Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2011 May 10

= May 10 =

Could some translate this Sentence for me?
Could some translate this Sentence for me? Pitusiray nisqaqa huk piruwanu urqum, Qusqu suyupi, Khallka pruwinsyapi. Pikchunqa mama quchamanta 5.800 mitrum aswan hanaq. Neptunekh2 (talk) 01:45, 10 May 2011 (UTC)


 * I can translate one word: Qusqu=Cusco... [[Image:SFriendly.gif|20px]] -- AnonMoos (talk) 02:10, 10 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes, it definitely looks like Quechua to me. No idea what it says, though. --  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  02:43, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
 * One might guess that "Khallka pruwinsyapi" has something to do with Calca Province and that -pi means "in", so "in Cusco region, in Calca province". Just a shot in the dark. Deor (talk) 02:50, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
 * And I see from the article Cusco Region that the Quechua equivalent is indeed Qusqu suyu. Deor (talk) 02:59, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Source article is Pitusiray on Quechua wiki. The following wikilinks in the article may provide a good idea for translations:
 * piruwanu—links to Piruw: Peru
 * urqum—links to Urqu: Mountain
 * Qusqu suyupi—links to Qusqu suyu: Cuzco Region
 * Khallka pruwinsyapi—links to Khallka pruwinsya: Calca Province
 * mama quchamanta—links to Mama qucha: Ocean
 * So, with a little more quick research and some guessing, I get something like "Pitusiray is a Peruvian mountain in Cuzco Region, Calca Province. Its peak rises 5,800 metres above sea level." I do not read Quechua (at least, I didn't think I could), so the accuracy of this should probably be checked out, but it should give you an idea. --dragfyre_ ʞןɐʇ c 03:04, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

In what case should I put the word accompanying "У"?
In the sentence У меня есть автомобиль, does меня function as an accusative or as a genitive? Thanks in advance. Leptictidium (mt) 08:21, 10 May 2011 (UTC)


 * It is genitive. The Russian preposition у always requires the genitive case. --Theurgist (talk) 09:57, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

Special use of "you"
I have just read the article "Use of you" in the Wikipidia and performed some other searches and I couldn't find the answer to my question. Is it correct, common or possible use "you" when you talk to a person who represents a company, group or entity meaning the whole company, group or entity and not that particular person you are talking to? For example: When you get to reception in a company and one says "You gave me an appointment for two o'clock" meaning "Yor company gave me an appointment for two o'clock" Thanks C. Balsa92.7.123.4 (talk) 10:30, 10 May 2011 (UTC)


 * It's a perfectly ordinary pural/collective second person pronoun, there's nothing "special" or unusual about it. There are some varieties of English that do have a distinct plural form - The well known "y'all" (a contraction of "you all") from Texas comes to mind. Roger (talk) 11:00, 10 May 2011 (UTC)


 * It may be uncomfortable to treat a receptionist who may be a junior who had nothing to do with inviting you as though he/she represents what the whole company decides. Meeting in person is a different from contacting by telephone a big company where the person who answers is likely to connect your call to another relevant person. Suggested approach: My name is . I have an appointment for two o'clock. Smile and look expectant. By all means add ....with Mr. Smith or ....about the caretaker vacancy if you have this helpful information, but do not talk like a Texan cowboy unless you are a Texan cowboy, or bidding for a movie rôle as one (or can't help it). Cuddlyable3 (talk) 11:29, 10 May 2011 (UTC)


 * I agree with Cuddlyable3, it is probably better to say "I have an appointment..." Roger (talk) 14:19, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
 * For that one example, yes, but in general it is, IMO, acceptable to say "you" (or its plural equivalent like y'all or youse, if you have one in your dialect) when addressing one person if you're referring to the company the person represents. For example, in a bookstore it is acceptable to ask a salesperson, "Do you carry books about online encyclopedias?" It's clear that the you means "this bookstore" rather than the individual clerk you're talking to. —Angr (talk) 14:56, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Plus, public-facing staff know to expect to receive the brunt of complaints (and compliments, for that matter) in the first instance, and learn very quickly not to take this use of "you" personally - or they're in the wrong job. --   Jack of Oz   [your turn]  20:20, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

wut did abraham lincoln sound like when he talked
ok suppose i am daniel day lewis and i want to play abraham lincoln in an upcoming movie. sound recording was invented after lincoln was alive so we dont really know wut he sounded like. so wut should i base my accent and speech patterns upon? wut kind of accent did lincoln have? how did he talk? is there anything on the internet where i can hear someone doing an impression of him.

wut was his speaking voice like. i would like to hear abraham lincoln talking :-) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.188.235.80 (talk) 15:46, 10 May 2011 (UTC)


