title: Mariel boatlift

text: During the Mariel boatlift the McDuffie riots were raging in the Liberty City and Overtown neighborhoods of Miami. It has been argued the riots were exacerbated by the diversion of social and policing resources from African-American communities to care for Mariel refugees, and the anger at the perceived privileges Cuban refugees held compared to African Americans and Haitian refugees.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: Crowded conditions in South Florida immigration processing centers forced U.S. federal agencies to move many of the Marielitos to other centers in Fort Indiantown Gap; Fort McCoy; Camp Santiago, Puerto Rico; and Fort Chaffee. Federal civilian police agencies such as the General Services Administration's Federal Protective Service provided officers to maintain order inside the gates of the relocation centers. Riots occurred at the Fort Chaffee center and some detainees escaped, an event that became a campaign issue in the re-election defeat of Governor Bill Clinton.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: Most refugees were ordinary Cubans. Many had been allowed to leave Cuba for reasons that in the United States were loyalty-neutral or protected, such as tens of thousands were Seventh-Day Adventists or Jehovah's Witnesses. Some had been declared "antisocialist" in Cuba by their CDRs. In the end, only 2.2 percent (or 2,746) of the refugees were classified as serious or violent criminals under US law and denied citizenship on that basis.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: In 1984, the Mariel refugees from Cuba received permanent legal status under a revision to the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966. Haitians were instead considered to be economic refugees, which made them unable to get the same residency status as Cubans and therefore subject to deportation. Two years later, under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, all Cuban-Haitian entrants who had immigrated in 1980 were able to apply for permanent residency.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: By 1987, several hundred Marielitos were still detained because they were inadmissible under immigration law. Local police departments had also arrested around seven thousand Marielitos for felonies committed in the United States. Those arrested there served their prison sentences, only to be detained by INS as candidates for deportation.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: The United States-Cuba Migration Agreement of 1987 allowed for 3,000 former political prisoners to emigrate to the United States and allowed for the deportation of undesired Marielitos. After news of the agreement broke, many detained Marielitos in Oakdale and Atlanta prisons rioted and took hostages. The riots ended after an agreement was reached to stop deportations until all detainees were given a fair review of their deportation case. After 1987, the United States would continue to deport Marielitos who were deemed undesirable.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: By June 2016, 478 remained to be deported; according to the Department of Homeland Security, some are elderly or sick, and the Department had no desire to send these back to Cuba. Under a 2016 agreement with the Cuban government, the U.S. will deport the final remaining migrants deemed as serious criminals.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: An early response to address the aftermath of the Mariel Boatlift was the 1983 City of Miami's formation of the East Little Havana Task Force. Task Force members were appointed by the Miami City Commission, with urban planner and Cuban community leader Jesus Permuy named as its chair. It was tasked with studying the social and economic effects of the boatlift, particularly in Little Havana, which was an epicenter of the migration. The Task Force adjourned a year later and submitted its findings and official recommendations, called "The East Little Havana Redevelopment Plan", to the Miami City Commission and Mayor's Office in 1984.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: At the time, the Immigration and Naturalization Service identified 1,306 migrants as having "questionable" backgrounds. Scholars have found that many Mariel immigrants with criminal records were incarcerated for minor crimes that would not be considered crimes in the US, such as selling goods in the black market. Estimates assert that the Cuban refugees included 2,700 hardened criminals.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: A 1985 "Sun Sentinel" magazine article claimed that out of the around 125,000 refugees that entered the United States, around 16,000 to 20,000 were estimated to be criminals. In a 1985 report around 350 to 400 Mariel Cubans were reported to inhabit Dade County jails on a typical day.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: In a recent working paper, two economists Alexander Billy and Michael Packard have purportedly estimated the effects of the refugees on crime in Miami.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: About half of the Mariel immigrants decided to live in Miami permanently, which resulted in a 7 percent increase in workers in the Miami labor market and a 20 percent increase in the Cuban working population. Aside from the unemployment rate rising from 5.0 percent in April 1980 to 7.1 percent in July, the actual damage to the economy was marginal and followed trends across the United States at the time. When observing data from 1979 to 1985 on the Miami labor market and comparing it with similar data from several other major cities across the United States, focusing on wages, the effects of the boatlift were marginal. There have been several explanations offered for the findings by Card. According to economist Ethan Lewis, the Miami labor market had already seen an increase in "unskilled intensive manufactured goods," allowing it to offset the impact of the Cuban migrants. Miami also increased its diversity in manufacturing industries at a negligible rate compared to other US cities following the boat lift. According to data from the Annual Surveys of Manufacturers, Miami's Manufacturing industries regressed only .01 percentage points post-1980, which indicates a minimal impact from the boat lift on the labor market. Miami also experienced a limited increased in skilled laborers after the boat lift. According to data from Lewis, Miami experienced limited change in workers who were literate in computer use, factoring out to a .010 percentage change in skilled laborers than in Card's research.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: The wages for White Americans remained steady in both Miami and comparable cities. The wage rates for African Americans were relatively steady from 1979 to 1985 when in comparable cities it dropped. Apart from a dip in 1983, wage rates for non-Cuban Hispanics were stable, while in comparable cities it fell approximately 6 percent. There is no evidence of a negative effect on wage rates for other groups of Hispanics in Miami. Wages for Cubans demonstrated a steady decline especially compared with other groups in Miami at the time. This can be attributed exclusively to the "dilution" of the group with the new, less-experienced, and lower-earning Mariel immigrants, meaning that there is also no evidence of a negative effect on wage rates for Cubans living in Miami prior to 1980.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: The Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980 provided $100 million in cash and medical and social services and authorized approximately $5 million per year to facilitate the refugees' transition to American life. The 1980 Census was also adjusted to include Mariel children to ensure that additional assistance would be available to them through the Miami-Dade County Public Schools via Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).


title: Mariel boatlift

text: In 2016 Harvard economist George J. Borjas revisited David Card's analysis in light of new insights into immigration effects since 1990. He used the same current population survey (CPS) data. However, he focused only on workers who were


title: Mariel boatlift

text: The last characteristic was especially important since 60 percent of Marielitos did not complete high school. And even many of the remaining 40 percent who had completed high school were looking for unskilled jobs because of their lack of linguistic and other skills. Marielitos, therefore, competed directly with high-school dropouts.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: Borjas next compared the inflation-adjusted wages of Miami residents who had those characteristics with wages of the same segment of the American population in all other American metropolitan areas except Miami. His analysis shows that the Miami wages for native-born men without high-school diplomas were much lower than the wages for similar workers in other US metropolitan areas during the 1980s and then again in the late 1990s, following the two spikes of Cubans migrating to Miami.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: One of his conclusions was that during the 1980s, wages in Miami were a full 20 percent lower than they were elsewhere. In 2017, an analysis of Borjas' study on the effects of the boatlift concluded that Borjas' findings "may simply be spurious" and that his theory of the economic impact of the boatlift "doesn't fit the evidence." A number of other studies concluded the opposite of what Borjas' study had found.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: Writing for the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, the two economists Michael Clemens and Jennifer Hunt have claimed that conflicting results could be explained by the changes in the subsample composition of the CPS data. In 1980, the share of non-Hispanic blacks doubled in the subgroup of Miami male prime working-age high-school dropouts studied by Borjas. No similar increases occurred in the subgroups of populations in the control cities identified by either Card or Borjas. Since there was a large and significant difference between wages of black and nonblack high-school dropouts, the changing composition of the CSP subgroups created a spurious decline in the wages of the native population. According to Clemens and Hunt, the compositional effect accounts for the entire impact of the Mariel boatlift on the wages of native workers estimated by Borjas.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: Fidel Castro stated that those leaving in the Mariel boatlift were undesirable members of Cuban society. With Castro's condemnation and reports that prisoners and mental health patients were leaving in the exodus it was believed by some that Marielitos were undesirable deviants. Opponents of then U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party would hail the Mariel boatlift as a failure of his administration. Ronald Reagan would instead praise Marielitos in his ideological campaign against Cuba. The boatlift would also help spark policy demands for English-only government paperwork after Miami Dade County residents voted to remove Spanish as a second official language in November 1980. Former U.S. President Donald Trump's senior policy adviser Stephen Miller used the boatlift as evidence of the dangers of unchecked immigration.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: Initially, many Americans disapproved of the boatlift. According to a June 1980 poll conducted by CBS and the "New York Times", 71% of Americans disapproved of the boatlift and allowing Cuban nationals to settle in the United States.


title: Mariel boatlift

text: The boatlift has been the subject of a number of works of art, media, and entertainment. Examples include:


title: Through the Wire

text: "Through the Wire" is the debut single by American rapper Kanye West, who wrote and recorded the song with his jaw wired shut after a car crash in October 2002. The song samples Chaka Khan's 1985 single "Through the Fire" and was released on the last day of September 2003 as the lead single from his debut album "The College Dropout" (2004).


title: Through the Wire

text: "Through the Wire" peaked at number 15 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and received positive reviews from music critics. It was certified Platinum and Gold in the United States and United Kingdom, respectively. The song was nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance, but lost to Jay-Z's "99 Problems". The music video was financed by West, who was inspired by an Adidas advertisement. It won Video of the Year at the 2004 Source Hip Hop Awards.


title: Through the Wire

text: On October 23, 2002, West was in a California recording studio producing music for Beanie Sigel, Peedi Crakk, and The Black Eyed Peas. After leaving the studio at around 3 a.m. in his rented Lexus, he had a near-fatal crash when he was cut off by a car, ran head-on into traffic, and collided with another car near the W Hotel. He was taken to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, mentioned in the song as "the same hospital where Biggie Smalls died," and had his jaw wired to his face in reconstructive surgery. Two weeks after being admitted to the hospital, he recorded the song at the Record Plant Studios with his jaw still wired shut. Consequence recalls West started rapping the lyrics to the song three days after the crash.


title: Through the Wire

text: The song's title refers to the wires used to hold his broken jaw together. When asked about how the incident changed his music, West stated:


title: Through the Wire

text: The song originally appeared on West's mixtape "Get Well Soon..." where his wired jaw was incredibly noticeable, before being re-recorded and released as the first single from "The College Dropout" in late 2003. Although he initially had trouble convincing Roc-A-Fella Records executives to let him make his own album as a rapper, he was able to change their minds after the song's release.


