document_title: Huns

question_text: when did the huns invade the roman empire

question_tokens: when did the huns invade the roman empire

text: Huns

text: Origin[edit]

text: The Huns were "a confederation of warrior bands", ready to integrate other groups to increase their military power, in the Eurasian Steppe in the 4th to 6th centuries AD.[5] Most aspects of their ethnogenesis (including their language and their links to other peoples of the steppes) are uncertain.[6][7] Walter Pohl explicitly states: "All we can say safely is that the name Huns, in late antiquity, described prestigious ruling groups of steppe warriors."[8]

text: The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who completed his work of the history of the Roman Empire in the early 390s, recorded that the "people of the Huns … dwell beyond the Sea of Azov near the frozen ocean".[9][10] Jerome associated them with the Scythians in a letter, written four years after the Huns invaded the empire's eastern provinces in 395.[11] The equation of the Huns with the Scythians, together with a general fear of the coming of the Antichrist in the late 4th century, gave rise to their identification with Gog and Magog (whom Alexander the Great had shut off behind inaccessible mountains, according to a popular legend).[12] This demonization of the Huns is also reflected in Jordanes's Getica, written in the 6th century, which portrayed them as a people descending from "unclean spirits"[13] and expelled Gothic witches.[14][15]

text: The 6th-century Roman historian Procopius of Caesarea (Book I. ch. 3), related the Huns of Europe with the Hephthalites or "White Huns" who subjugated the Sassanids and invaded northwestern India, stating that they were of the same stock, "in fact as well as in name", although he contrasted the Huns with the Hephthalites, in that the Hephthalites were sedentary, white-skinned, and possessed "not ugly" features:[17][18]

text: The Ephthalitae Huns, who are called White Huns [...] The Ephthalitae are of the stock of the Huns in fact as well as in name, however they do not mingle with any of the Huns known to us, for they occupy a land neither adjoining nor even very near to them; but their territory lies immediately to the north of Persia [...] They are not nomads like the other Hunnic peoples, but for a long period have been established in a goodly land... They are the only ones among the Huns who have white bodies and countenances which are not ugly. It is also true that their manner of living is unlike that of their kinsmen, nor do they live a savage life as they do; but they are ruled by one king, and since they possess a lawful constitution, they observe right and justice in their dealings both with one another and with their neighbours, in no degree less than the Romans and the Persians[19]

text: Since Joseph de Guignes in the 18th century, modern historians have associated the Huns who appeared on the borders of Europe in the 4th century AD with the Xiongnu ("howling slaves") who had invaded China from the territory of present-day Mongolia between the 3rd century BC and the 2nd century AD.[20][21] Due to the devastating defeat by the Chinese Han dynasty, the northern branch of the Xiongnu had retreated north-westward; their descendants may have migrated through Eurasia and consequently they may have some degree of cultural and genetic continuity with the Huns.[22] Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen was the first to challenge the traditional approach, based primarily on the study of written sources, and to emphasize the importance of archaeological research.[23] Thereafter the identification of the Xiongnu as the Huns' ancestors became controversial among some.[24]

text: The similarity of their ethnonyms is one of the most important links between the two peoples.[1] The Buddhist monk Dharmarakṣa, who was an important translator of Indian religious texts in the 3rd century AD, applied the word Xiongnu when translating the references to the Huna people into Chinese.[25] A Sogdian merchant described the invasion of northern China by the "Xwn" people in a letter, written in 313 AD.[25] Étienne de la Vaissière asserts both documents prove that Huna or Xwn were the "exact transcriptions" of the Chinese "Xiongnu" name.[26] Christopher P. Atwood rejects that identification because of the "very poor phonological match" between the three words.[27] For instance, Xiongnu begins with a voiceless velar fricative, Huna with a voiceless glottal fricative; Xiongnu is a two-syllable word, but Xwn only has one syllable.[28] However, according to Zhengzhang Shangfang, Xiongnu was pronounced [hoŋ.naː] in Late Old Chinese, corresponding well to Huna.[29] The Chinese Book of Wei contain references to "the remains of the descendants of the Xiongnu" who lived in the region of the Altai Mountains in the early 5th century AD.[30] According to De la Vaissière, the Chinese source proves that nomadic groups preserved their Xiongnu identity for centuries after the fall of their empire.[30] Most ancient texts in Europe and Asia, including Chinese, Indian and Islamic studies state that Huns originally came from north of China. According to Edwin G. Pulleyblank, European Huns comprised two groups of tribes with different ethnic affinities and the ruling group that bore the name Hun was directly connected with the Xiongnu.[31]

text: Both the Xiongnu and Huns used bronze cauldrons, similarly to all peoples of the steppes.[32] Based on the study and categorization of cauldrons from archaeological sites of the Eurasian Steppes, archaeologist Toshio Hayashi concludes that the spread of the cauldrons "may indicate the route of migration of the Hunnic tribes" from Mongolia to the northern region of Central Asia in the 2nd or 3rd century AD, and from Central Asia towards Europe in the second half of the 4th century, which also implies the Huns' association with the Xiongnu.[33] The Huns practised artificial cranial deformation, but there is no evidence of such practice among the Xiongnu.[34][page needed] This custom had already been practised in the Eurasian Steppes in the Bronze Age and in the early Iron Age, but it disappeared around 500 BC.[35] It again started to spread among the local inhabitants of the region of the Talas River and in the Pamir Mountains in the 1st century BC.[35] In addition to the Huns, the custom is also evidenced among the Yuezhi and Alans.[36] The lengthy pony-tail, which was a characteristic of the Xiongnu, was not documented among the Huns.[37]

text: When writing of the relationship between the Xiongnu and Huns, historian Hyun Jin Kim concludes: "Thus to refer to Hun-Xiongnu links in terms of old racial theories or even ethnic affiliations simply makes a mockery of the actual historical reality of these extensive, multiethnic, polyglot steppe empires".[38] He also emphasizes that "the ancestors of the Hunnic core tribes … were part of the Xiongnu Empire and possessed a strong Xiongnu element, and the ruling elite of the Huns … claimed to belong to the political tradition of this imperial entity."[38] Taking into account the historical gap between the Chinese reports of the Xiongnu and the European records of the Huns, Peter Heather states: "Even if we do make some connection between fourth-century Huns and first-century [Xiongnu], therefore, an awful lot of water had passed under an awful lot of bridges during 300 years worth of lost history."[37]

text: History[edit]

text: Before Attila[edit]

text: The 2nd-century geographer Ptolemy mentioned a people called Chuni (Χοῦνοι or Χουνοί) when listing the peoples of the western region of the Eurasian Steppes.[39][40] The Chuni lived "between the Bastarnae and the Roxolani", according to Ptolemy.[39][40] Edward Arthur Thompson said, the similarity between the two ethnonyms (Chuni and Huns) is only a coincidence: Western Roman authors often wrote Chunni or Chuni in reference to the Huns; East Romans never used the guttural "[x]" at the beginning of their name.[40] Maenchen-Helfen and Denis Sinor also dispute the association of the Chuni with Attila's Huns.[41] However, Maenchen-Helfen proposes that Ammianus Marcellinus referred to Ptolemy's report of the Chuni when stating that the Huns "are mentioned only cursorily in ancient writers".[9][41] He does not exclude either that the Urugundi who invaded the Roman Empire from the steppes to the north of the Lower Danube in 250 AD, according to Zosimus, were identical with the Vurugundi, whom Agathias listed among the Hunnic tribes.[42]

text: The Romans became aware of the Huns when the Hunnic invasion of the Pontic steppes forced thousands of Goths to move to the Lower Danube to seek refuge in the Roman Empire in 376, according to the contemporaneous Ammianus Marcellinus.[37] Their sudden appearance in the written sources suggests that the Huns crossed the Volga River from the east not much earlier.[10] They invaded the land of the Alans, which was located to the east of the Don River, slaughtering many of them and forcing the survivors to submit themselves to them or to flee across the Don.[43][44][45] The reasons for the Huns' sudden attack on the neighboring peoples are unknown.[46] After rejecting several possible reasons (including a climate change in the steppes and the neighboring peoples' pressure), Peter Heather concludes that the Hunnic Empire developed from "warbands on the make", launching profitable plundering raids, which enabled them to increase their military power and to impose their authority on the neighboring peoples.[47]

text: After they subjugated the Alans, the Huns and their Alan auxiliaries started plundering the wealthy settlements of the Greuthungi, or eastern Goths, to the west of the Don.[37] The Greuthungic king, Ermanaric, resisted for a while, but finally "he found release from his fears by taking his own life",[48] according to Ammianus Marcellinus.[37] Marcellinus's report refers either to Ermanaric's suicide[49] or to his ritual sacrifice.[37] His great-nephew, Vithimiris, succeeded him.[49] He hired Huns to fight against the Alans who invaded the Greuthungi's land, but he was killed in a battle.[49][44]

text: After Vithimiris's death, most Greuthungi submitted themselves to the Huns.[49] Those who decided to resist marched to the Dniester River which was the border between the lands of the Greuthungi and the Thervingi, or western Goths.[50] They were under the command of Alatheus and Saphrax, because Vithimiris's son, Viderichus, was a child.[50] Athanaric, the leader of the Thervingi, met the refugees along the Dniester at the head of his troops.[37] However, a Hunnic army bypassed the Goths and attacked them from the rear, forcing Athanaric to retreat towards the Carpathian Mountains.[37] Athanaric wanted to fortify the borders, but Hunnic raids into the land west of the Dniester continued.[37] Most Thervingi realized that they could not resist the Huns.[37] They went to the Lower Danube, requesting asylum in the Roman Empire.[51] The Greuthingi under the leadership of Alatheus and Saphrax also marched to the river.[37] Most Roman troops had been transferred from the Balkan Peninsula to fight against the Sassanid Empire in Armenia.[37] Emperor Valens permitted the Thervingi to cross the Lower Danube and to settle in the Roman Empire in the autumn of 376.[52] The Thervingi were followed by the Greuthingi, and also by the Taifali and "other tribes that formerly dwelt with the Goths and Taifali" to the north of the Lower Danube, according to Zosimus.[52] Food shortage and abuse stirred the Goths to revolt in early 377.[51] The ensuing war between the Goths and the Romans lasted for more than five years.[37]

text: Support for the Gothic chieftains diminished as refugees headed into Thrace and towards the safety of the Roman garrisons.

