title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: Bilateral relations between the two wings grew strained over the lack of official recognition for the Bengali language, democracy, regional autonomy, disparity between the two wings, ethnic discrimination, and the central government's weak and inefficient relief efforts after the 1970 Bhola cyclone, which had affected millions in East Pakistan. These grievances led to several political agitations in East Bengal and ultimately a fight for full independence. In early March 1971, 300 Biharis were slaughtered in rioting by Bengali mobs in Chittagong. The massacre was used by the Pakistan Armed Forces as a justification to launch "Operation Searchlight", which targeted intellectuals, political activists, Hindus and other minorities. The number of people killed by Pakistani forces remains disputed, with estimates ranging from 300,000 to 3 million. About 8-10 million people became refugees in India. Many Bengali policemen and soldiers mutinied and nationalists formed a guerrilla force, the Mukti Bahini with Soviet and Indian support. When a declared war broke out between West Pakistan and East Pakistan in December 1971, the joint forces of Mukti Bahini and Indian Army later known as Bangladesh Armed forces defeated Pakistani forces in East Pakistan and the independent state of Bangladesh was created.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: Mukti Bahini, the Bengali resistance force, backed by Indian government, from East Pakistan, killed non-Bengalis (primarily West Pakistanis and Biharis) in the aftermath of the Bangladesh Liberation War.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: The left-oriented Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who had been the main political opponent of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, came into power in the aftermath of Bangladesh's separation from Pakistan. Initially, Pakistan was not in favour of recognizing Bangladesh and urged other states to hold back their recognition until Pakistan could enter into a dialogue with Bangladeshi leadership. Bangladesh on its part insisted recognition as a pre-condition for dialogue. In 1972, Pakistan left the Commonwealth after some members of the Commonwealth extended membership to Bangladesh. Pakistan also severed ties with other countries which recognized Bangladesh.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: On the issue of Bangladesh's application for membership to the UN, China, on Pakistan's request, exercised its veto power for the first time to stall the move, which helped Pakistan to secure in a bargain the release of its prisoners of war and the return of troops to their pre-war positions.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: In 1974, the relationship between Bangladesh and Pakistan thawed. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman withdrew the bans on some pro-Pakistan organisations that had operated before Bangladesh's independence. Mujib visited Lahore for an OIC Islamic summit, and in return the Parliament of Pakistan authorised Bhutto to extend recognition to Bangladesh. In June 1974, Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto visited Bangladesh and paid homage to Bangladesh's war memorial at Savar Upazila. Both nations discussed an agreement in 1975 in which Bangladesh agreed to take up half of Pakistan's pre-1971 external reserves provided Bangladesh received half of the country's pre-1971 assets and credit went unresolved.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: Relations improved considerably under the governments of Ziaur Rahman and Hossain Mohammad Ershad in Bangladesh, which had grown more distant from its usual allies, like India and Russia. Five Pakistani heads of government have made official visits to Bangladesh since the 1980s and numerous trade and cultural agreements have been signed. Common concerns over terrorism have influenced strategic cooperation leading to a gift of several squadrons of F-6 fighter aircraft to the Bangladesh Air Force in the late 1980s although there was no serious effort to maintain them as they were later left to be destroyed by a cyclone. Trade between the two countries currently stands at $340 million which was described by the Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh, Ruhul Alam Siddique as 'negligible when taking into account the combined population' (of both countries). Areas he hoped would induce investment from Pakistan to Bangladesh included the textiles and energy sectors.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: In 1985, Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq visited the Bangladeshi war memorial, and said "Your heroes are our heroes." Bangladeshi President Ershad visited Islamabad in 1986. In 1998, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited Pakistan. In July 2002, Pakistani General Pervez Musharraf also visited the war memorial and said "Your brothers and sisters in Pakistan share the pain of the events of 1971."


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: In his history of Bangladesh, Craig Baxter gives a general assessment of the relations between both countries:


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: In December 2013, Bangladeshi Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Islamist leader Abdul Quader Molla, dubbed the "butcher of Mirpur", was executed in Bangladesh for war crimes. Following the execution, the lower house National Assembly of Pakistan issued a statement condemning execution, claiming it to be politically motivated. Pakistan's Interior Minister expressed sadness that Molla was executed for his "loyalty towards Pakistan".


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: As a result of Pakistan's reactions, Bangladesh summoned the Pakistani High Commissioner, conveying its displeasure at Pakistan's interference in its internal matters. Bangladesh conveyed its displeasure at the National Assembly statement, Punjab Provincial Assembly statement, as well as the remarks by Pakistan's Interior Minister. Protesters in Bangladesh also took to the streets to express their displeasure by marching towards the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: In two separate incidents, officials of the Pakistani High Commission in Dhaka were alleged to be financing the terrorist activities of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh organization. Diplomatic official Mazhar Khan was charged by Bangladesh's foreign ministry of running an illegal Indian currency business in Dhaka beside alleged links with militants. However, Pakistan's foreign office maintains that allegations against him are baseless and the incident is unfortunate.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: In December 2015, Pakistan withdrew the diplomat Farina Arshad after Bangladeshi authorities asked the diplomat to leave for reportedly having "extended financial support to a suspected militant who faces spying charges". Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operative Idris Sheikh, who also holds Pakistani nationality, had claimed he had received money from her and was in contact with her for some time. Pakistan has withdrawn one of its diplomats from Bangladesh after "harassment", the foreign ministry said. A formal statement from Islamabad dismissed the charges as "baseless", adding "an incessant and orchestrated media campaign was launched against her on spurious charges".


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: In January 2016, Islamabad asked Dhaka to recall senior diplomat Moushumi Rahman from its High Commission in Islamabad within 48 hours. Diplomatic sources in Islamabad told the media that Rahman was allegedly involved in "anti-state activities in Pakistan" and that concerned security agencies continued to monitor her.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: Following the election of Imran Khan as Prime Minister of Pakistan, the two countries have slowly began to normalise ties. Remarkably, Khan made a phone call to Sheikh Hasina in July 2020 following Bangladesh's foreign policy announcement of "friendship to all and malice to none", inviting her to Islamabad. Hasina later mentioned that she was interested in strengthening bilateral ties with Pakistan. Following a meeting with Shahriar Alam on 7 January 2021, the Government of Pakistan removed all Visa requirements for Bangladeshi citizens.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: There has been a presence of people from modern day Bangladesh in present-day Pakistan going back generations, even during the times of the British Raj. This continued from 1971 onwards and extended into the 1980s when massive numbers of Bangladeshis entered Pakistan. This led to a crackdown by the government of Benazir Bhutto in the 1990s after public resentment and complaints of crime and social unrest. Today there are about an estimated two million unregistered Bangladeshis in Pakistan. There has been a small number of Bangladeshi expatriate students studying in Pakistan but that number has been on the decline mainly due to security concerns in the country.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: An issue of continuing controversy is the status and return of Biharis (also called Stranded Pakistanis) to Pakistan. Numbered around 540,000, these communities had migrated to what became East Pakistan from the Indian state of Bihar after the partition of India in 1947. During the liberation war, these communities supported the Pakistani government and later wanted to emigrate to Pakistan, which stalled and hesitated. By 1982 about 127,000 had been repatriated, leaving about 250,000 people still demanding repatriation. In 1985 there was some progress in this area when Pakistani president Zia-ul-Haq agreed to accept the "stranded Pakistanis." In a 2002 visit to Bangladesh, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf signed numerous bilateral agreements but said he could not allow the emigration of Biharis to Pakistan for the time being.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: Defence relations improved considerably under the military regimes of Ziaur Rahman and Hossain Mohammad Ershad in Bangladesh, which had grown more distant from its war ally, India. Common concerns over India's regional power have influenced strategic cooperation leading to a gift of several squadrons of F-6 fighter aircraft to the Bangladesh Air Force in the late 1980s.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: Bilateral trade between the two countries has been growing slowly over the past years. During the eleven-year period between 2000–01 and 2010–11, Pakistan export to Bangladesh grew at an average annual rate of 27.6 percent and imports from Bangladesh grew at the rate of 9.2 percent. The total value of trade (export plus import) between the two countries in 2010-11 was about $983 million. To give a boost to bilateral trade between Pakistan and Bangladesh both countries have decided to finalise a bilateral Free Trade Agreement. FTA will pave the way for opening trade opportunity and will help expansion of trade between the two countries.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: Major Pakistani exports to Bangladesh include cotton, machinery, oil, plastics and mechanical appliances. Major Bangladeshi exports to Pakistan include textiles, agricultural products, leather footwear and other leather products.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: The two-way trade current stand at $340 million which was described by the Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh, Ruhul Alam Siddique as 'negligible when taking into account the combined population' (of both countries). Areas he hoped would induce investment from Pakistan to Bangladesh included the textiles and energy sectors.


title: Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

text: According to State Bank of Pakistan data, Pakistan's exports to Bangladesh stood at $736 million while Bangladeshi exports to Pakistan were $44 million as of 2019.


title: Norwegian rocket incident

text: The Norwegian rocket incident, also known as the Black Brant scare, occurred on January 25, 1995 when a team of Norwegian and American scientists launched a Black Brant XII four-stage sounding rocket from the Andøya Rocket Range off the northwestern coast of Norway. The rocket carried scientific equipment to study the aurora borealis over Svalbard, and flew on a high northbound trajectory, which included an air corridor that stretches from Minuteman III nuclear missile silos in North Dakota all the way to Moscow, the capital city of Russia. The rocket eventually reached an altitude of , resembling a US Navy submarine-launched Trident missile. Fearing a high-altitude nuclear attack that could blind Russian radar, Russian nuclear forces went on high alert, and the "nuclear briefcase" (the "Cheget") was brought to Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who then had to decide whether to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike against the United States. Russian observers determined that there was no nuclear attack. No retaliation was ordered.


