text: The attacking wrestler jumps from an elevated position as extending their arm out from the side of the body and parallel to the ground, hitting the standing opponent in the neck or chest, knocking them over. A version of this move, called a flying lariat, involving the wrestler wrapping the attacking arm around the opponent's neck.


title: Professional wrestling aerial techniques

text: Also known as diving axe handle, diving double axe handle smash, or diving double sledge, this is accomplished by jumping from the top turnbuckle to the mat or floor and striking the opponent with two fists held together in the fashion of holding an axe. This is usually done on a standing or rising opponent. A common variation sees the wrestler standing over the top rope, facing away from the ring. From this point, the wrestler jumps, twisting to face inside of the ring, and quickly clutching both fists together to strike the double axe handle. Used by Randy Savage.


text: Also called "guillotine leg drop", this move sees a wrestler jumping from a raised platform landing the bottom side of one leg across the opponent's throat or chest. This move was used as the finisher of former WWE wrestler Fandango calling this move "The Last Dance".


text: This variation sees the wrestler performing a moonsault but instead of landing on the opponent in a splash position, the wrestler continues the rotation to drive a leg across the downed opponent.


text: The wrestler jumps forward from an elevated position following a full 360° or beyond rotation, driving a leg across the fallen opponent.


text: The wrestler, standing on an elevated position, jumps and flips forward to land one leg on the opponent lying beneath. This move can also be performed from a standing non-elevated position although this variation is quite rare. Booker T used this move during his time in WCW naming the move, "Harlem Hangover."


text: Executed by diving onto a supine opponent with one elbow cocked, driving the elbow into the opponent as the wrestler falls on one of their sides.


text: The move was popularized by WWE Wrestler Randy "Macho Man" Savage, Former WWE superstar Kairi Sane used this move, named as InSane Elbow. Bayley also uses it as a homage to Randy "Macho Man" Savage.


text: The wrestler dives forward from an elevated position performing a 450 somersault landing on the prone opponent with the elbow drop. Independent wrestler Flip Kendrick has used the move. WWE Superstar, John Morrison uses a modified version of this move which sees him utilizing a diving cartwheel motion during the move and uses this as a finisher calling it the "Countdown to IMPACT", "IMPACT Elbow" (using both names while in Impact Wrestling), and "Thursday Night Delight" respectfully.


text: This less common variation sees a wrestler stand facing away from a standing or supine opponent and in an elevated position (usually the top turnbuckle). The wrestler then dives backwards to strike the opponent. It was popularized by Randy Savage, and is used by various wrestlers such as Jay Lethal, CM Punk, Bayley and Velveteen Dream.


text: The wrestler sits on the top turnbuckle with a foot on each second rope facing a supine opponent. The wrestler then leaps forward while clasping both forearms together, landing on their knees, driving an elbow into the opponent. It was used by Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin.


text: This move sees a wrestler jumping forward from an elevated position followed by executing a mid-air backflip to land elbow first on an opponent lying on the mat.


text: A move in which a wrestler jumps down from the turnbuckle on an opponent, driving their fist into the opponent's head. While doing it, wrestlers have their front four knuckles out, and their thumb to the side. This move was popularized by Jerry Lawler as his finisher.


text: Also known as a diving headbutt drop, it is delivered from the turnbuckle to anywhere on the opponent's body. The move was accidentally invented by Harley Race, who adapted it as a signature move and it was then further popularized by The Dynamite Kid, Chris Benoit, Bam Bam Bigelow, D-Von Dudley, Tomoaki Honma and recently Daniel Bryan. It was later publicized that the move could cause severe spine, brain, leg or chest damage.


text: A move in which a wrestler jumps from the top turnbuckle, top rope, or the apron, landing one knee across a supine opponent. There is also a variation where a wrestler jumps from the elevated position and lands both knees across the prone opponent, referred to as a "diving double knee drop".


text: This version of the diving double knee drop sees the attacker performing the maneuver from an elevated platform, jumping forward onto a standing or seated upright opponent with each knee striking both of their shoulders simultaneously. Springboard, slingshot, and standing or running versions of this move are also possible with the latter being used while the attacker is charging towards an opponent, against a charging opponent, or a combination of both. Innovated by CIMA, who has used both a springboard and top rope version as finishing maneuvers in Dragon Gate, and named it after the Greek landmark where he proposed to his wife. American wrestlers Sasha Banks and Matt Sydal also use it as a signature move, the latter having also performed in Dragon Gate.


text: This move sees the wrestler jumping forward from the second turnbuckle, executing a mid-air backflip, landing knee first on an opponent down all on fours. It is a finishing move used by "Speedball" Mike Bailey as "Ultima Weapon".


text: This diving variation for a senton sees the wrestler landing back or buttocks first on the opponent's stomach or chest.


text: The move sees an attacking wrestler jumping to the top turnbuckle or top rope facing away from the ring before falling down backwards onto the lying opponent. Popularize by Darby Allin as the "Coffin Drop".


text: The attacker on the top turnbuckle jumps and flips mid-air into a double front somersault to land sitting on the opponent below. It was innovated by Jack Evans and popularized by Ricochet who uses a corkscrew version of this move.


text: In this version, the wrestler facing away from the ring on the top turnbuckle performs a 180° mid-air turn while executing the maneuver. Jack Evans and Ninja Mack uses this move.


text: This variant has the wrestler using the tailbone and lower back to fall in a seated position forcing a standing opponent to the mat rather than using their whole back. Performed by jumping forward off a raised platform or springboarding on to the opponent's shoulders, forcing them to the ground. This can also be performed onto an opponent prone or supine on the mat. A variation of this move known as the "Banzai Drop", popularized by Yokozuna, sees the wrestler standing over a fallen opponent next to the turnbuckle, then climbing up to the second rope and jumping down, landing on the opponent's stomach or chest.


text: This variant, which is technically described as a diving somersault seated senton is performed by flipping forward off a raised platform on to the shoulders of a standing opponent, forcing them to the ground into a pinning position. Innovated by Molly Holly. Tegan Nox uses this move.


text: The attacker jumps to the top turnbuckle or top rope facing away from the ring, and executes a moonsault, landing in an ordinary senton position. There is also a standing version of this move.


text: In this variation, the attacking wrestler executes a quick front somersault off the top turnbuckle, landing on the opponent back-first. Popularized by Jim Fullington and renaming it as "Rolling Rock". The standing, running variation is known as a cannonball.


text: Another variant where the attacking wrestler facing to the ring does a 360° twist in the air before impact. A.J. Styles popularized this by calling it the "Spiral Tap".


text: A variant which sees a wrestler leaping off the top turnbuckle keeping the body straight and arms out-stretched, resembling a "swan dive" and then waiting until the last moment to execute the flip, so is just barely complete when the attacker impacts the opponent with upper back/shoulders. Invented by The Great Sasuke calling it "Senton Atomico", Jeff Hardy popularized this move in North America, calling it "Swanton Bomb".


text: Another variant where the attacking wrestler, facing away from the ring, does a 180° twist followed by the senton bomb. This was popularised by Jeff Hardy calling it "Whisper in the Wind".


text: Jumping forward from an elevated position, the attacking wrestler executes a mid-air backflip ending in a senton.


text: The wrestler dives from an elevated position tucking both arms in, and striking a standing opponent with one shoulder to the upper body.


text: A diving version of the takedown known as a spear. A wrestler will jump from a raised platform driving a shoulder into the torso as pulling both the opponent's legs, forcing them down to the mat.


text: This basic maneuver involves a wrestler jumping forward from a raised platform, landing stomach first horizontally across an opponent lying on the ground below. This move was popularized by Jimmy Snuka, naming it the “Superfly Splash,” for his “Superfly” gimmick, and is currently used by Tamina Snuka as a tribute to her father. Australian wrestler and former WWE NXT superstar Bronson Reed uses this as a finishing move called "The Tsunami Splash".


text: Also known as "firebird splash", involves an attacker facing the ring from the top of the turnbuckles, then performing a "Rudolph" (front somersault with 1 twists) to land the upper body's front on the opponent. This move was innovated by Japanese superstar Hayabusa, hence why it is also called the "Firebird Splash". Scott Steiner introduced the move in 1987 before 2 Cold Scorpio popularized the move in the 1990s. It can also be dangerous when it cannot be executed properly, as WWE previously banned it in 2005 after Juventud Guerrera broke Paul London's face before they allowed Justin Gabriel to use it in 2010.


text: The move was innovated and popularized by Hayabusa, who named it the "Phoenix splash". The wrestler facing away from the ring on the top turnbuckle performs a 180° turn in mid-air while performing a 450° splash onto a lying opponent. Kota Ibushi uses this move.


text: Also known as "flaming star press" or "inverted / reverse 450° splash", sees the attacking wrestler standing on the top turnbuckle facing away from the ring. Then jumping backwards executing a 450° splash inwards (facing the turnbuckle) onto a downed opponent on the mat. Mustafa Ali currently uses this move, naming it the "054".


text: The attacking wrestler stands on the top turnbuckle facing towards the ring and performs a 180° turn in mid-air while performing a 450° splash inwards.


text: The wrestler places the opponent lying supine perpendicular to the turnbuckle. Then approaching to the turnbuckle in the same corner, grabbing a hold both hands on the top rope and climbing to the first or second rope, the wrestler bounces on the ropes before throwing both legs backwards and placing the body parallel to the mat as releasing the ropes, thus falling inwards and downwards to the ring squashing and pinning the opponent. Often referred to as "Vader Bomb", for it was (Big Van) Vader who popularized it. Jack Swagger used this move as his signature in WWE, calling it a "Swagger Bomb" and is currently being used by Otis


text: To perform the move, the wrestler jumps from an elevated position (usually the top turnbuckle) onto an opponent, landing horizontally across the opponent's torso, forcing them to the mat and usually resulting in a pinfall attempt. There is also a reversed version, called a "reverse crossbody", where the wrestler faces away from the prone opponent before executing the maneuver. This move is one of the basic moves of lightweight wrestlers. This move was made famous as the finisher of WWE Hall of Famer Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat. The Hurricane used diving crossboody as his finisher and named it the "Cape".