text: After these invasions, the Huns begin to be noted as Foederati and mercenaries. As early as 380, a group of Huns was given Foederati status and allowed to settle in Pannonia. Hunnish mercenaries were also seen on several occasions in the succession struggles of the Eastern and Western Roman Empire during the late 4th century. However, it is most likely that these were individual mercenary bands, not a Hunnish kingdom.[1]

text: In 395 the Huns began their first large-scale attack on the Eastern Roman Empire.[53] Huns attacked in Thrace, overran Armenia, and pillaged Cappadocia. They entered parts of Syria, threatened Antioch, and swarmed through the province of Euphratesia. The forces of Emperor Theodosius were fully committed in the west so the Huns moved unopposed until the end of 398 when the eunuch Eutropius gathered together a force composed of Romans and Goths and succeeded in restoring peace. It is uncertain though, whether or not Eutropius' forces defeated the Huns or whether the Huns left on their own. There is no record of a notable victory by Eutropius and there is evidence that the Hunnish forces were already leaving the area by the time he gathered his forces.[1]

text: Whether put to flight by Eutropius, or leaving on their own, the Huns had left the Eastern Roman Empire by 398. After this, the Huns invaded the Sassanid Empire. This invasion was initially successful, coming close to the capital of the empire at Ctesiphon; however, they were defeated badly during the Persian counterattack and retreated toward the Caucasus Mountains via the Derbend Pass.[1]

text: During their brief diversion from the Eastern Roman Empire, the Huns appear to have threatened tribes further west, as evidenced by Radagaisus' entering Italy at the end of 405 and the crossing of the Rhine into Gaul by Vandals, Sueves, and Alans in 406.[53] The Huns do not then appear to have been a single force with a single ruler. Many Huns were employed as mercenaries by both East and West Romans and by the Goths. Uldin, the first Hun known by name,[53] headed a group of Huns and Alans fighting against Radagaisus in defense of Italy. Uldin was also known for defeating Gothic rebels giving trouble to the East Romans around the Danube and beheading the Goth Gainas around 400–401. Gainas' head was given to the East Romans for display in Constantinople in an apparent exchange of gifts.

text: The East Romans began to feel the pressure from Uldin's Huns again in 408. Uldin crossed the Danube and captured a fortress in Moesia named Castra Martis, which was betrayed from within. Uldin then proceeded to ransack Thrace. The East Romans tried to buy Uldin off, but his sum was too high so they instead bought off Uldin's subordinates. This resulted in many desertions from Uldin's group of Huns.

text: Alaric's brother-in-law, Athaulf, appears to have had Hun mercenaries in his employ south of the Julian Alps in 409. These were countered by another small band of Huns hired by Honorius' minister Olympius. Later in 409, the West Romans stationed ten thousand Huns in Italy and Dalmatia to fend off Alaric, who then abandoned plans to march on Rome.

text: Under Attila and Bleda[edit]

text: From 434 the brothers Attila and Bleda ruled the Huns together. Attila and Bleda were as ambitious as their uncle Rugila. In 435 they forced the Eastern Roman Empire to sign the Treaty of Margus,[54] giving the Huns trade rights and an annual tribute from the Romans. The Romans also agreed to give up Hunnic refugees (individuals who could have threatened the brothers' grip on power) for execution. With their southern border protected by the terms of this treaty, the Huns could turn their full attention to the further subjugation of tribes to the west.

text: When the Romans breached the treaty in 440, Attila and Bleda attacked Castra Constantias, a Roman fortress and marketplace on the banks of the Danube.[55] The Eastern Romans stopped delivery of the agreed tribute, and they broke other conditions of the Treaty of Margus. The Hunnic kings turned their attention back to the Eastern Romans. Reports that the Bishop of Margus had crossed into Hun lands and desecrated royal graves further angered the Hun kings. War broke out between the two empires, and the Huns overcame a weak Roman army to raze the cities of Margus, Singidunum and Viminacium. Although a truce was signed in 441, two years later Constantinople again failed to deliver the tribute and war resumed. In the following campaign, Hun armies came alarmingly close to Constantinople, sacking Sardica, Arcadiopolis and Philippopolis along the way. Suffering a complete defeat at the Battle of Chersonesus, the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II gave in to Hun demands and in autumn 443 signed the Peace of Anatolius with the two Hun kings. The Huns returned to their lands with a vast train full of plunder.

text: Unified Empire under Attila[edit]

text:
Hunnic Empire

370s–469

The Hunnic Empire under Attila

Capital
Not specified

Languages
Hunnic
Gothic
Various tribal languages

Government
Tribal Confederation

High King

 •
370s
Balamber

 •
c. 435–445
Attila and Bleda

 •
445–453
Attila

 •
453–469
Dengizich

History

 •
Huns appear north-west of the Caspian Sea
pre 370s

 •
Balamber began uniting the Huns and Germanic tribes
370s

 •
Attila and Bleda become co-rulers of the united tribes
437

 •
Death of Bleda, Attila becomes sole ruler
445

 •
Battle of the Catalaunian Plains
451

 •
Invasion of northern Italy
452

 •
Battle of Nedao
454

 •
Dengizich, son of Attila, dies
469

Today part of
 Hungary
 Ukraine
 Moldova
 Russia
 Romania
 Slovakia
 Czech Republic
 Poland
 Germany
 Belarus
 Serbia
 Austria
 Lithuania
 Croatia
 Bulgaria

text: Bleda died in 445, with some historians speculating that his death was at the hands of Attila. With his brother gone, Attila was able to establish undisputed control over his subjects. In 447, Attila turned the Huns back toward the Eastern Roman Empire once more. His invasion of the Balkans and Thrace was devastating. The Eastern Roman Empire was already beset by internal problems, such as famine and plague, as well as riots and a series of earthquakes in Constantinople itself. A last-minute rebuilding of its walls preserved Constantinople unscathed. Victory over a Roman army left the Huns virtually unchallenged in Eastern Roman lands and they raided as far south as Thermopylae. Only disease forced them to retreat, and the war came to an end in 449 with an agreement in which the Romans agreed to pay Attila an annual tribute of 2100 pounds of gold. Our only first-hand account of conditions among the Huns and of Attila himself is by Priscus, an official in the peace embassy to Attila.

text: Throughout their raids on the Eastern Roman Empire, the Huns had maintained good relations with the Western Empire, and in particular with Flavius Aetius, a powerful Roman general (sometimes even referred to as the de facto ruler of the Western Empire) who in his youth had spent time as a hostage with the Huns. However, this all changed in 450 when Honoria, sister of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III, sent Attila a ring and requested his help to escape her betrothal to a senator. Attila claimed her as his bride and half the Western Roman Empire as dowry.[56] Additionally, a dispute arose between Attila and Aetius about the rightful heir to a king of the Salian Franks. Finally, Attila's ability to distribute treasure to favoured followers was an important support to his power, and the repeated extortion from the Eastern Roman Empire had left it with little to plunder.

text: In 451, Attila's forces entered Gaul, accumulating contingents from the Franks, Goths and Burgundian tribes en route. Once in Gaul, the Huns first attacked Metz, then his armies continued westwards, passing both Paris and Troyes to lay siege to Orléans.

text: Aetius was given the duty of relieving Orléans by Emperor Valentinian III. Bolstered by Frankish and Visigothic troops (under King Theodoric), Aetius' own Roman army met the Huns at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. Although a tactical defeat for Attila, thwarting his invasion of Gaul and forcing his retreat back to non-Roman lands, the macrohistorical significance of the allied and Roman victory is a matter of debate.[57][58][59]

text: The following year, Attila renewed his claims to Honoria and territory in the Western Roman Empire. Leading his horde across the Alps and into Northern Italy, he sacked and razed the cities of Aquileia, Vicetia, Verona, Brixia, Bergamum and Milan. Hoping to avoid the sack of Rome, Emperor Valentinian III sent three envoys, the high civilian officers Gennadius Avienus and Trigetius, as well as Pope Leo I, who met Attila at Mincio in the vicinity of Mantua, and obtained from him the promise that he would withdraw from Italy and negotiate peace with the emperor. Prosper of Aquitaine describes the historic meeting, giving all the credit of the successful negotiation to Leo. Priscus reports that superstitious fear of the fate of Alaric—who died shortly after sacking Rome in 410—gave him pause. More practically, Italy had suffered from a terrible famine in 451 and her crops were faring little better in 452; Attila's invasion of the plains of Northern Italy this year did not improve the harvest. To advance on Rome would have required supplies which were not available in Italy, and taking the city would not have improved Attila's supply situation. Secondly, an East Roman force had crossed the Danube and defeated the Huns who had been left behind by Attila to safeguard their home territories. Attila, hence, faced heavy human and natural pressures to retire from Italy before moving south of the Po. Attila retreated without Honoria or her dowry.[60]

