what are the latin words for shit,sex,gay and how do you spell liberty backwards and just in case you are wondering i am not doing my homework.
Latin ignis is agni in Sanskrit, and though the learned writer Angr has nothing to with anger (as he maintains in his profile), the root of anger is Old Norse angr. Anger also means inflame, so we have some fire, too! Vsjayaschandran 21:10, 2 January 2006.
said to be similar brother-frater-brata(Greek -phrater), six-sex-sas, god-deo-deva, snake or serpent-serpe?-sarpa, great -gna-maha , king or royal-rege-raja etc. Amazing!-- Jondel 14:07, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
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Not sure if this is a language or geography question. Places like Argentina, Lebanon and Ukraine have in the past been referred to as "The Argentine", "The Lebanon", and "The Ukraine". Why? JackofOz 09:02, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
"Lebanon" comes from "the Levant", the traditional name for the region. "Ukraine" comes from the Russian word meaning "border", so calling it "the border" makes sense. (There is also a region in Croatia called "Krajina" for the same reason, from the Serbo-Croat word for border.) The Spanish name of the South American country in question is "La Republica Argentina", which is best translated as "the Argentine Republic", i.e., "Argentina" is an adjective in this instance, not a noun. "The Argentine" may be a shortening of "the Argentine Republic". The desert lying to the south of the Sahara desert is the Sudan desert, so "the Sudan" may come from the name of the desert, in the same way that Yukon Territory in Canada has, more so in the past, been called "the Yukon". The Republic of Mali was once called the "French Sudan". Ground Zero | t 16:14, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
WOW!! Thanks, folks. JackofOz 22:07, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
Did pirates actually talk like pirates, or do we have Hollywood to thank? Mark 1 11:10, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
I thought that the meaning of the word individual, in the past, (maybe in the first half of the 20th century) included a derogatory connotation . For example to say that "an individual read the letter" had a derogatory connotation with respect to the person referenced. Was this form of usage in existence at one time?
I don't think this applies to your usage of the word, but doing something independently could be considered inappropriate in cases where collective agreement is normally required. For example, if one member of a club decided "individually" how to spend the club dues, without the consent of other club members, this might be considered unacceptable behaviour. StuRat 22:51, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
how do you say in french "she has vascular dementia"
what is the french for "power of attorney"?
What is the english translation of "Mettre ( quelqu'un ) sous tutelle"?
What is the origin and meaning of the place name Tyas?
If you mean it as a name, this site said :
Sorry I couldn't be of more help... Sputnikcccp 21:05, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
A user has been going around changing "are" to "is" in many articles whose subject is a plural name (sports teams and bands). For example, they changed "The White Stripes are" to "The White Stripes is", "The New York Yankees are" to "The New York Yankees is", etc. Obviously this is awkward, but the user claims that this usage is correct in American English. Any English experts want to weigh in? It can't be correct to write that "The Beatles was on the Ed Sullivan Show", can it? Rhobite 02:53, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
Here is a sentence from MCA Records that would support the use of "is". "New Radicals, led by young liability/singer/songwriter/producer Gregg Alexander, is chomping at the bit." Hope this helps. http://www.mcarecords.com/ArtistAbout.asp?which=bio&selected=1&aboutid=38819&artistname=New+Radicals&artistid=62 RJN 06:12, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
I think one area where the whole issue gets dodgy is when you try to consider a group as simply a plural of nouns; as in, people think of The Beatles as four Beatles who played music together. That makes sense, kind of, because you can refer to Paul McCartney as, at least, a former Beatle. So, when you get a group of them together, they're just four Beatles. Of course it would take a plural.
The same kind of example holds for The New York Yankees, and doesn't so much hold for the New Radicals or Nine Inch Nails. You could refer to a Yankee pretty easily, but there aren't actually a group of guys described as a "New Radical" or a "Nine Inch Nail," as Canley points out above. However, with the White Stripes example, I think my rule breaks down, because I don't think of Jack or Meg as a stripe, you know? -- ParkerHiggins ( talk contribs ) 09:47, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
It took a long time for me to not want to injure myself every time I saw a collective noun being followed by a plural pronoun, but I am gradually learning to accept that we speak English differently in different parts of the world. I agree that it's not worth edit-warring over; however, there are just too many articles that clearly use the pronouns thoughtlessly. If someone deliberately says "the committee gave it their approval," I can gracefully move on, but later in the same article, the same noun gets the singular pronoun, so that it's obvious someone isn't trying very hard. In situations like this, I try to edit for consistency, and so far there haven't been too many reverts. So I'm writing all this just to make a plea: Whatever your preference, please be consistent! Mitchell k dwyer 11:39, 3 January 2006 (UTC) 11:38, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
The Yankees are are doing well this year. The team is doing well this year. Same entity, but different verb depending on which noun you are using to refer to them in US English. -- Nelson Ricardo 07:42, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
While English is my first foreign language, and not my native one, I learned it this way: If the noun in question refers to more than one person (the police, the Yankees, ...), use plural. — Nightstallion (?) 08:08, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
where can i find different topics for group discussion ?
If there were to be, say, a ball that were jointly owned by my sister and myself, what possessive pronouns would I use to describe it? As in, is it "My sister's and my ball"? And if i were to reduce her to a pronoun, would it be "her and my ball", or "hers and my ball"? Nothing sounds right. Thanks! -- ParkerHiggins ( talk contribs ) 09:50, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
Can people please give me as many translations of these words as possible. Thanks, Gerard Foley 14:40, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
Is there a reference with the pronunciations of last names? I am specifically interested in those of musicians, such as Neal Peart, Mike Portnoy, and Pete Townshend. thejabberwock 01:46, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
I don't know if there is any actual reference available, but I can definitely say that 'Peart' is pronounced 'pee-rt' and 'Townshend' is pronounced exactly like the more familiar name 'Townsend' (with the 's' like a 'z'). I can't help you with Portnoy, sorry. Givnan 06:08, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
What caused the dropping out of the grammatical cases in most Indo-European languages?
All languages, not just those of Indo-European origin undergo change, and one typical feature of this is the shortening of words. The reason for this is that people tend to drop sounds from words while speaking at natural speed. As for grammatical cases being dropped, I think this is more prevelant in languages which have either developed large empires (e.g. Latin, Sanskrit, Persian, etc.) or have been involved in extensive trade with large numbers of speakers of other languages (e.g. the Germanic languages). -- As for the more primitive languages being more complex, we could compare that to the fact that the very first computer filled an entire room, while these days I can sit here on my sofa with my laptop and write this answer. Also, we should not forget that the languages of the classics does not in any way reflect the languages of the common people of the time, and is in fact more conservative. The language of the common people of Greece was only ever really written down for the first time when the Gospels were written. Certain later periods of Middle Egyptian have more in common with Old Egyptian, a language written down over a thousand years before, and therefore completely different from the contemporary spoken language. This was largely due to a conservative reverence for ancestors and more ancient ways. Givnan 06:32, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
The fact that it was the small vulgar languages such as French, Spanish, etc., which dropped their cases, and not Latin, is exactly my point. It was after Latin became spoken in these provinces that French and Spanish became spoken, and being spoken by foreigners. These languages dropped the cases. Germany did not have more trade than the Nordic countries, as the Scandinavians were travelling as traders throughout the world (as far as Russia to the East, and as far as Arabia to the South). The Swedish island of Guttland in the Baltic was a total melting pot of nations and had a major port joining Asia and Europe. As far as German is concerned, New High German has a far less complex case system than Old High German had. The isolation of Iceland and the almost perfect preservation of its language in over one thousand years of its history is a perfect example of my point. Givnan 15:48, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
Actually, 12th Century documents written in East Norse already display a considerable amount of case-dropping and is very much more akin to the English of the time than Old Icelandic. The viking age had only just ended, but there was still a considerable amount of trade going on, especially with Eastern Europe and Asia. During the viking age, mercenaries were brought in from countries all over the known world. Also, what I've been saying is that written languages very often reflect an older period of its spoken counterpart (as Angr above agrees), and indeed, while this is not directly related to case-dropping it may serve to illustrate my case, in many modern German dialects, 'der, die, das' have all been reduced to a single phoneme 'd'. Givnan 06:09, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
Fair enough, then. But what would you say the reason was? In my first post to this thread, I put it down to one major yet simple feature of language change: shortening (I then went on to say that it seems more prevalent in languages with the most contact with other languages). And then why is it that the major Finno-Ugric languages retain a fairly 'conservative' case system? Givnan 05:33, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
how do you say in french "once upon a time in a land far far away" and "they lived happily aver after"?
Was "thou artn't" a contraction used in the days of Early Modern English for "thou art not"? - lethe talk 06:18, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
first of all id like 2 start by wishing u guys a happy new 'wiki'year(altough i'm 4 days late) guys can u help me out with these words
please heelp me out here ...,.,,
please i requested 4 help AND NOT SARCASM
This is a good site for help with crosswords, as it is inhabited by people who do them all the time. -- Shantavira 13:49, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
hey guys it worked THANKS A LOT TO ALL OF YOU $im sorry i was a bit pissed of earlier in the dayit was not cor blimey or coo lovey it was cor limmey
I was wondering what the common name for a drink in a small box is. These types of drinks have many different names but i am looking for a suitable name to use on wikipedia. To drink it, you insert a straw into the top. I know in Australia alone there are many names, such as poppa and juice box. Any suggestions?-- Ali K 12:42, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
See chappati. -- Angr ( tɔk) 14:20, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
I don't trust Babelfish for anything resembling a coherent sentence. I'd appreciate anyone who can translate these short phrases into Swedish. (This isn't homework, by the way.)
1. "The flow of time is always cruel."__ 2. "I can only speak English." (I'd like if someone could tell me how to pronounce this, too.) __ 3. "Psychology" and "Psychology student" __ 4. "Sex, drugs, Kubrick and night swimming" __ Thanks. :)
What does boddy bop mean?
On that template is the term "voice". Does that refer to grammatical voice or writer's voice? I'm No Parking and I approved this message 05:50, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
But when there is a choice between active and passive voice, this is also a part of style. And in either case, "style" is mentioned in the template. It makes no sense to me for "voice" to be in there. --Anonymous, 10:00 UTC, January 6, 2006
Please could anyone explain the origin of the term "broad" meaning girl/woman/lady etc and frequently used in the USA during the 1920-1950 period?
How big is fox, coyote, and wolf scat?
---WTH?? "tribe"?
This message was left at b:simple:Wikibooks:Staff lounge
Could someone form here please go to simple.wikibooks and answer this as there is no-one there who can answer this question. Thanks, Gerard Foley 15:40, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
I have been asked an interesting question. When a person is stood by a door, welcoming people to the premises, it is often referred to 'meet and greet'. I have been asked what the opposite phrase is, when you say goodbye to people as they leave the premises. Does anyone have an idea on this?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and comments,
Pete 62.232.224.4 15:58, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
Thanks Bodnotbod, I'll modify your "Eject and respect" and plump for "eject with respect".
Pete 83.245.83.237 21:40, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
Anyone have an idea what " Shreveport" might look like rendered into katakana? I've looked around for lists of city names in Japanese script, but no luck on this one. The "shr" is particularly troublesome. Thanks! — BrianSmithson 18:21, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
An alternative to the above シュリーブポート could be シュリーヴポート, which takes into account the 'v' in Shreveport. It also types more smoothly on a Japanese computer, without having to change bits of it from kanji to katakana. Givnan 08:16, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
Is there a name for using a word twice, back to back? Example: If I had had a better education I would already know the answer to this question.
Anybody know the origin of the word Dixie, as used to describe the South?
"The secret life of ..." seems to be a common start to titles of books and other works of art. For example, The Secret Life of Plants, The Secret Life of Machines, The Secret Life of Bees, all start that way. Does anybody know the origin of this type of title (i.e., the first work of art which publicized this phrase to the extent that all modern versions are derived from its use)? -- JianLi 21:53, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
How would I say "from Oceania" or "of Oceania" in a single, like "French" (of or from France). The obvious guess, Oceanic, has a very different meaning. Would I say " Winston Smith is an Oceanic citizen" for example? smurrayinch ester( User), ( Talk) 22:54, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
Any ideas how should the piece marked bold be translated into english? Потом не выдерживаю, луплю кулаком по столу, ору и брызгаюсь: - Умник! Лопух развесистый! Обрадовался - два года! Да с таким дипломом ты всю жизнь будешь сдувать пыль с вольтметров на какой-нибудь энергостанции в Лабытнанги! Thank you. ellol 00:27, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
I can not find this phrase in the list of latin pharses. Somone posted this as a response to a diatribe I wrote. I don't want to ask the poster what it means for fear of fool-dom. Can ye translate it ? --Omni Maximus God_of_War. Omni Maximus God_of_War...
'Omni Maximus' means 'greatest of all'. Givnan 08:05, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
In speech (sound-wise), what is the difference between these two sentences:
I feel like maybe there's a pause, but that seems very optional. It seems like it must be a tone thing. Does the second one maybe rise when the quotation starts or am I just playing with my voice? Dave 09:37, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
The first one is incorrect. In indirect speech you should say 'You told me I was a bore in bed', and the second one actually means the original speaker is calling himself or herself a bore in bed. Givnan 14:45, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
They can mean two different things. The first mean's I was told that I'm a bore, the second is someone told me she's a bore. The first one is thus ambiguous and should be rearanged if clarity is desired. - Taxman Talk 17:25, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
I read somewhere that the "The" in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn only became popular after an illustrator used it in a caption for the book, so the true title (and the one to which Wikipedia redirects to) is actually Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Likewise, Henry Louis Stevenson originally titled his novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, sans the "The." How common are titles that "omit" the "The," and is this usage (or lack thereof) somehow grammatically incorrect (as the Jekyll and Hyde article says it is)? -- JianLi 17:42, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
How would one say 'two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun' in finnish? Do they have that mcdonalds saying in finland?
We are looking for people to translate the following into as many languages as possible
Thanks, Gerard Foley 00:09, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
You probably didn't click on the link, but to answer your question, the sort of sort I mean is
For "When pigs fly", you need to decide whether you want a literal translation, which will sound like "when a porcine animal undergoes aeronautical motion", whether you want to translate the meaning, which is "never", or whether you want to try to translate into some other humorous expression in each language which means some improbable event. For example, in our own language, "when hell freezes over" is another expression with the same meaning. However, some languages may lack any such expression. StuRat 21:09, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
For when pigs fly I think it should be translated into some other humorous expression in each language which means some improbable event. Examples:
French
quand les poules auront des dents (literally "when chickens have teeth")
German
wenn Ostern und Pfingsten auf einen Tag fällt (literally "when Easter and Pentecost fall on one day")
Kakka malannu parakkum (The crow will fly upside down; kakka = crow; malannu = upside down' parakkum = will fly)
Kozhikku mula varumpol (When the hen has a breast; kozhikku = for hen; mula = breast; varumpol = comes)
Sooraj pashchim se ugega (When the sun will rise in the West)
Literally, "Que pasa"? means, what is happening, what's passing? So "Nada" is perfectly acceptable -- "Nothing". What's up? is "Que tal?" User:Zoe| (talk) 22:40, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the Unicode for the Syriac letter resh with seyame (i.e., with two dots rather than one, indicating plural)? Suryoye (pl.) in Syriacs is now spelled the same way as Suryoyo (sg.) in Syriac language, but should be written with seyame. I would like to correct that, but can't find the character in the Unicode chart found in the article Syriac alphabet, probably due to an outdated Windows version. Thank you. ------ Benne ['bɛnə] ( talk) 17:43, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
(no questions today)
It seems that we currently do not have any article geared toward helping English-only speakers pronounce sounds only present in languages outside of English. Articles like IPA Chart for English do exist, but are not particularly helpful unless you already know IPA and are interested in learning how to pronounce English. Does anyone know of articles or external sites that could help me understand IPA transliterations? Theshibboleth 01:20, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
give me a 2-3 page essay on 3 insirational things tommy douglas did to canada that made him an inspirational canadian, please. Thanks. -- 216.185.69.78 16:43, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
it is also essential to enquire what affect/effect new liberalism as an ideology actually had on practical british politics. Which one? I consulted [6] to no avail. -- 86.144.85.25 20:02, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
'effect'. -- Nick Boalch ?!? 20:06, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
In general, affect is a verb, and effect is a noun -- when you affect something you have an effect. You can also affect a mannerism or style of dress, but you will not have the desired effect if people think you are affected. However, "affect" is used as a technical term is psychology and related fields. AFAIK that is the only legit use of it as a noun. DES (talk) 20:10, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the origin of the word "Ishkabible"?
This question was asked a week ago, and as a result of our answers, the article at Ish Kabibble was written. User:Zoe| (talk) 18:59, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
What percent of the modern english language has latin language roots?
What is the japanese word for monkey? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.198.104.110 ( talk • contribs)
(unsigned)
Can someone help me out with what these letteers/symbols mean? http://bass.talkspot.com/uploads/3329/Sq%20Brn%20Rubber%20Spool.jpg Your help is greatly appreciated. e-mail me at rsmoke at wctel dot net The symbols are on a spool of stranded rubber, and I suspect it is the manufacturer's name or logo. I woould like to contact them re: more material. thank you for your help.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:User_zh. The idea is to ask to one of them. -- Harvestman 19:32, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
Here is the Wiktionary link for 順, I can't fint the second one. Gerard Foley 19:53, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
Here's the second: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%9B%9B - Louise 19:21 12 January (EST-Oz)
hey could u help me with these phrases
pls im counting on you guys
it cant be petrel because (*a*n**)is what ive figured out - " gannet"?
and for group i have (*l**)-- 212.72.8.226 19:23, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
Harvestman 20:35, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
I so much want the "proverbially greedy sea bird" to have 7 letters, not 6.
but what about the
I had typed this question in another part of the Wikipedia website, but I still don't understand. Were the words avenue, boulevard and garage were they around before the invention of cars? And did all of the three words originate in France? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.163.100.5 ( talk • contribs)
How is it called, when a person doesn't know what word to say next and sais instead a lot of 'a' and 'm' sounds? ellol 00:47, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
Here's a related discussion from a few days ago.
