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July 16

Turns the accusation around

I am looking for a word that describes the tactic of accusing someone else of doing what they are not, in fact, doing, but you are doing yourself. Children use it a lot. Bielle (talk) 18:12, 16 July 2010 (UTC)looking for word

Well, there's "the pot calling the kettle black". --Anonymous, 19:16 UTC, July 16, 2010.

Hypocrisy? Googlemeister (talk) 19:19, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

In psychology, it's projection. L. Ron Hubbard said that the proper response of any criticism of Scientology was to always accuse the critics of being criminals.[1] -- AnonMoos (talk) 23:14, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

That's very interesting, AnonMoos. It is possible that the person who is doing this is involved in Scientology. If that is true, it explains a lot. Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. Bielle (talk) 01:01, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

So projectors are necessarily accused of projecting projection? DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 14:00, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

Running a car race

Does one run a car race, or simply race it? Should it be "I'm going to run the Dakar Rally" or "I'm going to race the Dakar Rally"? AdamSommerton (talk) 20:55, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

In my idiolect, neither. 'Run' to me would imply running on foot, and I wouldn't use 'race' transitively, except perhaps with a rival as an object. I would say "enter", or "compete in", or "drive in". Others may have different answers. --ColinFine (talk) 21:01, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

(ec)If someone told me that they were going to run the Dakar Rally, I'd be impressed that they were organising such a major event. If you're taking part then I reckon you can only run things like marathons, otherwise I might say that I was 'doing' something like the rally. Mikenorton (talk) 21:07, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

(ec #2) : I agree. If there's a person who's in charge of organising the whole event, he/she might say "I run the Dakar car rally". -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 21:11, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

I'm in the American South (North Carolina). I would easily know what you were talking about, even if it would be slightly unusual. We use "run" in the context of cars all the time, although running the NASCAR race would sound a little odd. If my mother (okay, she's from the Northern US), says "I'm running up to the store to get milk," it is implied that she is not physically running to the store, but driving. In terms of a race, I'd probably say "racing" or any of the others that ColinFine suggested. Falconus^{p t c} 01:10, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

I would understand "running to the store" as walking to the store. Then again, I guess no one really drives to the store in Manhattan. Rimush (talk) 11:08, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Word that means goods and services

Is there a single word that means goods and services?--92.251.133.213 (talk) 21:12, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

In business-speak product or offering might work, depending on the context. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 21:16, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

(ec) There can be, but it wouldn't apply in all contexts. I might talk about my "purchases", referring to both the goods and services I've bought. But a provider of goods and services can't use that word. "Commodities" sometimes applies to both, but just as often means physical things only. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 21:17, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

"Offering"? Really? Just yesterday my co-worker asked me what I thought of the phrase "software offering" and I said it sounded like someone was going to lay a piece of software on an altar and stab it with a knife as a ritual sacrifice. +Angr 07:35, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

See The Musical Offering. -- Wavelength (talk) 16:02, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Hmm, that's not quite relevant. It's the name of a musical work, not a collection of goods and services. But I can confirm "offering" or "product offering" is used in business, to refer to exactly what it is that the customer gets, or potentially gets, for their money when they buy a particular product. I've only ever heard it in the health insurance industry, whose products are typically services, not goods (the services being payment of monetary benefits to cover or partially cover the cost of medical treatment). They sometimes provide goods such as mountain bikes, CDs etc as a gimmicky incentive to take out membership, and these are all part of the "product offering". Now, does this mean we can use "offering" as a generic collective term for goods and services? I'm not entirely sure. It's only ever used from the perspective of the seller, not the buyer, so I can't see it being used in non-business contexts. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 20:45, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

A lot will depend on context. In economics, "exports" can mean both goods and services. DOR (HK) (talk) 10:34, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

In economics, "goods" might in some context refer to both goods and services (in terms such as "public goods", for example) Jørgen (talk) 17:59, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Photon

I noticed that the Japanese word for photon is 光子 koushi, while each other language listed on the Wiktionary page uses a word which is phonetically similar to "photon. Where did this discrepancy come from? --138.110.206.101 (talk) 21:43, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

The reason is that it is common in Japanese (and Chinese) for borrowed concepts (or theoretically, native concepts which also overlap with non-native terms) to use a meaning-based substitute instead of a phonetically-based substitute. That said, Japanese uses a lot of phonetic borrowings in general (at least relative to Chinese, due in significant part to Chinese's lack of a phonetically based script like Katakana). However, note that other languages often use meaning-based borrowings as opposed to phonetic borrowings:e.g., German and Icelandic.--71.111.229.19 (talk) 00:36, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

What does koushi literally mean? --138.110.206.100 (talk) 01:07, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Light particle (particle of light). --Kjoonlee 02:20, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

An excerpt from a Bulgarian-Japanese phrasebook. The Bulgarian is given translated, and the fourth column contains the respective Icelandic terms, just for comparison.

computer monitor, display mouse keyboard printer hard disk file password modem hardware software server window icon to copy Internet site email

コンピューター モニター マウス キーボード プリンター ハードディスク ファイル パスワード モデム ハードウェア ソフトウェア サーバー ウィンドウ アイコン コピーする インターネット サイト E メール

konpyūtā monitā mausu kībōdo purintā hādo disuku fairu pasuwādo modemu hādowea sofutowea sābā windou aikon kopīsuru intānetto saito E mēru

tölva skjár mús lyklaborð prentari harður diskur skrá lykilorð mótald vélbúnaður hugbúnaður miðlari gluggi táknmynd afrita Internetið vefsíða tölvupóstur

By the way, コンピューター, konpyūtā, fails to match the Japanese Wikipedia interwiki for the computer article, which is コンピュータ, konpyūta. Why so? --Магьосник (talk) 07:47, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

If you can read Japanese, see ja:長音符#長音符の省略 (Omission of Chōonpu). It has been common practice to omit ending chōonpu in engineering and IT related writings and there is a general rule for the omission of chōonpu defined in JIS Z8301:2008; in a nutshell, you omit chōonpu if a word is longer than two morae. The Japanese article for computer follows it. Also note ja:サーバ and ja:サーバー are different topics and server (computing) links to the former. --Kusunose 10:12, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I can't read Japanese, but I'm certainly hoping this will change soon. So, could we say my phrasebook is wrong in the case given, in addition to being quite scanty as a whole? And yes, I noticed what Japanese article Server (computing) linked to, but the leading sentence of ja:サーバ gives both サーバ and サーバー in bold; I assumed they could be used interchangeably, and chose what the phrasebook was recommending. --Магьосник (talk) 11:05, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Your phrasebook is not wrong. They are interchangeable and unless you are writing for specialists, in which case it is better to follow the standard, it is fine to add chōonpu. In fact, Agency for Cultural Affairs recommends the use of chōonpu for English -or, -er, -ar and such as a general principle.[2] --Kusunose 12:23, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

July 17

"eruditional"

Can one give examples how "eruditional" is used in a sentence?--Christie the puppy lover (talk) 15:03, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

One way to find examples is doing a google books search for "eruditional". ---Sluzzelin talk 15:15, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

I tried googling for eruditional -dictionary -encyclopedia, to exclude definitions, and found these:

"Laden with eruditional prowess" -- from a review of a Nigerian play

"The conceptual assembly of a menu or the eruditional aesthetics of farm to table" -- from a blog about food

"This project is not about tapping into eruditional efforts or well-traveled elitism, but enjoying a rendition of eastern music" -- from a review of an album.

It seems to be used mainly by critics. I also found a few people using the similar word "erudical", though I can't find it in a dictionary. 213.122.0.218 (talk) 15:33, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

The OED has eruditional but not erudical. The latter seems to be used in places like facebook as a "made-up" word. Dbfirs 17:22, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Erudical turns up in a couple of Scots documents from 1812 where is seems to be used as a synonym for erudite. I can´t find any recent / current example. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 18:47, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Thank you gentlemen.--Christie the puppy lover (talk) 22:07, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Japanese honorifics

Which would a crew member of a ship use to address the captain? What about the other way around? What about with the captain and the admiral? --138.110.206.101 (talk) 16:47, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

I think a crew member of a ship would address just 船長/senchō/captain or xx(name) senchō. As for the other way around, I have no idea. Probably just name: xx san or with title like xx 機関長/kikanchō/chief engineer. There is no rule what to address. It depends. Sorry, but I have no idea with captain and the admiral either. Oda Mari (talk) 05:57, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

I'm assuming that would be the same for a starship? --138.110.206.101 (talk) 13:38, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

Since no starships have yet been created and crewed (and likely won't be for some considerable time, if ever), we can have no idea of how their hierarchical relationships might be designed: they could be based on Naval customs, on Air Force customs (if different), on some other existing customs, or be totally novel. You can therefore assume whatever you like so long as (preuming this is for fictional purposes) you make it plausible. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 14:33, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

