour of analytic constructions. Only the personal pronouns retain morphological case more strongly than any other word class. English distinguishes at least seven major word classes: verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, determiners (including articles), prepositions, and conjunctions. Some analyses add pronouns as a class separate from nouns, and subdivide conjunctions into subordinators and coordinators, and add the class of interjections.[174] English also has a rich set of auxiliary verbs, such as have and do, expressing the categories of mood and aspect. Questions are marked by do-support, wh-movement (fronting of question words beginning with wh-) and word order inversion with some verbs.[175]" +"Some traits typical of Germanic languages persist in English, such as the distinction between irregularly inflected strong stems inflected through ablaut (i.e. changing the vowel of the stem, as in the pairs speak/spoke and foot/feet) and weak stems inflected through affixation (such as love/loved, hand/hands).[176] Vestiges of the case and gender system are found in the pronoun system (he/him, who/whom) and in the inflection of the copula verb to be.[176]" +The seven word-classes are exemplified in this sample sentence:[177] +"English nouns are only inflected for number and possession. New nouns can be formed through derivation or compounding. They are semantically divided into proper nouns (names) and common nouns. Common nouns are in turn divided into concrete and abstract nouns, and grammatically into count nouns and mass nouns.[178]" +"Most count nouns are inflected for plural number through the use of the plural suffix -s, but a few nouns have irregular plural forms. Mass nouns can only be pluralised through the use of a count noun classifier, e.g. one loaf of bread, two loaves of bread.[179]" +"Possession can be expressed either by the possessive enclitic -s (also traditionally called a genitive suffix), or by the preposition of. Historically the -s possessive has been used for animate nouns, whereas the of possessive has been reserved for inanimate nouns. Today this distinction is less clear, and many speakers use -s also with inanimates. Orthographically the possessive -s is separated from a singular noun with an apostrophe. If the noun is plural formed with -s the apostrophe follows the -s.[175]" +"Nouns can form noun phrases (NPs) where they are the syntactic head of the words that depend on them such as determiners, quantifiers, conjunctions or adjectives.[180] Noun phrases can be short, such as the man, composed only of a determiner and a noun. They can also include modifiers such as adjectives (e.g. red, tall, all) and specifiers such as determiners (e.g. the, that). But they can also tie together several nouns into a single long NP, using conjunctions such as and, or prepositions such as with, e.g. the tall man with the long red trousers and his skinny wife with the spectacles (this NP uses conjunctions, prepositions, specifiers, and modifiers). Regardless of length, an NP functions as a syntactic unit.[175] For example, the possessive enclitic can, in cases which do not lead to ambiguity, follow the entire noun phrase, as in The President of India's wife, where the enclitic follows India and not President." +"The class of determiners is used to specify the noun they precede in terms of definiteness, where the marks a definite noun and a or an an indefinite one. A definite noun is assumed by the speaker to be already known by the interlocutor, whereas an indefinite noun is not specified as being previously known. Quantifiers, which include one, many, some and all, are used to specify the noun in terms of quantity or number. The noun must agree with the number of the determiner, e.g. one man (sg.) but all men (pl.). Determiners are the first constituents in a noun phrase.[181]" +"English adjectives are words such as good, big, interesting, and Canadian that most typically modify nouns, denoting characteristics of their referents (e.g., a red car). As modifiers, they come before the nouns they modify and after determiners.[182] English adjectives also function as predicative complements (e.g., the child is happy)." +"In Modern English, adjectives are not inflected so as to agree in form with the noun they modify, as adjectives in most other Indo-European languages do. For example, in the phrases the slender boy, and many slender girls, the adjective slender does not change form to agree with either the number or gender of the noun." +"Some adjectives are inflected for degree of comparison, with the positive degree unmarked, the suffix -er marking the comparative, and -est marking the superlative: a small boy, the boy is smaller than the girl, that boy is the smallest. Some adjectives have irregular suppletive comparative and superlative forms, such as good, better, and best. Other adjectives have comparatives formed by periphrastic constructions, with the adverb more marking the comparative, and most marking the superlative: happier or more happy, the happiest or most happy.[183] There is some variation among speakers regarding which adjectives use inflected or periphrastic comparison, and some studies have shown a tendency for the periphrastic forms to become more common at the expense of the inflected form.[184]" +"English determiners are words such as the, each, many, some, and which, occurring most typically in noun phrases before the head nouns and any modifiers and marking the noun phrase as definite or indefinite.[185] They often agree with the noun in number. They do not typically inflect for degree of comparison." +"English pronouns conserve many traits of case and gender inflection. The personal pronouns retain a difference between subjective and objective case in most persons (I/me, he/him, she/her, we/us, they/them) as well as an animateness distinction in the third person singular (distinguishing it from the three sets of animate third person singular pronouns) and an optional gender distinction in the animate third person singular (distinguishing between she/her [feminine], they/them [epicene], and he/him [masculine]).[186][187] The subjective case corresponds to the Old English nominative case, and the objective case is used in the sense both of the previous accusative case (for a patient, or direct object of a transitive verb), and of the Old English dative case (for a recipient or indirect object of a transitive verb).[188][189] The subjective is used when the pronoun is the subject of a finite clause, otherwise the objective is used.[190] While grammarians such as Henry Sweet[191] and Otto Jespersen[192] noted that the English cases did not correspond to the traditional Latin-based system, some contemporary grammars, for example Huddleston & Pullum (2002), retain traditional labels for the cases, calling them nominative and accusative cases respectively." +"Possessive pronouns exist in dependent and independent forms; the dependent form functions as a determiner specifying a noun (as in my chair), while the independent form can stand alone as if it were a noun (e.g. the chair is mine).[193] The English system of grammatical person no longer has a distinction between formal and informal pronouns of address (the old second person singular familiar pronoun thou acquired a pejorative or inferior tinge of meaning and was abandoned)." +Both the second and third persons share pronouns between the plural and singular: +"Pronouns are used to refer to entities deictically or anaphorically. A deictic pronoun points to some person or object by identifying it relative to the speech situation—for example, the pronoun I identifies the speaker, and the pronoun you, the addressee. Anaphoric pronouns such as that refer back to an entity already mentioned or assumed by the speaker to be known by the audience, for example in the sentence I already told you that. The reflexive pronouns are used when the oblique argument is identical to the subject of a phrase (e.g. ""he sent it to himself"" or ""she braced herself for impact"").[196]" +"Prepositional phrases (PP) are phrases composed of a preposition and one or more nouns, e.g. with the dog, for my friend, to school, in England.[197] Prepositions have a wide range of uses in English. They are used to describe movement, place, and other relations between different entities, but they also have many syntactic uses such as introducing complement clauses and oblique arguments of verbs.[197] For example, in the phrase I gave it to him, the preposition to marks the recipient, or Indirect Object of the verb to give. Traditionally words were only considered prepositions if they governed the case of the noun they preceded, for example causing the pronouns to use the objective rather than subjective form, ""with her"", ""to me"", ""for us"". But some contemporary grammars such as that of Huddleston & Pullum (2002:598–600) no longer consider government of case to be the defining feature of the class of prepositions, rather defining prepositions as words that can function as the heads of prepositional phrases.[citation needed]" +"English verbs are inflected for tense and aspect and marked for agreement with present-tense third-person singular subject. Only the copula verb to be is still inflected for agreement with the plural and first and second person subjects.[183] Auxiliary verbs such as have and be are paired with verbs in the infinitive, past, or progressive forms. They form complex tenses, aspects, and moods. Auxiliary verbs differ from other verbs in that they can be followed by the negation, and in that they can occur as the first constituent in a question sentence.[198][199]" +"Most verbs have six inflectional forms. The primary forms are a plain present, a third-person singular present, and a preterite (past) form. The secondary forms are a plain form used for the infinitive, a gerund-participle and a past participle.[200] The copula verb to be is the only verb to retain some of its original conjugation, and takes different inflectional forms depending on the subject. The first-person present-tense form is am, the third person singular form is is, and the form are is used in the second-person singular and all three plurals. The only verb past participle is been and its gerund-participle is being." +"English has two primary tenses, past (preterite) and non-past. The preterite is inflected by using the preterite form of the verb, which for the regular verbs includes the suffix -ed, and for the strong verbs either the suffix -t or a change in the stem vowel. The non-past form is unmarked except in the third person singular, which takes the suffix -s.[198]" +"English does not have future verb forms.[201] The future tense is expressed periphrastically with one of the auxiliary verbs will or shall.[202] Many varieties also use a near future constructed with the phrasal verb be going to (""going-to future"").[203]" +"Further aspectual distinctions are shown by auxiliary verbs, primarily have and be, which show the contrast between a perfect and non-perfect past tense (I have run vs. I was running), and compound tenses such as preterite perfect (I had been running) and present perfect (I have been running).[204]" +"For the expression of mood, English uses a number of modal auxiliaries, such as can, may, will, shall and the past tense forms could, might, would, should. There are also subjunctive and imperative moods, both based on the plain form of the verb (i.e. without the third person singular -s), for use in subordinate clauses (e.g. subjunctive: It is important that he run every day; imperative Run!).[202]" +"An infinitive form, that uses the plain form of the verb and the preposition to, is used for verbal clauses that are syntactically subordinate to a finite verbal clause. Finite verbal clauses are those that are formed around a verb in the present or preterite form. In clauses with auxiliary verbs, they are the finite verbs and the main verb is treated as a subordinate clause.[205] For example, he has to go where only the auxiliary verb have is inflected for time and the main verb to go is in the infinitive, or in a complement clause such as I saw him leave, where the main verb is see, which is in a preterite form, and leave is in the infinitive." +"English also makes frequent use of constructions traditionally called phrasal verbs, verb phrases that are made up of a verb root and a preposition or particle that follows the verb. The phrase then functions as a single predicate. In terms of intonation the preposition is fused to the verb, but in writing it is written as a separate word. Examples of phrasal verbs are to get up, to ask out, to back up, to give up, to get together, to hang out, to put up with, etc. The phrasal verb frequently has a highly idiomatic meaning that is more specialised and restricted than what can be simply extrapolated from the combination of verb and preposition complement (e.g. lay off meaning terminate someone's employment).[206] In spite of the idiomatic meaning, some grammarians, including Huddleston & Pullum (2002:274), do not consider this type of construction to form a syntactic constituent and hence refrain from using the term ""phrasal verb"". Instead, they consider the construction simply to be a verb with a prepositional phrase as its syntactic complement, i.e. he woke up in the morning and he ran up in the mountains are syntactically equivalent." +"The function of adverbs is to modify the action or event described by the verb by providing additional information about the manner in which it occurs.[175] Many adverbs are derived from adjectives by appending the suffix -ly. For example, in the phrase the woman walked quickly, the adverb quickly is derived in this way from the adjective quick. Some commonly used adjectives have irregular adverbial forms, such as good, which has the adverbial form well." +"Modern English syntax language is moderately analytic.[207] It has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect." +"English word order has moved from the Germanic verb-second (V2) word order to being almost exclusively subject–verb–object (SVO).[208] The combination of SVO order and use of auxiliary verbs often creates clusters of two or more verbs at the centre of the sentence, such as he had hoped to try to open it." +"In most sentences, English only marks grammatical relations through word order.[209] The subject constituent precedes the verb and the object constituent follows it. The example below demonstrates how the grammatical roles of each constituent are marked only by the position relative to the verb:" +"An exception is found in sentences where one of the constituents is a pronoun, in which case it is doubly marked, both by word order and by case inflection, where the subject pronoun precedes the verb and takes the subjective case form, and the object pronoun follows the verb and takes the objective case form.[210] The example below demonstrates this double marking in a sentence where both object and subject are represented with a third person singular masculine pronoun:" +"Indirect objects (IO) of ditransitive verbs can be placed either as the first object in a double object construction (S V IO O), such as I gave Jane the book or in a prepositional phrase, such as I gave the book to Jane.[211]" +"In English a sentence may be composed of one or more clauses, that may, in turn, be composed of one or more phrases (e.g. Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases, and Prepositional Phrases). A clause is built around a verb and includes its constituents, such as any NPs and PPs. Within a sentence, there is always at least one main clause (or matrix clause) whereas other clauses are subordinate to a main clause. Subordinate clauses may function as arguments of the verb in the main clause. For example, in the phrase I think (that) you are lying, the main clause is headed by the verb think, the subject is I, but the object of the phrase is the subordinate clause (that) you are lying. The subordinating conjunction that shows that the clause that follows is a subordinate clause, but it is often omitted.[212] Relative clauses are clauses that function as a modifier or specifier to some constituent in the main clause: For example, in the sentence I saw the letter that you received today, the relative clause that you received today specifies the meaning of the word letter, the object of the main clause. Relative clauses can be introduced by the pronouns who, whose, whom and which as well as by that (which can also be omitted.)[213] In contrast to many other Germanic languages there are no major differences between word order in main and subordinate clauses.[214]" +"English syntax relies on auxiliary verbs for many functions including the expression of tense, aspect, and mood. Auxiliary verbs form main clauses, and the main verbs function as heads of a subordinate clause of the auxiliary verb. For example, in the sentence the dog did not find its bone, the clause find its bone is the complement of the negated verb did not. Subject–auxiliary inversion is used in many constructions, including focus, negation, and interrogative constructions." +"The verb do can be used as an auxiliary even in simple declarative sentences, where it usually serves to add emphasis, as in ""I did shut the fridge."" However, in the negated and inverted clauses referred to above, it is used because the rules of English syntax permit these constructions only when an auxiliary is present. Modern English does not allow the addition of the negating adverb not to an ordinary finite lexical verb, as in *I know not—it can only be added to an auxiliary (or copular) verb, hence if there is no other auxiliary present when negation is required, the auxiliary do is used, to produce a form like I do not (don't) know. The same applies in clauses requiring inversion, including most questions—inversion must involve the subject and an auxiliary verb, so it is not possible to say *Know you him?; grammatical rules require Do you know him?[215]" +"Negation is done with the adverb not, which precedes the main verb and follows an auxiliary verb. A contracted form of not -n't can be used as an enclitic attaching to auxiliary verbs and to the copula verb to be. Just as with questions, many negative constructions require the negation to occur with do-support, thus in Modern English I don't know him is the correct answer to the question Do you know him?, but not *I know him not, although this construction may be found in older English.[216]" +"Passive constructions also use auxiliary verbs. A passive construction rephrases an active construction in such a way that the object of the active phrase becomes the subject of the passive phrase, and the subject of the active phrase is either omitted or demoted to a role as an oblique argument introduced in a prepositional phrase. They are formed by using the past participle either with the auxiliary verb to be or to get, although not all varieties of English allow the use of passives with get. For example, putting the sentence she sees him into the passive becomes he is seen (by her), or he gets seen (by her).[217]" +"Both yes–no questions and wh-questions in English are mostly formed using subject–auxiliary inversion (Am I going tomorrow?, Where can we eat?), which may require do-support (Do you like her?, Where did he go?). In most cases, interrogative words (wh-words; e.g. what, who, where, when, why, how) appear in a fronted position. For example, in the question What did you see?, the word what appears as the first constituent despite being the grammatical object of the sentence. (When the wh-word is the subject or forms part of the subject, no inversion occurs: Who saw the cat?.) Prepositional phrases can also be fronted when they are the question's theme, e.g. To whose house did you go last night?. The personal interrogative pronoun who is the only interrogative pronoun to still show inflection for case, with the variant whom serving as the objective case form, although this form may be going out of use in many contexts.[218]" +"While English is a subject-prominent language, at the discourse level it tends to use a topic-comment structure, where the known information (topic) precedes the new information (comment). Because of the strict SVO syntax, the topic of a sentence generally has to be the grammatical subject of the sentence. In cases where the topic is not the grammatical subject of the sentence, it is often promoted to subject position through syntactic means. One way of doing this is through a passive construction, the girl was stung by the bee. Another way is through a cleft sentence where the main clause is demoted to be a complement clause of a copula sentence with a dummy subject such as it or there, e.g. it was the girl that the bee stung, there was a girl who was stung by a bee.[219] Dummy subjects are also used in constructions where there is no grammatical subject such as with impersonal verbs (e.g., it is raining) or in existential clauses (there are many cars on the street). Through the use of these complex sentence constructions with informationally vacuous subjects, English is able to maintain both a topic-comment sentence structure and a SVO syntax." +"Focus constructions emphasise a particular piece of new or salient information within a sentence, generally through allocating the main sentence level stress on the focal constituent. For example, the girl was stung by a bee (emphasising it was a bee and not, for example, a wasp that stung her), or The girl was stung by a bee (contrasting with another possibility, for example that it was the boy).[220] Topic and focus can also be established through syntactic dislocation, either preposing or postposing the item to be focused on relative to the main clause. For example, That girl over there, she was stung by a bee, emphasises the girl by preposition, but a similar effect could be achieved by postposition, she was stung by a bee, that girl over there, where reference to the girl is established as an ""afterthought"".[221]" +"Cohesion between sentences is achieved through the use of deictic pronouns as anaphora (e.g. that is exactly what I mean where that refers to some fact known to both interlocutors, or then used to locate the time of a narrated event relative to the time of a previously narrated event).[222] Discourse markers such as oh, so or well, also signal the progression of ideas between sentences and help to create cohesion. Discourse markers are often the first constituents in sentences. Discourse markers are also used for stance taking in which speakers position themselves in a specific attitude towards what is being said, for example, no way is that true! (the idiomatic marker no way! expressing disbelief), or boy! I'm hungry (the marker boy expressing emphasis). While discourse markers are particularly characteristic of informal and spoken registers of English, they are also used in written and formal registers.[223]" +"It is generally stated that English has around 170,000 words, or 220,000 if obsolete words are counted; this estimate is based on the last full edition of the Oxford English Dictionary from 1989.[224] Over half of these words are nouns, a quarter adjectives, and a seventh verbs. There is one count that puts the English vocabulary at about 1 million words—but that count presumably includes words such as Latin species names, scientific terminology, botanical terms, prefixed and suffixed words, jargon, foreign words of extremely limited English use, and technical acronyms.[225]" +"Due to its status as an international language, English adopts foreign words quickly and borrows vocabulary from many other sources. Early studies of English vocabulary by lexicographers, the scholars who formally study vocabulary, compile dictionaries, or both, were impeded by a lack of comprehensive data on actual vocabulary in use from good-quality linguistic corpora,[226] collections of actual written texts and spoken passages. Many statements published before the end of the 20th century about the growth of English vocabulary over time, the dates of first use of various words in English, and the sources of English vocabulary will have to be corrected as new computerised analyses of linguistic corpus data become available.[225][227]" +"English forms new words from existing words or roots in its vocabulary through a variety of processes. One of the most productive processes in English is conversion,[228] using a word with a different grammatical role, for example using a noun as a verb or a verb as a noun. Another productive word-formation process is nominal compounding,[225][227] producing compound words such as babysitter or ice cream or homesick.