title: Through the Wire

text: "Through the Wire" was inspired by the 2002 car crash and West has provided a comedic account of his difficult recovery. West samples a pitch-shifted and sped up version of Chaka Khan's 1985 single "Through the Fire". Coodie, one of the music video's directors, reported that Khan wouldn't initially allow the sample to be cleared until the video was shown to her son and he told Khan about it, leading to the sample being cleared about two weeks later. Khan later expressed her love for the track, calling West a "sweetheart, truly adorable" and the way he used the sample "so clever". However, in June 2019, Khan criticized West's unorthodox, highly pitchshifted use of the sample, calling it "stupid". West did not receive writing credit for the song, which instead went to David Foster, Tom Keane, and Cynthia Weil, who wrote "Through the Fire". West's rapping is described as "a Snoop-meets-Hova flow, twisting up his words with the patented 'izz' inflection."


title: Through the Wire

text: Dave Heaton of "PopMatters" called it "as riveting and moving as everyone says it is" and it "may be the album's most startling personal horror story (though it's also a song of hope and gratitude)". AllMusic's Andy Kellman said it was "a daring way to introduce himself to the masses "as an MC"" and it "couldn't have forged his dual status as underdog and champion any better." Kellman described the content as "heartbreaking and hysterical" and that despite his "inevitable slur, his words ring loud and clear".


title: Through the Wire

text: "The New York Times" Kelefa Sanneh described him as "a wounded hero beating the odds" and it "gave him a chance to prove that he was the exception to the rule that producers can't rap." "Stylus Magazine" called it "a poignant, pop-culture-packed account of Kanye’s near-fatal run-in with Chaka Khan". By rapping with his jaw sewed up, "The Source" noted that West used "the element of surprise to his advantage". HipHopDX listed the track as one of "the classics that created" the album's hype, and Pitchfork Media stated it was "chock-full-of-clever". "Vibe" magazine wrote that "West's sideways approach to music making stands out" on the track and the "raw, teeth-clenching narrative falls in line with his gutwrenching soul beats." At the 2005 Grammy Awards, the track was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance, which was won by Jay-Z's "99 Problems". The track was one of the Award Winning Songs at the 2005 BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards.


title: Through the Wire

text: As West's debut single, "Through the Wire" has been recognized as a jump-start for his career after the song was played on MTV. Director for the music video, Coodie, would say "The night of when he did the 'Through the Wire' premiere party at 40-40 Club, that was the night that was like, 'Oh shit.' That's when Def Jam started recognizing him. Everybody was blown away by the video and it just kept building from there. Then after that show on SOBs on October 1st, he was bonafide. He was popping. It was full-on Kanye season." Consequence would say to "Complex" on "The College Dropout"'s 10th anniversary, "The accident wound up being a blessing for him. Whatever diction issues he had, he came through with a super clear voice. That was like one of those pressure bursts pipes things." In 2010 and 2013, "Complex" would name "Through the Wire" the 10th best rap song from Chicago. "Pitchfork" included the song in "The Pitchfork 500", a 2008 guide to the 500 greatest songs from punk to the present, while "Rolling Stone" ranked the song at number fourteen on a list of the 100 Greatest Debut Singles of All Time in 2020.


title: Through the Wire

text: "Through the Wire" debuted at number ninety-four on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and peaked at number fifteen for five weeks. It remained on the chart for twenty-one weeks. It performed better on the urban contemporary charts, reaching number eight on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and number four on the Hot Rap Tracks. In the United Kingdom, it debuted at number nine on the UK Singles Chart where it peaked for two weeks and exited the chart after nine weeks. The track charted lower in other European countries, where it reached the top thirty in Ireland, Sweden, and the Netherlands, the top fifty in Belgium and Switzerland, and number sixty-one in Germany. Its maximum peak time in those countries lasted one week. The single entered the New Zealand Singles Chart at number twenty-four and peaked at number sixteen.


title: Through the Wire

text: On July 14, 2017, "Through the Wire" was certified Silver in the UK, nearly fourteen years after the single's release. It was certified Gold on September 10, 2021, over 4 years later and almost 18 years after its initial release. The single was certified Platinum in the US on November 20, 2018, fifteen years after its release.


title: Through the Wire

text: The music video was directed by Coodie and Chike and it premiered on August 3, 2003. It is a slideshow of videos and pictures of West producing and his crash seen through the frames of Polaroid pictures. West, who financed the video, conceived ideas for the clip after seeing an Adidas advertisement in "BlackBook" magazine. He stated, "I don't like gettin' ideas from direct shit ... I like to pull ideas from all the way over here. Sometimes my vision can't be explained in words, 'cause I couldn't have even told you in words how I envisioned that video ending up." Chike recalled the making of the clip, saying, "one day Coodie calls me out the blue about a concept he and Kanye had for a video revolving around Polaroid snapshots. I was leaving work at 7 PM only to come back at 10 PM, work all night then go home at 7 AM". Coodie stated that "If we would have wrote a treatment" for the video, "they would have shot that down. They had to see it to understand. Otherwise they'd have said, 'No, Kanye should be rapping at a party, with lots of girls poolside'". It was awarded the Video of the Year at the 2004 Source Hip Hop Awards.


title: Marcia Barrett

text: Marcia Barrett (born 14 October 1948) is a Jamaican-British singer and one of the original singers with the vocal group Boney M.


title: Marcia Barrett

text: Barrett was born in Saint Catherine Parish, British Jamaica; her parents brought her to Croydon, England in 1963. In the late 1960s she moved to Germany, where she joined a band and toured with Karel Gott and Rex Gildo. In 1971 she signed to Metronome Records and made her first record, "Could Be Love", written by Drafi Deutscher. At the same time she kept touring with such songs as "Son of a Preacher Man", "Oh Happy Day" and "Big Spender".


title: Marcia Barrett

text: In 1975 she joined Boney M., a group of models and dancers, to make discothèque and television performances of "Baby Do You Wanna Bump", a song recorded by record producer Frank Farian. The single was sold in the Benelux countries. When singer Claudja Barry left in early 1976, Barrett suggested a fellow Jamaican, Liz Mitchell, as replacement. Mitchell was a singer, and Farian engaged her and Barrett to make a follow-up recording, "Daddy Cool". They recorded Boney M.'s first album, "Take the Heat Off Me", in 1976. After an appearance on the German television programme "Musikladen" in September, the group was in the charts all over Europe, and a series of hit singles and albums followed over the next decade. Boney M. counted four official members, but only Barrett and Mitchell were in the recording studio when Boney M.'s records were recorded. Frank Farian (and, from 1982–85, Reggie Tsiboe) provided male vocals that dancer and live on tour singer Bobby Farrell mimed on tv..


title: Marcia Barrett

text: While Mitchell was regarded as the lead singer, owing to her larger number of songs on which she performed lead vocals, Barrett contributed harmony on many the group's well-known songs and shared the lead with Mitchell on hits such as "Daddy Cool", "Ma Baker", "Rasputin" and "Gotta Go Home". She also led on a couple of tracks on each of the group's studio albums up to "Christmas Album" (1981), including the title of the first album "Take the Heat off Me" and "Lovin' or Leavin'". These were released as a Barrett solo single in 1977. She sang lead vocal on "Belfast", a song she had performed live in her solo years, which became the second single from the second album "Love for Sale"; it was a German no. 1 and a European Top 10 hit. On that album she also performed "Silent Lover"


title: Marcia Barrett

text: On "Nightflight to Venus", Barrett sang "Nightflight To Venus" and a cover of "King of the Road" as well as the original "Never Change Lovers in the Middle of the Night" which became a standard during the group's performances. She sang the a capella intros of Boney M.'s 1978 Christmas hit, "Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord", and "Ribbons of Blue", was lead singer of "No Time to Lose" on the group's 1979 album "Oceans of Fantasy" and had a solo on the opening track "Let It All Be Music"


title: Marcia Barrett

text: After an unsuccessful solo single "You" in the late 1980s, written by Kelvin James, she abandoned her solo project. Farian took one of the songs written by James for her, "Breakaway", and used it on Boney M.'s next album "Boonoonoonoos"—with his own vocals on verses. Barrett, however, sang lead on the single "We Kill the World (Don't Kill the World)" in 1981. Although only a modest hit in the UK (#39), it topped the charts in Spain and South Africa. The group became less popular from 1982 onwards, when Bobby Farrell was replaced by Reggie Tsiboe.


title: Marcia Barrett

text: In 1983, Barrett was introduced to Eddy Grant who produced demos with her for CBS. Farian reminded her she was still contractually committed to Boney M. On their seventh album "Ten Thousand Lightyears" she is only occasionally heard on backing vocals. On their final album "Eye Dance", she can barely be heard, and on the group's reunion remix album, "Greatest Hits of All Times - Remix '88", her vocals were toned down on most tracks. After Liz Mitchell's departure during the 1989 tour, Madeleine Davis joined the group. When Farian announced he would not be making any new recordings, the group went to France to record "Everybody Wants to Dance Like Josephine Baker" with producer Barry Blue. She did all lead and backing vocals on the A-side, but Farian withdrew the single, angry that the group used the name Boney M. After a court case in 1990, the group members went their separate ways. Barrett was never involved in any of the Boney M. projects and recordings throughout the following decades.


title: Marcia Barrett

text: "Life after Boney M. – my dear, I've been through hell and back", Barrett said in a radio interview in November 2001. After the group split in 1990, Barrett was recording rock tracks in Munich when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She had a recurrence of her disease and was unable to work.


title: Marcia Barrett

text: By 1997, she began working with producer Scott Christina on dance tracks. The resulting album, "Survival", appeared in November 1999. Two new tracks, a solo of Boney M.'s No. 1 hit "Rivers of Babylon" and a new track called "Seasons" were played on a very small Dutch radio show, but neither track was released. In 2003, a benefit EP "No War! Peace and Love" was released as a protest against the US military intervention in Iraq, and generated $295 for the War Child charity.