text: This move is performed by leaping from the top rope, stretching out to a horizontal position, and bringing one's feet and hands inward and outward before landing.


text: Eddie Guerrero made the frog splash famous in the mid-1990s and early 2000s. However, the move itself was innovated by La Fiera in Mexico in the early 1980s. Later it was used by Art Barr in the late 1980s and was named by 2 Cold Scorpio who remarked Barr looked "like a frog" whilst performing the move which resulted in Barr naming it. After Barr's death in 1994, Guerrero used the move in tribute to his fallen tag team partner. After Guerrero's death in 2005, Christian Cage began using the move as a tribute to Guerrero. The legendary Hiroshi Tanahashi uses this move as "High Fly Flow"


text: There is a high-angle turning variation named the "Five-Star Frog Splash" where the opponent is not placed perpendicular to the corner. Instead, the attacker turns mid-air to land on the opponent in the splash position, regardless of which direction the opponent is lying in. It was made famous by ECW, WWF/E and TNA superstar Rob Van Dam as it was used as his finisher. He also uses a regular version, generally going halfway or more than halfway across the ring to hit his opponent. Lio Rush uses a split-legged version called the "Rush Hour". Montez Ford uses a spinning version of this move called “From the Heavens”. Cedric Alexander uses this as a finishing move called "Overtime".


text: The wrestler jumps down from a raised platform onto an opponent, dropping one foot onto the opponent's body. A variation known as a "diving double foot stomp" sees the attacking wrestler jumping down from a raised platform on an opponent, driving both feet into the opponent. Finn Balor uses this as his finishing move, "Coup de Grâce".


text: This variation sees the wrestler perform a moonsault, but instead of landing on a fallen opponent in the splash position, the wrestler continues the rotation driving both feet into the opponent. Sonjay Dutt uses this as an occasional finishing move, named Moonstomp.


text: While situated on the middle turnbuckle, a wrestler jumps over a charging opponent, driving one or both feet into the opponent's back, pushing the opponent into the turnbuckle or down to the ground, before landing on their feet. The technique's name is a reference to the stomping attacks used by video game character Mario.


text: Differentiating themselves from a splash or a senton, these maneuvers are performed from an upright position, using momentum and weight to run over a standing opponent or pin a fallen one.


text: Sitting on the top turnbuckle, the attacking wrestler rests both feet with spread legs on the second ropes waiting for an incoming opponent, then jumps forward through springboarding to sit on the opponent's midsection as in a standing Thesz press.


text: A technique invented by Jushin Thunder Liger. The wrestler jumps forward from an elevated position and presses their knees to their own chest, executes a backflip and lands on the opponent as if performing a body press. This move was used by Brock Lesnar and is Matt Sydal's finisher, but was popularized by Billy Kidman in WCW. The move was previously banned in WWE in 2005 for safety reasons, as the move can easily be botched and cause serious injuries, much like the piledriver. Mark Andrews of NXT UK uses this as a high-flying move called "Fall to pieces".


text: This move sees a wrestler jump forward while twisting 360° and performing a backflip. This move is used and has been popularized by PAC who called it the "Red Arrow", and later the "Black Arrow". It is also known for being used by Will Ospreay and Komander.


text: Several attacks taken from eastern martial arts to "Lucha libre", these are widely popular maneuvers amongst fans worldwide.


text: Standing over the top turnbuckle or top rope, the attacking wrestler jumps off and twists slightly so as soaring midair faces away from the opponent, connecting the side of their lead leg's calf-heel cord area to the opponent's face or chest.


text: A leg lariat in which a wrestler jumps from a raised platform towards an opponent and wraps one leg around the opponent's head or neck, knocking them down to the ground.


text: A move in which the wrestler jumps from an elevated position (usually the top turnbuckle) and strikes a standing opponent with a spinning heel kick mid-air.


text: Executed when a wrestler jumps from a raised platform (usually the top turnbuckle), and performs a mid-air back kick on a standing opponent.


text: A move in which the wrestler jumps from an elevated position (usually the top turnbuckle) and strikes a standing opponent with the soles of both feet, essentially executive a diving version of a dropkick.


text: This maneuver is performed by an attacking wrestler standing or sitting on an elevated platform facing the back of a standing opponent while applying an inverted facelock. From this position, the attacking wrestler somersaults forward to roll the inverted facelock into a facelock. As they fall, the wrestler either drops to a seated position driving the opponent's jaw into their shoulder, or back-first forcing the opponent's face into the mat. Innovated by Masato Tanaka.


text: This move is executed by jumping forward off the top rope with legs apart, then straddling on a standing opponent's shoulders and using the momentum to snap off, rolling and throwing the opponent forward. This move was popularized by Lita as the "Litacanrana". Rey Mysterio popularized a springboard version called the "West Coast Pop", but rarely uses it in his later years due to knee injuries.


text: This variant is executed on an opponent sitting on the top turnbuckle. With the attacking wrestler's legs scissored around the opponent's head while they face each other, the wrestler backflips to swing through the opponent's open legs, dragging the opponent into a forced somersault that distances the wrestler from the opponent, who lands back-first. The name comes from Scott Steiner, who possibly invented the move.


text: A handstand variation can also be used. With the opponent seated on the top turnbuckle facing the ring, the wrestler performs a handspring on the bottom turnbuckle, wrapping both shins or feet around the opponent's neck. The wrestler then throws both legs forward towards the ring, pulling and flipping over the opponent to the mat back first.


text: Also known as "Inverted Frankensteiner" or "Poisoned Frankensteiner", this is executed on an opponent sitting on the top turnbuckle. However, the opponent is facing away from the ring on the top turnbuckle thus the opponent backflips over and lands face first. This move can also be performed to the outside of the ring if the opponent is facing the inside of the ring or sitting on one edge of the corner turnbuckle facing the audience both legs outside of the ring on the same side. There is also a standing variation of this move in which the wrestler jumps onto the opponent's shoulders from behind and then flips backwards driving the opponent's head or chest onto the mat.


text: In this variant the wrestler performs a front flip from the top rope before executing a true hurricanrana into a pin. The technique is named by and after Dragon Kid, who popularized the maneuver.


text: With this variant the wrestler, facing away from the ring and situated on the top turnbuckle, performs a 180° turn in mid-air and then performs a front flip before executing a pinning hurricanrana.


text: Invented by Naomichi Marufuji. A backflip inverted facelock drop where a wrestler puts the opponent into a facelock, then runs up the corner turnbuckles or ring ropes and jump backwards performing a backflip, and landing face down driving the opponent down to the mat back-first. Sometimes a standing variant is performed by wrestlers with adequate leaping ability or when assisted by a tag team partner. The move is popularly known, especially in North America, as "Sliced Bread No. 2", a name created by wrestler Brian Kendrick. In a slight variation named "sitout shiranui" the wrestler lands into a seated position instead, driving the opponent's head between the legs.


text: A pinning move where wrestler and opponent face each other, with the wrestler on higher ground (such as the top turnbuckle). The wrestler dives over the opponent, catches them in a waistlock from behind, and rolls into a sitting position landing onto the mat. As the wrestler rolls over, the opponent is pulled over backwards, landing back first in a rana.


text: Some moves are meant neither to pin an opponent, nor weaken them or force them to submit, but intended to set up the attack on the opponent.


text: The term implies adding a spiral resembling a corkscrew to a maneuver. It can also refer to the motion when a backflip is twisted around so the attacker faces the inside of the ring instead of the outside when the maneuver ends.


text: A wrestler executes a backflip and lands torso first on the opponent. A basic moonsault is generally attempted from the top turnbuckle, though myriad variations exist.


text: As the name implies, this term is used to refer to any move which sees the attacking wrestler walking along the top rope before performing a move.


text: When a wrestler jumps forward from an elevated position and executes a mid-air backflip. Many techniques can be performed.


text: When a wrestler, standing on the ring apron, pulls on the top rope using the momentum to hurl over the ropes and into the ring.


text: A simple front-flip used to modify an aerial technique. A corkscrew is often added to the somersault to further modify a move.


text: When a wrestler using any of the ring ropes bounces upward. Most high-flying techniques can be performed after a spring board. Sometimes wrestlers will bounce off one set of ring ropes then off another to perform a move, this is referred to as a "double springboard". A variation of a springboard is the rope run or climb, in which a wrestler runs up, effectively with one foot off each ring rope.


text: An accepted term in American wrestling for a slingshot crossbody where the wrestler goes from the inside of the ring over the top ring rope to the outside. In "lucha libre", this variant is often called a ""pescado"" (Spanish for "fish") since a proper "plancha" is referring to any kind of crossbody. In America, however, a move from the top turnbuckle to a standing opponent on the outside where the chests impact each other is commonly referred to as such. It is also used to refer to any attack from the ring to the outside in which the wrestlers' chests impact each other. For example, a shooting star press to the outside onto a standing opponent is referred to as a "shooting star plancha".


text: The term is used to refer to any move performed at the same level the opponent, usually right on the mat, rather than most aerial moves where the attacking wrestler performs them from a raised platform.


text: Often referred to in Spanish, "suicida", is a term placed before any move that goes from any of the ring parts to the outside of the ring. The most common example is the suicide dive known as "topé suicida" (Spanish for "suicide headbutt").


text: When a somersault is performed after leaping through the ropes, or by jumping over the top rope, to land on the opponent back first, the move is known as a "suicide senton" or "topé con giro" (Sp. spinning headbutt). Outside Mexico, the move is incorrectly referred to as "topé con hilo", for it was mistranslated in Japan (Since "hilo" in Spanish actually means "thread") and the term has remained as such.


text: This term (often exchanged for "diving", "elevated", "top-rope", or "avalanche") is placed before any move performed normally on the mat but when executed off the top-or second rope.


text: A "topé" (from the original Spanish "tope", meaning "headbutt"), like the plancha, is a move most often performed by jumping from the inside of the ring and out, but instead of going over the top rope, the "topé" is performed by leaping forward through the ropes in order to strike the opponent with the head. In Mexico, "topé" also refers to any variation of a battering ram.


title: Sentinelese language

text: Sentinelese is the undescribed language of the Sentinelese people of North Sentinel Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. Due to the lack of contact between the Sentinelese people and the rest of the world, essentially nothing is known of their language, or its vitality. The Sentinelese people do not allow outsiders onto the island and are generally hostile towards visitors. Friendly interactions have been rare.