[228] A process more common in Old English than in Modern English, but still productive in Modern English, is the use of derivational suffixes (-hood, -ness, -ing, -ility) to derive new words from existing words (especially those of Germanic origin) or stems (especially for words of Latin or Greek origin)." +"Formation of new words, called neologisms, based on Greek and/or Latin roots (for example television or optometry) is a highly productive process in English and in most modern European languages, so much so that it is often difficult to determine in which language a neologism originated. For this reason, American lexicographer Philip Gove attributed many such words to the ""international scientific vocabulary"" (ISV) when compiling Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961). Another active word-formation process in English is the creation of acronyms,[229] words formed by pronouncing abbreviations of longer phrases as single words, e.g. NATO, laser, scuba." +"English, besides forming new words from existing words and their roots, also borrows words from other languages. This borrowing is commonplace in many world languages, but English has been especially open to borrowing of foreign words throughout the last 1,000 years.[231] Nevertheless, most of the core vocabulary and the most common words in English are still West Germanic.[232][233] The English words first learned by children as they learn to speak are mainly Germanic words from Old English.[225] It is not possible to speak or write English without Germanic words, but it is possible to write or speak many sentences in English without foreign loanwords.[234]" +"But one of the consequences of long language contact between French and English in all stages of their development is that the vocabulary of English has a very high percentage of ""Latinate"" words (derived from French, especially, and also from other Romance languages and Latin). French words from various periods of the development of French now make up one-third of the vocabulary of English.[235] Linguist Anthony Lacoudre estimated that over 40,000 English words are of French origin and may be understood without orthographical change by French speakers.[236] Words of Old Norse origin have entered the English language primarily from the contact between Old Norse and Old English during colonisation of eastern and northern England. Many of these words are part of English core vocabulary, such as egg and knife.[237]" +"English has also borrowed many words directly from Latin, the ancestor of the Romance languages, during all stages of its development.[227][225] Many of these words had earlier been borrowed into Latin from Greek. Latin or Greek are still highly productive sources of stems used to form vocabulary of subjects learned in higher education such as the sciences, philosophy, and mathematics.[238] English continues to gain new loanwords and calques (""loan translations"") from languages all over the world, and words from languages other than the ancestral Anglo-Saxon language make up about 60% of the vocabulary of English.[239]" +"English has formal and informal speech registers; informal registers, including child-directed speech, tend to be made up predominantly of words of Anglo-Saxon origin, while the percentage of vocabulary that is of Latinate origin is higher in legal, scientific, and academic texts.[240][241]" +"English has had a strong influence on the vocabulary of other languages.[235][242] The influence of English comes from such factors as opinion leaders in other countries knowing the English language, the role of English as a world lingua franca, and the large number of books and films that are translated from English into other languages.[243] That pervasive use of English leads to a conclusion in many places that English is an especially suitable language for expressing new ideas or describing new technologies. Among varieties of English, it is especially American English that influences other languages.[244] Some languages, such as Chinese, write words borrowed from English mostly as calques, while others, such as Japanese, readily take in English loanwords written in sound-indicating script.[245] Dubbed films and television programmes are an especially fruitful source of English influence on languages in Europe.[245]" +"Since the ninth century, English has been written in a Latin alphabet (also called Roman alphabet). Earlier Old English texts in Anglo-Saxon runes are only short inscriptions. The great majority of literary works in Old English that survive to today are written in the Roman alphabet.[38] The modern English alphabet contains 26 letters of the Latin script: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z (which also have capital forms: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z)." +"The spelling system, or orthography, of English is multi-layered and complex, with elements of French, Latin, and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system.[246] Further complications have arisen through sound changes with which the orthography has not kept pace.[51] Compared to European languages for which official organisations have promoted spelling reforms, English has spelling that is a less consistent indicator of pronunciation, and standard spellings of words that are more difficult to guess from knowing how a word is pronounced.[247] There are also systematic spelling differences between British and American English. These situations have prompted proposals for spelling reform in English.[248]" +"Although letters and speech sounds do not have a one-to-one correspondence in standard English spelling, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetic changes in derived words, and word accent are reliable for most English words.[249] Moreover, standard English spelling shows etymological relationships between related words that would be obscured by a closer correspondence between pronunciation and spelling—for example, the words photograph, photography, and photographic,[249] or the words electricity and electrical. While few scholars agree with Chomsky and Halle (1968) that conventional English orthography is ""near-optimal"",[246] there is a rationale for current English spelling patterns.[250] The standard orthography of English is the most widely used writing system in the world.[251] Standard English spelling is based on a graphomorphemic segmentation of words into written clues of what meaningful units make up each word.[252]" +"Readers of English can generally rely on the correspondence between spelling and pronunciation to be fairly regular for letters or digraphs used to spell consonant sounds. The letters b, d, f, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, z represent, respectively, the phonemes /b, d, f, h, dʒ, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, j, z/. The letters c and g normally represent /k/ and /ɡ/, but there is also a soft c pronounced /s/, and a soft g pronounced /dʒ/. The differences in the pronunciations of the letters c and g are often signalled by the following letters in standard English spelling. Digraphs used to represent phonemes and phoneme sequences include ch for /tʃ/, sh for /ʃ/, th for /θ/ or /ð/, ng for /ŋ/, qu for /kw/, and ph for /f/ in Greek-derived words. The single letter x is generally pronounced as /z/ in word-initial position and as /ks/ otherwise. There are exceptions to these generalisations, often the result of loanwords being spelled according to the spelling patterns of their languages of origin[249] or residues of proposals by scholars in the early period of Modern English to follow the spelling patterns of Latin for English words of Germanic origin.[253]" +"For the vowel sounds of the English language, however, correspondences between spelling and pronunciation are more irregular. There are many more vowel phonemes in English than there are single vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u, w, y). As a result, some ""long vowels"" are often indicated by combinations of letters (like the oa in boat, the ow in how, and the ay in stay), or the historically based silent e (as in note and cake).[250]" +"The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that learning to read and write can be challenging in English. It can take longer for school pupils to become independently fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including Italian, Spanish, and German.[254] Nonetheless, there is an advantage for learners of English reading in learning the specific sound-symbol regularities that occur in the standard English spellings of commonly used words.[249] Such instruction greatly reduces the risk of children experiencing reading difficulties in English.[255][256] Making primary school teachers more aware of the primacy of morpheme representation in English may help learners learn more efficiently to read and write English.[257]" +English writing also includes a system of punctuation marks that is similar to those used in most alphabetic languages around the world. The purpose of punctuation is to mark meaningful grammatical relationships in sentences to aid readers in understanding a text and to indicate features important for reading a text aloud.[258] +"Dialectologists identify many English dialects, which usually refer to regional varieties that differ from each other in terms of patterns of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. The pronunciation of particular areas distinguishes dialects as separate regional accents. The major native dialects of English are often divided by linguists into the two extremely general categories of British English (BrE) and North American English (NAE).[259] There also exists a third common major grouping of English varieties: Southern Hemisphere English, the most prominent being Australian and New Zealand English." +"The fact that English has been spoken in England for 1,500 years explains why England has a great wealth of regional dialects.[260] Within the United Kingdom, Received Pronunciation (RP), an educated accent associated originally with the South East of England, has been traditionally used as a broadcast standard and is considered the most prestigious of British accents. The spread of RP (also known as BBC English) through the media has caused many traditional dialects of rural England to recede, as youths adopt the traits of the prestige variety instead of traits from local dialects. At the time of the 1950-61 Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to disappear.[261]" +"Nonetheless, this attrition has mostly affected dialectal variation in grammar and vocabulary. In fact, only 3% of the English population actually speak RP, the remainder speaking in regional accents and dialects with varying degrees of RP influence.[262] There is also variability within RP, particularly along class lines between Upper and Middle-class RP speakers and between native RP speakers and speakers who adopt RP later in life.[263] Within Britain, there is also considerable variation along lines of social class; some traits, though exceedingly common, are nonetheless considered ""non-standard"" and associated with lower-class speakers and identities. An example of this is h-dropping, which was historically a feature of lower-class London English, particularly Cockney, and can now be heard in the local accents of most parts of England. However, it remains largely absent in broadcasting and among the upper crust of British society.[264]" +"English in England can be divided into four major dialect regions: South East English, South West English (also known as West Country English), Midlands English and Northern English. Within each of these regions, several local dialects exist: within the Northern region, there is a division between the Yorkshire dialects, the Geordie dialect (spoken around Newcastle, in Northumbria) and the Lancashire dialects, which include the urban subdialects of Manchester (Mancunian) and Liverpool (Scouse). Having been the centre of Danish occupation during the Viking invasions of England, Northern English dialects, particularly the Yorkshire dialect, retain Norse features not found in other English varieties.[265]" +"Since the 15th century, South East England varieties have centred on London, which has been the centre from which dialectal innovations have spread to other dialects. In London, the Cockney dialect was traditionally used by the lower classes, and it was long a socially stigmatised variety. The spread of Cockney features across the South East led the media to talk of Estuary English as a new dialect, but the notion was criticised by many linguists on the grounds that London had been influencing neighbouring regions throughout history.[266][267][268] Traits that have spread from London in recent decades include the use of intrusive R (drawing is pronounced drawring /ˈdrɔːrɪŋ/), t-glottalisation (Potter is pronounced with a glottal stop as Po'er /ˈpɒʔə/) and th-fronting, or the pronunciation of th- as /f/ (thanks pronounced fanks) or /v/ (bother pronounced bover).[269]" +"Scots is today considered a separate language from English, but it has its origins in early Northern Middle English[270] and developed and changed during its history with influence from other sources, particularly Scots Gaelic and Old Norse. Scots itself has a number of regional dialects. In addition to Scots, Scottish English comprises the varieties of Standard English spoken in Scotland; most varieties are Northern English accents, with some influence from Scots.[271]" +"In Ireland, various forms of English have been spoken since the Norman invasions of the 11th century. In County Wexford and in the area surrounding Dublin, two extinct dialects known as Forth and Bargy and Fingallian developed as offshoots from Early Middle English and were spoken until the 19th century. Modern Irish English, however, has its roots in English colonisation in the 17th century. Today Irish English is divided into Ulster English, the Northern Ireland dialect with strong influence from Scots, and various dialects of the Republic of Ireland. Like Scottish and most North American accents, almost all Irish accents preserve the rhoticity which has been lost in the dialects influenced by RP.[19][272]" +"North American English is generally homogeneous compared to British English, but this has been disputed.[273] American accent variation is increasing at the regional level and decreasing at the very local level,[274] though most Americans still speak within a phonological continuum of similar accents,[275] known collectively as General American English (GA), with differences hardly noticed even among Americans themselves, including Midland and Western American English.[276][277][278] In most American and Canadian English dialects, rhoticity (or r-fulness) is dominant, with non-rhoticity (or r-dropping) being associated with lower prestige and social class, especially since the end of World War II. This contrasts with the situation in England, where non-rhoticity has become the standard.[279]" +"The English language is far and away the most widely used in the United States. Its roots trace back to the British colonial era, which began with the settlement in present-day Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. While German was the predominant language among German immigrants, who arrived primarily in eastern Pennsylvania, English was ultimately widely adopted throughout the Thirteen Colonies that ultimately launched both the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War against the Kingdom of Great Britain, then ruled by King George III and establishing the United States as an independent sovereign nation in September 1783." +"Separate from General American English are American dialects with clearly distinct sound systems that have developed over time, including Southern American English, the English of the coastal Northeastern United States—including New York City English and Eastern New England English—and African-American Vernacular English; all of these, aside from certain subdialects of the American South, were historically non-rhotic. Canadian English varieties, except for those of the Atlantic provinces and perhaps Quebec, are generally considered to fall under the General American English continuum, although they often show raising of the vowels /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ before voiceless consonants and have distinct norms for writing and pronunciation as well.[280]" +"In Southern American English, the most populous American ""accent group"" outside of General American English,[281] rhoticity now strongly prevails, replacing the region's historical non-rhotic prestige.[282][283][284] Southern accents are colloquially described as a ""drawl"" or ""twang"",[285] being recognised most readily by the Southern Vowel Shift initiated by glide-deleting in the /aɪ/ vowel (e.g. pronouncing spy almost like spa), the ""Southern breaking"" of several front pure vowels into a gliding vowel or even two syllables (e.g. pronouncing the word ""press"" almost like ""pray-us""),[286] the pin–pen merger, and other distinctive phonological, grammatical, and lexical features, many of which are actually recent developments of the 19th century or later.[287]" +"Spoken primarily by working- and middle-class African Americans, African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is also largely non-rhotic and likely originated among enslaved Africans and African Americans influenced primarily by the non-rhotic, non-standard older Southern dialects. A minority of linguists,[288] contrarily, propose that AAVE mostly traces back to African languages spoken by the slaves who had to develop a pidgin or Creole English to communicate with slaves of other ethnic and linguistic origins.[289] AAVE's important commonalities with Southern accents suggest it developed into a highly coherent and homogeneous variety in the 19th or early 20th century. AAVE is commonly stigmatised in North America as a form of ""broken"" or ""uneducated"" English, as are white Southern accents, but linguists today recognise both as fully developed varieties of English with their own norms shared by large speech communities.[290][291]" +"Since 1788, English has been spoken in Oceania, and Australian English has developed as the first language of the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Australian continent, its standard accent being General Australian. The English of neighbouring New Zealand has to a lesser degree become an influential standard variety of the language.[292] Australian and New Zealand English are each other's closest relatives with few differentiating characteristics, followed by South African English and the English of South East England, all of which have similarly non-rhotic accents, aside from some accents in the South Island of New Zealand. Australian and New Zealand English stand out for their innovative vowels: many short vowels are fronted or raised, whereas many long vowels have diphthongised. Australian English also has a contrast between long and short vowels, not found in most other varieties. Australian English grammar aligns closely with British and American English; like American English, collective plural subjects take on a singular verb (as in the government is rather than are).[293][294] New Zealand English uses front vowels that are often even higher than in Australian English.[295][296][297]" +"The first significant exposure of the Philippines to the English language occurred in 1762 when the British occupied Manila during the Seven Years' War, but this was a brief episode that had no lasting influence. English later became more important and widespread during American rule between 1898 and 1946 and remains an official language of the Philippines. Today, the use of English is ubiquitous in the Philippines, being found on street signs and marquees, in government documents and forms, in courtrooms, in the media and entertainment industries, in the business sector, and in various other aspects of daily life.[298] One particularly prominent form of English usage in the country is found in everyday speech: most Filipinos from Manila use or, at the very least, have been exposed to Taglish, a form of code-switching between Tagalog and English.[299] A similar code-switching method is used by urban native speakers of Bisayan languages under the name of Bislish." +"English is spoken widely in southern Africa and is an official or co-official language in several of the region's countries. In South Africa, English has been spoken since 1820, co-existing with Afrikaans and various African languages such as the Khoe and Bantu languages. Today, about nine percent of the South African population speaks South African English (SAE) as a first language. SAE is a non-rhotic variety that tends to follow RP as a norm. It is one of the few non-rhotic English varieties that lack intrusive R. The second-language varieties of South Africa differ based on the native languages of their speakers.[300] Most phonological differences from RP are in the vowels.[301] Consonant differences include the tendency to pronounce /p, t, t͡ʃ, k/ without aspiration (e.g. pin pronounced [pɪn] rather than as [pʰɪn] as in most other varieties), while r is often pronounced as a flap [ɾ] instead of as the more common fricative.[302]" +"Nigerian English is a variety of English spoken in Nigeria.[303] It has traditionally been based on British English, but in recent years, because of influence from the United States, some words of American English origin have made it into Nigerian English. Additionally, some new words and collocations have emerged from the variety out of a need to express concepts specific to the culture of the nation (e.g. senior wife). Over 150 million Nigerians speak English.[304]" +"Several varieties of English are also spoken in the Caribbean islands that were colonial possessions of Britain, including Jamaica, the Leeward and Windward Islands and Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Cayman Islands and Belize. Each of these areas is home both to a local variety of English and a local English-based creole, combining English and African languages. The most prominent varieties are Jamaican English and Jamaican Creole. In Central America, English-based creoles are spoken on the Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua and Panama.[305] Locals are often fluent in both the local English variety and the local creole languages, and code-switching between them is frequent. Indeed, a way to conceptualise the relationship between such creole and standard varieties is to view them as a spectrum of language registers in which the most creole-like forms serve as the ""basilect"" and the most RP-like forms serve as the ""acrolect"", the most formal register.[306]" +"Most Caribbean varieties are based on British English and consequently, most are non-rhotic, except for formal styles of Jamaican English which are often rhotic. Jamaican English differs from RP in its vowel inventory, which has a distinction between long and short vowels rather than tense and lax vowels as in Standard English. The diphthongs /ei/ and /ou/ are monophthongs [eː] and [oː] or even the reverse diphthongs [ie] and [uo] (e.g. bay and boat pronounced [bʲeː] and [bʷoːt]). Often word-final consonant clusters are simplified so that ""child"" is pronounced [t͡ʃail] and ""wind"" [win].[307][308][309]" +"As a historical legacy, Indian English tends to take RP as its ideal, and how well this ideal is realised in an individual's speech reflects class distinctions among Indian English speakers. Indian English accents are marked by the pronunciation of phonemes such as /t/ and /d/ (often pronounced with retroflex articulation as [ʈ] and [ɖ]) and the replacement of /θ/ and /ð/ with dentals [t̪] and [d̪]. Sometimes Indian English speakers may also use spelling-based pronunciations where the silent ⟨h⟩ found in words such as ghost is pronounced as an Indian voiced aspirated stop [ɡʱ].[310]" +"Non-native English speakers may pronounce words differently due to having not fully mastered English pronunciation. This can happen either because they apply the speech rules of their mother tongue to English (""interference"") or through implementing strategies similar to those used in first language acquisition.[311] They may create innovative pronunciations for English sounds, not found in the speaker's first language.[311]" +"The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain,[k] is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland.[13][14] It comprises England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.[l][15] It includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of the smaller islands within the British Isles.[16] Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2),[d][7] with an estimated population of nearly 67.6 million people in 2022.[8]" +"In 1707, the Kingdom of England (which included Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland united under the Treaty of Union to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Acts of Union 1800 incorporated the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Most of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922 as the Irish Free State, and the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 created the present name, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland." +"The UK became the first industrialised country and was the world's foremost power for the majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly during the ""Pax Britannica"" between 1815 and 1914.