Purim Quick Facts
Meaning of Hebrew Name: “Lots” (as in “casting lots” – not as in “lots of something”)
English Name: Purim
Western Calendar Month: February/March
Jewish Calendar Date: Adar 14
Establishment of Purim: Fifth century BC; Esther 9:20–22
Purpose of Purim
The scene: a king tossing and turning for fear that his lovely queen is conspiring against him with his chief advisor. A queen so worried over the king’s plan to put to death her people that she barges into his inner chamber unannounced, looking lovelier than ever. Two advisors to the king are getting ready for a showdown – the town (Persia) is only big enough for the one of them. Haman, hell-bent on the destruction of the Jews, is besmeared with waste matter and wincing in pain by the end of this battle. Mordecai, his Jewish enemy, is clad in purple robes, majestically seated atop the royal horse, freshly bathed and coiffed by Haman himself. The difference could hardly be more pronounced.
If the scene sounds only half-familiar, that’s because it is. Although Megillat Esther (“the Scroll of Esther”) lines up with the basics of the plot described above, the colorful embroideries came later; they were added in the tractate Megillah of the Talmud and in other commentaries.
Jewish literature contains a wealth of such embellishments. Why? More than any other story in Jewish history (except, perhaps, for Passover and Hanukkah), the story of Esther inspires further storytelling and bears repeating. The great Jewish traditions of storytelling and humor come to the fore on Purim, the feast day commemorating Esther’s and Mordecai’s defeat of Haman’s plot to annihilate the Jews of ancient Persia. The great commandment on Purim is that we “proclaim the miracle” by reading Megillat Esther, banqueting together, sending gifts, and giving portions to the poor. The revelry takes other forms too, from dressing up in wild costumes to watching the Purimspiel (Purim play), which brings the story of Esther to life.
Origin of Purim
Megillat Esther starts with the unlikely fate of a Jewish girl living in the Persian Empire. King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) takes Esther, the cousin of the Jewish advisor Mordecai, to be his new queen after deposing Queen Vashti. On Mordecai’s advice, Esther hides her Jewish ancestry from Xerxes until the wicked counselor Haman hatches a plot against the life of the Jews, obliging her to speak out for her people.
The most famous lines of the story come when Mordecai persuades Esther to go to the king unannounced, a capital offense:
Then Mordecai told them [the messengers] to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:13–16)
By their wit and wile – though behind the scenes orchestrated by God – Esther and Mordecai foiled Haman’s plot. Following Haman’s execution and the deliverance of the Jews, Esther and Mordecai established a feast for future generations to celebrate their people’s survival for “their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration” (Esther 9:22).
And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews… obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies… that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor. (Esther 9:20–22)
Thus Purim was born. Purim is so called because Haman cast lots (purim) to determine the most propitious date for implementing his planned genocide, but the verses about the casting of lots are brief and vague. We read in Esther 3:7: “They cast Pur (that is, they cast lots).” The medieval rabbi Rashi comments: “Whoever cast it, cast it, and the verse does not specify who. This is an elliptical verse.” He interprets the phrase that follows – “that is, the lot” – this way: “Scripture explains: and what is the pur? That is the lot. He cast lots [to determine] in which month he would succeed.” Because of Esther’s faithfulness in relying on God’s guidance and her courage to speak to the king on behalf of her people, Haman was foiled, the day of his dreamed-of success of annihilation of the Jewish people became the day of the Jews’ deliverance from death to life – Purim.
How Purim is Observed
The Purim Feast:
The Purim feast is a time of conviviality and merrymaking. It must take place on the day of Purim, not on the evening before (Megillah 7b) on account of the mandated “days of feasting and gladness” (Esther 9:20–22). The rabbis explain: “[We read in connection with Purim] gladness and feasting and a good day; ‘gladness’: this teaches that it is forbidden on these days to mourn; ‘feasting’: this teaches that it is forbidden on them to fast; ‘a good day’: this teaches that it is forbidden on them to do work” (Megillah 5b). Fasting, mourning, and work are all swept aside on this day of celebration and revelry.
Proclaiming the Miracle:
Most important of all, however is not eating and drinking but reading Megillat Esther and thereby “proclaiming the miracle.” This most commonly takes place in synagogue, where the Scroll of Esther (an individual scroll, usually without being combined with any other portion of Scripture) is read aloud in a raucous, buzzing atmosphere. Congregants cheer and laugh or stamp their feet and shout and boo whenever the name “Haman” is mentioned. (This is done on the basis of Exodus 17:14, where God tells us to “blot out the memory of Amalek,” and so of his descendant Haman.)
Despite the apparent chaos of the Megillah reading, the Mishnah and the Talmud set down elaborate rules for the proper proclamation of the miracle. We must read the Megillah from beginning to end (some rabbis disagree about where to start); we mustn’t take long breaks; we mustn’t read it backwards… even the parchment and ink of the scroll must be up to snuff!
In light of these various rules, some so obvious as to go without saying, it behooves us to remember the spirit of “proclaiming the miracle.” One rabbi comments: “When the text says, thou shalt not forget, the injunction against mental forgetfulness is already given. What then am I to make of ‘remember’? This must mean, by utterance [lit. “with the mouth”]. Proclaim the miracle” (Megillah 18a). It is not enough not to forget; remembrance goes a step further: we must fasten our minds on the history and tell it out loud. Only then do we pay God sufficient homage for rescuing His people from the clutches of Haman.
Sending Food and Giving to the Poor:
The famous Jewish commentator Maimonides placed the book of Esther on an equal footing with the Torah, as one of the imperishable books of the Hebrew Bible. His love of Purim was in no way exclusionary – rather, he stressed that all Jews should be able to take part. We see in Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah his concern that all members of the community, rich and poor, do their bit in celebrating Purim:
Similarly, a person is obligated to send two portions of meat, two other cooked dishes, or two other foods to a friend, as implied by Esther 9:22, ‘sending portions of food one to another’…. Whoever sends portions to many friends is praiseworthy. If one does not have the means to send presents of food to a friend, one should exchange one’s meal with him.
On Purim, Jews greet one another by sending portions of food, often in the form of gift baskets full of sweets and nuts and fruits, called mishloach manot in Hebrew or shalach manos in Yiddish. In this manner, the feast of Purim spills out of the home into the community at large. No delicacies or lavish spending necessary – two poor friends can just trade food and thus “send portions,” a way for the less fortunate to fulfill the commandment. Maimonides adds that one must give alms on Purim to those who don’t even have enough to eat for themselves.
One is obligated to distribute charity to the poor on the day of Purim. At the very least, to give each of two poor people one present, be it money, cooked dishes, or other foods…. We should not be discriminating in selecting the recipients of these Purim gifts. Instead, one should give to whomever [sic] stretches out his hand.
It is preferable for a person to be more liberal with his donations to the poor than to be lavish in his preparation of the Purim feast or in sending portions to his friends. For there is no greater and more splendid happiness than to gladden the hearts of the poor, the orphans, the widows, and the converts.
Giving alms far outweighs the preparation of a lavish feast or gratuitous consumption. Feeding the hungry and helping the poor in their distress is a commandment that must be carried out at all times; even on a day of carefree revelry, we must remember the fatherless and widows in their affliction.
Special Synagogue Readings for Purim
Torah Portion: Exodus 17:8–16 (the Israelites defeat the Amalekites, from which tribe Haman is descended).
No haftarah portion, as the central non-Pentateuchal reading of Purim is, of course, Megillat Esther.
Purim, like most biblical Jewish holidays, is not what it was in ancient times; rather, the encrustations of centuries of tradition and interpretation have lent the holiday an evolving character all its own. Many of these traditions derive from the Talmud, the chief Jewish interpretive work of the post-exilic period.
All kinds of embellishments were made to the story of Esther in the Talmud, including angelic interventions and even scatological details. Esther gets a divine makeover from angels to please Ahasuerus: “R. Joshua b. Korha said: Esther was sallow, but a thread of grace was drawn about her” (Megillah 13a). Haman was a former “slave sold for loaves of bread,” bought by Mordecai during one of the wars of the Jews against the Amalekites (Megillah 15b). When Haman led Mordecai before Ahasuerus, he had to give him a haircut because Esther closed all the bathhouses, and Mordecai wouldn’t come into Ahasuerus’ presence untrimmed. When mounting his horse, Mordecai asked Haman for help and kicked him on his way up. Haman’s daughter, seeing Haman leading the horse, mistook him for Mordecai and dumped a chamberpot on him; realizing her mistake, she fell off a roof for shame. All of these myths lighten the story and infuse Purim with a dose of hilarity.
According to one rabbi, “It is the duty of a man to mellow himself [with wine] on Purim until he cannot tell the difference between ‘cursed be Haman’ and ‘blessed be Mordecai’” (Megillah 7b). So “mellow” did the Jews become on Purim that the rabbis tell a cautionary tale about drinking to excess: “Rabbah and R. Zera joined together in a Purim feast. They became mellow [i.e., drunk], and Rabbah arose and cut R. Zera’s throat. On the next day he prayed on his behalf and revived him. Next year he said, Will your honour come and we will have the Purim feast together. He replied: A miracle does not take place on every occasion” (Megillah 7b).
Not only abundant drink, but also abundant food sets Purim apart. Of Purim’s delicacies, kreplach (tri-cornered dumplings filled with meat) and hamantaschen (tri-cornered cookies with a fruit filling) take the cake (pun intended). These beloved foods may represent any number of things: the shape of the lots; Haman’s triangular ears; a dunce-ish hat Haman wore (an invention of the Purimspiel), which we gobble down in revenge; or even God, hidden inside the events of Esther!
Dressing up has also become part and parcel of Purim celebrations, originating with the Italian carnivalesque attire Jews wore during Purim in the Renaissance. Why do we dress up? Perhaps because God “disguised” Himself in the book of Esther, never being named but pulling the strings all along. Perhaps because Haman changed costumes so often, going from a slave to a chief advisor to a hanged man. Dressing up also reminds us of Mordecai’s many “costume changes” in the book of Esther – from regular courtly dress, to ashes and sackcloth, to a royal purple tunic. By gussying ourselves up in over-the-top costumes, we act out the fast-changing fortunes of the Jews and of Haman in the Book of Esther.
