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October 29

Part of song from Ghana (transferred from the Help Desk)

Ghana main language is English, but what is the language of this song:

Nyame abode yi so oh
Na anwanwasem ben mpo ni?
Obrempon abode yi so oh
Na anwanwasem ben mpo ni?

Awia ampue a, anka yeadidie mpo bebo yen
Esum nso nni ho a, anka yebeden ahome?
Nsua anto a, anka yeadidie mpo bebo yen
Ewiem osram yiye fe, na eye sonoko koraa.
— Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.49.77.111 (talk • contribs) ^{Transferred by Ian.thomson (talk) 00:05, 29 October 2018 (UTC)}[reply]

Igbo, according to Google Translate.

Nyame stay so so oh I'm gonna have a baby?

Obrempon stays here oh oh What is my baby?

How do you know this, and how do you know it?

This year, you know what you are like, and why not do it?

Rojomoke (talk) 00:11, 29 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Ghana is a long way from Igbo-land (southeastern Nigeria). It looks more like Twi to me, which also makes sense because it is a language of Ghana. I won't try to translate the whole thing, but Nyame means "God" and abode means "creation" in Twi.--William Thweatt ^Talk^Contribs 09:31, 29 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, we have an article about Nyame.--William Thweatt ^Talk^Contribs 09:34, 29 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I have many friends from Ghana and southeastern Nigeria and can confirm this is Twi language. I don't have a dictionary to hand, but

abode = heaven

ni = unity

ewiem = firmament — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.192.183.95 (talk) 19:10, 2 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

October 30

Heritage

User:Ricco Baroni always uses the word "heritage" in phrases like "is of Avar heritage", instead of "ancestry" or "descent". He then meant his "pages also fixed by English teacher of Michagan (sic)" and reverts my edits. So my question, perhaps I am that ignorant and this user has great English skills? --User:Tomcat7 (talk) 10:53, 30 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I have no comment on user behavior in this forum, but the word "heritage" is different than "ancestry" or "descent". Ancestry and descent imply a purely genetic relationship, i.e. passed down biologically from parents to children over time. Heritage implies a cultural relationship, passed down through one's environment and contact with that culture. While people who share a genetic lineage often also share a cultural one, the culture is not passed through genes. I would be inclined to use language that is precise as possible, and to not mix terms related to biology with those related to culture, as though they may sometimes be coincidental, they are not really related. --Jayron 32 11:16, 30 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I'm curious what he means about English vs. Italian in this diff.[1] Unless he was just making a dummy edit to post a comment in the edit summary, whereas this stuff really needs to be on the article talk page. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:57, 30 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It seems clear it was a dummy edit as it was just after a substantive edit changing ancestry back to heritage [2]. The Italian thing is surely a response to this comment by the OP [3]. While the rest of the comment (and the previous edit) seems questionable, the Italian bit seems fair enough since this is the English wikipedia. The article concerns a Russian and Bahraini wrestler. While Ricco Baroni may sound like an Italian name, the editor's user page says they are Russian and speak Russian with a little bit of English and has said so since April 2018 [4]. There is no mention of them speaking Italian, so explaining to them the Italian translation of some English term doesn't seem like it would be helpful to them or anyone else involved. Nil Einne (talk) 10:11, 31 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. I should clarify I'm not really faulting the OP for assuming the editor spoke Italian, although it's often wise to check user pages before making assumptions about other editors. My point was that even if the OP didn't do anything that wrong, it was fair for the other editor to say 'speak English to me, since this is the English wikipedia and I don't speak Italian' Nil Einne (talk) 12:53, 2 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Latin help

Mr Churchill - A Portrait by Philip Guedalla has the words "Londiniensibus Londiniensis" on the page between the title page and the contents list. What does it mean please? DuncanHill (talk) 16:09, 30 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

"A Londoner for Londoners" is the intended meaning, I guess. Deor (talk) 16:24, 30 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, DuncanHill (talk) 21:45, 30 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

November 1

name for 'dirt worms'

Hi - is there a term for those 'worms' that are produced when you're filthy and sweaty and you roll your hand over your skin? I can't find a name for them on the net.

Btw, apropos of not much, I like this word for fingernail dirt - [[5]]

Adambrowne666 (talk) 22:48, 1 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Not the same thing, but consider this explanation for a similar phenomenon made famous by a Beatles song. --Jayron 32 11:45, 2 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

November 2

What's the word

Is there a word for the idea of "directing someone along a path toward a destination"? Schyler (exquirito veritatem bonumque) 17:46, 2 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Lead. See here definitions 1a and 1b. --Jayron 32 17:58, 2 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Also "guide", used in that cited definition. --76.69.46.228 (talk) 20:12, 2 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

November 3

IPA for Romanian

Hello! I added the IPA for this person, but I can't figure it out on which syllable the stress is on the family name.

Alexandru Cicâldău – Romanian pronunciation: [alekˈsandru tʃikɨlˈdəu]?

Here is a video, where you can hear his name at 0:06, 0:17 and 0:27. Thanks in advance!8Dodo8 (talk · contribs) 11:33, 3 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

November 4

what de?

