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I don't think that that's the whole of the answer. That was the motivation for the show, certainly, but to say that that is the meaning rejects the ambiguity, which is where the comedy comes from. --
ColinFine (
talk)
11:38, 18 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Also, it had nothing to do with Monty Python specifically - John Cleese was one of the creators, but it wasn't a Monty Python production.
Adam Bishop (
talk)
12:28, 18 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Agree with CambridgeBay above. "Buying a ticket to the policeman's ball" was a
euphemism for paying a bribe to the police. According to
this source it was well known in the US too. Of course, there are lots of jokes around the obvious double entendre such as; "Would you like a ticket for the policeman's ball? - it's not a dance, it's a raffle!" Boom, boom!
Alansplodge (
talk)
17:52, 19 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Surname HIEGER / HIGER (jewish background)
The surname HIEGER / HIGER can be found in jewish genealogy mainly in (K&K) Austria (Galicia etc.). Any indications, what the meaning of the name is? "hige" in Jiddish means "a person from here". Are there any other suggestions? Hebrew, perhaps? Grey Geezer 08:17, 18 July 2012 (UTC) — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
Grey Geezer (
talk •
contribs)
Chinese social dancing
In Chinese, what is an idiomatic way to request a dance at a social/ballroom dance? I can literally translate "Would you like to dance?" as "想跳吗?" or something like that, but I don't how idiomatic that is.
More generally, if anyone could suggest a source for any social-dance-related vocabulary, example dialogs, or any other related material, I would be very grateful.
"想跳吗?" sounds ilke (and is quite literally) "wanna jump?"! More usually seen is "我可以请你跳这支舞吗?" or "我能请你跳这支舞吗?", or "我能和你跳这支舞吗?" which is something like "May I have the next dance with you?" --
PalaceGuard008 (
Talk)
13:31, 20 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Wonderful, thank you very much! This is very helpful (and "支" is a particularly useful bit to know). I suppose the brevity of my initial guess was influenced by my experience in contra dancing where there's such a short time for everyone to rush around and find the next partner that most of the time it's just raised eyebrows and an extended hand. Anyway, thank you again!
Rotcaeroib (
talk)
21:52, 20 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Depends on your definition. Could be Ethiopic script if you count each separate consonant+vowel combination as a "letter"...
AnonMoos (
talk)
19:23, 18 July 2012 (UTC)reply
The terms "Abugida" and "Abjad" (in the meaning used on the
Abjad article, as opposed to its real meaning) were almost unknown until a little more than 15 years ago, but that doesn't prevent some people (mostly not actual linguists, from what I can tell) from running around Wikipedia and demanding that the word "alphabet" be used only in a very narrow sense somewhat contradictory to its usual and customary meaning. I really do not find this behavior to be constructive at all. Furthermore, if the word "Abugida" applies equally to both Devanagari and Ethopic script, this term would appear to be fairly worthless for the meaningful classification of writing systems, since Devanagari and Ethiopic script have divergent characteristics in several respects...
AnonMoos (
talk)
01:29, 19 July 2012 (UTC)reply
No editor has demanded that the IP use that editor's own favorite sense of the word, has one? A request that the IP define his terms if he wants a definitive answer is hardly out of line. Three different users have mentioned the need for a defined question in their answer now. And prior to calling them abugidas, they were called
syllabaries, for quite some time longer than 15 years.
μηδείς (
talk)
05:41, 19 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Well, I wonder why article
Abjad is used for a neologism which was almost completely unknown until a little more than 15 years ago, while the long-established meaning of the word "Abjad" in English has been fobbed off into
Abjad numeral. And periodically, there are people running around Wikipedia demanding that articles like "Arabic alphabet" be renamed to "Arabic abjad". I don't find either of these phenomena to be too useful...
AnonMoos (
talk)
15:38, 19 July 2012 (UTC)reply
I definitely think that a clear definition of alphabet is required to answer this question with some sort of accuracy. If alphabet means writing system, I'd guess Chinese. Someone suggest Unicode and someone else the IPA, but I would personally object to both: Unicode isn't a single alphabet, but a combination of all the writing systems in the world (at least that's the aim), and IPA, as far as I know, isn't the main writing system for any living language, although some of its symbols are used by some languages. Do ligatures count? I would say either way would be acceptable, but it needs to be defined. Are alphabets only those writing systems that seek to reproduce speach by placing signs in phonemic order (i.e. do Abjads count)? (So that Devanagari and Thai script don't count, since they put some vowel sounds in front of the consonant, although the sound is pronounced after it? Also, it would depend on how we choose to define letters, some Latin alphabets, such as the
Hungarian alphabet, also define digraphs and trigraphs, when these represent a single sound, as a separate letter, distinct from its constituent letters, whereas others do not (e.g. Hungarian dz is considered a single letter, alphabetically after D, whereas English sh is considered two separate letters that represent a single sound). There can be many correct answers, depending on how alphabet is defined.
V85 (
talk)
16:29, 19 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the
current reference desk pages.