title: Norwegian rocket incident

text: The Norwegian rocket incident was a few minutes of post-Cold War nuclear tension that took place nearly four years after the end of the Cold War. While not as well known an incident as the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 (nor the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident, which was still classified at the time), the 1995 incident is considered to be one of the most severe incidents. The 1995 incident occurred at a time where many Russians, especially in the military, were still very suspicious of the United States and NATO. In contrast, the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 had a much longer build-up.


title: Norwegian rocket incident

text: As the Black Brant XII rocket gained altitude, it was detected by the Olenegorsk early-warning radar station in Murmansk Oblast. To the radar operators, the rocket appeared similar in speed and flight pattern to a US Navy submarine-launched Trident missile, leading the Russian military to initially misinterpret the rocket's trajectory as representing the precursor to a possible attack by missiles from submarines.


title: Norwegian rocket incident

text: One possibility was that the rocket had been a solitary missile with a radar-blocking electromagnetic pulse (EMP) payload launched from a Trident missile at sea in order to blind Russian radars in the first stage of a surprise attack. In this scenario, gamma rays from a high-altitude nuclear detonation would create a very high-intensity electromagnetic pulse that would confuse radars and incapacitate electronic equipment. After that, according to the scenario, the real attack would start.


title: Norwegian rocket incident

text: After stage separation, the rocket launch appeared on radar similar to Multiple Reentry vehicles (MRVs); the Russian control center did not immediately realize that the Norwegian scientific rocket was headed out to sea, rather than toward Russia. Tracking the trajectory took 8 of the 10 minutes allotted to the process of deciding whether to launch a nuclear response to an impending attack; a submarine-launched Trident missile from the Barents Sea would be able to reach mainland Russia in 10 minutes.


title: Norwegian rocket incident

text: This event resulted in a full alert being passed up through the military chain of command all the way to President Boris Yeltsin, who was notified and the "nuclear briefcase" used to authorize nuclear launch was automatically activated. Yeltsin activated his "nuclear keys" for the first time. No warning was issued to the Russian populace of any incident; it was reported in the news a week afterward.<ref name="www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/nordland/1.8005229"></ref>


title: Norwegian rocket incident

text: As a result of the alert, Russian submarine commanders were ordered to go into a state of combat readiness and prepare for nuclear retaliation.


title: Norwegian rocket incident

text: Soon thereafter, Russian observers were able to determine that the rocket was heading away from Russian airspace and was not a threat. The rocket fell to earth as planned, near Spitsbergen, 24 minutes after launch.


title: Norwegian rocket incident

text: The Norwegian rocket incident was the first and thus far only known incident where any nuclear-weapons state had its nuclear briefcase activated and prepared for launching an attack.


title: Norwegian rocket incident

text: The Norwegian and American scientists had notified thirty countries, including Russia, of their intention to launch a high-altitude scientific experiment aboard a rocket; however, the information was not passed on to the radar technicians. The launch was notified in good time to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But due to an error on the part of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the notification was never given to the Russian General Staff, or any part of the Russian military. An anonymous Russian general, who sounds very like Anatoliy Sokolov, commander of Russia's northern early-warning radars, later told the press that the wording of Norway's missile launch message to "notify the upcoming launch of a meteorological rocket to sea-farers" was taken too literally by Russian bureaucrats. "Foreign Ministry officials took a literal attitude toward that request: sailors knew of the event. Not the military." Following the incident, notification and disclosure protocols were re-evaluated and redesigned.


title: GBH (band)

text: GBH (originally known as Charged GBH) are an English punk rock band which was formed in 1978 by vocalist Colin Abrahall, guitarist Colin "Jock" Blyth, bassist Sean McCarthy (replaced by Ross Lomas after two years) and drummer Andy "Wilf" Williams.


title: GBH (band)

text: GBH were early pioneers of British street punk, often nicknamed "UK82", along with Discharge, Broken Bones, The Exploited, and The Varukers. GBH have gone on to influence several punk rock musicians, but their influence has been especially far-reaching in metal, including the early Bathory albums, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Exodus and each of the "big four of thrash metal" (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax). Metallica frontman James Hetfield has repeatedly expressed his enthusiasm for GBH and said such bands were the beginning of thrash to him. Sascha Konietzko of KMFDM has said he listened to second-wave punk bands before starting his own band, mentioning GBH as an example. GBH have also influenced 1990s and 2000s rock bands such as Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age and Rancid.


title: GBH (band)

text: The band's name was originally Charged GBH, then was shortened to GBH. It is widely understood that the name came from then-bassist Sean McCarthy being charged with grievous bodily harm (GBH), though vocalist Colin Abrahall denied this in 2018, claiming it was just a name like UK Subs; and, when pushed, said the initials stood for "Girls, Booze, and Hash". Though the core line up of Colin, Ross, and Jock has stayed the same throughout their history, the drum stool has been occupied by a number of incumbents following Wilf's departure after the "Midnight Madness and Beyond" album and "Oh No It's GBH Again" 12" EP. 1989 saw the arrival of German drummer Kai Reder who played on three albums ("No Need to Panic", "A Fridge Too Far", and "From Here to Reality"), as well as the "Wot a Bargain" 12". Kai was replaced by American Joe "Fish" Montanero for one album ("Church of the Truly Warped"); this was the band's last release for the Rough Justice label. The drum stool was then occupied from around 1994 by former Bomb Disneyland/Bomb Everything drummer Scott Preece, who has remained to this day and played on all releases since.


title: GBH (band)

text: Throughout their recording history, the band has often included a cover version on many of their albums. "Boston Babies" originally recorded by Slaughter & the Dogs (on "City Baby Attacked By Rats"), "I Feel Alright" from The Damned and The Stooges (on "City Baby's Revenge"), "Avenues and Alleyways" by Tony Christie (on "No Need to Panic"), "Needle in a Haystack" originally by The Velvelettes (appeared on "A Fridge Too Far"), "Destroy" by The Vibrators (on "From Here to Reality"), "I Need Energy" by Zero Boys (on "Church of the Truly Warped").


title: GBH (band)

text: GBH embarked on several English and mainland US tours during the early 1980s, including several gigs at the 100 Club. 1982 saw the release of GBH's first LP, "City Baby Attacked by Rats", which reached No. 17 in the UK Albums Chart, as well as No. 2 in the UK Indie Chart. The band's singles had also reached the UK Indie Chart, leading to an appearance on the UK TV programme "The Tube", where they performed "Give Me Fire" (UK Indie Chart No. 2). Lyrically, the album dealt with criticism of British and European culture, violence, morbidity (especially in reference to the song "Passenger on the Menu", which describes in graphic detail the experiences of the passengers on the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571), atheism, nihilism and humour. Musically, the album was loud and fast, with few songs exceeding three minutes. The success of the first album was repeated with their second LP, "City Babys Revenge", in 1983 and saw more extensive touring in America and Europe and higher profile UK shows, including the Carlisle Punk Festival. With the Carlisle Punk Festival the band co-headlined with fellow UK82 stalwarts The Exploited, and shared the bill with the likes of Toy Dolls, Chelsea, and The Destructors. In 1984, the band dropped the "Charged" from their name and became just GBH (grievous bodily harm).


title: GBH (band)

text: They and many of their UK82 peers such as The Exploited, Picture Frame Seduction, Discharge, and The Varukers have all enjoyed success among punks in the United States. Although many of their contemporaries have evolved towards other styles over the years, GBH have remained fairly faithful to their original UK82 sound in subsequent releases. However, the band have experimented to some degree with a more speed metal-inflected, inspired and influenced sound particularly those of Motörhead and Tank, notably with their 1992 release "Church of the Truly Warped", although they have since returned to a more purist punk sound. They have enjoyed a mixed reception from the music press, with 1993's album, "From Here To Reality", being described by the "NME" as "having no redeeming features whatsoever".


title: GBH (band)

text: The band is still active and touring and maintain a strong following both in the UK and the rest of Europe, as well as in the United States and Japan. The band released their twelfth studio album, "Momentum", on Hellcat Records in 2017.


title: Élizabeth Bourgine

text: Élizabeth Clémentine Madeleine Bourgine (born 20 March 1957 in Levallois-Perret, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French actress, appearing in film, television and theater. She is credited with more than 60 roles in film and television, mostly French productions.


title: Élizabeth Bourgine

text: Originally a dancer and model, she studied at École des Beaux-Arts. She first appeared in student films between 1976 and 1977 until landing a role in the film "Nestor Burma", with her future husband, Jean-Luc Miesch.<br>She was awarded the "Prix Romy Schneider Prize" in 1985.


title: Élizabeth Bourgine

text: From 2011 she has appeared in the joint French/British production "Death in Paradise", a crime drama/comedy filmed in Guadeloupe for BBC One.


title: Élizabeth Bourgine

text: She is best known in France for her roles in "A Heart in Winter" (1992), "My Best Friend" (2006) and "Private Lessons" (1986).


