Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2021 June 2

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June 2

Usage of synonyms

In some languages the context governs the usage of certain synonyms, e.g. in English, the words answer, reply and response are used in different contexts, while in Russian only one word, ответ (otvet), is generally used, regardless of context (be it an answer to the question, e-mail reply or military response). Is this context-dependent trend a known thing in linguistics and does it have a name? 212.180.235.46 (talk) 13:08, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

One term for it could be "the richness of English". Note the different origins for each of the words you listed.[1][2][3] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:17, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

Polysemy (and monosemy) are certainly known phenomena. (And, Bugs, English, in all its richness, doesn't distinguish between "knowing" by acquaintance v "knowing" by description on a single-word level, for example, unlike many other languages. Though context makes it clear, of course). ---Sluzzelin talk 13:24, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

There are likewise English terms for which a translator to Russian has to choose between several Russian terms that are not fully interchangeable but whose appropriateness depends on the context. For example, sometimes cousin can be translated as двоюродный брат, but only if denoting the son of your aunt or uncle. And гулять means to walk, but can only be used for a leisurely stroll. The terms of a language correspond to regions in the semantic space of meanings, and the regions for two different languages generally do not correspond perfectly to each other.  --Lambiam 19:35, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

As a translator from English, I can confirm that in some contexts, English is a very rich language where several terms can be translated into the same term in the target language. However, in other contexts, it is the other way around, where one term in English can give me a headache (and hours of work) trying to figure out which term is the most appropriate translation. The 'richness' of languages is not an easy thing to measure. --T*U (talk) 19:32, 3 June 2021 (UTC)

Translation from Latin

Can someone translate the text at this bizarre depiction of the Americas? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personification_of_the_Americas#/media/File:America,_from_the_Four_Continents_MET_DP861355.jpg I've tried running it through Google Translate, but the results are half sensible and half jibberish. Iapetus (talk) 15:02, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

Not quite sure, but I'd go for:

Illa quidem nostris dudum non cognita terris,
Facta brevì auriferis latè celeberrima venis,
Visceribus scelerata suis humana recondens
Viscera feralem prætendit AMERICA clavam

That land, America, unknown to us until recently,
but soon made famous far and wide for its gold-bearing veins,
hiding in its entrails the hideous entrails of men(?),
presents its deadly club.

Does that make sense? Fut.Perf. ☼ 15:22, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

It's a bit of a riddle, but scelerata can modify AMERICA. Supposedly, the entrails within entrails refer to the supposed cannibalism of the indigenous peoples, a culinary practice (depicted in the background) that in the eye of the author of the text defiles America.  --Lambiam 18:36, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

L&S write that sceleratus is used in particular as an adjective "denoting places where crimes had been committed or criminals punished".^[4]  --Lambiam 19:08, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

Cyrillic letter Ge when italicized

Cyrllic variants and cursive forms

When italicized, how did the Cyrillic letter Ge get a strange shape?? Georgia guy (talk) 20:10, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

Гг/Гг? I guess this has to do with russian cursive and linking adjacent letters. It may also depend on the used font. Personuser (talk) 20:30, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

And then there's Cyrillic cursive, which can be even stranger. Mathglot (talk) 09:11, 3 June 2021 (UTC)

And then there's this article about an even stranger script that you should read before answering. Cyrillic cursive currently redirects to Russian cursive, this seems historically justified, but could be handled better. If you find Cyrillic cursive strange you probably never saw Glagolitic cursive (or probably a lot of other ones). The script has some known issues addressed in the article. The fact that being familiar with hand writing makes me feel old is deeply disappoining. Personuser (talk) 01:48, 4 June 2021 (UTC)