[17][18] At its height in the 1920s, the British Empire encompassed almost a quarter of the world's landmass and population, and was the largest empire in history. However, its involvement in the First World War and the Second World War damaged Britain's economic power and a global wave of decolonisation led to the independence of most British colonies.[19][20][21] British influence can be observed in the legal and political systems of many of its former colonies, and British culture remains globally influential, particularly in language, literature, music and sport. English is the world's most widely spoken language and the third-most spoken native language.[22]" +"The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy.[m][24] The UK has three distinct jurisdictions; England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.[25] Since 1998, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own devolved governments and legislatures while England is governed directly by the UK Government.[26] The capital and largest city of the United Kingdom is London. Other major cities include Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Sheffield, Bristol, Glasgow and Leicester.[27] Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland's national capital cities are Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively." +"The UK has the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal gross domestic product (GDP), and the ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. It is a recognised nuclear state and is ranked fourth globally in military expenditure.[28][29] The UK has been a permanent member of the UN Security Council since its first session in 1946. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the OECD, NATO, the Five Eyes, AUKUS and the CPTPP." +"The Acts of Union 1707 declared that the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland were ""United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain"".[n][30] The term ""United Kingdom"" has occasionally been used as a description for the former Kingdom of Great Britain, although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was simply ""Great Britain"".[31] The Acts of Union 1800 united the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the partition of Ireland and the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as the only part of the island of Ireland within the United Kingdom, the name was changed in 1927 to the ""United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"".[32]" +"Although the United Kingdom is a sovereign country, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also widely referred to as countries.[33] The UK Prime Minister's website has used the phrase ""countries within a country"" to describe the United Kingdom.[34] Some statistical summaries, such as those for the twelve NUTS 1 regions refer to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as ""regions"".[35] Northern Ireland is also referred to as a ""province"".[36] With regard to Northern Ireland, the descriptive name used ""can be controversial, with the choice often revealing one's political preferences"".[37]" +"The term ""Great Britain"" conventionally refers to the island of Great Britain, or politically to England, Scotland and Wales in combination.[38] It is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole.[39] The word England is occasionally used incorrectly to refer to the United Kingdom as a whole, a mistake principally made by people from outside the UK.[40]" +"The term ""Britain"" is used as a synonym for Great Britain,[41][42] and the United Kingdom.[43][42] Usage is mixed: the UK Government prefers to use the term ""UK"" rather than ""Britain"" or ""British"" on its website (except when referring to embassies),[44] while acknowledging that both terms refer to the United Kingdom and that elsewhere ""British government"" is used at least as frequently as ""United Kingdom government"".[45] The UK Permanent Committee on Geographical Names recognises ""United Kingdom"", ""UK"" and ""U.K."" as shortened and abbreviated geopolitical terms for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in its toponymic guidelines; it does not list ""Britain"" but notes that ""it is only the one specific nominal term 'Great Britain' which invariably excludes Northern Ireland"".[45] The BBC historically preferred to use ""Britain"" as shorthand only for Great Britain, though the present style guide does not take a position except that ""Great Britain"" excludes Northern Ireland.[46]" +"The adjective ""British"" is commonly used to refer to matters relating to the United Kingdom and is used in law to refer to United Kingdom citizenship and matters to do with nationality.[47] People of the United Kingdom use several different terms to describe their national identity and may identify themselves as being British, English, Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish, or Irish;[48] or as having a combination of different national identities.[49] The official designation for a citizen of the United Kingdom is ""British citizen"".[45]" +"Settlement by Cro-Magnons of what was to become the United Kingdom occurred in waves beginning by about 30,000 years ago.[50] The island has been continuously inhabited only since the last retreat of the ice around 11,500 years ago. By the end of the region's prehistoric period, the population is thought to have belonged largely to a culture termed Insular Celtic, comprising Brittonic Britain and Gaelic Ireland.[51]" +"The Roman conquest, beginning in 43 AD, and the 400-year rule of southern Britain, was followed by an invasion by Germanic Anglo-Saxon settlers, reducing the Brittonic area mainly to what was to become Wales, Cornwall and, until the latter stages of the Anglo-Saxon settlement, the Hen Ogledd (northern England and parts of southern Scotland).[52] Most of the region settled by the Anglo-Saxons became unified as the Kingdom of England in the 10th century.[53] Meanwhile, Gaelic-speakers in north-west Britain (with connections to the north-east of Ireland and traditionally supposed to have migrated from there in the 5th century)[54] united with the Picts to create the Kingdom of Scotland in the 9th century.[55]" +"In 1066, the Normans invaded England from northern France. After conquering England, they seized large parts of Wales, conquered much of Ireland and were invited to settle in Scotland, bringing to each country feudalism on the Northern French model and Norman-French culture.[56] The Anglo-Norman ruling class greatly influenced, but eventually assimilated with, the local cultures.[57] Subsequent medieval English kings completed the conquest of Wales and tried unsuccessfully to annex Scotland. Asserting its independence in the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath, Scotland maintained its independence thereafter, albeit in near-constant conflict with England." +"The English monarchs, through inheritance of substantial territories in France and claims to the French crown, were also heavily involved in conflicts in France, most notably the Hundred Years' War, while the Kings of Scots were in an alliance with the French during this period.[58]" +"Early modern Britain saw religious conflict resulting from the Reformation and the introduction of Protestant state churches in each country.[59] The English Reformation ushered in political, constitutional, social and cultural change in the 16th century and established the Church of England. Moreover, it defined a national identity for England and slowly, but profoundly, changed people's religious beliefs.[60] Wales was fully incorporated into the Kingdom of England,[61] and Ireland was constituted as a kingdom in personal union with the English crown.[62] In what was to become Northern Ireland, the lands of the independent Catholic Gaelic nobility were confiscated and given to Protestant settlers from England and Scotland.[63]" +"In 1603, the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland were united in a personal union when James VI, King of Scots, inherited the crowns of England and Ireland and moved his court from Edinburgh to London; each country nevertheless remained a separate political entity and retained its separate political, legal, and religious institutions.[64]" +"In the mid-17th century, all three kingdoms were involved in a series of connected wars (including the English Civil War) which led to the temporary overthrow of the monarchy, with the execution of King Charles I, and the establishment of the short-lived unitary republic of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.[65]" +"Although the monarchy was restored, the Interregnum along with the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the subsequent Bill of Rights 1689 in England and Claim of Right Act 1689 in Scotland ensured that, unlike much of the rest of Europe, royal absolutism would not prevail, and a professed Catholic could never accede to the throne. The British constitution would develop on the basis of constitutional monarchy and the parliamentary system.[66] With the founding of the Royal Society in 1660, science was greatly encouraged. During this period, particularly in England, the development of naval power and the interest in voyages of discovery led to the acquisition and settlement of overseas colonies, particularly in North America and the Caribbean.[67]" +"Though previous attempts at uniting the two kingdoms within Great Britain in 1606, 1667, and 1689 had proved unsuccessful, the attempt initiated in 1705 led to the Treaty of Union of 1706 being agreed and ratified by both parliaments." +"On 1 May 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain was formed, the result of the Acts of Union 1707.[68] In the 18th century, cabinet government developed under Robert Walpole, in practice the first prime minister (1721–1742). A series of Jacobite uprisings sought to remove the Protestant House of Hanover from the throne and restore the Catholic House of Stuart. The Jacobites were finally defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, after which the Scottish Highlanders were forcibly assimilated into Scotland by revoking the feudal independence of clan chiefs. The British colonies in North America that broke away in the American War of Independence became the United States, recognised by Britain in 1783. British imperial ambition turned towards Asia, particularly to India.[69]" +"Britain played a leading part in the Atlantic slave trade, mainly between 1662 and 1807 when British or British-colonial slave ships transported nearly 3.3 million slaves from Africa.[70] The slaves were taken to work on plantations, principally in the Caribbean but also North America.[71] Slavery coupled with the Caribbean sugar industry had a significant role in strengthening the British economy in the 18th century.[72] However, with pressure from the abolitionism movement, Parliament banned the trade in 1807, banned slavery in the British Empire in 1833, and Britain took a role in the movement to abolish slavery worldwide through the blockade of Africa and pressing other nations to end their trade with a series of treaties.[73]" +"In 1800 the parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland each passed an Act of Union, uniting the two kingdoms and creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801.[74]" +"After the defeat of France at the end of the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815), the United Kingdom emerged as the principal naval and imperial power (with London the largest city in the world from about 1830).[75] Unchallenged at sea, British dominance was later described as Pax Britannica (""British Peace""), a period of relative peace among the great powers (1815–1914) during which the British Empire became the global hegemon and adopted the role of global policeman.[76] By the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851, Britain was described as the ""workshop of the world"".[77] From 1853 to 1856, Britain took part in the Crimean War, allied with the Ottoman Empire against Tsarist Russia,[78] participating in the naval battles of the Baltic Sea known as the Åland War in the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland, among others.[79] Following the Indian Rebellion in 1857, the British government led by Lord Palmerston assumed direct rule over India. Alongside the formal control it exerted over its own colonies, British dominance of much of world trade meant that it effectively controlled the economies of regions such as East Asia and Latin America.[80]" +"Throughout the Victorian era, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies, as well as a gradual widening of the voting franchise, with the 1884 Reform Act championed by William Gladstone granting suffrage to a majority of males for the first time. The British population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, causing significant social and economic stresses.[81] By the late 19th century, the Conservatives under Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Salisbury initiated a period of imperial expansion in Africa, maintained a policy of splendid isolation in Europe, and attempted to contain Russian influence in Afghanistan and Persia, in what came to be known as the Great Game.[82] During this time, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were granted self-governing dominion status.[83] At the turn of the century, Britain's industrial dominance became challenged by the German Empire and the United States.[84] The Edwardian era saw social reform and home rule for Ireland become important domestic issues, while the Labour Party emerged from an alliance of trade unions and small socialist groups in 1900, and suffragettes campaigned for women's right to vote.[85]" +"Britain was one of the principal Allies that defeated the Central Powers in the First World War (1914–1918). Alongside their French, Russian and (after 1917) American counterparts,[86] British armed forces were engaged across much of the British Empire and in several regions of Europe, particularly on the Western Front.[87] The high fatalities of trench warfare caused the loss of much of a generation of men, with lasting social effects in the nation and a great disruption in the social order. Britain had suffered 2.5 million casualties and finished the war with a huge national debt.[87] The consequences of the war persuaded the government to expand the right to vote in national and local elections with the Representation of the People Act 1918.[87] After the war, Britain became a permanent member of the Executive Council of the League of Nations and received a mandate over a number of former German and Ottoman colonies. Under the leadership of David Lloyd George, the British Empire reached its greatest extent, covering a fifth of the world's land surface and a quarter of its population.[88]" +"By the mid-1920s, most of the British population could listen to BBC radio programmes.[89][90] Experimental television broadcasts began in 1929 and the first scheduled BBC Television Service commenced in 1936.[91] The rise of Irish nationalism, and disputes within Ireland over the terms of Irish Home Rule, led eventually to the partition of the island in 1921.[92] The Irish Free State became independent, initially with Dominion status in 1922, and unambiguously independent in 1931. Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom.[93] The 1928 Equal Franchise Act gave women electoral equality with men in national elections. Strikes in the mid-1920s culminated in the General Strike of 1926, which ended in a victory for the government led by Stanley Baldwin. Britain had still not recovered from the effects of the First World War when the Great Depression (1929–1932) led to considerable unemployment and hardship in the old industrial areas, as well as political and social unrest with rising membership in communist and socialist parties. A coalition government was formed in 1931.[94]" +"Nonetheless, ""Britain was a very wealthy country, formidable in arms, ruthless in pursuit of its interests and sitting at the heart of a global production system.""[95] After Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Britain entered the Second World War. Winston Churchill became prime minister and head of a coalition government in 1940. Despite the defeat of its European allies in the first year, Britain and its Empire continued the war against Germany. Churchill engaged industry, scientists and engineers to support the government and the military in the prosecution of the war effort.[95]" +"In 1940, the Royal Air Force defeated the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain. Urban areas suffered heavy bombing during the Blitz. The Grand Alliance of Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union formed in 1941, leading the Allies against the Axis powers. There were eventual hard-fought victories in the Battle of the Atlantic, the North Africa campaign and the Italian campaign. British forces played important roles in the Normandy landings of 1944 and the liberation of Europe. The British Army led the Burma campaign against Japan, and the British Pacific Fleet fought Japan at sea. British scientists contributed to the Manhattan Project whose task was to build an atomic weapon.[96] Once built, it was decided, with British consent, to use the weapon against Japan.[97] The wartime net losses in British national wealth amounted to 18.6% (£4.595 billion) of the prewar wealth (£24.68 billion), at 1938 prices.[98]" +"The UK was one of the Big Three powers (along with the US and the Soviet Union) who met to plan the post-war world;[99] it was an original signatory to the Declaration by United Nations and became one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. It worked closely with the United States to establish the IMF, World Bank and NATO.[100] The war left the UK severely weakened and financially dependent on the Marshall Plan,[101] but it was spared the total war that devastated eastern Europe.[102]" +"In the immediate post-war years, the Labour government under Clement Attlee initiated a radical programme of reforms, which significantly impacted British society in the following decades.[103] Major industries and public utilities were nationalised, a welfare state was established, and a comprehensive, publicly funded healthcare system, the National Health Service, was created.[104] The rise of nationalism in the colonies coincided with Britain's much-diminished economic position, so that a policy of decolonisation was unavoidable. Independence was granted to India and Pakistan in 1947.[105] Over the next three decades, most colonies of the British Empire gained their independence, and many became members of the Commonwealth of Nations.[106]" +"The UK was the third country to develop a nuclear weapons arsenal (with its first atomic bomb test, Operation Hurricane, in 1952), but the post-war limits of Britain's international role were illustrated by the Suez Crisis of 1956. The international spread of the English language ensured the continuing international influence of its literature and culture.[108][109] As a result of a shortage of workers in the 1950s, the government encouraged immigration from Commonwealth countries. In the following decades, the UK became a more multi-ethnic society.[110] Despite rising living standards in the late 1950s and 1960s, the UK's economic performance was less successful than many of its main competitors such as France, West Germany and Japan." +"In the decades-long process of European integration, the UK was a founding member of the Western European Union, established with the London and Paris Conferences in 1954. In 1960 the UK was one of the seven founding members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), but in 1973 it left to join the European Communities (EC). In a 1975 referendum 67% voted to stay in it.[111] When the EC became the European Union (EU) in 1992, the UK was one of the 12 founding member states." +"From the late 1960s, Northern Ireland suffered communal and paramilitary violence (sometimes affecting other parts of the UK) conventionally known as the Troubles. It is usually considered to have ended with the 1998 Belfast ""Good Friday"" Agreement.[112]" +"Following a period of widespread economic slowdown and industrial strife in the 1970s, the Conservative government of the 1980s led by Margaret Thatcher initiated a radical policy of monetarism, deregulation, particularly of the financial sector (for example, the Big Bang in 1986) and labour markets, the sale of state-owned companies (privatisation), and the withdrawal of subsidies to others.[113]" +"In 1982, Argentina invaded the British territories of South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, leading to the 10-week Falklands War in which Argentine forces were defeated. The inhabitants of the islands are predominantly descendants of British settlers, and strongly favour British sovereignty, expressed in a 2013 referendum. From 1984, the UK economy was helped by the inflow of substantial North Sea oil revenues.[114]" +"Another British overseas territory is Gibraltar, it was ceded to Great Britain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, the treaty covers the town, the port and fortifications.[115] It has been a key military base for the UK and a referendum in 2002 for shared sovereignty with Spain was lost by 98.97%." +"Around the end of the 20th century, there were major changes to the governance of the UK with the establishment of devolved administrations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.[116] The statutory incorporation followed acceptance of the European Convention on Human Rights. The UK remained a great power with global diplomatic and military influence and a leading role in the United Nations and NATO.[117]" +"The UK broadly supported the United States' approach to the ""war on terror"" in the early 21st century.[118] British troops fought in the War in Afghanistan, but controversy surrounded Britain's military deployment in Iraq, which saw the largest protest in British history demonstrating in opposition to the government led by Tony Blair.[119]" +The 2008 global financial crisis severely affected the UK economy.[120] The Cameron–Clegg coalition government of 2010 introduced austerity measures intended to tackle the substantial public deficits.[121] Studies have suggested that policy led to significant social disruption and suffering.[122][123] A referendum on Scottish independence in 2014 resulted in the Scottish electorate voting by 55.3 to 44.7% to remain part of the United Kingdom.[124] +"In 2016, 51.9 per cent of voters in the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.[125] The UK left the EU in 2020.[126] On 1 May 2021 the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement came into force.[127]" +"The COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on the UK's economy, caused major disruptions to education and had far-reaching impacts on society and politics in 2020 and 2021.[128][129][130] The United Kingdom was the first country in the world to use an approved COVID-19 vaccine, developing its own vaccine through a collaboration between Oxford University and AstraZeneca, which allowed the UK's vaccine rollout to be among the fastest in the world.[131][132]" +"On 8 September 2022, Elizabeth II, the longest-living and longest-reigning British monarch, died at the age of 96.[133] Upon the Queen's death, her eldest child Charles, Prince of Wales, acceded to the British throne as Charles III.[134]" +"The total area of the United Kingdom is approximately 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2),[d][7] with a land area of 93,723 square miles (242,741 km2).[7] The country occupies the major part of the British Isles[135] archipelago and includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern one-sixth of the island of Ireland and some smaller surrounding islands. It lies between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea with the southeast coast coming within 22 miles (35 km) of the coast of northern France, from which it is separated by the English Channel.[136]" +The Royal Greenwich Observatory in London was chosen as the defining point of the Prime Meridian[137] at the International Meridian Conference in 1884.[138] +"The United Kingdom lies between latitudes 49° and 61° N, and longitudes 9° W and 2° E. Northern Ireland shares a 224-mile (360 km) land boundary with the Republic of Ireland.[136] The coastline of Great Britain is 11,073 miles (17,820 km) long.[139] It is connected to continental Europe by the Channel Tunnel, which at 31 miles (50 km) (24 miles (38 km) underwater) is the longest underwater tunnel in the world.[140]" +"The UK contains four terrestrial ecoregions: Celtic broadleaf forests, English Lowlands beech forests, North Atlantic moist mixed forests, and Caledon conifer forests.[141] The area of woodland in the UK in 2023 is estimated to be 3.25 million hectares, which represents 13% of the total land area in the UK.[142]" +"Most of the United Kingdom has a temperate climate, with generally cool temperatures and plentiful rainfall all year round.[136] The temperature varies with the seasons seldom dropping below 0 °C (32 °F) or rising above 30 °C (86 °F).