title: Lindy Hop

text: Frankie Manning was part of a new generation of Lindy Hoppers, and is the most celebrated Lindy Hopper in history. Al Minns and Pepsi Bethel, Leon James, and Norma Miller are also featured prominently in contemporary histories of Lindy Hop. Some sources credit Manning, working with his partner Freida Washington, for inventing the ground-breaking "Air Step" or "aerial" in 1935. One source credits Al Minns and Pepsi Bethel as among those who refined the air step. However, early versions of air steps in the Lindy Hop were performed already from the very beginning of the 1930s. An Air Step is a dance move in which at least one of the partners' two feet leave the ground in a dramatic, acrobatic style. Most importantly, it is done in time with the music. Air steps are now widely associated with the characterization of lindy hop, despite being generally reserved for competition or performance dancing, and not generally being executed on any social dance floor.


title: Lindy Hop

text: Lindy Hop entered mainstream American culture in the 1930s, gaining popularity through multiple sources. Dance troupes, including the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers (also known as the Harlem Congaroos), Hot Chocolates and Big Apple Dancers exhibited the Lindy Hop. Hollywood films, such as "Hellzapoppin'" and "A Day at the Races" began featuring the Lindy Hop in dance sequences. Dance studios such as those of Arthur Murray began teaching Lindy Hop. By the early 1940s the dance was known as "New Yorker" on the West Coast.


title: Lindy Hop

text: In 1944, due to continued involvement in World War II, the United States levied a 30 percent federal excise tax against "dancing" nightclubs. Although the tax was later reduced to 20 percent, "No Dancing Allowed" signs went up all over the country.


title: Lindy Hop

text: Arthur Murray's 1954 edition of "How to Become a Good Dancer" included four pages of instruction for swing, covering the basic Lindy step, the double Lindy Hop, the triple Lindy Hop, the sugar foot walk, and the tuck-in turn. A chapter is devoted to Lindy Hop in the 1953 and 1958 editions of "Dancing Made Easy".


title: Lindy Hop

text: According to the book "Social Dance" (copyrighted in 1969), by 1960 the Lindy Hop was known as "swing".


title: Lindy Hop

text: Sandra Cameron and Larry Schulz of the Cameron Dance Center Inc convinced Al Minns and Frankie Manning to teach Lindy Hop at their dance center. Minns joined the dance center and began a swing program there in 1981. Frankie Manning joined the Center in 1985.


title: Lindy Hop

text: In the 1980s, American and European dancers from California, New York, London and Sweden (such as Sylvia Sykes in the United States and Stockholm's Hot Shots) went about "reviving" Lindy Hop using archival films such as "Hellzapoppin'" and "A Day at the Races" and by contacting dancers such as Frankie Manning, Al Minns, and Norma Miller. In the mid-to-late 1990s the popularity of neo swing music of the swing revival stimulated mainstream interest in the dance. The dance was propelled to wide visibility after it was featured in movies such as "Swing Kids" in 1993 and in the "Kakhis Swing" television commercials for Gap in 1998.


title: Lindy Hop

text: In 1999, "Swing!" opened up on Broadway, featuring world-class Lindy Hoppers Jenny Thomas and Ryan Francois, Latin swing dancer Maria Torres and her partner Carlos Sierra-Lopez, country swing stars Robert Royston and Laureen Baldovi, and west coast swing couple Beverly Durand and Aldrin Gonzales. Carol Bentley, Scott Fowler, Caitlin Carter, Edger Godineaux, Geralyn Del Corso, and Keith Lamelle Thomas were also featured in various swing-related dance pieces in the Tony-nominated show during its run at the St. James Theatre. The show closed in January 2001, yet continues to be set in regional and international cities around the world.


title: Lindy Hop

text: Hollywood-style Lindy Hop is sometimes referred to as Dean Collins or Smooth-style, but these terms also sometimes refer to different styles of Lindy Hop.


title: Lindy Hop

text: Hollywood is the style reconstructed by Erik Robison and Sylvia Skylar based on movies from 1930s and 1940s featuring dancers like Dean Collins, Jewel McGowan, Jean Veloz and others. They were the first to call it "Hollywood Style".


title: Lindy Hop

text: The swingout (the basic step of Lindy) is danced in a position often described as someone about to sit on a stool, thereby bringing their center point of balance closer to the ground. This piked position is the classic look of Hollywood with the back straight and a slight forward tilt. The Hollywood style is also a slotted dance, meaning the follower travels in a straight line instead of the more elliptical or circular Savoy-style Lindy Hop.


title: Lindy Hop

text: A popular variation of Hollywood-Style Lindy Hop called LA-style Lindy Hop has a few technical changes in the footwork and fewer steps. The steps are shortened or "cheated" to create this look. The style is geared towards performance and is heavily based on short choreographies. Originating in Los Angeles, LA-style is a favorite on the west coast of the United States. It is featured in a bravura number with Martha Raye in the 1941 film of "Hellzapoppin’".


title: Lindy Hop

text: Savoy-style Lindy Hop was danced at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem in the 1930s and 1940s. This contrasted with Hollywood-style Lindy Hop or 'Smooth-Style Lindy Hop', popularly associated with Dean Collins and his Lindy Hop choreography in Hollywood films. Savoy-style is characterized by a high energy, circular, rotating style, in contrast with the smooth, slotted styling of Hollywood (Smooth).


title: Lindy Hop

text: The Savoy Ballroom was the end of the line for an ascending network of clubs, church socials, in New York and beyond. George Snowden, Frankie Manning and George Sullivan were all dismissed by prospective partners for having allegedly inadequate dance skills. With an unusually high preponderance of skilled social dancers there was an infinite variety of interpretations. As Frankie Manning put it, "Everyone at the Savoy had their [own] style." And there was no specific "Savoy style" of Lindy Hopping.


title: Lindy Hop

text: A more modern style of dance called "lindy hop" also occurs, characterized by slower music, more improvisation, and "groove" style. This usage evolved in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the late 90s to distinguish it from the "Hollywood" or "LA Style" that was becoming popular. The latter styles were typically done to faster music and with less room for improvisation, limited to what could be fit into existing patterns. The coinage was based on the erroneous idea that black dancers on the East Coast danced in a slow, "groovy" manner with much improvisation not fitting within the typical patterns. This usage seems to be diminishing in usage and the term is often used today to describe faster lindy hop based on moves from Whitey's Lindy Hoppers and other dancers from the Savoy ballroom. However, as most dancers of this style do not possess the years of ingrained African American movement possessed by these early dancers, it is difficult to replicate, and it might be said that most modern dancers more closely resemble Dean Collins and his West Coast contemporaries.


title: Lindy Hop

text: Savoy style Lindy Hop was most frequently associated with living dancers from the 1930s such as Frankie Manning, and with the Swedish dance troupe The Rhythm Hot Shots (now replaced by the Harlem Hot Shots).


title: Lindy Hop

text: The term 'Savoy-style Lindy Hop' applies a generic relationship between all African American Lindy Hoppers (and aficionados of their styles) which ignores the variety and diversity of Lindy Hop in the 1930s and 40s. Lindy Hop historians see clear differences between the Lindy Hop of the early years of its development (the late 1920s) and dancers such as "Shorty" George Snowden, dancers of the 1930s (such as Manning), and then between individual dancers during these periods. Lennart Westerlund - a key member of The Rhythm Hot Shots and authoritative Lindy Hop historian - described the differences in styles between Manning and Al Minns, the dancer he worked with in the earliest years of the Lindy Hop revival. Al Minns and Leon James are often considered authoritative figures in the academic discussion of Lindy Hop, in part for their work with Marshall Stearns and Jean Stearns (in their book "Jazz Dance" and documentary films). Lindy Hop historians also draw clear distinctions between the dancing styles of key female dancers such as Norma Miller and Ann Johnson. The most useful point to be made about this variation within a single community of dancers in one historical moment, is that vernacular African American dance, and Lindy Hop in particular, prioritised individual style and creative improvisation and musical interpretation within a particular dance style.


title: Lindy Hop

text: In describing Savoy style Lindy Hop, observers note that the follower is led out of the basic Swingout sideways as a default. This is not the case, however, as leading a follow out backwards or forwards is just as likely. Savoy style is also said to be characterized by a pronounced downwards 'bounce', which is again something of a misnomer, as different dancers employed varying degrees and types of 'bounce', and observers of Frankie Manning have noted changes in his own dancing style in this respect over the years. Despite these comments, it is important to note that the 'bounce' described is characteristic of many African American vernacular dance forms. One of the clearest distinctions between Hollywood and Smooth style Lindy Hop and Savoy style Lindy Hop is the open 'connection' and relative freedom of the follower to improvise within the structure of the Swingout in particular. Again, this technical difference varies between individual dancers, and between teachers today. Historians may also note that Hollywood style, while often characterized by a more intense connection (characterized at its extreme by counter balance), also featured extensive variations and individual improvisation within the swingout in other instances.


title: Lindy Hop

text: Perhaps the most useful employment of the term 'Savoy-style Lindy Hop' lies in the association of the Savoy Ballroom (and dancers who were associated with it, particularly those of the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers) and ethnicity. Despite the differences noted above, there are marked tropes in African American and African dances which are present in the Lindy Hop of these dancers in this period. These may include:


title: Lindy Hop

text: There are lindy hop communities throughout the world. The concept of a "Lindy exchange", a gathering of Lindy Hop dancers in one city for several days to dance with visitors and locals, enables different communities to share their ideas with others. The first Lindy exchange was called 'The Weekend', and occurred on December 4–6, 1998, in California, between the cities of Chicago, Illinois, and San Francisco, California.


title: Snufkin

text: Snufkin (original Swedish: Snusmumrik[en]" or Mumrik[en]", Finnish: Nuuskamuikkunen) is a character in the Moomin series of books authored by Swedish-speaking Finn Tove Jansson, appearing in six of the nine books; his first appearance is in the second book, "Comet in Moominland". He is the best friend of the series' protagonist, Moomintroll, and lives a nomadic lifestyle, only staying in Moominvalley in the spring and summer, but leaving for warmer climates down south every winter. He is the son of the elder Mymble and the Joxter, and is half-brother to the Mymble's daughter and Little My.


