User talk:Akerbeltz/Tasglann 3

Careful editing

First of all, a very good New Year to you and yours. Hope you have a grand twenty-ten. Secondly, you will be unsurprised to learn that I am requesting some data from your Gaelic lexicon. Many years ago I was in North Lochs during the festivities surrounding the funeral of a member of the local religious establishment. The phrase "curamach" was used on no few occasions to refer to the sincere intentions of those present to foreswear the use of ethyl alcohol as a recreational drug. I recently found this word on wiktionary where it seems to have a more prosaic and literal meaning. All the ghits I looked at were either ambiguous or in one of the many languages I don't speak. I realise as a sober and respectable individual your personal experience of the concept may be limited, but I wonder if you know whether the phrase "taking the curamach" has currency beyond the narrow confines of the east coast of Lewis? Regards to you this Sabbath day. Ben MacDui 11:10, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Agus a leithid eile dhut is móran dhiubh! (And the same to you and many of them) Now to your question, joyfully breaking the Sabbath... The core meanings of cùram (and the derived adjective cùramach) are indeed fairly prosaic, along the lines of "care, attention, charge, trust, responsibility..." So regarding the word itself, there is no specific connection to abstemiousness. However, Gaelic makes strong use of idioms involving a preposition + another word (cf put up with, on, down etc) and some of these have more specific meanings which go in the direction of what you heard. There is the phrase tha cùram air (be care on-him) which translates as "he is a converted man" (in a religious sense) and, closer to what you heard, a' gabhail cùram (at taking care) "to be concerned about, to meditate on". Those are used widely and I can see how they would fit the situation you described. It is possible that the phrase has taken on a particular connotation in relation to drink in North Lochs but I'm fairly certain that this would extend only to the phrase, not the word cùram itself as it has a myriad of other functions in the language. It's not a plain yes or no, but I hope it helps! Akerbeltz (talk) 11:49, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

LOL thank you! Akerbeltz (talk) 14:14, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Pottok

if you are native basque, you should have knowlegde about your region than me, cuz im venezuelan, .. i just think'd thats a pottock, but if you are sure, delete it, cheers =)--Venerock (talk) 02:54, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

Ok, thanks mate! Akerbeltz (talk) 10:59, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

Orkney

I don't profess to be an expert on the Gaelic language, but note that the Gaelic Wikipedia has Àrcaibh, redirected from Arcaibh. Are you certain it should be a short vowel? Skinsmoke (talk) 19:46, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes I'm sure - please check the last topic on the Orkney talk page. Sadly the Gaelic wiki is full of errors. Akerbeltz (talk) 19:55, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for that. Skinsmoke (talk) 20:02, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome! Akerbeltz (talk) 20:05, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

Your good health

I recently came across Sláinte (or Slàinte if you prefer). The closing sentence appears to be in a language vaguely resembling English and could do with some translation if you have a mind. Ben MacDui 20:12, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

ROFL the whole thing is a mess. I'll sort it. Akerbeltz (talk) 01:50, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

Splendidly done sir. I'm afraid I have subsequently lowered the tone by adding a note about a variant occasionally emanating from 32 University Avenue, G12. Ben MacDui 11:20, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

I wouldn't say it lowered the tone. I've added a few more bits... seems over ref'd for such a small page now LOL Akerbeltz (talk) 12:15, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks - re: Vitoria-Gasteiz

Thanks for your reply to my comment at Talk:Vitoria-Gasteiz. I responded to you there. I agree that a uniform "grand debate" about bilingual names is the way to go. Regards, PhilipR (talk) 07:52, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

With re to Baserri

Hello Akerbeltz, Oh, quick answer (and nice article). I don't know if I get you, yes it is indeed what you are saying, and it is relevant to the article, since there's a confusion in Basque about the term. Actually, I found a discussion on the internet about the term which turned out pretty enlightening. I held Baserri as a building (Ok, and people) up to pretty recently, but not the whole community and lands around it. The distinction between Baserri-etxe and Baserri is maintained in the Bizkaian dialect curruntly. Besides, I went through the article today, and I missed some mentions to the baserris springing up after the new rich from America started to build when coming back, since before they were mainly used a cider presses, but not for dwelling in them (cf. the baserri from Ezkio-Itsaso now for exhibition). Just a suggestion, regards Iñaki LL (talk) 22:01, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Kaixo hi - ta eskerrik asko! I was just wondering if we might want to reword that sentence you added slightly - probably wasn't very clear in the way I said it. I'll amend it and see what you think, ok?

Interesting note about the baserri-etxe vs baserri, that might be worthwhile adding. I'll see if I can find a ref. Working sagardotegiak into the article is a nice idea too, feel free. I just decided to write the article because of another Basque article I was editing which really needed a good explanation of what a baserri is. Akerbeltz (talk) 22:42, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Aupa, ez horregatik. Yes, please reword it, I'll have a look it and tell you sth. I may add some details too in the next days, feel free to check, mend and polish it up. Iñaki LL (talk) 12:29, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Erromintxela

Hi Akerbeltz, congratulations with getting Erromintxela to Good Article Status. Impressive work! If you accept suggestions on how to further improve it I would suggest doing something about the ratio of tables to readable prose. In my opinion it is hampered by much to great reliance on providing examples in table format rather than describing the topic inactual prose. The result is an article that is very difficult to read and seems too detailed (much too many example of differences in vocabulary in my opinion) in certain areas while lacking basic information in others. I am sure you can continue improving the article by replacing tables with sections of where the important points that the examples in the tables are supposed to illustrate is explained in prose form. IO'd suggest looking at the structure of some of the language Featured Articles such as Nahuatl, Swedish language, Turkish language or Mayan languages to get a feeling for how to use prose and tables together to make coherent and easily readable articles. I hope you don't mind my comments, that are certainly not intended to disparage the hard work you have put into making such an inaccesible topic a Good Article - on the contrary I wish to congratulate you again with your good work on Erromintxela and other minority languages. Your work is a boon to wikipedia! ·Maunus·ƛ· 12:13, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you very much - the very same is true for your own contributions to wikipedia too of course! And yes, I certainly accept suggestions/criticisms. I fully agree on your comments regarding the article. The main problem though is that there is not much more information available on it currently, I've pretty much squeezed all the lemons bone dry pending further publications, it is such an under-researched language. I did think hard about those tables when I started thinking about taking it to GA and asked around a bit. In the end, I decided to keep the tables so the page is actually a fairly good summation of ALL the published information on the language (most of it in wordlist form actually, that poem is just about the only coherent piece recorded that is longer than a single sentence...) as it stands due to the rather odd circumstances of a totally under-researched language in western europe. But I will certainly keep an eye out for possible improvements along the lines suggested and of course for any new data in the Basque press. Akerbeltz (talk) 13:11, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

List of Basques

Antoine d'Abbadie had Basque ancestry by his father, was a Basque-resident, was a Basque-speaker ( Souletin and Lapurdian ), was a self-defined Basque and a forefather of Basque national sentiment, if that's not enough for being in the List of Basques, then what is? --Kamitxu (talk) 09:40, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Just read the bio again, you're right, he should be on the List of Basques rather than the other page. I'll take him off the other list and move him, but only one listing is ok. I'll move him to Explorers or a related category. Sorry about that, I think when I helped tidy the list the article was still a stub and I did't look too closely the other day. Akerbeltz (talk) 11:25, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Sängö Wikipedia