Halcatalyst
00:34, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
In Activision's Call of Duty 2, there is a german phrase painted on a wall at a german defensive position. It reads "Einer spinnt immer!" It intrigued me and I did a literal translation of the phrase at freetranslation.com, but the translation said "One spins always!" Is this a false translation, or is this an actual german phrase, and if so, what does it mean? What is it in reference to? I would greatly appreciate it if you provided me with a explanation to clarify. Thank you -- 71.49.19.128
What day of the week is represented by the abbreviation "DIE" and what language is it? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.246.4.234 ( talk • contribs)
This was on an analogue watch, probably from a person from europe. It is one of the days of the week, set on the watch next to the date (28th). There would have been other days but the watch had stopped on that day. Kind regards == "
What is the word for the phenomenon when a street is pointed directly at a landmark in the distance. An old building or a tower usually. It can be that the street was built to point at the landmark or the landmark was built at the end of the street or it can be that it is a coincidence. Sometimes the street might not even go the entire way to the landmark or might be interrupted. Thank you.
Does German have the 'ch' sound as in 'charity"?
I am looking for the three words in the English language ending in gry. There are Angry and Hungry but what is the third one
How come there are two adjectives that describe people from Greece? Wouldn't either "Greek" or "Grecian" suffice? Or is there some minute difference between the two that I was hitherto unaware of? Igor the Lion (Roar!) 13:31, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
The recent change to the Special Characters box has created a new category of Welsh, but I always assumed Welsh used the Latin alphabet (I live on the Welsh/English border, and have never seen these letters). The characters, such as ɱ, ʥ, ɮ and ᵐ don't seem anything like how I have always seen Welsh written. Are these a different way of writing Welsh, maybe Old Welsh or similar? smurrayinch ester( User), ( Talk) 14:48, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
In the article Ford Model T, the expression was "... the concept of paying the workers a wage concomitant with the cost of the car, so that they would provide a ready made market.". Someone changed this to "...the concept of paying the workers a wage ancillary with the cost of the car, so that they would provide a ready made market.". Neither of these seems correct to me. Is there a better word to use? Rmhermen 15:01, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
I don't suppose someone would be willing to have a stab at translating the passage below? I'm researching information for the OMI cryptograph article, and I don't really trust machine translation enough to use it as a source! The original is here (found here).
MACCHINA CRITTOGRAFICA O.M.I. - NISTRI Italia; circa 1939; O.M.I. Apparato crittografico che viene considerato la risposta italiana all’ENIGMA, con la quale condivide l’impiego dei rotori di cifratura; se ne differenzia, oltre che per l’aspetto esterno, per il peso piuttosto rilevante, l’alimentazione da rete e in corrente continua, una maggiore complessità costruttiva dei rotori. Consente la stampa del testo su nastro di carta accellerando le procedure di cifratura, decifratura e di verifica del testo. Per rendere più agevole la battitura dei testi, un motore elettrico provvede ai movimenti dei meccanismi. Il grave limite di questo apparecchio era nei contatti elettrici, striscianti, tra i rotori: nel tempo, l’usura e l’accumulo di sporcizia determinavano dei falsi contatti pregiudicando fortemente l’affidabilità dell’apparato; giova comunque ricordare che lo stesso problema, anche se in misura limitata, si riscontra in tutte le apparecchiature con lo stesso principio di funzionamento. Impiegata dalle forze armate italiane in maniera occasionale e discontinua, la sua cifratura venne forzata dall’Intelligence britannica nel Febbraio 1940. Venne definitivamente posta fuori servizio nel Settembre 1941, rimanendo disponibile per il mercato civile per qualche decennio. Dimensioni: sola macchina 37 x 42 x 17 cm, valigia di trasporto 43 x 48 x 23 cm. Pesi: sola macchina circa 20 Kg, con valigia ed accessori circa 27 Kg. L’esemplare esposto durante la mostra è stato cortesemente messo a disposizione da: Francesco Cremona, collezione “Cremona”, Colleferro, Roma.
Thanks for any help,
Matt Crypto 15:03, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
Hello! Please note that as a native Italian speaker, I usually translate only from English into Italian. However, I hope that the following draft will be a better source than a babelfished text. Best, -- BrokenArrow 14:05, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
Which is correct?
Where able I try to help on the Reference Desk and the Help desk.
or
Where able, I try to help on the Reference Desk and the Help desk.
Thanks.-- ◀Puck talk▶ 17:56, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
When I copyedit, I place a comma after the following introductory words, phrases, and clauses:
This is merely my personal guideline that I follow to help standardize an article. Wayward 00:02, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
How about let something run/take its course, let things drift/slide/rip, be negligent, be remiss? (From my Van Dale dictionary Dutch-English.) --- Benne ['bɛnə] ( talk) 20:40, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
If you're looking for a technical term, you might try posting on the Science board, or finding a website devoted to sociology. Conversational wordings very rarely sync up well with jargon. -- 69.154.179.63 00:21, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
How about codependency ? StuRat 03:26, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
Does anybody know what the difference between the spelling of globalization and globalisation are? both bring back matches in google (50 million and 18 million respectively). Is one a US or one a UK spelling? In fact there are a whole lot of words that (to the best of my knowledge) be spelt with either a z or an s in this sort of construction e.g. liberalism.
Any thoughts on this would be helpful, Thanks.
From the OED:
[I]n mod.F. the suffix has become -iser, alike in words from Greek, as baptiser, .vang.liser, organiser, and those formed after them from L., as civiliser, cicatriser, humaniser. Hence, some have used the spelling -ise in Eng., as in French, for all these words, and some prefer -ise in words formed in French or Eng. from L. elements, retaining -ize for those of Gr. composition. But the suffix itself, whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Gr. -izein, L. -izare; and, as the pronunciation is also with z, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling should be followed, in opposition to that which is at once etymological and phonetic. In this Dictionary the termination is uniformly written -ize. (In the Gr. -iz-, the i was short, so originally in L., but the double consonant z (= dz, ts) made the syllable long; when the z became a simple consonant, (-idz) became -iz, whence Eng. (-aIz).)
The following are illustrations of some of the recent uses of the suffix: 1591 Nashe Introd. Sidney's Astr. & Stella in P. Penilesse (Shaks. Soc.) p. xxx, "Reprehenders, that complain of my boystrous compound wordes, and ending my Italionate coyned verbes all in ize." 1611 "Florio, Inpetrarcato, Petrarchized." 1618 J. Taylor (Water P.) Journ. Scotl., "I haue a smacke of Coriatizing." 1682 D'Urfey Butler's Ghost II. 177 "Ralpho+takes the Tongs+and snaps him by the Nose+surpriz'd, To be thus rudely dunstaniz'd." 1796 Coleridge Lett. I. 209 "We might Rumfordize one of the chimneys." 1833 Blackw. Mag. XXXIV. 533 "It is a taste that, to coin a word, insignificantizes everything -- unpoetizes nature." 1840 New Monthly Mag. LIX. 492 "Tandemizing, cricketizing, boatizing, et omne quod exit in izing, is not to be carried on without a considerable expenditure." 1858 Sat. Rev. V. 264/2 "He has no fear of Tower-Hamletizing the land." Ibid. VI. 203/2 "To Perkin-Warbeckize a pretender is the best, because not the most spirited, policy." 1861 T. L. Peacock Gryll Gr. viii, "Arch-quacks have taken to merry~andrewizing in a new arena." 1866 Sat. Rev. 10 Nov. (L.), "If a man+is funny, and succeeds in Joe-Millerizing history, he pleases somebody or other." 1876 Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 164 "Of the first class [Preservation of Timber] the three best known processes are: (a) Burnetising, (b) Kyanising, and (c) Boucherising." 1881 Mahaffy in Academy 23 Apr. 295 "She does not Irvingise Shylock." 1885 J. C. Jeaffreson Real Shelley II. 192 "The troop of nakedized children rushed downstairs." 1894 Westm. Gaz. 21 Mar. 7/3 "These instruments, before they are used, should always be strictly anti-septicized." 1897 A. Lang in Blackw. Mag. Feb. 187 "To do this is not to Celticise but to Macphersonise." 1897 Westm. Gaz. 28 July 6/1 "The word 'Klondykised'. has been coined to express the conditions of persons who have caught the mania [for seeking gold at Klondyke].+ The effect has been to 'Klondykise'. nearly all the people of the town." 1898 L. A. Tollemache Talks w. Gladstone 114 note, "It [the passage] is, as it were, Canning Gladstonized." Wayward 09:15, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
I have checked on google but to no avail. Saw it in a Q+A in a uk paper with a quirky response.. "Being a politician" - there must be a proper word for it surely? Rondolpho -- 195.92.40.49 13:50, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
Where did the word Ghost originate from-- 213.122.121.152
Originally, it didn't have the meaning of a dead spirit, though, because it's used in such phrases as "Holy Ghost" to mean a holy spirit. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo calls Friar Lawrence his "ghostly father", meaning spiritual advisor. User:Zoe| (talk) 22:09, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
In French the Future Simple for BOIRE, it is buvr- or boir-? Which is more Correct?
does BUVR- work? I thought that was the one my teacher used?
How come when people from the U.S. go to (ex. Mexico) we have to speak Spanish, but when the people come here, they can't learn to speak english?
We are looking for people to translate the following into as many languages as possible. Please go to the relevant Wiktionary page and place your translations there
Thanks, -- Dangherous 00:53, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
Note: See this English-Hindi dictionary deeptrivia ( talk) 05:59, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
The word for "emerald" appears to be "smaragd" in many languages. What language is "smaragd" from? -- 24.26.178.224 18:57, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the origin of this saying 'As Safe as Houses'. Look forward to your reply.
How would you define the slang use of corny or cheezy? I often attempt to teach this word to my (Japanese) students but for such an apparently simple word breaking it down to its basic meaning is really a challenge. I can't seem to get any closer than 'old-fashioned', 'pure/innocent to the point of being odd', or 'gaudy' (gaudy doesn't translate easily either though ...). Any thoughts?
And another one ... does it make sense to define ever? The standard translation for this is 'before now' which I really don't like but it may be the case that it can't be properly translated as it is really just a grammar function that allows for clarifying/adding strength to the meaning 'has such an event existed before now?' and the like. freshgavin TALK 05:24, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
These definitions are pretty decent, but don't let your students overthink on the definitions. Try your best to find the words used in context, and with enough readings including the word, they will learn the meanings more like native speakers do. Remembering definitions usually isn't helpful, but knowing how a word is used to convey meaning is. - Taxman Talk 00:42, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
After explaining the meaning to my wife (using countless examples!), she finally came up with a word for 'gaudy', as in 'tacky', and it turned out to be a word I knew all along. 「だっさい」(dassai) was the word she came up with. I understand your difficulty, though, as I've always found it really hard to translate these words. 「古臭い」(furukusai) was a word I have used mostly for it. Slightly off topic, I once went out with a girl whose family name was 'Taki'. The relationship went downhill after I told her the meaning in English, which just shows you have to be careful when translating stuff (she had actually ASKED me if it had a meaning in English!) -- Givnan 08:20, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the effect of advertising on modern society? Advertising is a major imput on our lives but how does the language used effect this in everyday life?
In Indonesian, the word for horse is kuda. Some say that this word is derived from Tamil. Is this correct> Thanks. Meursault2004 18:12, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
I already did, thanks. Meursault2004 09:07, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
In the phrase, il est à la maison, am I suppose to use the pronoun y or en. and for the sentence il va à la maison, what pronoun should I use?
I'm trying to update the Bandeapart article as part of my work on the Sirius Satellite Radio project, and as part of that, I want to provide a translation of what the name means. However, my French is way too rusty, and I'm not having any luck via the search engines. I understand that it's some sort of pun or play on words of "bande à part", but beyond that, I'm lost. Can anyone translate it for me? Their site is at bandeapart.fm, if that's of any help. Thanks, -- Aaron 02:22, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
how do your pronounce gagnon?
What's another word for "cost" which ends in "ity"? -- HappyCamper 08:36, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
Could you please let me know what is a) the origin b) the common usage in England in the 1930s of the expression "greasy old man"
Thank you
Hello, I've found several IPA vowel charts (in which the exact pronunciation of the vowels in the corresponding languages is shown). These include Dutch, Hungarian and Swedish. I want to ask if someone can post the IPA vowel charts for other languages (mainly English, Spanish, Italian and more). Thanks - JorisvS, 17 January 2006 16:11 (local time)
What is the distinction between being a 'citizen' and a 'national'. For example, residents of the Netherlands Antilles are said to be Dutch citizens, and Netherlands Antilles nationals. Thanks if you can make it clear for me.
Thanks for those two replies. I'm still working it through though. The article on British Citizen made it clear that the issue is complex, but didn't basically explain the distinction between being a 'national' and being a 'citizen' except that there are several types of citizens, all of whom are nationals. But what IS a 'national'? Above, I used the Netherlands example not because I was really interested in Netherlands, just because I wanted to use one example to try and be clear. I think there are many, many exceptions to the generalization (which I accept) that the words are often used interchangeably. What I hope to understand is what exactly is the distinction, and how might it be put to good use. Would there be a conflict resolution benefit to allowing for 'Basque National, citizen of Spain', or 'Chechen National, citizen of Russia', or 'Russian National, citizen of Ukraine'...etc. 'Taiwanese National, citizen of China'? So I'm still looking for reference or links to a source explaining the legal distinction between a national and a citizen...Do we have a way to also post this question/discussion to the Reference Desk, Humanities page?
How can I increase my attention span at work, so I don't ping pong between projects so quickly.
Does anyone know the origins of this expression? The meaning, as I understand it, is "don't tell me good news if it's baloney", or maybe "don't flatter me falsely". So where and when and why did blowing smoke up someone's rear end become a euphemism for giving them phony good news or flattering them? Thanks. Babajobu 17:07, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
My partner used the word 'Ballywick' today. Apparently it is something that is within your domain, i.e. "An understanding of Finance is within my ballywick, however the consumption of cheeseburgers does not lie within my ballywick."
This understanding is supported by the few references I see to the word on the Internet. However, I have no idea what a ballywick itself is, and since it is such an interesting sounding word I would really like to know what it meant originally, and, if possible, why?
Hello I coach a lot of people and ask them to define their personal strengths or qualities e.g. creative, intiative, empathetic, proactive, determined, dynamic, open etc. They struggle to find the words and I wondered if you would have such a list. However, I am not sure if we are talking about Adverbs, or Adjectives or something else!?! Your help would be most appreciated. Thanks. Pamela (Switzerland)
What are some cool words with the suffix -ology in it?
Thank you, got it
My girlriend, soon to be fiancee is named Stacey and I want to get a tattoo of her name spelled in Latin, the language of love, on my chest near my heart, because she is my whole world and the person I see myself growing old with, but I don't speak any other language but english. I was wondering if you could help me with this problem. Really I just want her initials on my chest which are, or will be SRT.
Well...."Stacey" comes from the Ancient Greek Anastasia [17]. The Romans apparently had a masculine form Anastasius, so I suppose Anastasia might be a vaguely okay Latin form of "Stacey." But I don't know much about Latin, so don't take my word for it. But if you just want her initials, why do you need to know her name in Latin? -- Whimemsz 01:31, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
I'm an attorney who today was informed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that I didn't prevail in a case that I litigate, United States v. McBride. In reading the court's opinion, I was struck by a metaphor that Judge Martin used that went as follows: "it's as difficult as herding bullfrogs into a wheelbarrow." I readily agree with the thrust of the metaphor but I must confess that I have never heard it used and try as I might, have been unable to find its origin. Any assistance in solving this mystery will be greatly appreciated. Steve Nolder Snolder at columbus dot rr dot com
I know this is a lame topic but I came across something in the American Heritage Book of English Usage ( this page) a while back that tickled me about this elementary school rule and I haven't been able to get any straight answers about it yet.
The article itself was defending the use of but at the beginning of sentences by giving an example from a respected author; in this case J.M. Coetzee.
In his youth Dostoevsky had been attracted to utopian socialism of the Fourierist variety. But four years in a prison camp in Siberia shook his faith.
After thinking about it for a few seconds I had to disagree with it ... not because the example sentence isn't correct, but because the example sentence is using a (the?) different meaning of the word but, and thus the "rule" doesn't apply here.
E.g.
Also, when I read the second sentence the rhythm and intonation change slightly as well, to reflect that 'but seven minutes' has a unit meaning as opposed to the singular grammar function is has in the first example.
Does anyone else follow me on this? I think the book is using the example incorrectly. freshgavin TALK 07:18, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
But I don't see anything wrong with starting a sentence with "but". These "rules" only exist because someone, somewhere, has found a way to harvest the energy of shuddering "grammarians". So keep on shuddering. -- MarkSweep (call me collect) 23:32, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
Back on topic for a minute ... I agree with Angr that 'only four years' is a bit of an understatement, but that only reaffirms my claim that the quote shouldn't be used in an English Usage guide; it's ambiguous.
For those of you who are doubting the 'second meaning' of the word but, consider the phrase I am but a man. It's an old-ish use of the word, but as the quote is old (even if it wasn't, it could be meant to SOUND old) that would make sense.
The truth is, the only one that can be blamed for the whole 'but' argument/rule at all is English itself. I'm willing to bet 90% of the languages in the world contain casual word-phrases that express the idea of although or on the other hand (Japanese has at least 5 that can be used interchangeably) but for some reason in English most of them are conjunctions that can seem odd if they aren't 'conjuncting' directly related statements.
Whether the bible is the initial cause or not I don't know, but I'd certainly point at language teachers as the modern cause for increased use (myself included). My students frequently use because, so, and, and but freely even beginning paragraphs; all equivalents are acceptable in Japanese. Of course there are ways of making these correct ... e.g. Because of this incident..., but when 40 students hand you sheets that you've corrected twice already with the statement I liked it. Because it was beatiful. (not the answer to a question!) I tend to lose the will to enforce 'correct' grammar on them at all. freshgavin TALK 06:55, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
What could be a correct translation of the German word Christengemeinde? Literally, it means "Congregation of Christians", but for some reason I have the idea "Christian congregation" would render better English. -- Benne ['bɛnə] ( talk) 09:30, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
I got an invitation from Great Britain. A scientific Professor will retire and there shall be a cometogether with colleagues giving some lectures.
Now I am a little bit confused, because the term "Festschrift" is used in this invitation for the spoken and not written lectures. (in German "-schrift" means "written").
Can you help me to brush up my English ?
Many thanks
Which are the top five world languages in terms of number of people who can understand/speak them ?
Does anyone happen to know if there is a word in Japanese that is homophone to 'Lion'? I don't mean the Japanese word for lion, but a word in Japanese that sounds like lion. My friend Jun had trouble with my name and thought for a long time that my name was actuall Lion, but he had a really easy time saying it, despite the L (which I realize isn't always a problem in Japanese). I just hope Lion in Japanese isn't an alternate phrasing of gaijin or something. Thanks for your help.
