title: Exclusive Brethren

text: Hymns are a vital part of the worship of Exclusive Brethren. One of the unifying features in each of the different branches of the Brethren is a common hymnbook. The first collection used among the united assemblies was, "Hymns for the Poor of the Flock," from 1838 and again in 1840. Another such hymnbook, used by Exclusive Brethren (Tunbridge-Wells and Ames) dating back to 1856 is called, "Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the Little Flock," the first edition of which was compiled by G.V. Wigram.


title: Exclusive Brethren

text: A revision was made in 1881 by J.N. Darby. The Little Flock hymnbook has gone through many different editions in different languages. In modern times one of the more commonly used English hymn books in British and North American assemblies is "The Believers' Hymn Book". Most branches of Exclusive Brethren use one of the many editions of the Little Flock Hymn Book. All editions come from the same source: J.N.Darby's hymnbook of 1881 which drew on earlier work by George V. Wigram.


title: Exclusive Brethren

text: Some Exclusive meetings seat accepted men (men who are "in fellowship") in the front rows toward the table bearing the emblems, with accepted women behind the men, and unaccepted men and women toward the rear. Other Exclusive meetings seat accepted men and women together (so spouses can be seated together), and unaccepted men and women towards the rear in the "Seat of the Unlearned" or "Seat of the Observer".


title: Exclusive Brethren

text: Women in Exclusive Brethren gatherings wear a headcovering, which is often a headscarf, shawl or mantilla, in keeping with 1 Corinthians 11.


title: Exclusive Brethren

text: It is difficult to number the Exclusive Brethren, with the exception of the Raven/Taylor/Hales group, of which there are approximately 46,000 meeting in 300 church assemblies in 19 countries, with strongest representation in Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, and North America. Other Exclusive groups now number only 2–3,000 in the UK but there are larger numbers on the European continent and also in North America.


title: Exclusive Brethren

text: The Exclusive Hales branch of the Plymouth Brethren are portrayed in the film "Son of Rambow" as trying to restrict the creativity and freedom of the film's main character. The Plymouth Brethren are also featured in the book "Oscar and Lucinda" by Peter Carey, and in the film adaptation. Oscar is raised by a strict Plymouth Brethren father and rebels by becoming an Anglican priest.


title: Exclusive Brethren

text: Some have criticized the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (PBCC), the subgroup of the Exclusive Brethren that has attracted the most media coverage, for its policy of separating itself from other orthodox Christian denominations and because it prohibits radio and television, limits the use of computers and discourages socializing with people outside the movement.


title: Exclusive Brethren

text: Critics of the PBCC have accused it of using cult-like techniques by controlling all aspects of its members' lives. The group uses a technique of "withdrawing from" or shunning members who are believed to have offended. The group's control over its members is such that many who have left the group have had trouble adjusting to everyday life outside. In some cases people have killed themselves in distress. To help with this problem, several websites have been set up by ex-members to assist people who have left the church to adjust into mainstream society.


title: Exclusive Brethren

text: Involvement of members of the Exclusive Brethren Church in New Zealand in electioneering led to criticism in the context of the 2005 New Zealand election funding controversy. The church distributed political material criticising the New Zealand Labour Party government, and the leader of the opposition party admitted knowledge of the church's activities. More recently, the church also hired private investigators to conduct surveillance on ex-members who had criticised the church. There has also been criticism of the church's practice of "shutting up."


title: Exclusive Brethren

text: "N.B. This is a list of individuals associated with various branches of the Exclusive Brethren for at least a part of their lives. It includes, but is not limited to, members of the hardline Plymouth Brethren Christian Church."


The Thailand national under-23 football team (, ), also known as the Thailand Olympic football team, is the national team for the under-23 and 22 level, representing Thailand in international football competitions in the Olympic Games, Asian Games and Southeast Asian Games, as well as any other under-23 international football tournaments including the AFC U-23 Championship. It is controlled by the Football Association of Thailand.


title: Thailand national under-23 football team

text: The team has won the Southeast Asian Games gold medal for a record 7 times, making it the most successful among ASEAN football teams. Despite its major domination in Southeast Asia, the team never won any gold medal in Asian level.


text: The 2014 Asian Games was held in Incheon, South Korea. The Thailand U23 Team under coach Kiatisuk Senamuang built a young-blood team that would later become the main Thailand senior team with players such as Chanathip Songkrasin, Sarach Yooyen, Kawin Thamsatchanan, Charyl Chappuis, etc. In this competition the team made top performance by finishing in fourth place, the highest in the Asian Games after 1998.


text: The 2016 AFC U-23 Championship final tournament was held in Qatar from 12–30 January 2016. Thailand qualified for the tournament by runner-up in the qualification stage in homeland in March 2015. The Young Elephants recorded comprehensive victories; 2–1 against Cambodia; 5–1 against Philippines and 0–0 against North Korea.


text: The 2016 AFC U-23 Championship doubled as the qualifying tournament for the 2016 Summer Olympics Football tournament in Rio de Janeiro. Thailand were eliminated from the championship in the group stage. A 1–1 draw to Saudi Arabia followed by a 0–4 loss to Japan meant that Thailand needed to defeat North Korea in the final group match. A nil-all draw resulted in the elimination for Thailand from the tournament and hence failure to qualify for the Olympics. Although eliminated, Thailand earned praise and reputation for its strong performance in the tournament.


text: In the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship, Thailand only finished second in their qualification, but with the team being undefeated, Thailand beat Malaysia 3–0 and was held draws by Mongolia and Indonesia, Thailand became the best runners-up to qualify. The Young Elephants prepared by hosting the friendly 2017 M-150 Cup, where they finished fourth but managed to beat Japan 2–1. This enthusiastic performance of Thailand put up great hope for the team, having earlier conquered the 2017 SEA Games.


text: However, having entered the tournament, it would become Thailand's complete nightmare. They opened their game with a 0–1 loss to North Korea before got slapped with the same result to Japan, eventually eliminated the Young Elephants from the competition. The Thais bid goodbye from the competition in a humiliating fashion, with a devastating 1–5 loss to Palestine. To add the dismay, their defeated rivals Malaysia and Vietnam both moved on to progress from the group stage, with the latter managed to reach the final and ended in second place.


text: Thailand was awarded as host of the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship, therefore they were automatically qualified. Thailand still participated in the qualification as an opportunity to train and improve the team. Thailand, once again, finished second, after beating Indonesia and Brunei, but lost to Vietnam. Before the tournament, Thailand was eliminated at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games after the group stage.


text: In the group stage, Thailand would face Iraq, Australia and maiden debutant Bahrain, and was tipped favorably to progress, mainly due to Australia's underperformance in the tournament and inexperienced Bahrain. Thailand prepared by playing against Saudi Arabia in the friendly encounter, but lost 0–1. In their first match against inexperienced Bahrain, the Thais proved to be too dominant for the visitor, as the Thais demolished Bahrain 5–0. This win allowed more Thai supporters coming to cheer for the Thai side in their second encounter against underperformed Australia, instead, Thailand suffered a heartbreaking 1–2 loss to Australia despite having taken the lead and putting Thailand's quest to the final stage in their final game against Iraq. In final matches in group state Thailand draw Iraq 1–1 earn a spot in the quarterfinals of the tournament for the first time in AFC U-23 Championship as the second-placed team in the group behind Australia. In quarterfinals Thailand have to face with the winner of Group B, Saudi Arabia and lost with penalty 1-0 end the way to 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.


text: The 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup final tournament was held in Uzbekistan from 1–19 June 2022. Thailand qualified for the tournament by runner-up in the qualification stage in Mongolia in October 2021, which drew; 1-1 against Mongolia; 3-0 against Laos and 0–0 against Malaysia.


text: In the group stage, Thailand(pot2) was drawn into group C with South Korea(pot1), Vietnam(pot3), and Malaysia(pot4). All match will be played at Tashkent


text: The following players were called up for a training camp held from 5–15 December 2022 and for the friendly matches against Laos.