Hello akerbeltz -- your vote on the Closure of the Sängö WP wasn't counted b/c you hadn't logged into meta. (though you did sign your name, so I'm leaving you this message :) +sj+ 03:59, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you! Though if you look two lines below the strikethrough, I did subsequently log in and vote. Akerbeltz (talk) 11:30, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Book

Hi Akerbeltz, is your book out yet? Feel free to email me offline if you like. (It's Andrew C) Comhreir (talk) 22:24, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Still working on it - I estimate summer 2010. Sorry, life is being complicated and keeps getting in the way! Akerbeltz (talk) 13:53, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Baserri gehiago

Aupa Akerbeltz, added something and left a message for you in the discussion section of the Baserri. You wrote a book? Languages? Goraintzi! Iñaki LL (talk) 23:16, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Responded there. Which book do you mean? Not Blas na Gàidhlig? Akerbeltz (talk) 11:09, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Answered on the other article too. The book? I don't know, hehe, the one mentioned above;). Cheers Iñaki LL (talk) 13:50, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Ah, I missed that! He means Blas na Gàidhlig. It's on Gaelic pronunciation. Akerbeltz (talk) 13:54, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Ok, quite specialized for me:) Been in Scotland playing txalaparta long time ago for 5 days or so. Bought a small guide on how to learn Scottish Gaelic, you know that one with pictures and some phrases (Ciamar a tha thu etc.). Good luck with it Iñaki LL (talk) 15:27, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Ignatius of Loyola

You're clearly not a native speaker of English - which is fine, but I would urge a little more caution when arguing about style or making (on the face of it) rather hasty changes that sound better to your ears. Akerbeltz (talk) 01:12, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Hence, since Wikipedia is for everyone including non-native English speakers, the articles should be written clearly (WP:Manual of Style#Clarity) in plain English (WP:UPE) easy accessible to non-native English speakers too for Wikipedia is not a tutorial of English. Isn't it, please? --71.247.231.74 (talk) 19:05, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, and there is no reason why non-native speakers can't contribute but your edits did not make anything clearer, they were actually distorting the meaning and the grammar. Note though that the idea of clear English does not mean that we can't use sentences of a type that are perhaps clear to a native speaker but not so clear to someone not fluent. Akerbeltz (talk) 20:40, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Pages needing translation

Hi, thanks for listing articles at WP:Pages needing translation. One thing: when you do that, could you please also put the template {{notenglish|language_name}} at the top of each of the articles you list? Thanks! —Largo Plazo (talk) 22:15, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

My bad, yes, I forgot to do that sorry. Akerbeltz (talk) 23:20, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Ma 's e do/ur t(h)oil e

Hi, re the edit summary here - if that is the case, what do native speakers say when making a polite request &c? Or does gd have no "natural" equivalent of "please" and using sibh, leibh &c is considered enough politeness-wise? (In case this sounds ironic: it's not, it's meant in earnest.) --Thrissel (talk) 20:22, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the FnaG explanation! I'm slowly getting used to the idea - just as I had to get used to the idea of no direct "yes/no" pair of words - or for that matter, once upon a time, to the absence of sibhsigeadh in English... :-) --Thrissel (talk) 17:04, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

'S e do bheatha :) It's a mental leap alright - though if you really want a challenge, try an Ergative–absolutive language where you have to mark your nouns for ergative at the start of a sentence, depending on whether your sentence final verb is transitive or not! Akerbeltz (talk) 17:15, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Oh my. I guess I've got the idea (thanks to the examples), but I think I'd rather not dig any deeper and stick to the intricacies of languages I already know a bit, like 14 noun cases in Czech, 12 tenses in English, 8 definite articles in Gaelic &c, only remembering that Basque &Co have yet another feature which makes linguistics so fascinating... ;-) --Thrissel (talk) 20:59, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Pìobaireachd and all that

I have moved Pìobaireachd to Pibroch as requested on the talk page; I have also altered the two redirect pages Piobaireach and Piobaireachd to point directly to Pibroch so as to avoid double redirects. Will you do any other tidying up that is required? There are a lot of other links that come in to Pìobaireachd, but fortunately per WP:NOTBROKEN we don't need to alter them. Regards, JohnCD (talk) 20:39, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I will, thanks for moving the page! Akerbeltz (talk) 20:56, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

The Young Ones

You may be interested in a discussion at Talk:Crannóg, where an editor writes "I would find it very hard to believe that the -óg in crannóg is the adjective óg "young". " Ben MacDui 08:51, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, responded there! Akerbeltz (talk) 01:41, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Scottish Gaelic orthography is now also on the menu. Ben MacDui 19:04, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the headsup, already watching :) Akerbeltz (talk) 20:39, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

Canadian Gaelic spelling

Noticed your spelling revision on Canadian Gaelic -- are we sure that Fhairrgeach with the two Rs is correct? I completely defer to your expertise, although it did look odd to me. I am a huge fan of akerbeltz.org -- you’ve done an amazing job with that site; it and taic are the only remotely useful grammar sites I’ve been able to find. I would welcome any other criticisms you might have for the page, it goes without saying I am not a native speaker, simply an enthusiast who wrote the page from scratch some years back. Cheers! Muckapedia (talk) 00:55, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Tha thu ro choibhneil a charaid! Yes, I understand your hesitation on this one. It goes like this - there are broadly speaking two spelling variants of this word, (1) fairge and (2) fairrge. (1) is due to certain mainland dialects having lost the dark /R/, shoddy spelling and the fact that the word fairrge is highly marked, i.e. it's very rarely used in everyday speech these days. Unlike Irish of course where farraige is the standard term for the sea. I changed it to (2) for two reasons - it both represents the Hebridean and Skye pronunciations which all have /R/ (and represent the vast majority of speakers today) and it also is the historically more accurate spelling (cf Old Irish fairrgi etc). Make sense now? Akerbeltz (talk) 01:48, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Romani languages articles

You are invited to join the Romani WikiProject, an attempt to build and maintain an extensive and neutral database of Romani related articles on Wikipedia. To join, simply add your name to the members section of Romani WikiProject.

Noticed your considerable efforts in this general area and thought I'd extend a hand in thanks. You would be very welcome to join our unfortunately all-too-exclusive 'club'. Best. RashersTierney (talk) 12:31, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks very much, I probably will even though I never planned on getting *this* involved LOL. Akerbeltz (talk) 12:52, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Fáilte romhat! RashersTierney (talk) 20:14, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Of sastó ;) Akerbeltz (talk) 20:45, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Gaelic

It's probably the same person. As long as they're IP's and they make no attempt at discussion I don't think we should be too afraid of reverting them. Lets just refer to the discussion and consensus at Talk:Selkirk in the edit summary when we revert.·Maunus·ƛ· 15:41, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Ok, thanks for the advice! Akerbeltz (talk) 15:44, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Even beyond the 3rr? Eyemouth is just getting silly... Akerbeltz (talk) 15:52, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

No, not against 3rr. Then you just wait and let someone else revert as long as there is consensus to keep the placenames other editors will chip in. Also I advice to be more lenient with editors with accounts and IP editors who engaged in discussion. ·Maunus·ƛ· 16:47, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Oops. I think in that case I might just take all the articles on the Borders off my watchlist, it's a touch too depressing, all this uninformed anti-Gaelic sentiment and it's taking up too much of my time. <sigh> POV 1 : Wikipedia 0. Akerbeltz (talk) 16:50, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Unfortunately that is the case, keeping wikipedia neutral is often a really nervewrecking task. But rest assured that if you need a break another rational editor will step in in your place.·Maunus·ƛ· 16:54, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

I'd like to think so but sadly there are numerically more anti-Gaelic crusaders around than neutral ones (not that I don't appreciate your input) when it comes to the Scottish Borders. At times, they feel more like those calm articles on Basque politics, Northern Ireland and Iraq. But yes, calm down, Aker ;) Akerbeltz (talk) 16:58, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

As it is he broke the 3rr and not you. I have blocked him for 48 hrs to give him time to reconsider his behaviour.·Maunus·ƛ· 17:01, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Just FYI in case I botched it up. --Thrissel (talk) 11:15, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Gd for Zechariah = Sachairi?