The question of how it would be on a starship is, in fact, very valid. After all, Star Trek and numerous other sci-fi programs/films have been and continue to be translated into Japanese for the audience in Japan. The OP may want to check out episodes of these programs (either dubbed in Japanese or with subtitles) to compare. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 19:37, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

I think it would be the same for a starship. Captain of an air plane is 機長/kichō or キャプテン/kyaputen. Additionally, as for warship/軍艦/gunkan, it would be 艦長/kanchō. As for submarine/潜水艦/sensuikan and destroyer/駆逐艦/kuchikukan, the captains are called just 長/chō. Because they do not use 船/ship for their name. As for yacht, it would be 艇長/teichō or スキッパー/sukippā. Oda Mari (talk) 15:12, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

July 18

Swiss Standard German pronunciation

Is Swiss Standard German (NOT Swiss German) pronounced more or less the same as Hochdeutsch in Germany? Are there any notable or interesting differences? I ask because there's no phonology section in our article. Lfh (talk) 09:43, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

Our article on Helvetism may be of help until user:Sluzzelin comes around. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 10:46, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

As the article Helvetism and its section on Pronunciation correctly convey, Swiss Germans have a very recognizable accent when speaking Standard German. I'm not good at recognizing accents, but I can identify a Swiss German after a few seconds of hearing him speak. Rimush (talk) 11:03, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

Rimush is correct, though it has to be pointed out that there is a gradient of more or less Swiss-sounding spoken Standard German. Basically the phonology follows that of the individual speaker's native Swiss German dialect. So the spoken Swiss Standard German will retain some of the characteristics mentioned under Swiss_German#Pronunciation. The phonology varies among dialects, and it is often possible to guess the speaker's particular dialect (Bernese German, Basel German, etc.) from hearing their spoken Standard German. At school we were taught to lose the distinct Helvetic (and, to many ears, ugly) voiceless velar and uvular plosives (the "k" and "ch"), but other aspects, such as non-aspirated [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ] prevail with most speakers. As I said, there is a gradient. There are people who even use the "horrible" "k" and "ch" when speaking Standard German, while, at the other extreme, there are those who try to imitate German speakers, often with mixed success. Most are somewhere in between, distinctly Swiss-sounding, as observed by Rimush, but without the "Stallgeruch" ("barn smell") cultivated by some populist politicans, who want to sound as Swiss as possible in defiance of anything non-Swiss, also in defiance of anything that has to do with education </soapbox rant>. Katja Stauber, a Swiss television news anchor who grew up speaking German Standard German with her parents, originally read the news with a very German sounding pronunciation, but, because of critical comments in the media, de-germanized her speech and started ending her presentation with "uf Widerluege" (Swiss German for "auf Wiedersehen", "good bye")

Another, perhaps the most important, give-away is the Swiss prosody and melody of speech. Put simply, we speak in trochaic verse. An American friend said it all sounds like "YUffen DOOffen DUffen" (spelled "JAffen DUffen DAffen", in German, meaning nothing in either language).

You often hear German comedians (official and self-proclaimed) speaking Standard German sentences with their impression of Swiss phonology and prosody, pretending they are speaking Swiss German. I remember Harald Juhnke doing this, and it was doubly hilarious. The only American actor I have ever heard do an accurate impression of a Swiss German accent in English is Robin Williams. Often, when a film shows a Swiss character (such as a banker :-), they choose a German accent, which really is quite different. ---Sluzzelin talk 12:33, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

You can usually tell if someone is Austrian when speaking Standard German as well, although I have trouble (as I said, I'm not good at recognizing accents) identifying if he/she is Austrian or Bavarian. What's interesting is that (from my experience at least) people from Vorarlberg speak Standard German neither with a Swiss nor with an Austrian accent. I would've expected a Swiss accent, but they have a sort of own way of speaking, which shows the based-on-specific-dialect-of-speaker-accent thing.Rimush (talk) 13:49, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

Sluzzelin has already mentioned prosody – it might be a wrong stereotype, but I'd suspect that, on average, Swiss Standard German is pronounced more slowly than Germany Standard German. Perhaps somebody can refute or confirm this. --84.46.66.247 (talk) 17:53, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

I guess you could do worse than listening to some clips of German-speaking Swiss speaking Standard German on youtube, to get an idea of the spectra (across different dialects, and across different degrees of Helveticness). I currently have no way of listening to stuff, but I'll try to compile something for you later on. ---Sluzzelin talk 14:14, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

Thank you very much, this is all interesting information. I was curious about the extent to which speakers were influenced by their particular Swiss German dialect. The pronunciation section at Helvetism seems to sum it up quite well, but (as the article notes) it is in the wrong place - shouldn't it be at Swiss Standard German, under a "Phonology" or "Pronunciation" heading? Perhaps with one of those tables of phonemes, like at e.g. German phonology. Lfh (talk) 15:31, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

Well, as promised but with some delay, here are a couple of soundbites. (I have to admit that , perhaps fittingly, I had trouble finding exactly what I was looking for in terms of typical markers within the spectrum). Former Federal Council Adolf Ogi's New Year's speech here. His native dialect is that of the Bernese Oberland, a Highest Alemannic German dialect. Of course this is a televised speech (and an Ogi speech to boot) - no one speaks that way in conversation, but the phonology is still typical. Same with Doris Leuthard in this clip. Her dialect is from a part of the canton of Aargau. With a few differences, it resembles Zurich German quite a bit, and to me her Standard German speech could almost be that of a native Zürcher (though there is a clear difference when she speaks dialect). A bit more academic, in the sense that you hear no Chuchichäschtli "ch"s or hawking "k"'s, but still very recognizably Swiss, this time from Zurich is Christoph Mörgeli's "personal remark" here (Here too, it has to be pointed out that Mörgeli's style of pausing and emphasizing so frequently is entirely his; he talks that way in Swiss German too.

For some older generation examples, Friedrich Dürrenmatt who had his very own, sloppy, but still very Swiss and audibly Bernese way of speaking Standard German in this famous speech (Just for fun, though he doesn't say much here, he does light a fire in the studio in this old clip, and his speech contrasts with the German moderator's, and Marcel Reich-Ranicki's often imitated accent - MRR also blows at the fire, making things worse). Max Frisch speaks about his relationship with Dürrenmatt here in a fashion typical for academics and intellectuals of his generation. It sounds educated (and these days pretentious, reflected in his gestures). For example, he does use the typically German final obstruent devoicing; he pronounces übrig as "übrich", while most Swiss would say "übrig". Yet he too sounds unmistakably Swiss.

Finally, for a caricature, but an entirely realistic and not at all unheard of one, Emil Steinberger translated his Swiss German sketches into Standard German (pronounced with about as strong a Luzern phonology as is possible) in order to reach German audiences, as can be seen in this clip, for example.

84.46 is correct that Swiss German speakers generally speak Standard German at a slower pace than Germans do, with regional and individual exceptions of course, but even people from Zurich, notoriously fast speaking as opposed to the stereotypically slow Bernese, on average speak SG more slowly than Germans do. The speech melody is quite a bit more pronounced, with more ups and downs, than average German speech. People from the cantons of Bern, Obwalden or Uri, for example, have real sing-songy way of speaking, which often carries over into their Standard German too. ---Sluzzelin talk 13:20, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the hard work. I don't know about the OP, but I'm definitely gonna listen to these (for the lulz, if not for anything else). I love it when people provide Utube videos and not videos from some obscure site that looks unsafe. edit: After listening to Ogi, it seems that Swiss Standard bears some similarities to how Transylvanian Saxons speak Standard German. They do it with a Romanian accent, but not like an average Romanian who learned German as a second language - Swiss probably sounds similar because the "r" is pronounced similarly to the Romanian "r". Rimush (talk) 13:32, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Thank you very much for all the work you've put into your reply, Sluzzelin. I certainly will listen to all of the clips, and your information answers my question in full. I've just started the Ogi clip - it's certainly distinctive. He doesn't sound like a German, and to my totally non-native ears he actually sounds like a fellow non-native speaker of (Standard) German, although I'm not properly able to judge that. The alveolar r and the lack of devoicing are what I noticed first. I laughed at 1:45, not because of anything to do with his speech but because the camera pulls out and a train goes right past him! Odd place to do a national address, by the side of a railway. Lfh (talk) 15:01, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

OK, ignore that last bit, he's just explained why he's standing in front of that tunnel. Lfh (talk) 15:04, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Name Days

A lot of Scandinavian/Nordic nations have Name days:
Sweden > (http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_%C3%B6ver_namnsdagar_i_Sverige_i_datumordning),
Denmark > (http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danske_navnedage),
Norway > (http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_over_norske_navnedager),
Finland > (http://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Faroese_Name_Days),
Faroe Islands > (http://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Faroese_Name_Days),
Estonia > (http://www.happynameday.info/country.php).
Is Iceland an exception? I can't find any Icelandic name calendar in the web. --151.51.156.20 (talk) 14:20, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

My first thought was nordicnames.de, but I see that you already checked it. Rimush (talk) 15:45, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

The Icelandic Wikipedia has alphabetical lists of native men's names and native women's names. Additionally, there are pages with given names by number of bearers: 10+, 3 to 9, 2, 1 (A-J), 1 (K-Ö). All of them are linked, and many have an existing article behind them. A few minutes of browsing could not help me find a single name with any name day date specified. There are also articles on every date of the year, but none of them seems to be mentioned as someone's name day.

