User talk:Van Gulik

Welcome!

Hello, Van Gulik and Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions to this free encyclopedia. If you decide that you need help, check out Getting Help below, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by using four tildes (~~~~) or by clicking

if shown; this will automatically produce your username and the date. Also, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field with your edits. Below are some useful links to facilitate your involvement. Happy editing! --Njavallil ...Talk 2 Me 14:27, 29 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Getting started
A tutorial • Our five pillars • Getting mentored How to: Edit a page • Upload and use images • Create your first article Intuitive guide to Wikipedia • Article Creation Wizard
Getting help
Frequently asked questions • Tips Where to ask questions or make comments Request administrator attention Help desk: A Wiki Styled page to ask questions on Help directory: A comprehensive list-style help contents page
Policies and guidelines
Neutral point of view • No original research Verifiability • Reliable sources • Citing sources What Wikipedia is not • Biographies of living persons List of policies • Three-revert rule • Sock puppetry Copyrights • Policy for non-free content • Image use policy External links • Spam • Vandalism • List of guidelines Deletion policy • Conflict of interest • Notability

The community
Build consensus • Resolve disputes Assume good faith • Civility • Etiquette No personal attacks • No legal threats Community portal • Village pump Signpost • IRC channels • Mailing lists
Writing articles
Be bold in editing • Develop an article The perfect article • Simplified manual of style Stubs • Categories • Disambiguation Peer review • Featured content
Miscellaneous
User pages • Talk pages Awards a registered contributor can achieve and award Clean up: General • Spam • Vandalism Join a WikiProject • Translation Useful templates • Tools • User scripts

Your signature

Hi. Per WP:SIGLINK, your signature should contain a link to your user page or user talk page - not Robert van Gulik, a mainspace article. Please change it. Thanks. — HelloAnnyong ^{(say whaaat?!)} 18:39, 18 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hello

On your userpage, you write: "Please notify me if any pages which you think I would be interested in are in need of attention". So, I think you might be interested in my response to your comment here. 77.124.12.169 (talk) 12:29, 28 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. Are there any sandhi rules in biblical Hebrew? Do changes in vowel pointing constitute as 'sandhi'? Again, thank you for your response.Van Gulik (talk) 14:34, 28 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Not only changes in vowel pointing, but also changes in consonants. e.g.

The consonants b,d,g,k,p,t, become v,the,gh,kh,f,thaw, after vowels (providing that those consonants are not "doubled");
In some well-defined phonetic conditions, the consonant ת in Pre-biblical texts - becomes ט in biblical texts (e.g. in the word הִצְטַעֵר, and likewise);
The consonant cluster NP in ancient biblical texts (e.g. in the word לִנְפּוֹל i.e. LiNPoL - as appearing in Psalms), becomes PP in biblical prose (e.g. לִפּוֹל i.e. LiPPoL);
In some well-defined phonetic conditions, the consonant H in ancient biblical texts, is omitted in biblical prose (e.g. the word בהשמים i.e. BHaSHaMaYiM - as appearing in Psalms, becomes בשמים i.e. BaSHaMaYiM - in the biblical prose texts);
And the like.

Anyways, I'm not sure whether one may call those phonetic phenomena "sandhi", unless one also calls the phonetic phenomena in English "sandhi", e.g. the phenomenon of adding the "e" (in "finishes"), or of changing the "d" into "t" (in "attain"), and the like.

77.127.87.159 (talk) 19:31, 28 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Counting in Nahuatl

Hi VG,

Wondering if you can tell me anything about counting in Nahuatl. Do they have separate words for counts of different kinds (e.g., food versus money)? Do they distinguish cardinal from ordinal numbers? Olamim (talk) 21:17, 30 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know that much about numbers yet, but there is only distinction between the plural and singular of a noun for animate objects and personified nouns. Verbs' "indefinite prefixes", attached to the verb root showing that an indefinite amount of something is being eaten; this too shows a difference between the animate and the inanimate.(the animate is 'te' and the inanimate is 'tla') You could check out the Navajo page; Navajo verbs differentiate number for different classes of words, similar to Cherokee. But, sadly, I don't know about the Nahuatl numbers- yet.Van Gulik (talk) 21:36, 30 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You're invited to Wiki-Gangs of New York @ NYPL on April 21!

Wiki-Gangs of New York: April 21 at the New York Public Library

Join us for an an civic edit-a-thon, Wikipedia meet-up and instructional workshop that will be held this weekend on Saturday, April 21, at the New York Public Library Main Branch.

Venue: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (NYPL Main Branch), Margaret Liebman Berger Forum (Room 227).
Directions: Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street.
Time: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. (drop-ins welcome at any time)

The event's goal will be to improve Wikipedia articles and content related to the neighborhoods and history of New York City - No special wiki knowledge is required!