Hi, is the info in the 2nd paragraph correct? It appeared here as "Anglicised Scotch-Gaelic Sachairi" - added by anon so I'm suspicious. --Thrissel (talk) 10:57, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Done! You're right, it was... odd. Akerbeltz (talk) 11:14, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! --Thrissel (talk) 17:22, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

This form appears in the novel, And the Cock Crew by Fionn MacColla, I believe.--MacRusgail (talk) 11:31, 28 July 2011 (UTC)

Not sure if that's a good source. Is there a Zechariah in the bible? Akerbeltz (talk) 22:28, 28 July 2011 (UTC)

Goidelic languages

Sorry for bothering you again, but do you think you could have a look whether this chain of edits by a single editor is factually all right? If so I'll correct the typos myself, but none of it is referenced and there are a few things which make me suspicious, eg 20 as "fiche/fichid" in gd, but what do I know about the rest? --Thrissel (talk) 13:11, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Broadly speaking he's right; the numbers are tosh as you spotted. I'll amend. Thanks for letting me know. Akerbeltz (talk) 14:06, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I've done the typos now. --Thrissel (talk) 15:58, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Fair, fara, foo, fum

I fear the wool is being pulled over our eyes at Fair Isle. It is hard for me to believe that the Gaelic is actually Eilean nan Geansaidh - which I suspect means "island of the pullover" or similar. I note the Gaelic language Wikipedia calls it Fara and I have changed the entry to this. Comments or input - espec. a source for the Gaelic name - are very welcome. Ben MacDui 16:31, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Gàidhealtachd

Akerbeltz, why did you undo my restore of this link on the Modern Celts page ? Please explain why you made the statement that this was "totally wrong".Jembana (talk) 12:54, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

It's on the talk page, check this string Talk:Modern_Celts#Speaker_geography Akerbeltz (talk) 13:09, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Cladh Hallan

Hey there, are you in a position to add pronunciation info to Cladh Hallan? My guess is Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [kʰlˠ̪ɤɣ ˈhalˠ̪ən̪ˠ] or [ˈhalˠ̪an̪ˠ] but I'm not sure which (if either) of those is right. +Angr 19:52, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Almost. If the above is the correct Gaelic spelling, it should be Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [kʰlˠ̪ɤɣ ˈhalˠ̪ən] or Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [kʰlˠ̪ɤɣ ˈhalˠ̪an], it's hard to distinguish unstressed /a/ and /ə/. It looks Norse, so I'd put my money on /a/. Does that help? Akerbeltz (talk) 20:11, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Well, I'll add Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [kʰlˠ̪ɤɣ ˈhalˠ̪an] then and hope for the best. It's certainly closer than the /klad halan/ that Russian Wikipedia went for. +Angr 05:55, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

ROFL nice try! Akerbeltz (talk) 11:41, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

Attempts

As far as I am aware, I am merely attempting to restore a fact that is continually deleted by another member. They even go as far as deleting my message as to why it was being deleted. I am only attempting to help add to wikipedia. 150.203.191.133 (talk) 14:43, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Nice try. Akerbeltz (talk) 14:48, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

I made mistakes, but I am making a solid attempt now - I seriously do not understand why this is an invalid change. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 150.203.191.133 (talk) 14:52, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Sorry but that doesn't pull any weight with me. You consistenly added false information about the Orkneys and some crackpot stuff about Magnus to a large number of pages. That isn't just a case of "being new and not knowing the ropes". Akerbeltz (talk) 14:57, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

I'm sorry, it might sound a bit 'the-boy-that-cried-wolf', but I stopped my bullocks, and this entry, as far as I can see, is referrenced with information from another website. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 150.203.191.133 (talk) 14:59, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Well, on the offchance you're being serious, Wikipedia does not accept blogs and similar sites as "sources". Think about it - you can post ANYthing in a blog. Akerbeltz (talk) 15:04, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Okay, thankyou - I will, of course, not attempt to re-edit this article; or defame any other article. I apologise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 150.203.191.133 (talk) 15:11, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Hm ok. Feel free to contribute, but do look around first before you make massive changes, ok? Akerbeltz (talk) 15:14, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Álavese??

Dear Akerbeltz: My fault that I don´t check wikipedia as often as I should... so I couldn´t point out that in your definitive list of Basque terms, you still stick to the akward Álavese which you had ,agreed that made no sense. Álavese isn´t accurate in any language, neither orthographically nor phonetically. In Spanish it would be Alavés, stressed on the last syllable, in English the written accent doesn´t exist. Why not plainly Alavese? --Garcilaso (talk) 09:22, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

Well spotted, my mistake, I've corrected it. Thanks for letting me know! Akerbeltz (talk) 11:45, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

;-) Garcilaso (talk) 22:45, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

ANI

I replied to your attack. I removed most of the profanity before I hit save.--Cube lurker (talk) 00:20, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Excuse me, attack? Are we reading the same wiki? Akerbeltz (talk) 00:25, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Where you called me a hypocrite.--Cube lurker (talk) 00:32, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Request for input

After having read a sensible remark of yours, I clicked on your userpage (also because I was curious about your name :), and, as it happens, we currently have a question at the language desk which could use your expertise! ---Sluzzelin talk 11:22, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Answered. Curious myself, which remark would that have been?

The name, well, my first name is so common I have up using it in the early days of chatting on IRC. I tried a few others and Akerbeltz stuck, that's it really. ;) Akerbeltz (talk) 11:32, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! (It was one or two comments suggesting that it might help our product, the encyclopedia, if we shifted our focus toward how to improve content and away from who broke which rules and how to sanction them adequately. Too lazy to find the diff ;)---Sluzzelin talk 14:19, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome on both accounts - I know what you mean now. Yes... pity that. Ah well, nothing is perfect. It might push me off the English Wiki though and over to the Gaelic one in time if it gets worse. Akerbeltz (talk) 14:25, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Sadly you both miss the point.--Cube lurker (talk) 14:27, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps I do, and perhaps it is sad. I can certainly agree that I often miss the whole point of WP:ANI. Anyway, this aside was parenthetical and had nothing to do with why I posted here. I meant no offense to you, Cube lurker. ---Sluzzelin talk 14:43, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

One attempt

It's probably a waste of time but I'll take one stab at explaining this. The key point is this. To be an admin it to have a set of tools, not have a superior status. If I were to come into work, and in my cubicle there was a pneumatic jackhammer instead of my computer what would be the responsible thing for me to do. I have no understanding of the proper use of that tool. It would be irresponsible to use that tool when I'd only do more damage than good. It wouldn't be a "sanction" to tell my boss that I should not have that tool.--Cube lurker (talk) 14:44, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

I probably have to mirror that sentiment. My point - the one you're missing - is that whether one used the right tool or the wrong tool has to be seen in the light of what needs fixing in the garage. To quote an old adage, there's no point in paiting the door when the roof is on fire. Yes, kwami used the wrong tool. Get over it. There are way worse things happening on Wikipedia that deserve admin attention. Akerbeltz (talk) 14:48, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

You seem to be hung up on the protection which isn't even the concern I brought out?--Cube lurker (talk) 14:54, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, I really don't have time for this. You're clearly getting really worked up about something that in the big scheme of things seems to me to be mostly pointless and I have no wish to do harm to my deadlines and your blood pressure so I'm tuning out of this one. Funny thing though, human history - times, kings and queens may change but administrators somehow never do, there's always a rulebook to throw... Akerbeltz (talk) 15:00, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

No i'm relaxed now. As I said it was a waste of time. Horse, water, drinking all that.--Cube lurker (talk) 15:06, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

At least on that point we're 100% agreed ;) Akerbeltz (talk) 15:16, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Basque or Northern Spain traditions?

