Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2006 December 4

= December 4 =

"Me siento muy vacío" (TV commercial)
I'm wondering about the advertisement for an HD television set that shows a Mexican village where they're dancing because they're seeing snow for the first time. What Spanish-language song is being played in the ad, and what are the lyrics? The only part I can make out is "Me siento muy vacío" ("I feel very empty"). -- Mwalcoff 02:19, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Those words occur in the lyrics of "Tema de Colonia" by Gustavo Guido (see here, which if the page were not down would provide an audio clip to test). Wareh 03:08, 4 December 2006 (UTC)


 * That doesn't look like it. The song in the commercial gets real happy and upbeat after the "Me siento muy vacío" line. Good try, though. -- Mwalcoff 00:02, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Can you make up a language?
Would it be possible to make a new language, and make a lot of money off of it? Instead of "bread" you could say "lafina" and instead of "dog" you could say "plella".
 * Make up? yes conlang, make money? not as easy. meltBanana  02:49, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
 * This sounds like one of those Slashdot jokes:
 * Make up a new language.
 * Instead of bread say lafina and instead of dog say plella.
 * Profit! —Keenan Pepper 06:34, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
 * The question is taken from an Ali G bit with Noam Chomsky. --Ptcamn 09:06, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
 * The question is taken from an Ali G bit with Noam Chomsky. --Ptcamn 09:06, 4 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Esperanto is the largest artifical language but I doubt the founder made much money out of it. If you are in the right place at the right time and there is a need for a commercial language such as the Klingon language, you could make money. Sandman30s 09:35, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

German translation, bitte
How would a person say "Input is forbidden" in German. For example if you had a box that you didn't want anyone to put something in. Thanks, Dismas|(talk) 06:58, 4 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I would hardly understand that phrase in English; "input" means (to me) data or in nay case something non-physical. I think you need to be more specific. You could try: Es ist strengstens verboten, etwas in den Kasten einzusetzen, where I've translated "box" with Kasten. --Lambiam Talk  07:43, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Okay, so instead of input, how about "Loading is forbidden". Dismas|(talk) 09:03, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I can't think of any circumstances where the two sentences you've provided mean the same... If you gave us a bit more context, it would be much easier finding a translation. Otherwise you might end up with a word-by-word translation that doesn't convey what you wanted to say. --Dapeteばか 15:33, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
 * We have a tool at work with four ports or doors. The product as it's being worked on is loaded into one of these input ports (that's what they're called, input and output), which on this tool also happen to be the output as well though some tools are different in that the product comes out at a different place.  I was just wondering how I would express this in German.  I thought about Eingang (sp?) but I thought that pertained to walking or driving and not the input of an object.  Dismas|(talk) 22:33, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
 * How about Eingabe verboten or Eingabe nicht gestattet?  Or, instead of the Teutonic Eingabe, you could use the English word Input in German too.
 * Thanks! Dismas|(talk) 02:51, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Abracos fortes
How would one best translate "Abracos fortes Mr Jones" into English (as a greeting at the end of a letter)? --Seejyb 11:22, 4 December 2006 (UTC)


 * It'd appear this is some Romance language, literally meaning "Strong hugs", I'd guess an English equivalent might be "hugs and kisses" or something like that. 惑乱 分からん 12:34, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Possibly Portuguese? Maybe misspelled... 惑乱 分からん 16:02, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the help. I should have given the context. It is in a letter from Brazil, from the family of a friend who had recently died, in response to a letter of condolence. Strange that none of the standard translating software picks up abraco in plural. Maybe the absence of the "ç" in the ascii text confuses it. -- Seejyb 16:09, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Wakuran is very right; 'abraços fortes' is one of the more informal ways of ending a letter in Portuguese. Although I guess Mr. Smith is a psuedonym, you wouldn't find 'abraços fortes' with 'Mr' usually, because it would be like saying hugs and kisses to your bank manager. Anyhow, all of this is surplus. As for your query about abraços in the plural, it probably is because there's quite a difference between a cedilla C and a non-cedilla C, but knowing how shoddy Portuguese translators are out there, maybe it's because 'hug' tends to mostly appear in the singular and these people tend to be economical with words when compiling their translators. Anyhow, sorry for the waffle, and best wishes! ( It's is not a genitive / fala-me ) 11:44, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Raining tea
What really it means ? Is an idiomatic expression ? when and where it is used for ? In spanish I know the " Te de lluvia" party, and I think this term comes from the "Raining tea" expression. It is something as a "help" or "consolation" in bad moments ? If someone could help me I will be grateful. Thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 190.50.153.62 (talk • contribs).


 * Raining tea... what an odd little expression. Where, and in which context, did you hear that? I have heard about tea-houses that, as an incentive, offer free tea if it is raining, until the rain stops, or otherwise, until the tea-house shuts. (It seems a kindly but rather commercially suïcidal offer to me!) Perhaps this is solely what the phrase means; perhaps, there is a bizarre turn of phrase connected with this that some other than I can dig up. Either way, best wishes, It's is not a genitive / fala-me  21:20, 4 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Te de lluvia is not "raining tea", it's a "tea shower", I'm not sure if it's a baby shower or a bridal shower, in the form of a tea party or afternoon tea. The connection with the free tea while it's raining I don't get, and I don't think there is one. This is very interesting. -THB 04:26, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Thank you very much to all those that they answered my question. And thanks also to Wikipedia. Is the best of the Web.

Use of 'times' throughout the times
I was wondering -- did the word 'times', as in 'their army has three times as many horseman as ours' precede the use of the mathematical operator 'times' -- as in 'six times six is twenty-nine' ?

My feeling is that this question is unanswerable, but I thought I'd put it out there anyway. Theavatar3 18:22, 4 December 2006 (UTC)


 * "Extended senses such as "occasion," "the right time," "leisure," or times (v.) "multiplied by" developed in O.E. and M.E., probably as a natural outgrowth of phrases like, "He commends her a hundred times to God" (O.Fr. La comande a Deu cent foiz)." from the online etymology site (www.etymonline.com) ny156uk 18:56, 4 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Wow -- good answer. Thanks! Theavatar3 05:29, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, but it's a good answer to a different question. According to the OED1, the answer to the original question is no. The "commends her a hundred times" usage did come first -- in the OED1 it's sense 17, defined as "any one of the occasions on which something is done or happens; each occasion of a recurring action. Often qualified by a numeral." The earliest cite is circa 1300 and reads "Let me go at &thorn;is [ this] one tyme."

But the next relevant sense is the mathematical operator. In the OED1 this is sense 19, "preceded by a cardinal numeral and followed by a number or expression of quantity: used to express the multiplication of the number, etc." The earliest cite is circa 1380 and reads "As foure tymes sixe maken &thorn;is noumbre." [ They evidently weren't very smart in those days, considering how bad their spelling was. :–)]

Only after this do we get the "three times as many horsemen" usage: sense 19b, "also followed by an adj. or adv. in the comparative degree, or in the positive by as (formerly so) with an adj. or adv. expressing comparison. The earliest cite for this is from 1551 and reads: "This might you reade, and ten times more In the Bible."

Incidentally, according to Florian Cajori's history of mathematical notations, the first use of what we now call a times sign (X or &times;) with the meaning we know today was in 1618. But of course that's a separate thing again.

--Anonymous, 07:50 UTC, December 5.