Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2006 July 20

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The dot on top of an "i"

What is this called? I recall there is a specific name (not dot) that it's called. Can you help me with this? Thanks. --Proficient 03:05, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Don't laugh, but it's called a tittle. Ziggurat 03:07, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I thought that a tittle was the line across a t, while the dot over an i is a jot. User:Zoe|^(talk) 03:19, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OED and Dictionary.com say 'tittle' - possibly what you're describing is a folk etymology of the phrase? "Jot" comes from iota, and "tittle" translates as a small stroke or mark (from Latin titulus, the same place we get tilde - it was formerly used to describe several different types of diacritic), so the two together imply all manner of minor typographic details. I don't know the name for the line across the t, though. Ziggurat 03:40, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

All right, thanks for your help. --Proficient 03:55, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

bellum

in Latin bellum means war, yet in modern Romance languages it's usually something like guerra or guerre. yet the word for beautiful is bello or bella in some Romance languages. I don't think bello/bella came from bellum but it just seems strange. so where did bello/bella really comes from

From Latin bellus (feminine bella), meaning "beautiful," according to the Oxford English Dictionary -- Mwalcoff 03:25, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you

"War" and "Guerre" were derived from a Teutonic (Proto-Germanic?) root werz-. The OED suggests that the Latin bellum was avoided in French, Italian, Spanish, etc. exactly because it was coincidentally too close to bello. Ziggurat 03:30, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

phonetic and pronounciation help needed

I'm working on some of the fringe sexuality articles. Someone added pronounciation guides for the term "zoophilia" (roughly pronounded USA: either "zow-uh-fil-ya" or "zu-fil-ya" EU/UK:"zu-fil-ee-a" I think, but I'm not sure), but they weren't adequate. Can someone else here help? Ideally I'm after a good suggestion both for IPA (or whatever the appropriate standard is for pronounciation guides) and Latin alphabet phonetic spelling, for USA, UK and possibly AU if different. Thanks! FT2 ^{(Talk | email)} 04:10, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe /zəʊəʊˈfɪlɪə/ and /zoʊəfɪlˈɪə/? My IPA is a bit rusty. Ziggurat 04:19, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In part, I'm also trying to confirm with native speakers how exactly it *is* pronounced too, as well as how thats shown in IPA and phonetically. I've heard 3 pronounciations to date, so I'm not 100% sure if they are all in use or which are the favored ones if so. FT2 ^{(Talk | email)} 08:21, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I can't say I've ever said the word myself :) I'd suggest checking in a dictionary with a good pronunciation guide; sorry I can't help further! Ziggurat 11:04, 22 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Translation needed

Dear wikipedians:

What is the English translation for the following Chinese phrase?:

"对你不客气!"

Thanks a lot!

Shuo Xiang 05:52, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If I'm understanding your attitude correctly, it is a threat right? It should be something like "[You better do this,] or else you're gonna get it!"

(Literally, "[I] won't be 'polite' to you") Alex Ng 06:33, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting. --Proficient 14:17, 24 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Fiddly

According to this dictionary entry - http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861673867/fiddly.html - "fiddly" is a UK word. Is this word recognised in other English-speaking countries? If not, which word would you use instead? (Please don't quote me the Wiktionary entry, because it was written by me, just now.) --Heron 09:10, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think an American could figure it out by context. If a Brit said to me the example sentence used in the Encarta dictionary ("Changing the battery in this type of watch can be quite a fiddly job") I'm sure I'd know what he meant, but I'd certainly never use that word myself. If I were the one changing the battery in the watch I'd probably just say "Changing the battery in this type of watch can be really hard 'cuz the parts are so small and you have to have a steady hand" or something like that. User:Angr 09:38, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Angr. I'm trying to write "international" English, so I think I'll leave out this word and paraphrase instead. --Heron 10:04, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Fiddly is very commonly used and understood in the land down under. JackofOz 10:05, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Atlantis? Black Carrot 16:16, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No, that name was already taken so we had to settle for 'Straya. JackofOz 23:36, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Jack's neighbours in godzone would recognise it, too. Grutness...wha? 03:04, 21 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed. Off topic: I wonder why Australia is referred to as "down under", but as far as I'm aware New Zealand isn't, when NZ is even more down under than Oz is. (Maybe because NZ is just a pretend country ....) :--) JackofOz 04:16, 21 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Or perhaps because "New Zealand" isn't so offensive that it needs a euphemism. User:Angr 15:17, 21 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm Canadian and completely familiar with the word.--Anchoress 03:50, 22 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I certainly didn't know what it meant, but could infer it quite easily. --Proficient 14:21, 24 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary (an American source) describes the word as "chiefly British" [1]. I'm Canadian and in my experience the word is used in Canadian English, but generally not by young people. --Mathew5000 10:01, 25 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

British v. American English

When editing en.wikipedia articles, is it appropriate to use American spelling or British spelling? Specifically, I'm asking about the use of meter v. metre.