Hi Akerbeltz, first of all thank you for your great work on wikipedia and express my respect for it. I work on developing articles related to Cantabrian culture, although mainly in the wiki in Spanish. Lately when I wanted to develop English language articles I found some created by you and I don't know how to face them. I refer to some as arrastre = idi probak or regatas de traineras = estropadak, I find the problem of a "basquecentrist" vision which makes no reference to other regions where these sports/games are traditional, mainly Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia. I think the title should be in English and then the term in Spanish, Euskera, Galician, Asturian, Cantabrian or as needed. In case of not having an English word should be used the common name to the four regions, usually in Spanish.

Finally I wanted to refer to article Basque bowls; although there are modalities such as Cantabrian Bolo Palma or Bolo Burgalés or Leonés wich have been imported by migrants to Euskadi, they should not go under the Basque bowling title in my opinion. Other border variants such as Pasabolo tablón from Cantabria, Biscay and Burgos could be. And please I beg you, put the Cantabrian flag in the article Bolo Palma. This sport is not a tradicional basque bowl. In fact this is the only sport where the Cantabrian Federation, not the Spanish neither Basque, is the highest representative. And unlike other bowls or sports, the basque terms are not official neither used, the few players in biscay are Cantabrian or descendants. Greetings, I hope you understand my position and sorry for my english :).Uhanu (talk) 02:04, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome :) I agree that I wrote these pages from a Basque angle as that is my primary reference but I thought I had been relatively careful to mention wider distribution on these games being popular/traditional elsewhere when I found references to that. If a particular variant is common elsewhere, it's not so much malice but a lack of mention in the literature I used in writing these article and I certainly do not object to qualifying the article.

As far as estropadak and idi probak go, the problem is twofold. One, I did not discover until relatively late in writing the idi probak page that it was practised elsewhere and at the time didn't want to face rewriting the lead. And secondly, the policy is usually to use the common English name of "something" if there is one. In the case of most of these sports, there isn't a common English name, neither the Spanish nor the Basque names appear more or less frequently and if we make one up, we leave ourselves open to criticism just as much. So idi probak is as good or bad a name as we're going to find for that page. We can certainly create a redirect from Arrastre to Idi-probak. In this case, I have a feeling that the Basque name does deserve primacy as the other varients (such as giza-probak) don't seem to exist elsewhere in the same form and (yes, it's conjecture) it seems likely that the sport is most practised and most developed in the BC in this case.

Estropadak is one where I have to admit to not thinking that far ahead when writing the page. Regatas de Traineras might well be more appropriate in this case so I would not raise objections to moving the page but we'd probably have to debate it on the talk page there as other people have contributed by now.

I disagree on the province names - simply because we had a long debate on the Basque Project page (with participation from the France and Spain projects) and arrived at a consensus solution (see Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Basque).

Basque bowls is a similar issue. It wasn't well into the article until I discovered it's much more common than I thought. Let's see how to tackle this... 1) let's avoid the flags, they are extremely controversial and while pretty, I have found that putting a flat on a page usually leads to debates and edit wars of such length that you never get round to editing content. 2) You're right, some variants shouldn't really be on that page but I didn't want to delete them either. Perhaps we should shift any variant that is not specifically Basque to a new page on (just a suggestion) Cantabrian bowls - Cantabrian in the historical sense, I don't know if there is a better word that covers modern day Cantabria/Asturias/Burgos. Perhaps we should just lump them together under Iberian bowls? 3) The Bolo palma article lists the Spanish/Cantabrian names first, then the Basque ones. I don't think that's offensive and extra info rarely hurt a page so I suggest we leave them. A lot of relevant info is about things that aren't official. Breton isn't official in France either.

I look forward to improving those pages, nice for someone else to lend a hand! Akerbeltz (talk) 10:53, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

PS once we've decided on an umbrella page, I'm quite agreeable to a new section on the Basque bowls page along the lines of "other variants also played (but not Basque in origin)". Akerbeltz (talk) 10:55, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

The naming debate

Hi Akerbeltz, I don't know if this is the place for this note (don't know any other way to contact you) but I was surprised to see that a debate on naming in Basque articles has been going on, in which I am really interested. As it happens, I had no clue this debate was going on and while I have been quite off for a while I am along with you the main contributor to Basque topics, I am quite baffled since people who almost never contribute or do small contributions have been participating and it strikes me that I haven't been notified. Look forward to hearing from you, regards Iñaki LL (talk) 08:47, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Kaixo Iñaki, good to see you back! When we started the debate several months back, I posted notices on various project pages and article pages (I don't recall all of them but definitely WikiProject Basque, France and Spain) to invite broad participation. You're right, it wasn't a massive debate but I feel the result is very workable and acceptable and I'm loathe to restart the debate as it would set a bad precedent. Is there any aspect of the result that you're unhappy with? Akerbeltz (talk) 10:32, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Kaixo Akerbeltz, zelan??? Still feeling driven to contribute sometimes while I have to confess my enthusiasm has faded. I happened to find this note about the debate on naming in the Álava discussion tab (you can check the article, some paragraphs added), but didn't know anything. I'd appreciate if you let me know directly since it's quite a major debate on a matter I deal with almost every time I contribute (and let's face it, it's almost you and me and some bits of other people). Didn't read it all but the conclusions look pretty fine with me (this "Guipúzcoa" thing for instance straight from Spanish was, let me put it this way, quite alienating, as if we had to keep calling Rhodesia and not Zimbabwe because of the tradition... Gero arte Iñaki LL (talk) 23:30, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Requested move

I applied the template at Talk:Scottish Travellers per your suggestion. However, the Talk Page does not appear to have been part of the re-direct. The proposed move is being read as already carried out I assume for that reason. Am I making this more complicated than necessary? Best. RashersTierney (talk) 18:39, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

Not entirely sure what happened there - I'll ask an admin to help out since it's uncontroversial I think. Akerbeltz (talk) 20:03, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

Many thanks. RashersTierney (talk) 20:20, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

Macdonald/MacDonald

I write as the person who modified the spelling of "MacDonald" to "Macdonald" to show the most common spelling of the name on the island of Great Bernera. You questioned the change and reverted to "MacDonald".

I am a Macdonald with immediate (paternal) connections to Bernera. However, appreciating that you don't know me from Adam, you may wish to refer to Hebridean Connections which holds a fair bit of genealogical information about Bernera that has been collated by the local history club. You will note from that, that not a single surname listed there and beginning with "Mac" contains a capital letter within it. Such a form of a "Mac" surname is most common in the islands and the Highlands.

