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July 24

Which + <noun>...? vs. What + <noun>... ?

I'm looking for questions of the type "Which/What + <noun>...?", so that changing the interrogative word by the other interrogative word may sound non-native. 2A06:C701:7B31:C100:7D63:C50F:C3A5:9744 (talk) 12:47, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Which/what car do you drive? Which/what kind of food do you like to eat?

"If we’re presented with an infinite number or an undetermined number, then “what” is always the choice. However, if the choices are narrowed down to a more specific selection, we can use “which.”" AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 14:06, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

So, can "WHAT" always be the default, for a non-native speaker unaware of that rule? 2A06:C701:7B31:C100:7D63:C50F:C3A5:9744 (talk) 14:17, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the same site I linked above advises "It’s worth noting that “what” can be used in place of “which” it’s just more informal if you were to do so." AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 14:24, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. 2A06:C701:7B31:C100:7D63:C50F:C3A5:9744 (talk) 14:34, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If you have told someone there are only two options, chicken soup and tomato soup, it sounds IMO a bit peculiar if you then ask, "What soup shall I get for you?". At least to me, "Which soup shall I get for you?" sounds better. --Lambiam 17:03, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Phrases like "which one" and "which answer" often follow multiple choices too. For example, "Our sides are A, B, C and D, which one would you like?" is more natural than substituting "what one" and it would appear that Google's Ngram viewer confirms this. [1] Quoting the above citation: "We may already be presented with a list of potential answers, and we’re just asking someone to clarify which one applies to them." Of course, "what" is definitely used when asking open-ended questions such as:"We have A,B, C and more, what would you like?", although I think it's natural to ask "Which one would you like?" even then... Sentence order matters, compare: "What dressing would you like? We have..." to "We have... Which one would you like?". Modocc (talk) 17:32, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Are there apps or any software, that can identify the native language of a speaker currently speaking in a non-native language (e.g. English)?

2A06:C701:7B31:C100:7D63:C50F:C3A5:9744 (talk) 13:18, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Google Translate does this. If it's not sure, such as when the words could come from multiple languages, it tells you which languages, along with the translations. Matt Deres (talk) 14:11, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect Google-Translate can't do this, unless the text is written. If it's spoken using microphone, Google-Translate can't identify the language, even when spoken by a native speaker.

Anyway, I was asking about identifying a person's native language, when they are currently speaking in a non-native language (e.g. English), rather than in their native language we want to identify. 2A06:C701:7B31:C100:7D63:C50F:C3A5:9744 (talk) 14:30, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

So you're asking if there's software that can identify someone's accent, if they're speaking English with a French/Italian/German/Swedish/Danish/Finnish/Norwegian/etc/etc/etc accent? That sounds like a big ask. AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 14:44, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yep. Maybe AI can help? 2A06:C701:7B31:C100:7D63:C50F:C3A5:9744 (talk) 14:52, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Even bigger than one thinks...for example, people in France or Germany do speak with at least a little hint of their local accents (as do English speakers...Mancunian, Liverpudlian etc.)...irl, you rarely will encounter these stereotypical "accent speakers" (Maurice Chevalier) which are propagated by media. So you would need an even finer mesh to be able to differentiate between Parisian, Bavarian, or Berlinish accents/sociolects. Even AI might be a little overwhelmed by that. Lectonar (talk) 15:01, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I would say that in the last ten years or so, genuine French and German people on British TV have taken to using increasingly comic accents. There's an alleged Frenchman called "Fred Serieuse" or somesuch who sounds like Inspector Clouseau on a very bad day. DuncanHill (talk) 23:56, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I guess AI may overcome it, by listening to millions of speeches already known (or already defined) to be spoken in a given "typical" accent, say a "British" accent defined in advance to be a "typical British" accent. Thus AI may build a list of typical features of that typical accent. The same may be done for every other typical accent defined in advance, e.g. a "typical Mid-west American" accent, and so forth. After building a list of say 200 accents defined in advance to be "typical", the next step AI should take, is to identify - how close to a given typical accent - our own accent is. All of that may help identify in what accent we speak English, whether our accent is British or American or French or Chinese or Swahili or whatever. HOTmag (talk) 15:13, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Estimates of the number of UK regional accents vary between 40 and 56. I think you'd need a lot more than 200. Alansplodge (talk) 18:56, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The number of "main" accents depends on our choice: For example we can define a list of eight "main" typical accents: Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, French, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian. All depends on what we define in advance to be "main". Then, AI should compare our own accent with this list only, and the output should be something like: "The typical accent closest to your own accent is Chinese", even if I'm a native English speaker, because English is not on the specific selected list defined in advance. In my previous response, I suggested a list of 200 accents defined in advance to be: "[main] typical accents". HOTmag (talk) 23:52, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There are local accents too, right? I mean, many people can within their own region pinpoint the exact village a speaker comes from. One village sounds significant different from the next, just three kilometres away. PiusImpavidus (talk) 11:23, 25 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You can statistically analyse the speech:

How is each phoneme pronounced exactly? Part of this is accent, part is voice, part is random variation, so there's a limit to the amount of information you can extract from that.
What's prosody like? To what extend is it stress timed, syllable timed or mora timed? There's a continuum in that. Does the speech appear tonal? We can assign numbers to that.
How are words chosen? For example, English often has pairs of synonyms, one from Germanic, one from Romance, and the speaker may have a preference for one of them.
Look at syntax. Not only the errors, but also the ratio of alternative constructions both grammatical in the language. For example, English allows preposition + pronoun (in which) and a pronominal adverb (wherein) as alternatives, with the former far more common. If the speaker prefers the latter, chances are he's Dutch (or a lawyer).

Also, the question is about finding the native language of the speaker, not the accent. A person from Amsterdam speaking English has a different accent than one from Antwerp speaking English, although their native languages are the same.

So, you have to record enough speech to get statistics with sufficiently small error bars, collect similar statistics for a large number of accents, each belonging to some native language, then you can compute a score for how well the speech fits a particular native language. You first have to find the accent, then the language and there are more accents, so you need more statistics.

It's just statistics, no intelligence needed, artificial or otherwise (some intelligence may be required for tagging the recordings). But then, AI is just a huge pile of statistics with software calculating correlations. Collecting the statistics may be a challenge and I doubt a suitable corpus is available to make this work well. PiusImpavidus (talk) 11:18, 25 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think the short answer is no. There is no currently functional app to detect accents. It could exist in the future, but even if an AI could utilize the existence of millions of youtube videos there would still be a lot of arbitrary positives or errors, since in the end of the day each human has a unique way of speaking and speech changes over time. Now there would be significant interest for such an app for forensic investigations for Immigration authorities, who has a lot of problems with identifying 'true' geographic origins of individuals. See [2], Language analysis for the determination of origin. --Soman (talk) 10:36, 25 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

using past perfect verbs with dates in the same sentence

Should past perfect verbs be used in a sentence beginning with the year that a past date happened? I was copyediting this article's history section and found the use of "had" repetitive. When looking into when and when not to use them, I was stuck on the appropriateness of using past perfect in a sentence like "By the end of the financial year in 1874, 1,100 pounds had been spent in construction, of an estimated total of 13,200 pounds." Thank you for your help! Decsok (talk) 18:46, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Entirely appropriate. According to Pluperfect (aka past perfect) the tense relates 'to an action that occurred prior to an aforementioned time in the past'. You have a textbook example. Starting from a specific past moment (EoFY 1874), it then refers to one or more preceding events (x pounds had been spent). Alternatively, it could have said 'In FY 1874, x pounds were spent', thus not splitting the spending events from the end of financial year. -- Verbarson ^talk_edits 19:02, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! Decsok (talk) 19:38, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If money had been spent on the same project in earlier financial years, the alternative formulation is not equivalent. It could be that 300 pounds were spent in construction in FY 1873, and a further 800 pounds in FY 1874. Then, by the end of FY 1873, 300 pounds had been spent in construction, which, by the end of FY 1874, had grown to a whopping 1,100 pounds, but in FY 1874 only 800 pounds were spent. --Lambiam 00:24, 25 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

July 29

Tais everywhere!