Thank you both for your responses. I knew it wasn't going to turn out to mean something really cool like "Awesome American Dude (li-) Who I Will Totally Give Twenty Bucks To (-on)", but I hoped it might have a more common meaning aside from rayon fibre or the Soviet Raion, like maybe "soup bowl" or "hubcap". I suppose we can't all have beautiful Japanese names. -Ryan
Funny you should mention it, my friend Jun pronounces the O very strongly (like li-own), so maybe he thinks I am actually like the sound of thunder. I do talk pretty loud. -Ryan
Thank you! -Ryan
Why it's said that Japanese can't pronounce the "r" letter, replacing it with "l"? They have such names as Hirohito and many other names with "r". Thanks. 195.150.224.238 11:40, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
Many younger Japanese can distinguish between r and l due to media exposure. Of course the majority can't. Also, 'hu', 'who' and 'fu' sound the same to many Japanese.-- Jondel 07:28, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
At 17, how difficult will it be for me to learn a new language, knowing only English now? How do the following languages rate on the difficulty scale; Swedish, French, Norwegian, Esperanto, Icelandic, Finnish, Japanese? What are the easiest and hardest languages to learn? Thank you to anyone who responds.
When I studied Swedish, I found the hardest thing for me to master was the pronunciation. The tonal qualities were hard, too, but I found some of the vowels really hard, so I didn't get very far with it. French, with its large amount of similar vocabulary to English, was easier (plus, I did it from age 11 at school), but the grammar was a little hard to master. I think also exactly because I thought that French was easy, I didn't put too much effort into it (and besides, I chose German at school, but had to study French instead because nobody else wanted to do German, so I felt a little bit of resentment, maybe?). Finnish is extremely easy, pronunciation-wise, but its grammar is very hard to master (14 cases of the noun), but I started to learn Finnish again after doing Japanese at university, as I realised that the best way to think of the endings is to treat them as postpositions (as in Japanese). The vastly different vocabulary stumped me, though, as I was studying on my own, and still I haven't had the chance to go to Finland. Japanese was easy, in terms of pronunciation, and the Kanji were not so difficult (as you notice a lot of coherence in them - they are not just meaningless pictures), but I had difficulty in the first year of my Japanese studies while I was learning the Hiragana and Katakana. That's just my own experience, though, as everyone has their own ways of learning things. Hope this helps. Givnan 06:15, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
Hi over there, today I've been working on the article de:Gärröhrchen for the German Wikipedia. I wonder if there`s an article about this thing in the English Wikipedia as well, so I could link to it? Unfortunately I don't know the proper expression for it, and all my webresearch, consultation of dictionaries etc. stayed without a result. I've also been looking for a link in the English articles Fermentation etc., but couldn't find any. Perhaps there's someone here who recognizes the picture in the German article and can either answer here what's its name in English and if there's a corresponding article, or if there is, link it in de:Gärröhrchen? Thanks in advance, Dominik Hundhammer, 82.135.15.213 21:51, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
Hi, does anyone know what this means? tvoj sej pristik letac, moj stepiknak udrok bog duvrok casti,gospodina ??? thanks.-- Cosmic girl 01:20, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
so Gospodina is like 'girl'? or lady or someting? ... I wish I could know the meaning to the other stuff...but thanx anyway :D -- Cosmic girl 19:46, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
Ohhh cool I see, I thought that word meant the female version or something. thank you.-- Cosmic girl 21:49, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
I know I know... why don't I ask him directly? I did! but he won't tell... the other time he said I was a bug and he was god! hahaha so I'm a little paranoid :P-- Cosmic girl 00:16, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
Thank you Zmaj! :D -- Cosmic girl 20:01, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Hello, does anyone know what this means? I don't know what language is, but it looks Croatian or Polish. Thanks. -- COA 21:35, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
Čtenáři mají jistě ještě v paměti americký film EVITA, jenž vypráví díl historie Argentiny, ale podívejme se na ní i z hlediska zvláštních jednotek bezpečnostních sborů v novodobějším aspektu. Již v roce 1986 vznikla ve struktuře Policejního ředitelství Buenos Aires Brigáda pro zvláštní operace - Sokol (BRIGADA ESPECIAL OPERATIVA HALCON /Policista 11/97/), která se měla podílet nejen na potlačování mezinárodního terorismu a jeho aktivit v Argentině, ale i na boji proti nebezpečným pachatelům. Vlastně je připravena kdykoliv a kdekoliv podat pomocnou ruku nebo pouze taktickou radu policistů při řešení nezvyklých taktických situacích. Struktura velitelství je následující - brigádě velí tzv. komisař, jenž je podřízen policejnímu velitelovi, přičemž komisař odpovídá mimo jiné i za výcvik a i nábor. Přičemž je základní výcvik rozdělen do třech fází po dvou měsících, v nichž je zahrnut i jakýsi výběrový kurs a zkouška vhodnosti kandidáta. Nakonec jsou takto vycvičení muži, experti v protiteroristickém boji, výsadkářství, potápění a bojovém umění, začleněni do jednoho z pěti bojových týmů po 15 mužích. Každý tým tvoří svým početním zastoupením samostatnou jednotku zahrnující mimo jiné odstřelovače nebo i vyjednávače, přičemž v případě potřeby může být celá brigáda nasazena jako velká intervenční skupina. Kromě své hlavní role plní jako jiné obdobné jednotky i úkoly ochrany VIP, hlavně státních návštěv. Členové této jednotky, jenž soustřeďuje nejlepší bojovníky v Argentině, udržuje úzské pracovní styky s jinými speciálními jednotky ve světě, převážně v USA, o nichž již byla v tomto volném seriálu řeč (LAPD SWAT, FBI HRT, DEA atd.) Další argentinskou policejní zvláštní jednotku je SECCION DE FUERZAS ESPECIALES (SFE) pocházejicíc zargentinského četnictva neboli GENDARMERIA NACIONAL. Stejně jak v případě Francie (GIGN a RAID), Itálie (GIS a NOCS) a mnoho dalších, kde vedle sebe existuje jak policie, tak i četnictvo, i zde je tato zvláštní jednotka určena pro akce na venkově a neobydlených částí, oproti jednotce HALCON, jenž je určena pro akce ve městech a jejich okolí. SFE je podřízena Ministerstvu obrany a byla založena v roce 1986, v roce kdy v příhraničních operacích byli náznaky o působení teroristů Hizballáhu v souvislosti s drogami jako výnosným zdrojem financí. Její úkoly se tak rozšířili na protiteroristické operace, akce v džungli, hloubkový průzkum, obojživelné akce ale i vrtulníkové výsadky. Kromě toho může v případě větších operacích spolupracovat, nebo podporovat, Brigádu pro zvláštní operace Sokol. Proto byli také její příslušníci vysláni na stáž k francouzské GIGN, jenž v poslední době proslula záchranou rukojmích z letadla A300 AIRBUS v Marseille v prosinci 1994, kromě toho udržuje SECCION DE FUERZAS ESPECIALES úzké kontakty se španělskými kolegy z GEO /Policista 11/96/. Aby se argentinský policista-četník dostal do této 44členné jednotky musí nejprve dosáhnout hodnosti seržanta a odsloužit 5 let služby, samozřejmě, že musí mít výbornou fyzickou kondici a projít baterií psychologických a fyzických testů. Sem spadá jak plavecký test, tak i běh a střelba a další. Následný výcvik probíhá po 6 měsících a je rozdělena do dvou (tříměsíční) etap, zde je vedle nám již známých odborných znalostí zařazen i výsadkářský výcvik. Po tomto půl roce, jehož konce se dočká pouze 20% uchazečů o službu, ale ani tady vše nekončí, následuje 8měsíční zkušební doba, během níž má každý nový adept přiděleno instruktora z řad starších příslušníků jednotky. Jednotka o síle 44 mužů je rozdělena do tvou operačních sekcí, z nichž každá se dále dělí na dvě skupiny (GRUPO DE INTERVENCION), které zase tvoří dva operační týmy. V pohotovosti je 24 hodin připravena k akci 22členná sekce, včetně dvou odstřelovačů a případně dalšího speciálního personálu, včetně pyrotechnického oddílu GEDEX. Tento systém umožňuje do 24 hodin zasáhnout jednotce z její základny v Ezezie kdekoliv v zemi. V souvislosti s nárustem projevů terorismu v Argentině (útoky na židovské představitele) je plánováno zvýšení početního stavu jednotky, který by měl dosáhnout čísla 100. Jejich výzbroj je velmi rozmanitá, vzhledem k specifickým úkolům, od pistole SIG Sauer P 226, samopalu HK MP5 a jeho mnoha z verzí, až po odstřelovací pušky SIG Sauer SSG 2000.
Here you are. I have no idea about the correct police/military terminology in English, so don't take the technical terms too seriously. The text apparently comes from the Police Bulletin of the Eastern-Bohemian Region 1-2/2004 [18].
Here, "Policista" is a monthly of the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic [19]. Hope this helps. -- EJ 19:32, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
BTW, DLL: I suspect that you had troubles finding a Czech speaker only because you looked at a wrong place. The ISO 639-1 code for the Czech language is "cs", it is not the same as the ISO 3166-1 code for the Czech Republic. -- EJ 20:04, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
Can it be argued that the French language had made a effort in trying to make itself sound good?
French (unlike English) has an official body, l' Académie française, to rule on what is and isnt correct usage. I suggest you have a look to see if there are examples where they have disallowed/allowed new words or modified the grammar, specifically because A sounds better than B (to French ears) - look at concepts such as euphony, elision, etc. Jameswilson 00:23, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the difference between a Close central unrounded vowel and a Close front rounded vowel? The sound clips sound exactly the same to me. And I fairly recently heard from a native speaker what WP is calling the first one, and it sounded much more like the "oo" in the word "good" (in other words, more "u," more grunt-like) than the posted clip. Side question: Do minute linguistic differentiations, such as between between "central" and "front" really exist in the real world? Zafiroblue05 05:44, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
Hi folks! Does anyone know how to get four tildes (for signing my posts here) on a Japanese style computer, without copying and pasting the ones down below? My computer has a tilde above the zero, but when I press 'shift' and 'zero' I just get a zero. For now, I'll just copy and paste as usual, but if anyone can help....... Givnan 06:24, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the advice but that didn't work either... Givnan 10:30, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
It's a Japanese keyboard, sorry, and I ned to SHIFT and 3 in order to get #, so I can't SHIFT and #. And thanks, I found the button in the list of actions above the edit box. Cheers everyone.-- Givnan 16:35, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
Similar problem with spanish keyboard. User:AlMac| (talk) 00:37, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
"~"? Yes! That worked! Thanks! I've got one of those IBM laptops where the mouse is a red dot in the middle of the keyboard and it's really fiddly trying to copy/paste stuff! Saved a lot of time! -- Givnan 07:36, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
I intend to learn Esperanto (I only speak English at the moment and have barely studied another language), but there are no real-life courses and very few books to help me. Which online resources could you recommend to me? I'm already looking at [Lernu.net Lernu] and Curso de Esperanto, but I'd really like something that has longer audio courses I can listen to, to aid in pronunciation. Thanks. Taiq
We are looking for people to translate the following into as many languages as possible.
Please go to the relevant Wiktionary page and place your translations there
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Thanks, --
Dangherous 00:53, 22 January 2006 (UTC) and
Gerard Foley
07:18, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
Why are Sailors called "Gobs"?
My father, who was a sailor, said it meant 'Going Overseas, Back Soon' but I don't believe him.-- Givnan 05:58, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
A bit of a follow-up to the "Sounds" question I just asked. Chris S. says that the "oo" in "good" is a Near-close near-back rounded vowel. The article lists an English example (yes, I am a native - midwestern US - English speaker, BTW): "hook." However, for me (at least), the vowel sound in "hook" (or "book") sounds slightly but markedly different from the vowel sound in "good." Is this just my particular accent, or does the way one makes a "d" (front of the mouth) as opposed to the way one makes a "k" (back of the mouth) change the sound of the vowel that immediately precedes this? If so, does this mean that the "oo" in "hook" is not a near-close near-back rounded vowel? Also, if so, is this change in vowel sound related to how the "L" in "milk" makes the word nearly two syllables (as opposed to just one in the hypothetical "mik")? What would the name of this phenomenon be? Zafiroblue05 02:26, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
I'm of Irish heritage and we pronounce 'milk' lith a "light L" and 'play' with a "dark L". -- Givnan 08:25, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
User:Tohru has just copied ths page from the Japanese Wiktionary. Perhaps if anyone knows some Japanese they might start filling in entries for these words. Thanks, Gerard Foley 09:04, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
is it per say? or per se? I've read both...so... and I can't tell which of them is just by how it sounds...-- Cosmic girl 15:11, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
thank you!:D-- Cosmic girl 17:42, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
I know :) but I've spoken spanish all my life and I don't know everything about english, so...and I suspected it was 'per se' but thank you :D.-- Cosmic girl 22:52, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
How do you pronounce Joe Pesci's last name? like "pesky" or is the c soft? Noodhoog 15:54, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
I've always heard it pronounced like "peshy" (IPA /pɛʃi/). -- Whimemsz 17:46, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
Thanks folks, "peshy" it is, then :) -- Noodhoog 12:37, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the proper way to pronounce "Agincourt"?
You can be sure that in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, they don't pronounce the name of the Agincourt neighbourhood , A-zhin-coor, as the French would, but Age-in-cort, as the English would. Ground Zero | t 17:36, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
I have no idea what the English pronunciation is, but I imagine the proper French pronunciation would be /aʒɛ̃kuʁ/ or /aʒæ̃kuʁ/, or approximately "ah-zheh-coor" or "ah-zha-coor" (where the second vowel is nasalized). Don't quote me on that, though. -- Whimemsz 17:51, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
I have a question regarding the idea of looking something up, and it comes in two parts. The first is, what do you know about this phrase on its own? Colloquial, or formal? In what parts of the world, and what parts of society, is it used? How did it develop? Anything you know. The second is, just how did Wikipedia mangage to exist for four whole years without this phrase being a huge freaking part of it? That's the most basic phrase in reference book terminology, how did it get skipped over? Instead, we talk about 'searching' for something, where you type in the exact name of the article you want and it takes you there. Black Carrot 19:25, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
It's not the Search function I'm talking about, it's the Go function. The entire and only purpose of it, which is the easiest way to find things, is to put you in the exact article you named. This, it seems to me, is exactly what most print books do with an alphabetization scheme. Black Carrot 03:29, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
How to change it, so it would only mean that no offence was involved in previous words, not really asking for excuse? (saying to friend: your method proved to be reliable, safe and boring, you excuse me.) ellol 00:22, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
Thank you. Colloquial english is my worst trouble. I'm trying to render a small abstract of a book. I'll probably use "no offense intended" or "sorry". Damn, still am unsure if it's perfect :) ellol 01:08, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
How does Eponine's death in the French classic Les Miserables by Victor Hugo representative of politics in Argentina?
Could someone provide a definitive pronunciation for the opera 'La bohème' by Puccini for an English speaker?
According to my French dictionary 'bohème' (defined as happy-go-lucky or unconventional) is pronounced 'bo-em' ('bo' as in 'board' and 'em' as in 'hem') with a silent 'h'. However, 'bohemian' in English is pronounced 'bo-heem-ian', with a strong emphasis on the 'h'.
Does anyone know how the opera title should be pronounced in English, if a definitive pronunciation does exist?
Many thanks.
If you use the French title of the opera, which people invariably do, it is pronounced with the French pronunciation - bo, em, no 'h' sound. It's a mistake to think it means either 'The Bohemian' (person) or 'The Bohemians'. It means their world, their milieu, the type of life they live. It's taken from the title of the novel by Henri Murger (which, if I recollect properly, and apologies that I don't know how to type the accent, is Scenes de la vie de boheme, ie scenes of bohemian life). By the way, if the intended meaning was 'The Bohemian [Girl, ie Mimi]' I think Puccini would have called it La Bohemienne. Maid Marion 17:57, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
Sorry to insist on this BluePlatypus, but it is not possible that 'the ambiguity was intended' because there is no ambiguity. La Boheme is not French for 'the Bohemian', it is French for Bohemia (and by extension for a certain lifestyle). Maid Marion 09:36, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Arrête! Une bohème! Ta folie est extrême!. Certainly he doesn't mean "Stop! A bohemian lifestyle!" or "Stop! A part of the Czech Republic!"? -- BluePlatypus 15:06, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
I stand corrected BluePlatypus. Thank you - very informative. However, I am still quite certain, and I'm fairly sure most opera fans think the same way, that the title of Puccini's opera refers to the third definition you quote ('ensemble des personnes ...'). Apart from other considerations, few opera fans would see the opera as being the story of Mimi, which I think is what people have in mind when they translate as 'The Bohemian' - both the original book by Murger, and the opera, are about the bohemian group, in which Rodolfo and Mimi are both leading characters. The opera, I believe, is not the 'story of Mimi' in the way that, say, La Traviata really IS the story of Violetta. Perhaps other opera fans could say whether it has ever occurred to them to interpret the title in any way other than the way I have been arguing for. Anyway, all most interesting. Maid Marion 15:18, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
The words puck, shuttlecock, ball, jack...what have they in common? I'll tell you...firstly they all sound a little rude, but I'm that's coincidence. Secondly, they're all small things that are hit in different sports. Anyway, is there a collective term for "small things one hits in sports"? Maybe projectiles? While we're here, why not come up with any more names for "small things one hits in sports". Thanks -- Dangherous 17:06, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
How about stones and marbles ? StuRat 18:23, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
they're all small things that are hit in different sports. Ahem. -- ◀Puck talk▶ 23:13, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
I've wondered about this for a while as I struggle to learn a language where there are plenty of bilingual resources to help me. How does one learn a language where there are none, such as in the first contact of an indigenous population? I can imagine you could learn the basic terms for concrete objects by pointing them out and repeating the word, and the same for observable actions, but what about for abstract concepts? Eventually through exposure I guess you could piece together the grammar. What I'd really like to know is more practical information on how fluency is actually achieved. I tried our articles second language acquisition and language acquisition, but they either didn't cover this specifically or I didn't have enough background to understand them. Can anyone shed some light or point me to some accounts of how this is done in practice? Thanks - Taxman Talk 18:08, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
Berlitz Language Schools are based on the immersion principle -- the teacher speaks only the foreign language, from day one. As far as I know, they are even quite successful. Unfortunately the wikipedia article on them is kind of sketchy. 130.188.8.13 09:05, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Wycliffe Bible Translators regularly attempt this. I'm sure they must describe their methods somewhere, but the only place I could find in 5 minutes was: [22]. They say, "Building relationships is where we start. Making friends, understanding their culture, and learning a language that's never been written down are first steps. The linguist learns to speak the language in much the same way a child learns to speak, by listening and mimicking sounds. It will take the linguist several years to establish an alphabet and discover the intricacies of the language." — Matt Crypto 09:20, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Thanks Matt, that was pretty good. Their site does have some more I was able to find too. Here for the curious. I guess I sort of assumed it would be slow, but I just can't understand how someone would bridge the gap to abstract concepts. I guess you just learn enough words that can be used at first to somewhat innacurately define a given concept and then improve it as more words are learned. I know this used to be fairly common for example when traders or explorers encountered North American indigenous people, someone had to learn the language from scratch to be the first translator. It just doesn't seem like it took them several years. Columbus' crews seemed to communicate effectively fairly quickly, though I suppose that could have just been through gestures and subjugation. - Taxman Talk 21:41, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Where are you from?-can you give me a spanish translation what does "como te llamas, el chic(a,o)" mean, exact translation. Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.60.161.123 ( talk • contribs)
What do you reccomend?
