Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2017 July 10

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July 10

Kazakh written in Arabic

Could someone help with the Arabic-script edition of a Kazakh text in the Kazakh language article?

بارلىق ادامدار تۋمىسىنان ازات جانە قادىر-قاسيەتى مەن كۇقىقتارى تەڭ بولىپ دۇنيەگە كەلەدى. ادامدارعا اقىل-پاراسات، ار-وجدان بەرىلگەن، سوندىقتان ولار ٴبىر-بىرىمەن تۋىستىق، باۋىرمالدىق قارىم-قاتىناس جاساۋلارى ٴتيىس.‎

Whatever this text is (judging by the English translation, it's some philosophical text about the Rights of Man), it's written so that tons of letters are separate from all the rest, in contrast to the normal cursive form of writing this script, and Kazakh alphabets#Arabic gives no indication that Kazakh-in-Arabic tends to display most letters separately. Nyttend (talk) 11:23, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

The text is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which I think we often use for these kinds of illustrations, as translations of it in multiple languages are easily available). The writing seems okay to me – as far as I can tell, the positions where letters are non-connected are basically the same as with standard Arabic letters (after "w", "r", "z", "d", alif and so on). It might be that these letters are somewhat more frequent in this language than in Arabic, leading to a somewhat more chopped-up overall visual impression? Fut.Perf. ☼ 11:40, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

"ە" and "ى" are unconnected where they would otherwise be connected in Arabic, but that's because the Arabic alphabet has to be heavily modified to represent Turkic sounds that don't exist in Arabic. (Same for Farsi, Urdu, etc.) Adam Bishop (talk) 11:47, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

Yes, I don't see but one letter in that text that would normally be connected in Arabic: ە. There is another letter that may be disconnected for you, ى, but that's due to the font. Fonts that support only Arabic will show ى as unconnected. The few other unconnected letters, such as رۇد, work the same way in normal Arabic. The reason that ە has only an isolated and a final form is that it is not an h, it is a vowel in Kazakh, so they have made it to work just like the vowel alif ا, which has only isolated and final forms. Kazakh does have an h, which is ھھھ ھ. —Stephen (talk) 00:40, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

English understanding problem

The following simply please:

If the direction is not correct, please calibrate by moving the device fast horizontally, in the form of figure 8, for 3 times, and it will calibrate. 116.58.202.73 (talk) 16:37, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

What is your own language? Perhaps someone here could translate it for you. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 16:55, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

Knowing what "the device" is might help as well. Wymspen (talk) 17:38, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

Smart phone. And, in English please. 103.67.156.112 (talk) 18:43, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

They want you to move the smart phone, quickly, in the way shown in figure 8, three times in a row. Rather than 'calibrate", perhaps "reset" would be a better term. I would guess, from the context, that this method is to set which direction is horizontal and which is vertical, should it get "confused". BTW, it sounds like whoever wrote those instructions doesn't speak English as their first language. If they did, they would say "as shown in figure 8" and "3 times" instead of "for 3 times". StuRat (talk) 18:52, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

My interpretation is that the phone is to be moved quickly in a figure eight pattern (not referencing illustration #8). — 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:AC70:E52:BE83:E545 (talk) 19:00, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

Yes, rereading it now I think you're right. See infinity symbol for the sideways version they seem to mean. StuRat (talk) 19:06, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

The technical term for the sideways version would be a lemniscate. Double sharp (talk) 11:45, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

How about...

"If the phone is displaying an incorrect direction, please calibrate it by quickly moving it in a figure eight pattern horizontally three times." — 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:AC70:E52:BE83:E545 (talk) 19:10, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

Or: "If the device is displaying an incorrect direction, please calibrate it by quickly moving the device horizontally in a figure eight pattern three times." — 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:AC70:E52:BE83:E545 (talk) 19:18, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

Sometimes "a picture (or video) is worth a thousand words" - see this video starting at 0:40 to 1:00. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 19:50, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

It's "a figure-8 pattern". Hyphenate compound modifiers, and "eight" has no figure to emulate; the numeral sign "8" has the shape they want you to move the phone in. "Three times" should be spelled out in words, and should be preceded by a comma to separate it from the figure-8 material. Technical documentation should never use "please"; you are not making a personal request for a favor, you're giving instructions on how to solve a problem, and the action is not optional. So: "If the device is displaying an incorrect direction, calibrate it by quickly moving the device horizontally in a figure-8 pattern, three times."  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽^ʌⱷ҅_ᴥⱷ^ʌ≼  05:09, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

Note that the Wiktionary entry contradicts the above regarding hyphenation and numeration (wikt:figure eight). — 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:AC70:E52:BE83:E545 (talk) 05:23, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

• No, it doesn't. Wiktionary only shows "figure eight" as a noun or verb, but many nouns can also be used as adjectives. When a multi-word phrase is used adjectivally before a noun, as here, it's standard to hyphenate it (although, to be fair, there are people who don't, or don't always). See Hyphen#Compound modifiers. --76.71.5.114 (talk) 08:28, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

Minor quibble: to me (native BrE) ". . . by quickly moving the device horizontally . . ." implies the action should be done immediately, rather than in a rapid fashion. I would word it as "If the device is displaying an incorrect direction, calibrate it by moving the device quickly in a horizontal figure-8 pattern, three times." {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.200.128.209 (talk) 07:27, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

• "If the orientation is incorrect, recalibrate by rapidly moving the device in a horizontal figure eight pattern ( ∞ ) three times." The unicode for the infinity symbol used here is U+221E, decimal 8734. -Arch dude (talk) 16:55, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

[1] & [2] 116.58.202.251 (talk) 16:01, 13 July 2017 (UTC)