Best wishes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.223.4.44 (talk) 18:32, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the note. I'm not going to edit war over this, it's not such a major issue. Historically and traditionally, the spellings with two capitals are predominant, same as they are in Gaelic. The non-capitalised forms appear much later. And i'd urge caution as to whom you believe in issues of spelling - a local history society may not be the best authority, especially (and i speak from experience here) since people involved in these are often not highly computer literate and fall prey to Microsoft word which will automatically remove any word internal capital whether appropriate or not. But as I said, I'm not going to argue. Akerbeltz (talk) 18:38, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

Tart

Someone has added a reference to Scotland for Koch, John Tartessian: Celtic from the Southwest at the Dawn of History (pdf) (2009) which has a piquancy that sir may find amusing. Ben MacDui 18:57, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Yarg, just what the world needed x.x Akerbeltz (talk) 11:16, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Mounsey

I don't know what to say. You helped me more than I deserved. I am no expert with bytes and pixels. I know how to surf, mail and print, but that is all. Nevertheless I wrote many books. They are on the Royal Library in The Hague and I wrote many articles (www.google.com and fill in: zeelandnet pieter kuhn; and click, etc.). Thank you very much for your patience and support. Lex Ritman192.87.123.13 (talk) 09:47, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome :) Akerbeltz (talk) 10:28, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Basque dialectal phonetics

Kaixo Akerbeltz, zelan? I dropped a comment on the Bidasoa discussion if you fancy. Cheers Iñaki LL (talk) 09:02, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Hi, would you be so kind as to give us support!

Kaixo, I hope you're doing fine and I sincerely apologize for this intrusion. I've just read your profile and you seemed a very learned person and interested in (small) languages so maybe I am not bothering you and you will help us... I'm part of an association "Amical de la Viquipèdia" which is trying to get some recognition as a Catalan Chapter but this hasn't been approved up to that moment. We would appreciate your support, visible if you stick this on your first page: Wikimedia CAT. Thanks again, wishing you a great summer, take care! Capsot (talk) 07:20, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Com va això? I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of being recognised as a Catalan Chapter is - could you explain or link to somewhere where I can read up on it? Akerbeltz (talk) 09:30, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Kaixo/Bon dia, I see with great pleasure that you also know some Catalan! Sorry I hadn't seen your reply since it's your talk page, that's why it took me so long to tell you more about it. Here go more information about the Catalan Chapter project: secció local de Wikimedia and Amical Viquipèdia . You can also see the current support which is really good in the Catalan, in the Occitan and Basque Wikipedias: [ca:Categoria:Viquipedistes que donen suport a Wikimedia CAT]. It is a really active association and many projects are interesting. In English unfortunately I lose a lot of time trying to find the more appropriate profiles of the people who might be interested in language, minorities or Catalan issues. I hope this will prove interesting to you. Take care and thanks/eskerrik asko for your interest. Have a nice day and weekend! Capsot (talk) 06:56, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

Selma Barkham

Kurlansky's a fool. He used secondary sources and didn't bother check his facts. The Basques were not in the New World in the 14th century. No evidence. None. I didn't feel like putting up a reference. Mrs. Barkham has a paper from 1984 about Basque whaling in Terranova. Don't feel like looking for it. And, yes. I will revert it back if you edit it again. Find a primary source (which I know doesn't exist) that says the Basques were whaling in the New World in the 14th century (which I know they weren't). Jonas Poole (talk) 03:48, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Slow down, I realise that Kurlansky as a historical source is not idea and I'm quite happy to take it out if someone can make a persuasive argument but just an Edit Summary was a bit... curt. Given how many copies he's selling, I would also suggest that your point, which appears to be backed up by other research, is better served by making the point that "although some like Kurlansky claim that they were, they weren't" is a better way forward because someone else might put it back in (not a threat, just an observation). Akerbeltz (talk) 09:29, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

You are now a Reviewer

Hello. Your account has been granted the "reviewer" userright, allowing you to review other users' edits on certain flagged pages. Pending changes, also known as flagged protection, will be commencing a two-month trial at approximately 23:00, 2010 June 15 (UTC).

Reviewers can review edits made by users who are not autoconfirmed to articles placed under flagged protection. Flagged protection is applied to only a small number of articles, similarly to how semi-protection is applied but in a more controlled way for the trial.

When reviewing, edits should be accepted if they are not obvious vandalism or BLP violations, and not clearly problematic in light of the reason given for protection (see Wikipedia:Reviewing process). More detailed documentation and guidelines can be found here.

If you do not want this userright, you may ask any administrator to remove it for you at any time. Courcelles (talk) 18:13, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

Comhar Dún Chaocháin Teo

Hi, I spent several hours trying to make better links for the above article. and using the 'preview' button. However, when I finally went to save them, all my changes reverted saying that there was editorial conflict because another user had edited in the interim. This seems to have been you, so I'm not sure what I can do apart from start again? Any ideas? Thanks if you can help Comhar (talk) 11:58, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

If you still have the screen open, hit the Back button and your changes should still be there. Copy and paste to Wordpad. The changes I made were just to the ref formatting (the first two refs), copy and paste them to wordpad too. Then just edit the most recent version and copy your changes, then add my link formats and you should have it all.

If you're making such large edits, it's better to use your sandbox so you can save in betweentimes! Akerbeltz (talk) 12:38, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

[cʰɛunˠ]?

Hi, after your FnaG explanation it occurred to me Czech ť might be more closely approximant to [tʲ] as in -irt/-ist than ď, so I looked it up here which led me here. The page gives ceann pronounced as [cʰɛunˠ], which surprised me; I'd sooner believe Colin Mark's [kʲaun̴̪]. Is [cʰɛunˠ] an alternative or an error? --Thrissel (talk) 18:50, 23 June 2010 (UTC)

Yurg, well spotted. Looks like a leftover from the spate of edits on scots gaelic by irish editors we had at one point. I still don't agree with their analysis of Irish stops but I'm too shaky on Irish phonology. But at least they stopped messing with the gaelic for the most part. Grma! Akerbeltz (talk) 16:33, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

'Ow you say?

Do you have one of your groovy "pronunciation" files for Na h-Eileanan Siar for Outer Hebrides etc? Ben MacDui 16:59, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

LOL not ready made and i'm not back home till tomorrow but I'll make one over the w/e. Remind me if I forget! Anywhere else you're likely to want one made soon? Easier doing them in batches. Akerbeltz (talk) 17:25, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar might also be useful. If you can be bothered the names in the list of Outer Hebrides#Populated islands could be used there, in the List of Outer Hebrides and on the island pages themselves. An t-Eilean Fada also. Ben MacDui 07:42, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

I've done Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Na h-Eileanan Siar, Na h-Eileanan an Iar and An t-Eilean Fada. I'll add them to Outer Hebrides. Akerbeltz (talk) 18:21, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

PS you might want to add one of them to the header, perhaps also on the Western Isles article? Akerbeltz (talk) 18:29, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

Many thanks again - will get to this asap. Ben MacDui 08:06, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

PuntuEus

Kaixo, Akerbeltz. I've seen that you support Wikimedia CAT, so I've thought that you may want to support PuntuEus too. If you wish to, you just need to add the template {{PuntuEus}} to your user page (you can see the result in my user page), and you can also sign in their website. More information on this initiative in their website. Ondo izan.--Xabier Armendaritz^(talk) 22:53, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

Kaixo Akerbeltz! the map...