text: The new Eastern Roman Emperor Marcian then halted tribute payments. From the Pannonian Basin, Attila planned to attack Constantinople. However, in 453 he married a girl with the Germanic name Ildico, and died of a haemorrhage on his wedding night.[61]

text: After Attila[edit]

text: After Attila's death in 453, the Hunnic Empire faced an internal power struggle between its vassalized Germanic peoples and the Hunnic ruling body. Led by Ellak, Attila's favored son and ruler of the Akatziri, the Huns engaged the Gepid king Ardaric at the Battle of Nedao, who led a coalition of Germanic Peoples to overthrow Hunnic imperial authority. The Amali Goths would revolt the same year under Valamir, allegedly defeating the Huns in a separate engagement.[62] However, this did not result in the complete collapse of Hunnic power in the Carpathian region, but did result in the loss of many of their Germanic vassals. At the same time, the Huns were also dealing with the arrival of more Oghur Turkic speaking peoples from the East, including the Oghurs, Saragurs, Onogurs, and the Sabirs. In 463, the Saragurs defeated the Akatziri, or Akatir Huns, and asserted dominance in the Pontic region.[63]

text: In 458 some Huns served under Tudila in Majorian's army, probably belonging to a group settled under Emnetzur and Ultzindur in Dacia Ripesnsis.[64] The western Huns under Dengzich were experiencing difficulties in 461, when they were defeated by Valamir in a war against the Sadages, a people allied with the Huns.[65] His campaigning was also met with dissatisfaction from Ernak, ruler of the Akatziri Huns, who wanted to focus on the incoming Oghur speaking peoples.[63] In 465–466, Ernak and Dengzich sent ambassadors to Constantinople requesting a peace treaty, and asking to establish a market for the exchange of needed provisions. However these requests were rejected, and Dengzich attacked the Romans in 467, without the assistance of Ernak. He was surrounded by the Romans and besieged, and came to an agreement that they would surrender if they were given land and his starving forces given food. During the negotiations, a Hun in service of the Romans named Chelchel persuaded the enemy Goths to attack their Hun overlords. The Romans, under their General Aspar and with the help of his bucellarii, then attacked the quarreling Goths and Huns, defeating them.[66]

text: In 469, Anagastes, the son of Arnegisclus who was slain by Attila, brought Dengzich's head and paraded it through the streets before mounting it on a stake in the Hippodrome.[67] Some Historians, like John Man, accept this date as the end of the Hunnic Empire.[68] However others, such as Kim, argue it continued under Ernak who absorbed the incoming Oghur speakers. These people were similar to the Huns and Attila's empire continued as the Kutrigur and Utigur Hunno-Bulgars.[63] This conclusion is still subject to some controversy.

text: Society and culture[edit]

text: Appearance[edit]

text: As the Huns were illiterate and thus kept no records, all surviving accounts were written by enemies of the Huns, and none describe the Huns as attractive either morally or in appearance. Jordanes, a Goth writing in Italy in 551, a century after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire, describes the Huns as a "savage race, which dwelt at first in the swamps, a stunted, foul and puny tribe, scarcely human and having no language save one which bore but slight resemblance to human speech."[69]:122 Jordanes goes on to write:

text: They made their foes flee in horror because their swarthy aspect was fearful, and they had, if I may call it so, a sort of shapeless lump, not a head, with pin-holes rather than eyes. Their hardihood is evident in their wild appearance, and they are beings who are cruel to their children on the very day they are born. For they cut the cheeks of the males with a sword, so that before they receive the nourishment of milk they must learn to endure wounds. Hence they grow old beardless and their young men are without comeliness, because a face furrowed by the sword spoils by its scars the natural beauty of a beard. They are short in stature, quick in bodily movement, alert horsemen, broad shouldered, ready in the use of bow and arrow, and have firm-set necks which are ever erect in pride. Though they live in the form of men, they have the cruelty of wild beasts.[69]:127–8

text: Jordanes also recounted how Priscus had described Attila the Hun, the Emperor of the Huns from 434–453, as: "Short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head; his eyes were small, his beard thin and sprinkled with grey; and he had a flat nose and tanned skin, showing evidence of his origin."[70]:182

text: In forming their view of Attila's people, the Romans tapped into attitudes inherited from the Greeks. These were the vilest creatures imaginable. They came from the North and everyone knew that the colder the climate was, the more barbaric the people were.[71] They knew nothing of metal, had no religion and lived like savages, without fire, eating their food raw, living off roots, and meat tenderized by placing it under their horses' saddles. They had no buildings, of course, not so much as a reed hut, indeed, they feared the very idea of venturing under a roof.[71]

text: The description of Huns given by the Romans has prompted some historians to believe they were of East Asian origin. Denis Sinor, noting the paucity of anthropological evidence, wrote that "there is no reason to question the basic accuracy of the western descriptions, and the absence of massive supporting evidence by physical anthropology cannot weaken the point they so tellingly make. It is the unusual that most attracts attention."[1] However, Austrian traveler Maenchen-Helfen wrote in the 20th century:

text: Ammianus' description begins with a strange misunderstanding ... This was repeated by Claudian and Sidonius and reinterpreted by Cassiodorus. Ammianus' explanation of the thin beards is wrong. Like so many other people, the Huns inflicted wounds on their live flesh as a sign of grief when their kinsmen were dying.[72]

text: Artificial cranial deformation[edit]

text: Artificial cranial deformation was practiced by the Huns and sometimes by tribes under their influence.[74][75][76][77] Artificial cranial deformation of the circular type can be used to trace the route that the Huns took from north China to the Central Asian steppes and subsequently to the southern Russian steppes.[78] The people who practiced annular type artificial cranial deformation in Central Asia were Yuezhi/Kushans.[79][80][81]

text: Some artificially deformed crania from the 5th–6th Century AD have been found in Northeastern Hungary and elsewhere in Western Europe. None of them have any Mongoloid features and all the skulls appear Europoid; these skulls may have belonged to Germanic or other subject groups whose parents wished to elevate their status by following a custom introduced by the Huns.[35]

text: Government[edit]

text: Hunnic governmental structure has long been debated. In the past many scholars argued that the Huns did not have a central organization until after they entered Europe. Peter Heather argued the Huns were a disorganized confederation in which leaders acted completely independently and that eventually established a ranking heirarchy, much like Germanic societies.[82] However this has been challenged in recent years. According to Kim, it is now believed that the Huns continued the Xiongnu organization, in which their polity was divided into Left, Right, South, and North, in that order of priority.[83] It is also thought that the Huns continued the council of "six horns/nobles" that the Xiongnu had under their emperor.[84] It is unknown what the Hun emperor was called, but the terms Chanyu, Aniliki, Shah, and Yabgu are possible or interchangeable titles for the same position, as they were in use by other contemporary peoples during that period.[85] Likewise, it is suggested that that the Huns continued to use the decimal military organization of the Xiongnu as well.[86]

text: Language[edit]

text: A variety of languages were spoken within the Hun Empire.[87] It has been supposed that by the 440s, the "Huns" were more Germanic-speaking subject than speakers of Hunnic, and as such Gothic may have been a lingua franca of the Empire.[88][89] Kim however points out that there is no evidence for the idea that Gothic was a lingua franca.[90] Subjects of the Huns also included Iranian-speaking Alans and Sarmatians.[37] Based on some etymological interpretation of the words strava, medos, and kamos and subsequent historical appearance, the other languages have been taken to include a form of Proto-Slavic language.[91][92][93]

text: Priscus noted that the Hunnic language differed from other languages spoken at Attila's court.[94] He recounts how Zerco made Attila's guests laugh also by the "promiscuous jumble of words, Latin mixed with Hunnish and Gothic".[94] Priscus said that Attila's "Scythian" subjects spoke "besides their own barbarian tongues, either Hunnish, or Gothic, or, as many have dealings with the Western Romans, Latin; but not one of them easily speaks Greek, except captives from the Thracian or Illyrian frontier regions".[95]

text: The ancient sources are thus clear that there was a Hunnic language. The literary sources preserve many names, and three Indo-European words (medos, kamos, strava), which have been studied for more than a century and a half.[96] Otto Maenchen-Helfen noted that the thesis suggesting the Huns spoke a Turkic language has a long history behind it.[97] Maenchen-Helfen held that by Turkic origin of Hunnic tribal and proper names, the Huns spoke a Turkic language.[98] Denis Sinor argued that "at least part of the Hun leadership was Turkic-speaking".[1]

text: Traditionally notable studies of proper names chronologically include that of Gyula Németh, Gerhard Doerfer, Maenchen-Helfen, and Omeljan Pritsak.[1] In Pritsak's 1982 study The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan,[99] he analyzes the 33 survived personal names and concludes:

text: It was not a Turkic language, but one between Turkic and Mongolian, probably closer to the former than the latter. The language had strong ties to Bulgar language and to modern Chuvash, but also had some important connections, especially lexical and morphological, to Ottoman Turkish and Yakut.[99]

text: On the basis of the existing name records, a number of scholars suggest that the Huns spoke a Turkic language of the Oghur branch, which also includes the Bulgar, Khazar and Chuvash languages.[100][101][102] Peter Heather called the Huns "the first group of Turkic, as opposed to Iranian, nomads to have intruded into Europe".[103] Many recent scholars agree that Hunnic was related to Turkic and Mongolian languages.[104]