title: Élizabeth Bourgine

text: Bourgine was born 20 March 1957, in the Parisian suburb Levallois-Perret. She is married to Jean-Luc Miesch, and they have one adult son.


title: Josh Saviano

text: Josh Saviano (born March 31, 1976) is an American lawyer and former child actor who played Kevin Arnold's best friend, Paul Pfeiffer, in the ABC television show "The Wonder Years".


title: Josh Saviano

text: Saviano was born in White Plains, New York and raised in North Caldwell, New Jersey. His mother is Jewish and his father is Italian-American.


title: Josh Saviano

text: His role in "The Wonder Years" was one of his few television or movie roles. His first television appearance was a one-line role in a commercial for Aim toothpaste. Saviano's other roles were as Kid Belz in the movie "The Wrong Guys" in 1988 and Max Plotkin in the made-for-TV movie "Camp Cucamonga" in 1990. He appeared in an uncredited cameo in the 1989 movie "The Wizard" starring Fred Savage. He guest starred on the show "The Ray Bradbury Theater" in 1989 as Willie and on "Reading Rainbow" and "Fun House" as himself. Saviano once starred in a television commercial for the Oldsmobile Silhouette.


title: Josh Saviano

text: Saviano stopped acting, went to college and became a lawyer, but from 2014 to 2015, Saviano returned to television to play a lawyer in three episodes of "".


title: Josh Saviano

text: Saviano majored in political science at Yale University where he became president of Sigma Nu fraternity. Upon graduation in 1998, he worked for a while as a paralegal for a New York City law firm. In 2000, he worked for an Internet firm before earning a J.D. degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. He was admitted to the bar in New York. He joined the law firm Morrison Cohen LLP becoming a Senior Counsel in 2011 and Partner in 2013. He left Morrison Cohen in 2015 to found two start-up endeavors: law firm JDS Legal and celebrity brand consultancy Act 3 Advisors.


title: Language development

text: Language development in humans is a process starting early in life. Infants start without knowing a language, yet by 10 months, babies can distinguish speech sounds and engage in babbling. Some research has shown that the earliest learning begins in utero when the fetus starts to recognize the sounds and speech patterns of its mother's voice and differentiate them from other sounds after birth.


title: Language development

text: Typically, children develop receptive language abilities before their verbal or expressive language develops. Receptive language is the internal processing and understanding of language. As receptive language continues to increase, expressive language begins to slowly develop.


title: Language development

text: Usually, productive/expressive language is considered to begin with a stage of pre-verbal communication in which infants use gestures and vocalizations to make their intents known to others. According to a general principle of development, new forms then take over old functions, so that children learn words to express the same communicative functions they had already expressed by proverbial means.


title: Language development

text: Language development is thought to proceed by ordinary processes of learning in which children acquire the forms, meanings, and uses of words and utterances from the linguistic input. Children often begin reproducing the words that they are repetitively exposed to. The method in which we develop language skills is universal; however, the major debate is how the rules of syntax are acquired. There are two quite separate major theories of syntactic development: an empiricist account by which children learn all syntactic rules from the linguistic input, and a nativist approach by which some principles of syntax are innate and are transmitted through the human genome.


title: Language development

text: The nativist theory, proposed by Noam Chomsky, argues that language is a unique human accomplishment, and can be attributed to either "millions of years of evolution" or to "principles of neural organization that may be even more deeply grounded in physical law". Chomsky says that all children have what is called an innate language acquisition device (LAD). Theoretically, the LAD is an area of the brain that has a set of universal syntactic rules for all languages. This device provides children with the ability to make sense of knowledge and construct novel sentences with minimal external input and little experience. Chomsky's claim is based upon the view that what children hear—their linguistic input—is insufficient to explain how they come to learn language. He argues that linguistic input from the environment is limited and full of errors. Therefore, nativists assume that it is impossible for children to learn linguistic information solely from their environment. However, because children possess this LAD, they are in fact, able to learn language despite incomplete information from their environment. Their capacity to learn language is also attributed to the theory of universal grammar (UG), which posits that a certain set of structural rules are innate to humans, independent of sensory experience. This view has dominated linguistic theory for over fifty years and remains highly influential, as witnessed by the number of articles in journals and books.


title: Language development

text: The empiricist theory suggests, contra Chomsky, that there is enough information in the linguistic input children receive and therefore, there is no need to assume an innate language acquisition device exists (see above). Rather than a LAD evolved specifically for language, empiricists believe that general brain processes are sufficient enough for language acquisition. During this process, it is necessary for the child to actively engage with their environment. For a child to learn language, the parent or caregiver adopts a particular way of appropriately communicating with the child; this is known as child-directed speech (CDS). CDS is used so that children are given the necessary linguistic information needed for their language. Empiricism is a general approach and sometimes goes along with the interactionist approach. Statistical language acquisition, which falls under empiricist theory, suggests that infants acquire language by means of pattern perception.


title: Language development

text: Other researchers embrace an interactionist perspective, consisting of social-interactionist theories of language development. In such approaches, children learn language in the interactive and communicative context, learning language forms for meaningful moves of communication. These theories focus mainly on the caregiver's attitudes and attentiveness to their children in order to promote productive language habits.


title: Language development

text: An older empiricist theory, the behaviorist theory proposed by B. F. Skinner suggested that language is learned through operant conditioning, namely, by imitation of stimuli and by reinforcement of correct responses. This perspective has not been widely accepted at any time, but by some accounts, is experiencing a resurgence. New studies use this theory now to treat individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. Additionally, Relational Frame Theory is growing from the behaviorist theory, which is important for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Some empiricist theory accounts today use behaviorist models.


title: Language development

text: Other relevant theories about language development include Piaget's theory of cognitive development, which considers the development of language as a continuation of general cognitive development and Vygotsky's social theories that attribute the development of language to an individual's social interactions and growth.


title: Language development

text: Evolutionary biologists are skeptical of the claim that syntactic knowledge is transmitted in the human genome. However, many researchers claim that the ability to acquire such a complicated system is unique to the human species. Non-biologists also tend to believe that our ability to learn spoken language may have been developed through the evolutionary process and that the foundation for language may be passed down genetically. The ability to speak and understand human language requires speech production skills and abilities as well as multisensory integration of sensory processing abilities.


title: Language development

text: Scientists have conducted extensive research to see if other animal species are capable of learning a complex human language. Several studies have worked with great apes, owing to their close evolutionary relationship to humans. In the documentary Project Nim, for example, researcher Herbert S. Terrace conducted the study to nurture a young chimpanzee with intimate human interaction. The researchers trained the chimp American Sign Language and treated it like a human child. Finally, the chimp was able to learn over 114 signs in order to communicate his wants to the caregivers. Unlike humans, however, Nim was unable to make use of significant grammar or context. Other attempts to teach great apes language have met with varying degrees of success, and whether the communication the apes achieve can be equated to human language is controversial.


title: Language development

text: One hotly debated issue is whether the biological contribution includes capacities specific to language acquisition, often referred to as universal grammar. For fifty years, linguist Noam Chomsky has argued for the hypothesis that children have innate, language-specific abilities that facilitate and constrain language learning. In particular, he has proposed that humans are biologically prewired to learn language at a certain time and in a certain way, arguing that children are born with a language acquisition device (LAD). However, since he developed the minimalist program, his latest version of theory of syntactic structure, Chomsky has reduced the elements of universal grammar, which he believes are prewired in humans to just the principle of recursion, thus voiding most of the nativist endeavor.


title: Language development

text: Researchers who believe that grammar is learned rather than innate, have hypothesized that language learning results from general cognitive abilities and the interaction between learners and their human interactants. Based on studies of the developing visual system by Torsten Wiesel and David Hubel, it has been suggested that the environment guides the development of language networks in the brain by selecting the neurons and their synapses that are most active during the prolonged early development of humans in a socio-linguistic environment. According to this theory, the neural substrate for language results from a combination of the genetically determined complexity of the human brain and the 'functional validation of synapses' during the long period of postnatal maturation that is unique among primates. Similarly, it has recently been suggested that the relatively slow development of the prefrontal cortex in humans may be one reason that humans are able to learn language, whereas other species are not. Further research has indicated the influence of the FOXP2 gene.


title: Language development

text: Language development and processing begins before birth. Evidence has shown that there is language development occurring antepartum. DeCasper and Spence performed a study in 1986 by having mothers read aloud during the last few weeks of pregnancy. When the infants were born, they were then tested. They were read aloud a story while sucking on a pacifier; the story was either the story read by the mother when the infant was in utero or a new story. The pacifier used was able to determine the rate of sucking that the infant was performing. When the story that the mother had read before was heard, the sucking of the pacifier was modified. This did not occur during the story that the infant had not heard before. The results for this experiment had shown that the infants were able to recognize what they had heard in utero, providing insight that language development had been occurring in the last six weeks of pregnancy.


title: Language development

text: Throughout the first year of life, infants are unable to communicate with language. Instead, infants communicate with gestures. This phenomenon is known as prelinguistic gestures, which are nonverbal ways that infants communicate that also had a plan backed with the gesture. Examples of these could be pointing at an object, tugging on the shirt of a parent to get the parent's attention, etc. Harding, 1983, devised the major criteria that come along with the behavior of prelinguistic gestures and their intent to communicate. There are three major criteria that go along with a prelinguistic gesture: waiting, persistence, and ultimately, development of alternative plans. This process usually occurs around 8 months of age, where an appropriate scenario may be of a child tugging on the shirt of a parent to wait for the attention of the parent who would then notice the infant, which causes the infant to point to something they desire. This would describe the first two criteria. The development of alternative plans may arise if the parent does not acknowledge what the infant wants, the infant may entertain itself to satisfy the previous desire.