text: An all-time record table of Thailand national under-23 football team in major competitions only including; Summer Olympics, AFC U-23 Championship, M-150 Cup, Asian Games and Southeast Asian Games.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Given textual and archaeological evidence, it is thought that thousands of Europeans lived in Imperial China during the Yuan dynasty. These were people from countries traditionally belonging to the lands of Christendom during the High to Late Middle Ages who visited, traded, performed Christian missionary work, or lived in China. This occurred primarily during the second half of the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century, coinciding with the rule of the Mongol Empire, which ruled over a large part of Eurasia and connected Europe with their Chinese dominion of the Yuan dynasty. Whereas the Byzantine Empire centered in Greece and Anatolia maintained rare incidences of correspondence with the Tang, Song and Ming dynasties of China, the Holy See sent several missionaries and embassies to the early Mongol Empire as well as to Khanbaliq (modern Beijing), the capital of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. These contacts with the West were preceded by rare interactions between the Han dynasty and Hellenistic Greeks and Romans.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Mainly located in places such as the Yuan capital of Karakorum, European missionaries and merchants traveled around various parts of the Yuan dynasty and other Mongol-ruled khanates during a period of time referred to by historians as the "Pax Mongolica". Perhaps the most important political consequence of this movement of peoples and intensified trade was the Franco-Mongol alliance, although the latter never fully materialized, at least not in a consistent manner. The establishment of the Ming dynasty in 1368 and reestablishment of ethnic Han rule led to the cessation of European merchants and Roman Catholic missionaries living in China. Direct contact with Europeans was not renewed until Portuguese explorers and Jesuit missionaries arrived on Ming China's southern shores in the 1510s, during the Age of Discovery.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: The Italian merchant Marco Polo, preceded by his father and uncle Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, traveled to China during the Yuan dynasty. Marco Polo wrote a famous account of his travels there, as did the Franciscan friar Odoric of Pordenone and the merchant Francesco Balducci Pegolotti. The author John Mandeville also wrote about his travels to China, but he may have based these on preexisting accounts. In Khanbaliq, the Roman archdiocese was established by John of Montecorvino, who was later succeeded by Giovanni de Marignolli. Other Europeans such as André de Longjumeau managed to reach the eastern borderlands of China in their diplomatic travels to the Yuan imperial court, while others such as Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, Benedykt Polak, and William of Rubruck traveled instead to Outer Mongolia. The Turkic Chinese Nestorian Christian Rabban Bar Sauma was the first diplomat from China to reach the royal courts of the Christendom in the West.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Before the 13th century AD, instances of Europeans going to China or of Chinese going to Europe were very rare. Euthydemus I, Hellenistic ruler of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom in Central Asia during the 3rd century BC, led an expedition into the Tarim Basin (modern Xinjiang, China) in search of precious metals. Greek influence as far east as the Tarim Basin at this time also seems to be confirmed by the discovery of the Sampul tapestry, a woolen wall hanging with the painting of a blue-eyed soldier, possibly a Greek, and a prancing centaur, a common Hellenistic motif from Greek mythology. However, it is known that other Indo-European peoples such as the Yuezhi, Saka, and Tocharians inhabited the Tarim Basin before and after it was brought under Han Chinese influence during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BC). Emperor Wu's diplomat Zhang Qian (d. 113 BC) was sent to forge an alliance with the Yuezhi, a mission that was unsuccessful, but he brought back eyewitness reports of legacies of Hellenistic Greek civilization with his travels to "Dayuan" in the Fergana Valley, with Alexandria Eschate as its capital, and the "Daxia" of Bactria, in what is now Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Later the Han captured Dayuan in the Han-Dayuan war. It has also been suggested that the Terracotta Army (sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, first Emperor of China; dated to ~210 BCE), in the Xi'an region of Shaanxi Province, might be inspired by Hellenistic sculptural art, a hypothesis that has caused some controversy.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: At the cemetery in Sampul (Shanpula; 山普拉), ~14 km from Khotan (now in Lop County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang), where the aforementioned Sampul tapestry was found, the local inhabitants buried their dead there from roughly 217 BC to 283 AD. Mitochondrial DNA analysis of the human remains has revealed genetic affinities to peoples from the Caucasus, specifically a maternal lineage linked to Ossetians and Iranians, as well as an Eastern-Mediterranean paternal lineage. Seeming to confirm this link, from historical accounts it is known that Alexander the Great, who married a Sogdian woman from Bactria named Roxana, encouraged his soldiers and generals to marry local women; consequentially the later kings of the Seleucid Empire and Greco-Bactrian Kingdom had a mixed Persian-Greek ethnic background.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Beginning in the age of Augustus (r. 27 BC – 14 AD), the Romans, including authors such as Pliny the Elder, mentioned contacts with the "Seres", whom they identified as the producers of silk from distant East Asia and could have been the Chinese or even any number of middlemen of various ethnic backgrounds along the Silk Road of Central Asia and Northwest China. The Eastern-Han era Chinese general Ban Chao, Protector General of the Western Regions, explored Central Asia and in 97 AD dispatched his envoys Gan Ying to Daqin (i.e. the Roman Empire). Gan was dissuaded by Parthian authorities from venturing further than the "west coast" (possibly the Eastern Mediterranean) although he wrote a detailed report about the Roman Empire, its cities, postal network and consular system of government, and presented this to the Han court.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Subsequently, there was a series of Roman embassies in China lasting from the 2nd to 3rd centuries AD, as recorded in Chinese sources. In 166 AD the "Book of Later Han" records that Romans reached China from the maritime south and presented gifts to the court of Emperor Huan of Han (r. 146–168 AD), claiming they represented Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ("Andun" 安敦, r. 161–180 AD). There is speculation that they were Roman merchants instead of official diplomats.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: At the very least, archaeological evidence supports the claim in the "Weilüe" and "Book of Liang" that Roman merchants were active in Southeast Asia, if not the claim of their embassies arriving in China through Jiaozhi, the Chinese-controlled province of northern Vietnam. Roman golden medallions from the reigns of Antoninus Pius and his adopted son Marcus Aurelius have been found in Oc Eo (near Ho Chi Minh City), a territory that belonged to the Kingdom of Funan bordering Jiaozhi. Suggestive of even earlier activity is a Republican-era Roman glass bowl unearthed from a Western Han tomb of Guangzhou (on the shores of the South China Sea) dated to the early 1st century BC, in addition to ancient Mediterranean goods found in Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The Greco-Roman geographer Ptolemy wrote in his Antonine-era "Geography" that beyond the Golden Chersonese (Malay Peninsula) was a port city called Kattigara discovered by a Greek sailor named Alexander, a site Ferdinand von Richthofen assumed was Chinese-controlled Hanoi, but given the archaeological evidence could have been Oc Eo. Roman coins have been found in China, but far fewer than in India.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: It is possible that a group of Greek acrobatic performers, who claimed to be from a place "west of the seas" (i.e. Roman Egypt, which the "Book of Later Han" related to the "Daqin" empire), were presented by a king of Burma to Emperor An of Han in 120 AD. It is known that in both the Parthian Empire and Kushan Empire of Asia, ethnic Greeks continued to be employed as entertainers such as musicians and athletes who engaged in athletic competitions.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Byzantine Greek historian Procopius stated that two Nestorian Christian monks eventually uncovered how silk was made. From this revelation, monks were sent by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (ruled 527–565) as spies on the Silk Road from Constantinople to China and back to steal the silkworm eggs. This resulted in silk production in the Mediterranean, particularly in Thrace, in northern Greece, and giving the Byzantine Empire a monopoly on silk production in medieval Europe until the loss of its territories in Southern Italy. The Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta, writing during the reign of Heraclius (r. 610–641), relayed information about China's geography, its capital city "Khubdan" (Old Turkic: "Khumdan", i.e. Chang'an), its current ruler "Taisson" whose name meant "Son of Heaven" (Chinese: 天子 "Tianzi", although this could be derived from the name of Emperor Taizong of Tang), and correctly pointed to its reunification by the Sui dynasty (581–618) as occurring during the reign of Maurice, noting that China had previously been divided politically along the Yangzi River by two warring nations.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: The Chinese "Old Book of Tang" and "New Book of Tang" mention (拂菻; i.e. Byzantium), which they equated with Daqin (i.e. the Roman Empire), beginning in 643 with an embassy sent by the king "Boduoli" (波多力, i.e. Constans II Pogonatos) to Emperor Taizong of Tang, bearing gifts such as red glass. These histories also provided cursory descriptions of Constantinople, its walls, and how it was besieged by "Da shi" (大食; the Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate) and their commander "Mo-yi" (摩拽; i.e. Muawiyah I, governor of Syria before becoming caliph), who forced them to pay tribute. From Chinese records it is known that Michael VII Doukas (Mie li sha ling kai sa 滅力沙靈改撒) of "Fu lin" dispatched a diplomatic mission to China's Song dynasty that arrived in 1081, during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song. Some Chinese during the Song period showed interest in countries to the west, such as the early 13th-century Quanzhou customs inspector Zhao Rugua, who described the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria in his "Zhu fan zhi".


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: According to the 9th-century "Book of Roads and Kingdoms" by ibn Khordadbeh, China was a destination for Radhanite Jews buying boys, female slaves and eunuchs from Europe. During the subsequent Song period there was also a community of Kaifeng Jews in China. The Spaniard, Benjamin of Tudela (from Navarre) was a 12th-century Jewish traveler whose "Travels of Benjamin" recorded vivid descriptions of Europe, Asia, and Africa, preceding those of Marco Polo by a hundred years.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Polo, a 13th-century merchant from the Republic of Venice, describes his travels to Yuan-dynasty China and the court of Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, along with the preceding journeys made by Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, his father and uncle, respectively, in his "Travels of Marco Polo". Polo related this account to Rustichello da Pisa around 1298 while they shared a Genoese prison cell following their capture in battle. In his return trip to Persia from China (setting out from the port at Quanzhou in 1291), Marco Polo said that he accompanied the Mongol princess Kököchin in her intended marriage to Arghun, ruler of the Mongol Ilkhanate, but she instead married his son Ghazan following the former's sudden death. Although Marco Polo's presence is omitted entirely, his story is confirmed by the 14th-century Persian historian Rashid-al-Din Hamadani in his "Jami' al-tawarikh".