Purimspiel, or the Purim play, which originated in Eastern Europe and has spread worldwide, makes light of the story. Performers and audiences alike clad in over-the-top costumes draw on the rich storehouse of details mentioned in Jewish literature for humor and color. During Purim plays and throughout Purim, we practice various cruelties on Haman. In olden times, Jews would burn effigies of him, though attacks from Christians led to the adoption of a substitute practice: beating objects with the name of Haman written on them. Noisemaking, a longstanding feature of folk cultures, is meant to drive away evil spirits like Haman’s. Many Jews even go so far as to write Haman’s name on the soles of their feet so they can “stomp on him” during Purim. In brief, a rich tapestry of traditions from around the world makes Purim the brightest and most colorful of Jewish holidays.
Spiritual Application of Purim
Some Purim traditions stray from biblical ideals: drunkenness and stomping on one’s enemies, for example. Yet when we return to the contents of the book itself, Purim invites reflection on God. For far too long, Esther has been wrongly viewed as an unspiritual, even unsavory, book of the Bible. Martin Luther infamously complained: “I am so hostile to this book [2 Maccabees] and to Esther that I could wish that they did not exist at all; for they judaize too greatly and have much pagan impropriety.” In contrast, the rabbis of the Talmud so esteemed the book of Esther that they ferreted out sometimes fanciful references to it in other parts of the Hebrew Bible. For example, the Talmud traces Psalm 22 and its famous words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and “Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog,” to Esther in her distress, even though David wrote the psalm.
Aside from disparaging its content, some have leveled accusations against the book’s authenticity, claiming that Megillat Esther is nothing more than a myth or tall tale. These attacks on the veracity of Esther have subsided in recent years, as scholars once more reassert the overall legitimacy and historicity of the story (something Jews traditionally never had reason to doubt).
Others have criticized Purim on different grounds, attributing to it an overweening sense of national pride and wiliness. These claims rest on the bogus belief that when Esther and Mordecai outwitted the genocidal Haman, they portrayed cunning and guile rather than bravery. Unfortunately, many objections to the story of Esther and the celebration of Purim have often been bound up with anti-Semitic sentiment. Indeed, many churches avoid the book of Esther altogether, sometimes venturing the lame excuse that the word “God” does not appear in the book of Esther and so it must be of no religious significance.
Above all, many find in Megillat Esther an indication that the events of history are orchestrated behind the scenes for good by the one character not named in the book: God Himself. Though unmentioned, many see Him as front and center – in the events of Esther’s and Mordecai’s time, and in the preservation of the Jewish people throughout history. We are reminded in the book of Esther that God orchestrates the details of our lives even when we cannot see His hand. Like Job, we can say: “I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold” (Job 23:8–10). And perhaps, like Esther, we have been purposely placed in unusual circumstances (for such a time as this) to be a light of His love to others.
 The synopsis in this section is based purely on the Scriptures, not on rabbinical commentaries as above.
 See transcript of Christine Hayes, “Lecture 24 – Alternative Visions: Esther, Ruth, and Jonah [December 6, 2006],” Open Yale Courses, accessed July 24, 2017, https://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-145/lecture-24 (30-second mark): “There’s no x in the Hebrew alphabet – this is Ahasuerus, which is Xerxes.”
 Rashi’s Commentary on Esther 3:7, Chabad.org, accessed July 24, 2017, http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16476/jewish/Chapter-3.htm#showrashi=true<=primary..?
 Some rabbis debated whether there was an obligation not to work on Purim.
 Megillah 19a: “Rab Judah said in the name of Samuel: If one reads the Megillah from a volume containing the rest of Scriptures, he has not performed his obligation,” i.e., because he does not sufficiently proclaim the miracle. [Exception: if it’s about even with the admixed material.] Because of this teaching, many Megillot (scrolls of the book of Esther) have been copied, some decorated with intricate illustrations.
 Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, trans. Eliyahu Touger, Chabad.org, accessed July 24, 2017, http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/952007/jewish/Megillah-vChanukah-Chapter-Two.htm. “Megillah and Chanukah” 2:15.
 Ibid., 2:16.
 All of these details drawn from Megillah 16a.
 Table Talk, XXIV
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What traditions do you celebrate on Purim? Do you dress up and watch a Purim play? Do you read the book of Esther? We’d love to hear your answers to these questions and your reflection on this most joyous of holidays. Either send us a message or click on the chat tab on the bottom right-hand of the page to get in touch. Chag Purim Sameach!
JEWISH HOLIDAYS 2019
Note that in the Jewish calendar, a holiday begins on the sunset of the previous day:
- Passover - Saturday, April 20, 2019
- Shavuot - Sunday, June 09, 2019
- Rosh Hashanah - Monday, September 30, 2019
- Yom Kippur - Wednesday, October 09, 2019
- Sukkot - Monday, October 14, 2019
- Hanukkah - Monday, December 23, 2019


Writing is a medium of human communication that represents language and emotion with signs and symbols. In most languages, writing is a complement to speech or spoken language. Writing is not a language, but a tool used to make languages be read. Within a language system, writing relies on many of the same structures as speech, such as vocabulary, grammar, and semantics, with the added dependency of a system of signs or symbols. The result of writing is called text, and the recipient of text is called a reader. Motivations for writing include publication, storytelling, correspondence, record keeping and diary. Writing has been instrumental in keeping history, maintaining culture, dissemination of knowledge through the media and the formation of legal systems.
As human societies emerged, the development of writing was driven by pragmatic exigencies such as exchanging information, maintaining financial accounts, codifying laws and recording history. Around the 4th millennium BCE, the complexity of trade and administration in Mesopotamia outgrew human memory, and writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting transactions in a permanent form. In both ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica, writing may have evolved through calendric and a political necessity for recording historical and environmental events.
Means for recording information
H.G. Wells argued that writing has the ability to "put agreements, laws, commandments on record. It made the growth of states larger than the old city states possible. It made a continuous historical consciousness possible. The command of the priest or king and his seal could go far beyond his sight and voice and could survive his death".
The major writing systems—methods of inscription—broadly fall into five categories: logographic, syllabic, alphabetic, featural, and ideographic (symbols for ideas). A sixth category, pictographic, is insufficient to represent language on its own, but often forms the core of logographies.
A logogram is a written character which represents a word or morpheme. A vast number of logograms are needed to write Chinese characters, cuneiform, and Mayan, where a glyph may stand for a morpheme, a syllable, or both—("logoconsonantal" in the case of hieroglyphs). Many logograms have an ideographic component (Chinese "radicals", hieroglyphic "determiners"). For example, in Mayan, the glyph for "fin", pronounced "ka", was also used to represent the syllable "ka" whenever the pronunciation of a logogram needed to be indicated, or when there was no logogram. In Chinese, about 90% of characters are compounds of a semantic (meaning) element called a radical with an existing character to indicate the pronunciation, called a phonetic. However, such phonetic elements complement the logographic elements, rather than vice versa.
The main logographic system in use today is Chinese characters, used with some modification for the various languages or dialects of China, Japan, and sometimes in Korean despite the fact that in South and North Korea, the phonetic Hangul system is mainly used.
A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate) syllables. A glyph in a syllabary typically represents a consonant followed by a vowel, or just a vowel alone, though in some scripts more complex syllables (such as consonant-vowel-consonant, or consonant-consonant-vowel) may have dedicated glyphs. Phonetically related syllables are not so indicated in the script. For instance, the syllable "ka" may look nothing like the syllable "ki", nor will syllables with the same vowels be similar.
Syllabaries are best suited to languages with a relatively simple syllable structure, such as Japanese. Other languages that use syllabic writing include the Linear B script for Mycenaean Greek; Cherokee; Ndjuka, an English-based creole language of Surinam; and the Vai script of Liberia. Most logographic systems have a strong syllabic component. Ethiopic, though technically an abugida, has fused consonants and vowels together to the point where it is learned as if it were a syllabary.
An alphabet is a set of symbols, each of which represents or historically represented a phoneme of the language. In a perfectly phonological alphabet, the phonemes and letters would correspond perfectly in two directions: a writer could predict the spelling of a word given its pronunciation, and a speaker could predict the pronunciation of a word given its spelling.
As languages often evolve independently of their writing systems, and writing systems have been borrowed for languages they were not designed for, the degree to which letters of an alphabet correspond to phonemes of a language varies greatly from one language to another and even within a single language.
In most of the writing systems of the Middle East, it is usually only the consonants of a word that are written, although vowels may be indicated by the addition of various diacritical marks. Writing systems based primarily on marking the consonant phonemes alone date back to the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. Such systems are called abjads, derived from the Arabic word for "alphabet".
In most of the alphabets of India and Southeast Asia, vowels are indicated through diacritics or modification of the shape of the consonant. These are called abugidas. Some abugidas, such as Ethiopic and Cree, are learned by children as syllabaries, and so are often called "syllabics". However, unlike true syllabaries, there is not an independent glyph for each syllable.
Sometimes the term "alphabet" is restricted to systems with separate letters for consonants and vowels, such as the Latin alphabet, although abugidas and abjads may also be accepted as alphabets. Because of this use, Greek is often considered to be the first alphabet.
A featural script notates the building blocks of the phonemes that make up a language. For instance, all sounds pronounced with the lips ("labial" sounds) may have some element in common. In the Latin alphabet, this is accidentally the case with the letters "b" and "p"; however, labial "m" is completely dissimilar, and the similar-looking "q" and "d" are not labial. In Korean hangul, however, all four labial consonants are based on the same basic element, but in practice, Korean is learned by children as an ordinary alphabet, and the featural elements tend to pass unnoticed.
Another featural script is SignWriting, the most popular writing system for many sign languages, where the shapes and movements of the hands and face are represented iconically. Featural scripts are also common in fictional or invented systems, such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Tengwar.
