Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2006 October 26

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October 26

Subject Schmubject

Is there a name for when you use "sch" in front of the name of an idea to childishly mock the idea? Like Car Schmar! or Rules Schmules --froth^{T C} 02:42, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Shm, shmhm. DirkvdM 10:07, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Shm-reduplication. Words can't describe how much I love Wikipedia sometimes. --ByeByeBaby 05:03, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

How did you manage to find it ? StuRat 05:11, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

It's linked from reduplication. I'm familiar with reduplication in Korean, but failed to recognize shm-reduplication as such. --Kjoonlee 06:41, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

The most logical place to look would be shm and there it is. DirkvdM 09:57, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Hey, that's odd. At first that link showed up in red, so I made a redirect to 'SHM' and now it works. But before that, when I typed 'shm' in the search box, I did end up at 'SHM'. How is that possible? DirkvdM 10:04, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Look at the buttons below the search box; Go is highlighted, which means that if there's a very close (or exact) match you'll be taken there immediately. --Kjoonlee 15:55, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

I'd come across it before at some point, and like the series of articles on exploding animals, it's something so fabulous that I just couldn't forget the name. --ByeByeBaby 23:42, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Hand Signals

Hey ya'll! Here's a tricky question. I need a word for a certain hand position - but I haven't got the faintest idea what the signal is called!
To demonstrate what the position looks like, make your hand into a fist.
Now, lift up your thumb, index finger, and last finger. Recognise it? Thought you would. But what exactly is it called?
The best idea I can think of is the hand shape Tobey Maguire makes in Spider Man.
So, what exactly is this hand shape called? Thanks. ~~ Scalene ^{•UserPage•Talk•Contributions•Biography•} 07:48, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

We've got articles on Hook 'em Horns and corna, but none on the Spider-man sign. The corna article mentions that (probably in a different position) it means "I love you" in American Sign Language, though. (In ASL, the hand sign alone doesn't really mean anything, AFAIK. You have to make it in a certain place, with a certain movement to say stuff in ASL.) --Kjoonlee 08:17, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Ahh, yeah. Spider-Man, that sign actually apperad in Steve Ditko's early comics (although variations, such as raising only the index or pinkie were just as common...) so in the movie, it was featured as both an in-joke and an ironic reference to the metal usage. 惑乱 分からん 11:54, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Alrighty then. But what is the term for it? Hook 'em Horns and corna are like it, but, neither include the thumb sticking out as well. Scalene^{•UserPage•Talk•Contributions•Biography•Є•} 12:54, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Actually in ASL the gesture is an acronym: the raised pinky finger stands for the letter i, the raised index finger and extended thumb mean for the letter l, and the extended thumb and raised pinky finger represent for the letter y. Durova 15:01, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

There are a number of them listed on List of gestures, but apparently not that particular one... AnonMoos 13:34, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

It means "I love you" (in American Sign Language)! Laurən^whisper 16:04, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

I believe that sign is also cuckold from medieval Europe, although I doubt it's in use much today. but I might be thinking of a different thing. —Keakealani 21:36, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

maths

formula of cylinder+cone=cylinderic cone

This needs to be asked at the Mathematics desk. JackofOz 11:20, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

What countries speak French?

What countries in Europe speak French? What countries in the world speak french?

We have a wonderfully detailed article on the French language, which will answer your question, plus teach you much more! — QuantumEleven 13:05, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Est Wikipedia non maravillieux? ;) 惑乱 分からん 13:46, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

WP n'est-il pas merveilleux ? Si. -- DLL ^{.. T} 21:03, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Mais oui... (Figures...) 惑乱 分からん 02:01, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Your question is not clear, because lots of countries are not monolingual. (Would you say Belgium "speaks French" if only 42% of the population does, while about 58% speaks Dutch?) Or what about Switzerland. Heck, not even all French speak French! Evilbu 22:12, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Need WP standard request template translated to French

My French is nowhere near good enough to translate this. I posted this photo from stock.xchg and it needs a more clear statement from the photographer about his willingness to allow its use on Wikipedia. I sent the following message, and he responded, "I don't understand all terms of your message, is it possible to you to translate it in french."