text: In 2013, Hyun Jin Kim suggested that "from the names that we do know, most of which seem to be Turkic... the Hunnic elite was predominantly Turkic-speaking."[90] He also suggests that the Xiongnu, who had originally spoken Yeniseian, flipped to Oghur Turkic when they absorbed the Dingling and crossed into Central Asia, like the later Golden Horde and Chagatai Khanate.[105] He noted that, beside Hunnic, people in Attila's court also spoke Gothic and Latin, and that in the western part of the Empire, where subjected Goths lived, people described as Huns probably spoke both the Hunnic and Gothic languages. An example would be the Germanic or Germanized names of noted Huns like Laudaricus.[90]

text: Nevertheless, some scholars still conclude that the Hunnic language cannot presently be classified, and attempts to classify it as Turkic or Mongolic are speculative.[106][107][108]

text: Warfare[edit]

text: Strategy and tactics[edit]

text: Hun warfare as a whole is not well studied, and many scholars as of recent have discounted Ammianus' description of the Huns.[109] This was first pointed out by E.A. Thompson, who stated that the Huns could never have conquered Europe without iron armor and weapons.[110] The only accurate information on Hun warfare comes from the 6th-century Strategikon, which describes the warfare of "Dealing with the Scythians, that is, Avars, Turks, and others whose way of life resembles that of the Hunnish peoples." The Strategikon describes the Avars and Huns as devious and very experienced in military matters.[111] They are described as preferring to defeat their enemies by deceit, surprise attacks, and cutting off supplies. The Huns brought large numbers of horses to use as replacements and to give the impression of a larger army on campaign.[111] The Hunnish peoples did not set up an entrenched camp, but spread out across the grazing fields according to clan, and guard their necessary horses until they began forming the battle line under the cover of early morning. The Strategikon states the Huns also stationed sentries at significant distances and in constant contact with each other in order to prevent surprise attacks.[112]

text: According to the Strategikon, the Huns did not form a battle line in the method that the Romans and Persians used, but in irregularly sized divisions in a single line, and keep a separate force in reserve for ambushes and as a reserve. The Strategikon also states the Huns used deep formations with a dense and even front.[112] Otto Maenchen-Helfen states that the Huns likely formed up in divisions according to tribal clans and families which Ammianus calls Cunei, the leader of which was called a Cur and inherited the title as it was passed down through the clan.[113] The Strategikon states that the Huns kept their spare horses and baggage train to either side of the line about a mile away, with a moderate sized guard, and would sometimes tie their spare horses together behind the main battle line.[112] The Huns preferred to fight at long range, utilizing ambush, encirclement, and the feigned retreat. The Strategikon also makes note of the wedge shaped formations mentioned by Ammianus, and corroborated as familial regiments by Maenchen-Helfen.[112][113][114] The Strategikon states the Huns preferred to pursue their enemies relentlessly after a victory and then wear them out by a long siege after defeat.[112]

text: Military equipment[edit]

text: The Strategikon states the Huns typically used maille, swords, bows, and lances, and that most Hunnic warriors were armed with both the bow and lance and used them interchangeably as needed. It also states the Huns used quilted linen, wool, or sometimes iron barding for their horses and also wore quilted coifs and kaftans.[115] This assessment is largely corroborated by archaeological finds of Hun military equipment, such as the Volnikovka and Brut Burials.

text: A late Roman ridge helmet of the Berkasovo-Type was found with a Hun burial at Concesti.[116] A Hunnic helmet of the Segmentehelm type was found at Chudjasky, and another of the Bandhelm type at Turaevo.[117] Fragments of lamellar helmets dating to the Hunnic period and within the Hunnic sphere have been found at Iatrus, Illichevka, and Kalkhni.[116][117] Hun lamellar armour has not been found in Europe, although two fragments of likely Hun origin have been found on the Upper Ob and in West Kazakhstan dating to the 3rd–4th centuries.[citation needed] An unpublished find at a military warehouse near Toprachioi, Romania is known but it is uncertain if it can be attributed to Hun origin. It is known that the Eurasian Avars introduced Lamellar armor to the Roman Army and Migration Era Germanics in the Middle 6th Century, but this later type does not appear before then.[116][118]

text: It is also widely accepted that the Huns introduced the langseax, a 60 cm cutting blade that became popular among the migration era Germanics and in the Late Roman Army, into Europe.[119] It is believed these blades originated in China and that the Sarmatians and Huns served as a transmission vector, using shorter seaxes in Central Asia that developed into the narrow langseax in Eastern Europe during the late 4th and first half of the 5th century. These earlier blades date as far back as the 1st century AD, with the first of the newer type appearing in Eastern Europe being the Wien-Simmerming example, dated to the late 4th century AD.[119] Other notable Hun examples include the Langseax from the more recent find at Volnikovka in Russia.[120]

text: The Huns used a type of spatha in the Iranic or Sassanid style, with a long, straight approximately 83cm blade, usually with a diamond shaped iron guard plate.[121] Swords of this style have been found at sites such as Altlussheim, Szirmabesenyo, Volnikovka, Novo-Ivanovka, and Tsibilium 61. They typically had gold foil hilts, gold sheet scabbards, and scabbard fittings decorated in the polychrome style. The sword was carried in the "Iranian style" attached to a swordbelt, rather than on a baldric.[122]

text: The most famous weapon of the Huns, of course, is the Qum Darya-type composite recurve bow, often called the "Hunnish Bow." This bow was invented some time in the 3rd or 2nd centuries BC with the earliest finds near Lake Baikal, but spread across Eurasia long before the Hunnic migration. These bows were typified by being asymmetric in cross-section between 145-155cm in length, having between 4–9 lathes on the grip and in the siyahs.[123] Although whole bows rarely survive in European climatic conditions, finds of bone Siyahs are quite common and characteristic of steppe burials. Complete specimens have been found at sites in the Tarim Basin and Gobi Desert such as Niya, Qum Darya, and Shombuuziin-Belchir. Eurasian nomads such as the Huns typically used trilobate diamond shaped iron arrowheads, attached using birch tar and a tang, with typically 75cm shafts and fletching attached with tar and sinew whipping. Such trilobate arrowheads are believed to be more accurate and have better penetrating power or capacity to injure than flat arrowheads.[123]

text: Legacy[edit]

text: Legends[edit]

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Chroniclers writing centuries later often mentioned or alluded to Huns or their purported descendants. These include:

text:
Theophylact Simocatta
Annales Fuldenses
Annales Alamannici
Annals of Salzburg
Liutprand of Cremona's Antapodosis
Regino of Prüm's chronicle
Widukind of Corvey's Saxon Chronicle
Nestor the Chronicler's Primary Chronicle
Legends of Saints Cyril and Methodius
Aventinus's Chronicon Bavaria
Constantine VII's De Administrando Imperio
Leo VI the Wise's Tactica

text: Medieval Hungarians continued this tradition (see Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum, Chronicon Pictum, Gesta Hungarorum).

text: Memory of the Hunnic conquest was transmitted orally among Germanic peoples and is an important component in the Old Norse Völsunga saga and Hervarar saga and in the Middle High German Nibelungenlied. These stories all portray Migration Period events from a millennium earlier.

text: In the Hervarar saga, the Goths make first contact with the bow-wielding Huns and meet them in an epic battle on the plains of the Danube.

text: In the Nibelungenlied, Kriemhild marries Attila (Etzel in German) after her first husband Siegfried was murdered by Hagen with the complicity of her brother, King Gunther. She then uses her power as Etzel's wife to take a bloody revenge in which not only Hagen and Gunther but all Burgundian knights find their death at festivities to which she and Etzel had invited them.

text: In the Völsunga saga, Attila (Atli in Norse) defeats the Frankish king Sigebert I (Sigurðr or Siegfried) and the Burgundian King Guntram (Gunnar or Gunther), but is later assassinated by Queen Fredegund (Gudrun or Kriemhild), the sister of the latter and wife of the former.

text: In the German "Saga of Tidreck of Bern", its written versions beginning from the 13th century, the Huns are called Frisians. Frisia was often called Hunaland in the Middle Ages.[124][125]

text: Widsith, possibly one of the oldest pieces of English literature to survive to the present day, lists a number of ancient kings of tribes sorted according to their popularity and impact; Attila, King of the Huns, comes first, followed immediately by Eormanric of the Ostrogoths.[126]:187 Widsith may be by far the oldest extant work that tells of the Battle of the Goths and Huns, also recounted in later Scandinavian works such as the Hervarar saga;[126]:179 in Widsith, however, the battle's details are presented as "sober historical facts" rather than as the "heroic stories" of later works.[126]:184 The name Attila, rendered in Old English as Ætla,[note 1] was a given name in use in Anglo-Saxon England (ex. Bishop Ætla of Dorchester) and its use in England at the time may have been connected to the heroic kings legend represented in works like Widsith,[127] though historian Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen doubts the use of the name by the Anglo-Saxons had anything to do with the Huns, and argues it was more likely to be based directly on the name's Germanic origin meaning "little father".[128]

text: Claims of Hunnic origins[edit]

text: The Hungarians (Magyars) in particular lay claim to Hunnic heritage. Although Magyar tribes only began to settle in the geographical area of present-day Hungary in the very end of the 9th century, some 426 years after the breakup of Attila's Hunnic Empire, Hungarian prehistory includes Magyar origin myths. There is also a medieval legend of a lineage that makes Attila the sixth-generation ancestor of Árpád conqueror of the modern Pannonian basin, through Attila's son Csaba, his son Ed, his son Ügyek, his son Előd, his son Álmos. Álmos was ruler of the Magyars and the father of Arpad[129] The national anthem of Hungary describes the Hungarians as "blood of Bendegúz'" (the medieval and modern Hungarian version of Mundzuk, Attila's father). Attila's brother, Bleda, is called Buda in modern Hungarian and some medieval chronicles and literary works attribute the name of the city of Buda to him.

