Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2011 December 24

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December 24

Arabic question

The first page of http://www.skybrary.aero/bookshelf/books/1342.pdf states the Arabic name of the "Presidency of Civil Aviation" - What is the Arabic name? Thanks WhisperToMe (talk) 05:39, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

If you mean the text on the logo, I can barely distinguish the letters, but General Authority of Civil Aviation says that "The name of the Presidency of Civil Aviation was changed to General Authority Of Civil Aviation in 1977", and the correspondent Arabic article says, citing this page, that the name of مصلحة الطيران المدني was changed to الهيئة العامة للطيران المدني in 1977, so probably مصلحة الطيران المدني is what you need. The colouring is intended to make it easier for you to distinguish which is which. Not sure why the document is using the old name when it dates from "August 19th 1980", though. --Theurgist (talk) 11:06, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

Thank you very much for letting me know :) WhisperToMe (talk) 07:13, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

UnTurkish

What is the correct capitalization of “UnTurkish”:

1. unturkish,
2. unTurkish,
3. un-turkish,
4. un-Turkish,
5. Unturkish,
6. UnTurkish,
7. Un-turkish, or
8. Un-Turkish?

--84.61.131.15 (talk) 11:42, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

Based on other national groups, either 4 or 8 is likely to be preferred, but I would have used non-Turkish, as un-Turkish doesn't seem to get much use. What is the context? Mikenorton (talk) 11:55, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

Having looked at usage on Google Books, which removes most instances of disagreements between the United Nations and Turkey that overwhelmed the overall search results, then 'un-Turkish' seems to be the one used, but 'non-Turkish' wins out overall. Mikenorton (talk) 12:01, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

To me, "non-Turkish" sounds like you're saying "other than Turkish", while "un-Turkish" sounds like you're saying "the opposite of Turkish". Someone deemed "un-American" is seen quite negatively, but "non-American" would simply mean a foreigner without any inherent negative connotations. Nyttend (talk) 13:49, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

I believe that, unfortunately, in a Turkish context one might have use for the term "Un-Turkish" parallel to the McCarthyist sense of "Un-American". Hans Adler 13:57, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

That might be true — my point is simply that these mustn't be taken as synonyms without checking the context first. Nyttend (talk) 15:14, 24 December 2011 (UTC)