title: Growth of religion

text: There is also a trend of Orthodox movements reaching out to secular Jews in order to give them a stronger Jewish identity so there is less chance of intermarriage. As a result of the efforts by these and other Jewish groups over the past 25 years, there has been a trend (known as the Baal teshuva movement) for secular Jews to become more religiously observant, though the demographic implications of the trend are unknown. Additionally, there is also a growing rate of conversion to Jews by Choice of gentiles who make the decision to head in the direction of becoming Jews.


title: Growth of religion

text: Rates of interreligious marriage vary widely: In the United States, it is just under 50 percent, in the United Kingdom, around 53 percent; in France; around 30 percent, and in Australia and Mexico, as low as 10 percent. In the United States, only about a third of children from intermarriages affiliate with Jewish religious practice. The result is that most countries in the Diaspora have steady or slightly declining religiously Jewish populations as Jews continue to assimilate into the countries in which they live.


title: Growth of religion

text: In 1939, the core Jewish population reached its historical peak of 17 million (0.8% of the global population). Because of the Holocaust, the number had been reduced to 11 million by the end of 1945. The population grew again to around 13 million by the 1970s, but has since recorded near-zero growth until around 2005 due to low fertility rates and to assimilation. Since 2005, the world's Jewish population has been growing modestly at a rate of around 0.78% (in 2013). This increase primarily reflects the rapid growth of Haredi and some Orthodox sectors, who are becoming a growing proportion of Jews.


title: Growth of religion

text: According to the Pew Research Center published on 2010, religious conversion may have little impact on the Jewish population between 2010 and 2050; Jews are expected to lose 0.3 million adherents, between 2010 and 2050. According to a 2017 Pew Research Center survey, over the next four decades the number of Jews around the world is expected to increase from 14.2 million in 2015 to 16.3 million in 2060.


title: Growth of religion

text: As of around 2020, there were about 8 million Bahá'ís in the world. In 2013, two scholars of demography wrote that, "The Baha'i Faith is the only religion to have grown faster in every United Nations region over the past 100 years than the general population; Bahaʼi (sic) was thus the fastest-growing religion between 1910 and 2010, growing at least twice as fast as the population of almost every UN region."


title: Growth of religion

text: The largest proportions of the total world Bahá'í population were found in sub-Saharan Africa (29.9%) and South Asia (26.8%), followed by Southeast Asia (12.7%) and Latin America (12.2%). Lesser populations are found in North America (7.6%) and the Middle East/North Africa (6.2%), while the smallest populations in Europe (2.0%), Australasia (1.6%), and Northeast Asia (0.9%). In 2015, the internationally recognized religion was the second-largest international religion in Iran, Panama, Belize, Bolivia, Zambia, and Papua New Guinea; and the third-largest in Chad, and Kenya.


title: Growth of religion

text: From the Bahá'í Faith's origins in the 19th century until the 1950s, the vast majority of Baháʼís were found in Iran; converts from outside Iran were mostly found in India and the Western world. From having roughly 200,000 Baháʼís in 1950, the religion grew to having over 4 million by the late 1980s, with a widespread international distribution. Most of the growth in the late 20th century was seeded out of North America by means of the planned migration of individuals. Yet, rather than being a cultural spread from either Iran or North America, in 2001, sociologist David Barrett wrote that the Baháʼí Faith is, "A world religion with no racial or national focus". However, the growth has not been even. From the late 1920s to the late 1980s the religion was harassed and banned in the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, and then again from the 1970s into the 1990s across some countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The most intense opposition has been in Iran and neighboring Shia-majority countries, considered by some scholars and watch agencies as a case of attempted genocide. Meanwhile in other times or places the religion has experienced surges in growth. Before it was banned in certain countries, the religion "hugely increased" in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1989 the Universal House of Justice named Bolivia, Bangladesh, Haiti, India, Liberia, Peru, the Philippines, and Taiwan as countries where growth in the religion had been notable in the previous decades. Bahá'í sources state "more than five million" Bahá'ís in 1991-2. However, since around 2001 the Universal House of Justice has prioritized statistics of the community by their levels of activity rather than simply their population of avowed adherents or numbers of local assemblies.


title: Growth of religion

text: Because Bahá'ís do not represent the majority of the population in any country, and most often represent only a tiny fraction of countries' total populations, there are problems of under-reporting. In addition, there are examples where the adherents have their highest density among minorities in societies who face their own challenges.


title: Growth of religion

text: In terms of absolute numbers, irreligion appears to be increasing (along with secularization generally). (See the geographic distribution of atheism.)


title: Growth of religion

text: According to Pew Research Center survey in 2012, religiously unaffiliated (include agnostic and atheist) make up about 18.2% of Europe's population, and they make up the majority of the population in only two European countries: Czech Republic (76%) and Estonia (60%). According to a 2017 Pew Research Center survey, between 2010 and 2015 "an estimated 68 million babies were born to religiously unaffiliated mothers and roughly 42 million religiously unaffiliated died, meaning that the natural increase in the religiously unaffiliated population – i.e., the number of births minus the number of deaths – was 26 million over this period". As for religious conversion, the religiously unaffiliated is expected to have the largest net gains through religious conversion between 2010 and 2050, notably on Europe and Americas. However, religiously unaffiliated is expected to grow slightly due to a decrease in the fertility rate among the religiously unaffiliated population.


title: Growth of religion

text: The American Religious Identification Survey gave nonreligious groups the largest gain in terms of absolute numbers: 14.3 million (8.4% of the population) to 29.4 million (14.1% of the population) for the period 1990–2001 in the U.S. A 2012 study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reports, "The number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling."


title: Growth of religion

text: A similar pattern has been found in other countries such as Australia, Canada, and Mexico. According to statistics in Canada, the number of "Nones" increased by about 60% between 1985 and 2004. In Australia, census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics give "no religion" the largest gains in absolute numbers over the 15 years from 1991 to 2006, from 2,948,888 (18.2% of the population that answered the question) to 3,706,555 (21.0% of the population that answered the question). According to INEGI, in Mexico, the number of atheists grows annually by 5.2%, while the number of Catholics grows by 1.7%. In New Zealand, 39% of the population are irreligious, making it the country with the largest irreligious population percentage in the Oceania region.


title: Growth of religion

text: According to a religious forecast for 2050 by Pew Research Center, the percentage of the world's population that is unaffiliated or nonreligious is expected to drop, from 16% of the world's total population in 2010 to 13% in 2050. The decline is largely due to the advanced age (median age of 34) and low fertility among unaffiliated or Nonreligious (1.7 children per woman in the 2010–2015 period). Sociologist Phil Zuckerman's global studies on atheism have indicated that global atheism may be in decline due to irreligious countries having the lowest birth rates in the world and religious countries having higher birth rates in general.


title: Growth of religion

text: According to Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, by 2050 unaffiliated or nonreligious are expected to account for 27% of North America total population (up from 17.1% as in 2010), and 23% of Europe total population (up from 18% as in 2010). The religiously unaffiliated are stationed largely in the Asia-Pacific region, where 76% resided in that region in 2010, and is expected to be 68% by 2050. The share of the global unaffiliated population living in Europe is projected to grow from 12% in 2010 to 13% in 2050. The proportion of the global religiously unaffiliated living in North America will rise from 5% in 2010, to 9% in 2050.


title: Growth of religion

text: According to the Pew Research Center, religious conversion may have a modest impact on religiously unaffiliated population between 2010 and 2050; religiously unaffiliated are expected to gain 61 million adherents. The largest net movement is expected to be into the religiously unaffiliated category between 2010 and 2050.


title: Growth of religion

text: Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak in the 15th century. The religion began in the region of Punjab in eastern Pakistan and Northwest India. Today, India is home to the largest Sikh population with 1.7% of its population, or about 20 million people identifying as Sikh. Within India, a majority of Sikhs live in the state of Punjab. Outside of India, the largest Sikh communities are in the core Anglosphere, with 771,790 in Canada (2.1% Sikh), 472,498 in the United States (0.1% Sikh), 432,429 in the United Kingdom (0.7% Sikh), 210,397 in Australia (0.8% Sikh), and 40,908 in New Zealand (0.9% Sikh).


title: Growth of religion

text: Primarily for socio-economic reasons (Sikhs being the wealthiest and most educated of India's four major religious groups), Indian Sikhs have the lowest adjusted growth rate of any major religious group in India, at 8.4% per decade (from 2001 to 2011), compared to the national rate of 17.7% per decade. Sikhs have the lowest fertility rate amongst India's four major religious groups, at 1.6 children per woman in 2019-20. The Sikh population has the lowest gender balance in India, with only 903 women per 1,000 men according to the 2011 Indian census, although the sex ratio at birth for Indian Sikhs has rapidly improved from 130 male births per 100 female births in 2001 to 110 male births per 100 female births in 2019-21, now only slightly above the average for India as a whole (108 male births per female births). In contrast to the religion's slowing growth in India, Sikhism is the fastest growing religion in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.


title: Growth of religion

text: Johnson and Barrett (2004) estimate that the global Sikh population increases annually by 392,633 (1.7% per year, based on 2004 figures); this percentage includes births, deaths, and conversions. The estimated world's Sikh population was over 30 million in 2020, and it will reach 42 million by 2050. It is expected to increase up to 62 million by 2100, given that the anticipated growth rate of 1.7% per year and adding at least 400,000 followers annually. By 2050, according to Pew research center based on growth rate of current Sikh population between (2001-2011), India will have 27,129,086 Sikhs by half-century which will be more than that of any country including the Western world.


title: Growth of religion

text: The American Religious Identification Survey gives Wicca an average annual growth of 143% for the period 1990 to 2001 (from 8,000 to 134,000 – "U.S. data" / similar for Canada & Australia). According to Anne Elizabeth Wynn of "The Statesman", "The two most recent American Religious Identification Surveys declare Wicca, one form of paganism, as the fastest growing spiritual identification in America". Mary Jones says Wicca is one of the fastest-growing religions in the United States as well. Wicca, which is largely a "Pagan" religion primarily attracts followers of nature-based religions in, as an example, the Southeast Valley region of the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area.