text: There is a legend among the Székely people that claims that after the death of Attila, in a battle called the Battle of Krimhilda, 3000 Hun warriors managed to escape and settle in a place called "Csigle-mező" (today Transylvania) and they changed their name from Huns to Szekler (Székely). According to the Hungarian scholar Egyed, the Székelys speak the Hungarian language "without any trace of a Turkic substratum", indicating that they did not have a language shift during their history, and proposes that the Székelys were descended from privileged Hungarian groups.[130][131] They therefore could not have been related to the Huns, who most likely spoke an Oghur Turkic dialect.

text: The Anglo-Saxons may have believed themselves to be partly descended from Huns, through their Angle, Saxon, and Jute ancestors.[127] In his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the historian Bede stated:

text: ... [M]any of which nations [Egbert] knew there were in Germany, from whom the Angles or Saxons, who now inhabit Britain, are known to have derived their origin; for which reason they are still corruptly called Garmans by the neighboring nation of the Britons. Such are the Frisons, the Rugins, the Danes, the Huns, the Ancient Saxons, and the Boructuars (or Bructers). There are also in the same parts many other nations still following pagan rites, to whom the aforesaid soldier of Christ designed to repair, ...[132]

text: As James Campbell has noted, this list of peoples has generally been regarded by historians as being a list of peoples living in Germany at the time Bede wrote this passage in the 8th century, "[b]ut the sense of the Latin is that these are the peoples from whom the Anglo-Saxons living in Britain were derived."[133]:53 He wrote that the list of peoples fits the 5th century better, when the Anglo-Saxons began migrating to Britain, than the 8th century, and noted that "Huns sound odd; it is equally odd that Priscus heard of a boast by Attila that he had authority over the islands in the ocean."[133]:124

text: 20th-century use in reference to Germans[edit]

text: On 27 July 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion in China, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany gave the order to act ruthlessly towards the rebels: "Mercy will not be shown, prisoners will not be taken. Just as a thousand years ago, the Huns under Attila won a reputation of might that lives on in legends, so may the name of Germany in China, such that no Chinese will even again dare so much as to look askance at a German."[134]

text: The term "Hun" from this speech was later used for the Germans by British propaganda during World War I. The comparison was helped by the spiked Pickelhaube helmet worn by German forces until 1916, which would be reminiscent of images depicting ancient Hun helmets. This usage, emphasising the idea that the Germans were barbarians, was reinforced by Allied propaganda throughout the war. The French songwriter Theodore Botrel described the Kaiser as "an Attila, without remorse", launching "cannibal hordes".[135]

text: The usage of the term "Hun" to describe Germans resurfaced during World War II. For example, Winston Churchill 1941 said in a broadcast speech: "There are less than 70,000,000 malignant Huns, some of whom are curable and others killable, most of whom are already engaged in holding down Austrians, Czechs, Poles and the many other ancient races they now bully and pillage."[136] Later that year Churchill referred to the invasion of the Soviet Union as "the dull, drilled, docile brutish masses of the Hun soldiery, plodding on like a swarm of crawling locusts."[137] During this time American President Franklin D. Roosevelt also referred to the German people in this way, saying that an Allied invasion into Southern France would surely "be successful and of great assistance to Eisenhower in driving the Huns from France."[138]

text: Sectarian slur in Northern Ireland and Scotland[edit]

text: "Hun" is also used as an sectarian slur against Protestants in Scotland and Northern Ireland.[139] In Scotland, the term has been used by fans of Celtic FC in Old Firm derbies against Rangers FC supporters,[140] while Orange Halls in Ulster have been daubed with graffiti reading KAH ("Kill all Huns").[141]

text: A pamphlet issued to PSNI officers in 2008 listed "Huns" – along with the terms "black", "prods" or "jaffas" (referring to the Orange Order) for Protestants and "fenians", "taigs", "chucks" or "spongers" for Irish Catholics – as terms not to use to avoid causing offence.[142]


document_title: Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)

question_text: how many times has the million dollar prize been won on wheel of fortune

root

text: Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)

text: Gameplay[edit]

text: Main game[edit]

text: The core game is based on Hangman. Each round has a category and a blank word puzzle, with each blank representing a letter in the answer, and punctuation revealed as needed.[7] Most puzzles are straightforward figures of speech that fit within a mostly static list of categories, and this list has evolved over the course of the series. Crossword puzzles were added to the rotation in 2016. In such rounds, a clue bonding the words in the puzzle is given instead of a traditional category, and contestants win by solving all the words in the crossword.[8] The titular Wheel of Fortune is a roulette-style wheel mechanism with 24 spaces, most of which are labeled with dollar amounts ranging from $500 to $900, plus a top dollar value: $2,500 in round 1, $3,500 in rounds 2 and 3, and $5,000 for round 4 and any subsequent rounds. The wheel also features two Bankrupt wedges and one Lose a Turn, both of which forfeit the contestant's turn, with the former also eliminating any cash or prizes the contestant has accumulated within the round.[9] Each game features three contestants, or occasionally, three two-contestant teams positioned behind a single scoreboard with its own flipper. The left scoreboard from the viewer's perspective is colored red, the center yellow, and the right blue, with the contestants' positions determined by a random selection prior to taping.[10]

tag: p

text: A contestant spins the wheel to determine a dollar value and guess a consonant.[note 2] Calling a correct letter earns the value before the corresponding flipper, multiplied by the number of times that the letter appears in the puzzle.[12] Calling a correct letter keeps the wheel in the contestant's control, allowing the contestant to spin again, buy a vowel for a flat rate of $250, or attempt to solve the puzzle. Contestants may continue to buy vowels so long as they have enough money to keep doing so, until all of the vowels in the puzzle have been revealed.[9] Control passes to the next contestant clockwise if the wheel lands on Lose a Turn or Bankrupt, if the contestant calls a letter that is not in the puzzle, calls a letter that has already been called in that round, fails to call a letter within five seconds of the wheel stopping, or attempts unsuccessfully to solve the puzzle. The only exception is the Free Play wedge, on which the contestant may call a consonant for $500 per occurrence, call a free vowel, or solve the puzzle, with no penalty for an incorrect letter or answer.

text: In the first three rounds, the wheel contains a Wild Card and a Gift Tag, while two ½ Car tags are present in rounds two and three only (except on episodes with two-player teams). The Wild Card may be used to call an additional consonant after any turn (for the amount that the contestant has just spun) or taken to the bonus round to call an extra consonant there. The Gift Tag offers either a $1,000 credit toward purchases from, or $1,000 in cash courtesy of, the sponsoring company, and the ½ Car tags award a car if the contestant wins the round(s) in which he or she claims both. Unlike the other tags, the ½ Car tags are replaced in subsequent rounds unless the car is won. A special wedge in the first two rounds awards a prize which is described by the announcer if won. All of the tags and the prize wedge are located over the $500 wedges, so calling a letter that appears in the puzzle when landed upon awards both the tag/wedge and $500 per every occurrence of that letter in the puzzle. The first three rounds also contain a special wedge which, if won and taken to the bonus round, offers an opportunity to play that round for $1,000,000. A contestant must solve the puzzle in order to keep any cash, prizes, or extras accumulated during that round except for the Wild Card, which is kept until the contestant either loses it to Bankrupt or uses it. Bankrupt does not affect score from previous rounds, but it does take away the Wild Card, individual ½ Car tags, and/or million dollar wedge if any was claimed in a previous round. Contestants who solve a round for less than $1,000 in cash and prizes ($2,000 on weeks with two-contestant teams) have their scores increased to that amount.

text: Each game also features three toss-up puzzles, which reveal the puzzle one random letter at a time, and award cash to whoever rings in with the right answer. The first determines who is interviewed first by the host, the second determines who starts round 1, and the third determines who starts round 4. Respectively, the toss-ups are valued at $1,000, $2,000, and $3,000. In addition to these, each game has a minimum of four rounds, with more played if time permits.[12] Rounds 2 and 3 are respectively started by the next two contestants clockwise from the contestant who began round 1.

text: Round 2 features two "mystery wedges". Calling a correct letter after landing upon one offers the contestant the chance to accept its face value of $1,000 per letter, or forfeit that amount to flip over the wedge and see whether its reverse side contains a $10,000 cash prize or Bankrupt. Once either mystery wedge is flipped over, the other becomes a standard $1,000 space and cannot be flipped. Round 3 is a prize puzzle, which offers a prize (usually a trip) to the contestant who solves it. Starting with season 31 in 2013, an "Express" wedge is also placed on the wheel in round 3. A contestant who lands on this space and calls a consonant that appears in the puzzle receives $1,000 per appearance. The contestant can then either "pass" and continue the round normally, or "play" and keep calling consonants for $1,000 each (without spinning) and buying vowels for $250. The Express play ends when the contestant either calls an incorrect letter (which has the same effect as landing on a Bankrupt wedge) or solves the puzzle.[13]

text: The final round is always played at least in part in a "speed-up" format, in which the host spins the wheel to determine the value of each consonant, with $1,000 being added to the value on which the wheel stops before the red contestant's arrow. Vowels do not add or deduct money from the contestants' scores in the speed-up round. The contestant in control calls one letter, and if it appears in the puzzle, the contestant is given three seconds to attempt to solve.[note 3] Play proceeds clockwise, starting with the contestant who was in control at the time of the final spin, until the puzzle is solved. The three-second timer does not begin until the hostess has revealed all instances of a called letter and moved aside from the puzzle board, and the contestant may offer multiple guesses on his/her turn. After the speed-up round, the total winnings of the three contestants are compared. The contestant with the highest total winnings wins the game and advances to the bonus round. Contestants who fail to earn any cash or prizes in the game are awarded a consolation prize of $1,000 (or $2,000 on weeks with two-contestant teams).

