In Spanish, can this mean 'even if' or 'even then'? ( as in Tagalog- 'maske' or 'maske na')?-- Jondel 00:16, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
I don't see this in the dictionary. I can say 'Más que vivo (vive?) en Japon, no significa que hablo/e japones.' ?(Even if I live in Japan, this doesn't mean I can speak Japanese.) (feel free to correct)or 'Más que sea el presidente/dueño, no significa que no necessita trabajar.' (Even if I/he am the president/owner, this doesn't mean, I/he does'nt have to work.)-- Jondel 01:58, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the info Chris.-- Jondel 07:30, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks El aprendelenguas.-- Jondel 09:49, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Do you say:
1. The "number" or "numbers" of students who like different sports is/are given as: 23,40,33 etc..
3. The bar graph shows the "number" or "numbers" of students in 5 different classes.
4. Let's compare the "number" or "numbers" of tourists in three holiday resorts.
An authority says it is "number" but I think it's "numbers" in each case. How do you decide?
It's "numbers", definitely. There's more than one number in each of your 3 examples.
i'm plumping with the "authority" - regardless of how many students there are (in all cases) the number representing them is still singular. e.g you dont say "the numbers 50" but i doubt anyone would pull you up on it 87.194.20.253 19:58, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks everyone. We haven't arrived at any conclusion though. :)
This comes by way of a COP (now University of the Pacific) Honors Graduate; High School Math and Music Teacher, and Junior College Math Teacher. He also writes test problems for a well known publisher.
His reply to your question, as written -
If you are referring to one number, use the singular, "number".
If you are referring to more than one number, us the plural, "numbers".
Katiebugggg13 00:15, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Means a lot right? I proofread Japanese to English translations and this caused a lot of trouble since my Japanese boss's were insisting this meant 'quite few'.-- Jondel 04:21, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks SeizureDog and JackofOz.-- Jondel 07:29, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm moderately new to Japanese and I'm trying to make sure I have the pronunciation as good as possible, at least until I can meet a real Japanese person to help. Most of it is pretty straightforward, but I have a couple of rather subtle issues/questions.
Thanks for all your help. -- George 06:09, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
I have bought a chocolate named "MACADAMIA NUSS". All text on it is written in german which I dont understand. I am reproducing the part of text which I think is about its ingredients. Can someone please help me out by translating the text, which I think is German, to english (What does its name mean?).
Thank you in advance.
The text is as follows:
--Start of text--
Zuaten: Zucker, Kakaobutter, Vollmilchpulver, Macadamia-Nüsse (10%), Kakaomasse, Milchzucker, Haselnüsse, Magermilchpulver, Emulgator: Sojalecithin, Malzextrakt, Aroma.
Kann Spuren von Mandeln enthalten.
Kakao: 30% mindestens in der Milch-Schokolade.
--End of text--
There may be a spelling mistake or two. If you find any kindly ask me to retype the word. I want to know if any of the ingredients contains egg as I am a pure vegetarian. I wish to make it clear if before I enjoy the chocolate.
P.S.: It is Swiss Made.
-- Siddhant 10:22, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi everyone! In the French Wikipedia, somebody is asking us what a "pain in the sitter" means in English. Is that like a "pain in the ass" or something completely different and much more formal? :) Thank you very much.
I have always heard the term "ripped and snorted" as praise for tearing into a project and getting it done. (Example: Well now, you have just ripped and snorted on this paint job!) Friends say "ripped and snorted" comes from horse racing, as does the term "ripping and racing" now used to describe a very busy day. (Example: Whatcha doin? Rippin' and racin'!)
I was surprised that my usual search engines could not provide origin or meaning on "ripped and snorted." Can you?
Thanks for your time and attention.
e-mail removed
There may be a horse racing connection from the snorting noise a horse makes when it's flat out caused by the flaring or "cracking" of it's nostrils as it expands the folds of the nasal tissue to get maximum air through ,like the plaster strips American athletes use.Hope you can visualise this,if not listen to a horse after a hard race(often seen on TV,The Derby is coming up so an opportunity presents itself there.)---Hotclaws**==( 81.136.163.210 08:27, 2 June 2006 (UTC))
I spell You spell We all spell for ice cre.. wait nevermind
Which is correct: spelled or spelt. As in: You spelled/spelt that wrong. Is spelt just a shorthand way of saying spelled?
How is Ladakh (pronounced लद्दाख़) written in the Tibetan script (used in Ladakhi language.) Is ལདཁ correct? deeptrivia ( talk) 21:07, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
(moved from the Humanities Desk)
Why journeys and not journies? -- Username132 ( talk) 02:21, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
It pseudo prnounced "sudo" or "saydo"
(I changed your title to the correct spelling 82.131.189.233 16:27, 2 June 2006 (UTC))
Arabic http://www.royalaccord.com/images/arabic_text.gif http://www.royalaccord.com/images/arabic_table.gif and dutch?
DEN HELDER DUIK - EN BERGINGSBEDRIJF
Welkom bij Den Helder Duik en Bergingbedrijf. We zijn gevestigd aan de noordkust van Nederland en we zijn de nummer 1 duik- en bergings firma van het land. Met over 30 jaar ervaring in het bergen van schepen, onderwater onderzoek en industriele ervaring, moet je ons hebben wanneer je iets te bergen hebt.
Den Helder Duik en Bergingbedrijf is een fictieve website. Het is niet echt. Klik aub op de contact button bovenaan de pagina voor meer informatie. DUIKEN EN BERGEN Den Helder Duik
Duiken en Bergen zijn maar twee van de dingen die wij doen bij Den Helder Duik. Bovendien geven we advies op het gebied van onderwater boren, olie-platform onderhoud, kabelleggen en vele, vele andere gebieden.
DH: ERVARING IN BERGEN
We hebben ervaring in Bergen over de hele wereld, inclusief de Noordzee, de Atlantische Oceaan, de Indische Oceaan en de Middellandse zee. We hebben een emergency team dat overal op locatie kan zijn binnen 24 uur.
Den Helder Duik en Bergingsbedrijf is een fictieve website. Het is niet echt. Klik aub op de contact button bovenaan de pagina voor meer informatie Den Helder Duik en Berginsbedijf PROBLEEM AAN: GROOT OF KLEIN
We zijn trots op onze duik expertise. Met een team van 5 duikers, 8 ingenieurs, en 12 onderwater specialisten kunnen we elk probleem aan: groot of klein. We zijn altijd beschikbaar om onze klanten te woord te staan, 24 uur per dag. Daarom is den helder de eerste bergingsfirma met customer support.
Klik aub op de link rechts bovenin voor meer informatie over ons. Den Helder Duik en Berginsbedijf BOVENDIEN GEVEN...
Duiken en Bergen zijn maar twee van de dingen die wij doen bij Den Helder Bergen. Bovendien geven we advies op het gebied van onderwater boren, olie-platform onderhoud, kabelleggen en vele, vele andere gebieden. BERGINGSWERK IN DE NOORDZEE
Onze lokatie in Den Helder leent zich uitstekend voor bergingswerk in de Noordzee. Er zijn twee helikopter platforms in de buurt, waardoor onze ingenieurs en duikers snel bij vele van de olievelden in de buurt kunnen zijn.
Tevens bieden deze platforms een handig aankomstpunt voor onze vele internationale klanten
I don't have time to translate all of that but essentially it says they are a dive and salvaging company. Their location would be excellent for salvaging in the Nordic sea, they have two helicopter platforms neaarby, such that their engineers and divers can reach many of the nearby oil fields guickly. These platforms also serves as a convenient arrival point for many international clients Evilbu 10:42, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Doesn't it also say that the company is fictitious, and doesn't exist for real? deeptrivia ( talk) 21:09, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Maybe someone said sway-do because they were an idiot. Anyway, it's "soodo" in America.
Why do we say, "Let's go to McDonalds" but with the name of a hotel, for example, we say "Let's go to THE Hilton."?
the easy way to answer this is that there are unsaid, but implied, words. to decide how to address an institution, consider the unsaid words: Let's go to McDonald's (Restaurant); Let's go to the Hilton (Hotel), where McDonald's shows possession (Jim's place, Sam's car), whereas Hilton is a proper name on it's own, with its description or by its description alone (the Hilton, the Hilton Hotel, or the hotel). It is just as one might say the Police, the Police Station, or the Station.
another situation in which the implied words are considered to decide which word to use is in the case of the he/him - she/her and I/me dilemma. apparently american children are no longer taught how to know which is proper anymore, but it is very easy to figure out. just add in the implied, but unsaid, words, and the answer is clear. first of all, I/me always comes second. now let's see an example: "___ and ___ want to go home," or "they want to come home with ___ and ___." selecting from she/her and me/I, just add in the implied words and which word to use is obvious - she (wants to go home), and I want to go home, therefore, she and I want to go home. they want to come home with her, and (they want to come home with) me, therefore, they want to come home with her and me. easy, huh?
Thanks to everyone. You've been a big help! I'm gonna print this out for future reference.
"I'm trying to figure out what the problem is."
"I'm trying to figure out what is the problem."
I see #2 on the internet a lot but it seems wrong to me.
I would say "I'm trying to figure out what the problem is." or "I'm trying to figure out 'What is the problem?'", suggesting 'What is the problem' is a specific phrase I'm trying to figure out :-) English derives a lot of its meaning from the position of words. 'what is' indicates a question. Skittle 14:24, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks a lot! I think these responses are correct -- and fast, too :)
A little knowledge of German sheds a lot of light on this question, I think. In German, all subordinate clauses have their main verbs in final position. Thus in German you would say "I'm trying to figure out what the problem is" (in translation). English, as a Germanic language, has this grammatical feature, though it's not as strong. For example, you would say "I want to know whether he comes from Alabama". In this subordinate clause, the verb follows the subject, but precedes the rest of the clause. If you want to add an interrogative main clause, then it's "I want to know: does he come from Alabama?" In this case, the verb comes first. The question is only whether you want a subordinate clause or a main clause. The particular wording of the sentence under consideration suggests subordinate clause, so #1 is correct. - lethe talk + 23:05, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks to everyone for the help :) I really appreciate your time and effort.
I know if a verb in Spanish directly follows another, you conjugate the first one and leave the second one in the infinitive. But if there are three right next to each other, what do you do to the third one. Like for "I want to eat to live." How would you say that? Is "Quiero comer por vivir" correct? That's the only example I can think of. Any others? What would you do in those situations? Thanks. schyler 17:14, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
I picked up Spanish in the street and never learned how to use "lo" and "le" properly :( My formula has been to just copy the natives.
Hello everyone,
I'd very much like to know how to pronounce a certain character's name. She is featured at http://namco-ch.net/namco_x_capcom/character/index.php , second one from above (the blonde with a spear and pistol).
Here's the name image: http://namco-ch.net/namco_x_capcom/character/img/name_02.jpg
I'm not sure what kind of glyphs are those (Katakana, Kanji, etc). Can someone help me out? Thanks!
--Pedro.
I have heard this name, "Sunny Jim" used as a multi-purpose name referring to someone to whom the speaker is talking. It seems to be used primarily by speakers of British English. An example would be: "Listen here, Sunny Jim, I told you.....," as someone would call another person "Bubba," or "Toots," or whatever. Does anyone know the derivation of this expression? The only thing I can find is a reference to the jockey/trainer, Sunny Jim Fitz-something, but I haven't found anything explaining why his name might have been used in such a way. Thanks in advance for any help.
A friend of mine recently told me a story about how he had become insensed because of a journalist repeatedly using the term 'in hindsight'. He emailed the guy, explaining that he had got it wrong and that he should be using 'with the benifit of hindsight' instead. The journalist replied very quickly, and was most gracious, saying that he appreciated the feedback and that he would try not to fall into this 'faux amis' again. Or words to that effect. But the more I think about it, the more I feel that there is absolutely nothing wrong with 'in hindsight' and that 'with the benifit of' is just a flowery way of saying the same thing. Now I need some hard evidence to prove it! Any help would be hugely appreciated. Thanks.
I have searched for the meaning of this song "Si Vuelves Tu" but I don't exactly understand what it means. I would appreciate any help and it would satisfy the curiosity of one of my friends as well!
Thank You
"If You Return" (I don't know the meaning of the song 'cause I've never heard of it but that's what the title means :)
I'm searching for a word to describe the short nostril puff that is frequently used as a form of subdued laughter. It isn't correct to call it "laughter", nor "puffing", nor "exhalation". I'm sure everyone is familiar with this phenomenon, but I've never known of a word for it. Does one exist? Bhumiya ( said/ done) 03:08, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Ripsnort?---hotclaws**==( 81.136.163.210 07:36, 4 June 2006 (UTC))
I would go with "snigger" or "snicker" or an onomatopoeia like "pff". There is also the suppressed snort, as opposed to a blowing of soft air, which is also well known for a sarcastic suppressed laugh. Pff! The vagaries of man :) sandman
I've seen "hmmf" before but maybe in a different context. What do you guys think?
Other than as "Alpha Orionis", what is the correct way to pronounce this star's name? If I say "Bayt'l-zhurz" (as it would be in French) it's met with "oh, you mean Beetl-joos" (as in the Michael Keaton movie). if I say "Beetl-joos" it's met with "oh, Bettel-goyzer" (as in German - and presumably the original Arabic). So which is it? Grutness... wha? 08:08, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Well, I just looked it up in my dictionary, and it says we're all wrong. It says the primary stress can be on the first or last syllable, but that the last syllable rhymes with furs - "beetlejers". Henry Flower 09:49, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
There is no single correct way to pronounce the name. Different dictionaries give different pronunciations. I suggest you pick a pronunciation from a dictionary that you like and boldly use it. -- Cam 19:39, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Why can we say: "I'm going to Canada." "I'm going to school." but we can't say: "I'm going to home."
Latin does the same thing with the word for "home". It uses a vestigial locative case. It's such a common usage that I would accept that explanation for English as well. - lethe talk + 05:17, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
What is statistically the most common syllable to be stressed in most English words, e.g. the penultimate? the first syllable? etc.-- Sonjaaa 12:22, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
When people whose languages only have 5 vowels (aeiou), such as Spanish Japanese or many African languages, pronounce an English word like "word" or "bird" with a thick accent, which of these 5 vowels do they tend to prefer?
-- Sonjaaa 12:23, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
How is : Ho-Shang Kung written in traditional chinese ? ( He is a famous writer if a Tao Te Ching commentary ) Hhnnrr 13:31, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Thank you , but is this traditional or simplified ? Hhnnrr 21:07, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
I have recently been informed that Lit Present is appropriate when contributing to an article which summarizes fictional events. Such as in comic book articles. However, at what point do we intertwine Lit Present and Lit Past? Like some wikipedians who claim to be "professional writers" (even though in most cases there is no proof of these claims), I also hold a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing. Therefore, I feel my edits are valid ones. In most novels and fictional universe guides (Star Wars, Star Trek), past events are not summarized in present, but in past tense. I fail to see how it makes sense for all articles to reflect Lit Present, when the events being summarized are no longer current, but historical within the said fictional universe. I would be more than willing to site examples in order to resolve my concerns when I am contacted by an administrator who is a professional writer (such as a copy writer, technical writer, or even an editor). Thank you. Chee-sen 20:04, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
the thing happened during in my secondary school. my father have a good friend; he treat everyone friendship, I think I have a good uncil. but only my mother didn't like him. one day all of us set together eat lunch. my father said some about uncil's things, then mother said don't talk him, he eat neals in my familiy now month, he not honest, don't trust him. i heared this thing I'm very angry sag to my mother "why do you treat him in this way," and quarraled with my mother, I felt I have a selfish mother at now. I hatred her. I'm no cry, but mother's tear continue at eye. she didn't said anything. suddently, I felt I hurt my mother's heart. All house in silence, A moment, Father and old sister see me same time. The moment I felt I wrong . Two day ago , mother didn't say anything with me. m heart very uncomfortable.. I realized I lose mother love the world change not perfact for me.
Mother love is great . If you have terible, no people can always help you . except mother and father. they heart always for you.
please, giveing same love to you parents. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Linyuan89 ( talk • contribs)
I am attempting to add a translation of some quoted latin text to a stub I just created from the catholic encyclopedia. Looking at the article might give your some context for the translation: Alphonso de Spina.
The text is: Incipit prohemium Fortalitii Fidei conscriptum per quendam Doctorem eximium ordinis minorum anno MCCCCLIX in partibus occidentis. Which I have word for word looked at with a latin dictionary; best I can make out, given context is something like: "Beginning in 1459, in order to prevent the faithful from falling into perfidy, I present my excellent teachings in the battle against the menace" (of hell I presume). I'm sure that contains a bit of the gist but is quite wrong. Any help appreciated.-- Fuhghettaboutit
I dunno where to put this, so I'll put it here. What is it called when you see a word so much that it doesn't look like a word any more? Vitriol 04:03, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
I for one,appreciate a kindly spelling/grammar correction ..hotclaws**==( 81.136.163.210 08:57, 6 June 2006 (UTC))
Just wondering, you seem to have used the word "sie" for "she" on three different occasions in the same paragraph, making it extremely unlikely to be a typo. Was there some particular point that you are trying to make by using "sie" instead of "she"? Perhaps you'd like to introduce the German version of the pronoun into English? Just curious. Loomis51 01:39, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
Can someone please translate this article into English from French-- [ [3]] on Georges Sagnac.
As English wikipedia does not have an article on it, I can create it after translation.
Thank You in Advance.
P.S.-Please also copy the translated text on my user page.
-- Siddhant 07:00, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
I don't really have the time (and both languages aren't my native either) so I won't do the translation. But "des ammées 70" doesn't look too correct.
Does the following sentence require a question mark at the end? "In practice, the question facing us is how are we to know how many roads a man must walk down." -- Shantavira 13:00, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
What is the origin of the phrase "It's good to be king"? When was it first used? Does it pre-date Mel Brooks? 198.134.2.62 19:55, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
Moved by JackofOz from Wikipedia Talk:Reference Desk
In Classical Latin, could anyone please tell me if the word "pro" takes the ablative; I am thinking, in particular, of Newman's Apologia pro vita sua. If so, what would the ablative be for the word opus!
Thank you in advance!
Now that we are talking about ablative : is there a difference in pronuncation between vita sua in ablative? Evilbu 14:05, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
Hmm, I think I am mostly interested in classical Latin. My books often explicitly wrote , but actually WRITING that difference is "not done" right? Evilbu 18:25, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
So it wasn't just my book that did that, thanks. About the ā I was wondering how you did it, I though perhaps one of the (few!) disadvantages of Azerty :) Evilbu 09:31, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I know a word exists to describe using a brand name instead of a proper name (for example Hoover instead of vacuum cleaner, sellotape instead of stickytape, tippex instead of corrrection fluid etc). But I can not recall what the word is. Any ideas? thanks
what does gross domestic readership skills mean and its significance to developing countries?
I'm looking for ancient words for the word healer, preferably from English/Northern European roots. Could you also include pronunciation? Many thanks..
The phrase "in the underground/subway": is it "in den U-Bahn" or "in der U-Bahn"? It seems to me that U-Bahn would be in the dative case (and therefore "in den"), but a sentence in
this wikipedia.de article disagrees. I google-d wikipedia.de and both forms seem to be prevalent. --
Doug (
talk)
19:00, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
It is "die U-Bahn" in nominative, thus feminine. "In der U-bahn", that is a dative.
Evilbu 19:16, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
And "in den U-Bahnen" that would be correct too right? Evilbu 19:21, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
http://www.royalaccord.com/images/arabic_text.gif
What percentage of Quebec City speak French at home?
i need some help with the meanings of a few last names. Castellucci is one of them and Gronski is the other.-thank you
I 'm trying to learn Latin, French, Spanish, and other languages. What I need is to hear conversations in those languages and I frequently search video.yahoo.com and video.google.com. Are there any other free audios in those langauges ? Not much for the classical latin though. -- Jondel 06:18, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Gratias ago!-- Jondel 23:27, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Beware that since everyone that once spoke Classical Latin died before Bell invented sound recording, no one really knows 100% how Latin sounded. So there are two competing traditions in how to pronounce Latin, a Germanic inspired one, and a pronounication that sounds like modern italian. H@r@ld 11:03, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
That would be if gratia is a verb, for the noun ' gratia', 'gratias'-plural, and 'ago'(agere)-- Jondel 04:09, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
I was just wondering what kind of languages children/adults normally learn in Japan. Japan is quite a modern country and has a decent educational system. One might expect that they another language at school?
My uncle who has been to Japan tells me that one can be quite lost there as a foreigner. Not only are even in airports most signs only in the Japanese writing system, most people there don't know any English.
I must say, when i watch Japanese manga (as my names suggests I like to do that :) ), I sometimes have doubts too. In Neon Genesis Evangelion they speak of "the fifth children" for instance. Isn't there anyone who notices such a thing during production. Sometimes when some parts of a song are in English, I don't hear it because it is pronounced in such a weird way.
Could it be that, regardless of economic status a foreigner like me (Dutch speaking but with some French/English abilities) is actually better off in Asian countries like Vietnam or China than Japan?
Evilbu 18:23, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Hmm, usually the number of years is quite a good indicator...although my best language is not the one I had to study the most.
I've had two years of German which was a joke. Is it comparable?
They don't try to speak the language although they can perfect the grammar. I live in Tokyo and studied Spanish. My Japanese classmates perfected the grammar specially in tests but I could speak the language to get by. They are too conscious of mistakes that they would make. They have what they term Japanese-complex , something like inferiority complex when outside of Japan or when not speaking EnglishJapanese. Yes they study English throughout their school life but they prefer not to use English.--
Jondel
02:43, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
I teach English in a Japanese high school, and I find that in many cases, Japanese students' only desire with regard to English is to learn enough to pass tests and get into University. Beyond that, they aren't interested. So for the majority, they learn rules and vocabulary without learning to communicate. Plus Jondel is right in that many students don't try to do stuff for fear of making a mistake and looking foolish in front of their peers. Even so, English is a lot more commonly studied than other languages. I would, however, take issue with what you say about the lack of English in airports, etc. All the Japanese airports I've been in (Narita and Centrair) had most signs in English (some in Thai, Chinese and Spanish too), and I had no trouble finding my way around the country when I first arrived and spoke no Japanese. I live in a fairly rural area and signs on the road and at railway stations are all in both English and Japanese, and the announcements on trains are translated into English too. I'd say it's a fairly easy country in which to get around. Phileas 04:49, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
Some languages use the word "tanga" for a thong or G-string underwear. What is the etymology of this term "tanga"?-- Sonjaaa 18:34, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Many thanx,I knew it was nothing to do with the pop but never did know the origin( hotclaws**== 12:42, 9 June 2006 (UTC))
What is the Greek word for someone who has a fascination with some animals? For example, ants. "Myrmecophile" could be seen as implying a sexual desire for ants, which is not what I'm talking about. "Myrmecomaniac", OTOH, could be seen as implying an all-encompassing obsession with ants, which won't do either. What I mean is a person who enjoys learning things about ants and observing ants in nature. JIP | Talk 18:45, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Czech has seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, locative, and instrumental. I was wondering which case corresponds to the preposition "od", meaning from. My guess would be dative, but I could imagine it being genitive or instrumental as well. I thought I'd check here before I go in search of Czech-speaking Wikipedians. Thanks! Bhumiya ( said/ done) 19:53, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Encouraged by those quick responses, I have another question about the pronunciation of the short vowels. Are "y" and "i" always pronounced as in "tick", even at the end of a word? And what exactly is the pronunciation of "u"? I've been told that it rhymes with "book". Bhumiya ( said/ done) 23:35, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Wow, I'm learning things myself from this. :-) I wonder if there is actually someone who knows Czech out there who can back me up on this... - THE GREAT GAVINI { T- C} 20:02, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
I thought Czech has only five vowel phonemes. The difference between i/y and í/ý is a matter of vowel length and not a different vowel. That's the impression I gather from a Czech recording I'm listening to. -- Chris S. 06:59, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi, could someone translate this to English for me please?
"In Italia non esiste una lega professionistica ma dilettantistica di lacrosse, Roma lacrosse club fondata da Robert Corna. Inoltre esiste l'inter-crosse, gioco simile al lacrosse, giocato però in spazi piccoli e chiusi. Si gioca tra 4 squadre, tutte della Provincia di Lecco (Lecco, Vercurago, Merate e Olginate)."
It's from it:Lacrosse#In Italia. Thanks! -- Yarnalgo 01:42, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
I am having trouble finding reference to this phrase in a style / grammar guide.
Which is correct? ("Make sure to..." sounds better to me, but I cannot find anything definitive).
It may not make sense, but it is widely used. Still, I would always prefer "to". Bhumiya ( said/ done) 05:10, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
What is the most widely spoken form of sign language (as in 'deaf sign") and how many people are fluent in it (and in sign languages generally)? There doesn't seem to be any information about the demographics at either sign language or list of sign languages... My guess is American Sign Language, which is listed as having upwards of 500,000 users. Grutness... wha? 10:20, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
There is a 1982 papal decree entitle "Ut Sit". What does "Ut Sit" mean?-- Alecmconroy 15:31, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
Prince Chu Tsai-Yu first calculated the twelfth root of two in his treatise lu lu ching i or "a clear explanation of that which concerns the lu". What are the tones of lu lu ching i? What other transliterations are possible for lu lu ching i and Chu Tsai-Yu? I've seen the name of the instrument spelled lü, with an umlaut. Is the umlaut correct? Does it mean anything? — Keenan Pepper 00:12, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Also, what is the modern name of the lu? Is it one of the instruments at Traditional Chinese musical instruments#Bamboo (竹)? — Keenan Pepper 00:32, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Can I say, 'Ojala que me dijieras más antes/temprano.' for 'I wish you told me earlier.' ?-- Jondel 01:13, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
I asked a chilena at a store down the street and got 'Hubiera sido mejor que me dijera antes.' Thanks myself... and uh others who will participate.Ojala is used only with the future or hopes, etc. I wonder if Ishould do more of this one man conversation. :D -- Jondel 03:52, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
If you wanted to use Ojalá, it's best to use it in the future -- "I hope that you will tell me afterwards", Ojalá que me digas después. User:Zoe| (talk) 17:04, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Mil gracias, Zoe and Draeco.-- Jondel 05:27, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
Other use of the word is: -are you going on vacation this summer? -I wish! (-¿Te vas de vacaciones este verano? -¡Ojalá!) I hope it helps, and it isn't too late ;)"
What's a word that is the same in both German and English, doesn't need to be translated into either, is 5 letters long, and has the letter "A" and "W."
"Aaaww! meaning an exclaimation when you see something cute( hotclaws**== 12:48, 9 June 2006 (UTC))
How would one say "system-on-a-chip" in Spanish? 198.237.142.5 18:01, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
You probably want Circuito Integrado para Aplicaciones Especificas. That's the title of the Spanish article on Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). -- Halcatalyst 18:28, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello. I work in a television newsroom ( WNEP-TV), and it seems the language is not keeping up with technology. Several decades ago, our photographers shot on film, and as a gerund verb they were said to be filming something. With the advent of videotape, the photographers would be taping their news stories. Recently we got rid of tape, and are now using video discs. (They are similar in appearance to DVDs and CDs, but formatted for higher-quality video.) My question is, does this now require a new verb form, disc-ing? — Michael J 22:11, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Talk:Saddam Hussein/naming has a long discussion over whether or not Saddam Hussein should be referred to as Saddam or Hussein (or al-Tikriti). Based on that precedent, shouldn't we be referring to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as "Abu Musab"? (I have also listed this at the Village Pump). User:Zoe| (talk) 22:26, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm not sure whether to post this here or in the Science section, as it appears that it can apply to both.