 * If its just actors interpretations, then there should be a lot of movies to choose from. Have you tried doing an "Abraham Lincoln" search on Youtube? --Saddhiyama (talk) 16:05, 10 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Many accounts of people who knew him during his life mention that he had a semi-high-pitched voice (for a man), which was well adapted to making himself clearly heard to a large crowd when he spoke loudly. AnonMoos (talk) 16:59, 10 May 2011 (UTC)


 * And presumably Abraham Lincoln had a Kentucky, Indiana or Illinois accent. He moved away from Kentucky when he was 7, so I'd put more emphasis on the Mid-western accents.  StuRat (talk) 23:02, 10 May 2011 (UTC)


 * If the movie were a professional production, the screenwriter(s) and director would probably already have thought about such details, and would cast and/or direct the actor accordingly. An actor of such stature as Daniel Day Lewis would probably also have some ideas of his own, and would have earned enough respect for his thespianic expertise that they would be considered by the others involved. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.66.11 (talk) 07:15, 11 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Movies tend not to be governed by historical accuracy. If he spoke in a high pitched voice, or in an accent which sounds strange to modern ears, that would likely be a distraction to modern moviegoers.  Assuming that the plot is about his achievements or personality rather than his voice, most movie makers would be likely to think that depicting him precisely as he actually was would distract from the aim of their movie.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:59, 11 May 2011 (UTC)


 * I read somewhere (maybe The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson?) that he might have sounded a bit like Yosemite Sam. Astronaut (talk) 11:15, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

Every Third Thought
What does Prospero mean when he says "every third thought shall be my grave"? Has every third thought been a common idiom? Many thanks in advance. --Omidinist (talk) 17:54, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
 * It seems to mean that Prospero, having witnessed the happy marriage of his daughter to the prince of Naples, will be free to live out the rest of his life in peace, often contemplating his eventual death (but not literally one in every three thoughts). The Arden edition says that this does not necessarily mean that Prospero is very old, noting that "the memento mori, a meditation on death, was a widespread religious convention".. I don't think it's a common expression, except in reference to Shakespeare. Lesgles (talk) 18:45, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm not clear whether you are a native English speaker or not, Omidinist; but if you are not, you may not be aware of the formula "every nth" (every second, every third): "every third thought" means, literally, the third and the sixth and the ninth ...  Of course it is often used loosely, as here. --ColinFine (talk) 19:23, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I am not a native English speaker. I mean why not every fourth thought? What is special in number three? What is the first thought? Or the second? There should be a background to this expression. I see a book published by this title: Every Third Thought. --Omidinist (talk) 19:40, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
 * The book title is almost certainly taken from the Shakespeare quote. If I may speculate on the number three, it may have more to do with the metre of the line, than any specific logical meaning. Perhaps Shakespeare needed a one-syllable word there; "every first thought" would sound too frequent (and doesn't really make sense in English, for reasons I'm not sure how to explain), "second" is two syllables, and "fourth" through "ninth" end in "th", making it awkward to pronounce the following "th" in "thought"; those numbers are also increasingly unbelievable (who would keep track of every twelfth thought?). "Third thought" is also a small bit of alliteration. (I'm no literature scholar, and I could be totally wrong here, but a lot of times the answer is "it sounds nicer that way.") Adam Bishop (talk) 20:49, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
 * "Every first thought" wouldn't work because it would just mean "every thought". ("Every third thought" means "one thought out of every three" and "every second thought" means "one thought out of every two", so "every first thought" would have to mean "one thought out of every one", i.e. every single one.) As to why it's third as opposed to some other number, there's alliteration as Adam mentioned, but there's also the mystical and cultural importance of the number 3. —Angr (talk) 22:10, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
 * You could equally ask why the Ancient Mariner stoppeth one of three and not one of two or one of four. You can over-analyse poetry! -- Q Chris (talk) 10:40, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

So far so good. More comments are welcome. --Omidinist (talk) 03:30, 11 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Likelihood and unlikelihood are well-balanced while confining ourselves to whole numbers in the choice of of the one-out-of-three expression, and unintended implications as are found in the one-out-of-two and the one-out-of-four expressions are avoided.


 * One-out-of-two, for instance, fails to conjure up the notions of likelihood and unlikelihood at all.


 * One-out-of-four, to a greater extent than one-out-of-three, conveys the implication of unlikelihood, but fails to strongly-enough invoke the notion of likelihood.


 * It is the balance between likelihood and unlikelihood (or frequency and infrequency) that is captured in the one-out-of-three expression that makes that ratio particularly valuable. Bus stop (talk) 11:18, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

Earlier in the play (at 4.1.1), Prospero indicates that his daughter Miranda was "one third of mine own life". Perhaps this line indicates how sorely she will be missed when she has gone to live in Naples. Gypsydoctor (talk) 02:40, 3 June 2014 (UTC)