Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2013 July 26

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July 26

Petre Mihai Bănărescu o Petru Mihai Bănărescu?

Ciao tutti,
Mi chiamo "Pietro" in italiano, "Peter" in inglese, "Pedro" in spagnolo, e "Petru" in rumeno.
Ma il nome di questo famoso ittiologo rumeno è "Petre". I don't get it. Why isn't it "Petru"?
Petru în Australia aka --Shirt58 (talk) 13:02, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

A search of the internet indicates Petre is used as a name in Romanian. But the website does not explain the u/e variation. Maybe the one version comes through Greek, rather than Latin, or perhaps Petre comes from one of the Romanian subdialects or was borrowed from a neighboring language. Perhaps someone else here has a name dictionary and can give a better answer. μηδείς (talk) 19:07, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

Makoto ni dōmo arigatō, μηδείς-sensei. That answers my question perfectly. Petre în Australia aka --Shirt58 (talk) 11:52, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

Well, I basically speculated at you, but you are welcome. I just started reading The Linden and the Oak last night set in Ruthenia and one of the characters is named Petro, as compared to the Russian Pyotr. μηδείς (talk) 15:29, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

The Bolsheviks initially renamed Saint Petersburg as Petrograd, not Pyotrgrad; before making it Leningrad. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:05, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

The Bolsheviks had nothing to do with that. The name was changed at the start of WWI to remove the Germanic elements. I believe the difference between Petrograd and Pyotr is one of stress. The Russian "ё" is reduced as a matter of orthographical convention to "e" in unstressed vowels. Valiantis (talk) 04:05, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

Ah yes, thanks. I guess we're used to hearing people say PET-ro-grad, and it's useful to be reminded that Russians stress the final syllable, not the first (pet-ro-GRAD). The letter "ё" is always stressed, so if the stress is to be somewhere else, it has to change to "e". -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 04:15, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

Abbottsford

Need more input at Talk:Abbotsford,_British_Columbia#Pronunciation.--Canoe1967 (talk) 16:14, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

Identify English accent.

Say "worry". The pronunciation would be broken into syllables: "wor" and "ry". The "wor" is pronounced like "wer" instead of fixating on the long o sound with an ascending intonation of the er sound. The "ry" is pronounced like "ree" with an ascending intonation of the ee sound. What is this accent? Sneazy (talk) 18:08, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

Probably need a bit more than that to go on, but I'm thinking of maybe Brummie or Scouse. Is there any context? Alansplodge (talk) 19:08, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

I heard it on Angelina Ballerina. Sneazy (talk) 20:49, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

Listening to that cartoon on a Certain Video-Sharing Site, I would say it sounds like an American actress making a reasonable but not perfect attempt at RP, although the article assures us it's Judi Dench's daughter. It's not a natural accent that's spoken anywhere in England, at least. Tevildo (talk) 21:46, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

Also, which version of Angelina Ballerina was this, and which character? In the original everyone is supposed to be British I think...but even Judi Dench herself plays someone with a Russian-ish accent. In the newer version the voices are meant to be a bit more multicultural, including a bad Spanish accent, a bad French accent, whatever Judi Dench's Daughter is doing, and an apparently real American accent. Adam Bishop (talk) 02:55, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

I think the newer version you are describing is the correct one. The "multiculturalism" is really limited to "Western European". Sneazy (talk) 03:46, 27 July 2013 (UTC)