title: Growth of religion

text: Zoroastrianism was founded during the early Persian Empire in the 6th century BCE by Zarathustra. It served as the state religion of the ancient Iranian empires for more than a millennium, from around 600 BCE to 650 CE, but declined from the 7th century onwards following the Muslim conquest of Persia of 633–654. Zoroastrianism declined as forced conversion increased with the rise of Islam. From the 10th century onwards, Zoroastrians emigrated to Gujarat, India where they found asylum from unjust persecutions and since then are called Parsi, since Indians called Persia Faras and hence named them Parsi. Recent estimates place the current number of Zoroastrians at around 110,000–120,000, at most with the majority living in India, Iran, and North America; their number has been thought to be declining.


title: Growth of religion

text: India has the world's largest Zoroastrian population who are called Parsis. According to the 2011 Census of India, there are 57,264 Parsis in India. According to the National Commission for Minorities, there are a "variety of causes that are responsible for this steady decline in the population of the community", the most significant of which were childlessness and migration- Demographic trends project that by the year 2020 the Parsis will number only 23,000. The Parsis will then cease to be called a community and will be labeled a 'tribe'. One-fifth of the decrease in population is attributed to migration. A slower birthrate than deathrate accounts for the rest: as of 2001, Parsis over the age of 60 make up for 31% of the community. Only 4.7% of the Parsi community are under 6 years of age, which translates to 7 births per year per 1,000 individuals. Concerns have been raised in recent years over the rapidly declining population of the Parsi community in India.


title: Growth of religion

text: There has been recent conversions of Kurds from Islam to Zoroastrianism in Kurdistan for different reasons, including a sense of national and/or ethnic identity or for recent conflicts with radical Muslims, which had been enthusiastically received by Zoroastrians worldwide.


title: Growth of religion

text: The number of Kurdish Zoroastrians, along with those of non-ethnic converts, has been estimated differently. The Zoroastrian Representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq has said that as many as 14,000 people in Iraqi Kurdistan have converted to Zoroastrianism recently, with community leaders repeating this and speculating that even more Zoroastrians in the region are practicing their faith secretly. However, this has not been confirmed by independent sources.


title: Growth of religion

text: Statistics on religious adherence are difficult to gather and often contradictory; statistics for the change of religious adherence are even more so, requiring multiple surveys separated by many years using the same data gathering rules. This has only been achieved in rare cases, and then only for particular countries, such as the American Religious Identification Survey in the United States, or census data from Australia (which has included a voluntary religious question since 1911).


title: Growth of religion

text: The World Religion Database (WRD) is a peer-reviewed database of international religious statistics based on research conducted at the Institute on Culture, Religion & World Affairs at Boston University. It is published by Brill and is the most comprehensive database of religious demographics available to scholars, providing data for all of the world's countries. Adherence data is largely compiled from census and surveys. The database groups adherents into 18 broadly-defined categories: Agnostics, Atheists, Baháʼís, Buddhists, Chinese folk-religionists, Christians, Confucianists, Daoists, Ethnoreligionists, Hindus, Jains, Jews, Muslims, New Religionists, Shintoists, Sikhs, Spiritists, and Zoroastrians. The WRD is edited by demographers Todd M. Johnson and Brian J. Grim.


title: Growth of religion

text: Projections of future religious adherence are based on assumptions that trends, total fertility rates, life expectancy, political climate, conversion rates, secularization, etc. will continue. Such forecasts cannot be validated empirically and are contentious, but are useful for comparison.


title: Growth of religion

text: Professor Eric Kaufmann, whose academic specialization is how demography affects irreligion/religion/politics, wrote in 2012:


title: Growth of religion

text: According to the Pew Research Center published in 2010, religious conversion may have little impact on religious demographics between 2010 and 2050. Christianity is expected to lose a net of 66 million adherents mostly to religiously unaffiliated, while religiously unaffiliated are expected to gain 61 million adherents. Islam is expected to gain 3.2 million followers, while Buddhists and Jews are expected to lose 2.9 million and 0.3 million adherents, respectively.


title: Growth of religion

text: The largest net gains for the religiously unaffiliated between 2010 and 2050 are expected in North America (+26 million), Europe (+24 million), Latin America (+6 million), and the Asia-Pacific region (4 million). Islam is projected to have a net gain of followers in Sub-Saharan Africa (+2.9 million) and Asia-Pacific (+0.95 million), but net loss of followers in North America (-0.58 million) and Europe (-0.06 million). Christianity is expected to have the largest net loss of followers between 2010 and 2050 in North America (-28 million), Europe (-24 million), Latin America and the Caribbean (-9.5 million), sub-Saharan Africa (-3 million), and Asia-Pacific (2.4 million).


title: Growth of religion

text: Only in recent decades have surveys begun to measure changes in religious identity among individuals. Religious switching is a sensitive topic in India, and carries social and legal repercussions including the death penalty for apostasy in Muslim-majority countries. In China it is difficult to project rates at which Christianity, Islam and Buddhism are gaining converts, nor what are the retention rates among converts.


title: Growth of religion

text: These forecasts lack reliable data on religious conversion in China, but according to media reports and expert assessments, it is possible that the rapid growth of Christianity in China may maintain, or even increase, the current numerical advantage of Christianity as the largest religion in the world and may negatively affect the growth of the Religiously Unaffiliated. This scenario (Chinese scenario) is based primarily on sensitivity tests.


title: Coptic language

text: Coptic (Bohairic Coptic: , ) is a language family of closely related dialects, representing the most recent developments of the Egyptian language, and historically spoken by the Copts, starting from the third-century AD in Roman Egypt. Coptic was supplanted by Arabic as the primary spoken language of Egypt following the Muslim conquest of Egypt and was slowly replaced over the centuries. Coptic has no native speakers today, although it remains in daily use as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church and of the Coptic Catholic Church. Innovations in grammar, phonology, and the influx of Greek loanwords distinguish Coptic from earlier periods of the Egyptian language. It is written with the Coptic alphabet, a modified form of the Greek alphabet with several additional letters borrowed from the Demotic Egyptian script.


title: Coptic language

text: The major Coptic dialects are Sahidic, Bohairic, Akhmimic, Fayyumic, Lycopolitan, and Oxyrhynchite. Sahidic Coptic was spoken between the cities of Asyut and Oxyrhynchus and flourished as a literary language across Egypt in the period AD. Bohairic, the language of the Nile Delta, gained prominence in the 9th century and is the dialect used by the Coptic Church. Despite being closely related, Coptic dialects differ from one another in terms of their phonology, morphology, and vocabulary.


title: Coptic language

text: In Coptic the language is called () “Egyptian” or () “the Egyptian language”. Coptic also possessed the term () “Egyptian”, derived from Greek (). This was borrowed into Arabic as (), and from there into the languages of Europe, giving rise to words like French and English "Copt".


title: Coptic language

text: Coptic is today spoken liturgically in the Coptic Orthodox and Coptic Catholic Church (along with Modern Standard Arabic). The language is spoken only in Egypt and historically has had little influence outside of the territory, except for monasteries located in Nubia. Coptic's most noticeable linguistic impact has been on the various dialects of Egyptian Arabic, which is characterised by a Coptic substratum in lexical, morphological, syntactical, and phonological features.


title: Coptic language

text: In addition to influencing the grammar, vocabulary and syntax of Egyptian Arabic, Coptic has lent to both Arabic and Modern Hebrew such words as:


title: Coptic language

text: A few words of Coptic origin are found in the Greek language; some of the words were later lent to various European languages — such as "barge", from Coptic (, "small boat").


title: Coptic language

text: However, most words of Egyptian origin that entered into Greek and subsequently into other European languages came directly from Ancient Egyptian, often Demotic. An example is the Greek (), which comes directly from Egyptian or Demotic . However, Coptic reborrowed some words of Ancient Egyptian origin into its lexicon, via Greek. For example, both Sahidic and Bohairic use the word , which was taken directly from Greek ("ebony"), originally from Egyptian .


title: Coptic language

text: The Coptic name , (from Egyptian ), means "belonging to God" or "he of God". It was adapted into Arabic as , which remains a common name among Egyptian Copts to this day. It was also borrowed into Greek as the name (). That, in turn, is the source of the Russian name (), perhaps best known in the name of the mathematician Pafnuty Chebyshev.


title: Coptic language

text: The Egyptian language may have the longest documented history of any language, from Old Egyptian that appeared just before 3200 BC to its final phases as Coptic in the Middle Ages. Coptic belongs to the Later Egyptian phase, which started to be written in the New Kingdom of Egypt. Later Egyptian represented colloquial speech of the later periods. It had analytic features like definite and indefinite articles and periphrastic verb conjugation. Coptic, therefore, is a reference to both the most recent stage of Egyptian after Demotic and the new writing system that was adapted from the Greek alphabet.


title: Coptic language

text: The earliest attempts to write the Egyptian language using the Greek alphabet are Greek transcriptions of Egyptian proper names, most of which date to the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Scholars frequently refer to this phase as pre-Coptic. However, it is clear that by the Late Period of ancient Egypt, demotic scribes regularly employed a more phonetic orthography, a testament to the increasing cultural contact between Egyptians and Greeks even before Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt. Coptic itself, or Old Coptic, takes root in the first century. The transition from the older Egyptian scripts to the newly adapted Coptic alphabet was in part due to the decline of the traditional role played by the priestly class of ancient Egyptian religion, who, unlike most ordinary Egyptians, were literate in the temple scriptoria. Old Coptic is represented mostly by non-Christian texts such as Egyptian pagan prayers and magical and astrological papyri. Many of them served as glosses to original hieratic and demotic equivalents. The glosses may have been aimed at non-Egyptian speakers.