[143] Some parts, away from the coast, of upland England, Wales, Northern Ireland and most of Scotland, experience a subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc). Higher elevations in Scotland experience a continental subarctic climate (Dfc) and the mountains experience a tundra climate (ET).[144]" +"The prevailing wind is from the southwest and bears frequent spells of mild and wet weather from the Atlantic Ocean,[136] although the eastern parts are mostly sheltered from this wind. Since the majority of the rain falls over the western regions, the eastern parts are the driest. Atlantic currents, warmed by the Gulf Stream, bring mild winters, especially in the west where winters are wet and even more so over high ground. Summers are warmest in the southeast of England and coolest in the north. Heavy snowfall can occur in winter and early spring on high ground, and occasionally settles to great depth away from the hills.[145]" +"The average total annual sunshine in the United Kingdom is 1339.7 hours, which is just under 30% of the maximum possible.[146] The hours of sunshine vary from 1200 to about 1580 hours per year, and since 1996 the UK has been and still is receiving above the 1981 to 2010 average hours of sunshine.[147]" +"As of 2022, the United Kingdom is ranked 2nd out of 180 countries in the Environmental Performance Index.[148] A law has been passed that UK greenhouse gas emissions will be net zero by 2050.[149]" +"England accounts for 53 per cent of the UK, covering 50,350 square miles (130,395 km2).[150] Most of the country consists of lowland terrain,[151] with upland and mountainous terrain northwest of the Tees–Exe line which roughly divides the UK into lowland and upland areas. Lowland areas include Cornwall, the New Forest, the South Downs and the Norfolk Broads. Upland areas include the Lake District, the Pennines, the Yorkshire Dales, Exmoor, and Dartmoor. The main rivers and estuaries are the Thames, Severn, and the Humber. England's highest mountain is Scafell Pike, at 978 metres (3,209 ft) in the Lake District; its largest island is the Isle of Wight." +"Scotland accounts for 32 per cent of the UK, covering 30,410 square miles (78,772 km2).[152] This includes nearly 800 islands,[153] notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. Scotland is the most mountainous constituent country of the UK, the Highlands to the north and west are the more rugged region containing the majority of Scotland's mountainous land, including the Cairngorms, Loch Lomond and The Trossachs and Ben Nevis which at 1,345 metres (4,413 ft)[154] is the highest point in the British Isles.[155]" +"Wales accounts for less than 9 per cent of the UK, covering 8,020 square miles (20,779 km2).[156] Wales is mostly mountainous, though South Wales is less mountainous than North and mid Wales. The highest mountains in Wales are in Snowdonia and include Snowdon (Welsh: Yr Wyddfa) which, at 1,085 metres (3,560 ft), is the highest peak in Wales.[151] Wales has over 1,680 miles (2,704 kilometres) of coastline including the Pembrokeshire Coast.[139] Several islands lie off the Welsh mainland, the largest of which is Anglesey (Ynys Môn)." +"Northern Ireland, separated from Great Britain by the Irish Sea and North Channel, has an area of 5,470 square miles (14,160 km2) and is mostly hilly. It includes Lough Neagh which, at 150 square miles (388 km2), is the largest lake in the British Isles by area,[157] Lough Erne which has over 150 islands and the Giant's Causeway which is a World Heritage Site. The highest peak in Northern Ireland is Slieve Donard in the Mourne Mountains at 852 metres (2,795 ft).[151]" +"The UK is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy operating under the Westminster system, otherwise known as a ""democratic parliamentary monarchy"".[158] It is a centralised, unitary state[159][160] wherein the Parliament of the United Kingdom is sovereign.[161] Parliament is made up of the elected House of Commons, the appointed House of Lords and the Crown (as personified by the monarch).[o][164] The main business of parliament takes place in the two houses,[164] but royal assent is required for a bill to become an act of parliament (that is, statute law).[165] As a result of parliamentary sovereignty, the British constitution is uncodified, consisting mostly of disparate written sources, including parliamentary statutes, judge-made case law and international treaties, together with constitutional conventions.[166] Nevertheless, the Supreme Court recognises a number of principles underlying the British constitution, such as parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law, democracy, and upholding international law.[167]" +"King Charles III is the current monarch and head of state of the UK and of 14 other independent countries. These 15 countries are today referred to as ""Commonwealth realms"". The monarch is formally vested with all executive authority as the personal embodiment of the Crown and is ""...fundamental to the law and working of government in the UK.""[168] The disposition of such powers however, including those belonging to the royal prerogative, is generally exercised only on the advice of ministers of the Crown responsible to Parliament and thence to the electorate. Nevertheless, in the performance of official duties, the monarch has ""the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn"".[169] In addition, the monarch has a number of reserve powers at his disposal, albeit rarely used, to uphold responsible government and prevent constitutional crises.[p]" +"For general elections (elections to the House of Commons), the UK is currently divided into 650 constituencies, each of which is represented by one member of Parliament (MP) elected by the first-past-the-post system.[171] MPs hold office for up to five years and must then stand for re-election if they wish to continue to be an MP.[171] The Conservative Party, colloquially known as the Tory Party or the Tories, and the Labour Party have been the dominant political parties in the UK since the 1920s, leading to the UK being described as a two-party system. However, since the 1920s other political parties have won seats in the House of Commons, although never more than the Conservatives or Labour.[172]" +"The prime minister is the head of government in the UK.[173] Acting under the direction and supervision of a Cabinet of senior ministers selected and led by the prime minister, the Government serves as the principal instrument for public policymaking, administers public services and, through the Privy Council, promulgates statutory instruments and tenders advice to the monarch.[174][175][176]" +"Nearly all prime ministers have served concurrently as First Lord of the Treasury[177] and all prime ministers have continuously served as First Lord of the Treasury since 1905,[178] Minister for the Civil Service since 1968,[179] and Minister for the Union since 2019.[180] While appointed by the monarch, in modern times the prime minister is, by convention, an MP, the leader of the political party with the most seats in the House of Commons, and holds office by virtue of their ability to command the confidence of the House of Commons.[181][182][183] The current Prime Minister, as of October 2022, is Rishi Sunak MP, leader of the Conservative Party." +"Although not part of the United Kingdom, the three Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man and 14 British Overseas Territories across the globe are subject to the sovereignty of the British Crown. The Crown exercises its responsibilities in relation to the Crown Dependencies mainly through the British government's Home Office and for the British Overseas Territories principally through the Foreign Office.[184]" +"The geographical division of the United Kingdom into counties or shires began in England and Scotland in the early Middle Ages, and was completed throughout Great Britain and Ireland by the early Modern Period.[185] Modern local government by elected councils, partly based on the ancient counties, was established by separate Acts of Parliament: in England and Wales in 1888, Scotland in 1889 and Ireland in 1898, meaning there is no consistent system of administrative or geographic demarcation across the UK.[186]" +"Until the 19th century there was little change to those arrangements, but there has since been a constant evolution of role and function.[187]" +"Local government in England is complex, with the distribution of functions varying according to local arrangements. The upper-tier subdivisions of England are the nine regions, now used primarily for statistical purposes.[188] One of the regions, Greater London, has had a directly elected assembly and mayor since 2000 following popular support for the proposal in a 1998 referendum.[189]" +"Local government in Scotland is divided into 32 council areas with a wide variation in size and population. The cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee are separate council areas, as is the Highland Council, which includes a third of Scotland's area but only just over 200,000 people. Local councils are made up of elected councillors, of whom there are 1,223.[190]" +"Local government in Wales consists of 22 unitary authorities, each led by a leader and cabinet elected by the council itself. These include the cities of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, which are unitary authorities in their own right.[191] Elections are held every four years under the first-past-the-post system.[191]" +"Local government in Northern Ireland since 1973, has been organised into 26 district councils, each elected by single transferable vote. Their powers are limited to services such as waste collection, dog control, and maintaining parks and cemeteries.[192] In 2008 the executive agreed on proposals to create 11 new councils and replace the present system.[193]" +"Beginning in 1998, a process of devolution has transferred legislative and executive powers previously held by United Kingdom institutions to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.[194] As a result, a Scottish Government and Parliament, Welsh Government and Senedd (Parliament) and Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly have been created.[195] A similar process has not taken place for England.[194]" +"The UK does not have a codified constitution and constitutional matters are not among the powers that have been devolved. Under the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, the UK Parliament could, in theory, therefore, abolish the Scottish Parliament, Senedd or Northern Ireland Assembly.[196] In practice, it would be politically difficult for the UK Parliament to abolish devolution to the Scottish Parliament and the Senedd, because these institutions were created by referendum decisions.[197] The political constraints placed upon the UK Parliament's power to interfere with devolution in Northern Ireland are greater still, because devolution in Northern Ireland rests upon an international agreement with the Government of Ireland.[198] The UK Parliament restricts the three devolved parliaments' legislative powers in economic policy matters through an act passed in 2020.[199]" +"Since 1999, Scotland has had a devolved national government and parliament with wide-ranging powers over any matter that has not been specifically reserved to the UK Parliament.[200][201] Their power over economic issues is significantly constrained by an act of the UK parliament passed in 2020.[199]" +"The current Scottish Government is a Scottish National Party minority government,[209] led by First Minister Humza Yousaf, leader of the Scottish National Party. In 2014, the Scottish independence referendum was held, with 55.3% voting against independence from the United Kingdom and 44.7% voting in favour, resulting in Scotland staying within the United Kingdom. Local government in Scotland is divided into 32 council areas with a wide variation in size and population. Local councils are made up of elected councillors, of whom there are 1,223.[190]" +"The Scottish Parliament is separate from the Scottish Government, and is made up of 129 elected Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and is the law making body of Scotland. It does, however, scrutinise the work of the incumbent Scottish Government and considers any piece of proposed legislation through parliamentary debates, committees and parliamentary questions.[210]" +"Since 1999, Wales has a devolved national government and legislature, known as the Senedd. Elections to the Senedd use the additional member system. They have more limited powers than those devolved to Scotland.[211] The Senedd is able to legislate on any matter not specifically reserved to the UK Parliament through Acts of Senedd Cymru. The current Welsh Government is Labour, led by First Minister Vaughan Gething, who has been the First Minister since 2024. Local government in Wales consists of 22 unitary authorities, each led by a leader and cabinet elected by the council itself." +"The devolved form of government in Northern Ireland is based on the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which brought to an end a 30-year period of unionist-nationalist communal conflict known as The Troubles. The Agreement was confirmed by referendum and implemented later that year. It established power sharing arrangements for a devolved government and legislature, referred to as the Executive and Assembly respectively.[212] Elections to the Assembly use the single transferable vote system. The Executive and Assembly have powers similar to those devolved to Scotland.[citation needed] The Executive is led by a diarchy representing unionist and nationalist members of the Assembly.[213] The First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland are the joint heads of government of Northern Ireland.[214][215] Local government in Northern Ireland since 2015 has been divided between 11 councils with limited responsibilities.[192]" +"The UK is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of NATO, AUKUS, the Commonwealth of Nations, the G7 finance ministers, the G7 forum, the G20, the OECD, the WTO, the Council of Europe and the OSCE.[216] The UK has the British Council which is a British organisation based in over 100 countries specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. The UK is said to have a ""Special Relationship"" with the United States and a close partnership with France – the ""Entente cordiale"" – and shares nuclear weapons technology with both countries;[217][218] the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance is considered to be the oldest binding military alliance in the world. The UK is also closely linked with the Republic of Ireland; the two countries share a Common Travel Area and co-operate through the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference and the British-Irish Council. Britain's global presence and influence is further amplified through its trading relations, foreign investments, official development assistance and military engagements.[219] Canada, Australia and New Zealand, all of which are former colonies of the British Empire which share King Charles as their head of state, are the most favourably viewed countries in the world by British people.[220]" +"The United Kingdom does not have a single legal system as Article 19 of the 1706 Treaty of Union provided for the continuation of Scotland's separate legal system.[221] Today the UK has three distinct systems of law: English law, Northern Ireland law and Scots law. A new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom came into being in October 2009 to replace the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords.[222] The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, including the same members as the Supreme Court, is the highest court of appeal for several independent Commonwealth countries, the British Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies.[223]" +"Both English law, which applies in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland law are based on common-law principles.[224] The courts of England and Wales are headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases).[225] Scots law is a hybrid system based on common-law and civil-law principles. The chief courts are the Court of Session, for civil cases,[226] and the High Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases.[227] The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom serves as the highest court of appeal for civil cases under Scots law.[228]" +"Crime in England and Wales increased in the period between 1981 and 1995, though since that peak there has been an overall fall of 66 per cent in recorded crime from 1995 to 2015,[229] according to crime statistics. As of June 2023, the United Kingdom has the highest per-capita incarceration rate in Western Europe.[230][231][232]" +"UK labour laws entitle staff to have a minimum set of employment rights including a minimum wage, a minimum of 28 days annual holiday, statutory sick pay and a pension. Same-sex marriage has been legal in England, Scotland, and Wales since 2014, and in Northern Ireland since 2020.[233] LGBT equality in the United Kingdom is considered advanced by modern standards.[234][235]" +"His Majesty's Armed Forces consist of three professional service branches: the Royal Navy and Royal Marines (forming the Naval Service), the British Army and the Royal Air Force.[236] The armed forces of the United Kingdom are managed by the Ministry of Defence and controlled by the Defence Council, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The Commander-in-Chief is the British monarch, to whom members of the forces swear an oath of allegiance.[237] The Armed Forces are charged with protecting the UK and its overseas territories, promoting the UK's global security interests and supporting international peacekeeping efforts. They are active and regular participants in NATO, including the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, the Five Power Defence Arrangements, RIMPAC and other worldwide coalition operations. Overseas garrisons and facilities are maintained in Ascension Island, Bahrain, Belize, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, Diego Garcia, the Falkland Islands, Germany, Gibraltar, Kenya, Oman, Qatar and Singapore.[238]" +"According to sources which include the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the UK has either the fourth- or the fifth-highest military expenditure. Total defence spending in 2024 is estimated at 2.3% of GDP.[239] Following the end of the Cold War, defence policy has a stated assumption that ""the most demanding operations"" will be undertaken as part of a coalition.[240]" +"The UK has a partially regulated market economy.[243] Based on market exchange rates, the UK is the sixth-largest economy in the world and the second-largest in Europe by nominal GDP." +"The United Kingdom uses the pound sterling, the fourth most-traded currency in the foreign exchange market and the world's fourth-largest reserve currency (after the United States dollar, euro, and yen).[244] Sterling was the 2nd best-performing G10 currency against the dollar in 2023 with a gain of about 5%, with only the Swiss franc performing better.[245][246] London is the world capital for foreign exchange trading, with a global market share of 38.1% in 2022[247] of the daily $7.5 trillion global turnover.[248] HM Treasury, led by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and economic policy. The Bank of England is the UK's central bank and is responsible for issuing notes and coins in the pound sterling. Banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland retain the right to issue their own notes, subject to retaining enough Bank of England notes in reserve to cover their issue. The estimated nominal GDP of the UK for 2024 is £2.765 trillion.[249] This value is 23% higher than the 2019 figure of £2.255 trillion[250] before leaving the EU (at similar US and EU exchange rates to 2019[251]).[q]" +"The service sector made up around 80% of the UK's GVA in 2021.[253] As of 2022, the UK is the world's second-largest exporter of services.[254] London is one of the world's largest financial centres, ranking second in the world in the Global Financial Centres Index in 2022. London also has the largest city GDP in Europe.[255] Edinburgh ranks 17th in the world, and sixth in Western Europe in the Global Financial Centres Index in 2020.[256] Tourism is very important to the British economy; London was named as Europe's most popular destination for 2022.[257][258] The creative industries accounted for 5.9% of the UK's GVA in 2019, having grown by 43.6% in real terms from 2010.[259] Creative industries contributed more than £111bn to the UK economy in 2018, growth in the sector is more than five times larger than growth across the UK economy as a whole as reported in 2018.[260] Lloyd's of London is the world's largest insurance and reinsurance market and is located in London.[261] WPP plc, the world's biggest advertising company, is also based in the UK. The UK is one of the leading retail markets in Europe and is home to Europe's largest e-commerce market.[262] John Lewis is the UK's largest employee owned business.[263]" +"The automotive industry employs around 800,000 people, with a turnover in 2022 of £67 billion, generating £27 billion of exports (10% of the UK's total export of goods).[264] In 2023, the UK produced around 905,100 passenger vehicles and 120,400 commercial vehicles, output was up 17.0% on the previous year.[265] Britain is known for iconic cars such as Mini and Jaguar,[266] also other luxury cars such as Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Range Rover. The UK is a major centre for engine manufacturing: in 2022 around 1.5 million engines were produced.[264] It is also the world's fourth-largest exporter of engines, as of 2021.[267] The UK motorsport industry employs more than 40,000 people, comprises around 4,300 companies and has an annual turnover of around £10 billion.[268] 7 of the 10 Formula One teams are based in the UK, with their technology being used in supercars and hypercars from McLaren, Aston Martin and Lotus." +"The aerospace industry of the UK is the second-largest national aerospace industry in the world depending upon the method of measurement and has an annual turnover of around £30 billion.[269] The UK space industry was worth £17.5bn in 2020/21 and employed 48,800 people. Since 2012, the number of space organisations has grown on average nearly 21% per year, with 1,293 organisations reported in 2021.[270][271] The UK Space Agency has stated in 2023 that it is investing £1.6 billion in space related projects.[272]" +"The agriculture industry is intensive, highly mechanised and efficient by European standards, producing about 60 per cent of food needs with less than 1.6 per cent of the labour force (535,000 workers).[273] Around two-thirds of production is devoted to livestock, one-third to arable crops. The UK retains a significant, though much reduced fishing industry. It is also rich in a variety of natural resources including coal, petroleum, natural gas, tin, limestone, iron ore, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum, lead, silica and an abundance of arable land.[274]" +"The United Kingdom has among the highest levels of income inequality in Europe[275] and the OECD,[276] and is one of the most regionally unequal high-income countries in the world.[277][278]" +"England and Scotland were leading centres of the Scientific Revolution from the 17th century.[280] The United Kingdom led the Industrial Revolution from the 18th century, and has continued to produce scientists and engineers credited with important advances.[281] Major theorists from the 17th and 18th centuries include Isaac Newton, whose laws of motion and illumination of gravity have been seen as a keystone of modern science;[282] from the 19th century Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution by natural selection was fundamental to the development of modern biology, and James Clerk Maxwell, who formulated classical electromagnetic theory; and more recently Stephen Hawking, who advanced major theories in the fields of cosmology, quantum gravity and the investigation of black holes.[283]" +"The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is responsible for helping to encourage, develop and manage the UK's scientific, research, and technological outputs. Scientific research and development remains important in British universities, with many establishing science parks to facilitate production and co-operation with industry.[284] In 2022 the UK retained its number one spot for technology in Europe reaching a combined market value of $1 trillion. Cambridge was named the number one university in the world for producing successful technology founders.[285]" +"For four consecutive years, from 2020 to 2023, the UK maintained its fourth-place ranking in the Global Innovation Index, a position determined by approximately 80 indicators encompassing the political environment, education, infrastructure, and knowledge creation, among others.