title: Marcia Barrett

text: Barrett made her second album, "Come into My Life", in 2005. It included a cover of "Hey Joe", a new version of "Belfast", as well as original recordings written by her and her husband Marcus. In addition, a cover of Fleetwood Mac's instrumental "Albatross", for which Barrett had been allowed to add her own lyrics by its composer Peter Green, and the song "Rip It Up" were also part of the track listing.


title: Marcia Barrett

text: She also toured with her own version of Boney M. She attended with Liz Mitchell and Frank Farian at the London and Berlin premières of the "Daddy Cool" musical. In October 2007, she turned down a song for the album "Disco 2008", a project by UK music producer Ian Levine. In October, she and her Boney M. were invited by President Mikhail Saakashvili to perform in South Ossetia.


title: Marcia Barrett

text: In 2009, she started Xoah Records. The first release on the label was a remix of her "Survival" track "Seeing Is Believing", released on 6 March 2009, followed by "I Don't Know Why". While her third solo album "Strange Rumours" had been announced to follow, the album was put on hold when she was hit by another bout of cancer.


title: Marcia Barrett

text: Barrett is currently living in Berlin with her husband Marcus James (married in 1984) who was guitarman in the band of Eddy Grant. Marcia has a son who was born in the UK when Marcia was aged 16.


title: Marcia Barrett

text: June 2018 saw Barretts biography "Forward - My life with and without Boney M." being published. A German edition of her biography was also published with the title "Immer weiter: Mein Leben mit und ohne Boney M."


title: Countertenor

text: A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G to D or E, although a sopranist (a specific kind of countertenor) may match the soprano's range of around C to C. Countertenors often are baritones or tenors at core, but only on rare occasions do they use their lower vocal range, instead preferring their falsetto or high head voice.


title: Countertenor

text: The nature of the countertenor voice has radically changed throughout musical history, from a modal voice, to a modal and falsetto voice, to the primarily falsetto voice which is denoted by the term today. This is partly because of changes in human physiology and partly because of fluctuations in pitch.


title: Countertenor

text: The term first came into use in England during the mid-17th century and was in wide use by the late 17th century. However, the use of adult male falsettos in polyphony, commonly in the soprano range, was known in European all-male sacred choirs for some decades previous, as early as the mid-16th century. Modern-day ensembles such as the Tallis Scholars and the Sixteen have countertenors on alto parts in works of this period. There is no evidence that falsetto singing was known in Britain before the early 17th century, when it was occasionally heard on soprano parts.


title: Countertenor

text: In the second half of the 20th century, there was great interest in and renewed popularity of the countertenor voice, partly due to pioneers such as Alfred Deller, as well as the increased popularity of Baroque opera and the need of male singers to replace the castrati roles in such works. Although the voice has been considered largely an early music phenomenon, there is a growing modern repertoire collection for countertenors, especially in contemporary music.


title: Countertenor

text: In polyphonic compositions of the 14th and early 15th centuries, the "contratenor" was a voice part added to the basic two-part contrapuntal texture of discant ("superius") and tenor (from the Latin "tenere" which means to hold, since this part "held" the music's melody, while the "superius" descanted upon it at a higher pitch). Though having approximately the same range as the tenor, it was generally of a much less melodic nature than either of these other two parts. With the introduction in about 1450 of four-part writing by composers such as Ockeghem and Obrecht, the "contratenor" split into "contratenor altus" and "contratenor bassus", which were respectively above and below the tenor. Later the term became obsolete: in Italy, "contratenor altus" became simply "altus", in France, "haute-contre", and in England, countertenor. Though originally these words were used to designate a vocal part, they are now used to describe singers of that part, whose vocal techniques may differ (see below).


title: Countertenor

text: In the Catholic Church during the Renaissance, St Paul's admonition ""mulieres in ecclesiis taceant"" ("let the women keep silence in the churches") still prevailed, and women were banned from singing in church services. Countertenors, though rarely described as such, therefore found a prominent part in liturgical music, whether singing a line alone or with boy trebles or altos. (Spain had a long tradition of male falsettists singing soprano lines). However, countertenors were hardly ever used for roles in early opera, the rise of which coincided with the arrival of a fashion for castrati. For example, the latter took several roles in the first performance of Monteverdi's "L'Orfeo" (1607). Castrati were already prominent by this date in Italian church choirs, replacing both falsettists and trebles; the last soprano falsettist singing in Rome, Juan [Johannes de] San[c]tos (a Spaniard), died in 1652. In Italian opera, by the late seventeenth century castrati predominated, while in France, the modal high tenor, called the "haute-contre", was established as the voice of choice for leading male roles.


title: Countertenor

text: In England Purcell wrote significant music for a higher male voice that he called a "counter-tenor", for example, the roles of Secrecy and Summer in "The Fairy-Queen" (1692). "These lines have often challenged modern singers, who have been unsure whether they are high tenor parts or are meant for falsettists". Contemporary vocal treatises, however, make clear that Purcell’s singers would have been trained to blend both methods of vocal production. In Purcell's choral music the situation is further complicated by the occasional appearance of more than one solo part designated "countertenor", but with a considerable difference in range and tessitura. Such is the case in "Hail, bright Cecilia" ("The Ode on St Cecilia's Day 1692") in which the solo, "'Tis Nature's Voice," has the range F to B (similar to those stage roles cited previously), whereas, in the duet, "Hark each tree," the countertenor soloist sings from E to D (in the trio "With that sublime celestial lay". Later in the same work, Purcell's own manuscript designates the same singer, Mr Howel, described as "a High Contra tenor" to perform in the range G to C; it is very likely that he took some of the lowest notes in a well-blended "chest voice" – see below).


title: Countertenor

text: "The Purcell counter-tenor 'tenor' did not flourish in England much beyond the early years of the [eighteenth] century; within twenty years of Purcell's death Handel had settled in London and "opera seria", which was underpinned entirely by Italian singing, soon became entrenched in British theatres". In parallel, by Handel's time, castrati had come to dominate the English operatic stage as much as that of Italy (and indeed most of Europe outside France). They also took part in several of Handel's oratorios, though countertenors, too, occasionally featured as soloists in the latter, the parts written for them being closer in compass to the higher ones of Purcell, with a usual range of A to E. They also sang the alto parts in Handel's choruses. It was as choral singers within the Anglican church tradition (as well as in the secular genre of the glee) that countertenors survived as performers throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Otherwise they largely faded from public notice.


title: Countertenor

text: The most visible person of the countertenor revival in the twentieth century was Alfred Deller, an English singer and champion of authentic early music performance. Deller initially identified as an "alto", but his collaborator Michael Tippett recommended the archaic term "countertenor" to describe his voice. In the 1950s and 60s, his group, the Deller Consort, was important in increasing audiences' awareness (and appreciation) of Renaissance and Baroque music. Deller was the first modern countertenor to achieve fame and has had many prominent successors. Benjamin Britten wrote the leading role of Oberon in his setting of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1960) especially for Deller. The countertenor role of Apollo in Britten's "Death in Venice" (1973) was created by James Bowman, the best-known amongst the next generation of English countertenors. Russell Oberlin was Deller's American counterpart and another early music pioneer. Oberlin's success was entirely unprecedented in a country that did not have much experience of performance of works prior to Bach, and it paved the way for the great success of countertenors following him. Oberlin, however, harked back to the earlier tradition of countertenors using only their modal voices.


title: Countertenor

text: Today, countertenors are much in demand in many forms of classical music. In opera, many roles originally written for castrati (castrated males) are now sung and recorded by countertenors, as are some trouser roles originally written for female singers. The former category is much more numerous and includes Orfeo in Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice" and many Handel roles, such as the name parts in "Rinaldo", "Giulio Cesare", "Serse" and "Orlando", and Bertarido in "Rodelinda". Mozart also had castrati roles in his operas, including Aminta in "Il re pastore", Cecilio in "Lucio Silla", Ramiro in "La finta giardiniera", Idamante in "Idomeneo", and Sesto in "La clemenza di Tito".


title: Countertenor

text: Many modern composers other than Britten have written, and continue to write, countertenor parts, both in choral works and opera, as well as songs and song-cycles for the voice. Men's choral groups such as Chanticleer and The King's Singers employ the voice to great effect in a variety of genres, including early music, gospel, and even folk songs. Other recent operatic parts written for the countertenor voice include Edgar in Aribert Reimann's "Lear" (1978), the messenger in his "Medea" (2010), Prince Go-Go in György Ligeti's "Le Grand Macabre" (1978), the title role in Philip Glass's "Akhnaten" (1983), Claire in John Lunn's "The Maids" (1998), the Refugee in Jonathan Dove's "Flight" (1998), Trinculo in Thomas Adès's "The Tempest" (2004), the Boy in George Benjamin's "Written on Skin" (2012) and several others (see Roles in opera below).


title: Countertenor

text: The vocal range of a countertenor is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types. A trained countertenor will typically have a vocal center similar in placement to that of a contralto or mezzo-soprano. Peter Giles, a professional countertenor and noted author on the subject, defines the countertenor as a musical part rather than as a vocal style or mechanism. In modern usage, the term "countertenor" is essentially equivalent to the medieval term "contratenor altus" (see above). In this way, a countertenor singer can be operationally defined as a man who sings the countertenor part, whatever vocal style or mechanism is employed. The countertenor range is generally equivalent to an alto range, extending from approximately G to D or E. In comparison to female voices the male voice usually has an extended range towards the low notes, but the lowest parts of the range are usually not used. In actual practice, it is generally acknowledged that a majority of countertenors sing with a falsetto vocal production for at least the upper half of this range, although most use some form of "chest voice" (akin to the range of their speaking voice) for the lower notes. The most difficult challenge for such a singer is managing the lower middle range, for there are normally a few notes (around B) that can be sung with either vocal mechanism, and the transition between registers must somehow be blended or smoothly managed.