When writing, I have the odd habit of occasionally, but often enough that I'm curious, skipping either the first or last letter of a word that I'm writing.
For example, when writing the word "WIKIPEDIA", (I tend to always print in capital block letters and never use cursive, the reason for which is a whole other story for a whole different question) although I'd usually get it right, an unusual number of times I'd look at the page and see: "IKIPEDIA" or "WIKIPEDI". The same goes for numbers like telephone numbers, which is far more problematic, as it can be maddening to look up someone's number that I've jotted down and find that I'm one digit short!
The problem isn't all that serious, merely an inconvenience at times. I'm just wondering if this is a common enough phenomenon for which perhaps there is even a name, or if this is simply my own, personal, unique habit that few if any others tend to experience. Loomis51 00:01, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
I think these things are just results of being distracted. The mind will do all sorts of patchwork and omission when you're concentrating on too many things at once, as is common the U.S. and Western Europe. That's why we have editors. - LambaJan 03:51, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
I was looking at a French-English dictionary, and I saw they had to explain what these games were because it said people in France never played it. So my questions are: 1. Do (at least some) French people have any knowledge of these games and how they are played? 2. Is it just in France or are these games specific to few countries. 3. I'm sure the translation for "netball" would follow the same pattern as other -ball games (i.e. remain the same in French) but would "rounders" be given another name? If not, would the pronounciation be anglicized or would it follow the pronouncation as if it were a French word? -- Bearbear 16:26, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
Is whirled a homophone of world? Are there any more? Patchouli 17:59, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
It's mixed in northeast Ohio. Most say them both as 'world' while enough preserve the 'h' sound of the 'wh' so that you're not surprised to hear 'whirled' or 'while' or 'wheel' etc. pronounced with a noticably different 'wh' sound. - LambaJan 03:55, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Why do we use those two terms? Why not do-evilers or gooddoers? -- Zemyla t 21:47, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
This has been bugging me for a long time now, but what is the exact Japanese phrase that is often translated as "just kidding"? Examples of the phrase in use are:
The best I can get is nanten ne (難点ね), which would be something like "you're so weak (gullible)". I'm not certain of what exactly they're saying though, which makes this really hard for me to translate on my own. Would like romaji and kanji of what is being said please. --
SeizureDog
03:22, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
She is saying nan te ne (何てね). -- Kusunose 13:41, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
Is there a term for the dismissal or deposition of a nobleman, e.g. an earl, duke, marquis, etc, analogous to the term "defrocking"? Bhumiya ( said/ done) 04:40, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
I am stedent of Ninth class my name is Zubair and I have a question about the english language I have need easy vacabulary and those words are use our daily life and mostly sentences. I have hope that you give give me a suggestion about that and tell me about that how can I improve English language more my pronounciation is week how can I Improve this skill. Thankyou Sir Bye —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 22:37, June 10, 2006 ( talk • contribs) 80.247.152.67.
...The BBC broadcast programs on the World service which can be listened to on the radio and computer and many people use it to improve their English by listening to it.( hotclaws**== 11:38, 12 June 2006 (UTC))
Which is the correct use of the word also
are they all correct in their respective languages (american/british english) or is one a colloquialism, or something. Philc T E C I 16:17, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
I think 3 is fine. It's a bit more emphatic. Maybe, it requires commas or pauses on both sides of the also mnewmanqc
i'd say 1) sounds like what you often hear non-natives (especially scandanavians) say so i for one have come to accept it as normal even though deep down i know its probably not. 3 and 4 dont really work as stand-alone sentences but could be shoe-horned in somewhere. i'm plumping for number 2 but who knows!
87.194.20.253
00:30, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
What does a student do with an examination? Does he "give the exam" or "take the exam" or "sit for the exam" or "participate in the exam" or ...?
Also, what happens when he succeeds? Does he "pass the exam" or "be successful in the exam" or "qualify the exam" or ...? I get the feeling that "qualifying an exam" is a peculiar result of translation from some Indian language, because (1) I hear it very often, but it sounds odd to me (2) most search-engine results for "qualify {an|the} exam[ination]" are pages from India.
How do I type ellipses? Shreevatsa 05:01, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
Do people in some cultures differentiate granny from grandma, likewise grandpa from grandad, to address mother's parent and father's repsectively? Or was it just my imagination? --Chan Tai Man 09:00, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
In Swedish, yes. Grandfather is farfar (father's father; paternal grandfather) and morfar (mother's father; maternal grandfather). Then, as you can probably guess, the words for grandmother are mormor and farmor. -- Chris S. 23:37, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
In most Indian languages, yes. Like in Hindi 'Dada' and 'Dadi' are paternal grandparents and 'nana' and 'nani' are maternal grandparents. In most Indian cultures there are a hundred different names for all the uncles and aunts too :P -- Siddyjain 06:34, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
In Chinese there's different phrases for both mother's parents and father parent's, but I can't remember the exact phrase right now.... Wizrdwarts ( T| C) 22:12, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello all. A question - when it comes to articles on animals, the standard policy seems to be to have the general animal in lower case (such as: dog, shark, bear, toad), and capitalise specific animal species (such as: Great Dane, Great White Shark, Grizzly Bear, Cane Toad). So, my question is thus: a) is this right? Not all the articles are in this form (see, for example polar bear). b) The platypus article - should platypus be in lower case, or upper case? Is it "platypus" or "Platypus"? My instinct says lower case, because upper case just looks wrong, but the people who edited the article reverted me when I changed it. Proto|| type 11:01, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
BluePlatypus, given your well-known views about the absurdities of English spelling, I'm surprised that you have no objections to the use of a Latin plural for "an English word", and one that's not even of Latin derivation. If established usage makes platypi an OK plural of platypus, why doesn't the "established usage" argument satisfy you when it comes to apparently crazy spellings of English words generally? :--) JackofOz 02:37, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
The word in chinese language for word in English "Vegetarian" —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.177.11.134 ( talk • contribs) 07:42, June 12, 2006 (UTC)
I doubt it's one word. Yanwen 20:54, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
I doubt whether the chinese even have a word for 'vegetarian'. -- Siddyjain 06:30, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm wondering if, even if there is a roughly equivilent word, that the definition carries over culturally. I say this because I'm under the impression that the Chinese generally don't consider fish to be on the same level as other meat and could therefore consider someone who eats fish but no other animal meats to be a vegetarian. This is not the soundest bit of information, but it seems to be supported anecdotally in my own experiences. - LambaJan 04:09, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
I need to find out if Josephus works are available in the Spanish language, and if so, where can I get copies of it.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.33.108.186 ( talk • contribs) 22:36, 12 June 2006.
Is there a well known Korean tongue twister that focuses on the "ch" syllable? -- HappyCamper 02:39, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
The Korean Wikipedia has a list of tongue twisters. Gdr 09:08, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Wassup, peeps. What in the world are these "rape rooms" I hear so much about whenever people talk about Iraq? I tried searching Google, and came up with three kinds of webpages: Bush talking about shutting down the rape rooms, porn sites making their own rape rooms (in reality, presumably consensual-sexual-intercourse-with-adequate-minimum-wage-or-other-compensation rooms), and one question site with somebody asking this exact same question, and a bunch of other people attempting (and failing) to answer. Black Carrot 03:21, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
Yo, peeps, maybe it's so hard to find info on these apparently government sanctioned "rape rooms" because they simply DON'T EXIST. Yes, rape, and "rape rooms" may indeed exist, but not every bad thing in the world is the responsibility and creation of mean old George W. I know to many, the current president of the US is, quite plainly, the source of all evil. If that's your position, peeps, I'm sorry, but I'm sure I can't convince you otherwise. Loomis51 01:11, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Oh, and do you know of any Italian surnames that don't end in a vowel? Black Carrot 03:25, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
A lot of Italian names of Roman origin don't end in vowels, such as "De Laurentiis". -- 66.54.184.41 18:36, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
Sometimes while writing (not typing) I often start writing a 'b' instead of a 'p' and i start writing 'd' instead of 'g' (like after the circle thing I draw a line upwards instead of downwards). Is this normal? This has only started happening recently like from 2 years ago. Am I strange or what? -- Siddyjain 06:27, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
All this writing behaviour sounds normal to me but I'm dyslexic Maybe it's mini-dyslexia? a mild form? I'm not being sarcastic( hotclaws**== 12:41, 13 June 2006 (UTC))I typed "behind " by mistake,sometimes dyslexia is fun
Hi,
If I am correct, "die Faust" is a feminine noun in German, for 'the fist'
But what is the plurar
die fauste, die fausten, die fäusten?
Thanks Evilbu 19:27, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks. So when Wolff Biermann sings about "aus die Fäusten", a dative must be used? In that case I was just confused, because for accusative, nouns themselves do not change. Evilbu 17:00, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
I presume that during the First Crusade, the Seljuk Turks spoke some form of Turkish, while the Crusaders spoke Old French, Old High German, and other such languages, and the Byzantines spoke some form of Medieval Greek. Would there have been a lingua franca for all the Crusaders? Was one language dominant? And if the Crusaders ever communicated with their Turkish enemies, what language would they have used? Latin? Greek? French? Also, during the Third Crusade, it is known that Saladin and Richard I of England exchanged letters and established treaties. What language did they use for their correspondence? Bhumiya ( said/ done) 21:09, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
My name I go by is the same as my Username (Schyler). I was wondering what it means/where it comes from. My family came from Denmark in the late 18th century and Schyler was also my Great Great Grandfather's name. I have always been told it means wealth or close to that, but I don't know. It is pronounced "Shy" (like timid) and then "ler" By the way, what is a person from Denmark called? Danish? And what do they speak? Dutch? Thanks. schyler 23:43, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
A person from Denmark is a Dane, they speak Danish (not sure if spelling is right). If your name is Germanic it is pronounced "shy" "ler." Emmett5 00:12, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Thank you. I deliberately didn't use Google because I was sure it wouldn't return anything. Thank you again. schyler 02:33, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
I would like to point out that Dutch is not only spoken in the Netherlands, but also in neighbouring Belgium (in the northern part Flanders) and in Suriname. Five million compared to 16 million definitely makes us significant. Actually every Wikipedia article about a country gives a list of languages spoken there? Evilbu 17:04, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Ah. It's a female name. It turns out that it was also my great great great grandmother's name, so that's where my great great grandfather got it. Thanks you. schyler 21:52, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Please, any Korean or someone who knows Korean, what are the Hanji characters of Sinanju? I can write the first新 and last州 but not the middle.-- Jondel 00:21, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
what is the longest word in spanish?
English and some other languages have some words which include a prefixed letter e (or maybe i) in front of a word root that likely begins with the letter s. Examples in English: the words estrange, estop, escrow. I am trying to remember what this prepended letter e (or i) is called. BillWhite 14:19, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
So it's a prothetic e, then. I attended a class about 39 years ago in which a teacher of Italian must have referred to a "prothetic i" (yes, i, actually), and I have tried ever since to pin down that word. Thank you very much indeed. BillWhite 16:02, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello,
My name is Xander Lorenz, and I'll get to the point. I am dating a wonderful young lady of Italian decent. Her mother still lives in Italy and her father goes to visit regularly. I am planning to ask this amazing girl to marry me and I thought it would be nice to ask her fathers permission in Italian. I don't want to spend the money on an entire Italian language resource for just a few sentences, so if you could help I would be MOST appreciative. I need to know how to say, "Mr. Velardo, I would like your permission to ask your daughter to be my wife". Also, how would I ask her as well? "Wendy, will you marry me?"
I know that these quick phrases would help make the moment that much more memorable. Please help if you can, and if not, could you point me in the right direction? I am planning on asking her THIS weekend, the 16th-18th while we take a short vacation. This isn't last minute, I've been scouring the internet for weeks to find a translator program or something, but to no avail. You are my last hope!!!
Forever in your debt,
The hopeful bride-groom, Xander Lorenz
ANYONE out there!!!! can you help me???????????? PLEASE!!!!!!!
Hi,
when you write French, you have to take genders into account.
I am sorry. = Je suis désolé. (for a man)
= Je suis désolée. (for a woman)
But if I am not mistaking, you actually hear it too when talking :
I am strong. = Je suis fort. (for a man)
= Je suis forte.(for a woman)
This is correct, right? Now I was wondering, what other languages have this too? I don't know any other language (except Latin perhaps) that does this (I know Dutch, English and enough German to know it doesn't do it either.)
And by the way : isn't this very hard to teach a child. Usually you learn talking by hearing conversations between other people, and by being talked to. But if you are a boy and you have a sister, wouldn't you find it very confusing that what you say isn't necessarily correct for your sister. And suppose you are a girl living in all female family, doesn't that profoundly influence your language?
Well, those are my questions, I've been learning French for eight years but I never realised that this is quite unique. Evilbu 17:11, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Many Romance languages (possibly all) only have two gender forms for nouns: masculine and feminine. Therefore, most nouns inherently indicate gender. In Spanish (maybe others, too), many adjectives also recieve gender, so to say "You are excited" in Spanish becomes "Estás emocionado" or "You are excited for a man." Spanish has the distinct advantage that adjectives only recieve gender if they end in a or o and that o endings are always masculine (for adjectives) and a endings are always feminine (again, for adjectives). Emmett5 17:24, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Semitic languages have gender distinctions in finite verbs (not just adjectives and pronouns), and for both 2nd and 3rd persons. Korean and Japanese don't have grammatical gender at all (as far as I'm aware), but do have somewhat well-defined masculine vs. feminine manners of speaking -- in Japanese this includes the use of more honorific forms by women, and the use of somewhat different pronoun forms and sentence-final grammatical particles by men vs. women (though such distinctions are partially breaking down in recent years). AnonMoos 19:42, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
I checked the article on pirates, but it only partially answered my question. The article pointed out that much of what we believe in today of pirates in centuries past is fiction. However these pirates did exist, and whatever fictional depiction we have of them must have been at least partially influenced by fact.
What I'm curious about specifically is that peculiar accent pirates always seem to be depicted as having. As in: "Arr, matey!", "Yo ho ho and a bottle o' rum" (actually I think that one was made up by Robert Louis Stephenson in his Treasure Island). In any case I'm sure there was a good degree of reality to it (the accent at least). The accent actually seems mostly English (as in English English,) but of what regional accent I don't know. It also seems to have a bit of a tinge of Irish English, but that I'm not entirely sure about.
Of course not all pirates of that period were even English speakers, as many other seafairing nations had no doubt produced their fair share of pirates. In any case, in the case of English speaking pirates, if this is indeed a specific regional dialect of English, why would that region have had such a strong influence on pirate "culture"? Loomis51 18:42, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
When I was a kid, school books even frightened us, with stories about pirates in the past who would show no mercy what so ever. I one heard a story about pirates cutting off hands of victims then tying them to a pole with honey all over them and finally leaving them for the bees to come. Was this complete and utter fiction then? Evilbu 08:43, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
I heard once, from a less than reliable source, that it was one particular actor's bad imitation of a Welsh English accent in one famous pirate movie that started the ARRRRR thing. moink 01:43, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
What is the difference between judgement and opinion?
THank you.
See the wiktionary entries for judgement and opinion. Emmett5 22:58, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
In legal proceedings in the USA, a judgement is the court's ruling. An opinion is the explanation of a court's ruling.
I was browsing through the Manual of Style in the section about English language variants ( British, American, Australian, etc.), and a question came to me. Are there such variants in other languages? For example, are there significant differences between Iberian Spanish and Latin American Spanish? Or Iberian Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese? French spoken in Canada and French spoken in France? Or other languages spoken in different parts of the world? The articles on these languages didn't seem to address this issue. (Or maybe I missed it.) — Michael J 21:35, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
As for Canadian French, there's certainly quite a difference between it and French French. (Too bad, unlike English English, French French is in red. It would be interesting to have at least some discussion on the difference between the French spoken in France and that spoken in other francophone countries. I realize it's not nearly as relevant as English English, but it would still be interesting).
I'm not quite sure what degree of difference you're looking for, so it's kind of hard to answer your question. In any case, don't hesitate to follow up with a more specific question about Canadian French, I'd be more than pleased to answer. Loomis51 22:55, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
I am looking for a translation of the name/referrent "Sara(h) of Tyre" "Sara(h)the Tyrian" "The Tyrian, Sara(h)" "Tyrian Sara(h)" or any reasonable phrase that denotes an un-married woman named Sara(h) who is designated as having lived in, or been born in Tyre (in modern Lebanon) anytime between 300 and 1500 CE. I haven't been able to find out how to formulate the name in either modern or medieval Welsh. Thank you very much for your help.
i am desperately searching for a translation from elglish into ancient aramaic. the passage comes from the book of revelations and it reads "I AM THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA, THE FIRST AND LAST, THE BEGINNING AND THE END." i have been searching in vein for a fair while but due to the fact that i am about as computer literate as a monkey with a keyboard up its bum, i am not having much luck. any help in this matter would be massivly helpful.
Howdy, In diplomatic messages the wording appears to be of vital importance in the sense of, if a country is "concerned" about the behavior of another nation, it means, ho-hum. If on the otherhand they state that they are "gravely concerned", it means that the bombers are already in the air. Or something to that matter. What I am looking for is a glossery, dictionary, listing, of what the words and wording used and heard in daily newsbroadcasts really mean.
Kindly tell me what we say "mundan"(means a baby first hair cut) in English
Also — besides the hatred of babies (-: — there's no religious/cultural significance to a baby's first haircut in the UK/England. Probably not in the rest of Europe, either. Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong. — vijay ( Talk) 14:15, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
Tonsure?
deeptrivia (
talk)
14:46, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
By the way, we have a whole first haircut article describing practices in different cultures.-- Pharos 10:35, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
Do any other languages besides English allow for spelling bees? I mean, having a spelling bee in Spanish or Italian would just be silly, but I'm sure there are other languages with less regular orthography, right? What about, say, Chinese? Do they have competitions in which children try to remember the right characters or something? The article has interlanguage links to Danish and Chinese, but the Chinese article looks like it's about English-language spelling bees. — Keenan Pepper 14:11, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
In France, Bernard Pivot has his dictées on
TV (e.g.). This is a short example that you can hear and type on line : "La ronde des mots
Dans toutes les langues, jouer avec les mots est un passe-temps fort agréable, à la portée de tout le monde, des blancs-becs, des rimailleurs, des étudiants, comme des linguistes chevronnés et des académiciens tout de vert vêtus. Les mots sont des amis fidèles, des serviteurs zélés, qui se sont toujours prêtés à nos fantaisies, à nos manigances, à nos acrobaties intellectuelles. Les mots sont des cailloux, des bijoux, des cachous, des joujoux.
Sauf homonymie, chaque mot a un son qui n’appartient qu’à lui. Il y a des mots moelleux et des mots âpres. Des mots bien-aimés et des mots dont la réputation est détestable. Des mots vifs comme des libellules et des mots lourds comme des hippopotames. Des mots discrets comme des violettes et des mots m’as-tu-vu. Mais, quels qu’ils soient, tous les mots, même ceux qui désignent les maux les plus effroyables de l’humanité, méritent d’être connus. A nous de faire prospérer ceux qui nous font honneur." --
DLL
22:15, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
Dictations are also a popular exercise in Spanish schools. -- RiseRover| talk 13:36, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi
We are looking for the origin of the phrase or cliche "scare the living daylights out of someone". If you could help us to determine from what this quote came from, that would be great!
Thank you
Is the German word "Penner" acceptable for daily use? I learnt it as the word for a homeless-person used in daily language in preference to the more formal "obdachloser" or Wohnungsloser". I have science been told however that it is derogatory and insulting. which word is preferable for daily use and which for formal use? Ken 17:53, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
How do I download fonts for non-Roman characters in Wikipedia? I'm still getting some of those "little squares" instead of the proper character.
I am writing about characters who lived during the 1930's all over the world. Specifically, I wonder when the usage of the word "joshing" (meaning kidding someone or teasing them) came about. Also, if it was used in the US or the UK or both. Any information about where I can go for time periods certain words or phrases were used would be extremely helpful. Thanks so much in advance for the help.
Is it a eulogy, or an eulogy? "A" sounds right, but my teacher said it was "an" because of the vowel. Thanks! 70.111.251.199 19:55, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
Similarly, I run into people who write "an history" which confuses the heck out of me, since it is neither written starting with a vowel, nor (in my pronunciation) is the "h" silent. Is the "h" silent in any other variety of English? moink 22:59, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
Is it true that the s in Corps is always silent even when we say,"two US Marine Corps divisions?" Patchouli 20:46, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I would like to know the meaning of the expression "ass over teakettle" (or "tea kettle").
I was first looking for this other one, "head over feet," from the Alanis Morissette's song, but read it's actually "head over heels." I read a couple of definitions and asked my english professor for a more accurate definition, which I got, but he was not able to tell the meaning of "ass over teakettle," nor did other teachers.
I would appreciate if someone posted information about its origin, context in which to use it and a sentence using the phrase as an example on how to use it. Thanks! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 201.235.201.70 ( talk • contribs) .
Another similar phrase is "ass backwards," which has nearly the same meaning but is of odder origin - after all, the ass is supposed to be backwards, right? (Read Part 4 of Gravity's Rainbow for an interesting/funny discussion about that.) zafiroblue05 | Talk 21:06, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
someone who thrives on the adrenalin rush, not in a sexual way (so sado-masochist is out as a descriptor), and not in a pathological sense either (so sociopath is not the word I need). Just a word to describe someone who's tough, can fight and can take a punch. Not situational, so boxing terms are out. The kind of persona reserved I guess for people in special ops, Navy SEALS and the like. Many thanks. I've drawn a blank.
thanks for the suggestions. You see the difficulty. Nothing quite fits. Bravado has the sense of falseness, and macho and manly have become sexually charged, which is not what I had in mind. Machismo is a very good word which comes the closest to describing the characteristics I've listed, but it's hard to come up with a noun for a person who exudes "machismo"
Pugnacious is close too, but has a connotation of aggressiveness which is not quite on the mark for what I'm looking for. It's the best I have though, and I thank you
I prefer "hard", which is more neutral. A "fighter" again (to me anyway) sounds more aggressive than I like. Keep It Simple Stupid, right? Thank you all!
Hmmm. How bout a scrapper? -- Fuhghettaboutit 06:45, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
Howdy, How would you describe a "belligerent warrior"? /Pendragon
hi, the pirate question inspired me to ask what i've always wanted to know: if i want my child to speak like a comedy pirate (arrgh matey, shiver me timbers etc), is there a place in the world where this accent still exists or has it died out? it seems like it "started" in cornwall/devon etc but now the accent there is a lot more genteel (alow me luver etc) and, dare i say it, more associated with farmers and country bumpkins than cut throat rulers of the high seas. i suspect i will be dissapointed by the answer (so little Johnny will have to make do with boring RP) so by way of a second question, does any one know how english-speaking pirates speak now a days? are there any? (i guess i'm really asking, if you saw the skull and cross bones on the horizon, where would they be from (most likely)) also, whilst i'm on a roll, do any modern day pirates still use the skull and cross bones (if only for novelty and retro chic) or does it suffer from the same social stigma that the swastika now does. thanks 87.194.20.253 10:25, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
hi, i'm currently teaching myself portuguese before a trip to brazil. can someone please explain what the various words for "to" are and when you use them? especially when it comes to verbs, i'm just pulling my hair out. why, for example does "acredito na tia feia" (a phrase from my teach yourself book)have na in it?. i get that some verbs in portuguese, when referring to people, use 'to' alot, e,g "i believe to the ugly aunt" but na doesnt mean to- it means in/on (the). can someone please explain this? in other contexts the cd which i'm working from slots in AO and para to similar effect. any ideas? thanks 87.194.20.253 11:20, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
I know this seems like a trivial matter, but i was just wondering as to what Scottish people mean by the word 'Draftpak' which crops up frequently in Irvine Welsh's novel Trainspotting. It seems to be a container for carrying beer, but the characters also refer to people they don't like and consider beneath them as 'Draftpaks' so I was hoping someone would clear up the meaning(s) of the word for me. Thank you very much. This unsigned comment was added by 81.111.23.140.
what is the Spanish for this sentence:"Why don't you study Spanish instead of asking question endlessly?"
In this set of lyrics, [10], what does the word "government" mean? Is the song in particular some sort of commentary on large social institutions? -- HappyCamper 15:20, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
Hazel Dean rules!---hotclaws**==( 81.136.157.206 06:52, 17 June 2006 (UTC))
E.g. someone posts in a group complaining that the group is full of meaningless short posts. Then a reply:
"Exactly. (This is a meaningless short post.)"
Or a post: "Don't use smilies! :P"
The bold words are used to emphasise the point.
-- J.L.W.S. The Special One 16:18, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
Irony is the first word that comes to my mind as well. i don't think something like this would have a more specific technical name, since it doesn't really emphasise the point as much as it is just a little joke, in my view. --
Alex.dsch
18:57, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
It would probably be a form of irony, I agree. However, this device does differ from irony in some ways. For example, the person using the device is fully aware of what he is doing. He deliberately adds the words to emphasize his point. Regular irony, on the other hand, usually involves the ignorance of the person making the ironic statement.
Here's a better example of this device. In my Google group, two people - X and Y - are engaged in a heated political debate. X accuses Y of being a troll. I then remind X that most trolling is actually calling each other trolls. X responds that he is sure that Y is a troll. Then I accuse X of being a troll to emphasise my point.
-- J.L.W.S. The Special One 12:47, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
When President Kennedy in 1963 said in Berlin "Ich bin ein Berliner", was he speaking German incorrectly, and really saying "I am a jelly donut"? A Berliner is just such a German pastry. Wouldn't it have been correct to say "Ich bin Berliner", for German does not use the article "a" for nationalities or professions? 66.213.33.2 17:31, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
Had Kennedy found himself not in Berlin, but rather in one of a couple of other German cities, I suppose the same ridiculous urban legend would develop. Think about it. Ich bin ein Hamburger, or Ich bin ein Frankfurter. Would that mean that JFK was calling himself a burger or a hot dog? People just seem to love making fun of politicians whenever they make the slightest of linguistic mistakes, and even when they don't, people still manage to make one up.(Btw, YES! I'm aware JFK was a Democrat! Loomis is actually sticking up for a Democrat! Enjoy it while it lasts!) Loomis51 22:42, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
Jack, my parenthetic remarks were an afterthought. Everyone knows I'm just another right-wing Republican freak. My true intention was to just make reference to the inexplicable silliness of a US president referring to himself as a hamburger or a hot-dog. Sometimes a sausage is just a sausage, Jack. ;) Loomis51 02:08, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
Ok, once again you've left me clueless, Jack. No I'm not aware of any reference to any political allegiance I've just made. Maybe you can help me out. Was it the sausage thing? You truly are the most cryptic person I know. Loomis 21:40, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
This is currently being discussed at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Dance, initialized by a discussion at Talk:Lindy_hop whether or not "lindy hop" should be capitalized.