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Marco Polo accurately described geographical features of China such as the Grand Canal. His detailed and accurate descriptions of salt production confirm that he had actually been in China. Marco described salt wells and hills where salt could be mined, probably in Yunnan, and reported that in the mountains "these rascals ... have none of the Great Khan's paper money, but use salt instead ... They have salt which they boil and set in a mold ..." Polo also remarked how the Chinese burned paper effigies shaped as male and female servants, camels, horses, suits of clothing and armor while cremating the dead during funerary rites.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: When visiting Zhenjiang in Jiangsu, China, Marco Polo noted that Christian churches had been built there. His claim is confirmed by a Chinese text of the 14th century explaining how a Sogdian named Mar-Sargis from Samarkand founded six Nestorian Christian churches there in addition to one in Hangzhou during the second half of the 13th century. Nestorian Christianity had existed in China earlier during the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD) when a Persian monk named Alopen (Chinese: "Āluósī"; 阿羅本; 阿羅斯) came to the capital Chang'an in 653 to proselytize, as described in a dual Chinese and Syriac language inscription from Chang'an (modern Xi'an) dated to the year 781.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Others were soon to follow. The Italian Franciscan friar John of Montecorvino took a journey starting in 1291, setting out from Tabriz to Ormus, sailing from there to China while accompanied by the Italian merchant Pietro de Lucalongo. While Montecorvino became a bishop in Khanbaliq (Beijing), his friend Lucalongo continued to serve as a merchant there and donated a large amount of money to maintain the local Catholic Church. Marco Polo mentioned the heavy presence of Genoese Italians at Tabriz (modern Iran), a city that Marco returned to from China via the Strait of Hormuz in 1293–1294. John Mandeville, a mid-14th-century author and alleged Englishman from St Albans, claimed to have lived in China and even served at the Mongol khan's court. However, certain parts of his accounts are considered dubious by modern scholars, with some conjecturing that he simply concocted his stories by using written accounts of China penned by other authors such as Odoric of Pordenone.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: In Zaytun, the first harbour of China, there was a small Genoese colony, mentioned in 1326 by André de Pérouse. The most famous Italian resident of the city was , who was sent to the West by the Khan in 1336 to obtain "100 horses and other treasures." Following Savignone's visit, an ambassador was dispatched to China with one superb horse, which was later the object of Chinese poems and paintings.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Other Venetians lived in China, including one who brought a letter to the West from John of Montecorvino in 1305. In 1339 a Venetian named Giovanni Loredano is recorded to have returned to Venice from China. A tombstone was also discovered in Yangzhou, in the name of Catherine de Villioni, daughter of Dominici, who died there in 1342.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: In about 1340, Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, a merchant from Florence, compiled a guide about trade in China based on records from travellers who visited China (Pegolotti himself never went to China). The guide notes the size of Khanbaliq (modern Beijing) and how merchants could exchange silver for Chinese paper money that could be used to buy luxury items such as silk.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: The "History of Yuan" (chapter 134) records that a certain Ai-sie (transliteration of either Joshua or Joseph) from the country of Fu lin (i.e. the Byzantine Empire), initially in the service of Güyük Khan, was well-versed in Western languages and had expertise in the fields of medicine and astronomy that convinced Kublai Khan to offer him a position as the director of medical and astronomical boards. Kublai Khan eventually honored him with the title of Prince of Fu lin (Chinese: 拂菻王; "Fú lǐn wáng"). His biography in the "History of Yuan" lists his children by their Chinese names, which are similar to the Christian names Elias ("Ye-li-ah"), Luke ("Lu-ko"), and Antony ("An-tun"), with a daughter named "A-na-si-sz".


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Europeans of the 13th and 14th century called Northern China by place-names similar to ""Cathay"", while Southern China was called ""Mangi"" or ""Manzi"".


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: The Italian explorer and archbishop Giovanni da Pian del Carpine and Polish friar and traveler Benedykt Polak were the first papal envoys to reach Karakorum after being sent there by Pope Innocent IV in 1245. The ""Historia Mongalorum"" was later written by Pian del Carpini, documenting his travels and a cursory history of the Mongols. Catholic missionaries soon established a considerable presence in China, due to the religious tolerance of the Mongols, due in no small part to the Khan's own great tolerance and open encouragement of the development of trade and intellectual avocation. The 18th-century English historian Edward Gibbon commented on the Mongols' religious tolerance and went as far as to compare the "religious laws" of Genghis Khan to equivalent ideas propounded by the Enlightenment English philosopher John Locke.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Oghul Qaimish, the widow of Güyük Khan, ruled as regent over the Mongol realm from 1249 to 1251. In 1250 the French diplomats André de Longjumeau, Guy de Longjumeau, and Jean de Carcassonne arrived at her court located along the Emil River (on the Kazakh-Chinese border), bearing gifts and representing their sovereign Louis IX of France, who desired a military alliance. Empress Qaimish viewed the gifts as tributary offerings and, in addition to gifts given in return, entrusted to Louis' diplomats, she sent the French monarch a letter demanding his submission as a vassal.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: The Franciscan missionary John of Montecorvino (Giovanni da Montecorvino) was ordered to China by Pope Nicholas III in 1279. Montecorvino arrived in China at the end of 1293, where he later translated the New Testament into the Mongol tongue, and converted 6,000 people (probably mostly Alans, Turks and Mongols rather than Chinese). He was joined by three bishops (Andre de Perouse, Gerard Albuini and Peregrino de Castello) and ordained archbishop of Beijing by Pope Clement V in 1307. A community of Armenians in China sprang up during this period. They were converted to Catholicism by John of Montecorvino. Following the death of John of Montecorvino, Giovanni de Marignolli was dispatched to Beijing to become the new archbishop from 1342 to 1346 in an effort to maintain a Christian influence in the region. Marignolli, although not mentioned by name in the "History of Yuan", is noted in that historical text as the "Frank" ("Fulang") who provided the Yuan imperial court with an impressive war horse as a tributary gift.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: On 15 March 1314 the killings of Francis de Petriolo, Monaldo of Ancona and Anthony of Milan occurred in China. This was followed by the Killing of James, Quanzhou's bishop, in 1362. His predecessors were Andrew, Peregrinus, and Gerard.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: The Franciscan Friar Odoric of Pordenone visited China. Friars in Hangzhou and Zhangzhou were visited by Odorico. His total travels took place from 1304 to 1330, although he first returned to Europe in 1330. China's Franciscans were mentioned in his writings, the "Itinerarium".


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: In 1333, John de Montecorvino was officially replaced by Nicolaus de Bentra, who was chosen by Pope John XXII. There were complaints of the absence of the archbishop in 1338. Toghon Temür (the last Mongol ruler of the Yuan dynasty in China before their retreat to Mongolia to form the Northern Yuan dynasty) sent an embassy including Genoese Italians to Pope Benedict XII in 1336, requesting a new archbishop. The pope answered by sending legates and ecclesiastical leaders to Khanbaliq in 1342, which included Giovanni de Marignolli.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: In 1370, following the ousting of the Mongols from China and the establishment of the Chinese Ming dynasty, the Pope sent a new mission to China, comprising the Parisian theologian Guillaume du Pré as the new archbishop and 50 Franciscans. However, this mission disappeared, apparently eliminated by Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of Ming. The Ming Hongwu Emperor sent a diplomatic letter to the Byzantine Empire, through a European in China named Nieh-ku-lun. John V Palaiologos was the Byzantine Emperor at the time the message was sent by Hongwu, with the proclamatory letter informing him about the establishment of the new Ming dynasty. The message was sent to the Byzantine ruler in September 1371 when Hongwu met with the merchant Nieh-ku-lun (捏古倫) from Fu lin (Byzantium). The Khanbaliq bishop Nicolaus de Bentra is speculated to be the same person as Nieh-ku-lun, for instance, by Emil Bretschneider in 1888. More recently, Edward N. Luttwak (2009) also mused that Nicolaus de Bentra and this alleged Byzantine merchant Nieh-ku-lin were one and the same.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Friar William of Parto, Cosmas, and John de' Marignolli were among the Catholic clerics in China. The "Oriens Christianus" by Michel Le Quien (1661–1733) recorded the names of Khanbaliq's previous bishops and archbishops.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: For his travels from 1253 to 1255, the Franciscan friar William of Rubruck reported numerous Europeans in Central Asia. He described German prisoners who had been enslaved and forced to mine gold and manufacture iron weapons in the Mongol town of Bolat, near Talas, Kyrgyzstan. In Karakorum, the Mongol capital, he met a Parisian named Guillaume de Buchier, and Pâquette, a woman from the French city of Metz, who had both been captured in Hungary during the Mongol invasions of Europe. He also mentions Hungarians and Russians, and it is also known that 30,000 Alans, a group of Sarmatian tribes, formed the Asud guard of the Mongol court in Beijing.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: William of Rubruck, a Flemish missionary who visited the Mongol court of Mongke Khan at Karakorum and returned to Europe in 1257, was a friend of the English philosopher and scientific thinker Roger Bacon. The latter recorded the earliest known European recipe for gunpowder in his "Opus Majus" of 1267. This came more than two centuries after the first known Chinese description of the formula for gunpowder in 1044, during the Song dynasty. The earliest use of Chinese prototype firearms occurred at an 1132 siege during the Jin-Song Wars, whereas the oldest surviving bronze hand cannon dates to 1288 during the Yuan period. Following the Mongol invasions of Japan (1274–1281), depicted explosive bombs used by Yuan-dynasty forces against their samurai. By 1326 the earliest artistic depiction of a gun was made in Europe by Walter de Milemete. Petrarch wrote in 1350 that cannons were then a common sight on the European battlefield.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Rabban Bar Sauma, a Nestorian Christian Turkic Chinese born in Zhongdu (later Khanbaliq, Beijing, capital of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty), China, was sent to Europe in 1287 as an ambassador for Arghun, ruler of the Ilkhanate and grandnephew of Kublai Khan. He was preceded by Isa Kelemechi, an Assyrian Nestorian Christian who worked as a court astronomer for Kublai Khan in Khanbaliq, and was sent by Arghun to Pope Honorius IV in 1285. A decade earlier, Bar Sauma had originally set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, passing through Gansu and Khotan in Northwest China, yet spent time in Armenia and Baghdad instead to avoid getting caught up in nearby armed conflicts. He had been accompanied by Rabban Markos, another Uyghur Nestorian Christian from China who was elected as the Patriarch of the Eastern Church and advised Arghun Khan to have Bar Sauma lead the diplomatic mission to Europe.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: Bar Sauma, who spoke Chinese, Persian, and Old Uyghur, traveled with a cohort of Italians who served as translators, with Europeans communicating to him in Persian. Bar Sauma is the first known person from China to reach Europe, where he convened with the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos, Philip IV of France, Edward I of England, and Pope Nicholas IV (shortly after the death of Pope Honorius IV) to form an alliance against the Mamluk Sultanate. Edward N. Luttwak depicts the arrival of these Nestorian envoys to the court of the Byzantine ruler Andronikos II as something akin to "receiving mail from his in-law in Beijing," since Kublai Khan was a grandson of Genghis Khan and Andronikos had two half-sisters who were married to great-grandsons of Genghis. Moving further west, Bar Sauma witnessed a naval battle at the Bay of Naples, Italy in June, 1287 between the Angevins and the Kingdom of Aragon, while being hosted by Charles Martel of Anjou, whose father Charles II of Naples was imprisoned in Aragon (in modern Spain) at the time. Aside from his desire to see Christian sites, churches, and relics, Bar Sauma also showed a keen interest in the university life and curricula of Paris, which Morris Rossabi contends was rooted in how exotic it must have seemed from his perspective and educational background in Muslim Persia and Chinese Confucian teaching. Although he managed to secure an audience with these leaders of Christendom and exchanged letters from them to Arghun Khan, none of these Christian monarchs were fully committed to an alliance with the latter.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: In 1368 the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty collapsed amid widespread internal revolt during the Red Turban Rebellion, whose ethnic Han leader would become the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty. A formal resumption of direct trade and contact with Europeans would not be seen until the 16th century, initiated by the Portuguese during the Age of Discovery. The first Portuguese explorer to land in southern China was Jorge Álvares, who in May 1513 arrived at Lintin Island in the Pearl River Delta to engage in trade. This was followed by Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of the wife of Christopher Columbus, who landed at Guangzhou in 1516 after a voyage from newly conquered Portuguese Malacca. Although the 1517 mission by Fernão Pires de Andrade ended in disaster and his imprisonment by Ming authorities, relations would be smoothed over by Leonel de Sousa, the first governor of the Portuguese trade colony at Macau, China, in the Luso-Chinese treaty of 1554. The writings of Gaspar da Cruz, Juan Gonzáles de Mendoza, and Antonio de Morga all impacted the Western view and understanding of China at the time, offering intricate details about its society and items of trade.