title: Snufkin

text: Snufkin wears old green clothes and a wide-brimmed hat that he has had since birth. He lives in a tent, smokes a pipe and plays the harmonica. Snufkin also has a great dislike for authority figures such as the Park Keeper, and the many regulation signs and fences he erects. At one point, he sabotages the Park Keeper by planting Hattifatteners in his garden, causing them to grow and drive him out. He has a great hatred for all symbols of private property, even losing his temper with the Hemulen after the latter attempts to put up a sign declaring "Moominvalley."


title: Snufkin

text: The age of Snufkin is difficult to determine. He has had more serious and adulty conversations with Moominpappa as well as being notoriously wise or mysterious. Though, he enjoys playing with Moomintroll and other children, and acts just as childish sometimes. He is also referred to as young and/or a child multiple in the series, and is younger than Little My. In problem situations, others often turn to the help of Snufkin, as he enjoys the unreserved admiration of the inhabitants of the valley for his multi-consciousness. His advice is also followed. There are intersections with a wide range of philosophical views on the way Snufkin thinks. He is undoubtedly one of the most multi-faceted characters in "Moomins". Snufkin has said that no one should own more than they can handle, and he cannot understand his friend Sniff’s affection for things and worldly things. Snufkin once even throws his tent in the gorge, because he thinks it is not worth clinging to useless property, but instead can even write a poem when he sees something beautiful.


title: Snufkin

text: Tove Jansson based the character of Snufkin on her friend and one-time fiancé, Atos Wirtanen. A typical feature of Snufkin to come and go independently without caring for others, is inspired by the nature of Atos Wirtanen; at the time, Wirtanen was the center of Jansson's life, but Wirtanen was so busy working as an MP that he came and went, with which their relationship failed. Wirtanen's style has also borrowed the recognizable green hat of Snufkin.


title: Chinese grammar

text: The grammar of Standard Chinese or Mandarin shares many features with other varieties of Chinese. The language almost entirely lacks inflection; words typically have only one grammatical form. Categories such as number (singular or plural) and verb tense are frequently not expressed by any grammatical means, but there are several particles that serve to express verbal aspect and, to some extent, mood.


title: Chinese grammar

text: The basic word order is subject–verb–object (SVO), as in English. Otherwise, Chinese is chiefly a head-final language, meaning that modifiers precede the words that they modify. In a noun phrase, for example, the head noun comes last, and all modifiers, including relative clauses, come in front of it. This phenomenon however is more typically found in subject–object–verb languages, such as Turkish and Japanese.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Chinese frequently uses serial verb constructions, which involve two or more verbs or verb phrases in sequence. Chinese prepositions behave similarly to serialized verbs in some respects, and they are often referred to as coverbs. There are also location markers, which are placed after a noun and are thus often called postpositions; they are often used in combination with a coverb. Predicate adjectives are normally used without a copular verb ("to be") and so can be regarded as a type of verb.


title: Chinese grammar

text: As in many other East Asian languages, classifiers or measure words are required when numerals and sometimes other words, such as demonstratives, are used with nouns. There are many different classifiers in the language, and each countable noun generally has a particular classifier associated with it. Informally, however, it is often acceptable to use the general classifier "ge" () in place of other specific classifiers.


title: Chinese grammar

text: In Chinese, the concept of words and the boundaries between them is not always transparent, and the Chinese script does not use spaces between words. Grammatically, some strings of characters behave as single words in some contexts, but are separable in others. Many English intransitive verbs are translated by verb+noun compounds, such as ( literally "to jump a dance", meaning "to dance"); such items may be regarded as single lexical words, although the two parts can become separated by (for example) aspect markers, and in fact they generally behave grammatically as a verb plus an object. Sometimes the behavior of such compounds is anomalous, however; for instance (, "to be concerned about") behaves as an inseparable word when the perfective particle "le" is attached, although it is separable in the phrase (, literally "concern what about", meaning "to be concerned about what").


title: Chinese grammar

text: Chinese morphemes, or minimum units of meaning, are mostly monosyllabic. Syllables, and thus in most cases morphemes, are represented as a rule by single characters. Some words consist of single syllables, but many words are formed by compounding two or more monosyllabic morphemes. These may be either free or bound – that is, they may or may not also be able to stand independently. Most two-syllable compound nouns have the head on the right, while in compound verbs the head is usually on the left. Loanwords from other languages may be polysyllabic; they are usually written using selected pre-existing characters that have the right phonetic values, for example, (, "sofa") is written with the characters" " (, originally "sand") and ' (, originally "to send/to issue"). Many native disyllabic morphemes such as ' (, "spider") have consonant alliteration, although some such as " () do not.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Many monosyllabic words have alternative disyllabic forms with virtually the same meaning, such as ' (, literally "big garlic") for ' (, "garlic"). Many disyllabic nouns are produced by adding the suffix " (, originally meaning "child") to a monosyllabic word or morpheme. There is a strong tendency for monosyllables to be avoided in certain positions; for example, a disyllabic verb will not normally be followed by a monosyllabic object. This may be connected with the preferred metrical structure of the language.


title: Chinese grammar

text: A common feature in Chinese is reduplication, where a syllable or word is repeated to produce a modified meaning. This can happen with:


title: Chinese grammar

text: Chinese, like English, is classified as an SVO (subject–verb–object) language. Transitive verbs precede their objects in typical simple clauses, while the subject precedes the verb. For example:


title: Chinese grammar

text: Chinese can also be considered a topic-prominent language: there is a strong preference for sentences that begin with the topic, usually "given" or "old" information; and end with the comment, or "new" information. Certain modifications of the basic subject–verb–object order are permissible and may serve to achieve topic-prominence. In particular, a direct or indirect object may be moved to the start of the clause to create topicalization. It is also possible for an object to be moved to a position in front of the verb for emphasis.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Another type of sentence is what has been called an ergative structure, where the apparent subject of the verb can move to object position; the empty subject position is then often occupied by an expression of location. Compare locative inversion in English. This structure is typical of the verb (, "there is/are"; in other contexts the same verb means "have"), but it can also be used with many other verbs, generally denoting position, appearance or disappearance. An example:


title: Chinese grammar

text: Chinese is also to some degree a pro-drop or null-subject language, meaning that the subject can be omitted from a clause if it can be inferred from the context. In the following example, the subject of the verbs for "hike" and "camp" is left to be inferred—it may be "we", "I", "you", "she", etc.


title: Chinese grammar

text: In the next example the subject is omitted and the object is topicalized by being moved into subject position, to form a passive-type sentence. For passive sentences with a marker such as , see the passive section.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Adverbs and adverbial phrases that modify the verb typically come after the subject but before the verb, although other positions are sometimes possible; see Adverbs and adverbials. For constructions that involve more than one verb or verb phrase in sequence, see Serial verb constructions. For sentences consisting of more than one clause, see Conjunctions.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Some verbs can take both an indirect object and a direct object. Indirect normally precedes direct, as in English:


title: Chinese grammar

text: With many verbs, however, the indirect object may alternatively be preceded by prepositional "gěi" (); in that case it may either precede or follow the direct object. (Compare the similar use of "to" or "for" in English.)


title: Chinese grammar

text: In certain situations a direct object may be preceded by the accusative marker "bǎ" (). This generally denotes an action that results in a change of state in the object. For further details of this, see the "bǎ" construction section. Such a "bǎ" phrase no longer occupies the normal direct object position, but moves in front of the verb. Compare:


title: Chinese grammar

text: The meanings of the above two sentences are similar, but the one with "bǎ" may be considered to place more emphasis on what happened to the object. It may also indicate definiteness—"the plate" rather than "a plate". Certain other markers can be used in a similar way to "bǎ", such as the formal "jiāng" () and colloquial "ná" ().


title: Chinese grammar

text: Some verbs can apparently take two direct objects, which may be called an "inner" and an "outer" object. These cannot both follow the verb – typically the outer object will be placed at the start of the sentence (topicalized) or introduced via the "bǎ" construction. For example:


title: Chinese grammar

text: Here "pí" (, "skin") is the inner object, and "júzi" (, "tangerine") is introduced via the "bǎ" construction as the outer object.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Chinese nouns and other parts of speech are not generally marked for number, meaning that plural forms are mostly the same as the singular. However, there is a plural marker "men" (), which has limited usage. It is used with personal pronouns, as in "wǒmen" (, "we" or "us"), derived from "wǒ" (, "I, me"). It can be used with nouns representing humans, most commonly those with two syllables, like in "péngyoumen" (, "friends"), from "péngyou" (, "friend"). Its use in such cases is optional. It is never used when the noun has indefinite reference, or when it is qualified by a numeral.


title: Chinese grammar

text: The demonstrative pronouns "zhè" (, "this"), and "nà" (, "that") may be optionally pluralized by the addition of "xiē" (), making "zhèxiē" (, "these") and "nàxiē" (, "those").


title: Chinese grammar

text: The head noun of a noun phrase comes at the end of the phrase; this means that everything that modifies the noun comes before it. This includes attributive adjectives, determiners, quantifiers, possessives, and relative clauses.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Chinese does not have articles as such; a noun may stand alone to represent what in English would be expressed as "the ..." or "a[n] ...". However the word "yī" (, "one"), followed by the appropriate classifier, may be used in some cases where English would have "a" or "an". It is also possible, with many classifiers, to omit the "yī" and leave the classifier on its own at the start of the noun phrase.


title: Chinese grammar

text: The demonstratives are "zhè" (, "this"), and "nà" (, "that"). When used before a noun, these are often followed by an appropriate classifier (for discussion of classifiers, see Classifiers below and the article Chinese classifiers). However this use of classifiers is optional. When a noun is preceded by a numeral (or a demonstrative followed by a numeral), the use of a classifier or measure word is in most cases considered mandatory. (This does not apply to nouns that function as measure words themselves; this includes many units of measurement and currency.)


title: Chinese grammar

text: The plural marker "xiē" (, "some, several"; also used to pluralize demonstratives) is used without a classifier. However "jǐ" (, "some, several, how many") takes a classifier.