Kaixo Akerbeltz! we continue the war about the map... the last vandal was specially rough, did you see the comment? "hasta la polla de tanto nacionalismo" This is sad, we should do something about this, the article should be protected against these kind of actions. We have to make clear that the map is not about nationalism... it is a better map and it was there before all the rest, PUNTO! Ai ama! sick of it all! David (talk) 06:27, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

Ados... not sure about permanent protection but I'll have a look around and see what can be done, it's getting silly. Akerbeltz (talk) 08:34, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

Arnaiz

Could you check the draft of the deleted section? I plan on restoring it soon. — kwami (talk) 21:09, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Will do. Akerbeltz (talk) 22:07, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

West Europeans are genetically "Basque".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Basque_people#West_Europeans_are_genetically_.22Basque.22. СЛУЖБА (talk) 17:05, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Kalderash and Caldereros

Hi Akerbeltz, zer moduz? I found the reference on the Roma and the Kalderash. I think a link could be set up to the Caldereros festival from Donostia, maybe from the Erromintxela article too, while the latter it's pretty linguistic. You have developed the subject, so what do you think? Jaso agur bero bat Iñaki LL (talk) 08:11, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

Ondo, bereziki Euskara nire blackberry berrian lorta ta gero ;) Jog my memory on which reference we were looking for? But as long as it's a good ref I'm quite happy for you to go ahead and add/link. Izan untsa! Akerbeltz (talk) 12:31, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Hey kaixo there, Euskara mugikorrean..., well a small feat hehe. I just happened to find this Kalderash subgroup of the Roma in an article of yours (Erromintxela?) and just sprang to mind that since they specialized in hardware and were smiths (well..., an the name) they might as well be related to the Calderero festival of Donostia. But not sure about it, just wanted to confirm, you know sth about it? Iñaki LL (talk) 18:05, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

Out of Scotland

Hi. Sorry for any misconceptions. The "probable" was not meant to evoke any out-of-Scotland ideas. I instead was thinking about the possibility that it arrived slightly earlier (i.e. 3rd c.) or slightly later (5th c.). I hope this clears everything up. Gaoidheal (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 11:17, 25 July 2010 (UTC).

Ah right, no worries, thanks for letting me know! Akerbeltz (talk) 12:32, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

I have also added my sad dà sgilinn to the origin debate back on the Gaelic talk-page, if you want to reply. Also, here is a link to the article I mention, if you don't have it yet:Were the Scots Irish? Ròcamaid, Lasairdhubh (talk) 14:01, 28 July 2010 (UTC)Lasairdhubh

Bear with me

I've created Bearasaigh, which I expected to be a 3-line stub - amazing what these little lumps of rock have to say for themselves. Could you provide a translation of the name? Ben MacDui 16:35, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

LOL. I can do you a sound file but as for translation, tricky. It has no obvious Gaelic meaning (along the lines of "big rock, black rock" etc) and the -aigh ending screams Norse and it bears a passing resemblence to Bearaig (Berwick) but surface forms can be misleading - and "barley island" sounds a little far-fetched for this small lump of rock. I checked briefly and I don't seem to have any references to the etymology anywhere so I'm afraid I'll have to pass for now but if I do find something, I'll add it. Akerbeltz (talk) 17:02, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Your luck is in... edit forthcoming Akerbeltz (talk) 17:06, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Many thanks - makes perfect sense. Ben MacDui 17:14, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Inbhir Nis

Hi there Akerbeltz! I notice you revised my entry of "inner-neesh" concerning the pronounciation of Inverness on the city's article. I'd like to discuss it a little bit, as it seems that few without the Gaelic are able to pronounce Inbhir Nis and I'd imagine very few can read phonetics. Thoughts? What would really completely solve this problem would be a sound file of the pronounciation, such as on the Stornoway article for example.

(talk) 19:14, 5 August 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.30.211.252 (talk)

Hiya! Made up "phonetics" are discouraged but I agree that a sound file would help; I'll create one over the weekend, too busy right now. Akerbeltz (talk) 18:17, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Brilliant. Thanks for your help! Northlimitation (talk) 18:23, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Also if possible "Gàidhealtachd" would also be very useful - odd to think that there isn't one for this! All the best Akerbeltz.

Northlimitation (talk) 18:25, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Happy Akerbeltz's Day!

Akerbeltz has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian, so I've officially declared today as Akerbeltz's Day! For being a great person and awesome Wikipedian, enjoy being the star of the day, Akerbeltz! Signed, Neutralhomer A record of your Day will always be kept here.

For a userbox you can add to your userbox page, click here. Have a Great Day...Neutralhomer • Talk • 04:06, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Gee, thanks mate :) Too tired to say anything else that's sensible just now though, been at conference all day! Akerbeltz (talk) 00:06, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

No worries and You're Welcome. :) Glad I could make your day. :) - Neutralhomer • Talk • 00:07, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

The title of the Batua article

Hi, Akerbeltz. Could you please have a look at the renaming proposal I've made for the Batua article? You are one of the most active contributors on Basque subjects in the English-language Wikipedia—if not the most active one—, so your opinion would be of great value. --Xabier Armendaritz^(talk) 11:20, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Mainland matters

An anon IP has added "Mhór-Roinn" to the infobox of Mainland, Shetland. Would I be wrong in thinking that is is a literal translation of "mainland" rather than a Gaelic name for the island? Ben MacDui 16:18, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Not only that, it's also bad Gaelic. I'm almost 100% convinced this is made up and not historic. I think the only time I've heard the Shetland mainland spoken about in Gaelic was on BBC Alba as Tìr-mòr Shealtainn but again that's not historic as such and just a literal translation of Shetland Mainland. I think until we can establish at least modern usage via BBC Alba, we should go without a Gaelic name. Akerbeltz (talk) 17:37, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Done. Thanks again. Ben MacDui 18:30, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Drive-by-reverts at Basque Country (autonomous community)‎

Any idea on how to address this? I'm getting rather fed up with those drive by mapchangers (can't imagine how bored you must be...). It's really those that would like to see a new map in the article that should take some initiative for new discussions on the talk page, but they don't really seem to be the constructive sort of editors. Best regards, Finn Rindahl (talk) 15:24, 31 August 2010 (UTC)

The only partial solution I can think of is to get a sympathetic admin to put a partial protect that blocks IP edits on those pages (BC, Gip, Ál, Bis). That would leave us with Satesclop to deal with but he looks to be heading for a block anyway. What do you think? Akerbeltz (talk) 17:03, 31 August 2010 (UTC)

Well, your probably right about where Special:Contributions/Satesclop is heading... I think a semi-protection would be in order for this article (and probably the other three you listed, but I haven't been watching those) - I'm a bit reluctant to try and get one though as getting administrative actions done here at enwiki normally require a lot of red tape :P If it goes on I might try anyway - reverting once a day from various ip-adresses is not a blocking offense per policy (and which ip should be blocked anyway), but it is certainly an disturbance. Finn Rindahl (talk) 18:28, 31 August 2010 (UTC)

[1] FYI Finn Rindahl (talk) 16:39, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

Ah, your cry for help worked quicker than mine; thanks mate! Akerbeltz (talk) 17:22, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

I was out of business, in wikivacation, for the last month... but I cried in relief when I saw this one... at last! thank you guys! I whish the same could be done with all the other horrible red maps, but I'll leave these alone for the time being. David (talk) 09:59, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