Looking at the names of four Taiwanese cities, Taipei (臺北), Taichung (臺中), Tainan (臺南) and Taitung (臺東), it can be seen that they share the same first character (臺 Tai, as in 臺灣 Taiwan) while the second one indicates their positions in relation to the island of Taiwan (north, center, south and east respectively). What I'm asking is why the "positional" character is the second one and not the first? I'm not a speaker of Chinese but, from what I know about it, I would be expecting a scheme such as: North-Tai, Center-Tai, South-Tai and East-Tai, not the opposite. Can someone explain this situation to me? ~~Are there other examples like this?~~ (I'm erasing this second question because evidently it may sound like I'm asking about any language while I'm talking specifically about Chinese.) Thank you! 79.35.53.87 (talk) 00:06, 29 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Paris-Nord, Paris-Sud, Paris-Est. --Lambiam 11:59, 29 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Word order is not the same in all languages.DOR (ex-HK) (talk) 20:09, 29 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Chinese has Beijing and Nanjing, but also Hubei and Hunan. Is there a systematic to these differences or is the order free? The translations suggest that direction in the first position indicates an adjective characterising the second part (northern and southern capital), whereas second position represents a direction with respect to the first part (to the north and south of the lake; in the north/south/centre of Taiwan?). I've forgotten too much Chinese... --Wrongfilter (talk) 20:43, 29 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There's also Hainan and Nanhai. both made up of Nan/南 and Hai/海。 I think it's just names. I have no experience of Taiwan but in China it's common to form Chinese names of two or three characters with little regard for grammatical meaning/word order. I am thinking of personal names and company names, but it surely applies also to place names which will still be being devised today. And who knows, in a hundred or a thousand years maybe a village being named today will be the capital of a future state.--2A04:4A43:901F:FE56:7C29:7255:3786:BFF3 (talk) 06:46, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

From what I understand direction-second is far more common, with Beijing et al. being the exception. Remsense诉 07:52, 3 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Another thought. Chinese is an odd language. It seems to have a long and stable history, with written characters from thousands of years ago easily understood today. Also for most of its history it was expressed in one way, using Classical Chinese which was the main way of writing Chinese up until a hundred years ago or so.

But Chinese changed dramatically over this time. Classical Chinese is very different from modern vernacular Chinese, really a different language. And the spoken language changed even more, changes that have been disguised by the stability of the written forms.

So it's possible word order was different, or far more flexible, when some of the names here were devised. There are examples at Classical Chinese grammar#Core constituent order of this in particular contexts. It's possible therefore that place names that now seem odd were once correct, according to the grammar of earlier versions of Chinese. Then once written down and widely used the names were fixed, so didn't change as grammar changed.--2A04:4A43:90FF:FB2D:B95F:6B63:16FE:9FE3 (talk) 13:10, 5 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

An Egyptian "god of the extended arm"

On pg 2 of Budge's Book of the Dead lexicon, where is the reference? "Au-a", the "god of the extended arm." I'd like to see that page of papyrus. It sounds like a famous Exodus-related phrase. Deuteronomy 4:34 and 5:15 "with a mighty hand and outstretched arm." Temerarius (talk) 03:01, 29 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

July 30

What is this hieroglyph?

What's the doughy, ugly glyph on the upper right and lower left? https://i.postimg.cc/KzWSv8fr/IMG-3692.jpg ^[1] Temerarius (talk) 19:51, 30 July 2024 (UTC) Temerarius (talk) 19:51, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

D19, maybe? AnonMoos (talk) 10:56, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I doubt it; when a symbol is anthropomorphic it's unmistakably so.

Temerarius (talk) 18:03, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to me to be a reasonably good fit (the only one among the "standard" signs) if only the side of the nose is shown, but I won't insist on it... AnonMoos (talk) 00:21, 2 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The only one I found was F161. Never seen that weird glyph before.

Temerarius (talk) 18:17, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In "the essential Gardiner Middle Egyptian sign list", the F series only goes to F52, while in an extended listing that I have ("ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N1944") it only goes to F156, so F161 must be a lesser-used (possibly rather obscure) hieroglyph... AnonMoos (talk) 00:21, 2 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Rather obscure I'm sure; jsesh is where I found it. The inventor of the app claims to be fairly conservative on inclusion but it can't be that exclusive. I wish they'd refer to a relief photo on the rarer ones.

Temerarius (talk) 02:43, 2 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Pinch, Geraldine (2010-03-01). Magic in Ancient Egypt. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 19. ISBN 0-292-72262-1.

Is there a generic term for "speaker or signer" yet?