title: Countertenor

text: In response to the (in his view) pejorative connotation of the term falsetto, Giles refuses to use it, calling the upper register "head voice." Many voice experts would disagree with this choice of terminology, reserving the designation "head voice" for the high damped register accompanied by a relatively low larynx that is typical of modern high operatic tenor voice production. The latter type of head voice is, in terms of the vocal cord vibration, actually more similar to "chest voice" than to falsetto, since it uses the same "speaking voice" production (referred to as "modal" by voice scientists), and this is reflected in the timbre.


title: Countertenor

text: Particularly in the British choral tradition, the terms "male soprano" and "male alto" serve to identify men who rely on falsetto vocal production, rather than the modal voice, to sing in the soprano or alto vocal range. Elsewhere, the terms have less universal currency. Some authorities do accept them as descriptive of male falsettists, although this view is subject to controversy; they would reserve the term "countertenor" for men who, like Russell Oberlin, achieve a soprano range voice with little or no falsetto, equating it with "haute-contre" and the Italian "tenor altino". Adherents to this view maintain that a countertenor will have unusually short vocal cords and consequently a higher speaking voice and lower range and tessitura than their falsettist counterparts, perhaps from D to D. Operatic vocal classification, on the other hand, prefers the terms "countertenor" and "sopranist" to "male soprano" and "male alto," and some scholars consider the latter two terms inaccurate owing to physiological differences between male and female vocal production. The only known man who can claim to be a true male soprano by that definition is Michael Maniaci, whose modal voice falls in the soprano range, akin to a woman's, because his larynx did not develop fully in puberty.


title: Denso

text: After becoming independent from Toyota Motor, the company was founded as in 1949. About 25% of the company is owned by Toyota. Despite being a part of the Toyota Group of companies, as of the year ending March 2016, sales to the Toyota Group accounted for less than 50% of total revenue (44% of revenue originated from other car manufacturers in Japan, Germany, the U.S. and China). In 2016, Denso was the fourth largest auto parts supplier in the world.


title: Denso

text: In 2022, Denso was listed at #278 on the Fortune Global 500 list with a total revenue of $49.0 billion and 167,950 employees.


title: Denso

text: As of 2021, DENSO Corporation consisted of 200 consolidated subsidiaries (64 in Japan, 23 in North America, 32 in Europe, 74 in Asia, and seven in Oceania and other regions).


title: Denso

text: The company develops and manufactures various auto parts, including gasoline and diesel engine components, hybrid vehicle components, climate control systems, instrument clusters, airbag systems, pre-crash radar systems, and spark plugs. Denso also develops and manufactures non-automotive components, such as household heating equipment and industrial robots. A Denso industrial robot gained wide public attention in Japan when it conducted a game of shogi against professional players.


title: Denso

text: In June 2020, Denso announced the opening of its "Electrification Innovation Center" at its plant in Anjō. The facility will support the company’s development of products and technologies for electric and hybrid vehicles.


title: Denso

text: Denso Wave is a subsidiary that produces automatic identification products (barcode readers and related products), industrial robots, and programmable logic controllers. They are noted for creating the two-dimensional QR code, are a member of the Japan Robot Association, and support the ORiN standard.


title: Denso

text: In 1970, Denso Corporation decided to expand overseas from Kariya, Japan, to North America. Denso Sales California, Inc., was founded in Hawthorne, California, in March 1971. The company was staffed with only 12 associates, four of them being Americans. The objective of Denso Sales California was to promote their air conditioner systems as options in Japanese-made vehicles.


title: Denso

text: In September 1975, Denso International America opened a service center in Cedar Falls, Iowa. This was opened due to an agricultural parts contract with John Deere that included starter motors and meters.


title: Denso

text: Denso International America employs over 17,000 people at 38 locations between North, Central, and South America. At year end, on March 31, 2008, combined sales totaled $8.3 billion for all American locations.


title: Denso

text: As Denso is a part of the Toyota Group, it also assists Toyota in participating and developing their cars for different motorsports categories. Denso manufactures customised electronics and different auto-parts specifically for Toyota-Lexus motorsports development divisions Toyota Racing Development and the European motorsports facility of the company Toyota Gazoo Racing previously named Toyota Motorsports GmbH located in Germany. Denso plays a vital role as an OEM by specifically engineering auto-parts and electronics for Toyota in motorsports which mainly include spark plugs, starter motors, fuel pumps, alternators, Engine Control Module (ECM) computer systems, engine & transmission sensors and many other high-performance automotive and motor racing equipments and accessories for Toyota to compete in a variety of motorsports categories which include NASCAR, Formula One (from 2002-2009), World Rally Championship, and World Endurance Championship. The Toyota TS030 Hybrid, using a Denso kinetic energy recovery system, finished second in the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans.


title: Denso

text: Denso products are also used in many local Japanese motorsports, including Super Formula and Super GT.


title: Denso

text: On January 30, 2012, the US Justice Department announced after two years of investigation that it had discovered part of a massive price fixing scheme in which Denso and Yazaki played a significant role. The conspiracy, which fixed prices and allocated components to such car manufacturers as Toyota and Honda, extended from Michigan to Japan, where it was also under investigation. Denso agreed to pay a fine of $78 million.


title: Denso

text: In August 2020, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Quebec over alleged defective fuel pumps in a number of Acura, Honda, Lexus, Subaru, and Toyota vehicle models. A separate fuel pump lawsuit was filed for the remaining areas of Canada.


title: Tourist attraction

text: A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement.


title: Tourist attraction

text: Places of natural beauty such as beaches, tropical island resorts, national parks, mountains, deserts and forests, are examples of traditional tourist attractions which people may visit. Cultural tourist attractions can include historical places, sites of significant historic event, monuments, ancient temples, zoos, aquaria, museums and art galleries, botanical gardens, buildings and structures (such as forts, castles, libraries, former prisons, skyscrapers, bridges), theme parks and carnivals, living history museums, public art (sculptures, statues, murals), ethnic enclave communities, historic trains and cultural events. Factory tours, industrial heritage, creative art and crafts workshops are the object of cultural niches like industrial tourism and creative tourism. Many tourist attractions are also landmarks. But sports events such as a soccer game, Formula 1 race or sailing regatta can also attract tourists.


title: Tourist attraction

text: Tourists' expectations when visiting a particular place are related to several features of the chosen destination: culture, architecture, gastronomy, infrastructure, landscape, events, shopping, etc. These features attract people to the destination and contribute to the overall experience of the trip. The ultimate primary purpose of attractions is to attract the customer's attention so that they can come to a specific location and explore the various attractions on vacation. In the travel and tourism industry, attractions therefore play a particularly important role as this attracts tourists from all over the world.


title: Tourist attraction

text: Tourist attractions are also created to capitalize on legends such as a supposed UFO crash site near Roswell, New Mexico and the alleged Loch Ness monster sightings in Scotland. Ethnic communities may become tourist attractions, such as Chinatowns in the United States and the black British neighborhood of Brixton in London, England. Tourists also look for special local culinary experiences such as street kitchens in Asian metropolises or the coffeehouse culture in Central Europe. In particular, cultural property and the individual places of the UNESCO World Heritage Site have developed into tourist attractions. If too many tourists frequent individual places, this can lead to environmental pollution and resistance from the local population, such as in Barcelona or Venice. With regard to this whole subject, there are already lists of destinations that are not recommended to tourists.


title: Tourist attraction

text: There are innumerable lists and reviews of tourist attractions. Visitor statistics, cultural significance, beauty or age are used and these always reflect the author's personal assessments. Sometimes it is particularly emphasized that this particular tourist attraction has not yet been in the focus of the international tourism industry. Some of the sights are internationally known or target the national or local market. Some attractions are reserved for the local population or are rarely advertised because the main traffic routes and main airports are too far away.


title: Tourist attraction

text: In the United States, owners and marketers of attractions advertise tourist attractions on billboards along the sides of highways and roadways, especially in remote areas. Tourist attractions often distribute free promotional brochures to be displayed in rest areas, information centers, fast food restaurants, and motel rooms or lobbies.


title: Tourist attraction

text: While some tourist attractions provide visitors a memorable experience for a reasonable admission charge or even for free, others may be of low quality and overprice their goods and services (such as admission, food, and souvenirs) in order to profit excessively from tourists. Such places are commonly known as tourist traps. Within cities, rides on boats and sightseeing buses are sometimes popular.


title: Tourist attraction

text: Novelty attractions are oddities such as the "biggest ball of twine" in Cawker City, Kansas, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, or Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska, where old cars serve in the place of stones in a replica of Stonehenge. Novelty attractions are not limited to the American Midwest, but are part of Midwestern culture.


title: Tourist attraction

text: A tourist destination is a city, town, or other area that is significantly dependent on revenues from tourism, or "a country, state, region, city, or town which is marketed or markets itself as a place for tourists to visit". It may contain one or more tourist attractions and possibly some "tourist traps". Sonamarg ,Kashmir, for example ,is a famous tourist destination in India. Fátima town, for example, is a popular tourist destination in Portugal. Siem Reap town is a popular tourist destination in Cambodia, mainly owing to its proximity to the Angkor temples. The Loire valley, the third tourist destination in France, is a good example of a region marketed and branded as a place for tourists to visit, mainly known for its Châteaux of the Loire valley.


title: Tourist attraction

text: A tropical island resort is an island or archipelago that depends on tourism as its source of revenue. The Bahamas in the Caribbean, Bali in Indonesia, Phuket in Thailand, Hawaii in the United States, Fiji in the Pacific, and Santorini and Ibiza in the Mediterranean are examples of popular island resorts.


title: Tourist attraction

text: France, the United States, and Spain were the three most popular international destinations in 2017. The total number of international travelers arriving in those countries was about 234 million, contributing 8.9%, 7.7%, and 14.9%, respectively, to the total GDP of those countries.


title: Tourist attraction

text: Although some years back, Africa was lean on tourism, the continent is currently regarded as the second fastest growing tourism region with over 67 million tourists visits to Africa in 2018. Ethiopia, with a growth rate of 48.6% in 2018, is at the top of the list of African tourist centers. Other tourist locations in Africa include Cape Town, South Africa, Giza Necropolis, Egypt, The Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and Zambia.