The Icelandic for "name day" seems to be nafndagur. --Theurgist (talk) 20:45, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

The link gives no indication that there is any use in Iceland, rather it refers to name days as a Catholic tradition. --Soman (talk) 20:52, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

...and [3] gives almost no results at all. It seems that Icelanders don't celebrate name days. If you consider how un-Christian most the names at the at icelandic wiki lists are, it is not so strange. --Soman (talk) 20:55, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Note that Icelandic is an inflected language. --Theurgist (talk) 21:05, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

It is strange. Iceland is no more or less Catholic than any other Nordic country. (Being part of Denmark until relatively recently, they converted to protestantism at the same time). Their names aren't really much more or less Christian either, compared to other Nordic countries. --130.237.179.178 (talk) 15:27, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Swiss German (and Swiss French)

The question above (about Swiss German) made me realize that this might be a good place to ask this. I am a French major at NC State University (in the US) and I wish to do a study abroad in French-speaking Switzerland (likely Lausanne). I am also planning on minoring in German, and have taken the first couple levels of that. Part of my reason for choosing Switzerland over the more common option (France) is that they also speak German there, and I was looking at studying in Fribourg, right on the Linguistic Border. I then realized that Swiss German is very different than the High German (from Germany) that I'm learning in class, and realized that it may not be all that useful for my German (I would love to know Swiss German, but I'm not sure that I could follow it with my current level of High German). I know that French French and Swiss French are quite similar, with some differences (the numbers 70, 80, and 90 for example), and should not be a problem, but in terms of getting practice with German, are there any suggestions? Is it a lost cause or would it be worth it to consider going to Fribourg instead? On that vein, does anybody have any personal experience with either college? Thank you, Falconus^{p t c} 16:31, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

I'm sure the Swiss wouldn't mind speaking Standard German to you, but from what I know, Swiss German is used widely in Switzerland, to the extent that you probably won't get much Hochdeutsch practice from everyday life in a Swiss town (im Gegensatz to Austria, for example, where mostly everybody speaks Austro-Bavarian but you rarely encounter anything written in dialect, and you very rarely hear people speak in the dialect on TV or in radio shows, and where living in z.B. Vienna would give you a lot of Standard German practice). French also seems to outweigh German in Freiburg, according to our article. Rimush (talk) 17:09, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

From what I understand, the Swiss know that Swiss German is a bit of an in-group thing, and if they have you pegged as a foreigner (which will happen as soon as you open your mouth, if not before), most Swiss will use Standard German with you, rather than Schwiizertüütsch. (That's also a bit of linguistic politeness. Swiss are notorious polyglots, and tend to speak the language which is easiest for the person on the other end.) A bigger issue is that on the Francophone side of the Röstigraben they're rather reluctant to speak German, even when their knowledge of it is excellent. I've heard recommendations that, for non-German-speaking foreigners dealing with a Francophone Swiss, it's better to muddle through with imperfect English, rather than "insult" them with perfect German. But, as with all things, it'll vary based on who, exactly, you're interacting with. (And due to the fantastic train system, it's quite straightforward to travel from Lausanne to German-speaking Zurich/Bern/Appenzell/etc. if you do want to interact with German speakers.) -- 174.24.196.51 (talk) 19:08, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

Okay, thanks for the responses. Would the classes conducted in German at Fribourg be in Swiss Standard German or Swiss German? Thanks, Falconus^{p t c} 03:15, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Swiss Standard, I would think. Rimush (talk) 08:35, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

A bit off topic, but I found it curious that language courses teaching Swiss German (not talking about classes conducted in Swiss German) as opposed to Standard German were apparently unusual enough in Switzerland to appear on television for their novelty value a few years ago. There had been some demand from immigrants who said that learning (or knowing) Standard German is not enough to fully integrate into Swiss German speaking communities. --84.46.72.26 (talk) 13:48, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

It is true that the demand for Swiss German classes has risen. On the one hand, speaking dialect has increased (on the radio, on television, at events, etc, even writing in dialect, previously done by very few people, has become popular with text-messaging and e-mails). On the other hand, Switzerland now has a higher percentage of highly-educated immigrants (many of them from Germany) than it had previously, and these immigrants are more interested in taking classes, for various reasons. These Schwyzertütsch classes, however, are all designed for people who speak or at least understand Standard German. The American friend I mentioned two threads above wanted to learn Swiss German without learning German, but it was impossible to find either a course or even learning material for non-German speakers, such as English, French, or Italian (these were the languages she spoke). Meanwhile I have found such a learn-box, at a ridiculous price, but at the time, her only option was to find a private teacher.

What 174.24 says about switching to Standard German "as soon as you open your mouth, if not before" is true, to the extent that it annoyed my friend because she actually understood Standard German less well than dialect. Regarding Falconus, I do have to say that while Swiss German speakers will try to accomodate you by switching when addressing you directly, they might very well switch back to dialect when saying something to someone else in the group. I observed this very often during my own university days in Zurich when we were a mixed group. (Maybe you could hang out with the German students? :-) ---Sluzzelin talk 22:56, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Alright, thank you :-). Falconus^{p t c} 03:34, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

July 19

Not only... but (also)...

I was reading something online about a recent College Board Official SAT Question of the Day, which went as follows: "Tantra paintings from India are not only beautiful but _____: in addition to their aesthetic value, they are used to facilitate meditation." The answer here was "functional". However, I have a question on the correlative conjunctive (at least, I think that's what it's called) in the sentence. It seems that, per web searching, "not only... but also..." is more popular and common than simply "not only... but...". But when is it appropriate to omit the 'also'? Are there any special grammar rules one must follow which determine whether or not to include 'also', or does it boil down to whichever sounds smoother? Are they interchangeable, and if they are, in what type of situations? Any examples would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! 141.153.217.214 (talk) 03:30, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Here's one usage where you couldn't dispense with the 'also'. -- 202.142.129.66 (talk) 06:38, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

WHAAOE! hydnjo (talk) 19:42, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

I recommend using "not only X but also Y" whenever you can, that is to say, whenever both X and Y are valid.

• "not only a scholar but also a gentleman"
• "not only a spouse but also a parent"

I recommend restricting the use of "not only X but Y" to situations where Y is valid but X is not valid.

• "not only an amateur but a professional"
• "not only a middleweight but a heavyweight"

—Wavelength (talk) 22:16, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Wavelength, I find your latter examples deviant: to me "not only X" implies X, so I would find those confusing. My answer to the OP is that there is no grammatical rule relating to the "also" but that rhetorically and prosodically it balances the two terms. --ColinFine (talk) 23:24, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Experience might be limited to usage where X is valid, not only in your case but also in my case, but there is nothing inherent in the words and their definitions that would restrict us from using them where X is not valid.

• "not (only/just) an amateur but (even/rather) a professional"
• "not (just/only) a middleweight but (rather/even) a heavyweight"

—Wavelength (talk) 01:32, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Isn't there a logic flaw there? "Not just/only a middleweight ..." says to me that, whatever else this person can be said to be, he is still a middleweight. But if he's a heavyweight, how can he simultaneously be a middleweight? Isn't this like saying "He's not only poor, but also rich"? -- 202.142.129.66 (talk) 04:07, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

To me, the expression "not just/only a middleweight" is ambiguous as to whether this person is a middleweight. The expression "but rather/even a heavyweight" disambiguates the first expression. It makes clear that this person is not a middleweight.—Wavelength (talk) 15:24, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

So why mention middleweight at all? There are bazillions of things a person is not; except in particular cases, we talk only about what they are. If someone's suggested that he's a middleweight, but we know that's wrong and and we're refuting it, we'd say "He is not a middleweight, but a heavyweight". Putting in "just" or "only" after "not" says something very different. 180 degrees different. And as confusing as "Columbus did not just land in China, he landed in the Americas". That's rubbish, as he did not land anywhere near China, despite what he may have believed. Take the "just" out and you've got a decent statement that's supported by historical facts. As it stands, the sentence is saying Columbus landed in both China and the Americas, which is a physical impossibility unless we're talking about different voyages. Compare it with sentences like "He was not just/only the national champion, but the world champion". Does that deny he was the national champion, or is it in any way ambiguous? Not to me. If he definitely wasn't the national champion but still the world champion, we'd be either not mentioning the national championship at all, or making it clear he did not hold it. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 21:01, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

There can be many reasons to mention what a person is not, and the reasons might be indicated by the context.