text: If a tie for first place occurs after the speed-up round, an additional toss-up puzzle is played between the tied contestants. The contestant who solves the toss-up puzzle wins $1,000[14] and advances to the bonus round.

text: Bonus round[edit]

text: Before the bonus round begins, the winning contestant chooses one of three categories for his or her puzzle (prior to season 35, the puzzle and category were predetermined). After doing so, the contestant spins a smaller wheel with 24 envelopes to determine the prize. He or she is then shown a puzzle in the chosen category, and every instance of R, S, T, L, N, and E is revealed. The contestant provides three more consonants (four if he/she is holding the Wild Card) and one more vowel, then has 10 seconds to solve the puzzle after his or her other letters (if any) are revealed. The contestant may make as many guesses as necessary, so long as the contestant begins the correct answer before time expires. Whether or not the contestant solves the puzzle, the host opens the envelope at the end of the round to reveal the prize at stake. Prizes in the bonus round include various cash amounts (with the lowest being the season number multiplied by $1,000), a vehicle (or two vehicles during weeks with two-contestant teams), and a top prize of $100,000.

text: If the contestant has the Million Dollar Wedge, the $100,000 envelope is replaced with a $1,000,000 envelope. The $1,000,000 prize has been awarded three times: to Michelle Loewenstein (on the episode that aired October 14, 2008),[15] to Autumn Erhard (May 30, 2013),[16] and to Sarah Manchester (September 17, 2014).[17] Contestants who win the $1,000,000 may receive it in installments over 20 years, or in a lump sum of that amount's present value.[18] At the end of the Bonus Round, Sajak will reveal where the $1,000,000 envelope was on the prize wheel if the contestant failed to land on it.

text: Previous rules[edit]

text: Originally, after winning a round, contestants spent their winnings on prizes that were presented onstage. At any time during a shopping round, most often if the contestant did not have enough left to buy another prize,[19] a contestant could choose to put his or her winnings on a gift certificate, or he or she could put the winnings "on account" for use in a later shopping round. However, a contestant lost any money on account by landing on Bankrupt or failing to claim it by not winning subsequent rounds.[9] The shopping element was eliminated from the syndicated version on the episode that aired October 5, 1987,[20] both to speed up gameplay and to alleviate the taxes paid by contestants.[12] However, the network version continued to use the shopping element until the end of its first NBC run on June 30, 1989.[21]

text: Before the introduction of toss-up puzzles at the start of the 18th syndicated season in 2000,[22] the contestant at the red arrow always started round 1, with the next contestant clockwise starting each subsequent round.[23] In addition, if a tie for first place occurred, an additional speed-up round was played between the tied contestants for the right to go to the bonus round. The wheel formerly featured a Free Spin wedge, which automatically awarded a token that the contestant could turn in after a lost turn to keep control of the wheel.[24] It was replaced in 1989 with a single Free Spin token placed over a selected cash wedge. Free Spin was retired, and Free Play introduced, at the start of the 27th syndicated season in 2009.[25] Between September 16, 1996[26] and the end of season 30 in 2013, the show featured a progressive Jackpot wedge, which had been in several different rounds in its history.[note 4] The jackpot started at $5,000 and had the value of every spin within the round added to it. To claim the jackpot, a contestant had to land on the wedge, call a correct letter, and solve the puzzle all in the same turn. In later years, it also offered $500 per correct letter and $500 to the jackpot, regardless of whether or not it was won in that turn.

text: The network version allowed champions to appear for up to five days originally, which was later reduced to three. The syndicated version, which originally retired contestants after one episode, adopted the three-day champion rule at the start of the seventh season in 1989.[29] In later years, the top three winners from the week's first four shows returned to compete in the "Friday Finals". When the jackpot wedge was introduced, it began at $10,000 instead of $5,000 on Fridays. The rules allowing champions to return after their initial appearances were eliminated permanently beginning with the syndicated episode aired September 21, 1998, and contestants appear only on a single episode.[30]

text: Before December 1981, the show did not feature a bonus round.[9] Under the bonus round's original rules, no letters were provided automatically. The contestant asked for five consonants and a vowel, and then had fifteen seconds to attempt solving the puzzle. Also, bonus prizes were selected by the contestant at the start of the round.[31] The current time limit and rules for letter selection were introduced on October 3, 1988.[32] Starting on September 4, 1989, the first episode of the seventh syndicated season, bonus prizes were selected by the contestant choosing from one of five envelopes labeled W, H, E, E, and L. One prize was always $25,000 in cash, and the rest were changed weekly. Any prize that was won was taken out of rotation for the rest of the week.[29] During seasons 16 through 18 (1998–2001), the $25,000 remained in-place the entire week of shows regardless if it was won. At the start of season 19 in 2001, there were three car envelopes and two $25,000 envelopes, which were available the entire week of shows. These envelopes were replaced with the bonus wheel on October 22, 2001.[33]

text: Conception and development[edit]

text: Merv Griffin conceived Wheel of Fortune just as the original version of Jeopardy!, another show he had created, was ending its 11-year run on NBC with Art Fleming as its host. Griffin decided to create a Hangman-style game after recalling long car trips as a child, on which he and his sister played Hangman. After he discussed the idea with Merv Griffin Enterprises' staff, they thought that the idea would work as a game show if it had a "hook". He decided to add a roulette-style wheel because he was always "drawn to" such wheels when he saw them in casinos. He and MGE's then-president Murray Schwartz consulted an executive of Caesars Palace to find out how to build such a wheel.[34]

text: When Griffin pitched the idea for the show to Lin Bolen, then the head of NBC's daytime programming division, she approved, but wanted the show to have more glamour to attract the female audience. She suggested that Griffin incorporate a shopping element into the gameplay, and so, in 1973, he created a pilot episode titled Shopper's Bazaar, with Chuck Woolery as host and Mike Lawrence as announcer. The pilot started with the three contestants being introduced individually, with Lawrence describing the prizes that they chose to play for. The main game was played to four rounds, with the values on the wheel wedges increasing after the second round. Unlike the show it evolved into, Shopper's Bazaar had a vertically mounted wheel,[35] which was spun automatically rather than by the contestants. This wheel lacked the Bankrupt wedge and featured a wedge where a contestant could call a vowel for free, as well as a "Your Own Clue" wedge that allowed contestants to pick up a rotary telephone and hear a private clue about the puzzle. At the end of the game, the highest-scoring contestant played a bonus round called the "Shopper's Special" where all the vowels in the puzzle were already there, and the contestant had 30 seconds to call out consonants in the puzzle.

text: Edd Byrnes, an actor from 77 Sunset Strip, served as host for the second and third pilots, both titled Wheel of Fortune.[36] These pilots were directed by Marty Pasetta, who gave the show a "Vegas" feel that more closely resembled the look and feel that the actual show ended up having, a wheel that was now spun by the contestants themselves, and a lighted mechanical puzzle board with letters that were now manually turnable. Showcase prizes on these pilots were located behind the puzzle board, and during shopping segments a list of prizes and their price values scrolled on the right of the screen. By the time production began in December 1974, Woolery was selected to host, the choice being made by Griffin after he reportedly heard Byrnes reciting "A-E-I-O-U" to himself in an effort to remember the vowels.[36] Susan Stafford turned the letters on Byrnes' pilot episodes, a role that she also held when the show was picked up as a series.[34][37]

text: Personnel[edit]

text: Hosts and hostesses[edit]

text: The original host of Wheel of Fortune was Chuck Woolery, who hosted the series from its 1975 premiere[9][38] until December 25, 1981, save for one week in August 1980 when Alex Trebek hosted in his place. Woolery's departure came over a salary dispute with show creator Merv Griffin, and his contract was not renewed.[12][39] On December 28, 1981, Pat Sajak made his debut as the host of Wheel.[40] Griffin said that he chose Sajak for his "odd" sense of humor. NBC president and CEO Fred Silverman objected as he felt Sajak, who at the time of his hiring was the weatherman for KNBC-TV, was "too local" for a national audience. Griffin countered by telling Silverman he would stop production if Sajak was not allowed to become host, and Silverman acquiesced.[41]

text: Sajak hosted the daytime series until January 9, 1989, when he left to host a late-night talk show for CBS. Rolf Benirschke, a former placekicker in the National Football League, was chosen as his replacement and hosted for a little more than five months. Benirschke's term as host came to an end due to NBC's cancellation of the daytime Wheel after fourteen years, with its final episode airing on June 30, 1989.[9] When the newly formatted daytime series returned on CBS on July 17, 1989, Bob Goen became its host. The daytime program continued for a year and a half on CBS, then returned to NBC on January 14, 1991 and continued until September 20, 1991 when it was cancelled for a second and final time.[9]

text: Susan Stafford was the original hostess, serving in that role from the premiere until October 1982. Stafford was absent for two extended periods, once in 1977 after fracturing two vertebrae in her back and once in 1979 after an automobile accident.[9][42] During these two extended absences, former Miss USA Summer Bartholomew was Stafford's most frequent substitute, with model Cynthia Washington and comedian Arte Johnson also filling in for Stafford.[43]

text: After Stafford left to become a humanitarian worker,[34] over two hundred applicants signed up for a nationwide search to be her replacement.[44] Griffin eventually narrowed the list to three finalists, which consisted of Summer Bartholomew, former Playboy centerfold Vicki McCarty, and Vanna White.[45] Griffin gave each of the three women an opportunity to win the job by putting them in a rotation for several weeks after Stafford's departure.[12] In December 1982, Griffin named White as Stafford's successor, saying that he felt she was capable of activating the puzzle board letters (which is the primary role of the Wheel hostess) better than anyone else who had auditioned.[46] White became highly popular among the young female demographic,[47] and also gained a fanbase of adults interested in her daily wardrobe, in a phenomenon that has been referred to as "Vannamania".[44] White remained on the daytime series for the rest of the time it was on the air.