title: Europeans in Medieval China

text: The Italian Jesuit missionary Michele Ruggieri would be the first European invited into the Ming-era Forbidden City in Beijing (during the reign of the Wanli Emperor); Matteo Ricci, in 1602 he would publish his map of the world in Chinese that introduced the existence of the American continents to Chinese geographers. He arrived in Macau in 1582, when he began to learn the Chinese language and information about China's ancient culture, yet was unaware of the events that had transpired there since the end of the Franciscan missions in the mid 14th century and establishment of the Ming dynasty. Since that time the Islamic world presented an obstacle for the West in reaching East Asia and, barring the grand treasure voyages of the 15th-century admiral Zheng He, the Ming dynasty had largely pursued policies of isolationism that kept it from seeking far-flung diplomatic contacts.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: The cane toad in Australia is regarded as an exemplary case of a "feral species", including rabbits, foxes, cats, and dogs, among others. Australia's relative isolation prior to European colonisation and the industrial revolution, both of which dramatically increased traffic and import of novel species, allowed development of a complex, interdepending system of ecology, but one which provided no natural predators for many of the species subsequently introduced. The recent, sudden inundation of foreign species has led to severe breakdowns in Australian ecology, after overwhelming proliferation of a number of introduced species, for which the continent has no efficient natural predators or parasites, and which displace native species; in some cases, these species are physically destructive to habitat, as well. Cane toads have been very successful as an invasive species, having become established in more than 15 countries within the past 150 years. In the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, the Australian government listed the impacts of the cane toad as a "key threatening process".


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: Native to South and mainland Middle America, cane toads were introduced to Australia from Hawaii in June 1935 by the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations, now Sugar Research Australia, in an attempt to control the native grey-backed cane beetle ("Dermolepida albohirtum") and French's beetle ("Lepidiota frenchi"). These beetles are native to Australia and they are detrimental to sugarcane crops, which are a major source of income for Australia. Adult cane beetles eat the crop's leaves, but the main problem is the larvae, which feed on the roots. Adult cane beetles have a heavy exoskeleton and their eggs and larvae are often buried underground, making them difficult to exterminate. Furthermore, conventional methods of pest control, such as pesticide use, would eradicate harmless species of insects, as well, making them unsatisfactory methods. Cane toads were to replace the use of pesticides, such as arsenic, pitch, and copper. The success of using the moth "Cactoblastis cactorum" in controlling prickly pears in Australia also contributed to hopes for the cane toad.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: In June 1935, 102 cane toads ("Rhinella marina", formerly ICZN "Bufo marinus") were imported to Gordonvale from Hawaii (with one dying in transit due to dehydration). By March 1937, some 62,000 toadlets were bred in captivity and then released in areas around Cairns, Gordonvale, and Innisfail in northern Queensland. More toads were released around Ingham, Ayr, Mackay, and Bundaberg. Releases were temporarily limited because of environmental concerns, but resumed in other areas after September 1936. Since their release, toads have rapidly multiplied in population and now number over 200 million and have been known to spread diseases affecting local biodiversity. The introduction of the toads has not only caused large environmental detriment, but also no evidence indicates that they have affected the cane beetles for which they were introduced to prey upon.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: The spread of cane toads was slow at first, but by 1959, they had colonised most of Queensland's east coast. In 1964, they appeared in the Gulf of Carpentaria. By 1978, they had reached the border with New South Wales. By 1984, they had reached the Queensland/Northern Territory border. In March 2001, the invasion front entered the wetlands of heritage-listed Kakadu National Park, and by 2009, the toads were within reach of the Northern Territory/Western Australian border. They have also spread south into northern New South Wales, with one isolated community in Port Macquarie and were found in Sydney at Tarren Point in the south of the city. By 2019, they had become a pest in the Torres Strait Islands, probably carried there by boat.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: The toads on the western frontier of their advance have evolved larger legs; this is thought to be related to their ability to travel farther. As a consequence of their longer legs, larger bodies, and faster movement, about 10% of the leading-edge cane toads have also developed arthritis. Cane toads are estimated to migrate around per year as of 1994, but new research in 2014 indicated that the migration rate had increased to per year on the western front.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: The long-term effects of toads on the Australian environment are difficult to determine, but some effects include "the depletion of native species that die eating cane toads; the poisoning of pets and humans; depletion of native fauna preyed on by cane toads; and reduced prey populations for native insectivores, such as skinks."


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: Precipitous declines in populations of the northern quoll ("Dasyurus hallucatus") have been observed after toads have invaded an area. A number of cases of declines in goanna and snake populations have been reported after the arrival of toads. For example, local populations of "Varanus panoptes" dropped by up to 90% when their habitat was invaded by cane toads. The preliminary risk assessment of cane toads in Kakadu National Park stated that the predation of the cane toad by native wildlife is the greatest risk to biodiversity. Other factors, such as competition with native wildlife for resources, and the predation of the cane toad on native wildlife, were considered much lower risk factors, but requiring further study. In the Northern Territory, goanna deaths resulting from poisoning after predation on cane toads has been linked to a rise in the number of undamaged saltwater crocodile eggs.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: Numerous native species have been reported as successfully preying on toads. Some birds, such as the black kite ("Milvus migrans"), have learned to attack the toad's belly, avoiding the poison-producing glands on the back of the head. Anecdotal reports in the Northern Territory suggest that a native frog, Dahl's aquatic frog ("Litoria dahlii"), is able to eat the tadpoles and live young of the toad without being affected by the poison that often kills other predators. This may account for slower than expected infestations of toads in certain areas of the Northern Territory, although later research carried out jointly by several Australian Universities casts doubt on these reports. Some snake species have been reported to have adapted smaller jaws so that they are unable to swallow large cane toads, which have large quantities of poison.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: Another study, however, notes that the cane toad is adapting to a wider environmental range and may in the future be spreading into habitats currently not available.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: In 2009, the native meat ant was found to be immune to the toad's poison and can successfully prey upon young cane toads. Whereas native frogs and toads have natural reflexes to avoid the meat ants, the cane toads do not tend to try to escape the ants, rather standing still when attacked waiting for the toxin to kill the attacker.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: New research has indicated that cane toads prey on dung beetles by nestling in cow pats and waiting for the beetles, eating up to 150 in one meal. In areas where cane toads have free access to water in dams, the dung beetles have been decimated. This indicates that the cane toad has the potential to economically affect the cattle industry through increased disease in cattle.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: Predators in Australia are not adapted to the cane toad's toxin, which is its main defense mechanism. Because of this, toads do not tend to hide and are usually targeted by predators, which then expose themselves to the toxic effects. One study suggests Australian reptiles are greatly threatened by invasion of the cane toad, more so than any other group. Two species of crocodiles and around 70 species of freshwater turtles were found to be at risk of invasion, and all species studied were found capable of eating a toad large enough to kill them. All freshwater turtles and crocodiles are predicted to share part of their future distribution with the invasive species by 2030. Australia's varanids and agamids are also at a great risk.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: One native freshwater turtle species, "Myuchelys latisternum" (saw-shelled turtle), which ranges along rivers and streams from Cape York Peninsula to northern New South Wales, is reported to be one of the few native animals that is a successful predator of cane toads. The larger the animal, or predator, is the better chance it has of survival, as its body weight effectively dilutes the concentration of the toxin in its body. There are reports of one native species, the Torresian crow, eating cane toads without ingesting the poison by flipping it onto its back and eating its non-toxic innards via its underside. In 2014, researchers found evidence that the Australian freshwater crocodile ("Crocodylus johnstoni") had learned to eat just the hind legs of cane toads. One research study concluded that in less than 75 years, the red-bellied black snake had evolved in toad-inhabited regions of Australia to have increased resistance to toad toxin and decreased preference for toads as prey.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: Evidence exists for native predator species adapting to the presence of the cane toad, through learning or evolutionary selection, but the initial drop in population is often steep and can reduce biodiversity on a population level. One proposed solution is to use "teacher toads", or smaller toads that are less likely to kill predators. These toads would allow predators to learn not to eat the toads while mitigating mortality. Some have even proposed adding some chemical to make the toads distasteful to further discourage predation. These efforts have shown some promising results so far.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: A study to be published in the "Ecology" journal states that the invasion of cane toads in a case study area caused a trophic cascade over a period of five years. The resident predators, the monitor lizards, ate the cane toads and died, which resulted in a boom in the population of the lizards' typical prey, crimson finches.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: Richard Shine is using behavioural conditioning techniques to teach the northern quoll to avoid cane toads.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: In 2019, the native rakali or Australian water rats ("Hydromys chrysogaster") were found to have learned to make an incision to eat the cane toads' hearts and livers, while avoiding their lethal skin and glands. The water rats were able to adapt the hunting strategies within two years of the cane toads' introduction into their territory.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: Currently, most attempts to curtail the invasion of cane toads have been unsuccessful. Many of these strategies involve the physical trapping of toads, but these methods also capture unintended native species. Since the largest selective pressure on cane toads currently is intraspecies competition, these physical removals often only improve the conditions for untrapped toads. Also, since migration is high, any area purged of toads would most likely be reinvaded quickly.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: Many new ideas have been proposed to control the cane toad population. Some have suggested introducing a native viral or bacterial pest of the toads, but this has potential to once again invade native species. Two similar strategies have been proposed, both of which focus on fecundity. One involves the release of sterile males into the population. These males would compete for resources with other males, while themselves not being able to reproduce. A second strategy would be to insert a gene in female toads, which would allow them to only create male offspring. In theory, this would limit the reproductive rates and control the population. Determining the efficacy and dangers of these approaches is difficult, as these methods have never been attempted, especially on a large scale.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: On 13 June 2012, news reports cited a new research breakthrough regarding cane toad control. Cane toad tadpoles are attracted to the toxin produced by adults and spawnas they are believed to cannibalize toad spawn as a food source. Researchers used cane toad toxin to successfully lure cane toad tadpoles, implying that in controlled areas, tadpoles could be captured and eradicated.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: In semiarid areas where water is scarce, the construction of toad-proof fences around dams can severely affect toad survival rates by denying them access to water.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: The RSPCA has guidelines for the humane culling of cane toads. Inhumane ways include spraying with Dettol, "phenyl", and using a large hammer with a flat, metal head to bludgeon them to death, but these are illegal in most states and territories (for NT, QLD, and NSW, no laws prohibit inhumane ways, just recommendations). Due to concerns over potential harm to other Australian wildlife species, the use of Dettol as pest control was banned in Western Australia by the Department of Environment and Conservation in 2011.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: Large predators, such as the yellow-spotted monitors and sand goannas, are being fed young, small, cane toads by researchers to create a "food poisoning"-like experience for the predators, in the hope that they will avoid eating adult toads, which might kill them.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: Poisonous sausages containing toad meat are being trialed in the Kimberley (Western Australia) to try to protect native animals from cane toads' deadly impact. The Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation has been working with the University of Sydney to develop baits to train native animals not to eat the toads. By blending bits of toad with a nausea-inducing chemical, the baits train the animals to stay away from the amphibians. Researcher David Pearson says trials run in laboratories and in remote parts of the Kimberley region of WA are looking promising, although the baits will not solve the cane-toad problem altogether.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: Attempts have been made to make use of dead cane toads, which can number in the thousands and cause hygiene problems. This includes processing the carcasses into liquid fertilisers.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: Their skin can be made into leather, and novelty cane-toad purses made of the fore body and abdomen have been made. In the Torres Strait Islands, where the toads arrived around 2014, one entrepreneur is tanning the hides to create a durable leather, and creating luxury fashion handbags from the skins.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: The cane toad has been listed by the National Trust of Queensland as a state icon of Queensland, alongside the Great Barrier Reef, and past icons, the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the backyard mango tree (also an introduced species).