Watch English DVDs with the English subtitles on. freshgavin TALK 06:03, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
I was fascinated by the Belizean Kriol language when I visited there a few days ago. Then, at the Cozumel Museum, I visited the Mayan hut display. The host was a man speaking something that sounded like a mixture of Kriol and a Spanish-based creole. Surprisingly, having some French, I could understand him quite well. The question is, what could have been the Spanish creole he was using? Or was it just Kriol? I've searched around Wikipedia without finding much information about any Spanish creoles used in the Caribbean. Halcatalyst 01:00, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
I've been wondering: what is the real difference between a syntactic pleonasm and a tautology?
I don't have suitable reference books handy, but I suspect the Greek derivations of these terms indicate the essential difference between them. Pleonasm means superfluity - using more words than are needed to express a meaning. Tautology means saying the same thing twice over (or more than twice). If my guess is correct, it seems that a tautology is always pleonastic, but a pleonasm is not necessarily tautologous. Maid Marion 10:54, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
We have articles on tautology and pleonasm. I'd personally only ever heard tautology used in the logic/math sense before. — Laura Scudder ☎ 18:32, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
(This question was originally posted by 68.160.110.103 at Wikipedia talk:Requested articles; included is my first guess at an answer. "Port arms" is a position where one holds the rifle diagonally in front of the body. Any other ideas on the etymology?) ---- Lph 14:03, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Forgive my audacity, but I was hoping to find the origin of "Port Arms" with respect to weapon position and thus, the implied threat. To me, Port Arms, looks like a statement of: "I have a really nasty killing machine here, and I am showing it to you. If you are not a threat, this is not a problem for either of us." "Port" implies landing somewhere, and if landing as a stranger, the above seems to be a logical greeting, as it were. (Sorry, if not quite "nice.") Just curious, especially since I found no information here.
At Talk:Fenius Farsa, Codex Sinaiticus ( talk · contribs) is asking for the IPA for Auraicept na n-Éces and Goídel mac Ethéoir. regards, dab (ᛏ) 20:52, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Can anybody translate this 'Indo-European' fable, written by A. Schleicher in Sanskrit please? Thank you!
Avis Akvasas Ka
Avis, jasman varṇa na ā ast, dadarka akvams,
Tam, vā gham garum vaghantam, tam, bhāram magham
Tam, manum āku bharantam.
Avis akvabhyams ā vavakat:
Kard aghnutai vidanti manum akvams agantam.
Akvāsas ā vavakant:
Krudhi avai, kard aghnutai vividvantsvas:
Manus patis varṇām avisāms karṇanti
Svabhyam gharmam vastram avibhyams ka varṇā na asti.
Tat kukruvants avis agram ā bhugat.
Meursault2004
21:19, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Well this version is very close to Sanskrit. So I expect that someone with a knowledge of Sanskrit would be able to translate this ... I have seen several here. So I think I'll just wait and see. Meursault2004 09:19, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
Yes I think so (aviḥ aśvaś ca). But this fable is reconstructed Indo-European. I don't think that there is a version available in Devanagari. Meursault2004 10:46, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
It would take me about two hours to cast this in acceptable Sanskrit; send me a reasonable sum and I'll do it :) Seriously, try to do it yourself and post the result here for review, this is a place to ask questions, not a place people come to for free assignments dab (ᛏ) 11:36, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
Do you know the term given to a person who's first name and surname is like a first name such as "Darren Martin" or "Daniel Aaron"?
I know there is a term for this because I've heard it before but cannot for the life of me remember what it is and I'm having difficulty googling it. I hope you can help me, I've asked so many people and no one has a clue what I'm talking about.
I don't know French, and the machine translation is... peculiar... can anyone translate this for me? Thanks. "Si le coud de baisers soit envoyé par courrier vous pourriez lire mes mots avec vos lèvres" —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mattman723 ( talk • contribs)
What is Unicode in arabic? 157.190.187.201 15:37, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
I need the transliteration and a reference would be nice. Thanks, Gerard Foley 18:47, 25 January 2006 (UTC) note 157.190.187.201 was my IP address
Why is the name Robert shortened to Bob? Why is William shortened to Billy? Why is Richard shortened to Dick? none of the original names begin with the letter that nickanme begins with. Ms Alston syeedaalston at aol.com
One cause might be that when young children try to say their own names or the names of others, they come out wrong. Parents, thinking it cute, may continue to use that form. For example, my brother Patrick said his name as "Paggy", and was called that well into adulthood, as a result. If someone else thought it was cute and did the same with their own kid named Patrick, then Paggy might catch on as a semi-official nickname for Patrick. Similarly, my other brother, Marshall, became "Marfall" and my dad, Alvin, became "Alby". StuRat 19:16, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
A lot of English language surnames derive from these nicknames. Dickens from Dickon, a nickname for Richard (Dick). Hobbes from Hob, like Bob a nickname for Robert. Dobbins, likewise. User:Zoe| (talk) 17:19, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
is there another way to spell the name Szeszycki? Could Sze be the same as Cie? Would a Russian or Slav spell the name differently? If so how would it be spelled?
Thank You
Leonard Szeszycki
The Wikipedia page on Polish phonology, as well as some other sources (e.g., [23]), say that Polish <e> is IPA /ɛ/ (the sound in American English "pet"), though I trust the others who have answered know far more about Polish than I do (maybe the vowel is more like [ɛ̈], a centralized /ɛ/?). I think, based on my very limited knowledge of Polish orthography, that the IPA for "Szeszycki" would be something like /ʃɛʃɨʦkʲi/. "Cie" would, I believe, be pronounced /ʨɛ/. -- Whimemsz 23:30, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
Does a cap need to display some sort of reference to baseball (such as a team logo) in order to qualify as a baseball cap?
I saw an article in this morning's paper concerning the Palestinian elections, showing Palestinian women, fully veiled, wearing baseball caps with the Hamas logo on them. User:Zoe| (talk) 17:20, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
i was just wondering... what was the exact origin of language? is there any ONE language which all others have stemmed from? and how is it that humans were capable of making sense out of a heap of sounds? - Gelo3 01:30, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
Regarding a comment made above, with the world population presently at about 6,450,000,000, the population of India and China put together amounting to almost half of that (I can't find solid figures on Wiki, a conservative estimate would put the two at a total of 2.9bn), I challenge that it's unlikely that the majority of the world speaks (should be, were taught by their ancestors) Indo-European languages! freshgavin TALK 00:18, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
Here's a source [25] that what ranks IE languages in with 2,562,896,428 speakers (44.78%). Sino-tibetan (including Chinese and Indian varieties) ranks in (second) with 22.28%. While it's not solid evidence against the existance of a Proto-Indo-European language, these were the kind of numbers I was looking for! freshgavin TALK 04:24, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
Why is it Desde que tengo 12 años and not Desde que tuve 12 años or Desde que he tenido 12 años ("Ever since I have 12 years" as opposed to "ever since I had 12 years" or "ever since I have had 12 years")? — Ilyan e p (Talk) 00:42, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
I wish I could answer you since I know spanish, but, I don't understand your question :S, I think that's more of a linguistics question than a spanish one. also the first one and the second one can be both correct depending on what you want to say, but I doubt the third one can be correct in any context.-- Cosmic girl 01:40, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
You are right, it would make more sense the other way, but I guess it's just like some things in english that I find illogical, but I can't remember one right now...maybe it's more of a 'sound' thing than a 'it should be this way' thing, you will in time get used to the language and it will seem natural. also, from your example, I guess the best thing to say it is Tengo hijos desde LOS veintisiete años, and that way you avoid the whole thing.-- Cosmic girl 16:24, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
Non-Australians might not understand the word 'furphy. It means a commonly held misconception about something; an untrue statement that has become accepted because nobody has challenged it yet, or if they have, most people haven't heard about it.
Politicians are fond of criticising the other side using the expression "That's the greatest furphy of all time". The expression is widely used outside politics as well. I'd be interested in knowing what people think, from their own experience, is "the greatest furphy of all time". JackofOz 06:13, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
What would the french words allume and eteint (sp?) mean, in the context of setup options for a dancing videogame? My options are A: Karaoke allume or B: Karaoke eteint.
Makes sense. Thanks a bunch.
does anyone know about www.cv21.co.uk......is it a secret advertising/design agency?
i have tryed to contact them but they do not reply.... as i have heard they work for free if you are the right client...
please advise as i would like to know if anyone has had any luck contacting them.
regards
Mr Hall (OBE)
Bantu are a large group of ethnic peoples in Africa. Halcatalyst 21:34, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
See the previous topic. You can actually do your own homework by entering these words in the search box at the left instead of asking here. Might save you some time. Halcatalyst 19:04, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
You mean Coup de grâce, a death blow. Halcatalyst 18:59, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
Does anyone have a good list of these in lots of different languages?-- 64.12.116.134 23:07, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
How do I access the Language reference desk archives? I have an answer for a question posted here a couple of weeks ago, asking about the origin of the name of the river Medina in the Isle of Wight. -- Halcatalyst 03:40, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
Hello
How would i write the phrase "God is watching" in aramaic?
Thanks
Ex: I take 200 newspaper articles and note (perhaps via a software program) how many instances of "male and female" occur as well as how many instances of "female and male." I collate and compare.
What the is the specific name for this type of analysis? That is, word frequency in compounds of the above sort? I'm bugged all to hell because I've forgotten. Marskell 13:28, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
Frequency analysis?? -- Shantavira 15:35, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
I believe sir, that corpus analysis and specifically collocation analysis were indeed the words my brain misfiled. Thank-you. As for the reasons behind the misfiling I blame beer ahead of aluminum... Marskell 18:39, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
Hi. Does anyone know where that phrase ("What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas") originated? Maybe it's really obvious, but I'm not that familiar with American popular culture. Also, I hope this is the right section for this question. If it's not, let's just say this question deals with etymology. Thanks in advance! -- Rueckk 17:19, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
Long before Lost Wages started using the phrase in their advertising, elite military units (such as the US Army Green Berets and Rangers and the US Navy Seals) had the informal code, "What happens in the military stays in the military." -- Halcatalyst 23:10, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
There was also a satire version of that ad:
"I just woke up in bed with a dead transvestite prostitute in my bed, which was covered with cocaine, along with 100 pounds of diamonds. I have no idea where any of it came from or how I got there."
"Hey, don't worry about it, whatever happens in Bangkok stays in Bangkok."
StuRat 17:39, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Are there any prominent supporters of the assertion that Science and Maths must be taught in a child's mother language (rather than in a 2nd language)? I've read it at places, but don't know that the mainstream position is. deeptrivia ( talk) 18:07, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the correct past tense of sneak: sneaked, or snuck? I mean, I'm going to use snuck regardless because it's cooler, but which is older? — Keenan Pepper 08:11, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
snuk | This user says snuck. |
In the Netherlands article someone changed 'dyke' to dike' because that would be "less giggle-worthy". I wondered if that would fit in with the EE the article is written in and Googling the two words for UK sites suggests that 'Dike' is in deed more common in EE. Is this true and does the spelling 'dike' indeed have less of a sexual connotation? DirkvdM 08:57, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
In reaction to a question above I'm curious if there is also a list of 'pleasantries' (or what should I call that?) in different languages. This would be especially beneficial to international (business) travellers who have no time to learn the local language (or version of it, such as with English). Knowing the right word to say in a certain situation can make contacts a lot smoother, even if you don't (porperly) speak the lingo. Such as when you you step on someone's toe, in Spanish the thing to say would be 'disculpame'. But what if you reach past someone in a shop, or when you want to ask someone something. In English the phrase would be 'Excuse me' (or rather 'pardon me' in the first ewxample?), but in other languages different phrases might be used for differnt situations and that could cause confusion. DirkvdM 09:38, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
We also have List of common phrases in various languages. Not exactly what you were looking for, but it has some of it. It's also not strictly the type of thing Wikipedia should carry, but it's stood against deletion a couple times I think. Better place would be Wikibooks. - Taxman Talk 20:12, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Try also the excellent list there if you are lost in the Middle earth. -- DLL 20:48, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
We are looking for people to translate the following into as many languages as possible.
Please go to the relevant Wiktionary page and place your translations there
|
|
Thanks, --
Dangherous
13:43, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
What could the word "muffin" mean, apart from the delicious food product? I ask, because in the film I just watched (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me), characters exchanged the dialogue
Jacques: I'm not Jacques. I am the Great Went! Laura: I am the muffin. Jacques: And what a muffin you got, eh?
Donna: "You want a muffin?." Laura: "Donna, you ARE a muffin."
_________
Some usages of 'muffin' in English slang-
→ P.MacUidhir (t) (c) 01:48, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the hebrew word for "sad"?
What is the difference between reflexive pronouns and intensive pronouns? 24.68.111.209 04:20, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Does anyone know where I could get some more specific IPA vowel charts for different varieties of English pronounciation? As it is right now the only one I can find (for English) is California English, which while similar to my (Toronto/International English) accent, is missing some vowel information that I need. Doesn't seem to be anything findable on Google either.
It makes it a lot easier to understand IPA if I can compare it with my own voice, and if I can have a good approximation (a 'Standard Canadian' chart would suffice, I've been accustomed to listening to Ottawaian hockey English since I was a child) then I can at least judge the IPA vowel symbols relative to my own pronounciation.
I can approximate a British, Californian, or Australian accent pretty well, but my accent tends to be slightly exaggerated so not too useful for IPA and I'm not sure what symbols to use for my breed of English, or where the vowels should be represented on the chart. freshgavin TALK 06:25, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Where did the idiom: to take ______ with a grain of salt came from? and what is the idea behind it?
Thanks!
Is a rhyming couplet in iambic pentameter coming at the end of a sonnet a "heroic couplet"? 204.108.96.18 23:37, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the difference? Thanks.
Hi! I always though its "a" for a consanant and "an" for a vowel, but Word suggests "a unique" instead of "an unique". Also, on google, "a unique" is much more popular than "an unique". Please could someone explain which is right?
Thank you! -- 131.227.107.133 10:09, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
As for "hotel", I think some people regarded it as a foreign word, even spelling it "hôtel" and hence "an", but that would be regarded as an affectation by most people today.
Greetings,
I've searched the web and your site for a definition of this word. I don't want my friend (who's blog I'm reading now) to think I'm just an ingoramus. Could someone please define this word for me?
Thanks ..
I would agree with Prosfilaes in general, but it isn't always that cut and dry. I've encountered "apparatchiki" a lot in my literary travels, and I'd say it's just as accepted as "apparatchiks". As Blue Platypus says, many people don't know that "pirogi" is already plural, so when they talk about "pirogis", they're not aware they're re-pluralising. Same with the plural words "pirozhki", "bliny" and "zakuski" (the singulars for which are "pirozhok", "blin" and "zakusok", although the singular forms are little used). My head says that English words should have English plurals, no exceptions (but there are immediate problems there - "man" becomes "mans"). My heart says that would rob of us the invaluable cross-cultural richness for which English is renowned. All the same, that in itself is no argument for introducing new foreign plurals. JackofOz 02:13, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
It can depend on the context.
I believe the treatment of such words differs between American English and other, umm, British-y versions, such as Australian English. American English would treat both contexts as singular. LarryMac 20:21, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
Any word like 'trio', 'brigade', 'herd', etc. is defined as a singular COLLECTIVE noun, i.e. a singular term for a collection of people, objects, animals, etc., therefore requiring a singular verb to follow. The confusion arises with a word like 'trio' when it becomes synonymous in the speaker's/writer's mind with, for example, 'the three(of them)'. 'Trio' is in grammatical terms a singular collective noun, but any numeral greater than one indicates plurality and therefore requires a plural verb to follow, hence the confusion. I certainly make this kind of error in casual speech, as I suspect, do most British English speakers. I don't think the error is at all dependent on whether one is a speaker of a particular regional variety of English - Australian, Canadian, Indian, or whatever - unless one is extremely careful in one's speech (with a consequent tendency to sound pedantic or pompous). I think it's just a case of 'English as she is spoke'. 86.136.241.66 23:36, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
The last question got me thinking about something I've wondered about previously. Where a second subject that is plural appears in a bracket after a first subject that is singular, which should the predicate agree with? Ex:
I'd assume the former here but it's never been precisely clear to me. Marskell 15:41, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
The phrase in parentheses (brackets) is adding something to the main statement, but because of this is technically not part of the structure of the sentence it is 'outside of' the main statement. Test it this way - Version 1: 'Mary and her sisters ARE formidable language studentS.' Version 2: 'Mary is a formidable language student --- and so are her sisters!'
This would pattern in exactly the same way in both German and French. Here's the German:
Version 2:'Maria ist eine ausserordentliche Sprachstudentin - ihre Schwestern auch!' Version 1:'Maria und ihre Schwestern SIND ausserordentliche Sprachstudentinnen.' 86.136.241.66 23:52, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
How different is Scots from Welsh, and what's a good describing word for how Scots Gaelic sounds, esp. to someone who speaks a romance language or Welsh? 64.198.112.210 20:13, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
User:AlMac| (talk) 21:17, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
what are the latin words for shit,sex,gay and how do you spell liberty backwards and just in case you are wondering i am not doing my homework.