text: Sajak and White have starred on the syndicated version continuously as host and hostess, respectively, since it began, except for very limited occasions. During two weeks in January 1991, Tricia Gist, the girlfriend and future wife of Griffin's son Tony, filled in for White when she and her new husband, restaurateur George San Pietro, were honeymooning.[48] Gist returned for the week of episodes airing March 11 through 15, 1991, because White had a cold at the time of taping.[49] On an episode in November 1996, when Sajak proved unable to host the bonus round segment because of laryngitis, he and White traded places for that segment.[50][51] On the March 4, 1997 episode, Rosie O'Donnell co-hosted the third round with White after O'Donnell's name was used in a puzzle.[52]

text: On April 1, 1997, Sajak and Alex Trebek traded jobs for the day. Sajak hosted that day's edition of Jeopardy! in place of Trebek,[53] who presided over a special two-contestant Wheel celebrity match between Sajak and White, who were playing for the Boy Scouts of America and the American Cancer Society, respectively;[54] Lesly Sajak, Pat's wife, was the guest hostess for the day.[53] In January and February 2011, the show held a "Vanna for a Day" contest in which home viewers submitted video auditions to take White's place for one episode, with the winner determined by a poll on the show's website;[55] the winner of this contest, Katie Cantrell of Wooster, Ohio (a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design),[56] took White's place for the second and third rounds on the episode that aired March 24, 2011.

text: Announcers[edit]

text: Charlie O'Donnell was the program's first and longest tenured announcer. In 1980, NBC was discussing cancelling Wheel and O'Donnell agreed to take the position as announcer on The Toni Tennille Show. The network decided against the cancellation but O'Donnell decided to honor his commitment and left the series.[57] His replacement was Jack Clark, who added the syndicated series to his responsibilities when it premiered in 1983 and announced for both series until his death in July 1988.[58] Los Angeles radio personality M. G. Kelly was Clark's replacement, starting on the daytime series in August 1988 and on the syndicated series when its new season launched a month later.[59] Kelly held these positions until O'Donnell was able to return to the announcer position, doing so after his duties with Barris Industries came to an end at the end of the 1988–89 television season.[9] O'Donnell remained with the series until shortly before his death in November 2010.[60] Don Pardo, Don Morrow, and Johnny Gilbert have occasionally served as substitute announcers.[9]

text: After O'Donnell's death, the producers sought a permanent replacement, and a series of substitutes filled out the rest of the season, including Gilbert, John Cramer, Joe Cipriano, Rich Fields, Lora Cain and Jim Thornton. For the show's twenty-ninth season, which began in 2011, Thornton was chosen to be the new announcer for Wheel, and has been with the show ever since.[61]

text: Production staff[edit]

text: Wheel of Fortune typically employs a total of 100 in-house production personnel, with 60 to 100 local staff joining them for those episodes that are taped on location.[10] Griffin was the executive producer of the network version throughout its entire run, and served as the syndicated version's executive producer until his retirement in 2000. Since 1999, the title of executive producer has been held by Harry Friedman, who had shared his title with Griffin for his first year,[62] and had earlier served as a producer starting in 1995.[3]

text: John Rhinehart was the program's first producer, but departed in August 1976 to become NBC's West Coast Daytime Program Development Director. Afterwards, his co-producer, Nancy Jones, was promoted to sole producer, and served as such until 1995, when Friedman succeeded her.[3] In the 15th syndicated season in 1997, Karen Griffith and Steve Schwartz joined Friedman as producers. Tthey were later promoted to supervising producers, with Amanda Stern occupying Griffith's and Schwartz's former position.[62]

text: The show's original director was Jeff Goldstein, who was succeeded by Dick Carson (a brother of Johnny Carson) in 1978.[9] Mark Corwin, who had served as associate director under Carson, took over for him upon his retirement at the end of the 1998–99 season, and served as such until he himself died in July 2013 (although episodes already taped before his death continued airing until late 2013).[63] Jeopardy! director Kevin McCarthy,[64] Corwin's associate director Bob Cisneros,[65] and Wheel and Jeopardy! technical director Robert Ennis[66] filled in at various points until Cisneros became full-time director in November 2013.[67] Ennis returned as guest director for the weeks airing October 13 through 17 and November 17 through 21, 2014, as Cisneros was recovering from neck surgery at the time of taping.[68][69] With the start of the 33rd season on September 14, 2015, Ennis was promoted to full-time director.[70]

text: Production[edit]

text: Wheel of Fortune is owned by Sony Pictures Television (previously known as Columbia TriStar Television, the successor company to original producer Merv Griffin Enterprises).[71] The production company and copyright holder of all episodes to date is Califon Productions, Inc., which like SPT has Sony Pictures for its active registered agent, and whose name comes from a New Jersey town where Griffin once owned a farm.[72] The rights to distribute the show worldwide are owned by CBS Television Distribution, into which original distributor King World Productions was folded in 2007.[73]

text: The show was originally taped in Studio 4 at NBC Studios in Burbank.[74] Upon NBC's 1989 cancellation of the network series, production moved to Studio 33 at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, where it remained until 1995.[75] Since then, the show has occupied Stage 11 at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City.[76] Some episodes are also recorded on location, a tradition which began with two weeks of episodes taped at Radio City Music Hall in late 1988.[77] Recording sessions usually last for five or six episodes in one day.[10]

text: Set[edit]

text: Various changes have been made to the basic set since the syndicated version's premiere in 1983. In 1996, a large video display was added center stage, which was then upgraded in 2003 as the show began the transition into high-definition broadcasting. In the mid-1990s, the show began a long-standing tradition of nearly every week coming with its own unique theme. As a result, in addition to its generic design, the set also uses many alternate designs, which are unique to specific weekly sets of themed programs. The most recent set design was conceived by production designer Renee Hoss-Johnson, with later modifications by Jody Vaclav.[1] Previous set designers included Ed Flesh[78] and Dick Stiles.[1]

text: The first pilot used a vertically mounted wheel which was often difficult to see on-screen. Flesh, who also designed the sets for The $25,000 Pyramid and Jeopardy!, designed the wheel mechanism. Originally made mostly of paint and cardboard,[78] the modern wheel mechanism is framed on a steel tube surrounded with Plexiglas and more than 200 lighting instruments, and is held by a stainless steel shaft with roller bearings. Altogether, the wheel weighs approximately 2,400 pounds (1,100 kg).[10]

text: The show's original puzzle board had three rows of 13 manually operated trilons, for a total of 39 spaces. On December 21, 1981, a larger board with 48 trilons in four rows (11, 13, 13 and 11 trilons) was adopted. This board was surrounded by a double-arched border of lights which flashed at the beginning and end of the round. Each trilon had three sides: a green side to represent spaces not used by the puzzle, a blank side to indicate a letter that had not been revealed, and a side with a letter on it.[23] While the viewer saw a seamless transition to the next puzzle, with these older boards in segments where more than one puzzle was present, a stop-down of taping took place during which the board was wheeled offstage and the new puzzle loaded in by hand out of sight of the contestants. On February 24, 1997, the show introduced a computerized puzzle board composed of 52 touch-activated monitors in four rows (12 on the top and bottom rows, 14 in the middle two).[10] To illuminate a letter during regular gameplay, the hostess touches the right edge of the monitor to reveal it.[79] The computerized board obviated the stop-downs, allowing tapings to finish quicker at a lower cost to the production company.

text: Although not typically seen by viewers, the set also includes a used letter board that shows contestants which letters are remaining in play, a scoreboard that is visible from the contestants' perspective, and a countdown clock.[80][81] The used letter board is also used during the bonus round, and in at least one case, helped the contestant to see unused letters to solve a difficult puzzle.[82]

text: Music[edit]

text: Alan Thicke composed the show's original theme, which was titled "Big Wheels". In 1983, it was replaced by Griffin's own composition, "Changing Keys",[83] to allow him to derive royalties from that composition's use on both the network and syndicated versions. Steve Kaplan became music director starting with the premiere of the 15th syndicated season in 1997, and continued to serve as such until he was killed when the Cessna 421C Golden Eagle he was piloting crashed into a home in Claremont, California, in December 2003.[84][85][86] His initial theme was a remix of "Changing Keys", but by the 18th syndicated season (2000–01), he had replaced it with a composition of his own, which was titled "Happy Wheels".[87] Since 2006, music direction has been handled by Frankie Blue and John Hoke.[1] Themes they have written for the show include a remix of "Happy Wheels" and an original rock-based composition.[87]

text: In addition to "Changing Keys", Griffin also composed various incidental music cues for the syndicated version which were used for announcements of prizes in the show's early years. Among them were "Frisco Disco" (earlier the closing theme for a revival of Jeopardy! which aired in 1978 and 1979),[88] "A Time for Tony" (whose basic melody evolved into "Think!", the longtime theme song for Jeopardy![89]), "Buzzword" (later used as the theme for Merv Griffin's Crosswords), "Nightwalk", "Struttin' on Sunset", and an untitled vacation cue.[87]

text: Audition process[edit]