Mikieminnow 12:45, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Best use is to follow the style the article is already in: if its written in British English, use that; if its in American English, use that. The exception is if an article is specifically tied to one country, then whatever the local varient is should be adopted.--iamajpeg 12:55, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Because Wikipedia has readers from all over the world, our policy is to respect other forms of English in Wikipedia articles.

The guidelines are simple. For subjects exclusively related to Britain (for example, a famous British person), use British English. For something related to the United States in the same way, use American English. If it is an international topic, use the same form of English the original author used.

In view of that, please don't change articles from one version of English to the other, even if you don't normally use the version the article is written in. Respect other people's versions of English. They in turn should respect yours. Other general guidelines on how Wikipedia articles are written can be found in the Wikipedia:Manual of Style. If you have any queries about all this, just ask anyone on Wikipedia and they will help you. Enjoy your time on the internet's fastest growing encyclopædia/encyclopedia. Lectonar 12:58, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for all the help! Mikieminnow 13:17, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

For meter/metre, you can often avoid the debate and just use m. Rmhermen 16:51, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

not if you're discussing the structure of a poem! Grutness...wha? 03:06, 21 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've always wondered... how hard would it be to just have a built in wikipedia user interface that would allow one to view the spelling you are familiar with, much how their is a date (mm/dd/yy) that you can set in the preferences. Or would that be too tedious? --Proficient 14:23, 24 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've thought about it too. At Chinese Wikipedia you can choose whether to view a page in simplified or traditional characters. The difference between that and BrEn vs AmEn, though, is that in the English case it isn't always a one-to-one correspondence. Americans spell the verb "tire" and the noun "tire" (of a car) the same, Brits spell the verb "tire" but the noun "tyre"; the software would have to know which was being used. British uses spelt both for a type of grain and for the past tense/past participle of spell; American uses spelt for the former and spelled for the latter. British spelling has programme except in the case of computer programs, which are spelled program; that's something else the software would have to be able to detect. American spelling uses analogue to mean an object of analogy but analog as an antonym of "digital"; British spells both meanings analogue (I think). Then there are names: even Americans spell Labour with a u when speaking of Tony Blair's party, while the Australian party is spelled Labor even though the common noun is labour in Australia. And finally, Canadian Wikipedians might want their own version, using Canadian spelling, which is a fun blend of British and American spellings. All in all, I think it would just be too complicated to implement. User:Angr 10:20, 25 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

unity makes strength

how do you say "in unity is strength" and "unity makes strength" (both phrases) in Latin?

Vires in unitate, In unitate vires, Unitas vires facit etc. are possibilities. See the motto of Haiti for a French version. AnonMoos 13:36, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

classic: ex unitate vires --Seejyb 18:34, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's the motto of the old South Africa [2] - AnonMoos 06:37, 21 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Summary

Hi,

I have been trying to find a summary for Dickens' "The Trial for Murder" and "The Haunted House"

Maybe I am not very good at it but it has been about a week already and I have not found anything.

If you can help me, I would really be thankful.

Eddy

Try www.google.com searches:

summary Dickens "The Trial for Murder"

or

synopsis Dickens "The Trial for Murder"

or

review Dickens "The Trial for Murder"

or

criticism Dickens "The Trial for Murder"

and then

summary Dickens "The Haunted House"

or

synopsis Dickens "The Haunted House"

or

review Dickens "The Haunted House"

or

criticism Dickens "The Haunted House"

Somewhere in there you should find a good review for each. StuRat 23:22, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

They're short stories, why not just read them and summarise them yourself?--Anchoress 02:01, 22 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Since they are so short, I assumed perhaps the person wanted an explanation that explains and analyzes it thoroughly. --Proficient 14:24, 24 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Staircase Paper cuts

Is there a term for paper which is cut so that it forms a "staircase" when stacked? One can see that e.g. with Address books and various personal organizers, with cuts tagged A-Z. (Background: I want to describe the "bidding box" device which you can see here Image:Bidding_box.jpg, but don't know how to put it simply). Duja 15:20, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

One way of referring to it (when assembled in bound form) is "tabs". Don't know what terms the printers use to describe the actual process of paper cutting. AnonMoos 16:47, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ah that's how the tabs got the name :-D? And I wrote tons of code using them... Silly me... thanks. Duja 14:55, 21 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I can't think of any specific name off the top of my head, but as the abovementioned "tabs" was offered, I suppose that would sound right. --Proficient 14:25, 24 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

bibiography - who authors govt docs

For the purpose of writing a bibliography or entering data into a bibliographic database (Endnote, for example) how does one list the 'author' of a government document, such as the Basic Law of Hong Kong, or the Consitution of Papau New Guinea, or the Sino Portuguese Joint Declaration?

If a doc does not have a human 'author' ... what are our options.

Thanks if you can help.

which citation style are you using? (Or if you don't know, then what level of education are you in, and what field?) 82.131.187.228 18:36, 20 July 2006 (UTC).[reply]

This site is rather helpful. Citing Government Documents. schyler 18:37, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

'my-oh jhohn'

On the computer I'm using I can't see what I'm doing when adding IPA... Could someone please take care of this? Thank you. David Sneek 21:40, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Done. --Chris S. 00:25, 21 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. David Sneek 16:45, 21 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]