My question is: Are dance styles proper nouns and should be capitalized as such? If not, what rules for exceptions are there (e.g. a dance style named after a person or place)? Wintran 21:29, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
Please continue in Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Dance#Capitalization. `' mikka (t) 07:55, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
What do the dots & lines in the IPA Vowel table mean?
Thanks; [email removed]
24.70.95.203
07:44, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
I frequently read despairing commentaries on the rate at which languages are becoming extinct. What I never read is any reason why this is a bad thing, beyond the rather wooly idea that diversity is lovely. Are there any such reasons?
The group whose language becomes extinct will lose the awareness of its history and culture, its "cultural identity". Imagine English became extinct and was replaced by Chinese during the next 50 years (I assume you are a native English speaker): all English books, movies, songs, documents would suddenly stop being understandable to the average person. No more Shakespeare, no more Declaration of Independence, no more Mark Twain, no more Beatles, no more The Simpsons. None of your grandchildren would be able to read anything you wrote, or watch any of the movies you watched. Chl 16:42, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
If it is verifiable that some people other than us have made these arguments, it belongs as a new section in language death. moink 01:53, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
It seems that this word describing the desired state of negotiations, contracts and explanations has arisen only in the last ten years. And it really bugs me. So many other adjectives should be used, such as clear, concise, readily understandable, simply put, etc. Am I mistaken as to its recent usage, or would Jefferson and Lincoln have used this word? 66.213.33.2 14:54, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
Do you know HOW or where I can find or compile, for instance, a list of all the words in the English language that contain various spellings such as -- "ie", "ou", "ow" and "ue"?
I am trying to write a paper that lists all the words in the English language and the various pronunciations for each of certain common combinations. I have listed, off the top-of-my-head, about 34 letter combinations and 3,400 words that fit -- but I am sure there is a more elegant way to find the words.
Martirc 16:48, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
grep ie /usr/share/dict/words grep ou /usr/share/dict/words grep ow /usr/share/dict/words grep ue /usr/share/dict/words
cat sample.txt | sort | uniq | grep ie
sed 's/[ -9:;<=>?]/\n/g' textfile.txt > sample.txt
I don’t know why, but odd questions sometimes pop into my head.
Is there a term for adjectives derived from proper nouns? (Such as Napoleonic, Ruthian, or Capraesque.) I think they should be called proper adjectives — Michael J 00:24, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
That's a great start to the article, Bhumiya. Hint: "If you build it, they will come". Byronic is an interesting one: Who got to decide it was Byronic and not Byronian or Byronesque? There are also the ones where the form of the word changes (Moscow > Muscovite; Manchester > Mancunian; Oxford > Oxonian). JackofOz 06:13, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
Brechtian, Joycean, Kafkaesque, Marivaudian, Orwellian, Machiavellian and Pinteresque. - lethe talk + 20:37, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
I created a new article Proper adjective with a broader scope than List of eponymous adjectives in English. Words like Kafkaesque, Shakespearean, and Napoleonic are eponymous adjectives, which is just one type of proper adjective. Eponymous means "derived from the name of a person." Words like Icelandic, Californian, and Jewish are proper adjectives but not eponymous adjectives. -- Mathew5000 19:01, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
I am interested in the differences in how latin phrases are used in English, compared to other languages. Do English speakers use more or less Latin phrases (ad hoc, in vitro, de jure) than, say, French or Dutch speakers? Do other languages use the same latin phrases, or have they adopted different ones? Is there a Wikepedia article that addresses any of this? ike9898 03:39, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
It seems that many languages arose when two groups of people weren't in very close contact with each other for long enough that their languages developed in different directions. Is there any evidence that, in the modern world, some languages are actually becoming more similar, maybe due to modern communication, transportation and trade? I'm wondering if modern Portuguese and Spanish are a little more mutually intelligible than their counterparts from 1700. ike9898 03:48, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi, how is "pardon" pronounced in French? I'd like to see an IPA transcription. The #Examples_of_French section doesn't say. Thank you, in advance. :) -- Kjoon lee 03:55, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm slightly unsure as to where the perfect tense is or isn't appropriate, as opposed to the past tense. Obviously, biographical articles on those who are dead should be written in the past tense, and articles about places should be written in the perfect tense, but what tense should be used when writing articles about fictional media? Or is it entirely optional? -- FrostyBytes 18:51, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
please please please help me! i have been searching in vein for a english to latin translation of a saying that is of massive importance to me. The saying is "always outnumbered, never outgunned." any answers that i recieve will be appericiated beyond words. thank you
Roman Schatz is quoted as saying that many middle European cultures need 18 separate lines of dialogue to convey the same information as the following Finnish dialogue:
It more or less means "What's up?" "Nothing much." but I have tried, in vain, to express it in English preserving all the inflections. Can any other native Finnish speaker give an attempt at a more faithful translation? JIP | Talk 11:50, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
The use of the personal pronoun (you) is common in WP's videogame articles. I don't personally like the use of the personal pronoun in WP articles, regardless of whether or not the reader may become an active participant in the activity described, and would prefer using third person pronouns (e.g., 'the player', or 'player character', depending on circumstance)
But my question is, are there any generally accepted guidelines regarding the use of the second person in WP? -- FrostyBytes 12:30, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
this sign in english
if you just mean 'what is the English word for this sign?' then it is 'at'. and yeah, read the article posted above. --
Alex.dsch
13:44, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
I've also heard it called a "commercial A" Emmett5 17:32, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
Going to Austria would like to translate their language to English
Could someone get me an Esperanto translation of the following (taken from various pieces of A Softer World, some modified):
Thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.7.176.132 ( talk • contribs) .
Let me try:
That's all I've got so far for the first line, I don't know how to write "what they're missing" in esperanto.-- The ikiroid ( talk· desk· Advise me) 18:34, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
In scoring SAT essays I find a number of students using the word neglection in place of neglect. One dictionary quoted a Shakespearean usage and called the word obsolete. Does anybody know if the word is commonly used in a particular part of the USA? ---- Halcatalyst 15:35, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
I believe you are misinterpreting "neglection" as meaning neglect. Rather, I think you should read "neglecting" for this word. Thus, a Google search for "my neglecting" returns 434 hits, such as "it's all to do with my neglecting of religious duty". A google search for "my neglection" returns 63 hits, such as "because due to my neglection of the blog the comments more than doubled because of spam" (third hit). Actually an interesting parallel is that the second hit from the former query (with "neglecting") is "...is my neglecting of this blog since Monday, gasp, Monday". Very interesting parallel. Anyway 434 to 63 implies that hardly anyone who phrases a sentence calling for "neglecting" thinks to replace it with "neglection" instead. If you're interested enough, I would suggest you read through those 63 pages to see if any educated speakers prefer this term. Then just for kicks you can try the same game with a word we replace an "-ing" form with. For example "my hestitating" would in most speakers minds be struck and replaced "my hesitation" in nearly all contenxts. Indeed, it wins in this case by a margin of 122,000 to 547. Hope this helps. 82.131.190.200 18:08, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
I heard somewhere that German and Dutch are the easiest languages for an English-speaking person to learn. Is this true?
English is considered a Germanic language because it, like German, is descended from Proto-Germanic. But that doesn't mean it's easier to learn than a Romance language like Spanish. Some German words are similar to English ones, but German has a somewhat complicated grammar system. German has four cases of nouns, meaning the ending of a noun will be different depending on the role it plays in a sentence. German also has three genders compared to two in Spanish. -- Mwalcoff 00:10, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
If you're going to try for an easy second language, I've heard that Esperanto, being a construct language designed for simplicity, is pretty easy. But you really should opt for a second language that makes sense for your local area or travel plans. I've tried my hand at both German and Spanish (although I had to stop German and have forgotten most of it} and found them roughly equal in difficulty. Emmett5 01:27, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Interlingua is even much easier and very similar to Spanish and Italian. You can be understood in those languages. -- Jondel 02:34, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm baffled by the statement "I would assume something using the Latin alphabet would be easier for an English-speaker to grasp, which could make French or Italian easier" above. German and Dutch use the Latin alphabet too! As for Esperanto and Interlingua, they may well be easy to learn, but since they aren't languages, they're not really relevant to this discussion. User:Angr 06:03, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
The US Army's Defense Language Institute in Monterey groups the Romance languages (and Dutch, I think) as the simplest languages for its soldiers to learn. German is a step above them. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Arabic are the hardest. Personally, I think Afrikaans would be easiest for an English speaker to learn. It's a very simplified version of Dutch. -- Chris S. 06:16, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Some five years ago, I took an introductory political science course in which the instructor mentioned a kind of (governmental) policy which is used as a red herring: to distract people from some other policy. There was a technical term for it, but I just can't remember it. I looked thru my college notebooks, and couldn't find it. Any ideas what it is? It's not obviously descriptive stuff like "red herring", "boondoggle" or something else, and if I remember correctly, it was an ____ (adjective) policy (though I may be very mistaken). It's also not something you hear/read on news that often, or I probably wouldn't have such a hard time remembering it. Hints would be most appreciated! -- dcabrilo 05:36, 20 June 2006 (UTC) P.S. I now realize this probably should've went onto Humanities, not Language... but I won't move it now. -- dcabrilo 05:38, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
"All languages have about the same complexity: very complex." I'm quoting this from memory. I've heard some of my professors saying it, but who said this first? -- Kjoon lee 07:38, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
It's ridiculous to say that all languages have the same complexity. Some languages such as Latin and Russian are highly inflected with many different noun cases and verb declensions. This makes them more complex grammatically than languages like Spanish or English whose grammar relies on syntax to a much greater extent than inflection. That pertains to grammar, but in other aspects like spelling, English is more complex than most other languages. At an extreme, Esperanto is much less complex than any major world language. As a general rule languages become simpler as they evolve; for example, Anglo-Saxon was much more complex gramatically than modern English. This evolution from complex to simple grammatical structure is continuing today; for example the word whom is becoming gradually obsolete. -- Mathew5000 19:21, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Hmmm, if you ever find a language where every aspect (phonology, syntax, slang, vocabulary) comes to you incredibly easy, it's either extremely similar to a language that you already know, or you discovered a weird gap in the learning process.-- The ikiroid ( talk· desk· Advise me) 01:05, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
looking for anyone who can help me write a phrase in heiratic script...TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE.... can anyone help..please....
thank you for responding anon moos.. but its heiratic i want..the history and beauty of this writing means alot to me.. i wanted the phrase tattoed to remind my self of the quote,,,i already have heiroglphics...thanx anyway....
the only letters i cant find in heiratic script are..O,E,L..does anyone know if they exist in heiratic alphabet???
You may want to request that they extend support of WikiHiero to include hieratic script. Also keep in mind that "to thine own self be true" basically means the same as "be true to yourself", which is much easier to translate. freshofftheufo ΓΛĿЌ 11:44, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Dear anonymous questioner:
Egyptian writing may just be too convoluted for you to handle in a way that would assure you of validly meaningful results, or allow you to personally verify what may be proposed by others (and I know that I would want something to be absolutely 100% correct if I were going to have it engraved into my body!) -- unless you have at least some degree of basic academic linguistic knowledge, and are willing to work hard to master the various complexities of the ancient Egyptian language and script. Trying to work with a fixed and rigid equivalence of one Egyptian sign for each letter of the Latin alphabet is guaranteed to give bogus and meaningless results. Trying to simply transcribe the English sounds into Egyptian script (and so avoiding translating the English-language phrase into an Egyptian-language phrase) is itself a rather complex task, which demands a certain degree of linguistic sophistication to perform somewhat correctly -- made even more difficult by the fact that the basic Egyptian writing system does not write vowels at all (in any direct or simply understandable way). There's a so-called "syllabic orthography" for transcribing foreign-language proper names, but this is also a lot more complex than any simple fixed 1-1 correspondence between modern Latin alphabet letters and ancient Egyptian signs.
So why not use Meroitic script instead? It has both imposingly mysterious hieroglyphic forms and more squiggly hieratic-looking forms, and it's kind of half-way between an alphabet and a simple syllabary, and only contains two-dozen symbols in each of the visual forms, so that the complexities are much reduced. And since no one understands the Meroitic language, the question of translating from English into another language just doesn't arise -- the only possibility is of a simple transcription of English sounds, and Meroitic (unlike Egyptian) has plenty of vowel symbols for the task. And if you're of any Afrocentric tendency, then Meroitic is indisputably 100% Black African. So my advice would be to go for Meroitic... AnonMoos 16:51, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Why e.g. Schweinsteiger is called Bastian while Kehl - Sebastian? Are they a separate names? -- Brand спойт 11:18, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm unsure about Bastian and Sebastian, because I don't know about German culture. But I have a question too. Kate is a short form of Katherine, originally from a time when the <h> did not influence pronunciation. Would Kate be a different name from Katherine? -- Kjoon lee 12:10, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
When will I use:
Let's say,
Thank you. Kahang 12:21, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks all!! --
Kahang
Shall we talk?
11:17, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
where can I get a proscription? 82.131.190.200 15:12, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
The links seem to be ancient. Where can I get a proscription? 82.131.190.200 17:54, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
I believed that there is no Latin word for "banana" (btw. Musa was called after Octavian's physician, Antonius Musa). However I found the word ariena which according to my Latin-Russian dictionary was used by Plinius for "banana". Thoughts? -- Brand спойт 15:59, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Actually, 'musa' comes from Arabic 'Moza', meaning 'banana'. CCLemon 05:05, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
It is generally known that an apostrophe, followed by an 's' denotes the possesive case. Also, it can denote an omission, (i.e., where characters are actually missing from words, such as in 'planes, 'phones and photo's.
I note that many people, when using initializations in the plural, place an apostrophe before the 's'. e.g., "PCB's are known carcinogens". Is it correct to use an apostrophe here, (although I believe its use if intended to show an omission is not appropriate as there is no omission by virtue of the fact that PCB is an initialization). Should it not read, "PCBs are known carcinogens"?
Thank you.
My personal preference is to omit all periods within an abbreviation, and omit the apostrophe with plural abbreviations. My argument would be, we don't use apostrophes for any other plurals so why make an exception for abbreviations? But in some circumstances, eg. advertising signage where unusual or custom-made letter designs are used, and periods may appear between letters, it might be appropriate to use the apostrophe for clarity, and I wouldn't necessarily say they were "wrong" unless they did it inconsistently. What looks best:
The answer could vary from sign to sign. That "old convention" on plurals of abbreviations also applies to "opp.", the plural of "op." (for "opus", in titles of musical works). JackofOz 02:30, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm writing a press release and I've done a heap of research on how to do it right, but there's something I haven't found; what's the legality of quoting something that's been said by a particular person on a website? Do I have to get permission, or is it available to be quoted by virtue of being public? I would be crediting the originator.-- Anchoress 23:07, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
When you're asking a question about legality you should specify what jurisdictions are involved since something that is legal in one country might be illegal in another. Aside from that you may want to elaborate on your question. Are you concerned about copyright issues? Whenever you quote somebody else's words there is the potential for a copyright law issue to be involved, even if you credit the original author. See the article public domain. If your question is whether text that someone puts on their web site thereby enters the public domain for copyright purposes, the answer is no. However, most countries have exceptions in their copyright law, known by terms like " fair dealing" or " fair use"; this can vary by country. Or was your original question asking about whether you can be sued for libel just for quoting something from a web site? Or does it involve hate speech? Or what specific issue of legality concerns you? -- Mathew5000 19:32, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
what language(s) do dolphins speak?-- Bee( y) T i 02:08, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi there, I'm learning Korean and I'm trying to translate this sentence. I've done some of it, but if someone who speaks Korean could help me translate this sentence completely, explaining each word if possible, that would be very much appreciated.
제5회 태국 채널 V 뮤직비디오 어워드에서 처음으로2관왕을 차지한 그룹 동방신기도 붉은악마에 가세했다.
Fifth time Thailand channel V music video awards-[from?] first time [2 crown kings?]-[object particle] take up a group Dong Bang Shin Gi (a band name) [in?] Red Devil [did help?]
A quick question as well, why does 동방신기 have a 도? Does that mean "also"?
Alex Ng
07:55, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks so much, Kjoonlee! Now I can actually understand this sentence x.x
I have another question, would you use Sino-Korean counters or Native Korean counters when counting number of times (회) and awards (관왕)? I tried looking at the Korean count word article, but it merely acknowledges the fact that there are two sets of numbers, without saying which one is used to which. Alex Ng 21:07, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Okay, thanks so much again Kjoonlee! Alex Ng 03:39, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
Is the difference only in English v. American spelling, or in its use?
If it is used differently, what is this difference?
Thanks. Sinead
Pronunciation also differs transatlantically. In American English they're stressed on the 1st syllable, but in British it's the 2nd. JackofOz 08:33, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi there, I have a question regarding square brackets when used in a single letter of a word. I know that when used in the middle of a sentence it usually indicates a word that is absent from text but was implicit in the situation. Also other uses as explained in the bracket article.
But more than once I have seen it like this:
This appears on Sallie Baliunas comment here
I can't recall if it's just on the t on the that I've seen this, it just might be.
So, could anyone explain what these brackets are supposed to mean? VdSV9• ♫ 11:51, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
It does make sense, but then shouldn't one use bracketed ellipses in this case?
VdSV9• ♫ 12:08, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
It comes from the article de:Astronomische Uhr#Straßburg which I translated at Strasbourg Cathedral#Astronomical clock. The full sentence is:
Schaltjahre means leap years, Tagundnachtgleiche means equinoxes, but I can't figure out Sonnengleiche and Mondgleiche. Thanks! -- Mathew5000 19:42, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Correct is Sonnen- und Mondgleichung. -- Martin Vogel 21:39, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks very much, da Pete and Martin! -- Mathew5000 04:15, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
I have a good friend where I work. He is Wiccan. For my birthday he wrote something down on a rock in this language. I have no idea what it says and am dying to figure it out. If you could send me the alphabet so I can hopefully figure it out or even a link that I can go to to look it up I would appreciate it very much. My e-mail address is [not here anymore. questions are answered here on the desk] Thank you, Jamie
Is the correct plural "dwarves"? I seem to recall a documentary some years ago about the making of Walt Disney's 1937 animated film about Snow White and her friends. Walt used "dwarfs" in the title, but some English teachers were upset. Walt replied that "dwarfs" just sounded better to him. Is either spelling acceptable? 66.213.33.2 22:20, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Tolkien wrote a note about it in The Hobbit explaining how he preferred 'dwarves' and now, as has been said, that's come into acccepted usage.
Suppose someone asks, "What's the Dow Jones Industrial Average?" I could answer this in two ways:
Is this an example of a de dicto/de re distinction? Seahen 01:52, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
the article doesn't actually say anything, it's all just hot air. so, sure, it's a "de dicto/de re" distinction. Likewise, if I say "What is the Dow Jones Average" and you answer that it is the second-best known symbol of the performance of the American stock market (after NASDAQ), it also could be "de dicto/de re". If you ask someone "what is the Dow Jones Average" and they curse you out and steal your wallet, that is also a de dicto / de re distinction. It's all a bunch of postmodern claptrap not worth the paper it's written on. It's a good thing Wikipedia is not paper..
I believe the English name Jack is equivalent to the French "Jacques," but are they in turn related to the Spanish "Joaquín" or another name I'm missing? Thanks, - Draeco 03:42, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
French "Jacques" is equivalent to English James (or Jacob), and to Spanish Santiago. Santiago comes from "Saint Yago", (Yago coming from Jacob). Yago is also still used (or used as pet form of Santiago), so it's another Spanish equivalent to Jacques/James. -- RiseRover| talk 04:58, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
I have a cousin and uncle by the name of Joaquín. My cousin's nickname is 'Wacky' the other one is 'Kingky'.( Joaquín just fyi is pronounced hwakin with Spanish spelling.)-- Jondel 06:36, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
Compatriots is the name given to people from the same country; is there a name to refer to people from the same town? -- RiseRover| talk 08:22, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello,
I'm curious as to what the proper pronunciation of the name 'Barlaam' would be.
Thanks
Adam s 09:32, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
1. was/the/Twain/American/writer/in 1986/sent/India/to/country/describe/the.
2.in/nearly/pen/defeat/threw/he/his/away.
3.wonders/decided/the/he/to/land/call/of/simply/it.-- Saksham Sharma 10:34, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
You might also be interested to know that solving such problems has a very perceivable effect on our short-term psychology, which I read about in Blink. So, it's a "trick question" since the test really isn't on solving these problems, but the subconscious effects of doing so. (Students solving such problems revolving around the idea / terms associated with "patience" afterwards waited almost indefinitely for a professor's attention who ignored them, talking to a colleague, whereas the control group did not wait for such an unreasonable time (15 minutes plus!) for the professor to turn to them.)
actually, I solved the first one wrong, but it doesn't really matter. the test isn't really on solving these, but rather on the psychological effect of doing so. (For example, the second sentence makes you think of defeat. I would expect students to perform worse (by a large, statistically significant margin) after solving question 2 than a control group solving a sentence about success or triumph.
This is one phrase i've never understood fully. Is it used as an excuse for treacherous behaviour i.e. a boy is after a girl and his friends knows this but still decides to go after her too, using as his justification 'All's fair in Love and War', or is it infact that opposite, saying that love and war are two things where everything must be done fairly, and not treacherously? i hope i've been clear enough there, i'm aware i tend to sort of ramble on in questions. thanks. -- Alex.dsch 11:22, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
It means "Faint Heart never won Fair Lady", and such a faint heart would never win a war of any other kind either.
Could you help me out and tell me if Artemis Fowl is set in the distant future, near future, or now? Thanks -- 86.139.216.231 13:18, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
I have a few subjective questions, sort of an informal survey. Which regional variety of North American English do you find most pleasant? Which do you find most prestigious? Which do you find least pleasant/prestigious? Of non-North American varieties, which strikes your ears as most/least pleasant/prestigious? Responses from North American English speakers are also welcome, but please do identify your place of origin. I'm primarily interested in the perceptions of British/Australian/NZ speakers. Thanks! Bhumiya ( said/ done) 16:15, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
He's got it - he's got it, I do believe he's got it !!!
Of course! GHWB was born in Brookline, MA, so to me the Massachusetts accents is the finest US accent of all. ;) Loomis 02:42, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Personally, I thought Andie MacDowell's performance in Groundhog Day was very pleasant. -- Kjoon lee 05:07, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
What's so great about Andie MacDowell's accent? I like how Christopher Walken speaks. What region is he from? -- Mathew5000 07:18, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
I tend to notice "extreme" accents - the southern drawl/twang, the New York-Jewish accent, the Connecticut accent, the Massachussetts accent, the Minnesota "yah" accent, and the Hispanic accent being some of the most obvious examples. I'm Ok with all of these, but the first can get tiring. The rest of the American accents tend to merge into one aural soup for me, although city accents are usually different from rural ones (or maybe that's just a Hollywood stereotype). Anglophone Canadian is more-or-less indistinguishable from soup-American except for words like "about" (which sounds like "a boat"). The only "accent" I particularly dislike is more associated with an age group (in my mind, anyway) than with a region. Hard to describe it - words like "do" and "to" sound like "dyeew" and "tyeew"; words like "engine", "started" and "Moses" (whose last vowel is normally a schwa) become "en-jin", "star-tid" and "Mo-zizz". Really, really horrible. JackofOz 09:57, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
I enjoy particular dialects which form a distinctive minority in pronounciation and vocabulary, such as Cockney and Ebonics, but beyond that, I don't have much of a bias in the realms of aesthetics. I'm often tempted to ask people where they are from because of their accent, but of course I have to hold back this pulse of curiosity. Sometimes I'll try slurring or distorting words as a sort of experiment to see if anyone will notice, and they usually don't (i.e turning I don't know but you could ask them into ɑ' n' oʊ' bə' tʃɯ' kʊ' dæs' kɪm').-- The ikiroid ( talk· desk· Advise me) 02:31, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
As a Canadian, I'm both a North American English Speaker, as well as a Commonwealth English speaker. Best of both worlds, right? No? Oh well I tried. In any case, my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt, as personally, I tend to be fascinated by the most incomprehensible and/or unusual, working-class forms of English.
I love Cockney, as I can't comprehend a word of it. Same with hard-core Glaswegian...but those are both British, so I'm veering off topic.
Newfoundland English has got to be the oddest form of North American English in existence. It's fascinating to listen to. I also have quite a fondness for blue collar Ontario English. It's the most "typical" Canadian English, the kind most people associate with all of Canada.
"I don't know, eh,...so I's been sitting on my couch, eh, and next thing I knows, eh, is my wife comes in and tells me she's leaving me, eh, so I'm like freakin' out, eh,...so I right away call my good friend Doug, eh, and I tells him to bring over a 2-4 of Labatts, eh,...so we're like drinkin' the 2-4, eh, and next thing I knows is my wife comes back, eh?..."
Well I hope you kind of get the idea. I just plain like the oddest and most idiosyncratic forms of English, but that's my thing. Loomis 03:11, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Well, I think that it probably has less to do with the sound of the accent more than it has to do with associations of the accent with stereotypical cultural characteristics, in the same way a France-French accent is considered "sexy". On the other hand, I believe to a lot of Anglophone Canadians, a Quebecan-French accent is considered the opposite, because of again stereotypical cultural characteristics. -- ColourBurst 06:41, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm a North American, and I'd just like to say that the "rural Utah" dialect is the most annoying. It sounds like a combination of southern and Scandinavian accents, not to mention the copious grammatical errors. -- Mr. L e fty Talk to me! 18:35, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
When a typesetter finds something that needs further clarification she usually puts a special mark such as a thick black bar into the galley proof in order to catch the author's or proofreader's eye that something is missing and especially alert the printer that the typescript is not yet ready for print. In German, such a mark is called a Blockade, as it is so thick and black that a printer will notice even with a casual glance that this typescript is "blocked", i.e. not cleared for print. How is this mark called in English? Simon A. 16:22, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
The page in the title is a phonetic transcription system which seems to be used in around six articles here on Wikipedia. The relevant talkpage only has three comments all suggesting a switch to IPA. I know this is probably not the right place, but it is one frequented by people who know IPA so I am seeking help in switching the phonetic guide on these articles, or commenting on whether they think this switch is a good idea. The articles are Mindaugas, Klaipėda, Kęstutis, Algirdas, Panevėžys and Kaunas. Then there are the examples on Lithuanian language. Stefán Ingi 18:20, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=42+39+19+N,+94+10+02+E&ie=UTF8&ll=42.655274,94.167219&spn=0.004947,0.013561&t=k&om=1 What does this say in Chinese??-- Sonjaaa 22:32, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
Apparently it's "Long live chairman Mao!"--
Sonjaaa
23:32, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
Microsoft's satellite service also shows this sort of thing, apparently. I would think that Google and MSN get their photos from different sources; it only makes sense that they would put exclusivity provisions in their contracts. Anyway, compare the images at the following two URLs. In the Google image you can zoom in and see that it is Chinese writing; the Microsoft image is much lower resolution but from a distance you can just make it out:
-- Mathew5000 18:58, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Here is the response from Google's help desk: "Thank you for your note. We have researched this location and the imagery. These are actually real landmarks placed in western China by a regional air force unit to serve as landmarks for use during pilot training." -- Mathew5000 22:16, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm moving this from Talk:International Phonetic Alphabet.
