Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2006 September 9

=September 9=

How do you really pronounce Liebe?
Simple question really for those who know that would count me out I really need to know how to pronounce this word properly.
 * Lee-buh. --jpgordon&#8711;&#8710;&#8711;&#8710; 04:40, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
 * , by the way. --  the     GREAT     Gavini   07:01, 9 September 2006 (UTC)


 * If you mean the German word for love. It might mean something else in another language I don't know about. - Mgm|(talk) 18:33, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
 * I doubt it - unless the word has a capital letter in that language too. --  the     GREAT     Gavini   19:26, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

List of adjectival forms of place names
I was wondering after looking at this if there is another list with the country and when the people of the country call themselves as in

France - Français, Germany - Deutsche, etc.. Rex the first talk 12:52, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
 * These might be helpful: List of countries by native names and List of countries and capitals in native languages (though they dont list what the people call themselves). ---Sluzzelin 13:46, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

name of cities
I find that in your pages cities like Assab, Barentu and Ghindae are found in Eritrea. Is there any one who can tell me the meanings of these names and their origin?—

What is a tentaive tone?
What is a tentaive tone?


 * Do you mean "tentative"? Bhumiya (said/done) 02:05, 10 September 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm not exactly sure, but I'd say, well, guess, really, that it's a tone which implies you aren't absolutely sure of what you're saying. Then again, I could be wrong. :-) StuRat 05:37, 10 September 2006 (UTC)


 * I think it refers to a way of expressing yourself that makes clear you are not overly confident of what you are saying (or writing), but that your viewpoints and conclusions are tentative, so that there is room for discussion and negotiation. An example is the previous sentence starting with "I think". That sets a tentative tone. If the sentence had started: "It refers to a way ...", it would have sounded like an authoritative statement. Other things you can add to make the tone tentative are "I guess", "possibly", and auxiliary verbs like "may". In a dialogue, a tentative tone may facilitate communication: others may venture a different viewpoint without explicitly contradicting you. In scientific or other factual writing, one should be very careful in when to use a tentative tone: it should be used precisely when you can't be sure of the factuality of the statements put forward. In all contexts, it is best to avoid weasel words, which should not be substituted for the tentative tone. --Lambiam Talk 06:31, 10 September 2006 (UTC)


 * It's possible that "tentative tone" is another way of saying passive voice. Thedoorhinge 18:48, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Thirty million Russians were killed by Stalin. Sounds quite decisive to me. JackofOz 20:46, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
 * True, but he only killed them passively. Loomis 23:30, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Greeting
I don't suppose you could possibly list in as many languages as possible the following:

"Hello my friend"

It is a thing me and my (male) friend do, where we say it to each other in other languages, but we have only started it. So far I know German, French, Italian and Spanish. Any help would be appreciated. It must also be ablle to be written in an English phone. Yours, Christopher
 * In Hebrew "shalom chaver" (or shalom chavera if the friend is a woman). That is a transliteration; the original is obviously in the Hebrew alphabet. Batmanand | Talk 22:17, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Hej, min vän in Swedish. Rueckk 23:22, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Hallo, mijn vriend in Dutch. (Hehe, I'm first)Evilbu 00:17, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Nǐhǎo, péngyǒu in Chinese. You might want to look at Wiktionary's definitions (1 2).  Λυδ α  cιτγ  00:36, 10 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Here's some...


 * Tagalog: Kumusta, aking kaibigan.
 * Cebuano: Kumusta, akong higala.
 * Kapampangan: Kumusta, kakung kaluguran.
 * Ilokano: Kumusta, gayyemko.
 * Catalan: Hola, amic meu.
 * Portuguese: Olá, meu amigo.
 * Japanese: こんにちは、友達. konnichiwa, tomodachi
 * Russian: Привет, мой друг. privet, moj drug.
 * Korean: 네 친구야, 안녕. ne chingu ya, annyeong.

--Chris S. 01:15, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Korean correction: You don't need ne (nae, actually, but it should be dropped). --Kjoonlee 02:02, 10 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Indonesian: Selamat, teman saya. Not sure if adding 'saya' ('my') would sound right, though, and that would probably be an issue in many languages. DirkvdM 06:19, 10 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Some attempts by myself:
 * Afrikaans: Hallo, my vriend.
 * Scots Gaelic:Halò mo charaid. (funny - could have sworn there was a vocative case in SG)
 * --  the     GREAT     Gavini   07:03, 10 September 2006 (UTC)


 * This makes me think of an old Marvel joke, "You know that you've read too many Marvel comics when you start calling your old friend "Old friend!"... Anyway, I thought it was slightly funny... ;) 惑乱 分からん 16:03, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

German: Hallo, mein Freund. Latin: Salve, mi amice. &mdash; D a  niel  (‽) 21:24, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Joual: Salut, mon chum! Loomis 10:32, 12 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Related fact: some languages, Tlingit for example, have no term for “hello”. — Jéioosh 03:39, 15 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Most Philippine language don't have a word for "hello" either. In the Philippine language translations I given above, I gave the word Kumusta which is from Spanish ¿cómo está?. Other words that are like "hello" are used in Tagalog. Hoy for instance, which is kind of like "hey!" --Chris S. 21:19, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

It depends how direct a translation to the word "hello" you're looking for. A lot of the translations above are using the most colloquial equivalents, rather than the most direct translations. For example, if your French version is "Bonjour, mon ami", that would certainly be the most common translation, but not the most direct. For that you'd have to say "Àllo, mon ami" (which is rarely, if ever used..."Àllo" is more commonly used when answering the telephone). Same goes for "Shalom" in Hebrew, which obviously means "Peace", not "Hello". (In fact, my dictionary actually translates "Hello" into the Hebrew "Halo", which I've never heard used in speach, but my Hebrew is much poorer than my French, so I'd imagine it would similarly only be used when answering the phone or something of that nature). Loomis 07:24, 17 September 2006 (UTC)