title: Sentinelese language

text: It is presumed that the islanders speak a single language and that it is a member of one of the Andamanese language families. Based on what little is known about similarities in culture and technology and their geographical proximity, it is supposed that their language is related to the Ongan languages, such as Jarawa, rather than to Great Andamanese. On the documented occasions when Onge-speaking individuals were taken to North Sentinel Island in order to attempt communication, they were unable to recognise any of the language spoken by the inhabitants. It has been recorded that the Jarawa and Sentinelese languages are mutually unintelligible.


title: Sentinelese language

text: Sentinelese is classified as endangered due to the small number of speakers, matching the unknown population of the island, which has been estimated at anywhere from 100 to 250; a rough estimate by the Government of India is 100.


title: Retail Price Index

text: In the United Kingdom, the Retail Prices Index or Retail Price Index (RPI) is a measure of inflation published monthly by the Office for National Statistics. It measures the change in the cost of a representative sample of retail goods and services.


title: Retail Price Index

text: As the RPI was held not to meet international statistical standards, since 2013 the Office for National Statistics no longer classifies it as a "national statistic", emphasising the Consumer Price Index instead. However, as of 2018 the UK Treasury still uses the RPI measure of inflation for various index-linked tax rises.


title: Retail Price Index

text: RPI was first introduced in 1956, replacing the previous Interim Index of Retail Prices that had been in use since June 1947. It was once the principal official measure of inflation. It has been superseded in that regard by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).


title: Retail Price Index

text: The RPI is still used by the government as a base for various purposes, such as the amounts payable on index-linked securities including index-linked gilts, and social housing rent increases. Many employers also use it as a starting point in wage negotiation. Since 2003, it is no longer used by the government for the inflation target for the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee nor, from April 2011, as the basis for the indexation of pensions of former public sector employees. , the UK state pension is indexed by the highest of the increase in average earnings, CPI or 2.5% ("the triple lock").


title: Retail Price Index

text: The highest annual inflation since the introduction of the RPI came in June 1975, with an increase in retail prices of 26.9% from a year earlier. By 1978 this had fallen to less than 10%, but it rose again towards 20% over the following two years before falling again. By 1982, it had fallen below 10% and a year later was down to 4%, remaining low for several years until approaching double figures again by 1990. Aided by a recession in the early 1990s, increased interest rates brought inflation down again to an even lower level.


title: Retail Price Index

text: From March to October 2009, the change in RPI measured over a 12-month period was negative, indicating an overall annual reduction in prices, for the first time since 1960. The change in RPI in the 12 months ending in April 2009, at −1.2%, was the lowest since the index started in 1948.


title: Retail Price Index

text: Housing associations lobbied the government to allow them to freeze rents at current levels rather than reduce them in line with the RPI, but the Treasury concluded that rents should follow RPI down as far as −2% per annum, leading to savings in housing benefit.


title: Retail Price Index

text: In February 2011, annual RPI inflation jumped to 5.1% putting pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates despite disappointing projected GDP growth of only 1.6% in 2011. The September 2011 figure of 5.6%, the highest for 20 years, was described by the "Daily Telegraph" as "shockingly bad".


title: Retail Price Index

text: After a thorough review, in 2012 the National Statistician's Consumer Prices Advisory Committee (CPAC) determined that due to the use of the Carli formula in certain subcomponents, the RPI is biased upwards compared to other indices by a "formula effect" of roughly one percentage point. CPAC concluded that "the use of the Carli formula is no longer appropriate" due to the weak axiomatic properties of the Carli method. (The weak property is the fact that after a price bounce and a subsequent full return to original prices, the Carli method shows positive aggregate inflation.).


title: Retail Price Index

text: In 2013, following a consultation on options for improving the RPI, the National Statistician concluded that the formula used to produce the RPI does not meet international standards and recommended that a new index known as RPIJ be published. Subsequently ONS decided to no longer classify RPI as a "national statistic". However, ONS will continue to calculate RPI, among several versions of the inflation index, in order to provide a consistent historic inflation time series. The index factors continue to be used to adjust for inflation in the calculation of chargeable (capital) gains for inclusion in the tax computation for entities subject to corporation tax in the UK.


title: Retail Price Index

text: In November 2021, inflation has risen faster than projected to its highest level in nearly a decade, putting pressure on the Bank of England to increase interest rates. According to data from the ONS, the annual rate of the CPI increased to 4.2 percent in October, up from 3.1 percent in September. Inflation surpassed the Bank of England's target of 2% and was higher than the 3.9 percent predicted by experts. Higher rates for transportation, restaurants, and hotels mainly contributed to the price increase in October.


title: Retail Price Index

text: The RPI calculation employs a variation of the Carli method rather than the Jevons method employed in the calculation of RPIJ and CPI.


title: Retail Price Index

text: The unweighted Carli method overstates inflation rates. However as stated above, the RPI calculation employs weights, which remove this overstatement.


title: Retail Price Index

text: In practice the comparison is made over shorter periods, and the weights are frequently reassessed. Detailed information is published on the Office for National Statistics website.


title: Retail Price Index

text: The RPI includes an element of housing costs, whereas the following items are not included in the CPI: Council tax, mortgage interest payments, house depreciation, buildings insurance, ground rent, solar PV feed in tariffs and other house purchase cost such as estate agents' and conveyancing fees. A further index, CPIH, has been published which includes housing costs but CPIH does not meet current international standards. The Office for National Statistics states that:


title: Retail Price Index

text: The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) is the most comprehensive measure of inflation. It extends the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) to include a measure of the costs associated with owning, maintaining and living in one's own home, known as owner occupiers'.


title: Retail Price Index

text: CPI is usually lower, though this is due more to the differences in the calculation formulas for the indices than to the differences in coverage. The UK Government announced in the June 2010 budget that CPI would be used in place of RPI for uprating of some benefits with effect from April 2011.


title: Retail Price Index

text: Regarding state pensions, the UK government confirmed in their autumn statement in 2011 that these would go up by the greater of the CPI, average earnings, or 2.5%.


title: Retail Price Index

text: The variability of the change in RPI, due to fluctuations in mortgage interest rates, is shown in the graph on the right. This was one of the arguments used in favour of changing to RPIX.


title: Retail Price Index

text: Variations on the RPI include the RPIX, which removes the cost of mortgage interest payments, the RPIY, which excludes indirect taxes (VAT) and local authority taxes as well as mortgage interest payments, and the RPIJ which uses the Jevons (geometric) rather than the Carli (arithmetic) method of averaging.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is a jukebox musical with a book by Douglas McGrath that tells the story of the early life and career of Carole King, using songs that she wrote, often together with Gerry Goffin, and other contemporary songs by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Phil Spector and others.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: The original production of "Beautiful" received its world premiere at the Curran Theatre, San Francisco, in October 2013, with direction by Marc Bruni and choreography by Josh Prince, and starring Jessie Mueller in a Tony Award-winning performance as Carole King and Jake Epstein as Gerry Goffin. It made its Broadway debut at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in January 2014. A West End production starring Katie Brayben as Carole began in February 2015. In March 2022, a new version of the production was launched for a UK tour from the Leicester Curve.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" had a pre-Broadway try-out in San Francisco, California, at the Curran Theatre from September 24, 2013 through October 20, with an official opening October 8. The production was staged by Marc Bruni, with choreography by Josh Prince and musical direction by Jason Howland. Jessie Mueller played Carole King. The musical sold out its entire run at the Curran Theatre.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: The musical opened on Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on January 12, 2014, after previews from November 12, 2013. In addition to Mueller as King, the cast features Jake Epstein as Gerry Goffin, Anika Larsen as Cynthia Weil and Jarrod Spector as Barry Mann. King attended the April 3, 2014 performance and appeared on stage with the cast at the curtain call, singing "You've Got a Friend" together with them. Carole also surprised actress and singer Melissa Benoist during her run as the titular character, praising her for her performance, and sang a reprise of "I Feel the Earth Move" with her and the audience on July 27, 2018. On the fifth anniversary of the production's opening on January 12, 2019, Carole King appeared on stage to perform the show's closing number "Beautiful" and finale alongside star Chilina Kennedy. The production closed on October 27, 2019 after 60 previews and 2,418 regular performances. Upon closing, the production was the 27th longest-running musical in Broadway history.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: A production in London's West End opened on February 25, 2015, following previews beginning February 10, 2015, at the Aldwych Theatre. On September 25, 2014, it was announced that British actress Katie Brayben would take the lead role of Carole King, with further casting including Alan Morrissey as Gerry Goffin, Gary Trainor as Don Kirshner, Glynis Barber as Genie Klein, Lorna Want as Cynthia Weil and Ian McIntosh as Barry Mann. Beginning November 30, 2015, Cassidy Janson took the lead role of Carole King and Diane Keen replaced Glynis Barber in the role of Genie Klein. it was announced on May 23, 2017 that the London production would close August 5, 2017.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: The musical began a U.S. tour starting in September 2015 in Providence, Rhode Island, at the Providence Performing Arts Center, with engagements across the United States, ending in San Francisco in August 2016. The role of Carole King was played by Abby Mueller (the sister of Jessie Mueller), with Liam Tobin as Gerry Goffin, Ben Fankhauser as Barry Mann and Becky Gulsvig as Cynthia Weil.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: A UK tour began September 2017 at the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford and ends at the New Theatre in Oxford in May 2018, starring former "Over the Rainbow" contestant Bronté Barbé as Carole King.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: An Australian tour began in Sydney on 24 September 2017 at the Lyric Theatre. Esther Hannaford leads the production, playing Carole King. The musical opened in Melbourne at Her Majesty's Theatre on 22 February 2018. In Brisbane, performances began at the Lyric Theatre, QPAC on Friday 13 July 2018 running through to Sunday 2 September 2018.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: A second U.S. National tour began September 4, 2018 at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver, CO. The role of Carole King is played by Sarah Bockel, with Dylan S. Wallach as Gerry Goffin, Alison Whitehurst as Cynthia Weil, and Jacob Heimer as Barry Mann.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: A second U.K tour began on January 11, 2020, at Churchill Theatre in Bromley, and was set to run until June 2020 but the tour was cut short due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Before the tour permanently closed the role of Carole King was played by Daisy Wood-Davis, with Adam Gillian as Gerry Goffin, Laura Baldwin as Cynthia Weil, and Cameron Sharp as Barry Mann.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: A third U.K Tour opened at the Curve Theatre, Leicester on 28 February 2022. Produced by the Made at Curve, Theatre Royal Bath and Mayflower Southampton, directed by Nikolai Foster, the production is choreographed by Leah Hill, with a creative team featuring set designer Frankie Bradshaw, costume designer Edd Lindley, lighting designer and Curve associate Ben Cracknell, sound designer Tom Marshall, associate director Jennifer Lane Baker and casting director and Curve Associate Kay Magson CDG. The role of Carole King is played by Molly-Grace Cutler ("The Worst Witch") with Tom Milner ("Holby City") as Gerry Goffin, while Seren Sandham-Davies ("Crazy For You") and Jos Slovick ("Once") will play husband and wife song-writing duo Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann. After its run in Leicester the show visited Bath, Brighton, Edinburgh, Southampton, Newcastle, Dartford, Malvern, Cambridge, Cardiff, Eastbourne, Birmingham, Sheffield, Glasgow, Belfast, Nottingham, Manchester, Blackpool, Peterborough, Coventry, Cheltenham and Liverpool, finishing at the New Theatre, Oxford on 26 November 2022. This new version of the show received positive reviews.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine, produced the US Regional Theatre Premiere, which played September 30, 2022 through October 30, 2022. The production starred Sarah Bockel as Carole King, Taylor Aronson as Cynthia Weil, Anthony Festa as Gerry Goffin, Suzanne Grodner as Genie Klein, Ben Jacoby as Barry Mann, and Matt Loehr as Don Kirschner. The production was directed by David Ruttura and choreographed by Joyce Chittick, recreating the original Broadway direction by Marc Bruni and choreography by Josh Prince. Nick Williams served as musical director.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: At Carnegie Hall in 1971, Carole King sings "So Far Away". Then, in Brooklyn 1958, 16-year-old Carole tells her mother, Genie, she is going into Manhattan to try to sell a song to music publisher Donnie Kirshner. In the long tradition of mothers, Genie is opposed to her daughter's wish and in the equally long tradition of teenagers not caring about their mother's opinion, Carole goes anyway. At 1650 Broadway, she hears the "1650 Broadway Medley". She then sings her new song "It Might As Well Rain Until September". Donnie says he will take it and hopes she has others. At Queens College, Carole meets a handsome young lyricist named Gerry Goffin. They agree to collaborate, musically and romantically, which in both cases turns out to be a fertile arrangement. When they go to Donnie's to play their new song, Carole confesses to Gerry that she is pregnant. Gerry asks her to marry him. It gives her an extra depth of feeling when she sings their new song for Donnie, "Some Kind of Wonderful", which The Drifters then record.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: They get an office at 1650. While there, Carole meets a new lyricist Cynthia Weil ("Happy Days Are Here Again"), who is looking for a composer to work with. Gerry and Carole sing their new song "Take Good Care of My Baby", during which Barry Mann, the composer with the office next door, enters. Barry meets Cynthia and they decide to collaborate. As they begin to work, sparks fly. Donnie tells them he needs a song for the Shirelles. The couples compete for the job. In Donnie's office the next morning, Carole and Gerry present "Will You Love Me Tomorrow". Cynthia and Barry perform "He's Sure the Boy I Love". Donnie picks Carole and Gerry's song for The Shirelles and it goes to no. 1. And so, on either side of the same wall, a competition is born. The two teams turn out an amazing parade of songs: "Up on the Roof", "On Broadway", "The Loco-Motion" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'".