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: "Cane toad" is also a colloquial term for an inhabitant of Queensland, particularly the state's State of Origin rugby league team members and supporters.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: In Australian states where the cane toad is common, some "sports" have developed, such as cane-toad golf and cane-toad cricket, where cane toads are used as balls. In April 2005, Dave Tollner, a Northern Territory Member of Parliament, called for legalisation of attacks on cane toads. This was criticised by many animal and conservation groups, who claim freezing is a more humane way to kill cane toads than hitting them with cricket bats. Townsville holds an annual "Toad Day Out", where the community learn about and catch cane toads, with prizes for the largest toad caught, and the heaviest weight of toads caught. In 2015, of toads were caught. In 2016, a drier year, of toads were caught. Cane toad races are popular in some towns and pubs. Toads are given humorous names and punters can bid or buy a toad or bet on them as in horse racing. Entrants or the winners commonly have to kiss their toads.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: The introduction and subsequent migration of the cane toad in Australia was popularised by the film "" (1988), which tells the tale with a humorous edge and is often shown in environmental science courses. Don Spencer, a popular children's entertainer, sang the song "Warts 'n' All", which was used in the documentary. A longer sequel, "", by the same filmmaker, was made in 2010.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: The short film "Cane Toad – What happened to Baz?" displays an Australian attitude towards the cane toad. This film won the "Best Comedy" award at the 2003 St Kilda Film Festival.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: A controversial commercial for Tooheys beer company showed people from New South Wales standing at the New South Wales-Queensland border with golf clubs and lights, attracting cane toads just so they could hit them back across the border with the golf clubs.


title: Cane toads in Australia

text: The invasive nature of cane toads was referenced in "The Simpsons" episode "Bart vs. Australia". It was also parodied in the episode "Bart the Mother" in which an invasive lizard is dealt with by introducing other species.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: Normative pitch accent, essentially the pitch accent of the Tokyo Yamanote dialect, is considered essential in jobs such as broadcasting. The current standards for pitch accent are presented in special accent dictionaries for native speakers such as the "Shin Meikai Nihongo Akusento Jiten" () and the "NHK Nihongo Hatsuon Akusento Jiten" (). Newsreaders and other speech professionals are required to follow these standards.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: Foreign learners of Japanese are often not taught to pronounce the pitch accent, though it is included in some noted texts, such as "". Incorrect pitch accent is a strong characteristic of a "foreign accent" in Japanese.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: Note that accent rules apply to phonological words, which include any following particles. So the sequence ""hashi"" spoken in isolation can be accented in two ways, either "háshi" (accent on the first syllable, meaning 'chopsticks') or "hashí" (flat or accent on the second syllable, meaning either 'edge' or 'bridge'), while ""hashi"" plus the subject-marker ""ga"" can be accented on the first syllable or the second, or be flat/accentless: "háshiga" 'chopsticks', "hashíga" 'bridge', or "hashiga" 'edge'.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: In poetry, a word such as "omoshirói", which has the accent on the fourth mora "ro", is pronounced in five beats (morae). When initial in the phrase (and therefore starting out with a low pitch), the pitch typically rises on the "o", levels out at mid range on the "moshi", peaks on the "ro", and then drops suddenly on the "i", producing a falling tone on the "roi".


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: In all cases but final accent, there is a general declination (gradual decline) of pitch across the phrase. This, and the initial rise, are part of the prosody of the phrase, not lexical accent, and are larger in scope than the phonological word. That is, within the overall pitch-contour of the phrase there may be more than one phonological word, and thus potentially more than one accent.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: The foregoing describes the actual pitch. In most guides, however, accent is presented with a two-pitch-level model. In this representation, each mora is either high (H) or low (L) in pitch, with the shift from high to low of an accented mora transcribed HꜜL.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: Many linguists analyse Japanese pitch accent somewhat differently. In their view, a word either has a downstep or does not. If it does, the pitch drops between the accented mora and the subsequent one; if it does not have a downstep, the pitch remains more or less constant throughout the length of the word: That is, the pitch is "flat" as Japanese speakers describe it. The initial rise in the pitch of the word, and the gradual rise and fall of pitch across a word, arise not from lexical accent, but rather from prosody, which is added to the word by its context: If the first word in a phrase does not have an accent on the first mora, then it starts with a low pitch, which then rises to high over subsequent morae. This phrasal prosody is applied to individual words only when they are spoken in isolation. Within a phrase, each downstep triggers another drop in pitch, and this accounts for a gradual drop in pitch throughout the phrase. This drop is called terracing. The next phrase thus starts off near the low end of the speaker's pitch range and needs to reset to high before the next downstep can occur.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: In standard Japanese, about 47% of words are unaccented and around 26% are accented on the ante-penultimate mora. However, this distribution is highly variable between word categories. For example, 70% of native nouns are unaccented, while only 50% of kango and only 7% of loanwords are unaccented. In general, most 1–2 mora words are accented on the first mora, 3–4 mora words are unaccented, and words of greater length are almost always accented on one of the last five morae.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: The following chart gives some examples of minimal pairs of Japanese words whose only differentiating feature is pitch accent. Phonemic pitch accent is indicated with the phonetic symbol for downstep, .


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: In isolation, the words "hashi" はし hàshí "bridge" and "hashi" hàshí "edge" are pronounced identically, starting low and rising to a high pitch. However, the difference becomes clear in context. With the simple addition of the particle "ni" "at", for example, hàshí-nì "at the bridge" acquires a marked drop in pitch, while hàshi-ni "at the edge" does not. However, because the downstep occurs after the first mora of the accented syllable, a word with a final long accented syllable would contrast all three patterns even in isolation: an accentless word "nihon", for example, would be pronounced , differently from either of the words above. In 2014, a study recording the electrical activity of the brain showed that native Japanese speakers mainly use context, rather than pitch accent information, to contrast between words that differ only in pitch.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: This property of the Japanese language allows for a certain type of pun, called , combining two words with the same or very similar sounds but different pitch accents and thus meanings. For example, "kaeru-ga kaeru" . These are considered quite corny, and are associated with .


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: Since any syllable, or none, may be accented, Tokyo-type dialects have "N"+1 possibilities, where "N" is the number of syllables (not morae) in a word, though this pattern only holds for a relatively small "N".


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: Accent and tone are the most variable aspect of Japanese dialects. Some have no accent at all; of those that do, it may occur in addition to a high or low word tone.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: The dialects that have a Tokyo-type accent, like the standard Tokyo dialect described above, are distributed over Hokkaido, northern Tohoku, most of Kanto, most of Chūbu, Chūgoku and northeastern Kyushu. Most of these dialects have a more-or-less high tone in unaccented words (though first mora has low tone, and following morae have high tone); an accent takes the form of a downstep, after which the tone stays low. But some dialects, for example, dialects of northern Tohoku and eastern Tottori, typically have a more-or-less low tone in unaccented words; accented syllables have a high tone, with low tone on either side, rather like English stress accent. In any case, the downstep has phonological meaning and the syllable followed by downstep is said to be "accented".