It is uncontroversial both that signed language is truly its own modality distinct from speech, and also that much linguistics work limits itself to the latter and will be up-front about that. That's fine in most cases—they are very different modes, so it's hard to write about both!—but it struck me just now that every interdisciplinary work I've read has to go out of its way to repeat "speaker or signer" if desiring to explicitly indicate both spoken and signed language. What would we choose if we had to invent one? Utterer? Seaker? Spigner? Remsense诉 20:00, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"Communicator"? Maybe still not clear outside of context... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 22:39, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Another term that does not depend on the modality of the communication channel is sender. Yet another modality-independent term is messager, but sender has the advantage of having a modality-independent term for the counterpart, namely receiver.

--Lambiam 22:43, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sender seems particularly suited for general interdisciplinary linguistics discussion, thanks!. Remsense诉 22:46, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wait! @Lambiam et al., what would senders and receivers together be? I think interlocutor is almost perfect, but it implies a dialogue dimension to written language that doesn't necessary line up. Remsense诉 07:34, 5 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Someone putting up a billboard with a message and people reading this message are generally speaking definitely not interlocutors. (An ancient Roman would have understood the word interlocutor as meaning someone interrupting a speaker, such as a heckler.) The term may be appropriate for the sender and receiver of a personal mail message, in which case the receiver can usually respond when they so choose, but not for one-way communication channels. Since reading a message involves a form of agency, you might write that you'll use the word "agent" in this communication context as a term encompassing both senders and receivers of messages. --Lambiam 10:47, 5 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think I've seen "text users" in this context in scholarly works about "text production", but I like the suggestion of "agent" even better. Folly Mox (talk) 11:06, 5 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes! Once again, agent is perfect. Remsense诉 11:09, 5 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What are these cuneiform signs?

This may be a follow-up on my question of Ishtar spellings. Is dingir "Ur" here, and the glyphs to the side are Istaran? Or is the dingir "ra" in Istaran?

https://i.postimg.cc/9X119kHK/istaran.png

Temerarius (talk) 20:05, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The eight-pointed asterisk is a version of the "star" or "heaven" sign (see article An (cuneiform)), and likely is a determinative sign indicating that a deity name follows, without itself having any pronunciation in this context (that's what the superscript "d" means). The signs which actually write the name itself seem to be loosely sketched in. This image has a rather low relevant information content for its 1.9 megabyte file size. I'm not sure why you're seeking the Akkadian goddess name "Ishtar" in a Sumerian context. I have a scan of a page from a 19th century book which lists Akkadian deity names in 1st millennium B.C. Assyrian versions of cuneiform signs, and it gives several alternative spellings for Ishtar, none of which look anything like the vague rectangles in the 1.9 megabyte image. I'm not sure of the source or where I downloaded it from (in 2006), so can't upload it here... AnonMoos (talk) 23:31, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Because I want to know every spelling, all attestations of Asherah, Ishtar, Astarte, and anything that can be confused for them. I'd love to see that page of yours if you can think of anywhere to upload it. Temerarius (talk) 01:21, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'll do a reverse Google image search later today to see if I can track down its source. I don't know anything about image hosting services (have never used one as uploader). Also, the name Asherah has nothing to do with the others: in Hebrew and similar languages it begins with an Aleph or voiceless glottal stop, while `Ashtaroth (singular `Ashtoreth) begins with an `Ayin or voiced pharyngeal consonant. In the older non-Eastern Semitic languages, these are two completely separate consonants, as distinct as "p" and "k", though this can be obscured by the confusable apostrophes often used in Latin alphabet transcriptions. I doubt that the two goddess names were confused in Hebrew... AnonMoos (talk) 12:03, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Tineye didn't find anything, and Google Images search by image found a lot of "related" stuff not specifically relevant. If you can recommend an image upload site with a minimum fuss, muss, and required personal information, I might upload it there. AnonMoos (talk) 07:05, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

at postimages, the one I used above, you just have to load the page and ctrl-v after copying the image and it'll upload.

Temerarius (talk) 23:18, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

OK, it's apparently at https://postimg.cc/87wk6Ts5 ... -- AnonMoos (talk) 20:51, 2 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The source is Leonard William King's First Steps in Assyrian (1898). GalacticShoe (talk) 07:36, 3 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Was Asherah an actual name, or a title that could be applied to female consorts of Caananite gods in general? (I'm sure I've seen a passage translated as ("X and his Asherah.")

