Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2008 July 10

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July 10

Gameplay

Is "Gameplay" a proper compound word? --AeronPrometheus (talk) 03:42, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Sure. See compound word.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:57, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. --AeronPrometheus (talk) 09:18, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Translation bitte

I'd like to get a better translation of "Immer wenn der Steiner kam". It's "Always When the Steiner Came" in List of war films. Also, does "lachende" mean "laughing"? Clarityfiend (talk) 06:05, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I guess a more idiomatic translation would be "Whenever Steiner Came", but if it's a movie it may already have an "official" English name. Yes, "lachende" means "laughing". —Angr 06:31, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

In a German database here (containing some stuff in English) the title is given as "Every time Steiner came". It was a documentary in B/W and was produced in 1976 in the then GDR. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 10:09, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Clarityfiend (talk) 04:30, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Greek for "someone who gets work or energy from the stars"?

So astrology comes from the Greek roots "star" + "word/speech," right? Thus, an astrologer is someone who extracts words or meaning from the stars. My question is, who would be someone who extracts work or energy from the stars? My best guess at the moment is Astroergosist (Greek "star" + "work/labor"). Thanks. --Brasswatchman (talk) 15:44, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

-(o)logia as a Greek suffix does not really mean "speech" (though it's etymologically related to the word logos). An "Astrourgos" would mean a worker of or in the stars (by analogy with demiourgos), but I'm not too sure about "Ergosis" -- the root ERG was actually replaced by the root ERD in ancient Greek present stem verbal use. I doubt whether the concept can be expressed unambiguously in a single word validly formed from ancient Greek elements according to the rules of ancient Greek grammar... AnonMoos (talk) 21:37, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

If the above suggestion is correct, then the natural English form would be "astrourge". --Anonymous, 22:43 UTC, July 10, 2008.

Very interesting. Thank you both very much. That helps a lot. --Brasswatchman (talk) 03:51, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

American dialect according to the other side of the Big Pond

So, after reading a good many novels, I haven't come across a British or Australian attempt at describing American dialogue. We Americans often do it (and Brits do it to the Scots): "can't" => "cawn't", British "world" => Scottish "warrld." How do other dialects catch cultural speech oddities? --^LaPianista! 18:24, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Are you looking for American dialect in print - or would bad American accents of actors work[1]. Rmhermen (talk) 21:16, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

You're looking for the eye dialect of American English as written by other people. --Kjoonlee 01:28, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Scots are British.

Secondly, here's some rather badly observed eye dialect for you: "C'n ah git a glayass ahv wodderr?" Patronising, isn't it?

Generally speaking, it may be the case that you haven't come across a "British or Australian attempt at describing American dialogue" because American writers have a greater tendency towards cultural insensitivity than writers of other nationalities. Or maybe you just need to read more widely. 64.236.80.62 (talk) 15:50, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Oh, there's plenty of American eye-dialect intended for British readers. Americans certainly have no monopoly on cultural insensitivity; who do you think we learned it from? One frequently occurring form intended to express American pronunciation is "lurve" for "love", which requires a non-rhotic accent to work. Another one I've seen British writers use is "Yurrup" for "Europe". —Angr 16:25, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

I would take issue with the idea that this constitutes eye dialect. Regardless of what the (uncited) Wikipedia article says, I've always understood eye dialect to refer to a device whereby words are spelt in an unusual manner, implying an accent, yet the variant spelling would be pronounced in exactly the same way - e.g. wot instead of what, or coz instead of 'cause. (See this page .)

What this is, to coin a phrase, is tin ear dialect. Taking 'British accent' to mean RP (there is no such thing as a 'British accent' per se, since the various English, Scots and Welsh accents differ widely), the vowel in the word can't is pronounced the same as the vowel in hard, bra and shah, whereas the vowel in *cawn't is the same as that in flaw, paunch or pour. Any writer who thinks that a 'Brit' (how I hate that term!) would say *cawn't does not have a very good ear for accents. Malcolm XIV (talk) 18:37, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

The point is that the way someone from England says can't ([kɑːnt] rhymes with some Americans' (especially those with the cot-caught merger) pronunciation of taunt [tɑnt]. The same goes, mutatis mutandis for "lurve": Americans' pronunciation of "love" doesn't even remotely rhyme with their own pronunciation of "curve", but it comes close to rhyming with the Southern England pronunciation of "curve". As for the definition of "eye dialect", Larry Trask's Student's Dictionary of Language and Linguistics defines it as "the use of non-standard spellings to indicate the use of non-standard speech" and gives three examples: wuz for was, sez for says, and massa for master. The first two are non-standard spellings reflecting standard pronunciations (at least for Americans, whose strong pronunciation of was is [wʌz]), but the third example definitely reflects a nonstandard pronunciation. —Angr 18:49, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

sas elamonthos tu emon

*** edit: should be: " sas thelimatos tou emon "

Hi. I heard this in an episode of Relic Hunter. It is used as a spell to control anyone wearing the Ancient Greek necklace, and it's supposed to be in Greek. This probably isn't the correct transliteration spelling, but is it actually Greek and does it mean anything, and if so, what does it mean? Thanks. ~AH1^(TCU) 23:11, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Can't find "Elamonthos" or anything like it in my smaller Liddell and Scott. The other words seem to be pronominal forms, but not connected to anything in any way that I can understand. AnonMoos (talk) 13:23, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

• • Edit: according to the episode, Sydney writes it down as " sas thelimatos tou emon ". not sure if that makes it easier to translate. ( July 2011 ) Baelrath (talk) 02:18, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

sas thelimatos tou emon

- see above post for the source, but this is the phrase that is spelled out by Sydney in the episode. If anyone could translate this, it would be much appreciated. Baelrath (talk) 02:23, 3 July 2011 (UTC)