title: Coptic language

text: Under late Roman rule, Diocletian persecuted many Egyptian converts to the new Christian faith, which forced new converts to flee to the Egyptian deserts. In time, the growth of these communities generated the need to write Christian Greek instructions in the Egyptian language. The early Fathers of the Coptic Church, such as Anthony the Great, Pachomius the Great, Macarius of Egypt and Athanasius of Alexandria, who otherwise usually wrote in Greek, addressed some of their works to the Egyptian monks in Egyptian. The Egyptian language, now written in the Coptic alphabet, flourished in the second and third centuries. However, it was not until Shenoute that Coptic became a fully standardised literary language based on the Sahidic dialect. Shenouda's native Egyptian tongue and knowledge of Greek and rhetoric gave him the necessary tools to elevate Coptic, in content and style, to a literary height nearly equal to the position of the Egyptian language in ancient Egypt.


title: Coptic language

text: The Muslim conquest of Egypt by Arabs came with the spread of Islam in the seventh century. At the turn of the eighth century, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan decreed that Arabic replace Koine Greek as the sole administrative language. Literary Coptic gradually declined, and within a few hundred years, Egyptian bishop Severus Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ found it necessary to write his "History of the Patriarchs" in Arabic. However, ecclesiastically the language retained an important position, and many hagiographic texts were also composed during this period. Until the 10th century, Coptic remained the spoken language of the native population outside the capital.


title: Coptic language

text: As a written language, Coptic is thought to have completely given way to Egyptian Arabic around the 13th century, though it seems to have survived as a spoken language until the 17th century and in some localities even longer.


title: Coptic language

text: From the medieval period there is one known example of "tarsh"-printed Coptic. The fragmentary amulet A.Ch. 12.145, now in the Austrian National Library, contains a frame of Coptic text around an Arabic main text.


title: Coptic language

text: In the early 20th century, some Copts tried to revive the Coptic language, but they were unsuccessful.


title: Coptic language

text: In the second half of the 20th century, Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria started a national Church-sponsored movement to revive Coptic. Several works of grammar were published, including a more comprehensive dictionary than had been formerly available. The scholarly findings of the field of Egyptology and the inauguration of the Institute of Coptic Studies further contributed to the renaissance. Efforts at language revitalisation continue to be undertaken, both inside and outside the Church, and have attracted the interest of Copts and linguists in and outside of Egypt.


title: Coptic language

text: Coptic uses a writing system almost wholly derived from the Greek alphabet, with the addition of a number of letters that have their origins in Demotic Egyptian. This is comparable to the Latin-based Icelandic alphabet, which includes the runic letter thorn. There is some variation in the number and forms of these signs depending on the dialect. Some of the letters in the Coptic alphabet that are of Greek origin were normally reserved for Greek words. Old Coptic texts used several graphemes that were not retained in the literary Coptic orthography of later centuries.


title: Coptic language

text: In Sahidic, syllable boundary may have been marked by a supralinear stroke ⟨◌̄⟩, or the stroke may have tied letters together in one word, since Coptic texts did not otherwise indicate word divisions. Some scribal traditions use a diaeresis over the letters and at the beginning of a word or to mark a diphthong. Bohairic uses a superposed point or small stroke known as (, “movement”). When "djinkim" is placed over a vowel it is pronounced independently, and when it is placed over a consonant a short precedes it.


title: Coptic language

text: The oldest Coptic writings date to the pre-Christian era (Old Coptic), though Coptic literature consists mostly of texts written by prominent saints of the Coptic Church such as Anthony the Great, Pachomius the Great and Shenoute. Shenoute helped fully standardise the Coptic language through his many sermons, treatises and homilies, which formed the basis of early Coptic literature.


title: Coptic language

text: The core lexicon of Coptic is Egyptian, most closely related to the preceding Demotic phase of the language. Up to 40% of the vocabulary of literary Coptic is drawn from Greek, but borrowings are not always fully adapted to the Coptic phonological system and may have semantic differences as well. There are instances of Coptic texts having passages that are almost entirely composed from Greek lexical roots. However, that is likely because the majority of Coptic religious texts are direct translations of Greek works.


title: Coptic language

text: Words or concepts for which no adequate Egyptian translation existed were taken directly from Greek to avoid altering the meaning of the religious message. In addition, other Egyptian words that would have adequately translated the Greek equivalents were not used as they were perceived as having overt pagan associations. Old Coptic texts use many such words, phrases and epithets; for example, the word '(Who is) in (His) Mountain', is an epithet of Anubis. There are also traces of some archaic grammatical features, such as residues of the Demotic relative clause, lack of an indefinite article and possessive use of suffixes.


title: Coptic language

text: Thus, the transition from the 'old' traditions to the new Christian religion also contributed to the adoption of Greek words into the Coptic religious lexicon. It is safe to assume that the everyday speech of the native population retained, to a greater extent, its indigenous Egyptian character, which is sometimes reflected in Coptic nonreligious documents such as letters and contracts.


title: Coptic language

text: Coptic provides the clearest indication of Later Egyptian phonology from its writing system, which fully indicates vowel sounds and occasionally stress pattern. The phonological system of Later Egyptian is also better known than that of the Classical phase of the language because of a greater number of sources indicating Egyptian sounds, including cuneiform letters containing transcriptions of Egyptian words and phrases, and Egyptian renderings of Northwest Semitic names. Coptic sounds, in addition, are known from a variety of Coptic-Arabic papyri in which Arabic letters were used to transcribe Coptic and vice versa. They date to the medieval Islamic period, when Coptic was still spoken.


title: Coptic language

text: There are some differences of opinion among Coptic language scholars on the correct phonetic interpretation of the writing system of Coptic. Differences centre on how to interpret the pairs of letters "ε/η" and "ο/ω". In the Attic dialect of Ancient Greek in the 5th century BC, the first member of each pair is a short closed vowel , and the second member is a long open vowel . In some interpretations of Coptic phonology, it is assumed that the length difference is primary, with "ε/η" and "ο/ω" is . Other scholars argue for a different analysis in which ε/η and ο/ω are interpreted as and .


title: Coptic language

text: Dialects vary in their realisation. The difference between and seems to be allophonic. Evidence is not sufficient to demonstrate that these are distinct vowels, and if they are, the difference has a very low functional load. For dialects that use orthographic <ει> for a single vowel, there appears to be no phonetic difference from <ι>.


title: Coptic language

text: Double orthographic vowels are presumed here to be long, as that makes the morphology more straightforward. (Another common interpretation is that these represented glottal stop.)


title: Coptic language

text: There is no length distinction in final stressed position, but only those vowels that occur long appear there: <(ε)ι, ε, α, ο~ω, ου>.


title: Coptic language

text: In Sahidic, the letter "ε" was used for short before back fricatives, and also for unstressed schwa . It's possible there was also a distinction between short and , but if so the functional load was extremely low.


title: Coptic language

text: Bohairic did not have long vowels. was only written <ι>. As above, it's possible that and were distinct vowels rather than just allophones.


title: Coptic language

text: In Late Coptic (that is, Late Bohairic), the vowels were reduced to those found in Egyptian Arabic, . <ω, ο> became , <ε> became , and <η> became either or . It is difficult to explain <η>. However, it generally became in stressed monosyllables, in unstressed monosyllables, and in polysyllables, when followed by , and when not.


title: Coptic language

text: There were no doubled orthographic vowels in Mesokemic. Some representative correspondences with Sahidic are:


title: Coptic language

text: It is not clear if these correspondences reflect distinct pronunciations in Mesokemic, or if they are an imitation of the long Greek vowels <η, ω>.


title: Coptic language

text: As with the vowels, there are differences of opinion over the correct interpretation of the Coptic consonant letters, particular the letters and . is transcribed as in many older Coptic sources and as or . notes that the current conventional pronunciations are different from the probable ancient pronunciations: Sahidic was probably pronounced and was probably pronounced . suggests that was pronounced .


title: Coptic language

text: Beside being found in Greek loanwords, the letters were used in native words for a sequence of plus , as in = "the-way" (f.sg.) and = "the-snake" (m.sg). The letters did not have this use in Bohairic, which used them for single sounds.


title: Coptic language

text: It is possible that in addition there was a glottal stop, , that was not consistently written. Coptic does not seem to have had a glottal stop at the beginning of orthographically vowel-initial words. It is possible that vowels written double were an attempt to indicate glottal stop, rather than a long vowel, in the middle of a word. However, there is little evidence for this (e.g., Arabic words with short vowels and glottal stop are not written with double vowels in Coptic, and Coptic words with double orthographic vowels are transcribed with long vowels rather than hamza in Arabic.)


title: Coptic language

text: In Late Coptic (ca. 14th century), Bohairic sounds that did not occur in Egyptian Arabic were lost. A possible shift from a tenuis-aspirate distinction to voiced-tenuis is only attested from the alveolars, the only place that Arabic has such a contrast.


title: Coptic language

text: Earlier phases of Egyptian may have contrasted voiceless and voiced bilabial plosives, but the distinction seems to have been lost. Late Egyptian, Demotic and Coptic all interchangeably use their respective graphemes to indicate either sound; for example, Coptic for 'iron' appears alternately as , and . That probably reflects dialect variation. Both letters were interchanged with and to indicate , and was also used in many texts to indicate the bilabial approximant . Coptologists believe that Coptic was articulated as a voiced bilabial fricative . In the present-day Coptic Church services, this letter is realised as , but it is almost certainly a result of the pronunciation reforms instituted in the 19th century.


title: Coptic language

text: Whereas Old Egyptian contrasts and , the two sounds appear to be in free variation in Coptic, as they were since the Middle Egyptian period. However, they are contrasted only in Greek loans; for example, native Coptic ("anzēb") and ("ansēbə") 'school' are homophonous. Other consonants that sometimes appear to be either in free variation or to have different distributions across dialects are and , and (especially in the Fayyumic dialect, a feature of earlier Egyptian) and and , with the voiceless stop consonants being more common in Coptic words and the voiced ones in Greek borrowings. Apart from the liquid consonants, this pattern may indicate a sound change in Later Egyptian, leading to a neutralisation of voiced alveolar and velar plosives. When the voiced plosives are realised, it is usually the result of consonant voicing in proximity to .


