Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2011 November 14

= November 14 =

Nickname transcription
Hello everybody, I need help with transcription word /bûbɪ/ (IPA) to English language. It is about a nickname of my friend. I thought it would be Bubbie, or Boobey, but I am not really sure. —Alex discussion ★ 14:00, 12 November 2011 (UTC) note: from the Village pump.

 Alex discussion ★ 15:36, 14 November 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure I understand how the circumflex over the 'u' is supposed to work in IPA. Perhaps a lengthening?  Anyway, something like "Booby" or "Boobie" would work.  You should know that people will find this name comical, since in English, boob is a slang word meaning "stupid person" and booby is a vulgar slang word for a woman's breast.  Marco polo (talk) 15:44, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * No, (u) actually, that sign means that the accent is located at l. u, but I don't know which kind of it. As about slangs, I really didn't know that... interesting, but that guy, a friend of mine, is a male!  Alex discussion ★ 15:52, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Certainly, he will be disappointed when he find that out.  Alex discussion ★ 15:56, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * What about Boobee? --Pp.paul.4 (talk) 15:59, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Where is your friend from, or what language is his nickname in? Angr (talk) 16:01, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * From Ottawa, why?  Alex discussion ★ 16:14, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, my actual question is whether the vowel of the first syllable is the vowel or the  vowel, i.e. whether it has the same vowel as "foot" and "cook" or the same vowel as "boot" and "spook". But then it occurred to me that if your friend was from Scotland or Nothern Ireland, he wouldn't distinguish the two vowels, and if he's a native speaker of a language other than English, the distinction might not exist in his language at all. So I asked where he's from and what language the name is in order to eliminate those possibilities. Angr (talk) 16:24, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * It might be “boot”, rather than “spook”, as you said. I really don't not these accents materials that well.  Alex discussion ★ 16:51, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * "Boot" and "spook" have the same vowel. The usual English word booby/boobie has the "boot/spook/goose" vowel, but the name might have the other vowel, the one in "foot/cook". Angr (talk) 17:15, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Is your friend Jewish, by any chance. See here, s.v. "Bubbee". Deor (talk) 18:34, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * But bubbee (I think short for bubbele) has the IPA vowel [ʊ]—which is the vowel in English put or cook, not IPA [u]—which is the vowel in English boot or spook. Marco polo (talk) 19:44, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * "Bubeleh" and its short form "bubee" or "bubbe" do indeed rhyme with "foot" rather than with "boot". As noted in Leo Rosten's The Joys of Yiddish, it seems related to the Russian baba, meaning "grandmother", and is used as a generic term of endearment for anyone close. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 21:56, 14 November 2011 (UTC)


 * I've heard non-Yiddish-speakers pronounce both bubeleh and bubbee with [u], though. Deor (talk) 22:24, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, that kind of thing can be a problem. You may have seen the word "mish-mash", which means a lot of things thrown together, a chaotic mess. And you often hear gentiles say it to rhyme with "gash", but it actually rhymes with "gosh". Groucho Marx once admonished a New York City politician guesting on his TV show, that if he kept saying it "mash" instead of "mosh", he was liable to lose a lot of the Jewish vote. EO is uncertain about the term "boobies" as in "breasts", but it may actually be related. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:04, 15 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Morticia Addams would arouse husband Gomez's ardour by calling him “bubele”. --   Jack of Oz  [your turn]  23:45, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Must be a French word, then. —Tamfang (talk) 07:52, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Our article on Gomez says it's "Austro-Bavarian/Yiddish". Apart from "Bub" meaning boy, it doesn't sound very Austro-Bavarian to me, though. 80.122.178.68 (talk) 09:13, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Bubi (boy, variant of more formal "Bube") is a common German term of endearment. Its diminutive is "Bubilein" (little boy). For babies you would use "Bobbele" or "Bobbelche" (both sexes), which should have yielded "Bubelech" (both sexes) in Yiddish. --Pp.paul.4 (talk) 10:01, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Maybe over there in Piefkeland :P 80.122.178.68 (talk) 20:04, 16 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I thought Josef Bradl is Austro-Bavarian. --Pp.paul.4 (talk) 15:21, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
 * In my home town there was an eatery called Bubby & Zadie's. —Tamfang (talk) 07:52, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
 * But, where is that town (probably USA, Canada; it might be, for eg., Salt Lake City)?  Alex discussion ★ 22:46, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Both "bub" and "bubba" are considered to be variants on "brother" and/or the German term. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:15, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

Arabic translation
Hi! I need some help with Arabic translation. This document talks about Maryana Marrash, and there is this line about her:

"[...] زوجت مريانا مراش من حبيب غضبان وكان لها ولد وبنتان"

She married Ḥabīb Ghaḍbān and they had one son and two daughters, is that correct? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bryan P. C. C. (talk • contribs) 18:27, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Google Translate gives: "Married Mirjana Mrash of Habib angry and had a son and two daughters". Looie496 (talk) 19:14, 14 November 2011 (UTC)


 * To me your translation seems correct, except for the Arabic saying "she had" rather than "they had": "Maryana Marrash married Habib Ghadban and had a son and two daughters". Notice that the sentence in the source begins with the word تزوجت. Apparently you have accidentally left out the initial letter ت when typing or copy-pasting the text. This has produced زوجت, which is another verb derived from the same root and means something different.
 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" dir="rtl"


 * + right to left
 * تزوجت || مريانا مراش || من || حبيب غضبان || وكان لها || ولد || وبنتان
 * got married || Maryānā Marrāš || with || Ḥabīb Ġaḍbān || and she had || a son || and two daughters
 * }
 * --Theurgist (talk) 01:30, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
 * }
 * --Theurgist (talk) 01:30, 15 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Thank you so much, Theurgist! --Bryan P. C. C. (talk) 12:01, 15 November 2011 (UTC)