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: Gerry and Carole are at the taping of a TV special where their new song, "One Fine Day", is being performed by the dazzling Janelle Woods. During a break, Gerry confesses to Carole that he is restless in their marriage. He wants to sleep with Janelle, and he doesn't want to lie about it. Carole is stunned. As the song begins again, she takes it over and sings it herself.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: Carole is in a recording studio doing a demo of "Chains". Gerry is off with Janelle but tells her he will meet her later. Nick, a guitarist, asks Carole to come sing at the Bitter End sometime but she declines — she's a songwriter, not a singer. The thing with Gerry is getting her down so she goes and talks to Cynthia who is also having trouble with Barry — they split up. Carole decides to tell Gerry he has to end the affair with Janelle. As she leaves, Barry comes in. He and Cynthia make up and play their new song, "Walking in the Rain". Gerry shows up, but he is not making sense. He eventually has a breakdown. At the hospital, he tells Carole he will end the affair with Janelle and that he wants to come home. She suggests they make a new start and move to the suburbs ("Pleasant Valley Sunday").


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: Barry, Cynthia and Donnie come to see the new house. Barry plays their new song, "We Gotta Get Out of This Place". Depressed that he and Carole can't do as well, Gerry leaves in a funk for the city. While he is gone, it comes out that Barry and Cynthia have seen him with another woman, a singer named Marilyn Wald. Carole goes to Marilyn's apartment and Gerry is there. It's the final straw, and she ends their marriage. At the Bitter End, where Barry and Cynthia hear their song "Uptown", Carole explains she went to Los Angeles for a vacation and has started writing on her own. Nick, the guitarist from the studio who asked her to sing with his group, is playing there and urges her to sing. She sings her new song, "It's Too Late". She decides to move to Los Angeles. At 1650, she says goodbye to Donnie, Barry and Cynthia and plays them a parting present "You've Got a Friend".


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: In Los Angeles, she records her album, "Tapestry". The session goes well until the last song, which she is afraid to sing. It's a song she wrote with Gerry and she is afraid of the feelings it may stir up. Her producer, Lou Adler, persuades her. She sings "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman". The album is a smash. Carole is at Carnegie Hall for her concert, and is met by Gerry, who apologizes for the way he mistreated her in the past and gives her a final prediction - "you're going all the way". Carole takes to the piano, and performs for her audience.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: The musical uses a 12-member orchestra consisting of three keyboards, two guitars, bass, drums, percussion, two reeds, trumpet/flugelhorn, and trombone/bass trombone. In addition, the performer playing Carole King plays the piano or mimes as another performer plays.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: The Broadway cast album was recorded in February 2014 by Ghostlight Records and was released in digital form on April 1, 2014. It was in stores as of May 13, 2014. (The Broadway cast album includes the song "You've Got a Friend", although that song is not listed in the opening night playbill.) The album was also released on a vinyl format.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: Ben Brantley, reviewing for "The New York Times", called the musical a "friendly, formulaic bio-musical". He wrote that the musical shows the change in King from a modest songwriter to the popular and confident performer of those songs, showing the "real, conflicted person within the reluctant star."


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: Jesse Green, in his review for the "New York Magazine", praised the performers but criticized the book, writing that the musical does not have the "dramatic coherence of book biomusicals". Similarly, Elyse Sommer, in her review for "curtainup.com", praised the performers, especially Mueller, Spector and Larsen, as well as the "shimmery lighting" and the costumes. She wrote that while the musical "doesn't hang its songs on the greatest or most suspenseful story ever told, it has enough bounce and Broadway show glitz to keep you in your seat".


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: On March 22, 2015, it was announced that Sony Pictures would be bringing the musical to the big screen with Douglas McGrath adapting his book into a screenplay and stage producer Paul Blake producing through Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman's production company, Playtone.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: In December 2022, Daisy Edgar-Jones was cast in the lead role of the film, with Lisa Cholodenko directing from a script she co-wrote with Stuart Blumberg.


title: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

text: The producers of the original Broadway production include: Paul Blake, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Jeffery A. Sine, Richard A. Smith, Mike Bosner, Harriet Newman Leve, Elaine Krauss, Terry Schnuck, Orin Wolf, Patty Baker, Roger Faxon, Larry Magrid, Kit Seidel, Lawrence S. Toppall, Fakston Productions, Mary Soloman, William C. Cohen, John Gore, Barbara Freitag, Loraine Alterman Boyle, Matthew C. Blank, Tim Hogue, Joel Hyatt, Marianne Mills, Michael J. Moritz Jr., StylesFour Production, Corey Brunish, Brisa Trinchero, Jeremiah J. Harris, Sherry Kondor (Executive Producer), Christine Russell (Executive Producer).


title: Shugendō

text: The "Shugendō" worldview includes a large pantheon of deities (which include Buddhist and Shinto figures). Some of the most important figures are the tantric Buddhist figures of Fudō Myōō and Dainichi Nyorai. Other key figures are , which are considered to be the manifestation of Buddhas as Japanese kami. is one of the most important gongen in "Shugendō".


title: Shugendō

text: "Shugendō" evolved during the seventh century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn from local folk-religious practices, Shinto mountain worship and Buddhism. The seventh-century ascetic and mystic En no Gyōja is widely considered as the patriarch of "Shugendō", having first organized "Shugendō" as a doctrine. "Shugendō" literally means "the path of training and testing" or "the way to spiritual power through discipline." "Shugendō" practitioners are also said to be descendants of the Kōya Hijiri monks of the eighth and ninth centuries.


title: Shugendō

text: From the ninth century, elements of Vajrayana Buddhism such as Shingon and Tendai Buddhism were taken into "Shugendō" and it developed further. In the Heian period, it became very popular among the nobles living in Kyoto to visit Kumano Sanzan (three major shrines, Kumano Hongū Taisha, Kumano Hayatama Taisha and Kumano Nachi Taisha), which was the common holy place of "Shugendō", Shinto and Buddhism.


title: Shugendō

text: The Meiji government, which erected a barrier between Shinto and Buddhism, ruled that "Shugendō" was unacceptable because of its amalgamation of the two religions, and officially forbade it in 1872. With the advent of religious freedom in Japan after World War II, "Shugendō" was revived.