title: Coptic language

text: Though there is no clear evidence that Coptic had a glottal stop, different orthographic means have been posited for indicating one by those who believe that it did: with word-initially, with word-finally in monosyllabic words in northern dialects and in monosyllabic words in Akhmimic and Assiutic, by reduplication of a vowel's grapheme but mostly unwritten.


title: Coptic language

text: A few early manuscripts have a letter or "ç" where Sahidic and Bohairic have "š". and Akhmimic has "x". This sound seems to have been lost early on.


title: Coptic language

text: Coptic is agglutinative with subject–verb–object word order but can be verb–subject–object with the correct preposition in front of the subject. Number, gender, tense, and mood are indicated by prefixes that come from Late Egyptian. The earlier phases of Egyptian did this through suffixation. Some vestiges of the suffix inflection survive in Coptic, mainly to indicate inalienable possession and in some verbs. Compare the Middle Egyptian form "*satāpafa" 'he chooses' (written "stp.f" in hieroglyphs) to Coptic (Sahidic) "f.sotp" 'he chooses'.


title: Coptic language

text: All Coptic nouns carry grammatical gender, either masculine or feminine, usually marked through a prefixed definite article as in the Romance languages. Masculine nouns are marked with the article and feminine nouns with the article in the Sahidic dialect and and in the Bohairic dialect.


title: Coptic language

text: The definite and indefinite articles also indicate number; however, only definite articles mark gender. Coptic has a number of broken plurals, a vestige of Older Egyptian, but in the majority of cases, the article marks number. Generally, nouns inflected for plurality end in , but there are some irregularities. The dual was another feature of earlier Egyptian that survives in Coptic in only few words, such as ("snau") 'two'.


title: Coptic language

text: Words of Greek origin keep their original grammatical gender, except for neuter nouns, which become masculine in Coptic.


title: Coptic language

text: Possession of definite nouns is expressed with a series of possessive articles which are prefixed to the noun. These articles agree with the person, number, and gender of the possessor and the number and gender of the possessed noun. The forms of the possessive article vary according to dialect.


title: Coptic language

text: Coptic pronouns are of two kinds, dependent and independent. Independent pronouns are used when the pronoun is acting as the subject of a sentence, as the object of a verb, or with a preposition. Dependent pronouns are a series of prefixes and suffixes that can attach to verbs and other nouns. Coptic verbs can therefore be said to inflect for the person, number and gender of the subject and the object: a pronominal prefix marks the subject, and a pronominal suffix marks the object, e.g. "I I'have'it the ball." When (as in this case) the subject is a pronoun, it normally is not also expressed independently, unless for emphasis.


title: Coptic language

text: As in other Afroasiatic languages, gender of pronouns differ only in the second and third person singular. The following table shows the pronouns of the Boharic dialect:


title: Coptic language

text: Most Coptic adjectives are actually nouns that have the attributive particle "n" to make them adjectival. In all stages of Egyptian, this morpheme is also used to express the genitive; for example, the Bohairic word for 'Egyptian', , is a combination of the nominal prefix "rem-" (the reduced form of "rōmi" 'man'), followed by the genitive morpheme "ən" ('of') and finally the word for Egypt, "kʰēmi".


title: Coptic language

text: Coptic, like Ancient Egyptian and Semitic languages, has root-and-pattern or templatic morphology, and the basic meaning of a verb is contained in a root and various derived forms of root are obtained by varying the vowel pattern. For example, the root for 'build' is "kt". It has four derived forms: (the absolute state grade); ket- (the nominal state grade), kot= (the pronominal state grade), and (the stative grade).


title: Coptic language

text: The absolute, nominal, and pronominal state grades are used in different syntactic contexts. The absolute state grade of a transitive verb is used before a direct object with the accusative preposition , and the nominal state grade is used before a direct object with no case-marking. The pronominal state grade is used before a pronominal direct object enclitic. In addition, many verbs also have a neutral state grade, used to express a state resulting from the action of the verb. Compare the following forms:


title: Coptic language

text: For most transitive verbs, both absolute and nominal state grade verbs are available for non-pronominal objects. However, there is one important restriction, known as "Jernstedt's rule" (or the "Stern-Jernstedt rule") (Jernstedt 1927): present-tense sentences cannot be used in the nominal state grade. Thus sentences in the present tense always show a pattern like the first example above (absolute state), never the second pattern (nominal state).


title: Coptic language

text: In general, the four grades of Coptic verb are not predictable from the root, and are listed in the lexicon for each verb. The following chart shows some typical patterns of correspondence:


title: Coptic language

text: It is hazardous to make firm generalisations about the relationships between these grade forms, but the nominal state is usually shorter than the corresponding absolute and neutral forms. Absolute and neutral state forms are usually bisyllabic or contain a long vowel; the corresponding nominal state forms are monosyllabic or have short vowels.


title: Coptic language

text: Coptic has a very large number of distinct tense-aspect-mood categories, expressed by particles which are either before the verb or before the subject. The future is a preverbal particle and follows the subject:


title: Coptic language

text: There is some variation in the labels for the tense/aspect/mood categories. The chart below shows the labels from , , . (Where they agree, only one label is shown.) Each form lists the morphology found with a nonpronominal subject (Marked with an underscore in Coptic) and a third person singular masculine pronominal subject ('he'):


title: Coptic language

text: An approximate range of use for most of the tense/aspect/mood categories is shown in the following table:


title: Coptic language

text: An unusual feature of Coptic is the extensive use of a set of "second tenses", which are required in certain syntactic contexts. "Second tenses" are also called "relative tenses" in some work.


title: Coptic language

text: The verbs in these sentences are in the , which requires that its direct object be introduced with the preposition . This preposition functions like accusative case.


title: Coptic language

text: There is also an alternative of the verb in which the direct object of the verb follows with no preposition:


title: Coptic language

text: There is little written evidence of dialectal differences in the pre-Coptic phases of the Egyptian language due to the centralised nature of the political and cultural institutions of ancient Egyptian society. However, literary Old and Middle (Classical) Egyptian represent the spoken dialect of Lower Egypt around the city of Memphis, the capital of Egypt in the Old Kingdom. Later Egyptian is more representative of the dialects spoken in Upper Egypt, especially around the area of Thebes as it became the cultural and religious center of the New Kingdom.


title: Coptic language

text: Coptic more obviously displays a number of regional dialects that were in use from the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in northern Egypt, south into Nubia, and in the western oases. However, while many of these dialects reflect actual regional linguistic (namely phonological and some lexical) variation, they mostly reflect localised orthographic traditions with very little grammatical differences.


title: Coptic language

text: Sahidic (also known as Thebaic) is the dialect in which most known Coptic texts are written, and was the leading dialect in the pre-Islamic period. It is thought to have originally been a regional dialect from the area around Hermopolis (). Around 300 it began to be written in literary form, including translations of major portions of the Bible (see Coptic versions of the Bible). By the 6th century, a standardised spelling had been attained throughout Egypt. Almost all native authors wrote in this dialect of Coptic. Sahidic was, beginning in the 9th century, challenged by Bohairic, but is attested as late as the 14th.


title: Coptic language

text: While texts in other Coptic dialects are primarily translations of Greek literary and religious texts, Sahidic is the only dialect with a considerable body of original literature and non-literary texts. Because Sahidic shares most of its features with other dialects of Coptic with few peculiarities specific to itself, and has an extensive corpus of known texts, it is generally the dialect studied by learners of Coptic, particularly by scholars outside of the Coptic Church.


title: Coptic language

text: Akhmimic was the dialect of the area around the town of Akhmim (). It flourished during the fourth and fifth centuries, after which no writings are attested. Akhmimic is phonologically the most archaic of the Coptic dialects. One characteristic feature is the retention of the phoneme , which is realised as in most other dialects.


title: Coptic language

text: Lycopolitan (also known as Subakhmimic and Assiutic) is a dialect closely related to Akhmimic in terms of when and where it was attested, but manuscripts written in Lycopolitan tend to be from the area of Asyut. The main differences between the two dialects seem to be graphic in nature. The Lycopolitan variety was used extensively for translations of Gnostic and Manichaean works, including the texts of the Nag Hammadi library.


title: Coptic language

text: Oxyrhynchite (also known as Mesokemic or [confusingly] Middle Egyptian) is the dialect of Oxyrhynchus and surrounding areas. It shows similarities with Fayyumic and is attested in manuscripts from the fourth and fifth centuries.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: MetLife Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, 5 mi (8 km) west of New York City. Opened in 2010 to replace Giants Stadium, it serves as the home for the New York Giants and New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL). At an approximate cost of $1.6 billion, it was the most expensive stadium built in the United States at the time of its completion.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: MetLife Stadium is one of only two NFL stadiums shared by two teams. The other, SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, is home to the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. Los Angeles' Crypto.com Arena, which is home to the Clippers and the Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), is only the third facility to currently house two teams from the same sports league in the United States (the Clippers are expected to move into the Intuit Dome in 2024). Additionally, MetLife Stadium is the fourth building in the New York metropolitan area to be home to multiple teams from the same sports league, after the Polo Grounds, which was home to the baseball Giants and Yankees from 1913 to 1922, Shea Stadium, which housed both the Mets and Yankees during the 1974 and 1975 seasons and both the Jets and Giants in 1975, and Giants Stadium, which hosted both the Giants and Jets from 1984 to 2009.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: As Giants Stadium approached 30 years of age, it was becoming one of the older stadiums in the NFL. The Jets, who had been the tenants to the Giants, were looking to have a proposed West Side Stadium built in Manhattan proper. Originally intended to be the 85,000-seat main stadium for New York's bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, it was designed to be downsized to 75,000 seats for the Jets. However, it would have required significant public funding; progress on the project was halted in 2005 due to opposition from a number of sources, including Cablevision. The Jets then entered into a joint venture with the Giants to build a new stadium in which the two New York teams would be equal partners.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: The architects were tasked with designing a neutral stadium that would still embody the distinct personalities of both franchises. The Giants favored a traditional look of exposed steel framework and rusticated stone while the Jets wanted a sleek and modern look highlighted by metal and glass. With those features in mind the designers used the column/tower dynamic seen in many of Manhattan's skyscrapers as inspiration for the stadium's design.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: The base of the stadium's facade is clad in limestone-like stonework while the rest of the stadium is distinguished by an outer skin of aluminum louvers and glass and by interior lighting capable of switching colors, depending on which team is currently playing–blue for the Giants and green for the Jets. This idea originated at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany; which was previously shared between the city's two major soccer clubs, Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich. Unlike Giants Stadium, MetLife Stadium can easily be reconfigured for the Giants or Jets within a matter of hours. The louvers' total linear length is exactly 50,000 meters (50 kilometers) or 163,681 feet (31.1 miles).


