Language desk
< February 25	<< Jan \| February \| Mar >>	February 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.

February 26

500 year old English poem

How accurate is the pronunciation in this recording? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCckcTHWqKw How do we know how accurate it is? Did scholars of that time describe the sounds of their own language, or did non-English scholars write "English as she is spoke" textbooks? Did they have a "Medieval IPA"? Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 18:29, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

No expert, but poetry that is clearly intended to rhyme is a common source. Inconsistent spelling may also be a source, since you can from that potentially tell what words writers thought sounded the same. Blythwood (talk) 19:40, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The recording is pretty good, I'd say, although the pronunciation model seems rather conservative for the early 16th century. It's mostly spoken according to the reconstructed pronuncation of classical Chaucerian Middle English of about a century earlier. In the early 1500s you'd expect the vowel system to have progressed in the direction of the Great Vowel Shift at least to some extent (at least according to the reconstructions we are citing in that article), and the recording shows no sign of that. Still, the speaker clearly knows what he's doing and executes it beautifully. – As for how we know about the reconstructed pronunciation, it's a combination of evidence of spelling, rhymes, internal reconstruction from earlier and later changes of the language, and (from the 16th century onwards) some contemporary theorists who made attempts at describing the sounds of the language. Incidentally, the closest you'd get to a "Medieval IPA" may have been the system of reformed spelling proposed by John Hart in the middle of the 16th century. Fut.Perf. ☼ 20:02, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Person + wanderlust

Do you say "a person": "has wanderlust", "is wanderlust", "is a wanderluster", is "wanderlust-ish" or something else?--Llaanngg (talk) 22:07, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

"Has wanderlust" or "has the wanderlust" would be the usual way of expressing it. Tevildo (talk) 22:18, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

And what about using it as adjective? Could you say, "Tom is a wanderlust guy"? --Llaanngg (talk) 22:43, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

"Wanderlust" is strictly a noun.[1] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:03, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

And what makes it "strictly a noun"? "History" and "election" are also "strictly a noun" according to the same source, however, you can still say things like "history teacher" or "election day". What are the restrictions on using nouns as adjectives? --Llaanngg (talk) 23:11, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know if it helps answer your question, but our article on nouns modifying other nouns is noun adjunct. Loraof (talk) 23:21, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I suppose that if wanderlust is a harmful trait for someone, that person could be called a wanderlust victim, so it could be used before another noun in at least some circumstances. Loraof (talk) 23:23, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

(ec) :A common feature of all the noun+noun examples here is the implied preposition of: history teacher=teacher of history; election day=day of the election; wanderlust victim=victim of wanderlust. But wanderlust guy≠guy of wanderlust, so it is incorrect. Loraof (talk) 23:32, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Seems reasonable, but do you have a source for this rule?--Llaanngg (talk) 23:46, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I don't. But in addition to noun adjunct, you might also look at English compound. It has these valid phrases that do not contain an implied of : distance learning=learning at a distance and lawn tennis=tennis on a lawn. Loraof (talk) 00:37, 27 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Wanderlust guy may not be an expression that would be used in general conversation, but it could come up if there was prior context. ("Okay, there are three of them and I've looked into what they all like. Smith is into pretty young women (specifically, he's a leg man), Jones is after power for its own sake, and Largutroyd-Jacksville has a serious case of wanderlust."—"What did you say the wanderlust guy's name was again?") Here wanderlust guy means guy with wanderlust.

Also note, in that last example, that leg man doesn't mean man of leg, but something like man who evaluates women based on the appearance of their legs. --69.159.61.172 (talk) 19:51, 27 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I vote for "wanderlusty", as in "He was one heck of a wanderlusty guy." 02:11, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

I agree that is cromulent usage. A "wanderlusting guy" might also work. Bloodlust goes to Bloodthirsty, but "bloodlusting" has some use, "a bloodlusting romance{ [2]. SemanticMantis (talk) 20:11, 28 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

"Wanderlusful" would be good, too, with a distinct meaning difference from that "wanderlusty". Heh. "I used to be wanderlusty, traveling at least five times a year just for kicks. But I'm so busy these days with the kids and the business, I'm just wanderslustful for travel I can't have any time soon." — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽^ʌⱷ҅_ᴥⱷ^ʌ≼ 12:22, 1 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

"Tom is a rolling stone".

"Tom is a wanderer". StuRat (talk) 23:26, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Those examples are fine, but my question is directed more towards how to use this concrete word (or nouns as adjectives) than to express its concept of being eager to move.Llaanngg (talk) 23:34, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

→Wanderlust (disambiguation)

→Wanderlust (=desire of hiking)

Example in older German language (Year 1902):

Er hat Wanderlust. = "He [is in|has] [ lust|desire] of hiking."
Es packte ihn die Wanderlust = "The Wanderlust took him" or "He was seized by Wanderlust."

--Hans Haase (有问题吗) 00:44, 27 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

See associative The Mountain Calls. A little smell is the word wandern by using without contents of leisure and moutains, as the Nazis made their solidiers hike into World War II and the word wandern was abused conquering or exploring foreign theretories as "hiking", what separates its today meaning form traveling. Wandern a propaganda or demonstration or protest march still exists.[3] (Don't feed!) No problems are known in the content of Bergwandern as hiking a mountain or hill which is leisure and tourism. Wanderlust in clear such content should have no problems. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 01:20, 27 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]