title: Shugendō

text: In 1907, Yoshitaro Shibasaki and his team successfully climbed Mount Tsurugi, which was regarded as the last unclimbed mountain in Japan. However, they found a metal cane decoration and a sword on the top of the mountain, and it turned out that someone had reached the top before them. A later scientific investigation revealed that the metal cane decoration and sword dated from the late Nara period to the early Heian period and that "shugenja" had climbed Mount Tsurugi more than 1,000 years ago.


title: Shugendō

text: The Ōmine mountain range, which stretches 100 km from north to south and connects Yoshino and Kumano, was historically the biggest practice place of "Shugendō". The highest peak of the Ōmine mountain range is Mount Hakkyō at an altitude of 1915 m, and there are 75 places for ascetic practices along the mountain trail, and Ōminesan-ji Temple at the top of Mount Ōmine at an altitude of 1719 m is considered to be the highest sacred site of "Shugendō". At present, the Ōmine mountain range is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site "Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range" and Yoshino-Kumano National Park.


title: Shugendō

text: In modern times, "Shugendō" is practiced mainly through Tendai and Shingon temples. Some temples include Kimpusen-ji in Yoshino (Tendai), Ideha Shrine in the Three Mountains of Dewa and Daigo-ji in Kyoto (Shingon).


title: Shugendō

text: According to Miyake Hitoshi, Shugend"ō" rituals include "festivals, fortunetelling, divination, prayers and incantations, exorcism, spells, charms and so forth." Hitoshi describes the main worldview which informs Shugendo praxis as one which:


title: Shugendō

text: assumes the existence of at least two realms of existence, that of the daily lives of human beings, and a separate, supernatural spiritual realm behind, and which controls that of the daily lives of human beings. The mountains are seen either as a sacred space which is part of both of these worlds, or is seen to actually be a part of the spiritual world. The altar space during the fire ceremony, or the area of a matsuri, is also considered to be this kind of sacred space.


title: Shugendō

text: The tantric Buddhist deity Fudō Myōō (Sanskrit: Acala, "Immovable") plays a central role in the Shugendo cosmology practice. Another important Buddha is Dainichi Nyorai (大日如来，Mahavairocana). The Shugendo pantheon also includes numerous other Buddhist, Shinto and local religious figures.


title: Shugendō

text: The most important Shugend"ō" practices are "practices in the mountains" ("nyūbu shugyō", 入峰修行). In Shugend"ō", sacred mountains are seen as a supernatural home of numerous deities and as a symbol of the entire universe. According to Hitoshi, "the central element which forms both of these rituals is the symbolic action exhibited in a state of identification with the central deity Fudō Myōō." The main source of the shugenja's spiritual power generally understood to be Fudō Myōō and a shugenja gains the ability to use Fudō Myōō's power through mountain practices.


title: Shugendō

text: Shugendō esoteric initiations are called "shōkanjō" (正灌頂) and are unique to Shugendō tradition (but are based on Vajrayana Buddhist abhiseka ceremonies).


title: Shugendō

text: Another important Shugendō practice is the demonstration of magical and spiritual powers ("genjutsu", 験 術). Such displays may include fire walking, walking on swords, and entering boiling water.


title: Shugendō

text: Yet another important religious practice in Shugendō is various rites or rituals of worship ("kuyōhō", 供養法) which includes making offerings to Shugendō deities (such as Fudō Myōō and Zaō Gongen) as well as the chanting of sutras.


title: Shugendō

text: Shugendo ritualists also practice different rituals, prayers and ceremonies associated with particular deities ("shosonbō", 諸尊法) including the buddhas Yakushi and Amida, the bodhisattvas Monju, Kokuzo and Kannon as well as Indian deities like Benzai-ten and Japanese Kami like Inari, and Daikoku.


title: Angeliño

text: José Ángel Esmorís Tasende (; born 4 January 1997), known by the diminutive Angeliño (), is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a left back or left midfielder for Bundesliga club 1899 Hoffenheim, on loan from RB Leipzig.


title: Angeliño

text: Angeliño was born in Coristanco, Galicia. He joined Deportivo La Coruña's youth setup in 2007 at age 10, after starting it out at EF Luis Calvo Sanz (the youth setup of Bergantiños FC) in Carballo, Galicia. He spent six years in their youth system.


title: Angeliño

text: On 8 July 2012, Angeliño signed a four-year deal with Manchester City, being effective in January of the following year. Initially assigned to the under-18s, he also appeared regularly with the reserves.


title: Angeliño

text: On 30 January 2016, Angeliño made his debut for the first team in a 4–0 away win against Aston Villa, coming on in the 81st minute to replace Gaël Clichy in the FA Cup. He played for the club twice in the 2016–17 season, making his Champions League debut on 24 August, as a substitute in a 1–0 win over Steaua București. His next appearance came on 21 September, starting in a 2–1 win over Swansea City in the EFL Cup.


title: Angeliño

text: Angeliño signed for New York City on loan in 2015. Angeliño made his professional debut for the club on 12 July 2015 in a 4–4 draw against Toronto. Angeliño came on for Kwame Watson-Siriboe in the 46th minute and played the entire second half of the match. He had his first interview for the club on 16 July 2015. He made his first start in a 1–0 defeat to New England Revolution, playing the full 90 minutes.


title: Angeliño

text: It was announced on 27 December 2016 that Angeliño would be loaned to Girona from 1 January 2017 to the end of the season. On 31 January, it was announced that, having not made a single appearance for Girona, Angeliño would instead be loaned to Mallorca. He made his debut on 5 February, in a substitute appearance in a 2–1 loss to Real Oviedo.


title: Angeliño

text: On 4 July 2017, Angeliño was loaned to NAC Breda for the forthcoming season. During his season, he won four Rookie of the Month awards while scoring three goals and delivering seven assists.


title: Angeliño

text: After his impressive debut season in the Eredivisie, Angeliño signed for PSV Eindhoven on 15 June 2018, signing a five-year contract. By the season's end, he was voted into the Eredivisie Team of the Season and was named the Talent of the Season, after winning 189 duels and creating 68 chances.


title: Angeliño

text: Manchester City re-signed Angeliño on 3 July 2019 after triggering a buy-back clause in his contract. Angeliño made his debut in the 2019–20 Premier League season on 21 September, coming on as a half-time substitute for Benjamin Mendy in an 8–0 routing of Watford at the Etihad.


title: Angeliño

text: On 31 January 2020, having made 12 appearances for Manchester City, Angeliño was loaned to German Bundesliga club RB Leipzig until the end of the season. He made 13 league appearances, scoring once and assisting three times. On 13 August, Angeliño provided the assist for the late winning goal in a 2–1 victory against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final, helping the club reach their first ever Champions League semi-final.


title: Angeliño

text: On 8 September 2020, Manchester City announced that Angeliño's loan to RB Leipzig would be extended for the duration of the 2020–21 campaign. On 20 October 2020, Angeliño scored a brace in a 2–0 win over İstanbul Başakşehir in the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League. In the final group stage match on 8 December, Angeliño scored his side's first goal in a 3–2 win over his parent club's bitter rivals Manchester United to knock them out of the competition.


title: Angeliño

text: On 12 February 2021, Angeliño's loan to RB Leipzig was made permanent after he signed a four-year contract with the German club, for an undisclosed fee.


title: Angeliño

text: Angeliño's younger brother Dani Tasende is also a footballer and a left back. He also played for Manchester City as a youth.


title: Commodore PET

text: The Commodore PET is a line of personal computers produced starting in 1977 by Commodore International. A single all-in-one case combines a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, Commodore BASIC in read-only memory, keyboard, monochrome monitor, and, in early models, a cassette deck.


title: Commodore PET

text: Development of the system began in 1976, and a prototype was demonstrated at the January 1977 Consumer Electronics Show. The name "PET" was suggested by Andre Souson after he saw the Pet Rock in Los Gatos, and stated they were going to make the "pet computer". It was backronymed to Personal Electronic Transactor. A series of problems delayed production versions until December 1977, by which time the TRS-80 and Apple II had already begun deliveries. "Byte" referred to the three machines collectively as the "1977 trinity".


title: Commodore PET

text: Following the initial PET 2001, the design was updated through a series of models with more memory, better keyboard, larger screen, and other modifications. The systems were a top seller in the Canadian and United States education markets, as well as for business use in Europe.


title: Commodore PET

text: In the 1970s, Commodore was one of many electronics companies selling calculators designed around Dallas-based Texas Instruments (TI) chips. TI faced increasing competition from Japanese vertically-integrated companies who were using new CMOS-based processors and had a lower total cost of production. These companies began to undercut TI business, so TI responded by entering the calculator market directly in 1975. As a result, TI was selling complete calculators at lower price points than they sold just the chipset to their former customers, and the industry that had built up around it was frozen out of the market.


title: Commodore PET

text: Commodore initially responded by beginning their own attempt to form a vertically-integrated calculator line as well, purchasing a vendor in California that was working on a competitive CMOS calculator chip and an LED production line. They also went looking for a company with an existing calculator chip line, something to tide them over in the immediate term, and this led them to MOS Technology. MOS had been building calculator chips for some time, but more recently had begun to branch out into new markets with its 6502 microprocessor design, which they were trying to bring to market.


title: Commodore PET

text: Along with the 6502 came Chuck Peddle's KIM-1 design, a small computer kit based on the 6502. At Commodore, Peddle convinced Jack Tramiel that calculators were a dead-end and that Commodore should explore the burgeoning microcomputer market instead. At first, they considered purchasing an existing design, and in September 1976 Peddle got a demonstration of Jobs and Wozniak's Apple II prototype. Jobs was offering to sell it to Commodore, but Commodore considered Jobs's offer too expensive.


title: Commodore PET

text: The Commodore PET was officially announced in 1976 and Jack Tramiel gave Chuck Peddle six months to have the computer ready for the January 1977 Consumer Electronics Show, with his team including John Feagans, Bill Seiler, two Japanese engineers named Fujiyama and Aoji, and Jack's son Leonard Tramiel, who helped design the PETSCII graphic characters and acted as quality control.