title: Language development

text: When children reach about 15–18 months of age, language acquisition flourishes. There is a surge in word production resulting from the growth of the cortex. Infants begin to learn the words that form a sentence and within the sentence, the word endings can be interpreted. Elissa Newport and colleagues (1999) found that humans learn first about the sounds of a language, and then move on to how to speak the language. This shows how infants learn the end of a word and know that a new word is being spoken. From this step, infants are then able to determine the structure of a language and word.


title: Language development

text: It appears that during the early years of language development females exhibit an advantage over males of the same age. When infants between the age of 16 to 22 months were observed interacting with their mothers, a female advantage was obvious. The females in this age range showed more spontaneous speech production than the males and this finding was not due to mothers speaking more with daughters than sons. In addition, boys between 2 and 6 years as a group did not show higher performance in language development over their girl counterparts on experimental assessments. In studies using adult populations, 18 and over, it seems that the female advantage may be task dependent. Depending on the task provided, a female advantage may or may not be present. Similarly, one study found that out of the 5.5% of American children with language impairments, 7.2% are male, and 3.8% are female. There are many different suggested explanations for this gender gap in language impairment prevalence.


title: Language development

text: It is currently believed that in regards to brain lateralization males are left-lateralized, while females are bilateralized. Studies on patients with unilateral lesions have provided evidence that females are in fact more bilateralized with their verbal abilities. It seems that when a female has experienced a lesion to the left hemisphere, she is better able to compensate for this damage than a male can. If a male has a lesion in the left hemisphere, his verbal abilities are greatly impaired in comparison to a control male of the same age without that damage. However, these results may also be task-dependent as well as time-dependent.


title: Language development

text: Shriberg, Tomblin, and McSweeny (1999) suggest that the fine motor skills necessary for correct speech may develop more slowly in males. This could explain why some of the language impairments in young males seems to spontaneously improve over time.


title: Language development

text: It is also suggested that the gender gap in language impairment prevalence could also be explained by the clinical over diagnosis of males. Males tend to be clinically over diagnosed with a variety of disorders.


title: Language development

text: The study by Shriber et al. (1999) further explains that this gap in the prevalence of language impairment could be because males tend to be more visible. These researchers reveal that male children tend to act out behaviorally when they have any sort of disorder, while female children tend to turn inward and develop emotional disorders as well. Thus, the high ratio of males with language impairments may be connected with the fact that males are more visible, and thus more often diagnosed.


title: Language development

text: Research in writing development has been limited in psychology. In the research that has been conducted, focus has generally centred on the development of written and spoken language and their connection. Spoken and written skills could be considered linked. Researchers believe that children's spoken language influences their written language. When a child learns to write they need to master letter formation, spelling, punctuation and they also have to gain an understanding of the structure and the organisational patterns involved in written language.


title: Language development

text: Kroll's theory is one of the most significant on children's writing development. He proposed that children's writing development is split into 4 phases. Kroll explicitly states that these phases are 'artificial' in the sense that the boundaries between the phases are imprecise and he recognises that each child is different, thus their development is unique. The phases of writing development have been highlighted to give the reader a broad outline of what phases a child goes through during writing development; however when studying an individual's development in depth, the phases may be disregarded to an extent.


title: Language development

text: The first of Kroll's phases is the preparation for writing phase. In this phase the child is believed to grasp the technical skills needed for writing, allowing them to create the letters needed to write the words the children say. In this initial phase children experience many opportunities to extend their spoken language skills. Speaking and writing are considered fairly separate processes here, as children's writing is less well developed at this stage, whereas their spoken language is becoming more skilled.


title: Language development

text: Kroll considers the second phase in writing development to be consolidation. Here, children begin to consolidate spoken and written language. In this phase children's writing skills rely heavily on their spoken language skills, and their written and spoken language becoming integrated. Children's written language skills become stronger as they use their spoken language skills to improve their writing. Then in turn, when a development in children's written language skills is seen, their spoken language skills have also improved. A child's written language in this phase mirrors their spoken language.


title: Language development

text: In the third phase, differentiation, children begin to learn that written language regularly differs in structure and style from spoken language. The growth from consolidation to differentiation can be challenging for some children to grasp. Children can 'struggle with the transformation from the basically overt language of speech to the essentially covert activity of writing'. In this phase, the child learns that writing is generally considered more formal than spoken language, which is thought to be casual and conversational. Here, it is believed that children begin to understand that writing serves a purpose.


title: Language development

text: Kroll considers the last phase to be the systematic integration phase. A differentiation and integration between the child's speaking and writing can be seen in this phase. This means that speaking and writing have 'well-articulated forms and functions'; however, they are also integrated in the sense that they use the same system. As a result of the individual being aware of the audience, context and reason they are communicating, both written and spoken language are able to overlap and take several forms at this stage.


title: Language development

text: Kroll used the four phases to give an explanation and generalise about the development of these two aspects of language. The highest significance is placed on the second and third phase, consolidation and differentiation respectively. It could be concluded that children's written and spoken language, in certain respects, become more similar to age, maturation, and experience; however, they are also increasingly different in other respects. The content of the skills are more similar, but the approach used for both writing and speaking are different. When writing and speaking development is looked at more closely it can be seen that certain elements of written and spoken language are differentiating and other elements are integrating, all in the same phase.


title: Language development

text: Perera conducted a survey and her view mirrors that of Kroll to the extent that she used Kroll's four phases. When a child undergoes initial learning of the written language, they have not yet fully mastered the oral language. It is clear that their written language development is aided by their spoken language; it can also be said that their spoken language development is aided by the development of their written language skills. Kantor and Rubin believe that not all individuals successfully move into the final stage of integration. Perera is also aware that it is hard to assign chronological ages to each phase of writing development, because each child is an individual, and also the phases are 'artificial'.


title: Language development

text: Other than Kroll's theory, there are four principles on early patterns in writing development discussed by Marie Clay in her book "What Did I Write?". The four principles are recurring principle, the generative principle, the sign principle, and the inventory principle. The recurring principle involves patterns and shapes in English writing that develop throughout writing development. The generative principle incorporates the idea that a writer can create new meanings by organizing units of writing and letters of the alphabet. The sign principle is understanding that the word print also involves paper arrangement and word boundaries. And lastly, the inventory principle is the fact that children have the urge to list and name items that they are familiar with, and because of this they can practice their own writing skills.


title: Language development

text: More recent research has also explored writing development. Myhill concentrated on the development of written language skills in adolescents aged 13 to 15. Myhill discovered that the more mature writer was aware of the shaping of text, and used non-finite clauses, which mirrored Perera's results (1984). Other researchers focused on writing development up until late adolescence, as there has been a limited research in this area. Chrisite and Derewianke recognize that the survey conducted by Perera (1984) is still one of the most significant research studies in the writing development field and believe Perera's study is similar to theirs. Chrisite and Derewianke (2010) again propose four phases of writing development. The researchers believe that the process of writing development does not stop when an individual leaves formal education, and again, the researchers highlight that these phases are flexible in their onset. The first phase focuses on spoken language as the main aid for writing development, and the development then takes its course reaching the fourth phase, which continues beyond formal education.


title: Language development

text: The environment a child develops in has influences on language development. The environment provides language input for the child to process. Speech by adults to children help provide the child with correct language usage repetitively. Environmental influences on language development are explored in the tradition of social interactionist theory by such researchers as Jerome Bruner, Alison Gopnik, Andrew Meltzoff, Anat Ninio, Roy Pea, Catherine Snow, Ernest Moerk and Michael Tomasello. Jerome Bruner who laid the foundations of this approach in the 1970s, emphasized that adult "scaffolding" of the child's attempts to master linguistic communication is an important factor in the developmental process.


title: Language development

text: One component of the young child's linguistic environment is child-directed speech (also known as baby talk or motherese), which is language spoken in a higher pitch than normal with simple words and sentences. Although the importance of its role in developing language has been debated, many linguists think that it may aid in capturing the infant's attention and maintaining communication. When children begin to communicate with adults, this motherese speech allows the child the ability to discern the patterns in language and to experiment with language.


title: Language development

text: Throughout existing research, it is concluded that children exposed to extensive vocabulary and complex grammatical structures more quickly develop language and also have a more accurate syntax than children raised in environments without complex grammar exposed to them. With motherese, the mother talks to the child and responds back to the child, whether it be a babble the child made or a short sentence. While doing this, the adult prompts the child to continue communicating, which may help a child develop language sooner than children raised in environments where communication is not fostered.


title: Language development

text: Child-directed speech concentrates on small core vocabulary, here and now topics, exaggerated facial expressions and gestures, frequent questioning, para-linguistic changes, and verbal rituals. An infant is least likely to produce vocalizations when changed, fed, or rocked. The infant is more likely to produce vocalizations in response to a nonverbal behavior such as touching or smiling.


title: Language development

text: Child-directed speech also catches the child's attention, and in situations where words for new objects are being expressed to the child, this form of speech may help the child recognize the speech cues and the new information provided. Data shows that children raised in highly verbal families had higher language scores than those children raised in low verbal families. Continuously hearing complicated sentences throughout language development increases the child's ability to understand these sentences and then to use complicated sentences as they develop. Studies have shown that students enrolled in high language classrooms have two times the growth in complex sentences usage than students in classrooms where teachers do not frequently use complex sentences.


