Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2007 January 1

= January 1 =

Comparison of Perso-Arabian Alphabet
Is there a website where they compare the alphabets of Pashto, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Shahmukhi(Pakistani Punjabi letters)?
 * You can start reading Arabic alphabet, Persian alphabet and Perso-Arabic script, and click your way forward. I don't know if there's a single site, but you could use multiple windows... 惑乱 分からん 11:42, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

http://www.omniglot.com/ -LambaJan 15:41, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Turkish song Translation
Please can you Translate This Turkish Song Of Mustafa Sandal to English:-

Song Title : Araba.

GONUL ISTER ARADIGINI HEP MI BEKLER, HEP MI BULAMAZ GONUL ISTER TANIDIGINI HIC MI BILMEZ, HIC MI SORAMAZ

BENI ALSA NAFILE NAFILE YERIME BIR SEY KOYAMAZ YALVARSAM DA KAL DIYE KAL DIYE O YERINDE HIC DURAMAZ

ONUN ARABASI VAR GUZELMI, GUZEL SOFORU DE VAR OZEL MI, OZEL BASTI MI GAZA GIDER MI, GIDER MAALESEF RUHU YOK ONUN ICIN HIC MI HIC SANSI YOK


 * For a translation, look here. --Lambiam Talk  10:30, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

about names
i need a clear information about firstname,last name,middle name,surname. i am an indian.


 * Try taking a look at first name, middle name, and surname (last name). If you have a more specific question please clarify. -Elmer Clark 10:11, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

German Tun/Machen
Can someone please explain when, in German, one should use tun, and when one should use machen. MHDIV ɪŋglɪʃnɜː(r)d  ( Suggestion? | wanna chat? ) 12:47, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I think you could basically use "machen" anytime, except for certain fixed phrases, such as "tut mir leid" and "es tut weh", when the word corresponds to English "make", I don't think "tun" should ever be used... 惑乱 分からん 13:32, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree with the last part; tun can only mean "to do"; machen can mean to make but also to do. But in the cases I can think of where you would translate it with "to do", there is still a vague sense of "to create" (often: to create an undesirable situation), as in the famous riposte attributed to Picasso when asked by a German whether he had painted Guernica (Das haben Sie gemacht?): Nein, das haben Sie gemacht! "Do it yourself", if not left untranslated, would usually become Mach es selbst. I don't think, though, that tun is only used in fixed phrases. Lenin's What Is To Be Done? in German is Was tun? "I have nothing to do" is Ich habe nichts zu tun. Ich habe damit nichts zu tun is quite idiomatic for "I have nothing to do with it"; *Ich habe damit nichts zu machen sounds odd. The question Was hast du getan? is idiomatic and neutral. When you come home and you find it in tatters, and you ask your dog – who you left alone at home – "What have you done?", it is appropriate to use the form Was hast du gemacht?, or more idiomatically Was hast du denn jetzt gemacht?. In the end, I don't think there is a hard and fast rule, but perhaps the above helps. --Lambiam Talk  15:59, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

German fit
Can the German adjective, 'fit' be used in the modern english understanding of the word? I.e. Sexy, attractive. MHDIV ɪŋglɪʃnɜː(r)d  ( Suggestion? | wanna chat? ) 15:19, 1 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't know it in that sense, whether in German or in English. In German, as far as I'm aware, the only meaning is "in good physical condition; in good health", mostly used by people describing their own sense of well-being (Ich fühle mich heute nicht fit). If used in other senses, it would presumably be experienced as an English word injected into a German sentence, like in Denglisch Updates werden gedownloadet. --Lambiam Talk  16:14, 1 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Fit is used in that sense in The Streets' hit single "Fit but you know it". 惑乱 分からん 01:20, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Russian city - alternative spelling of name?
I'm tidying up and expanding the Serge Voronoff article, and I wondered if anyone could confirm my educated guess that the reference to Voronej is meant to be (or is a different spelling of) Voronezh, and maybe also Voronez? Thanks. I've changed the link in the article to Voronezh, but will change back if someone thinks this might be wrong. Carcharoth 18:25, 1 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Voronej would be the French-phonology based transliteration of Russian Воронеж. As this spelling comes from a biography written in French, I take it for certain that it is either the same place as Voronezh – or a different place with the same name :) And indeed, when, from the page Voronezh, you follow the link Français in the list "in other languages", you come to a page in French entitled Voronej. The spelling "Voronez" doesn't make sense to me; the digraph zh represents the voiced postalveolar fricative, similar to the s in the English word treasure. --Lambiam Talk  21:47, 1 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Compare Czech Voroněž, Estonian Voronež, Finnish Voronež, Italian Voronež, and Slovenian Voronež. —Bkell (talk) 22:23, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Wonderful. Thanks. I'll make Voronej into a redirect and leave Voronez alone. Carcharoth 02:17, 2 January 2007 (UTC)


 * And it makes sense, because he was a Russian who lived and worked in France. Carcharoth 02:20, 2 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Why not make Voronez a redirect too? —Bkell (talk) 04:01, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Campaign on a plank.
From the thank-heavens-I'm-not-a-mediator class article Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam: the current president ... campaigned on a plank of being tougher on the LTTE. (my emphasis) The word "plank" is used instead of the more familiar "platform"; is that an acceptable regional usage, or is it just wrong? I have this vivid picture of the candidate, blindfold on and arms bound, being prodded forward to his fate in the shark infested waters.:-) --Seejyb 23:26, 1 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Since a platform is composed of planks, I believe they are referring to each issue of their platform as a "plank". StuRat 23:44, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
 * "Plank" may be an Americanism, actually.--Pharos 23:52, 1 January 2007 (UTC)


 * The metaphor of the "planks" of a "platform" appear in a lot of 19th century American political cartoons. In Britain, the term "manifesto" is sometimes used instead of platforms. AnonMoos 01:13, 2 January 2007 (UTC)


 * plank –noun [...] 4. any one of the stated principles or objectives comprising the political platform of a party campaigning for election: They fought for a plank supporting a nuclear freeze. [source: plank. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plank (accessed: January 01, 2007)].  --Lambiam Talk  01:25, 2 January 2007 (UTC)