title: Commodore PET

text: The result was Commodore's first mass-market personal computer, the PET, the first model of which was the PET 2001. Its 6502 processor controlled the screen, keyboard, cassette tape recorders and any peripherals connected to one of the computer's several expansion ports. The PET 2001 included either (2001-4) or (2001-8) of 8-bit RAM, and was essentially a single-board computer with discrete logic driving a small built-in monochrome monitor with character graphics, enclosed in a sheet metal case that reflected Commodore's background as a manufacturer of office equipment. The machine also included a built-in Datasette for data storage located on the front of the case, which left little room for the keyboard. The data transfer rate to cassette tape was 1500 baud, but the data was recorded to tape twice for safety, giving an effective rate of 750 baud. The computer's main board carried four expansion ports: extra memory, a second cassette tape recorder interface, a parallel ("user") port which could be used for sound output or connection to "user" projects or non-Commodore devices and a parallel IEEE-488 port which allowed for daisy-chaining peripherals such as disk drives and printers.


title: Commodore PET

text: A working PET 2001 prototype was shown to the public at the Winter CES 1977 in January 1977, and the first hundred units were shipped in October, mostly going to magazines and software developers, while the machine was not generally available to consumers until December. However, the PET was back-ordered for months and to ease deliveries, early in 1978 Commodore decided to cancel the 4 KB version (also because the user would be left with barely of RAM).


title: Commodore PET

text: Dan Fylstra of "Byte" magazine received one of the initial PETs in October 1977, S/N 16, and reported on the computer in the March 1978 issue. Fylstra praised its full-featured BASIC, lowercase letters, and reliable cassette system, while disapproving of the keyboard. His machine had three faulty RAM chips and after some difficulty contacting Commodore, was mailed a set of replacement chips and installation instructions by John Feagans.


title: Commodore PET

text: Commodore was the first company to license Microsoft's 6502 BASIC, but the agreement nearly drove Microsoft into receivership as Commodore stipulated that they would only pay for it when the PET began shipping. This was delayed by over six months, during which Microsoft lost money and had their cash reserves further depleted by a lawsuit over ownership of Altair BASIC. At the end of the year, Microsoft was saved by Apple's decision to license Microsoft BASIC for the Apple II line.


title: Commodore PET

text: The BASIC included on the original PET 2001 was known as Commodore BASIC 1.0; Microsoft supplied Commodore with a source listing for their 6502 BASIC, essentially a port of BASIC-80, and Commodore performed the rest of the work themselves, including changing the startup screen and prompts, adding I/O support, the SYS command for invoking machine language programs, and fixing bugs. BASIC 1.0 still had numerous bugs and IEEE-488 support was broken, so that when Commodore later came out with disk drives, they could not be used from BASIC (although the kernel routines supported them), and only supported 256 array elements. The PEEK function would not work on memory locations above 49152 so as to prevent the user from viewing the copyrighted code in the system ROMs.


title: Commodore PET

text: Aside from the 8K BASIC ROM, the PET also included a 4K character ROM and an 8K kernal ROM. The first half of the kernal contained screen editor functions (the screen editor on 80 column PETs differed from 40-column models) with the second half containing a number of function calls for tasks such as inputting and outputting data to and from different I/O devices, reading the keyboard, and positioning the cursor. In addition, the kernal ROM received system interrupts and scanned the keyboard. The kernel, an idea of John Feagans, was a spiritual ancestor to the ROM BIOS on PC compatibles and the first personal computer OS ROM to be a distinct entity from BASIC. The character ROM was 4K in size, containing four different 128 character tables, the uppercase/graphics character set and upper/lowercase character set, plus reverse video versions of both. This included a number of graphics characters for creating pseudographics on the screen as well as playing card symbols (reportedly because Jack Tramiel's sons wanted to play card games on the computer). On the original PET 2001, the uppercase/graphics character set and upper/lowercase character set were reversed compared to how they would be on later machines; PET owners who upgraded their machines to the BASIC 2.0 ROMs often also swapped out the character ROMs for the newer version.


title: Commodore PET

text: Although the machine was moderately successful, there were frequent complaints about the tiny calculator-like keyboard, often referred to as a "chiclet keyboard" because the keys resembled the chewing gum it was named after. The key tops also tended to rub off easily. Reliability was fairly poor, although that was common in many early microcomputers. Because of the poor keyboard on the PET, external replacement ones quickly appeared. The PET had somewhat of a competitive advantage over its Apple II and TRS-80 rivals as both were using relatively primitive integer BASICs for their first six months on the market while the PET had a full-featured BASIC with floating point support, a sophisticated screen editor, and lowercase letters, the last being a feature that the two competing platforms would not have for a few years. On the other hand, Commodore were a year behind Apple and Tandy in making disk drives available for their computers.


title: Commodore PET

text: In 1979, Commodore replaced the original PET 2001 with an improved model known as the 2001-N (the N was short for "New"). The new machine used a standard green-phosphor monitor in place of the white in the original 2001. It now had a conventional, full-sized keyboard and no longer sported the built-in cassette recorder. The kernel ROM was upgraded to add support for Commodore's newly-introduced disk drive line. It was offered in 8 KB, 16 KB, or 32 KB models as the 2001-N8, 2001-N16, and 2001-N32 (the 8 KB models were dropped soon after introduction). The 2001-N switched to using conventional DRAM instead of the 6550 (1kx4) SRAM in the original model. PET 2001-8Ns had eight 2108 (8kx1) DRAMs and 2001-16Ns used sixteen 2108s. The PET 4016 used eight 4116 (16kx1) chips. All 32K PETs used sixteen 4116 chips. Finally, Commodore added a machine-language monitor to the kernel ROM that could be accessed by jumping to any memory location with a BRK instruction. It did not include a built-in assembler and required the user to enter hexadecimal numbers for coding.


title: Commodore PET

text: Commodore contacted Microsoft to upgrade BASIC for the new machines; this resulted in the soon-to-be-familiar BASIC 2.0 which removed the 256 element array limitation and had a rearranged zero page. Most bugs were fixed and IEEE-488 support in BASIC was made to be functional. The PEEK function was unblocked for memory locations above 49152. BASIC 2.0 also included an easter egg that Bill Gates personally coded, which would cause "MICROSOFT!" to appear if the user typed WAIT 6502,x (x being the number of times to display the message); this was reportedly due to a dispute with Commodore over ownership of BASIC (years later, when Microsoft developed BASIC for the Amiga, one of their conditions was that Commodore credit the original authors of BASIC, so BASIC 7.0 on the Commodore 128 displayed a Microsoft copyright notice). This feature was present in all 30xx series PETs. Commodore executives were unhappy when they learned about it and it was removed from BASIC on all subsequent Commodore machines. Microsoft also remained sensitive about their copyrighted code and pressured Commodore to not release any BASIC code listings to the public, although user groups eventually made disassemblies of BASIC.


title: Commodore PET

text: Sales of the newer machines were strong, and Commodore then introduced the models to Europe. However, Philips owned a competing trademark on the PET name, so these models were renamed. The result was the CBM 3000 series ('CBM' standing for Commodore Business Machines), which included the 3008, 3016 and 3032 models. Like the 2001-N-8, the 3008 was quickly dropped. Later PET 3000 series machines switched to the BASIC 4.0 ROMs.


title: Commodore PET

text: In 1980, the 4000-series PETs were launched. These included the enhanced BASIC 4.0, which added commands for disk functions and significantly improved garbage cleanup. By this point, Commodore discovered that people were buying cheaper and models of the 3000-series and upgrading the RAM rather than paying extra for the model. Because of this, they punched out the memory sockets in the 4008 and 4016 to prevent that practice. The 4032 was a major success in schools, where its tough all-metal construction and all-in-one design made it better able to stand up to the rigors of classroom use. Just as important in this role was the PET's otherwise underutilized IEEE-488 port. Used wisely, the port could be used as a simple local area network and allowed printers and disk drives (which were then very expensive) to be shared among all of the machines in the classroom. Unlike later Commodore machines, PETs had no kernel ROM functions for the IEEE-488 port and users had to write their own for using peripherals such as modems.


title: Commodore PET

text: First year 4000-series PETs retained the same video hardware as the PET 2001/3000, but in 1981 this was replaced by the 12-inch screen and 6845-based CRTC hardware.


title: Commodore PET

text: The PET's simple, rugged design and completely enclosed components made it an early favorite in the North American education market. Schools preferred the 40-column models because the 40-column display's larger characters vs. the 80xx PETs were easier for young children to read. Commodore manufactured a variation on the PET called "Teacher's PET" these were relabeled 2001-series PETs which were donated by Commodore as part of a "buy 2, get 1 free" program offered to schools as part of a promotion/tax write-off scheme.


title: Commodore PET

text: Two more machines were released in the PET series. The 8000 series included a new display chip which drove an 80×25 character screen, but this resulted in a number of software incompatibilities with programs designed for the 40 column screen, and it appears to have been unpopular as a result. Unlike the 30xx series, the 40xx and 80xx PETs came standard with a 1-channel speaker for sound generation.


title: Commodore PET

text: 2001/3000 and 4000-series PETs used what became known as the "graphics keyboard". Numbers were exclusively on the numeric keypad and the row above the alphabet keys had only punctuation symbols. The 3032 and 4032 were produced in two special variants known as the B models with the so-called "business keyboard", which had a conventional layout with mathematical symbols and numbers above the alphabet keys. The keypad contained only numerals. On the other hand, all 8000-series PETs sported the business layout.


title: Commodore PET

text: Entering graphics symbols on PETs with the business keyboard proved something of a challenge since they could not be directly typed out and usually it was necessary to display them indirectly via a CHR$ function.


title: Commodore PET

text: The 4000/8000 PETs were more explicitly targeted at professional/business use than the 2001/3000. Business customers were the main target for the features of the enhanced BASIC 4.0, and a good selection of prepackaged business software was available. A large line of 5.25-inch and 8-inch floppy drives were made for the PET family, and even 5 and 7 MB external hard disks. While they became fairly popular for business use in Europe, they failed to make much impact on the US market in part because the 6502-based PETs could not run CP/M, which had become the standard for business software. In addition, the PET's of memory was a disadvantage against the Apple II and TRS-80, both of which could accommodate . The 8000-series PETs had a motherboard connector for a daughterboard that added an additional 64K of RAM for 96K total; this was a standard feature on the 8096. A register at is used to set the RAM configuration. The extra RAM is banked in four 16K blocks, the first two blocks are switched into - and the second two in -. Normally, banking in the expansion RAM will swap out the video RAM, I/O registers, and system ROMs, so interrupts must be turned off first, but it is also possible to set the video RAM and I/O registers to "peek" through. Regardless, switching the OS ROMs out will require the user to either have interrupts disabled or supply his own interrupt handler. The expansion RAM cannot be seen by BASIC and machines equipped with the RAM board will still report the standard 31,743 bytes free on power up. A relatively small amount of software could utilize it.