Hi, in my lonely planet phrasebook for mandarin, there is a sentence, "Wo gen ji ge tongshi yi kuai lai de" (我跟几个同事一块来的) (I'm here with some colleagues). What is the meaning of "de" in this sentence? My Chinese students told me it is the same without "de", but they couldn't explain the reason why "de" is there. Can anyone help? IBE (talk) 13:30, 4 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

In this case, "的" (de) is an affirmative. ―Abelmoschus Esculentus 13:37, 4 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Can anyone give me more examples of "de" as an affirmative? Do we have similar things in English? Is it a common thing in languages to have some funny little particle act as this? IBE (talk) 18:29, 4 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Similar things in English? See Eh, commonly used in Canadian English and New Zealand English. I'm not sure about Canadian usage, but in New Zealand it has multiple meanings based on context and pronunciation. When appended to a sentence, it can call for an agree/disagree response, but frequently it is simply meaningless and the statement could as easily be understood by leaving it out. Example "I'll try to get to the party by 11 o'clock, eh." It is often seen written as "Ay" in New Zealand. Akld guy (talk) 21:02, 4 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

我不是故意的 - I did not do it in purpose. ―Abelmoschus Esculentus 23:23, 4 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

In English you can use things like the tone and length of words to convey meaning and emphasis. E.g. "Yes" has the normal affirmative meaning when said plainly, but when stretched out can be much more tentative, while when said with a rising tone becomes a question. In particular to affirm or emphasise a statement such as the one immediately above, "I did not do it on purpose", you could emphasise the action: "I did not do it on purpose".

Chinese though is a tonal language. You can’t emphasise words like in English as it would change the meaning. The best example of this is Cantonese which has more tones than Putonghua and vowel length also determines meaning. It uses particles and a lot of them, some of which are heavily used in everyday speech: Written Cantonese#Particles.--JohnBlackburne^words_deeds 16:01, 5 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hair: "zombie" racist?

In the movie Hair, there is a song in which one character lists many racist terms for black people. One of them was "zombie." I've heard one person propose the idea that zombie movies are racist fantasies, metaphors for race wars, but I didn't realize that the connection was made so long ago. Is zombie in fact a racist slur? If so how long has it been such? Temerarius (talk) 15:35, 4 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The most recent academic overview of the link is Roger Luckhurst's Zombies: A Cultural History (reviewed here). He traces the racism to the plantations of Haiti, and the "othering" of the cultural practices of the slaves, e.g. voodoo. --Carbon Caryatid (talk) 16:01, 4 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Read EO for this word's somewhat ambiguous origins.[6] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:25, 5 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

November 5

Samoyedic

Any information of the spread of Uralic languages, specifically the Samoyedic branch. déhanchements (talk) 01:17, 5 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Have you read Samoyedic languages? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:24, 5 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Barely anything there, I'm looking for an article with buku info in it. déhanchements (talk) 03:29, 5 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

A man from Marseilles

How would you say this re a man, as you would say, 'He's a Parisian'? 'He's a Marseillais'? Sounds odd. Or do you need to rephrase to 'He's from Marseilles'? Ericoides (talk) 14:34, 5 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I found this which says Marseillais Ericoides.MarnetteD|Talk 14:38, 5 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Oops I see you've already written that - facepalm. MarnetteD|Talk 14:44, 5 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

No, thanks for that, it was my mistake. I realise I googled for "Il est un Marseillaise" and only got three results, whereas I should have searched for "Il est Marseillaise", which gets many more. If I'd done the latter before asking the question I wouldn't have asked it! Ericoides (talk) 14:58, 5 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You seem to constantly mix up marseillais (masculine) and marseillaise (feminine). Also note that adjectives are never capitalized in French. — Kpalion^(talk) 15:13, 5 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@@ Line 102: / Line 102: @@
 :::Similar things in English? See [[Eh]], commonly used in [[Canadian English]] and [[New Zealand English]]. I'm not sure about Canadian usage, but in New Zealand it has multiple meanings based on context and pronunciation. When appended to a sentence, it can call for an agree/disagree response, but frequently it is simply meaningless and the statement could as easily be understood by leaving it out. Example "I'll try to get to the party by 11 o'clock, eh." It is often seen written as "Ay" in New Zealand. [[User:Akld guy|Akld guy]] ([[User talk:Akld guy|talk]]) 21:02, 4 November 2018 (UTC)
 ::::我不是故意的 - I did not do it in purpose. '''―[[User:Abelmoschus Esculentus#s|<span style="color:#012172">Abelmoschus</span>]] [[User talk:Abelmoschus Esculentus#s|<span style="color:#012172">Esculentus</span>]]''' 23:23, 4 November 2018 (UTC)
+:::In English you can use things like the tone and length of words to convey meaning and emphasis. E.g. "Yes" has the normal affirmative meaning when said plainly, but when stretched out can be much more tentative, while when said with a rising tone becomes a question. In particular to affirm or emphasise a statement such as the one immediately above, "I did not do it on purpose", you could emphasise the action: "I '''did not''' do it on purpose".
+:::Chinese though is a tonal language. You can’t emphasise words like in English as it would change the meaning. The best example of this is Cantonese which has more tones than Putonghua and vowel length also determines meaning. It uses particles and a lot of them, some of which are heavily used in everyday speech: [[Written Cantonese#Particles]].--<small>[[User:JohnBlackburne|JohnBlackburne]]</small><sup>[[User_talk:JohnBlackburne|words]]</sup><sub style="margin-left:-2.0ex;">[[Special:Contributions/JohnBlackburne|deeds]]</sub> 16:01, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
 == Hair: "zombie" racist? ==