Latin ignis is agni in Sanskrit, and though the learned writer Angr has nothing to with anger (as he maintains in his profile), the root of anger is Old Norse angr. Anger also means inflame, so we have some fire, too! Vsjayaschandran 21:10, 2 January 2006.
said to be similar brother-frater-brata(Greek -phrater), six-sex-sas, god-deo-deva, snake or serpent-serpe?-sarpa, great -gna-maha , king or royal-rege-raja etc. Amazing!-- Jondel 14:07, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
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Not sure if this is a language or geography question. Places like Argentina, Lebanon and Ukraine have in the past been referred to as "The Argentine", "The Lebanon", and "The Ukraine". Why? JackofOz 09:02, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
"Lebanon" comes from "the Levant", the traditional name for the region. "Ukraine" comes from the Russian word meaning "border", so calling it "the border" makes sense. (There is also a region in Croatia called "Krajina" for the same reason, from the Serbo-Croat word for border.) The Spanish name of the South American country in question is "La Republica Argentina", which is best translated as "the Argentine Republic", i.e., "Argentina" is an adjective in this instance, not a noun. "The Argentine" may be a shortening of "the Argentine Republic". The desert lying to the south of the Sahara desert is the Sudan desert, so "the Sudan" may come from the name of the desert, in the same way that Yukon Territory in Canada has, more so in the past, been called "the Yukon". The Republic of Mali was once called the "French Sudan". Ground Zero | t 16:14, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
WOW!! Thanks, folks. JackofOz 22:07, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
Did pirates actually talk like pirates, or do we have Hollywood to thank? Mark 1 11:10, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
I thought that the meaning of the word individual, in the past, (maybe in the first half of the 20th century) included a derogatory connotation . For example to say that "an individual read the letter" had a derogatory connotation with respect to the person referenced. Was this form of usage in existence at one time?
I don't think this applies to your usage of the word, but doing something independently could be considered inappropriate in cases where collective agreement is normally required. For example, if one member of a club decided "individually" how to spend the club dues, without the consent of other club members, this might be considered unacceptable behaviour. StuRat 22:51, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
how do you say in french "she has vascular dementia"
what is the french for "power of attorney"?
What is the english translation of "Mettre ( quelqu'un ) sous tutelle"?
What is the origin and meaning of the place name Tyas?
If you mean it as a name, this site said :
Sorry I couldn't be of more help... Sputnikcccp 21:05, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
A user has been going around changing "are" to "is" in many articles whose subject is a plural name (sports teams and bands). For example, they changed "The White Stripes are" to "The White Stripes is", "The New York Yankees are" to "The New York Yankees is", etc. Obviously this is awkward, but the user claims that this usage is correct in American English. Any English experts want to weigh in? It can't be correct to write that "The Beatles was on the Ed Sullivan Show", can it? Rhobite 02:53, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
Here is a sentence from MCA Records that would support the use of "is". "New Radicals, led by young liability/singer/songwriter/producer Gregg Alexander, is chomping at the bit." Hope this helps. http://www.mcarecords.com/ArtistAbout.asp?which=bio&selected=1&aboutid=38819&artistname=New+Radicals&artistid=62 RJN 06:12, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
I think one area where the whole issue gets dodgy is when you try to consider a group as simply a plural of nouns; as in, people think of The Beatles as four Beatles who played music together. That makes sense, kind of, because you can refer to Paul McCartney as, at least, a former Beatle. So, when you get a group of them together, they're just four Beatles. Of course it would take a plural.
The same kind of example holds for The New York Yankees, and doesn't so much hold for the New Radicals or Nine Inch Nails. You could refer to a Yankee pretty easily, but there aren't actually a group of guys described as a "New Radical" or a "Nine Inch Nail," as Canley points out above. However, with the White Stripes example, I think my rule breaks down, because I don't think of Jack or Meg as a stripe, you know? -- ParkerHiggins ( talk contribs ) 09:47, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
It took a long time for me to not want to injure myself every time I saw a collective noun being followed by a plural pronoun, but I am gradually learning to accept that we speak English differently in different parts of the world. I agree that it's not worth edit-warring over; however, there are just too many articles that clearly use the pronouns thoughtlessly. If someone deliberately says "the committee gave it their approval," I can gracefully move on, but later in the same article, the same noun gets the singular pronoun, so that it's obvious someone isn't trying very hard. In situations like this, I try to edit for consistency, and so far there haven't been too many reverts. So I'm writing all this just to make a plea: Whatever your preference, please be consistent! Mitchell k dwyer 11:39, 3 January 2006 (UTC) 11:38, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
The Yankees are are doing well this year. The team is doing well this year. Same entity, but different verb depending on which noun you are using to refer to them in US English. -- Nelson Ricardo 07:42, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
While English is my first foreign language, and not my native one, I learned it this way: If the noun in question refers to more than one person (the police, the Yankees, ...), use plural. — Nightstallion (?) 08:08, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
where can i find different topics for group discussion ?
If there were to be, say, a ball that were jointly owned by my sister and myself, what possessive pronouns would I use to describe it? As in, is it "My sister's and my ball"? And if i were to reduce her to a pronoun, would it be "her and my ball", or "hers and my ball"? Nothing sounds right. Thanks! -- ParkerHiggins ( talk contribs ) 09:50, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
Can people please give me as many translations of these words as possible. Thanks, Gerard Foley 14:40, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
Is there a reference with the pronunciations of last names? I am specifically interested in those of musicians, such as Neal Peart, Mike Portnoy, and Pete Townshend. thejabberwock 01:46, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
I don't know if there is any actual reference available, but I can definitely say that 'Peart' is pronounced 'pee-rt' and 'Townshend' is pronounced exactly like the more familiar name 'Townsend' (with the 's' like a 'z'). I can't help you with Portnoy, sorry. Givnan 06:08, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
What caused the dropping out of the grammatical cases in most Indo-European languages?
All languages, not just those of Indo-European origin undergo change, and one typical feature of this is the shortening of words. The reason for this is that people tend to drop sounds from words while speaking at natural speed. As for grammatical cases being dropped, I think this is more prevelant in languages which have either developed large empires (e.g. Latin, Sanskrit, Persian, etc.) or have been involved in extensive trade with large numbers of speakers of other languages (e.g. the Germanic languages). -- As for the more primitive languages being more complex, we could compare that to the fact that the very first computer filled an entire room, while these days I can sit here on my sofa with my laptop and write this answer. Also, we should not forget that the languages of the classics does not in any way reflect the languages of the common people of the time, and is in fact more conservative. The language of the common people of Greece was only ever really written down for the first time when the Gospels were written. Certain later periods of Middle Egyptian have more in common with Old Egyptian, a language written down over a thousand years before, and therefore completely different from the contemporary spoken language. This was largely due to a conservative reverence for ancestors and more ancient ways. Givnan 06:32, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
The fact that it was the small vulgar languages such as French, Spanish, etc., which dropped their cases, and not Latin, is exactly my point. It was after Latin became spoken in these provinces that French and Spanish became spoken, and being spoken by foreigners. These languages dropped the cases. Germany did not have more trade than the Nordic countries, as the Scandinavians were travelling as traders throughout the world (as far as Russia to the East, and as far as Arabia to the South). The Swedish island of Guttland in the Baltic was a total melting pot of nations and had a major port joining Asia and Europe. As far as German is concerned, New High German has a far less complex case system than Old High German had. The isolation of Iceland and the almost perfect preservation of its language in over one thousand years of its history is a perfect example of my point. Givnan 15:48, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
Actually, 12th Century documents written in East Norse already display a considerable amount of case-dropping and is very much more akin to the English of the time than Old Icelandic. The viking age had only just ended, but there was still a considerable amount of trade going on, especially with Eastern Europe and Asia. During the viking age, mercenaries were brought in from countries all over the known world. Also, what I've been saying is that written languages very often reflect an older period of its spoken counterpart (as Angr above agrees), and indeed, while this is not directly related to case-dropping it may serve to illustrate my case, in many modern German dialects, 'der, die, das' have all been reduced to a single phoneme 'd'. Givnan 06:09, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
Fair enough, then. But what would you say the reason was? In my first post to this thread, I put it down to one major yet simple feature of language change: shortening (I then went on to say that it seems more prevalent in languages with the most contact with other languages). And then why is it that the major Finno-Ugric languages retain a fairly 'conservative' case system? Givnan 05:33, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
how do you say in french "once upon a time in a land far far away" and "they lived happily aver after"?
Was "thou artn't" a contraction used in the days of Early Modern English for "thou art not"? - lethe talk 06:18, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
first of all id like 2 start by wishing u guys a happy new 'wiki'year(altough i'm 4 days late) guys can u help me out with these words
please heelp me out here ...,.,,
please i requested 4 help AND NOT SARCASM
This is a good site for help with crosswords, as it is inhabited by people who do them all the time. -- Shantavira 13:49, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
hey guys it worked THANKS A LOT TO ALL OF YOU $im sorry i was a bit pissed of earlier in the dayit was not cor blimey or coo lovey it was cor limmey
I was wondering what the common name for a drink in a small box is. These types of drinks have many different names but i am looking for a suitable name to use on wikipedia. To drink it, you insert a straw into the top. I know in Australia alone there are many names, such as poppa and juice box. Any suggestions?-- Ali K 12:42, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
See chappati. -- Angr ( tɔk) 14:20, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
I don't trust Babelfish for anything resembling a coherent sentence. I'd appreciate anyone who can translate these short phrases into Swedish. (This isn't homework, by the way.)
1. "The flow of time is always cruel."__ 2. "I can only speak English." (I'd like if someone could tell me how to pronounce this, too.) __ 3. "Psychology" and "Psychology student" __ 4. "Sex, drugs, Kubrick and night swimming" __ Thanks. :)
What does boddy bop mean?
On that template is the term "voice". Does that refer to grammatical voice or writer's voice? I'm No Parking and I approved this message 05:50, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
But when there is a choice between active and passive voice, this is also a part of style. And in either case, "style" is mentioned in the template. It makes no sense to me for "voice" to be in there. --Anonymous, 10:00 UTC, January 6, 2006
Please could anyone explain the origin of the term "broad" meaning girl/woman/lady etc and frequently used in the USA during the 1920-1950 period?
How big is fox, coyote, and wolf scat?
---WTH?? "tribe"?
This message was left at b:simple:Wikibooks:Staff lounge
Could someone form here please go to simple.wikibooks and answer this as there is no-one there who can answer this question. Thanks, Gerard Foley 15:40, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
I have been asked an interesting question. When a person is stood by a door, welcoming people to the premises, it is often referred to 'meet and greet'. I have been asked what the opposite phrase is, when you say goodbye to people as they leave the premises. Does anyone have an idea on this?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and comments,
Pete 62.232.224.4 15:58, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
Thanks Bodnotbod, I'll modify your "Eject and respect" and plump for "eject with respect".
Pete 83.245.83.237 21:40, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
Anyone have an idea what " Shreveport" might look like rendered into katakana? I've looked around for lists of city names in Japanese script, but no luck on this one. The "shr" is particularly troublesome. Thanks! — BrianSmithson 18:21, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
An alternative to the above シュリーブポート could be シュリーヴポート, which takes into account the 'v' in Shreveport. It also types more smoothly on a Japanese computer, without having to change bits of it from kanji to katakana. Givnan 08:16, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
Is there a name for using a word twice, back to back? Example: If I had had a better education I would already know the answer to this question.
Anybody know the origin of the word Dixie, as used to describe the South?
"The secret life of ..." seems to be a common start to titles of books and other works of art. For example, The Secret Life of Plants, The Secret Life of Machines, The Secret Life of Bees, all start that way. Does anybody know the origin of this type of title (i.e., the first work of art which publicized this phrase to the extent that all modern versions are derived from its use)? -- JianLi 21:53, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
How would I say "from Oceania" or "of Oceania" in a single, like "French" (of or from France). The obvious guess, Oceanic, has a very different meaning. Would I say " Winston Smith is an Oceanic citizen" for example? smurrayinch ester( User), ( Talk) 22:54, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
Any ideas how should the piece marked bold be translated into english? Потом не выдерживаю, луплю кулаком по столу, ору и брызгаюсь: - Умник! Лопух развесистый! Обрадовался - два года! Да с таким дипломом ты всю жизнь будешь сдувать пыль с вольтметров на какой-нибудь энергостанции в Лабытнанги! Thank you. ellol 00:27, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
I can not find this phrase in the list of latin pharses. Somone posted this as a response to a diatribe I wrote. I don't want to ask the poster what it means for fear of fool-dom. Can ye translate it ? --Omni Maximus God_of_War. Omni Maximus God_of_War...
'Omni Maximus' means 'greatest of all'. Givnan 08:05, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
In speech (sound-wise), what is the difference between these two sentences:
I feel like maybe there's a pause, but that seems very optional. It seems like it must be a tone thing. Does the second one maybe rise when the quotation starts or am I just playing with my voice? Dave 09:37, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
The first one is incorrect. In indirect speech you should say 'You told me I was a bore in bed', and the second one actually means the original speaker is calling himself or herself a bore in bed. Givnan 14:45, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
They can mean two different things. The first mean's I was told that I'm a bore, the second is someone told me she's a bore. The first one is thus ambiguous and should be rearanged if clarity is desired. - Taxman Talk 17:25, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
I read somewhere that the "The" in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn only became popular after an illustrator used it in a caption for the book, so the true title (and the one to which Wikipedia redirects to) is actually Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Likewise, Henry Louis Stevenson originally titled his novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, sans the "The." How common are titles that "omit" the "The," and is this usage (or lack thereof) somehow grammatically incorrect (as the Jekyll and Hyde article says it is)? -- JianLi 17:42, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
How would one say 'two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun' in finnish? Do they have that mcdonalds saying in finland?
We are looking for people to translate the following into as many languages as possible
Thanks, Gerard Foley 00:09, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
You probably didn't click on the link, but to answer your question, the sort of sort I mean is
For "When pigs fly", you need to decide whether you want a literal translation, which will sound like "when a porcine animal undergoes aeronautical motion", whether you want to translate the meaning, which is "never", or whether you want to try to translate into some other humorous expression in each language which means some improbable event. For example, in our own language, "when hell freezes over" is another expression with the same meaning. However, some languages may lack any such expression. StuRat 21:09, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
For when pigs fly I think it should be translated into some other humorous expression in each language which means some improbable event. Examples:
French
quand les poules auront des dents (literally "when chickens have teeth")
German
wenn Ostern und Pfingsten auf einen Tag fällt (literally "when Easter and Pentecost fall on one day")
Kakka malannu parakkum (The crow will fly upside down; kakka = crow; malannu = upside down' parakkum = will fly)
Kozhikku mula varumpol (When the hen has a breast; kozhikku = for hen; mula = breast; varumpol = comes)
Sooraj pashchim se ugega (When the sun will rise in the West)
Literally, "Que pasa"? means, what is happening, what's passing? So "Nada" is perfectly acceptable -- "Nothing". What's up? is "Que tal?" User:Zoe| (talk) 22:40, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the Unicode for the Syriac letter resh with seyame (i.e., with two dots rather than one, indicating plural)? Suryoye (pl.) in Syriacs is now spelled the same way as Suryoyo (sg.) in Syriac language, but should be written with seyame. I would like to correct that, but can't find the character in the Unicode chart found in the article Syriac alphabet, probably due to an outdated Windows version. Thank you. ------ Benne ['bɛnə] ( talk) 17:43, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
(no questions today)
It seems that we currently do not have any article geared toward helping English-only speakers pronounce sounds only present in languages outside of English. Articles like IPA Chart for English do exist, but are not particularly helpful unless you already know IPA and are interested in learning how to pronounce English. Does anyone know of articles or external sites that could help me understand IPA transliterations? Theshibboleth 01:20, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
give me a 2-3 page essay on 3 insirational things tommy douglas did to canada that made him an inspirational canadian, please. Thanks. -- 216.185.69.78 16:43, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
it is also essential to enquire what affect/effect new liberalism as an ideology actually had on practical british politics. Which one? I consulted [6] to no avail. -- 86.144.85.25 20:02, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
'effect'. -- Nick Boalch ?!? 20:06, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
In general, affect is a verb, and effect is a noun -- when you affect something you have an effect. You can also affect a mannerism or style of dress, but you will not have the desired effect if people think you are affected. However, "affect" is used as a technical term is psychology and related fields. AFAIK that is the only legit use of it as a noun. DES (talk) 20:10, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the origin of the word "Ishkabible"?
This question was asked a week ago, and as a result of our answers, the article at Ish Kabibble was written. User:Zoe| (talk) 18:59, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
What percent of the modern english language has latin language roots?
What is the japanese word for monkey? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.198.104.110 ( talk • contribs)
(unsigned)
Can someone help me out with what these letteers/symbols mean? http://bass.talkspot.com/uploads/3329/Sq%20Brn%20Rubber%20Spool.jpg Your help is greatly appreciated. e-mail me at rsmoke at wctel dot net The symbols are on a spool of stranded rubber, and I suspect it is the manufacturer's name or logo. I woould like to contact them re: more material. thank you for your help.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:User_zh. The idea is to ask to one of them. -- Harvestman 19:32, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
Here is the Wiktionary link for 順, I can't fint the second one. Gerard Foley 19:53, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
Here's the second: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%9B%9B - Louise 19:21 12 January (EST-Oz)
hey could u help me with these phrases
pls im counting on you guys
it cant be petrel because (*a*n**)is what ive figured out - " gannet"?
and for group i have (*l**)-- 212.72.8.226 19:23, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
Harvestman 20:35, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
I so much want the "proverbially greedy sea bird" to have 7 letters, not 6.
but what about the
I had typed this question in another part of the Wikipedia website, but I still don't understand. Were the words avenue, boulevard and garage were they around before the invention of cars? And did all of the three words originate in France? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.163.100.5 ( talk • contribs)
How is it called, when a person doesn't know what word to say next and sais instead a lot of 'a' and 'm' sounds? ellol 00:47, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
Here's a related discussion from a few days ago.