title: Tourist attraction

text: From the tourism industry supply perspective, a destination is usually defined by a geo-political boundary, and destination marketing is most commonly funded by governments. From the traveler perspective, a destination might be perceived quite differently.


title: Tourist attraction

text: Tourism generates substantial economic benefits for both host countries and tourists' home countries. Especially in developing countries, one of the primary motivations for a region to promote itself as a tourism destination is the expected economic benefit. According to the World Tourism Organization, 698 million people travelled to a foreign country in 2000, spending more than US$478 billion. International tourism receipts combined with passenger transport currently total more than US$575 billion – making tourism the world's number one export earner.


title: Tourist attraction

text: In the event of war, many tourist attractions are a special goal in order to cause lasting damage to the enemy or to finance the war. International attempts are therefore made to protect and preserve these economic and cultural foundations of a community, city or country. There is intensive cooperation between the United Nations, UNESCO and Blue Shield International on the protection of cultural goods and UNESCO World Heritage Sites. However, cooperation between organizations and state authorities is not enough to prevent destruction, robbery and looting. The founding president of Blue Shield International Karl von Habsburg summed it up with the words: “Without the local community and without the local participants, that would be completely impossible”.


title: LA Knight

text: Shaun Ricker (born November 1, 1982) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name LA Knight. Ricker is known for his time in Impact Wrestling as Eli Drake. Ricker has also worked extensively on the U.S. independent wrestling circuit, and has been signed by prominent promotions like Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).


title: LA Knight

text: Ricker began his wrestling career in 2003 on the independent circuit. He later joined the then-NWA-affiliated Championship Wrestling from Hollywood in 2010. After leaving CWFH in 2013, Ricker signed a developmental contract with WWE and performed on its then-developmental territory of NXT as "Slate Randall" before being released in 2014. Ricker then signed with Impact Wrestling (then named Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) in 2015. Ricker found great success in Impact/TNA, holding the Impact Global Championship, the TNA King of the Mountain Championship, and the Impact World Tag Team Championship (with Scott Steiner), once each. He also won Impact's Feast or Fired briefcase twice.


title: LA Knight

text: After leaving Impact in 2019, Ricker signed with the recently-rebooted NWA, and held the NWA World Tag Team Championship (with James Storm) once. Ricker left the NWA in 2021 to resign with WWE. His character name changed to LA Knight, and he was again assigned to NXT (which became a third brand on par with Raw and SmackDown). Upon calling up to the SmackDown brand in 2022, Ricker was repackaged as a fashion designer character named Max Dupri before reverting to his LA Knight persona. He is considered one of the best talkers of the modern professional wrestling era.


title: LA Knight

text: Outside of wrestling, Ricker appeared as a cast member on the TNT reality series "The Hero", hosted by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. He also appeared in an episode of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" in 2015.


title: LA Knight

text: Ricker began working regularly for the Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) in 2003 under the ring name Deuce. On November 9, 2004, Deuce would win the HWA Television Championship and lost it on January 4, 2005.


title: LA Knight

text: In December 2010, Ricker moved to work for the promotion NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood. He rejoined forces with Brian Cage, reforming The Natural Selection tag team and won the NWA Heritage Tag Team Championship on December 8, from The RockNES Monsters. After holding the titles for over 200 days and defending them against the likes of Young Hollywood and Rasche Brown and Slymm, the Natural Selection lost them to The Tribe due to the Brian Cage missing the event and becoming a two on one handicap match. Understandably upset after Cage's actions, Ricker would feud with him for several months, staying even on victories until late 2012 when Ricker defeated Cage.


title: LA Knight

text: After this win, Ricker earned a shot at Adam Pearce's NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship which took place on December 4 and Ricker lost. Throughout 2012, Ricker would aim high, trying to earn himself a championship shot which included numerous battle royals and even made it to the finals of the Percy Pringle III Cup where the winner would earn a shot at any championship, any time, any place. Rickers feud with Cage would resurface in late 2012 and culminated in a casket match which Ricker won. With this massive win Ricker finally found singles success in by winning the 30-Man Red Carpet Rumble for the CWFH Heritage Heavyweight Championship in homage to his late friend and manager Percy Pringle on May 5, 2013 and successfully defended it that same night against Ryan Taylor.


title: LA Knight

text: Ricker would lose the championship to Scorpio Sky in a loser leaves Hollywood match later that night, this match was scheduled to air on June 2, on tape delay, but was never aired due to the controversial finish. After the cameras went off Ricker got on the mic and thanked all of the fans for coming out. He said this would be the last time we would see him in a ring for Championship Wrestling from Hollywood. All of the wrestlers came out from the back and gave Ricker a standing ovation. However, he made one more final appearance defeating Scorpio Sky's fellow Experience members Big Duke and Xtian Cole, making it his final television appearance.


title: LA Knight

text: Ricker made his first WWE appearance in 2008 in a dark match on "ECW", teaming with Gene Snitsky in a losing effort against Cryme Tyme. He also appeared in 2011 during a segment between CM Punk and Kevin Nash in the role of a security guard (the infamous text message promo).


title: LA Knight

text: In May 2013, the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" reported that Ricker, along with several other independent wrestlers, was undergoing the necessary medical testing required to be signed to WWE. He reported to the WWE Performance Center. Ricker, using the new ring name Slate Randall, defeated Yoshi Tatsu in a dark match during the October 2013 television tapings of "NXT". Following that win, he only competed as an enhancement talent for NXT, losing to names such as Mason Ryan, Baron Corbin, and Mojo Rawley. His final match was on May 2, 2014 at an NXT Live event. On August 1, 2014, he was released from his WWE contract. Ricker would later say his release was due to not getting along with then-NXT head trainer Bill Demott (whom WWE would later fire after allegations of Demott's abusive behaviors toward several wrestlers became widely reported by wrestling news sites).


title: LA Knight

text: After his release from WWE, Ricker returned to wrestling on the independent circuit. On September 5, at Full Impact Pro's "Fallout", he (along with Mason Ryan and Michael Tarver) participated in a trios tournament, but they were defeated by the Full Impact Puerto Ricans (Lince Dorado, Jay Cruz, and Jay Rios) in the semifinals. On November 21, 2014, Ricker defeated Kenny King at FSW Luck of the Draw. He made his return to Championship Wrestling from Hollywood for two appearances before he signed to Impact Wrestling in early 2015.


title: LA Knight

text: In his first match following the Impact Wrestling controversy, Drake lost a fatal four way at Maverick Pro Wrestling's May 11, 2019 event. On August 17, 2019, Drake made his debut for World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico at WWC Aniversario wrestling Carlito Colon.


title: LA Knight

text: On February 16, 2015, Ricker participated in TNA One Night Only's TNA Gut Check tournament, defeating Crazzy Steve to qualify for the final match of the night, which was a five-way elimination match won by Tevita Fifita. On March 14, 2015, Ricker, under the name Eli Drake, participated in the "Impact Wrestling" tapings, joining Drew Galloway and Micah to form The Rising and defeating The Beat Down Clan. On the July 1 episode of "Impact Wrestling", The Beat Down Clan defeated The Rising in a 4-on-3 handicap match, forcing The Rising to dissolve. On the July 15 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake turned heel when he cost Galloway a match against the TNA World Heavyweight Champion Ethan Carter III. At No Surrender on August 5, Drake defeated Galloway. On the August 19 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake faced Galloway in a No Disqualification Match, which he lost.


title: LA Knight

text: On October 4, 2015, at Bound for Glory, Drake competed in a twelve-man Bound For Gold Gauntlet match which was won by Tyrus. Drake participated in the TNA World Title Series as a member of group Future 4, along with Jessie Godderz, Micah and Crimson advancing the round of 16 along with Godderz where he lost in the round of 16 to Mahabali Shera, thus failing to advance to the quarterfinals and being eliminated from the tournament. On January 5, 2016, the first live edition of "Impact Wrestling" episode on Pop Eli, Drake and Jessie Godderz started feuding with Kurt Angle and Drew Galloway, leading to a match at TNA One Night Only Live, which was won by The Wolves.


title: LA Knight

text: On January 26, 2016, Drake won the Feast or Fired match and the briefcase that contained a title shot for the future TNA King Of The Mountain Championship. On the February 9 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake was attacked by Grado who had been fired after his Feast or Fired briefcase contained the pink slip. Later that night Drake interrupted him backstage and told him "he better shut up about whatever he thinks he knows" and then attacked Grado again and had him escorted out of the building through the tunnel. Drake feuded with Grado once again who was masked as Odarg the Great feuding him backstage with Jessie Godderz and telling him he was going to be facing against him. This led the match on the February 16 episode of Impact Wrestling, which he lost, and led to the rematch at TNA Lockdown special episode of Impact Wrestling in the Six Sides of Steel match, in which he's unsuccessful due to interference from the returning Mahabali Shera who went on to team with Odarg the Great and pulling his mask off from his face. On the March 15 live edition of Impact Wrestling he received another rematch against Grado in a Ladder match, the career of Grado on the line, however he was defeated by Grado to end the feud.


title: LA Knight

text: On the May 31 episode of "Impact on Pop", Drake cashed in his Feast or Fired briefcase for his shot at the TNA King of the Mountain Championship, defeating Bram who was just viciously attacked by Lashley, winning his first title in TNA. On June 12 at Slammiversary, Drake defeated Bram to retain the championship. On the June 28 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake hosted a "Fact of Life" segment, inviting James Storm as his guest, where he proceeded to insult him; Storm eventually hit Drake with the Last Call, igniting a feud between the two. The next week on the July 5 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake defended the King of the Mountain Championship against Storm, but intentionally disqualified himself to save the title. However, on the August 4 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake lost the King of the Mountain Championship to James Storm. Drake entered in the Impact Grand Championship tournament on the September 8 episode of "Impact Wrestling", defeating Jessie Godderz in the first round. However, he was defeated by Aron Rex on the September 22 episode of "Impact Wrestling" in the semi final. At Bound for Glory Drake won the Bound for Gold. On the October 6 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake started a feud against Ethan Carter III, after his "Fact of Life" segment. On the October 27 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Eli Drake and Aron Rex defeated Ethan Carter III and Jessie Godderz in a tag-team match. On the November 10 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake cashed in his Bound for Gold opportunity but failed to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Eddie Edwards. On the November 24 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake faced EC3 in a title shot vs. voice match where if Ethan lost, he would lose his Heavyweight title shot and if Drake lost, he would not be able to talk for the rest of 2016. EC3 won the match by submission.