Also, please RSVP!--Pharos (talk) 18:55, 16 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Shas

There are several parties in Israel for which normal political positions cannot be detailed because different parts of their platforms are in total contrast to the others. Shas is one of these - whilst it is quite anti-Arab and socially conservative, being ultra-orthodox does not necessarily make it right-wing. In contrast, the party's economic agenda could be seen as rather left-wing - for instance it supports large welfare payments. It is impossible to give the party a place in the political spectrum, and its political position should just be something like "ultra-orthodox interest", as that's pretty much the only reason for its existence. Number 5 7 20:31, 3 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. The issue is similar where I live; most of the Orthodox who live in Boro Park are quite socially conservative, but most of them vote for Democrats because of their economic ideas.Van Gulik (talk) 21:00, 4 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Bangladesh

I'll have a structure diagram ready to go by the end of the day. -- Aricci526 13:24, 20 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That's wonderful! Thank you so much.Van Gulik (talk) 16:41, 20 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

resources for you

Check out the website nostratic dot net. Click the EN link at the top right if you get the Russian version to read the English. (It is blocked as a "spam" website by wikipedia, so I cannot link to it directly for you.) You can find the full text of much of the pro- and anti- Altaic material and a whole lot more there, including Clauson's "The case against the Altaic languages. Sinor is another critic, as is Vovin who declares that after reading Starostin's disastrous dictionary he is against Altaic. Let me know if you find the site successfully, especially its "E-Library". μηδείς (talk) 02:03, 21 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It's a wonderful resource, Medeis. This'll keep me busy for a while! I found the section on numerals especially interesting. Thank you so much.Van Gulik (talk) 03:11, 21 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, a good year's worth of reading there. My personal interest is in Greenberg's Eurasiatic, which I have studied in depth. Except for his bizarre inclusion of Ainu, it's a valid clade. I can give you recommendations of resources to read if you are interested in the topic. Along with references already mentioned, I very highly recommend Fortescue's Across the Bering Straight. I have read the available comparative dictionaries and grammars for PIE, Turkish (Decsy), Uralic (Collinder), Yukaghir (grammar: Maslova, dictionary: Nikolaeva), Kamchadal and Chukchi-Kamchatkan (Fortescue), Eskimo-Aleut (Fortescue) and Ainu (Vovin). μηδείς (talk) 03:49, 21 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I had half an hour in the local library, so I started on Greenberg's Language in the Americas, in preparation for reading his work on Nostratic. Across the Bering Strait looks really interesting; has it been updated for the recent Dene-Yeniseian thought? What is your opinion of that theory?Van Gulik (talk) 13:37, 21 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'd probably rather answer that on the ref desk (1) to get other people's input, and (2) so the answers will be searchable in the archives. But if you'd rather not post your question there I will answer here. μηδείς (talk) 00:20, 23 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'd be fine with that, by all means. How should I phrase the question?Van Gulik (talk) 01:43, 23 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Easy, you ask the question or questions you want answered. (Just one at a time, hopefully.) Oddly enough someone did just ask about the Athabaskans on the humanities page. In the meantime the website I pointed you to above has Merritt Ruhlen's original paper the Dene Yeniseian connection as well as the more recent and better received "proof". As for Language in the Americas, it is prima facie valid. I have amassed a small library of Amerind grammars. The problem is the topic is so broad and the quantity of comparative work so little that any comprehensive work is outside the scope of one human lifetime to fully evaluate. Eurasiatic is much easier to deal with, given the availability of comparative dictionaries and grammars for all its subbranches in English except for Nivkh (undoubtedly Eurasiatic) which lacks an English dictionary. Nevertheless, unlike the case of Ainu, which I can say from the evidence it seems absurd to include in Eurasiatic, I have not come across anything casting doubt on any branch of Amerind. μηδείς (talk) 03:57, 23 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ecuador

Apologies for the long delay in replying, I was on holiday in Vancouver. I made a structure diagram for Ecuador, though frankly I think the original on the Spanish wikipedia probably is a better piece of work assuming that the ordering of the parties has a clearer logic than does mine (not being an expert in the politics of Ecuador, I couldn't honestly say). Mine is located here [1] but I put the Spanish version into the article. If you prefer my version then by all means change it. -- Aricci526 13:01, 23 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

No problem with regards to the delay. Thanks so much for the file. I'll have to think about which one to use; I do agree that the ordering is very clear for the Spanish diagram. Hope you enjoyed Vancouver! :)Van Gulik (talk) 13:55, 23 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

legationem

Modum una adepto induite list latinæ legatio? Auxilium volo si fieri potest, quid faciam? Plane perspectam habeo quod lingua Anglorum in casu in anglicus egestas sit amet.ad Intellige ad nuntius 22:48, 16 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Status nōn exactus erat; Emendavit statum. Cui commentariolo vis me opem ferre? Multas gratias. (In the future, please use English on talk pages so that editors who don't speak Latin can understand.)Van Gulik (talk) 13:35, 17 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]