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Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2008 September 27

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September 27

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Spanish podcasts

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Hi, I'm looking for good spanish podcasts or free audio. I'm looking for news and current affairs, debates and opinions, fiction, science fiction, science or your favourite. I haven't found much yet. Any help would be appreciated. ps. I posted a similar question on the spanish ref. desk. Thanks. 190.244.186.234 (talk) 04:41, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much. 190.244.186.234 (talk) 00:14, 30 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Son of a bitch

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What is the female equivalent of "son of a bitch"? 121.219.225.133 (talk) 10:50, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have occasionally heard women called "son of a bitch", but I think the more usual female equivalent is simply "bitch". "Daughter of a bitch" would be either jocular or intended literally. —Angr 11:36, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Many people just use "bitch." GO-PCHS-NJROTC (Messages) 00:10, 29 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Surely, "son of a bitch" is merely an abusive metaphor and does not have any precise or literal meaning, so that any equally derogatory expression which can be applied to the opposite sex would be a rough equivalent? Strawless (talk) 17:31, 2 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

arabic translations

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how do you say 'thank you' and 'sorry' in arabic? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.76.252.146 (talk) 15:02, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Shukran lak شكرا لك is the quasi-Classical Arabic way, I believe (technically laka when thanking a male and laki when thanking a female, but such short phrase-final i`rab vowels would not often be pronounced)... AnonMoos (talk) 16:00, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I learnt the short feminine form as 'shukran lik'. Steewi (talk) 12:34, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
That's going more toward colloquial; don't know that much about colloquial (and it can be very different between different regions). AnonMoos (talk) 17:08, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I learned it just as "shukran", without an accompanying "you". Adam Bishop (talk) 01:14, 29 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Shukran by itself is most standard, understood throughout the Arab world. For sorry, it's "Muta assif" for a man speaking, and "Muta assifa" for a woman. --Xuxl (talk) 16:04, 29 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I assume متعسف /متعسفة (stem V active participle of ع س ف) in Arabic script... AnonMoos (talk) 19:28, 29 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Meaning of Ingleby Barwick

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Ingleby Barwick is (new) settlement in North Yorkshire. Like many parts of the Danelaw, place names in the area are a melange of Anglo-Saxon and Norse. I've been trying to figure out the derivation of the name. At face value Ingle-by would appear to mean hearth-village (Ingle from the gaelic, by from norse). And wick generally means farm or hamlet. Our Barwick-in-Elmet article says that Barwick was called Berewit in the Domesday Book, but doesn't give a derivation. However the local council says (on this page) that "Ingleby is the old English word for Barley and Barwick means Fields, - Barley Fields". The Ingleby part of that seems very difficult to believe. The barley part seems to make sense, and I've read about a bunch of the other Barwicks there are in England and many seem to have been barley growing areas. Similarly our page on Berwick-upon-Tweed (where Berwick and Barwick seem very similar) does indeed suggest Berwick might mean "barley farm" or "barley field" (from baerwic). So is the local authority correct, or does the name infact mean (to my mind much more rationally) "hearth village barley field"? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:54, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oxford Dict. Placenames indicates that Ingleby is Old Scandinavian Englar + by: 'farmstead or village of the Englishman'; and Barwick is from OE berewic, meaning 'barley farm, outlying part of an estate'. Make of that what you will. Gwinva (talk) 19:38, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, that's very informative indeed. Moreover, I didn't know the ODoP existed (and now I see it's rather affordable). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:41, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Is this Ekwall's Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names or something else? —Tamfang (talk) 20:42, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I consulted A Dictionary of British Place-Names, edited by A.D.Mills & Adrian Room, Oxford University Press, 2nd Ed 1998. Apologies for using a shorthand title, which could be confused. Gwinva (talk) 00:17, 29 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

AP Stylebook?

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What dictionary does the AP Stylebook use as its authoritative source? For example, how would an American writer who follows its style spell Ojibwa/Ojibwe/Ojibway and what definition would the word have?--206.248.172.247 (talk) 20:43, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Is it Webster's New World College Dictionary 4th edition?--206.248.172.247 (talk) 20:54, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I just happen to have my copy of the AP Stylebook right here, so let me look ...
It says the sources used are:
  • First reference for spelling, style, usage and foreign geographic names: Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th edition
  • Second reference for spelling, style and usage: Webster's Third New International Dictionary
  • Second reference for foreign geographic names: National Geographic Atlas of the World
The Stylebook also lists sources for things such as aircraft, ships, railroads, government issues, business names, etc. — Michael J 23:16, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What type of logical argument is this?

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Suppose that one answers the question "what is the probability of the x coordinate being greater than the y coordinate?" with this: "Change the names of the x and y axis so that the x axis is now the y axis and the y axis is now the y axis. Nothing changed except the names, so the probability of y being greater than x is the same as the probability of it being less than x. Therefore, both probabilities are 50%."

Another example might be answering the question "what is the probability of A sitting in front of B, if the seating arrangement is random?" with "if you switch the names of A and B, you'll see it's just as likely for A to sit in front of B as it is for B to sit in front of A. Therefore, the probabilities for both are 50%". --99.237.96.81 (talk) 21:13, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's the principle of indifference. Oddly enough it just came up on the Humanities desk too: Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Humanities#Philisophical_term. -- BenRG (talk) 21:26, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
To a mathematician, it would be called "answering the wrong question". -- JackofOz (talk) 21:31, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I never heard the term "principle of indifference" in my math courses. If I was writing a proof I'd describe the result as true "by symmetry", i.e. the situation is symmetrical with respect to variable naming as the names could be interchanged without loss of generality. This was really a question for the Math reference desk; I suppose someone there might have yet another answer. --Anonymous, 03:20 UTC, September 28, 2008.

Sorry, you're right, the second one is just an argument by symmetry because we're told that the seating arrangement is (uniformly) random. But in the first one we aren't given a distribution on the points, so either there's not enough information (if it's a math problem) or it's a candidate for applying the principle of indifference (if it's a guessing game). -- BenRG (talk) 16:46, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

MLA citation for CJK names?

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What's the proper MLA citation for names transliterated from a language where the surname usually comes first? For example, let's say I was citing an Akira Kurosawa film, but I was pretentious or using an original Japanese copy, so I have the name "黒澤 明". Instead of reproducing the actual characters (because TNR doesn't support them for one), let's say I decide to transliterate it. Assuming I cite the surname last (John Smith), would I cite his name as Akira Kurosawa (with the surname last?) or Kurosawa Akira (as it is literally transliterated from Japenese). I understand the MLA Style Manual as some info. on this, but I don't have access to that right now. Deshi no Shi (talk) 23:23, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why not Kurosawa, Akira? --Kjoonlee 03:21, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
In the specific case of Japanese names people always seem to write "Akira Kurosawa" or "Kurosawa, Akira", but I think Chinese names are sometimes written surname first without the comma. I have no idea about other languages. -- BenRG (talk) 16:38, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
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