title: MetLife Stadium

text: Front row 50 yard line seats are away from the sideline, which is the shortest distance of all NFL stadiums. To change the field decorations, two 4-person crews take approximately 18 hours using forklifts and other machinery to remove the 40 sections of Act Global UBU Speed Series which make up the teams' respective end zones. Unlike most NFL stadiums, the NFL's logo is painted at midfield, instead of the logo of one of the teams, also shortening the transition time. Replaceable team logos at midfield were removed in August 2010, after Domenik Hixon tore his anterior cruciate ligament at a practice at the stadium during training camp. If the two teams are playing each other, the designated home team will have its configuration around the stadium. During their annual preseason matchup, both the Giants and the Jets will have an end zone with their team logo.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: Unlike a number of other new NFL venues, MetLife Stadium does not have a roof, as proposals to include a roof failed, over a dispute for funding. Thus, indoor events such as the Final Four cannot be held at the facility, which runs counter to the original aims for a new arena in northern New Jersey.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: Ten giant HD-ready light emitting diode (LED) pylons, located at the north, south, east, and west entrances, display videos of the team currently in-house. The pylons measure approximately high by wide. Inside, are four by HD video displays, and hang from each corner of the upper deck.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: The new stadium seating bowl is laid out similar to that of Giants Stadium and has seating for 82,500 people, including 10,005 club seats and approximately 218 luxury suites, making it the largest NFL stadium in terms of total seating. The seating bowl is also raked in a way that eliminates overhangs from the upper decks that would impede views and allows fans to see the full arc of a punt.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: MetLife Stadium includes a total of four locker rooms: one each for the Giants and Jets, as well as two for visiting teams. The home teams have locker rooms on opposite ends of the stadium with a visitors' locker room adjacent to it. On most game days the visitors use the locker room at the end opposite that of the home team while the unused visitors' locker room is used for spillover by the home team. For games in which neither the Giants or Jets are playing, each team uses one of the visitor's locker rooms. When the Giants and Jets play each other, each team uses its own locker room plus the adjacent visitor's room for spillover.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: In 2012, DLR Group partnered with NRG Energy to design and install a "Solar Ring" on the upper rim of MetLife Stadium. The Solar Ring consists of 1,350 building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) solar panels assembled into 47 individual frames. The BIPV panels are illuminated with LED lighting and programmed to display the signature blue and green colors of the Giants and the Jets along with other hues for events such as concerts, soccer matches, and college sports. The panels generate about 350 KW, nearly 25 times the amount of electricity that's actually needed to power the LED display system. The excess power generated can go into the general stadium use or back to the grid.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: The two teams formed the New Meadowlands Stadium Company, LLC (now MetLife Stadium Company), a 50/50 joint venture, to build and operate the stadium. The two teams leased the parcel of land on which the stadium stands from the NJSEA for a 25-year term, with options to extend it which could eventually reach 97 years. After the 15th year of the lease, and every five years, hence; one of the two teams may opt out of the lease after giving the state 12 months notice. The first such opportunity to opt out will occur in 2025 with a notice date of 2024. There will then be an opportunity to opt out in 2030, 2035, 2040, etc... However, if one team leaves for a new stadium, the other team would have to remain for the remainder of the lease. However, the high cost of building and relocating to a stadium makes it very unlikely. The teams also get parking revenue from the Meadowlands' western parking lots year round, even when there are no events at the stadium (this would occur when other parts of the Meadowlands host events).


title: MetLife Stadium

text: Allianz, a financial services and insurance company based in Munich, Germany, expressed interest in purchasing naming rights to the stadium. The proposal was for a period of up to 30 years, and was estimated to be valued at between $20 million and US$30 million. However, it sparked protests from New York's Jewish community (the largest outside of Israel) and the Anti-Defamation League, which opposed the move due to close ties in the past between Allianz and the government of Nazi Germany during World War II. Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum, however, secretary general of the North American Board of Rabbis, agreed that although survivors' sensibilities are understandable, a naming deal is legitimate. "I have found Allianz to be receptive, to be sensitive and a friend of the Jewish people today," he said. Allianz sponsors the venue that inspired the color-change technology for MetLife Stadium: Allianz Arena in Munich. No agreement was reached and talks between Allianz and the teams ended on September 12, 2008.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On June 27, 2011, it was reported that New York City-based insurance company MetLife entered discussions to purchase naming rights to the stadium. The new name, "MetLife Stadium", became official when all parties signed a 25-year deal on August 23.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: In June 2009, the New Meadowlands Stadium Corporation and the EPA signed a memorandum of understanding that outlines plans to incorporate environmentally-friendly materials and practices into the construction and operation of MetLife Stadium. The agreement includes strategies to reduce air pollution, conserve water, and energy, improve waste management, and reduce the environmental impact of construction. The goal of the agreement is to save the emission of nearly 1.68 million metric tons of carbon dioxide during the stadium's construction and its first year of operation. Under this agreement, the stadium construction must use around 40,000 tons of recycled steel, recycle 20,000 tons of steel from Giants Stadium, install seating made from recycled plastic and scrap iron, and reduce air pollution from construction vehicles by using cleaner diesel fuel, diesel engine filters, and minimizing engine idle times. Other goals of this agreement include providing mass transit options for fans and replacing traditional concession plates, cups and carries with compostable alternatives. The New Meadowlands Stadium Corporation is to report the progress on its goals to EPA every six months. Based on the reports, the EPA has stated it will quantify the benefits of the venue's environmental efforts.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: MetLife Stadium is accessible by car via Exit 16W on the western spur of the New Jersey Turnpike (I-95) and is also located adjacent to NJ Route 3 and NJ Route 120.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: Coach USA provides the 351 Meadowlands Express Bus service between MetLife Stadium and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. New Jersey Transit provides the 353 Bus service for select events between MetLife Stadium and Secaucus Junction.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: The Meadowlands Rail Line operates on event days between Meadowlands station and Hoboken Terminal via Secaucus Junction, where there is connecting service to Pennsylvania Station (New York City), Pennsylvania Station (Newark), and other New Jersey Transit rail operations. The line opened to the public on July 26, 2009.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: In 2009, MetLife Stadium was named the "Greenest Stadium" in the NFL by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).