FYI (Why do I get this feeling of deja vu...?) Finn Rindahl (talk) 22:21, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Oh for the love of dixie... Akerbeltz (talk) 22:24, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Now that's an expression I'm not familiar with, and when I tried googling I came up with this. Hm... Finn Rindahl (talk) 22:36, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

LOL, try googling it between quotes... not common though, granted. I overheard it on holiday once and it made me laugh, so I use it now and then ;) Akerbeltz (talk) 22:53, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Talk:Romani_people#Requested_move

Replied. Nergaal (talk) 20:32, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

No, I have decreased the confusion. This way, even if it might be suggested that they are Romani languages, at least it is cleat that they are not the languages spoken by either Vlachs, Aromanians, Morlachs, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians, and neither by Romanians of Serbia, or by other members of Romanian diaspora. What's next, Romano-Romanian?? Nergaal (talk) 14:42, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

To an extent, what you feel is confusing is irrelevant, you can't just make up a name because you feel it's clearer. Akerbeltz (talk) 15:17, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

And fills up her brigantine sails

No good deed goes unpunished. Your bon mot is now live at Eas Fors. Ben MacDui 08:49, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

Traditional/simplified character order in Template:Zh: a new proposal

You are receiving this message because you participated in discussions about Template:zh.

As you probably know, currently if you want traditional characters to display before simplified characters when using this template, you have to write |first=t every time you use the template, which can be a pain in long articles, and which raises complaints about political and practical problems with making simplified characters the "default".

So I am trying to write up a version of the template in which you set a traditional/simplified choice setting just once (specifically, on a subpage of the article where you're using the template), and then every instance of the template on that article uses the ordering you set. Further details about the new setup are here; if you have a moment I would very much appreciate your input, specifically about any potential problems you can imagine or any ways this can be made better.

Thank you, rʨanaɢ (talk) 01:24, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

A couple of things

Firstly, don't accuse others what you haven't been shy of engaging in yourself (edit warring).

Secondly, the word craic isn't an English word. It's a Gaelic word. In fact, it's a Gaelic word of English origin. --81.135.41.3 (talk) 11:59, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

It's a word that was borrowed from English )if that etymology is correct) to Irish and then back into English. Which makes it a re-borrowing but close enough to be pertinent to the subject. Kindly stop splitting hairs, this is not a court of law. Akerbeltz (talk) 12:07, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

There is no splitting hairs other than what you have just stated. The word craic is is not an English word. It is not an English word of Irish origin.

The word is a Gaelic word. It is a Gaelic word of Gaelic origin. --81.135.41.3 (talk) 20:01, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

It's a reborrowing for heaven's sake. Which means that while it ultimately has its roots in language 1, went to language 2 and then back to L1, most people would still think of it as a word from L2 because these things don't happen within a week. Boulevard was borrowed from Dutch into French and then back to Dutch. Ask anyone one the street and they'll think of boulevard as French. That doesn't mean it's actually French but in a study on French loanwords, it's a pertinent point to make if only to point out it's a reborrowing and not originally French. We're trying to give information on topics people might be interested in and this fact is pertinent to questions about Irish loanwords. End of. Akerbeltz (talk) 20:31, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Wikibreak

Hope the absence is short and a break at Vicipéid will recharge your batteries. Best. RashersTierney (talk) 22:45, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks mate, we'll see about how long I need before I'll feel up to it again. It's this one by the way [2]. I'll keep the Roma(ni) pages on my watchlist! Akerbeltz (talk) 22:50, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

Hm, is that "Bhicipèidia" or "Wikipedia" in Scottish Gaelic? (There's a link on the frontpage over there that goes over a redir, you may want to unpipe that :) Anyway, keep up the good work whichever project your active at, hope to see you around here again soon. Best regards, Finn Rindahl (talk) 23:05, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

Have a great break and haste ye back. Ben MacDui 08:50, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

We're better of here because of you. — kwami (talk) 08:52, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Hope you come back soon! Basque-related articles will miss very much your sound editions. --Xabier Armendaritz^(talk) 09:20, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Hey guys, thanks for all the kind messages! You're almost making me reconsider ;) We'll see... You guys take care and don't worry, I'm not going to disappear completely! Akerbeltz (talk) 11:45, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Re "Basque Country (greater region)", etc.

Kaixo Akerbeltz, zelan? Sorry but as far as I see there's no update, so I don't know exactly what your note is about, but seems to me you are referring to a late edit of mine? I went through the archive and didn't find anything new. I guess you mean the agreed main term Basque Country is for the autonomous c. and Basque Country (gr) for the other, right? (Still didn't find it, sorry but I'm always a bit in hurry) Hope you're still around, I received one of these abusive notes from Guipuscoa myself, I am watchful. Regards Iñaki LL (talk) 11:36, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Ondo, ta zu? Ok, I'm with you now - yes, I was referring to the old debate which ended up with Basque Country (greater region) for the 7 provinces together. Akerbeltz (talk) 11:44, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Guipuscoa

Thanks for the heads up! Let's see if that works and we are freed from spending so much time with this disgusting vandalism. --Xabier Armendaritz^(talk) 14:51, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Wow! This crusade was even bigger than it seemed! I have looked into some editions by all this puppets and it seems that 90% of the edits were just deleting "Basque"... I have to go out now, but I think we should review all their edits one by one. Let me know if you review some, so that we don't duplicate our efforts — I'll be looking into their edits later on.

On the other hand, this makes me think that perhaps this vandal also used his home connection. The anonymous IP was a connection from a company located in Biscay, Babcock&Wilcox, so perhaps he/she made some other edits from home... just a thought. --Xabier Armendaritz^(talk) 15:20, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

I have to go out too. I've checked all edits down to Sefarroa in the list, so you could move onto Jamesdard and then down? Yes, I have no illusions about him/her being gone for good but it's a start. Let's keep an eye on the pages they crusaded on and if we spot another pattern, we'll deal with it. <sigh> so much hatred. Akerbeltz (talk) 15:23, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Two thumbs up! And thanks for the cooperation. Hope we can restart adding important and worthwhile contributions. (Tiring, ain't it?) Qwrk (talk) 16:18, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Thank you too, and yes... things like that are what's making me... well, at least take a Wikivacation on the Gaelic Wiki. Such a waste of everyone's time. Akerbeltz (talk) 20:35, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Kaixo! Are you in your Wikivacation in the Highlands?:) Just to tell you, I left a note on the sockpuppets investigation about this Rolobando03 in Gipuzkoa, not sure if that's the right place since it's been a while, but this Guipuscoa is still around, so there it is. Enjoy the Highlander "summer", and come back! (By the way, you may know by now, there is a Scotland's rural sport contest/festival in the BC, in Hondarribia if I'm not wrong. Ondo ibili Iñaki LL (talk) 11:12, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

I've given up on the Wikivacation, so many messages on and off Wikipedia :) I'll have a look at Rolando and summer, hah, zer da gauza hori? Hemen ez dugu horrelako txorakeriak ;) Didn't know about the Highland Games in Hondarribia, but I've always thought doing an exchange would be good, herri kirolak here, highland games there. Akerbeltz (talk) 11:46, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Hm, so far, he's only added a flag, which one can't argue about. Let's keep an eye, it may be harmless. Akerbeltz (talk) 11:48, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes, it's basically about keeping track of the new username. Oops, the exact place of the event is Ordizia, urriak 16, with a claim for self-determination as a backdrop. Scotland vs the World in Highlands Games + other events (ref. uneairitsida.net) if you fancy take a look. Good atmosphere for sure. Goraintzi Iñaki LL (talk) 19:13, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Ez utzi ingelesezko wikipedia!