Historical significance of writing systems
Historians draw a sharp distinction between prehistory and history, with history defined by the advent of writing. The cave paintings and petroglyphs of prehistoric peoples can be considered precursors of writing, but they are not considered true writing because they did not represent language directly.
Writing systems develop and change based on the needs of the people who use them. Sometimes the shape, orientation, and meaning of individual signs changes over time. By tracing the development of a script, it is possible to learn about the needs of the people who used the script as well as how the script changed over time.
Tools and materials
The many tools and writing materials used throughout history include stone tablets, clay tablets, bamboo slats, papyrus, wax tablets, vellum, parchment, paper, copperplate, styluses, quills, ink brushes, pencils, pens, and many styles of lithography. The Incas used knotted cords known as quipu (or khipu) for keeping records.
The typewriter and various forms of word processors have subsequently become widespread writing tools, and various studies have compared the ways in which writers have framed the experience of writing with such tools as compared with the pen or pencil.
By definition, the modern practice of history begins with written records. Evidence of human culture without writing is the realm of prehistory. The Dispilio Tablet (Greece), Jiahu symbols (China) and Tărtăria tablets (Romania), which have been carbon dated to the 6th millennium BC, are recent discoveries of the earliest known neolithic writings.
While neolithic writing is a current research topic, conventional history assumes that the writing process first evolved from economic necessity in the ancient Near East. Writing most likely began as a consequence of political expansion in ancient cultures, which needed reliable means for transmitting information, maintaining financial accounts, keeping historical records, and similar activities. Around the 4th millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration outgrew the power of memory, and writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting transactions in a permanent form.
Archaeologist Denise Schmandt-Besserat determined the link between previously uncategorized clay "tokens", the oldest of which have been found in the Zagros region of Iran, and the first known writing, Mesopotamian cuneiform. In approximately 8000 BC, the Mesopotamians began using clay tokens to count their agricultural and manufactured goods. Later they began placing these tokens inside large, hollow clay containers (bulla, or globular envelopes) which were then sealed. The quantity of tokens in each container came to be expressed by impressing, on the container's surface, one picture for each instance of the token inside. They next dispensed with the tokens, relying solely on symbols for the tokens, drawn on clay surfaces. To avoid making a picture for each instance of the same object (for example: 100 pictures of a hat to represent 100 hats), they 'counted' the objects by using various small marks. In this way the Sumerians added "a system for enumerating objects to their incipient system of symbols".
The original Mesopotamian writing system (believed to be the world's oldest) was derived around 3600 BC from this method of keeping accounts. By the end of the 4th millennium BC, the Mesopotamians were using a triangular-shaped stylus pressed into soft clay to record numbers. This system was gradually augmented with using a sharp stylus to indicate what was being counted by means of pictographs. Round-stylus and sharp-stylus writing was gradually replaced by writing using a wedge-shaped stylus (hence the term cuneiform), at first only for logograms, but by the 29th century BC also for phonetic elements. Around 2700 BC, cuneiform began to represent syllables of spoken Sumerian. About that time, Mesopotamian cuneiform became a general purpose writing system for logograms, syllables, and numbers. This script was adapted to another Mesopotamian language, the East Semitic Akkadian (Assyrian and Babylonian) around 2600 BC, and then to others such as Elamite, Hattian, Hurrian and Hittite. Scripts similar in appearance to this writing system include those for Ugaritic and Old Persian. With the adoption of Aramaic as the 'lingua franca' of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–609 BC), Old Aramaic was also adapted to Mesopotamian cuneiform. The last cuneiform scripts in Akkadian discovered thus far date from the 1st century AD.
Over the centuries, three distinct Elamite scripts developed. Proto-Elamite is the oldest known writing system from Iran. In use only for a brief time (c. 3200–2900 BC), clay tablets with Proto-Elamite writing have been found at different sites across Iran. The Proto-Elamite script is thought to have developed from early cuneiform (proto-cuneiform). The Proto-Elamite script consists of more than 1,000 signs and is thought to be partly logographic.
Linear Elamite is a writing system attested in a few monumental inscriptions in Iran. It was used for a very brief period during the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. It is often claimed that Linear Elamite is a syllabic writing system derived from Proto-Elamite, although this cannot be proven since Linear-Elamite has not been deciphered. Several scholars have attempted to decipher the script, most notably Walther Hinz and Piero Meriggi.
The Elamite cuneiform script was used from about 2500 to 331 BC, and was adapted from the Akkadian cuneiform. The Elamite cuneiform script consisted of about 130 symbols, far fewer than most other cuneiform scripts.
Cretan and Greek scripts
Cretan hieroglyphs are found on artifacts of Crete (early-to-mid-2nd millennium BC, MM I to MM III, overlapping with Linear A from MM IIA at the earliest). Linear B, the writing system of the Mycenaean Greeks, has been deciphered while Linear A has yet to be deciphered. The sequence and the geographical spread of the three overlapping, but distinct writing systems can be summarized as follows: Cretan hieroglyphs were used in Crete from c. 1625 to 1500 BC; Linear A was used in the Aegean Islands (Kea, Kythera, Melos, Thera), and the Greek mainland (Laconia) from c. 18th century to 1450 BC; and Linear B was used in Crete (Knossos), and mainland (Pylos, Mycenae, Thebes, Tiryns) from c. 1375 to 1200 BC.
The earliest surviving examples of writing in China—inscriptions on so-called "oracle bones", tortoise plastrons and ox scapulae used for divination—date from around 1200 BC in the late Shang dynasty. A small number of bronze inscriptions from the same period have also survived. Historians have found that the type of media used had an effect on what the writing was documenting and how it was used.
In 2003, archaeologists reported discoveries of isolated tortoise-shell carvings dating back to the 7th millennium BC, but whether or not these symbols are related to the characters of the later oracle-bone script is disputed.
The earliest known hieroglyphic inscriptions are the Narmer Palette, dating to c. 3200 BC, and several recent discoveries that may be slightly older, though these glyphs were based on a much older artistic rather than written tradition. The hieroglyphic script was logographic with phonetic adjuncts that included an effective alphabet.
Writing was very important in maintaining the Egyptian empire, and literacy was concentrated among an educated elite of scribes. Only people from certain backgrounds were allowed to train to become scribes, in the service of temple, pharaonic, and military authorities. The hieroglyph system was always difficult to learn, but in later centuries was purposely made even more so, as this preserved the scribes' status.
The world's oldest known alphabet appears to have been developed by Canaanite turquoise miners in the Sinai desert around the mid-19th century BC. Around 30 crude inscriptions have been found at a mountainous Egyptian mining site known as Serabit el-Khadem. This site was also home to a temple of Hathor, the "Mistress of turquoise". A later, two line inscription has also been found at Wadi el-Hol in Central Egypt. Based on hieroglyphic prototypes, but also including entirely new symbols, each sign apparently stood for a consonant rather than a word: the basis of an alphabetic system. It was not until the 12th to 9th centuries, however, that the alphabet took hold and became widely used.
Indus script refers to short strings of symbols associated with the Indus Valley Civilization (which spanned modern-day Pakistan and North India) used between 2600 and 1900 BC. In spite of many attempts at decipherments and claims, it is as yet undeciphered. The term 'Indus script' is mainly applied to that used in the mature Harappan phase, which perhaps evolved from a few signs found in early Harappa after 3500 BC, and was followed by the mature Harappan script. The script is written from right to left, and sometimes follows a boustrophedonic style. Since the number of principal signs is about 400–600, midway between typical logographic and syllabic scripts, many scholars accept the script to be logo-syllabic (typically syllabic scripts have about 50–100 signs whereas logographic scripts have a very large number of principal signs). Several scholars maintain that structural analysis indicates that an agglutinative language underlies the script.
In 2001, archaeologists discovered that there was a civilization in Central Asia that used writing c. 2000 BC. An excavation near Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, revealed an inscription on a piece of stone that was used as a stamp seal.
Phoenician writing system and descendants
The Proto-Sinaitic script, in which Proto-Canaanite is believed to have been first written, is attested as far back as the 19th century BC. The Phoenician writing system was adapted from the Proto-Canaanite script sometime before the 14th century BC, which in turn borrowed principles of representing phonetic information from Hieratic, Cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs. This writing system was an odd sort of syllabary in which only consonants are represented. This script was adapted by the Greeks, who adapted certain consonantal signs to represent their vowels. The Cumae alphabet, a variant of the early Greek alphabet, gave rise to the Etruscan alphabet and its own descendants, such as the Latin alphabet and Runes. Other descendants from the Greek alphabet include Cyrillic, used to write Bulgarian, Russian and Serbian, among others. The Phoenician system was also adapted into the Aramaic script, from which the Hebrew and the Arabic scripts are descended.
The Tifinagh script (Berber languages) is descended from the Libyco-Berber script, which is assumed to be of Phoenician origin.
A stone slab with 3,000-year-old writing, known as the Cascajal Block, was discovered in the Mexican state of Veracruz and is an example of the oldest script in the Western Hemisphere, preceding the oldest Zapotec writing by approximately 500 years. It is thought to be Olmec.
Of several pre-Columbian scripts in Mesoamerica, the one that appears to have been best developed, and the only one to be deciphered, is the Maya script. The earliest inscription identified as Maya dates to the 3rd century BC. Maya writing used logograms complemented by a set of syllabic glyphs, somewhat similar in function to modern Japanese writing.
The Incas had no known script. Their quipu system of recording information—based on knots tied along one or many linked cords—was apparently used for inventory and accountancy purposes and could not encode textual information.
Three stone slabs were found by Romanian archaeologist Nicolae Vlassa, in the mid-20th century (1961) in Tărtăria (present-day Alba County, Transylvania), Romania, ancient land of Dacia, inhabited by Dacians, which were a population who may have been related to the Getaes and Thracians. One of the slabs contains 4 groups of pictographs divided by lines. Some of the characters are also found in Ancient Greek, as well as in Phoenician, Etruscan, Old Italic and Iberian. The origin and the timing of the writings are disputed, because there are no precise evidence in situ, the slabs cannot be carbon dated, because of the bad treatment of the Cluj museum. There are indirect carbon dates found on a skeleton discovered near the slabs, that certifies the 5300–5500 BC period.
