Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2010 June 12

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June 12

hair dropping on to the cheeks on female face, what's it called?

where men have whiskers women usually have a soft down sometimes dropping on to the cheeks (of course adding beauty to them). What is it called?--117.204.94.183 (talk) 08:37, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

While looking at our facial hair article, I found a link in the "In women" section to vellus hair which I think answers your question. Dismas|^(talk) 09:27, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Or for a non-scientific term, how about peach fuzz ? StuRat (talk) 17:09, 16 June 2010 (UTC)

Well, that's an unexpected link. StuRat (talk) 17:09, 16 June 2010 (UTC)

Japanese sentence help -- いいなか

Hi,

このごろ、ずっと、いそがしかったし、まあ、いいなか。

This is said in response to an invitation to go on a weekend hike. I gather that the general sense is "I've been really busy just lately...", but I'm stuck on まあ、いいなか. まあ is just an exclamation, right? But what about いいなか? Is it いい + な + か? What exactly does it mean here? 86.183.171.125 (talk) 12:43, 12 June 2010 (UTC).

Sure it's not a typo for いいのか？　--KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 12:57, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Or, "いいかな"? --Sushiya (talk) 13:02, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Dammit, it's いいかな. Sorry about that, must need new glasses. So how would we translate that in the context of this sentence, please? 86.183.171.125 (talk) 13:12, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

かな makes a supposition, "I wonder if..." or "I suppose...". In this case the whole phrase would mean "Recently I have been really busy, but well, I suppose it would be ok." --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 15:53, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

I don't think it's a good sentence. It would be better ja like このところ忙しかったけど、まあ、いいか"/I've been really busy lately, but it's OK. "このごろ" is a bad choice of word. Personally, it's almost incorrect. "な" is not necessarily needed.The translation of the phrase varies and depends on the context. See these. Oda Mari (talk) 15:58, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

The phrase could be an expression of reluctance when the speaker says "まあ、いいかな" slowly or gravely and the meaning is similar to these. [1] and [2]. If spoken in a light tone, it means just OK. "Who cares?" could be used as the translation. Oda Mari (talk) 16:31, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Yes, Mari, "I suppose it would be OK" also can carry that nuance of reluctance in English. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 17:47, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your help. 86.184.237.149 (talk) 20:27, 12 June 2010 (UTC).

The etymology of adj. ‘analytic’ in the academic discipline of ‘analytic philosophy’

Is it the non-agglutinative component of a language that drives meaning?

It is not relating to the meaning of the analytic components of ‘analysis’ as in every other academic disciplines because a language like English, for example, is a highly non-agglutinative language to which the word orders drive the semantic and pragmatic meanings in comparison to many languages of which meaning are arrived from their synthetic components of morphology? -Mr.Bitpart (talk) 17:03, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, but in their linguistic use the words "analytic" and "agglutinative" are terms referring to the typological status of a language's morphological system, and have very little to do with semantics, and nothing to do with philosophy (as far as I can tell). For a classic exploration of basic morphological typology, you can look at Edward Sapir's 1921 book Language, which is freely available on-line... AnonMoos (talk) 16:02, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Is it then not the evolution of radical pragmatism (from the synthetic components of Latin or the analytic components of proto-German) in the discourse of essence that expresses the relationship among words in a sentence by the order of words and by putting together in combination? -Mr.Bitpart (talk) 19:04, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

I have very little idea what you're talking about, but whatever it is, it has almost nothing to do with linguistics. The proto-Germanic language (not "proto-German"[sic]) had a morphological typological status quite similar to that of classical Latin (not too surprising, considering that they're both older Indo-European languages). AnonMoos (talk) 21:53, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

phonetics help

i m confused about the usage of British [yu] , why is it replaced with [u] this confuses me a lot while i am learning to pronounce and spell. help plz —Preceding unsigned comment added by 221.120.250.73 (talk) 17:00, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Without more context it is difficult to say whether this might be a reflection of grammar or due to regional dialect. Can you give us some example sentences (and any other context if relevant) in which you have encountered this? [PS: you inadvertently duplicated your question; I will delete the superfluous post.] 87.81.230.195 (talk) 17:29, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Does our discussion of yod-dropping help at all? +Angr 17:46, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

I think that yod-dropping is the correct explanation. Certain words with /ju/ in Britain have /u/ in America, such as "student" (/'stjudɨnt/ in Britain, /'studɨnt/in America), "duty" (British /'djuti/, American /'duti/), or "nuke" (British /njuk/, American /nuk/). These differences are predictable, only occurring after /t/, /d/ and /n/, so they shouldn't make spelling any more difficult (except for creating new homophones, e.g. "dew" /dju/ and "do" /du/). 76.204.127.175 (talk) 01:11, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

her und hier

Is "her" the correct word for "towards here" in German? My spelling may be wrong. How, why, and when would you use hier and her in the same phrase/command? Fresh sunburn may be to blame, but I can't think of similar constructions in English. Maedin\^talk 20:35, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Trusting my knowledge of German without looking it up, "her" means "towards here" while "hier" means "at here". The only example that comes to mind immediately is "komm her und bleib hier!" JIP | Talk 21:12, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

That makes sense. How about the example I was given and the word combo hierher — "Kommen Sie hierher!"? I suppose I am confused as to why the German sees a need to distinguish the here in the same command. Wouldn't one here suffice . . . is there an ambiguous element to the adverb that I'm overlooking? Maedin\^talk 21:39, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

"Her" contrasts with "Hin", and appears in a number of compounds. "Hier" mainly compounds with following prepositions. According to the dictionary, "hierher" means "to here, to this point, so far"... AnonMoos (talk) 21:47, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

This is actually something that's been puzzling me for years. "Hier" means "at here", but then there's "her" and "hin", of which one means "to here" and the other means "from here", but I've never managed to figure out exactly when does which means which. Why is it that "hierher" means "to here" but "hineinfügen" means "bring here"? It's much easier in Finnish, where the same word ending always means the same thing. The only confusing bit is the really complicated rules about how to actually write the word ending. For example, "tänne" means "to here" but "täältä" means "from here". This is one of the countless things about Finnish grammar that I take for granted as a native speaker but feel would be hopelessly lost with were I a non-native speaker. JIP | Talk 22:02, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Can't help you with German much beyond what I said above, but in some circumstances the French can be fairly strict about distinctions such as amener vs. emmener vs. ramener where English speakers are often fairly loose about "bring" vs. "take"... AnonMoos (talk) 22:11, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict)I don't think hineinfügen means "bring here". I think I'd translate it "insert", which is what einfügen means, and I don't think of the hin as adding much meaning. Hin basically means "away from the speaker" and her means "toward the speaker". Hierher and hierhin mean "hither" and "hence" respectively, except no one uses those words in English anymore. The distinction between hinein and herein is often lost in colloquial speech, as both get contracted to rein; likewise both hinaus and heraus get contracted to raus. +Angr 22:14, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

I stilll use "hither" and "hence". "Hence" is really useful: "hither" less so. Is this like that time the English teacher told us "thus" was archaic? 86.164.69.239 (talk) 22:39, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

If I knew where that teacher was, I'd go thither and shew him a thynge or deuce.  :) -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 00:56, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

(outdent) I'm relieved to find that you're not all clicking your tongues at me and pointing out something obvious that I've missed. I think I'll abandon hierher for now and look into it later, once I'm no longer learning delightful phrases like "Where do you want to wait for me?" Thanks for your help so far! I shall probably have many more French and German questions soon, :) Maedin\^talk 07:22, 13 June 2010 (UTC)