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: Keihan (Kyoto–Osaka)-type dialects of Kansai and Shikoku have nouns with both patterns: That is, they have tone differences in unaccented as well as accented words, and both downstep in some high-tone words and a high-tone accent in some low-tone words. In the neighboring areas of Tokyo-type and Keihan-type such as parts of Kyushu, northeastern Kanto, southern Tohoku, around Fukui, around Ōzu in Ehime and elsewhere, nouns are not accented at all.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: In western and southern Kyushu dialects (pink area on the map on the right), a high tone falls on a predictable syllable, depending only on whether the noun has an accent. This is termed a two-pattern ("nikei") system, as there are two possibilities, accented and not accented. For instance, in the Kagoshima dialect unaccented nouns have a low tone until the final syllable, at which point the pitch rises. In accented nouns, however, the penultimate syllable of a phonological word has a high tone, which drops on the final syllable. (Kagoshima phonology is based on syllables, not on morae.) For example, "irogami" 'colored paper' is unaccented in Kagoshima, while "kagaribi" 'bonfire' is accented. The ultimate or penultimate high tone will shift when any unaccented grammatical particle is added, such as nominative "-ga" or ablative "-kara":


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: In the Shuri dialect of the Okinawan language, unaccented words are high tone; accent takes the form of a downstep after the second syllable, or after the first syllable of a disyllabic noun. However, the accents patterns of the Ryukyuan languages are varied, and do not all fit the Japanese patterns.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: In Miyakonojō, Miyazaki (small black area on map), there is a single accent: all phonological words have a low tone until the final syllable, at which point the pitch rises. That is, every word has the pitch pattern of Kagoshima . This is called an (one-pattern) accent. Phonologically, it is the same as the absence of an accent (white areas on map), and is sometimes counted as such, as there can be no contrast between words based on accent. However, speakers of -type dialects feel that they are accenting a particular syllable, whereas speakers of unaccented dialects have no such intuition.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: Near the old capital of Kyoto, in Kansai, Shikoku, and parts of Hokuriku (the easternmost Western Japanese dialects), there is a more innovative system, structurally similar to a combination of these patterns. There are both high and low initial tone as well as the possibility of an accented mora. That is, unaccented nouns may have either a high or a low tone, and accented words have pitch accent in addition to this word tone. This system will be illustrated with the Kansai dialect of Osaka.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: Accented high-tone words in Osaka, like "atama" 'head', are structurally similar to accented words in Tokyo, except that the pitch is uniformly high prior to the downstep, rather than rising as in Tokyo. As in Tokyo, the subsequent morae have low pitch. Unaccented high-tone words, such as "sakura" 'cherry tree', are pronounced with a high tone on every syllable, and in following unaccented particles:


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: Low-tone accented words are pronounced with a low pitch on every mora but the accented one. They are like accented words in Kagoshima, except that again there are many exceptions to the default placement of the accent. For example, "tokage" is accented on the "ka" in both Osaka and Kagoshima, but "omonaga" 'oval face' is accented on "mo" in Osaka and "na" in Kagoshima (the default position for both dialects); also, in Osaka the accented is fixed on the "mo," whereas in Kagoshima it shifts when particles are added. Unaccented low-tone words such as "usagi" 'rabbit' have high pitch only in the final mora, just as in Kagoshima:


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: Hokuriku dialect in Suzu is similar, but unaccented low-tone words are purely low, without the rise at the end:


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: The Keihan system is sometimes described as having 2"n"+1 possibilities, where "n" is the number of morae (up to a relatively small number), though not all of these actually occur. From the above table, there are three accent patterns for one-mora words, four (out of a theoretical 2"n"+1 = 5) for two-mora words, and six (out of a theoretical 2"n"+1 = 7) for three-mora words.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: There are regular correspondences between Tokyo-type and Keihan-type accents. The downstep on high-tone words in conservative Keihan accents generally occurs one syllable earlier than in the older Tokyo-type accent. For example, "kokoro" 'heart' is in Tokyo but in Osaka; "kotoba" 'word' is in Tokyo but in Osaka; "kawa" 'river' is in Tokyo but in Osaka. If a word is unaccented and high-tone in Keihan dialects, it is also unaccented in Tokyo-type dialects. If a two-mora word has a low tone in Keihan dialects, it has a downstep on the first mora in Tokyo-type dialects.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: In Tokyo, whereas most non-compound native nouns have no accent, most verbs (including adjectives) do. Moreover, the accent is always on the penultimate mora, that is, the last mora of the verb stem, as in 'be white' and 'get up'. In Kansai, however, verbs have high- and low-tone paradigms as nouns do. High-tone verbs are either unaccented or are accented on the penultimate mora, as in Tokyo. Low-tone verbs are either unaccented or accented on the final syllable, triggering a low tone on unaccented suffixes. In Kyoto, verbal tone varies irregularly with inflection, a situation not found in more conservative dialects, even more conservative Kansai-type dialects such as that of Kōchi in Shikoku.


