Jump to content

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2013 July 26

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Language desk
< July 25 << Jun | July | Aug >> July 27 >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.


July 26

[edit]

Petre Mihai Bănărescu o Petru Mihai Bănărescu?

[edit]

Ciao tutti,
Mi chiamo "Pietro" in italiano, "Peter" in inglese, "Pedro" in spagnolo, e "Petru" in rumeno.
Ma il nome di questo famoso ittiologo rumeno è "Petre". I don't get it. Why isn't it "Petru"?
Petru în Australia aka --Shirt58 (talk) 13:02, 26 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

A search of the internet indicates Petre is used as a name in Romanian. But the website does not explain the u/e variation. Maybe the one version comes through Greek, rather than Latin, or perhaps Petre comes from one of the Romanian subdialects or was borrowed from a neighboring language. Perhaps someone else here has a name dictionary and can give a better answer. μηδείς (talk) 19:07, 26 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Makoto ni dōmo arigatō, μηδείς-sensei. That answers my question perfectly. Petre în Australia aka --Shirt58 (talk) 11:52, 27 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I basically speculated at you, but you are welcome. I just started reading The Linden and the Oak last night set in Ruthenia and one of the characters is named Petro, as compared to the Russian Pyotr. μηδείς (talk) 15:29, 27 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
The Bolsheviks initially renamed Saint Petersburg as Petrograd, not Pyotrgrad; before making it Leningrad. -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 22:05, 27 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
The Bolsheviks had nothing to do with that. The name was changed at the start of WWI to remove the Germanic elements. I believe the difference between Petrograd and Pyotr is one of stress. The Russian "ё" is reduced as a matter of orthographical convention to "e" in unstressed vowels. Valiantis (talk) 04:05, 28 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Ah yes, thanks. I guess we're used to hearing people say PET-ro-grad, and it's useful to be reminded that Russians stress the final syllable, not the first (pet-ro-GRAD). The letter "ё" is always stressed, so if the stress is to be somewhere else, it has to change to "e". -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 04:15, 28 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Abbottsford

[edit]

Need more input at Talk:Abbotsford,_British_Columbia#Pronunciation.--Canoe1967 (talk) 16:14, 26 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Identify English accent.

[edit]

Say "worry". The pronunciation would be broken into syllables: "wor" and "ry". The "wor" is pronounced like "wer" instead of fixating on the long o sound with an ascending intonation of the er sound. The "ry" is pronounced like "ree" with an ascending intonation of the ee sound. What is this accent? Sneazy (talk) 18:08, 26 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Probably need a bit more than that to go on, but I'm thinking of maybe Brummie or Scouse. Is there any context? Alansplodge (talk) 19:08, 26 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I heard it on Angelina Ballerina. Sneazy (talk) 20:49, 26 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Listening to that cartoon on a Certain Video-Sharing Site, I would say it sounds like an American actress making a reasonable but not perfect attempt at RP, although the article assures us it's Judi Dench's daughter. It's not a natural accent that's spoken anywhere in England, at least. Tevildo (talk) 21:46, 26 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Also, which version of Angelina Ballerina was this, and which character? In the original everyone is supposed to be British I think...but even Judi Dench herself plays someone with a Russian-ish accent. In the newer version the voices are meant to be a bit more multicultural, including a bad Spanish accent, a bad French accent, whatever Judi Dench's Daughter is doing, and an apparently real American accent. Adam Bishop (talk) 02:55, 27 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I think the newer version you are describing is the correct one. The "multiculturalism" is really limited to "Western European". Sneazy (talk) 03:46, 27 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]