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Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2022 June 30

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June 30[edit]

Hard to find translation[edit]

In Wikidata, some of official language (Q23492) in Mexico (Q96) are Spanish (Q1321) and Nahuatl (Q13300). I wish to add the Nahuatl (Q13300) official name (P1448) in Mexico national football team (Q164089) but I can't find the translation... Is there someone that can kindly help me? Many, many and many thanks in advance!!! 151.71.54.79 (talk) 18:41, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

nah:Neicxitapayolhuiliztli and nah:Mexko might be starting points. Mexikatl, I think, is the adjective. I'm finding news stories about one Hermelinda “Lin” Pavón Hernández, who narrated a match commentary in Nahuatl, so she undoubtedly knows the answer, but frustratingly I can't get the internet to spit it out. It seems a Dutch doctor by the name of Rudolf van Zantwijk is claiming responsibility for having invented the above word for football in 2008. The site nahuatl.org.mx gives fútbol = xoktapayolistli.
From category:User_nah, it looks like user:Languaeditor, who was editing last week, could answer this.  Card Zero  (talk) 19:22, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Card Zero: no response from Languaeditor and Koatochij, impossible to find the translation! --Gatto bianco (talk) 19:28, 1 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
If you're prepared to email people, or contact them over social media (you may have to join TikTok, bizarrely) then speaknahuatl.com has a lot of promising-looking contact details. This advert offering "advanced and classical Nahuatl upon request", for instance.  Card Zero  (talk) 23:26, 1 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Hi, I already added the Nahuatl name in Wikidata. Football is xoteololoh. I think I'm going to write that article in Nahuatl Wikipedia soon. Languae (talk) 11:30, 3 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This would have to be discussed elsewhere, but in principle I'm not a fan of providing native-language equivalents that are neither official names nor refer to culture-specific things. We give native names for reference, not to teach people languages. --Theurgist (talk) 21:53, 2 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean such as "fútbol = xoktapayolistli"? I was searching any website that would reveal an official (or popular) Nahuatl translation of Selección de fútbol de México, and the word for fútbol ought to have helped in that search (but as it turned out, didn't). I don't think inventing a translation by patching components together is a good idea, if that's what you mean.  Card Zero  (talk) 00:36, 3 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
No, I mean the equivalents of "Mexico national football team". This is not an official name of an institution, but just a straightforward reference to the football team of the nation of Mexico. --Theurgist (talk) 01:41, 3 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"followings-up"[edit]

I think "followings-up" came about as an attempt to apply the pluralization pattern found in the likes of "passers-by" to "follow-up". What do you think?

- 2A02:560:58DB:A900:657A:D17:E6A8:C311 (talk) 19:56, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think "following up" pluralizes, but the plural of "follow-up" could be "follow-ups". By the way, someone who picks something up is a "picker-upper" (don't ask why). AnonMoos (talk) 21:40, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Since following up is not used as a noun (*"yesterday's following up does not work; let's try another following up"), one cannot expect it to have a plural form. Wiktionary lists follow-ups as the plural of follow-up. As to picker-upper, compare beater-upper, catcher-upper, cheerer-upper, cleaner-upper, filler-upper, fixer-upper, giver-upper, knocker-upper, looker-upper, maker-upper, messer-upper, rounder-upper, shaker-upper, snapper-upper, waker-upper and washer-upper. I think I see a pattern.  --Lambiam 06:24, 1 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Well, comparing to other germanic languages, one would expect uppicker, not picker-upper or pick-upper or picker-up. Similarly, upfollow (plural: upfollows), not follow-up. But then, English is no longer a real V2 language, so the preposition/adverb part never precedes the verb part in these seperable verbs. PiusImpavidus (talk) 08:58, 1 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]