Kaixo, Akerbeltz! Bandalismoa dela-eta ingelesezko wikipedia erdi utzi duzula irakurri dut zure lankide-orrialdean... Animoak emateko idazten nizun, besterik gabe. Opor batzuk hartu, baina laster itzuli! Zure lan eskerga behar-beharrezkoa baita! Adiorik ez! --Unai Fdz. de Betoño (talk) 17:27, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Milesker animoak emateagatik, laguna. Hainbeste mezuak :) Beno, ikusiko dugu... agian berezko opor batzuk baino ez dut beharrik! Akerbeltz (talk) 20:38, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Itzulpena

Kaixo Akerbeltz! Ikusi dut Eskoziako gaeleraz badakizula itzuliko zenidake hizkuntza horretara Ongi etorri Eskoziako atarira edo Welcome to the Scotland Portal. Milesker eta animo!!!--An13sa (talk) 19:57, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Noski, honaxe duzu: Fàilte gu portal na h-Alba. Izan untsa! Akerbeltz (talk) 21:03, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Milesker.--An13sa (talk) 17:37, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

Clarify position, please

Here, you remark "look who's back" without mentioning a name. This is, I must say, a smidge snarky, and doesn't help me quickly understand what may be a volatile situation. The claim that the person was dismissed is supported by the citation presented. It is my belief that it can be written in a neutral way, conforming to the letter and spirit of WP:BLP. It is not my intention to debate the subject of the article, politics or anything beyond this one claim and its RS citation. Is it your position that the claim and citation SHOULD or SHOULD NOT be added to the article? Please reply here - I watch my watchlist. Thank you. --Lexein (talk) 03:39, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

It's actually very snarky ;) You could read the entire talk page but in short: there's an editor who virtually all of us believe to be Arnaiz-Villena himself who's furious that Wikipedia calls a spade a spade and dares mention some of the professional nonsense he was produced over his career. His posts share several things in common: personal attacks on other editors, grand threats and bombastic claims without any supporting evidence. He has wasted a massive amount of our time on Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, Iberian language and various deleted pages. His appearance has rarely heralded peace and harmony but he had been quiet for quite some time and I had dared hope that we'd seen the last of it. Apparently not. kwami removed a line from the text that was contradicting itself and partly unsubstantiated. Virginal then does his usual shooting himself in the foot by raising a ruckus over a claim that technically is a critical point about AV (his removal from the board), something he complains about without end. Illogical to say the least. Hence my remark. Akerbeltz (talk) 09:51, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

Basque people picture

Kaixo Akerbeltz, How's the atmosphere in the north? Listen I opened a discussion in Basque people about the picture showing some Basque characters. I'd appreciate your contribution, since no definite decision has been made so far. Jaso agur bero bat Iñaki LL (talk) 12:30, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

Eskerrik asko; egia duzu, some aren't suitable at all. Orrialde hartan erantzun dut. Akerbeltz (talk) 14:43, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

superscript ʰ in Basque etymologies

Hey,

I know I've asked this before, but what do you think we should do with the ʰ's in Basque etymologies, e.g. at Zihiga and Barhoue? (There are dozens of such articles.)

I'm going through untemplated IPA, and deleting, templating, or sub'ing as necessary. There are some places where IPA symbols are conventional for non-IPA usage, such as in pIE reconstructions in some sources, so if this is conventional for Basque, I'll leave it alone. (It's just s.t. that keeps popping up on my radar.) — kwami (talk) 22:28, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Yurg. Ok, I must confess I've never heard of this guy or his book. Looking at the two you've given me, I'd say the folliwing:

• He uses the superscript h not as IPA as such but to indicate that aspiration is postulated but uncertain. I think. I've not seen this usage before.
• Dunno who created the pages but since most of them fall onto the French side, the pages should be under their French spellings as the Basque forms are neither common English usage nor official. Some look fishy.
• Apʰanize is definitely weird. I think he used that spelling to be able to lump place names of the same etymology but different surface spellings together. That one definitely needs moving to Aphanize.

I think I'd replace all those superscripts escept where he's using them in an etymology. Does that help any? Akerbeltz (talk) 22:55, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

So, replace all with regular ‹h›?

While you're at it, what are we supposed to make of Sardeka? Is that ‹ʂ› supposed to be [s̺] or [ʃ]?

Oh, and the Irish trans. at Cúil Aodha, if you please.

BTW, I've got all the Cantonese IPA in sync, at least everything that links to IPA-yue. I copied IPA tone marking from what we have for Lao, as that seemed to be legible, but can switch from [ṷ] to [ȕ] for Tone 4 if you think that would be better. Also, I've dropped the [j] or [w] from init. yi, yu, wu, and added glottal stop to other init vowels. That can also be changed. — kwami (talk) 23:59, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

This is beginning to look like a less than decent source. Yes, replace all ʰ with h, compare [3] with Artʰanolatze on the Sardeka page. I'm getting more suspicious as we go along. Sardeka gaina, after a lot of searching, turns out to be Chardékagagna on the map. I think I need to go through all the articles this chap created and check them. But for now turning superscript into normal will do. The s is supposed to be [s̺], there's a few odd-ish sources that use the other one but convention, such as there is, has [s̺].

I'll pass word on the Irish, it looks odd as Irish doesn't have the open-mid one but it's Muskerry...

I'll check Cantonese later. What's the reason fro dropping the initial [w] and [j] though? Phonemic status I guess, as you either get a glottal stop or an initial glide? Is that helpful to people though? Akerbeltz (talk) 09:52, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

We were transcribing jyu as [jy], but would it really be [jy] and not [ɥy]? If so, what would be the point of either? (The latter is getting rather obscure: ‹ɥ› isn't exactly common.) And if we don't have that, why have [ji] or [wu]? Though they're easy enough to add back in if we want.

Basque articles flagged for ʰ: Kakueta, Saison (river), Sardeka, Uhabia, Uhaitxa, Ur (root), Zihiga, Aphanize, Aran (river), Barhoue, Bidouze. — kwami (talk) 10:34, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

No, we don't have /ɥ/. Orthographic w- and y- initials really are /w-/ and /j-/, I've never seem them described as anything else either, my own speech aside. There's a lot more frication that in a soft onset vowel in these words, my strong inclination would be to stick with /ja ji jo... wa we wo.../. If only to avoid folk slightly less familiar with the phonetic detail from adding a glottal stop because if you wrote /jyt jy/ as /yt y/, I would hazard a guess that people would actually end up saying /ʔyt ʔy/. Akerbeltz (talk) 12:33, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

So there's an unrounded onset to /jy/? I'll fix Wikipedia:IPA for Cantonese. — kwami (talk) 19:51, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

The or no the Northern Basque Country

Kaixo Akerbeltz, Aizu, after the last fixes in Basque music I realised the article ("the") is missing in the "Northern Basque Country" but sounds strange to me. Since I'm no native don't dare change it and wanted to ask. I know there is Northern Ireland, but there is "the Basque Country" too. There's a repetition too that has to be deleted after the mends. Agur bero bat Iñaki LL (talk) 19:35, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Done! Akerbeltz (talk) 19:54, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Kingdom of Navarre

I asked it before but I'm asking it again: Was it a Basque state? Can we say that? Böri (talk) 12:34, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Answering there. Akerbeltz (talk) 14:36, 19 December 2010 (UTC)