title: Commodore PET

text: As noted above, 8000-series PETs (and later 4000s) used larger monitors and a different video controller than the 2001/3000 models. This created a notorious compatibility problem known as the killer poke. On 2001/3000 PETs, there was a register which when enabled did not allow reading/writing of the video RAM except during the vertical blanking in order to prevent snow on the screen, caused by the CPU and video controller trying to access the VRAM at the same time. This feature was used because of the extremely slow 6550 SRAMs in the PET 2001, although it ceased to be a problem on 3000-series PETs since they used faster 2114 SRAMs for the video memory instead. Ordinarily, this feature was enabled on power-up. If the user didn't mind snow, they could turn it off and get faster text output. BASIC programs and some machine-language software commonly did this for performance reasons. PETs with 12-inch displays (all 8000s and later 4000s) used a video controller based on the Motorola 6845 CRTC chip (unlike the TTL logic circuit in 2001/3000s/early 4000s) that eliminated the snow problem, but also placed a CRT control register in place of where the VBLANK flag had been on the 2001/3000. BASIC programs intended for the 2001/3000 thus had to be modified in order to run safely on 12-inch PETs. Later machines had modified video circuitry to prevent killer poke damage; a TDA 1170 chip was used in place of the original analog circuit so that if no sync went to the monitor, it would merely be shut off rather than sent spurious signals.


title: Commodore PET

text: The PET 2001 and 2001-8N had a register that would disable the video output; this was also used as output for the IEEE-488 interface, so screen flicker would occur during disk drive or printer use. It also became a popular method of producing explosion effects in games, but because the screen flickered while using the IEEE-488 port, the 16K and 32K models had this feature removed.


title: Commodore PET

text: The last in the series was the SP9000, known as the SuperPET or MicroMainframe. This machine was designed at the University of Waterloo for teaching programming. In addition to the basic CBM 8000 hardware, the 9000 added a second CPU in the form of the Motorola 6809, more RAM and included a number of programming languages including a BASIC in ROM for the 6502 and a separate ANSI Minimal BASIC-compatible BASIC for the 6809, along with APL, COBOL, FORTRAN, Pascal and a 6809 assembler on floppies. It also included microEDITOR, a text editor for use in writing and maintaining programs for any of the 6809 languages. Also included was a terminal program which allowed the machine to be used as a "smart terminal" as well, so this single machine could replace many of the boxes currently in use at the university. Additionally this machine became a remote development environment where the user could later upload their creation to a mainframe after completing development and testing on the SuperPET.


title: Commodore PET

text: In 1982, Commodore retired the PET line with the intention of replacing it with the B-series machines; however, they were a marketplace flop and also very expensive to manufacture. Because Commodore still had a strong business software market in Europe, the 80xx series PET was revived during 1984 in a new molded plastic case with a swivel monitor. Four models were offered, the 8032SK, 8096SK, and the new 8296 and 8296-D. The 8296 models had 128K of memory (96K on the expansion memory board) and the 8296-D had two internal half-height 8250 drives. In addition, the 8296 came bundled with an office suite on disk and the system ROMs included a menu program to launch each of its four applications. Early units contained leftover 8032/96 PCBs in order to get rid of remaining stock; after these were used up, Commodore equipped the machines with a new PCB that replaced the old triple-voltage 4116 DRAMs with more modern types.


title: Commodore PET

text: The 8296 had a completely redesigned motherboard and handled expansion RAM in a different fashion than the 8096. While on the 8096, the expansion RAM cannot be accessed at all without switching out the OS ROMs and video RAM, the 8296 has a setup closer to that of the Commodore 64 where writing to the memory locations with the OS ROMs accesses the RAM underneath, but reading from those locations will read back the ROMs instead.


title: Commodore PET

text: The 8296 also differs from the 8096 in that it has jumpers on the PCB to select the power-on memory configuration for -. The factory default configuration was to have the I/O registers, video RAM, and ROMs occupying -. When operating from BASIC, the machine would be nearly indistinguishable from an 8032. By setting the jumpers, one could swap out any 8K region of upper memory for RAM, and it was even possible to have everything switched out and convert the entire - to RAM, although such a machine would be useless with no I/O or system ROMs accessible. Like with the 8096, the user could also manipulate the register at to control which RAM banks occupied upper memory. The 8296's RAM is banked in 16K chunks like the 8096, although since it has 128K, there are six possible banks instead of four, three that can go into - and three that can go into -, and like with the 8096, the video RAM and I/O registers can be set to "peek" through.


title: Commodore PET

text: The motherboard also sported "user" jumpers which "connected" the RAM banking to the user port, these required soldering to enable. If connected, the user port could be used to adjust the upper memory configuration via software.


title: Commodore PET

text: The IEEE-488–based PET disk drive line was also updated; the large, heavy metal-cased drives were replaced by smaller units in 1541 cases; they looked almost identical to a 1541 drive except for the back sporting an IEEE-488 connector instead of the two IEC DIN connectors. Of the previously extensive PET disk drive line, the only drives that returned were the 2031-LP and SFD-1001 (basically a 2040 and an 8250 repackaged in a 1541-style case with half-height drive mechanisms). The resurrected PET was sold through 1986 and then finally retired for good, having been superseded by the Commodore 128, 1571, and 1581.


title: Commodore PET

text: Although not officially a member of the PET series, in 1983 Commodore packaged C64 motherboards in plastic cases similar to the PET 4000-series in order to create the Educator 64. This was an attempt to retake some of the education market they had largely lost by then to the Apple IIe.


title: Commodore PET

text: In the home computer market, the PET line was soon outsold by machines that supported high-resolution color graphics and sound, mainly the Apple II (which shipped in June 1977), Atari 400/800 (1979), and, in particular, Commodore's own bestselling VIC-20 (1980/81). Commodore released a "High Resolution Graphic" board for the PET using the Thomson EF936x graphics chip with a resolution of 512×512 pixels. In addition, the Apple II, TRS-80 Model I, and Atari 400 (via 3rd party expansions)/800 could all be expanded to a maximum of 48 KB of RAM while the PET was limited to 32 KB.


title: Commodore PET

text: Without the "High Resolution Graphic" board, the PET's graphics capabilities were limited to a character set hardwired in ROM, similar to the Apple II in text mode. On many of the PET range's home computer rivals, the look-up address of the character graphics could be changed and pointed to RAM, where new characters could be defined by a programmer to create custom graphics shapes. From a programming point of view, this was a relatively simple method of producing good-looking graphics, which used negligibly more RAM than a standard character display, and significantly less RAM than bitmap graphics. The PET's lack of a remappable character set is a major weakness in the machine's design.


title: Commodore PET

text: Somewhat offsetting this drawback, the PET's ROM-restricted character set an ASCII-1963 deviation known as PETSCII was one of the most varied and flexible of the era. It allowed PET games with rudimentary graphics to be created, exemplified by clones of video games such as "Space Invaders" and "Lunar Lander". The PETSCII character set was even flexible enough to allow for the creation of simple 3D games such as "Labyrinth". This flexibility was achieved by the use of two switchable character sets, allowing the choice of either mixed-case characters, or uppercase with graphics; either could also be displayed as a reverse field, negative image. For specialized applications, alternative character sets could be programmed into an EPROM inserted in the character set ROM socket. Alternative character set EPROMs with diacritics and mathematical symbols were available in the aftermarket. A 2001-8B model with katakana keyboard and character set was sold in Japan.


title: Commodore PET

text: In 2012, Commodore enthusiast Steve Gray began a project to convert the Commodore PET to colour. This involves upgrading a 4032 machine or downgrading an 8032 machine. The result is 16 colours for foreground and background, The colour RAM is located at $8800 which is not used in regular PET machines. Colour PET emulation is available in the newer versions of the Vice Emulator software.


title: Commodore PET

text: Other than a PC speaker-class beeper, PETs did not have sound hardware (except for the 8000 models), but it was possible to rig a circuit (attributed to Hal Chamberlin) up to the 6522 "user" port that could be used to output square wave tones to an external amplifier, and some games supported this feature.


title: Commodore PET

text: The PET had two empty sockets on the motherboard for adding expansion ROMs, which could be a total of 8K in size. A predecessor to the cartridge slots on later Commodore machines, they allowed various software add-ons such as machine language monitors. In addition, it was common for commercial programs to include a copy protection ROM that had to be installed prior to running the application; something of an inconvenience to users owning multiple applications protected in this way, as the chips would have to be swapped in order to run their respective programs.


title: Commodore PET

text: The original lineup of disk drives for the PET were the single-unit 2031 and dual-unit 2040, 3040. Then followed the 4040, 8050, and 8250. Later (near the end of the PET's lifespan), single-unit 2031 and SFD-1001 drives were produced that used the same case as the 1540/1541, but sported the PET's parallel interface instead of the VIC-20/C64 IEC serial interface. The 4040/2031 used the same format as the 1541 and is read compatible (although software that performs low-level drive access will not work, and a one byte sector–header size difference makes the formats write-incompatible). 8050 and 8250 drives had an incompatible higher density / format, but were popular well into the 1980s as server/BBS storage devices because of their large capacity.


title: Commodore PET

text: In addition, Commodore had 8-inch 8060, 8061, 8062, and 8280 drives which used MFM encoding instead of the GCR used on their other disk drives and was mainly intended to allow PET users to read disks written on IBM mainframes/minicomputers. and hard disks were produced as well. They have no sub-directory support and are treated as simply a larger floppy disk.


title: Commodore PET

text: All PET peripherals will work on VIC-20/C64/Plus-4/C128 machines with a IEEE-488 parallel to IEC serial adapter (reverse IEC serial to IEEE-488 parallel adapters were also made), and as mentioned above, using these adapters, 8050/8250 drives were sometimes used on C64s for BBS service because of their large capacity and faster interface.