Hi, I'd like to invite a phonetics expert with a thin ear to resolve some doubts we have on Talk:Serbo-Croatian language. Basically, we agree that we hear different L's in Bulgarian and Serbian versions of a text, but can't find out what's the phonetic source of the difference. Thanks in advance, Duja 13:02, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello, I want to know whether Plato's name (Πλάτων) is in the form of the masculine plural genitive declension. Thanks.-- K.C. Tang 04:06, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
Πλάτων, Πλάτονος ὁ Nom Πλάτων Acc Πλάτονα Gen Πλάτονος Dat Πλάτονι Nom Πλάτονες Acc Πλάτονας Gen Πλάτονων Dat Πλάτουσι(ν) with ν if it is at the end of a sentense or preceding a vowel
This advert for a pleorama seems to be for some kind of panorama or myriorama show. Can anyone see any more specific details about the entertainment, please? And can someone translate " Rörlig bild som framställer ett landskap som det visar för en förbiseglande" which I think is about moving panoramas? Many thanks -- HJMG 07:34, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
Here goes:
- ulayiti (talk) 14:24, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
Please would you help with the following:
I wonder if there is a definitive translation into English from the Latin: Vulnerant omnes, ultima necat. I recall seeing it scribed on the faces of old clocks.
Your help would be much appreciated. It is particularly at times such as this that I wish I’d had the opportunity to learn Latin at school!
Would you mind replying to: [cut]
Best wishes.
Omnes means all, vulnerant means wound, how strange that the word 'hour' is not included, is a reader just expected to fill that in himself? Evilbu 17:16, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
I think that it doesn't mean 'hour' specifically (as in time), but refers to 'experiences' in life. With 'OMNES' meaning 'everything', this would make sense. CCLemon 06:08, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
In the word "zwanzig", is the final consonant a voiceless velar plosive or a voiceless palatal fricative? I was led to believe it was the latter, but I'm not sure. Thanks! Bhumiya ( said/ done) 01:55, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, pronouncing final -ig as [ɪk] rather than [ɪç] sounds very Southern. However, Northern sometimes do it too as a form of hypercorrection, because in the North you hear [tax] for Tag and [tsʊx] for Zug. So when they're being careful about pronunciation, Northerners will remember to say [ta:k] for Tag adn [tsu:k] for Zug, but then will also say [tsvantsik] for zwanzig. This happened a lot in the Berlin choir I used to sing in; the choir director was always having to remind people to pronounce -ig as [ɪç]. User:Angr 05:59, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
While on the topic of German pronunciation how is final "ng" pronounced? For example, is Zeitung pronounced [tsaɪtuŋ] or [tsaɪtuŋk]? I've read the phonology article, but it seems like I've heard the latter pronunciation. Or maybe I'm influenced by a faux German accent where they say "hello dahlink!" -- Chris S. 18:26, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Is it true that the earliest improvised romanizations of Japanese sometimes made use of the letter L, such that "samurai" might be written as "samulai"? I read this years ago, but now I can find no evidence of it. Does anyone know if there's any truth to it? Bhumiya ( said/ done) 02:32, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Could, for example, Old Hakka, Old Cantonese, Old Mandarin, Old Toi Shan, understand each other in writing SYNTACTICALLY?
Please, [removed email to prevent spam], thanks.
24.70.95.203 03:52, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Umm... I would say "yes" for your question. The dialects were not so different anyway.... -- Kahang Shall we talk? 06:11, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
This would be a history matter that I can't explain ;). I give it a try, but as a rough reference only:
Long time ago, the Chinese was located near the centre of now Chinna map (somewhere Shaanxi, Shanxi and Hubei). As the time changed, the country got populated and people started moving outward basically at all direction, but mostly to south and to east.
As a result, despite of language from now Tibet, Xinjiang and Mongol (people from those were always treated as the outsiders), Mandarin (language from the North) and Cantonese (language from the South) have the most difference between them. The languages from the places between have relatively less difference when compared.
It just like a gradient. Or a grayscale as eg, Mandarin is the black, Cantonese is the white, and other languages are the different grays between, the most near the North the darker, vice verse.
But in the old days, because the country was small, the languages had not varied too much. The writings were kept short in order to save ink and paper (and because Chinese hadn't got as many vocabulary as nowadays, too). So if some Chinese didn't understand the writings, the reason was always they hadn't been educated rather the meaning of the words. Another important fact is the whole China were using Traditional Chinese until 1952.
Remember, this is a rough explanation only. All the locations and facts have not been confirmed. You may wanna see History of China and Chinese Language. -- Kahang Shall we talk? 12:59, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
I am forwarding a request for somebody to put an IPA transcription of the name on the article on Kemal Atatürk. None of the other wikis seem to have this information. Is there perhaps a tag to ask for this? Stefán Ingi 20:17, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Is there a word that means just the opposite of euphemism. To call something good with a rather bad word?
The Half-life computation article has undergone substantial revision which has hopefully addressed everyone's concerns. If you have any further comments after looking at the article again, please list the items you do not like, make whatever comment you have and please be specific and allow time for further revision. If there is any reason I can not comply with your wishes then I will let you know the reason why. ... IMHO ( Talk) 12:16, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
I have been a teacher for over 30 years. In the last 15 years I have noticed that so many students simply don't use the contraction "you're". They write "Your my best friend" as well as "There is your dog." Sometimes I have corrected papers to change the possessive pronoun to the contraction, and they have crossed out the correction and changed it back! They seem not to know, and not to care to know. Did students always display such arrogance? What has caused this degradation of our language in the last few years? 66.213.33.2 18:30, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
In the past years students have been having more and more access to a certain reading material that's not always completely perfect grammar, vocabulary and spelling-wise: the Internet. In the past, what your students (anyone) read came from books, newspapers or media where some care was taken about this matter. Now the Internet has become a huge source of reading material, and the language there is not as carefully constructed - at least in some places (forum sites, chat rooms, not to mention sms language...). That's why spelling mistakes spread so widely and are seen as normal, since they're written all over the place. -- RiseRover| talk 20:02, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
Everyone has feelings, and anecdotes, about how the world or some aspect of it is going to hell, and language angst seems to be one of the more popular manifestations of this phenomenon. The adjective "proper" seems to be one way of expressing the idea, or prejudice, that one variety of a language is somehow more privileged than the others. But how? Is it because that's the way your grandma or your English teacher spoke, or the soi-disant educated classes speak or spoke, or the privileged classes, or people like you, or people with your political leanings, or what? "Proper" is a ubiquitous prejudice with nothing factual to back it up. If you try to observe language without that particular fixation, what you see is variation, change and socially meaningful norms; I submit that's a more neutral and empirical way to approach the subject than decrying change and identifying "disturbing" trends. · rodii · 13:22, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
Come on how is that disturbing its just a spelling mistake, your worring to much.
A person who attempts to claim the bounty is a bounty hunter, but what do you call the guy who creates the bounty in the first place? A bounty setter? I'm just wondering if there is a name for the concept already. 152.3.84.131 20:23, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
What does "fay ce que vouldras" mean, and what does it have to do with Rabelais? (See Italian literature#The Renaissance.) zafiroblue05 | Talk 21:43, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
Dear Wikipedia,
I was watching the movie "Pirates of the Caribean" and the work came up "acumencally" (sp?) I have been searching to find what this word might mean or relate to.
Thank you.
I'm wondering if the addition of 's' to singular nouns to form plurals -- used in English, Spanish, and French, and probably other languages -- has a known origin whence it spread to those languages, or if it was independently developed by each? It doesn't come from the Germanic or Latin roots of those languages. Kundor 17:44, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
See also Proto-Germanic_language#Nouns - AnonMoos 17:22, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
Up here in North America, we usually "root" for our home team, meaning that's the teaming we're "pulling for" or "favouring to win". With the world cup and all, would it be safe to say in Australia that Australian's are "rooting" for the Australian football/soccer team to win, or is it too close to that other meaning to be said with a straight face? (Or in mixed company without blushing?) Loomis 19:26, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
How many linguists does it take to change a lightbulb? -- Dweller 20:31, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
I know of two linguist lightbulb jokes, but in each the question is not "how many" but simply "how":
User:Angr 14:22, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
This just appeared on my wiki under the title English Language. What does is actualy say? Gerard Foley 21:58, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
[Dvoxlnv, znzgvfi hovfgsh. Gsrh rh lmob gsv yvtrmmrmt lu nb nzhhrev dliw hvzixs. Blf szev 5 ovggvih — mld tl urmw gsv ivhg. Gsv urihg kvihlm gl tvg zoo gsv pvbdliwh zmw fmolxp gsv hvxivg droo drm zm Cylc® drgs z xlkb lu Gsv Wz Ermxr Xlwv™ tznv, zmw z 2P Erwvl Tznvh kzxpztv...] Sviv'h z pvbdliw gl hgzig blf luu: evilxxsrl
Ru blf wlm?g zoivzwb pmld gsrh, gbkv rm blfi pvbdliwh zg gsvwzermxrxlwvtznv.xln
Mld tvg xizxprm', Hsviolxp! Nzie H.
Blfi mvcg xofv xzm yv ulfmw zg: nbglkirguizmxv.xln
· rodii · 22:23, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks very much!! Gerard Foley 23:15, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
I would like someone to explain to me why it's regarded so terribly to split an infinitive. Split infinitives often flow so much better than attempts to avoid them. I split infinitives all the time and I think it's fine time for English purists to give it up and recognize that split infinitives are indeed a valid form of English expression. I'd be interested for any of you to intelligently inform me (lol) why split infinitives are such a no-no. I think it's finally high time for the English language to [boldly and finally] acknowledge the legitimacy of split infinitives. Any ideas? Loomis 22:10, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
I'd like to get some British opinions on this. I read some comments on the CBBC Newsround website about the Queen's birthay party last Sunday and one of them complained about the boy in Mary Poppins' Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious song who supposedly sweared when calling her (Poppins) "bloody brilliant" and said that since it was performed in front of the queen the song should've been changed. IIRC, this phrase also appeared in the first Harry Potter film. If this is so objectionable, surely it would've been cut. Is "bloody" considered swearing in general to begin with? - Mgm| (talk) 22:16, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
I saw in a ad for a house to share (in Ireland) this text : "3Bed Semi-D" . I am French and I wonder what "semi D" is? Can you help ?? Thank you very much.-- Sebb-fr 22:30, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
What is the infinitive absolute used for in Hebrew other than certainty (e.g. Mot yamut = he will certainly die)? Mo-Al 02:38, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I have a few questions I haven't been able to answer myself.
1. Does the subject of the verb být, "to be", take the nominative or accusative case?
2. Are collective nouns, such as "the Simpsons" or "the Germans", treated as simple plurals or as some sort of singular? What kind of gender do they take?
Thanks! Bhumiya ( said/ done) 04:03, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
IANA native Czech speaker, but JackofOz is right. All Czech nouns use the nominative for the singular (except when the genitive is being used due to the "5 or more" rule). Být is unique in that its object also usually takes the nominative. The exception is the set-up of Být + instrumental, which is roughly equivalent to the English verb "become." (Bush byl presidentem v 2001.)
Nouns like Simpsonovi take plural verbs. (Simpsonovi žijou v Springfieldu.) -- Mwalcoff 04:26, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Does anyone know how and where exactly the American accent originated? I have a theory that it might have started when the Native Americans tried to speak English and they sounded like Americans today sound.------- Seclipse21 04:07, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
To go back to the original question, I have never heard anyone make the claim that Native languages were a significant influence on the pronunciation of American English. English borrowed words from Native languages, of course, but that's about the exttent of the influence as far as I know. · rodii · 15:06, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
But as far as I know the same thing didnt happen in North America. There wasnt one convenient pre-existing Indian language that served as the general language of all the tribes for trading purposes, etc. So English-speakers never had any economic incentive to get to know the Indian languages. Jameswilson 23:00, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Webster made up American English. -- Миборовский 21:40, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
I listened to a radio show where I heard a US place-name, pronounced somewhat like /ˌp(ə)ˈkipsiː/. It's probably somewhere along the East Coast or nearby. What could it be? Thanks in advance. – Mysid (t) 07:32, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
I suppose this question concerns language. It could just as easily fit in the science or humanities reference desks. I was reading an article about Chinese printing which mentioned that Hanzi were not well-suited to movable type printing since hundreds of characters had to be carved. It struck me that the Chinese might have expedited the process by fashioning their type using a pixel-based system. When precisely was the principle of the pixel invented? Is there any evidence that they existed in the pre-electronic age? Bhumiya ( said/ done) 07:57, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
I have a good friend whose birth name, in Cantonese, translates into "Ling Bird" in English. How would the name Ling Bird be written, using Cantonese characters and translation? Thanks, Leebo.
I would like to enter this word "whyever" into-- 24.56.224.140 17:22, 27 June 2006 (UTC) the encyclopedia. How do I go about entering a new word?
What could this mean?
Ecgb b bie be ebeb bml.
If someone can't break it, can they direct me to a code breaker? Thanks. schyler 17:41, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
It is what I got from the side of the Covenant ship in the Halo 3 trailer written in Braille. I changed the letters into their respective "Covenant Letters" from the 7th letter of the Conversations of the Universe booklet by changing each letter from the above "code." The letter looks somewhat like english letters so each letter in the "code" that corresponds with the letter it should be (in English). I changed it to that.
lOgB B Bpl Bl lBlB BRl
Could it make any more sense? schyler 18:44, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Is there a list somewhere of the single-character country abbreviations used in Japanese? 日 for Japan, 独 for Germany, 仏 for France, etc. I've had a look around Wikipedia and can't find one, but feel sure there must be one somewhere.
Thanks in advance! -- Auximines 19:52, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
I am writing to a Professor Theo van Rijn. I don't know him personally, so is it right that I write Dear Professor Van Rijn with a capital V? — Gareth Hughes 20:11, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Is "very yes" a grammatically valid construction? Seahen 00:29, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
I bet I'm not the only RD/L regular who winces every thime someone says "very unique", either... Grutness... wha? 10:23, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
French uses "n'est-ce pas" to cover a wide variety of situations. I guess the sense of it is: "Is what I just said not the case". English has no such feature; you have to say "didn't she", "wouldn't they", "isn't it", "haven't I", "won't he", "couldn't you", "shouldn't we" etc, depending on the preceding words. There are probably many dozens of possible combinations. People from certain non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) frequently say "isn't it" in all these situations, which can lead to humorous outcomes - "But you still love me ... isn't it?", Olga pleaded.
I thought it had an Asian origin as I first heard it from Asian teens--hotclaws**==( 81.136.162.4 06:55, 28 June 2006 (UTC))
I don't see what the big problem is. It may sound "ethnic", but the simple word "no?" with the question mark would seem to cover all situtaions where the French "n'est-ce pas" would do. I've even adopted it in my general speach.
What is the Spanish word for finally, as in "at last!" I know the word is finalmente, but I have a feeling that is for an order of events and my dictionary doesn't specify. Could someone help? Thanks. schyler 12:15, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
Could you please give the Creek word for FEAR Thank you
To whom it may concern: while doing some editing of the Aztec related articles within Wikipedia, I was puzzled by the term "Fray", which appeared as something of a title or descriptive term in front of several names. I have since learned that "Fray" is a Spanish term meaning "Friar". I am wondering therefore if we should not be using "Friar" instead of "Fray" in, for example, this article on Fray Juan de Torquemada. I would suggest "yes" since (a) this is the English Wikipedia and (b) the term "Friar" is understood by more average readers than is "Fray".
Thoughts anyone?? Madman 17:31, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
P.S. Frustratingly enough, there is nothing in Wikipedia or Wiktionary addressing this use of "Fray".
What does the Italian word "val" mean? I've seen it a few times, and it wasn't in any online dictionaries. I know it is in place-names fairly often (could it also mean valley?) but I saw it in the phrase "Val la pena litigare" which has me stumped. It doesn't seem to fit. Can anyone help? -- Bearbear 18:35, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
hello English Wikipedia. Can you tell me what "Paleine tytoniu może uszkodzić nasienie i zmniejszać pŀodność" means, I found it on cigarettes, I assume in Polish language. Specifically, what does "zmniejszać" mean, and how do I pronounce it correctly? Looking at it as a word, I imagine it to be one of the most horrible-sounding words I've ever seen written (I don't read much Polish though, or Vogon poetry....hmmm, if anyone has a link to a text, or even better, to a soundbite, of the Polish translation of any Vogon poetry, then pray include it here). Anyway, I think I will give my pet mole rat the name "zmniejszać", should I ever get a pet mole rat. Thankyou. Unsigned comment.
I've searched several sites, including Wikipedia, with no luck. I'd like to be able to answer a 13-year-old's question about the origin of this common phrase. Many thanks!
Obviously it's possible to speak in the first person and third person, but is it actually possible to speak in the second person in some weird way? Perhaps by having a duel personality in which you talk to yourself? -- SeizureDog 01:17, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
You forgot Aaron Burr, Jack...I think you're getting lazy. Loomis 01:22, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
Conversationally it's very common for people to talk about themselves in the second person, such as when they're describing their usual reaction to a certain kind of situation. For example, they might say "When someone shouts in your ear without warning, your heart beats and you get a shock and you almost shit your pants", whereas what they really meant to say was "When someone shouts in my ear without warning, my heart beats and I get a shock and I almost shit my pants". In psycho-babble I think it's called avoiding owning one's own experience. JackofOz 10:42, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Dear all,
I would like to translate the link of Aikido from English to Chinese. Anyone out there please teach me how to deal with the software so that I can do the translation for the benefit of all. Million thanks to all!
You could contact me at (e-mail removed, answers are posted at the desk) or (e-mail removed to prevent spam)
I found a potentially tasteless but mostly just confusing instructional pamphlet which appears to be written in Japanese. I see that it says "one day you'll thank us" as well as urging the user to use a non-permanent marker to draw butt-circles, but aside from that... WTF? grendel| khan 02:30, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Unfortunately, it's not as funny as it seems. It is really only instructional, literally. (It is Chinese, by the way)
A quick, rough translation: (largely incomplete, as most of it isn't really funny / meaningful anyways) "Enjoying your friend's asshole" (more specifically, the area between the two ass cheeks) Take a felt pen of your desired colour ... Draw two nipples on your friend's ass, making sure that it's soft and smooth ... In a thrusting motion, insert .. .. into .. .. .. Continue until 'excitement' is reached...
=/ Alex Ng 06:34, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi Guys and Gals! Wikipedia defines percentage as:
"...a way of expressing a proportion, a ratio or a fraction as a whole number,.
what if a percentage is expressed in decimal form? (e.g. 2.45%)
Is there an exact term to call it? Thanks for your help.
I sincerely appreciate the exchange of thoughts. who would have known I can effect change in Wiki's definition. :-) how about calling it "decimal percentage" to suit my report? :-)
hi yes i would love the saying into coptic language only...only new at this so not sure how to respond to you directly..my user name is mioullos....thanx mia
thats what i thought..is there a translator table like they have for egyptian heiroglyphics?? and yes it is for a tattoo..having problems finding anyone who can write in the old scripters...
Did you pay atention to some of the caveats and further questions raised by your previous query at Wikipedia:Reference_desk_archive/Language/June_2006#heiratic_script_converot ? AnonMoos 16:40, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Before getting a tattoo in a foreign language, you must see the cautionary examples on [ [17]]!!-- Teutoberg 10:23, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello, I'm currently completing an article Barbel (fish species) about those species of Barbus that are known as or fit the description 'Barbel'. Barbels are found in central Asia and Europe and also Africa. I was wondering if anyone could give a few translations of some of the native common names of these fish. It's not vital to the article but would be good.
I have links to lists to common names of three species:
[ Barbus barbus] This is the barbel found in UK. Confirmation that most of these are simply variations on the term 'barber' would be appreciated. As would meanings of any other common names if possible.
[ Aral barbel] Meanings of the Kazakh and possibly Farsi words if possible.
[ Barbus bynni bynni] An African barbel - some of the languages used here aren't even identified, nevertheless translation of these native African terms if possible would be appreciated.
If anyone can give answers (or more info. even) that would be great. HappyVR 15:30, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
(I was thinking specifically in terms of linguistic roots for the names) HappyVR 16:00, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
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Some refer to the colour. German Weissfisch, Romanian Alba, Bulgarian Byala all mean white.
Some refer to the habitat. The Scandinavian first syllables beginning with "f" all mean river, so does the Bulgarian Rechna, I think.
Mrena translates as barbel obviously but also "film", "pellicule" or "membrane".
Jameswilson 01:36, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi,
I'm wondering I anybody could provide me with some funny (Mildly rude) Words of phrases in Spanish?
Many Thanks
Do you mean Spanish words that sound funny to Spanish speakers or English speakers ? StuRat 19:07, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Words that are funny to english speakers mainly, but spanish humour would also go down well.
I have heard that "bicho malo" may or may not be vulgar, depending on the country.-- Teutoberg 08:32, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
For the very offensive and later euphemisms, I remember being told by a Spanish girl that "Me cago en Dios" is converted to "Me cago en diez", which of course elicits the response, "Me cago en veinte, qué es más potente!" (Sorry if my accent marks are off!!)-- Teutoberg 08:41, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi, what do you call that thing which women use to tie their hair? It's usually a frilly torus made of fabric, with an elastic string embedded inside. In South Korea it's called gobchangkkeun (Hangul: 곱창끈), literally "small intestine string." What is it called in English? -- Kjoon lee 18:42, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks everyone. I appreciate your answers. :) I think scrunchy/scrunchie/scrunchee is closest to what I was looking for. I wanted to know the name for the frilly version; hair elastic, pony O, and hair pony sound as if they might be ambiguous in some cases. I'm slightly confused about hairbands, though. Can hairbands refer to scrunchies too? -- Kjoon lee 09:01, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
In suburban communities within the United States consisting of women that shop quite a bit (also known as Loops or Loopies), the most common association I have seen is with the word "scrunchies". Ebay members often use this term in regards to hair products for children matching the description. This is in contract to hairbows which server the same purpose but are bows instead of being fluffy. The non-fluffy kind of bands are called elastic hairbands and are usually black elastic rubberband-type articles. -- Freebytes
June 29, 2006
Wikipedia,
What is the purpose of a subplot? I have found your encyclopedia most helpful but would like to know more.
Thank you,
Shari C. Graber
The word bow is a double homonym. (bow \baʊ\ = bough; bow \boʊ\ = beau) Are there any other double homonyms? — Michael J 20:12, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
To, too, and two! (Don't know the IPA, sorry). Emmett5 21:30, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
I like your answer (I'm not the question-poster).
Incidentally, this list:
http://www.opundo.com/homographs.htm
should be useful to others looking to find an answer. (The key word is "homograph". I'm also investigating a term "heteronym" that is new to me). There are probably other lists too, than the above, that was the first Google hit on "list of homographs".
Actually, check out this list!
http://www.rinkworks.com/words/heteronyms.shtml
That means "are" is a two-way homonym per the question, since it can be pronounced "air", and therefore is a homonym of this word, or "ahr", and therefore a homonym of the spelling of the letter R.
In many speakers' dialects, "our" is pronounced variously as are or hour depending on the context/syntax (much like "the" for thuh [shwa] or thee), and therefore the letter words are its homonyms. (are/hour).
Of course, if you count "dialects" then children certainly say "winned" (which would be attested mostly in children who haven't yet acquired the word strong form "won"), thus "wind" is homonym to "winned" and "whined" or "wined". I admit this is stretching it, so that's all for now.
Oh! On more: sow (pronoucned so and sou). [19] and [20] give, respectively, "sow2 (sou) n. An adult female hog." and "sough \SAU; SUHF\, intransitive verb: 1. To make a soft, low sighing or rustling sound, as the wind." Thus "sow" therefore is homonym to "sew" and "sough". There seem to be no such shortage of words. It's a bit arbitrary to need a different spelling to consider it a "homonym" since the two different words "sow" and "sough" (plant seeds, and female hog), since the two words "sow[1]" and "sow[2]" are already homonyms, despite being spelled the same. 82.131.188.85 19:48, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
I've changed the title to "two-way homonyms" since that's what the question is. If anyone minds they can change it back.
82.131.188.85
19:48, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
What language has the best/most swear words? -- 67.185.172.158 21:29, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
In my opinion, I'd say that German has a natural "angry" tone to it. If you're looking for something more 'exotic', try Cantonese - Swear Words and their English Translations
PS: Whenever I'm chatting with someone in Cantonese, other people who don't speak the language naturally think we're in a fight... If normal talk in a language seems offensive, then swearing might seem even more obscene. Alex Ng 06:17, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
y la virgen y todos los santos mnewmanqc
There was a brief mention in the Finnish media that some British (or Australian?) guy had written a travel guide to Finland, and the guide said that there are no swear words in Finnish. If a Finn feels the urge to swear, he/she says "ravintolassa" (meaning "in the restaurant"). This is not true at all. Finnish has many swear words (see Finnish profanity): vittu (cunt), paska (shit), saatana (Satan), perkele (Finnish devil), etc. So who was it who supplied blatant misinformation to that guy? JIP | Talk 17:42, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
When it comes to insults, Dutch has some nice ones. We wish each other diseases. For example, one could say "Get typhoid, you cancer-sufferer." I don't know of any other language that has that. DirkvdM 12:01, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
What does it mean for a toy to be short packed? Seahen 02:17, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I cannot find what you call a word that is spelt the same fowards and backwards. ie: mum, or dad, or racecar
It is driving me crazy. Thankyou
[email removed]
So many dynamos! schyler 20:31, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello all. I'm looking for a word i cant remember what it is- is someething like 'precoisuly/pracoisly, it's something hanging uncertianily over somehting. Eg 'the can hang precaiously over the pile of clothes'. Hope you can find it and thanks in advanc. ````
Yes thats the word thank you very much.
You have to pray to stay alive, that's why life is precarious (Did Aulde English have no word for that act of begging, that they borrowed it from latin). -- DLL 21:07, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello Volunteers!
Does anybody know the difference between steps and stairs?
Cheers, Paul
Regarding steps and stairs, have we rung out the distinction between the former and the ladder ? :-) StuRat 15:32, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
I get it! You used ladder instead of latter! Very witty. schyler 20:28, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
stair is used in the singular but usually when it actually means the plural, as in 'we met upon the stair', a line from David Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold The World'. --
Alex.dsch
14:07, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
Don't stare up the stairs, just step up the steps! -- WhiteDragon 17:13, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
In French, there does not seem to be any word that ends with "a" except for certain verb conjugations (future simple and past simple). Does French have a rule prohibiting "a" endings and is there a reason for it?
Is this correct:
in-between
Herod the Great's
Ending a sentence with: 28 B.C.
Putting a space after a colon:
In the North and East, Syria was ruled by Seleucus I.
He did the same thing as Pharaoh Neco did; replacing one king with another.
Thanks, good answers.
I have no idea what you just said.