title: Chinese grammar

text: For adjectives in noun phrases, see the Adjectives section. For noun phrases with pronouns rather than nouns as the head, see the Pronouns section.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Possessives are formed by adding "de" ()—the same particle that is used after relative clauses and sometimes after adjectives—after the noun, noun phrase or pronoun that denotes the possessor.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Chinese relative clauses, like other noun modifiers, precede the noun they modify. Like possessives and some adjectives, they are marked with the final particle "de" (). A free relative clause is produced if the modified noun following the "de" is omitted. A relative clause usually comes after any determiner phrase, such as a numeral and classifier. For emphasis, it may come before the determiner phrase.


title: Chinese grammar

text: There is usually no relative pronoun in the relative clause. Instead, a gap is left in subject or object position as appropriate. If there are two gaps—the additional gap being created by pro-dropping—ambiguity may arise. For example, "chī de" () may mean "[those] who eat" or "[that] which is eaten". When used alone, it usually means "things to eat".


title: Chinese grammar

text: If the relative item is governed by a preposition in the relative clause, then it is denoted by a pronoun, e.g. "tì tā" (, "for him"), to explain "for whom". Otherwise the whole prepositional phrase is omitted, the preposition then being implicitly understood.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Chinese nouns require "classifiers" called "liàngcí" () in order to be counted. That is, when specifying the amount of a countable noun, a classifier must be inserted which agrees with the noun. Hence one must say "liǎng tóu niú" (, "two head of cattle") for "two cows", with "tóu" being the measure word or classifier. This phenomenon is common in East Asian languages. In English, some words, as in the cited example of "cattle", are often paired with a noun used much like the Chinese measure word. "Bottle" in "two bottles of wine" or "sheet" in "three sheets of paper" are further examples. However, certain nouns representing units of measurement, time, or currency are themselves classifiers. These can therefore be counted directly.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Classifiers are generally associated with certain groups of nouns related by meaning, such as "tiáo" () for long, thin objects or animals, like ropes, snakes or fish; "bǎ" () for objects with handles, like knives or umbrellas; or "zhāng" () for flat, sheet-like objects like photographs, or fur. While there are dozens of classifiers, which must be memorized individually for each noun, a majority of words use the general classifier "gè" (). Many nouns that are associated with other classifiers can also use "gè" if the speaker chooses. The classifiers for many nouns appear arbitrary. The word "zhuōzi" (, "table") is a "zhāng" noun, probably because a table-top is sheet-like; while "yǐzi" (, "chair") is a "bǎ" noun, likely because a chair is moved by lifting something like a handle. "Dèngzi" (), another word for chair or stool, is a "gè" noun.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Classifiers are also used optionally after demonstratives, and in certain other situations. See the Noun phrases section, and the article Chinese classifier.


title: Chinese grammar

text: The Chinese personal pronouns are "wǒ" (, "I, me"), "nǐ" (, "you"), and "tā" (, "he; him/she; her/it (animals)/it (inanimate objects)". Plurals are formed by adding "men" (): "wǒmen" (, "we, us"), "nǐmen" (, "you"), "tāmen" (, "they/them"). There is also "nín" (), a formal, polite word for singular "you", as well as a less common plural form, "nínmen" (). The alternative "inclusive" word for "we/us"—"zán" () or "zá[n]men" (), specifically including the listener (like the difference between English "let us" and "let's")—is used colloquially. The third-person pronouns are not often used for inanimates, with demonstratives used instead.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Possessives are formed with "de" (), such as "wǒde" (, "my, mine"), "wǒmende" (, "our[s]"), etc. The "de" may be omitted in phrases denoting inalienable possession, such as "wǒ māma" (, "my mom").


title: Chinese grammar

text: The demonstrative pronouns are "zhè" (, "this", colloquially pronounced "zhèi") and "nà" (, "that", colloquially pronounced "nèi"). They are optionally pluralized by the addition of "xiē" (). There is a reflexive pronoun "zìjǐ" () meaning "oneself, myself, etc.", which can stand alone as an object or a possessive, or may follow a personal pronoun for emphasis. The reciprocal pronoun "each other" can be translated from "bǐcǐ" (), usually in adverb position. An alternative is "hùxiāng" (, "mutually").


title: Chinese grammar

text: Adjectives can be used attributively, before a noun. The relative marker "de" () may be added after the adjective, but this is not always required; "black horse" may be either "hēi mǎ" () or "hēi de mǎ" (). When multiple adjectives are used, the order "quality/size – shape – color" is followed, although this is not necessary when each adjective is made into a separate phrase with the addition of "de".


title: Chinese grammar

text: Gradable adjectives can be modified by words meaning "very", etc.; such modifying adverbs normally precede the adjective, although some, such as "jíle" (, "extremely"), come after it.


title: Chinese grammar

text: When adjectives co-occur with classifiers, they normally follow the classifier. However, with most common classifiers, when the number is "one", it is also possible to place adjectives like "big" and "small" before the classifier for emphasis.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Adjectives can also be used predicatively. In this case they behave more like verbs; there is no need for a copular verb in sentences like "he is happy" in Chinese; one may say simply "tā gāoxìng" (, "he happy"), where the adjective may be interpreted as a verb meaning "is happy". In such sentences it is common for the adjective to be modified by a word meaning "very" or the like; in fact the word "hěn" ( , "very") is often used in such cases with gradable adjectives, even without carrying the meaning of "very".


title: Chinese grammar

text: It is nonetheless possible for a copula to be used in such sentences, to emphasize the adjective. In the phrase "tā shì gāoxìng le", (, "he is now truly happy"), "shì" is the copula meaning "is", and "le" is the inceptive marker discussed later. This is similar to the cleft sentence construction. Sentences can also be formed in which an adjective followed by "de" () stands as the complement of the copula.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Adverbs and adverbial phrases normally come in a position before the verb, but after the subject of the verb. In sentences with auxiliary verbs, the adverb usually precedes the auxiliary verb as well as the main verb. Some adverbs of time and attitude ("every day", "perhaps", etc.) may be moved to the start of the clause, to modify the clause as a whole. However, some adverbs cannot be moved in this way. These include three words for "often", "cháng" (), "chángcháng" () and "jīngcháng" (); "dōu" (, "all"); "jiù" (, "then"); and "yòu" (, "again").


title: Chinese grammar

text: Adverbs of manner can be formed from adjectives using the clitic "de" (). It is generally possible to move these adverbs to the start of the clause, although in some cases this may sound awkward, unless there is a qualifier such as "hěn" (, "very") and a pause after the adverb.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Some verbs take a prepositional phrase following the verb and its direct object. These are generally obligatory constituents, such that the sentence would not make sense if they were omitted. For example:


title: Chinese grammar

text: There are also certain adverbial "stative complements" which follow the verb. The character "dé" () followed by an adjective functions the same as the phrase "-ly" in English, turning the adjective into an adverb. The second is "hǎo le" (, "complete"). It is not generally possible for a single verb to be followed by both an object and an adverbial complement of this type, although there are exceptions in cases where the complement expresses duration, frequency or goal. To express both, the verb may be repeated in a special kind of serial verb construction; the first instance taking an object, the second taking the complement. Aspect markers can then appear only on the second instance of the verb.


title: Chinese grammar

text: The typical Chinese word order "XVO", where an oblique complement such as a locative prepositional phrase precedes the verb, while a direct object comes after the verb, is very rare cross-linguistically; in fact, it is only in varieties of Chinese that this is attested as the typical ordering.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Expressions of location in Chinese may include a preposition, placed before the noun; a postposition, placed after the noun; both preposition and postposition; or neither. Chinese prepositions are commonly known as coverbs – see the Coverbs section. The postpositions—which include "shàng" (, "up, on"), "xià" (, "down, under"), "lǐ" (, "in, within"), "nèi" (, "inside") and "wài" (, "outside")—may also be called "locative particles".


title: Chinese grammar

text: The most common preposition of location is "zài" (, "at, on, in"). With certain nouns that inherently denote a specific location, including nearly all place names, a locative phrase can be formed with "zài" together with the noun:


title: Chinese grammar

text: However other types of noun still require a locative particle as a postposition in addition to "zài":


title: Chinese grammar

text: If a noun is modified so as to denote a "specific" location, as in "this [object]...", then it may form locative phrases without any locative particle. Some nouns which can be understood to refer to a specific place, like "jiā" (, home) and "xuéxiào" (, "school"), may optionally omit the locative particle. Words like "shàngmiàn" (, "top") can function as specific-location nouns, like in "zài shàngmiàn" (, "on top"), but can also take the role of locative particle, not necessarily with analogous meaning. The phrase "zài bàozhǐ shàngmiàn" (), can mean either "in the newspaper" or "on the newspaper".


title: Chinese grammar

text: In certain circumstances "zài" can be omitted from the locative expression. Grammatically, a noun or noun phrase followed by a locative particle is still a noun phrase. For instance, "zhuōzi shàng" can be regarded as short for "zhuōzi shàngmiàn", meaning something like "the table's top". Consequently, the locative expression without "zài" can be used in places where a noun phrase would be expected – for instance, as a modifier of another noun using "de" (), or as the object of a different preposition, such as "cóng" (, "from"). The version with "zài", on the other hand, plays an adverbial role. However, "zài" is usually omitted when the locative expression begins a sentence with the ergative structure, where the expression, though having an adverbial function, can be seen as filling the subject or noun role in the sentence. For examples, see sentence structure section.


title: Chinese grammar

text: The word "zài" (), like certain other prepositions or coverbs, can also be used as a verb. A locative expression can therefore appear as a predicate without the need for any additional copula. For example, "he is at school" (, literally "he at school").


title: Chinese grammar

text: Comparative sentences are commonly expressed simply by inserting the standard of comparison, preceded by "bǐ" (, "than"). The adjective itself is not modified. The "bǐ" (, "than") phrase is an adverbial, and has a fixed position before the verb. See also the section on negation.