title: Language development

text: Some language development experts have characterized child directed speech in stages. Primarily, the parents use repetition and also variation to maintain the infant's attention. Secondly, the parent simplifies speech to help in language learning. Third, any speech modifications maintain the responsiveness of the child. These modifications develop into a conversation that provides context for the development.


title: Language development

text: While most children throughout the world develop language at similar rates and without difficulty, cultural and socioeconomic differences have been shown to influence development. An example of cultural differences in language development can be seen when comparing the interactions of mothers in the United States with their infants with mothers in Japan. Mothers in the United States use more questions, are more information-oriented, and use more grammatically correct utterances with their 3-month-olds. Mothers in Japan, on the other hand, use more physical contact with their infants, and more emotion-oriented, nonsense, and environmental sounds, as well as baby talk, with their infants. These differences in interaction techniques reflect differences in "each society's assumptions about infants and adult-to-adult cultural styles of talking."


title: Language development

text: Specifically in North American culture, maternal race, education, and socioeconomic class influence parent-child interactions in the early linguistic environment. When speaking to their infants, mothers from middle class "incorporate language goals more frequently in their play with their infants," and in turn, their infants produce twice as many vocalizations as lower class infants. Mothers from higher social classes who are better educated also tend to be more verbal, and have more time to spend engaging with their infants in language. Additionally, lower class infants may receive more language input from their siblings and peers than from their mothers.


title: Language development

text: It is crucial that children are allowed to socially interact with other people who can vocalize and respond to questions. For language acquisition to develop successfully, children must be in an environment that allows them to communicate socially in that language. Children who have learnt sound, meaning and grammatical system of language that can produce clear sentence may still not have the ability to use language effectively in various social circumstance. Social interaction is the footing stone of language.


title: Language development

text: There are a few different theories as to why and how children develop language. One popular, yet heavily debated explanation is that language is acquired through imitation. This theory has been challenged by Lester Butler, who argues that children do not use the grammar that an adult would use. Furthermore, "children's language is highly resistant to alteration by adult intervention", meaning that children do not use the corrections given to them by an adult. R.L Trask also argues in his book "Language: The Basics" that deaf children acquire, develop and learn sign language in the same way hearing children do, so if a deaf child's parents are fluent sign speakers, and communicate with the baby through sign language, the baby will learn fluent sign language. And if a child's parents aren't fluent, the child will still learn to speak fluent sign language. Trask's theory therefore is that children learn language by acquiring and experimenting with grammatical patterns, the statistical language acquisition theory.


title: Language development

text: Psychological explanations focus on the mental processes involved in childhood language learning. Functional explanations look at the social processes involved in learning the first language.


title: Language development

text: Babies can recognize their mother's voice from as early as few weeks old. It seems like they have a unique system that is designed to recognize speech sound. Furthermore, they can differentiate between certain speech sounds. A significant first milestone in phonetic development is the babbling stage (around the age of six months). This is the baby's way of practicing his control over that apparatus. Babbling is independent from the language. Deaf children for instance, babble the same way as hearing ones.


title: Language development

text: As the baby grows older, the babbling increases in frequency and starts to sound more like words (around the age of twelve months). Although every child is an individual with different pace of mastering speech, there is a tendency to an order of which speech sounds are mastered:


title: Language development

text: As the children's ability to produce sound develops, their ability to perceive the phonetic contrast of their language develops. The better they get in mastering the sound, the more sensitive they become to the changes in those sounds in their language once they get exposed to it. They learn to isolate individual phonemes while speaking which also serves as the basis of reading.


title: Language development

text: At around two months, the baby engages in cooing, which mostly consists of vowel sounds. At around four to six months, cooing turns into babbling, which is the repetitive consonant-vowel combinations. Babies understand more than they are able to say. In this 0–8 months range, the child is engaged in vocal play of vegetative sounds, laughing, and cooing.


title: Language development

text: Once the child hits the 8–12 month, range the child engages in canonical babbling, i.e. dada as well as variegated babbling. This jargon babbling with intonational contours the language being learned.


title: Language development

text: From 12–24 months, babies can recognize the correct pronunciation of familiar words. Babies also use phonological strategies to simplify word pronunciation. Some strategies include repeating the first consonant-vowel in a multisyllable word ('TV' → 'didi') or deleting unstressed syllables in a multisyllable word ('banana' → 'nana'). Within this first year, two word utterances and two syllable words emerge. This period is often called the holophrastic stage of development, because one word conveys as much meaning as an entire phrase. For instance, the simple word "milk" can imply that the child is requesting milk, noting spilled milk, sees a cat drinking milk, etc. One study found that children at this age were capable of comprehending 2-word sentences, producing 2–3 word sentences, and naming basic colors.


title: Language development

text: By 24–30 months awareness of rhyme emerges as well as rising intonation. One study concludes that children between the ages of 24–30 months typically can produce 3–4 word sentence, create a story when prompted by pictures, and at least 50% of their speech is intelligible.


title: Language development

text: By 36–60 months, phonological awareness continues to improve as well as pronunciation. At this age, children have a considerable experience with language and are able to form simple sentences that are 3 words in length. They use basic prepositions, pronouns, and plurals. They become immensely creative in their language use and learn to categorize items such as recognizing that a shoe is not a fruit. At this age, children also learn to ask questions and negate sentences to develop these questions. Over time, their syntax gets more and more unique and complex. A study reveals that at this age, a child's speech should be at least 75% intelligible.


title: Language development

text: By 6–10 years, children can master syllable stress patterns, which helps distinguish slight differences between similar words.


title: Language development

text: The average child masters about fifty words by the age of eighteen months. These might include words such as, milk, water, juice and apple (noun-like words). Afterwards they acquire 12 to 16 words a day. By the age of six, they master about 13 to 14 thousand words.


title: Language development

text: The most frequent words include adjective-like expressions for displeasure and rejection such as 'no'. They also include social interaction words, such as "please" and "bye".


title: Language development

text: In other words, when the child hears the word "sheep" he overgeneralizes it to other animals that look like sheep by the external appearance, such as white, wooly and four-legged animal.


title: Language development

text: The child uses contextual clues to draw inferences about the category and meaning of new words. By doing so, the child distinguishes between names and ordinary nouns.


title: Language development

text: For example, when an object is presented to the child with the determiner "a" (a cat, a dog, a bottle) he perceives it as an ordinary noun.


title: Language development

text: However, when the child hears a noun without the determiner, he perceives it as a name, for instance "this is Mary".


title: Language development

text: Children usually make correct meaning associations with the words that the adults say. However, sometimes they make semantic errors.


title: Language development

text: Overextension: When a child says or hears a word, they might associate what they see or hear as more generalized concept than the real meaning of the word. For example, if they say "cat", they might overextend it to other animals with same features.


title: Language development

text: Underextension: It involves the use of lexical items in an overly restrictive fashion. In other words, the child focuses on core members of a certain category. For example: 'cat' may only refer to the family cat and no other cat, or 'dog' may refer to certain kinds of dogs that the child is exposed to.


title: Language development

text: Verb meaning: when a pre-school child hears the verb 'fill', he understands it as the action 'pour' rather than the result, which is 'make full'.


title: Language development

text: Dimensional terms: the first dimensional adjectives acquired are big and small because they belong to the size category. The size category is the most general one. Later children acquire the single dimension adjectives, such as, tall-short, long-short, high-low. Eventually they acquire the adjectives that describe the secondary dimension, such as thick-thin, wide-narrow and deep-shallow.


title: Language development

text: From birth to one year, comprehension (the language we understand) develops before production (the language we use). There is about a 5-month lag in between the two. Babies have an innate preference to listen to their mother's voice. Babies can recognize familiar words and use preverbal gestures.


title: Language development

text: Within the first 12–18 months semantic roles are expressed in one word speech including agent, object, location, possession, nonexistence and denial. Words are understood outside of routine games but the child still needs contextual support for lexical comprehension.


title: Language development

text: Also, there is a vocabulary spurt between 18 and 24 months, which includes fast mapping. Fast mapping is the babies' ability to learn a lot of new things quickly. The majority of the babies' new vocabulary consists of object words (nouns) and action words (verbs).


title: Language development

text: 30–36 months The child is able to use and understand why question and basic spatial terms such as in, on or under.


title: Language development

text: 36–42 months There is an understanding of basic color words and kinship terms. Also, the child has an understanding of the semantic relationship between adjacent and conjoined sentences, including casual and contrastive.


title: Language development

text: 42–48 months When and how questions are comprehended as well as basic shape words such as circle, square and triangle.


title: Language development

text: By 3–5 years, children usually have difficulty using words correctly. Children experience many problems such as underextensions, taking a general word and applying it specifically (for example, 'cartoons' specifically for 'Mickey Mouse') and overextensions, taking a specific word and applying it too generally (example, 'ant' for any insect). However, children coin words to fill in for words not yet learned (for example, someone is a cooker rather than a chef because a child may not know what a chef is). Children can also understand metaphors.


title: Language development

text: From 6–10 years, children can understand meanings of words based on their definitions. They also are able to appreciate the multiple meanings of words and use words precisely through metaphors and puns. Fast mapping continues.


title: Language development

text: Within these years, children are now able to acquire new information from written texts and can explain relationships between multiple meaning words. Common idioms are also understood.