In the 21st century, writing has become an important part of daily life as technology has connected individuals from across the globe through systems such as e-mail and social media. Literacy has grown in importance as a factor for success in the modern world. In the United States, the ability to read and write are necessary for most jobs, and multiple programs are in place to aid both children and adults in improving their literacy skills. For example, the emergence of the writing center and community-wide literacy councils aim to help students and community members sharpen their writing skills. These resources, and many more, span across different age groups in order to offer each individual a better understanding of their language and how to express themselves via writing in order to perhaps improve their socioeconomic status.
Other parts of the world have seen an increase in writing abilities as a result of programs such as the World Literacy Foundation and International Literacy Foundation, as well as a general push for increased global communication.
- Asemic writing
- Boustrophedon text
- Collaborative writing
- Composition (language)
- Composition studies
- Copyright Clause
- Creative writing
- Fiction writing
- Foreign language writing aid
- Interactive fiction
- List of writers' conferences
- Literary award
- Literary criticism
- Literary festival
- Mechanical pencil
- Peer critique
- Creation of the Sequoyah syllabary
- Story bible
- Speech communication
- Teaching Writing in the United States
- Textual scholarship
- White papers
- Word processing
- Writer's block
- Writing bump
- Writing circle
- Writing in space
- Writing slate
- Writing style
- Writing systems
- Writer's voice
- Robinson 2003, p. 36.
- Wells, H. G. (1922). A Short History of the World. p. 41.
- "The Khipu Database Project".
- Chandler, Daniel (1990). "Do the write thing?". Electric Word. 17: 27–30.
- Chandler, Daniel (1992). "The phenomenology of writing by hand". Intelligent Tutoring Media. 3 (2/3): 65–74. doi:10.1080/14626269209408310.
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- Chandler, Daniel (1995). The Act of Writing: A Media Theory Approach. Aberystwyth: Prifysgol Cymru.
- Haarmann, Harald (2002). Geschichte der Schrift, C.H. Beck, ISBN 3-406-47998-7, p. 20
- Rudgley, Richard (2000). The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 48–57.
- The Origin and Development of the Cuneiform System of Writing, Samuel Noah Kramer, Thirty Nine Firsts in Recorded History pp. 381–383
- Olivier 1986, pp. 377f.
- Boltz, William (1999). "Language and Writing". In Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L. The Cambridge History of Ancient China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 74–123. ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8.
- "Archaeologists Rewrite History". China Daily. 12 June 2003. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
Rincon, Paul (17 April 2003). "'Earliest writing' found in China". BBC News. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
Signs carved into 8,600-year-old tortoise shells found in China may be the earliest written words, say archaeologists
- Goldwasser, Orly. "How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs", Biblical Archaeology Review, Mar/Apr 2010
- Whitehouse, David (1999). "'Earliest writing' found" BBC
- (Lal 1966)
- (Wells 1999)
- (Bryant 2000)
- "Ancient writing found in Turkmenistan". BBC. 15 May 2001. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
A previously unknown civilisation was using writing in Central Asia 4,000 years ago, hundreds of years before Chinese writing developed, archaeologists have discovered. An excavation near Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, revealed an inscription on a piece of stone that seems to have been used as a stamp seal.
- Wilford, John Noble (15 September 2006). "Writing May Be Oldest in Western Hemisphere". New York Times. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
A stone slab bearing 3,000-year-old writing previously unknown to scholars has been found in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and archaeologists say it is an example of the oldest script ever discovered in the Western Hemisphere.
- Briggs, Helen (14 September 2006). "'Oldest' New World writing found". BBC. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
Ancient civilisations in Mexico developed a writing system as early as 900 BC, new evidence suggests.
- Rodríguez Martínez, Maria del Carmen; et al. (2006). "Oldest Writing in the New World". Science. 313 (5793): 1610–1614. Bibcode:2006Sci...313.1610R. doi:10.1126/science.1131492. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
A block with a hitherto unknown system of writing has been found in the Olmec heartland of Veracruz, Mexico. Stylistic and other dating of the block places it in the early first millennium before the common era, the oldest writing in the New World, with features that firmly assign this pivotal development to the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica.
- Saturno, William A.; David Stuart; Boris Beltrán (3 March 2006). "Early Maya Writing at San Bartolo, Guatemala". Science. 311 (5765): 1281–1283. Bibcode:2006Sci...311.1281S. doi:10.1126/science.1121745. PMID 16400112.
- A History of Writing: From Hieroglyph to Multimedia, edited by Anne-Marie Christin, Flammarion (in French, hardcover: 408 pages, 2002, ISBN 2-08-010887-5)
- In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language. By Joel M. Hoffman, 2004. Chapter 3 covers the invention of writing and its various stages.
- Origins of writing on AncientScripts.com
- Museum of Writing: UK Museum of Writing with information on writing history and implements
- On ERIC Digests: Writing Instruction: Current Practices in the Classroom; Writing Development; Writing Instruction: Changing Views over the Years
- Angioni, Giulio, La scrittura, una fabrilità semiotica, in Fare, dire, sentire. L'identico e il diverso nelle culture, il Maestrale, 2011, 149–169. ISBN 978-88-6429-020-1
- Children of the Code: The Power of Writing – Online Video
- Powell, Barry B. 2009. Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization, Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-6256-2
- Reynolds, Jack 2004. Merleau-Ponty And Derrida: Intertwining Embodiment And Alterity, Ohio University Press
- Rogers, Henry. 2005. Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-23463-2 (hardcover); ISBN 0-631-23464-0 (paperback)
- Ankerl, Guy (2000) . Global communication without universal civilization. INU societal research. Vol.1: Coexisting contemporary civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western. Geneva: INU Press. pp. 59–66, 235s. ISBN 2-88155-004-5.
- Robinson, Andrew (2003). "The Origins of Writing". In Crowley, David; Heyer, Paul. Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. Allyn and Bacon.
- Falkenstein, A. 1965 Zu den Tafeln aus Tartaria. Germania 43, 269–273
- Haarmann, H. 1990 Writing from Old Europe. The Journal of Indo-European Studies 17
- Lazarovici, Gh., Fl. Drasovean & Z. Maxim 2000 The Eagle – the Bird of death, regeneration resurrection and mesenger of Godds. Archaeological and ethnological problems. Tibiscum, 57–68
- Lazarovici, Gh., Fl. Drasovean & Z. Maxim 2000 The Eye – Symbol, Gesture, Expression.Tibiscum, 115–128
- Makkay, J. 1969 The Late Neolithic Tordos Group of Signs. Alba Regia 10, 9–50
- Makkay, J. 1984 Early Stamp Seals in South-East Europe. Budapest
- Masson, E. 1984 L'écriture dans les civilisations danubiennes néolithiques. Kadmos 23, 2, 89–123. Berlin & New York.
- Maxim, Z. 1997 Neo-eneoliticul din Transilvania. Bibliotheca Musei Napocensis 19. Cluj-Napoca
- Milojcic, Vl. 1963 Die Tontafeln von Tartaria (Siebenbürgen), und die Absolute Chronologie des mitteleeuropäischen Neolithikums.Germania 43, 266–268
- Paul, I. 1990 Mitograma de acum 8 milenii. Atheneum 1, p. 28
- Paul, I. 1995 Vorgeschichtliche untersuchungen in Siebenburgen. Alba Iulia
- Vlassa, N. 1962 – (Studia UBB 2), 23–30.
- Vlassa, N. 1962 – (Dacia 7), 485–494;
- Vlassa, N. 1965 – (Atti UISPP, Roma 1965), 267–269
- Vlassa, N. 1976 Contribuții la Problema racordării Neoliticul Transilvaniei, p. 28–43, fig. 7-8
- Vlassa, N. 1976 Neoliticul Transilvaniei. Studii, articole, note. Bibliotheca Musei Napocensis 3. Cluj-Napoca
- Winn, Sham M. M. 1973 The Sings of the Vinca Culture
- Winn, Sham M. M. 1981 Pre-writing in Southeast Europe: The Sign System of the Vinca culture. BAR
- Merlini, Marco 2004 La scrittura è natta in Europa?, Roma (2004)
- Merlini, Marco and Gheorghe Lazarovici 2008 Luca, Sabin Adrian ed. "Settling discovery circumstances, dating and utilization of the Tărtăria Tablets"
- Merlini, Marco and Gheorghe Lazarovici 2005 "New archaeological data referring to Tărtăria tablets", in Documenta Praehistorica XXXII, Department of Archeology Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. Ljubljana:2005–2019.
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|Wikimedia Commons has media related to People writing.|
|Wikiversity has learning resources about Collaborative play writing|
|Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Fiction technique|
|Look up writing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.|


Photo manipulation involves transforming or altering a photograph using various methods and techniques to achieve desired results. Some photo manipulations are considered skillful artwork while others are frowned upon as unethical practices, especially when used to deceive the public, such as that used for political propaganda, or to make a product or person look better.
Depending on the application and intent, some photo manipulations are considered an art form because it involves the creation of unique images and in some instances, signature expressions of art by photographic artists. For example, Ansel Adams employed some of the more common manipulations using darkroom exposure techniques, such as burning (darkening) and dodging (lightening) a photograph. Other examples of photo manipulation include retouching photographs using ink or paint, airbrushing, double exposure, piecing photos or negatives together in the darkroom, scratching instant films, or through the use of software-based manipulation tools applied to digital images. There are a number of software applications available for digital image manipulation, ranging from professional applications to very basic imaging software for casual users.
Photo manipulation dates back to some of the earliest photographs captured on glass and tin plates during the 19th century. The practice began not long after the creation of the first photograph (1825) by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce who developed heliography and made the first photographic print from a photoengraved printing plate. Traditional photographic prints can be altered using various methods and techniques that involve manipulation directly to the print, such as retouching with ink, paint, airbrushing, or scratching Polaroids during developing. Negatives can be manipulated while still in the camera using double-exposure techniques, or in the darkroom by piecing photos or negatives together. Some darkroom manipulations involved techniques such as bleaching to artfully lighten or totally wash-out parts of the photograph, or hand coloring for aesthetic purposes or to mimic a fine art painting.