title: Chinese grammar

text: If there is no standard of comparison—i.e., a "than" phrase—then the adjective can be marked as comparative by a preceding adverb "bǐjiào" (), "jiào" () or "gèng" (), all meaning "more". Similarly, superlatives can be expressed using the adverb "zuì" (, "most"), which precedes a predicate verb or adjective.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Adverbial phrases meaning "like [someone/something]" or "as [someone/something]" can be formed using "gēn" (), "tóng" () or "xiàng" () before the noun phrase, and "yīyàng" () or "nàyàng" () after it.


title: Chinese grammar

text: The construction "yuè ... yuè ..." can be translated into statements of the type "the more ..., the more ...".


title: Chinese grammar

text: The Chinese copular verb is "shì" (). This is the equivalent of English "to be" and all its forms—"am", "is", "are", "was", "were", etc. However, "shì" is normally only used when its complement is a noun or noun phrase. As noted above, predicate adjectives function as verbs themselves, as does the locative preposition "zài" (), so in sentences where the predicate is an adjectival or locative phrase, "shì" is not required.


title: Chinese grammar

text: For another use of "shì", see "shì ... [de]" construction in the section on cleft sentences. The English existential phrase "there is" ["there are", etc.] is translated using the verb "yǒu" (), which is otherwise used to denote possession.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Chinese does not have grammatical markers of tense. The time at which action is conceived as taking place—past, present, future—can be indicated by expressions of time—"yesterday", "now", etc.—or may simply be inferred from the context. However, Chinese does have markers of aspect, which is a feature of grammar that gives information about the temporal flow of events. There are two aspect markers that are especially commonly used with past events: the perfective-aspect "le" () and the experiential "guo" (). Some authors, however, do not regard "guo" (or "zhe"; see below) as markers of aspect. Both "le" and "guo" immediately follow the verb. There is also a sentence-final particle "le", which serves a somewhat different purpose.


title: Chinese grammar

text: The perfective "le" presents the viewpoint of "an event in its entirety". It is sometimes considered to be a past tense marker, although it can also be used with future events, given appropriate context. Some examples of its use:


title: Chinese grammar

text: The above may be compared with the following examples with "guo", and with the examples with sentence-final "le" given under Particles.


title: Chinese grammar

text: There are also two imperfective aspect markers: "zhèngzài" () or "zài" (), and "zhe" (), which denote ongoing actions or states. "Zhèngzài" and "zài" precede the verb, and are usually used for ongoing actions or dynamic events – they may be translated as "[be] in the process of [-ing]" or "[be] in the middle of [-ing]". "Zhe" follows the verb, and is used mostly for static situations.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Both markers may occur in the same clause, however. For example, "tā zhèngzai dǎ [zhe] diànhuà", "he is in the middle of telephoning someone" ().


title: Chinese grammar

text: The delimitative aspect denotes an action that goes on only for some time, "doing something 'a little bit'". This can be expressed by reduplication of a monosyllabic verb, like the verb "zǒu" ( "walk") in the following sentence:


title: Chinese grammar

text: An alternative construction is reduplication with insertion of "one" ( "yī"). For example, "zǒu yi zǒu" (), which might be translated as "walk a little walk". A further possibility is reduplication followed by "kàn" ( "to see"); this emphasizes the "testing" nature of the action. If the verb has an object, "kàn" follows the object.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Some compound verbs, such as restrictive-resultative and coordinate compounds, can also be reduplicated on the pattern "tǎolùn-tǎolùn" (), from the verb "tǎolùn" (), meaning "discuss". Other compounds may be reduplicated, but for general emphasis rather than delimitative aspect. In compounds that are verb–object combinations, like "tiào wǔ" (, "dance"), a delimitative aspect can be marked by reduplicating the first syllable, creating "tiào-tiào wǔ" (), which may be followed with "kàn" ().


title: Chinese grammar

text: As mentioned above, the fact that a verb is intended to be understood in the passive voice is not always marked in Chinese. However, it may be marked using the passive marker 被 "bèi", followed by the agent, though "bèi" may appear alone, if the agent is not to be specified. Certain causative markers can replace "bèi", such as those mentioned in the Other cases section, "gěi", "jiào" and "ràng". Of these causative markers, only "gěi" can appear alone without a specified agent. The construction with a passive marker is normally used only when there is a sense of misfortune or adversity. The passive marker and agent occupy the typical adverbial position before the verb. See the Negation section for more. Some examples:


title: Chinese grammar

text: The most commonly used negating element is "bù" (), pronounced with second tone when followed by a fourth tone. This can be placed before a verb, preposition or adverb to negate it. For example: "I don't eat chicken" (). For the double-verb negative construction with "bù", see Complement of result, below. However, the verb "yǒu" ()—which can mean either possession, or "there is/are" in existential clauses—is negated using "méi" () to produce "méiyǒu" ().


title: Chinese grammar

text: For negation of a verb intended to denote a completed event, "méi" or "méiyǒu" is used instead of "bù" (), and the aspect marker "le" () is then omitted. Also, "méi[yǒu]" is used to negate verbs that take the aspect marker "guo" (); in this case the aspect marker is not omitted.


title: Chinese grammar

text: In coverb constructions, the negator may come before the coverb (preposition) or before the full verb, the latter being more emphatic. In constructions with a passive marker, the negator precedes that marker; similarly, in comparative constructions, "the negator precedes the "bǐ" phrase" (unless the verb is further qualified by "gèng" (, "even more"), in which case the negator may follow the "gèng" to produce the meaning "even less").


title: Chinese grammar

text: The negator "bié" () precedes the verb in negative commands and negative requests, such as in phrases meaning "don't ...", "please don't ...".


title: Chinese grammar

text: The negator "wèi" () means "not yet". Other items used as negating elements in certain compound words include "wú" (),"wù" (), "miǎn" () and "fēi" ().


title: Chinese grammar

text: A double negative makes a positive, as in sentences like "wǒ bú shì bù xǐhuān tā" (, "It's not that I don't like her" ). For this use of "shì" (), see the Cleft sentences section.


title: Chinese grammar

text: In "wh"-questions in Chinese, the question word is not fronted. Instead, it stays in the position in the sentence that would be occupied by the item being asked about. For example, "What did you say?" is phrased as "nǐ shuō shé[n]me" (, literally "you say what"). The word "shénme" (, "what" or "which"), remains in the object position after the verb.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Disjunctive questions can be made using the word "háishì" () between the options, like English "or". This differs from the word for "or" in statements, which is "huòzhě" ().


title: Chinese grammar

text: Yes-no questions can be formed using the sentence-final particle "ma" (), with word order otherwise the same as in a statement. For example, "nǐ chī jī ma?" (, "Do you eat chicken?").


title: Chinese grammar

text: An alternative is the A-not-A construction, using phrases like "chī bu chī" (, "eat or not eat"). With two-syllable verbs, sometimes only the first syllable is repeated: "xǐ-bu-xǐhuān" ( , "like or not like"), from "xǐhuān" (, "like"). It is also possible to use the A-not-A construction with prepositions (coverbs) and phrases headed by them, as with full verbs.


title: Chinese grammar

text: The negator "méi" () can be used rather than "bù" in the A-not-A construction when referring to a completed event, but if it occurs at the end of the sentence—i.e. the repetition is omitted—the full form "méiyǒu" () must appear.


title: Chinese grammar

text: For answering yes-no questions, Chinese has words that may be used like the English "yes" and "no" – "duì" () or "shì de" () for "yes"; "bù" () for "no" – but these are not often used for this purpose; it is more common to repeat the verb or verb phrase (or entire sentence), negating it if applicable.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Second-person imperative sentences are formed in the same way as statements, and like in English, the subject "you" is often omitted.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Orders may be softened by preceding them with an element such as "qǐng" (, "to ask"), in this use equivalent to English "please". See Particles for more. The sentence-final particle "ba" () can be used to form first-person imperatives, equivalent to "let's...".


title: Chinese grammar

text: Chinese makes frequent use of serial verb constructions, or verb stacking, where two or more verbs or verb phrases are concatenated together. This frequently involves either verbal complements appearing after the main verb, or coverb phrases appearing before the main verb, but other variations of the construction occur as well.


title: Chinese grammar

text: A main verb may be preceded by an auxiliary verb, as in English. Chinese auxiliaries include "néng" and "nénggòu" ( and , "can"); "huì" (, "know how to"); "kéyǐ" (, "may"); "gǎn" (, "dare"); "kěn" (, "be willing to"); "yīnggāi" (, "should"); "bìxū" (, "must"); etc. The auxiliary normally follows an adverb, if present. In shortened sentences an auxiliary may be used without a main verb, analogously to English sentences such as "I can."


title: Chinese grammar

text: The active verb of a sentence may be suffixed with a second verb, which usually indicates either the result of the first action, or the direction in which it took the subject. When such information is applicable, it is generally considered mandatory. The phenomenon is sometimes called "double verbs".


title: Chinese grammar

text: A complement of result, or resultative complement () is a verbal suffix which indicates the outcome, or possible outcome, of the action indicated by the main verb. In the following examples, the main verb is "tīng" ( "to listen"), and the complement of result is "dǒng" (, "to understand/to know").


title: Chinese grammar

text: Since they indicate an absolute result, such double verbs necessarily represent a completed action, and are thus negated using "méi" ():


title: Chinese grammar

text: The infix "de" () is placed between the double verbs to indicate possibility or ability. This is not possible with "restrictive" resultative compounds such as "jiéshěng" (, literally "reduce-save", meaning "to save, economize").


title: Chinese grammar

text: This is equivalent in meaning to "néng tīng dǒng" (), using the auxiliary "néng" (), equivalent to "may" or "can".


title: Chinese grammar

text: With some verbs, the addition of "bù" and a particular complement of result is the standard method of negation. In many cases the complement is "liǎo", represented by the same character as the perfective or modal particle "le" (). This verb means "to finish", but when used as a complement for negation purposes it may merely indicate inability. For example: "shòu bù liǎo" (, "to be unable to tolerate").