• "He is only a middle manager. His brother is not only a middle manager, but rather the chief executive officer."
• "Is he only a middle manager? No, he is not only a middle manager, but instead the chief executive officer."
• "He was not just a runner-up, but instead the winner."
• "Columbus landed, not just in an insignificant place, but rather in the Americas."
• "He is not merely a middleweight, but rather a heavyweight."

—Wavelength (talk) 22:32, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

This is clearly a case of a huge gap between different varieties of the same language. In my English, a CEO cannot be said to be a middle manager at all, or vice-versa; they're mutually exclusive. A runner-up is not a winner, and a winner is not a runner-up; they're mutually exclusive. To me, you're misusing "not just"; you're using it as an exclusionary device, where it's meant to be inclusionary. It's "this, but ALSO something else", but you're using it to mean "something else, and NOT this". -- 202.142.129.66 (talk) 23:20, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

A chief executive officer is more than a middle manager (in regard to rank), but he/she is not a middle manager and does not include a middle manager. A winner is more than a runner-up (in regard to performance), but he/she is not a runner-up and does not include a runner-up. If Y is more than X without being or including X, then that entity is not just X but rather Y.

—Wavelength (talk) 02:05, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

I guess I'm with Jack here. To my ears, what you suggest only works where something can actually be X and Y, and where X and Y are somehow qualitatively related. For example: He doesn't just outweigh a middleweight, but also a heavyweight or He didn't just score more points than the runner-up, but also than the winner, but he was disqualified for cheating. You can be a subject that outweighs both weight categories, but you can't be in both categories at the same time. To me "she isn't just X ..." implies that she is, in fact, X, but also more. ---Sluzzelin talk 03:01, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Actually I can imagine a dialogue where someone would say: "Oh, look at that middleweight up against a poor little flyweight". And you could respond: "He's not just a middleweight, but a heavyweight!" Here "is" is short for something like "is at least as heavy as" though, and the response wouldn't make sense with "but also". ---Sluzzelin talk 03:09, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Wouldn't most people say "not even" here? Dbfirs 19:43, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Inflection of hyphenated adjectives?

I'm curious about forming the comparative and superlative of hyphenated adjectives in English.

Would one do so by declining the first word?

    well-known   better-known  best-known
    true-to-life truer-to-life truest-to-life
    ill-suited   worse-suited  worst-suited

Or would he do so by declining the whole adjective —as a unit?

    well-known   more well-known   most well-known
    true-to-life more true-to-life most true-to-life
    ill-suited   more ill-suited   most ill-suited

I, for one, prefer the former in my writing style; nevertheless, I keep encountering the latter quite often. Does any rule exist in Fowler, Oxford, or any other respected authority regarding this? Thus far, my search for one has turned up fruitless. Pine (talk) 05:36, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

I did a Google search for comparative and superlative of hyphenated adjectives, and I found answers on the following pages.

• http://www.grammarmudge.cityslide.com/articles/article/426348/2805.htm
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv140.shtml
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_compound#Hyphenated_compound_adjectives
• http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/compounds.htm

—Wavelength (talk) 21:36, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

You might be interested in http://www.onlinestylebooks.com/home.html. -- Wavelength (talk) 22:19, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Japanese video translation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2jVpPDXcac&feature=related

Can someone be kind enough to translate what the characters are saying? Thank you! 64.75.158.194 (talk) 12:53, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Town in Cyprus

Could someone confirm whether the authentic Greek pronunciation of the Cypriot town of Peyia, that is Πέγεια, is [ˈpejia] (3 syllables) or [ˈpeja] (2 syllables)? I need this so I can most accurately render the name in Bulgarian Cyrillic. Thanks. --Theurgist (talk) 15:35, 19 July 2010 (UTC) Still me, decided to give up my old sig.

July 20

Opposite of exaggerate

I've been wondering about this for a while... what us the opposite of exaggerate in a) English and b) Chinese? Kayau Voting IS evil 07:35, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Possibly 'understate' or 'minimize'. Sorry I don't speak 'Chinese' 86.4.183.90 (talk) 07:38, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Meiosis (figure of speech) might be a linguistic antonym of exaggeration. Also Litotes has a Chinese example, but these are not quite what you were asking. Dbfirs 08:38, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

vitirinaire? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Margho (talk • contribs) 12:19, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

"Downplay". Everard Proudfoot (talk) 19:58, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Minimisation. Gwinva (talk) 21:46, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Dutch name: In' t <-- meaning?

A guy at my company is (first name) In' t (rest of family name) and I was wondering what that stands for/means? It's not an easy thing to google, what with the apostrophe and all! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.189.63.171 (talk) 13:37, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

't is a contraction of het.—Emil J. 13:50, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

It's a combination of two tussenvoegsel (in het, in 't = in the): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tussenvoegsel#Combinations Rimush (talk) 14:12, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

In 't is short for In het, meaning In the. 195.35.160.133 (talk) 14:13, 20 July 2010 (UTC) Martin.

Dutch wikipedia suggests names with tussenvoegsels are often nobility, so you better curtsey your co-worker :-) . 195.35.160.133 (talk) 14:26, 20 July 2010 (UTC) Martin.

Syntax: How can one use a possessive relative pronoun for combining a conditional clause with the main clause?

The following pair of sentences:

• 1. "I met a person".
• 2. "That person's nose is purple".

can become one sentence, using the possessive relative pronoun "whose" - as following:

• 3. "I met a person whose nose is purple".

How about combining both clauses, 1 and 2 (by a possessive relative pronoun as before), when the second clause (no. 2) is conditional, e.g.

• 2. "If that person's nose were green, the world would look better".

Note that the main clause (no. 1) is still as before, so the new sentence (that has to combine both clauses, 1 and 2) must begin with: "I met a person...". Additionally, note that the new sentence (that has to combine both clauses, 1 and 2) must preserve the original list of nouns ("person", "nose", "world") as well as the original list of adjectives ("green", "better") as well as the original list of verbs ("to meet", "to be", "to look"), so no addition of new nouns / adjectives / verbs (e.g. the verb "to have" and likewise) is permitted.

For more clarification, see 174.24.196.51's comment below, and Kpalion's comment below.

I ask all of that, because such a combination of two clauses (the second one of which is conditional) by a relative pronoun - is possible in other languages.

HOOTmag (talk) 14:02, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

If you are asking whether it is correct to say "If I met a person whose nose was green, the world would look better", the answer is, yes, that is an acceptable sentence. However, it is not clear what you are asking. Marco polo (talk) 15:43, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

I think I was clear enough: please read again the first sentence in my last paragraph (beginning with the word: "Note"). HOOTmag (talk) 15:57, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

(ec) I think he's asking for the equivalent of "I met a person who, if their nose was green, would look better.", but with "[person being met] would look better" replaced by "the world would look better". (That is, the meeting of said person is a fact, with only the green nose being the hypothetical.) -- 174.24.196.51 (talk) 16:03, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, you interpreted me correctly, and I'm still waiting for the correct way of combining both clauses by the (possessive) relative pronoun. HOOTmag (talk) 17:31, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

I would prefer "I met a person who, if his nose were green instead of purple, would make the world look better." However, we are guessing what HOOTmag means. His response to Marco polo's very polite request for greater clarity is not appropriate. Bielle (talk) 16:14, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

As I've stated above, one must preserve the original list of verbs ("to meet", "to be", "to look"), so no addition of new verbs (e.g. the verb "to make" etc.) is permitted. Additionally, you can't use the word "his" before knowing whether this person is a man or a woman. HOOTmag (talk) 17:31, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

I met a person, if whose nose were green, the world would look better. Not sure, if this is grammatical in English. — Kpalion^(talk) 16:50, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, you interpreted me correctly, and like you, I doubt if your sentence is grammatical in English. However, its structure is similar to the structure of the following grammatical sentence: "I met a person, at whose nose - I'm looking now". By the way, how would my original question be solved in Polish, if at all? HOOTmag (talk) 17:31, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Have you considered changing your user ID to the Polish words for "The Riddler"? :) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:51, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

As before (at the mathematical Ref Desk), here too, it's not really a "riddle", but rather a question, whose answer I don't know yet (by the way: some hours ago, EmilJ gave me the full solution for my "riddle" at the mathematical Ref Desk, after I gave Tango - some hours earlier - my partial solution, ibid. You're welcome to enjoy EmilJ's instructive full solution, ibid.). Anyways, as far as the Polish words for "the riddler" are concerned, I'm beginning to like your sense of humor :) HOOTmag (talk) 19:48, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Kpalion, HOOTmag, you are right that Kpalion's sentence is not grammatically correct. Actually, I think there is no English contruction that meets all the requirments in HOOTmag's original question (no new nouns/adjectives/verbs). (I am a native speaker of British English). --Stfg (talk) 19:38, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Its ungrammaticality is not only in British English. Anyway, if you are right, and my question has no solution in English, then I think this is very interesting, mainly from a linguistic point of view, because my question does have solutions - in languages other than English... HOOTmag (talk) 19:48, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

In English one would have to turn the sentence round I met a person, the greenness of whose nose would make the world look better but it is still clumsy. Languages that make a different implicit assumption about the subject of the last clause might allow your suggested word order. Dbfirs 21:41, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

It seems like you haven't read what I wrote above (when I presented my question), so let me quote (or almost quote) myself again:

• "Note that the new sentence (that has to combine both clauses, 1 and 2) must preserve the original list of nouns ("person", "nose", "world") as well as the original list of adjectives ("green", "better") as well as the original list of verbs ("to meet", "to be", "to look"), so no addition of new nouns / adjectives / verbs (e.g. the noun "greenness" or the verb "to make" and likewise) is permitted".

