A shire is a traditional term for a division of land, found in the United Kingdom and some other English speaking countries. It was first used in Wessex from the beginning of Anglo-Saxon settlement, and spread to most of the rest of England in the tenth century. In some rural parts of Australia, a shire is a local government area; however, in Australia it is not synonymous with a "county", which is a lands administrative division. 

The word derives from the Old English "scir", itself a derivative of the Proto-Germanic "skizo" (cf. Old High German "scira"), meaning care or official charge. In the UK, "shire" is the original term for what is usually known now as a "county"; the word "county" having been introduced at the Norman Conquest of England. The two are nearly synonymous. Although in modern British usage counties are referred to as "shires" mainly in poetic contexts, terms such as Shire Hall remain common. Shire also remains a common part of many county names. 

In regions with so-called rhotic pronunciation such as Scotland, the word "shire" is pronounced or . In non-rhotic areas the final R is silent unless the next word begins in a vowel. When "shire" is a suffix as part of a placename in England, the vowel is unstressed and thus usually shortened and/or monophthongised: pronunciations include , or sometimes , with the pronunciation of the final R again depending on rhoticity. In many words, the vowel is normally reduced all the way to a single schwa, as in for instance "Leicestershire" or "Berkshire" . Outside England, and especially in Scotland and the US, it is more common for "shire" as part of a placename to be pronounced identically to the full word, as a result of spelling pronunciation. QUESTIONS:

Q1:
1. What kind of word is a shire?
2. What does shire function as linguistically?
3. What is the linguistic function of shire?
Q2:
1. What is shire a term for?
2. What is meant by the term shire?
3. How can a shire be defined?
Q3:
1. Where is the word shire found?
2. Where does the word shire come from?
3. What country uses the word shire?
Q4:
1. Where was the first use of the word shire?
2. Where was the word shire coined?
3. What was the location of the word shire's creation?
Q5:
1. When was the first use of the word shire?
2. When did the word shire get used for the first time?
3. At what point was the term shire created?
Q6:
1. Is the term shire used outside of England?
2. Does anyone outside the United Kingdom use shire?
3. Are there people that say shire outside of the United Kingdom?
Q7:
1. Where is the word shire found outside the United Kingdom?
2. Where does the word shire appear outside the United Kingdom?
3. What country uses the word shire, apart from the United Kingdom?
Q8:
1. Is the term shire used outside of England and Australia?
2. Does anyone outside the United Kingdom and Australia use shire?
3. Are there people that say shire outside of the United Kingdom and Australia?
Q9:
1. What is the origin of the word shire?
2. What term does the word shire come from?
3. What is the source of the term shire?
Q10:
1. What language does the original word for shire come from?
2. What language is "scir"?
3. Which tongue is the word "scir" in?
Q11:
1. What does "scir" mean?
2. What is the definition of "scir"?
3. How can "scir" be translated into Modern English?
Q12:
1. Is shire a synonym for county?
2. Does shire mean the same thing as county?
3. Are the words shire and county synonymous?