In the early 19th century, photography and the technology that made it possible was rather crude and cumbersome. While the equipment and technology progressed over time, it was not until the late 20th century that photography evolved into the digital realm. At the onset, digital photography was considered by some to be a radical new approach, and was initially rejected by photographers because of its substandard quality. The transition from film to digital has been an ongoing process although great strides were made in the early 21st century as a result of advancing technology that has greatly improved digital image quality while reducing the bulk and weight of cameras and equipment.
An early example of tampering was in the early 1860s, when a photo of Abraham Lincoln was altered using the body from a portrait of John C. Calhoun and the head of Lincoln from a famous seated portrait by Mathew Brady – the same portrait which was the basis for the original Lincoln five-dollar bill. Another is exampled in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalogue wherein it exposes a manipulated American Civil War photograph of General Ulysses S. Grant posing horseback in front of his troops at City Point, Virginia. Close observation of the photograph raises questions and brings to light certain details in the photograph that simply do not add up. For example, Grant's head is set at a strange angle to his body, his uniform is of a different time period, and his favorite horse Cincinnati did not have a left hind sock like the horse in the photograph, although his other horse Egypt did have a sock but on a different foot. With further research, three different photographs were discovered that explained the composite using Grant's head from one photograph, the body of Major General Alexander McDowell McCook atop his horse from another photograph, and for the background, an 1864 photograph of Confederate prisoners captured at the Battle of Fisher's Hill.
In the 20th century, digital retouching became available with Quantel computers running Paintbox in professional environments, which, alongside other contemporary packages, were effectively replaced in the market by Adobe Photoshop and other editing software for graphic imaging.
Political and ethical issuesEdit
Photo manipulation has been used to deceive or persuade viewers or improve storytelling and self-expression. Often even subtle and discreet changes can have a profound impact on how we interpret or judge a photograph, making it all the more important to know when or if manipulation has occurred. As early as the American Civil War, photographs were published as engravings based on more than one negative.
Joseph Stalin made use of photo retouching for propaganda purposes. On May 5, 1920 his predecessor Vladimir Lenin held a speech for Soviet troops that Leon Trotsky attended. Stalin had Trotsky retouched out of a photograph showing Trotsky in attendance. In a well known case of damnatio memoriae image manipulation, NKVD leader Nikolai Yezhov (the "Vanishing Commissar"), after his execution in 1940, was removed from an official press photo where he was pictured with Stalin. (For more information, see Censorship of images in the Soviet Union.) The pioneer among journalists distorting photographic images for news value was Bernarr Macfadden: in the mid-1920s, his "composograph" process involved reenacting real news events with costumed body doubles and then photographing the dramatized scenes—then pasting faces of the real news-personalities (gathered from unrelated photos) onto his staged images. In the 1930s, artist John Heartfield used a type of photo manipulation known as the photomontage to critique Nazi propaganda.
Some ethical theories have been applied to image manipulation. During a panel on the topic of ethics in image manipulation Aude Oliva theorized that categorical shifts are necessary in order for an edited image to be viewed as a manipulation. In Image Act Theory, Carson Reynolds extended speech act theory by applying it to photo editing and image manipulations. In "How to Do Things with Pictures", William J. Mitchell details the long history of photo manipulation and discusses it critically.
Use in journalismEdit
A notable incident of controversial photo manipulation occurred over a photograph that was altered to fit the vertical orientation of a 1982 National Geographic magazine cover. The altered image made two Egyptian pyramids appear closer together than they actually were in the original photograph. The incident triggered a debate about the appropriateness of falsifying an image, and raised questions regarding the magazine's credibility. Shortly after the incident, Tom Kennedy, director of photography for National Geographic stated, "We no longer use that technology to manipulate elements in a photo simply to achieve a more compelling graphic effect. We regarded that afterwards as a mistake, and we wouldn’t repeat that mistake today."
There are other incidents of questionable photo manipulation in journalism. One such incident arose in early 2005 after Martha Stewart was released from prison. Newsweek used a photograph of Stewart's face on the body of a much slimmer woman for their cover, suggesting that Stewart had lost weight while in prison. Speaking about the incident in an interview, Lynn Staley, assistant managing editor at Newsweek said, "The piece that we commissioned was intended to show Martha as she would be, not necessarily as she is." Staley also explained that Newsweek disclosed on page 3 that the cover image of Martha Stewart was a composite.
Image manipulation software has affected the level of trust many viewers once had in the aphorism, the camera never lies. Images may be manipulated for fun, aesthetic reasons, or to improve the appearance of a subject but not all image manipulation is innocuous as evidenced by the Kerry Fonda 2004 election photo controversy. The image in question was a fraudulent composite image of John Kerry taken on June 13, 1971 and Jane Fonda taken in August, 1972 sharing the same platform at a 1971 antiwar rally; the latter of which carried a fake Associated Press credit with the intent to change the public's perspective of reality.
There is a growing body of writings devoted to the ethical use of digital editing in photojournalism. In the United States, for example, the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) established a Code of Ethics which promotes the accuracy of published images, advising that photographers "do not manipulate images [...] that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects." Infringements of the Code are taken very seriously, especially regarding digital alteration of published photographs, as evidenced by a case in which Pulitzer prize-nominated photographer Allan Detrich resigned his post following the revelation that a number of his photographs had been manipulated.
In 2010, a Ukrainian photographer Stepan Rudik, winner of the 3rd prize story in Sports Features, has been disqualified due to violation of the rules of the World Press Photo contest. "After requesting RAW-files of the series from him, it became clear that an element had been removed from one of the original photographs." As of 2015, up to 20% of World Press Photo entries that made it to the penultimate round of the contest were disqualified after they were found to have been manipulated or post-processed with rules violations.
Use in the Fashion IndustryEdit
The photo manipulation industry has often been accused of promoting or inciting a distorted and unrealistic image of self; most specifically in younger people. The world of glamour photography is one specific industry which has been heavily involved with the use of photo manipulation (what many consider to be a concerning element as many people look up to celebrities in search of embodying the 'ideal figure'). Manipulation of a photo to alter a model’s appearance can be used to change features such as skin complexion, hair color, body shape, and other features. Many of the alterations to skin involve removing blemishes through the use of the healing tool in Photoshop. Photo editors may also alter the color of hair to remove roots or add shine. Additionally, the model’s teeth and eyes may be made to look whiter than they are in reality. Make up and piercings can even be edited into pictures to look as though the model was wearing them when the photo was taken. Through photo editing, the appearance of a model may be drastically changed to mask imperfections.
In an article entitled, Confessions of a Retoucher: how the modeling industry is harming women, a professional retoucher who has worked for mega-fashion brands shares the industry’s secrets.  Along with fixing imperfections like skin wrinkles and smoothing features, the size of the model is manipulated by either adding or subtracting visible weight. Reverse retouching is just as common as making models skinnier, “distorting the bodies of very thin models to make them appear more robust in a process called reverse retouching. It is almost worse than making someone slimmer because the image claims you can be at an unhealthy weight but still look healthy. In reality, you can't, you have to Photoshop it". Reverse retouching includes eliminating shadows from protruding bones, adding flesh over body parts, color correcting, and removing hair generated for warmth from extreme weight loss. Professionals are saying that if an image is not labelled "not retouched," then the public can assume that photograph has been modified. As the fashion industry continues to use photos that have been manipulated to idealize body types, there is a need for education about how unreal and unhealthy these images are and the negative implications they are promoting.
Not only are photos being manipulated by professionals for the media, but also with the rise of social media everyone has easy access to edit photos they post online. Countless Apps have been created to allow smartphone user tools to modify personal images. These apps allow people to edit virtually every aspect in the photo focusing on the face and body represented. With social media users and the younger generation being exposed to an extreme amount of imagery that has been manipulated the consequences have a negative impact as body ideals are unachievable. Social media has the opportunity to be used as a platform for promoting healthy body image and unedited photos; the need for approval over social media has to be altered in the near future.
Celebrities against photo manipulationEdit
Photo manipulation has triggered negative responses from both viewers and celebrities. This has led to celebrities refusing to have their photos retouched in support of the American Medical Association that has decided that "[we] must stop exposing impressionable children and teenagers to advertisements portraying models with body types only attainable with the help of photo editing software" These include Keira Knightley, Brad Pitt, Andy Roddick, Jessica Simpson, Lady Gaga and Zendaya.
Brad Pitt had a photographer, Chuck Close, take photos of him that emphasized all of his flaws. Chuck Close is known for his photos that emphasize all skin flaws of an individual. Pitt did so in an effort to speak out against media using photoshop and manipulating celebrities’ photos in an attempt to hide their flaws. Also, Kate Winslet spoke out against photo manipulation in media after GQ magazine altered her body, making it look unnaturally thin.
In April 2010, Britney Spears agreed to release "un-airbrushed images of herself next to the digitally altered ones". The fundamental motive behind her move was to "highlight the pressure exerted on women to look perfect".
Companies against photo manipulationEdit
Multiple companies have begun taking the initiative to speak out against the use of photo manipulation when advertising their products. Two companies that have done so include Dove and Aerie. Dove created the Dove Self-Esteem Fund and also the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty as a way to try to help build confidence in young women. They want to emphasize what is known as real beauty, or untouched photographs, in the media now. Also, Aerie has started their campaign #AerieREAL. They have a line of undergarments now that goes by that name with the intention of them being for everyone. Also, their advertisements state that the model has not been retouched in any way. They also add in their advertisements that "The real you is sexy."