title: LA Knight

text: On the January 5 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Eli Drake had a confrontation against The Broken Hardys during his returning "Fact of Life" segment, which led to a tag team match for their TNA World Tag Team Championship at , teaming with Tyrus, which never happened. However, his association with Tyrus continued, Tyrus helping him to take the red case during the Race for the Case on the January 19 episode of "Impact Wrestling". On the February 2 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake cashed in his Race for the Case briefcase for a match against Ethan Carter III, but was defeated. After the match, he and Tyrus attacked EC3, but they were assaulted by the Death Crew Council. On the February 9 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Eli Drake and Tyrus were defeated by The Death Crew Council in a handicap match. During the match, Drake abandoned Tyrus. A match was scheduled between Drake and Tyrus two weeks later, which ended in a victory of Tyrus by disqualification. After the match, Drake proposed more money to Tyrus for keeping him as a bodyguard, which Tyrus accepted. On the March 16 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake and Tyrus were defeated by Garza Jr. and Laredo Kid. During the match, Drake unintentionally hit Tyrus, causing the loss. On the April 13 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake and Tyrus, alongside Bram and Lashley as Team Josh Mathews were defeated by Team Jeremy Borash (Alberto El Patron, Chris Adonis, Magnus and Matt Morgan).


title: LA Knight

text: On the May 4 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake was defeated by Alberto El Patron and failed to be the number one contender for the GFW Global Championship. The following week, with the help of Tyrus and Chris Adonis, he attacked Impact Grand champion Moose after his match against Marshe Rockett. On the June 1 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake was defeated by Moose and failed to win the Impact Grand Championship. At Slammiversary, Drake and Chris Adonis were defeated by Moose and DeAngelo Williams.


title: LA Knight

text: On the August 24 episode of "Impact!", Drake won a 20-man gauntlet match, from the second entrant position, to win the vacant GFW Global Championship for the first time. This was Drake's first world title reign from a major wrestling promotion in his career. The title would be then renamed to the Impact Global Championship. Drake would defend the title against Matt Sydal on "Impact" and against Cody Hall in Japan for Pro Wrestling Noah. He would soon begin feuding with Johnny Impact for the title as Drake retained the title against Impact at Victory Road after repeated interference from Adonis and a low blow. This would lead to a rematch between Drake and Impact for the title at Bound for Glory, where Drake retained again after the returning Alberto El Patron hit Impact with a steel chair. Drake would retain the title against Impact and El Patron in a Six Sides of Steel match at Genesis. He lost the title on the February 1 episode of "Impact Wrestling" against the returning Austin Aries, ending his reign at 146 days. Drake got his rematch on the February 15 episode of "Impact Wrestling", but failed to regain the title.


title: LA Knight

text: On the March 15 episode of "Impact Wrestling" Drake won a briefcase during the Feast or Fired, which contained an opportunity for the Impact World Tag Team Championship match, which he didn't want as he no longer had a tag team partner. Then, he challenged Moose for his World Championship briefcase on the April 5 episode of "Impact Wrestling", which he won, thanks to an intervention of Ohio Versus Everything. At Redemption, Drake and his tag team partner Scott Steiner defeated The Latin American Xchange to become the new Impact World Tag Team Champions. On the April 26 episode of "Impact!", Drake and Steiner defeated LAX in a rematch to retain the Tag Team Championship. Two weeks later, Drake cashed in his World Championship briefcase against Pentagón Jr., but failed to win the title. On the May 17 episode of "Impact", Drake and Steiner lost the titles against D&E (DJZ and Andrew Everett). After some tensions between the two partners, a match was scheduled at Under Pressure, which Drake won after a chair shot.


title: LA Knight

text: On the June 7 episode of "Impact Wrestling", during his "Fact of Life" segment, Drake ranked Moose number one in his top five dummies in Impact. Moose confronted Drake later and challenged him for a match to determine the number one contender to the Impact World Championship at Slammiversary XVI. Drake accepted the challenge and attacked Moose. The following week at "House of Hardcore", Drake was defeated by Moose. On June 25, Eli Drake signed a new contract with Impact Wrestling. On the July 12 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake flirted with Grado's girlfriend, Katarina, during a backstage segment. This led to a match between Drake and Grado later that night, which was won by Drake. After the match, he tried again to flirt with Katarina, but Drake was stopped by Joe Hendry. The following week, Drake was defeated by Hendry. On the August 2 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake aligned himself with the Cult of Lee (Trevor Lee and Caleb Konley) and defeated Hendry and Grado in a tag-team match. Two weeks later, Drake defeated Hendry in a singles match. Between June and October, Drake issued various open challenges. On the October 11 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake issued an open challenge at Bound for Glory. At the event, Drake defeated James Ellsworth. After the match, Drake asked for a new challenger, a "Hall of Fame material" which resulted in Abyss, newest Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame member, showing up and hitting him with a Chokeslam through a table.


title: LA Knight

text: On the October 18 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake started a storyline where he sued Impact Wrestling management for "unsafe working environment" after the attack of Abyss at Bound for Glory. The following week, Drake bullied Impact Wrestling commentator Don Callis and took his place for the rest of the show. On the November 8 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake betrayed his lawyer Joseph Park after a low-blow. Then the following week, Drake criticized the "hardcore wrestling", saying that he is the "Last of a Dying Breed", before being confronted by Tommy Dreamer. Two weeks later, Drake wrestled against Dreamer but walked away from the match, losing via count-out. However, the match was restarted by Impact Wrestling management, and become a No Disqualification match, which Drake won. On the January 3, 2019, episode of "Impact Wrestling", Drake was confronted and attacked by Tommy Dreamer and Raven. At Impact Wrestling Homecoming, Drake defeated Abyss in a Monster's Ball match.


title: LA Knight

text: On the January 11 episode, Eli confronted Eddie Edwards, talking down about his hardcore style. However, Eli and Edwards defeated The Rascalz in a tag-team match on the February 1 episode of "Impact Wrestling" after Eli hit his opponent with Kenny, Eddie's kendo stick. On the February 22 episode, Edwards defeated Eli with a roll-up. After the match, Eli says that he was proud of Edwards, because he defeated him with a "wrestling move". Two weeks later, Eli saved Edwards from the Desi Hit Squad. Then, they formed a tag-team, and defeated Fallah Bahh and KM, when Eddie allowed Drake to use Kenny for hitting KM and stealing the victory. On the April 5 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Eli and Edwards defeated LAX with the help of the Lucha Bros. Two weeks later, Eli and Edwards were defeated by the Lucha Bros and failed to win the Impact World Tag Team Championship.


title: LA Knight

text: During this time, a match was booked between Drake and Tessa Blanchard at United We Stand. However, Drake didn't want to wrestle a competitive match against a woman, criticizing intergender wrestling. After those comments, as well as comments disparaging Impact's booking of him, he was fired via e-mail on April 7. Following that, Impact tried to lock Drake into a no-complete clause due to breach of contract. However, on June 4, Drake released a statement speaking positively about Impact, and announced he was now a free agent.


title: LA Knight

text: On June 28, 2019, Drake appeared at the Ring of Honor event Best in the World, being revealed as the mystery partner of Nick Aldis. This revealed him as the newest person to sign an exclusive deal with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). On January 24 at the NWA Hard Times event, Drake and his tag team partner James Storm won the NWA Tag Team Championship. Drake and Storm would drop the titles to Aron Stevens and JR Kratos at UWN Primetime Live. On February 14, 2021, it was announced that Ricker had been quietly released from the NWA in late 2020 after only signing a new deal with the company a few months beforehand.


title: LA Knight

text: On February 14, 2021, it was reported that Ricker had re-signed with WWE. At , he debuted as a heel, where it was revealed his new ring name would be LA Knight. On the first night of on April 7, Knight participated in a Gauntlet Eliminator for a future NXT North American Championship match, but lost. Knight then aligned himself with Ted DiBiase, and at on June 13, he defeated Cameron Grimes in a ladder match to win the re-introduced Million Dollar Championship. Knight later turned on DiBiase, attacking him during the title ceremony, before being driven off by Grimes. At on July 6, Knight defeated Grimes and as per the stipulation of the rematch, Grimes became Knight's personal butler. On the August 10 episode of "NXT", Knight agreed to defend the championship against Grimes at NXT TakeOver 36 under the condition that if Knight won, DiBiase would replace Grimes as Knight's personal butler. At the event on August 22, Knight lost the title to Grimes following interference from DiBiase, ending his reign at 70 days.


title: LA Knight

text: In October, Knight began a feud with Grayson Waller. On the November 23 episode of "NXT", a double turn took place; Waller turned heel by berating the fans, and Knight turned face by displaying fighting spirit attitude, and before his match with Joe Gacy, Knight was attacked by Waller. At WarGames on December 5, Knight teamed with Johnny Gargano, Pete Dunne, and Tommaso Ciampa as Team Black & Gold, where they lost to Team 2.0 (Bron Breakker, Carmelo Hayes, Grayson Waller, and Tony D'Angelo) in a WarGames match. In March, Knight started a brief feud with Gunther when the latter took offense at Knight getting an NXT Championship match by calling out Dolph Ziggler. The next week, Knight confronted Gunther after his match with Duke Hudson and challenged him to a match at NXT Stand & Deliver on April 2, which he lost. This turned out to be his final NXT appearance.