title: MetLife Stadium

text: In July 2017, MetLife Stadium was named "Venue of the Year" by the Stadium Business Summit. The award is awarded to the world's best stadium, arena or sports venue, that deserves recognition for an outstanding performance over a 12-month period.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On May 25, 2010, it was announced that Super Bowl XLVIII was awarded to the stadium, the first time a Super Bowl would be played in the New York metropolitan area, and the first time that a non-domed stadium in a cold-weather city would host it. Normally, Super Bowls must be held in indoor climate-controlled stadiums if they are held in a city with an average temperature lower than . However, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell waived this requirement and allowed MetLife Stadium on the ballot because of a "unique, once-only circumstance based on the opportunity to celebrate the new stadium and the great heritage and history of the NFL in the New York region." The game was played on February 2, 2014. The temperature at kickoff was , making it only the third-coldest Super Bowl on record. The Seattle Seahawks defeated the Denver Broncos 43–8 for their first Super Bowl victory.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: MetLife Stadium has twice hosted WrestleMania—the flagship pay-per-view event of the professional wrestling promotion WWE. WrestleMania 29 was held at MetLife Stadium on April 7, 2013. With 80,676 spectators, it was the third most-attended event in WWE history, and the highest-grossing event in WWE history at $12.3 million. Six years later, MetLife Stadium hosted WrestleMania 35 on April 7, 2019, overtaking WrestleMania 29 with an attendance of 82,265, and $16.9 million in revenue.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: MetLife Stadium is also designed for soccer. To prepare for a match, the stadium uses retractable seating in the field level corners to fit a FIFA-sanctioned soccer field. Along with being noted for providing exceptional sight-lines, this has allowed the stadium to host several major international matches.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: The first international exhibition match was between Mexico and Ecuador on May 7, 2010, in front of 77,507 fans. The stadium hosted another international exhibition soccer match between the United States and Brazil on August 10, 2010. Brazil won 2–0 in front of a near-sellout crowd of 77,223; the game was played on a temporary grass field.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On March 26, 2011, the stadium hosted an international friendly, between the United States and Argentina, which ended in a 1–1 draw and was played in front of a sellout crowd of 78,926.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On June 9, 2012, Argentina and Brazil played a friendly match, with Argentina winning in a thrilling 4–3 match featuring a Lionel Messi hat-trick. Another exhibition match in preparation for 2014 FIFA World Cup was played on November 14, 2012, between Colombia and Brazil, with Brazil acting as the local team despite a higher affluence of Colombian fans.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On September 9, 2014, the stadium hosted an international friendly between Brazil and Ecuador with Brazil victorious 1–0.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On March 31, 2015, the stadium hosted an international friendly rematch of Argentina and Ecuador with Argentina prevailing 2–1 in front of 48,000 fans.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On June 26, 2016, the stadium hosted the final of the Copa América Centenario—a special U.S.-hosted edition of the Copa América tournament co-organized by CONCACAF, marking the centennial of South America's soccer federation CONMEBOL. After a 0–0 draw after extra time, Chile beat Argentina 4–2 on penalties to win the tournament.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On August 3, 2016, MetLife Stadium hosted a 2016 International Champions Cup match between Real Madrid and F.C. Bayern Munich. Real Madrid won the match 1–0.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On July 22, 2017, a match of the 2017 International Champions Cup was played between FC Barcelona and Juventus. Barcelona won the match 2–1 in front of 82,104 fans.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: MetLife Stadium hosted two matches as part of the 2018 International Champions Cup. The first match on July 25, 2018, between Manchester City F.C. and Liverpool F.C., with it ending 2–1 in favor of Liverpool, and the second match on August 7, 2018, between Real Madrid C.F. and A.S. Roma, also ending in a 2–1 victory for Real Madrid.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On September 7, 2018, the stadium hosted the United States and Brazil in an international friendly match as part of U.S. Soccer's "Kickoff Series", which Brazil won by a score of 2–0 with goals from Roberto Firmino and Neymar.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On July 29, 2019, during the 2019 International Champions Cup, the stadium hosted the first Madrid Derby held outside of Europe between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, which Atlético won 7–3.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On September 6, 2019, MetLife Stadium hosted the 70th all time meeting of the United States and Mexico with Mexico winning 3–0 in front of a crowd of 47,960.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: Metlife Stadium is one of 16 venues, as well as one of the eleven American venues which will host matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On October 16, 2010, Rutgers hosted Army in the first college football game to be played in the new stadium, with the Scarlet Knights defeating the Black Knights in overtime, 23–20. During the game's second half, Rutgers player Eric LeGrand was injured on a special teams play, defending a Rutgers kickoff, and paralyzed from the neck down.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: Syracuse University has hosted selected home games at MetLife Stadium in lieu of the Carrier Dome. The first of these games, branded as "New York's College Classic", was played in 2012 against the visiting USC Trojans, who won 42–29. In 2013, the team opened its season against its rival Penn State at the stadium, losing 23–17. In 2014, the team hosted the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at MetLife Stadium, losing 31–15. A rematch was held in 2016, once again losing to the Fighting Irish 50–33.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On November 16, 2019, MetLife Stadium hosted the 61st Cortaca Jug rivalry game between the NCAA Division III Cortland Red Dragons and Ithaca Bombers. With an attendance of 45,161, it set a record for the most-attended football game in Division III history. The game was held at MetLife Stadium as part of season-long commemorations of the 150th anniversary of college football.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On December 11, 2021, MetLife Stadium hosted the 122nd Army-Navy Game. This was the first time the historic matchup was held at MetLife and the fifth time it was held in East Rutherford. Previous matchups were held at Giants Stadium in 1989, 1993, 1997, and 2002. Navy defeated Army 17–13.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: Before Monster Jam started holding events at MetLife, the Meadowlands Arena was previously used for those events.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: The first Monster Jam event at MetLife Stadium was held on June 16, 2012. It has since returned every year; on June 15, 2013, June 14, 2014, June 13, 2015, April 23, 2016, June 17, 2017, May 12, 2018, June 8, 2019, July 17, 2021, April 23, 2022, and will return May 13, 2023. The 2020 show which was scheduled for June 13 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: The stadium was going to host its first ever Monster Jam World Finals, World Finals 20. It was announced that the event would leave Las Vegas's Sam Boyd Stadium and begin a rotational schedule, starting with MetLife Stadium. The rotational schedule would also be moving the event from when it is usually hosted in late March, instead to May. An announcement on March 20, 2018, later confirmed that the date and venue would be changing, as per a schedule change.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: The stadium hosted the 12th Siyum HaShas, a celebration of the completion of the Talmud through the -year Daf Yomi study program, on August 1, 2012. At 93,000 seats, it was the highest capacity crowd in the stadium's history, due to on-field seating and a ticket sell-out. The siyum was a Department of Homeland Security level two security event, the most critical short of a presidential visit. On January 1, 2020, it hosted the 13th Siyum HaShas.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: Since 2012, the stadium has been the main site of the two-day electronic music festival Electric Daisy Carnival's stop in the New York Metropolitan Area bringing electronic acts including Armin Van Buuren, Hardwell, Porter Robinson and Tiësto.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: In 2014, two of the "Keep Seeking First God's Kingdom!" International Conventions of Jehovah's Witnesses were held at the stadium.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On July 14 and 15, 2017, the stadium hosted the 18th International Indian Film Academy Awards, the Oscars of Bollywood, for the first time.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: On January 16, 2018, the stadium hosted the inaugural ball for newly elected New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy.


title: MetLife Stadium

text: MetLife Stadium is also the host of various high school Marching Band and Drum Corps International competitions.


title: Moscovium

text: Moscovium is a synthetic element with the symbol Mc and atomic number 115. It was first synthesized in 2003 by a joint team of Russian and American scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia. In December 2015, it was recognized as one of four new elements by the Joint Working Party of international scientific bodies IUPAC and IUPAP. On 28 November 2016, it was officially named after the Moscow Oblast, in which the JINR is situated.


title: Moscovium

text: Moscovium is an extremely radioactive element: its most stable known isotope, moscovium-290, has a half-life of only 0.65 seconds. In the periodic table, it is a p-block transactinide element. It is a member of the 7th period and is placed in group 15 as the heaviest pnictogen, although it has not been confirmed to behave as a heavier homologue of the pnictogen bismuth. Moscovium is calculated to have some properties similar to its lighter homologues, nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth, and to be a post-transition metal, although it should also show several major differences from them. In particular, moscovium should also have significant similarities to thallium, as both have one rather loosely bound electron outside a quasi-closed shell. Over a hundred atoms of moscovium have been observed to date, all of which have been shown to have mass numbers from 286 to 290.


title: Moscovium

text: The first successful synthesis of moscovium was by a joint team of Russian and American scientists in August 2003 at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia. Headed by Russian nuclear physicist Yuri Oganessian, the team included American scientists of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The researchers on February 2, 2004, stated in "Physical Review C" that they bombarded americium-243 with calcium-48 ions to produce four atoms of moscovium. These atoms decayed by emission of alpha-particles to nihonium in about 100 milliseconds.


title: Moscovium

text: The Dubna–Livermore collaboration strengthened their claim to the discoveries of moscovium and nihonium by conducting chemical experiments on the final decay product Db. None of the nuclides in this decay chain were previously known, so existing experimental data was not available to support their claim. In June 2004 and December 2005, the presence of a dubnium isotope was confirmed by extracting the final decay products, measuring spontaneous fission (SF) activities and using chemical identification techniques to confirm that they behave like a group 5 element (as dubnium is known to be in group 5 of the periodic table). Both the half-life and the decay mode were confirmed for the proposed Db, lending support to the assignment of the parent nucleus to moscovium. However, in 2011, the IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working Party (JWP) did not recognize the two elements as having been discovered, because current theory could not distinguish the chemical properties of group 4 and group 5 elements with sufficient confidence. Furthermore, the decay properties of all the nuclei in the decay chain of moscovium had not been previously characterized before the Dubna experiments, a situation which the JWP generally considers "troublesome, but not necessarily exclusive".


title: Moscovium

text: Two heavier isotopes of moscovium, Mc and Mc, were discovered in 2009–2010 as daughters of the tennessine isotopes Ts and Ts; the isotope Mc was later also synthesized directly and confirmed to have the same properties as found in the tennessine experiments.


title: Moscovium

text: In 2011, the Joint Working Party of international scientific bodies International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) evaluated the 2004 and 2007 Dubna experiments, and concluded that they did not meet the criteria for discovery. Another evaluation of more recent experiments took place within the next few years, and a claim to the discovery of moscovium was again put forward by Dubna. In August 2013, a team of researchers at Lund University and at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany announced they had repeated the 2004 experiment, confirming Dubna's findings. Simultaneously, the 2004 experiment had been repeated at Dubna, now additionally also creating the isotope Mc that could serve as a cross-bombardment for confirming the discovery of the tennessine isotope Ts in 2010. Further confirmation was published by the team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2015.


title: Moscovium

text: In December 2015, the IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working Party recognized the element's discovery and assigned the priority to the Dubna-Livermore collaboration of 2009–2010, giving them the right to suggest a permanent name for it. While they did not recognise the experiments synthesising Mc and Mc as persuasive due to the lack of a convincing identification of atomic number via cross-reactions, they recognised the Ts experiments as persuasive because its daughter Mc had been produced independently and found to exhibit the same properties.


title: Moscovium

text: In May 2016, Lund University (Lund, Scania, Sweden) and GSI cast some doubt on the syntheses of moscovium and tennessine. The decay chains assigned to Mc, the isotope instrumental in the confirmation of the syntheses of moscovium and tennessine, were found based on a new statistical method to be too different to belong to the same nuclide with a reasonably high probability. The reported Ts decay chains approved as such by the JWP were found to require splitting into individual data sets assigned to different tennessine isotopes. It was also found that the claimed link between the decay chains reported as from Ts and Mc probably did not exist. (On the other hand, the chains from the non-approved isotope Ts were found to be congruent.) The multiplicity of states found when nuclides that are not even–even undergo alpha decay is not unexpected and contributes to the lack of clarity in the cross-reactions. This study criticized the JWP report for overlooking subtleties associated with this issue, and considered it "problematic" that the only argument for the acceptance of the discoveries of moscovium and tennessine was a link they considered to be doubtful.


title: Moscovium

text: On June 8, 2017, two members of the Dubna team published a journal article answering these criticisms, analysing their data on the nuclides Ts and Mc with widely accepted statistical methods, noted that the 2016 studies indicating non-congruence produced problematic results when applied to radioactive decay: they excluded from the 90% confidence interval both average and extreme decay times, and the decay chains that would be excluded from the 90% confidence interval they chose were more probable to be observed than those that would be included. The 2017 reanalysis concluded that the observed decay chains of Ts and Mc were consistent with the assumption that only one nuclide was present at each step of the chain, although it would be desirable to be able to directly measure the mass number of the originating nucleus of each chain as well as the excitation function of the Am+Ca reaction.