Also, the American Medical Association has taken a stand against the use of photo manipulation. Dr. McAneny made a statement that altering models to such extremes creates unrealistic expectations in children and teenagers regarding body image. He also said that we should stop altering the models so they are not exposed to body types that can be attained only through the use of editing the photos. The American Medical Associations as a whole adopted a policy to work with advertisers to work on setting up guidelines for advertisements to try to limit how much photoshop is used. The goal of this policy is to limit the amount of unrealistic expectations for body image in advertisement.
Governments against excessive photo manipulationEdit
Governments are exerting pressure on advertisers, and are starting to ban photos that are too airbrushed and edited. In the United Kingdom the Advertising Standards Authority has banned an advertisement by Lancôme featuring Julia Roberts for being misleading, stating that the flawless skin seen in the photo was too good to be true. The US is also moving in the direction of banning excessive photo manipulation where a CoverGirl model's ad was banned because it had exaggerated effects, leading to a misleading representation of the product.
Support for photo manipulation in mediaEdit
Some editors of magazine companies do not view manipulating their cover models as an issue. In an interview with the editor of the French magazine Marie Claire, she stated that their readers are not idiots and that they can tell when a model has been retouched. Also, some who support photo manipulation in the media state that the altered photographs are not the issue, but that it is the expectations that viewers have that they fail to meet, such as wanting to have the same body as a celebrity on the cover of their favorite magazine.
Surveys done about photo manipulationEdit
Surveys have been done to see how photo manipulation affects society and to see what society thinks of it. One survey was done by a fashion store in the United Kingdom, New Look, and it showed that 90% of the individuals surveyed would prefer seeing a wider variety of body shapes in media. This would involve them wanting to see cover models that are not all thin, but some with more curves than others. The survey also talked about how readers view the use of photo manipulation. One statistic stated that 15% of the readers believed that the cover images are accurate depictions of the model in reality. Also, they found that 33% of women who were surveyed are aiming for a body that is impossible for them to attain.
Dove also did a survey to see how photo manipulation affects the self-esteem of females. In doing this, they found that 80% of the women surveyed felt insecure when seeing photos of celebrities in the media. Of the women surveyed who had lower self-esteem, 71% of them do not believe that their appearance is pretty or stylish enough in comparison to cover models.
Social and cultural implicationsEdit
The growing popularity of image manipulation has raised concern as to whether it allows for unrealistic images to be portrayed to the public. In her article "On Photography" (1977), Susan Sontag discusses the objectivity, or lack thereof, in photography, concluding that "photographs, which fiddle with the scale of the world, themselves get reduced, blown up, cropped, retouched, doctored and tricked out". A practice widely used in the magazine industry, the use of photo manipulation on an already subjective photograph, creates a constructed reality for the individual and it can become difficult to differentiate fact from fiction. With the potential to alter body image, debate continues as to whether manipulated images, particularly those in magazines, contribute to self-esteem issues in both men and women.
In today's world, photo manipulation has a positive impact by developing the creativity of one's mind or maybe a negative one by removing the art and beauty of capturing something so magnificent and natural or the way it should be. According to The Huffington Post, "Photoshopping and airbrushing, many believe, are now an inherent part of the beauty industry, as are makeup, lighting and styling". In a way, these image alterations are "selling" actual people to the masses to affect responses, reactions, and emotions toward these cultural icons.
Types of digital photo manipulationEdit
In digital editing, photographs are usually taken with a digital camera and input directly into a computer. Transparencies, negatives or printed photographs may also be digitized using a scanner, or images may be obtained from stock photography databases. With the advent of computers, graphics tablets, and digital cameras, the term image editing encompasses everything that can be done to a photo, whether in a darkroom or on a computer. Photo manipulation is often much more explicit than subtle alterations to color balance or contrast and may involve overlaying a head onto a different body or changing a sign's text, for examples. Image editing software can be used to apply effects and warp an image until the desired result is achieved. The resulting image may have little or no resemblance to the photo (or photos in the case of compositing) from which it originated. Today, photo manipulation is widely accepted as an art form.
There are several subtypes of digital image-retouching:
- Technical retouching
- Manipulation for photo restoration or enhancement. This can involve the adjustment of colors, contrast, white balance (i.e. gradational retouching) and sharpness, and the removal of noise, elements or visible flaws on skin or materials.
- Creative retouching
- Used as an art form or for commercial use to create more sleek and interesting images for advertisements. Creative retouching could be manipulation for fashion, beauty or advertising photography such as pack-shots (which could also be considered inherently technical retouching in regards to package dimensions and wrap-around factors). One of the most prominent disciplines in creative retouching is image compositing whereby the digital artist uses multiple photos to create a single image. Today, 3D computer graphics are used more and more to add extra elements or even locations and backgrounds. This kind of image composition is widely used when conventional photography would be technically too difficult or impossible to shoot on location or in studio.
As a result of the popularity of Adobe Photoshop as image editing software, use of the neologism "photoshopped" grew ubiquitously. The term commonly refers to any and all digital editing of photographs regardless of what software is used. Trademark owners Adobe Systems Incorporated, while flattered over the software's popularity, objected to what they referred to as misuse of their trademarked software, and considered it an infringement on their trademark to use terms such as "photoshopped" or "photoshopping" as a noun or verb, in possessive form or as a slang term. However, Adobe's attempts to prevent "genericization" or "genericide" of the company's trademark was to no avail. Separately, the Free Software Foundation advises against using "photoshop" as a verb because Adobe Photoshop is proprietary software. The terms "photoshop", "photoshopped" and "photoshopping" are ubiquitous and widely used colloquially and academically when referencing image editing software as it relates to digital manipulation and alteration of photographs.
In popular culture, the term photoshopping is sometimes associated with montages in the form of visual jokes, such as those published on Fark and in Mad magazine. Images may be propagated memetically via e-mail as humor or passed as actual news in a form of hoax. An example of the latter category is "Helicopter Shark", which was widely circulated as a so-called "National Geographic Photo of the Year" and was later revealed to be a hoax.
- Error level analysis
- 2006 Lebanon War photographs controversies
- Whitewashing (beauty)
- Cottingley Fairies
- Digital art
- Kerry Fonda 2004 election photo controversy
- Pascal Dangin
- Photoshop contest
- Scientific misconduct#Photo manipulation
- Source criticism
- Straight photography
- SurfSafe, Web browser extension intended to spot images identified as altered
- Tobacco bowdlerization
- Truth claim (photography)
- Visual arts
- Jack Dziamba (February 27, 2013). "Ansel Adams, and Photography Before Photoshop".
- Mia Fineman (November 29, 2012). "Artbeat". PBS Newshour (Interview). Interviewed by Tom Legro. South Florida: WPBT2. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
- "World's oldest photo sold to library". BBC News. March 21, 2002. Retrieved November 17, 2011.
The image of an engraving depicting a man leading a horse was made in 1825 by Nicephore Niepce, who invented a technique known as heliogravure.
- Farid, Hany. "Photo Tampering Throughout History" (PDF). Archived from the original on September 8, 2015.
- Klaus Wolfer (ed.). "How to manipulate SX-70?". Polaroid SX-70 Art. Skylab Portfolio. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
- Lynne Warren (2006). Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, 3-Volume Set. Routledge. p. 1007. ISBN 9781135205362.
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- "Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints – Solving a Civil War Photograph Mystery". Library of Congress. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
- Fabio Sasso (July 2011). Abduzeedo Inspiration Guide for Designers. Pearson Education. p. 124. ISBN 9780132684729.
- Rotman, Brian (2008). Becoming Beside Ourselves: The Alphabet, Ghosts, and Distributed Human Being. Duke University Press. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-0822341833.
- Peter E. Palmquist, Thomas R. Kailbourn (2005). Pioneer Photographers from the Mississippi to the Continental Divide: A Biographical Dictionary, 1839-1865. Stanford University Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0804740579.
- King, D. (1997). The Commissar Vanishes: the falsification of photographs and art in Stalin's Russia. New York: Metropolitan Books. ISBN 0-8050-5294-1.
- Ammann, Daniel (2009). The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich. Macmillan. p. 228. ISBN 978-1429986854.
- The Newseum (September 1, 1999). ""The Commissar Vanishes" in The Vanishing Commissar". Retrieved September 30, 2012.
- Carlson, Kathryn; DeLevie, Brian; Oliva, Aude (2006). "Ethics in image manipulation". ACM SIGGRAPH 2006. International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques. ACM. doi:10.1145/1179171.1179176. ISBN 1-59593-364-6.
- Reynolds, C. J. (July 12–14, 2007). Image Act Theory (PDF). Seventh International Conference of Computer Ethics. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 28, 2008.
- Mitchell, William John (1994). "How to Do Things with Pictures". The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era. MIT Press.
- Fred Ritchin (November 4, 1984). "Photography's New Bag Of Tricks". The New York Times Company. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
- "National Geographic — Altered Images". Bronx Documentary Center. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
- Jonathan D. Glater (March 3, 2005). "Martha Stewart Gets New Body In Newsweek". New York Times. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
- Katie Hefner (March 11, 2004). "The Camera Never Lies, But The Software Can". The New York Times Company.
- Kitchin, Rob (2011). "6". Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life. The MIT Press. p. 120. ISBN 0-262-04248-7.
- "NPPA Code of Ethics". National Press Photographers Association.
- Lang, Daryl (April 15, 2007). "Blade Editor: Detrich Submitted 79 Altered Photos This Year". Photo District News.
- "Announcement of disqualification". World Press Photo. Retrieved January 22, 2016.
- "World Press Photo Organizer: 20% of Finalists Disqualified". TIME.com. Retrieved January 22, 2016.
- "What counts as manipulation?". World Press Photo. Retrieved January 22, 2016.
- "Britney Spears bravely agrees to release un-airbrushed images of herself next to the digitally-altered versions". Daily Mail. April 13, 2010. Retrieved March 23, 2012.
- Metzmacher, Dirk. "Smashing Magazine." Smashing Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. April 16, 2014.