I don't think that that's the whole of the answer. That was the motivation for the show, certainly, but to say that that is the meaning rejects the ambiguity, which is where the comedy comes from. --
ColinFine (
talk)
11:38, 18 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Also, it had nothing to do with Monty Python specifically - John Cleese was one of the creators, but it wasn't a Monty Python production.
Adam Bishop (
talk)
12:28, 18 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Agree with CambridgeBay above. "Buying a ticket to the policeman's ball" was a
euphemism for paying a bribe to the police. According to
this source it was well known in the US too. Of course, there are lots of jokes around the obvious double entendre such as; "Would you like a ticket for the policeman's ball? - it's not a dance, it's a raffle!" Boom, boom!
Alansplodge (
talk)
17:52, 19 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Surname HIEGER / HIGER (jewish background)
The surname HIEGER / HIGER can be found in jewish genealogy mainly in (K&K) Austria (Galicia etc.). Any indications, what the meaning of the name is? "hige" in Jiddish means "a person from here". Are there any other suggestions? Hebrew, perhaps? Grey Geezer 08:17, 18 July 2012 (UTC) — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
Grey Geezer (
talk •
contribs)
Chinese social dancing
In Chinese, what is an idiomatic way to request a dance at a social/ballroom dance? I can literally translate "Would you like to dance?" as "想跳吗?" or something like that, but I don't how idiomatic that is.
More generally, if anyone could suggest a source for any social-dance-related vocabulary, example dialogs, or any other related material, I would be very grateful.
"想跳吗?" sounds ilke (and is quite literally) "wanna jump?"! More usually seen is "我可以请你跳这支舞吗?" or "我能请你跳这支舞吗?", or "我能和你跳这支舞吗?" which is something like "May I have the next dance with you?" --
PalaceGuard008 (
Talk)
13:31, 20 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Wonderful, thank you very much! This is very helpful (and "支" is a particularly useful bit to know). I suppose the brevity of my initial guess was influenced by my experience in contra dancing where there's such a short time for everyone to rush around and find the next partner that most of the time it's just raised eyebrows and an extended hand. Anyway, thank you again!
Rotcaeroib (
talk)
21:52, 20 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Depends on your definition. Could be Ethiopic script if you count each separate consonant+vowel combination as a "letter"...
AnonMoos (
talk)
19:23, 18 July 2012 (UTC)reply
The terms "Abugida" and "Abjad" (in the meaning used on the
Abjad article, as opposed to its real meaning) were almost unknown until a little more than 15 years ago, but that doesn't prevent some people (mostly not actual linguists, from what I can tell) from running around Wikipedia and demanding that the word "alphabet" be used only in a very narrow sense somewhat contradictory to its usual and customary meaning. I really do not find this behavior to be constructive at all. Furthermore, if the word "Abugida" applies equally to both Devanagari and Ethopic script, this term would appear to be fairly worthless for the meaningful classification of writing systems, since Devanagari and Ethiopic script have divergent characteristics in several respects...
AnonMoos (
talk)
01:29, 19 July 2012 (UTC)reply
No editor has demanded that the IP use that editor's own favorite sense of the word, has one? A request that the IP define his terms if he wants a definitive answer is hardly out of line. Three different users have mentioned the need for a defined question in their answer now. And prior to calling them abugidas, they were called
syllabaries, for quite some time longer than 15 years.
μηδείς (
talk)
05:41, 19 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Well, I wonder why article
Abjad is used for a neologism which was almost completely unknown until a little more than 15 years ago, while the long-established meaning of the word "Abjad" in English has been fobbed off into
Abjad numeral. And periodically, there are people running around Wikipedia demanding that articles like "Arabic alphabet" be renamed to "Arabic abjad". I don't find either of these phenomena to be too useful...
AnonMoos (
talk)
15:38, 19 July 2012 (UTC)reply
I definitely think that a clear definition of alphabet is required to answer this question with some sort of accuracy. If alphabet means writing system, I'd guess Chinese. Someone suggest Unicode and someone else the IPA, but I would personally object to both: Unicode isn't a single alphabet, but a combination of all the writing systems in the world (at least that's the aim), and IPA, as far as I know, isn't the main writing system for any living language, although some of its symbols are used by some languages. Do ligatures count? I would say either way would be acceptable, but it needs to be defined. Are alphabets only those writing systems that seek to reproduce speach by placing signs in phonemic order (i.e. do Abjads count)? (So that Devanagari and Thai script don't count, since they put some vowel sounds in front of the consonant, although the sound is pronounced after it? Also, it would depend on how we choose to define letters, some Latin alphabets, such as the
Hungarian alphabet, also define digraphs and trigraphs, when these represent a single sound, as a separate letter, distinct from its constituent letters, whereas others do not (e.g. Hungarian dz is considered a single letter, alphabetically after D, whereas English sh is considered two separate letters that represent a single sound). There can be many correct answers, depending on how alphabet is defined.
V85 (
talk)
16:29, 19 July 2012 (UTC)reply