HOOTmag (talk) 23:20, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

@Hoot: "His" following "person" does not necessarily indicate gender; it was the standard singular for a person of unknown sex when I was growing up, back in the Jurassic era, when "person" followed by "they" would have cost you points on any paper. What happened to "purple"? Bielle (talk) 23:15, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Regarding the "his/they", it's a well known controversy (see footnote no. 48). Anyway, my main point was not about the "his", but rather about your adding a new verb ("to make"), and...yes: also your adding the "purple" is prohibited. Again: you must preserve the three original lists of nouns / adjectives / verbs, as indicated above. Just think about the classical usage of "whose": it really preserves the original lists of nouns / adjectives / verbs - in the sentence: "I met a person whose nose is purple". HOOTmag (talk) 23:27, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

As it is controversial in the sense that some experts say yes and others say no, it ill behooves you to write definitively: "Additionally, you can't use the word "his" before knowing whether this person is a man or a woman". I can, and shall, continue to do so. If others wish to play your "purple/green nose" game that is up to them. Bielle (talk) 00:07, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

It's really a controversy, in which you took a side (when you wrote definitively: "I can, and shall, continue to do so"), just as I took a side when I wrote definitively: "Additionally, you can't use the word "his" before knowing whether this person is a man or a woman". But again, it's not my main point. My main point is another one, as I've already explained above, and...no: it's not a "game" at all: three Wikipedians (174.24.196.51, Kpalion, and Stfg) who followed the rules, didn't think this was a game, because they well understood the rationale behind these rules: the word "who" (as well as the word "whose") - is a syntactic word, hence its usage is not supposed to change the original lists of nouns / adjectives / verbs. Just think about any other axample in which this syntactic word combines two clauses into one sentence, and you'll realize that using this word doesn't have to change the original lists of nouns / adjectives / verbs. HOOTmag (talk) 08:55, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

I think we've all done our best for HOOTmag who likes posing obscure and ill-defined riddles on various help desks. Perhaps he (or she) could explain what they are really wanting. and yes, we have read what you wrote, and tried to make sense of it! Dbfirs 07:29, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Not all of you have done the best: you are six Wikipedians on this thread: Three of you have really done the best: 174.24.196.51, Kpalion, and Stfg, who really followed the rules, and didn't change the original lists of nouns / adjectives / verbs, becuase they well understood the rationale behind these rules: the word "whose" - is a syntactic word, hence its usage is not supposed to change the original lists of nouns / adjectives / verbs. Just think about any other axample in which this syntactic word combines two clauses into one sentence, and you'll realize that using this word doesn't have to change the original lists of nouns / adjectives / verbs. Regarding what you call "obscure and ill-defined riddles": Whoever understands the rationale behind all of my questions (like 174.24.196.51, Kpalion, and Stfg, on this thread) doesn't think my questions are obscure and ill-defined. Now it's up to you whether to try to understand this rationale and to follow the rules this rationale is behind. HOOTmag (talk) 08:55, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

In Polish I could construct a sentence equivalent to the one I wrote above, but it would be similarly ungrammatical. I wonder in what languages this kind of structure would be allowed. Can you give any examples, Hootmag? Curiously, I can't think of any Polish word for a riddler. If I had to invent one, I'd use sfinks metaphorically. In Polish translations of Batman comics, "the Riddler" is rendered as Człowiek-zagadka, literally "Man-conundrum" – not exactly the same sense for me. — Kpalion^(talk) 09:36, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

I didn't say that your construction was possible in any language (although it may be). I only said that my question was solvable in some languages, by using a relative pronoun, which can combine two clauses, the second one of which is conditional, without changing the original lists of nouns / adjectives / verbs. For example, let's take the Semitic languages: every word in those languages has a grammatical gender (which may be different from the natural gender). E.g. the English word "person" we're talking about, may be translated - in every Semitic language - into a few words, some of which have a masculine grammatical gender, the other ones having a feminine grammatical gender. For our instance, let's take (in any Semitic language) the (grammatically) masculine word for the English word "person", and let's denote it here (in this thread) by: person. So, the new (Semitic) sentence will look like: "I met a person, who if his nose were green, the world would look better". Note that this solution, that uses the relative pronoun who for combining to clauses (the second one of which is conditional), is always possible in Semitic languages, and is considered to be acceptable in a formal speech as well as in an informal speech. Furthermore, this syntactic construction in Semitic languages is not limited to cases having no other syntactic solution, but rather is universal and applicable wherever whose (or who) would be used in English: e.g. the English sentence: "I met a person whose nose is purple", is translated in Semitic languages into something like: "I met a person who his nose is purple". HOOTmag (talk) 14:13, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

At my job, I have to try to help difficult people with nasty attitudes like HOOTmag's, but when volunteering on the Reference Desk, I am under no such obligation and will certainly avoid any questions by this person in the future. Marco polo (talk) 13:46, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

I'm sure you misinterpreted me, and I profoundly apologize if anything in my words insulted you, although I hope that nothing did. Anyways, I really can't understand what was nasty in my asking you to read again the first sentence in my last paragraph (beginning with the word: "Note")". Does this request insult? Again, if it does, then I fully apologize, and I'll be happy if you give me a second chance to explain myself: I thought that I was "clear enough" in the beginning of this paragraph which begins with the word "Note", where I wrote explicitly that the main clause (no. 1) is still as before, so the new sentence (that has to combine both clauses, 1 and 2) must begin with: "I met a person...". Your proposal does not meet this requirement, does it? Again, I hope you forgive me if I was not clear enough in my last response to you. Have a nice day, all the best, take care. HOOTmag (talk) 14:13, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

HOOTmag, if I may, you often pose questions which look highly specific, full of all sorts of restrictions regarding an acceptable answer, yet often unclear as to what you are actually asking. Then, when we ask for clarification, you order us to read again. When we attempt to interpret what you are asking and give our best response, you rigidly quote yourself and argue why that answer is incorrect. You also often take us far too literally (Your paragraph beginning with "Not all of you have done the best ..." comes across as extremely petty and would definitely not be an incentive for me to spend my brain cells and time on helping you). We're just a couple of volunteers at a reference desk, not MENSA test candidates, not classmates or professors on whom you can hone your logical and argumentative skills in debate. ---Sluzzelin talk 14:37, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Hello Sluzzelin,

I find it easier if I quote from your important post:

• "often pose questions which look highly specific, full of all sorts of restrictions regarding an acceptable answer".

Yes, because I ask my questions from a linguistic point of view, not often from a practical point of view. Fortunately, this Ref Desk is full of people, some of whom understand my linguistic point of view, and give me answers I find satisfactoy, as happened on this thread. Anyway, I really don't blame anybody, I just read all the answers and indicate whether they meet the requirements indicated in my question. If the answer has met these requirement, then it's wonderfull (as has already happened in this thread), and if they haven't met the requirements, then I just explain why I don't find the answer satisfactory, but I don't think that anything bad happens if the answer doesn't meet the requirements. I appreciate every answer, even when it's doesn't meet the requirements.

• "unclear as to what you are actually asking".

Ok, some users may find my questions unclear, while others find it quite clear. Again, I appreciate everyone, including those who've found my question unclear. The diffrenece between the users who understood my question immediately and the other users who didn't, is probably rooted in the user's expectations. A user who expects practical questions, may have found my question unclear. It's Ok, and whenever any user notifies me, I try to answer them as best as I can, including by quotations from previous clarifications of mine the user may have skipped.

• "when we ask for clarification, you order us to read again".

"Order"? I think the better word here should be: "ask", or "beg". Can't I ask you to read again some clarifications of mine you might have skipped? If you think the quotations didn't help you understand me better, you're always welcome to notify me, and I'll try to make myself clearer, as I'm trying to do that now.

• "When we attempt to interpret what you are asking and give our best response, you rigidly quote yourself and argue why that answer is incorrect".

"Rigidly"? I think the better expression here should be: "in a precise manner". I'm trying to quote the exact words (the user may have skipped), just because I have no better words. However, whenever the user notifies that my quotation is not satisfactory, I try to explain more (as I'm doing now), although I think that what I had written in the quoted words is clearer than any more clarifications. Anyways, I don't accept your saying that the answer is incorrect: I just notify that the answer does not meet the original requirements (if it really doesn't), but I appreciate every answer, even when it doesn't meet the requirements.