Halcatalyst
00:34, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
In Activision's Call of Duty 2, there is a german phrase painted on a wall at a german defensive position. It reads "Einer spinnt immer!" It intrigued me and I did a literal translation of the phrase at freetranslation.com, but the translation said "One spins always!" Is this a false translation, or is this an actual german phrase, and if so, what does it mean? What is it in reference to? I would greatly appreciate it if you provided me with a explanation to clarify. Thank you -- 71.49.19.128
What day of the week is represented by the abbreviation "DIE" and what language is it? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.246.4.234 ( talk • contribs)
This was on an analogue watch, probably from a person from europe. It is one of the days of the week, set on the watch next to the date (28th). There would have been other days but the watch had stopped on that day. Kind regards == "
What is the word for the phenomenon when a street is pointed directly at a landmark in the distance. An old building or a tower usually. It can be that the street was built to point at the landmark or the landmark was built at the end of the street or it can be that it is a coincidence. Sometimes the street might not even go the entire way to the landmark or might be interrupted. Thank you.
Does German have the 'ch' sound as in 'charity"?
I am looking for the three words in the English language ending in gry. There are Angry and Hungry but what is the third one
How come there are two adjectives that describe people from Greece? Wouldn't either "Greek" or "Grecian" suffice? Or is there some minute difference between the two that I was hitherto unaware of? Igor the Lion (Roar!) 13:31, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
The recent change to the Special Characters box has created a new category of Welsh, but I always assumed Welsh used the Latin alphabet (I live on the Welsh/English border, and have never seen these letters). The characters, such as ɱ, ʥ, ɮ and ᵐ don't seem anything like how I have always seen Welsh written. Are these a different way of writing Welsh, maybe Old Welsh or similar? smurrayinch ester( User), ( Talk) 14:48, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
In the article Ford Model T, the expression was "... the concept of paying the workers a wage concomitant with the cost of the car, so that they would provide a ready made market.". Someone changed this to "...the concept of paying the workers a wage ancillary with the cost of the car, so that they would provide a ready made market.". Neither of these seems correct to me. Is there a better word to use? Rmhermen 15:01, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
I don't suppose someone would be willing to have a stab at translating the passage below? I'm researching information for the OMI cryptograph article, and I don't really trust machine translation enough to use it as a source! The original is here (found here).
MACCHINA CRITTOGRAFICA O.M.I. - NISTRI Italia; circa 1939; O.M.I. Apparato crittografico che viene considerato la risposta italiana all’ENIGMA, con la quale condivide l’impiego dei rotori di cifratura; se ne differenzia, oltre che per l’aspetto esterno, per il peso piuttosto rilevante, l’alimentazione da rete e in corrente continua, una maggiore complessità costruttiva dei rotori. Consente la stampa del testo su nastro di carta accellerando le procedure di cifratura, decifratura e di verifica del testo. Per rendere più agevole la battitura dei testi, un motore elettrico provvede ai movimenti dei meccanismi. Il grave limite di questo apparecchio era nei contatti elettrici, striscianti, tra i rotori: nel tempo, l’usura e l’accumulo di sporcizia determinavano dei falsi contatti pregiudicando fortemente l’affidabilità dell’apparato; giova comunque ricordare che lo stesso problema, anche se in misura limitata, si riscontra in tutte le apparecchiature con lo stesso principio di funzionamento. Impiegata dalle forze armate italiane in maniera occasionale e discontinua, la sua cifratura venne forzata dall’Intelligence britannica nel Febbraio 1940. Venne definitivamente posta fuori servizio nel Settembre 1941, rimanendo disponibile per il mercato civile per qualche decennio. Dimensioni: sola macchina 37 x 42 x 17 cm, valigia di trasporto 43 x 48 x 23 cm. Pesi: sola macchina circa 20 Kg, con valigia ed accessori circa 27 Kg. L’esemplare esposto durante la mostra è stato cortesemente messo a disposizione da: Francesco Cremona, collezione “Cremona”, Colleferro, Roma.
Thanks for any help,
Matt Crypto 15:03, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
Hello! Please note that as a native Italian speaker, I usually translate only from English into Italian. However, I hope that the following draft will be a better source than a babelfished text. Best, -- BrokenArrow 14:05, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
Which is correct?
Where able I try to help on the Reference Desk and the Help desk.
or
Where able, I try to help on the Reference Desk and the Help desk.
Thanks.-- ◀Puck talk▶ 17:56, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
When I copyedit, I place a comma after the following introductory words, phrases, and clauses:
This is merely my personal guideline that I follow to help standardize an article. Wayward 00:02, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
How about let something run/take its course, let things drift/slide/rip, be negligent, be remiss? (From my Van Dale dictionary Dutch-English.) --- Benne ['bɛnə] ( talk) 20:40, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
If you're looking for a technical term, you might try posting on the Science board, or finding a website devoted to sociology. Conversational wordings very rarely sync up well with jargon. -- 69.154.179.63 00:21, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
How about codependency ? StuRat 03:26, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
Does anybody know what the difference between the spelling of globalization and globalisation are? both bring back matches in google (50 million and 18 million respectively). Is one a US or one a UK spelling? In fact there are a whole lot of words that (to the best of my knowledge) be spelt with either a z or an s in this sort of construction e.g. liberalism.
Any thoughts on this would be helpful, Thanks.
From the OED:
[I]n mod.F. the suffix has become -iser, alike in words from Greek, as baptiser, .vang.liser, organiser, and those formed after them from L., as civiliser, cicatriser, humaniser. Hence, some have used the spelling -ise in Eng., as in French, for all these words, and some prefer -ise in words formed in French or Eng. from L. elements, retaining -ize for those of Gr. composition. But the suffix itself, whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Gr. -izein, L. -izare; and, as the pronunciation is also with z, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling should be followed, in opposition to that which is at once etymological and phonetic. In this Dictionary the termination is uniformly written -ize. (In the Gr. -iz-, the i was short, so originally in L., but the double consonant z (= dz, ts) made the syllable long; when the z became a simple consonant, (-idz) became -iz, whence Eng. (-aIz).)
The following are illustrations of some of the recent uses of the suffix: 1591 Nashe Introd. Sidney's Astr. & Stella in P. Penilesse (Shaks. Soc.) p. xxx, "Reprehenders, that complain of my boystrous compound wordes, and ending my Italionate coyned verbes all in ize." 1611 "Florio, Inpetrarcato, Petrarchized." 1618 J. Taylor (Water P.) Journ. Scotl., "I haue a smacke of Coriatizing." 1682 D'Urfey Butler's Ghost II. 177 "Ralpho+takes the Tongs+and snaps him by the Nose+surpriz'd, To be thus rudely dunstaniz'd." 1796 Coleridge Lett. I. 209 "We might Rumfordize one of the chimneys." 1833 Blackw. Mag. XXXIV. 533 "It is a taste that, to coin a word, insignificantizes everything -- unpoetizes nature." 1840 New Monthly Mag. LIX. 492 "Tandemizing, cricketizing, boatizing, et omne quod exit in izing, is not to be carried on without a considerable expenditure." 1858 Sat. Rev. V. 264/2 "He has no fear of Tower-Hamletizing the land." Ibid. VI. 203/2 "To Perkin-Warbeckize a pretender is the best, because not the most spirited, policy." 1861 T. L. Peacock Gryll Gr. viii, "Arch-quacks have taken to merry~andrewizing in a new arena." 1866 Sat. Rev. 10 Nov. (L.), "If a man+is funny, and succeeds in Joe-Millerizing history, he pleases somebody or other." 1876 Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 164 "Of the first class [Preservation of Timber] the three best known processes are: (a) Burnetising, (b) Kyanising, and (c) Boucherising." 1881 Mahaffy in Academy 23 Apr. 295 "She does not Irvingise Shylock." 1885 J. C. Jeaffreson Real Shelley II. 192 "The troop of nakedized children rushed downstairs." 1894 Westm. Gaz. 21 Mar. 7/3 "These instruments, before they are used, should always be strictly anti-septicized." 1897 A. Lang in Blackw. Mag. Feb. 187 "To do this is not to Celticise but to Macphersonise." 1897 Westm. Gaz. 28 July 6/1 "The word 'Klondykised'. has been coined to express the conditions of persons who have caught the mania [for seeking gold at Klondyke].+ The effect has been to 'Klondykise'. nearly all the people of the town." 1898 L. A. Tollemache Talks w. Gladstone 114 note, "It [the passage] is, as it were, Canning Gladstonized." Wayward 09:15, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
I have checked on google but to no avail. Saw it in a Q+A in a uk paper with a quirky response.. "Being a politician" - there must be a proper word for it surely? Rondolpho -- 195.92.40.49 13:50, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
Where did the word Ghost originate from-- 213.122.121.152
Originally, it didn't have the meaning of a dead spirit, though, because it's used in such phrases as "Holy Ghost" to mean a holy spirit. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo calls Friar Lawrence his "ghostly father", meaning spiritual advisor. User:Zoe| (talk) 22:09, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
In French the Future Simple for BOIRE, it is buvr- or boir-? Which is more Correct?
does BUVR- work? I thought that was the one my teacher used?
How come when people from the U.S. go to (ex. Mexico) we have to speak Spanish, but when the people come here, they can't learn to speak english?
We are looking for people to translate the following into as many languages as possible. Please go to the relevant Wiktionary page and place your translations there
Thanks, -- Dangherous 00:53, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
Note: See this English-Hindi dictionary deeptrivia ( talk) 05:59, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
The word for "emerald" appears to be "smaragd" in many languages. What language is "smaragd" from? -- 24.26.178.224 18:57, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the origin of this saying 'As Safe as Houses'. Look forward to your reply.
How would you define the slang use of corny or cheezy? I often attempt to teach this word to my (Japanese) students but for such an apparently simple word breaking it down to its basic meaning is really a challenge. I can't seem to get any closer than 'old-fashioned', 'pure/innocent to the point of being odd', or 'gaudy' (gaudy doesn't translate easily either though ...). Any thoughts?
And another one ... does it make sense to define ever? The standard translation for this is 'before now' which I really don't like but it may be the case that it can't be properly translated as it is really just a grammar function that allows for clarifying/adding strength to the meaning 'has such an event existed before now?' and the like. freshgavin TALK 05:24, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
These definitions are pretty decent, but don't let your students overthink on the definitions. Try your best to find the words used in context, and with enough readings including the word, they will learn the meanings more like native speakers do. Remembering definitions usually isn't helpful, but knowing how a word is used to convey meaning is. - Taxman Talk 00:42, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
After explaining the meaning to my wife (using countless examples!), she finally came up with a word for 'gaudy', as in 'tacky', and it turned out to be a word I knew all along. 「だっさい」(dassai) was the word she came up with. I understand your difficulty, though, as I've always found it really hard to translate these words. 「古臭い」(furukusai) was a word I have used mostly for it. Slightly off topic, I once went out with a girl whose family name was 'Taki'. The relationship went downhill after I told her the meaning in English, which just shows you have to be careful when translating stuff (she had actually ASKED me if it had a meaning in English!) -- Givnan 08:20, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the effect of advertising on modern society? Advertising is a major imput on our lives but how does the language used effect this in everyday life?
In Indonesian, the word for horse is kuda. Some say that this word is derived from Tamil. Is this correct> Thanks. Meursault2004 18:12, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
I already did, thanks. Meursault2004 09:07, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
In the phrase, il est à la maison, am I suppose to use the pronoun y or en. and for the sentence il va à la maison, what pronoun should I use?
I'm trying to update the Bandeapart article as part of my work on the Sirius Satellite Radio project, and as part of that, I want to provide a translation of what the name means. However, my French is way too rusty, and I'm not having any luck via the search engines. I understand that it's some sort of pun or play on words of "bande à part", but beyond that, I'm lost. Can anyone translate it for me? Their site is at bandeapart.fm, if that's of any help. Thanks, -- Aaron 02:22, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
how do your pronounce gagnon?
What's another word for "cost" which ends in "ity"? -- HappyCamper 08:36, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
Could you please let me know what is a) the origin b) the common usage in England in the 1930s of the expression "greasy old man"
Thank you
Hello, I've found several IPA vowel charts (in which the exact pronunciation of the vowels in the corresponding languages is shown). These include Dutch, Hungarian and Swedish. I want to ask if someone can post the IPA vowel charts for other languages (mainly English, Spanish, Italian and more). Thanks - JorisvS, 17 January 2006 16:11 (local time)
What is the distinction between being a 'citizen' and a 'national'. For example, residents of the Netherlands Antilles are said to be Dutch citizens, and Netherlands Antilles nationals. Thanks if you can make it clear for me.
Thanks for those two replies. I'm still working it through though. The article on British Citizen made it clear that the issue is complex, but didn't basically explain the distinction between being a 'national' and being a 'citizen' except that there are several types of citizens, all of whom are nationals. But what IS a 'national'? Above, I used the Netherlands example not because I was really interested in Netherlands, just because I wanted to use one example to try and be clear. I think there are many, many exceptions to the generalization (which I accept) that the words are often used interchangeably. What I hope to understand is what exactly is the distinction, and how might it be put to good use. Would there be a conflict resolution benefit to allowing for 'Basque National, citizen of Spain', or 'Chechen National, citizen of Russia', or 'Russian National, citizen of Ukraine'...etc. 'Taiwanese National, citizen of China'? So I'm still looking for reference or links to a source explaining the legal distinction between a national and a citizen...Do we have a way to also post this question/discussion to the Reference Desk, Humanities page?
How can I increase my attention span at work, so I don't ping pong between projects so quickly.
Does anyone know the origins of this expression? The meaning, as I understand it, is "don't tell me good news if it's baloney", or maybe "don't flatter me falsely". So where and when and why did blowing smoke up someone's rear end become a euphemism for giving them phony good news or flattering them? Thanks. Babajobu 17:07, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
My partner used the word 'Ballywick' today. Apparently it is something that is within your domain, i.e. "An understanding of Finance is within my ballywick, however the consumption of cheeseburgers does not lie within my ballywick."
This understanding is supported by the few references I see to the word on the Internet. However, I have no idea what a ballywick itself is, and since it is such an interesting sounding word I would really like to know what it meant originally, and, if possible, why?
Hello I coach a lot of people and ask them to define their personal strengths or qualities e.g. creative, intiative, empathetic, proactive, determined, dynamic, open etc. They struggle to find the words and I wondered if you would have such a list. However, I am not sure if we are talking about Adverbs, or Adjectives or something else!?! Your help would be most appreciated. Thanks. Pamela (Switzerland)
What are some cool words with the suffix -ology in it?
Thank you, got it
My girlriend, soon to be fiancee is named Stacey and I want to get a tattoo of her name spelled in Latin, the language of love, on my chest near my heart, because she is my whole world and the person I see myself growing old with, but I don't speak any other language but english. I was wondering if you could help me with this problem. Really I just want her initials on my chest which are, or will be SRT.
Well...."Stacey" comes from the Ancient Greek Anastasia [17]. The Romans apparently had a masculine form Anastasius, so I suppose Anastasia might be a vaguely okay Latin form of "Stacey." But I don't know much about Latin, so don't take my word for it. But if you just want her initials, why do you need to know her name in Latin? -- Whimemsz 01:31, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
I'm an attorney who today was informed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that I didn't prevail in a case that I litigate, United States v. McBride. In reading the court's opinion, I was struck by a metaphor that Judge Martin used that went as follows: "it's as difficult as herding bullfrogs into a wheelbarrow." I readily agree with the thrust of the metaphor but I must confess that I have never heard it used and try as I might, have been unable to find its origin. Any assistance in solving this mystery will be greatly appreciated. Steve Nolder Snolder at columbus dot rr dot com
I know this is a lame topic but I came across something in the American Heritage Book of English Usage ( this page) a while back that tickled me about this elementary school rule and I haven't been able to get any straight answers about it yet.
The article itself was defending the use of but at the beginning of sentences by giving an example from a respected author; in this case J.M. Coetzee.
In his youth Dostoevsky had been attracted to utopian socialism of the Fourierist variety. But four years in a prison camp in Siberia shook his faith.
After thinking about it for a few seconds I had to disagree with it ... not because the example sentence isn't correct, but because the example sentence is using a (the?) different meaning of the word but, and thus the "rule" doesn't apply here.
E.g.
Also, when I read the second sentence the rhythm and intonation change slightly as well, to reflect that 'but seven minutes' has a unit meaning as opposed to the singular grammar function is has in the first example.
Does anyone else follow me on this? I think the book is using the example incorrectly. freshgavin TALK 07:18, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
But I don't see anything wrong with starting a sentence with "but". These "rules" only exist because someone, somewhere, has found a way to harvest the energy of shuddering "grammarians". So keep on shuddering. -- MarkSweep (call me collect) 23:32, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
Back on topic for a minute ... I agree with Angr that 'only four years' is a bit of an understatement, but that only reaffirms my claim that the quote shouldn't be used in an English Usage guide; it's ambiguous.
For those of you who are doubting the 'second meaning' of the word but, consider the phrase I am but a man. It's an old-ish use of the word, but as the quote is old (even if it wasn't, it could be meant to SOUND old) that would make sense.
The truth is, the only one that can be blamed for the whole 'but' argument/rule at all is English itself. I'm willing to bet 90% of the languages in the world contain casual word-phrases that express the idea of although or on the other hand (Japanese has at least 5 that can be used interchangeably) but for some reason in English most of them are conjunctions that can seem odd if they aren't 'conjuncting' directly related statements.
Whether the bible is the initial cause or not I don't know, but I'd certainly point at language teachers as the modern cause for increased use (myself included). My students frequently use because, so, and, and but freely even beginning paragraphs; all equivalents are acceptable in Japanese. Of course there are ways of making these correct ... e.g. Because of this incident..., but when 40 students hand you sheets that you've corrected twice already with the statement I liked it. Because it was beatiful. (not the answer to a question!) I tend to lose the will to enforce 'correct' grammar on them at all. freshgavin TALK 06:55, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
What could be a correct translation of the German word Christengemeinde? Literally, it means "Congregation of Christians", but for some reason I have the idea "Christian congregation" would render better English. -- Benne ['bɛnə] ( talk) 09:30, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
I got an invitation from Great Britain. A scientific Professor will retire and there shall be a cometogether with colleagues giving some lectures.
Now I am a little bit confused, because the term "Festschrift" is used in this invitation for the spoken and not written lectures. (in German "-schrift" means "written").
Can you help me to brush up my English ?
Many thanks
Which are the top five world languages in terms of number of people who can understand/speak them ?
Does anyone happen to know if there is a word in Japanese that is homophone to 'Lion'? I don't mean the Japanese word for lion, but a word in Japanese that sounds like lion. My friend Jun had trouble with my name and thought for a long time that my name was actuall Lion, but he had a really easy time saying it, despite the L (which I realize isn't always a problem in Japanese). I just hope Lion in Japanese isn't an alternate phrasing of gaijin or something. Thanks for your help.