text: Anyone at least 18 years old has the potential to become a contestant through Wheel of Fortune's audition process. Exceptions include employees and immediate family members of CBS Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, or any of their respective affiliates or subsidiaries; any firm involved in supplying prizes for the show; and television stations that broadcast Wheel and/or Jeopardy!, their sister radio stations, and those advertising agencies that are affiliated with them. Also ineligible to apply as contestants are individuals who have appeared on a different game show within the previous year, three other game shows within the past ten years, or on any version of Wheel of Fortune itself.[90]

text: Throughout the year, the show uses a custom-designed Winnebago recreational vehicle called the "Wheelmobile" to travel across the United States, holding open auditions at various public venues. Participants are provided with entry forms which are then drawn randomly. Individuals whose names are drawn appear on stage, five at a time, and are interviewed by traveling host Marty Lublin. The group of five then plays a mock version of the speed-up round, and five more names are selected after a puzzle is solved. Everyone who is called onstage receives a themed prize, usually determined by the spin of a miniature wheel. Auditions typically last two days, with three one-hour segments per day.[91] After each Wheelmobile event, the "most promising candidates" are invited back to the city in which the first audition was held, to participate in a second audition. Alternatively, a participant may submit an audition form with a self-shot video through the show's website to enter an audition. Contestants not appearing on stage at Wheelmobile events have their applications retained and get drawn at random to fill second-level audition vacancies. At the second audition, potential contestants play more mock games featuring a miniature wheel and puzzle board, followed by a 16-puzzle test with some letters revealed. The contestants have five minutes to solve as many puzzles as they can by writing in the correct letters. The people who pass continue the audition, playing more mock games which are followed by interviews.[92][93]

text: Broadcast history[edit]

text: Wheel of Fortune premiered on January 6, 1975, at 10:30 am (9:30 Central) on NBC. Lin Bolen, then the head of daytime programming, purchased the show from Griffin to compensate him for canceling the original Jeopardy! series, which had one year remaining on its contract. Jeopardy! aired its final episode on the Friday before Wheel's premiere. The original Wheel aired on NBC, in varying time slots between 10:30 am and noon, until June 30, 1989. Throughout that version's run, episodes were generally 30 minutes in length, except for six weeks of shows aired between December 1975 and January 1976 which were 60 minutes in length. NBC announced the cancellation of the show in August 1980, but it stayed on the air following a decision to cut the duration of The David Letterman Show from 90 to 60 minutes.[57] The network Wheel moved to CBS on July 17, 1989, and remained there until January 14, 1991.[9] After that, it briefly returned to NBC, replacing Let's Make a Deal,[94] but was canceled permanently on September 20 of that year.[9]

text: The daily syndicated version of Wheel premiered on September 19, 1983, preceded by a series of episodes taped on location at the Ohio State Fair and aired on WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio.[95] From its debut, the syndicated version offered a larger prize budget than its network counterpart.[40] The show came from humble beginnings: King World chairmen Roger, Michael, and Robert King could initially find only 50 stations that were willing to carry the show, and since they could not find affiliates for the syndicated Wheel in New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago, Philadelphia was the largest market in which the show could succeed in its early days. Only nine stations carried the show from its beginning,[96] but by midseason it was airing on all 50 of the stations that were initially willing to carry it, and by the beginning of 1984 the show was available to 99 percent of television households. Soon, Wheel succeeded Family Feud as the highest-rated syndicated show,[9] and at the beginning of the 1984–85 season, Griffin followed up on the show's success by launching a syndicated revival of Jeopardy!, hosted by Alex Trebek.[97] The syndicated success of Wheel and Jeopardy! siphoned ratings from the period's three longest-running and most popular game shows, Tic-Tac-Dough, The Joker's Wild, and Family Feud, to the point that all three series came to an end by the fall of 1986. At this point, Wheel had the highest ratings of any syndicated television series in history,[40] and at the peak of the show's popularity, over 40 million people were watching five nights per week. The series, along with companion series Jeopardy!, remained the most-watched syndicated program in the United States until dethroned by Judge Judy in 2011.[98] The program has become America's longest-running syndicated game show and its second-longest in either network or syndication, second to the version of The Price Is Right which began airing in 1972. The syndicated Wheel has become part of the consciousness of over 90 million Americans, and awarded a total of over $200 million in cash and prizes to contestants.[10]

text: The popularity of Wheel of Fortune has led it to become a worldwide franchise, with over forty known adaptations in international markets outside the United States.[10] Versions of the show have existed in such countries as Australia,[99] Denmark,[100] France,[101] Germany,[102] Italy,[103] Malaysia,[104] New Zealand,[105] the Philippines,[106] Poland,[107] Russia,[108] Spain,[109] and the United Kingdom.[110] The American version of Wheel has honored its international variants with an occasional theme of special weeks known as "Wheel Around the World", the inaugural episode of which aired when the 23rd syndicated season premiered on September 12, 2005.[111]

text: Between September 1997 and January 1998, CBS and Game Show Network concurrently aired a special children's version of the show titled Wheel 2000. It was hosted by David Sidoni, with Tanika Ray providing voice and motion capture for a virtual reality hostess named "Cyber Lucy".[112] Created by Scott Sternberg,[112] the spin-off featured special gameplay in which numerous rules were changed. For example, the show's child contestants competed for points and prizes instead of cash, with the eventual winner playing for a grand prize in the bonus round.[113]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Wheel of Fortune has long been one of the highest-rated programs on U.S. syndicated television. It was the highest-rated show in all of syndication before it was dethroned by Two and a Half Men in the 28th season (2010–11).[114][115] The syndicated Wheel shared the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show with Jeopardy! in 2011, and Sajak won three Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Game Show Host—in 1993, 1997, and 1998. In a 2001 issue, TV Guide ranked Wheel number 25 among the 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time,[116] and in 2013, the magazine ranked it number 2 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever, second only to Jeopardy![5] In August 2006, the show was ranked number 6 on GSN's list of the 50 Greatest Game Shows.[117]

text: Wheel was the subject of many nominations in GSN's Game Show Awards special, which aired on June 6, 2009.[118] The show was nominated for Best Game Show, but lost to Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?; Sajak and White were nominated for Best Game Show Host, but lost to Deal or No Deal's Howie Mandel; and O'Donnell was considered for Best Announcer but lost to Rich Fields from The Price Is Right. One of the catchphrases uttered by contestants, "I'd like to buy a vowel", was considered for Favorite Game Show Catch Phrase, but lost to "Come on down!", the announcer's catchphrase welcoming new contestants to Price. The sound effect heard at the start of a new regular gameplay round won the award for Favorite Game Show Sound Effect. The sound heard when the wheel lands on Bankrupt was also nominated. Despite having been retired from the show for nearly a decade by that point, "Changing Keys" was nominated for Best Game Show Theme Song. However, it lost to its fellow Griffin composition, "Think!" from Jeopardy![119]

text: A hall of fame honoring Wheel of Fortune is part of the Sony Pictures Studios tour, and was introduced on the episode aired May 10, 2010.[120] Located in the same stage as the show's taping facility, this hall of fame features memorabilia related to Wheel's syndicated history, including retired props, classic merchandise, photographs, videos, and a special case dedicated to White's wardrobe.[121] Two years later, in 2012, the show was honored with a Ride of Fame on a double decker tour bus in New York City.[122]

text: Merchandise[edit]

text: Numerous board games based on Wheel of Fortune have been released by different toy companies. The games are all similar, incorporating a wheel, puzzle display board, play money and various accessories like Free Spin tokens. Milton Bradley released the first board game in 1975. In addition to all the supplies mentioned above, the game included 20 prize cards to simulate the "shopping" prizes of the show, with prizes ranging in value from $100 to $3,000. Two editions were released, with the only differences being the box art and the included books of puzzles. Other home versions were released by Pressman Toy Corporation, Tyco/Mattel, Parker Brothers, Endless Games, and Irwin Toys.[123]

text: Additionally, several video games based on the show have been released for personal computers, the Internet, and various gaming consoles spanning multiple hardware generations. Most games released in the 20th century were published by GameTek, which produced a dozen Wheel games on various platforms, starting with a Nintendo Entertainment System game released in 1987 and continuing until the company closed in 1998 after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[124] Subsequent games were published by Hasbro Interactive and its acquirer Infogrames/Atari; Sony Online Entertainment, THQ and Ubisoft.[125]

text: Wheel has also been licensed to International Game Technology for use in its slot machines. The games are all loosely based on the show, with contestants given the chance to spin the wheel to win a jackpot prize. Since 1996, over 200 slot games based on the show have been created, both for real-world casinos and those on the Internet. With over 1,000 wins awarded in excess of $1,000,000 and over $3 billion in jackpots delivered, Wheel has been regarded as the most successful slots brand of all time.[126]

text: Notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ The simplified title is often used by host Pat Sajak on-air and has been used instead of the full title in numerous promotional materials for the show.
Jump up ^ If a contestant cannot spin the wheel due to a physical limitation or disability, he/she is accompanied by a "designated spinner," a friend or family member who spins for him/her but is otherwise not involved in the game.[11]
Jump up ^ Sajak: "I'll give the wheel a final spin, and ask you to give me a letter. If it's in the puzzle, you have three seconds to solve it. Vowels are worth nothing, consonants are worth...[wedge amount], we'll add $1,000 to that, [dollar amount] apiece."
Jump up ^ The jackpot wedge was originally in round 3,[27] was moved to round 2 at the start of the 18th syndicated season in 2000,[22] and after that moved to round 1 from 2009 to 2013.[28]

tag: ol