In Spanish, can this mean 'even if' or 'even then'? ( as in Tagalog- 'maske' or 'maske na')?-- Jondel 00:16, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
I don't see this in the dictionary. I can say 'Más que vivo (vive?) en Japon, no significa que hablo/e japones.' ?(Even if I live in Japan, this doesn't mean I can speak Japanese.) (feel free to correct)or 'Más que sea el presidente/dueño, no significa que no necessita trabajar.' (Even if I/he am the president/owner, this doesn't mean, I/he does'nt have to work.)-- Jondel 01:58, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the info Chris.-- Jondel 07:30, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks El aprendelenguas.-- Jondel 09:49, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Do you say:
1. The "number" or "numbers" of students who like different sports is/are given as: 23,40,33 etc..
3. The bar graph shows the "number" or "numbers" of students in 5 different classes.
4. Let's compare the "number" or "numbers" of tourists in three holiday resorts.
An authority says it is "number" but I think it's "numbers" in each case. How do you decide?
It's "numbers", definitely. There's more than one number in each of your 3 examples.
i'm plumping with the "authority" - regardless of how many students there are (in all cases) the number representing them is still singular. e.g you dont say "the numbers 50" but i doubt anyone would pull you up on it 87.194.20.253 19:58, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks everyone. We haven't arrived at any conclusion though. :)
This comes by way of a COP (now University of the Pacific) Honors Graduate; High School Math and Music Teacher, and Junior College Math Teacher. He also writes test problems for a well known publisher.
His reply to your question, as written -
If you are referring to one number, use the singular, "number".
If you are referring to more than one number, us the plural, "numbers".
Katiebugggg13 00:15, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Means a lot right? I proofread Japanese to English translations and this caused a lot of trouble since my Japanese boss's were insisting this meant 'quite few'.-- Jondel 04:21, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks SeizureDog and JackofOz.-- Jondel 07:29, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm moderately new to Japanese and I'm trying to make sure I have the pronunciation as good as possible, at least until I can meet a real Japanese person to help. Most of it is pretty straightforward, but I have a couple of rather subtle issues/questions.
Thanks for all your help. -- George 06:09, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
I have bought a chocolate named "MACADAMIA NUSS". All text on it is written in german which I dont understand. I am reproducing the part of text which I think is about its ingredients. Can someone please help me out by translating the text, which I think is German, to english (What does its name mean?).
Thank you in advance.
The text is as follows:
--Start of text--
Zuaten: Zucker, Kakaobutter, Vollmilchpulver, Macadamia-Nüsse (10%), Kakaomasse, Milchzucker, Haselnüsse, Magermilchpulver, Emulgator: Sojalecithin, Malzextrakt, Aroma.
Kann Spuren von Mandeln enthalten.
Kakao: 30% mindestens in der Milch-Schokolade.
--End of text--
There may be a spelling mistake or two. If you find any kindly ask me to retype the word. I want to know if any of the ingredients contains egg as I am a pure vegetarian. I wish to make it clear if before I enjoy the chocolate.
P.S.: It is Swiss Made.
-- Siddhant 10:22, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi everyone! In the French Wikipedia, somebody is asking us what a "pain in the sitter" means in English. Is that like a "pain in the ass" or something completely different and much more formal? :) Thank you very much.
I have always heard the term "ripped and snorted" as praise for tearing into a project and getting it done. (Example: Well now, you have just ripped and snorted on this paint job!) Friends say "ripped and snorted" comes from horse racing, as does the term "ripping and racing" now used to describe a very busy day. (Example: Whatcha doin? Rippin' and racin'!)
I was surprised that my usual search engines could not provide origin or meaning on "ripped and snorted." Can you?
Thanks for your time and attention.
e-mail removed
There may be a horse racing connection from the snorting noise a horse makes when it's flat out caused by the flaring or "cracking" of it's nostrils as it expands the folds of the nasal tissue to get maximum air through ,like the plaster strips American athletes use.Hope you can visualise this,if not listen to a horse after a hard race(often seen on TV,The Derby is coming up so an opportunity presents itself there.)---Hotclaws**==( 81.136.163.210 08:27, 2 June 2006 (UTC))
I spell You spell We all spell for ice cre.. wait nevermind
Which is correct: spelled or spelt. As in: You spelled/spelt that wrong. Is spelt just a shorthand way of saying spelled?
How is Ladakh (pronounced लद्दाख़) written in the Tibetan script (used in Ladakhi language.) Is ལདཁ correct? deeptrivia ( talk) 21:07, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
(moved from the Humanities Desk)
Why journeys and not journies? -- Username132 ( talk) 02:21, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
It pseudo prnounced "sudo" or "saydo"
(I changed your title to the correct spelling 82.131.189.233 16:27, 2 June 2006 (UTC))
Arabic http://www.royalaccord.com/images/arabic_text.gif http://www.royalaccord.com/images/arabic_table.gif and dutch?
DEN HELDER DUIK - EN BERGINGSBEDRIJF
Welkom bij Den Helder Duik en Bergingbedrijf. We zijn gevestigd aan de noordkust van Nederland en we zijn de nummer 1 duik- en bergings firma van het land. Met over 30 jaar ervaring in het bergen van schepen, onderwater onderzoek en industriele ervaring, moet je ons hebben wanneer je iets te bergen hebt.
Den Helder Duik en Bergingbedrijf is een fictieve website. Het is niet echt. Klik aub op de contact button bovenaan de pagina voor meer informatie. DUIKEN EN BERGEN Den Helder Duik
Duiken en Bergen zijn maar twee van de dingen die wij doen bij Den Helder Duik. Bovendien geven we advies op het gebied van onderwater boren, olie-platform onderhoud, kabelleggen en vele, vele andere gebieden.
DH: ERVARING IN BERGEN
We hebben ervaring in Bergen over de hele wereld, inclusief de Noordzee, de Atlantische Oceaan, de Indische Oceaan en de Middellandse zee. We hebben een emergency team dat overal op locatie kan zijn binnen 24 uur.
Den Helder Duik en Bergingsbedrijf is een fictieve website. Het is niet echt. Klik aub op de contact button bovenaan de pagina voor meer informatie Den Helder Duik en Berginsbedijf PROBLEEM AAN: GROOT OF KLEIN
We zijn trots op onze duik expertise. Met een team van 5 duikers, 8 ingenieurs, en 12 onderwater specialisten kunnen we elk probleem aan: groot of klein. We zijn altijd beschikbaar om onze klanten te woord te staan, 24 uur per dag. Daarom is den helder de eerste bergingsfirma met customer support.
Klik aub op de link rechts bovenin voor meer informatie over ons. Den Helder Duik en Berginsbedijf BOVENDIEN GEVEN...
Duiken en Bergen zijn maar twee van de dingen die wij doen bij Den Helder Bergen. Bovendien geven we advies op het gebied van onderwater boren, olie-platform onderhoud, kabelleggen en vele, vele andere gebieden. BERGINGSWERK IN DE NOORDZEE
Onze lokatie in Den Helder leent zich uitstekend voor bergingswerk in de Noordzee. Er zijn twee helikopter platforms in de buurt, waardoor onze ingenieurs en duikers snel bij vele van de olievelden in de buurt kunnen zijn.
Tevens bieden deze platforms een handig aankomstpunt voor onze vele internationale klanten
I don't have time to translate all of that but essentially it says they are a dive and salvaging company. Their location would be excellent for salvaging in the Nordic sea, they have two helicopter platforms neaarby, such that their engineers and divers can reach many of the nearby oil fields guickly. These platforms also serves as a convenient arrival point for many international clients Evilbu 10:42, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Doesn't it also say that the company is fictitious, and doesn't exist for real? deeptrivia ( talk) 21:09, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Maybe someone said sway-do because they were an idiot. Anyway, it's "soodo" in America.
Why do we say, "Let's go to McDonalds" but with the name of a hotel, for example, we say "Let's go to THE Hilton."?
the easy way to answer this is that there are unsaid, but implied, words. to decide how to address an institution, consider the unsaid words: Let's go to McDonald's (Restaurant); Let's go to the Hilton (Hotel), where McDonald's shows possession (Jim's place, Sam's car), whereas Hilton is a proper name on it's own, with its description or by its description alone (the Hilton, the Hilton Hotel, or the hotel). It is just as one might say the Police, the Police Station, or the Station.
another situation in which the implied words are considered to decide which word to use is in the case of the he/him - she/her and I/me dilemma. apparently american children are no longer taught how to know which is proper anymore, but it is very easy to figure out. just add in the implied, but unsaid, words, and the answer is clear. first of all, I/me always comes second. now let's see an example: "___ and ___ want to go home," or "they want to come home with ___ and ___." selecting from she/her and me/I, just add in the implied words and which word to use is obvious - she (wants to go home), and I want to go home, therefore, she and I want to go home. they want to come home with her, and (they want to come home with) me, therefore, they want to come home with her and me. easy, huh?
Thanks to everyone. You've been a big help! I'm gonna print this out for future reference.
"I'm trying to figure out what the problem is."
"I'm trying to figure out what is the problem."
I see #2 on the internet a lot but it seems wrong to me.
I would say "I'm trying to figure out what the problem is." or "I'm trying to figure out 'What is the problem?'", suggesting 'What is the problem' is a specific phrase I'm trying to figure out :-) English derives a lot of its meaning from the position of words. 'what is' indicates a question. Skittle 14:24, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks a lot! I think these responses are correct -- and fast, too :)
A little knowledge of German sheds a lot of light on this question, I think. In German, all subordinate clauses have their main verbs in final position. Thus in German you would say "I'm trying to figure out what the problem is" (in translation). English, as a Germanic language, has this grammatical feature, though it's not as strong. For example, you would say "I want to know whether he comes from Alabama". In this subordinate clause, the verb follows the subject, but precedes the rest of the clause. If you want to add an interrogative main clause, then it's "I want to know: does he come from Alabama?" In this case, the verb comes first. The question is only whether you want a subordinate clause or a main clause. The particular wording of the sentence under consideration suggests subordinate clause, so #1 is correct. - lethe talk + 23:05, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks to everyone for the help :) I really appreciate your time and effort.
I know if a verb in Spanish directly follows another, you conjugate the first one and leave the second one in the infinitive. But if there are three right next to each other, what do you do to the third one. Like for "I want to eat to live." How would you say that? Is "Quiero comer por vivir" correct? That's the only example I can think of. Any others? What would you do in those situations? Thanks. schyler 17:14, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
I picked up Spanish in the street and never learned how to use "lo" and "le" properly :( My formula has been to just copy the natives.
Hello everyone,
I'd very much like to know how to pronounce a certain character's name. She is featured at http://namco-ch.net/namco_x_capcom/character/index.php , second one from above (the blonde with a spear and pistol).
Here's the name image: http://namco-ch.net/namco_x_capcom/character/img/name_02.jpg
I'm not sure what kind of glyphs are those (Katakana, Kanji, etc). Can someone help me out? Thanks!
--Pedro.
I have heard this name, "Sunny Jim" used as a multi-purpose name referring to someone to whom the speaker is talking. It seems to be used primarily by speakers of British English. An example would be: "Listen here, Sunny Jim, I told you.....," as someone would call another person "Bubba," or "Toots," or whatever. Does anyone know the derivation of this expression? The only thing I can find is a reference to the jockey/trainer, Sunny Jim Fitz-something, but I haven't found anything explaining why his name might have been used in such a way. Thanks in advance for any help.
A friend of mine recently told me a story about how he had become insensed because of a journalist repeatedly using the term 'in hindsight'. He emailed the guy, explaining that he had got it wrong and that he should be using 'with the benifit of hindsight' instead. The journalist replied very quickly, and was most gracious, saying that he appreciated the feedback and that he would try not to fall into this 'faux amis' again. Or words to that effect. But the more I think about it, the more I feel that there is absolutely nothing wrong with 'in hindsight' and that 'with the benifit of' is just a flowery way of saying the same thing. Now I need some hard evidence to prove it! Any help would be hugely appreciated. Thanks.
I have searched for the meaning of this song "Si Vuelves Tu" but I don't exactly understand what it means. I would appreciate any help and it would satisfy the curiosity of one of my friends as well!
Thank You
"If You Return" (I don't know the meaning of the song 'cause I've never heard of it but that's what the title means :)
I'm searching for a word to describe the short nostril puff that is frequently used as a form of subdued laughter. It isn't correct to call it "laughter", nor "puffing", nor "exhalation". I'm sure everyone is familiar with this phenomenon, but I've never known of a word for it. Does one exist? Bhumiya ( said/ done) 03:08, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Ripsnort?---hotclaws**==( 81.136.163.210 07:36, 4 June 2006 (UTC))
I would go with "snigger" or "snicker" or an onomatopoeia like "pff". There is also the suppressed snort, as opposed to a blowing of soft air, which is also well known for a sarcastic suppressed laugh. Pff! The vagaries of man :) sandman
I've seen "hmmf" before but maybe in a different context. What do you guys think?
Other than as "Alpha Orionis", what is the correct way to pronounce this star's name? If I say "Bayt'l-zhurz" (as it would be in French) it's met with "oh, you mean Beetl-joos" (as in the Michael Keaton movie). if I say "Beetl-joos" it's met with "oh, Bettel-goyzer" (as in German - and presumably the original Arabic). So which is it? Grutness... wha? 08:08, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Well, I just looked it up in my dictionary, and it says we're all wrong. It says the primary stress can be on the first or last syllable, but that the last syllable rhymes with furs - "beetlejers". Henry Flower 09:49, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
There is no single correct way to pronounce the name. Different dictionaries give different pronunciations. I suggest you pick a pronunciation from a dictionary that you like and boldly use it. -- Cam 19:39, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Why can we say: "I'm going to Canada." "I'm going to school." but we can't say: "I'm going to home."
Latin does the same thing with the word for "home". It uses a vestigial locative case. It's such a common usage that I would accept that explanation for English as well. - lethe talk + 05:17, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
What is statistically the most common syllable to be stressed in most English words, e.g. the penultimate? the first syllable? etc.-- Sonjaaa 12:22, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
When people whose languages only have 5 vowels (aeiou), such as Spanish Japanese or many African languages, pronounce an English word like "word" or "bird" with a thick accent, which of these 5 vowels do they tend to prefer?
-- Sonjaaa 12:23, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
How is : Ho-Shang Kung written in traditional chinese ? ( He is a famous writer if a Tao Te Ching commentary ) Hhnnrr 13:31, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Thank you , but is this traditional or simplified ? Hhnnrr 21:07, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
I have recently been informed that Lit Present is appropriate when contributing to an article which summarizes fictional events. Such as in comic book articles. However, at what point do we intertwine Lit Present and Lit Past? Like some wikipedians who claim to be "professional writers" (even though in most cases there is no proof of these claims), I also hold a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing. Therefore, I feel my edits are valid ones. In most novels and fictional universe guides (Star Wars, Star Trek), past events are not summarized in present, but in past tense. I fail to see how it makes sense for all articles to reflect Lit Present, when the events being summarized are no longer current, but historical within the said fictional universe. I would be more than willing to site examples in order to resolve my concerns when I am contacted by an administrator who is a professional writer (such as a copy writer, technical writer, or even an editor). Thank you. Chee-sen 20:04, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
the thing happened during in my secondary school. my father have a good friend; he treat everyone friendship, I think I have a good uncil. but only my mother didn't like him. one day all of us set together eat lunch. my father said some about uncil's things, then mother said don't talk him, he eat neals in my familiy now month, he not honest, don't trust him. i heared this thing I'm very angry sag to my mother "why do you treat him in this way," and quarraled with my mother, I felt I have a selfish mother at now. I hatred her. I'm no cry, but mother's tear continue at eye. she didn't said anything. suddently, I felt I hurt my mother's heart. All house in silence, A moment, Father and old sister see me same time. The moment I felt I wrong . Two day ago , mother didn't say anything with me. m heart very uncomfortable.. I realized I lose mother love the world change not perfact for me.
Mother love is great . If you have terible, no people can always help you . except mother and father. they heart always for you.
please, giveing same love to you parents. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Linyuan89 ( talk • contribs)
I am attempting to add a translation of some quoted latin text to a stub I just created from the catholic encyclopedia. Looking at the article might give your some context for the translation: Alphonso de Spina.
The text is: Incipit prohemium Fortalitii Fidei conscriptum per quendam Doctorem eximium ordinis minorum anno MCCCCLIX in partibus occidentis. Which I have word for word looked at with a latin dictionary; best I can make out, given context is something like: "Beginning in 1459, in order to prevent the faithful from falling into perfidy, I present my excellent teachings in the battle against the menace" (of hell I presume). I'm sure that contains a bit of the gist but is quite wrong. Any help appreciated.-- Fuhghettaboutit
I dunno where to put this, so I'll put it here. What is it called when you see a word so much that it doesn't look like a word any more? Vitriol 04:03, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
I for one,appreciate a kindly spelling/grammar correction ..hotclaws**==( 81.136.163.210 08:57, 6 June 2006 (UTC))
Just wondering, you seem to have used the word "sie" for "she" on three different occasions in the same paragraph, making it extremely unlikely to be a typo. Was there some particular point that you are trying to make by using "sie" instead of "she"? Perhaps you'd like to introduce the German version of the pronoun into English? Just curious. Loomis51 01:39, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
Can someone please translate this article into English from French-- [ [3]] on Georges Sagnac.
As English wikipedia does not have an article on it, I can create it after translation.
Thank You in Advance.
P.S.-Please also copy the translated text on my user page.
-- Siddhant 07:00, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
I don't really have the time (and both languages aren't my native either) so I won't do the translation. But "des ammées 70" doesn't look too correct.
Does the following sentence require a question mark at the end? "In practice, the question facing us is how are we to know how many roads a man must walk down." -- Shantavira 13:00, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
What is the origin of the phrase "It's good to be king"? When was it first used? Does it pre-date Mel Brooks? 198.134.2.62 19:55, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
Moved by JackofOz from Wikipedia Talk:Reference Desk
In Classical Latin, could anyone please tell me if the word "pro" takes the ablative; I am thinking, in particular, of Newman's Apologia pro vita sua. If so, what would the ablative be for the word opus!
Thank you in advance!
Now that we are talking about ablative : is there a difference in pronuncation between vita sua in ablative? Evilbu 14:05, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
Hmm, I think I am mostly interested in classical Latin. My books often explicitly wrote , but actually WRITING that difference is "not done" right? Evilbu 18:25, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
So it wasn't just my book that did that, thanks. About the ā I was wondering how you did it, I though perhaps one of the (few!) disadvantages of Azerty :) Evilbu 09:31, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I know a word exists to describe using a brand name instead of a proper name (for example Hoover instead of vacuum cleaner, sellotape instead of stickytape, tippex instead of corrrection fluid etc). But I can not recall what the word is. Any ideas? thanks
what does gross domestic readership skills mean and its significance to developing countries?
I'm looking for ancient words for the word healer, preferably from English/Northern European roots. Could you also include pronunciation? Many thanks..
The phrase "in the underground/subway": is it "in den U-Bahn" or "in der U-Bahn"? It seems to me that U-Bahn would be in the dative case (and therefore "in den"), but a sentence in
this wikipedia.de article disagrees. I google-d wikipedia.de and both forms seem to be prevalent. --
Doug (
talk)
19:00, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
It is "die U-Bahn" in nominative, thus feminine. "In der U-bahn", that is a dative.
Evilbu 19:16, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
And "in den U-Bahnen" that would be correct too right? Evilbu 19:21, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
http://www.royalaccord.com/images/arabic_text.gif
What percentage of Quebec City speak French at home?
i need some help with the meanings of a few last names. Castellucci is one of them and Gronski is the other.-thank you
I 'm trying to learn Latin, French, Spanish, and other languages. What I need is to hear conversations in those languages and I frequently search video.yahoo.com and video.google.com. Are there any other free audios in those langauges ? Not much for the classical latin though. -- Jondel 06:18, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Gratias ago!-- Jondel 23:27, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Beware that since everyone that once spoke Classical Latin died before Bell invented sound recording, no one really knows 100% how Latin sounded. So there are two competing traditions in how to pronounce Latin, a Germanic inspired one, and a pronounication that sounds like modern italian. H@r@ld 11:03, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
That would be if gratia is a verb, for the noun ' gratia', 'gratias'-plural, and 'ago'(agere)-- Jondel 04:09, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
I was just wondering what kind of languages children/adults normally learn in Japan. Japan is quite a modern country and has a decent educational system. One might expect that they another language at school?
My uncle who has been to Japan tells me that one can be quite lost there as a foreigner. Not only are even in airports most signs only in the Japanese writing system, most people there don't know any English.
I must say, when i watch Japanese manga (as my names suggests I like to do that :) ), I sometimes have doubts too. In Neon Genesis Evangelion they speak of "the fifth children" for instance. Isn't there anyone who notices such a thing during production. Sometimes when some parts of a song are in English, I don't hear it because it is pronounced in such a weird way.
Could it be that, regardless of economic status a foreigner like me (Dutch speaking but with some French/English abilities) is actually better off in Asian countries like Vietnam or China than Japan?
Evilbu 18:23, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Hmm, usually the number of years is quite a good indicator...although my best language is not the one I had to study the most.
I've had two years of German which was a joke. Is it comparable?
They don't try to speak the language although they can perfect the grammar. I live in Tokyo and studied Spanish. My Japanese classmates perfected the grammar specially in tests but I could speak the language to get by. They are too conscious of mistakes that they would make. They have what they term Japanese-complex , something like inferiority complex when outside of Japan or when not speaking EnglishJapanese. Yes they study English throughout their school life but they prefer not to use English.--
Jondel
02:43, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
I teach English in a Japanese high school, and I find that in many cases, Japanese students' only desire with regard to English is to learn enough to pass tests and get into University. Beyond that, they aren't interested. So for the majority, they learn rules and vocabulary without learning to communicate. Plus Jondel is right in that many students don't try to do stuff for fear of making a mistake and looking foolish in front of their peers. Even so, English is a lot more commonly studied than other languages. I would, however, take issue with what you say about the lack of English in airports, etc. All the Japanese airports I've been in (Narita and Centrair) had most signs in English (some in Thai, Chinese and Spanish too), and I had no trouble finding my way around the country when I first arrived and spoke no Japanese. I live in a fairly rural area and signs on the road and at railway stations are all in both English and Japanese, and the announcements on trains are translated into English too. I'd say it's a fairly easy country in which to get around. Phileas 04:49, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
Some languages use the word "tanga" for a thong or G-string underwear. What is the etymology of this term "tanga"?-- Sonjaaa 18:34, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Many thanx,I knew it was nothing to do with the pop but never did know the origin( hotclaws**== 12:42, 9 June 2006 (UTC))
What is the Greek word for someone who has a fascination with some animals? For example, ants. "Myrmecophile" could be seen as implying a sexual desire for ants, which is not what I'm talking about. "Myrmecomaniac", OTOH, could be seen as implying an all-encompassing obsession with ants, which won't do either. What I mean is a person who enjoys learning things about ants and observing ants in nature. JIP | Talk 18:45, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Czech has seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, locative, and instrumental. I was wondering which case corresponds to the preposition "od", meaning from. My guess would be dative, but I could imagine it being genitive or instrumental as well. I thought I'd check here before I go in search of Czech-speaking Wikipedians. Thanks! Bhumiya ( said/ done) 19:53, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Encouraged by those quick responses, I have another question about the pronunciation of the short vowels. Are "y" and "i" always pronounced as in "tick", even at the end of a word? And what exactly is the pronunciation of "u"? I've been told that it rhymes with "book". Bhumiya ( said/ done) 23:35, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
Wow, I'm learning things myself from this. :-) I wonder if there is actually someone who knows Czech out there who can back me up on this... - THE GREAT GAVINI { T- C} 20:02, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
I thought Czech has only five vowel phonemes. The difference between i/y and í/ý is a matter of vowel length and not a different vowel. That's the impression I gather from a Czech recording I'm listening to. -- Chris S. 06:59, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi, could someone translate this to English for me please?
"In Italia non esiste una lega professionistica ma dilettantistica di lacrosse, Roma lacrosse club fondata da Robert Corna. Inoltre esiste l'inter-crosse, gioco simile al lacrosse, giocato però in spazi piccoli e chiusi. Si gioca tra 4 squadre, tutte della Provincia di Lecco (Lecco, Vercurago, Merate e Olginate)."
It's from it:Lacrosse#In Italia. Thanks! -- Yarnalgo 01:42, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
I am having trouble finding reference to this phrase in a style / grammar guide.
Which is correct? ("Make sure to..." sounds better to me, but I cannot find anything definitive).
It may not make sense, but it is widely used. Still, I would always prefer "to". Bhumiya ( said/ done) 05:10, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
What is the most widely spoken form of sign language (as in 'deaf sign") and how many people are fluent in it (and in sign languages generally)? There doesn't seem to be any information about the demographics at either sign language or list of sign languages... My guess is American Sign Language, which is listed as having upwards of 500,000 users. Grutness... wha? 10:20, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
There is a 1982 papal decree entitle "Ut Sit". What does "Ut Sit" mean?-- Alecmconroy 15:31, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
Prince Chu Tsai-Yu first calculated the twelfth root of two in his treatise lu lu ching i or "a clear explanation of that which concerns the lu". What are the tones of lu lu ching i? What other transliterations are possible for lu lu ching i and Chu Tsai-Yu? I've seen the name of the instrument spelled lü, with an umlaut. Is the umlaut correct? Does it mean anything? — Keenan Pepper 00:12, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Also, what is the modern name of the lu? Is it one of the instruments at Traditional Chinese musical instruments#Bamboo (竹)? — Keenan Pepper 00:32, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Can I say, 'Ojala que me dijieras más antes/temprano.' for 'I wish you told me earlier.' ?-- Jondel 01:13, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
I asked a chilena at a store down the street and got 'Hubiera sido mejor que me dijera antes.' Thanks myself... and uh others who will participate.Ojala is used only with the future or hopes, etc. I wonder if Ishould do more of this one man conversation. :D -- Jondel 03:52, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
If you wanted to use Ojalá, it's best to use it in the future -- "I hope that you will tell me afterwards", Ojalá que me digas después. User:Zoe| (talk) 17:04, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Mil gracias, Zoe and Draeco.-- Jondel 05:27, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
Other use of the word is: -are you going on vacation this summer? -I wish! (-¿Te vas de vacaciones este verano? -¡Ojalá!) I hope it helps, and it isn't too late ;)"
What's a word that is the same in both German and English, doesn't need to be translated into either, is 5 letters long, and has the letter "A" and "W."
"Aaaww! meaning an exclaimation when you see something cute( hotclaws**== 12:48, 9 June 2006 (UTC))
How would one say "system-on-a-chip" in Spanish? 198.237.142.5 18:01, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
You probably want Circuito Integrado para Aplicaciones Especificas. That's the title of the Spanish article on Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). -- Halcatalyst 18:28, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello. I work in a television newsroom ( WNEP-TV), and it seems the language is not keeping up with technology. Several decades ago, our photographers shot on film, and as a gerund verb they were said to be filming something. With the advent of videotape, the photographers would be taping their news stories. Recently we got rid of tape, and are now using video discs. (They are similar in appearance to DVDs and CDs, but formatted for higher-quality video.) My question is, does this now require a new verb form, disc-ing? — Michael J 22:11, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Talk:Saddam Hussein/naming has a long discussion over whether or not Saddam Hussein should be referred to as Saddam or Hussein (or al-Tikriti). Based on that precedent, shouldn't we be referring to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as "Abu Musab"? (I have also listed this at the Village Pump). User:Zoe| (talk) 22:26, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm not sure whether to post this here or in the Science section, as it appears that it can apply to both.
