Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2007 July 15

= July 15 =

Mathemiticians names in IPA
I've begun putting together a "Mathematician pronunciation guide" for myself at User:Foxjwill/Mathematician pronunciation guide, and because I'm interested in IPA, I thought it would be fun to try and put the pronunciation in IPA. But since I'm what would be called an "amateur," I'd really like it if someone (or -ones) could check the pronunciations for me, and explain why my mistakes were mistakes. Foxjwill 05:10, 15 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Are these supposed to be as the mathematician would have pronounced their own name, or as it's pronounced in English today? Tesseran 05:39, 15 July 2007 (UTC)


 * In the first case, what a challenge! I am not sure that Descartes would pronounce its name today in the same way as he used to do it in 1610: French pronounciation has evolved. --AldoSyrt 13:03, 15 July 2007 (UTC)


 * It would actually be very interesting to try for both! Foxjwill


 * For Mandelbrot and Peano (in current French and Italian pronunciations) see Reference desk/Archives/Language/2007 April 12. --Lambiam 14:20, 15 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I think in Agnesi should be .  --Lambiam 14:30, 15 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Why apposed to ? Foxjwill 02:19, 16 July 2007 (UTC)


 * In d'Alembert should be  (I think). Also note that French has no word stress, but only phrasal intonation.  --Lambiam 14:45, 15 July 2007 (UTC)


 * What do you mean by French not having word stress? Foxjwill 02:19, 16 July 2007 (UTC)


 * There's some information under Stress (linguistics) and Prosody (linguistics). ---Sluzzelin talk  13:02, 16 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I do not feel confortable with IPA, thus FWIW (Today standard French from Île-de-France):
 * Alexis Claude Clairaut -
 * Jean le Rond d'Alembert -
 * Gérard Desargues - ? ? ?
 * Pierre de Fermat -
 * Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier -
 * Camille Jordan -
 * AldoSyrt 19:49, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Latina derriere
A girl who wants to be a ballet danser describes herself as having a "curvaceous Latina derriere". Am I right if it is a fat bottom? But why Latina?


 * She's referring to the popular stereotype of Hispanic women as gluteally gifted. Bhumiya (said/done) 10:04, 15 July 2007 (UTC)


 * She is Latina, perhaps?&#8201;—&#8201;gogobera (talk) 04:33, 16 July 2007 (UTC)


 * See also Vida Guerra. Ballet is (in)famous for imposing very strict, very lean body standards on its dancers.  --TotoBaggins 17:22, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

A useful word here is steatopygous Adambrowne666 21:03, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Indeed, stereotypes like steatopygia have captivated white male minds for a long time, see also Saartjie Baartman. ---Sluzzelin talk  22:43, 16 July 2007 (UTC)