Either way, did it perhaps derive (in changed form) from an older name of a particular goddess in Mesopotamian (or another) mythology? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.2.67.235 (talk) 00:36, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The word sometimes referred to a goddess (with different characteristics in different cultures), sometimes to a tree or pole, but was still basically a name (proper noun)... AnonMoos (talk) 07:05, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

the logic behind the existence of the "his" and its implication is quite forced and not unanimous.

Temerarius (talk) 23:19, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia article Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions#Grammar... -- AnonMoos (talk) 00:29, 2 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What about it? I wrote that section. I wrote all the sections.

Temerarius (talk) 02:40, 2 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It was more for the benefit of 94.2.67.235 and possibly other curious individuals. AnonMoos (talk) 03:00, 2 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

And I did indeed find it interesting. Thank you. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.1.211.211 (talk) 00:30, 3 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ishakshar? DuncanHill (talk) 00:42, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

July 31

Argelasse

Provence, it has been said, "smells of argelasse and wild lavender and broom...". Lavender and broom I know, but what is argelasse? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 00:18, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Websearching only finds it as an Italian surname, bar the one story on Wikisource you've doubtless seen. I suspect it's a misprint, but I haven't been able to figure out what for: Angelica seems to fit the context, but is too different.

The same spelling appears in the story in the collection on Project Gutenberg, but that is Wikisource's source, so no help. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.2.67.235 (talk) 01:06, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Possibly Artemisia (plant). 41.23.55.195 (talk) 05:04, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'd go for fr:Ulex parviflorus, "known in Languedoc and Provence under the names of argelàs, argelat or argeràs". However, that name is also given to fr:Genêt épineux (the article gives the occitan form arjelàs). --Wrongfilter (talk) 05:49, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

According to French Wiktionary the plural of Occitan argelàs is argelasses. They go with the genêt épineux meaning. --Antiquary (talk) 09:34, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This seems to be the answer, especially as épineux is described as noted for its scent, whereas the Ulexes are (in my experience) less obviously scented.

Curious that Onions chose to use a name presumably unfamiliar to most English readers, when he could have used broom with reasonable accuracy, though perhaps I underestimate the Victorians' grasp of botany and Provencal. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.2.67.235 (talk) 12:14, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"smells of broom, wild lavender and broom" would be rather an odd thing to say. "smells of gorse, wild lavender and broom" seems to me to be far more likely. The use and status of Provencal is alluded to in the story. Gorse blossom smells of coconut. DuncanHill (talk) 17:19, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, my mistake. I meant gorse, but had become confused by all the related plants I was looking up. And I did read the story. (The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.2.67.235 (talk) 00:29, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ulex parviflorus created a little while ago. (Curiously, I remember the scent of gorse from Canberra)--Shirt58 (talk) 🦘 02:07, 3 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If anyone has a source, perhaps the local names could be added to the English language article (which only uses the Latin binomial)? Alansplodge (talk) 11:07, 3 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

IRL

Why do people use "IRL" even when simply "RL" is more grammatically correct? 120.148.140.163 (talk) 09:30, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"In real life" is grammatically fine. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:34, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

IRL is an established acronym, so a phrasing like "IRL Situation" would likely be more understod than "RL Situation". 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 11:42, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

See also RAS syndrome for a related situation. Matt Deres (talk) 16:37, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's established, and part of the reason it's established is its phonotactics feel natural when spoken. I think in many possible sentences "RL" is just a hair more awkward for the flow of speech. But maybe that's just because I'm less used to hearing it. Remsense诉 15:06, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Blue Skies

I have just received a couple of emails from a former MP which he signs "yours faithfully and Blue Skies". What does "Blue Skies" mean in this context? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 20:14, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It originated in the world of aviation, and means best wishes, have a great day full of clear weather yada yada.

Be thankful they didn't mention green fields or low-hanging fruit. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:56, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

August 1

A riddle that (only?) native speakers can solve.