title: LA Knight

text: Knight made his first main roster appearance on the January 24, 2022 episode of "Raw", participating in a backstage segment with The Dirty Dawgs (Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode). In a dark segment before the April 15 episode of "SmackDown", Knight appeared as a villainous manager by announcing his new stable, "Knight Model Management", and became the manager of Mace and Mansoor. The angle went to television on the May 20 episode of "SmackDown", when he made his televised debut on the brand under the ring name Max Dupri. He would announce Mace and Mansoor, under the tweaked names "ma.çé" and "mån.sôör", as Maximum Male Models. He would then be joined by his storyline sister, Maxxine Dupri (formerly known as Sofia Cromwell from NXT). Dupri ended his relationship with Maximum Male Models on the September 30 episode of "SmackDown." The following week, he beat down Mace and Mansoor and reverted to his LA Knight persona. After a brief feud with Ricochet, Knight became involved in a feud with Bray Wyatt.


title: LA Knight

text: In 2013, Ricker appeared on the TNT reality television show "The Hero", which was hosted by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.


title: LA Knight

text: In 2015, Ricker appeared in season 2/episode 17 of the U.S. sitcom "Brooklyn Nine-Nine". In the episode (entitled "Boyle-Linetti Wedding"), Ricker plays the nonspeaking role of Mario, a male bodybuilder who's getting married. Detective Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews) plays the minister.


title: LA Knight

text: In 2021, Ricker appeared in a CarShield ad as “The Overcharger”: a heel wrestler dressed like an automotive repair technician, defiantly bragging about how no one can stop him from unfairly charging (used-vehicle-owning) customers for repair work. He is instantly struck down by Ric Flair (the ad campaign's star/pitchman).


title: LA Knight

text: As LA Knight, he appeared in "WWE 2K22" as downloadable content and Ricker provides the voice for "Paragon Jay Pierce" in the game's MyRise mode.


title: Manchu language

text: Manchu (Manchu:, ) is a critically endangered East Asian Tungusic language native to the historical region of Manchuria in Northeast China. As the traditional native language of the Manchus, it was one of the official languages of the Qing dynasty (1636–1912) of China, although today the vast majority of Manchus speak only Mandarin Chinese. Several thousand can speak Manchu as a second language through governmental primary education or free classes for adults in classrooms or online.


title: Manchu language

text: The Manchu language enjoys high historical value for historians of China, especially for the Qing dynasty. Manchu-language texts supply information that is unavailable in Chinese, and when both Manchu and Chinese versions of a given text exist they provide controls for understanding the Chinese.


title: Manchu language

text: Like most Siberian languages, Manchu is an agglutinative language that demonstrates limited vowel harmony. It has been demonstrated that it is derived mainly from the Jurchen language though there are many loan words from Mongolian and Chinese. Its script is vertically written and taken from the Mongolian script (which in turn derives from Aramaic via Uyghur and Sogdian). Although Manchu does not have the kind of grammatical gender found in most European languages, some gendered words in Manchu are distinguished by different stem vowels (vowel inflection), as in "ama", 'father', and "eme", 'mother'.


title: Manchu language

text: The Qing dynasty referred to the Manchu language in various Chinese titles such as 'Qingwen' , or "Qingyu" ("Qing language") and Guoyu ("national language"), which was used by previous non-Han dynasties to refer to their languages. The term "national" was also applied to the Manchu writing as in "Guowen" in addition to "Guoyu" . In the Manchu-language version of the Treaty of Nerchinsk, the term "Chinese language" ("Dulimbai gurun i bithe") referred to all three Chinese, Manchu, and Mongol languages, not just one language. "Guoyu" now refers to Standard Chinese.


title: Manchu language

text: Manchu is southern Tungusic. Whilst Northern Tungus languages such as Evenki retain traditional structure, the Chinese language is a source of major influence upon Manchu, altering its form and vocabulary.


title: Manchu language

text: In 1635 Hong Taiji renamed the Jurchen people and Jurchen language as 'Manchu'. The Jurchen are the ancestors of the Manchu and ruled over the later Jin dynasty (1115–1234).


title: Manchu language

text: Manchu began as a primary language of the Qing dynasty Imperial court, but as Manchu officials became increasingly sinicized many started losing the language. Trying to preserve the Manchu identity, the imperial government instituted Manchu language classes and examinations for the bannermen, offering rewards to those who excelled in the language. Chinese classics and fiction were translated into Manchu and a body of Manchu literature accumulated. As the Yongzheng Emperor (reigned 1722–1735) explained, "If some special encouragement … is not offered, the ancestral language will not be passed on and learned." Still, the use of the language among the bannermen declined throughout the 1700s. Historical records report that as early as 1776, the Qianlong Emperor was shocked to see a high Manchu official, Guo'ermin, not understand what the emperor was telling him in Manchu, despite coming from the Manchu stronghold of Shengjing (now Shenyang). By the 19th century even the imperial court had lost fluency in the language. The Jiaqing Emperor (reigned 1796–1820) complained that his officials were not proficient at understanding or writing Manchu.


title: Manchu language

text: By the end of the 19th century the language was so moribund that even at the office of the Shengjing general the only documents written in Manchu (rather than Chinese) would be the memorials wishing the emperor long life; during the same period the archives of the Hulan banner detachment in Heilongjiang show that only 1% of the bannermen could read Manchu and no more than 0.2% could speak it. Nonetheless as late as 1906–1907 Qing education and military officials insisted that schools teach Manchu language and that the officials testing soldiers' marksmanship continue to conduct an oral examination in Manchu.


title: Manchu language

text: The use of the language for the official documents declined throughout Qing history as well. In particular, at the beginning of the dynasty, some documents on sensitive political and military issues were submitted in Manchu but not in Chinese. Later on, some Imperial records in Manchu continued to be produced until the last years of the dynasty. In 1912 the Qing was overthrown, most Manchus could not speak their language, and the Beijing dialect replaced Manchu.


title: Manchu language

text: A large number of Manchu documents remain in the archives, important for the study of Qing-era China. Today written Manchu can still be seen on architecture inside the Forbidden City, whose historical signs are written in both Chinese and Manchu. Another limited use of the language was for voice commands in the Qing army, attested as late as 1878.


title: Manchu language

text: A Jiangsu Han Chinese named Shen Qiliang wrote books on Manchu grammar, including (Guide to Qing Books, "Manju bithe jy nan") and (Great Qing Encyclopedia, "Daicing gurun-i yooni bithe"). His father was a naval officer for the Qing and his grandfather was an official of the Ming dynasty before rebels murdered him. Shen Qiliang himself fought against the Three Feudatories as part of the Qing army. He then started learning Manchu and writing books on Manchu grammar from Bordered Yellow Manchu Bannermen in 1677 after moving to Beijing. He translated the Hundred Family Names and Thousand Character Classic into Manchu and spent 25 years on the Manchu language. Shen wrote: "I am a Han. But all my life I have made a hobby of Manchu." Shen didn't have to learn Manchu as part of his job because he was never an official so he seems to have studied it voluntarily. Most Han people were not interested in learning non-Han languages so it is not known why Shen was doing it.


title: Manchu language

text: A Hangzhou Han Chinese, Cheng Mingyuan, helped edit the book (Introduction to the Qing language, "Cing wen ki meng bithe"), which was co-written by a Manchu named Uge. Uge gave private Manchu language classes, which were attended by his friend Cheng. Cheng arranged for its printing.


title: Manchu language

text: Han Chinese at the Hanlin Academy studied the Manchu language in the Qing. The Han Chinese Hanlin graduate Qi Yunshi knew the Manchu language and wrote a book in Chinese on the frontier regions of China by translating and using the Manchu-language sources in the Grand Secretariat's archives. Hanlin Academy in 1740 expelled the Han Chinese Yuan Mei for not succeeding in his Manchus studies. Injišan, and Ortai, both Manchus, funded his work. The Han Chinese Yan Changming had the ability to read Tibetan, Oirat, and Mongolian. Han Chinese officials learned languages on the frontier regions and Manchu in order to be able to write and compile their writings on the region.


title: Manchu language

text: A Manchu-language course over three years was required for the highest ranking Han degree holders from Hanlin but not all Han literati were required to study Manchu. Towards the end of the Qing it was pointed out that a lot of Bannermen themselves did not know Manchu anymore and that Manchu was not able to be forced upon the people and minister of the country at the beginning of the Qing dynasty.


title: Manchu language

text: Chinese fiction books were translated into Manchu. Bannermen wrote fiction in the Chinese language. Huang Taiji had Chinese books translated into Manchu. Han Chinese and Manchus helped Jesuits write and translate books into Manchu and Chinese. Manchu books were published in Beijing.


title: Manchu language

text: The Qianlong Emperor commissioned projects such as new Manchu dictionaries, both monolingual and multilingual like the Pentaglot. Among his directives were to eliminate directly borrowed loanwords from Chinese and replace them with calque translations which were put into new Manchu dictionaries. This showed in the titles of Manchu translations of Chinese works during his reign which were direct translations contrasted with Manchu books translated during the Kangxi Emperor's reign which were Manchu transliterations of the Chinese characters.


title: Manchu language

text: The Pentaglot was based on the "Yuzhi Siti Qing Wenjian" ("Imperially-Published Four-Script Textual Mirror of Qing"), with Uyghur added as fifth language. The four-language version of the dictionary with Tibetan was in turn based on an earlier three-language version with Manchu, Mongolian, and Chinese called the ("Imperially-Published Manchu Mongol Chinese Three pronunciation explanation mirror of Qing"), which was in turn based on the ("Imperially-Published Revised and Enlarged mirror of Qing") in Manchu and Chinese, which used both Manchu script to transcribe Chinese words and Chinese characters to transcribe Manchu words with fanqie.


title: Manchu language

text: A number of European scholars in the 18th century were frustrated by the difficulties in reading Chinese, with its "complicated" writing system and classical writing style. They considered Manchu translations, or parallel Manchu versions, of many Chinese documents and literary works very helpful for understanding the original Chinese. de Moyriac de Mailla (1669–1748) benefited from the existence of the parallel Manchu text when translating the historical compendium "Tongjian Gangmu" ("Tung-chien Kang-mu"; ). Amiot (1718–1793) consulted Manchu translations of Chinese works as well, and wrote that the Manchu language "would open an easy entrance to penetrate … into the labyrinth of Chinese literature of all ages."


