Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2010 August 12

= August 12 =

Pronunciation of "anti" and "semi"
Please give an insight into the pronunciation of anti and semi. I've heard some people say "an-tie" and some people say "an-tee". Why the variation? And how semi should be pronounced? --Galactic Traveller (talk) 15:34, 12 August 2010 (UTC)


 * See http://ask.antimoon.com/questions/1214/how-to-pronounce-anti-and-semi. -- Wavelength (talk) 15:44, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

Americans say "antie" whilst we Brits say "antee" - same goes for 'semi' 194.223.35.225 (talk) 15:55, 12 August 2010 (UTC) (But it is Gurumaister not signed in)


 * E.C. Since anti and semi both are from extinct dialects of Greek, it is hard to know what is "correct." See Dead_language for more detail. Also, I can't agree with the overgeneralization above of American English and British English. I use "antie" and "antee," the latter for emphasis. Same goes for "semee" and "sem-eye," the hard pronunciation of the 'i' for emphasis. schyler (talk) 16:01, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Also, I have ben known to say "anee" schyler (talk) 16:02, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
 * In AE, sometimes sem-ee as part of a word but always sem-i when refering to the truck. Rmhermen (talk) 16:39, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes. And oddly enough, "hemi" is pronounced "hemee" standalone (never "hem-eye") as with Hemi engine, and in combination as with hemisphere is pronounced with a short i; whereas "demi" is usually "demee" and is pretty much always a prefix, not a standalone. Ain't English grand? :) ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:51, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Then there's de-MEE Moore. --   Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   22:41, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I pronounce it "DEM-ee" because I don't care. Rimush (talk) 18:08, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Seems you care enough to come here and tell us you don't care. Which is not nothing.  You may as well use that energy more productively and respect her apparent choice of pronunciation of her own name.  :)  --   Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   06:31, 15 August 2010 (UTC)
 * (ec)Americans say it either way, depending on how it makes the sentence flow, and also whether you're saying it as a standalone word or as a prefix. As with a semi-trailer truck, which we might well pronounce "sem-ee" but as shorthand, ie. just "semi", we would likely say "sem-eye". It might be less common for Americans to pronounce "anti" as "ant-ee", because that's a homophone of "ante" and "auntie" (expect in those parts of the USA where "aunt" is pronounced "ahnt" instead of "ant"). But take words like "anti-abortion". I've heard it both ways in the US, and it might be a regionalism. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:46, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
 * The flow of the sentence is probably the most important indicator of U.S. pronunciation. I'll use "antee" when it's part of a well-used, unremarkable compound word (e.g. antitrust, antifreeze), and "antai" in all physics contexts (e.g., antiproton, antimatter, antigraviton).  Other than that, its use in (say) political labels (anti-fascist, anti-communist, anti-American), advertising (anti-oxidant, anti-allergy), etc. - basically general usage - depends almost entirely on the sentence structure.  I'll point out that "semi" comes to English more directly from the Latin, and agree with Bugs about the rest. I'll note I do come from that part of the U.S. where "auntie" is pronounced "awn-tee," but in my travels I have never encountered anyone who thought I was calling my mother's sister a fascist.   ☯.Zen  Swashbuckler  .☠  17:04, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I was bemused by Jedi, which I encountered in a comic before the film was released, and naturally pronounced "Jeddy", on the analogy of "semi" and "anti". Given that it is supposed to be a foreign name, I would expect to see it written "Jedai", like Altai and Masai. But then Mark Okrand had a problem when he came to devise the Klingon language, because the second vowel of 'Klingon' wasn't anything he wanted to write with 'o'. --ColinFine (talk) 23:50, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Huh, I'm a true-blue American and I've always pronounced it "ant-ee". Perhaps it's a west coast/California dialect thing. Pfly (talk) 11:18, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Stefan Zweig
In your listing of his work, in the second to last line of that section, would you please consider a change in spelling of the word 'Verzeichnuss' (you actually spelled it correctly with an Umlaut instead of the letter 'u' I cannot add the marks above the vowels 'a' 'o' 'u' in this case, of course: 'u' to show an Umlaut) to the correct German spelling 'Verzeichniss' I also am unable to print the letter we have in German that is (almost always) the equivalent of 'ss'. In short, will you consult other Germans/German language specialists if the spelling you have used is not in fact incorrect? I apologize for my long-winded description of my request. Michael Leuthold (alterego2000) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alterego2000 (talk • contribs) 20:43, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