title: Language development

text: The development of syntactic structures follows a particular pattern and reveals much on the nature of language acquisition, which has several stages. According to O'Grady and Cho (2011), the first stage, occurring between the ages of 12–18 months, is called "one-word stage." In this stage, children cannot form syntactic sentences and therefore use one-word utterances called "holophrases" that express an entire sentence. In addition, children's comprehension is more advanced than their production abilities. For example, a child who wants candy may say "candy" instead of expressing a full sentence.


title: Language development

text: The following stage is the "two-word stage" in which children begin to produce "mini-sentences" that are composed of two words, such as "doggy bark" and "Ken water" (O'Grady & Cho, 2011, p. 346). At this stage, it is unclear whether children have an understanding of underlying rules of the language such as syntactic categories, since their "mini-sentences" often lack distinction between the categories. However, children do exhibit sensitivity to sentence structures and they frequently use appropriate word order.


title: Language development

text: After several months of speech that is restricted to short utterances, children enter the "telegraphic stage" and begin to produce longer and more complex grammatical structures (O'Grady & Cho, 2011, p. 347). This stage is characterized by production of complex structures as children begin to form phrases consisting of a subject and a complement in addition to use of modifiers and composition of full sentences. Children use mostly content words and their sentences lack function words. For example, a child may say "fill cup water," instead of saying, "Fill my cup with water." Subsequently, language acquisition continues to develop rapidly and children begin to acquire complex grammar that shows understanding of intricate linguistic features, such as the ability to switch the position of words in sentences.


title: Language development

text: Throughout the process of syntactic development, children acquire and develop question structures. According to O'Grady and Cho (2011), at the early stages of language acquisition, children ask yes-no questions by rising intonation alone as they develop awareness to auxiliary verbs only at a later stage. When auxiliary verbs make their appearance, it takes children a few months before they are able to use inversion in yes-no questions. The development of WH- questions occurs between the ages of two and four, when children acquire auxiliary verbs that then leads to the ability to use inversion in questions. However, some children find inversion easier in yes-no questions than in WH- questions, since the position of both the WH- word and the auxiliary verb must change (e.g., "You are going where?" instead of "Where are you going?").


title: Language development

text: Morphological structures development occurs over a period of several years. Before language is acquired, children lack any use of morphological structures.


title: Language development

text: The morphological structures that children acquire during their childhood, and even up to the early school years, are: determiners (a, the), -ing inflection, plural –s, auxiliary be, possessive –s, third person singular –s, past tense –ed).


title: Language development

text: When children start using them they tend to overgeneralize the rules and project them upon all the words in the language, including irregulars. For example: if a child knows the –ed (past tense) there is a possibility that they'll say "I eated" (man-mans cat-cats). These errors result from overgeneralization of rules.


title: Language development

text: This overgeneralization is very noticeable, in fact, children do that in less than 25 percent of the time at any point before reducing that percentage. Then they improve their mastery, which can be tested in various ways, such as the "wug test" (Berko, 1958).


title: Language development

text: Children often figure out quickly frequent irregular verbs, such as go and buy rather than less common ones, such as win. This suggests that children must hear the word several hundred times before they are able to use it correctly.


title: Language development

text: This development of bound morphemes is similar in order among children, for example: -"ing" is acquired before the article "the". However, parents tend to use a different order while speaking to their kids, for example, parents use the article 'the' more frequently than -ing. Meaning, other factors determine the order of acquisition, such as:


title: Language development

text: As it comes to word formation processes such as derivation and compounding, the earliest derivational suffixes to show up in children's speech are those they hear adults use most frequently. (-er as the *'doer' of the action such as walker.) When it comes to compounds, children first make up names for agents and instruments that they don't know by a pattern (N-N), though some of them do not follow the pattern (*cutter grass for grass cutter). Then, they might have the right structure but the words are inappropriate since English already has words with the intended meaning such as car-smoke = exhaust. This process points to a preference for building words from other words, thus place less demand on memory than learning an entirely new word for each concept.


title: Language development

text: Grammar describes the way sentences of a language are constructed, which includes both syntax and morphology.


title: Language development

text: Syntactic development involves the ways that various morphemes are ordered or combined in sentences. Morphemes, which are basic units of meaning in language, get added as children learn to produce simple sentences and become more precise speakers. Morphemes can be whole words (like "happy") or parts of words that change meaning of words ("un"happy). Brown proposed a stage model that describes the various types of morphological structures that are developed in English and the age range within which they are normally acquired.


title: Language development

text: Stage I: From 15–30 months, children start using telegraphic speech, which are two word combinations, for example 'wet diaper'. Brown (1973) observed that 75% of children's two-word utterances could be summarized in the existence of 11 semantic relations:


title: Language development

text: Stage II: At around 28–36 months, children begin to engage in the production of simple sentences, usually 3 word sentences. These simple sentences follow syntactic rules and are refined gradually as development continues. The morphological developments seen in this age range include use of present progressive (-ing endings), the prepositions "in" and "on", and regular plurals (-s endings).


title: Language development

text: Stage III: Around 36–42 months, children continue to add morphemes and gradually produce complex grammatical structures. The morphemes that are added at this age include irregular past tense, possessive ('s), and use of the verb 'to be' (It is, I am, etc.).


title: Language development

text: Stage IV:Around 40–46 months children continue to add to their morphological knowledge. This range is associated with use of articles (a or the), regular past tense (-ed endings), and regular third person speech (He likes it).


title: Language development

text: Stage V: Around 42-52+ months children refine the complex grammatical structures and increase their use of morphemes to convey more complex ideas. Children in this stage use irregular third-person speech, the verb 'to be' as an auxiliary verb (She was not laughing), and in its contraction forms (It's, She's, etc.).


title: Language development

text: From birth to one year, babies can engage in joint attention (sharing the attention of something with someone else). Infants also can engage in turn taking activities on the basis of their sensitivity to reactive contingency, which can elicit social responses in the babies from very early on.


title: Language development

text: There is a large debate regarding whether or not bilingualism is truly beneficial to children. Parents of children often view learning a second language throughout elementary and high school education beneficial to the child. Another perspective dictates that the second language just confuses the child and prevents them from mastering their primary language. Studies have shown that American bilingual children have greater cognitive flexibility, better perceptual skills and tend to be divergent thinkers than monolingual children between the ages of five to ten. Better executive functioning skills are likely because bilingual children have to choose one language to speak while actively suppressing the other. This builds stronger selective attention and cognitive flexibility because these skills are being exercised more. In addition, bilingual children have a better understanding of universal language concepts, such as grammar, because these concepts are applied in multiple languages. However, studies comparing Swedish-Finnish bilingual children and Swedish monolingual children between the ages of five to seven have also shown that the bilingual children have a smaller vocabulary than monolingual children. In another study throughout America, elementary school English-monolingual children performed better in mathematics and reading activities than their non-English-dominant bilingual and non-English monolingual peers from kindergarten to grade five. Learning two languages simultaneously can be beneficial or a hindrance to a child's language and intellectual development. Further research is necessary to continue to shed light on this debate.


title: Language development

text: In addition to the study of bilingualism in children, similar research is being conducted in adults. Research findings show that although bilingual benefits are muted in middle adulthood, they are more profound in older age when those who develop dementia experience onset about 4.5 years later in bilingual subjects. The increased attentional control, inhibition, and conflict resolution developed from bilingualism may be accountable for the later onset of dementia.


title: Language development

text: There is some research that demonstrates that bilingualism may often be misdiagnosed as a language impairment. A subtopic of bilingualism in the literature is nonstandard varieties of English. While bilingualism and nonstandard varieties of English cannot be considered a true language impairment, they are misrepresented in the population of those receiving language interventions.


title: Language development

text: A language disorder is the impaired comprehension and or use of a spoken, written, and/or other symbol system. A disorder may involve problems in the following areas:


title: Language development

text: Olswang and colleagues have identified a series of behaviors in children in the 18–36 month range that are predictors for the need of language intervention.


title: Castle on the Hill

text: "Castle on the Hill" is a song by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. It was released on 6 January 2017 as one of the double lead singles from his third studio album "÷" (2017), along with "Shape of You". "Castle on the Hill" was written and produced by Ed Sheeran and Benny Blanco. The song refers to Framlingham Castle in Sheeran's home town of Framlingham in Suffolk, and reminisces tales of his upbringing in the town. The BBC states, "the song has been described as a love letter to Suffolk."


title: Castle on the Hill

text: Released on the same day as "Shape of You", "Castle on the Hill" reached number one in Iceland, Scotland and


title: Castle on the Hill

text: Israel. The song also reached number two in a number of countries, including the UK, Australia and Germany, while "Shape of You" debuted at number one. It was the first time in the history of the UK, Australian and German charts that an artist has taken the top two chart positions with new songs. The song debuted at number six in the US, while "Shape of You" entered at number one; this made Sheeran the first artist ever to have two songs simultaneously debut in the US top 10. "Castle" is certified nine-times Platinum in Australia, six-times Platinum in Canada, and multiplatinum in eight additional countries.


title: Castle on the Hill

text: The theme of the song surrounds Sheeran's home town of Framlingham, and he reminisces tales of 'smoking hand-rolled cigarettes' and getting 'drunk [with] friends' at this place, living life as a teenager. The castle mentioned in the song is Framlingham Castle, and in January 2017, Sheeran was invited to perform at the Castle.