title: Moscovium

text: Using Mendeleev's nomenclature for unnamed and undiscovered elements, moscovium is sometimes known as "eka-bismuth". In 1979, IUPAC recommended that the placeholder systematic element name "ununpentium" (with the corresponding symbol of "Uup") be used until the discovery of the element is confirmed and a permanent name is decided. Although widely used in the chemical community on all levels, from chemistry classrooms to advanced textbooks, the recommendations were mostly ignored among scientists in the field, who called it "element 115", with the symbol of "E115", "(115)" or even simply "115".


title: Moscovium

text: On 30 December 2015, discovery of the element was recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). According to IUPAC recommendations, the discoverer(s) of a new element has the right to suggest a name. A suggested name was "langevinium", after Paul Langevin. Later, the Dubna team mentioned the name "moscovium" several times as one among many possibilities, referring to the Moscow Oblast where Dubna is located.


title: Moscovium

text: In June 2016, IUPAC endorsed the latter proposal to be formally accepted by the end of the year, which it was on 28 November 2016. The naming ceremony for moscovium, tennessine, and oganesson was held on 2 March 2017 at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.


title: Moscovium

text: Other than nuclear properties, no properties of moscovium or its compounds have been measured; this is due to its extremely limited and expensive production and the fact that it decays very quickly. Properties of moscovium remain unknown and only predictions are available.


title: Moscovium

text: Moscovium is expected to be within an island of stability centered on copernicium (element 112) and flerovium (element 114). Due to the expected high fission barriers, any nucleus within this island of stability exclusively decays by alpha decay and perhaps some electron capture and beta decay. Although the known isotopes of moscovium do not actually have enough neutrons to be on the island of stability, they can be seen to approach the island as in general, the heavier isotopes are the longer-lived ones.


title: Moscovium

text: The hypothetical isotope Mc is an especially interesting case as it has only one neutron more than the heaviest known moscovium isotope, Mc. It could plausibly be synthesized as the daughter of Ts, which in turn could be made from the reaction . Calculations show that it may have a significant electron capture or positron emission decay mode in addition to alpha decay and also have a relatively long half-life of several seconds. This would produce Fl, Nh, and finally Cn which is expected to be in the middle of the island of stability and have a half-life of about 1200 years, affording the most likely hope of reaching the middle of the island using current technology. Possible drawbacks are that the cross section of the production reaction of Ts is expected to be low and the decay properties of superheavy nuclei this close to the line of beta stability are largely unexplored. The light isotopes Mc, Mc, and Mc could be made from the Am+Ca reaction. They would undergo a chain of alpha decays, ending at transactinide isotopes too light to be made by hot fusion and too heavy to be made by cold fusion. The isotope Mc was found in 2021 at Dubna, in the reaction: it decays into the already-known Nh and its daughters.


title: Moscovium

text: Other possibilities to synthesize nuclei on the island of stability include quasifission (partial fusion followed by fission) of a massive nucleus. Such nuclei tend to fission, expelling doubly magic or nearly doubly magic fragments such as calcium-40, tin-132, lead-208, or bismuth-209. Recently it has been shown that the multi-nucleon transfer reactions in collisions of actinide nuclei (such as uranium and curium) might be used to synthesize the neutron-rich superheavy nuclei located at the island of stability, although formation of the lighter elements nobelium or seaborgium is more favored. One last possibility to synthesize isotopes near the island is to use controlled nuclear explosions to create a neutron flux high enough to bypass the gaps of instability at Fm and at mass number 275 (atomic numbers 104 to 108), mimicking the r-process in which the actinides were first produced in nature and the gap of instability around radon bypassed. Some such isotopes (especially Cn and Cn) may even have been synthesized in nature, but would have decayed away far too quickly (with half-lives of only thousands of years) and be produced in far too small quantities (about 10 the abundance of lead) to be detectable as primordial nuclides today outside cosmic rays.


title: Moscovium

text: In the periodic table, moscovium is a member of group 15, the pnictogens. It appears below nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth. Every previous pnictogen has five electrons in its valence shell, forming a valence electron configuration of nsnp. In moscovium's case, the trend should be continued and the valence electron configuration is predicted to be 7s7p; therefore, moscovium will behave similarly to its lighter congeners in many respects. However, notable differences are likely to arise; a largely contributing effect is the spin–orbit (SO) interaction—the mutual interaction between the electrons' motion and spin. It is especially strong for the superheavy elements, because their electrons move much faster than in lighter atoms, at velocities comparable to the speed of light. In relation to moscovium atoms, it lowers the 7s and the 7p electron energy levels (stabilizing the corresponding electrons), but two of the 7p electron energy levels are stabilized more than the other four. The stabilization of the 7s electrons is called the inert pair effect, and the effect "tearing" the 7p subshell into the more stabilized and the less stabilized parts is called subshell splitting. Computation chemists see the split as a change of the second (azimuthal) quantum number "l" from 1 to and for the more stabilized and less stabilized parts of the 7p subshell, respectively. For many theoretical purposes, the valence electron configuration may be represented to reflect the 7p subshell split as 7s7p7p. These effects cause moscovium's chemistry to be somewhat different from that of its lighter congeners.


title: Moscovium

text: The valence electrons of moscovium fall into three subshells: 7s (two electrons), 7p (two electrons), and 7p (one electron). The first two of these are relativistically stabilized and hence behave as inert pairs, while the last is relativistically destabilized and can easily participate in chemistry. (The 6d electrons are not destabilized enough to participate chemically, although this may still be possible in the two previous elements, nihonium and flerovium.) Thus, the +1 oxidation state should be favored, like Tl, and consistent with this the first ionization potential of moscovium should be around 5.58 eV, continuing the trend towards lower ionization potentials down the pnictogens. Moscovium and nihonium both have one electron outside a quasi-closed shell configuration that can be delocalized in the metallic state: thus they should have similar melting and boiling points (both melting around 400 °C and boiling around 1100 °C) due to the strength of their metallic bonds being similar. Additionally, the predicted ionization potential, ionic radius (1.5 Å for Mc; 1.0 Å for Mc), and polarizability of Mc are expected to be more similar to Tl than its true congener Bi. Moscovium should be a dense metal due to its high atomic weight, with a density around 13.5 g/cm. The electron of the hydrogen-like moscovium atom (oxidized so that it only has one electron, Mc) is expected to move so fast that it has a mass 1.82 times that of a stationary electron, due to relativistic effects. For comparison, the figures for hydrogen-like bismuth and antimony are expected to be 1.25 and 1.077 respectively.


title: Moscovium

text: Moscovium is predicted to be the third member of the 7p series of chemical elements and the heaviest member of group 15 in the periodic table, below bismuth. Unlike the two previous 7p elements, moscovium is expected to be a good homologue of its lighter congener, in this case bismuth. In this group, each member is known to portray the group oxidation state of +5 but with differing stability. For nitrogen, the +5 state is mostly a formal explanation of molecules like NO: it is very difficult to have five covalent bonds to nitrogen due to the inability of the small nitrogen atom to accommodate five ligands. The +5 state is well represented for the essentially non-relativistic typical pnictogens phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony. However, for bismuth it becomes rare due to the relativistic stabilization of the 6s orbitals known as the inert pair effect, so that the 6s electrons are reluctant to bond chemically. It is expected that moscovium will have an inert pair effect for both the 7s and the 7p electrons, as the binding energy of the lone 7p electron is noticeably lower than that of the 7p electrons. Nitrogen(I) and bismuth(I) are known but rare and moscovium(I) is likely to show some unique properties, probably behaving more like thallium(I) than bismuth(I). Because of spin-orbit coupling, flerovium may display closed-shell or noble gas-like properties; if this is the case, moscovium will likely be typically monovalent as a result, since the cation Mc will have the same electron configuration as flerovium, perhaps giving moscovium some alkali metal character. Calculations predict that moscovium(I) fluoride and chloride would be ionic compounds, with an ionic radius of about 109–114 pm for Mc, although the 7p lone pair on the Mc ion should be highly polarisable. The Mc cation should behave like its true lighter homolog Bi. The 7s electrons are too stabilized to be able to contribute chemically and hence the +5 state should be impossible and moscovium may be considered to have only three valence electrons. Moscovium would be quite a reactive metal, with a standard reduction potential of −1.5 V for the Mc/Mc couple.


title: Moscovium

text: The chemistry of moscovium in aqueous solution should essentially be that of the Mc and Mc ions. The former should be easily hydrolyzed and not be easily complexed with halides, cyanide, and ammonia. Moscovium(I) hydroxide (McOH), carbonate (McCO), oxalate (McCO), and fluoride (McF) should be soluble in water; the sulfide (McS) should be insoluble; and the chloride (McCl), bromide (McBr), iodide (McI), and thiocyanate (McSCN) should be only slightly soluble, so that adding excess hydrochloric acid would not noticeably affect the solubility of moscovium(I) chloride. Mc should be about as stable as Tl and hence should also be an important part of moscovium chemistry, although its closest homolog among the elements should be its lighter congener Bi. Moscovium(III) fluoride (McF) and thiozonide (McS) should be insoluble in water, similar to the corresponding bismuth compounds, while moscovium(III) chloride (McCl), bromide (McBr), and iodide (McI) should be readily soluble and easily hydrolyzed to form oxyhalides such as McOCl and McOBr, again analogous to bismuth. Both moscovium(I) and moscovium(III) should be common oxidation states and their relative stability should depend greatly on what they are complexed with and the likelihood of hydrolysis.


title: Moscovium

text: Like its lighter homologues ammonia, phosphine, arsine, stibine, and bismuthine, moscovine (McH) is expected to have a trigonal pyramidal molecular geometry, with an Mc–H bond length of 195.4 pm and a H–Mc–H bond angle of 91.8° (bismuthine has bond length 181.7 pm and bond angle 91.9°; stibine has bond length 172.3 pm and bond angle 92.0°). In the predicted aromatic pentagonal planar cluster, analogous to pentazolate (), the Mc–Mc bond length is expected to be expanded from the extrapolated value of 156–158 pm to 329 pm due to spin–orbit coupling effects.