 * The usual place to discuss changes to an article is on the article's talk page (in this case, Talk:Stefan Zweig). However, it seems that Mozart himself used the spelling "Verzeichnüß", see for example and . +Angr 21:27, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
 * (edit conflict) Verzeichnüß is actually the way Mozart himself spelled the word in the list's title, as you can see e.g. here: http://www.smca.at/presse/press_formular.php?pmid=216 - therefore, changing our entry would be the wrong thing to do. -- 78.43.71.155 (talk) 21:28, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
 * And when editing, you have lots of special characters available from the panel below the editing panel: choose 'Latin' and you'll get pretty well all the accented letters used in European (and some other) languages. --ColinFine (talk) 23:53, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Or you can use alt codes which I find easier. To type ü hold down the alt key and press 0252 in succession.  There are codes for every character. --Viennese Waltz talk 12:10, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
 * That, of course, depends on knowing what the alt codes are, or knowing where to find them; and also technical stuff like holding the Control and Alt keys down with the NumLock on, while typing the alt code (not something that would be blindingly intuitively obvious to an alt code newbie). I know a bit about them, but is there a lookup table that's easy for dummies to use but is also comprehensive?  Going via our article alt code gets me some external links, but they fail one or both of these requirements.  --   Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   12:24, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Try this one. I wouldn't say the technical stuff is that difficult really.  You don't have to hold Control down at all, just Alt.  And yes the Num Lock needs to be on, but it usually is by default. --Viennese Waltz talk 12:31, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Don't forget that this method is completely system-dependent. For example, for me Alt+0252 does nothing (or rather, the Alt+2 part of it seems to invoke a Firefox shortcut to switch to the second open tab), whereas I can produce ü by pressing Menu " u in succession (as I have the menu key bound to serve as the compose key).—Emil J. 12:35, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I think you should check that. On Windows, Alt+0252 (not Alt+252) when the cursor is in a text entry mode like a Word document or a Wikipedia edit box will always bring up ü, it is not browser dependent.  From your description of the tab switching, it sounds like you're trying to do it in a browser window, which is not what I'm talking about. --Viennese Waltz talk 12:42, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I didn't say browser-dependent, I said system-dependent. I don't use Windows.—Emil J. 12:45, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Well yeah, if you're on a Mac (or Linux, for all I know) it will be different. I didn't bother to specify Windows. --Viennese Waltz talk 12:47, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Also, the numbers have to be pressed on the number pad. Pressing the "other" numbers won't do jack. Rimush (talk) 13:15, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Why does everyone always mention the codes that begin with 0? They all exist in three-number codes too, don't they? In this case, anyway, it's alt+129. Adam Bishop (talk) 04:13, 15 August 2010 (UTC)


 * And yes the Num Lock needs to be on, but it usually is by default - that's what the Universal Assumption seems to be, but I'm here to tell you that I despise the NumLock key with a very great passion, and will use it only when absolutely unavoidable. (And no, I don't use the key pad for numbers, I use the horizontal row at the top of the keyboard, always have and always will. Early typewriter self-training goes in deep, and stays.)  --   Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   13:20, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I use the horizontal row as well. But NumLock stays on because that's what happens by default, and I'm too lazy to turn it off or change the settings or whatever. Rimush (talk) 18:01, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
 * What do you mean by "by default". It's never on on my computers (home, work) unless I actively turn it on.  --   Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   23:03, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Maybe you've sometime adjusted your settings so? Not long ago there used to be a joke circulating on the Bulgarian-language Internet: "Save electricity. Make sure to turn off the NumLock key." --Theurgist (talk) 00:15, 14 August 2010 (UTC)