Thank you both for your responses. I knew it wasn't going to turn out to mean something really cool like "Awesome American Dude (li-) Who I Will Totally Give Twenty Bucks To (-on)", but I hoped it might have a more common meaning aside from rayon fibre or the Soviet Raion, like maybe "soup bowl" or "hubcap". I suppose we can't all have beautiful Japanese names. -Ryan
Funny you should mention it, my friend Jun pronounces the O very strongly (like li-own), so maybe he thinks I am actually like the sound of thunder. I do talk pretty loud. -Ryan
Thank you! -Ryan
Why it's said that Japanese can't pronounce the "r" letter, replacing it with "l"? They have such names as Hirohito and many other names with "r". Thanks. 195.150.224.238 11:40, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
Many younger Japanese can distinguish between r and l due to media exposure. Of course the majority can't. Also, 'hu', 'who' and 'fu' sound the same to many Japanese.-- Jondel 07:28, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
At 17, how difficult will it be for me to learn a new language, knowing only English now? How do the following languages rate on the difficulty scale; Swedish, French, Norwegian, Esperanto, Icelandic, Finnish, Japanese? What are the easiest and hardest languages to learn? Thank you to anyone who responds.
When I studied Swedish, I found the hardest thing for me to master was the pronunciation. The tonal qualities were hard, too, but I found some of the vowels really hard, so I didn't get very far with it. French, with its large amount of similar vocabulary to English, was easier (plus, I did it from age 11 at school), but the grammar was a little hard to master. I think also exactly because I thought that French was easy, I didn't put too much effort into it (and besides, I chose German at school, but had to study French instead because nobody else wanted to do German, so I felt a little bit of resentment, maybe?). Finnish is extremely easy, pronunciation-wise, but its grammar is very hard to master (14 cases of the noun), but I started to learn Finnish again after doing Japanese at university, as I realised that the best way to think of the endings is to treat them as postpositions (as in Japanese). The vastly different vocabulary stumped me, though, as I was studying on my own, and still I haven't had the chance to go to Finland. Japanese was easy, in terms of pronunciation, and the Kanji were not so difficult (as you notice a lot of coherence in them - they are not just meaningless pictures), but I had difficulty in the first year of my Japanese studies while I was learning the Hiragana and Katakana. That's just my own experience, though, as everyone has their own ways of learning things. Hope this helps. Givnan 06:15, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
Hi over there, today I've been working on the article de:Gärröhrchen for the German Wikipedia. I wonder if there`s an article about this thing in the English Wikipedia as well, so I could link to it? Unfortunately I don't know the proper expression for it, and all my webresearch, consultation of dictionaries etc. stayed without a result. I've also been looking for a link in the English articles Fermentation etc., but couldn't find any. Perhaps there's someone here who recognizes the picture in the German article and can either answer here what's its name in English and if there's a corresponding article, or if there is, link it in de:Gärröhrchen? Thanks in advance, Dominik Hundhammer, 82.135.15.213 21:51, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
Hi, does anyone know what this means? tvoj sej pristik letac, moj stepiknak udrok bog duvrok casti,gospodina ??? thanks.-- Cosmic girl 01:20, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
so Gospodina is like 'girl'? or lady or someting? ... I wish I could know the meaning to the other stuff...but thanx anyway :D -- Cosmic girl 19:46, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
Ohhh cool I see, I thought that word meant the female version or something. thank you.-- Cosmic girl 21:49, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
I know I know... why don't I ask him directly? I did! but he won't tell... the other time he said I was a bug and he was god! hahaha so I'm a little paranoid :P-- Cosmic girl 00:16, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
Thank you Zmaj! :D -- Cosmic girl 20:01, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Hello, does anyone know what this means? I don't know what language is, but it looks Croatian or Polish. Thanks. -- COA 21:35, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
Čtenáři mají jistě ještě v paměti americký film EVITA, jenž vypráví díl historie Argentiny, ale podívejme se na ní i z hlediska zvláštních jednotek bezpečnostních sborů v novodobějším aspektu. Již v roce 1986 vznikla ve struktuře Policejního ředitelství Buenos Aires Brigáda pro zvláštní operace - Sokol (BRIGADA ESPECIAL OPERATIVA HALCON /Policista 11/97/), která se měla podílet nejen na potlačování mezinárodního terorismu a jeho aktivit v Argentině, ale i na boji proti nebezpečným pachatelům. Vlastně je připravena kdykoliv a kdekoliv podat pomocnou ruku nebo pouze taktickou radu policistů při řešení nezvyklých taktických situacích. Struktura velitelství je následující - brigádě velí tzv. komisař, jenž je podřízen policejnímu velitelovi, přičemž komisař odpovídá mimo jiné i za výcvik a i nábor. Přičemž je základní výcvik rozdělen do třech fází po dvou měsících, v nichž je zahrnut i jakýsi výběrový kurs a zkouška vhodnosti kandidáta. Nakonec jsou takto vycvičení muži, experti v protiteroristickém boji, výsadkářství, potápění a bojovém umění, začleněni do jednoho z pěti bojových týmů po 15 mužích. Každý tým tvoří svým početním zastoupením samostatnou jednotku zahrnující mimo jiné odstřelovače nebo i vyjednávače, přičemž v případě potřeby může být celá brigáda nasazena jako velká intervenční skupina. Kromě své hlavní role plní jako jiné obdobné jednotky i úkoly ochrany VIP, hlavně státních návštěv. Členové této jednotky, jenž soustřeďuje nejlepší bojovníky v Argentině, udržuje úzské pracovní styky s jinými speciálními jednotky ve světě, převážně v USA, o nichž již byla v tomto volném seriálu řeč (LAPD SWAT, FBI HRT, DEA atd.) Další argentinskou policejní zvláštní jednotku je SECCION DE FUERZAS ESPECIALES (SFE) pocházejicíc zargentinského četnictva neboli GENDARMERIA NACIONAL. Stejně jak v případě Francie (GIGN a RAID), Itálie (GIS a NOCS) a mnoho dalších, kde vedle sebe existuje jak policie, tak i četnictvo, i zde je tato zvláštní jednotka určena pro akce na venkově a neobydlených částí, oproti jednotce HALCON, jenž je určena pro akce ve městech a jejich okolí. SFE je podřízena Ministerstvu obrany a byla založena v roce 1986, v roce kdy v příhraničních operacích byli náznaky o působení teroristů Hizballáhu v souvislosti s drogami jako výnosným zdrojem financí. Její úkoly se tak rozšířili na protiteroristické operace, akce v džungli, hloubkový průzkum, obojživelné akce ale i vrtulníkové výsadky. Kromě toho může v případě větších operacích spolupracovat, nebo podporovat, Brigádu pro zvláštní operace Sokol. Proto byli také její příslušníci vysláni na stáž k francouzské GIGN, jenž v poslední době proslula záchranou rukojmích z letadla A300 AIRBUS v Marseille v prosinci 1994, kromě toho udržuje SECCION DE FUERZAS ESPECIALES úzké kontakty se španělskými kolegy z GEO /Policista 11/96/. Aby se argentinský policista-četník dostal do této 44členné jednotky musí nejprve dosáhnout hodnosti seržanta a odsloužit 5 let služby, samozřejmě, že musí mít výbornou fyzickou kondici a projít baterií psychologických a fyzických testů. Sem spadá jak plavecký test, tak i běh a střelba a další. Následný výcvik probíhá po 6 měsících a je rozdělena do dvou (tříměsíční) etap, zde je vedle nám již známých odborných znalostí zařazen i výsadkářský výcvik. Po tomto půl roce, jehož konce se dočká pouze 20% uchazečů o službu, ale ani tady vše nekončí, následuje 8měsíční zkušební doba, během níž má každý nový adept přiděleno instruktora z řad starších příslušníků jednotky. Jednotka o síle 44 mužů je rozdělena do tvou operačních sekcí, z nichž každá se dále dělí na dvě skupiny (GRUPO DE INTERVENCION), které zase tvoří dva operační týmy. V pohotovosti je 24 hodin připravena k akci 22členná sekce, včetně dvou odstřelovačů a případně dalšího speciálního personálu, včetně pyrotechnického oddílu GEDEX. Tento systém umožňuje do 24 hodin zasáhnout jednotce z její základny v Ezezie kdekoliv v zemi. V souvislosti s nárustem projevů terorismu v Argentině (útoky na židovské představitele) je plánováno zvýšení početního stavu jednotky, který by měl dosáhnout čísla 100. Jejich výzbroj je velmi rozmanitá, vzhledem k specifickým úkolům, od pistole SIG Sauer P 226, samopalu HK MP5 a jeho mnoha z verzí, až po odstřelovací pušky SIG Sauer SSG 2000.
Here you are. I have no idea about the correct police/military terminology in English, so don't take the technical terms too seriously. The text apparently comes from the Police Bulletin of the Eastern-Bohemian Region 1-2/2004 [18].
Here, "Policista" is a monthly of the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic [19]. Hope this helps. -- EJ 19:32, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
BTW, DLL: I suspect that you had troubles finding a Czech speaker only because you looked at a wrong place. The ISO 639-1 code for the Czech language is "cs", it is not the same as the ISO 3166-1 code for the Czech Republic. -- EJ 20:04, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
Can it be argued that the French language had made a effort in trying to make itself sound good?
French (unlike English) has an official body, l' Académie française, to rule on what is and isnt correct usage. I suggest you have a look to see if there are examples where they have disallowed/allowed new words or modified the grammar, specifically because A sounds better than B (to French ears) - look at concepts such as euphony, elision, etc. Jameswilson 00:23, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the difference between a Close central unrounded vowel and a Close front rounded vowel? The sound clips sound exactly the same to me. And I fairly recently heard from a native speaker what WP is calling the first one, and it sounded much more like the "oo" in the word "good" (in other words, more "u," more grunt-like) than the posted clip. Side question: Do minute linguistic differentiations, such as between between "central" and "front" really exist in the real world? Zafiroblue05 05:44, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
Hi folks! Does anyone know how to get four tildes (for signing my posts here) on a Japanese style computer, without copying and pasting the ones down below? My computer has a tilde above the zero, but when I press 'shift' and 'zero' I just get a zero. For now, I'll just copy and paste as usual, but if anyone can help....... Givnan 06:24, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the advice but that didn't work either... Givnan 10:30, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
It's a Japanese keyboard, sorry, and I ned to SHIFT and 3 in order to get #, so I can't SHIFT and #. And thanks, I found the button in the list of actions above the edit box. Cheers everyone.-- Givnan 16:35, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
Similar problem with spanish keyboard. User:AlMac| (talk) 00:37, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
"~"? Yes! That worked! Thanks! I've got one of those IBM laptops where the mouse is a red dot in the middle of the keyboard and it's really fiddly trying to copy/paste stuff! Saved a lot of time! -- Givnan 07:36, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
I intend to learn Esperanto (I only speak English at the moment and have barely studied another language), but there are no real-life courses and very few books to help me. Which online resources could you recommend to me? I'm already looking at [Lernu.net Lernu] and Curso de Esperanto, but I'd really like something that has longer audio courses I can listen to, to aid in pronunciation. Thanks. Taiq
We are looking for people to translate the following into as many languages as possible.
Please go to the relevant Wiktionary page and place your translations there
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Thanks, --
Dangherous 00:53, 22 January 2006 (UTC) and
Gerard Foley
07:18, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
Why are Sailors called "Gobs"?
My father, who was a sailor, said it meant 'Going Overseas, Back Soon' but I don't believe him.-- Givnan 05:58, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
A bit of a follow-up to the "Sounds" question I just asked. Chris S. says that the "oo" in "good" is a Near-close near-back rounded vowel. The article lists an English example (yes, I am a native - midwestern US - English speaker, BTW): "hook." However, for me (at least), the vowel sound in "hook" (or "book") sounds slightly but markedly different from the vowel sound in "good." Is this just my particular accent, or does the way one makes a "d" (front of the mouth) as opposed to the way one makes a "k" (back of the mouth) change the sound of the vowel that immediately precedes this? If so, does this mean that the "oo" in "hook" is not a near-close near-back rounded vowel? Also, if so, is this change in vowel sound related to how the "L" in "milk" makes the word nearly two syllables (as opposed to just one in the hypothetical "mik")? What would the name of this phenomenon be? Zafiroblue05 02:26, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
I'm of Irish heritage and we pronounce 'milk' lith a "light L" and 'play' with a "dark L". -- Givnan 08:25, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
User:Tohru has just copied ths page from the Japanese Wiktionary. Perhaps if anyone knows some Japanese they might start filling in entries for these words. Thanks, Gerard Foley 09:04, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
is it per say? or per se? I've read both...so... and I can't tell which of them is just by how it sounds...-- Cosmic girl 15:11, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
thank you!:D-- Cosmic girl 17:42, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
I know :) but I've spoken spanish all my life and I don't know everything about english, so...and I suspected it was 'per se' but thank you :D.-- Cosmic girl 22:52, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
How do you pronounce Joe Pesci's last name? like "pesky" or is the c soft? Noodhoog 15:54, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
I've always heard it pronounced like "peshy" (IPA /pɛʃi/). -- Whimemsz 17:46, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
Thanks folks, "peshy" it is, then :) -- Noodhoog 12:37, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the proper way to pronounce "Agincourt"?
You can be sure that in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, they don't pronounce the name of the Agincourt neighbourhood , A-zhin-coor, as the French would, but Age-in-cort, as the English would. Ground Zero | t 17:36, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
I have no idea what the English pronunciation is, but I imagine the proper French pronunciation would be /aʒɛ̃kuʁ/ or /aʒæ̃kuʁ/, or approximately "ah-zheh-coor" or "ah-zha-coor" (where the second vowel is nasalized). Don't quote me on that, though. -- Whimemsz 17:51, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
I have a question regarding the idea of looking something up, and it comes in two parts. The first is, what do you know about this phrase on its own? Colloquial, or formal? In what parts of the world, and what parts of society, is it used? How did it develop? Anything you know. The second is, just how did Wikipedia mangage to exist for four whole years without this phrase being a huge freaking part of it? That's the most basic phrase in reference book terminology, how did it get skipped over? Instead, we talk about 'searching' for something, where you type in the exact name of the article you want and it takes you there. Black Carrot 19:25, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
It's not the Search function I'm talking about, it's the Go function. The entire and only purpose of it, which is the easiest way to find things, is to put you in the exact article you named. This, it seems to me, is exactly what most print books do with an alphabetization scheme. Black Carrot 03:29, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
How to change it, so it would only mean that no offence was involved in previous words, not really asking for excuse? (saying to friend: your method proved to be reliable, safe and boring, you excuse me.) ellol 00:22, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
Thank you. Colloquial english is my worst trouble. I'm trying to render a small abstract of a book. I'll probably use "no offense intended" or "sorry". Damn, still am unsure if it's perfect :) ellol 01:08, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
How does Eponine's death in the French classic Les Miserables by Victor Hugo representative of politics in Argentina?
Could someone provide a definitive pronunciation for the opera 'La bohème' by Puccini for an English speaker?
According to my French dictionary 'bohème' (defined as happy-go-lucky or unconventional) is pronounced 'bo-em' ('bo' as in 'board' and 'em' as in 'hem') with a silent 'h'. However, 'bohemian' in English is pronounced 'bo-heem-ian', with a strong emphasis on the 'h'.
Does anyone know how the opera title should be pronounced in English, if a definitive pronunciation does exist?
Many thanks.
If you use the French title of the opera, which people invariably do, it is pronounced with the French pronunciation - bo, em, no 'h' sound. It's a mistake to think it means either 'The Bohemian' (person) or 'The Bohemians'. It means their world, their milieu, the type of life they live. It's taken from the title of the novel by Henri Murger (which, if I recollect properly, and apologies that I don't know how to type the accent, is Scenes de la vie de boheme, ie scenes of bohemian life). By the way, if the intended meaning was 'The Bohemian [Girl, ie Mimi]' I think Puccini would have called it La Bohemienne. Maid Marion 17:57, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
Sorry to insist on this BluePlatypus, but it is not possible that 'the ambiguity was intended' because there is no ambiguity. La Boheme is not French for 'the Bohemian', it is French for Bohemia (and by extension for a certain lifestyle). Maid Marion 09:36, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Arrête! Une bohème! Ta folie est extrême!. Certainly he doesn't mean "Stop! A bohemian lifestyle!" or "Stop! A part of the Czech Republic!"? -- BluePlatypus 15:06, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
I stand corrected BluePlatypus. Thank you - very informative. However, I am still quite certain, and I'm fairly sure most opera fans think the same way, that the title of Puccini's opera refers to the third definition you quote ('ensemble des personnes ...'). Apart from other considerations, few opera fans would see the opera as being the story of Mimi, which I think is what people have in mind when they translate as 'The Bohemian' - both the original book by Murger, and the opera, are about the bohemian group, in which Rodolfo and Mimi are both leading characters. The opera, I believe, is not the 'story of Mimi' in the way that, say, La Traviata really IS the story of Violetta. Perhaps other opera fans could say whether it has ever occurred to them to interpret the title in any way other than the way I have been arguing for. Anyway, all most interesting. Maid Marion 15:18, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
The words puck, shuttlecock, ball, jack...what have they in common? I'll tell you...firstly they all sound a little rude, but I'm that's coincidence. Secondly, they're all small things that are hit in different sports. Anyway, is there a collective term for "small things one hits in sports"? Maybe projectiles? While we're here, why not come up with any more names for "small things one hits in sports". Thanks -- Dangherous 17:06, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
How about stones and marbles ? StuRat 18:23, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
they're all small things that are hit in different sports. Ahem. -- ◀Puck talk▶ 23:13, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
I've wondered about this for a while as I struggle to learn a language where there are plenty of bilingual resources to help me. How does one learn a language where there are none, such as in the first contact of an indigenous population? I can imagine you could learn the basic terms for concrete objects by pointing them out and repeating the word, and the same for observable actions, but what about for abstract concepts? Eventually through exposure I guess you could piece together the grammar. What I'd really like to know is more practical information on how fluency is actually achieved. I tried our articles second language acquisition and language acquisition, but they either didn't cover this specifically or I didn't have enough background to understand them. Can anyone shed some light or point me to some accounts of how this is done in practice? Thanks - Taxman Talk 18:08, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
Berlitz Language Schools are based on the immersion principle -- the teacher speaks only the foreign language, from day one. As far as I know, they are even quite successful. Unfortunately the wikipedia article on them is kind of sketchy. 130.188.8.13 09:05, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Wycliffe Bible Translators regularly attempt this. I'm sure they must describe their methods somewhere, but the only place I could find in 5 minutes was: [22]. They say, "Building relationships is where we start. Making friends, understanding their culture, and learning a language that's never been written down are first steps. The linguist learns to speak the language in much the same way a child learns to speak, by listening and mimicking sounds. It will take the linguist several years to establish an alphabet and discover the intricacies of the language." — Matt Crypto 09:20, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Thanks Matt, that was pretty good. Their site does have some more I was able to find too. Here for the curious. I guess I sort of assumed it would be slow, but I just can't understand how someone would bridge the gap to abstract concepts. I guess you just learn enough words that can be used at first to somewhat innacurately define a given concept and then improve it as more words are learned. I know this used to be fairly common for example when traders or explorers encountered North American indigenous people, someone had to learn the language from scratch to be the first translator. It just doesn't seem like it took them several years. Columbus' crews seemed to communicate effectively fairly quickly, though I suppose that could have just been through gestures and subjugation. - Taxman Talk 21:41, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Where are you from?-can you give me a spanish translation what does "como te llamas, el chic(a,o)" mean, exact translation. Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.60.161.123 ( talk • contribs)
What do you reccomend?