• "You also often take us far too literally".

I apologize if I ever did.

• "Your paragraph beginning with "Not all of you have done the best ..." comes across as extremely petty)".

You may have taken me far too literally. by "to do the best" I mean "to give an answer that meets the requirements indicated in the question". However, I never meant that any user who gave me such an answer hasn't tried to do their best to help, and I appreciate every effort, even when it does not result in a satisfactory answer.

• "We're just a couple of volunteers at a reference desk".

So am I, when I answer questions at the Ref Desk, so all of us are in a good group, thanks God... :)

• "not MENSA test candidates, not classmates or professors on whom you can hone your logical and argumentative skills in debate".

I'm not looking for any of those guys you've mentioned, I'm seeking an answer for a question asked from a linguistic point of view, rather than from a practical point of view. Fortunately, some users here understood my point at once. Had I made it clear since the beginning, our misunderstanding would have disappeared since the beginning. Anyways, I appreciate every user here, including those users whose point of view is practical rather than linguistic.

Have a nice day, all the best.

HOOTmag (talk) 16:02, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

... so what exactly are you looking for? Impossible sentences? Dbfirs 16:40, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

No, I'm looking for possible ones. Stfg has expressed their opinion that there are no such possible sentences, and I highly recommend that you see my response to them, just below their post. HOOTmag (talk) 17:09, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. I highly recommend that, if you want to know in future whether something is possible, you ask "is it possible?". Our answers could then be clearer and more direct. Dbfirs 18:26, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for your recommendation, which I highly appreciate.

Anyways, the title of this thread is "how can one use...for combining...", by which I meant: "Is it possible to use...for combining...". Maybe the word "how" was redundant, but: by this "how" I meant: "how about combining...", and I really wrote that explicitly - when I presented my question, after few sentences below the title. Anyways, I'll try to be clearer in future. Thank you again, take care, all the best.

HOOTmag (talk) 18:58, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

French language

Hello everybody! A while ago I read about a Francophone area where the k sounds turned into x, so the paradigm sacrebleu changed from sɑkʁəblø to sɑxʁəblø. What area is this? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.199.147.33 (talk) 14:22, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Swedish place names containing “fick”

Are the any Swedish place names containing “fick”? --84.61.131.18 (talk) 18:33, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

I think the closest you will find are places ending in "vik", such as Västervik, Valdemarsvik, or Örnsköldsvik. ---Sluzzelin talk 22:34, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Maybe there is a place containing the wonderful word "fika". ---Sluzzelin talk 00:04, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Actually, there are many. Fickasjön (lit. "pocket lake") in Örby, Fickeln in Nora, and Fickfjärden in Nordmaling to name a few. decltype (talk) 09:19, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Please, let me know if the word HOROLOGY exist?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.232.193.79 (talk) 19:23, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes: horology. Xenon54 (talk) 19:27, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

We do have dictionaries for that sort of thing. Falconus^{p t c} 20:06, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

See horology and http://www.onelook.com/?w=horology&ls=a. -- Wavelength (talk) 15:04, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Some Hinglish please

Hi - any Hinglish speakers out there? - can you give me the current slang term for 'penis', please. Thanks Adambrowne666 (talk) 20:40, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

lola? --Soman (talk) 15:16, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Can one learn a language by listening to the radio?

Is it possible to learn a foreign language solely by listening to the radio? Non-interactive, one-way communication with no indications of meaning outside the stream of audio? I've skimmed the Language acquisition article, but it seems to be no help, as it seems to assume an ordinary environment in which one is in the actual presence of other humans. If it's considered possible, is there any thought as to how much of the language must be understood to serve as a foothold? I imagine that if I knew, say, 50% of the everyday vocabulary of a particular language and had figured out some large amount of its grammar, then I would be able to acquire the other 50% with time and attention. My assumption has been that if I had understood only 2 words of the foreign language going into this, then there would be no hope. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:22, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

I don't see how you could pick it up if you knew nothing of the language. There's no context, no visual cues. Like if you knew "da" and "nyet" meant "yes" and "no" in Russian, and were listening to a Russian station, you might be able to pick those words up. Consider how they translated the Rosetta stone. They had no hope of translating hieroglyphics until they found that stone and starting matching words up. That kind of thing is what you would be faced with trying to learn a language from the radio. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:42, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

As a simple example, decades before more sophisticated tools like the Rosetta Stone series of language instruction, there was a series of books such as Spanish Through Pictures. The first four pictures were stick figures of an adult male, adult female, young male and young female. In turn, each one had its right hand over/pointing to its chest/heart and saying, Yo soy un hombre, Yo soy una mujer, Yo soy un muchacho and Yo soy una muchacha. That approach might be a little clumsy until you figure out their "system". But if you heard those words on the radio, how would you learn the language? Well, in that simple case, you might pick up the fact that a man, woman, boy and girl are speaking. But you're still missing the visual cue of them pointing to themselves. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:06, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

And just think how could you understand adjectives, especially colours, without an intermediary interpretation? I'd say it was virtually impossible for the average person. 86.4.183.90 (talk) 09:43, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

It is probably not possible, for the reasons explained above, to acquire a language solely through an audio stream without any visual or textual clues. However, googling "taught himself English by listening" + radio gives 360 hits (and 75 for "herself", and 3 for "themselves"). Radio or music can be an important addition to other sources of information. For example, many of the millions of people currently studying English have instructors who lack spoken proficiency or whose syllabus restricts them to a focus on the written word; an audio stream can transform this dry book learning into a living project. BrainyBabe (talk) 16:07, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

About a day after asking my original question, I realized my scenario has a lot in common with the Navajo code talkers, and the Empire of Japan never succeeded there (though the article is not clear about how much brute force labor Japan applied to the problem). I ended up with the depressing image of a guy locked in a room for a decade with, say, 100 pages of a radio transcript, doing frequency analysis and trying to substitute hundreds of nouns and verbs into a stream of text that has unknown grammar features. I pity this poor guy, a cousin to the dude inside the Chinese room, most unlikely to ever succeed in learning Standard Mandarin over the radio. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:16, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Maybe that's how they got their kamakaze volunteers. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:46, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

July 21

DALF French language exams

If you take the DELF/DALF exams to prove your French language level, do you have to start at the bottom with level A1? Or can you just pick the hardest one you think you would pass? What does it cost? 86.144.113.85 (talk) 00:24, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

no, you can just take the DALF C1 or C2 from the gitgo, as I did. (I took the C1, twice, first passing then failing). You don't need to do anything in between. 84.153.179.98 (talk) 09:51, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

ノルウェイの森

Could anyone provide a translation of the dialogue in the short trailer to the upcoming film adaptation of Norwegian Wood? It is located here [4]. Thanks! decltype (talk) 01:35, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

I am guessing you mean the single sentence the actor says after the song has finished? In which case, he says 'That feeling was a feeling I had never once felt before.' (Original Japanese: あの気持ちは、僕が今まで一度も感じたことのないものだった) --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 02:45, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks a lot! I suppose "narration" would be more accurate than "dialogue". Sounds like a very roundabout (poetic?) way of saying "I had never felt like that before". decltype (talk) 03:03, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, that's exactly what it would mean in normal English, but he's speaking in a dreamy, poetic kind of way, so I provided a more literal translation. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 13:00, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Meaning of medieval logic mnemonic

Does this mean anything in Latin, or is it nothing but a list of names? (If the latter, do any of those names have real-world referents besides the syllogisms?)

Barbara, Celarent, Darii, Ferio que prioris;

Cesare, Camestres, Festino, Baroko secundae;

Tertia, Darapti, Disamis, Datisi, Felapton,

Bokardo, Ferison, habet; Quarta in super addit

Bramantip, Camenes, Dimaris, Fesapo, Fresison

68.123.238.146 (talk) 01:48, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

They're just mnemonic words (some made up) chosen for the arrangement of their vowels, which represent the various combinations of the four kinds of propositions (signified by a, e, i, and o) in the types of valid syllogisms. See Syllogism#Types of syllogism for a full explanation. Deor (talk) 03:08, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Oh, and as to "real-world referents", many of them don't (at least, I'm not aware of "Felapton"′s [for example] having any meaning in Latin or Greek), but some do: "Barbara" = "a female barbarian", "Celarent" = "they were hiding" (subjunctive), etc. Deor (talk) 03:24, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

In fact, some consonants are also chosen to represent the way in which one can reduce one figure to one of the first figure. Hence, that's why there are many restrictions on the naming; and hence, this is the reason why some names are just meaningless. Pallida  Mors 23:51, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Translation request

