Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2015 December 22

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December 22

Mitsudomoe

Hello, I have a source which is an interview with three Japanese voice actresses that play the three main characters in an anime article I am working on (Namely List of Mitsudomoe characters). I need help translating the interview so I can use it.

The original is here:

(Original)

A google translate helps a bit but the text is garbled, and not very useful:

(Google translated)

Any help translating the interview in part or whole would be greatly welcome. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 01:12, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

You might have more luck contacting someone from this list. It's kind of long though, so a better option might just be to ask at somewhere like Wikipedia:WikiProject Anime and manga for a Japanese-speaking member to read it over and add whatever info he finds useful or relevant himself. -Elmer Clark (talk) 22:48, 27 December 2015 (UTC)

edit: haha, I see that you asked at the WikiProject first and they sent you here. Never mind then! -Elmer Clark (talk) 22:55, 27 December 2015 (UTC)

"造字"

What does zh:造字 define "造字" as? —suzukaze (t・c) 05:22, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

Headlines

Does the rule still hold, that (basically, and at least a lot of) prepositions are written with small capitals (if this is the right word, sorry, I`m no native speaker) in titles, headlines, etc.? I can see two trends: to treat even FOR and other obvious prepositions like nouns. 2.) to regard longer words like WITHOUT as nouns, unlike for instance WITH.--217.88.46.94 (talk) 09:54, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

I'm confused. 'For', 'with' and 'without' are all prepositions. If 'without' is treated as a noun because of its length, and 'for' is treated as a noun because it's an obvious preposition, where does that leave 'with'? It's also an obvious preposition, but not a long one. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 19:35, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

Small capitals? Like this? No. In titles, most prepositions are considered minor words, so don't get capitalized in a title unless they are the first or last words. But small capitals? No. StevenJ81 (talk) 20:19, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps the OP was unclear that the opposite of capital (for letters) is "lower case". Dbfirs 20:32, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

Or perhaps he was correct in noting that title in all caps frequently distinguish large and small caps: To the Ends of the Earth. Exactly the same principle applies.

As for the actual question, I would think the answer lies in the distinction implicitly made between the rules which may hold among those who know and care about typography, and the trends which sway the rabblement, who wouldn't know a minor word from a major one. Henry^Flower 21:16, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

I've been asked to point out that the opposite of capitals is not necessarily "lower case". (It's an opposite, but another term for lower case is "small letters".) —Steve Summit (talk) 22:01, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

• The OP geolocates to West Germany, and given this page is semi-protected, he should edit at the talk page or on an editor's personal talk page if necessary. In America, "These Five Words Within Quotes" start with capital or UPPER-CASE letters and continue in lower case letters. The use of SMALL CAPS is a difference in font size, not case.

As for headlines, I was taught in the US in the Seventies that nouns and adjectives were always capitalized, as well as non-helping verbs and even overlong prepositions such as "throughout". But having worked in publishing as an editor and typesetter, I know that this is all a matter of style and convenience, with no set rules, and odd in-house rules and a plethora of different standards by publisher, field and location.

In my high-school class American History I, a huge point was made of the fact that the US Declaration of Independence does not capitalize "united" while the US Constitution does, see original texts here. μηδείς (talk) 20:56, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

A big deal was made about it here, a few years ago, when someone tried to rename the article "United States Declaration of Independence" with a lower-case "u". That was shot down. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:25, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

A detailed answer can be found at Letter case#Headings and publication titles. To summarize: the practice varies according to publisher's house style, and not a single one is deemed as "universally correct". The following paragraph from that article provides a succinct answer: Most styles capitalise all words except for short closed-class words (certain parts of speech, namely, articles, prepositions, and conjunctions); but the first word (always) and last word (in many styles) are also capped, regardless of part of speech. Many styles capitalise longer prepositions such as "between" or "throughout", but not shorter ones such as "for" or "with".[10] Among such styles, "four or more letters (≥4)" or "more than four letters (>4)" are the typical (although somewhat arbitrary and conflicting) threshold rules.. No such user (talk) 12:40, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for confirming what I said exactly, Nonesuch. I'll also point out as a pre-boxingday-eve bonus that the NY Post uses "Prexy" for president in its headlines. Or at least it did so the last time I bought an issue, rather than reading it online. μηδείς (talk) 20:30, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

That was pretty common in my youth, I don't know if it's still done. Obviously they like to keep headlines as short as they can, hence the famous "STICKS NIX HICK PIX". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:28, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

Aha. But "prez" is shorter. μηδείς (talk) 01:48, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

How many Danish speakers in each state

There are Danish-Americans in the United States that speak Danish as their mother tongue. Is there a way to see how many mother tongue speakers of Danish are in each state of the US? Like a list? Or for any language for that matter? Such as how many speak French in each state? Not just on Wikipedia, but I mean on the internet in general, where can I find a list like that? Philmonte101 (talk) 23:26, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

Try going to www.census.gov and using the American Fact Finder. They have all sorts of data, and I'm 100% sure you can search for information by language speakers there. It's there, it'll just take a minute or two to figure out the system; but if the information exists, you can find it there. --Jayron32 01:35, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Obviously, the data are only as good as the responses to the Census questionnaire are. But the Census data are widely considered to be the best source for data like this in the United States. StevenJ81 (talk) 21:17, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

The second item in this listing is a downloadable Excel spreadsheet with state-by-state breakdowns in each of the tabs. For example, it tells me the top 5 states for Danish speakers are California (6,275); New York (2,055); Texas (1,535); Washington (1,240); and Virginia (1,075).    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 17:12, 25 December 2015 (UTC)