- Cage, Carolyn (October 6, 2017). "Confessions of a retoucher: how the modelling industry is harming women". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
- Cage, Carolyn (October 6, 2017). "Confessions of a retoucher: how the modelling industry is harming women". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
- "Here's how retouched photos impact our mental health". Business Insider. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
- Media, Caroline Knorr, Common Sense. "How girls use social media to build up, break down self-image". CNN. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
- "Photoshop contributes to unrealistic expectations of appropriate body image: AMA". NY Daily News. Retrieved April 25, 2016.
- "Keep It Real Challenge: Photoshop's Impact on Body Image". info.umkc.edu. June 29, 2012. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
- Roberts, Soraya. "Cate Blanchett goes without digital enhancement on the cover of Intelligent Life". The Juice. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
- "The Evolution Video – Dove Self Esteem Project". selfesteem.dove.us. June 2, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
- "Aerie for American Eagle". Retrieved May 1, 2015.
- Krupnick, Ellie (January 17, 2014). "Aerie's Unretouched Ads 'Challenge Supermodel Standards' For Young Women". The Huffington Post. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
- "AMA Adopts New Policies at Annual Meeting". ama-assn.org. June 21, 2011. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
- Zhang, Michael. "Julia Roberts Makeup Ads Banned in UK for Too Much Photoshop". PetaPixel. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
- Anthony, Sebastian. "US watchdog bans photoshopping in cosmetics ads". Retrieved December 16, 2011.
- "In Defense of Photoshop: Why Retouching Isn't As Evil As Everyone Thinks". The Cut. August 29, 2010. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
- "Women Need Further Educating Into Extent of Digital Manipulation of Mo". prweb.com. November 26, 2013. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
- "The Self Esteem Act: Parents Push for Anti-Photoshop Law in U.S. to Protect Teens from Unrealistic Body Image Ideals". Associated Newspapers. Daily Mail Online. October 12, 2011. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
- Sontag, Susan (1977). On Photography. p. 4.
- L. Boutwell, Allison. "Photoshop: A Positive and Negative Innovation".
- Rodriguez, Edward (2008). Computer Graphic Artist. Netlibrary. p. 163. ISBN 81-89940-42-2.
The term photoshopping is a neologism, meaning "editing an image", regardless of the program used.
- Geelan, David (2006). Undead Theories: Constructivism, Eclecticism And Research in Education. Sense Publisher. p. 146. ISBN 90-77874-31-3.
And with digital photography, there is also the possibility of photoshopping – digitally editing the representation to make it more aesthetically pleasing, or to change decisions about framing.
- Laurence M. Deutsch (2001). Medical Records for Attorneys. ALI-ABA. ISBN 9780831808174.
- "Use Of The Photoshop Trademark" (PDF) (Press release). Adobe Systems Incorporated. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
- Katharine Trendacosta (August 26, 2015). "Here Is Adobe's Attempt to Stop People From Using the Term "Photoshop" All Willy-Nilly". Gawker Media. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
- John Dwight Ingram (2004). "The Genericide of Trademarks" (PDF). Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal. State University of New York. 2 (2). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 2, 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
- Stallman, Richard (April 21, 2018). "Words to Avoid (or Use with Care) Because They Are Loaded or Confusing: 'Photoshop'". GNU Project. Free Software Foundation. Archived from the original on May 28, 2018. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
Please avoid using the term 'photoshop' as a verb, meaning any kind of photo manipulation or image editing in general. Photoshop is just the name of one particular image editing program, which should be avoided since it is proprietary. There are plenty of free programs for editing images, such as the GIMP [link in original].
- Blatner, David (August 1, 2000). "Photoshop: It's Not Just a Program Anymore". Macworld. Archived from the original on March 15, 2005.
- "Photoshop Essentials". Graphic Design Portfolio-Builder: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator Projects. Peachpit Press. August 15, 2005. ISBN 978-0-321-33658-3.
- Jenn Shreve (November 19, 2001). "Photoshop: It's All the Rage". Wired Magazine.
- Corrie Pikul (July 1, 2004). "The Photoshopping of the President". Salon.com Arts & Entertainment. Archived from the original on March 10, 2008.
- Danielson, Stentor; Braun, David (March 8, 2005). "Shark "Photo of the Year" Is E-Mail Hoax". National Geographic News. Retrieved May 20, 2006.
- ABC News (January 4, 2013). "Pelosi Defends Altered Photo of Congresswomen". Retrieved January 4, 2013.
- Washington Post (January 4, 2013). "House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi defends altered photo of women House members". Retrieved January 4, 2013.
- Salon.com (January 4, 2013). "Pelosi defends altered photo of congresswomen". Retrieved January 4, 2013.
- Huffington Post (January 4, 2013). "Nancy Pelosi Defends Altered Photo Of Congresswomen (PHOTO)". Archived from the original on January 7, 2013. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
- WSET News (ABC TV-13) (January 4, 2013). "Pelosi defends altered photo of congresswomen". Retrieved January 4, 2013.[permanent dead link]
|Look up photoshop in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.|
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Photo manipulation.|


The independent subordinative mode is used for certain types of secondary clauses that have something more about a previously mentioned subject, topic or place. As such, this mode is often used in narratives and story telling. This mode helps to link ideas together, and often provide details of quality, quantity, manner about a subject in a series of clauses all of which refer back to the subject mentioned beforehand.
Preverbs are often used in this mood to help color the nature of these linked ideas.
A preverb in the middle of a sentence with the meaning :
'at the location of _______'
would naturally set the stage for additional information to be added about the location.
The main clause starts the story and subordinative clause tells “the rest of the story …”
In narratives, the main clause introduces a storyline and the followings sentences often introduced by the word “then” or “subsequently” (nan or yahah) use the subordinative mode to add more snippets of information to the story.
VAIs conjugate in subordinative mode using a set of endings called the ‘’n endings’‘. Vowel ending stems add the endings directly using the stem ending vowel. Unstable stems do not shift vowels in the subordinative mode. Consonant ending stems insert (u) before the n endings.
VAI Subordinative Mode
|Vowel stem paradigm||Consonant stem paradigm||Meaning|
|nu-(vowel stem)-n||nu-(consonant stem)-un||I —|
|ku-(vowel stem)-n||ku-(consonant stem)-un||You —|
|wu-(vowel stem)-n||wu-(consonant stem)-un||He or She —|
|nu-(vowel stem)-nāānah||nu-(consonant stem)-unāānah||We — (exclusive)|
|nu-(vowel stem)-nāānookw||nu-(consonant stem)-unāānookw||We all — (exclusive)|
|ku-(vowel stem)-nāānah||ku-(consonant stem)-unāānah||We — (inclusive)|
|ku-(vowel stem)-nāānookw||ku-(consonant stem)-unāānookw||We all — (inclusive)|
|ku-(vowel stem)-nāāwah||ku-(consonant stem)-unāāwah||You (pl) —|
|wu-(vowel stem)-nāāwah||wu-(consonant stem)-unāāwah||They —|
|—-(vowel stem)-n||—-(consonant stem)-un||There is —|
VAI Negative Subordinative Mode
|Vowel stem paradigm||Consonant stem paradigm||Meaning|
|ustah nu-(vowel stem)-wun||ustah nu-(consonant stem)-oowun||I — not|
|ustah ku-(vowel stem)-wun||ustah ku-(consonant stem)-oowun||You — not|
|ustah wu-(vowel stem)-wun||ustah wu-(consonant stem)-oowun||He or She — not|
|ustah nu-(vowel stem)-wunāānah||ustah nu-(consonant stem)-oowunāānah||We — not (exclusive)|
|ustah nu-(vowel stem)-wunāānookw||ustah nu-(consonant stem)-oowunāānookw||We — not (exclusive)|
|ustah ku-(vowel stem)-wunāānah||ustah ku-(consonant stem)-oowunāānah||We — not (inclusive)|
|ustah ku-(vowel stem)-wunāānookw||ustah ku-(consonant stem)-oowunāānookw||We — not (exclusive)|
|ustah ku-(vowel stem)-wunāāwah||ustah ku-(consonant stem)-oowunāāawh||You (pl) — not|
|ustah wu-(vowel stem)-wunāāwah||ustah wu-(consonant stem)-oowunāāwah||They — not|
|ustah —-(vowel stem)-wun||ustah —-(consonant stem)-oowun||There is not —|
VAI Subordinative Examples
The verb anahkāāw ‘he works’
ndanahkāān ktanahkāān wtanahkāān ndanahkāānāānah ndanahkāānāānookw ktanahkāānāānah ktanahkāānāānookw ktanahkāānāāwah wtalahkāānāāwah X anahkāān
ustah ndanahkāāwun ustah ktanahkāāwun ustah wtanahkāāwun ustah ndanahkāāwŭnāānah ustah ndanahkāāwŭnāānookw ustah ktanahkāāwŭnāānah ustah ktanahkāāwŭnāānookw ustah ktanahkāāwŭnāāwah ustah wtanahkāāwŭnāāwah X ustah anahkāāwun
Unstable verbs in subordinative mode
unstable (ąą) verbs use (ąą) + n endings unstable (ii) verbs use (ii) + n endings verbs in (kwii) use (kwii) + n endings
unstable (ąą) verbs use (ąą) + negative n endings unstable (ii) verbs use (ii) + negative n endings verbs in (kwii) use (kwii) + negative n endings
Ustah nāākmah pāāwih. He is not coming. (indicative mode) Nan ustah nāākmah pąąwun. (subordinative)
Subordinative mode usage:
The subordinative when used as the main verb in a non narrative phrase, forms mild commands or suggestions.
Ndąąn. Let me go. āāw vai-ąą he goes
These seem to have an unspoken main clause that says:
“Would you please…” + subordinative verb
Kamuk wtąąn. Let him go inside. Kóonθiin. Please be nice. (wunúθuw vai he is nice, good) Pąąn wiikuyah. Let him come to my house. (pāāw vai he comes) Kāāchih pąąnāāwah. Let them come now. Numíitsiin hamawusih. Let me eat slowly. (hamawusih pc kind of slowly) Ngáwiin. Let me sleep. Ngawíināānah. Let us sleep. Nsiin. Let me say.
