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29-584: Raffles Lighthouse is a lighthouse located on Pulau Satumu in the Singapore Strait , about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) south of the main island of Singapore. The Raffles Lighthouse was first mooted in 1833, but the foundation stone was only laid in 1854 when William John Butterworth was the Governor of the Straits Settlements from 1843 to 1855. The stones on which Raffles Lighthouse stands come from

58-401: A dialect continuum in which differences generally become more pronounced as distances increase, though there are also some sharp boundaries. The Sinitic languages can be divided into Macro-Bai languages and Chinese languages, and the following is one of many potential ways of subdividing these languages. Some varieties, such as Shaozhou Tuhua , are hard to classify and thus are not included in

87-713: A null initial (apart from open zhǐ rime series ( 止攝開口 ) finals), unlike the /ʐ/ of Northern and Beijing Mandarin. Based on, for example, the pronunciation of the palatalized jiàn initial ( 見母 ), Jiaoliao Mandarin can be divided into Qingzhou, Denglian and Gaihuan areas. Central Plains Mandarin is spoken in the Central Plains of Henan , southwestern Shanxi , southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu , as well as most of Shaanxi , southern Ningxia and Gansu and southern Xinjiang , in famous cities such as Kaifeng , Zhengzhou , Luoyang , Xuzhou , Xi'an , Xining and Lanzhou . Central Plains Mandarin lects merge

116-486: A departing tone. Subdivision of Central Plains Mandarin is not fully agreed upon, though one possible subdivision sees 13 divisions, namely Xuhuai, Zhengkai, Luosong, Nanlu, Yanhe, Shangfu, Xinbeng, Luoxiang, Fenhe, Guanzhong, Qinlong, Longzhong and Nanjiang. Lanyin Mandarin, on the other hand, is divided as Jincheng, Yinwu, Hexi, and Beijiang. The Dungan language is a collection of Central Plains Mandarin varieties spoken in

145-440: A gearless revolving pedestal. The lamps require only one-fifth of the energy required to produce the same intensity as incandescent lamps. These low-power lamps therefore allow solar power to be used in place of generators. In addition, the operation of the light is controlled by a photocell . The manning of the lighthouse was further reduced to two men. The use of solar energy which is freely and readily available has resulted in

174-460: A national prestige during the Ming and Qing periods, though not all linguists support this viewpoint. The Language Atlas divides Huai into Tongtai, Huangxiao, and Hongchao areas, with the latter further split into Ninglu and Huaiyang. Tongtai, being geographically located furthest west, has the most significant Wu influence, such as in its distribution of historical voiced plosive series. Yue Chinese

203-477: A reduction of operating and maintenance cost. The present lighthouse equipment consists of a main and standby rotating beacon, each producing 117,000 candelas with a nominal range of 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi). A radar beacon ( racon ) was also installed at the lighthouse which provides additional navigational information to ships by emitting a Morse code on the ship's radar screen. In 2005, an Aids to Navigation Automatic Identification System (AIS)

232-439: A visibility range of 22 nautical miles (41 km; 25 mi). The power supply came from one of the three generators installed in a generator room built close to the keeper's room. As the rotation was electrically driven by motors, the crew was reduced to four men. In 1988 the 4th Order optic was replaced by a rotating beacon . This comprised an array of quartz halogen lamps in aluminium parabolic reflectors mounted on

261-667: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about an island is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Chinese languages Over 91% of the Chinese population speaks a Sinitic language. Approximately 1.52 billion people are speakers of the Chinese macrolanguage, of whom about three-quarters speak a Mandarin variety. Estimates of the number of global speakers of Sinitic branches as of 2018–2019, both native and non-native, are listed below: Dialectologist Jerry Norman estimated that there are hundreds of mutually unintelligible Sinitic languages. They form

290-589: Is located. Internationally recognised techniques developed by Reef Check and the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network were adopted for this programme. Pulau Satumu Pulau Satumu ( Chinese : 沙都姆岛) is an islet to the south of the main Singapore island , and the southernmost island of Singapore . The Raffles Lighthouse is located on the island. The island's name means "One Tree Island" in archaic Malay . This Asia location article