title: Manchu language

text: Study of the Manchu language by Russian sinologists started in the early 18th century, soon after the founding of the Russian Orthodox Mission in Beijing, to which most early Russian sinologists were connected. (died 1761) translated a number of Manchu works, such as "The history of Kangxi's conquest of the Khalkha and Oirat nomads of the Great Tartary, in five parts" (), as well as some legal treatises and a Manchu–Chinese dictionary. In the late 1830s, Georgy M. Rozov translated from Manchu the "History of the Jin (Jurchen) Dynasty". A school to train Manchu language translators was started in Irkutsk in the 18th century, and existed for a fairly long period.


title: Manchu language

text: An anonymous author remarked in 1844 that the transcription of Chinese words in Manchu alphabet, available in the contemporary Chinese–Manchu dictionaries, was more useful for learning the pronunciation of Chinese words than the inconsistent romanizations used at the time by the writers transcribing Chinese words in English or French books.


title: Manchu language

text: In 1930, the German sinologist argued forcibly that knowing Manchu allows the scholar to render Manchu personal and place names that have been "horribly mutilated" by their Chinese transliterations and to know the meanings of the names. He goes on that the Manchu translations of Chinese classics and fiction were done by experts familiar with their original meaning and with how best to express it in Manchu, such as in the Manchu translation of the "Peiwen yunfu". Because Manchu is not difficult to learn, it "enables the student of Sinology to use the Manchu versions of the classics […] in order to verify the meaning of the Chinese text".


title: Manchu language

text: Currently, several thousand people can speak Manchu as a second language through primary education or free classes for adults offered in China. However very few native Manchu speakers remain. In what used to be Manchuria virtually no one speaks the language, the entire area having been completely sinicized. As of 2007, the last native speakers of the language were thought to be 18 octogenarian residents of the village of Sanjiazi (), in Fuyu County, in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province. A few speakers also remain in Dawujia village in Aihui District of Heihe Prefecture.


title: Manchu language

text: The Xibe (or Sibe) are often considered to be the modern custodians of the written Manchu language. The Xibe live in Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County near the Ili valley in Xinjiang, having been moved there by the Qianlong Emperor in 1764. Modern written Xibe is very close to Manchu, although there are slight differences in the writing system which reflect distinctive Xibe pronunciation. More significant differences exist in morphological and syntactic structure of the spoken Xibe language. For one example among many, there is a "converb" ending, -"mak", that is very common in modern spoken Xibe but unknown in Manchu.


title: Manchu language

text: Recently, there have been increased efforts to revive the Manchu language. Revival movements are linked to the reconstruction of ethnic Manchu identity in the Han-dominated country. The Manchus mainly lead the revival efforts, with support from the PRC state, NGOs and international efforts.


title: Manchu language

text: Revivalism began in the post-Mao era when non-Han ethnic expression was allowed. By the 1980s, Manchus had become the second largest minority group in China. People began to reveal their ethnic identities that had been hidden due to 20th century unrests and the fall of the Qing Empire.


title: Manchu language

text: Language revival was one method the growing numbers of Manchus used in order to reconstruct their lost ethnic identity. Language represented them and set them apart from other minority groups in the "plurality of ethnic cultures within one united culture". Another reason for revivalism lay in the archives of the Qing Empire–a way to translate and resolve historical conflicts between the Manchus and the state. Lastly, the people wanted to regain their language for the rituals and communication to their ancestors–many shamans do not understand the words they use.


title: Manchu language

text: Manchu associations can be found across the country, including Hong Kong, as well as abroad, in Taiwan. Consisting of mostly Manchus and Mongols, they act as the link between the people, their ethnic leaders and the state.


title: Manchu language

text: NGOs provide large support through "Manchu classes". Manchu is now taught in certain primary schools as well as in universities. Heilongjiang University Manchu language research center in no.74, Xuefu Road, Harbin, listed Manchu as an academic major. It is taught there as a tool for reading Qing-dynasty archival documents. In 2009 "The Wall Street Journal" reported that the language is offered (as an elective) in one university, one public middle school, and a few private schools. There are also other Manchu volunteers in many places of China who freely teach Manchu in the desire to rescue the language. Thousands of non-Manchu speakers have learned the language through these measures. Despite the efforts of NGOs, they tend to lack support from high-level government and politics.


title: Manchu language

text: The state also runs programs to revive minority cultures and languages. Deng Xiaoping promoted bilingual education. However, many programs are not suited to the ethnic culture or to passing knowledge to the younger generations. If the programs were created via "top-down political processes" the locals tend to look at them with distrust. But if they were formed via specialized governmental organizations, they fare better. According to Katarzyna Golik:In Mukden, the historical Manchurian capital, there is a Shenyang Manchu Association () which is active in promoting Manchurian culture. The Association publishes books about Manchurian folklore and history and its activities are run independently from the local government. Among the various classes of the Manchurian language and calligraphy some turned out to be a success. Beijing has the biggest and most wealthy Beijing Daxing Regency Manchu Association (). (pp100-101)Other support can be found internationally and on the Internet. Post-Cultural Revolution reform allowed for international studies to be done in China. The dying language and ethnic culture of Manchus gained attention, providing local support. Websites facilitate communication of language classes or articles. Younger generations also spread and promote their unique identity through popular Internet media.


title: Manchu language

text: Despite the increased efforts to revive the Manchu language, there are many obstacles standing in the way. Even with increased awareness, many Manchus choose to give up their language, some opting to learn Mongolian instead. Manchu language is still thought of as a foreign language in a Han-dominated Chinese speaking country. Obstacles are also found when gaining recognition from the state. Resistance through censorship prevented the performing of Banjin festivals, a festival in recognition of a new reconstructed Manchu identity, in Beijing.


title: Manchu language

text: Dialects of Manchu include a variety of its historical and remaining spoken forms throughout Manchuria, and the city of Peking (the capital). Notable historical Manchu dialects include Peking, Ningguta, Alcuka and Mukden dialects.


title: Manchu language

text: The Chinese Northern Mandarin dialect spoken in Peking had a major influence on the phonology of the dialect of Manchu spoken in that city, and because Manchu phonology was transcribed into Chinese and European sources based on the sinicized pronunciation of Manchus from Peking, the original authentic Manchu pronunciation is unknown to scholars.


title: Manchu language

text: The Manchus of Peking were influenced by the Chinese dialect spoken in the area to the point where pronouncing Manchu sounds was hard for them, and they pronounced Manchu according to Chinese phonetics, whereas the Manchus of Aigun (in Heilongjiang) could both pronounce Manchu sounds properly and mimic the sinicized pronunciation of Manchus in Peking, because they learned the Pekinese pronunciation from either studying in Peking or from officials sent to Aigun from Beijing, and they could tell them apart, using the Chinese influenced Pekinese pronunciation when demonstrating that they were better educated or their superior stature in society.


title: Manchu language

text: Phonetically, there are some characteristics that differentiate the Peking accent from the standard spelling form of Manchu.


title: Manchu language

text: This section is primarily based upon Aisin Gioro Yingsheng's "Miscellaneous Knowledge of Manchu" (满语杂识).


title: Manchu language

text: All Manchu phrases are head-final; the head-word of a phrase (e.g. the noun of a noun phrase, or the verb of a verb phrase) always falls at the end of the phrase. Thus, adjectives and adjectival phrases always precede the noun they modify, and the arguments to the verb always precede the verb. As a result, Manchu sentence structure is subject–object–verb (SOV).


title: Manchu language

text: Manchu uses a small number of case-marking particles that are similar to those found in Korean, but There is also a separate class of true postpositions. Case markers and postpositions can be used together, as in the following sentence:


title: Manchu language

text: In this example, the postposition , "with", requires its nominal argument to have the genitive case, which causes the genitive case marker between the noun and the postposition.


title: Manchu language

text: Manchu also makes extensive use of converb structures and has an inventory of converbial suffixes to indicate the relationship between the subordinate verb and the finite verb that follows it. An example is these two sentences, which have finite verbs:


title: Manchu language

text: Both sentences can be combined into a single sentence by using converbs, which relate the first action to the second:


title: Manchu language

text: Manchu has five cases, which are marked by particles that can be written with the noun to which they apply or separately. The particles do not obey the rule of vowel harmony but are also not truly postpositions.


title: Manchu language

text: One of the principal syntactic cases, it is used for the subject of a sentence and has no overt marking.


title: Manchu language

text: ("be"): one of the principal syntactic cases, it indicates participants/direct object of a sentence. Direct objects sometimes also take the nominative. It is commonly felt that the marked accusative has a definite sense, like using a definite article in English. It is written separate from the word that it follows. The accusative can be used in the following ways:


title: Manchu language

text: ("i" or "ni"): one of the principal syntactic cases, IT is used to indicate possession or the means by which something is accomplished.


title: Manchu language

text: The "deri" form was used in Classical Manchu, and different scholars have specified different meanings:


title: Manchu language

text: In addition, there were some suffixes, such as the primarily-adjective-forming suffix "-ngga"/"-ngge"/"-nggo", that appear to have originally been case markers (in the case of "-ngga", marking the genitive case) but had already lost their productivity to become fossilized in certain lexemes by the time of the earliest written records of the Manchu language: "agangga" "pertaining to rain" as in "agangga sara" (an umbrella), derived from Manchu "aga" (rain).


title: Manchu language

text: Written Manchu was close to being called an "open syllable" language because the only consonant that came regularly at the end of native words was , similar to Beijing Mandarin, Northeastern Mandarin, Jilu Mandarin and Japanese. This resulted in almost all native words ending in a vowel. In some words, there were vowels that were separated by consonant clusters, as in the words "ilha" ('flower') and "abka" ('heaven'); however, in most words, the vowels were separated from one another by only single consonants.


title: Manchu language

text: This open syllable structure might not have been found in all varieties of spoken Manchu, but it was certainly found in the southern dialect that became the basis for the written language. It is also apparent that the open-syllable tendency of the Manchu language had been growing ever stronger for the several hundred years since written records of Manchu were first produced: consonant clusters that had appeared in older forms, such as "abka" and "abtara-mbi" ('to yell'), were gradually simplified, and the words began to be written as "aga" or "aha" (in this form meaning 'rain') and "atara-mbi" ('to cause a commotion').