title: Chinese grammar

text: The complement of result is a highly productive and frequently used construction. Sometimes it develops into idiomatic phrases, as in "è sǐ le" (, literally "hungry-until-die already", meaning "to be starving") and "qì sǐ le" (, literally "mad-until-die already", meaning "to be extremely angry"). The phrases for "hatred" (), "excuse me" (), and "too expensive to buy" () all use the character "qǐ" (, "to rise up") as a complement of result, but their meanings are not obviously related to that meaning. This is partially the result of metaphorical construction, where "kànbùqǐ" () literally means "to be unable to look up to"; and "duìbùqǐ" () means "to be unable to face someone".


title: Chinese grammar

text: Double-verb construction where the second verb, "break", is a suffix to the first, and indicates what happens to the object as a result of the action.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Another double-verb where the second verb, "understand", suffixes the first and clarifies the possibility and success of the relevant action.


title: Chinese grammar

text: A complement of direction, or directional complement () indicates the direction of an action involving movement. The simplest directional complements are "qù" (, "to go") and "lái" (, "to come"), which may be added after a verb to indicate movement away from or towards the speaker, respectively. These may form compounds with other verbs that further specify the direction, such as "shàng qù" (, "to go up"), "gùo lái" (, "to come over"), which may then be added to another verb, such as "zǒu" (, "to walk"), as in "zǒu gùo qù" (, "to walk over"). Another example, in a whole sentence:


title: Chinese grammar

text: If the preceding verb has an object, the object may be placed either before or after the directional complement(s), or even between two directional complements, provided the second of these is not "qù" ().


title: Chinese grammar

text: The structure with inserted "de" or "bù" is not normally used with this type of double verb. There are exceptions, such as "to be unable to get out of bed" ( or ).


title: Chinese grammar

text: Chinese has a class of words, called coverbs, which in some respects resemble both verbs and prepositions. They appear with a following object (or complement), and generally denote relationships that would be expressed by prepositions (or postpositions) in other languages. However, they are often considered to be lexically verbs, and some of them can also function as full verbs. When a coverb phrase appears in a sentence together with a main verb phrase, the result is essentially a type of serial verb construction. The coverb phrase, being an adverbial, precedes the main verb in most cases. For instance:


title: Chinese grammar

text: Here the main verb is "zhǎo" (, "find"), and "bāng" () is a coverb. Here "bāng" corresponds to the English preposition "for", even though in other contexts it might be used as a full verb meaning "help".


title: Chinese grammar

text: Here there are three coverbs: "zuò" ( "by"), "cóng" (, "from"), and "dào" (, "to"). The words "zuò" and "dào" can also be verbs, meaning "sit" and "arrive [at]" respectively. However, "cóng" is not normally used as a full verb.


title: Chinese grammar

text: A very common coverb that can also be used as a main verb is "zài" (), as described in the Locative phrases section. Another example is "gěi" (), which as a verb means "give". As a preposition, "gěi" may mean "for", or "to" when marking an indirect object or in certain other expressions.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Because coverbs essentially function as prepositions, they can also be referred to simply as prepositions. In Chinese they are called "jiè cí" (), a term which generally corresponds to "preposition", or more generally, "adposition". The situation is complicated somewhat by the fact that location markers—which also have meanings similar to those of certain English prepositions—are often called "postpositions".


title: Chinese grammar

text: Coverbs normally cannot take aspect markers, although some of them form fixed compounds together with such markers, such as "gēnzhe" (), "ànzhe" (, "according to"), "yánzhe" (, "along"), and "wèile" ( "for").


title: Chinese grammar

text: Serial verb constructions can also consist of two consecutive verb phrases with parallel meaning, such as "hē kāfēi kàn bào", "drink coffee and read the paper" (). Each verb may independently be negated or given the "le" aspect marker. If both verbs would have the same object, it is omitted the second time.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Consecutive verb phrases may also be used to indicate consecutive events. Use of the "le" aspect marker with the first verb may imply that this is the main verb of the sentence, the second verb phrase merely indicating the purpose. Use of this "le" with the second verb changes this emphasis, and may require a sentence-final "le" particle in addition. On the other hand, the progressive aspect marker "zài" () may be applied to the first verb, but not normally the second alone. The word "qù" (, "go") or "lái" (, "come") may be inserted between the two verb phrases, meaning "in order to".


title: Chinese grammar

text: For constructions with consecutive verb phrases containing the same verb, see under Adverbs. For immediate repetition of a verb, see Reduplication and Aspects.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Another case is the causative or pivotal construction. Here the object of one verb also serves as the subject of the following verb. The first verb may be something like "gěi" (, "allow", or "give" in other contexts), "ràng" (, "let"), "jiào" (, "order" or "call") or "shǐ" (, "make, compel"), "qǐng" (, "invite"), or "lìng" (, "command"). Some of these cannot take an aspect marker such as "le" when used in this construction, like "lìng", "ràng", "shǐ". Sentences of this type often parallel the equivalent English pattern, except that English may insert the infinitive marker "to". In the following example the construction is used twice:


title: Chinese grammar

text: Chinese has a number of sentence-final particles – these are weak syllables, spoken with neutral tone, and placed at the end of the sentence to which they refer. They are often called modal particles or "yǔqì zhùcí" (), as they serve chiefly to express grammatical mood, or how the sentence relates to reality and/or intent. They include:


title: Chinese grammar

text: This sentence-final "le" () should be distinguished from the verb suffix "le" () discussed in the Aspects section. Whereas the sentence-final particle is sometimes described as an inceptive or as a marker of perfect aspect, the verb suffix is described as a marker of perfective aspect. Some examples of its use:


title: Chinese grammar

text: The position of "le" in this example emphasizes his present status as a soldier, rather than the event of becoming. Compare with the post-verbal "le" example given in the Aspects section, "wǒ dāng le bīng".


title: Chinese grammar

text: Compared with the post-verbal "le" and "guo" examples, this places the focus on the number three, and does not specify whether he is going to continue watching more games.


title: Chinese grammar

text: The two uses of "le" may in fact be traced back to two entirely different words. The fact that they are now written the same way in Mandarin can cause ambiguity, particularly when the verb is not followed by an object. Consider the following sentence:


title: Chinese grammar

text: This "le" might be interpreted as either the suffixal perfective marker or the sentence-final perfect marker. In the former case it might mean "mother has come", as in she has just arrived at the door, while in the latter it might mean "mother is coming!", and the speaker wants to inform others of this fact. It is even possible for the two kinds of "le" to co-occur:


title: Chinese grammar

text: Without the first "le", the sentence could again mean "he has eaten", or it could mean "he wants to eat now". Without the final "le" the sentence would be ungrammatical without appropriate context, as perfective "le" cannot appear in a semantically unbounded sentence.


title: Chinese grammar

text: There is a construction in Chinese known as the "shì ... [de]" construction, which produces what may be called cleft sentences. The copula "shì" () is placed before the element of the sentence which is to be emphasized, and the optional possessive particle "de" () is placed at the end of the sentence. For example:


title: Chinese grammar

text: If an object following the verb, is to be emphasized in this construction, the "shì" precedes the object, and the "de" comes after the verb and before the "shì".


title: Chinese grammar

text: Sentences with similar meaning can be produced using relative clauses. These may be called pseudo-cleft sentences.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Chinese has various conjunctions () such as "hé" (, "and"), "dànshì" (, "but"), "huòzhě" (, "or"), etc. However Chinese quite often uses no conjunction where English would have "and".


title: Chinese grammar

text: Two or more nouns may be joined together by the conjunctions "hé" (, "and") or "huò" ( "or"); for example "dāo hé chā" (, "knife and fork"), "gǒu huò māo" (, "dog or cat").


title: Chinese grammar

text: Certain adverbs are often used as correlative conjunctions, where correlating words appear in each of the linked clauses, such as "búdàn ... érqiě" (), "suīrán ... háishì" (), "yīnwèi ... suǒyǐ" (). Such connectors may appear at the start of a clause or before the verb phrase.


title: Chinese grammar

text: Similarly, words like "jìrán" (, "since/in response to"), "rúguǒ" () or "jiǎrú" () "if", "zhǐyào" ( "provided that") correlate with an adverb "jiù" (, "then") or "yě" (, "also") in the main clause, to form conditional sentences.


title: Chinese grammar

text: In some cases, the same word may be repeated when connecting items; these include "yòu ... yòu ..." (, "both ... and ..."), "yībiān ... yībiān ..." (, "... while ..."), and "yuè ... yuè ..." (, "the more ..., the more ...").


title: Chinese grammar

text: Conjunctions of time such as "when" may be translated with a construction that corresponds to something like "at the time (+relative clause)", where as usual, the Chinese relative clause comes before the noun ("time" in this case). For example:


title: Chinese grammar

text: Variants include "dāng ... yǐqián" ( "before ...") and "dāng ... yǐhòu" (, "after ..."), which do not use the relative marker "de". In all of these cases, the initial "dāng" may be replaced by "zài" (), or may be omitted. There are also similar constructions for conditionals: "rúguǒ /jiǎrú/zhǐyào ... dehuà" (, "if ... then"), where "huà" () literally means "narrative, story".