title: Castle on the Hill

text: The song was written and recorded in 2015. Sheeran revealed that despite a similarity to the music of U2, the direct influence of the song came from "Fallen Empires" by Snow Patrol, a band he had toured with. He said: "I grew up on Snow Patrol, I didn't grow up on U2, but I know that Snow Patrol grew up on U2, so I know [where] that influence had come [from]." He also said he wanted to make a song like "The River" by Bruce Springsteen, a song with similar reflective element.


title: Castle on the Hill

text: Jon Caramanica from "The New York Times" said, "'Castle on the Hill' has U2 influenced nervous guitar builds and wistful, largely generic lyrics about the people who shaped him." "Billboard"s Taylor Weatherby wrote about the song saying, "'Castle on the Hill' has a Train like vibe with a fast-paced, yet powerful melody that builds to an epic chorus that's just as Sheeran as all of his past singles. Needless to say, Sheeran is telling the world he's back in compelling fashion." Jeremy Gordon of "Spin" gave the song a positive review, stating that the song "sort of sounds like late period Coldplay, big, broad stroke music for arenas and Wembley performances. There's a lyric about driving down a country road while listening to Elton John's hook-free 'Tiny Dancer,' because Ed Sheeran saw "Almost Famous" once." Adam Starkey from news website "Metro" states that it "'has echoes of Mumford & Sons with the kind of climbing drums and soaring chorus sure to win over festival crowds, recalling how far he's come from 'smoking hand-rolled cigarettes' and 'running from the law in the backfields'."


title: Castle on the Hill

text: "Castle on the Hill" debuted at number two on the UK Singles Chart on 13 January, selling 193,000 combined units in its first week. Sheeran also debuted at number one with "Shape of You", making him the only artist in UK chart history to debut in the top two positions in the same week. The song was certified silver in the first week due to selling 200,000 units. The song remained at number two in its second week, selling 100,000 units. The song spent a further three weeks at number two, and spent fourteen weeks in the top ten altogether. As of September 2017, the song has sold 1.7 million combined units in the UK, 479,000 of these are actual sales, with 119 million streams. On the Scottish Singles Chart, "Castle on the Hill" debuted at number one, ahead of "Shape of You".


title: Castle on the Hill

text: The song debuted at number six on the "Billboard" Hot 100, selling 171,000 downloads and gaining 13 million streams in its debut week in the US. Sheeran also became the first artist to debut two songs in the top 10 in the same week in the history of the Hot 100, with "Shape of You" also debuting at number one. As of September 2017, "Castle on the Hill" has sold 821,000 downloads in the US.


title: Castle on the Hill

text: "Castle on the Hill" was accompanied by a lyric video on 5 January 2017 with "Shape of You" upon its release. By March 2018, it had amassed over 300 million views on YouTube.


title: Castle on the Hill

text: The official music video for the song was released on 23 January 2017. It was directed by George Belfield and produced by Tom Gardner, and it features a group of adolescents living their youth with parallels being made to Sheeran's own youth. The video was filmed throughout Suffolk with locations including Framlingham, Boyton marshes, Mildenhall Stadium and Felixstowe. The final shot shows Framlingham Castle. Ed Sheeran stated on "The Graham Norton Show" that the young man playing him in the video went to the same school as Sheeran, Thomas Mills High School.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: The Grand Prix of Long Beach (known as Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach since 2019 for naming rights reasons) is an IndyCar Series race held on a street circuit in downtown Long Beach, California. Christopher Pook is the founder of the event. It was the premier race on the CART/Champ Car World Series calendar from 1996 to 2008, and the 2008 race was the final Champ Car series race prior to the formal unification and end of the open-wheel "split" between CART and IRL. Since 2009, the race has been part of the unified IndyCar Series. The race is typically held in April. It is one of the longest continuously running events in Indy car racing and is considered one of the most prestigious events on the circuit.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: The Long Beach Grand Prix is the longest running major street race held in North America. It started in 1975 as a Formula 5000 race, and became a Formula One event in . In an era when turbocharged engines were starting to come to prominence in Formula One, Long Beach remains one of the few circuits used from the time Renault introduced turbos in until the last Long Beach Grand Prix in 1983 that never once saw a turbo-powered car take victory.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: John Watson's win for McLaren in 1983 holds the Formula One record for the lowest ever starting position for a race winner. In a grid consisting of 26 cars, Watson started 22nd in his McLaren-Ford. That same race also saw Watson's teammate (and 1982 Long Beach winner) Niki Lauda finish second after starting 23rd on the grid. René Arnoux, who finished third in his Ferrari 126C2B, was the only driver to ever finish on the Formula One podium at Long Beach driving a turbocharged car.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: In 1984, the race switched from a Formula One race to a CART Indy car event. Support races over the years have included Indy Lights, IMSA, Atlantics, Pirelli World Challenge, Trans-Am Series, Formula D, Stadium Super Trucks, Formula E, and the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race. Toyota was a sponsor of the event since its beginning and title sponsor from 1980 to 2018, believed to be the longest continuously running sports sponsorship in the U.S.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: The Long Beach Grand Prix has been announced since 1978 by Bruce Flanders (and various guest announcers). The Long Beach Grand Prix in April is the single largest event in the city of Long Beach. Attendance for the weekend regularly reaches or exceeds 200,000 people. In 2006, the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame was created to honor selected past winners and key contributors to the sport of auto racing.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: The Long Beach Grand Prix was the brainchild of promoter Chris Pook, a former travel agent from England. Pook was inspired by the Monaco Grand Prix, and believed that a similar event had the potential to succeed in the Southern California area. The city of Long Beach was selected, approximately south of downtown Los Angeles. A waterfront circuit, near the Port of Long Beach was laid out on city streets, and despite the area at the time being mostly a depressed, industrial port city, the first event drew 30,000 fans. The inaugural race was held in September 1975 as part of the Formula 5000 series.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: In 1976, the United States Grand Prix West was created, providing two grand prix races annually in the United States for a time. Long Beach became a Formula One event for 1976 and the race was moved to March or April. Meanwhile, the United States Grand Prix East at Watkins Glen International was experiencing a noticeably steady decline. Despite gaining a reputation of being demanding and rough on equipment, Long Beach almost immediately gained prominence owing much to its pleasant weather, picturesque setting, and close proximity to Los Angeles and the glitzy Hollywood area. When Watkins Glen was dropped from the Formula One calendar after 1980, the now-established Long Beach began to assume an even more prominent status.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: Despite exciting races and strong attendance, the event was not financially successful as a Formula One event. The promoter was risking a meager $100,000 profit against a $6–7 million budget. Fearing that one poor running could bankrupt the event, Pook convinced city leaders to change the race to a CART series event beginning in 1984. In short time, the event grew to prominence on the Indy car circuit and has been credited with triggering a renaissance in the city of Long Beach. The race was used to market the city, and in the years since the race's inception, many dilapidated and condemned buildings have been replaced with high-rise hotels and tourist attractions.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: The event served as a CART/Champ Car race from 1984 to 2008, then became an IndyCar Series race event in 2009. The 2017 race was the 43rd running, and the 34th consecutive as an Indy car race, one of the longest continuously running events in the history of Indy car racing. On three occasions (1984, 1985 and 1987) the race served as the CART season opener. In seven separate seasons (1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993 and 1994), it served as the final race before the Indianapolis 500.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 race was canceled as part of the City of Long Beach's ban on events with estimated attendance of more than 250. The following year, as a preparatory measure for the pandemic's effects on the schedule, the race was moved from its traditional April date to September 26 as the season finale. With the rise of the Delta variant there were concerns from IndyCar and the event promoters that the race would have to be canceled for 2021 or run with an attendance cap, but the promoters and the city of Long Beach were able to work out a compromise on safety measures and rapid testing to allow the event to go forward with full capacity.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: Despite the challenging nature of the course, the Grand Prix of Long Beach has produced the first Indy/Champ Car victories for several drivers. Drivers who won their first career Indy car race at Long Beach include Michael Andretti, Paul Tracy, Juan Pablo Montoya, Mike Conway, and Takuma Sato. For Michael Andretti, the Long Beach Grand Prix has the distinction of being his first career Indy car win (1986), and 42nd and final career IndyCar win (2002).