I'M SOMETHING. I KISS MY MOTHER BEFORE I DIE. WHAT AM I? The answer should be a MATCH STICK, but why? (I'm not a native English speaker). 2A06:C701:7452:1100:C19F:7292:E0F:18EE (talk) 11:28, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What publication is this in? Does it just give the riddle and the answer with no word of explanation? 91.234.214.10 (talk) 11:52, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

See here, question 11#. 2A06:C701:7452:1100:C19F:7292:E0F:18EE (talk) 14:54, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think you have to be a native speaker to figure it out, but like many riddles, it's based on pretty strained, figurative reasoning. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 12:10, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I can't see the mother here. 2A06:C701:7452:1100:C19F:7292:E0F:18EE (talk) 14:55, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Presumably the "mother" here is the matchbox. Shantavira|^{feed me} 12:16, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Got it! 91.234.214.10 (talk) 12:45, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In what variety, is the matchbox called "mother"? Again, I'm not a native speaker. 2A06:C701:7452:1100:C19F:7292:E0F:18EE (talk) 14:49, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not aware of any such variety. I think it's just not a very good riddle. --Trovatore (talk) 15:00, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What surprises me, is that this riddle appears in some websites, as a question that should be answered, and all of the respondents gave the same answer. But you're right, it seems that no variety uses this term, AFAIK. HOTmag (talk) 15:08, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you Trovatore and HOTmag. 2A06:C701:7452:1100:C19F:7292:E0F:18EE (talk) 15:12, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Here's another riddle. How do you know that HOTmag and 2A06:C701 are one and the same? 91.234.214.10 (talk) 15:26, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I have no idea who the OP is. Maybe what made you think so, is my correction of a grammatical mistake the OP has made? Anyway, if the OP was not satisfied with this correction, they could revert it, but they didn't revert when they thanked me and the other user. HOTmag (talk) 15:40, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Some of the riddles feature nonstandard English:

3. I am something everybody like me but when they see me they ran away. What am I? And: EXCRETE

The sentence is ungrammatical, "And" is not an abbreviation for "Answer", and excrete is not a noun. --Lambiam 15:58, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yep. Btw you can find this riddle in many other websites, written in standard English. Like this one (the fifth riddle). HOTmag (talk) 16:15, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It seems that "my mother" is equivalent to "the place I came from". HOTmag (talk) 15:46, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

My first question ("Am I right?") was not about "opinion", but rather about whether my calculation was correct, algebraically and arithmetically and logically. As for my last question, it seems you didn't interpret me well. For the correct interpretation, please see the second paragraph - of my previoius response you've just responded to. 2A06:C701:7463:9900:11BA:FAE2:6F7E:5413 (talk) 18:02, 18 November 2023 (UTC)

I've already approved your answer, in my previous response, so I wonder why you had to repeat the same answer. I only added that also my answer (that preceded yours) was correct. HOTmag (talk) 18:59, 30 July 2024 (UTC)

Don't tell me that the above two responses are from different people. 91.234.214.10 (talk) 17:35, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about. Your second quotation is mine, but I'm not familiar with your first quotation. Anyway, how is all of that related to the topic? If you have any further personal comments, you should only ask me about them on my talk page, not here. HOTmag (talk) 18:15, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

August 4

Could tantrum be related to tantra, or do they only happen to be similar?

Whenever I see the word tantra, it always reminds me of the word tantrum, as in having a temper tantrum. According to Wiktionary, the Sanskrit word is descended from the Proto-Indo-European root *ten-, which means to stretch or extend, while the English word used to be spelt tantrem or tanterum. Latin has a similar word; tantum, which means "so much, to such a degree", "as much of this as that", or "merely".

Fiddling with the search bar also led me to become aware of the word tantara, which is a shortened version of a word that represents the sound of a trumpet or horn. Taking that into consideration, it could be that the act of making a loud, rambunctious display of oneself may have once been referred to as "blowing a tarantara" (sounding a trumpet) and that—down the line—the voiced bilabial plosive (/b/) may have been erroneously picked up as a voiceless dental fricative (/θ/) and tantara may have occasionally been mixed up with trump, which could explain the -um at the end of tant(e)rum. In a nutshell:

blow a tarantara → blow a tantara → throw a tanterum → throw a tantrum

Alternatively, it also seems possible that tantrem could've been the result of tantara being mixed up with a word like tremble or tremolo, both of which are descended from the Latin word tremulāre, meaning to shake, quiver, or tremble. This would make sense to me, as temper tantrums often involve someone being loud and rambunctious (and making repetitive movements) in a manner that may cause some of the people around them to quiver out of concern for that person's sanity.