Can someone help me to translate my project in english please..."Noong hindi ko pa kilala si Hesus bilang tagapagligtas ng buhay ko ako ay palaaway at devoted sa mga santo at sila ang aking tagapagligtas, para sa akin ang aklat ay para sa mga taong kampon ng diyablo, kapag nakakakita ako ng taong may dalang bible tinataguan ko sila sapagkat ang alam ko sila ay papunta sa impyerno. ganon ang buhay ko noon. purihin ang Diyos at nakilala ko sya bilang tagapagligtas ng aking buhay. dating masama pero ngayon ay binago niya ang buhay ko at tinawag upang magbahagi ng salita ng Diyos sa mga taong nangangailangan ng kaligtasan. napasarap palang maging anak ng Diyos may kapayapaan at tiyak pa ang kaligtasan. tinawag niya ako. purihin ang Diyos na buhay. sa kanila po ng aming pagsubok masaya pa rin po naming naibabahagi ang salita ng Diyos napatunayan ko din na ang Diyos ay nanatiling tapat at biyaya niya ay sapat sa amin. sa ngayon ay may maliit kami na simabahan kasama ang mga myembro na masayang naglilingkod" —Preceding unsigned comment added by Joannedaze (talk • contribs) 03:52, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

An online Tagalog to English translator gives: When I do not know Jesus as savior of my life I was pugnacious and devoted to the saints and they are my savior, for me the book is for those who are allies of the devil, when I see people carrying a bible I tinataguan because they know they are heading to hell. still, my life then. praise God as she and I met in my life savior. former bad but now has changed his life and called to share the word of God to those who need salvation. napasarap falange become children of God there is peace and certainly more safety. he called me. praise God lives. Please them our testing we enjoyed po naibabahagi still the word of God I also verified that God is still faithful and He is enough to grace us. now we have little simabahan including serving members happy. I hope a speaker of the language may know more, as this makes little sense.--Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 11:00, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

I'd say that looks a lot like Filipino. I'm pretty good at recognizing languages. However, I don't speak Filipino one bit, so Cookatoo's answer is probably best. The Raptor ^{Let's talk}/_{My mistakes; I mean, er, contributions} 23:49, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Considering the similarity between Tagalog and Filipino, it is not always clear for the author of a text in which of the two he/she is writing. --Soman (talk) 15:15, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

A Persian poem

I'm looking for a mediaeval Persian debate poem by Asadi Tusi called " مغ و مسلمان" (Mogh o Mosalman, the Magian and the Muslim). I'm interested in it mostly because of the religious debate in it. I don't really read Persian, although I've dabbled a little bit in Middle Persian and could try to slowly and painfully "decipher" a New Persian text. I've got two problems in which someone who knows New Persian could help.

1. Finding the full text in Persian, if available anywhere on the web (I would have preferred a translation, of course, but it seems that no translated version exists, at least not on the Internet). With google and my close-to-zero ability to read the language, I've only managed to find what appears to be an excerpt (here and here, for example). I would be grateful if anyone capable of using the Persian-language internet can suggest to me where it is possiblehttp://www.loghatnaameh.com/dehkhodaworddetail-8f50fc80479e4f7f91ea948c354d4e1d-fa.html to find the full version.

2. Reading the text. If I find it, I'll try to struggle through it myself, but any help would improve things. The text would be too long for anyone but an obsessive historian of religion to be willing to translate it for free, but perhaps some brief account of the contents (besides the fact that the Muslim wins) would not be too much trouble for a speaker of the language.

If anyone can help me with either of these things, I would be very grateful.--91.148.159.4 (talk) 17:12, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

You will find the full version here: [5]. It is more famous as "گبر و مسلم" (Gabr o Moslem). It's a very long poem and even summarizing it takes a long time. If you are not in haste, perhaps I can provide a summary in a couple of days. --Omidinist (talk) 05:56, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Wow, thanks!! I really didn't have that much hope that the whole text could be found at all, let alone so soon! No, I'm not in haste. I've saved it and I'll do my best to "decipher" it word for word eventually, using a dictionary, but if it doesn't burden you too much to provide a summary, that would be even better: it would also help me when I move through the text myself, because I would know what to expect, approximately. Again, thank you very much indeed! --91.148.159.4 (talk) 12:07, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome. I'll do my best, though I'm not so fluent in English. You may have to decipher my English too! --Omidinist (talk) 13:35, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Don't be so modest. :) --91.148.159.4 (talk) 15:16, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Beligian or Belgian

What's the difference between Beligian or Belgian?--77.166.165.137 (talk) 23:26, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Beligian is usually a misspelling of Belgian, but it's also a surname (Armenian, I believe). Steewi (talk) 00:50, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Surnames that end in -ian are usually Armenian (those ending in -vili or -adze are usually Georgian, those ending in -enko are usually Ukrainian, and those ending in -escu are usually Romanian :P) Rimush (talk) 08:17, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

That wouldn't be just -vili, but rather -shvili (შვილი), meaning "child". About the Armenian, I can imagine 3 possible ways of spelling Beligian, of which I'm not sure if any is correct, but google.am gives no Armenian-language hits for any of them. Բելիգյան: the web, in Armenian; Բէլիգյան: the web, in Armenian; Բըլիգյան: the web, in Armenian. --Theurgist (talk) 09:15, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

My bad. Rimush (talk) 10:11, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

See Family name affixes. -- Wavelength (talk) 15:00, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

July 22

How do languages change?

How and why do languages change over time? By this I mean what is the mechanism that causes the small changes to occur in a language that leads to its becoming a new language. For example when French split off from Latin, did one of the few people who were literate suddenly decide for instand "Maybe I'll spell sum as sus" and then later sus became suis (I'm just making this up, this isn't a real example). It's hard to understand because today's languages change differently than languages did back then since today while we constantly add vocabulary structure changes little because of regulation and communication (ie I don't think "I done be gone to the sto'" will replace "I went to the store" anytime soon!) And unrelated note what is it called when one uses "done <verb>" to express past tense rather than "have" or just inflecting the verb to the preiterate. 76.199.166.85 (talk) 00:26, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

The basic way that languages change is that a pronunciation that isn't completely standard (but what is standard?) starts becoming widespread within a language group. After a while it becomes the normal way to pronounce that sound/word/phrase. The same thing happens with syntax. Some people start saying something with a slightly different order of words. It's not the normal way to say it, but it's still understandable. After a while, most people are using the new way to say it, and the old way sounds old fashioned, or even wrong. It's not about spelling, or even writing. The spelling only represents what people are saying (well, in the past it did - it's more complex now). Widespread literacy is a relatively new concept, and a standard, correct way of speaking and writing is even newer. Steewi (talk) 00:56, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

But that begs the question: Why do "some people start saying something with a slightly different order of words", or slightly different words? Sometimes the new way sounds more euphonious or less fussy or more direct, and that's basically a good thing as long as it doesn't violate some sacrosanct precept. But sometimes it's simple ignorance. I don't mean that pejoratively, except insofar as the degree to which teaching of language is inadequate. For example, once upon a time, people used the subjunctive case far more widely than they do today. They'd say "If he go ..." rather than "If he goes ...", or "If I were to do that ..." rather than "If I was to do that ...", and similar examples. But it was also reinforced by being taught at school. Nowadays, who gets taught about mood? or voice? or tense? or case? or even nouns, verbs, prepositions and adjectives? There may be good reasons why these basic building blocks of the language are at best glossed over nowadays, but the outcome is still that users of the language make it up as they go along to a much greater degree than they once did. Again, that freedom of expression may be considered a good thing by some people. But some would see it as a needless abrogation of discipline and solid foundations that worked well for centuries. I am not arguing that we should go around talking and writing as if we lived in 1850. But language change can occur to its heart's content without the need for an abandonment of the teaching of the basic principles on which all language rests. Thus endeth today's lesson. Go in peace. -- 202.142.129.66 (talk) 05:51, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure this question was asked just a week or two ago. Anyway, there are lots of books and articles specifically on this topic; for something relatively fun, and accessible to a reader without a linguistic background, I would recommend John McWhorter's The Power of Babel. Most introductory linguistics textbooks also have a chapter about this (look for historical linguistics and language change). rʨanaɢ (talk) 06:28, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

The evolution of language is a reasonable analogue to biological evolution, in that it becomes "localized", i.e. it changes to meet the environment, in this case to meet the needs of the people who use it. A simple example would be the growing trend to use "they" instead of "he or she", which purists hate, but "they" is just less awkward than "he or she". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:42, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

The question I like to ask is, when did "forecastle" get to be pronounced like "folks'll" instead of like "forecastle"? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:43, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

I think you're neglecting the fact that having a single "official" language standard with dictionaries and grammar guides is a relatively modern concept, and prior to that time most people weren't literate. Traditionally, language standards were passed more-or-less informally from one generation to the next, like a long-term game of Chinese whispers. This, combined with the fact that most people didn't get more than 10-20 miles from their birthplace, lead to gradual drift of languages, to the point where the language spoken in one town could vary quite a bit from the language spoken a days journey down the road. It wasn't that any particular change was "better", or was deliberately made in reference to some official standard, it's just gradually different. -- 140.142.20.229 (talk) 18:10, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, it becomes localized. If the Roman Empire had had television, we would probably all speak Latin instead of English (which itself is kind of a stepchild of Latin). Yet that Latin also would have evolved over time. If you read or listen to English from a hundred years ago, it's somewhat different from today, despite the availability of mass media in the last century. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:16, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