[286][279] During 2022, the UK produced 6.3 per cent of the world's scientific research papers and had a 10.5 per cent share of scientific citations, the third highest in the world (for both). The UK ranked 1st in the world for Field-Weighted Citation Impact.[287] Scientific journals produced in the UK include publications by the Royal Society, Nature, the British Medical Journal and The Lancet.[288]" +"A radial road network totals 29,145 miles (46,904 km) of main roads, 2,173 miles (3,497 km) of motorways and 213,750 miles (344,000 km) of paved roads.[136] The M25, encircling London, is the largest and busiest bypass in the world.[289] In 2022, there were a total of 40.8 million licensed vehicles in Great Britain.[290]" +"The UK has an extensive railway network of 10,072 miles (16,209 km). In Great Britain, the British Rail network was privatised between 1994 and 1997, followed by a rapid rise in passenger numbers. The UK was ranked eighth among national European rail systems in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index assessing intensity of use, quality of service and safety.[291] High Speed 2 (HS2) is a new high speed railway under construction linking up London, the Midlands, the North and Scotland, serving over 25 stations, including eight of Britain's 10 largest cities and connecting around 30 million people, capable of speeds of up to 225 mph.[292][293] Crossrail, which was renamed the Elizabeth line in 2016, in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, opened in 2022. It was Europe's largest construction project at the time and is estimated to bring in £42 billion to the UK economy.[294][295]" +"Great British Railways is a planned state-owned public body that will oversee rail transport in Great Britain. In 2014, there were 5.2 billion bus journeys in the UK, 2.4 billion of which were in London.[296] The red double-decker bus has entered popular culture as an internationally recognised icon of England.[297] The London bus network is extensive, with over 6,800 scheduled services every weekday carrying about six million passengers on over 700 different routes making it one of the most extensive bus systems in the world and the largest in Europe.[298]" +"In the year from October 2009 to September 2010, UK airports handled a total of 211.4 million passengers.[299] In that period the three largest airports were London Heathrow Airport (65.6 million passengers), Gatwick Airport (31.5 million passengers) and London Stansted Airport (18.9 million passengers).[299] London Heathrow Airport, located 15 miles (24 km) west of the capital, is the world's second busiest airport by international passenger traffic and has the most international passenger traffic of any airport in the world;[300] it is the hub for the UK flag carrier British Airways, as well as Virgin Atlantic.[301]" +"In 2021, the UK was the world's 14th-largest consumer of energy and the 22nd-largest producer.[302] The UK is home to many large energy companies, including two of the six major oil and gas companies – BP and Shell.[303]" +"The total of all renewable electricity sources provided 43% of the electricity generated in the UK in 2020.[304] The UK is one of the best sites in Europe for wind energy, and wind power production is the country's fastest-growing supply; in 2022, 26.8% of the UK's total electricity was generated by wind power.[305] The UK has the largest offshore wind farm in the world, which is located off the coast of Yorkshire.[306]" +"In 2023, the UK had 9 nuclear reactors normally generating about 15 per cent of the UK's electricity.[307] Unlike Germany and Japan, there are two reactors under construction and more planned.[308][309] In the late 1990s, nuclear power plants contributed around 25 per cent of the total annual electricity generation in the UK, but this has gradually declined as old plants have been shut down. The UK government is investing in Small Modular Reactors and Advanced Modular Reactors research and development." +"In 2021, the UK produced 935 thousand barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil (and other liquids) and consumed 1,258 thousand bbl/d.[302] Production is now in decline and the UK has been a net importer of oil since 2005.[310] In 2020[update], the UK had around 2 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves.[310]" +"In 2021, the UK was the 21st-largest producer of natural gas in the world.[311] Production is now in decline and the UK has been a net importer of natural gas since 2004.[311] In 2020, the UK produced 1.8 million tonnes of coal falling 91% in 10 years.[307] In 2020 it had proven recoverable coal reserves of 26 million tonnes.[307] The UK Coal Authority has stated that there is a potential to produce between 7 billion tonnes and 16 billion tonnes of coal through underground coal gasification (UCG) or 'fracking',[312] and based on current UK coal consumption, such reserves could last between 200 and 400 years.[313]" +"Access to improved water supply and sanitation in the UK is universal. It is estimated that 96 per cent of households are connected to the sewer network.[314] According to the Environment Agency, total water abstraction for public water supply in the UK was 16,406 megalitres per day in 2007.[315]" +"In England and Wales water and sewerage services are provided by 10 private regional water and sewerage companies and 13 mostly smaller private ""water only"" companies. In Scotland, water and sewerage services are provided by a single public company, Scottish Water. In Northern Ireland water and sewerage services are also provided by a single public entity, Northern Ireland Water.[316]" +"In the 2011 census the total population of the United Kingdom was 63,181,775.[317] It is the fourth-largest in Europe (after Russia, Germany and France), the fifth-largest in the Commonwealth and the 22nd-largest in the world. In mid-2014 and mid-2015 net long-term international migration contributed more to population growth. In mid-2012 and mid-2013 natural change contributed the most to population growth.[318] Between 2001 and 2011 the population increased by an average annual rate of approximately 0.7 per cent.[317] The 2011 census also showed that, over the previous 100 years, the proportion of the population aged 0–14 fell from 31 per cent to 18 per cent, and the proportion of people aged 65 and over rose from 5 to 16 per cent.[317] In 2018 the median age of the UK population was 41.7 years.[319]" +"England's population in 2011 was 53 million, representing some 84 per cent of the UK total.[320] It is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with 420 people per square kilometre in mid-2015,[318] with a particular concentration in London and the south-east.[321] The 2011 census put Scotland's population at 5.3 million,[322] Wales at 3.06 million and Northern Ireland at 1.81 million.[320]" +"In 2017 the average total fertility rate (TFR) across the UK was 1.74 children born per woman.[323] While a rising birth rate is contributing to population growth, it remains considerably below the baby boom peak of 2.95 children per woman in 1964,[324] or the high of 6.02 children born per woman in 1815,[325] below the replacement rate of 2.1, but higher than the 2001 record low of 1.63.[326] In 2011, 47.3 per cent of births in the UK were to unmarried women.[327] The Office for National Statistics reported in 2015 that out of the UK population aged 16 and over, 1.7 per cent identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual (2.0 per cent of males and 1.5 per cent of females); 4.5 per cent of respondents responded with ""other"", ""I don't know"", or did not respond.[328] The number of transgender people in the UK was estimated to be between 65,000 and 300,000 by research between 2001 and 2008.[329]" +"Historically, indigenous British people were thought to be descended from the various ethnic groups that settled there before the 12th century: the Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Norse and the Normans. Welsh people could be the oldest ethnic group in the UK.[333] The UK has a history of non-white immigration with Liverpool having the oldest Black population in the country dating back to at least the 1730s during the period of the African slave trade. During this period it is estimated the Afro-Caribbean population of Great Britain was 10,000 to 15,000[334] which later declined due to the abolition of slavery.[335] The UK also has the oldest Chinese community in Europe, dating to the arrival of Chinese seamen in the 19th century.[336] In 2011[update], 87.2 per cent of the UK population identified themselves as white, meaning 12.8 per cent of the UK population identify themselves as of one of an ethnic minority group.[337]" +"Ethnic diversity varies significantly across the UK. 30.4 per cent of London's population and 37.4 per cent of Leicester's was estimated to be non-white in 2005[update],[341] whereas less than 5 per cent of the populations of North East England, Wales and the South West were from ethnic minorities, according to the 2001 census.[342] In 2016[update], 31.4 per cent of primary and 27.9 per cent of secondary pupils at state schools in England were members of an ethnic minority.[343]" +"The English language is the official and most spoken language of the United Kingdom.[344][345] The United Kingdom proactively promotes the language globally to build connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide.[346][347] It is estimated that 95 per cent of the UK's population are monolingual English speakers.[348] 5.5 per cent of the population are estimated to speak languages brought to the UK as a result of relatively recent immigration.[348] South Asian languages are the largest grouping which includes Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali, Sylheti, Hindi, Pahari-Pothwari, Tamil, and Gujarati.[349] According to the 2011 census, Polish has become the second-largest language spoken in England and has 546,000 speakers.[350] In 2019, some three-quarters of a million people spoke little or no English.[351]" +"Three indigenous Celtic languages are spoken in the UK: Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic. Cornish, which became extinct as a first language in the late 18th century, is subject to revival efforts and has a small group of second language speakers.[352][2] According to the 2021 census, the Welsh-speaking population of Wales aged three or older was 538,300 people (17.8 per cent).[353] In addition, it is estimated that about 200,000 Welsh speakers live in England.[354] In the 2021 census in Northern Ireland 12.4% of people had some ability in the Irish language and 10.4% of people had some ability in the Ulster-Scots language.[355] Over 92,000 people in Scotland (just under 2 per cent of the population) had some Gaelic language ability, including 72 per cent of those living in the Outer Hebrides.[356] The number of children being taught either Welsh or Scottish Gaelic is increasing.[357] Scots, a language descended from early northern Middle English, has limited recognition alongside its regional variant, Ulster Scots in Northern Ireland, without specific commitments to protection and promotion.[2][358] As of April 2020, there are said to be around 151,000 users of British Sign Language (BSL), a sign language used by deaf people, in the UK.[359]" +Religion in the United Kingdom (2018 research)[360] +"Forms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now the United Kingdom for more than 1,400 years.[361] Although a majority of citizens still identify with Christianity in many surveys, regular church attendance has fallen dramatically since the middle of the 20th century,[362] while immigration and demographic change have contributed to the growth of other faiths, most notably Islam.[363] This has led some commentators to variously describe the UK as a multi-faith,[364] secularised,[365] or post-Christian society.[366]" +"In the 2001 census, 71.6 per cent of all respondents indicated that they were Christians, with the next largest faiths being Islam (2.8 per cent), Hinduism (1.0 per cent), Sikhism (0.6 per cent), Judaism (0.5 per cent), Buddhism (0.3 per cent) and all other religions (0.3 per cent).[367] Of the respondents, 15 per cent stated that they had no religion and a further 7 per cent did not state a religious preference.[368] A Tearfund survey in 2007 showed that only one in ten Britons actually attend church weekly.[369] Between the 2001 and 2011 census, there was a 12 per cent decrease in the number of people who identified as Christian, while the percentage of those reporting no religious affiliation doubled. This contrasted with growth in the other main religious group categories, with the number of Muslims increasing by the most substantial margin to a total of about 5 per cent.[370] The Muslim population has increased from 1.6 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2011, making it the second-largest religious group in the UK.[371]" +"The Church of England is the established church in England.[372] It retains a representation in the UK Parliament, and the British monarch is its Supreme Governor.[373] In Scotland, the Church of Scotland is recognised as the national church. It is not subject to state control, and the British monarch is an ordinary member, required to swear an oath to ""maintain and preserve the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government"" upon his or her accession.[374][2][375] The Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920 and, because the Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1870 before the partition of Ireland, there is no established church in Northern Ireland.[376] Although there are no UK-wide data in the 2001 census on adherence to individual Christian denominations, it has been estimated that 62 per cent of Christians are Anglican, 13.5 per cent Catholic, 6 per cent Presbyterian, and 3.4 per cent Methodist, with small numbers of other Protestant denominations such as Plymouth Brethren, and Orthodox churches.[377]" +"Immigration is now contributing to a rising UK population,[378] with arrivals and UK-born children of migrants accounting for about half of the population increase between 1991 and 2001. According to official statistics released in 2015, 27 per cent of UK live births in 2014 were to mothers born outside the UK.[379] The ONS reported that net migration rose from 2009 to 2010 by 21 per cent to 239,000.[380]" +"In 2013, approximately 208,000 foreign nationals were naturalised as British citizens, the highest number since 1962. This figure fell to around 125,800 in 2014. Between 2009 and 2013, the average number of British citizenships granted annually was 195,800. The most common previous nationalities of those naturalised in 2014 were Indian, Pakistani, Filipino, Nigerian, Bangladeshi, Nepali, Chinese, South African, Polish and Somali.[381] The total number of grants of settlement, which confer permanent residence in the UK but not citizenship,[382] was approximately 154,700 in 2013, higher than the previous two years.[381]" +"Emigration was an important feature of British society in the 19th century. Between 1815 and 1930, around 11.4 million people emigrated from Britain and 7.3 million from Ireland. Estimates show that by the end of the 20th century, some 300 million people of British and Irish descent were permanently settled around the globe.[383] Today, at least 5.5 million UK-born people live abroad,[384][385] mainly in Australia, Spain, the United States and Canada.[384][386]" +"Education in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter, with each country having a separate education system. About 38 per cent of the United Kingdom population has a university or college degree, which is the highest percentage in Europe, and among the highest percentages in the world.[387] The United Kingdom is home to many universities, including the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge which often achieve first place on global rankings.[388][389]" +"University education has varied tuition fees between the different regions of the UK. England and Wales have a fixed maximum annual fee for all UK citizens. Northern Ireland and Scotland have a reduced maximum fee or no fee for citizens where it is their home region. Some NHS courses have bursaries which pay the fee and in 2017 it was stated that each doctor gets subsidised by £230,000 during their training.[390][391]" +"In 2022, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), coordinated by the OECD, ranked the overall knowledge and skills of British 15-year-olds as 14th in the world in reading, mathematics and science. The average British student scored 494, well above the OECD average of 478.[392][393]" +"The modern-system of universal publicly funded in the United Kingdom has its origins in the creation of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1949 which still exists to this day and is the primary healthcare provider in the United Kingdom. The widespread popularity of the NHS has led to it being described as a ""national religion"".[394][395] Healthcare in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter and each country has its own system of universal publicly funded healthcare, although private healthcare is also available. Public healthcare is provided to all UK permanent residents and is mostly free at the point of need, being paid for from general taxation. The World Health Organization, in 2000, ranked the provision of healthcare in the United Kingdom as fifteenth best in Europe and eighteenth in the world.[396]" +"Since 1979, expenditure on healthcare has been increased significantly.[397] The 2018 OECD data, which incorporates in health a chunk of what in the UK is classified as social care, has the UK spending £3,121 per head.[398] In 2017 the UK spent £2,989 per person on healthcare, around the median for members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.[399]" +"Regulatory bodies are organised on a UK-wide basis such as the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and non-governmental-based, such as the Royal Colleges. Political and operational responsibility for healthcare lies with four national executives; healthcare in England is the responsibility of the UK Government; healthcare in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive; healthcare in Scotland is the responsibility of the Scottish Government; and healthcare in Wales is the responsibility of the Welsh Government. Each National Health Service has different policies and priorities, resulting in contrasts.[400]" +"The culture of the United Kingdom is influenced by many factors including: the nation's island status; its history; and being a political union of four countries with each preserving elements of distinctive traditions, customs and symbolism. As a result of the British Empire, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies, in particular, the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Ireland, a common culture known today as the Anglosphere.[401][402] The substantial cultural influence of the United Kingdom has led to it being described as a ""cultural superpower"".[108][109] A global survey in 2023 ranked the UK 3rd in the 'Most Influential Countries' rankings (behind the US and China).[403]" +"British literature includes literature associated with the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Most British literature is in English. In 2005, some 206,000 books were published in the United Kingdom and in 2006 it was the largest publisher of books in the world.[404]" +"The English playwright and poet William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist of all time.[405] The 20th-century English crime writer Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time.[406] Twelve of the top 25 of 100 novels by British writers chosen by a BBC poll of global critics were written by women; these included works by George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, Doris Lessing and Zadie Smith.[407]" +"Scotland's contributions include Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes), Sir Walter Scott, J. M. Barrie, Robert Louis Stevenson and the poet Robert Burns. More recently Hugh MacDiarmid and Neil M. Gunn contributed to the Scottish Renaissance, with grimmer works from Ian Rankin and Iain Banks. Scotland's capital, Edinburgh, was UNESCO's first worldwide City of Literature.[408]" +"Welsh literature includes Britain's oldest known poem, Y Gododdin, which was composed most likely in the late 6th century. It was written in Cumbric or Old Welsh and contains the earliest known reference to King Arthur.[409] The Arthurian legend was further developed by Geoffrey of Monmouth.[410] Poet Dafydd ap Gwilym (fl. 1320–1370) is regarded as one of the greatest European poets of his age.[411] Daniel Owen is credited as the first Welsh-language novelist, publishing Rhys Lewis in 1885. The best-known of the Anglo-Welsh poets are Dylan Thomas and R. S. Thomas, the latter nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. Leading Welsh novelists of the twentieth century include Richard Llewellyn and Kate Roberts.[412][413]" +"Irish writers, living at a time when all of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, include Oscar Wilde,[414] Bram Stoker[415] and George Bernard Shaw.[416] There have been many authors whose origins were from outside the United Kingdom but who moved to the UK, including Joseph Conrad,[417] T. S. Eliot,[418] Kazuo Ishiguro,[419] Sir Salman Rushdie[420] and Ezra Pound.[421]" +"The United Kingdom is famous for the tradition of 'British Empiricism', a branch of the philosophy of knowledge that states that only knowledge verified by experience is valid, and 'Scottish Philosophy', sometimes referred to as the 'Scottish School of Common Sense'.[422] The most famous philosophers of British Empiricism are John Locke, George Berkeley[t] and David Hume; while Dugald Stewart, Thomas Reid and William Hamilton were major exponents of the Scottish ""common sense"" school. Two Britons are also notable for the ethical theory of utilitarianism, a moral philosophy first used by Jeremy Bentham and later by John Stuart Mill in his short work Utilitarianism.[423]" +"Various styles of music have become popular in the UK, including the indigenous folk music of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Historically, there has been exceptional Renaissance music from the Tudor period, with masses, madrigals and lute music by Thomas Tallis, John Taverner, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons and John Dowland. After the Stuart Restoration, an English tradition of dramatic masques, anthems and airs became established, led by Henry Purcell, followed by Thomas Arne and others. The German-born composer George Frideric Handel became a naturalised British citizen in 1727, when he composed the anthem Zadok the Priest for the coronation of George II; it became the traditional ceremonial music for anointing all future monarchs. Handel's many oratorios, such as his famous Messiah, were written in the English language.[424] In the second half of the 19th century, as Arthur Sullivan and his librettist W. S. Gilbert wrote their popular Savoy operas, Edward Elgar's wide range of music rivalled that of his contemporaries on the continent. Increasingly, however, composers became inspired by the English countryside and its folk music, notably Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Benjamin Britten, a pioneer of modern British opera. Among the many post-war composers, some of the most notable have made their own personal choice of musical identity: Peter Maxwell Davies (Orkney), Harrison Birtwistle (mythological), and John Tavener (religious).[425] Today, recent classical singers include: Alfie Boe, Bryn Terfel, Katherine Jenkins, Michael Ball, Roderick Williams, Russell Watson and Sarah Brightman, while Nicola Benedetti and Nigel Kennedy are renowned for their violin ability.[426]" +"According to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the term ""pop music"" originated in Britain in the mid-1950s to describe rock and roll's fusion with the ""new youth music"".[427] The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that artists such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones drove pop music to the forefront of popular music in the early 1960s.[428] Birmingham became known as the birthplace of heavy metal, with the band Black Sabbath starting there in the 1960s.[429] In the following years, Britain widely occupied a part in the development of rock music, with British acts pioneering hard rock;[430] raga rock; heavy metal;[431] space rock; glam rock;[432] Gothic rock,[433] psychedelic rock,[434] and punk rock.[435] British acts also developed neo soul and created dubstep.[436] The modern UK is known to produce some of the most prominent English-speaking rappers along with the United States, including Stormzy, Kano, Yxng Bane, Ramz, Little Simz and Skepta.[437]" +"The Beatles have international sales of over 1 billion units and are the biggest-selling and most influential band in the history of popular music.