Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2007 March 2

Language desk
< March 1	<< Feb | March | Apr >>	March 3 >

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.

March 2

Word unknown

What is a word to describe someone who talks really slowly? --The Dark Side 03:00, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

A droller? 222.159.65.22 09:48, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

You mean drawler? Sandman30s 11:27, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

That...sounds...about...right. Clarityfiend 20:16, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

verbotomy.com suggests: Treaclespeaker, Slowspoke, Communicomma, Slothmouth, Nadayadayada :) Sandman30s 11:27, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Slow talker?  :-) Dismas|^(talk) 14:12, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Language speed

Usually when I hear someone speaking in another language, it sounds extremely fast to my ears (usually Spanish). Is Spanish really spoken 'faster' than English (ie more syllables per second or something like that)? If I was a native Spanish speaker who didn't know English would people speaking English sound equally as fast? Thank you, 68.231.151.161 04:18, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

I've heard it claimed that the reason Spanish sounds so fast to English ears is that it is a syllable-timed language, i.e. every syllable is approximately equally long, whereas English is a stress-timed language, i.e. stressed syllables are longer than unstressed ones, and the intervals between stressed syllables are about the same with unstressed syllables between them getting lengthened or shortened in order to keep the number of stressed syllables per minute approximately the same. The result is not only that Spanish sounds fast to English speakers, because the syllables come steadily at you like machine-gun fire, but also that English sounds fast to Spanish speakers, because we rush past all the unstressed syllables to get to the next stressed one. On the other hand, my own observation learning German is that German (which is also stressed-timed, like English) also sounded fast to me before I got used to it, so maybe all foreign languages sound fast simply because we don't understand them, and the whole syllable-timed/stressed-timed explanation is a bunch of hooey. (Not that the distinction is hooey, only that using the distinction to explain why a foreign language sounds fast is.) —Angr 05:29, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Which one is French, then? It sure sounded fast to me when I was trying to learn it. I think your second explanation is probably the more accurate one. Black Carrot 06:38, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

I think French is also syllable-timed. —Angr 07:13, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm inclined to believe it's stress-timed—French speakers will frequently cut out any vowels that are not stressed (and even some that, in theory, are). (Things like "qu'st-c'qu't'en pens'" in terms of pronunciation per spelling). The Jade Knight 07:26, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Mark Hucko

This article about a linguist is up for deletion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mark Hucko. I've argued for deletion, based on the current article and an inconclusive Google search, but you guys are the experts. If the chap's notable, please do chime in at the afd (and if you have time, improve the article). If not, expert views to delete are very useful at afd. --Dweller 11:16, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

translating english to thailand language

what is the translation of "hello..goodmorning everyone!!!" in yhailand language.. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 124.104.100.135 (talk) 15:08, 2 March 2007 (UTC).

Visit Omniglot for common phrases in many languages, including Thai. 222.158.163.245 08:53, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Arabic speakers, help!

I've recently created an article on Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, and I wrote his name as مولّه أبيدولّه أكهوند in Arabic. I got this from some internet translator, and I'm not sure if it is right. Can anyone confirm/correct this? Thanks. GhostPirate 15:39, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

It doesn't look good at all. I'll try to work out how it should be spelt. — Gareth Hughes 16:41, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

According to google translation (which isn't really very reliable), it translates back as Abidolh Akhund--VectorPotential^Talk 16:45, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Please don't use online translators for this kind of thing — it actually looks really silly. ملا عبیداللہ آخوند is the best spelling I've got at the moment. I've got to check if the final ه I used is appropriate — I'm not certain. — Gareth Hughes 16:49, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

OK, I think I'd use ملا عبيدالله آخوند. — Gareth Hughes 16:56, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much. GhostPirate 16:58, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Just a question for Gareth Hughes: the only ه that I see in your first attempt is part of لله -- doesn't that make it clear that it's necessary? Maybe I'm missing something silly... Tesseran 22:36, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

If a name you are lookiung for is an article's main topic, you can put {{Arabic}} on that article's talk page to get help from Anas or somebody else, instead of asking here or guessing. It probably works better with Arabic names than with names in more exotic languages that use(d) the script. Wikipeditor 02:04, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Can't think of the word...

There's a word for when a country mints a coin and then people (collectors mostly) don't spend the coin but put it away for safe keeping thereby the country has to make more of the coin to fill the hole. What is the word I'm trying to think of? I thought it started with an A but I can't find it.... Dismas|^(talk) 17:35, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

You can stop looking, I found it... Seigniorage which definately does not start with an A.... Dismas|^(talk) 17:42, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Or for a more general term, how about "hoarding" ? StuRat 21:01, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Seigniorage makes me sound smarter.  :-P Dismas|^(talk) 14:09, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, not if you let them think you think it's the word for when a country mints a coin and people hoard it! --Anonymous, March 3, 2007, 19:37 (UTC).