See Historical linguistics and Category:Historical linguistics. -- Wavelength (talk) 19:28, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Google translate errors - reliable references etc required

Please excuse this link to another desk - topic spans two disciplines - please see Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Computing#Google_translate_errors as per this question title heading if you can be of use. Thank you. 77.86.76.47 (talk) 02:35, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Latin translation

At Netherland Line, the motto Semper Mare Navigandum is translated as "Always sail the seas". Is this strictly correct in terms of the tense/mood (or whatever the correct term is) of "Navigandum"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.161.87.236 (talk) 03:17, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

"navigandum" is a gerundive. The phrase could more literally be translated as "the sea is always to be sailed" or "the sea should always be sailed". ---Sluzzelin talk 03:22, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

I would translate it as: "The seas are always for sailing." 92.229.13.132 (talk) 08:10, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I will not change the article myself, but if it needs changing then perhaps someone else would do so. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.174.162.10 (talk) 13:00, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Being a shipping line's motto, would "Always Sailing the Sea" be both correct and more apposite? [Disclaimer, my formal Latin lessons ended around 40 years ago.] 87.81.230.195 (talk) 16:41, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

I think that would be more like Semper mare navigans or Semper mare navigante. (But my last Latin lesson was 30 years ago, so I'm not much better.) Marco polo (talk) 19:27, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Might it be translated "Forever to sail the sea"? Marco polo (talk) 19:26, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Online Conversations for Language Learning

This fall I am traveling to South America and would like to brush up on my Spanish language skills. A friend told me he knew a woman who learned French in a few months through Skype, so I looked for this sort of thing on the Internet. I found several sites (listed below) that allow users to converse with other language learners, and I wondered if anyone here had any experience with these or other sites or had any suggestions about this sort of language learning. Thanks. --Think Fast (talk) 03:28, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

• http://www.italki.com/
• http://www.sharedtalk.com/
• http://www.conversationexchange.com/
• http://www.myhappyplanet.com/
• http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/

I personally use SharedTalk quite often, but only for text chat - I'm not into voice chatting or 1 on 1 conversations so I use the group chatrooms usually. It's good because you are guaranteed to get almost exclusively people who are interested in learning the language (or your language) and not people who join just to play around trolling or looking for webcam sex like on ICQ and other chats. As far as I can remember, there is a chatroom for Spanish learners. You can also find speakers of Spanish and contact them (through the one on one chat facility). This one I can recommend. As for the others, I have no idea. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 05:39, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Word meanings

"Turn down a glass" appears to be an expression used by Americans (U.S.A.) What does it mean?---- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.37.101.50 (talk) 08:30, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

It means saying "No, thank you" to someone offering you a glass of wine. Turn down = say "no thank you." 92.229.13.132 (talk) 10:19, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

"turn down" = "refuse", if you ask me; "politely turn down" would equate to saying "no, thank you", but not even that, because you can't say "I'm politely turning down this glass" instead of saying "no, thank you" - so the equivalency only goes one way Rimush (talk) 12:11, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

The aspirate doesn't have an aspirate.

Is it only me? I have noticed that recently (last few years only) more and more people when spelling a word will pronounce the name of the letter 'H' as "haitch" rather than "aitch". The name of the letter has always, to my knowledge, been spelled 'Aitch' and, as such, has no aspirate. I hear this (mis?)pronouciation even from educated people these days.

Am I alone in noticing this - and does everyone agree that there is no aspirate when pronouncing the name of the letter 'H'?

Gurumaister (talk) 12:27, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

In British English, "haitch" is a long-standing pronunciation which I have always considered dialect, uneducated or idiosyncractic. It's not that uncommon, but I can't say I've particularly noticed an increase in its use in recent years. 86.174.162.10 (talk) 13:04, 22 July 2010 (UTC).

This is canvassed at H:Name in English. Some people do indeed aspire when they say the name of H. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 13:04, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

A common cliché (stemming from a degree of actuality) in 19th- and early 20th-century writing portrayed lower-class characters who were attempting to sound more genteel as continuing to drop initial 'h' as they normally would (and as I do in casual register), but adding superfluous initial 'h' to words beginning with vowels. As the letter H is pronounced in Standard English roughly "aitch", the latter produced "haitch." 87.81.230.195 (talk) 16:37, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

I never hear this in the United States. Marco polo (talk) 19:21, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Negative words for male whores

There are many, many words for a woman who has multiple sexual partners, all of them having negative connotations (whore, slut, harlot, hooker, bint, slag, etc) but there are no negative words for a man who has multiple sexual partners (stud, player, bro, playboy, ladies man, etc). So list me some negative words for a man who has multiple sexual partners. TheFlamingFlager (talk) 13:28, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

I wouldn't necessary say that "player" is a neutral word -- I'd certainly say it depends upon cultural emphasis and social mores. And perhaps it's related to ancient Judeo-Christian religious sentiments that banned multiple partners for women but not for men. DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 13:32, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

More like cultural double standards -- Christianity in itself is opposed to adultery by both men and women. AnonMoos (talk) 14:11, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

TheFlamingFlager -- "Gigolo" can certainly have negative connotations in some contexts... AnonMoos (talk) 14:11, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

You sometimes hear a word like "tart" being aimed at men, although its use here is kind of ironical. --Viennese Waltz ^talk 14:19, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Dog is a recent one (1950s) and more recently (etymonline says 1997!) we have horndog. The connotations totally depend on usage, of course. After all, a tart is a lovely thing, and it was originally a term of endearment, and bint just meant "girlfriend". Slut isn't exactly respectful, but it's merely literal in origin. Dog and horndog might well sound somewhat like compliments, but then so might the words for women, as culture changes; whereas if we get a lot of male prostitutes living in desperate conditions... oh that reminds me: rentboy. 213.122.25.52 (talk) 14:39, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

For an older one, there's rake (originally positive, then turned negative). ---Sluzzelin talk 14:54, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Promiscuity mentions womanizer. (As does your link in the first sentence, sorry.) 213.122.25.52 (talk) 15:05, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

manwhore does not have very positive connotations. --Soman (talk) 15:12, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

This reminds me of a song from Finian's Rainbow called "When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich"[6] which includes this: "When a rich man chases after dames, he's 'a man about town'; but when a poor man chases after dames he's a bounder, he's a rounder, he's a rotter, and a lot of dirty names." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:37, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

"Slut" is increasingly used to describe males. Example: This Dan Savage column. I have no evidence whether the connotations are identical in any particular culture. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:34, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Equivalent word for illegible with respect to images

Hi! I'm writing a letter the full background of which is not relevant. I am trying to say something like "...pages 7-8, submitted by NAME, are illegibly reproduced photograph copies. I am enclosing legible copies to replace these, so that the your material more closely resembles the original." However, legible/illegible to me denotes the ability or inability to decipher text, and does not quite work for photographs. I can't think of the right equivalent word for a photograph/image. Can you help?--173.68.39.173 (talk) 14:17, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

"Indistinct" is probably your best bet, with "clear" for the second bit. Could also go with unclear/clear. --Viennese Waltz ^talk 14:23, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

I appreciate your response but I don't think "indistinct" conveys the right meaning. It implies that I'm referring to a different photograph/image, that I'm giving them a different one, not a clearer version. I'll go with illegible over that, even if it is a bit of a malaprop in application.--173.68.39.173 (talk) 15:28, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Also, take out the "the" in "so that the your material". Rimush (talk) 15:39, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Blurry? If the images is distorted and it is not obvious or in correct focus, this could be similar to illegible in practice. Aaronite (talk) 18:22, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

I work in publishing, and I think the most usual word for this kind of image is unreadable. I know it usually means the same thing as illegible, but illegible applies pretty specifically to writing. Marco polo (talk) 19:06, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Limes

Example: "Strawberry Limes" etc. What does the word "lime(s)" refer to? Derived from "Lime" like in "Key Lime Pie"? (although there is no lime in Strawberry limes" or "Limes" like "Smoothies" - i.e; description of consistencies? 62.241.105.149 (talk) 15:47, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Presumably refers to the Lime fruit, which resembles a green lemon and tastes subtly different. Perhaps recipes such as the one you linked substitute lemon for lime because the latter juice is hard to obtain in some places, although it's well known in the UK and it's a staple in any competently stocked public bar. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 16:24, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

The quality of mercy is not strain'd

From Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, 1596. PORTIA: The quality of mercy is not strain'd.

What does the "not strained" part mean, in 21st. century english? Thanks 92.29.124.244 (talk) 19:35, 22 July 2010 (UTC)