When writing, I have the odd habit of occasionally, but often enough that I'm curious, skipping either the first or last letter of a word that I'm writing.
For example, when writing the word "WIKIPEDIA", (I tend to always print in capital block letters and never use cursive, the reason for which is a whole other story for a whole different question) although I'd usually get it right, an unusual number of times I'd look at the page and see: "IKIPEDIA" or "WIKIPEDI". The same goes for numbers like telephone numbers, which is far more problematic, as it can be maddening to look up someone's number that I've jotted down and find that I'm one digit short!
The problem isn't all that serious, merely an inconvenience at times. I'm just wondering if this is a common enough phenomenon for which perhaps there is even a name, or if this is simply my own, personal, unique habit that few if any others tend to experience. Loomis51 00:01, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
I think these things are just results of being distracted. The mind will do all sorts of patchwork and omission when you're concentrating on too many things at once, as is common the U.S. and Western Europe. That's why we have editors. - LambaJan 03:51, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
I was looking at a French-English dictionary, and I saw they had to explain what these games were because it said people in France never played it. So my questions are: 1. Do (at least some) French people have any knowledge of these games and how they are played? 2. Is it just in France or are these games specific to few countries. 3. I'm sure the translation for "netball" would follow the same pattern as other -ball games (i.e. remain the same in French) but would "rounders" be given another name? If not, would the pronounciation be anglicized or would it follow the pronouncation as if it were a French word? -- Bearbear 16:26, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
Is whirled a homophone of world? Are there any more? Patchouli 17:59, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
It's mixed in northeast Ohio. Most say them both as 'world' while enough preserve the 'h' sound of the 'wh' so that you're not surprised to hear 'whirled' or 'while' or 'wheel' etc. pronounced with a noticably different 'wh' sound. - LambaJan 03:55, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Why do we use those two terms? Why not do-evilers or gooddoers? -- Zemyla t 21:47, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
This has been bugging me for a long time now, but what is the exact Japanese phrase that is often translated as "just kidding"? Examples of the phrase in use are:
The best I can get is nanten ne (難点ね), which would be something like "you're so weak (gullible)". I'm not certain of what exactly they're saying though, which makes this really hard for me to translate on my own. Would like romaji and kanji of what is being said please. --
SeizureDog
03:22, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
She is saying nan te ne (何てね). -- Kusunose 13:41, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
Is there a term for the dismissal or deposition of a nobleman, e.g. an earl, duke, marquis, etc, analogous to the term "defrocking"? Bhumiya ( said/ done) 04:40, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
I am stedent of Ninth class my name is Zubair and I have a question about the english language I have need easy vacabulary and those words are use our daily life and mostly sentences. I have hope that you give give me a suggestion about that and tell me about that how can I improve English language more my pronounciation is week how can I Improve this skill. Thankyou Sir Bye —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 22:37, June 10, 2006 ( talk • contribs) 80.247.152.67.
...The BBC broadcast programs on the World service which can be listened to on the radio and computer and many people use it to improve their English by listening to it.( hotclaws**== 11:38, 12 June 2006 (UTC))
Which is the correct use of the word also
are they all correct in their respective languages (american/british english) or is one a colloquialism, or something. Philc T E C I 16:17, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
I think 3 is fine. It's a bit more emphatic. Maybe, it requires commas or pauses on both sides of the also mnewmanqc
i'd say 1) sounds like what you often hear non-natives (especially scandanavians) say so i for one have come to accept it as normal even though deep down i know its probably not. 3 and 4 dont really work as stand-alone sentences but could be shoe-horned in somewhere. i'm plumping for number 2 but who knows!
87.194.20.253
00:30, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
What does a student do with an examination? Does he "give the exam" or "take the exam" or "sit for the exam" or "participate in the exam" or ...?
Also, what happens when he succeeds? Does he "pass the exam" or "be successful in the exam" or "qualify the exam" or ...? I get the feeling that "qualifying an exam" is a peculiar result of translation from some Indian language, because (1) I hear it very often, but it sounds odd to me (2) most search-engine results for "qualify {an|the} exam[ination]" are pages from India.
How do I type ellipses? Shreevatsa 05:01, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
Do people in some cultures differentiate granny from grandma, likewise grandpa from grandad, to address mother's parent and father's repsectively? Or was it just my imagination? --Chan Tai Man 09:00, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
In Swedish, yes. Grandfather is farfar (father's father; paternal grandfather) and morfar (mother's father; maternal grandfather). Then, as you can probably guess, the words for grandmother are mormor and farmor. -- Chris S. 23:37, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
In most Indian languages, yes. Like in Hindi 'Dada' and 'Dadi' are paternal grandparents and 'nana' and 'nani' are maternal grandparents. In most Indian cultures there are a hundred different names for all the uncles and aunts too :P -- Siddyjain 06:34, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
In Chinese there's different phrases for both mother's parents and father parent's, but I can't remember the exact phrase right now.... Wizrdwarts ( T| C) 22:12, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello all. A question - when it comes to articles on animals, the standard policy seems to be to have the general animal in lower case (such as: dog, shark, bear, toad), and capitalise specific animal species (such as: Great Dane, Great White Shark, Grizzly Bear, Cane Toad). So, my question is thus: a) is this right? Not all the articles are in this form (see, for example polar bear). b) The platypus article - should platypus be in lower case, or upper case? Is it "platypus" or "Platypus"? My instinct says lower case, because upper case just looks wrong, but the people who edited the article reverted me when I changed it. Proto|| type 11:01, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
BluePlatypus, given your well-known views about the absurdities of English spelling, I'm surprised that you have no objections to the use of a Latin plural for "an English word", and one that's not even of Latin derivation. If established usage makes platypi an OK plural of platypus, why doesn't the "established usage" argument satisfy you when it comes to apparently crazy spellings of English words generally? :--) JackofOz 02:37, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
The word in chinese language for word in English "Vegetarian" —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.177.11.134 ( talk • contribs) 07:42, June 12, 2006 (UTC)
I doubt it's one word. Yanwen 20:54, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
I doubt whether the chinese even have a word for 'vegetarian'. -- Siddyjain 06:30, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm wondering if, even if there is a roughly equivilent word, that the definition carries over culturally. I say this because I'm under the impression that the Chinese generally don't consider fish to be on the same level as other meat and could therefore consider someone who eats fish but no other animal meats to be a vegetarian. This is not the soundest bit of information, but it seems to be supported anecdotally in my own experiences. - LambaJan 04:09, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
I need to find out if Josephus works are available in the Spanish language, and if so, where can I get copies of it.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.33.108.186 ( talk • contribs) 22:36, 12 June 2006.
Is there a well known Korean tongue twister that focuses on the "ch" syllable? -- HappyCamper 02:39, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
The Korean Wikipedia has a list of tongue twisters. Gdr 09:08, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Wassup, peeps. What in the world are these "rape rooms" I hear so much about whenever people talk about Iraq? I tried searching Google, and came up with three kinds of webpages: Bush talking about shutting down the rape rooms, porn sites making their own rape rooms (in reality, presumably consensual-sexual-intercourse-with-adequate-minimum-wage-or-other-compensation rooms), and one question site with somebody asking this exact same question, and a bunch of other people attempting (and failing) to answer. Black Carrot 03:21, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
Yo, peeps, maybe it's so hard to find info on these apparently government sanctioned "rape rooms" because they simply DON'T EXIST. Yes, rape, and "rape rooms" may indeed exist, but not every bad thing in the world is the responsibility and creation of mean old George W. I know to many, the current president of the US is, quite plainly, the source of all evil. If that's your position, peeps, I'm sorry, but I'm sure I can't convince you otherwise. Loomis51 01:11, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Oh, and do you know of any Italian surnames that don't end in a vowel? Black Carrot 03:25, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
A lot of Italian names of Roman origin don't end in vowels, such as "De Laurentiis". -- 66.54.184.41 18:36, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
Sometimes while writing (not typing) I often start writing a 'b' instead of a 'p' and i start writing 'd' instead of 'g' (like after the circle thing I draw a line upwards instead of downwards). Is this normal? This has only started happening recently like from 2 years ago. Am I strange or what? -- Siddyjain 06:27, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
All this writing behaviour sounds normal to me but I'm dyslexic Maybe it's mini-dyslexia? a mild form? I'm not being sarcastic( hotclaws**== 12:41, 13 June 2006 (UTC))I typed "behind " by mistake,sometimes dyslexia is fun
Hi,
If I am correct, "die Faust" is a feminine noun in German, for 'the fist'
But what is the plurar
die fauste, die fausten, die fäusten?
Thanks Evilbu 19:27, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks. So when Wolff Biermann sings about "aus die Fäusten", a dative must be used? In that case I was just confused, because for accusative, nouns themselves do not change. Evilbu 17:00, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
I presume that during the First Crusade, the Seljuk Turks spoke some form of Turkish, while the Crusaders spoke Old French, Old High German, and other such languages, and the Byzantines spoke some form of Medieval Greek. Would there have been a lingua franca for all the Crusaders? Was one language dominant? And if the Crusaders ever communicated with their Turkish enemies, what language would they have used? Latin? Greek? French? Also, during the Third Crusade, it is known that Saladin and Richard I of England exchanged letters and established treaties. What language did they use for their correspondence? Bhumiya ( said/ done) 21:09, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
My name I go by is the same as my Username (Schyler). I was wondering what it means/where it comes from. My family came from Denmark in the late 18th century and Schyler was also my Great Great Grandfather's name. I have always been told it means wealth or close to that, but I don't know. It is pronounced "Shy" (like timid) and then "ler" By the way, what is a person from Denmark called? Danish? And what do they speak? Dutch? Thanks. schyler 23:43, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
A person from Denmark is a Dane, they speak Danish (not sure if spelling is right). If your name is Germanic it is pronounced "shy" "ler." Emmett5 00:12, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Thank you. I deliberately didn't use Google because I was sure it wouldn't return anything. Thank you again. schyler 02:33, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
I would like to point out that Dutch is not only spoken in the Netherlands, but also in neighbouring Belgium (in the northern part Flanders) and in Suriname. Five million compared to 16 million definitely makes us significant. Actually every Wikipedia article about a country gives a list of languages spoken there? Evilbu 17:04, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Ah. It's a female name. It turns out that it was also my great great great grandmother's name, so that's where my great great grandfather got it. Thanks you. schyler 21:52, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Please, any Korean or someone who knows Korean, what are the Hanji characters of Sinanju? I can write the first新 and last州 but not the middle.-- Jondel 00:21, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
what is the longest word in spanish?
English and some other languages have some words which include a prefixed letter e (or maybe i) in front of a word root that likely begins with the letter s. Examples in English: the words estrange, estop, escrow. I am trying to remember what this prepended letter e (or i) is called. BillWhite 14:19, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
So it's a prothetic e, then. I attended a class about 39 years ago in which a teacher of Italian must have referred to a "prothetic i" (yes, i, actually), and I have tried ever since to pin down that word. Thank you very much indeed. BillWhite 16:02, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello,
My name is Xander Lorenz, and I'll get to the point. I am dating a wonderful young lady of Italian decent. Her mother still lives in Italy and her father goes to visit regularly. I am planning to ask this amazing girl to marry me and I thought it would be nice to ask her fathers permission in Italian. I don't want to spend the money on an entire Italian language resource for just a few sentences, so if you could help I would be MOST appreciative. I need to know how to say, "Mr. Velardo, I would like your permission to ask your daughter to be my wife". Also, how would I ask her as well? "Wendy, will you marry me?"
I know that these quick phrases would help make the moment that much more memorable. Please help if you can, and if not, could you point me in the right direction? I am planning on asking her THIS weekend, the 16th-18th while we take a short vacation. This isn't last minute, I've been scouring the internet for weeks to find a translator program or something, but to no avail. You are my last hope!!!
Forever in your debt,
The hopeful bride-groom, Xander Lorenz
ANYONE out there!!!! can you help me???????????? PLEASE!!!!!!!
Hi,
when you write French, you have to take genders into account.
I am sorry. = Je suis désolé. (for a man)
= Je suis désolée. (for a woman)
But if I am not mistaking, you actually hear it too when talking :
I am strong. = Je suis fort. (for a man)
= Je suis forte.(for a woman)
This is correct, right? Now I was wondering, what other languages have this too? I don't know any other language (except Latin perhaps) that does this (I know Dutch, English and enough German to know it doesn't do it either.)
And by the way : isn't this very hard to teach a child. Usually you learn talking by hearing conversations between other people, and by being talked to. But if you are a boy and you have a sister, wouldn't you find it very confusing that what you say isn't necessarily correct for your sister. And suppose you are a girl living in all female family, doesn't that profoundly influence your language?
Well, those are my questions, I've been learning French for eight years but I never realised that this is quite unique. Evilbu 17:11, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Many Romance languages (possibly all) only have two gender forms for nouns: masculine and feminine. Therefore, most nouns inherently indicate gender. In Spanish (maybe others, too), many adjectives also recieve gender, so to say "You are excited" in Spanish becomes "Estás emocionado" or "You are excited for a man." Spanish has the distinct advantage that adjectives only recieve gender if they end in a or o and that o endings are always masculine (for adjectives) and a endings are always feminine (again, for adjectives). Emmett5 17:24, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Semitic languages have gender distinctions in finite verbs (not just adjectives and pronouns), and for both 2nd and 3rd persons. Korean and Japanese don't have grammatical gender at all (as far as I'm aware), but do have somewhat well-defined masculine vs. feminine manners of speaking -- in Japanese this includes the use of more honorific forms by women, and the use of somewhat different pronoun forms and sentence-final grammatical particles by men vs. women (though such distinctions are partially breaking down in recent years). AnonMoos 19:42, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
I checked the article on pirates, but it only partially answered my question. The article pointed out that much of what we believe in today of pirates in centuries past is fiction. However these pirates did exist, and whatever fictional depiction we have of them must have been at least partially influenced by fact.
What I'm curious about specifically is that peculiar accent pirates always seem to be depicted as having. As in: "Arr, matey!", "Yo ho ho and a bottle o' rum" (actually I think that one was made up by Robert Louis Stephenson in his Treasure Island). In any case I'm sure there was a good degree of reality to it (the accent at least). The accent actually seems mostly English (as in English English,) but of what regional accent I don't know. It also seems to have a bit of a tinge of Irish English, but that I'm not entirely sure about.
Of course not all pirates of that period were even English speakers, as many other seafairing nations had no doubt produced their fair share of pirates. In any case, in the case of English speaking pirates, if this is indeed a specific regional dialect of English, why would that region have had such a strong influence on pirate "culture"? Loomis51 18:42, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
When I was a kid, school books even frightened us, with stories about pirates in the past who would show no mercy what so ever. I one heard a story about pirates cutting off hands of victims then tying them to a pole with honey all over them and finally leaving them for the bees to come. Was this complete and utter fiction then? Evilbu 08:43, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
I heard once, from a less than reliable source, that it was one particular actor's bad imitation of a Welsh English accent in one famous pirate movie that started the ARRRRR thing. moink 01:43, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
What is the difference between judgement and opinion?
THank you.
See the wiktionary entries for judgement and opinion. Emmett5 22:58, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
In legal proceedings in the USA, a judgement is the court's ruling. An opinion is the explanation of a court's ruling.
I was browsing through the Manual of Style in the section about English language variants ( British, American, Australian, etc.), and a question came to me. Are there such variants in other languages? For example, are there significant differences between Iberian Spanish and Latin American Spanish? Or Iberian Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese? French spoken in Canada and French spoken in France? Or other languages spoken in different parts of the world? The articles on these languages didn't seem to address this issue. (Or maybe I missed it.) — Michael J 21:35, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
As for Canadian French, there's certainly quite a difference between it and French French. (Too bad, unlike English English, French French is in red. It would be interesting to have at least some discussion on the difference between the French spoken in France and that spoken in other francophone countries. I realize it's not nearly as relevant as English English, but it would still be interesting).
I'm not quite sure what degree of difference you're looking for, so it's kind of hard to answer your question. In any case, don't hesitate to follow up with a more specific question about Canadian French, I'd be more than pleased to answer. Loomis51 22:55, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
I am looking for a translation of the name/referrent "Sara(h) of Tyre" "Sara(h)the Tyrian" "The Tyrian, Sara(h)" "Tyrian Sara(h)" or any reasonable phrase that denotes an un-married woman named Sara(h) who is designated as having lived in, or been born in Tyre (in modern Lebanon) anytime between 300 and 1500 CE. I haven't been able to find out how to formulate the name in either modern or medieval Welsh. Thank you very much for your help.
i am desperately searching for a translation from elglish into ancient aramaic. the passage comes from the book of revelations and it reads "I AM THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA, THE FIRST AND LAST, THE BEGINNING AND THE END." i have been searching in vein for a fair while but due to the fact that i am about as computer literate as a monkey with a keyboard up its bum, i am not having much luck. any help in this matter would be massivly helpful.
Howdy, In diplomatic messages the wording appears to be of vital importance in the sense of, if a country is "concerned" about the behavior of another nation, it means, ho-hum. If on the otherhand they state that they are "gravely concerned", it means that the bombers are already in the air. Or something to that matter. What I am looking for is a glossery, dictionary, listing, of what the words and wording used and heard in daily newsbroadcasts really mean.
Kindly tell me what we say "mundan"(means a baby first hair cut) in English
Also — besides the hatred of babies (-: — there's no religious/cultural significance to a baby's first haircut in the UK/England. Probably not in the rest of Europe, either. Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong. — vijay ( Talk) 14:15, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
Tonsure?
deeptrivia (
talk)
14:46, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
By the way, we have a whole first haircut article describing practices in different cultures.-- Pharos 10:35, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
Do any other languages besides English allow for spelling bees? I mean, having a spelling bee in Spanish or Italian would just be silly, but I'm sure there are other languages with less regular orthography, right? What about, say, Chinese? Do they have competitions in which children try to remember the right characters or something? The article has interlanguage links to Danish and Chinese, but the Chinese article looks like it's about English-language spelling bees. — Keenan Pepper 14:11, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
In France, Bernard Pivot has his dictées on
TV (e.g.). This is a short example that you can hear and type on line : "La ronde des mots
Dans toutes les langues, jouer avec les mots est un passe-temps fort agréable, à la portée de tout le monde, des blancs-becs, des rimailleurs, des étudiants, comme des linguistes chevronnés et des académiciens tout de vert vêtus. Les mots sont des amis fidèles, des serviteurs zélés, qui se sont toujours prêtés à nos fantaisies, à nos manigances, à nos acrobaties intellectuelles. Les mots sont des cailloux, des bijoux, des cachous, des joujoux.
Sauf homonymie, chaque mot a un son qui n’appartient qu’à lui. Il y a des mots moelleux et des mots âpres. Des mots bien-aimés et des mots dont la réputation est détestable. Des mots vifs comme des libellules et des mots lourds comme des hippopotames. Des mots discrets comme des violettes et des mots m’as-tu-vu. Mais, quels qu’ils soient, tous les mots, même ceux qui désignent les maux les plus effroyables de l’humanité, méritent d’être connus. A nous de faire prospérer ceux qui nous font honneur." --
DLL
22:15, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
Dictations are also a popular exercise in Spanish schools. -- RiseRover| talk 13:36, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi
We are looking for the origin of the phrase or cliche "scare the living daylights out of someone". If you could help us to determine from what this quote came from, that would be great!
Thank you
Is the German word "Penner" acceptable for daily use? I learnt it as the word for a homeless-person used in daily language in preference to the more formal "obdachloser" or Wohnungsloser". I have science been told however that it is derogatory and insulting. which word is preferable for daily use and which for formal use? Ken 17:53, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
How do I download fonts for non-Roman characters in Wikipedia? I'm still getting some of those "little squares" instead of the proper character.
I am writing about characters who lived during the 1930's all over the world. Specifically, I wonder when the usage of the word "joshing" (meaning kidding someone or teasing them) came about. Also, if it was used in the US or the UK or both. Any information about where I can go for time periods certain words or phrases were used would be extremely helpful. Thanks so much in advance for the help.
Is it a eulogy, or an eulogy? "A" sounds right, but my teacher said it was "an" because of the vowel. Thanks! 70.111.251.199 19:55, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
Similarly, I run into people who write "an history" which confuses the heck out of me, since it is neither written starting with a vowel, nor (in my pronunciation) is the "h" silent. Is the "h" silent in any other variety of English? moink 22:59, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
Is it true that the s in Corps is always silent even when we say,"two US Marine Corps divisions?" Patchouli 20:46, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I would like to know the meaning of the expression "ass over teakettle" (or "tea kettle").
I was first looking for this other one, "head over feet," from the Alanis Morissette's song, but read it's actually "head over heels." I read a couple of definitions and asked my english professor for a more accurate definition, which I got, but he was not able to tell the meaning of "ass over teakettle," nor did other teachers.
I would appreciate if someone posted information about its origin, context in which to use it and a sentence using the phrase as an example on how to use it. Thanks! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 201.235.201.70 ( talk • contribs) .
Another similar phrase is "ass backwards," which has nearly the same meaning but is of odder origin - after all, the ass is supposed to be backwards, right? (Read Part 4 of Gravity's Rainbow for an interesting/funny discussion about that.) zafiroblue05 | Talk 21:06, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
someone who thrives on the adrenalin rush, not in a sexual way (so sado-masochist is out as a descriptor), and not in a pathological sense either (so sociopath is not the word I need). Just a word to describe someone who's tough, can fight and can take a punch. Not situational, so boxing terms are out. The kind of persona reserved I guess for people in special ops, Navy SEALS and the like. Many thanks. I've drawn a blank.
thanks for the suggestions. You see the difficulty. Nothing quite fits. Bravado has the sense of falseness, and macho and manly have become sexually charged, which is not what I had in mind. Machismo is a very good word which comes the closest to describing the characteristics I've listed, but it's hard to come up with a noun for a person who exudes "machismo"
Pugnacious is close too, but has a connotation of aggressiveness which is not quite on the mark for what I'm looking for. It's the best I have though, and I thank you
I prefer "hard", which is more neutral. A "fighter" again (to me anyway) sounds more aggressive than I like. Keep It Simple Stupid, right? Thank you all!
Hmmm. How bout a scrapper? -- Fuhghettaboutit 06:45, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
Howdy, How would you describe a "belligerent warrior"? /Pendragon
hi, the pirate question inspired me to ask what i've always wanted to know: if i want my child to speak like a comedy pirate (arrgh matey, shiver me timbers etc), is there a place in the world where this accent still exists or has it died out? it seems like it "started" in cornwall/devon etc but now the accent there is a lot more genteel (alow me luver etc) and, dare i say it, more associated with farmers and country bumpkins than cut throat rulers of the high seas. i suspect i will be dissapointed by the answer (so little Johnny will have to make do with boring RP) so by way of a second question, does any one know how english-speaking pirates speak now a days? are there any? (i guess i'm really asking, if you saw the skull and cross bones on the horizon, where would they be from (most likely)) also, whilst i'm on a roll, do any modern day pirates still use the skull and cross bones (if only for novelty and retro chic) or does it suffer from the same social stigma that the swastika now does. thanks 87.194.20.253 10:25, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
hi, i'm currently teaching myself portuguese before a trip to brazil. can someone please explain what the various words for "to" are and when you use them? especially when it comes to verbs, i'm just pulling my hair out. why, for example does "acredito na tia feia" (a phrase from my teach yourself book)have na in it?. i get that some verbs in portuguese, when referring to people, use 'to' alot, e,g "i believe to the ugly aunt" but na doesnt mean to- it means in/on (the). can someone please explain this? in other contexts the cd which i'm working from slots in AO and para to similar effect. any ideas? thanks 87.194.20.253 11:20, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
I know this seems like a trivial matter, but i was just wondering as to what Scottish people mean by the word 'Draftpak' which crops up frequently in Irvine Welsh's novel Trainspotting. It seems to be a container for carrying beer, but the characters also refer to people they don't like and consider beneath them as 'Draftpaks' so I was hoping someone would clear up the meaning(s) of the word for me. Thank you very much. This unsigned comment was added by 81.111.23.140.
what is the Spanish for this sentence:"Why don't you study Spanish instead of asking question endlessly?"
In this set of lyrics, [10], what does the word "government" mean? Is the song in particular some sort of commentary on large social institutions? -- HappyCamper 15:20, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
Hazel Dean rules!---hotclaws**==( 81.136.157.206 06:52, 17 June 2006 (UTC))
E.g. someone posts in a group complaining that the group is full of meaningless short posts. Then a reply:
"Exactly. (This is a meaningless short post.)"
Or a post: "Don't use smilies! :P"
The bold words are used to emphasise the point.
-- J.L.W.S. The Special One 16:18, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
Irony is the first word that comes to my mind as well. i don't think something like this would have a more specific technical name, since it doesn't really emphasise the point as much as it is just a little joke, in my view. --
Alex.dsch
18:57, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
It would probably be a form of irony, I agree. However, this device does differ from irony in some ways. For example, the person using the device is fully aware of what he is doing. He deliberately adds the words to emphasize his point. Regular irony, on the other hand, usually involves the ignorance of the person making the ironic statement.
Here's a better example of this device. In my Google group, two people - X and Y - are engaged in a heated political debate. X accuses Y of being a troll. I then remind X that most trolling is actually calling each other trolls. X responds that he is sure that Y is a troll. Then I accuse X of being a troll to emphasise my point.
-- J.L.W.S. The Special One 12:47, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
When President Kennedy in 1963 said in Berlin "Ich bin ein Berliner", was he speaking German incorrectly, and really saying "I am a jelly donut"? A Berliner is just such a German pastry. Wouldn't it have been correct to say "Ich bin Berliner", for German does not use the article "a" for nationalities or professions? 66.213.33.2 17:31, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
Had Kennedy found himself not in Berlin, but rather in one of a couple of other German cities, I suppose the same ridiculous urban legend would develop. Think about it. Ich bin ein Hamburger, or Ich bin ein Frankfurter. Would that mean that JFK was calling himself a burger or a hot dog? People just seem to love making fun of politicians whenever they make the slightest of linguistic mistakes, and even when they don't, people still manage to make one up.(Btw, YES! I'm aware JFK was a Democrat! Loomis is actually sticking up for a Democrat! Enjoy it while it lasts!) Loomis51 22:42, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
Jack, my parenthetic remarks were an afterthought. Everyone knows I'm just another right-wing Republican freak. My true intention was to just make reference to the inexplicable silliness of a US president referring to himself as a hamburger or a hot-dog. Sometimes a sausage is just a sausage, Jack. ;) Loomis51 02:08, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
Ok, once again you've left me clueless, Jack. No I'm not aware of any reference to any political allegiance I've just made. Maybe you can help me out. Was it the sausage thing? You truly are the most cryptic person I know. Loomis 21:40, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
This is currently being discussed at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Dance, initialized by a discussion at Talk:Lindy_hop whether or not "lindy hop" should be capitalized.