[438][439][440][441] Other prominent British contributors to have influenced popular music over the last 50 years include the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Queen, Led Zeppelin, the Bee Gees, and Elton John, all of whom have worldwide record sales of 200 million or more.[442] The Brit Awards are the BPI's annual music awards, and some of the British recipients of the Outstanding Contribution to Music award include the Who, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, the Police, and Fleetwood Mac (who are a British-American band).[443] More recent UK music acts that have had international success include George Michael, Oasis, Spice Girls, Radiohead, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Robbie Williams, Amy Winehouse, Susan Boyle, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi, One Direction and Harry Styles.[444]" +"A number of UK cities are known for their music. Acts from Liverpool have had 54 UK chart number 1 hit singles, more per capita than any other city worldwide.[445] Glasgow's contribution to music was recognised in 2008 when it was named a UNESCO City of Music.[446] Manchester played a role in the spread of dance music such as acid house, and from the mid-1990s, Britpop. London and Bristol are closely associated with the origins of electronic music sub-genres such as drum and bass and trip hop.[447]" +"UK dance music traces its roots back to the Black British Sound System Culture and the New Age Traveller movement of the 60s and 70s,[448] it also has influences from New Wave and Synth-pop such as from bands New Order and Depeche Mode[449] and also has influences from the Chicago House and Detroit Techno scenes. In the late 80's, dance music exploded with Rave culture mainly Acid House tracks which were made mainstream with novelty records (such as Smart E's Sesame's Treet and the Prodigy's Charly)[450] and the Balearic sound brought back from the Ibiza club scene. This led on to genres such as UK Garage, Speed Garage, Drum and bass, Jungle, Trance and Dubstep. Influential UK dance acts past and present include 808 State, Orbital, the Prodigy, Underworld, Roni Size, Leftfield, Massive Attack, Groove Armada, Fatboy Slim, Faithless, Basement Jaxx, Chemical Brothers, Sub Focus, Chase & Status, Disclosure, Calvin Harris and Fred Again.[451] Other influential UK DJs include Judge Jules, Pete Tong, Carl Cox, Paul Oakenfold, John Digweed and Sasha.[452]" +"Major British artists include: the Romantics William Blake, John Constable, Samuel Palmer and J. M. W. Turner; the portrait painters Sir Joshua Reynolds and Lucian Freud; the landscape artists Thomas Gainsborough and L. S. Lowry; the pioneer of the Arts and Crafts Movement William Morris; the figurative painter Francis Bacon; the Pop artists Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton and David Hockney; the pioneers of Conceptual art movement Art & Language;[453] the collaborative duo Gilbert and George; the abstract artist Howard Hodgkin; and the sculptors Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Henry Moore. During the late 1980s and 1990s the Saatchi Gallery in London helped to bring to public attention a group of multi-genre artists who would become known as the ""Young British Artists"": Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili, Rachel Whiteread, Tracey Emin, Mark Wallinger, Steve McQueen, Sam Taylor-Wood and the Chapman Brothers are among the better-known members of this loosely affiliated movement." +"The Royal Academy in London is a key organisation for the promotion of the visual arts in the United Kingdom. Major schools of art in the UK include: the six-school University of the Arts London, which includes the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and Chelsea College of Art and Design; Goldsmiths, University of London; the Slade School of Fine Art (part of University College London); the Glasgow School of Art; the Royal College of Art; and The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art (part of the University of Oxford). The Courtauld Institute of Art is a leading centre for the teaching of the history of art. Important art galleries in the United Kingdom include the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern (the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year).[454]" +"The United Kingdom has had a considerable influence on the history of the cinema. The British directors Alfred Hitchcock, whose film Vertigo is considered by some critics as the best film of all time,[455] and David Lean who directed Lawrence of Arabia are among the most critically acclaimed directors of all time.[456] Recent popular directors include: Christopher Nolan, Sam Mendes, Steve McQueen, Danny Boyle, Tony Scott and Ridley Scott.[457]" +"[459] Many British actors have achieved international fame and critical success. Some of the most commercially successful films of all time have been produced in the United Kingdom, including two of the highest-grossing film franchises (Harry Potter and James Bond).[460]" +"2019 was a particularly good year for British films which grossed around £10.3 billion globally which was 28.7% of global box office revenue.[461] UK box-office takings totalled £1.25 billion in 2019, with around 176 million admissions.[462] In 2023 UK film and television studio stage space stands at 6.9 million sq ft, with 1 million sq ft added in the past year with more in development.[463] The annual BAFTA Film Awards are hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.[464]" +"British cuisine developed from various influences reflective of its land, settlements, arrivals of new settlers and immigrants, trade and colonialism. The food of England has historically been characterised by its simplicity of approach and a reliance on the high quality of natural produce.[465] The traditional Sunday roast is one example, featuring a roasted joint, usually of beef, lamb, chicken or pork, often free range (and generally grass-fed, in the case of beef). Roasts are served with either roasted or boiled vegetables, Yorkshire pudding, and gravy. Other traditional meals include meat pies and various stews." +"A 2019 YouGov poll rated classic British food, the following had more than 80% of people like them who had tried them: Sunday roast, Yorkshire pudding, Fish and chips, Crumpets, and Full English breakfast.[466]" +"The British Empire facilitated a knowledge of Indian cuisine with its ""strong, penetrating spices and herbs"". British cuisine has absorbed the cultural influence of those who have settled in Britain, producing hybrid dishes, such as chicken tikka masala.[467] The British have embraced world cuisine and regularly eat recipes or fast food from Europe, the Caribbean and Asia." +"Sweet foods are common within British cuisine, and there is a long list of British desserts. Afternoon tea is a light afternoon meal served with tea in tea rooms and hotels around the United Kingdom, with the tradition dating back to around 1840.[468]" +"Vegan and vegetarian diets have increased in Britain in recent years. In 2021, a survey found that 8% of British respondents eat a plant-based diet and 36% of respondents have a favourable view of plant-based diets.[469]" +"The BBC, founded in 1922, is the UK's publicly funded radio, television and Internet broadcasting corporation, and is the oldest and largest broadcaster in the world.[470][471][472] It operates numerous television and radio stations in the UK and abroad and its domestic services are funded by the television licence.[473] The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest of any kind.[474] It broadcasts radio news, speech and discussions in more than 40 languages.[475]" +"Other major players in the UK media include ITV, which operates 11 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network,[476] and Sky.[477] Newspapers produced in the United Kingdom include the Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times, and the Financial Times.[478] Magazines and journals published in the United Kingdom that have achieved worldwide circulation include The Spectator, The Economist, New Statesman, and Radio Times." +"London dominates the media sector in the UK: national newspapers and television and radio are largely based there, although MediaCityUK in Manchester is also a significant national media centre. Edinburgh and Glasgow, and Cardiff, are important centres of newspaper and broadcasting production in Scotland and Wales, respectively.[479] The UK publishing sector, including books, directories and databases, journals, magazines and business media, newspapers and news agencies, has a combined turnover of around £20 billion and employs around 167,000 people.[480] In 2015, the UK published 2,710 book titles per million inhabitants, more than any other country, much of this being exported to other Anglophone countries.[481]" +"In 2010, 82.5 per cent of the UK population were Internet users, the highest proportion among the 20 countries with the largest total number of users in that year.[482] The British video game industry is the largest in Europe, and, since 2022, the UK has the largest video game market in Europe by sales, overtaking Germany.[483] It is the world's third-largest producer of video games after Japan and the United States.[484]" +"Association football, tennis, table tennis, badminton, rugby union, rugby league, rugby sevens, golf, boxing, netball, water polo, field hockey, billiards, darts, rowing, rounders and cricket originated or were substantially developed in the UK, with the rules and codes of many modern sports invented and codified in late 19th-century Victorian Britain.[u]" +"A 2003 poll found that football is the most popular sport in the UK.[487] England is recognised by FIFA as the birthplace of club football, and the Football Association is the oldest of its kind, with the rules of football first drafted in 1863 by Ebenezer Cobb Morley.[488] Each of the Home Nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) has its own football association, national team and league system, and each is individually a governing member of the International Football Association Board alongside FIFA. The English top division, the Premier League, is the most watched football league in the world.[489] The first international football match was contested by England and Scotland on 30 November 1872.[490] England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland usually compete as separate countries in international competitions.[491]" +"In 2003, rugby union was ranked the second most popular sport in the UK.[487] The sport was created in Rugby School, Warwickshire, and the first rugby international took place on 27 March 1871 between England and Scotland.[492][493] England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy compete in the Six Nations Championship, which is the premier international rugby union tournament in the northern hemisphere. Sports governing bodies in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland organise and regulate the game separately.[494] Every four years, the Home Nations make a combined team known as the British and Irish Lions which tours Australia, New Zealand and South Africa." +"The United Kingdom hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1908, 1948 and 2012, with London acting as the host city on all three occasions. Birmingham hosted the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the seventh time a constitute country in the United Kingdom hosted the Commonwealth Games (England, Scotland and Wales have each hosted the Commonwealth Games at least once).[495]" +"The flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Flag (also referred to as the Union Jack).[496] It was created in 1606 by the superimposition of the flag of England, representing Saint George, on the flag of Scotland, representing Saint Andrew, and was updated in 1801 with the addition of Saint Patrick's Flag.[497] Wales is not represented in the Union Flag, as Wales had been conquered and annexed to England prior to the formation of the United Kingdom. The possibility of redesigning the Union Flag to include representation of Wales has not been completely ruled out.[498] The national anthem of the United Kingdom is ""God Save the King"", with ""King"" replaced with ""Queen"" in the lyrics whenever the monarch is a woman." +"Britannia is a national personification of the United Kingdom, originating from Roman Britain.[499] Beside The Lion and the Unicorn and the dragon of heraldry, the bulldog is an iconic animal and commonly represented with the Union Flag.[500] A now rare personification is a character originating in the 18th century, John Bull.[501]" +"England, Wales, and Scotland each have a number of their own national symbols, including their national flags. Northern Ireland also has a number of symbols, many of which are shared with Republic of Ireland." +"A geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or geodetic coordinate system for measuring and communicating positions directly on the Earth as latitude and longitude.[1] It is the simplest, oldest and most widely used of the various spatial reference systems that are in use, and forms the basis for most others. Although latitude and longitude form a coordinate tuple like a cartesian coordinate system, the geographic coordinate system is not cartesian because the measurements are angles and are not on a planar surface.[2]" +"A full GCS specification, such as those listed in the EPSG and ISO 19111 standards, also includes a choice of geodetic datum (including an Earth ellipsoid), as different datums will yield different latitude and longitude values for the same location.[3]" +"The invention of a geographic coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who composed his now-lost Geography at the Library of Alexandria in the 3rd century BC.[4] A century later, Hipparchus of Nicaea improved on this system by determining latitude from stellar measurements rather than solar altitude and determining longitude by timings of lunar eclipses, rather than dead reckoning. In the 1st or 2nd century, Marinus of Tyre compiled an extensive gazetteer and mathematically plotted world map using coordinates measured east from a prime meridian at the westernmost known land, designated the Fortunate Isles, off the coast of western Africa around the Canary or Cape Verde Islands, and measured north or south of the island of Rhodes off Asia Minor. Ptolemy credited him with the full adoption of longitude and latitude, rather than measuring latitude in terms of the length of the midsummer day.[5]" +"Ptolemy's 2nd-century Geography used the same prime meridian but measured latitude from the Equator instead. After their work was translated into Arabic in the 9th century, Al-Khwārizmī's Book of the Description of the Earth corrected Marinus' and Ptolemy's errors regarding the length of the Mediterranean Sea,[note 1] causing medieval Arabic cartography to use a prime meridian around 10° east of Ptolemy's line. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes' recovery of Ptolemy's text a little before 1300; the text was translated into Latin at Florence by Jacopo d'Angelo around 1407." +"In 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England as the zero-reference line. The Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained.[6] France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911." +"The ""latitude"" (abbreviation: Lat., ϕ, or phi) of a point on Earth's surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through (or close to) the center of the Earth.[note 2] Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the Equator and to each other. The North Pole is 90° N; the South Pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the Equator, the fundamental plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The Equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres." +"The ""longitude"" (abbreviation: Long., λ, or lambda) of a point on Earth's surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses (often called great circles), which converge at the North and South Poles. The meridian of the British Royal Observatory in Greenwich, in southeast London, England, is the international prime meridian, although some organizations—such as the French Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière—continue to use other meridians for internal purposes. The prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E. This is not to be conflated with the International Date Line, which diverges from it in several places for political and convenience reasons, including between far eastern Russia and the far western Aleutian Islands." +"The combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The visual grid on a map formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule.[7] The origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km (390 mi) south of Tema, Ghana, a location often facetiously called Null Island." +"In order to be unambiguous about the direction of ""vertical"" and the ""horizontal"" surface above which they are measuring, map-makers choose a reference ellipsoid with a given origin and orientation that best fits their need for the area to be mapped. They then choose the most appropriate mapping of the spherical coordinate system onto that ellipsoid, called a terrestrial reference system or geodetic datum." +"Datums may be global, meaning that they represent the whole Earth, or they may be local, meaning that they represent an ellipsoid best-fit to only a portion of the Earth. Points on the Earth's surface move relative to each other due to continental plate motion, subsidence, and diurnal Earth tidal movement caused by the Moon and the Sun. This daily movement can be as much as a meter. Continental movement can be up to 10 cm a year, or 10 m in a century. A weather system high-pressure area can cause a sinking of 5 mm. Scandinavia is rising by 1 cm a year as a result of the melting of the ice sheets of the last ice age, but neighboring Scotland is rising by only 0.2 cm. These changes are insignificant if a local datum is used, but are statistically significant if a global datum is used.[8]" +"Examples of global datums include World Geodetic System (WGS 84, also known as EPSG:4326[9]), the default datum used for the Global Positioning System,[note 3] and the International Terrestrial Reference System and Frame (ITRF), used for estimating continental drift and crustal deformation.[10] The distance to Earth's center can be used both for very deep positions and for positions in space.[8]" +"Local datums chosen by a national cartographical organization include the North American Datum, the European ED50, and the British OSGB36. Given a location, the datum provides the latitude " +". In the United Kingdom there are three common latitude, longitude, and height systems in use. WGS 84 differs at Greenwich from the one used on published maps OSGB36 by approximately 112 m. The military system ED50, used by NATO, differs from about 120 m to 180 m.[8]" +"The latitude and longitude on a map made against a local datum may not be the same as one obtained from a GPS receiver. Converting coordinates from one datum to another requires a datum transformation such as a Helmert transformation, although in certain situations a simple translation may be sufficient.[11]" +"In popular GIS software, data projected in latitude/longitude is often represented as a Geographic Coordinate System. For example, data in latitude/longitude if the datum is the North American Datum of 1983 is denoted by 'GCS North American 1983'." +"On the GRS 80 or WGS 84 spheroid at sea level at the Equator, one latitudinal second measures 30.715 m, one latitudinal minute is 1843 m and one latitudinal degree is 110.6 km. The circles of longitude, meridians, meet at the geographical poles, with the west–east width of a second naturally decreasing as latitude increases. On the Equator at sea level, one longitudinal second measures 30.92 m, a longitudinal minute is 1855 m and a longitudinal degree is 111.3 km. At 30° a longitudinal second is 26.76 m, at Greenwich (51°28′38″N) 19.22 m, and at 60° it is 15.42 m." +"On the WGS 84 spheroid, the length in meters of a degree of latitude at latitude ϕ (that is, the number of meters you would have to travel along a north–south line to move 1 degree in latitude, when at latitude ϕ), is about" +The returned measure of meters per degree latitude varies continuously with latitude. +"Similarly, the length in meters of a degree of longitude can be calculated as" +"An alternative method to estimate the length of a longitudinal degree at latitude is known as the reduced (or parametric) latitude). Aside from rounding, this is the exact distance along a parallel of latitude; getting the distance along the shortest route will be more work, but those two distances are always within 0.6 m of each other if the two points are one degree of longitude apart." +"Like any series of multiple-digit numbers, latitude-longitude pairs can be challenging to communicate and remember. Therefore, alternative schemes have been developed for encoding GCS coordinates into alphanumeric strings or words:" +"These are not distinct coordinate systems, only alternative methods for expressing latitude and longitude measurements." +"An alternative method to estimate the length of a longitudinal degree at latitude is to assume a spherical Earth (to get the width per minute and second, divide by 60 and 3600, respectively):" +"where Earth's average meridional radius is 6,367,449 m. Since the Earth is an oblate spheroid, not spherical, that result can be off by several tenths of a percent; a better approximation of a longitudinal degree at latitude equals 6,378,137 m and ; for the GRS 80 and WGS 84 spheroids, is known as the reduced (or parametric) latitude). Aside from rounding, this is the exact distance along a parallel of latitude; getting the distance along the shortest route will be more work, but those two distances are always within 0.6 m of each other if the two points are one degree of longitude apart." +"Local datums chosen by a national cartographical organization include the North American Datum, the European ED50, and the British OSGB36. Given a location, the datum provides the latitude and longitude . In the United Kingdom there are three common latitude, longitude, and height systems in use. WGS 84 differs at Greenwich from the one used on published maps OSGB36 by approximately 112 m. The military system ED50, used by NATO, differs from about 120 m to 180 m.[8]" +"where Earth's average meridional radius is 6,367,449 m. Since the Earth is an oblate spheroid, not spherical, that result can be off by several tenths of a percent; a better approximation of a longitudinal degree at latitude is where Earth's equatorial radius equals 6,378,137 m and ; for the GRS 80 and WGS 84 spheroids, is known as the reduced (or parametric) latitude). Aside from rounding, this is the exact distance along a parallel of latitude; getting the distance along the shortest route will be more work, but those two distances are always within 0.6 m of each other if the two points are one degree of longitude apart." +"Local datums chosen by a national cartographical organization include the North American Datum, the European ED50, and the British OSGB36. Given a location, the datum provides the latitude . In the United Kingdom there are three common latitude, longitude, and height systems in use. WGS 84 differs at Greenwich from the one used on published maps OSGB36 by approximately 112 m. The military system ED50, used by NATO, differs from about 120 m to 180 m.[8]" +"where Earth's average meridional radius is 6,367,449 m. Since the Earth is an oblate spheroid, not spherical, that result can be off by several tenths of a percent; a better approximation of a longitudinal degree at latitude is where Earth's equatorial radius equals 6,378,137 m and ; for the GRS 80 and WGS 84 spheroids, is known as the reduced (or parametric) latitude). Aside from rounding, this is the exact distance along a parallel of latitude; getting the distance along the shortest route will be more work, but those two distances are always within 0.6 m of each other if the two points are one degree of longitude apart." +"where Earth's average meridional radius is 6,367,449 m. Since the Earth is an oblate spheroid, not spherical, that result can be off by several tenths of a percent; a better approximation of a longitudinal degree at latitude where Earth's equatorial radius equals 6,378,137 m and ; for the GRS 80 and WGS 84 spheroids, is known as the reduced (or parametric) latitude). Aside from rounding, this is the exact distance along a parallel of latitude; getting the distance along the shortest route will be more work, but those two distances are always within 0.6 m of each other if the two points are one degree of longitude apart." +"Local datums chosen by a national cartographical organization include the North American Datum, the European ED50, and the British OSGB36. Given a location, the datum provides the latitude. In the United Kingdom there are three common latitude, longitude, and height systems in use. WGS 84 differs at Greenwich from the one used on published maps OSGB36 by approximately 112 m. The military system ED50, used by NATO, differs from about 120 m to 180 m.