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Samuel Jones Tilden (February 9, 1814 – August 4, 1886) was an American politician who served as the 25th Governor of New York and was the Democratic candidate for president in the disputed 1876 United States presidential election. Tilden was the second presidential candidate to lose the election despite winning the popular vote and is the only candidate to win a majority of the popular vote in a United States presidential election (50.9%), but lose the election.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Tilden was born on February 9, 1814, into a wealthy family in New Lebanon, New York. Attracted to politics at a young age, he became a protégé of Martin Van Buren, the eighth President of the United States. After studying at Yale University and New York University School of Law, Tilden began a legal career in New York City, becoming a noted corporate lawyer. He served in the New York State Assembly and helped launch Van Buren's third party, anti-slavery candidacy in the 1848 United States presidential election. Although he opposed Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 United States presidential election, Tilden supported the Union during the American Civil War. After the Civil War, Tilden was selected as the chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee and managed Democratic nominee Horatio Seymour's campaign in the 1868 United States presidential election.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Tilden initially cooperated with the state party's Tammany Hall faction, but he broke with them in 1871 due to boss William M. Tweed's rampant corruption. Tilden won election as Governor of New York in 1874, and in that office he helped break up the "Canal Ring". Tilden's battle against public corruption, along with his personal fortune and electoral success in the country's most populous state, made him the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 1876. Tilden was selected as the nominee on the second ballot of the 1876 Democratic National Convention. In the general election, Tilden faced Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes, another governor with reform credentials. Tilden focused his campaign on civil service reform, support for the gold standard, and opposition to high taxes, but many of his supporters were more concerned with ending Reconstruction in the Southern United States.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Tilden won the popular vote by 250,000 votes. However, 20 electoral votes were in dispute, leaving both Tilden and Hayes without a majority of the electoral vote. As Tilden had won 184 electoral votes, one vote shy of a majority, a Hayes victory required that he sweep all of the disputed electoral votes. Against Tilden's wishes, Congress appointed the bipartisan Electoral Commission to settle the controversy. Republicans had a one-seat advantage on the Electoral Commission, and decided in a series of party-line rulings that Hayes had won all of the disputed electoral votes. In the Compromise of 1877, Democratic leaders agreed to accept Hayes as the victor in return for the end of Reconstruction. Friends tried to make Tilden a major contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1880 and 1884 presidential elections, but he had left politics and declined to run. He died on August 4, 1886, at the age of 72.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Tilden was born in New Lebanon, New York, the youngest son of Elam Tilden and Polly Jones Tilden. He was descended from Nathaniel Tilden, an early English settler who came to North America in 1634. His father and other family members were the makers of Tilden's Extract, a popular patent medicine of the 1800s and early 1900s derived from cannabis. Tilden's father maintained relationships with many influential politicians, including President Martin Van Buren, who became Tilden's political idol. Tilden was frequently in poor health during his youth, and he spent much of his time studying politics and reading works such as "The Wealth of Nations". Tilden's health troubles prevented him from regularly attending school, and he dropped out of Williams Academy after three months and Yale College after a single term in 1834-1835.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Likely motivated by a family friendship with Benjamin Franklin Butler, then serving as a professor at New York University School of Law, Tilden enrolled there to resume his studies and continued to attend intermittently from 1838 to 1841. While studying at NYU, Tilden also read law in the office of attorney John W. Edmonds. He was admitted to the bar in 1841 and became a skilled corporate lawyer. Tilden affiliated with the Democratic Party and frequently campaigned on behalf of Van Buren and other Democratic candidates.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: In 1843, Tilden was appointed as New York City's corporation counsel, a reward for his campaign work for Governor William C. Bouck. Tilden handled hundreds of cases on behalf of the city, but was forced out of office in 1844 after New York City elected a Whig mayor. He served as a delegate to the 1844 Democratic National Convention, which rejected Van Buren and nominated James K. Polk for president. At the urging of Governor Silas Wright, Tilden won election to the New York State Assembly. He became a key ally to Wright and helped end the Anti-Rent War by passing a compromise land bill that defused tensions between tenant farmers and their landlords. After serving as a delegate to the 1846 New York State Constitutional Convention, Tilden left public office to focus on his legal practice, where he gained a national reputation as a "financial physician" for struggling railroads. Tilden's successful legal practice, combined with shrewd investments, made him rich. His success at money management and investing caused many of his friends, relatives, and political allies, including Van Buren, to allow Tilden to manage their finances.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Tilden was a leader of the "Barnburners", an anti-slavery faction of the New York Democratic Party that arose during the debate over the Wilmot Proviso. Like other Barnburners, Tilden sought to prevent the spread of slavery into the land acquired from Mexico in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. He helped organize the 1848 Free Soil Convention, which nominated Van Buren for president. Van Buren's candidacy in the 1848 presidential election drew votes from Democratic nominee Lewis Cass in New York, which played a role in the victory of Whig nominee Zachary Taylor. Unlike many other anti-slavery Democrats, Tilden did not join the Republican Party in the 1850s, but he did not have close relations with Democratic presidents Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan. In 1855, Tilden was the unsuccessful state attorney general candidate of the "Soft" faction of Barnburners, which favored compromise and reconciliation with the Democratic Party. In 1859, after he lost an election to serve as New York City's corporation counsel, Tilden announced that he was "out of politics."