title: Japanese pitch accent

text: Japanese pitch accent also varies in how it interacts with syllables and morae. Kagoshima is a purely syllabic dialect, while Osaka is moraic. For example, the low-tone unaccented noun "shinbun" 'newspaper' is in Kagoshima, with the high tone spread across the entire final syllable "bun," but in Osaka it is , with the high tone restricted to the final mora "n". In Tokyo, accent placement is constrained by the syllable, though the downstep occurs between the morae of that syllable. That is, a stressed syllable in Tokyo dialect, as in "kai" 'shell' or "san" 'divining rod', will always have the pattern , never . In Osaka, however, either pattern may occur: "tonbi" 'black kite' is in Tokyo but in Osaka.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: Travis Emmanuel d'Arnaud (born February 10, 1989), nicknamed Lil D, is an American professional baseball catcher for the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB). He was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the supplemental first round of the 2007 Major League Baseball draft. He previously played in MLB for the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Tampa Bay Rays. He made his MLB debut in 2013.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: D'Arnaud was born on February 10, 1989, in Long Beach, California. He was born into a musical family: his mother Marita ran an after-school performing-arts center in Long Beach, while his father played trumpet, piano, and trombone. In his extended family, two of d'Arnaud's uncles were pianists, while his cousin was an electropop musician. In addition to music, d'Arnaud described his Long Beach upbringing as having a "huge baseball community". He was a childhood fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB), and modeled his baseball career after Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: As children, d'Arnaud and his older brother Chase would discuss "how cool that would be if we played with each other or against each other in the big leagues". Rather than follow Chase into playing for Los Alamitos High School, d'Arnaud chose to attend Lakewood High School, the rivals of Los Alamitos. D'Arnaud began to draw the attention of scouts as a high school baseball player in 2007, and was invited to work out with the Toronto Blue Jays. D'Arnaud graduated in 2007, and was inducted into the Lakewood Youth Hall of Fame as a Co-Athlete of the Year in 2008.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: D'Arnaud had committed to play college baseball for the Pepperdine Waves of Pepperdine University after high school, the same school for which his brother played, but was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the supplemental first round of the 2007 Major League Baseball draft, the 37th overall pick. He chose to void his college commitment and signed a minor league contract for $832,500.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: In 2007, d'Arnaud started his professional career with the Philadelphia Phillies' Rookie League affiliate, the Gulf Coast League Phillies. He played 41 games in the GCL and put together a .241 batting average and a .626 OPS.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: In 2008, d'Arnaud began the season with the Phillies' Class-A Short Season affiliate, the Williamsport Crosscutters of the New York–Penn League. He played 48 games in the NYPL, hitting .309 with an OPS of .833, and was selected for the mid-season All-Star game. From there he was promoted to the Class-A Lakewood BlueClaws. Between the two teams, he batted .305/.367/.464, while on defense in 58 games he committed 10 errors and was charged with 16 passed balls.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: In 2009, d'Arnaud played with the BlueClaws where he remained all year, playing in 126 games. He hit .255 with an OPS of .738, though he hit 13 home runs. He was once again selected for the All-Star game, this time in the South Atlantic League. The BlueClaws went on to win the 2009 South Atlantic League championship.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: To begin 2010, d'Arnaud was sent from the Phillies to the Toronto Blue Jays organization in a ten player trade. The Phillies received Roy Halladay, along with $6 million from the Blue Jays. Toronto received d'Arnaud, Kyle Drabek, and Michael Taylor, who they later flipped to the Oakland Athletics for Brett Wallace. Wallace was then traded to the Houston Astros for center-field prospect Anthony Gose. D'Arnaud played the entire 2010 season with the Dunedin Blue Jays, the Blue Jays' High-A affiliate in the Florida State League. Despite suffering from back problems and playing in a higher league, d'Arnaud put up comparable numbers to his 2009 campaign, hitting .259, an OPS of .726 and six home runs in 71 games. For the week of April 19, d'Arnaud was named FSL Player of the Week and was selected to participate in the midsummer Home Run Derby. He was named a Mid-Season and Post-Season All-Star.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: In 2011, d'Arnaud played the entire 2011 season in the Eastern League, with the Blue Jays Double-A affiliate, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Over his first three seasons in the minors, d'Arnaud had steadily improved his defense, but 2011 was the year in which he made vast improvements to all aspects of his offensive ability. He finished the season with a .311 batting average and an OBP of .371 in 114 games. He saw another great spike in power, hitting 21 home runs with a slugging percentage of .542 and 33 doubles. On July 13, d'Arnaud was named to the Eastern League's Mid-Season All-Star team. He also made the post-season team on August 25, going to his sixth All-Star game in total. The following day, on August 26, d'Arnaud was named the EL's Most Valuable Player.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: On September 16, the Toronto Blue Jays named d'Arnaud as one of the recipients of the R. Howard Webster award, an award given to the best player at each level of the Blue Jays minor league farm system. The next day, d'Arnaud went on to win his second minor league championship ring, as the New Hampshire Fisher Cats defeated the Reading Phillies 3 games to 1 in the semi-finals and then defeated the Richmond Flying Squirrels 3 games to 1 in the final series of the Eastern League championship.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: "Baseball America" named d'Arnaud as the Best Defensive Catcher in the Eastern League for the 2011 season. They also named him the #2 prospect in the EL, behind highly touted outfield prospect Bryce Harper and in front of teammate Anthony Gose. D'Arnaud was also named the starting catcher for the Double-A level in Baseball America's honorary "classifications" All-Star team.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: On September 15, USA Baseball announced that d'Arnaud was selected for its 25-man roster to play in the IBAF's 2011 Baseball World Cup.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: On December 17, 2012, the Blue Jays traded d'Arnaud, Noah Syndergaard, John Buck, and Wuilmer Becerra to the New York Mets for R. A. Dickey, Josh Thole, and Mike Nickeas.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: The Mets optioned d'Arnaud to Triple-A Las Vegas 51s on March 24, 2013. He suffered a non-displaced fracture on his left foot during a game on April 17. D'Arnaud was cleared to begin a rehab assignment on June 3; however, he recovered more slowly than originally expected, having been limited to running in a rehab pool as of June 21, while awaiting clearance for land-based running. On July 24, d'Arnaud played in his first rehab game with the GCL Mets, and went 1–3 at the plate. He returned to the Las Vegas 51s on August 9.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: The Mets called up d'Arnaud for the first time on August 17, when John Buck was placed on the paternity list. In his first major league plate appearance, d'Arnaud drew a four-pitch walk from San Diego starter Edinson Vólquez. He finished the game 0–2 with two walks. D'Arnaud got his first major league hit on August 20 against Atlanta Braves pitcher Luis Ayala in the 8th inning. He hit his first Major League home run on August 25, a two-run shot off Detroit Tigers pitcher Rick Porcello. The home run earned Travis a curtain call from the Mets fans.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: Travis finished the season appearing in 31 games batting .202 in 99 at-bats in 112 plate appearances with 20 hits, one home run, five RBIs, 12 walks, four runs scored, and 21 strikeouts.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: On May 13, d'Arnaud suffered the third concussion of his professional career, when he was hit by Alfonso Soriano's backswing. On June 8, d'Arnaud was optioned to Las Vegas due to a .180 batting average. His spot was taken by Taylor Teagarden. In the 15 games after his demotion, he hit .436 with six home runs. On June 24, d'Arnaud was called back up to the Mets and resumed his role as starting catcher. In response, Teagarden was placed on the disabled list with a left hamstring strain. On the same day, d'Arnaud hit a three-run home run off Scott Kazmir of the Oakland Athletics in the bottom of the third inning with two outs taking a 4-1 lead to a 7-1 lead. The Mets won the game 10-1. It was the only hit for d'Arnaud in 4 at-bats as he struck out twice. For the remainder of the season, d'Arnaud batted .272 with 10 home runs.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: D'Arnaud finished the season appearing in 108 games batting .242 in 385 at-bats in 421 plate appearances with 93 hits, 13 home runs, 41 RBIs, 32 walks, 48 runs scored, and 64 strikeouts. On defense, he led the NL in passed balls, with five. He tied for seventh place in the 2014 National League Rookie of the Year Award voting.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: In February, d'Arnaud traded uniform numbers with bench coach Bob Geren, moving from number 15 to number 7. D'Arnaud broke his hand when he was hit by a pitch on April 19, and was subsequently placed on the 15-day disabled list. His spot on the roster was replaced by fellow catcher Kevin Plawecki. He was reactivated off the disabled list on June 10 when Danny Muno was sent down to the 51s. In a game against the Atlanta Braves in Atlanta on June 20, d'Arnaud left the game in the sixth inning due to an injured elbow. D'Arnaud, who had a two-run single and a solo homer, was hurt trying to tag A. J. Pierzynski, who was trying to score on a sacrifice fly to left. Michael Cuddyer's throw was up the third-base line, and Pierzynski collided with d'Arnaud, who couldn't hold on to the ball. He was re-placed on the disabled list with a sprained left elbow. Catcher Johnny Monell replaced him on the roster. He was brought back on July 30 with Anthony Recker sent down.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: Travis finished the season appearing in 67 games batting .268 in 239 at-bats in 268 plate appearances with 64 hits, 12 home runs, 41 RBIs, 23 walks, 31 runs scored, and 49 strikeouts.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: In the postseason, he appeared behind the plate in all 14 games. In the Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, batting .158 in 19 at-bats in 20 plate appearances with three hits, one home run, four RBIs, three runs scored, with eight strikeouts. In the Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs, batting .267 in 15 at-bats in 16 plate appearances with four hits, two home runs, two RBIs, two runs scored, and 5 strikeouts. He batted .143 in 21 at-bats/plate appearances with three hits, one RBI, and four strikeouts against the Kansas City Royals in the World Series.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: D'Arnaud began the 2016 season as the Mets' starting catcher, but was injured and replaced by Kevin Plawecki, enabling René Rivera to be activated as backup catcher. After a rehab stint with the St. Lucie Mets and Las Vegas 51s, d'Arnaud was reactivated in June and Plawecki was sent down, with Rivera staying as the backup. On July 5, 2016, d'Arnaud switched his uniform number from 7 to 18 to offer a salute to retired NFL quarterback Peyton Manning, and to give José Reyes the number he had worn his whole MLB career.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: On May 5, 2017, d'Arnaud was placed on the 10-day disabled list due a bruised right wrist. He was activated on May 24. On August 16, following injuries to José Reyes and Wilmer Flores, the Mets started d'Arnaud at third base. Terry Collins chose to move d'Arnaud back and forth between third and second base, swapping him with Asdrúbal Cabrera twelve times, in order to minimize his impact on the defense.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: D'Arnaud began the season as the Mets' Opening Day catcher. On April 11, d'Arnaud was placed on the 10-day disabled list due to a partial tear of the UCL in his right elbow. He had Tommy John surgery on April 17. On April 21, he was transferred to the 60-day disabled list.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: On May 5, 2019, d’Arnaud signed a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He appeared in one game for the Dodgers as a pinch hitter.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: On May 10, 2019, the Dodgers traded d'Arnaud to the Tampa Bay Rays for cash considerations. On July 15, d'Arnaud batted 3-for-3 with two walks and three home runs including a go-ahead three-run home run off of Aroldis Chapman at Yankee Stadium. D'Arnaud became the fifth player in Rays franchise history to hit three home runs in one game. On July 21, d'Arnaud hit his first career grand slam off of Dylan Cease leading the team to a 4-2 win against the Chicago White Sox.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: In 2020, at 31 years of age, he had his breakout offensive season. He batted .321/.386/.533 with nine home runs, 34 RBIs, and a WAR of 0.8 in 165 at bats. He was also awarded his first Silver Slugger Award as the best offensive catcher in the National League. On defense, he led the NL in passed balls, with five.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: In a May 1, 2021 game against the Toronto Blue Jays, d'Arnaud suffered a left thumb injury after tagging out Blue Jays outfielder Randal Grichuk at home plate. On May 2, d'Arnaud was placed on the 60-day injured list (IL) with a torn a thumb ligament that required surgery. On August 11, 2021, d’Arnaud was activated from the 60 day IL.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: The Braves and d'Arnaud agreed to an extension on August 20, 2021. The deal is worth $16 million over two years, and includes a club option for the 2024 season, worth $8 million.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: In 2021 he batted .220/.284/.388 with 7 home runs, 26 RBIs, and a WAR of 0.2. The Braves finished with an 88–73 record, clinching the NL East, and eventually won the 2021 World Series, giving the Braves their first title since 1995. d'Arnaud hit a solo home run in game 3 of the World Series.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: At midseason, d'Arnaud was named to the 2022 Major League Baseball All-Star Game roster as a reserve catcher. Teammate and fellow catcher William Contreras was also named to the All-Star team. The last time two catchers from the same team were named to an All-Star team was in 1962 when Yogi Berra and Elston Howard were named All-Stars for the New York Yankees. He finished the season batting .268/.319/.472 with 18 home runs and 60 RBIs. He had a WAR of 2.9, the highest of his career.


title: Travis d'Arnaud

text: He is the son of Lance and Marita d’Arnaud. His older brother, Chase d'Arnaud, was a Major League Baseball player from 2011 to 2018. In November 2017, he married Britney Cobian at a location near Lake Tahoe. He is of partial Filipino descent.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: The Blind Boys of Alabama, also billed as The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, and Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys of Alabama, is an American gospel group. The group was founded in 1939 in Talladega, Alabama, and has featured a changing roster of musicians over its history, the majority of whom are or were vision impaired.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: The Blind Boys found mainstream success following their appearance in the 1983 Obie Award-winning musical "The Gospel at Colonus". Since then, the group has toured internationally and has performed and recorded with such artists as Prince, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Bonnie Raitt, Ben Harper, Bon Iver, and Amadou & Mariam. The group's cover of the Tom Waits song "Way Down in the Hole" was used as the theme song for the first season of the HBO series "The Wire".


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: The Blind Boys have won five Grammy Awards in addition to being presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. They were endowed with a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994, they were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2003 and they were inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2010. The group was also invited to the White House during the Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama administrations.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: Group member Ricky McKinnie said in a 2011 interview with the magazine "Mother Jones": "Our disability doesn't have to be a handicap. It's not about what you "can't" do. It's about what you do. And what we do is sing good gospel music."


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: The Blind Boys of Alabama first sang together in 1939 as part of the school chorus at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Deaf and Blind in Talladega, Alabama. The founding members were Clarence Fountain (19292018), George Scott (19292005), Velma Bozman Traylor (19231947), Johnny Fields (19272009), Olice Thomas (b. 1926, d. unknown), and the only sighted member, J. T. Hutton (c. 19242012.)