Watch English DVDs with the English subtitles on. freshgavin TALK 06:03, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
I was fascinated by the Belizean Kriol language when I visited there a few days ago. Then, at the Cozumel Museum, I visited the Mayan hut display. The host was a man speaking something that sounded like a mixture of Kriol and a Spanish-based creole. Surprisingly, having some French, I could understand him quite well. The question is, what could have been the Spanish creole he was using? Or was it just Kriol? I've searched around Wikipedia without finding much information about any Spanish creoles used in the Caribbean. Halcatalyst 01:00, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
I've been wondering: what is the real difference between a syntactic pleonasm and a tautology?
I don't have suitable reference books handy, but I suspect the Greek derivations of these terms indicate the essential difference between them. Pleonasm means superfluity - using more words than are needed to express a meaning. Tautology means saying the same thing twice over (or more than twice). If my guess is correct, it seems that a tautology is always pleonastic, but a pleonasm is not necessarily tautologous. Maid Marion 10:54, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
We have articles on tautology and pleonasm. I'd personally only ever heard tautology used in the logic/math sense before. — Laura Scudder ☎ 18:32, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
(This question was originally posted by 68.160.110.103 at Wikipedia talk:Requested articles; included is my first guess at an answer. "Port arms" is a position where one holds the rifle diagonally in front of the body. Any other ideas on the etymology?) ---- Lph 14:03, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Forgive my audacity, but I was hoping to find the origin of "Port Arms" with respect to weapon position and thus, the implied threat. To me, Port Arms, looks like a statement of: "I have a really nasty killing machine here, and I am showing it to you. If you are not a threat, this is not a problem for either of us." "Port" implies landing somewhere, and if landing as a stranger, the above seems to be a logical greeting, as it were. (Sorry, if not quite "nice.") Just curious, especially since I found no information here.
At Talk:Fenius Farsa, Codex Sinaiticus ( talk · contribs) is asking for the IPA for Auraicept na n-Éces and Goídel mac Ethéoir. regards, dab (ᛏ) 20:52, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Can anybody translate this 'Indo-European' fable, written by A. Schleicher in Sanskrit please? Thank you!
Avis Akvasas Ka
Avis, jasman varṇa na ā ast, dadarka akvams,
Tam, vā gham garum vaghantam, tam, bhāram magham
Tam, manum āku bharantam.
Avis akvabhyams ā vavakat:
Kard aghnutai vidanti manum akvams agantam.
Akvāsas ā vavakant:
Krudhi avai, kard aghnutai vividvantsvas:
Manus patis varṇām avisāms karṇanti
Svabhyam gharmam vastram avibhyams ka varṇā na asti.
Tat kukruvants avis agram ā bhugat.
Meursault2004
21:19, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Well this version is very close to Sanskrit. So I expect that someone with a knowledge of Sanskrit would be able to translate this ... I have seen several here. So I think I'll just wait and see. Meursault2004 09:19, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
Yes I think so (aviḥ aśvaś ca). But this fable is reconstructed Indo-European. I don't think that there is a version available in Devanagari. Meursault2004 10:46, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
It would take me about two hours to cast this in acceptable Sanskrit; send me a reasonable sum and I'll do it :) Seriously, try to do it yourself and post the result here for review, this is a place to ask questions, not a place people come to for free assignments dab (ᛏ) 11:36, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
Do you know the term given to a person who's first name and surname is like a first name such as "Darren Martin" or "Daniel Aaron"?
I know there is a term for this because I've heard it before but cannot for the life of me remember what it is and I'm having difficulty googling it. I hope you can help me, I've asked so many people and no one has a clue what I'm talking about.
I don't know French, and the machine translation is... peculiar... can anyone translate this for me? Thanks. "Si le coud de baisers soit envoyé par courrier vous pourriez lire mes mots avec vos lèvres" —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mattman723 ( talk • contribs)
What is Unicode in arabic? 157.190.187.201 15:37, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
I need the transliteration and a reference would be nice. Thanks, Gerard Foley 18:47, 25 January 2006 (UTC) note 157.190.187.201 was my IP address
Why is the name Robert shortened to Bob? Why is William shortened to Billy? Why is Richard shortened to Dick? none of the original names begin with the letter that nickanme begins with. Ms Alston syeedaalston at aol.com
One cause might be that when young children try to say their own names or the names of others, they come out wrong. Parents, thinking it cute, may continue to use that form. For example, my brother Patrick said his name as "Paggy", and was called that well into adulthood, as a result. If someone else thought it was cute and did the same with their own kid named Patrick, then Paggy might catch on as a semi-official nickname for Patrick. Similarly, my other brother, Marshall, became "Marfall" and my dad, Alvin, became "Alby". StuRat 19:16, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
A lot of English language surnames derive from these nicknames. Dickens from Dickon, a nickname for Richard (Dick). Hobbes from Hob, like Bob a nickname for Robert. Dobbins, likewise. User:Zoe| (talk) 17:19, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
is there another way to spell the name Szeszycki? Could Sze be the same as Cie? Would a Russian or Slav spell the name differently? If so how would it be spelled?
Thank You
Leonard Szeszycki
The Wikipedia page on Polish phonology, as well as some other sources (e.g., [23]), say that Polish <e> is IPA /ɛ/ (the sound in American English "pet"), though I trust the others who have answered know far more about Polish than I do (maybe the vowel is more like [ɛ̈], a centralized /ɛ/?). I think, based on my very limited knowledge of Polish orthography, that the IPA for "Szeszycki" would be something like /ʃɛʃɨʦkʲi/. "Cie" would, I believe, be pronounced /ʨɛ/. -- Whimemsz 23:30, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
Does a cap need to display some sort of reference to baseball (such as a team logo) in order to qualify as a baseball cap?
I saw an article in this morning's paper concerning the Palestinian elections, showing Palestinian women, fully veiled, wearing baseball caps with the Hamas logo on them. User:Zoe| (talk) 17:20, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
i was just wondering... what was the exact origin of language? is there any ONE language which all others have stemmed from? and how is it that humans were capable of making sense out of a heap of sounds? - Gelo3 01:30, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
Regarding a comment made above, with the world population presently at about 6,450,000,000, the population of India and China put together amounting to almost half of that (I can't find solid figures on Wiki, a conservative estimate would put the two at a total of 2.9bn), I challenge that it's unlikely that the majority of the world speaks (should be, were taught by their ancestors) Indo-European languages! freshgavin TALK 00:18, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
Here's a source [25] that what ranks IE languages in with 2,562,896,428 speakers (44.78%). Sino-tibetan (including Chinese and Indian varieties) ranks in (second) with 22.28%. While it's not solid evidence against the existance of a Proto-Indo-European language, these were the kind of numbers I was looking for! freshgavin TALK 04:24, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
Why is it Desde que tengo 12 años and not Desde que tuve 12 años or Desde que he tenido 12 años ("Ever since I have 12 years" as opposed to "ever since I had 12 years" or "ever since I have had 12 years")? — Ilyan e p (Talk) 00:42, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
I wish I could answer you since I know spanish, but, I don't understand your question :S, I think that's more of a linguistics question than a spanish one. also the first one and the second one can be both correct depending on what you want to say, but I doubt the third one can be correct in any context.-- Cosmic girl 01:40, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
You are right, it would make more sense the other way, but I guess it's just like some things in english that I find illogical, but I can't remember one right now...maybe it's more of a 'sound' thing than a 'it should be this way' thing, you will in time get used to the language and it will seem natural. also, from your example, I guess the best thing to say it is Tengo hijos desde LOS veintisiete años, and that way you avoid the whole thing.-- Cosmic girl 16:24, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
Non-Australians might not understand the word 'furphy. It means a commonly held misconception about something; an untrue statement that has become accepted because nobody has challenged it yet, or if they have, most people haven't heard about it.
Politicians are fond of criticising the other side using the expression "That's the greatest furphy of all time". The expression is widely used outside politics as well. I'd be interested in knowing what people think, from their own experience, is "the greatest furphy of all time". JackofOz 06:13, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
What would the french words allume and eteint (sp?) mean, in the context of setup options for a dancing videogame? My options are A: Karaoke allume or B: Karaoke eteint.
Makes sense. Thanks a bunch.
does anyone know about www.cv21.co.uk......is it a secret advertising/design agency?
i have tryed to contact them but they do not reply.... as i have heard they work for free if you are the right client...
please advise as i would like to know if anyone has had any luck contacting them.
regards
Mr Hall (OBE)
Bantu are a large group of ethnic peoples in Africa. Halcatalyst 21:34, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
See the previous topic. You can actually do your own homework by entering these words in the search box at the left instead of asking here. Might save you some time. Halcatalyst 19:04, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
You mean Coup de grâce, a death blow. Halcatalyst 18:59, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
Does anyone have a good list of these in lots of different languages?-- 64.12.116.134 23:07, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
How do I access the Language reference desk archives? I have an answer for a question posted here a couple of weeks ago, asking about the origin of the name of the river Medina in the Isle of Wight. -- Halcatalyst 03:40, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
Hello
How would i write the phrase "God is watching" in aramaic?
Thanks
Ex: I take 200 newspaper articles and note (perhaps via a software program) how many instances of "male and female" occur as well as how many instances of "female and male." I collate and compare.
What the is the specific name for this type of analysis? That is, word frequency in compounds of the above sort? I'm bugged all to hell because I've forgotten. Marskell 13:28, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
Frequency analysis?? -- Shantavira 15:35, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
I believe sir, that corpus analysis and specifically collocation analysis were indeed the words my brain misfiled. Thank-you. As for the reasons behind the misfiling I blame beer ahead of aluminum... Marskell 18:39, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
Hi. Does anyone know where that phrase ("What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas") originated? Maybe it's really obvious, but I'm not that familiar with American popular culture. Also, I hope this is the right section for this question. If it's not, let's just say this question deals with etymology. Thanks in advance! -- Rueckk 17:19, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
Long before Lost Wages started using the phrase in their advertising, elite military units (such as the US Army Green Berets and Rangers and the US Navy Seals) had the informal code, "What happens in the military stays in the military." -- Halcatalyst 23:10, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
There was also a satire version of that ad:
"I just woke up in bed with a dead transvestite prostitute in my bed, which was covered with cocaine, along with 100 pounds of diamonds. I have no idea where any of it came from or how I got there."
"Hey, don't worry about it, whatever happens in Bangkok stays in Bangkok."
StuRat 17:39, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Are there any prominent supporters of the assertion that Science and Maths must be taught in a child's mother language (rather than in a 2nd language)? I've read it at places, but don't know that the mainstream position is. deeptrivia ( talk) 18:07, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the correct past tense of sneak: sneaked, or snuck? I mean, I'm going to use snuck regardless because it's cooler, but which is older? — Keenan Pepper 08:11, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
snuk | This user says snuck. |
In the Netherlands article someone changed 'dyke' to dike' because that would be "less giggle-worthy". I wondered if that would fit in with the EE the article is written in and Googling the two words for UK sites suggests that 'Dike' is in deed more common in EE. Is this true and does the spelling 'dike' indeed have less of a sexual connotation? DirkvdM 08:57, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
In reaction to a question above I'm curious if there is also a list of 'pleasantries' (or what should I call that?) in different languages. This would be especially beneficial to international (business) travellers who have no time to learn the local language (or version of it, such as with English). Knowing the right word to say in a certain situation can make contacts a lot smoother, even if you don't (porperly) speak the lingo. Such as when you you step on someone's toe, in Spanish the thing to say would be 'disculpame'. But what if you reach past someone in a shop, or when you want to ask someone something. In English the phrase would be 'Excuse me' (or rather 'pardon me' in the first ewxample?), but in other languages different phrases might be used for differnt situations and that could cause confusion. DirkvdM 09:38, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
We also have List of common phrases in various languages. Not exactly what you were looking for, but it has some of it. It's also not strictly the type of thing Wikipedia should carry, but it's stood against deletion a couple times I think. Better place would be Wikibooks. - Taxman Talk 20:12, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Try also the excellent list there if you are lost in the Middle earth. -- DLL 20:48, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
We are looking for people to translate the following into as many languages as possible.
Please go to the relevant Wiktionary page and place your translations there
|
|
Thanks, --
Dangherous
13:43, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
What could the word "muffin" mean, apart from the delicious food product? I ask, because in the film I just watched (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me), characters exchanged the dialogue
Jacques: I'm not Jacques. I am the Great Went! Laura: I am the muffin. Jacques: And what a muffin you got, eh?
Donna: "You want a muffin?." Laura: "Donna, you ARE a muffin."
_________
Some usages of 'muffin' in English slang-
→ P.MacUidhir (t) (c) 01:48, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the hebrew word for "sad"?
What is the difference between reflexive pronouns and intensive pronouns? 24.68.111.209 04:20, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Does anyone know where I could get some more specific IPA vowel charts for different varieties of English pronounciation? As it is right now the only one I can find (for English) is California English, which while similar to my (Toronto/International English) accent, is missing some vowel information that I need. Doesn't seem to be anything findable on Google either.
It makes it a lot easier to understand IPA if I can compare it with my own voice, and if I can have a good approximation (a 'Standard Canadian' chart would suffice, I've been accustomed to listening to Ottawaian hockey English since I was a child) then I can at least judge the IPA vowel symbols relative to my own pronounciation.
I can approximate a British, Californian, or Australian accent pretty well, but my accent tends to be slightly exaggerated so not too useful for IPA and I'm not sure what symbols to use for my breed of English, or where the vowels should be represented on the chart. freshgavin TALK 06:25, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Where did the idiom: to take ______ with a grain of salt came from? and what is the idea behind it?
Thanks!
Is a rhyming couplet in iambic pentameter coming at the end of a sonnet a "heroic couplet"? 204.108.96.18 23:37, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
What is the difference? Thanks.
Hi! I always though its "a" for a consanant and "an" for a vowel, but Word suggests "a unique" instead of "an unique". Also, on google, "a unique" is much more popular than "an unique". Please could someone explain which is right?
Thank you! -- 131.227.107.133 10:09, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
As for "hotel", I think some people regarded it as a foreign word, even spelling it "hôtel" and hence "an", but that would be regarded as an affectation by most people today.
Greetings,
I've searched the web and your site for a definition of this word. I don't want my friend (who's blog I'm reading now) to think I'm just an ingoramus. Could someone please define this word for me?
Thanks ..
I would agree with Prosfilaes in general, but it isn't always that cut and dry. I've encountered "apparatchiki" a lot in my literary travels, and I'd say it's just as accepted as "apparatchiks". As Blue Platypus says, many people don't know that "pirogi" is already plural, so when they talk about "pirogis", they're not aware they're re-pluralising. Same with the plural words "pirozhki", "bliny" and "zakuski" (the singulars for which are "pirozhok", "blin" and "zakusok", although the singular forms are little used). My head says that English words should have English plurals, no exceptions (but there are immediate problems there - "man" becomes "mans"). My heart says that would rob of us the invaluable cross-cultural richness for which English is renowned. All the same, that in itself is no argument for introducing new foreign plurals. JackofOz 02:13, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
It can depend on the context.
I believe the treatment of such words differs between American English and other, umm, British-y versions, such as Australian English. American English would treat both contexts as singular. LarryMac 20:21, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
Any word like 'trio', 'brigade', 'herd', etc. is defined as a singular COLLECTIVE noun, i.e. a singular term for a collection of people, objects, animals, etc., therefore requiring a singular verb to follow. The confusion arises with a word like 'trio' when it becomes synonymous in the speaker's/writer's mind with, for example, 'the three(of them)'. 'Trio' is in grammatical terms a singular collective noun, but any numeral greater than one indicates plurality and therefore requires a plural verb to follow, hence the confusion. I certainly make this kind of error in casual speech, as I suspect, do most British English speakers. I don't think the error is at all dependent on whether one is a speaker of a particular regional variety of English - Australian, Canadian, Indian, or whatever - unless one is extremely careful in one's speech (with a consequent tendency to sound pedantic or pompous). I think it's just a case of 'English as she is spoke'. 86.136.241.66 23:36, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
The last question got me thinking about something I've wondered about previously. Where a second subject that is plural appears in a bracket after a first subject that is singular, which should the predicate agree with? Ex:
I'd assume the former here but it's never been precisely clear to me. Marskell 15:41, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
The phrase in parentheses (brackets) is adding something to the main statement, but because of this is technically not part of the structure of the sentence it is 'outside of' the main statement. Test it this way - Version 1: 'Mary and her sisters ARE formidable language studentS.' Version 2: 'Mary is a formidable language student --- and so are her sisters!'
This would pattern in exactly the same way in both German and French. Here's the German:
Version 2:'Maria ist eine ausserordentliche Sprachstudentin - ihre Schwestern auch!' Version 1:'Maria und ihre Schwestern SIND ausserordentliche Sprachstudentinnen.' 86.136.241.66 23:52, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
How different is Scots from Welsh, and what's a good describing word for how Scots Gaelic sounds, esp. to someone who speaks a romance language or Welsh? 64.198.112.210 20:13, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
User:AlMac| (talk) 21:17, 31 January 2006 (UTC)