Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2011 December 21

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December 21

Chag (Channukah) sameach! (Urgent)

hey, it's that time of year again! If someone could please tell this ignorant Gentile where the stress in same'ach falls, it would be much appreciated. An IPA transcription of the phrase would be awesome but that might be asking too much. Chag same'ach to you! 24.92.85.35 (talk) 03:26, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

On the "e"... AnonMoos (talk) 04:20, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

As for the IPA, I think it must be pronounced [ˈχaksaˈmeaχ] in Modern Israeli Hebrew, and written חַג שָׂמֵחַ‎ (or חג שמח‎, without the niqqud). Others will correct me if it's not so. --Theurgist (talk) 04:29, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Not sure why the "g" would devoice (except in somewhat rapid and coarticulated speech). AnonMoos (talk) 10:35, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Well, there is voicing assimilation in Modern Hebrew. I'd think this would apply at word boundaries as well, especially in such set phrases like chag sameach... --Theurgist (talk) 17:10, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

I hear that too, Theurgist. I was wondering if anyone knows of a list of Hebrew sandhi rules; that might be helpful in determining proper IPA and phonetic values.Van Gulik (talk) 16:24, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

No, as a Hebrew speaker I can assure you that Hebrew has no formal Sandhi rules, so - in a formal speech - one must pronounce the word just as it's written (providing that one knows when the letters h,y,w/v function as vowels rather than as consonants, and providing that one knows that a PATAH coming at the end of a word is pronounced as if the PATAH were written before the consonant under/after which the PATAH is written). 77.124.12.169 (talk) 12:22, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Anyone speak Azerbaijani?

If so, could you double check this series of edits? I tried Google Translate but it gave me a bunch of random nonsense. Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 20:55, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

The title given for the reference is in Russian, not Azerbaijani, and says "Norwegian princess: As a child I was able to speak Azerbaijani". It's essentially the same as reference 5. --ColinFine (talk) 22:26, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Singer, not princess.--Itinerant1 (talk) 22:42, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Oops! Sorry. --ColinFine (talk) 10:59, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

BTW, I don't see any justification of the statement that she is of Iranian descent, neither in the article nor in its references. Is there even such a thing as "Iranian descent"? There are many different ethnic groups in Iran (Ethnicities in Iran). Reference 5 says that her father is originally from Azerbaijan and that he speaks Turkish. There's no information about her biological mother. My own best guess would be that she's half Persian, half Azeri.--Itinerant1 (talk) 23:36, 21 December 2011 (UTC)