trump

tantara

trem

tanterum

tantrem

tantrum

With all of this unsubstantiated personal speculation in mind, I assume that tantrum may not be related to tantra after all, though both words may refer to different types of activities. – MrPersonHumanGuy (talk) 14:12, 4 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

EO says "tantrum" is of unknown origin.[3] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:32, 4 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You might wish to read Folk etymology. In short, tracing the true origins of words requires a detailed study of multi-language evolution based on written records and sophisticated philological deductions, rather than superficial similarities. The forms of words are extremely mutable over centuries, as are, independently, the meanings of those words, which can change drastically and even reverse. Your conjectures could be true, but without evidence so could many contradictory others. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.1.211.211 (talk) 21:35, 4 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

And you might wish to read argument from authority. This is cry of someone unfamiliar enough with knowledge methods they think discovery is mountaintop magic, inaccessable to anyone below the peak. Who are these philologists with an understanding that encompasses all languages, putting scholars who claim "multidisciplinary" to shame? Where are the philologists? That's a dusty word. You should read the works of those experts, you'll find them blindered, siloed, overreaching. It's better to lose faith in every thinker, and evaluate each paper and hypothesis as if anonymous. Most papers have two mistakes and an insight. And if there is an insight, you'll be lucky if anyone notices: look at this pdf. http://www.tufs.ac.jp/ts/personal/ratcliffe/comp%20&%20method-Ratcliffe.pdf Ratcliffe uses a messy method and equivocates because he can't tell that other book lacks Chris Ehret's central insights. It's a clear example of a good book and a not good book. And they can't tell.

Temerarius (talk) 17:16, 5 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"The pluralisations of certain foreign nouns adopted by English have proven to be conundra, and their misuse often drives linguists to tantra." (Jack of Oz, 19 December 2007) -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 23:17, 4 August 2024 (UTC) [reply]

These aberrant pluralisations mark their users as ignorami. --Lambiam 11:42, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sweet irony. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 11:49, 6 August 2024 (UTC) [reply]

Early uses appear to be in the plural, as the tantrums or the tanterums.^[4][5][6][7] As a state of high agitation, it is an antonym of the doldrums, a state of apathy. --Lambiam 00:45, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

August 5

Latin inscription

Could I have a translation for this inscription please:

QUISQUIS ADES QUI MORTE CADES, STA, PERLEGE, PLORA. SUM QUOD ERIS, FUERAM QUOD ES. PRO ME PREDOR, ORA.

Machine translations are a bit garbled. It's from a 14th century coffin lid in St Mary's Church, Sturminster Marshall in Dorset. Alansplodge (talk) 13:16, 5 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The second sentence at least is a rather well known epitaph from some tombs of roman military, followed by a plea to pray for the deceased :"I once was what you are, you will be what I am." As for the first sentence: I don't what know to make of Cades, but the last 3 words would be: pause (here), (and) by law, lament (my passing). But it#s not really easy to translate. Lectonar (talk) 14:22, 5 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wouldn't "perlege" be "read", and "cades" the future tense of cado 'fall'? I'd go for:

Bystander, whoever you are, who will fall to death: pause, read, and weep. I am what you will be; I used to be what you are now; please pray for me. (I'm assuming that predor is a typo for precor, right?) Fut.Perf. ☼ 14:35, 5 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Literally, "Anyone, you who are present, who will fall to death, stand, read through, weep. I am what you will be, I had been what you are. Pray for me, I pray." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.234.214.10 (talk) 18:06, 5 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It should indeed be precor; moreover, fueram should be fueramque – "I am what you will be and had been what you are".^[8] The inscription has no phrasal punctuation. If a comma is inserted after the interjection precor, there should also be one before it: Pro me, precor, ora. --Lambiam 00:11, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you all most kindly. Alansplodge (talk) 08:54, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

BOTs in singular

Is it correct to say that the Falkland Islands are a "British Overseas Territory", in singular? Or should I always say "British Overseas Territories", in plural? Cambalachero (talk) 19:37, 5 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

They are a British Overseas Territory. DuncanHill (talk) 20:06, 5 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'd even accept "The Falkland Islands is a British Overseas Territory". -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:44, 5 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

So do the Beeb^[9] and His Majesty's Government.^[10] --Lambiam 23:46, 5 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

August 6

What is a cat??