title: Commodore PET

text: An alternative option for adding floppy disk capability to the PET was the Computhink disk system. Although references to this system are hard to find today, it was nevertheless popular at the time, as it was both cheaper and considerably faster than the Commodore system and available from an earlier date. Unlike the Commodore units, it did not use the IEEE-488 interface, but instead required an extra circuit board to be installed inside the PET, connected to the PET's expansion connector, which used a Western Digital floppy controller chip to provide a standard Shugart interface. The board also held extra RAM for use as a disk transfer buffer, and ROM containing the disk operating software. This software was not compatible with Commodore standards and was somewhat awkward to use. Before using the disk system, it had to be initialized manually by issuing the command SYS45056. This made available a set of "pseudo-BASIC" commands for performing disk operations, which bore little or no resemblance to the standard Commodore commands for the same operations and in addition had to be prefixed with $, thus breaking the rules of BASIC syntax. It had a severe limitation in that it was only possible to have one file open at a time, which made many common tasks difficult and slow, though the direct interface to the motherboard made data transfer significantly faster than the CBM units using the IEEE-488 bus. The additional code hooked into the BASIC interpreter could slow the execution of BASIC programs by 20–30%, and it would break with programs which used the standard POKE to disable user STOPs. Nevertheless, it was still regarded as a useful system and as a great improvement over cassette storage.


title: Commodore PET

text: "ETI Canada" wrote that the Commodore PET was revolutionary in helping to bring personal computers to widespread use, noting the company's marketing and its targeting of inexperienced computer users with the computer's simple design. "Byte" described the PET 2001 as a versatile "appliance" computer most suitable for casual users and computer hobbyists, calling it a "strong contender" in the personal computer market. "Creative Computing" praised its portability, reliability, and ease of use. While it criticized the efficiency of its cassette recorder and the initial lack of adequate documentation, it considered the PET to be the best computer for a classroom.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: Sir William Jones (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794) was a British philologist, a puisne judge on the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal, and a scholar of ancient India. He is particularly known for his proposition of the existence of a relationship among European and Indo-Aryan languages, which later came to be known as the Indo-European languages.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: William Jones was born in London; his father William Jones (1675–1749) was a mathematician from Anglesey in Wales, noted for introducing the use of the symbol π. The young William Jones was a linguistic prodigy, who in addition to his native languages English and Welsh, learned Greek, Latin, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew and the basics of Chinese writing at an early age. By the end of his life he knew eight languages with critical thoroughness, was fluent in a further eight, with a dictionary at hand, and had a fair competence in another twelve.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: Jones' father died when he was aged three, and his mother Mary Nix Jones raised him. He was sent to Harrow School in September 1753 and then went on to University College, Oxford. He graduated there in 1768 and became M.A. in 1773. Financially constrained, he took a position tutoring the seven-year-old Lord Althorp, son of Earl Spencer. For the next six years he worked as a tutor and translator. During this time he published "Histoire de Nader Chah" (1770), a French translation of a work originally written in Persian by Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi. This was done at the request of King Christian VII of Denmark: he had visited Jones, who by the age of 23 had already acquired a reputation as an orientalist, and in appreciation of his work he was granted membership in the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. This would be the first of numerous works on Persia, Anatolia, and the Middle East in general.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: In 1770, Jones joined the Middle Temple and studied law for three years, a preliminary to his life-work in India. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 30 April 1772. In 1773, he was elected a member of The Club, of which he became president in 1780. He spent some time as a circuit judge in Wales, and then became involved in politics: he made a fruitless attempt to resolve the American Revolution in concert with Benjamin Franklin in Paris, and ran for the post of Member of Parliament from Oxford in the general election of 1780, but was unsuccessful.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: Jones was a radical political thinker, a friend of American independence. His work, "The principles of government; in a dialogue between a scholar and a peasant" (1783), was the subject of a trial for seditious libel (known as the Case of the Dean of St Asaph) after it was reprinted by his brother-in-law William Davies Shipley.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: He was appointed puisne judge to the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Calcutta, Bengal on 4 March 1783, and on 20 March he was knighted. In April 1783 he married Anna Maria Shipley, the eldest daughter of Dr. Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of Llandaff and Bishop of St Asaph. Anna Maria used her artistic skills to help Jones document life in India. On 25 September 1783 he arrived in Calcutta.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: In the Subcontinent he was entranced by Indian culture, an as-yet untouched field in European scholarship, and on 15 January 1784 he founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta. He studied the Vedas with Rāmalocana, a pandit teaching at the Nadiya Hindu university, becoming a proficient Sanskritist. Jones kept up a ten-year correspondence on the topic of "jyotisa" or Hindu astronomy with fellow orientalist Samuel Davis. He learnt the ancient concept of Hindu Laws from Pandit Jagannath Tarka Panchanan.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: Over the next ten years he would produce a flood of works on India, launching the modern study of the subcontinent in virtually every social science. He also wrote on the local laws, music, literature, botany, and geography, and made the first English translations of several important works of Indian literature.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: Sir William Jones sometimes also went by the nom de plume Youns Uksfardi (یونس اوکسفردی, "Jones of Oxford"). This pen name can be seen on the inner front cover of his "Persian Grammar" published in 1771 (and in subsequent editions).


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: Jones is known today for making and propagating the observation about relationships between the Indo-European languages. In his "Third Anniversary Discourse " to the Asiatic Society (1786) he suggested that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin languages had a common root, and that indeed they may all be further related, in turn, to Gothic and the Celtic languages, as well as to Persian. Although his name is closely associated with this observation, he was not the first to make it. In the 16th century, European visitors to India became aware of similarities between Indian and European languages and as early as 1653, the Dutch scholar Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn had published a proposal for a proto-language ("Scythian") for Germanic, Romance, Greek, Baltic, Slavic, Celtic and Iranian. Finally, in a memoir sent to the French Academy of Sciences in 1767 Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux, a French Jesuit who spent all his life in India, had specifically demonstrated the existing analogy between Sanskrit and European languages. In 1786 Jones postulated a proto-language uniting Sanskrit, Iranian, Greek, Latin, Germanic and Celtic, but in many ways his work was less accurate than his predecessors', as he erroneously included Egyptian, Japanese and Chinese in the Indo-European languages, while omitting Hindustani and Slavic. Jones also erroneously suggested that Sanskrit "was introduced [to north India] by conquerors from other kingdoms in some very remote age" displacing "the pure Hindi" of north India.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: Nevertheless, Jones' third annual discourse before the Asiatic Society on the history and culture of the Hindus (delivered on 2 February 1786 and published in 1788) with the famed "philologer" passage is often cited as the beginning of comparative linguistics and Indo-European studies.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: Jones was the first to propose the concept of an "Aryan invasion" into the Indian subcontinent, which according to Jones led to a lasting ethnic division in India between descents of indigenous Indians and those of the Aryans. This idea fell into obscurity due to a lack of evidence, but was later taken up by amateur Indologists such as the colonial administrator Herbert Hope Risley.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: Jones also propounded theories that might appear peculiar today but were less so in his time. For example, he believed that Egyptian priests had migrated and settled down in India in prehistoric times. He also posited that the Chinese were originally Hindus belonging to the Kshatriya caste.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: Jones, in his 1772 "Essay on the Arts called Imitative", was one of the first to propound an expressive theory of poetry, valorising expression over description or imitation: "If the arguments, used in this essay, have any weight, it will appear, that the finest parts of poetry, music, and painting, are expressive of the passions...the inferior parts of them are descriptive of natural objects". He thereby anticipated Wordsworth in grounding poetry on the basis of a Romantic subjectivity.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: Jones was a contributor to Hyde's "Notebooks" during his term on the bench of the Supreme Court of Judicature. The notebooks are a valuable primary source of information for life in late 18th-century Bengal, and are the only remaining source for the proceedings of the Supreme Court.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: After reaching Calcutta, Jones was unhappy with the appointed pandits of the court, who were tasked with interpreting the laws of Hinduism and contributing to judgements. After a number of cases in which different pandits came up with different rulings, Jones determined to thoroughly learn Sanskrit so that he could independently interpret the original sources.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: Jones' final judicial project was suggesting and leading the compilation of a Sanskrit "digest of Hindu Law," with the original plan of translating the work himself. After his death, the translation was completed by Henry Thomas Colebrooke.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: Jones said that "either the first eleven chapters of Genesis ... are true, or the whole fabrick [sic] of our national religion is false, a conclusion which none of us, I trust, would wish to be drawn." (1788, 225)


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: He also said that "I... am obliged of course to believe the sanctity of the venerable books [of Genesis]." (1788, 225)


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: Jones "traced the foundation of the Indian empire above three thousand eight hundred years from now" (Jones, 1790). Jones thought it was important that this date would be between Archbishop Ussher's Creation date of 4004 BC and the Great Flood that Jones considered to have been in 2350 BC.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: In Europe a discussion as to the authenticity of the first translation of the Avesta scriptures arose. It was the first evidence of an Indo-European language as old as Sanskrit to be translated into a modern European language. It was suggested that the so-called Zend-Avesta was not the genuine work of the prophet Zoroaster, but was a recent forgery. Foremost among the detractors, it is to be regretted, was the distinguished (though young) orientalist William Jones. He claimed, in a letter published in French (1771), that the translator Anquetil-Duperron had been duped, that the Parsis of Surat had palmed off upon him a conglomeration of worthless fabrications and absurdities. In England, Jones was supported by Richardson and Sir John Chardin; in Germany, by Meiners. Anquetil-Duperron was labelled an impostor who had invented his own script to support his claim. This debate was not settled for almost a century.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: In 1763, at the age of 17, Jones wrote the poem "Caissa", based on a 658-line poem called "Scacchia, Ludus" published in 1527 by Marco Girolamo Vida, giving a mythical origin of chess that has become well known in the chess world. This poem he wrote in English.


title: William Jones (philologist)

text: In the poem the nymph Caissa initially repels the advances of Mars, the god of war. Spurned, Mars seeks the aid of the god of sport, who creates the game of chess as a gift for Mars to win Caissa's favour. Mars wins her over with the game.