My question is: Are dance styles proper nouns and should be capitalized as such? If not, what rules for exceptions are there (e.g. a dance style named after a person or place)? Wintran 21:29, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
Please continue in Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Dance#Capitalization. `' mikka (t) 07:55, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
What do the dots & lines in the IPA Vowel table mean?
Thanks; [email removed]
24.70.95.203
07:44, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
I frequently read despairing commentaries on the rate at which languages are becoming extinct. What I never read is any reason why this is a bad thing, beyond the rather wooly idea that diversity is lovely. Are there any such reasons?
The group whose language becomes extinct will lose the awareness of its history and culture, its "cultural identity". Imagine English became extinct and was replaced by Chinese during the next 50 years (I assume you are a native English speaker): all English books, movies, songs, documents would suddenly stop being understandable to the average person. No more Shakespeare, no more Declaration of Independence, no more Mark Twain, no more Beatles, no more The Simpsons. None of your grandchildren would be able to read anything you wrote, or watch any of the movies you watched. Chl 16:42, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
If it is verifiable that some people other than us have made these arguments, it belongs as a new section in language death. moink 01:53, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
It seems that this word describing the desired state of negotiations, contracts and explanations has arisen only in the last ten years. And it really bugs me. So many other adjectives should be used, such as clear, concise, readily understandable, simply put, etc. Am I mistaken as to its recent usage, or would Jefferson and Lincoln have used this word? 66.213.33.2 14:54, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
Do you know HOW or where I can find or compile, for instance, a list of all the words in the English language that contain various spellings such as -- "ie", "ou", "ow" and "ue"?
I am trying to write a paper that lists all the words in the English language and the various pronunciations for each of certain common combinations. I have listed, off the top-of-my-head, about 34 letter combinations and 3,400 words that fit -- but I am sure there is a more elegant way to find the words.
Martirc 16:48, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
grep ie /usr/share/dict/words grep ou /usr/share/dict/words grep ow /usr/share/dict/words grep ue /usr/share/dict/words
cat sample.txt | sort | uniq | grep ie
sed 's/[ -9:;<=>?]/\n/g' textfile.txt > sample.txt
I don’t know why, but odd questions sometimes pop into my head.
Is there a term for adjectives derived from proper nouns? (Such as Napoleonic, Ruthian, or Capraesque.) I think they should be called proper adjectives — Michael J 00:24, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
That's a great start to the article, Bhumiya. Hint: "If you build it, they will come". Byronic is an interesting one: Who got to decide it was Byronic and not Byronian or Byronesque? There are also the ones where the form of the word changes (Moscow > Muscovite; Manchester > Mancunian; Oxford > Oxonian). JackofOz 06:13, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
Brechtian, Joycean, Kafkaesque, Marivaudian, Orwellian, Machiavellian and Pinteresque. - lethe talk + 20:37, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
I created a new article Proper adjective with a broader scope than List of eponymous adjectives in English. Words like Kafkaesque, Shakespearean, and Napoleonic are eponymous adjectives, which is just one type of proper adjective. Eponymous means "derived from the name of a person." Words like Icelandic, Californian, and Jewish are proper adjectives but not eponymous adjectives. -- Mathew5000 19:01, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
I am interested in the differences in how latin phrases are used in English, compared to other languages. Do English speakers use more or less Latin phrases (ad hoc, in vitro, de jure) than, say, French or Dutch speakers? Do other languages use the same latin phrases, or have they adopted different ones? Is there a Wikepedia article that addresses any of this? ike9898 03:39, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
It seems that many languages arose when two groups of people weren't in very close contact with each other for long enough that their languages developed in different directions. Is there any evidence that, in the modern world, some languages are actually becoming more similar, maybe due to modern communication, transportation and trade? I'm wondering if modern Portuguese and Spanish are a little more mutually intelligible than their counterparts from 1700. ike9898 03:48, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi, how is "pardon" pronounced in French? I'd like to see an IPA transcription. The #Examples_of_French section doesn't say. Thank you, in advance. :) -- Kjoon lee 03:55, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm slightly unsure as to where the perfect tense is or isn't appropriate, as opposed to the past tense. Obviously, biographical articles on those who are dead should be written in the past tense, and articles about places should be written in the perfect tense, but what tense should be used when writing articles about fictional media? Or is it entirely optional? -- FrostyBytes 18:51, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
please please please help me! i have been searching in vein for a english to latin translation of a saying that is of massive importance to me. The saying is "always outnumbered, never outgunned." any answers that i recieve will be appericiated beyond words. thank you
Roman Schatz is quoted as saying that many middle European cultures need 18 separate lines of dialogue to convey the same information as the following Finnish dialogue:
It more or less means "What's up?" "Nothing much." but I have tried, in vain, to express it in English preserving all the inflections. Can any other native Finnish speaker give an attempt at a more faithful translation? JIP | Talk 11:50, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
The use of the personal pronoun (you) is common in WP's videogame articles. I don't personally like the use of the personal pronoun in WP articles, regardless of whether or not the reader may become an active participant in the activity described, and would prefer using third person pronouns (e.g., 'the player', or 'player character', depending on circumstance)
But my question is, are there any generally accepted guidelines regarding the use of the second person in WP? -- FrostyBytes 12:30, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
this sign in english
if you just mean 'what is the English word for this sign?' then it is 'at'. and yeah, read the article posted above. --
Alex.dsch
13:44, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
I've also heard it called a "commercial A" Emmett5 17:32, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
Going to Austria would like to translate their language to English
Could someone get me an Esperanto translation of the following (taken from various pieces of A Softer World, some modified):
Thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.7.176.132 ( talk • contribs) .
Let me try:
That's all I've got so far for the first line, I don't know how to write "what they're missing" in esperanto.-- The ikiroid ( talk· desk· Advise me) 18:34, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
In scoring SAT essays I find a number of students using the word neglection in place of neglect. One dictionary quoted a Shakespearean usage and called the word obsolete. Does anybody know if the word is commonly used in a particular part of the USA? ---- Halcatalyst 15:35, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
I believe you are misinterpreting "neglection" as meaning neglect. Rather, I think you should read "neglecting" for this word. Thus, a Google search for "my neglecting" returns 434 hits, such as "it's all to do with my neglecting of religious duty". A google search for "my neglection" returns 63 hits, such as "because due to my neglection of the blog the comments more than doubled because of spam" (third hit). Actually an interesting parallel is that the second hit from the former query (with "neglecting") is "...is my neglecting of this blog since Monday, gasp, Monday". Very interesting parallel. Anyway 434 to 63 implies that hardly anyone who phrases a sentence calling for "neglecting" thinks to replace it with "neglection" instead. If you're interested enough, I would suggest you read through those 63 pages to see if any educated speakers prefer this term. Then just for kicks you can try the same game with a word we replace an "-ing" form with. For example "my hestitating" would in most speakers minds be struck and replaced "my hesitation" in nearly all contenxts. Indeed, it wins in this case by a margin of 122,000 to 547. Hope this helps. 82.131.190.200 18:08, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
I heard somewhere that German and Dutch are the easiest languages for an English-speaking person to learn. Is this true?
English is considered a Germanic language because it, like German, is descended from Proto-Germanic. But that doesn't mean it's easier to learn than a Romance language like Spanish. Some German words are similar to English ones, but German has a somewhat complicated grammar system. German has four cases of nouns, meaning the ending of a noun will be different depending on the role it plays in a sentence. German also has three genders compared to two in Spanish. -- Mwalcoff 00:10, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
If you're going to try for an easy second language, I've heard that Esperanto, being a construct language designed for simplicity, is pretty easy. But you really should opt for a second language that makes sense for your local area or travel plans. I've tried my hand at both German and Spanish (although I had to stop German and have forgotten most of it} and found them roughly equal in difficulty. Emmett5 01:27, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Interlingua is even much easier and very similar to Spanish and Italian. You can be understood in those languages. -- Jondel 02:34, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm baffled by the statement "I would assume something using the Latin alphabet would be easier for an English-speaker to grasp, which could make French or Italian easier" above. German and Dutch use the Latin alphabet too! As for Esperanto and Interlingua, they may well be easy to learn, but since they aren't languages, they're not really relevant to this discussion. User:Angr 06:03, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
The US Army's Defense Language Institute in Monterey groups the Romance languages (and Dutch, I think) as the simplest languages for its soldiers to learn. German is a step above them. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Arabic are the hardest. Personally, I think Afrikaans would be easiest for an English speaker to learn. It's a very simplified version of Dutch. -- Chris S. 06:16, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Some five years ago, I took an introductory political science course in which the instructor mentioned a kind of (governmental) policy which is used as a red herring: to distract people from some other policy. There was a technical term for it, but I just can't remember it. I looked thru my college notebooks, and couldn't find it. Any ideas what it is? It's not obviously descriptive stuff like "red herring", "boondoggle" or something else, and if I remember correctly, it was an ____ (adjective) policy (though I may be very mistaken). It's also not something you hear/read on news that often, or I probably wouldn't have such a hard time remembering it. Hints would be most appreciated! -- dcabrilo 05:36, 20 June 2006 (UTC) P.S. I now realize this probably should've went onto Humanities, not Language... but I won't move it now. -- dcabrilo 05:38, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
"All languages have about the same complexity: very complex." I'm quoting this from memory. I've heard some of my professors saying it, but who said this first? -- Kjoon lee 07:38, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
It's ridiculous to say that all languages have the same complexity. Some languages such as Latin and Russian are highly inflected with many different noun cases and verb declensions. This makes them more complex grammatically than languages like Spanish or English whose grammar relies on syntax to a much greater extent than inflection. That pertains to grammar, but in other aspects like spelling, English is more complex than most other languages. At an extreme, Esperanto is much less complex than any major world language. As a general rule languages become simpler as they evolve; for example, Anglo-Saxon was much more complex gramatically than modern English. This evolution from complex to simple grammatical structure is continuing today; for example the word whom is becoming gradually obsolete. -- Mathew5000 19:21, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Hmmm, if you ever find a language where every aspect (phonology, syntax, slang, vocabulary) comes to you incredibly easy, it's either extremely similar to a language that you already know, or you discovered a weird gap in the learning process.-- The ikiroid ( talk· desk· Advise me) 01:05, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
looking for anyone who can help me write a phrase in heiratic script...TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE.... can anyone help..please....
thank you for responding anon moos.. but its heiratic i want..the history and beauty of this writing means alot to me.. i wanted the phrase tattoed to remind my self of the quote,,,i already have heiroglphics...thanx anyway....
the only letters i cant find in heiratic script are..O,E,L..does anyone know if they exist in heiratic alphabet???
You may want to request that they extend support of WikiHiero to include hieratic script. Also keep in mind that "to thine own self be true" basically means the same as "be true to yourself", which is much easier to translate. freshofftheufo ΓΛĿЌ 11:44, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Dear anonymous questioner:
Egyptian writing may just be too convoluted for you to handle in a way that would assure you of validly meaningful results, or allow you to personally verify what may be proposed by others (and I know that I would want something to be absolutely 100% correct if I were going to have it engraved into my body!) -- unless you have at least some degree of basic academic linguistic knowledge, and are willing to work hard to master the various complexities of the ancient Egyptian language and script. Trying to work with a fixed and rigid equivalence of one Egyptian sign for each letter of the Latin alphabet is guaranteed to give bogus and meaningless results. Trying to simply transcribe the English sounds into Egyptian script (and so avoiding translating the English-language phrase into an Egyptian-language phrase) is itself a rather complex task, which demands a certain degree of linguistic sophistication to perform somewhat correctly -- made even more difficult by the fact that the basic Egyptian writing system does not write vowels at all (in any direct or simply understandable way). There's a so-called "syllabic orthography" for transcribing foreign-language proper names, but this is also a lot more complex than any simple fixed 1-1 correspondence between modern Latin alphabet letters and ancient Egyptian signs.
So why not use Meroitic script instead? It has both imposingly mysterious hieroglyphic forms and more squiggly hieratic-looking forms, and it's kind of half-way between an alphabet and a simple syllabary, and only contains two-dozen symbols in each of the visual forms, so that the complexities are much reduced. And since no one understands the Meroitic language, the question of translating from English into another language just doesn't arise -- the only possibility is of a simple transcription of English sounds, and Meroitic (unlike Egyptian) has plenty of vowel symbols for the task. And if you're of any Afrocentric tendency, then Meroitic is indisputably 100% Black African. So my advice would be to go for Meroitic... AnonMoos 16:51, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Why e.g. Schweinsteiger is called Bastian while Kehl - Sebastian? Are they a separate names? -- Brand спойт 11:18, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm unsure about Bastian and Sebastian, because I don't know about German culture. But I have a question too. Kate is a short form of Katherine, originally from a time when the <h> did not influence pronunciation. Would Kate be a different name from Katherine? -- Kjoon lee 12:10, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
When will I use:
Let's say,
Thank you. Kahang 12:21, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks all!! --
Kahang
Shall we talk?
11:17, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
where can I get a proscription? 82.131.190.200 15:12, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
The links seem to be ancient. Where can I get a proscription? 82.131.190.200 17:54, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
I believed that there is no Latin word for "banana" (btw. Musa was called after Octavian's physician, Antonius Musa). However I found the word ariena which according to my Latin-Russian dictionary was used by Plinius for "banana". Thoughts? -- Brand спойт 15:59, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Actually, 'musa' comes from Arabic 'Moza', meaning 'banana'. CCLemon 05:05, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
It is generally known that an apostrophe, followed by an 's' denotes the possesive case. Also, it can denote an omission, (i.e., where characters are actually missing from words, such as in 'planes, 'phones and photo's.
I note that many people, when using initializations in the plural, place an apostrophe before the 's'. e.g., "PCB's are known carcinogens". Is it correct to use an apostrophe here, (although I believe its use if intended to show an omission is not appropriate as there is no omission by virtue of the fact that PCB is an initialization). Should it not read, "PCBs are known carcinogens"?
Thank you.
My personal preference is to omit all periods within an abbreviation, and omit the apostrophe with plural abbreviations. My argument would be, we don't use apostrophes for any other plurals so why make an exception for abbreviations? But in some circumstances, eg. advertising signage where unusual or custom-made letter designs are used, and periods may appear between letters, it might be appropriate to use the apostrophe for clarity, and I wouldn't necessarily say they were "wrong" unless they did it inconsistently. What looks best:
The answer could vary from sign to sign. That "old convention" on plurals of abbreviations also applies to "opp.", the plural of "op." (for "opus", in titles of musical works). JackofOz 02:30, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm writing a press release and I've done a heap of research on how to do it right, but there's something I haven't found; what's the legality of quoting something that's been said by a particular person on a website? Do I have to get permission, or is it available to be quoted by virtue of being public? I would be crediting the originator.-- Anchoress 23:07, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
When you're asking a question about legality you should specify what jurisdictions are involved since something that is legal in one country might be illegal in another. Aside from that you may want to elaborate on your question. Are you concerned about copyright issues? Whenever you quote somebody else's words there is the potential for a copyright law issue to be involved, even if you credit the original author. See the article public domain. If your question is whether text that someone puts on their web site thereby enters the public domain for copyright purposes, the answer is no. However, most countries have exceptions in their copyright law, known by terms like " fair dealing" or " fair use"; this can vary by country. Or was your original question asking about whether you can be sued for libel just for quoting something from a web site? Or does it involve hate speech? Or what specific issue of legality concerns you? -- Mathew5000 19:32, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
what language(s) do dolphins speak?-- Bee( y) T i 02:08, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi there, I'm learning Korean and I'm trying to translate this sentence. I've done some of it, but if someone who speaks Korean could help me translate this sentence completely, explaining each word if possible, that would be very much appreciated.
제5회 태국 채널 V 뮤직비디오 어워드에서 처음으로2관왕을 차지한 그룹 동방신기도 붉은악마에 가세했다.
Fifth time Thailand channel V music video awards-[from?] first time [2 crown kings?]-[object particle] take up a group Dong Bang Shin Gi (a band name) [in?] Red Devil [did help?]
A quick question as well, why does 동방신기 have a 도? Does that mean "also"?
Alex Ng
07:55, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks so much, Kjoonlee! Now I can actually understand this sentence x.x
I have another question, would you use Sino-Korean counters or Native Korean counters when counting number of times (회) and awards (관왕)? I tried looking at the Korean count word article, but it merely acknowledges the fact that there are two sets of numbers, without saying which one is used to which. Alex Ng 21:07, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Okay, thanks so much again Kjoonlee! Alex Ng 03:39, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
Is the difference only in English v. American spelling, or in its use?
If it is used differently, what is this difference?
Thanks. Sinead
Pronunciation also differs transatlantically. In American English they're stressed on the 1st syllable, but in British it's the 2nd. JackofOz 08:33, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi there, I have a question regarding square brackets when used in a single letter of a word. I know that when used in the middle of a sentence it usually indicates a word that is absent from text but was implicit in the situation. Also other uses as explained in the bracket article.
But more than once I have seen it like this:
This appears on Sallie Baliunas comment here
I can't recall if it's just on the t on the that I've seen this, it just might be.
So, could anyone explain what these brackets are supposed to mean? VdSV9• ♫ 11:51, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
It does make sense, but then shouldn't one use bracketed ellipses in this case?
VdSV9• ♫ 12:08, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
It comes from the article de:Astronomische Uhr#Straßburg which I translated at Strasbourg Cathedral#Astronomical clock. The full sentence is:
Schaltjahre means leap years, Tagundnachtgleiche means equinoxes, but I can't figure out Sonnengleiche and Mondgleiche. Thanks! -- Mathew5000 19:42, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Correct is Sonnen- und Mondgleichung. -- Martin Vogel 21:39, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks very much, da Pete and Martin! -- Mathew5000 04:15, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
I have a good friend where I work. He is Wiccan. For my birthday he wrote something down on a rock in this language. I have no idea what it says and am dying to figure it out. If you could send me the alphabet so I can hopefully figure it out or even a link that I can go to to look it up I would appreciate it very much. My e-mail address is [not here anymore. questions are answered here on the desk] Thank you, Jamie
Is the correct plural "dwarves"? I seem to recall a documentary some years ago about the making of Walt Disney's 1937 animated film about Snow White and her friends. Walt used "dwarfs" in the title, but some English teachers were upset. Walt replied that "dwarfs" just sounded better to him. Is either spelling acceptable? 66.213.33.2 22:20, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Tolkien wrote a note about it in The Hobbit explaining how he preferred 'dwarves' and now, as has been said, that's come into acccepted usage.
Suppose someone asks, "What's the Dow Jones Industrial Average?" I could answer this in two ways:
Is this an example of a de dicto/de re distinction? Seahen 01:52, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
the article doesn't actually say anything, it's all just hot air. so, sure, it's a "de dicto/de re" distinction. Likewise, if I say "What is the Dow Jones Average" and you answer that it is the second-best known symbol of the performance of the American stock market (after NASDAQ), it also could be "de dicto/de re". If you ask someone "what is the Dow Jones Average" and they curse you out and steal your wallet, that is also a de dicto / de re distinction. It's all a bunch of postmodern claptrap not worth the paper it's written on. It's a good thing Wikipedia is not paper..
I believe the English name Jack is equivalent to the French "Jacques," but are they in turn related to the Spanish "Joaquín" or another name I'm missing? Thanks, - Draeco 03:42, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
French "Jacques" is equivalent to English James (or Jacob), and to Spanish Santiago. Santiago comes from "Saint Yago", (Yago coming from Jacob). Yago is also still used (or used as pet form of Santiago), so it's another Spanish equivalent to Jacques/James. -- RiseRover| talk 04:58, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
I have a cousin and uncle by the name of Joaquín. My cousin's nickname is 'Wacky' the other one is 'Kingky'.( Joaquín just fyi is pronounced hwakin with Spanish spelling.)-- Jondel 06:36, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
Compatriots is the name given to people from the same country; is there a name to refer to people from the same town? -- RiseRover| talk 08:22, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello,
I'm curious as to what the proper pronunciation of the name 'Barlaam' would be.
Thanks
Adam s 09:32, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
1. was/the/Twain/American/writer/in 1986/sent/India/to/country/describe/the.
2.in/nearly/pen/defeat/threw/he/his/away.
3.wonders/decided/the/he/to/land/call/of/simply/it.-- Saksham Sharma 10:34, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
You might also be interested to know that solving such problems has a very perceivable effect on our short-term psychology, which I read about in Blink. So, it's a "trick question" since the test really isn't on solving these problems, but the subconscious effects of doing so. (Students solving such problems revolving around the idea / terms associated with "patience" afterwards waited almost indefinitely for a professor's attention who ignored them, talking to a colleague, whereas the control group did not wait for such an unreasonable time (15 minutes plus!) for the professor to turn to them.)
actually, I solved the first one wrong, but it doesn't really matter. the test isn't really on solving these, but rather on the psychological effect of doing so. (For example, the second sentence makes you think of defeat. I would expect students to perform worse (by a large, statistically significant margin) after solving question 2 than a control group solving a sentence about success or triumph.
This is one phrase i've never understood fully. Is it used as an excuse for treacherous behaviour i.e. a boy is after a girl and his friends knows this but still decides to go after her too, using as his justification 'All's fair in Love and War', or is it infact that opposite, saying that love and war are two things where everything must be done fairly, and not treacherously? i hope i've been clear enough there, i'm aware i tend to sort of ramble on in questions. thanks. -- Alex.dsch 11:22, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
It means "Faint Heart never won Fair Lady", and such a faint heart would never win a war of any other kind either.
Could you help me out and tell me if Artemis Fowl is set in the distant future, near future, or now? Thanks -- 86.139.216.231 13:18, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
I have a few subjective questions, sort of an informal survey. Which regional variety of North American English do you find most pleasant? Which do you find most prestigious? Which do you find least pleasant/prestigious? Of non-North American varieties, which strikes your ears as most/least pleasant/prestigious? Responses from North American English speakers are also welcome, but please do identify your place of origin. I'm primarily interested in the perceptions of British/Australian/NZ speakers. Thanks! Bhumiya ( said/ done) 16:15, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
He's got it - he's got it, I do believe he's got it !!!
Of course! GHWB was born in Brookline, MA, so to me the Massachusetts accents is the finest US accent of all. ;) Loomis 02:42, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Personally, I thought Andie MacDowell's performance in Groundhog Day was very pleasant. -- Kjoon lee 05:07, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
What's so great about Andie MacDowell's accent? I like how Christopher Walken speaks. What region is he from? -- Mathew5000 07:18, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
I tend to notice "extreme" accents - the southern drawl/twang, the New York-Jewish accent, the Connecticut accent, the Massachussetts accent, the Minnesota "yah" accent, and the Hispanic accent being some of the most obvious examples. I'm Ok with all of these, but the first can get tiring. The rest of the American accents tend to merge into one aural soup for me, although city accents are usually different from rural ones (or maybe that's just a Hollywood stereotype). Anglophone Canadian is more-or-less indistinguishable from soup-American except for words like "about" (which sounds like "a boat"). The only "accent" I particularly dislike is more associated with an age group (in my mind, anyway) than with a region. Hard to describe it - words like "do" and "to" sound like "dyeew" and "tyeew"; words like "engine", "started" and "Moses" (whose last vowel is normally a schwa) become "en-jin", "star-tid" and "Mo-zizz". Really, really horrible. JackofOz 09:57, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
I enjoy particular dialects which form a distinctive minority in pronounciation and vocabulary, such as Cockney and Ebonics, but beyond that, I don't have much of a bias in the realms of aesthetics. I'm often tempted to ask people where they are from because of their accent, but of course I have to hold back this pulse of curiosity. Sometimes I'll try slurring or distorting words as a sort of experiment to see if anyone will notice, and they usually don't (i.e turning I don't know but you could ask them into ɑ' n' oʊ' bə' tʃɯ' kʊ' dæs' kɪm').-- The ikiroid ( talk· desk· Advise me) 02:31, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
As a Canadian, I'm both a North American English Speaker, as well as a Commonwealth English speaker. Best of both worlds, right? No? Oh well I tried. In any case, my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt, as personally, I tend to be fascinated by the most incomprehensible and/or unusual, working-class forms of English.
I love Cockney, as I can't comprehend a word of it. Same with hard-core Glaswegian...but those are both British, so I'm veering off topic.
Newfoundland English has got to be the oddest form of North American English in existence. It's fascinating to listen to. I also have quite a fondness for blue collar Ontario English. It's the most "typical" Canadian English, the kind most people associate with all of Canada.
"I don't know, eh,...so I's been sitting on my couch, eh, and next thing I knows, eh, is my wife comes in and tells me she's leaving me, eh, so I'm like freakin' out, eh,...so I right away call my good friend Doug, eh, and I tells him to bring over a 2-4 of Labatts, eh,...so we're like drinkin' the 2-4, eh, and next thing I knows is my wife comes back, eh?..."
Well I hope you kind of get the idea. I just plain like the oddest and most idiosyncratic forms of English, but that's my thing. Loomis 03:11, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Well, I think that it probably has less to do with the sound of the accent more than it has to do with associations of the accent with stereotypical cultural characteristics, in the same way a France-French accent is considered "sexy". On the other hand, I believe to a lot of Anglophone Canadians, a Quebecan-French accent is considered the opposite, because of again stereotypical cultural characteristics. -- ColourBurst 06:41, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm a North American, and I'd just like to say that the "rural Utah" dialect is the most annoying. It sounds like a combination of southern and Scandinavian accents, not to mention the copious grammatical errors. -- Mr. L e fty Talk to me! 18:35, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
When a typesetter finds something that needs further clarification she usually puts a special mark such as a thick black bar into the galley proof in order to catch the author's or proofreader's eye that something is missing and especially alert the printer that the typescript is not yet ready for print. In German, such a mark is called a Blockade, as it is so thick and black that a printer will notice even with a casual glance that this typescript is "blocked", i.e. not cleared for print. How is this mark called in English? Simon A. 16:22, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
The page in the title is a phonetic transcription system which seems to be used in around six articles here on Wikipedia. The relevant talkpage only has three comments all suggesting a switch to IPA. I know this is probably not the right place, but it is one frequented by people who know IPA so I am seeking help in switching the phonetic guide on these articles, or commenting on whether they think this switch is a good idea. The articles are Mindaugas, Klaipėda, Kęstutis, Algirdas, Panevėžys and Kaunas. Then there are the examples on Lithuanian language. Stefán Ingi 18:20, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=42+39+19+N,+94+10+02+E&ie=UTF8&ll=42.655274,94.167219&spn=0.004947,0.013561&t=k&om=1 What does this say in Chinese??-- Sonjaaa 22:32, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
Apparently it's "Long live chairman Mao!"--
Sonjaaa
23:32, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
Microsoft's satellite service also shows this sort of thing, apparently. I would think that Google and MSN get their photos from different sources; it only makes sense that they would put exclusivity provisions in their contracts. Anyway, compare the images at the following two URLs. In the Google image you can zoom in and see that it is Chinese writing; the Microsoft image is much lower resolution but from a distance you can just make it out:
-- Mathew5000 18:58, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Here is the response from Google's help desk: "Thank you for your note. We have researched this location and the imagery. These are actually real landmarks placed in western China by a regional air force unit to serve as landmarks for use during pilot training." -- Mathew5000 22:16, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm moving this from Talk:International Phonetic Alphabet.