[8]" +"where Earth's average meridional radius is 6,367,449 m. Since the Earth is an oblate spheroid, not spherical, that result can be off by several tenths of a percent; a better approximation of a longitudinal degree at latitude is where Earth's equatorial radius is known as the reduced (or parametric) latitude). Aside from rounding, this is the exact distance along a parallel of latitude; getting the distance along the shortest route will be more work, but those two distances are always within 0.6 m of each other if the two points are one degree of longitude apart." +"where Earth's average meridional radius is 6,367,449 m. Since the Earth is an oblate spheroid, not spherical, that result can be off by several tenths of a percent; a better approximation of a longitudinal degree at latitude is known as the reduced (or parametric) latitude). Aside from rounding, this is the exact distance along a parallel of latitude; getting the distance along the shortest route will be more work, but those two distances are always within 0.6 m of each other if the two points are one degree of longitude apart." +An alternative method to estimate the length of a longitudinal degree at latitude +"is known as the reduced (or parametric) latitude). Aside from rounding, this is the exact distance along a parallel of latitude; getting the distance along the shortest route will be more work, but those two distances are always within 0.6 m of each other if the two points are one degree of longitude apart." +"A spatial reference system (SRS) or coordinate reference system (CRS) is a framework used to precisely measure locations on the surface of Earth as coordinates. It is thus the application of the abstract mathematics of coordinate systems and analytic geometry to geographic space. A particular SRS specification (for example, ""Universal Transverse Mercator WGS 84 Zone 16N"") comprises a choice of Earth ellipsoid, horizontal datum, map projection (except in the geographic coordinate system), origin point, and unit of measure. Thousands of coordinate systems have been specified for use around the world or in specific regions and for various purposes, necessitating transformations between different SRS." +"Although they date to the Hellenic Period, spatial reference systems are now a crucial basis for the sciences and technologies of Geoinformatics, including cartography, geographic information systems, surveying, remote sensing, and civil engineering. This has led to their standardization in international specifications such as the EPSG codes[1] and ISO 19111:2019 Geographic information—Spatial referencing by coordinates, prepared by ISO/TC 211, also published by the Open Geospatial Consortium as Abstract Specification, Topic 2: Spatial referencing by coordinate.[2]" +"The thousands of spatial reference systems used today are based on a few general strategies, which have been defined in the EPSG, ISO, and OGC standards:[1][2]" +"These standards acknowledge that standard reference systems also exist for measuring elevation using vertical datums and time (e.g. ISO 8601), which may be combined with a spatial reference system to form a compound coordinate system for representing three-dimensional and/or spatio-temporal locations. There are also internal systems for measuring location within the context of an object, such as the rows and columns of pixels in a raster image, Linear referencing measurements along linear features (e.g., highway mileposts), and systems for specifying location within moving objects such as ships. The latter two are often classified as subcategories of engineering coordinate systems." +"The goal of any spatial reference system is to create a common reference frame in which locations can be measured precisely and consistently as coordinates, which can then be shared unambiguously, so that any recipient can identify the same location that was originally intended by the originator.[3] To accomplish this, any coordinate reference system definition needs to be composed of several specifications:" +"Thus, a CRS definition will typically consist of a ""stack"" of dependent specifications, as exemplified in the following table:" +"A Spatial Reference System Identifier (SRID) is a unique value used to unambiguously identify projected, unprojected, and local spatial coordinate system definitions. These coordinate systems form the heart of all GIS applications." +"Virtually all major spatial vendors have created their own SRID implementation or refer to those of an authority, such as the EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset." +"SRIDs are the primary key for the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) spatial_ref_sys metadata table for the Simple Features for SQL Specification, Versions 1.1 and 1.2, which is defined as follows:" +"In spatially enabled databases (such as IBM Db2, IBM Informix, Ingres, Microsoft SQL Server, MonetDB, MySQL, Oracle RDBMS, Teradata, PostGIS, SQL Anywhere and Vertica), SRIDs are used to uniquely identify the coordinate systems used to define columns of spatial data or individual spatial objects in a spatial column (depending on the spatial implementation). SRIDs are typically associated with a well-known text (WKT) string definition of the coordinate system (SRTEXT, above)." +Here are two common coordinate systems with their EPSG SRID value followed by their WKT: +"SRID values associated with spatial data can be used to constrain spatial operations — for instance, spatial operations cannot be performed between spatial objects with differing SRIDs in some systems, or trigger coordinate system transformations between spatial objects in others." +"In geometry, the rhombicosidodecahedron is an Archimedean solid, one of thirteen convex isogonal nonprismatic solids constructed of two or more types of regular polygon faces." +"It has 20 regular triangular faces, 30 square faces, 12 regular pentagonal faces, 60 vertices, and 120 edges." +"Johannes Kepler in Harmonices Mundi (1618) named this polyhedron a rhombicosidodecahedron, being short for truncated icosidodecahedral rhombus, with icosidodecahedral rhombus being his name for a rhombic triacontahedron.[1][2] There are different truncations of a rhombic triacontahedron into a topological rhombicosidodecahedron: Prominently its rectification (left), the one that creates the uniform solid (center), and the rectification of the dual icosidodecahedron (right), which is the core of the dual compound." +"For a rhombicosidodecahedron with edge length a, its surface area and volume are:" +"If you expand an icosahedron by moving the faces away from the origin the right amount, without changing the orientation or size of the faces, or do the same to its dual dodecahedron, and patch the square holes in the result, you get a rhombicosidodecahedron. Therefore, it has the same number of triangles as an icosahedron and the same number of pentagons as a dodecahedron, with a square for each edge of either." +"Alternatively, if you expand each of five cubes by moving the faces away from the origin the right amount and rotating each of the five 72° around so they are equidistant from each other, without changing the orientation or size of the faces, and patch the pentagonal and triangular holes in the result, you get a rhombicosidodecahedron. Therefore, it has the same number of squares as five cubes." +"Two clusters of faces of the bilunabirotunda, the lunes (each lune featuring two triangles adjacent to opposite sides of one square), can be aligned with a congruent patch of faces on the rhombicosidodecahedron. If two bilunabirotundae are aligned this way on opposite sides of the rhombicosidodecahedron, then a cube can be put between the bilunabirotundae at the very center of the rhombicosidodecahedron." +"The rhombicosidodecahedron shares the vertex arrangement with the small stellated truncated dodecahedron, and with the uniform compounds of six or twelve pentagrammic prisms." +"The Zometool kits for making geodesic domes and other polyhedra use slotted balls as connectors. The balls are ""expanded"" rhombicosidodecahedra, with the squares replaced by rectangles. The expansion is chosen so that the resulting rectangles are golden rectangles." +"Twelve of the 92 Johnson solids are derived from the rhombicosidodecahedron, four of them by rotation of one or more pentagonal cupolae: the gyrate, parabigyrate, metabigyrate, and trigyrate rhombicosidodecahedron. Eight more can be constructed by removing up to three cupolae, sometimes also rotating one or more of the other cupolae." +Cartesian coordinates for the vertices of a rhombicosidodecahedron with an edge length of 2 centered at the origin are all even permutations of:[3] +"where φ = 1 + √5/2 is the golden ratio. Therefore, the circumradius of this rhombicosidodecahedron is the common distance of these points from the origin, namely √φ6+2 = √8φ+7 for edge length 2. For unit edge length, R must be halved, giving" +"The rhombicosidodecahedron has six special orthogonal projections, centered, on a vertex, on two types of edges, and three types of faces: triangles, squares, and pentagons. The last two correspond to the A2 and H2 Coxeter planes." +"The rhombicosidodecahedron can also be represented as a spherical tiling, and projected onto the plane via a stereographic projection. This projection is conformal, preserving angles but not areas or lengths. Straight lines on the sphere are projected as circular arcs on the plane." +"This polyhedron is topologically related as a part of a sequence of cantellated polyhedra with vertex figure (3.4.n.4), which continues as tilings of the hyperbolic plane. These vertex-transitive figures have (*n32) reflectional symmetry." +"There are 12 related Johnson solids, 5 by diminishment, and 8 including gyrations:" +"The rhombicosidodecahedron shares its vertex arrangement with three nonconvex uniform polyhedra: the small stellated truncated dodecahedron, the small dodecicosidodecahedron (having the triangular and pentagonal faces in common), and the small rhombidodecahedron (having the square faces in common)." +It also shares its vertex arrangement with the uniform compounds of six or twelve pentagrammic prisms. +"In the mathematical field of graph theory, a rhombicosidodecahedral graph is the graph of vertices and edges of the rhombicosidodecahedron, one of the Archimedean solids. It has 60 vertices and 120 edges, and is a quartic graph Archimedean graph.[5]" +"In geometry, an Archimedean solid is one of 13 convex polyhedra whose faces are regular polygons and whose vertices are all symmetric to each other. They were first enumerated by Archimedes. They belong to the class of convex uniform polyhedra, the convex polyhedra with regular faces and symmetric vertices, which is divided into the Archimedean solids, the five Platonic solids (each with only one type of polygon face), and the two infinite families of prisms and antiprisms. The pseudorhombicuboctahedron is an extra polyhedron with regular faces and congruent vertices, but it is not generally counted as an Archimedean solid because it is not vertex-transitive.[1] An even larger class than the convex uniform polyhedra is the Johnson solids, whose regular polygonal faces do not need to meet in identical vertices." +"In these polyhedra, the vertices are identical, in the sense that a global isometry of the entire solid takes any one vertex to any other. Branko Grünbaum (2009) observed that a 14th polyhedron, the elongated square gyrobicupola (or pseudo-rhombicuboctahedron), meets a weaker definition of an Archimedean solid, in which ""identical vertices"" means" +"merely that the parts of the polyhedron near any two vertices look the same (they have the same shapes of faces meeting around each vertex in the same order and forming the same angles). Grünbaum pointed out a frequent error in which authors define Archimedean solids using some form of this local definition but omit the 14th polyhedron. If only 13 polyhedra are to be listed, the definition must use global symmetries of the polyhedron rather than local neighborhoods." +"Prisms and antiprisms, whose symmetry groups are the dihedral groups, are generally not considered to be Archimedean solids, even though their faces are regular polygons and their symmetry groups act transitively on their vertices. Excluding these two infinite families, there are 13 Archimedean solids. All the Archimedean solids (but not the elongated square gyrobicupola) can be made via Wythoff constructions from the Platonic solids with tetrahedral, octahedral and icosahedral symmetry." +"The Archimedean solids take their name from Archimedes, who discussed them in a now-lost work. Pappus refers to it, stating that Archimedes listed 13 polyhedra.[2] During the Renaissance, artists and mathematicians valued pure forms with high symmetry, and by around 1620 Johannes Kepler had completed the rediscovery of the 13 polyhedra,[3] as well as defining the prisms, antiprisms, and the non-convex solids known as Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra. (See Schreiber, Fischer & Sternath 2008 for more information about the rediscovery of the Archimedean solids during the renaissance.)" +"Kepler may have also found the elongated square gyrobicupola (pseudorhombicuboctahedron): at least, he once stated that there were 14 Archimedean solids. However, his published enumeration only includes the 13 uniform polyhedra, and the first clear statement of the pseudorhombicuboctahedron's existence was made in 1905, by Duncan Sommerville.[2]" +"There are 13 Archimedean solids (not counting the elongated square gyrobicupola; 15 if the mirror images of two enantiomorphs, the snub cube and snub dodecahedron, are counted separately)." +"Here the vertex configuration refers to the type of regular polygons that meet at any given vertex. For example, a vertex configuration of 4.6.8 means that a square, hexagon, and octagon meet at a vertex (with the order taken to be clockwise around the vertex)." +"Some definitions of semiregular polyhedron include one more figure, the elongated square gyrobicupola or ""pseudo-rhombicuboctahedron"".[4]" +The number of vertices is 720° divided by the vertex angle defect. +The cuboctahedron and icosidodecahedron are edge-uniform and are called quasi-regular. +"The duals of the Archimedean solids are called the Catalan solids. Together with the bipyramids and trapezohedra, these are the face-uniform solids with regular vertices." +"The snub cube and snub dodecahedron are known as chiral, as they come in a left-handed form (Latin: levomorph or laevomorph) and right-handed form (Latin: dextromorph). When something comes in multiple forms which are each other's three-dimensional mirror image, these forms may be called enantiomorphs. (This nomenclature is also used for the forms of certain chemical compounds.)" +"The different Archimedean and Platonic solids can be related to each other using a handful of general constructions. Starting with a Platonic solid, truncation involves cutting away of corners. To preserve symmetry, the cut is in a plane perpendicular to the line joining a corner to the center of the polyhedron and is the same for all corners. Depending on how much is truncated (see table below), different Platonic and Archimedean (and other) solids can be created. If the truncation is exactly deep enough such that each pair of faces from adjacent vertices shares exactly one point, it is known as a rectification. An expansion, or cantellation, involves moving each face away from the center (by the same distance so as to preserve the symmetry of the Platonic solid) and taking the convex hull. Expansion with twisting also involves rotating the faces, thus splitting each rectangle corresponding to an edge into two triangles by one of the diagonals of the rectangle. The last construction we use here is truncation of both corners and edges. Ignoring scaling, expansion can also be viewed as the rectification of the rectification. Likewise, the cantitruncation can be viewed as the truncation of the rectification." +"Note the duality between the cube and the octahedron, and between the dodecahedron and the icosahedron. Also, partially because the tetrahedron is self-dual, only one Archimedean solid that has at most tetrahedral symmetry. (All Platonic solids have at least tetrahedral symmetry, as tetrahedral symmetry is a symmetry operation of (i.e. is included in) octahedral and isohedral symmetries, which is demonstrated by the fact that an octahedron can be viewed as a rectified tetrahedron, and an icosahedron can be used as a snub tetrahedron.)" +"In geometry, the truncated tetrahedron is an Archimedean solid. It has 4 regular hexagonal faces, 4 equilateral triangle faces, 12 vertices and 18 edges (of two types). It can be constructed by truncating all 4 vertices of a regular tetrahedron at one third of the original edge length." +"A deeper truncation, removing a tetrahedron of half the original edge length from each vertex, is called rectification. The rectification of a tetrahedron produces an octahedron.[1]" +"A truncated tetrahedron is the Goldberg polyhedron GIII(1,1), containing triangular and hexagonal faces." +"A truncated tetrahedron can be called a cantic cube, with Coxeter diagram, , having half of the vertices of the cantellated cube (rhombicuboctahedron), . There are two dual positions of this construction, and combining them creates the uniform compound of two truncated tetrahedra." +The area A and the volume V of a truncated tetrahedron of edge length a are: +"The densest packing of the Archimedean truncated tetrahedron is believed to be Φ = 207/208, as reported by two independent groups using Monte Carlo methods.[2][3] Although no mathematical proof exists that this is the best possible packing for the truncated tetrahedron, the high proximity to the unity and independency of the findings make it unlikely that an even denser packing is to be found. In fact, if the truncation of the corners is slightly smaller than that of an Archimedean truncated tetrahedron, this new shape can be used to completely fill space.[2]" +"Cartesian coordinates for the 12 vertices of a truncated tetrahedron centered at the origin, with edge length √8, are all permutations of (±1,±1,±3) with an even number of minus signs:" +"Another simple construction exists in 4-space as cells of the truncated 16-cell, with vertices as coordinate permutation of:" +"The truncated tetrahedron can also be represented as a spherical tiling, and projected onto the plane via a stereographic projection. This projection is conformal, preserving angles but not areas or lengths. Straight lines on the sphere are projected as circular arcs on the plane." +"A lower symmetry version of the truncated tetrahedron (a truncated tetragonal disphenoid with order 8 D2d symmetry) is called a Friauf polyhedron in crystals such as complex metallic alloys. This form fits 5 Friauf polyhedra around an axis, giving a 72-degree dihedral angle on a subset of 6-6 edges.[citation needed] It is named after J. B. Friauf and his 1927 paper ""The crystal structure of the intermetallic compound MgCu2"".[4]" +"Giant truncated tetrahedra were used for the ""Man the Explorer"" and ""Man the Producer"" theme pavilions in Expo 67. They were made of massive girders of steel bolted together in a geometric lattice. The truncated tetrahedra were interconnected with lattice steel platforms. All of these buildings were demolished after the end of Expo 67, as they had not been built to withstand the severity of the Montreal weather over the years. Their only remnants are in the Montreal city archives, the Public Archives Of Canada and the photo collections of tourists of the times.[5]" +The Tetraminx puzzle has a truncated tetrahedral shape. This puzzle shows a dissection of a truncated tetrahedron into 4 octahedra and 6 tetrahedra. It contains 4 central planes of rotations.[citation needed] +"In the mathematical field of graph theory, a truncated tetrahedral graph is an Archimedean graph, the graph of vertices and edges of the truncated tetrahedron, one of the Archimedean solids. It has 12 vertices and 18 edges.[7] It is a connected cubic graph,[8] and connected cubic transitive graph.[9]" +It is also a part of a sequence of cantic polyhedra and tilings with vertex configuration 3.6.n.6. In this wythoff construction the edges between the hexagons represent degenerate digons. +"This polyhedron is topologically related as a part of sequence of uniform truncated polyhedra with vertex configurations (3.2n.2n), and [n,3] Coxeter group symmetry." +"In geometry, a uniform polyhedron has regular polygons as faces and is vertex-transitive (i.e., there is an isometry mapping any vertex onto any other). It follows that all vertices are congruent." +"Uniform polyhedra may be regular (if also face- and edge-transitive), quasi-regular (if also edge-transitive but not face-transitive), or semi-regular (if neither edge- nor face-transitive). The faces and vertices need not be convex, so many of the uniform polyhedra are also star polyhedra." +"There are two infinite classes of uniform polyhedra, together with 75 other polyhedra:" +Hence 5 + 13 + 4 + 53 = 75. +"There are also many degenerate uniform polyhedra with pairs of edges that coincide, including one found by John Skilling called the great disnub dirhombidodecahedron (Skilling's figure)." +"Dual polyhedra to uniform polyhedra are face-transitive (isohedral) and have regular vertex figures, and are generally classified in parallel with their dual (uniform) polyhedron. The dual of a regular polyhedron is regular, while the dual of an Archimedean solid is a Catalan solid." +"The concept of uniform polyhedron is a special case of the concept of uniform polytope, which also applies to shapes in higher-dimensional (or lower-dimensional) space." +"The Original Sin in the theory of polyhedra goes back to Euclid, and through Kepler, Poinsot, Cauchy and many others continues to afflict all the work on this topic (including that of the present author). It arises from the fact that the traditional usage of the term ""regular polyhedra"" was, and is, contrary to syntax and to logic: the words seem to imply that we are dealing, among the objects we call ""polyhedra"", with those special ones that deserve to be called ""regular"". But at each stage— Euclid, Kepler, Poinsot, Hess, Brückner, ... —the writers failed to define what are the ""polyhedra"" among which they are finding the ""regular"" ones." +(Branko Grünbaum 1994) +"Coxeter, Longuet-Higgins & Miller (1954) define uniform polyhedra to be vertex-transitive polyhedra with regular faces. They define a polyhedron to be a finite set of polygons such that each side of a polygon is a side of just one other polygon, such that no non-empty proper subset of the polygons has the same property. By a polygon they implicitly mean a polygon in 3-dimensional Euclidean space; these are allowed to be non-convex and to intersect each other." +"There are some generalizations of the concept of a uniform polyhedron. If the connectedness assumption is dropped, then we get uniform compounds, which can be split as a union of polyhedra, such as the compound of 5 cubes. If we drop the condition that the realization of the polyhedron is non-degenerate, then we get the so-called degenerate uniform polyhedra. These require a more general definition of polyhedra. Grünbaum (1994) gave a rather complicated definition of a polyhedron, while" +"McMullen & Schulte (2002) gave a simpler and more general definition of a polyhedron: in their terminology, a polyhedron is a 2-dimensional abstract polytope with a non-degenerate 3-dimensional realization. Here an abstract polytope is a poset of its ""faces"" satisfying various condition, a realization is a function from its vertices to some space, and the realization is called non-degenerate if any two distinct faces of the abstract polytope have distinct realizations." +"The 57 nonprismatic nonconvex forms, with exception of the great dirhombicosidodecahedron, are compiled by Wythoff constructions within Schwarz triangles." +The convex uniform polyhedra can be named by Wythoff construction operations on the regular form. +In more detail the convex uniform polyhedron are given below by their Wythoff construction within each symmetry group. +"Within the Wythoff construction, there are repetitions created by lower symmetry forms. The cube is a regular polyhedron, and a square prism. The octahedron is a regular polyhedron, and a triangular antiprism. The octahedron is also a rectified tetrahedron. Many polyhedra are repeated from different construction sources, and are colored differently." +"The Wythoff construction applies equally to uniform polyhedra and uniform tilings on the surface of a sphere, so images of both are given. The spherical tilings including the set of hosohedrons and dihedrons which are degenerate polyhedra." +"These symmetry groups are formed from the reflectional point groups in three dimensions, each represented by a fundamental triangle (p q r), where p > 1, q > 1, r > 1 and 1/p + 1/q + 1/r < 1." +The remaining nonreflective forms are constructed by alternation operations applied to the polyhedra with an even number of sides. +"Along with the prisms and their dihedral