Secondary verbal clauses
The subordinative is used in the second clause when a phrases contains two verb clauses. Some of these phrases use the conjunct for the second phrase. The subordinative tends to used instead when the second clause continues the narrative in some way.
Wāāwihkwat noonāāyun. It is known I am good.
wāāwihkwat vii be known
Subordinative construct because the second verb explains something related to the first verb.
Koonamanθih ndan noonamánθih. You are feeling well and I am feeling well.
Non-subordinative construct. Neither verb says something that is secondary to the other.
Examples of subordinative constructs:
Aąyąąnkwat nŭmáwih-kawiin. It is necessary for me to go to sleep. Aąyąąnkwat koonāāyun. It is necessary for you to be nice. Ustah Aąyąąnkwatoowih nsiin. It is not necessary for me to say.
Subordinative use with preverbs
Certain preverbs (and related verb roots) are especially geared toward use in subordinative clauses. Preverbs related to the quality, the location, the aspect, or the quantity of an idea tend to be followed by a verb in the subordinative mode.
A preverb that introduces the idea of ‘somewhere’ for example may associated with a verb about working. That verb would be in the subordinative because the idea of working somewhere would be part of the preceding dialogue and makes sense in the context of the dialogue.
Locative nouns or numbers are examples of qualifiers that are connected to a verb but do not cause the verb to be in the subordinative mode.
The preverb (anih-) sets up a verb so it can provide information with the meaning of ‘thereto’ or the ‘in the direction or manner of’ with reference to a place or time. The idea of ‘direction’ toward a destination extends to non literal places such as ideas and times. It can be used to express concepts such as ‘how’ or ‘thusly’ or ‘in what way’ or ‘in what timeframe’. By providing an explanation of the manner or direction of an action toward reaching a destination or a result, it may assume a variety of translations in English such as how, thus, thusly, the way that, the manner which, to the time of, to the place of, and other such ideas. It provides an explanation of a result or end point so sometimes translates as ‘because’.
It forms a contrast with the preverb wchih- which means ‘therefrom’ or ‘the reason, purpose or cause from which’ with the idea of movement from a place of departure, a starting point, or a beginning.
anih- pv thereto, how, so, in thus manner, in thus way, in relation to
Beginning pattern (nu)-(anih) => ndunih- (ku)-(anih) => ktunih- (wu)-(anih) => wtunih- Reduplicated form is (ayúnih- ) ; with prefix: (ndayunih- ktayunih- wtayunih-)
Reduplicated forms add emphasis, rhythm and cuteness, similar to words like ‘razzle dazzle’ or ‘fancy schmancy.’
(anih-) may also be used in non subordinative phrases to provide emphasis or direct statements based on ‘how’ something happens.
It is important to keep in mind in interpreting phrases using (anih-) that the subordinative clause functions as an add on that tells the rest of the story.
Ndanumúθih wtúnih-mawih-kawíin. I left when he went to sleep. I left, the end result (destination) of him going to sleep. anúmθuw vai he leaves Mbāāθih wtúnih-anúmθiin. I waited until he left. (pāāθuw vai wait) (I waited - to the time he was on his way - his leaving) Ndan wtúnih- wiikwáhmuk -piichiikwθiin. And - into the house to there he crawled inside. Then he crawled into the house. [piichiikwθuw vai crawl inside] Kamuk ndúnih-pah. I am coming over there. Over there is to where I come. (non-subordinative) Ootāānāāk ndúnih-pumúθih. I am walking to town. To town is to where I walk. (non-subordinative direct statement using of (anih-), single verb phrase) Nun ndayúnih-mąąchiin. This is the way I went home. (the direction or manner thereto) Nun refers to something said earlier, so this phrase is subordinate.
Wchih- is a preverb that connects phrases with the idea of ‘’therefrom’ or ‘from where’ or ‘the reason, purpose or cause from which’. A reason, cause or explanation represents an ideational departure point, hence the frequent use for ideas such as ‘because’ or ‘why’.
When the quantifier (the word or phrase that spells out the idea or place the preverb is pointing to) is a noun in locative form, the one verb in the phrase does not need to be in the subordinative mode. Phrases with two verbs use the subordinative. When a pronoun such as “this” or “that” or “there” serves as a pointer back to something else said earlier, the subordinative is used, even though it may be the only verb in that sentence.
Wchih- also may be used as a prenoun, attached to a locative noun, indicating ‘from or at’ that location.
Kiisih- ąąm - nąątamun xaskwiim wchih-wiikwahmuk? Can you get the corn from the house? (prenoun) Wiikwahmuk wchih-pumuθuw. He walked from the house. (preverb) Pāāw oochih-miitsiin. He came so he could eat. (from the idea that) Nun oochih-apíin. That's why he is there. (the purpose from which) Nun oochih-apiināāwah niimāānāāk. That's the reason why the men are there. (wu)+(wchih)=(oochih) Ngawih noochih-wunamanúθiin. I slept so I would feel good. Nun nooch-ąąptóonāān. That's the reason why I was speaking.
Wchih can be used as a particle with meaning of ‘from’ and ‘reason, purpose’
Kāākway wchih? Why? What is the reason? Paníiw ąąn wchih kukuk. Go away from your mother's place.
Subordinative constructs using other preverbs
Other preverbs are used in subordinative mode phrases. Preverbs may be integrated into the verb as part of the ‘root’ of the verb in which case the effect is similar to using the preverb.
(verbs are made of roots, medials and finals)
Tanih connects phrases with the idea of ‘where, a place’ (in the same way that anih- connects phrases with the idea of ‘’how’‘). The ‘qualifier’ for tanih will be a location of some kind or ‘somewhere’ or a ‘place’. The subordinative mode is used with (tanih) when the clause it introduces is a secondary clause.
tan- (as verb root) there, in a certain place, that is where…
tanahkāāw he works (somewhere)
Beginning pattern irregularity:
(u) is inserted between the prefix and (tan-) (nu)-(-u-)(tanahkāāw) => ndutahkāān ktutahkāān wtutahkāān
Ootāānāāk ndutanahkah. I work in town. (locative nouns in a direct statement, indicative mode) Noh nan ndutanahkāān. That is where I work (subordinative mode because this phrase is a secondary clause to a narrative)
Mostly [tanih] is used as a particle (standalone word).
When used with a verb as a preverb (tanih-) takes the form (atanih-).
Noh wtútanih-pumuθiin. That's where he walked. Noh wtútanih-ąąn. That's where he went. Noh wtútanih-ąąnāāwah. That's where they went. Noh wtútanih-anahkāān. This is where he used to work
Indicative mode examples, using a non verbal qualifier.
Apuw tanih mbíik. He is there in the water. Pxąąn noh tanih. It is snowing here. Nuyah nŭmáwih-pumúθih ąąnāāk tanih. I went walking on the road.
θáhkih- is a preverb that connects phrases with the idea of ‘the length, the extent, the amount of something’
Its qualifiers could be a number in which case there is only one clause which is a non-subordinative clause but if a verb is used then then the first verb will be in the indicative mode and the secondary verb phrase will be in the subordinative mode.
θahkooxāāw vai-s go a certain way, distance
Tąąn wθahkooxāān? How far is he going? Tąąn nθahkooxāān? How far am I going? Ustah nuwāāwiitāāwun tąąn nθahkooxāān. Mbúmθih nθáhkih-wiinamanθiin. I walked so far I was sick.
θáhksuw vai be a certain length
Thah wθáhksiin nah áxkook? How long is the snake? What is the extent- of the length of the snake
Example without use of subordinative:
θahkąąwθuw vai live a certain length of time (sahkąąwsuw)
M sahkaawsuw vai live a certain length of time.
ind 1st sg nθahkąąwθih
conj 3rd sg θahkąąwθiit
Tąąn nsahkąąwuθih. So long as I live. (s93) (s130)
θahkąąwθuw vai live a certain length of time
Niisah kiisoox θahkąąwθuw. He lived for two months. Tąąn θahkąąwθuw? How long has he lived?
θahkih– as a preverb:
Nāāwah kíisoox wθáhkih-pāāsiin. Four months is how long he waited. (He waited for four months.) Nun kθáhkih-pumúθiin. That is how long I walked.
Use as particle
Tąąn sáhkih ndaniitahah, 'nuya=ch nŭmáwih-míitθih'. After awhile I told myself, 'I'll go eat'. (non subordinative construction)
Storytelling and the subordinative
Story telling words like yahah, kniimah, knih, nih ‘then’ or ‘and then’ may introduce a subordinate clause. It is as if each new sentence tells more of the story, and the whole story forms a string of interconnected sub-phrases, all in the subordinative mode.
yahah pc then, subsequently + subordinative
kniimah pc then, after that + subordinative
knih pc then
nih pc that inanimate, emphatic
When these particles are used with a verb to make direct statements, then the indicative mode is used. When the particle and verb refer back to something or someplace previously mentioned, subordinative is preferred.
Nih ndanumúθiin. Then I went away (from there). Knih ustah ndąąwun. Then I didn't go (there). Kniimah ustah ngátāāw-ąąwun. Then I didn't want to go (there). Yahah ndaniitahah, "Nuyah ąąm ndąąn." Then I thought, 'I should go (there).
This word may be used to refer back to something or someone from the main narrative and will trigger the subordinative mode if coupled with a verb.
Nih wmun nah niimāānāāw. That's where that man comes from. Nih pxāānum wsiin. That's what the woman said.
Verbs of motion
Certain verbs of motion are used in subordinative mode, especially when the motion is defined, without vagueness.
Pāāw. He comes. i.e. he comes somewhere, or somehow or sometime (vague) Nih pąąn. He came to this (place). (precise) pāāw vai-ąą come Nāākmah nahah pąąn, nguk uwah "kátāāw-míitθih?" He came, and my mother said "Do you want to eat?'' (precise)
The subordinative may be useful to shift the focus or emphasis of a phrase :
Nah nuyah ndapiin. That was me who was there.
Plural and obviative endings on verbs in subordinative mode normally are omitted :
Niichąąnak noh wtápiin wtapíinayuk. My daughters are there in their beds.