title: Moscovium

text: Unambiguous determination of the chemical characteristics of moscovium has yet to have been established. In 2011, experiments were conducted to create nihonium, flerovium, and moscovium isotopes in the reactions between calcium-48 projectiles and targets of americium-243 and plutonium-244. However, the targets included lead and bismuth impurities and hence some isotopes of bismuth and polonium were generated in nucleon transfer reactions. This, while an unforeseen complication, could give information that would help in the future chemical investigation of the heavier homologs of bismuth and polonium, which are respectively moscovium and livermorium. The produced nuclides bismuth-213 and polonium-212m were transported as the hydrides BiH and PoH at 850 °C through a quartz wool filter unit held with tantalum, showing that these hydrides were surprisingly thermally stable, although their heavier congeners McH and LvH would be expected to be less thermally stable from simple extrapolation of periodic trends in the p-block. Further calculations on the stability and electronic structure of BiH, McH, PoH, and LvH are needed before chemical investigations take place. However, moscovium and livermorium are expected to be volatile enough as pure elements for them to be chemically investigated in the near future. The moscovium isotopes Mc, Mc, and Mc may be chemically investigated with current methods, although their short half-lives would make this challenging. Moscovium is the heaviest element that has known isotopes that are long-lived enough for chemical experimentation.


title: Mica

text: Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is common in igneous and metamorphic rock and is occasionally found as small flakes in sedimentary rock. It is particularly prominent in many granites, pegmatites, and schists, and "books" (large individual crystals) of mica several feet across have been found in some pegmatites.


title: Mica

text: Micas are used in products such as drywalls, paints, fillers, especially in parts for automobiles, roofing and shingles, as well as in electronics. The mineral is used in cosmetics and food to add "shimmer" or "frost."


title: Mica

text: The mica group is composed of 37 phyllosilicate minerals. All crystallize in the monoclinic system, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in structure but vary in chemical composition. Micas are translucent to opaque with a distinct vitreous or pearly luster, and different mica minerals display colors ranging from white to green or red to black. Deposits of mica tend to have a flaky or platy appearance.


title: Mica

text: The crystal structure of mica is described as "TOT-c", meaning that it is composed of parallel "TOT" layers weakly bonded to each other by cations ("c"). The "TOT" layers in turn consist of two tetrahedral sheets ("T") strongly bonded to the two faces of a single octahedral sheet ("O"). It is the relatively weak ionic bonding between "TOT" layers that gives mica its perfect basal cleavage.


title: Mica

text: The tetrahedral sheets consist of silica tetrahedra, which are silicon ions surrounded by four oxygen ions. In most micas, one in four silicon ions is replaced by an aluminium ion, while half the silicon ions are replaced by aluminium ions in brittle micas. The tetrahedra each share three of their four oxygen ions with neighboring tetrahedra to produce a hexagonal sheet. The remaining oxygen ion (the "apical" oxygen ion) is available to bond with the octahedral sheet.


title: Mica

text: The octahedral sheet can be dioctahedral or trioctahedral. A trioctahedral sheet has the structure of a sheet of the mineral brucite, with magnesium or ferrous iron being the most common cation. A dioctahedral sheet has the structure and (typically) the composition of a gibbsite sheet, with aluminium being the cation. Apical oxygens take the place of some of the hydroxyl ions that would be present in a brucite or gibbsite sheet, bonding the tetrahedral sheets tightly to the octahedral sheet.


title: Mica

text: Tetrahedral sheets have a strong negative charge, since their bulk composition is AlSiO. The octahedral sheet has a positive charge, since its bulk composition is Al(OH) (for a dioctahedral sheet with the apical sites vacant) or M(OH) (for a trioctahedral site with the apical sites vacant; M represents a divalent ion such as ferrous iron or magnesium) The combined TOT layer has a residual negative charge, since its bulk composition is Al(AlSiO)(OH) or M(AlSiO)(OH). The remaining negative charge of the TOT layer is neutralized by the interlayer cations (typically sodium, potassium, or calcium ions).


title: Mica

text: Because the hexagons in the T and O sheets are slightly different in size, the sheets are slightly distorted when they bond into a TOT layer. This breaks the hexagonal symmetry and reduces it to monoclinic symmetry. However, the original hexahedral symmetry is discernible in the pseudohexagonal character of mica crystals.


title: Mica

text: Structurally, micas can be classed as dioctahedral ("Y" = 4) and trioctahedral ("Y" = 6). If the "X" ion is K or Na, the mica is a "common" mica, whereas if the "X" ion is Ca, the mica is classed as a "brittle" mica.


title: Mica

text: Very fine-grained micas, which typically show more variation in ion and water content, are informally termed "clay micas". They include:


title: Mica

text: Mica is widely distributed and occurs in igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary regimes. Large crystals of mica used for various applications are typically mined from granitic pegmatites.


title: Mica

text: The largest documented single crystal of mica (phlogopite) was found in Lacey Mine, Ontario, Canada; it measured and weighed about . Similar-sized crystals were also found in Karelia, Russia.


title: Mica

text: Scrap and flake mica is produced all over the world. In 2010, the major producers were Russia (100,000 tonnes), Finland (68,000 t), United States (53,000 t), South Korea (50,000 t), France (20,000 t) and Canada (15,000 t). The total global production was 350,000 t, although no reliable data were available for China. Most sheet mica was produced in India (3,500 t) and Russia (1,500 t). Flake mica comes from several sources: the metamorphic rock called schist as a byproduct of processing feldspar and kaolin resources, from placer deposits, and from pegmatites. Sheet mica is considerably less abundant than flake and scrap mica, and is occasionally recovered from mining scrap and flake mica. The most important sources of sheet mica are pegmatite deposits. Sheet mica prices vary with grade and can range from less than $1 per kilogram for low-quality mica to more than $2,000 per kilogram for the highest quality.


title: Mica

text: In Madagascar and India, it is also mined artisanally, in poor working conditions and with the help of child labour.


title: Mica

text: The commercially important micas are muscovite and phlogopite, which are used in a variety of applications.


title: Mica

text: Mica's value is based on its unique physical properties: the crystalline structure of mica forms layers that can be split or delaminated into thin sheets usually causing foliation in rocks. These sheets are chemically inert, dielectric, elastic, flexible, hydrophilic, insulating, lightweight, platy, reflective, refractive, resilient, and range in opacity from transparent to opaque. Mica is stable when exposed to electricity, light, moisture, and extreme temperatures. It has superior electrical properties as an insulator and as a dielectric, and can support an electrostatic field while dissipating minimal energy in the form of heat; it can be split very thin (0.025 to 0.125 millimeters or thinner) while maintaining its electrical properties, has a high dielectric breakdown, is thermally stable to , and is resistant to corona discharge. Muscovite, the principal mica used by the electrical industry, is used in capacitors that are ideal for high frequency and radio frequency. Phlogopite mica remains stable at higher temperatures (to ) and is used in applications in which a combination of high-heat stability and electrical properties is required. Muscovite and phlogopite are used in sheet and ground forms.


title: Mica

text: The leading use of dry-ground mica in the US is in the joint compound for filling and finishing seams and blemishes in gypsum wallboard (drywall). The mica acts as a filler and extender, provides a smooth consistency, improves the workability of the compound, and provides resistance to cracking. In 2008, joint compound accounted for 54% of dry-ground mica consumption. In the paint industry, ground mica is used as a pigment extender that also facilitates suspension, reduces chalking, prevents shrinking and shearing of the paint film, increases the resistance of the paint film to water penetration and weathering and brightens the tone of colored pigments. Mica also promotes paint adhesion in aqueous and oleoresinous formulations. Consumption of dry-ground mica in paint, the second-ranked use, accounted for 22% of the dry-ground mica used in 2008.


title: Mica

text: Ground mica is used in the well-drilling industry as an additive to drilling fluids. The coarsely ground mica flakes help prevent the loss of circulation by sealing porous sections of the drill hole. Well drilling muds accounted for 15% of dry-ground mica use in 2008. The plastics industry used dry-ground mica as an extender and filler, especially in parts for automobiles as lightweight insulation to suppress sound and vibration. Mica is used in plastic automobile fascia and fenders as a reinforcing material, providing improved mechanical properties and increased dimensional stability, stiffness, and strength. Mica-reinforced plastics also have high-heat dimensional stability, reduced warpage, and the best surface properties of any filled plastic composite. In 2008, consumption of dry-ground mica in plastic applications accounted for 2% of the market. The rubber industry used ground mica as an inert filler and mold release compound in the manufacture of molded rubber products such as tires and roofing. The platy texture acts as an anti-blocking, anti-sticking agent. Rubber mold lubricant accounted for 1.5% of the dry-ground mica used in 2008. As a rubber additive, mica reduces gas permeation and improves resiliency.


title: Mica

text: Dry-ground mica is used in the production of rolled roofing and asphalt shingles, where it serves as a surface coating to prevent sticking of adjacent surfaces. The coating is not absorbed by freshly manufactured roofing because mica's platy structure is unaffected by the acid in asphalt or by weather conditions. Mica is used in decorative coatings on wallpaper, concrete, stucco, and tile surfaces. It also is used as an ingredient in flux coatings on welding rods, in some special greases, and as coatings for core and mold release compounds, facing agents, and mold washes in foundry applications. Dry-ground phlogopite mica is used in automotive brake linings and clutch plates to reduce noise and vibration (asbestos substitute); as sound-absorbing insulation for coatings and polymer systems; in reinforcing additives for polymers to increase strength and stiffness and to improve stability to heat, chemicals, and ultraviolet (UV) radiation; in heat shields and temperature insulation; in industrial coating additive to decrease the permeability of moisture and hydrocarbons; and in polar polymer formulations to increase the strength of epoxies, nylons, and polyesters.