symmetry, the spherical Wythoff construction process adds two regular classes which become degenerate as polyhedra : the dihedra and the hosohedra, the first having only two faces, and the second only two vertices. The truncation of the regular hosohedra creates the prisms." +Below the convex uniform polyhedra are indexed 1–18 for the nonprismatic forms as they are presented in the tables by symmetry form. +"For the infinite set of prismatic forms, they are indexed in four families:" +"(The sphere is not cut, only the tiling is cut.) (On a sphere, an edge is the arc of the great circle, the shortest way, between its two vertices. Hence, a digon whose vertices are not polar-opposite is flat: it looks like an edge.)" +"The tetrahedral symmetry of the sphere generates 5 uniform polyhedra, and a 6th form by a snub operation." +"The tetrahedral symmetry is represented by a fundamental triangle with one vertex with two mirrors, and two vertices with three mirrors, represented by the symbol (3 3 2). It can also be represented by the Coxeter group A2 or [3,3], as well as a Coxeter diagram: ." +"There are 24 triangles, visible in the faces of the tetrakis hexahedron, and in the alternately colored triangles on a sphere:" +"The octahedral symmetry of the sphere generates 7 uniform polyhedra, and a 7 more by alternation. Six of these forms are repeated from the tetrahedral symmetry table above." +"The octahedral symmetry is represented by a fundamental triangle (4 3 2) counting the mirrors at each vertex. It can also be represented by the Coxeter group B2 or [4,3], as well as a Coxeter diagram: ." +"There are 48 triangles, visible in the faces of the disdyakis dodecahedron, and in the alternately colored triangles on a sphere:" +"The icosahedral symmetry of the sphere generates 7 uniform polyhedra, and a 1 more by alternation. Only one is repeated from the tetrahedral and octahedral symmetry table above." +"The icosahedral symmetry is represented by a fundamental triangle (5 3 2) counting the mirrors at each vertex. It can also be represented by the Coxeter group G2 or [5,3], as well as a Coxeter diagram: ." +"There are 120 triangles, visible in the faces of the disdyakis triacontahedron, and in the alternately colored triangles on a sphere:" +"The dihedral symmetry of the sphere generates two infinite sets of uniform polyhedra, prisms and antiprisms, and two more infinite set of degenerate polyhedra, the hosohedra and dihedra which exist as tilings on the sphere." +"The dihedral symmetry is represented by a fundamental triangle (p 2 2) counting the mirrors at each vertex. It can also be represented by the Coxeter group I2(p) or [n,2], as well as a prismatic Coxeter diagram: ." +"Below are the first five dihedral symmetries: D2 ... D6. The dihedral symmetry Dp has order 4n, represented the faces of a bipyramid, and on the sphere as an equator line on the longitude, and n equally-spaced lines of longitude." +"There are 8 fundamental triangles, visible in the faces of the square bipyramid (Octahedron) and alternately colored triangles on a sphere:" +"There are 12 fundamental triangles, visible in the faces of the hexagonal bipyramid and alternately colored triangles on a sphere:" +"There are 16 fundamental triangles, visible in the faces of the octagonal bipyramid and alternately colored triangles on a sphere:" +"There are 20 fundamental triangles, visible in the faces of the decagonal bipyramid and alternately colored triangles on a sphere:" +"There are 24 fundamental triangles, visible in the faces of the dodecagonal bipyramid and alternately colored triangles on a sphere." +"In geometry, a Platonic solid is a convex, regular polyhedron in three-dimensional Euclidean space. Being a regular polyhedron means that the faces are congruent (identical in shape and size) regular polygons (all angles congruent and all edges congruent), and the same number of faces meet at each vertex. There are only five such polyhedra:" +"Geometers have studied the Platonic solids for thousands of years.[1] They are named for the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, who hypothesized in one of his dialogues, the Timaeus, that the classical elements were made of these regular solids.[2]" +"The Platonic solids have been known since antiquity. It has been suggested that certain carved stone balls created by the late Neolithic people of Scotland represent these shapes; however, these balls have rounded knobs rather than being polyhedral, the numbers of knobs frequently differed from the numbers of vertices of the Platonic solids, there is no ball whose knobs match the 20 vertices of the dodecahedron, and the arrangement of the knobs was not always symmetric.[3]" +"The ancient Greeks studied the Platonic solids extensively. Some sources (such as Proclus) credit Pythagoras with their discovery. Other evidence suggests that he may have only been familiar with the tetrahedron, cube, and dodecahedron and that the discovery of the octahedron and icosahedron belong to Theaetetus, a contemporary of Plato. In any case, Theaetetus gave a mathematical description of all five and may have been responsible for the first known proof that no other convex regular polyhedra exist." +"The Platonic solids are prominent in the philosophy of Plato, their namesake. Plato wrote about them in the dialogue Timaeus c. 360 B.C. in which he associated each of the four classical elements (earth, air, water, and fire) with a regular solid. Earth was associated with the cube, air with the octahedron, water with the icosahedron, and fire with the tetrahedron." +"Of the fifth Platonic solid, the dodecahedron, Plato obscurely remarked, ""...the god used [it] for arranging the constellations on the whole heaven"". Aristotle added a fifth element, aither (aether in Latin, ""ether"" in English) and postulated that the heavens were made of this element, but he had no interest in matching it with Plato's fifth solid.[4]" +"Euclid completely mathematically described the Platonic solids in the Elements, the last book (Book XIII) of which is devoted to their properties. Propositions 13–17 in Book XIII describe the construction of the tetrahedron, octahedron, cube, icosahedron, and dodecahedron in that order. For each solid Euclid finds the ratio of the diameter of the circumscribed sphere to the edge length. In Proposition 18 he argues that there are no further convex regular polyhedra. Andreas Speiser has advocated the view that the construction of the five regular solids is the chief goal of the deductive system canonized in the Elements.[5] Much of the information in Book XIII is probably derived from the work of Theaetetus." +"In the 16th century, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler attempted to relate the five extraterrestrial planets known at that time to the five Platonic solids. In Mysterium Cosmographicum, published in 1596, Kepler proposed a model of the Solar System in which the five solids were set inside one another and separated by a series of inscribed and circumscribed spheres. Kepler proposed that the distance relationships between the six planets known at that time could be understood in terms of the five Platonic solids enclosed within a sphere that represented the orbit of Saturn. The six spheres each corresponded to one of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). The solids were ordered with the innermost being the octahedron, followed by the icosahedron, dodecahedron, tetrahedron, and finally the cube, thereby dictating the structure of the solar system and the distance relationships between the planets by the Platonic solids. In the end, Kepler's original idea had to be abandoned, but out of his research came his three laws of orbital dynamics, the first of which was that the orbits of planets are ellipses rather than circles, changing the course of physics and astronomy. He also discovered the Kepler solids, which are two nonconvex regular polyhedra." +"For Platonic solids centered at the origin, simple Cartesian coordinates of the vertices are given below. The Greek letter φ is used to represent the golden ratio 1 + √5/2 ≈ 1.6180." +"The coordinates for the tetrahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron are given in two positions such that each can be deduced from the other: in the case of the tetrahedron, by changing all coordinates of sign (central symmetry), or, in the other cases, by exchanging two coordinates (reflection with respect to any of the three diagonal planes)." +"These coordinates reveal certain relationships between the Platonic solids: the vertices of the tetrahedron represent half of those of the cube, as {4,3} or , one of two sets of 4 vertices in dual positions, as h{4,3} or . Both tetrahedral positions make the compound stellated octahedron." +"The coordinates of the icosahedron are related to two alternated sets of coordinates of a nonuniform truncated octahedron, t{3,4} or , also called a snub octahedron, as s{3,4} or , and seen in the compound of two icosahedra." +Eight of the vertices of the dodecahedron are shared with the cube. Completing all orientations leads to the compound of five cubes. +A convex polyhedron is a Platonic solid if and only if all three of the following requirements are met. +"Each Platonic solid can therefore be assigned a pair {p, q} of integers, where p is the number of edges (or, equivalently, vertices) of each face, and q is the number of faces (or, equivalently, edges) that meet at each vertex. This pair {p, q}, called the Schläfli symbol, gives a combinatorial description of the polyhedron. The Schläfli symbols of the five Platonic solids are given in the table below." +"All other combinatorial information about these solids, such as total number of vertices (V), edges (E), and faces (F), can be determined from p and q. Since any edge joins two vertices and has two adjacent faces we must have:" +The other relationship between these values is given by Euler's formula: +"This can be proved in many ways. Together these three relationships completely determine V, E, and F:" +"Swapping p and q interchanges F and V while leaving E unchanged. For a geometric interpretation of this property, see § Dual polyhedra." +"The elements of a polyhedron can be expressed in a configuration matrix. The rows and columns correspond to vertices, edges, and faces. The diagonal numbers say how many of each element occur in the whole polyhedron. The nondiagonal numbers say how many of the column's element occur in or at the row's element. Dual pairs of polyhedra have their configuration matrices rotated 180 degrees from each other.[6]" +"The classical result is that only five convex regular polyhedra exist. Two common arguments below demonstrate no more than five Platonic solids can exist, but positively demonstrating the existence of any given solid is a separate question—one that requires an explicit construction." +The following geometric argument is very similar to the one given by Euclid in the Elements: +"A purely topological proof can be made using only combinatorial information about the solids. The key is Euler's observation that V − E + F = 2, and the fact that pF = 2E = qV, where p stands for the number of edges of each face and q for the number of edges meeting at each vertex. Combining these equations one obtains the equation" +Simple algebraic manipulation then gives +Since E is strictly positive we must have +"Using the fact that p and q must both be at least 3, one can easily see that there are only five possibilities for {p, q}:" +"There are a number of angles associated with each Platonic solid. The dihedral angle is the interior angle between any two face planes. The dihedral angle, θ, of the solid {p,q} is given by the formula" +This is sometimes more conveniently expressed in terms of the tangent by +"The quantity h (called the Coxeter number) is 4, 6, 6, 10, and 10 for the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron respectively." +"The angular deficiency at the vertex of a polyhedron is the difference between the sum of the face-angles at that vertex and 2π. The defect, δ, at any vertex of the Platonic solids {p,q} is" +"By a theorem of Descartes, this is equal to 4π divided by the number of vertices (i.e. the total defect at all vertices is 4π)." +"The three-dimensional analog of a plane angle is a solid angle. The solid angle, Ω, at the vertex of a Platonic solid is given in terms of the dihedral angle by" +"This follows from the spherical excess formula for a spherical polygon and the fact that the vertex figure of the polyhedron {p,q} is a regular q-gon." +The solid angle of a face subtended from the center of a platonic solid is equal to the solid angle of a full sphere (4π steradians) divided by the number of faces. This is equal to the angular deficiency of its dual. +The various angles associated with the Platonic solids are tabulated below. The numerical values of the solid angles are given in steradians. The constant φ = 1 + √5/2 is the golden ratio. +Another virtue of regularity is that the Platonic solids all possess three concentric spheres: +"The radii of these spheres are called the circumradius, the midradius, and the inradius. These are the distances from the center of the polyhedron to the vertices, edge midpoints, and face centers respectively. The circumradius R and the inradius r of the solid {p, q} with edge length a are given by" +where θ is the dihedral angle. The midradius ρ is given by +"where h is the quantity used above in the definition of the dihedral angle (h = 4, 6, 6, 10, or 10). The ratio of the circumradius to the inradius is symmetric in p and q:" +"The surface area, A, of a Platonic solid {p, q} is easily computed as area of a regular p-gon times the number of faces F. This is:" +"The volume is computed as F times the volume of the pyramid whose base is a regular p-gon and whose height is the inradius r. That is," +"The following table lists the various radii of the Platonic solids together with their surface area and volume. The overall size is fixed by taking the edge length, a, to be equal to 2." +The constants φ and ξ in the above are given by +"Among the Platonic solids, either the dodecahedron or the icosahedron may be seen as the best approximation to the sphere. The icosahedron has the largest number of faces and the largest dihedral angle, it hugs its inscribed sphere the most tightly, and its surface area to volume ratio is closest to that of a sphere of the same size (i.e. either the same surface area or the same volume). The dodecahedron, on the other hand, has the smallest angular defect, the largest vertex solid angle, and it fills out its circumscribed sphere the most." +"For an arbitrary point in the space of a Platonic solid with circumradius R, whose distances to the centroid of the Platonic solid and its n vertices are L and di respectively, and" +"For all five Platonic solids, we have[7]" +"If di are the distances from the n vertices of the Platonic solid to any point on its circumscribed sphere, then[7]" +A polyhedron P is said to have the Rupert property if a polyhedron of the same or larger size and the same shape as P can pass through a hole in P.[8] +All five Platonic solids have this property.[8][9][10] +"Every polyhedron has a dual (or ""polar"") polyhedron with faces and vertices interchanged. The dual of every Platonic solid is another Platonic solid, so that we can arrange the five solids into dual pairs." +"If a polyhedron has Schläfli symbol {p, q}, then its dual has the symbol {q, p}. Indeed, every combinatorial property of one Platonic solid can be interpreted as another combinatorial property of the dual." +One can construct the dual polyhedron by taking the vertices of the dual to be the centers of the faces of the original figure. Connecting the centers of adjacent faces in the original forms the edges of the dual and thereby interchanges the number of faces and vertices while maintaining the number of edges. +"More generally, one can dualize a Platonic solid with respect to a sphere of radius d concentric with the solid. The radii (R, ρ, r) of a solid and those of its dual (R*, ρ*, r*) are related by" +Dualizing with respect to the midsphere (d = ρ) is often convenient because the midsphere has the same relationship to both polyhedra. Taking d2 = Rr yields a dual solid with the same circumradius and inradius (i.e. R* = R and r* = r). +"In mathematics, the concept of symmetry is studied with the notion of a mathematical group. Every polyhedron has an associated symmetry group, which is the set of all transformations (Euclidean isometries) which leave the polyhedron invariant. The order of the symmetry group is the number of symmetries of the polyhedron. One often distinguishes between the full symmetry group, which includes reflections, and the proper symmetry group, which includes only rotations." +"The symmetry groups of the Platonic solids are a special class of three-dimensional point groups known as polyhedral groups. The high degree of symmetry of the Platonic solids can be interpreted in a number of ways. Most importantly, the vertices of each solid are all equivalent under the action of the symmetry group, as are the edges and faces. One says the action of the symmetry group is transitive on the vertices, edges, and faces. In fact, this is another way of defining regularity of a polyhedron: a polyhedron is regular if and only if it is vertex-uniform, edge-uniform, and face-uniform." +"There are only three symmetry groups associated with the Platonic solids rather than five, since the symmetry group of any polyhedron coincides with that of its dual. This is easily seen by examining the construction of the dual polyhedron. Any symmetry of the original must be a symmetry of the dual and vice versa. The three polyhedral groups are:" +"The orders of the proper (rotation) groups are 12, 24, and 60 respectively – precisely twice the number of edges in the respective polyhedra. The orders of the full symmetry groups are twice as much again (24, 48, and 120). See (Coxeter 1973) for a derivation of these facts. All Platonic solids except the tetrahedron are centrally symmetric, meaning they are preserved under reflection through the origin." +The following table lists the various symmetry properties of the Platonic solids. The symmetry groups listed are the full groups with the rotation subgroups given in parentheses (likewise for the number of symmetries). Wythoff's kaleidoscope construction is a method for constructing polyhedra directly from their symmetry groups. They are listed for reference Wythoff's symbol for each of the Platonic solids. +"The tetrahedron, cube, and octahedron all occur naturally in crystal structures. These by no means exhaust the numbers of possible forms of crystals. However, neither the regular icosahedron nor the regular dodecahedron are amongst them. One of the forms, called the pyritohedron (named for the group of minerals of which it is typical) has twelve pentagonal faces, arranged in the same pattern as the faces of the regular dodecahedron. The faces of the pyritohedron are, however, not regular, so the pyritohedron is also not regular. Allotropes of boron and many boron compounds, such as boron carbide, include discrete B12 icosahedra within their crystal structures. Carborane acids also have molecular structures approximating regular icosahedra." +"In the early 20th century, Ernst Haeckel described (Haeckel, 1904) a number of species of Radiolaria, some of whose skeletons are shaped like various regular polyhedra. Examples include Circoporus octahedrus, Circogonia icosahedra, Lithocubus geometricus and Circorrhegma dodecahedra. The shapes of these creatures should be obvious from their names." +"Many viruses, such as the herpes[11] virus, have the shape of a regular icosahedron. Viral structures are built of repeated identical protein subunits and the icosahedron is the easiest shape to assemble using these subunits. A regular polyhedron is used because it can be built from a single basic unit protein used over and over again; this saves space in the viral genome." +"In meteorology and climatology, global numerical models of atmospheric flow are of increasing interest which employ geodesic grids that are based on an icosahedron (refined by triangulation) instead of the more commonly used longitude/latitude grid. This has the advantage of evenly distributed spatial resolution without singularities (i.e. the poles) at the expense of somewhat greater numerical difficulty." +"Geometry of space frames is often based on platonic solids. In the MERO system, Platonic solids are used for naming convention of various space frame configurations. For example, 1/2O+T refers to a configuration made of one half of octahedron and a tetrahedron." +"Several Platonic hydrocarbons have been synthesised, including cubane and dodecahedrane and not tetrahedrane." +"Platonic solids are often used to make dice, because dice of these shapes can be made fair. 6-sided dice are very common, but the other numbers are commonly used in role-playing games. Such dice are commonly referred to as dn where n is the number of faces (d8, d20, etc.); see dice notation for more details." +These shapes frequently show up in other games or puzzles. Puzzles similar to a Rubik's Cube come in all five shapes – see magic polyhedra. +"For the intermediate material phase called liquid crystals, the existence of such symmetries was first proposed in 1981 by H. Kleinert and K. Maki.[12][13]" +"In aluminum the icosahedral structure was discovered three years after this by Dan Shechtman, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2011." +"There exist four regular polyhedra that are not convex, called Kepler–Poinsot polyhedra. These all have icosahedral symmetry and may be obtained as stellations of the dodecahedron and the icosahedron." +"The next most regular convex polyhedra after the Platonic solids are the cuboctahedron, which is a rectification of the cube and the octahedron, and the icosidodecahedron, which is a rectification of the dodecahedron and the icosahedron (the rectification of the self-dual tetrahedron is a regular octahedron). These are both quasi-regular, meaning that they are vertex- and edge-uniform and have regular faces, but the faces are not all congruent (coming in two different classes). They form two of the thirteen Archimedean solids, which are the convex uniform polyhedra with polyhedral symmetry. Their duals, the rhombic dodecahedron and rhombic triacontahedron, are edge- and face-transitive, but their faces are not regular and their vertices come in two types each; they are two of the thirteen Catalan solids." +"The uniform polyhedra form a much broader class of polyhedra. These figures are vertex-uniform and have one or more types of regular or star polygons for faces. These include all the polyhedra mentioned above together with an infinite set of prisms, an infinite set of antiprisms, and 53 other non-convex forms." +"The Johnson solids are convex polyhedra which have regular faces but are not uniform. Among them are five of the eight convex deltahedra, which have identical, regular faces (all equilateral triangles) but are not uniform. (The other three convex deltahedra are the Platonic tetrahedron, octahedron, and icosahedron.)" +"The three regular tessellations of the plane are closely related to the Platonic solids. Indeed, one can view the Platonic solids as regular tessellations of the sphere. This is done by projecting each solid onto a concentric sphere. The faces project onto regular spherical polygons which exactly cover the sphere. Spherical tilings provide two infinite additional sets of regular tilings, the hosohedra, {2,n} with 2 vertices at the poles, and lune faces, and the dual dihedra, {n,2} with 2 hemispherical faces and regularly spaced vertices on the equator. Such tesselations would be degenerate in true 3D space as polyhedra." +"One can show that every regular tessellation of the sphere is characterized by a pair of integers {p, q} with 1/p + 1/q > 1/2. Likewise, a regular tessellation of the plane is characterized by the condition 1/p + 1/q = 1/2. There are three possibilities:" +"In a similar manner, one can consider regular tessellations of the hyperbolic plane. These are characterized by the condition 1/p + 1/q < 1/2. There is an infinite family of such tessellations." +"In more than three dimensions, polyhedra generalize to polytopes, with higher-dimensional convex regular polytopes being the equivalents of the three-dimensional Platonic solids." +"In the mid-19th century the Swiss mathematician Ludwig Schläfli discovered the four-dimensional analogues of the Platonic solids, called convex regular 4-polytopes. There are exactly six of these figures; five are analogous to the Platonic solids : 5-cell as {3,3,3}, 16-cell as {3,3,4}, 600-cell as {3,3,5}, tesseract as {4,3,3}, and 120-cell as {5,3,3}, and a sixth one, the self-dual 24-cell, {3,4,3}." +"In all dimensions higher than four, there are only three convex regular polytopes: the simplex as {3,3,...,3}, the hypercube as {4,3,...,3}, and the cross-polytope as {3,3,...,4}.[14] In three dimensions, these coincide with the tetrahedron as {3,3}, the cube as {4,3}, and the octahedron as {3,4}." \ No newline at end of file