When we first learn the meaning of the word cat, we learn a small, domestic animal that purrs, drinks milk, and chases mice. But as we get older, we learn that cat means large, wild animal like a lion or tiger. It's a surprise that these 2 definitions of the word co-exist without confusion. Georgia guy (talk) 00:01, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

People who saw a tiger prowling around and warned "there is a cat" failed to alarm others and got eaten by the cat. As the result of an evolutionary process, people now avoid uses that can cause such confusion. --Lambiam 00:20, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

All languages offer the possibility of ambiguity:

“It's unpleasantly like being drunk."

"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"

"You ask a glass of water.”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Successful communication generally involves recognising the potential for misunderstanding, and avoiding it when it matters. If a large and dangerous stripy felid is lurking around, call it a tiger... AndyTheGrump (talk) 00:49, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Anyway, "cat" in its less-specific meaning can refer to any of the Felidae, large or small. It's "big cat" which means "large, wild animal like a lion or tiger". AnonMoos (talk) 02:21, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Our Kitty Fisher and Pussy Simpkins were big cats, from Bristol. They used to beat up the little Cornish cats when we moved there. DuncanHill (talk) 11:11, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'd say it really only has that meaning in certain specific contexts (e.g. in scientific or ecological discussions). In ordinary conversation, without qualification, it'd invariably be interpreted as referring to the domestic cat. If I told someone "I saw a cat yesterday" and it turned out that I'd seen a tiger in a zoo, they'd think I was being deliberately obtuse. Proteus (Talk) 11:55, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Is this accepted grammar?

I just heard an American on radio tell me that "The first Star Wars films were based off of early science fiction stories". I've heard similar usage from other Americans. I'm Australian. My English teachers would have put big red marks through that, and told me to write "based on". I can accept that language varies around the world, but wondered if this really is standard usage in the US. (And Canada?) HiLo48 (talk) 03:21, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

As a Canadian, I can say it sounds fine to me. Merriam Webster says "since this form is newer, it may seem less formal and less correct to some readers." Clarityfiend (talk) 03:38, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

At one point, somebody did a mass edit changing occurrences of "based off" to "based on" ... but they didn't take into account the idiom "based off of", so following the edit, there were a bunch of occurrences of "based on of". As a North American, I will concur that "based off" and "based off of" both sound quite normal ... but Google Books Ngram Viewer seems to deny the existence of "based off" or "based off of". Other sources, such as "archive.org", "scholar.google.com", and "Chronicling America" admit at most to "based off" (or "based off of") representing a small fraction of the number of occurrences of "based on". Wiktionary admits to this as "U.S." phrasing, but flags it (at least in some cases) as "informal". Fabrickator (talk) 05:08, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds slangy. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:53, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's English as She Is Spoke, eh. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:10, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A well known British phrase is "That bloke off the telly". Alansplodge (talk) 08:58, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's certainly in common usage on this project. I know I've heard this in NA English, but I don't think I've seen it in writing with much frequency. I wouldn't mark it incorrect on a paper I was grading. Folly Mox (talk) 09:21, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I work in an Australian high school. Must ask an English teacher their views. HiLo48 (talk) 10:20, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This song debuted in 1967. The title was later changed, but the lyrics continued as before. [11] 91.234.214.10 (talk) 10:28, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds American, and probably informal American, to my British ears. DuncanHill (talk) 11:09, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It is one thing to use off of and another to use it specifically as the complement of a phrasal verb based on base, which Wiktionary labels as American English. The strange thing is that this ignores the metaphor of using something as a base, a foundation you can build on. At least to me, this is still a live metaphor, and so is something is said to be "based off of" something, its sounds to me as if it is off base. Would you want to live in a house that was built off of its foundation? --Lambiam 12:15, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That last is a different meaning of based. Clarityfiend (talk) 12:36, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) In this song (which mentions the Union Jack) once again the title betrays the lyrics [12]. 91.234.214.10 (talk) 12:40, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"Based off of X" is pretty standard in Canada now. "Based off X" is not common and would sound odd to me. "Based on X" is still common, particularly in commercial use, such as "Based on the book by..." Matt Deres (talk) 18:29, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

[v867-1] Pinch, Geraldine (2010-03-01). Magic in Ancient Egypt. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 19. ISBN 0-292-72262-1.

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