319-410: Is sometimes separated as a remnant of Old Shu. Huai is spoken in central Anhui , northern Jiangxi , far western and eastern Hubei and most of Jiangsu . Due to its preservation of a checked tone, some linguists believe that Huai ought to be treated as a top-level group, like Jin. Representative lects tend to be Nanjingnese , Hefeinese and Yangzhounese . The Huai of Nanjing has likely served as

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348-571: Is spoken by around 84 million people, in western Guangdong , eastern Guangxi , Hong Kong , Macau and parts of Hainan , as well as overseas communities such as Kuala Lumpur and Vancouver . Famous lects such as Cantonese and Taishanese belong to this family. Yue Chinese lects generally possess long-short distinctions in their vowels, which is reflected in their almost universally split dark-checked and often split light-checked tones. They generally also tend to preserve all three checked plosive finals and three nasal finals. The status of Pinghua

377-511: Is spoken in the Jiaodong and Liaodong Peninsulae , which includes the cities of Dalian and Qingdao , as well as several prefectures along the China-Korea border. Like Jilu Mandarin, its light checked tone is merged into light level or departing based on the manner of articulation of the initial, though its dark checked is merged into the rising. Its rì initial ( 日母 ) terms are pronounced with

406-911: The Republic of China , People's Republic of China , Singapore and United Nations . Re-population efforts, such as that of the Qing dynasty in the Southwest, tended to involve Mandarin speakers. Classification of Mandarin lects has undergone several significant changes, though nowadays it is commonly divided as such, based on the distribution of the historical checked tone: as well as other lects, which do not neatly fall into these categories, such as Mandarin Junhua varieties. Varieties of Mandarin can be defined by their universally lost -m final, low number of tones, and smaller inventory of classifiers , among other features. Mandarin lects also often have rhotic erhua rimes, though

435-516: The amount of its use may vary between lects. Loss of checked tone is an often cited criterion for Mandarin languages, though lects such as Yangzhounese and Taiyuannese show otherwise. Northeastern Mandarin is spoken in Heilongjiang , Jilin , most of Liaoning and northeastern Inner Mongolia , whereas Beijing Mandarin is spoken in northern Hebei , most of Beijing , parts of Tianjin and Inner Mongolia . The two families' most notable features are

464-405: The dark checked into the dark level tone, the light checked into light level or departing based on the manner of articulation of the initial , and vowel breaking in tong rime series' ( 通攝 ) checked-tone words, among other features. Jilu Mandarin can be classified into Baotang, Shiji, Canghui and Zhangli. Zhangli is of note due to its preservation of a separate checked tone. Jiaoliao Mandarin

493-635: The extinct Taz language of Russia is also a Northeastern Mandarin language. Beijing is sometimes included in Northeastern Mandarin due to its distribution of the historical dark checked tone, though is listed as its own group by others, often due to its more regular light checked tones. Jilu Mandarin is spoken in southern Hebei and western Shandong , and is often represented with Jinannese . Notable cities that use Jilu Mandarin lects include Cangzhou , Shijiazhuang , Jinan and Baoding . Characteristically Jilu Mandarin features include merging

522-401: The family is classified into at least seven main families. These families are classified based on five main evolutionary criteria: The varieties within one family may not be mutually intelligible with each other. For instance, Wenzhounese and Ningbonese are not highly mutually intelligible. The Language Atlas of China identifies ten groups: with Jin, Hui, Pinghua, and Tuhua not part of

551-601: The following briefs. This is a language family first proposed by linguist Zhengzhang Shangfang , and was expanded to include Longjia and Luren. It likely split off from the rest of Sinitic during the Old Chinese period. The languages included are all considered minority languages in China and are spoken in the Southwest . The languages are: All other Sinitic languages henceforth would be considered Chinese. The Chinese branch of

580-482: The former Soviet Union . Jin is spoken in most of Shanxi , western Hebei , northern Shaanxi , northern Henan and central Inner Mongolia , often represented by Taiyuannese . It was first proposed as a lect separate from the rest of Mandarin by Li Rong , where it was proposed as lects in and around Shanxi with a checked tone, though this stance is not without disagreement. Jin varieties also often has disyllabic words derived from syllable splitting (分音詞), through

609-510: The granite quarries on Pulau Ubin . The lighthouse was named after Sir Stamford Raffles , who founded modern Singapore in 1819. The lighthouse was erected on a 1.3- hectare (3.2- acre ) rocky island called Pulau Satumu , the southernmost island off the main island of Singapore. Pulau Satumu means "one tree island" – sa refers to satu ("one") and tumu is the Malay name for the large mangrove tree, Bruguiera confugata . The light source

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638-534: The heavy use of rhotic erhua and seemingly random distribution of the dark checked tone, and generally having four tones with the contours of high flat, rising, dipping, and falling. Northeastern Mandarin, especially in Heilongjiang, contains many loanwords from Russian. Northeastern Mandarin lects can be divided into three main groups, namely Hafu (including Harbinnese and Changchunnese ), Jishen (including Jilinnese and Shenyangnese ), and Heisong. Notably,

667-409: The historical checked tones with a lesser muddy ( 次濁 ) and clear ( 清 ) initial together with the rising tone, and those with a fully muddy ( 全濁 ) initial are merged with the light level tone. Lanyin Mandarin, spoken in northern Ningxia, parts of Gansu, and northern Xinjiang, is sometimes grouped with Central Plains Mandarin due to its merged lesser light and dark checked tones, though it is realised as

696-742: The infixation of /(u)əʔ l/ . 笨 pəŋ꜄   → 薄 pəʔ꜇ 愣 ləŋ꜄ 笨 {} 薄 愣 pəŋ꜄ → pəʔ꜇ ləŋ꜄ 'stupid' 滾 ꜂kʊŋ   → 骨 kuəʔ꜆ 攏 ꜂lʊŋ 滾 {} 骨 攏 ꜂kʊŋ → kuəʔ꜆ ꜂lʊŋ 'to roll' As per the Language Atlas by Li, Jin is divided into Dabao, Zhanghu, Wutai, Lüliang, Bingzhou, Shangdang, Hanxin, and Zhiyan branches. Spoken in Yunnan , Guizhou , northern Guangxi , most of Sichuan , southern Gansu and Shaanxi , Chongqing , most of Hubei and bordering parts of Hunan , as well as Kokang of Myanmar and parts of northern Thailand , Southwestern Mandarin speakers take up

725-596: The most area and population of all Mandarinic language groups, and would be the eighth most spoken language in the world if separated from the rest of Mandarin. Southwestern Mandarinic tends to not have retroflex consonants , and merges all checked tone categories together. Except for Minchi , which has a standalone checked category, the checked tone is merged with another category. Representative lects include Wuhannese and Sichuanese , and sometimes Kunmingnese . Southwestern Mandarin tends to be split into Chuanqian, Xishu, Chuanxi, Yunnan, Huguang and Guiliu branches. Minchi

754-624: The seven traditional groups. Varieties of Mandarin are used in the Western Regions , the Southwest , Huguang , Inner Mongolia , Central Plains and the Northeast , by around three-quarters of the Sinitic-speaking population. Historically, the prestige variety has always been Mandarin, which is still reflected today in Standard Chinese . Standard Chinese is now an official language of

783-430: The weight whenever it reached the base. The rewinding was done hourly. A crew of seven men was required to man the lighthouse. In 1968, the installation of a 4th Order electrically operated revolving optic replaced the original 2nd Order optic with a pressurised vapour kerosene "Hood" mantle burner. The light source was changed to a 100-volt/1,000-watt incandescent bulb producing 350,000 candelas of light intensity with

812-431: Was a wick burner which was replaced in 1905 by a pressurised vapour kerosene mantle burner to increase the light intensity for a greater visible range. A 2nd Order optic was mounted on a roller carriage to allow for smooth rotation. (The Order is a system of classifying the type of lenses used based on the focal length of the lens). This roller carriage was a weight-driven machine which had to be rewound manually to lift

841-443: Was installed to broadcast additional positioning information to ships. The National Parks Board , National Biodiversity Centre , Blue Water Volunteers and volunteers from the public started a coral reef surveying programme in 2005 to monitor the status of hard corals ( Scleractinia ), mobile invertebrates and coral reef fish at several locations around five southern islands , including Pulau Satumu on which Raffles Lighthouse

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