Hi, I'd like to invite a phonetics expert with a thin ear to resolve some doubts we have on Talk:Serbo-Croatian language. Basically, we agree that we hear different L's in Bulgarian and Serbian versions of a text, but can't find out what's the phonetic source of the difference. Thanks in advance, Duja 13:02, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello, I want to know whether Plato's name (Πλάτων) is in the form of the masculine plural genitive declension. Thanks.-- K.C. Tang 04:06, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
Πλάτων, Πλάτονος ὁ Nom Πλάτων Acc Πλάτονα Gen Πλάτονος Dat Πλάτονι Nom Πλάτονες Acc Πλάτονας Gen Πλάτονων Dat Πλάτουσι(ν) with ν if it is at the end of a sentense or preceding a vowel
This advert for a pleorama seems to be for some kind of panorama or myriorama show. Can anyone see any more specific details about the entertainment, please? And can someone translate " Rörlig bild som framställer ett landskap som det visar för en förbiseglande" which I think is about moving panoramas? Many thanks -- HJMG 07:34, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
Here goes:
- ulayiti (talk) 14:24, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
Please would you help with the following:
I wonder if there is a definitive translation into English from the Latin: Vulnerant omnes, ultima necat. I recall seeing it scribed on the faces of old clocks.
Your help would be much appreciated. It is particularly at times such as this that I wish I’d had the opportunity to learn Latin at school!
Would you mind replying to: [cut]
Best wishes.
Omnes means all, vulnerant means wound, how strange that the word 'hour' is not included, is a reader just expected to fill that in himself? Evilbu 17:16, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
I think that it doesn't mean 'hour' specifically (as in time), but refers to 'experiences' in life. With 'OMNES' meaning 'everything', this would make sense. CCLemon 06:08, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
In the word "zwanzig", is the final consonant a voiceless velar plosive or a voiceless palatal fricative? I was led to believe it was the latter, but I'm not sure. Thanks! Bhumiya ( said/ done) 01:55, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, pronouncing final -ig as [ɪk] rather than [ɪç] sounds very Southern. However, Northern sometimes do it too as a form of hypercorrection, because in the North you hear [tax] for Tag and [tsʊx] for Zug. So when they're being careful about pronunciation, Northerners will remember to say [ta:k] for Tag adn [tsu:k] for Zug, but then will also say [tsvantsik] for zwanzig. This happened a lot in the Berlin choir I used to sing in; the choir director was always having to remind people to pronounce -ig as [ɪç]. User:Angr 05:59, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
While on the topic of German pronunciation how is final "ng" pronounced? For example, is Zeitung pronounced [tsaɪtuŋ] or [tsaɪtuŋk]? I've read the phonology article, but it seems like I've heard the latter pronunciation. Or maybe I'm influenced by a faux German accent where they say "hello dahlink!" -- Chris S. 18:26, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Is it true that the earliest improvised romanizations of Japanese sometimes made use of the letter L, such that "samurai" might be written as "samulai"? I read this years ago, but now I can find no evidence of it. Does anyone know if there's any truth to it? Bhumiya ( said/ done) 02:32, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Could, for example, Old Hakka, Old Cantonese, Old Mandarin, Old Toi Shan, understand each other in writing SYNTACTICALLY?
Please, [removed email to prevent spam], thanks.
24.70.95.203 03:52, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Umm... I would say "yes" for your question. The dialects were not so different anyway.... -- Kahang Shall we talk? 06:11, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
This would be a history matter that I can't explain ;). I give it a try, but as a rough reference only:
Long time ago, the Chinese was located near the centre of now Chinna map (somewhere Shaanxi, Shanxi and Hubei). As the time changed, the country got populated and people started moving outward basically at all direction, but mostly to south and to east.
As a result, despite of language from now Tibet, Xinjiang and Mongol (people from those were always treated as the outsiders), Mandarin (language from the North) and Cantonese (language from the South) have the most difference between them. The languages from the places between have relatively less difference when compared.
It just like a gradient. Or a grayscale as eg, Mandarin is the black, Cantonese is the white, and other languages are the different grays between, the most near the North the darker, vice verse.
But in the old days, because the country was small, the languages had not varied too much. The writings were kept short in order to save ink and paper (and because Chinese hadn't got as many vocabulary as nowadays, too). So if some Chinese didn't understand the writings, the reason was always they hadn't been educated rather the meaning of the words. Another important fact is the whole China were using Traditional Chinese until 1952.
Remember, this is a rough explanation only. All the locations and facts have not been confirmed. You may wanna see History of China and Chinese Language. -- Kahang Shall we talk? 12:59, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
I am forwarding a request for somebody to put an IPA transcription of the name on the article on Kemal Atatürk. None of the other wikis seem to have this information. Is there perhaps a tag to ask for this? Stefán Ingi 20:17, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Is there a word that means just the opposite of euphemism. To call something good with a rather bad word?
The Half-life computation article has undergone substantial revision which has hopefully addressed everyone's concerns. If you have any further comments after looking at the article again, please list the items you do not like, make whatever comment you have and please be specific and allow time for further revision. If there is any reason I can not comply with your wishes then I will let you know the reason why. ... IMHO ( Talk) 12:16, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
I have been a teacher for over 30 years. In the last 15 years I have noticed that so many students simply don't use the contraction "you're". They write "Your my best friend" as well as "There is your dog." Sometimes I have corrected papers to change the possessive pronoun to the contraction, and they have crossed out the correction and changed it back! They seem not to know, and not to care to know. Did students always display such arrogance? What has caused this degradation of our language in the last few years? 66.213.33.2 18:30, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
In the past years students have been having more and more access to a certain reading material that's not always completely perfect grammar, vocabulary and spelling-wise: the Internet. In the past, what your students (anyone) read came from books, newspapers or media where some care was taken about this matter. Now the Internet has become a huge source of reading material, and the language there is not as carefully constructed - at least in some places (forum sites, chat rooms, not to mention sms language...). That's why spelling mistakes spread so widely and are seen as normal, since they're written all over the place. -- RiseRover| talk 20:02, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
Everyone has feelings, and anecdotes, about how the world or some aspect of it is going to hell, and language angst seems to be one of the more popular manifestations of this phenomenon. The adjective "proper" seems to be one way of expressing the idea, or prejudice, that one variety of a language is somehow more privileged than the others. But how? Is it because that's the way your grandma or your English teacher spoke, or the soi-disant educated classes speak or spoke, or the privileged classes, or people like you, or people with your political leanings, or what? "Proper" is a ubiquitous prejudice with nothing factual to back it up. If you try to observe language without that particular fixation, what you see is variation, change and socially meaningful norms; I submit that's a more neutral and empirical way to approach the subject than decrying change and identifying "disturbing" trends. · rodii · 13:22, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
Come on how is that disturbing its just a spelling mistake, your worring to much.
A person who attempts to claim the bounty is a bounty hunter, but what do you call the guy who creates the bounty in the first place? A bounty setter? I'm just wondering if there is a name for the concept already. 152.3.84.131 20:23, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
What does "fay ce que vouldras" mean, and what does it have to do with Rabelais? (See Italian literature#The Renaissance.) zafiroblue05 | Talk 21:43, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
Dear Wikipedia,
I was watching the movie "Pirates of the Caribean" and the work came up "acumencally" (sp?) I have been searching to find what this word might mean or relate to.
Thank you.
I'm wondering if the addition of 's' to singular nouns to form plurals -- used in English, Spanish, and French, and probably other languages -- has a known origin whence it spread to those languages, or if it was independently developed by each? It doesn't come from the Germanic or Latin roots of those languages. Kundor 17:44, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
See also Proto-Germanic_language#Nouns - AnonMoos 17:22, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
Up here in North America, we usually "root" for our home team, meaning that's the teaming we're "pulling for" or "favouring to win". With the world cup and all, would it be safe to say in Australia that Australian's are "rooting" for the Australian football/soccer team to win, or is it too close to that other meaning to be said with a straight face? (Or in mixed company without blushing?) Loomis 19:26, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
How many linguists does it take to change a lightbulb? -- Dweller 20:31, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
I know of two linguist lightbulb jokes, but in each the question is not "how many" but simply "how":
User:Angr 14:22, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
This just appeared on my wiki under the title English Language. What does is actualy say? Gerard Foley 21:58, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
[Dvoxlnv, znzgvfi hovfgsh. Gsrh rh lmob gsv yvtrmmrmt lu nb nzhhrev dliw hvzixs. Blf szev 5 ovggvih — mld tl urmw gsv ivhg. Gsv urihg kvihlm gl tvg zoo gsv pvbdliwh zmw fmolxp gsv hvxivg droo drm zm Cylc® drgs z xlkb lu Gsv Wz Ermxr Xlwv™ tznv, zmw z 2P Erwvl Tznvh kzxpztv...] Sviv'h z pvbdliw gl hgzig blf luu: evilxxsrl
Ru blf wlm?g zoivzwb pmld gsrh, gbkv rm blfi pvbdliwh zg gsvwzermxrxlwvtznv.xln
Mld tvg xizxprm', Hsviolxp! Nzie H.
Blfi mvcg xofv xzm yv ulfmw zg: nbglkirguizmxv.xln
· rodii · 22:23, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks very much!! Gerard Foley 23:15, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
I would like someone to explain to me why it's regarded so terribly to split an infinitive. Split infinitives often flow so much better than attempts to avoid them. I split infinitives all the time and I think it's fine time for English purists to give it up and recognize that split infinitives are indeed a valid form of English expression. I'd be interested for any of you to intelligently inform me (lol) why split infinitives are such a no-no. I think it's finally high time for the English language to [boldly and finally] acknowledge the legitimacy of split infinitives. Any ideas? Loomis 22:10, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
I'd like to get some British opinions on this. I read some comments on the CBBC Newsround website about the Queen's birthay party last Sunday and one of them complained about the boy in Mary Poppins' Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious song who supposedly sweared when calling her (Poppins) "bloody brilliant" and said that since it was performed in front of the queen the song should've been changed. IIRC, this phrase also appeared in the first Harry Potter film. If this is so objectionable, surely it would've been cut. Is "bloody" considered swearing in general to begin with? - Mgm| (talk) 22:16, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
I saw in a ad for a house to share (in Ireland) this text : "3Bed Semi-D" . I am French and I wonder what "semi D" is? Can you help ?? Thank you very much.-- Sebb-fr 22:30, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
What is the infinitive absolute used for in Hebrew other than certainty (e.g. Mot yamut = he will certainly die)? Mo-Al 02:38, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I have a few questions I haven't been able to answer myself.
1. Does the subject of the verb být, "to be", take the nominative or accusative case?
2. Are collective nouns, such as "the Simpsons" or "the Germans", treated as simple plurals or as some sort of singular? What kind of gender do they take?
Thanks! Bhumiya ( said/ done) 04:03, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
IANA native Czech speaker, but JackofOz is right. All Czech nouns use the nominative for the singular (except when the genitive is being used due to the "5 or more" rule). Být is unique in that its object also usually takes the nominative. The exception is the set-up of Být + instrumental, which is roughly equivalent to the English verb "become." (Bush byl presidentem v 2001.)
Nouns like Simpsonovi take plural verbs. (Simpsonovi žijou v Springfieldu.) -- Mwalcoff 04:26, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Does anyone know how and where exactly the American accent originated? I have a theory that it might have started when the Native Americans tried to speak English and they sounded like Americans today sound.------- Seclipse21 04:07, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
To go back to the original question, I have never heard anyone make the claim that Native languages were a significant influence on the pronunciation of American English. English borrowed words from Native languages, of course, but that's about the exttent of the influence as far as I know. · rodii · 15:06, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
But as far as I know the same thing didnt happen in North America. There wasnt one convenient pre-existing Indian language that served as the general language of all the tribes for trading purposes, etc. So English-speakers never had any economic incentive to get to know the Indian languages. Jameswilson 23:00, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Webster made up American English. -- Миборовский 21:40, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
I listened to a radio show where I heard a US place-name, pronounced somewhat like /ˌp(ə)ˈkipsiː/. It's probably somewhere along the East Coast or nearby. What could it be? Thanks in advance. – Mysid (t) 07:32, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
I suppose this question concerns language. It could just as easily fit in the science or humanities reference desks. I was reading an article about Chinese printing which mentioned that Hanzi were not well-suited to movable type printing since hundreds of characters had to be carved. It struck me that the Chinese might have expedited the process by fashioning their type using a pixel-based system. When precisely was the principle of the pixel invented? Is there any evidence that they existed in the pre-electronic age? Bhumiya ( said/ done) 07:57, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
I have a good friend whose birth name, in Cantonese, translates into "Ling Bird" in English. How would the name Ling Bird be written, using Cantonese characters and translation? Thanks, Leebo.
I would like to enter this word "whyever" into-- 24.56.224.140 17:22, 27 June 2006 (UTC) the encyclopedia. How do I go about entering a new word?
What could this mean?
Ecgb b bie be ebeb bml.
If someone can't break it, can they direct me to a code breaker? Thanks. schyler 17:41, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
It is what I got from the side of the Covenant ship in the Halo 3 trailer written in Braille. I changed the letters into their respective "Covenant Letters" from the 7th letter of the Conversations of the Universe booklet by changing each letter from the above "code." The letter looks somewhat like english letters so each letter in the "code" that corresponds with the letter it should be (in English). I changed it to that.
lOgB B Bpl Bl lBlB BRl
Could it make any more sense? schyler 18:44, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Is there a list somewhere of the single-character country abbreviations used in Japanese? 日 for Japan, 独 for Germany, 仏 for France, etc. I've had a look around Wikipedia and can't find one, but feel sure there must be one somewhere.
Thanks in advance! -- Auximines 19:52, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
I am writing to a Professor Theo van Rijn. I don't know him personally, so is it right that I write Dear Professor Van Rijn with a capital V? — Gareth Hughes 20:11, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Is "very yes" a grammatically valid construction? Seahen 00:29, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
I bet I'm not the only RD/L regular who winces every thime someone says "very unique", either... Grutness... wha? 10:23, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
French uses "n'est-ce pas" to cover a wide variety of situations. I guess the sense of it is: "Is what I just said not the case". English has no such feature; you have to say "didn't she", "wouldn't they", "isn't it", "haven't I", "won't he", "couldn't you", "shouldn't we" etc, depending on the preceding words. There are probably many dozens of possible combinations. People from certain non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) frequently say "isn't it" in all these situations, which can lead to humorous outcomes - "But you still love me ... isn't it?", Olga pleaded.
I thought it had an Asian origin as I first heard it from Asian teens--hotclaws**==( 81.136.162.4 06:55, 28 June 2006 (UTC))
I don't see what the big problem is. It may sound "ethnic", but the simple word "no?" with the question mark would seem to cover all situtaions where the French "n'est-ce pas" would do. I've even adopted it in my general speach.
What is the Spanish word for finally, as in "at last!" I know the word is finalmente, but I have a feeling that is for an order of events and my dictionary doesn't specify. Could someone help? Thanks. schyler 12:15, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
Could you please give the Creek word for FEAR Thank you
To whom it may concern: while doing some editing of the Aztec related articles within Wikipedia, I was puzzled by the term "Fray", which appeared as something of a title or descriptive term in front of several names. I have since learned that "Fray" is a Spanish term meaning "Friar". I am wondering therefore if we should not be using "Friar" instead of "Fray" in, for example, this article on Fray Juan de Torquemada. I would suggest "yes" since (a) this is the English Wikipedia and (b) the term "Friar" is understood by more average readers than is "Fray".
Thoughts anyone?? Madman 17:31, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
P.S. Frustratingly enough, there is nothing in Wikipedia or Wiktionary addressing this use of "Fray".
What does the Italian word "val" mean? I've seen it a few times, and it wasn't in any online dictionaries. I know it is in place-names fairly often (could it also mean valley?) but I saw it in the phrase "Val la pena litigare" which has me stumped. It doesn't seem to fit. Can anyone help? -- Bearbear 18:35, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
hello English Wikipedia. Can you tell me what "Paleine tytoniu może uszkodzić nasienie i zmniejszać pŀodność" means, I found it on cigarettes, I assume in Polish language. Specifically, what does "zmniejszać" mean, and how do I pronounce it correctly? Looking at it as a word, I imagine it to be one of the most horrible-sounding words I've ever seen written (I don't read much Polish though, or Vogon poetry....hmmm, if anyone has a link to a text, or even better, to a soundbite, of the Polish translation of any Vogon poetry, then pray include it here). Anyway, I think I will give my pet mole rat the name "zmniejszać", should I ever get a pet mole rat. Thankyou. Unsigned comment.
I've searched several sites, including Wikipedia, with no luck. I'd like to be able to answer a 13-year-old's question about the origin of this common phrase. Many thanks!
Obviously it's possible to speak in the first person and third person, but is it actually possible to speak in the second person in some weird way? Perhaps by having a duel personality in which you talk to yourself? -- SeizureDog 01:17, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
You forgot Aaron Burr, Jack...I think you're getting lazy. Loomis 01:22, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
Conversationally it's very common for people to talk about themselves in the second person, such as when they're describing their usual reaction to a certain kind of situation. For example, they might say "When someone shouts in your ear without warning, your heart beats and you get a shock and you almost shit your pants", whereas what they really meant to say was "When someone shouts in my ear without warning, my heart beats and I get a shock and I almost shit my pants". In psycho-babble I think it's called avoiding owning one's own experience. JackofOz 10:42, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Dear all,
I would like to translate the link of Aikido from English to Chinese. Anyone out there please teach me how to deal with the software so that I can do the translation for the benefit of all. Million thanks to all!
You could contact me at (e-mail removed, answers are posted at the desk) or (e-mail removed to prevent spam)
I found a potentially tasteless but mostly just confusing instructional pamphlet which appears to be written in Japanese. I see that it says "one day you'll thank us" as well as urging the user to use a non-permanent marker to draw butt-circles, but aside from that... WTF? grendel| khan 02:30, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Unfortunately, it's not as funny as it seems. It is really only instructional, literally. (It is Chinese, by the way)
A quick, rough translation: (largely incomplete, as most of it isn't really funny / meaningful anyways) "Enjoying your friend's asshole" (more specifically, the area between the two ass cheeks) Take a felt pen of your desired colour ... Draw two nipples on your friend's ass, making sure that it's soft and smooth ... In a thrusting motion, insert .. .. into .. .. .. Continue until 'excitement' is reached...
=/ Alex Ng 06:34, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi Guys and Gals! Wikipedia defines percentage as:
"...a way of expressing a proportion, a ratio or a fraction as a whole number,.
what if a percentage is expressed in decimal form? (e.g. 2.45%)
Is there an exact term to call it? Thanks for your help.
I sincerely appreciate the exchange of thoughts. who would have known I can effect change in Wiki's definition. :-) how about calling it "decimal percentage" to suit my report? :-)
hi yes i would love the saying into coptic language only...only new at this so not sure how to respond to you directly..my user name is mioullos....thanx mia
thats what i thought..is there a translator table like they have for egyptian heiroglyphics?? and yes it is for a tattoo..having problems finding anyone who can write in the old scripters...
Did you pay atention to some of the caveats and further questions raised by your previous query at Wikipedia:Reference_desk_archive/Language/June_2006#heiratic_script_converot ? AnonMoos 16:40, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Before getting a tattoo in a foreign language, you must see the cautionary examples on [ [17]]!!-- Teutoberg 10:23, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello, I'm currently completing an article Barbel (fish species) about those species of Barbus that are known as or fit the description 'Barbel'. Barbels are found in central Asia and Europe and also Africa. I was wondering if anyone could give a few translations of some of the native common names of these fish. It's not vital to the article but would be good.
I have links to lists to common names of three species:
[ Barbus barbus] This is the barbel found in UK. Confirmation that most of these are simply variations on the term 'barber' would be appreciated. As would meanings of any other common names if possible.
[ Aral barbel] Meanings of the Kazakh and possibly Farsi words if possible.
[ Barbus bynni bynni] An African barbel - some of the languages used here aren't even identified, nevertheless translation of these native African terms if possible would be appreciated.
If anyone can give answers (or more info. even) that would be great. HappyVR 15:30, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
(I was thinking specifically in terms of linguistic roots for the names) HappyVR 16:00, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
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Some refer to the colour. German Weissfisch, Romanian Alba, Bulgarian Byala all mean white.
Some refer to the habitat. The Scandinavian first syllables beginning with "f" all mean river, so does the Bulgarian Rechna, I think.
Mrena translates as barbel obviously but also "film", "pellicule" or "membrane".
Jameswilson 01:36, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi,
I'm wondering I anybody could provide me with some funny (Mildly rude) Words of phrases in Spanish?
Many Thanks
Do you mean Spanish words that sound funny to Spanish speakers or English speakers ? StuRat 19:07, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Words that are funny to english speakers mainly, but spanish humour would also go down well.
I have heard that "bicho malo" may or may not be vulgar, depending on the country.-- Teutoberg 08:32, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
For the very offensive and later euphemisms, I remember being told by a Spanish girl that "Me cago en Dios" is converted to "Me cago en diez", which of course elicits the response, "Me cago en veinte, qué es más potente!" (Sorry if my accent marks are off!!)-- Teutoberg 08:41, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi, what do you call that thing which women use to tie their hair? It's usually a frilly torus made of fabric, with an elastic string embedded inside. In South Korea it's called gobchangkkeun (Hangul: 곱창끈), literally "small intestine string." What is it called in English? -- Kjoon lee 18:42, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks everyone. I appreciate your answers. :) I think scrunchy/scrunchie/scrunchee is closest to what I was looking for. I wanted to know the name for the frilly version; hair elastic, pony O, and hair pony sound as if they might be ambiguous in some cases. I'm slightly confused about hairbands, though. Can hairbands refer to scrunchies too? -- Kjoon lee 09:01, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
In suburban communities within the United States consisting of women that shop quite a bit (also known as Loops or Loopies), the most common association I have seen is with the word "scrunchies". Ebay members often use this term in regards to hair products for children matching the description. This is in contract to hairbows which server the same purpose but are bows instead of being fluffy. The non-fluffy kind of bands are called elastic hairbands and are usually black elastic rubberband-type articles. -- Freebytes
June 29, 2006
Wikipedia,
What is the purpose of a subplot? I have found your encyclopedia most helpful but would like to know more.
Thank you,
Shari C. Graber
The word bow is a double homonym. (bow \baʊ\ = bough; bow \boʊ\ = beau) Are there any other double homonyms? — Michael J 20:12, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
To, too, and two! (Don't know the IPA, sorry). Emmett5 21:30, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
I like your answer (I'm not the question-poster).
Incidentally, this list:
http://www.opundo.com/homographs.htm
should be useful to others looking to find an answer. (The key word is "homograph". I'm also investigating a term "heteronym" that is new to me). There are probably other lists too, than the above, that was the first Google hit on "list of homographs".
Actually, check out this list!
http://www.rinkworks.com/words/heteronyms.shtml
That means "are" is a two-way homonym per the question, since it can be pronounced "air", and therefore is a homonym of this word, or "ahr", and therefore a homonym of the spelling of the letter R.
In many speakers' dialects, "our" is pronounced variously as are or hour depending on the context/syntax (much like "the" for thuh [shwa] or thee), and therefore the letter words are its homonyms. (are/hour).
Of course, if you count "dialects" then children certainly say "winned" (which would be attested mostly in children who haven't yet acquired the word strong form "won"), thus "wind" is homonym to "winned" and "whined" or "wined". I admit this is stretching it, so that's all for now.
Oh! On more: sow (pronoucned so and sou). [19] and [20] give, respectively, "sow2 (sou) n. An adult female hog." and "sough \SAU; SUHF\, intransitive verb: 1. To make a soft, low sighing or rustling sound, as the wind." Thus "sow" therefore is homonym to "sew" and "sough". There seem to be no such shortage of words. It's a bit arbitrary to need a different spelling to consider it a "homonym" since the two different words "sow" and "sough" (plant seeds, and female hog), since the two words "sow[1]" and "sow[2]" are already homonyms, despite being spelled the same. 82.131.188.85 19:48, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
I've changed the title to "two-way homonyms" since that's what the question is. If anyone minds they can change it back.
82.131.188.85
19:48, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
What language has the best/most swear words? -- 67.185.172.158 21:29, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
In my opinion, I'd say that German has a natural "angry" tone to it. If you're looking for something more 'exotic', try Cantonese - Swear Words and their English Translations
PS: Whenever I'm chatting with someone in Cantonese, other people who don't speak the language naturally think we're in a fight... If normal talk in a language seems offensive, then swearing might seem even more obscene. Alex Ng 06:17, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
y la virgen y todos los santos mnewmanqc
There was a brief mention in the Finnish media that some British (or Australian?) guy had written a travel guide to Finland, and the guide said that there are no swear words in Finnish. If a Finn feels the urge to swear, he/she says "ravintolassa" (meaning "in the restaurant"). This is not true at all. Finnish has many swear words (see Finnish profanity): vittu (cunt), paska (shit), saatana (Satan), perkele (Finnish devil), etc. So who was it who supplied blatant misinformation to that guy? JIP | Talk 17:42, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
When it comes to insults, Dutch has some nice ones. We wish each other diseases. For example, one could say "Get typhoid, you cancer-sufferer." I don't know of any other language that has that. DirkvdM 12:01, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
What does it mean for a toy to be short packed? Seahen 02:17, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I cannot find what you call a word that is spelt the same fowards and backwards. ie: mum, or dad, or racecar
It is driving me crazy. Thankyou
[email removed]
So many dynamos! schyler 20:31, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello all. I'm looking for a word i cant remember what it is- is someething like 'precoisuly/pracoisly, it's something hanging uncertianily over somehting. Eg 'the can hang precaiously over the pile of clothes'. Hope you can find it and thanks in advanc. ````
Yes thats the word thank you very much.
You have to pray to stay alive, that's why life is precarious (Did Aulde English have no word for that act of begging, that they borrowed it from latin). -- DLL 21:07, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Hello Volunteers!
Does anybody know the difference between steps and stairs?
Cheers, Paul
Regarding steps and stairs, have we rung out the distinction between the former and the ladder ? :-) StuRat 15:32, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
I get it! You used ladder instead of latter! Very witty. schyler 20:28, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
stair is used in the singular but usually when it actually means the plural, as in 'we met upon the stair', a line from David Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold The World'. --
Alex.dsch
14:07, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
Don't stare up the stairs, just step up the steps! -- WhiteDragon 17:13, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
In French, there does not seem to be any word that ends with "a" except for certain verb conjugations (future simple and past simple). Does French have a rule prohibiting "a" endings and is there a reason for it?
Is this correct:
in-between
Herod the Great's
Ending a sentence with: 28 B.C.
Putting a space after a colon:
In the North and East, Syria was ruled by Seleucus I.
He did the same thing as Pharaoh Neco did; replacing one king with another.
Thanks, good answers.
I have no idea what you just said.