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: Early influences of the Blind Boys include the Golden Gate Quartet, The Soul Stirrers and The Heavenly Gospel Singers. While the boys were not allowed to sing black gospel music at their school (which was run by an all-white faculty), they were able to hear it on the radio.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: The earliest version of the group was known as The Happy Land Jubilee Singers and their first performances were for World War II soldiers at nearby encampments, where the boys sung for pocket change. The group's first professional performance was on June 10, 1944, during a broadcast from radio station WSGN (currently WAGG) in Birmingham, Alabama. The following year, the members dropped out of school and began touring the gospel circuit. In 1947, lead vocalist Traylor died in a gun accident.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: In 1948, a Newark, New Jersey promoter booked the Happy Land Jubilee Singers along with a gospel act from Mississippi known as the Jackson Harmoneers, whose members were also visually impaired, and advertised the program as the "Battle of the Blind Boys." The two acts soon changed their names to the Five Blind Boys of Alabama and the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi and often toured together. The Blind Boys' early sound was also influenced by the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi who were singing in the "hard gospel" style that was becoming popular at the time. Hard gospel often involved a shrieking and screaming style of singing and during performances some audience members reportedly would get so excited that some would have to be sent to the hospital.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: The Blind Boys made their first recordings in 1948 on the Coleman label and their first national hit was "I Can See Everybody's Mother But Mine" released in 1949. Their success led to a series of recordings on various record labels.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: Reverend Paul Exkano of the King Solomon Baptist Church in New Orleans joined the group shortly after they changed their name to Five Blind Boys of Alabama and was present during the group's first recordings in 1948 and 1949, but he left the group after two years and was replaced by Percell Perkins of the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, later replaced by Joe Watson.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: During the 1950s, black gospel music was popular and the Blind Boys were one of the better known groups. Artists from pop and rock genres began to include aspects of black gospel music in their arrangements and black gospel artists such as Ray Charles and Sam Cooke began crossing over to pop and rock music. Ray Charles's manager offered the Blind Boys a big touring deal if they would cross over to other genres, but the group decided to stick to their gospel roots. They signed with Specialty Records in 1953, but left five years later, after again being pressured to sing secular music.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: While the Blind Boys were selling records in the 1950s, they did not make much money. In an interview with "Ebony" magazine in 2003, Fountain stated that they signed contracts that took advantage of them and that they were each paid $50 per album side and the record company kept the rest. By 1953, each member made $100 per side and, as per Fountain, "That was good money in that day. We didn't know what we were worth."


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: Into the 1960s the popularity of traditional gospel music was on the decline and soul music gained favor as a new type of secular black music. At the same time, rhythm and blues and rock musicians began to incorporate traditional gospel sounds into their music. The term "soul" was originally used by gospel musicians in the 1950s to identify the spiritual nature of their music. By the late 1960s, the term being used more commonly to describe all popular music by African Americans.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: During the 1960s, the Blind Boys performed at benefits for Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. They continued to resist offers to sing more secular music. Fountain attributed their resistance to selling out to their lack of need, noting that they were happy and well-fed as they were and wanted to enjoy performing the music they sought to perform, as opposed to recording popular music solely for a paycheck.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: In 1969, Fountain left the group in order to pursue a solo career. Neither the Blind Boys nor Fountain found much success into the 1970s. In 1972, guitarist Samuel Butler Jr. (son of the guitarist of the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi) joined the group. Fountain returned to the group in 1977.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: During their first 40 years, the Blind Boys had primarily played for black gospel audiences, mainly in churches and school auditoriums. The 1980s would mark the group's exposure to a wider audience.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: By the early 1980s, singer Clarence Fountain had taken the role as the group's frontman. It was at this time that the group was joined by vocalist Jimmy Carter, whose first recording with the group was on their 1982 record "I'm a Soldier in the Army of the Lord". Carter sang with the Dixieland Blind Boys, as well as the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, prior to his work with The Blind Boys of Alabama. Carter was a student of the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind when the group was originally formed, but was too young to join the group when they began touring.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: In 1983, the group (billed as Clarence Fountain and The Five Blind Boys of Alabama) was cast in the theatrical production "The Gospel at Colonus", an African-American musical version of Sophocles' tragedy, "Oedipus at Colonus." In the play, the Blind Boys collectively played the part of blinded Oedipus. The cast included Morgan Freeman as well as members of The Soul Stirrers. "The Gospel at Colonus" won an Obie for Best Musical in 1984 and the production moved to Broadway in 1988. The play's success led to the Blind Boys' exposure to a wider mainstream audience and marked a turning point for the group.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: In 1990, vocalist and percussionist Ricky McKinnie was invited by Fountain to join the Blind Boys. McKinnie had actually met the Blind Boys when he was about five years old. McKinnie's mother, Sarah McKinnie Shivers, was a singer who would often cross paths with the Blind Boys while she was on tour. McKinnie lost his sight due to glaucoma at age 23, but had been playing drums for over a decade prior.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: The Blind Boys released "Deep River" in 1992, which was nominated for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album at the 36th Annual Grammy Awards. The album was produced by Booker T. Jones, and featured a version of Bob Dylan's "I Believe In You." In 1993, they appeared as musical guests on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien".


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: In 1994, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded a National Heritage Fellowship to Clarence Fountain and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama. The award was presented to the Blind Boys by First Lady Hillary Clinton.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: In 1995, the Blind Boys became the first artists to be signed to the new House of Blues gospel label, for which they recorded their first live album "I Brought Him with Me". The album featured appearances from blues singers Koko Taylor and Solomon Burke. In December 1996, the group appeared in the Christmas episode of TV series "Beverly Hills, 90210" titled "Gift Wrapped". The Blind Boys continued experimenting with contemporary popular music on their 1997 release "Holding On", also released on the House of Blues label. The album contained elements of funk and reggae.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: The Blind Boys of Alabama enjoyed further exposure and success in the 2000s and 2010s, including collaborations with many high-profile musical artists. Their songs were featured on soundtracks of television series, such as "Boston Public", "Lost", and "Criminal Minds", as well as films, such as "Madea Goes to Jail", "Alpha and Omega", and "Hop". The Blind Boys made an appearance in the film "The Fighting Temptations" and were featured on such television series as "60 Minutes II" and "The Colbert Report", as well as on multiple episodes of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with David Letterman". They were invited to perform at the White House in both 2002 during the presidency of George W. Bush for a celebration of gospel music, and in 2010 during the presidency of Barack Obama for a celebration of music from the civil rights movement.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: In 2001, the Blind Boys released "Spirit of the Century" on Peter Gabriel's Real World Records. The album won the award for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards. The album included a version of "I Just Want to See His Face" by The Rolling Stones as well as a version of the song "Amazing Grace" arranged to the tune of "The House of the Rising Sun".


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: In 2002, they released "Higher Ground", an album that combines traditional gospel lyrics with the music of other artists. The title song is a rendition of the Stevie Wonder hit, but some of the lyrics were changed to make it a gospel song—for example, the line "Lovers, keep on lovin'" became "Prayers, keep on prayin." Other songs covered on the album include "People Get Ready" by Curtis Mayfield, "Spirit in the Dark" by Aretha Franklin, "The Cross" by Prince, and "You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks" by Funkadelic. The album won the Blind Boys another Grammy for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album and also won them a GMA Dove Award for Traditional Gospel Album of the Year. The Blind Boys also performed on the steps of the Library of Congress in 2002.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: In 2003, the Blind Boys released "Go Tell It on the Mountain". The album contains renditions of mostly Christmas-related gospel songs and features guest artists Solomon Burke, Tom Waits, Michael Franti, Chrissie Hynde, Richard Thompson, Aaron Neville, Mavis Staples, Shelby Lynne, George Clinton, Robert Randolph, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Les McCann. The album went on to win the Grammy for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: The Blind Boys performed live twice with Lou Reed: In 2004, they performed together at a private concert on the floor of the UN General Assembly for the Landmine Survivors Network and in 2010, they appeared on "Late Night with David Letterman" and performed "Jesus", a song originally released by The Velvet Underground on their eponymous album.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: The Blind Boys collaborated several times with Ben Harper: Harper played guitar on the Blind Boys' albums "Higher Ground" and "Spirit of the Century". The Blind Boys again collaborated with Harper on his 2004 album "There Will Be a Light" and toured with him throughout Europe that year. The majority of the songs were Harper originals, but the album also included a cover of Bob Dylan and Danny O'Keefe's "Well, Well, Well." "There Will Be a Light" also won the Grammy for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album. The following year, Harper and the Blind Boys released "Live at the Apollo", a recording of their live performance from the Apollo Theater in October 2004.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: The Blind Boys released the album "Atom Bomb" in 2005. The album features cover versions of songs such as "Demons" by Fatboy Slim and Macy Gray, (a track that also featured a guest appearance by rapper Gift of Gab); Blind Faith's "Presence of the Lord," featuring soul musician Billy Preston; and a cover of Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky," featuring David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and blues musician Charlie Musselwhite. The album was awarded the prize for Traditional Gospel Album of the Year at the 37th GMA Dove Awards.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: On March 9, 2005, at the age of 75, vocalist George Scott died of complications from diabetes and a heart condition. In 2006, vocalist Ben Moore was invited to join the group by Carter. Moore had previously performed under the name "Bobby Purify" as part of the R&B duo James & Bobby Purify and continued to use the name as a solo artist after the duo broke up in the 1980s. In 2007, Fountain stopped touring with the group due to complications from diabetes.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: In 2008, the Blind Boys released the album "Down in New Orleans". The album was recorded in New Orleans, which was a first for the group, and includes songs written by or made famous by New Orleans musicians along with updated gospel standards. Many tracks also feature guest musicians from the city. Tracks include a jazzy version of the popular gospel song "Uncloudy Day", backed by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band; blues song "Make a Better World" written by musician Earl King), backed by the Hot 8 Brass Band; as well as a bluesy version of "If I Could Help Somebody" by Mahalia Jackson with Allen Toussaint on piano. The album also won the GMA Dove Award for Traditional Gospel Album of the Year.


title: The Blind Boys of Alabama

text: The Blind Boys released their album "Duets" in 2009. Each song features a duet between the Blind Boys and another artist; some of these artists include Susan Tedeschi, Bonnie Raitt, and John Hammond. Earlier that same year, the group was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards.