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141-453: Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. (ZGH) , commonly known as Geely Holding ( / ˈ dʒ iː l i /  ; Chinese : 吉利控股 ; pinyin : Jílì Kònggǔ ), is a Chinese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang . The company is privately owned by Chinese entrepreneur Li Shufu , and mainly engaged in the automotive industry . Geely was founded 1986 as

282-547: A family . Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese , of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin with 66%, or around 800 million speakers, followed by Min (75 million, e.g. Southern Min ), Wu (74 million, e.g. Shanghainese ), and Yue (68 million, e.g. Cantonese ). These branches are unintelligible to each other, and many of their subgroups are unintelligible with

423-418: A manual five- or six-speed sequential transmission drives the swingarm -mounted rear wheel by a chain , driveshaft , or belt . The repair can be done using a Motorcycle lift . Motorcycle fuel economy varies greatly with engine displacement and riding style. A streamlined, fully faired Matzu Matsuzawa Honda XL125 achieved 470 mpg ‑US (0.50 L/100 km; 560 mpg ‑imp ) in

564-469: A nucleus that has a vowel (which can be a monophthong , diphthong , or even a triphthong in certain varieties), preceded by an onset (a single consonant , or consonant + glide ; a zero onset is also possible), and followed (optionally) by a coda consonant; a syllable also carries a tone . There are some instances where a vowel is not used as a nucleus. An example of this is in Cantonese, where

705-447: A refrigerator parts company, before transitioning to motorcycles in 1994 and entering the automotive industry in 1997. ZGH as a holding company was founded in 2003. As of 2023, the company ranks 225 in the 2023 Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies. In 2023, the group produced a total of 2.79 million vehicles globally, including 980,000 plug-in electric vehicles . The company manufactures and sells vehicles under

846-457: A subject–verb–object word order , and like many other languages of East Asia, makes frequent use of the topic–comment construction to form sentences. Chinese also has an extensive system of classifiers and measure words , another trait shared with neighboring languages such as Japanese and Korean. Other notable grammatical features common to all the spoken varieties of Chinese include the use of serial verb construction , pronoun dropping , and

987-593: A trike ) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar from a saddle-style seat. Motorcycle designs vary greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting , cruising , sport (including racing ), and off-road riding. Motorcycling is riding a motorcycle and being involved in other related social activities such as joining a motorcycle club and attending motorcycle rallies . The 1885 Daimler Reitwagen made by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Germany

1128-580: A 17% stake in Aston Martin and owns half of Horse Powertrain , an engine manufacturing joint venture with Renault . Geely is a phonetic transliteration of the company's native name 吉利 ( pinyin : Jílì ), which means "auspicious" or "propitious" in Chinese . Geely entered the automotive industry in 1997, but only officially received national production license in November 2001. Following

1269-569: A 50-50 joint venture to develop and operate the Smart brand as a global electric vehicle brand. The venture, later named Smart Automobile Co., Ltd. is headquartered in Ningbo, Zhejiang . It has a registered capital of CN¥ 5.4 billion, with each company contributing CN¥2.7 billion. The new all-electric Smart model from this joint venture was launched globally in 2022 as the Smart #1 , previously showcased as

1410-510: A Chinese character is the morpheme, as characters represent the smallest grammatical units with individual meanings in the Chinese language. Estimates of the total number of Chinese words and lexicalized phrases vary greatly. The Hanyu Da Zidian , a compendium of Chinese characters, includes 54,678 head entries for characters, including oracle bone versions. The Zhonghua Zihai (1994) contains 85,568 head entries for character definitions and

1551-465: A Geely subsidiary established in 1999 and phased out in 2010. The brand was temporarily revived in 2020 by launching its first EV, the Maple 30X . In 2022, Geely launched the joint venture between Lifan and Maple called Livan ( Chinese : 睿蓝 ), and the previous Maple products were reconsolidated into Livan. Lotus Cars is a British carmaker established in 1948 that produces sports and racing cars. It

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1692-599: A Shanghai resident may speak both Standard Chinese and Shanghainese ; if they grew up elsewhere, they are also likely fluent in the dialect of their home region. In addition to Standard Chinese, a majority of Taiwanese people also speak Taiwanese Hokkien (also called 台語 ; 'Taiwanese' ), Hakka , or an Austronesian language . A speaker in Taiwan may mix pronunciations and vocabulary from Standard Chinese and other languages of Taiwan in everyday speech. In part due to traditional cultural ties with Guangdong , Cantonese

1833-462: A central variety (i.e. prestige variety, such as Standard Mandarin), as the issue requires some careful handling when mutual intelligibility is inconsistent with language identity. The Chinese government's official Chinese designation for the major branches of Chinese is 方言 ; fāngyán ; 'regional speech', whereas the more closely related varieties within these are called 地点方言 ; 地點方言 ; dìdiǎn fāngyán ; 'local speech'. Because of

1974-629: A company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the trading code 0175HK. In March 2004, Guorun was renamed Geely Automobile Holdings Limited , a company under ZGH, retaining the same trading code. This strategy was seen as Geely's "backdoor" entry into the Hong Kong stock market, providing a means to raise funds for the company. In 2006, Geely bought a 19.97 percent equity stake in British company Manganese Bronze Holdings ,

2115-615: A compromise between the pronunciations of different regions. The royal courts of the Ming and early Qing dynasties operated using a koiné language known as Guanhua , based on the Nanjing dialect of Mandarin. Standard Chinese is an official language of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan), one of the four official languages of Singapore , and one of

2256-714: A corresponding increase in the number of homophones . As an example, the small Langenscheidt Pocket Chinese Dictionary lists six words that are commonly pronounced as shí in Standard Chinese: In modern spoken Mandarin, however, tremendous ambiguity would result if all of these words could be used as-is. The 20th century Yuen Ren Chao poem Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den exploits this, consisting of 92 characters all pronounced shi . As such, most of these words have been replaced in speech, if not in writing, with less ambiguous disyllabic compounds. Only

2397-404: A former parent company of Volvo Cars . The deal made ZGH the biggest shareholder by number of shares with an 8.2% stake, and second by voting rights, with 15.6%. In September 2019, ZGH led a round of private funding for Volocopter that raised $ 55   million for the company. Volocopter's other private investors also include Daimler AG which owns a stake in the company. In late July 2020, it

2538-811: A full motorcycle licence or endorsement for completing a Motorcycle Safety course varies by province. Without the Motorcycle Safety Course the chance of getting insurance for the motorcycle is very low. The Canada Safety Council , a non-profit safety organisation, offers the Gearing Up program across Canada and is endorsed by the Motorcycle and Moped Industry Council. Training course graduates may qualify for reduced insurance premiums. Motorcyclists and motor scooter riders are also exposed to an increased risk of suffering hearing damage such as hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing ears). The noise

2679-622: A joint venture holding company with both as co-owners. The joint venture was officially established in late May 2024 as Horse Powertrain Limited , headquartered in London , United Kingdom. In January 2021, ZGH announced a deal to create an electric vehicle joint venture together with Baidu , a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services, products, and artificial intelligence (AI). Baidu would develop

2820-576: A millennium. The Four Commanderies of Han were established in northern Korea in the 1st century BCE but disintegrated in the following centuries. Chinese Buddhism spread over East Asia between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE, and with it the study of scriptures and literature in Literary Chinese. Later, strong central governments modeled on Chinese institutions were established in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, with Literary Chinese serving as

2961-673: A motorcycle ( German : Motorrad ). Excelsior Motor Company , originally a bicycle manufacturing company based in Coventry , England , began production of their first motorcycle model in 1896. The first production motorcycle in the US was the Orient-Aster, built by Charles Metz in 1898 at his factory in Waltham, Massachusetts . In the early period of motorcycle history, many producers of bicycles adapted their designs to accommodate

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3102-414: A motorcycle either as OEM (factory-fitted) or aftermarket . Such accessories are selected by the owner to enhance the motorcycle's appearance, safety, performance, or comfort, and may include anything from mobile electronics to sidecars and trailers . Motorcycles have a higher rate of fatal accidents than automobiles or trucks and buses. United States Department of Transportation data for 2005 from

3243-641: A new company under its British subsidiary called The London Taxi Corporation, later renamed London Electric Vehicle Company , to resume assembly of the London black cab in Coventry , UK. In 2009, Geely bought an Australian transmission company Drivetrain Systems International (DSI), at that time the second largest automatic transmission manufacturer for A$ 70 million . In 2014, Geely sold 90% of its stake in DSI to multiple other Chinese companies after

3384-578: A new line of 3- and 4-cylinder diesel and petrol engines to replace larger engines. It has also developed a new vehicle platform called the Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) . Sales reached 500,000 vehicles in 2015 for the first time in the brand's history, and continued to over 700,000 in 2023. Both company jointly developed engines and platforms, notably the Compact Modular Architecture platform that

3525-756: A performance and tuning brand owned by Volvo Cars, would become a standalone brand focusing on electric cars. Polestar introduced its first product, the Polestar 1 coupé on 17 October 2017. The car was produced at the Polestar Production Centre in Chengdu , China. Following an initial public offering , Polestar shares began trading on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol PSNY on 24 June 2022. In December 2017, ZGH invested €3.25   billion into Swedish truck and construction company Volvo Group ,

3666-585: A proposed merger of both businesses. In the existing arrangement, Volvo Cars has been allowed autonomy with its resources despite being fully owned by ZGH. These merger talks were later halted, and 18% of Volvo Cars shares were listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm stock exchange in October 2021. In   March 2021, ZGH launched the Zeekr brand for premium electric vehicles. Its first model, the Zeekr 001

3807-559: A restructuring of Geely, ZGH was established as a holding company largely owned by Li Shufu in March 2003. ZGH acquired the Swedish passenger car maker Volvo Cars from Ford Motor Company in 2010. It completed the acquisition of British taxi maker Manganese Bronze Holdings in 2013 and restructured it into London Electric Vehicle Company . In 2017, ZGH acquired a majority stake in British sports carmaker Lotus Cars in 2017. ZGH's business

3948-402: A role in how a motorcycle performs in given conditions. For example, one with a longer wheelbase provides the feeling of more stability by responding less to disturbances. Motorcycle tyres have a large influence over handling. Motorcycles must be leaned in order to make turns. This lean is induced by the method known as countersteering , in which the rider momentarily steers the handlebars in

4089-542: A secure reconstruction of Proto-Sino-Tibetan, the higher-level structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, but has not been convincingly demonstrated. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty . As the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have repeatedly sought to promulgate

4230-508: A similar way to the use of Latin and Ancient Greek roots in European languages. Many new compounds, or new meanings for old phrases, were created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to name Western concepts and artifacts. These coinages, written in shared Chinese characters, have then been borrowed freely between languages. They have even been accepted into Chinese, a language usually resistant to loanwords, because their foreign origin

4371-631: A unified standard. The earliest examples of Old Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones dated to c.  1250 BCE , during the Late Shang . The next attested stage came from inscriptions on bronze artifacts dating to the Western Zhou period (1046–771 BCE), the Classic of Poetry and portions of the Book of Documents and I Ching . Scholars have attempted to reconstruct

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4512-575: A variety of Yue from a small coastal area around Taishan, Guangdong . In parts of South China, the dialect of a major city may be only marginally intelligible to its neighbors. For example, Wuzhou and Taishan are located approximately 260 km (160 mi) and 190 km (120 mi) away from Guangzhou respectively, but the Yue variety spoken in Wuzhou is more similar to the Guangzhou dialect than

4653-495: Is 43.47 which is 28 times higher than for cars (37 times more deaths per mile travelled in 2007). Furthermore, for motorcycles the accident rates have increased significantly since the end of the 1990s, while the rates have dropped for passenger cars. The most common configuration of motorcycle accidents in the United States is when a motorist pulls out or turns in front of a motorcyclist, violating their right-of-way. This

4794-708: Is Geely Group's original and mainstream brand, primarily sold in China and select overseas markets. It has an electric vehicle product line, the Geely Galaxy for premium EV/PHEV. Geely Galaxy ( Chinese : 吉利银河 ) is Geely's mass-market range of new energy vehicles ( plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles) that was established in February 2023. In October 2024, the Geely Geometry line has been merged with Geely Galaxy. Radar Auto ( Chinese : 雷达汽车 )

4935-602: Is Taishanese. Wuzhou is located directly upstream from Guangzhou on the Pearl River , whereas Taishan is to Guangzhou's southwest, with the two cities separated by several river valleys. In parts of Fujian , the speech of some neighbouring counties or villages is mutually unintelligible. Local varieties of Chinese are conventionally classified into seven dialect groups, largely based on the different evolution of Middle Chinese voiced initials: Proportions of first-language speakers The classification of Li Rong , which

5076-657: Is a battery electric pick-up truck brand owned by ZGH. The brand's first vehicle, the Radar RD6 , was unveiled in 2022. The brand was consolidated into Geely Auto in November 2024. Polestar is a publicly traded electric car brand established in Sweden under the Volvo Cars Group. Polestar was initially 50.5% owned by ZGH and 49.5% by Volvo Cars. Zeekr ( Chinese : 极氪 ) is a premium battery electric vehicle brand of ZGH owned by Geely Automobile Holdings. The company

5217-490: Is called either 华语 ; 華語 ; Huáyǔ or 汉语 ; 漢語 ; Hànyǔ ). Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. The governments of both China and Taiwan intend for speakers of all Chinese speech varieties to use it as a common language of communication. Therefore, it is used in government agencies, in the media, and as a language of instruction in schools. Diglossia is common among Chinese speakers. For example,

5358-439: Is caused by wind noise while riding, rolling noise from the tyres and the engine itself. The helmet only provides insufficient protection against high sound pressure levels. Medicine (as of 2024) is not able to cure hearing damage. Wearing hearing protection, such as special earplugs for motorcyclists, can help prevent hearing damage. The motorcyclist's riding position depends on rider body-geometry ( anthropometry ) combined with

5499-623: Is divided into five business units: Geely Auto Group which includes the brands Geely Auto, Lynk & Co, and Proton Holdings ; Volvo Car Group which includes the brands Volvo Cars and Polestar ; Geely New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group which include the brands London Electric Vehicle Company and Yuancheng (Farizon); Geely Group (New Business) which includes the brands Caocao, Terrafugia , Qianjiang Motorcycle , Joma , and other new businesses; and Mitime Group ( 铭泰集团 ; Míngtài Jítuán ) which includes ZGH educational institutions, motorsports business, and tourism business. Its global operations span

5640-616: Is increasingly problematic. The first (petroleum fueled) internal-combustion motorcycles, like the German Reitwagen , were, however, also the first practical motorcycles. If a two-wheeled vehicle with steam propulsion is considered a motorcycle, then the first motorcycles built seem to be the French Michaux-Perreaux steam velocipede which patent application was filed in December 1868, constructed around

5781-508: Is listed on the New York Stock Exchange since May 2024. The brand was founded in 2021 as an offshoot of Lynk & Co , as its first vehicles were meant to be Lynk & Co models. However after a major shareholding restructuring in 2024, it holds 51% of Lynk & Co currently. Lynk & Co ( Chinese : 领克 ) was established in 2017 that uses technology developed jointly by Volvo Cars and Geely Auto. Before 2024, It

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5922-634: Is necessary to pass the basic motorcycle licence test. These include the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). Along with increased personal safety, riders with these advanced qualifications may benefit from reduced insurance costs In South Africa, the Think Bike campaign is dedicated to increasing both motorcycle safety and

6063-493: Is often a racing counterpart to each type, such as road racing and street bikes, or motocross including dirt bikes. Street bikes include cruisers , sportbikes , scooters and mopeds , and many other types. Off-road motorcycles include many types designed for dirt-oriented racing classes such as motocross and are not street legal in most areas. Dual purpose machines like the dual-sport style are made to go off-road but include features to make them legal and comfortable on

6204-603: Is often described as a 'monosyllabic' language. However, this is only partially correct. It is largely accurate when describing Old and Middle Chinese; in Classical Chinese, around 90% of words consist of a single character that corresponds one-to-one with a morpheme , the smallest unit of meaning in a language. In modern varieties, it usually remains the case that morphemes are monosyllabic—in contrast, English has many multi-syllable morphemes, both bound and free , such as 'seven', 'elephant', 'para-' and '-able'. Some of

6345-445: Is only about an eighth as many as English. All varieties of spoken Chinese use tones to distinguish words. A few dialects of north China may have as few as three tones, while some dialects in south China have up to 6 or 12 tones, depending on how one counts. One exception from this is Shanghainese which has reduced the set of tones to a two-toned pitch accent system much like modern Japanese. A very common example used to illustrate

6486-566: Is owned 51% by ZGH since 2017, while the rest is owned by Etika Automotive. Farizon Auto ( Chinese : 远程汽车 ) was established in 2016 to focus on the development and sales of electric commercial vehicles. Farizon also has a sub-brand called Ouling ( Chinese : 欧铃 ) selling gasoline-powered lower end micro trucks. London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) is a brand owned by ZGH that produces and sells electric black cabs . It adopted its current name in 2017 to reflect its new mission of developing and producing electric commercial vehicles. It

6627-477: Is sometimes called a SMIDSY , an acronym formed from the motorists' common response of "Sorry mate, I didn't see you". Motorcyclists can anticipate and avoid some of these crashes with proper training, increasing their visibility to other traffic, keeping to the speed limits, and not consuming alcohol or other drugs before riding. The United Kingdom has several organisations dedicated to improving motorcycle safety by providing advanced rider training beyond what

6768-668: Is specifically meant. However, when one of the above words forms part of a compound, the disambiguating syllable is generally dropped and the resulting word is still disyllabic. For example, 石 ; shí alone, and not 石头 ; 石頭 ; shítou , appears in compounds as meaning 'stone' such as 石膏 ; shígāo ; 'plaster', 石灰 ; shíhuī ; 'lime', 石窟 ; shíkū ; 'grotto', 石英 ; 'quartz', and 石油 ; shíyóu ; 'petroleum'. Although many single-syllable morphemes ( 字 ; zì ) can stand alone as individual words, they more often than not form multi-syllable compounds known as 词 ; 詞 ; cí , which more closely resembles

6909-487: Is the 1958 Honda Super Cub , which went on to become the biggest selling vehicle of all time, with its 60 millionth unit produced in April 2008. Today, this area is dominated by mostly Indian companies with Hero MotoCorp emerging as the world's largest manufacturer of two wheelers. Its Splendor model has sold more than 8.5 million to date. Other major producers are Bajaj and TVS Motors . Motorcycle construction

7050-585: Is the engineering, manufacturing, and assembly of components and systems for a motorcycle which results in the performance, cost, and aesthetics desired by the designer. With some exceptions, construction of modern mass-produced motorcycles has standardised on a steel or aluminium frame , telescopic forks holding the front wheel, and disc brakes . Some other body parts, designed for either aesthetic or performance reasons may be added. A petrol-powered engine typically consisting of between one and four cylinders (and less commonly, up to eight cylinders) coupled to

7191-489: Is the largest reference work based purely on character and its literary variants. The CC-CEDICT project (2010) contains 97,404 contemporary entries including idioms, technology terms, and names of political figures, businesses, and products. The 2009 version of the Webster's Digital Chinese Dictionary (WDCD), based on CC-CEDICT, contains over 84,000 entries. The most comprehensive pure linguistic Chinese-language dictionary,

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7332-501: Is used as an everyday language in Hong Kong and Macau . The designation of various Chinese branches remains controversial. Some linguists and most ordinary Chinese people consider all the spoken varieties as one single language, as speakers share a common national identity and a common written form. Others instead argue that it is inappropriate to refer to major branches of Chinese such as Mandarin, Wu, and so on as "dialects" because

7473-476: Is used by Volvo, Geely and Lynk & Co vehicles. Improving technical expertise and a sophisticated production management system led to a significant sales surge for Geely from 2010 onwards. In October 2016, Geely Auto released its new brand called Lynk & Co in Berlin , Germany, which is intended to bridge the gap between Geely and Volvo brands. The brand was launched with three production models, all based on

7614-500: Is used in education, media, formal speech, and everyday life—though Mandarin is increasingly taught in schools due to the mainland's growing influence. Historically, the Chinese language has spread to its neighbors through a variety of means. Northern Vietnam was incorporated into the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) in 111 BCE, marking the beginning of a period of Chinese control that ran almost continuously for

7755-552: Is used in the Language Atlas of China (1987), distinguishes three further groups: Some varieties remain unclassified, including the Danzhou dialect on Hainan , Waxianghua spoken in western Hunan , and Shaozhou Tuhua spoken in northern Guangdong . Standard Chinese is the standard language of China (where it is called 普通话 ; pǔtōnghuà ) and Taiwan, and one of the four official languages of Singapore (where it

7896-428: Is very complex, with a large number of consonants and vowels, but they are probably not all distinguished in any single dialect. Most linguists now believe it represents a diasystem encompassing 6th-century northern and southern standards for reading the classics. The complex relationship between spoken and written Chinese is an example of diglossia : as spoken, Chinese varieties have evolved at different rates, while

8037-753: The Qieyun rime dictionary (601 CE), and a late period in the 10th century, reflected by rhyme tables such as the Yunjing constructed by ancient Chinese philologists as a guide to the Qieyun system. These works define phonological categories but with little hint of what sounds they represent. Linguists have identified these sounds by comparing the categories with pronunciations in modern varieties of Chinese , borrowed Chinese words in Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean, and transcription evidence. The resulting system

8178-668: The Australian Capital Territory , Tasmania and the Northern Territory , it is compulsory to complete a basic rider training course before being issued a Learners Licence, after which they can ride on public roads. In Canada, motorcycle rider training is compulsory in Quebec and Manitoba only, but all provinces and territories have graduated licence programs which place restrictions on new drivers until they have gained experience. Eligibility for

8319-572: The Chinese diaspora . Approximately 1.35 billion people, or 17% of the global population, speak a variety of Chinese as their first language . Chinese languages form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be dialects of a single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means they are sometimes considered to be separate languages in

8460-522: The Compact Modular Architecture (CMA). In August 2017, ZGH, Geely Automobile Holdings and Volvo Car Group signed an agreement at Geely Auto's Hangzhou Bay R&D Center to establish the Lynk & Co joint venture. Geely Auto controls 50% of Lynk & Co, Volvo Cars held 30%, and ZGH held the remaining 20%. In May 2017, ZGH purchased a 51% controlling-stake in Lotus Cars from its owner, DRB-HICOM ,

8601-676: The Concept #1 at the 2021 Munich Motor Show. Smart electric vehicles from the partnership are based on the Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) electric vehicle platform developed by Geely. In August 2021, ZGH through its subsidiary Geely Auto formed a strategic partnership with Renault . In January 2022, the two companies signed an agreement by which Renault's South Korean subsidiary, Renault Korea Motors , would produce vehicles based on Geely Compact Modular Architecture platform , initially intended for

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8742-496: The Craig Vetter Fuel Economy Challenge "on real highways – in real conditions". Due to low engine displacements (100–200 cc (6.1–12.2 cu in)), and high power-to-mass ratios, motorcycles offer good fuel economy. Under conditions of fuel scarcity like 1950s Britain and modern developing nations, motorcycles claim large shares of the vehicle market. In the United States,

8883-664: The FIM in the light of the safety concerns. From the 1960s through the 1990s, small two-stroke motorcycles were popular worldwide, partly as a result of East German MZs Walter Kaaden's engine work in the 1950s. In the 21st century, the motorcycle industry is mainly dominated by Indian and Japanese motorcycle companies. In addition to the large capacity motorcycles, there is a large market in smaller capacity (less than 300 cc) motorcycles, mostly concentrated in Asian and African countries and produced in China and India. A Japanese example

9024-492: The Fatality Analysis Reporting System show that for passenger cars, 18.62 fatal crashes occur per 100,000 registered vehicles. For motorcycles this figure is higher at 75.19 per 100,000 registered vehicles – four times higher than for cars. The same data shows that 1.56 fatalities occur per 100 million vehicle miles travelled for passenger cars, whereas for motorcycles the figure

9165-533: The Korean , Japanese and Vietnamese languages, and today comprise over half of their vocabularies. This massive influx led to changes in the phonological structure of the languages, contributing to the development of moraic structure in Japanese and the disruption of vowel harmony in Korean. Borrowed Chinese morphemes have been used extensively in all these languages to coin compound words for new concepts, in

9306-451: The May Fourth Movement beginning in 1919. After the fall of the Northern Song dynasty and subsequent reign of the Jurchen Jin and Mongol Yuan dynasties in northern China, a common speech (now called Old Mandarin ) developed based on the dialects of the North China Plain around the capital. The 1324 Zhongyuan Yinyun was a dictionary that codified the rhyming conventions of new sanqu verse form in this language. Together with

9447-497: The National Language Unification Commission finally settled on the Beijing dialect in 1932. The People's Republic founded in 1949 retained this standard but renamed it 普通话 ; 普通話 ; pǔtōnghuà ; 'common speech'. The national language is now used in education, the media, and formal situations in both mainland China and Taiwan. In Hong Kong and Macau , Cantonese is the dominant spoken language due to cultural influence from Guangdong immigrants and colonial-era policies, and

9588-445: The US Department of Transportation , the number of fatalities per vehicle mile traveled was 37 times higher for motorcycles than for cars. The term motorcycle has different legal definitions depending on jurisdiction (see § Legal definitions and restrictions ). There are three major types of motorcycle: street, off-road, and dual purpose. Within these types, there are many sub-types of motorcycles for different purposes. There

9729-423: The oracle bone inscriptions created during the Shang dynasty c.  1250 BCE . The phonetic categories of Old Chinese can be reconstructed from the rhymes of ancient poetry. During the Northern and Southern period , Middle Chinese went through several sound changes and split into several varieties following prolonged geographic and political separation. The Qieyun , a rime dictionary , recorded

9870-542: The phonology of Old Chinese by comparing later varieties of Chinese with the rhyming practice of the Classic of Poetry and the phonetic elements found in the majority of Chinese characters. Although many of the finer details remain unclear, most scholars agree that Old Chinese differs from Middle Chinese in lacking retroflex and palatal obstruents but having initial consonant clusters of some sort, and in having voiceless nasals and liquids. Most recent reconstructions also describe an atonal language with consonant clusters at

10011-679: The 12-volume Hanyu Da Cidian , records more than 23,000 head Chinese characters and gives over 370,000 definitions. The 1999 revised Cihai , a multi-volume encyclopedic dictionary reference work, gives 122,836 vocabulary entry definitions under 19,485 Chinese characters, including proper names, phrases, and common zoological, geographical, sociological, scientific, and technical terms. The 2016 edition of Xiandai Hanyu Cidian , an authoritative one-volume dictionary on modern standard Chinese language as used in mainland China, has 13,000 head characters and defines 70,000 words. Motorcycle A motorcycle ( motorbike , bike , or, if three-wheeled,

10152-496: The 1920s stood out. Initially, using converted a Woodmann-designed OHV Blackburne engine it became the first 350 cc to exceed 100 mph (160 km/h), recording 100.81 mph (162.24 km/h) over the flying kilometre during April 1924.[7] Later, Chater-Lea set a world record for the flying kilometre for 350 cc and 500 cc motorcycles at 102.9 mph (165.6 km/h) for the firm. Chater-Lea produced variants of these world-beating sports models and became popular among racers at

10293-473: The First World War, motorbike production was greatly ramped up for the war effort to supply effective communications with front line troops. Messengers on horses were replaced with despatch riders on motorcycles carrying messages, performing reconnaissance and acting as a military police. American company Harley-Davidson was devoting over 50% of its factory output toward military contract by the end of

10434-525: The Isle of Man TT. Today, the firm is probably best remembered for its long-term contract to manufacture and supply AA Patrol motorcycles and sidecars. By the late 1920s or early 1930s, DKW in Germany took over as the largest manufacturer. In the 1950s, streamlining began to play an increasing part in the development of racing motorcycles and the "dustbin fairing" held out the possibility of radical changes to motorcycle design. NSU and Moto Guzzi were in

10575-565: The Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet . English words of Chinese origin include tea from Hokkien 茶 ( tê ), dim sum from Cantonese 點心 ( dim2 sam1 ), and kumquat from Cantonese 金橘 ( gam1 gwat1 ). The sinologist Jerry Norman has estimated that there are hundreds of mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese. These varieties form a dialect continuum , in which differences in speech generally become more pronounced as distances increase, though

10716-596: The United States by organisations ranging from state agencies to non-profit organisations to corporations. Most states use the courses designed by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF), while Oregon and Idaho developed their own. All of the training programs include a Basic Rider Course, an Intermediate Rider Course and an Advanced Rider Course. In Ireland , since 2010, in the UK and some Australian jurisdictions, such as Victoria , New South Wales ,

10857-417: The art at the time. Starting was by compressed air. The engine was liquid-cooled, with a radiator over the rear driving wheel. Speed was controlled by means of a throttle valve lever. No braking system was fitted; the vehicle was stopped by raising and lowering the rear driving wheel using a foot-operated lever; the weight of the machine was then borne by two small castor wheels. The driver was seated between

10998-531: The automotive value chain , from research and development and design to production, sales and service. Geely was established in 1986 in Ningbo, Zhejiang by Li Shufu as a refrigerator parts manufacturer located in Taizhou, Zhejiang . To start the company, Li Shufu had to borrow funds from his family. In 1994, Geely transitioned into the motorcycle industry by acquiring a state-run firm , and started producing China's first scooter . In 1997, Geely completed

11139-403: The average motorcycle fuel economy is 44 miles per US gallon (19 km per liter). Very high fuel economy equivalents are often derived by electric motorcycles. Electric motorcycles are nearly silent, zero-emission electric motor-driven vehicles. Operating range and top speed are limited by battery technology. Fuel cells and petroleum-electric hybrids are also under development to extend

11280-577: The awareness of motorcycles on the country's roads. The campaign, while strongest in the Gauteng province, has representation in Western Cape, KwaZulu Natal and the Free State. It has dozens of trained marshals available for various events such as cycle races and is deeply involved in numerous other projects such as the annual Motorcycle Toy Run. Motorcycle safety education is offered throughout

11421-484: The brand was ranked among the top ten in the Chinese automobile market. In 2002, Geely was restructured from being a family-operated entity to a joint-stock company managed by professional management. On 24 March 2003, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. (ZGH) was established with a registered capital of CN¥ 930 million. In January 2004, Li Shufu bought controlling shares in Guorun Holdings Co., Ltd.,

11562-623: The brands of Geely and Lynk & Co , which are part of the Geely Auto Group business unit, along with its subsidiaries and joint ventures such as Zeekr , Volvo Cars , Polestar , Proton , Smart and Lotus , as well as commercial vehicles under the London EV Company , Radar Auto and Farizon brands. It produces motorcycles under its subsidiaries Zhejiang Geely Ming Industrial (Jiming and Geely), Qianjiang Motorcycle (QJMotor and Keeway), and Benelli . It also holds

11703-689: The carmaker's first-ever SUV, the Proton X70 was introduced in Malaysia in December 2018. It is based on first-generation Geely Boyue . In July 2023, after the internal restructuring in Geely Group, the Proton brand was consolidated into the balance sheets of Geely Auto . Volvo Cars is owned 78.7% by ZGH (post Volvo Cars IPO). ZGH acquired Volvo Cars from Ford Motor Company in 2010. The Maple brand name originated with Shanghai Maple Automobile ,

11844-485: The company suffered losses. Following continuing losses in that year, Ford Motor Company offered Volvo Cars for sale in December 2008. On 28 October 2009, Ford confirmed that, after considering several offers, the preferred buyer of Volvo Cars was ZGH. On 23 December 2009, Ford confirmed the terms of the sale to ZGH had been settled. A definitive agreement was signed on 28 March 2010 for US$ 1.8 billion . The European Commission and China's Ministry of Commerce approved

11985-601: The construction of relevant factories and initial investment preparations to enter the automobile industry. This made Geely the first private automobile company in China, whereas other carmakers are state-owned enterprises such as Chery . Geely's first car, the Geely Haoqing , rolled off the assembly line in Linhai, Zhejiang on 8 August 1998. However, Geely did not obtain its national production license until 9 November 2001, which delayed mass production until 2002. By 2002,

12126-400: The deal on 6 and 29 July 2010, respectively. The deal closed on 2 August 2010 with Geely paying $ 1.3 billion cash and a $ 200 million note. At the time of the purchase, is the largest overseas acquisition by a Chinese automaker. This acquisition facilitated Volvo's recovery and brought significant technological and managerial advancements to Geely. Under Geely ownership, Volvo Cars has developed

12267-399: The different spoken dialects varies, but in general, there has been a tendency to a reduction in sounds from Middle Chinese. The Mandarin dialects in particular have experienced a dramatic decrease in sounds and so have far more polysyllabic words than most other spoken varieties. The total number of syllables in some varieties is therefore only about a thousand, including tonal variation, which

12408-484: The difficulties involved in determining the difference between language and dialect, other terms have been proposed. These include topolect , lect , vernacular , regional , and variety . Syllables in the Chinese languages have some unique characteristics. They are tightly related to the morphology and also to the characters of the writing system, and phonologically they are structured according to fixed rules. The structure of each syllable consists of

12549-514: The direction opposite of the desired turn. This practice is counterintuitive and therefore often confusing to novices – and even many experienced motorcyclists. With such short wheelbase , motorcycles can generate enough torque at the rear wheel, and enough stopping force at the front wheel, to lift the opposite wheel off the road. These actions, if performed on purpose, are known as wheelies and stoppies (or endos) respectively. Various features and accessories may be attached to

12690-528: The domestic market. As of January 2022, production was slated to start by 2024. In May 2022, Renault said a Geely subsidiary was set to acquire a 34% stake of Renault Korea Motors through capital increase as part of their partnership, although the company would continue to be majority owned by Renault and a consolidated subsidiary of it. In November 2022, Renault said it plans to combine its powertrain production and development operations (including internal combustion engines and hybrid systems) with Geely's into

12831-601: The electric car's software while Geely would manufacture the car. The companies formed Jidu Auto in the same year, combining elements of both company names. Later, in August 2023, they launched the Ji Yue brand, with Geely owning 65% and Baidu 35%. Ji Yue is a subsidiary of Geely Group that was formed to circumvent restrictions on car manufacturing qualifications. Jidu Auto now focuses on technology solutions, including product design and AI development, for Ji Yue vehicles. Geely Auto

12972-576: The end of the syllable, developing into tone distinctions in Middle Chinese. Several derivational affixes have also been identified, but the language lacks inflection , and indicated grammatical relationships using word order and grammatical particles . Middle Chinese was the language used during Northern and Southern dynasties and the Sui , Tang , and Song dynasties (6th–10th centuries CE). It can be divided into an early period, reflected by

13113-474: The first "modern motorcycle". Introduced in 1915 it had a 550 cc side-valve four-stroke engine with a three-speed gearbox and belt transmission. It was so popular with its users that it was nicknamed the "Trusty Triumph". By 1920, Harley-Davidson was the largest manufacturer, with their motorcycles being sold by dealers in 67 countries. Amongst many British motorcycle manufacturers, Chater-Lea with its twin-cylinder models followed by its large singles in

13254-413: The first one, 十 , normally appears in monosyllabic form in spoken Mandarin; the rest are normally used in the polysyllabic forms of respectively. In each, the homophone was disambiguated by the addition of another morpheme, typically either a near-synonym or some sort of generic word (e.g. 'head', 'thing'), the purpose of which is to indicate which of the possible meanings of the other, homophonic syllable

13395-894: The first step in this strategy, Geely announced to merge all the Geely Geometry dealership into Geely Galaxy dealership, further integrate its brand portfolio and sales channel. In November 2024, Geely Holding Group (Geely) announced to transfer its 11.3% stake in Zeekr Intelligent Technology (Zeekr) to Geely Automobile Holdings ( Geely Auto ). Geely Auto's shareholding ratio in Zeekr increased to 62.8%. Zeekr announced to purchase 20% stake of Lynk & Co from Geely Auto for 3.6 billion yuan and acquire Volvo Car 's 30% stake in Lynk & Co for 5.4 billion yuan. This made Zeekr hold 51% of Lynk & Co in total, while

13536-429: The five brands with enough data to draw conclusions, Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha were statistically tied, with 11 to 14% of those bikes in the survey experiencing major repairs. Harley-Davidsons had a rate of 24%, while BMWs did worse, with 30% of those needing major repairs. There were not enough Triumph and Suzuki motorcycles surveyed for a statistically sound conclusion, though it appeared Suzukis were as reliable as

13677-491: The form of a word), to indicate a word's function within a sentence. In other words, Chinese has very few grammatical inflections —it possesses no tenses , no voices , no grammatical number , and only a few articles . They make heavy use of grammatical particles to indicate aspect and mood . In Mandarin, this involves the use of particles such as 了 ; le ; ' PFV ', 还 ; 還 ; hái ; 'still', and 已经 ; 已經 ; yǐjīng ; 'already'. Chinese has

13818-470: The founder of the Geely, released the "Taizhou Declaration", announcing that the company has entered a new stage of strategic transformation that Geely would promote the integration of internal resources, further clarify the positioning of each brand, straighten out equity relationships, reduce conflicts of interest and duplication of investment, and improve resource utilization efficiency. In October 2024, As

13959-523: The front wheels. It was not, however, a success, as Butler failed to find sufficient financial backing. Many authorities have excluded steam powered , electric motorcycles or diesel-powered two-wheelers from the definition of a 'motorcycle', and credit the Daimler Reitwagen as the world's first motorcycle. Given the rapid rise in use of electric motorcycles worldwide, defining only internal-combustion powered two-wheelers as 'motorcycles'

14100-618: The government of the People's Republic of China, with Singapore officially adopting them in 1976. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and among Chinese-speaking communities overseas . Linguists classify all varieties of Chinese as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family , together with Burmese , Tibetan and many other languages spoken in the Himalayas and the Southeast Asian Massif . Although

14241-586: The language of administration and scholarship, a position it would retain until the late 19th century in Korea and (to a lesser extent) Japan, and the early 20th century in Vietnam. Scholars from different lands could communicate, albeit only in writing, using Literary Chinese. Although they used Chinese solely for written communication, each country had its own tradition of reading texts aloud using what are known as Sino-Xenic pronunciations . Chinese words with these pronunciations were also extensively imported into

14382-501: The largest shareholder of Malaysian carmaker Proton Holdings . The remaining 49% were acquired by Etika Automotive, a holding company of Proton's major shareholder Syed Mokhtar Albukhary . Proton had owned Lotus since 1996, and largely struggled to turn the fortunes of the sports car maker around. ZGH also purchased a 49.9% stake in Proton Holdings, which was agreed on 23 June 2017 and finalised on 29 September 2017. The purchase

14523-528: The late 19th century. Today Japanese is written with a composite script using both Chinese characters called kanji , and kana. Korean is written exclusively with hangul in North Korea, although knowledge of the supplementary Chinese characters called hanja is still required, and hanja are increasingly rarely used in South Korea. As a result of its historical colonization by France, Vietnamese now uses

14664-436: The manufacturer of London black cabs . Both companies started a £53 million joint venture to produce the black cabs in China, with Geely holding 52 percent and the British company 48 percent. The company has since reduced costs by producing parts in China. In February 2013, ZGH fully acquired Manganese Bronze Holdings for £11.04 million , after the British company entered administration due to lack of funding. ZGH established

14805-455: The more conservative modern varieties, usually found in the south, have largely monosyllabic words , especially with basic vocabulary. However, most nouns, adjectives, and verbs in modern Mandarin are disyllabic. A significant cause of this is phonetic erosion : sound changes over time have steadily reduced the number of possible syllables in the language's inventory. In modern Mandarin, there are only around 1,200 possible syllables, including

14946-425: The mutual unintelligibility between them is too great. However, calling major Chinese branches "languages" would also be wrong under the same criterion, since a branch such as Wu, itself contains many mutually unintelligible varieties, and could not be properly called a single language. There are also viewpoints pointing out that linguists often ignore mutual intelligibility when varieties share intelligibility with

15087-583: The nasal sonorant consonants /m/ and /ŋ/ can stand alone as their own syllable. In Mandarin much more than in other spoken varieties, most syllables tend to be open syllables, meaning they have no coda (assuming that a final glide is not analyzed as a coda), but syllables that do have codas are restricted to nasals /m/ , /n/ , /ŋ/ , the retroflex approximant /ɻ/ , and voiceless stops /p/ , /t/ , /k/ , or /ʔ/ . Some varieties allow most of these codas, whereas others, such as Standard Chinese, are limited to only /n/ , /ŋ/ , and /ɻ/ . The number of sounds in

15228-560: The new internal combustion engine. As the engines became more powerful and designs outgrew the bicycle origins, the number of motorcycle producers increased. Many of the nineteenth-century inventors who worked on early motorcycles often moved on to other inventions. Daimler and Roper, for example, both went on to develop automobiles. At the end of the 19th century the first major mass-production firms were set up. In 1898, Triumph Motorcycles in England began producing motorbikes, and by 1903 it

15369-408: The other three Japanese brands while Triumphs were comparable to Harley-Davidson and BMW. Three-fourths of the repairs in the survey cost less than US$ 200 and two-thirds of the motorcycles were repaired in less than two days. In spite of their relatively worse reliability in this survey, Harley-Davidson and BMW owners showed the greatest owner satisfaction, and three-fourths of them said they would buy

15510-538: The other varieties within the same branch (e.g. Southern Min). There are, however, transitional areas where varieties from different branches share enough features for some limited intelligibility, including New Xiang with Southwestern Mandarin , Xuanzhou Wu Chinese with Lower Yangtze Mandarin , Jin with Central Plains Mandarin and certain divergent dialects of Hakka with Gan . All varieties of Chinese are tonal at least to some degree, and are largely analytic . The earliest attested written Chinese consists of

15651-556: The production of electric vehicles in different segments starting in 2022. Jidu Auto is owned 55% by Baidu and 45% by Geely. Chinese language Chinese ( simplified Chinese : 汉语 ; traditional Chinese : 漢語 ; pinyin : Hànyǔ ; lit. ' Han language' or 中文 ; Zhōngwén ; 'Chinese writing') is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in China , as well as by various communities of

15792-588: The range and improve performance of the electric drive system. A 2013 survey of 4,424 readers of the US Consumer Reports magazine collected reliability data on 4,680 motorcycles purchased new from 2009 to 2012. The most common problem areas were accessories , brakes , electrical (including starters , charging , ignition ), and fuel systems , and the types of motorcycles with the greatest problems were touring, off-road/dual sport, sport-touring, and cruisers. There were not enough sport bikes in

15933-471: The rate of change varies immensely. Generally, mountainous South China exhibits more linguistic diversity than the North China Plain . Until the late 20th century, Chinese emigrants to Southeast Asia and North America came from southeast coastal areas, where Min, Hakka, and Yue dialects were spoken. Specifically, most Chinese immigrants to North America until the mid-20th century spoke Taishanese ,

16074-552: The related subject dropping . Although the grammars of the spoken varieties share many traits, they do possess differences. The entire Chinese character corpus since antiquity comprises well over 50,000 characters, of which only roughly 10,000 are in use and only about 3,000 are frequently used in Chinese media and newspapers. However, Chinese characters should not be confused with Chinese words. Because most Chinese words are made up of two or more characters, there are many more Chinese words than characters. A more accurate equivalent for

16215-509: The relationship was first proposed in the early 19th century and is now broadly accepted, reconstruction of Sino-Tibetan is much less developed than that of families such as Indo-European or Austroasiatic . Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, and the effects of language contact. In addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach and are often also sensitive border zones. Without

16356-624: The remaining 49% of Lynk & Co shares continues to be held by Geely Auto. The electric pickup brand Radar Auto has been consolidated into Geely Auto . In 2018, Li Shufu through his investment company Tenaciou3 Prospect Investment Limited purchased a 9.7% stake in Daimler AG (now Mercedes-Benz Group ), owner of the Mercedes-Benz and Smart brands. As of 2024, Li Shufu is the second largest Mercedes-Benz AG shareholder after BAIC Group . In January 2020, ZGH and Daimler AG announced

16497-400: The same bike again, followed by 72% of Honda owners and 60 to 63% of Kawasaki and Yamaha owners. Two-wheeled motorcycles stay upright while rolling due to a physical property known as conservation of angular momentum in the wheels. Angular momentum points along the axle, and it "wants" to stay pointing in that direction. Different types of motorcycles have different dynamics and these play

16638-473: The same time as the American Roper steam velocipede , built by Sylvester H. Roper of Roxbury, Massachusetts , who had been demonstrating his machine at fairs and circuses in the eastern U.S. since 1867. Roper built about 10 steam cars and cycles from the 1860s until his death in 1896. In 1894, Hildebrand & Wolfmüller became the first series production motorcycle, and the first to be called

16779-517: The six official languages of the United Nations . Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin and was first officially adopted in the 1930s. The language is written primarily using a logography of Chinese characters , largely shared by readers who may otherwise speak mutually unintelligible varieties. Since the 1950s, the use of simplified characters has been promoted by

16920-561: The slightly later Menggu Ziyun , this dictionary describes a language with many of the features characteristic of modern Mandarin dialects. Up to the early 20th century, most Chinese people only spoke their local variety. Thus, as a practical measure, officials of the Ming and Qing dynasties carried out the administration of the empire using a common language based on Mandarin varieties , known as 官话 ; 官話 ; Guānhuà ; 'language of officials'. For most of this period, this language

17061-640: The street as well. Each configuration offers either specialised advantage or broad capability, and each design creates a different riding posture. In some countries the use of pillions (rear seats) is restricted. The first internal combustion , petroleum fueled motorcycle was the Daimler Reitwagen . It was designed and built by the German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Bad Cannstatt , Germany, in 1885. This vehicle

17202-471: The survey for a statistically significant conclusion, though the data hinted at reliability as good as cruisers. These results may be partially explained by accessories including such equipment as fairings, luggage, and auxiliary lighting, which are frequently added to touring, adventure touring/dual sport and sport touring bikes. Trouble with fuel systems is often the result of improper winter storage, and brake problems may also be due to poor maintenance. Of

17343-623: The tonal distinctions, compared with about 5,000 in Vietnamese (still a largely monosyllabic language), and over 8,000 in English. Most modern varieties tend to form new words through polysyllabic compounds . In some cases, monosyllabic words have become disyllabic formed from different characters without the use of compounding, as in 窟窿 ; kūlong from 孔 ; kǒng ; this is especially common in Jin varieties. This phonological collapse has led to

17484-547: The traditional Western notion of a word. A Chinese cí can consist of more than one character–morpheme, usually two, but there can be three or more. Examples of Chinese words of more than two syllables include 汉堡包 ; 漢堡包 ; hànbǎobāo ; 'hamburger', 守门员 ; 守門員 ; shǒuményuán ; 'goalkeeper', and 电子邮件 ; 電子郵件 ; diànzǐyóujiàn ; 'e-mail'. All varieties of modern Chinese are analytic languages : they depend on syntax (word order and sentence structure), rather than inflectional morphology (changes in

17625-512: The use of tones in Chinese is the application of the four tones of Standard Chinese, along with the neutral tone, to the syllable ma . The tones are exemplified by the following five Chinese words: In contrast, Standard Cantonese has six tones. Historically, finals that end in a stop consonant were considered to be " checked tones " and thus counted separately for a total of nine tones. However, they are considered to be duplicates in modern linguistics and are no longer counted as such: Chinese

17766-462: The vanguard of this development, both producing very radical designs well ahead of their time. NSU produced the most advanced design, but after the deaths of four NSU riders in the 1954–1956 seasons, they abandoned further development and quit Grand Prix motorcycle racing . Moto Guzzi produced competitive race machines, and until the end of 1957 had a succession of victories. The following year, 1958, full enclosure fairings were banned from racing by

17907-453: The war. The British company Triumph Motorcycles sold more than 30,000 of its Triumph Type H model to allied forces during the war. With the rear wheel driven by a belt, the Model H was fitted with a 499 cc (30.5 cu in) air-cooled four-stroke single-cylinder engine. It was also the first Triumph without pedals . The Model H in particular, is regarded by many as having been

18048-452: The words in newspapers, and 60% of the words in science magazines. Vietnam, Korea, and Japan each developed writing systems for their own languages, initially based on Chinese characters , but later replaced with the hangul alphabet for Korean and supplemented with kana syllabaries for Japanese, while Vietnamese continued to be written with the complex chữ Nôm script. However, these were limited to popular literature until

18189-517: The written language used throughout China changed comparatively little, crystallizing into a prestige form known as Classical or Literary Chinese . Literature written distinctly in the Classical form began to emerge during the Spring and Autumn period . Its use in writing remained nearly universal until the late 19th century, culminating with the widespread adoption of written vernacular Chinese with

18330-453: Was a koiné based on dialects spoken in the Nanjing area, though not identical to any single dialect. By the middle of the 19th century, the Beijing dialect had become dominant and was essential for any business with the imperial court. In the 1930s, a standard national language ( 国语 ; 國語 ; Guóyǔ ), was adopted. After much dispute between proponents of northern and southern dialects and an abortive attempt at an artificial pronunciation,

18471-481: Was a three-wheeled vehicle, with the rear wheel directly driven by a 5 ⁄ 8  hp (0.47 kW), 40 cc (2.4 cu in) displacement, 2 + 1 ⁄ 4  in × 5 in (57 mm × 127 mm) bore × stroke, flat twin four-stroke engine (with magneto ignition replaced by coil and battery) equipped with rotary valves and a float-fed carburettor (five years before Maybach ) and Ackermann steering , all of which were state of

18612-551: Was announced that the Xingma Group had agreed to transfer a 15.2% stake of its shares in the Ma'anshan -based heavy truck manufacturer Hualing Xingma to Geely New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of ZGH. After the transaction, Geely New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group would become the de facto controlling shareholder of Hualing Xingma. In February 2020, Volvo Cars and Geely started formal discussions about

18753-791: Was designed as an expedient testbed for their new engine, rather than a true prototype vehicle. The first commercial design for a self-propelled cycle was a three-wheel design called the Butler Petrol Cycle, conceived of Edward Butler in England in 1884. He exhibited his plans for the vehicle at the Stanley Cycle Show in London in 1884. The vehicle was built by the Merryweather Fire Engine company in Greenwich , in 1888. The Butler Petrol Cycle

18894-485: Was hidden by their written form. Often different compounds for the same concept were in circulation for some time before a winner emerged, and sometimes the final choice differed between countries. The proportion of vocabulary of Chinese origin thus tends to be greater in technical, abstract, or formal language. For example, in Japan, Sino-Japanese words account for about 35% of the words in entertainment magazines, over half

19035-511: Was launched in April 2021, and deliveries began in October 2021. In May 2024, Zeekr filed its initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange . Zeekr raised around US$ 441 million , making it the largest IPO of a Chinese company since 2021. In February 2024, Volvo Cars announced its plan to reduce its stake in Polestar by the third quarter of 2024 from currently 48.3% to around 18% by ceding it to ZGH. In September 2024, Li Shufu,

19176-410: Was owned 50% by Geely Auto, 30% by Volvo Cars, and 20% by ZGH. It currently 51% owned by Zeekr and 49% owned by Geely Auto after restructuring. Proton is a national car brand of Malaysia, established in the 1980s at the behest of the government and later reverted to private ownership under DRB-HICOM . Since 2017, the brand is owned 49.9% by ZGH and 50.1% by DRB-HICOM. Its first Geely-based vehicle, also

19317-482: Was previously known as The London Taxi Company, which has roots from Manganese Bronze Holdings , the original manufacturer of black cabs that Geely acquired in 2013. With a new factory in Ansty Park , near Coventry, it has begun production of a new generation of zero-emission -capable new taxi vehicle in late 2017. Jidu Auto ( Chinese : 集度 ) is a joint venture between ZGH and Baidu that would be engaged in

19458-447: Was producing over 500 bikes. Other British firms were Royal Enfield , Norton , Douglas Motorcycles and Birmingham Small Arms Company who began motorbike production in 1899, 1902, 1907 and 1910, respectively. Indian began production in 1901 and Harley-Davidson was established two years later. By the outbreak of World War I, the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world was Indian, producing over 20,000 bikes per year. During

19599-552: Was seen to facilitate future export growth in right-hand drive markets, and making inroads into the lucrative ASEAN region. Proton confirmed that it would not downsize its workforce following its deal with Geely. In July 2017, the company purchased Terrafugia , an American maker of flying cars . In November 2017, ZGH announced completion of the Terrafugia acquisition, including approval from all relevant regulators. In October 2017, Volvo Cars and ZGH announced that Polestar ,

19740-506: Was the first internal combustion, petroleum -fueled motorcycle. In 1894, Hildebrand & Wolfmüller became the first series production motorcycle. Globally, motorcycles are comparable numerically to cars as a method of transport: in 2021, approximately 58.6 million new motorcycles were sold around the world, while 66.7 million cars were sold over the same period. In 2022, the top four motorcycle producers by volume and type were Honda , Yamaha , Kawasaki , and Suzuki . According to

19881-469: Was unlike either the safety bicycles or the boneshaker bicycles of the era in that it had zero degrees of steering axis angle and no fork offset , and thus did not use the principles of bicycle and motorcycle dynamics developed nearly 70 years earlier. Instead, it relied on two outrigger wheels to remain upright while turning. The inventors called their invention the Reitwagen ("riding car"). It

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