Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2011 May 18

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May 18

The Spanish word for hair

I was taught in school that the Spanish word for hair is pelo. But I was reading the instructions on my shampoo bottle today, and the English instructions were translated into French and Spanish, and in Spanish, they used the word cabello for hair. What is the difference between pelo and cabello? 216.93.212.245 (talk) 18:58, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

In Spanish I'm not sure, but if it's the same as in Italian, then cabello (Italian capello) is a hair on your head, whereas pelo (same word in Italian) is a hair on your body, or on an animal. --Trovatore (talk) 19:22, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

The correct, accurate Spanish word for hair on your head is cabello, but colloquially you almost always say pelo, which means hair in general. --Belchman (talk) 21:59, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

I agree, hence peluquería, a hairdressing salon, peluca, a wig and peludo, hairy, There are few words in Spanish relating to hair that derive from cabello. Richard Avery (talk) 07:37, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

Interesting — I'll file that under "things to watch out for when thinking in Italian and trying to speak Spanish". In Italian, pelo seems to carry a sense of something that's just slightly disgusting, something that clogs up a drain or gets stuck on a bar of soap. Peloso means "hairy", not "long-haired", as in you might want to shave your back (OK, I'm not too sure about this one, but that would be my unreliable intuition). A long-hair is a capellone. Take all of this with a grain of salt — I haven't been to Italy for quite a while. --Trovatore (talk) 20:51, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

I lived in Spain for two years some time ago, so my Spanish may be getting a little rusty, but my understanding is that the word "cabello" more closely means "head of hair" or "hair-do," rather than literally "hair." Kingsfold (Quack quack!) 11:58, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

Why do we write "table" and not "tabel"?

Count Iblis (talk) 19:06, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

The spelling shows the influence of (Old) French table. In the absence of such influence, we'd probably spell the word tabule (since it's origin is Latin tabula) rather than tabel. Deor (talk) 19:19, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Also, it would result in a change of pronunciation. The word "bell", for example, has a short 'e' sound. The word "table" is pronounced with a sound more like a short 'u'. If we were to have spelled it "tabel", the "bel" in it would be pronounced like "bell" not "bull". Aacehm (talk) 19:27, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

They all rhyme in my (Detroit) dialect (except the first syllable in "Babel"). StuRat (talk) 20:43, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

Right, so, 'table' does not rhyme with the female name 'Mabel', or some people's pronunciaton of 'Babel'? --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 19:35, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, English spelling and pronunciation really don't correspond so simply. The English pronunciation of "table" has already changed a fair amount since we took it from French, where it's pronounced /tabl/ (as one syllable). - filelakeshoe 19:50, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Don't try to find consistancy in English orthography, like ever. You can find reasons why a word is pronounced, but then to claim that this is some how incredulous or wrong or shouldn't be the way that it is simply doesn't work, if you did that, most of the English language would have to change the way it is spelled. Consider tomb/bomb/comb and your head will explode if you care too much. It is what it is, and you can't argue with it. Just accept it as it is. --Jayron32 20:02, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Jayron, people are incredulous, things are incredible. People can sometimes be incredible, but no thing can ever be incredulous. Oh, and I still admire the consistency with which you spell 'consistency' as "consistancy".  :) -- Jack of Oz [your turn] 20:12, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

I've never claimed to be smart, or right, about anything. In fact, I'm pretty well convinced that everything I do is wrong. --Jayron32 05:31, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

Jack, he was neither consistent nor consistant in his spelling of 'consistency' as 'consistancy', as he only wrote it once. :) --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 14:27, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

Notice I wrote "I still admire the consistency with which you spell 'consistency' ...", not "spelt". I was referring to Jayron's general tendency, not just on this thread. Consistency is a wholly admirable quality. I would much prefer to see a word always mispelled the same way, than sometimes right and sometimes wrong. I've made this kind of point in probably hundreds of edit summaries in article space over the years. I, too, believe in consistency.  :) -- Jack of Oz [your turn] 20:36, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

Those who use "spelt" are going against the grain. StuRat (talk) 18:21, 22 May 2011 (UTC)

Read this and you'll never need to ask a question like this again :) - filelakeshoe 21:20, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Some of the wording on that page is very similar to some of the wording in my copy of the book Crazy English.

—Wavelength (talk) 21:47, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

English makes perfect sense if you realize it was never coherently organized. By that I mean no one ever sat down and wrote the rules in a uniform way. Some words from this language, some words from that language. Common exceptions to rules come from rules in other languages (normally two vowels together the first is the one pronounced... except "ei" and "ie" in words of German origin, for instance), common usage changes pronunciation, stressing of vowels changes (the two acceptable pronunciations of "economics" for instance). If you know where a word comes from it can help (tomb and bomb are both from french and originally had a silent 'E' at the end), but even that's not sure-fire. HominidMachinae (talk) 08:17, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

The article Ghoti, (pronounced fish) is always helpful when seeking logic in the English language. HiLo48 (talk) 21:42, 20 May 2011 (UTC)