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: James Hinchcliffe won his first-career Indy Lights race at Long Beach in 2010, then followed it up with an IndyCar Series win at the track in 2017. In 2005, Katherine Legge won the Atlantic Championship support race at Long Beach, her first start in the series. In doing so, she became the first female driver to win a developmental open-wheel race in North America.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: The current race circuit is a temporary road course laid out in the city streets surrounding the Long Beach Convention Center. The convention center actually doubled as the pit paddock during the days of Formula One. The circuit also goes primarily over the former location of The Pike historic amusement zone. The track is particularly noted for its last section, a sharp hairpin turn followed by a long, slightly curved front straightaway which runs the length of Shoreline Drive. The circuit is situated on the Long Beach waterfront, and is lined with palm trees (especially along the front straightaway towards the Aquarium of the Pacific), making for a scenic track. Long Beach is classified as an FIA Grade Two circuit.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: The circuit has undergone numerous layout changes since the race's inception in 1975. All iterations have featured a signature hairpin turn, main stretch along Shoreline Drive, and back stretch along Seaside Way. The first grand prix layout measured 2.02 miles, and featured two hairpins, one at each end of the Shoreline Drive straightaway. In its early years, the starting line and the finish line were located on different sides of the course.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: In 1982, the hairpin turn and the end of the main stretch (turn 1) was removed, and replaced with a 90-degree right turn, followed by 90-degree left turn. When the race became a CART series event, the layout was changed significantly. The final turn hairpin was moved to the east, closer to the pit entrance. Other slow chicanes and turns were removed. After a minor tweak to the layout in 1987, the track was shortened in 1992 by the removal of the Park Avenue loop. That created a longer Seaside Way back stretch and a faster run to the passing zone.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: In 1999, due to new construction in the area, the turn one set of curves was removed, and replaced with the new fountain complex. Turn one now became a 90-degree left turn, leading into a roundabout around a fountain, and a series of three 90-degree turns. A year later, this segment was revised again, to create a longer straightaway leading to Pine Avenue. This course layout remains intact today.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: The inaugural race was held as part of the Formula 5000 series. From 1976 to 1983 the event was a Formula One race, commonly known as the United States Grand Prix West.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: The City of Long Beach and the Grand Prix Association signed a contract in 2014 to hold the Grand Prix as part of the IndyCar Series through 2018, with optional extensions available through 2020. In 2016, the Long Beach City Council issued an RFP, opening up consideration for returning the event to a Formula One race as early as 2019. In August 2017, after a study was completed and after discussions, the switch to Formula One was rejected. The city council voted unanimously to continue the event as part of the IndyCar Series.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: During negotiations which led to the unification of the Champ Car World Series and the IRL IndyCar Series in 2008, a scheduling conflict arose between the IndyCar race held at Twin Ring Motegi (April 19) and the Champ Car race at Long Beach (April 20). Neither party was able to reschedule their event.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: A compromise was made to create a unique "split weekend" of races at Motegi and Long Beach. The existing Indy Racing League teams would compete in Japan, while the ex-Champ Car teams raced at Long Beach. Both races paid equal points towards the 2008 IndyCar Series championship. The ex-Champ Car teams utilized the Panoz DP01 machines, the cars that would have been used in 2008 had the unification not taken place. The 2008 Long Beach Grand Prix was billed as the "final Champ Car race."


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: Beginning in 2005 the event included a demonstration by participants in the Formula D drifting series. Since 2006 Formula D has held the first round of their pro series on Turns 9–11 on the weekend prior to the Grand Prix. In 2013 the Motegi Super Drift Challenge, a drifting competition, was added on the GP weekend, using the same Turn 9–11 course as Formula D. The Motegi Super Drift Challenge is the only event during the GP that runs at night, under floodlights.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: Long Beach hosted the opening round of the 1997 North American Touring Car Championship, being won by Neil Crompton in a Honda Accord.


title: Grand Prix of Long Beach

text: A modified version of the Long Beach Grand Prix track was used during the Long Beach ePrix of the FIA Formula E Championship. The track is 2.1 km (1.3 mi) in length and features seven turns. Admission to the first event was free: "the free admission will afford everyone the opportunity to come out and witness this historic and unique event", Jim Michaelian, president of the Grand Prix Assn. of Long Beach, said in a statement. The ePrix was held once again in 2016. However, it was not renewed for the third Formula E season in 2017.


title: Alania

text: Alania was a medieval kingdom of the Iranian Alans (proto-Ossetians) that flourished in the Northern Caucasus, roughly in the location of latter-day Circassia, Chechnya, Ingushetia, and modern North Ossetia–Alania, from its independence from the Khazars in the late 9th century until its destruction by the Mongol invasion in 1238–39. Its capital was Maghas, and it controlled a vital trade route through the Darial Pass. The kingdom reached its peak in the 11th century, under the rule of king Durgulel.


title: Alania

text: The name "Alania" derives from the Old Iranian stem *"Aryāna-", a derivative form of the Indo-Iranian stem *"arya"- ('Aryan'). It is cognate with the name of Iran ("Ērān"), which stems from the Old Persian "*Aryānām" ('of the Aryans')"."


title: Alania

text: The Alans (Alani) originated as an Iranian-speaking subdivision of the Sarmatians. They were split by the invasion of the Huns into two parts, the European and the Caucasian. The Caucasian Alans occupied part of the North Caucasian plain and the foothills of the main mountain chain from the headwaters of the Kuban River in the west to the Darial Gorge in the east.


title: Alania

text: Alania was an important buffer state during the Byzantine-Arab Wars and Khazar-Arab Wars of the 8th century. Theophanes the Confessor left a detailed account of Leo the Isaurian's mission to Alania in the early 8th century. Leo was instructed by Emperor Justinian II to bribe the Alan leader Itaxes into severing his "ancient friendship" with the Kingdom of Abkhazia which had allied itself with Caliph Al-Walid I. He crossed the mountain passes and concluded an alliance with the Alans, but was prevented from returning to Byzantium through Abasgia. Although the Abkhazians spared no expense to have him imprisoned, the Alans refused to convey the Byzantine envoy to his enemies. After several months of adventures in the Northern Caucasus, Leo extricated himself from the precarious situation and returned to Constantinople.


title: Alania

text: After Leo assumed the imperial title, the land of his mountaineer allies was invaded by Umar II's forces. A Khazar chieftain, Barjik, hastened to their succor and, in 722, the joint Alan-Khazar army inflicted a defeat on the Arab general Tabit al-Nahrani. The Khazars erected Skhimar and several other strongholds in Alania at this period. In 728 Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik, having penetrated the Gate of the Alans, devastated the country of the Alans. Eight years later, Marwan ibn Muhammad passed by the Gate in order to ravage the forts in Alania. In 758, as Ibn al-Faqih reports, the Gate was held by another Arab general, Yazid ibn Usayd.


title: Alania

text: As a result of their united stand against the successive waves of invaders from the south, the Alans of the Caucasus fell under the overlordship of the Khazar Khaganate. They remained staunch allies of the Khazars in the 9th century, supporting them against a Byzantine-led coalition during the reign of the Khazar king Benjamin. According to the anonymous author of the Schechter Letter, many Alans were during this period adherents of Judaism.


title: Alania

text: In the late 9th century, Alania became independent from the Khazars. In the early 10th century, the Alans fell under the influence of the Byzantine Empire due to King Constantine III of Abkhazia's activities in north Caucasus. He sent an army into Alan territory and, with the Byzantine patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, converted the Alans to Christianity. The conversion is documented in the letters of Patriarch Nicholas Mysticus to the local archbishop, Peter, who was appointed here through King George II of Abkhazia's efforts. Richard Foltz has suggested that only certain elite Alan families were Christianized, the bulk of the population continuing to follow their original pagan traditions.


title: Alania

text: When Ibn Rustah visited Alania at some point between 903 and 913, its king was by then Christian. The Persian traveller came to Alania from Sarir, a Christian kingdom immediately to the east:


title: Alania

text: After the downfall of Khazaria, the Alan kings frequently allied with the Byzantines and various Georgian rulers for protection against encroachments by northern steppe peoples such as the Pechenegs and Kipchaks. John Skylitzes reports that Alda of Alania, after the death of her husband, "George of Abasgia" (i.e., George I of Georgia), received Anakopia as a maritime fief from Emperor Romanus III. This happened in 1033, the year when the Alans and the Rus sacked the coast of Shirvan in modern-day Azerbaijan. Alania is not mentioned in East Slavic chronicles, but archaeology indicates that the Alans maintained trade contacts with the Rus' principality of Tmutarakan. There is a stone grave cross, with a Cyrillic inscription from 1041, standing on the bank of the Bolshoi Yegorlyk River in present-day Stavropol Krai, immediately north of Alania. Two Russian crosses, datable to ca. 1200, were discovered by archaeologists in Arkhyz, the heartland of medieval Alania.


title: Alania

text: The Alans and Georgians probably collaborated in the Christianization of the Vainakhs and Dvals in the 12th and 13th centuries, Georgian missionaries were active in Alania and the Alan contingents were frequently employed by the Georgian monarchs against their Muslim neighbors. The Alanian-Georgian alliance was cemented in the 1060s, when the Alans struck across Muslim Arran and sacked Ganja. In the 1120s King David the Builder of Georgia visited the Darial to reconcile the Alans with the Kipchaks, who thereupon were allowed to pass through Alania to the Georgian soil. David's son, Demetre I, also journeyed, c. 1153, to Alania accompanied by the Arab historian Ibn al-Azraq. The alliance culminated in 1187, when the Alanian prince David Soslan married Queen Tamar of Georgia, a half-Alanian herself, with their descendants ruling Georgia until the 19th century. The medieval Alanian princesses also married Byzantine and Russian Rurikid rulers more than once. For instance, Maria the Ossetian, who founded the Convent of Princesses in Vladimir, was the wife of Vsevolod the Big Nest and grandmother of Alexander Nevsky.


title: Alania

text: In the late 1230s all three Christian powers - Alania, Georgia, and Vladimir-Suzdal - fell before the Mongol invaders. Bishop Theodore of Alania described the plight of his metropolis in a lengthy epistolary sermon written during the tenure of Patriarch Germanus II (1222–40). The French-Flemish monk and traveler William of Rubruck mentions Alans numerous times in the account of his 1253–1255 journey through Eurasia to the Great Khan, e.g. Alans living as Mongol subjects in Crimea, Old Astrakhan, the Khan's capital Karakoram, and also still as freemen in their Caucasian homeland ("the Alans or Aas, who are Christians and still fight the Tartars").