Can someone translate it for me? (I went to the Category:User fr page but don't know where to begin--ideally someone who understands English very well and understands the WP GNU licensing stuff.)

 Dear "Mr. Will":
I am an editor/administrator of Wikipedia (wikipedia.org), a multilingual
project to create a complete, accurate, and open-content encyclopedia.
Volunteers from around the world collaboratively edit Wikipedia, which
is one of many projects of the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation
(wikimediafoundation.org). We depend on photography
to clearly illustrate our articles.

I enjoyed your informative photograph  of the Brittany spaniel chewing
a rawhide
at stock.xchng and, a couple of years ago, placed it on Wikipedia using
the stock.xchng boilerplate permissions-- you can see it here:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BrittanySpanielMrwill.jpg>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BrittanySpanielMrwill.jpg

However, to be completely sure that we have your permission, now
we can only use your material if you are willing to explicitly grant
permission for it to be used under terms of the GNU Free Documentation
License (GNU-FDL, or GFDL for short). This means that although you
retain the copyright and authorship of your own work, you are granting
permission for others to use, copy, and share your materials freely,
and even potentially use them commercially, so long as they do not try
to claim the copyright themselves, or try to prevent others from using
or copying them freely (e.g., "share-alike"). You can read this
license in full at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documenta>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License.
Please do note that your contributions may not remain intact as
submitted; this license, as well as the collaborative nature of our
project, also entitles others to edit, alter, and update them at will,
i.e., to keep up with new information, or suit the text to a different
purpose.  However, the license also expressly protects authors "from
being considered responsible for modifications made by others."

If you do agree to grant permission for use, we will credit you,
state the image was based on your work and is used with your
permission, and provide a link back to stock.xchng, your website, or other
appropriate link.

You are obviously an expert photographer.
I hope you will consider accepting our request.

Please respond either giving or denying your permission to:
      
        <mailto:permissions@wikimedia.org>permissions@wikimedia.org

Thanks so much,
Ellen ("User:Elf" on wikipedia)

(Please leave me a note on my talk page if you can do it. Thanks so much. Or if someone knows whether there's already an equivalent on the French wikipedia...? I got this text from here but modified it some.) Elf | Talk 14:49, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Dear in German

How does one say Dear in German, as in "Dear Mr. Jones..." when writing a letter? Also, how would you close the letter? Thanks! Reywas92^Talk 16:18, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

This depends on the level of formality that you intend. The old formal greeting, used in business situations, was "Sehr geehrte/r Frau/Herr ..." (include the "r" for a masculine addressee, leave it off for feminine or plural addressees). You might still use this for very formal communications, like a letter on a legal matter. More common today is "Liebe/r Frau/Herr ...", which means, literally, "dear." For more informal communications, you might start with "Hallo ...", but you would generally only use this with someone with whom you are on a first-name basis. To close the letter, "Mit freundlichen Grüßen," works in most instances. Marco polo 19:12, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Danke!! Reywas92^Talk 20:00, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Derivation of the name "Schuylkill"

Is the name Schuylkill from the dutch language or is it a Native American derivative?

The article Schuylkill River explains that it is Dutch. Marco polo 19:15, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Hey, I just learned some Dutch! I didn't know the word 'kil', which means creek, inlet or estuary or thereabouts. Note that in modern Dutch it would be 'schuilkil'. DirkvdM 08:48, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

There are also a lot of Dutch place names in New York. Durova 02:10, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, it's a former Dutch settlement. Harlem (Haarlem) and Brooklyn (Breukelen) are well known examples. Although I think Holland Tunnel will be more recent. :) DirkvdM 07:26, 28 October 2006 (UTC)