Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2016 July 29

= July 29 =

Pronunciation of "harass" & "harassment"
Which syllable is accented in the verb "harass" and the noun "harassment", and according to which national variants of English? We're expats from the USA advising our foreign-born offspring on consistent pronunciation, and I don't recall this being in our active vocabulary in the early 1980s when we left. -- Deborahjay (talk) 13:07, 29 July 2016 (UTC)
 * UK and US. Are you interested in any other particular variants? HenryFlower 13:56, 29 July 2016 (UTC)


 * In my younger days, this was something of a shibboleth in my circle. People who accented the second syllable exposed themselves to ridicule; the favored pronunciation was similar to that of the name Harris. I notice that most dictionaries these days (and probably even then) list the /həˈræs/ pronunciation first, though. Deor (talk) 13:59, 29 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, as in the teacher saying, "harass" and a student saying, "Her WHAT???" ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:27, 29 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Personal observation here: This is one of those transitions I saw in my lifetime; I was in High School during the Anita Hill hearings, and IIRC, it was around that time that the word underwent a transition in predominant pronunciation. There was even some discussion around the correct pronunciation as it was in the news ALL THE TIME in America.  Most people before the hearings said "HAIR-iss-ment", but it was around that time that the predominant pronunciation transitioned to "her-ASS-ment".  There was even a rude joke about the pronunciation difference (It's HAIR-iss-ment unless you grab her ass, then it's her-ASS-ment) which gave us 14-year old boys a bit of a chuckle.  -- Jayron 32 17:37, 29 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Holy shit. I just did a google search for this.  I found this as the second link.  It's an SMDB discussion on this topic.  From 2000, a year before Wikipedia existed, and 6 years before I joined Wikipedia.  I thought I was experiencing deja-vu.  I am looking for sources, though, to actually support my assertions... -- Jayron 32 17:40, 29 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Here is a Baltimore Sun article about the exact issue with "harassment" around the Anita Hill hearings as I noted above. So there's a source.  It even says, and I quote "...Anita Hill, said "HAR-ass-ment," the more traditional pronunciation." So in 1994, at least, the HAR-ass pronunciation was considered "traditional".  According to this more modern account, and several modern dictionaries, the transition has swung to har-ASS as more common.  -- Jayron 32 17:47, 29 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Here is a book source from 1999/2005 which also specifically discusses the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings as the specific time of the transition. Whether the event in America was a cause of it, or merely highlighted a trend which was already ongoing, I don't know, but we've got several sources which pin down the 1980s-1990s when the pronunciation of the word in America made the transition.  That source notes that the official NBC prounciation guide had "hu-RASS" as preferred since 1984, but that many broadcasters still preferred the older "HAR-ass".  -- Jayron 32 17:52, 29 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Here is a source on the trend in Britain, which has been slower to adopt the change, but is apparently doing so. -- Jayron 32 17:57, 29 July 2016 (UTC)
 * I'm not very good at naming the twelfth sign of the zodiac (Pisces) and I never talk about that beach resort in Thailand (Phuket). 2A02:C7F:A14:AA00:38E6:FE21:347D:809E (talk) 19:11, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

Japanese abbreviations
Chinese cities have abbreviations, for example: 北京 Běijīng - 京 Jīng, 上海 Shànghǎi - 沪 Hù, 广州 Guǎngzhōu - 穗 Suì. Is there a similar thing for Japanese cities? I'm especially interested in Japanese abbreviations for city names in maps. Thanks. --151.41.171.188 (talk) 20:19, 29 July 2016 (UTC)
 * ja:日本の地名の略表記一覧 has a list of single-character abbreviations of Japanese cities, but I don't know whether they're used on maps. -- BenRG (talk) 21:28, 29 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I don't know if these single characters are used in compound names only or could be used as stand-alone abbreviations. --151.41.171.188 (talk) 03:58, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

who said "experiment is asking a question of nature"
not an exact quote. this here attributes the quote to Schelling but is he the original author or was he perhaps channelling someone (like Bacon)? I always thought the sentiment (if not the exact quote) was older, from around the beginning of the Scientific Revolution Asmrulz (talk) 23:56, 29 July 2016 (UTC)


 * "An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature, and a measurement is the recording of Nature's answer. — Max Planck 'The Meaning and Limits of Exact Science', Science (30 Sep 1949), 110, No. 2857, 325. Advance reprinting of chapter from book Max Planck, Scientific Autobiography (1949), 110." according to 184.147.122.39 (talk) 14:18, 30 July 2016 (UTC)
 * that's even more recent... but it will do. Thank you! Asmrulz (talk) 10:12, 31 July 2016 (UTC)