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: In the 1860 presidential election, Tilden strongly opposed the candidacy of Republican presidential nominee Abraham Lincoln. He warned that the election of Lincoln could lead to the secession of the South and a subsequent civil war. Tilden initially opposed using force to prevent secession, but he supported the Union after the outbreak of the American Civil War. Tilden served as the manager of Horatio Seymour's successful 1862 campaign for governor, and played a key role in securing the presidential nomination for George B. McClellan at the 1864 Democratic National Convention.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: In 1867, Tilden received the honorary degree of LL.D. from New York University. He was also chosen as a delegate to that year's state constitutional convention.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Following the end of the Civil War, Tilden won election as chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee. He served as Seymour's campaign chairman in the 1868 presidential election, but Seymour lost the election to Republican nominee Ulysses S. Grant. After the election, Tilden broke with William M. Tweed, the leader of the Tammany Hall political machine. Through bribery, patronage, and control of Irish-American voters, Tweed and his allies had become the dominant power in both New York City and the state of New York. In 1871, former Tammany associate James O'Brien leaked Tweed's account books to the "New York Times". The "Times" subsequently began a public crusade against Tammany Hall, and Tilden launched an investigation into Tweed's bank records. Tilden ran for the New York State Assembly as part of a slate of anti-Tammany Democrats; at the state party convention, he declared that it was "time to proclaim that whoever plunders the people, though he steal the livery of heaven to serve the devil in, is no Democrat." The anti-Tammany Democrats, including Tilden, won a major victory in the 1871 state elections, and Tweed was indicted on 120 counts of fraud and other violations. After the election, Tweed fled the state, but he was eventually extradited back to New York, where he died in prison in 1878.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Tilden's role in taking down Tweed bolstered his popularity, and he was elected Governor of New York in 1874. As governor, he continued to focus on rooting out corruption. He helped to break up the "Canal Ring," a bipartisan group of state and local officials who had enriched themselves by overcharging for the maintenance of the New York State Canal System. Tilden gained a national reputation as a reform governor, a valuable asset given the number of scandals that had come into public view during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: In 1875, Tilden received an honorary LL.D. from Yale University. At the same time, Yale also enrolled him as a graduate of the Class of 1837 and he received his Bachelor of Arts degree.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: By the time of the June 1876 Democratic National Convention, Tilden had emerged as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in the 1876 presidential election. Tilden's appeal to the national party was based on his reputation for reform and his electoral success in the country's most populous state. He was also a skilled organizer whose canvassing system and field knowledge was so thorough that, months before the 1874 election, he had predicted his own winning margin accurately to within 300 votes. Tilden further bolstered his presidential candidacy through a nationwide newspaper advertising campaign. As many Democrats expected that their party would win the 1876 presidential elections following four consecutive defeats, Tilden faced competition from some of the party's most prominent leaders, including Thomas F. Bayard, Allen G. Thurman, Thomas A. Hendricks, and General Winfield Scott Hancock.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: During the difficult economic times of the Panic of 1873, the major ideological divide in the Democratic Party concerned the issue of currency. Many "soft money" Democrats wanted Congress to repeal the Specie Payment Resumption Act and authorize the printing of more greenbacks, banknotes that had first been printed during the Civil War. The printing of more greenbacks would result in inflation and potentially benefit farmers by raising prices and helping them pay down their debts. Like most Republicans and "hard money" members of the conservative business establishment, Tilden believed that the termination of greenback circulation (which would return the country to the gold standard) was the best way to solve the ongoing economic crisis. Tilden's lieutenants at the Democratic National Convention emphasized Tilden's reform credentials above all else, but they also ensured that the party platform endorsed Tilden's hard money views.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Tilden won a majority of the votes cast on the first presidential ballot of the convention (404.5), but fell short of the two-thirds majority (492) required to win the Democratic presidential nomination. His closest rival was Hendricks, who had the support of New York party boss John Kelly and the soft money faction of Democrats. Tilden won the necessary two-thirds on the second presidential ballot, and the convention then voted to make his nomination unanimous. Delegates unanimously chose Hendricks as Tilden's running mate, providing a balance between the hard money and soft money factions. Though the Republicans had nominated a ticket led by Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, another governor who had established a reputation for honest governance, Tilden was widely regarded as the favorite in the general election.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Per tradition, both Tilden and Hayes avoided publicly campaigning for president, leaving that task to their supporters; Tilden appointed Abram Hewitt to lead his campaign. The Republican campaign established a major cash advantage, partly because Tilden refused to contribute much of his personal fortune to the campaign. The Democrats campaigned on the theme of "retrenchment and reform" and attacked the "corrupt centralism" of the Grant administration. Tilden blamed high taxes and the Grant administration for the economic downturn, and, like Hayes, promised civil service reform and hard money policies. Meanwhile, Republicans focused on their party's identification with Lincoln and the Union cause in the Civil War; many Republicans still associated the Democratic Party with slavery and disunion. Rebutting Republican charges, Tilden categorically denied that he had any intention of compensating the South for any slaves emancipated or losses suffered during the Civil War. For their part, many Democrats cared little for Tilden's emphasis on reform, and were instead focused on ending sixteen years of Republican leadership. Southern Democrats especially hoped to end Reconstruction and gain control of South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, the last three "unredeemed" Southern states. Southern whites, who overwhelmingly favored Tilden, used violence and intimidation to suppress the turnout of Republican-leaning African-American voters. Tilden worked to distance himself from violent encounters like the Hamburg massacre, in which disgruntled Southern whites clashed with the Republican-led government of South Carolina.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Both campaigns considered New York, Ohio, and Indiana to be the key swing states, but the campaigns also focused on several smaller states, including the three unredeemed Southern states. Ultimately, Hayes swept the West and won much of the North, but Tilden carried the closely contested Northern states of New York, New Jersey, Indiana, and Connecticut, swept the border states, and carried most of the South. He had won a majority of the popular vote and tallied clear victories in seventeen states, leaving him one electoral vote short of a majority. On November 6, the day after election day, most major newspapers reported that Tilden had won the election; however, Hayes still had a narrow path to victory if he could sweep the electoral votes of Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana. Hayes refused to formally concede, but told members of the press that he was "of the opinion that the Democrats have carried the country and elected Tilden." Tilden, meanwhile, urged his alarmed followers, many of whom believed that the Republicans were attempting to steal the election, to remain calm and refrain from violence. Both parties feared the possibility that a dispute over the election would lead to armed conflict; Tilden discussed appointing General George B. McClellan as his military assistant, while President Grant ordered army and naval units to reinforce Washington.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: With the election in doubt, each party sent some of their most prominent leaders to monitor the election process in the three disputed Southern states. Initial election returns showed that Hayes had carried South Carolina by several hundred votes, but that Tilden had won Florida by 91 votes and Louisiana by over 6,000. Republicans controlled the bodies charged with determining the validity of election results in all three states. On November 22, the South Carolina canvassing board adjourned after declaring that Hayes had won the state's electoral votes. On December 4, the Louisiana canvassing board announced that it had thrown out 15,623 votes due to "systemic intimidation," leaving Hayes as the winner of all of the state's electoral votes. Early on the morning of December 6, the day the Electoral College was scheduled to convene, the Florida canvassing board announced that Hayes had won the state by a margin of 924 votes. Democrats challenged the results in all three contested Southern states. Meanwhile, another controversy had arisen in Oregon, where a Hayes elector, John Watts, resigned because his simultaneous service as a presidential elector and as a low-ranking official in the Post Office violated the United States Constitution. After Watts resigned, the state's Democratic governor appointed an elector to fill the vacancy, while, separately, the state's two remaining Hayes electors chose a third elector to fill the vacancy caused by Watts's resignation.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: On December 6, the members of the Electoral College met in Washington, D.C., but the disputes in four states prevented a conclusive vote for president. With the Electoral College unable to select a president, the disputed election became an issue for Congress to settle; Republicans controlled the Senate, while Democrats controlled the House. The vague wording of the Constitution gave rise to further controversy, as Republicans held that Thomas W. Ferry, a Republican senator from Michigan and the president pro tempore of the United States Senate, could determine the validity of the disputed electoral votes. Democrats argued that Ferry could only count the votes that were not disputed; in such a scenario, neither candidate would have an electoral vote majority, necessitating a contingent election in the United States House of Representatives. Since Democrats controlled a majority of the state delegations in the House, they would be able to elect Tilden as president in a contingent election. In response to the controversy, Tilden compiled his own study of electoral procedures in the previous 22 presidential elections. He delivered the study to every sitting member of Congress, but congressional Republicans were not swayed by Tilden's argument that history supported the Democratic position on the election returns. He continued to call for calm, and rejected Abram Hewitt's suggestion that he ask his supporters to engage in mass public demonstrations.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: On January 26, both houses of Congress agreed to establish the 15-member Electoral Commission to settle the dispute over the contested electoral votes. The commission consisted of five Democratic members of Congress, five Republican members of Congress, and five justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. Of the Supreme Court justices, two were to be Democrats, two were to be Republicans, and the fifth justice would be selected by the other four justices. Tilden opposed the creation of the Electoral Commission because he still hoped to force a contingent election in the House of Representatives, but he was unable to prevent Democratic congressmen from voting for the establishment of the commission. Most had expected that the fifth justice on the commission would be Associate Justice David Davis, a political independent, but Davis refused to serve on the commission after he accepted election to the Senate. Another associate justice, Republican Joseph P. Bradley, was instead chosen as the fifth justice on the Electoral Commission. In a series of 8-to-7, party-line decisions, the Electoral Commission voted to award all of the contested electoral votes to Hayes.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Even after the Electoral Commission delivered its rulings, the House of Representatives could have blocked the inauguration of Hayes by refusing to certify the results. Though some House Democrats hoped to do so, they were unable, as many House Democrats joined with their Republican colleagues in voting to accept. During the proceedings of the Electoral Commission, high-ranking members of both parties had discussed the possibility of declaring Hayes the winner in exchange for the removal of all federal troops from the South. The Compromise of 1877, as it became known, may have played a role in preventing the House from challenging the Electoral Commission's rulings, although author Roy Morris Jr. argues that the compromise "was more a mutual concession of the obvious than a device for controlling larger events." Some other historians, including C. Vann Woodward, have argued that the Compromise of 1877 played the decisive role in determining the outcome of the election. On March 2, two days before the end of Grant's term, Congress declared Hayes the victor of the 1876 presidential election. Hayes took office on March 4, and withdrew the last federal soldiers from the South in April 1877, bringing an end to the Reconstruction Era.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Some Democrats urged Tilden to reject the results and take the presidential oath of office, but Tilden declined to do so. On March 3, the House passed a resolution declaring Tilden the "duly elected President of the United States," but this had no legal effect. Tilden himself stated that, "I can retire to private life with the consciousness that I shall receive from posterity the credit of having been elected to the highest position in the gift of the people, without any of the cares and responsibilities of the office." Tilden was the second individual, after Andrew Jackson in 1824, to lose a presidential election despite winning at least a plurality of the popular vote. Grover Cleveland (1888), Al Gore (2000), and Hillary Clinton (2016) subsequently won pluralities while losing the electoral vote. Tilden remains the only individual to lose a presidential election while winning an outright majority of the popular vote.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: In 1878, Democratic Congressman Clarkson Nott Potter convinced the House of Representatives to create a committee to investigate allegations of fraud and corruption in the 1876 election. Potter was appointed as the head of the commission, which Democrats hoped would implicate Hayes and damage the Republican Party in the next presidential election. Rather than produce conclusive evidence of Republican malfeasance, the committee uncovered conflicting evidence that reflected poorly on election and campaign officials of both parties. For ten months beginning in May 1878, the Potter Committee subpoenaed all telegrams sent by political operatives during the election dispute. 29,275 telegrams had been sent, but all save 641 had been routinely destroyed by Western Union. The remaining telegrams were in cipher, as was common with business and political communication in the telegraph era. "New York Herald Tribune" editor Whitelaw Reid obtained and deciphered many of the telegrams and, in October 1878, he published the story of the Democratic efforts to sway election officials through bribery and other means. The revelation of the bribery attempts undercut the Democratic Party's argument that Tilden had been cheated out of the presidency. A congressional committee's investigation into the Cipher Telegrams cleared Tilden of any personal wrongdoing, but the allegations damaged his national standing.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: After the controversy over the election of 1876, Tilden became the presumptive Democratic candidate in 1880 presidential election. He declined to run for another term as governor in 1879, focusing instead on building support for the 1880 presidential nomination. The revelations of the Potter Committee, along with Tilden's persistent health issues, both damaged Tilden's national standing, but his superior political organization and personal fortune ensured that he remained a serious contender for the Democratic nomination. Tilden's standing with the party slipped further following the Republican victory in the New York gubernatorial election in 1879. In that election, a revitalized Tammany Hall organization split from the regular Democratic party in a patronage dispute with Tilden's faction. In the months before the 1880 Democratic National Convention, rumors about Tilden's intentions circulated wildly, but Tilden refused to definitively state whether or not he would seek the Democratic nomination.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: As the New York delegation left for the national convention in Cincinnati, Tilden gave a letter to one of his chief supporters, Daniel Manning, suggesting that his health might force him to decline the nomination. Tilden hoped to be nominated, but only if he was the unanimous choice of the convention; if not, Manning was entrusted to make the contents of Tilden's letter available to the New York delegation. The New York delegation interpreted the letter as a notice of withdrawal, and the delegates began looking for a new candidate, eventually settling on Speaker of the House Samuel J. Randall. Ultimately, the party nominated Winfield Scott Hancock, who lost the election to James A Garfield. Though many Democrats favored Tilden for the party's nomination in the 1884 presidential election, Tilden once again declined to run due to poor health. He endorsed New York Governor Grover Cleveland, who won the Democratic nomination and went on to defeat James G. Blaine in the general election.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Tilden retired in the early 1880s, living as a near-recluse at his estate, Greystone, in Yonkers, New York. He died a bachelor at Greystone on August 4, 1886. He is buried at Cemetery of the Evergreens in New Lebanon, Columbia County, New York. In reference to the 1876 election, Tilden's gravestone bears the words, "I Still Trust The People".


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: Of his fortune, estimated at $7 million (equivalent to $ million in ), $4 million (equivalent to $ million in ) was bequeathed for the establishment and maintenance of a free public library and reading-room in the City of New York; but, as the will was successfully contested by relatives, only about $3 million (equivalent to $ million in ) was applied to its original purpose. In 1895, the Tilden Trust was combined with the Astor and Lenox libraries to found the New York Public Library, and the building bears his name on its front.


title: Samuel J. Tilden

text: The Samuel J. Tilden House at 15 Gramercy Park South, which he owned from 1860 until his death, is now used by the National Arts Club. Tilden's Graystone property is now known as Untermyer Park; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Several places have been named for Tilden, including Tilden, Wisconsin, Tilden, Nebraska, Tilden, Texas, Tilden Township, Pennsylvania, and Grove Park-Tilden Township, Minnesota. The Gov. Samuel J. Tilden Monument was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. Other things named for Tilden include Samuel J. Tilden High School, Fort Tilden, New York, and the Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship.


title: Nebuchadnezzar I

text: Nebuchadnezzar I or Nebuchadrezzar I (), reigned 1121–1100 BC, was the fourth king of the Second Dynasty of Isin and Fourth Dynasty of Babylon. He ruled for 22 years according to the "Babylonian King List C", and was the most prominent monarch of this dynasty. He is best known for his victory over Elam and the recovery of the cultic idol of Marduk.


title: Nebuchadnezzar I

text: He is unrelated to his later namesake, Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur II, who has come to be known by the Hebrew form of his name “Nebuchadnezzar.” Consequently, it is anachronistic but not inappropriate to apply this designation retroactively to the earlier king, as he does not make an appearance in the Bible. He is misidentified in the "Chronicle Concerning the Reign of Šamaš-šuma-ukin" as the brother of Širikti-šuqamuna probably in place of Ninurta-kudurrῑ-uṣur I. He succeeded his father, Ninurta-nādin-šumi, and was succeeded in turn by his son Enlil-nādin-apli, brother Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē and then nephew Marduk-šāpik-zēri, the only members of this family known to have reigned during the dynasty.


title: Nebuchadnezzar I

text: The "Enmeduranki legend", or the "Seed of kingship", is a Sumero-Akkadian composition relating his endowment with perfect wisdom ("nam-kù-zu") by the god Marduk and his claim to belong to a “distant line of kingship from before the flood” and to be an “offspring of Enmeduranki, king of Sippar.” It begins with a lament over preceding events:


title: Nebuchadnezzar I

text: The duration of Nebuchadnezzar's war with Elam and the number of campaigns he conducted are not known, though it is reasonable to believe that this was a protracted effort with diverse strategic considerations. According to a later literary tradition, an invasion of Elam was thwarted when his army was struck by plague and he narrowly escaped death in the stampede to return home. A raid, or "šiḫṭu", commemorated in a "kudurru" created during his reign describes a successful campaign. In this raid he was accompanied by the Kassite chieftain Šitti-Marduk who struck the decisive blow, he was able to overrun Elam in a surprise attack conducted from Dēr during the hottest of the summer months, Dumuzi, when


title: Nebuchadnezzar I

text: According to the "kudduru", Nebuchadnezzar routed the Elamite king Ḫulteludiš-Inšušinak on the banks of the river Ulaya in an engagement that saw the dust of the battle darkening the sky. No contemporary or later source records a sack of Susa by Nebuchadnezzar, but according to another "kudurru" he was able to retrieve the statue of Marduk (here called Bēl) and that of the goddess Il-āliya (DINGIR.URU-ia) during this or another campaign. The campaign destroyed Elam as a power and provided a defining moment for the Babylonians akin to the siege of Troy for the ancient Greeks.


title: Nebuchadnezzar I

text: This famous victory was celebrated in hymns, & epic poetry; and alluded to in the "Marduk prophecy". Known as “Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur and Marduk” or the "Epic of Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur" a poetic document dealing with the legendary story of his recovery of the statue of Marduk; and is one of two hymns glorify his military achievements. It opens with the king in despair, lamenting over the absence of Marduk, "beautiful Babylon pass through your heart, Turn your face toward (your temple) Esagila, which you love!”


title: Nebuchadnezzar I

text: The "Hymn to Marduk", celebrating victory over the Elamites, is assigned to him rather than Ashurbanipal who had a similar triumph, on stylistic grounds. There is a poetic pseudo-autobiography, which does not actually mention him by name. An interlinear Sumero-Akkadian text describes the events preceding the return of the statue from Elam and its joyous installation in Babylon. A seventh-century astrological report alludes to observations made during his reign and their relationship to his devastation of Elam.


title: Nebuchadnezzar I

text: The "Synchronistic History" relates his entente cordiale with his contemporary, the Assyrian king Aššur-rēša-iši I, and subsequently the outcome of two military campaigns against the border fortresses of Zanqi and Idi that he conducted in violation of this agreement. The first was curtailed by the arrival of Aššur-rēša-iši’s main force, causing Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur to burn his siege engines and flee, while the second resulted in a battle in which the Assyrians apparently triumphed, “slaughtered his troops (and) carried off his camp.” It even reports the capture of the Babylonian field marshal, Karaštu.


title: Nebuchadnezzar I

text: He is titled as the conqueror of the Amorite lands, “despoiler of the Kassites,” in the Šittti-Marduk kudurru, despite the beneficiary being a Kassite chieftain and ally, and having smitten the mighty Lullubû with weapons.


title: Nebuchadnezzar I

text: His construction activities are memorialized in building inscriptions of the Ekituš-ḫegal-tila, temple of Adad, in Babylon, on bricks from the temple of Enlil in Nippur and appear in the later king Simbar-Šipak’s reference to his having built the throne of Enlil for the Ekur-igigal in Nippur. A late Babylonian inventory lists his donations of gold vessels in Ur and Nabonidus, ca. 555 to 539 BC, consulted his stele for the "ēntu-"priestess.


title: Nebuchadnezzar I

text: The earliest of three extant economic texts is dated to his eighth year. Together with three kudurrus and a stone memorial tablet, these are the only contemporary commercial or administrative records extant. Apart from the two deeds related to the Elamite campaign, the other kudurru bears witness to a land grant to the "nišakku" of Nippur, a certain Nudku-ibni. His name appears on four Lorestān bronze daggers and there is a prayer to Marduk on two more. He may be the Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur who is mentioned in the "Chronicle of Market Prices" which records his ninth year but the context is lost.


title: Nebuchadnezzar I

text: The Uruk "List of Sages and Scholars" names Šaggil-kīnam-ubbib as the "ummânu", or sage, who served under him and the later king Adad-apla-iddina when he would author the "Babylonian Theodicy", and several literary texts are thought to originate from his age, written in both Sumerian and Akkadian.


title: Nebuchadnezzar I

text: Lambert has suggested that it was during his reign that Marduk was elevated to the head of the pantheon, displacing Enlil and that the Enûma Eliš was possibly composed, but some historians claim an origin during the earlier Kassite dynasty. A text concerning chemical process (imitations for precious stones) bears a colophon identifying it as a copy of an older Babylonian original but places it in his library.


title: Nissen fundoplication

text: A Nissen fundoplication, or laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication when performed via laparoscopic surgery, is a surgical procedure to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and hiatal hernia. In GERD, it is usually performed when medical therapy has failed; but, with a Type II (paraesophageal) hiatus hernia, it is the first-line procedure. The Nissen fundoplication is total (360°), but partial fundoplications known as Thal (270° anterior), Belsey (270° anterior transthoracic), Dor (anterior 180–200°), Lind (300° posterior), and Toupet fundoplications (posterior 270°) are alternative procedures with somewhat different indications and outcomes.


title: Nissen fundoplication

text: Dr. Rudolph Nissen (1896–1981) first performed the procedure in 1955 and published the results of two cases in a 1956 "Swiss Medical Weekly". In 1961 he published a more detailed overview of the procedure. Nissen originally called the surgery "gastroplication". The procedure has borne his name since it gained popularity in the 1970s.


title: Nissen fundoplication

text: The most common indication for a fundoplication is GERD that has failed lifestyle modification and medical management. Patients that continue to have reflux symptoms or that have had uncontrolled reflux symptoms for more than 5 years are also candidates for surgical management. Complications that arise from long term GERD such as severe esophagitis, stricture formation, and ulcer development, all of which can be seen on endoscopy, warrant surgical intervention. Presence of Barrett's esophagus is not an indication, as the benefit of a fundoplication in preventing progression into adenocarcinoma is controversial. Respiratory symptoms and upper airway symptoms such as cough, asthma, hoarseness are also indications for surgical intervention. In the pediatric population, infants who fail to thrive or have inadequate weight gain despite proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy may also benefit from fundoplication.


title: Nissen fundoplication

text: In a "fundoplication", the gastric fundus (upper part) of the stomach is wrapped, or plicated, around the lower end of the esophagus and stitched in place, reinforcing the closing function of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES). The esophageal hiatus is also narrowed down by sutures to prevent or treat concurrent hiatal hernia, in which the fundus slides up through the enlarged esophageal hiatus of the diaphragm.


title: Nissen fundoplication

text: In a Nissen fundoplication, also called a complete fundoplication, the fundus is wrapped the entire 360 degrees around the esophagus. In contrast, surgery for achalasia is generally accompanied by either a "Dor" or "Toupet" partial fundoplication, which is less likely than a Nissen wrap to aggravate the dysphagia that characterizes achalasia. In a Dor (anterior) fundoplication, the fundus is laid over the top of the esophagus; while in a Toupet (posterior) fundoplication, the fundus is wrapped around the back of the esophagus.


title: Nissen fundoplication

text: The procedure can be performed with open surgery but is now routinely performed laparoscopically, as laparoscopic surgery has decreased post-operative complications and decreased hospital stay. When used to alleviate gastroesophageal reflux symptoms in patients with delayed gastric emptying, it is frequently combined with modification of the pylorus via pyloromyotomy or pyloroplasty.


title: Nissen fundoplication

text: This procedure can also be completed robotically. Outcomes comparing laparoscopic fundoplication to robotic fundoplication show similar clinical outcomes, but robotic fundoplication is more likely to have an increased length of operative time and financial cost.


title: Nissen fundoplication

text: Whenever the stomach contracts, it also closes off the esophagus instead of squeezing stomach acids into it. This prevents the reflux of gastric acid (in GERD). Although antacids and PPI drug therapy can reduce the effects of reflux acid, successful surgical treatment has the advantage of eliminating drug side-effects and damaging effects from other components of reflux such as bile or gastric contents. The Nissen fundoplication reduces reflux by reinforcing the LES by increasing LES pressure and increasing the LES length.


title: Nissen fundoplication

text: Nissen (complete) fundoplication is generally considered to be safe and effective, with a mortality rate of less than 1% and many of the most common post-operative complications minimized or eliminated by the partial fundoplication procedures now more commonly used. Studies have shown that after 10 years, 89.5% of patients are still symptom-free. When compared to stand alone medical therapy with PPIs, Nissen fundoplication has been found to be superior in reducing acid reflux as well as the symptoms associated with reflux. Fundoplication was found to be better at increasing LES pressure than PPI therapy, whilst having similar risk for adverse events. In patients with non-acid reflux, a hiatal hernia, or respiratory symptoms, surgical intervention was found to be more effective at controlling symptoms than PPIs alone.


title: Nissen fundoplication

text: Complications include "gas bloat syndrome", dysphagia (trouble swallowing), dumping syndrome, excessive scarring, vagus nerve injury and, rarely, achalasia. The fundoplication can also come undone over time in about 5–10% of cases, leading to recurrence of symptoms. If the symptoms warrant a repeat surgery, the surgeon may use Marlex or another form of artificial mesh to strengthen the connection. Postoperative ileus, which is common after abdominal surgery, is possible.