Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2016 November 22

= November 22 =

Solder / Sodder
Watching an episode of “How It’s Made” on the Discovery Channel the other day, they were describing the process of soldering two metal parts. However, the American voice-over seemed to pronounce the word as “soddering” (to my British ear, this should be pronounced as spelled – “Sold-er-ing”). Was this a mishearing on my part, or is this another example of US/UK English difference? If I didn’t mishear, is this a recent divergence between US/UK English, or has it always been so? CoeurDeHamster (talk) 08:02, 22 November 2016 (UTC)


 * It is a divergence between US and UK English. In this case, I'm pretty sure the American usage is the older one and the British is a spelling pronunciation. In the 18th century, lexicographers liked to insert letters into spellings to indicate their etymology - "dette" became "debt" because it derived from Latin debitum, "saumon" became "salmon" because it derived from Latin salmo, and "souder" became "solder" because it derived from Latin solidare. Over time, Brits saw the "l" written in "solder" and started pronouncing it, while Americans stuck to the older pronunciation. --Nicknack009 (talk) 08:24, 22 November 2016 (UTC)


 * The Etymological Dictionary supports that - http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=solder Wymspen (talk) 12:44, 22 November 2016 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your quick response - very helpful. CoeurDeHamster (talk) 08:33, 22 November 2016 (UTC)
 * But it didn't answer why there is etymologically long ō in the British variant, but short ŏ on the American one. What vowel was there in Middle English?--Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 17:45, 25 November 2016 (UTC)

Swedish loanwords
Would appreciate any online source of Swedish words from other languages. Print sources are appreciated as well.68.150.86.232 (talk) 19:19, 22 November 2016 (UTC)
 * This seems to be a pretty good start for you. -- Jayron 32 19:34, 22 November 2016 (UTC)

Louis Braille
Hello I want the page for louis braille in urdu too. I hope it is translated as soon as possible Thank You The URL is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Braille — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.177.174.17 (talk) 19:37, 22 November 2016 (UTC)


 * I don't think this request belongs here, but I can't suggest where it does belong. If it was a request for a translation into English, the right place for it would be Translation requests. But I don't know whether the Urdu Wikipedia has a corresponding page for requests the other way, or uses a different system. --76.71.5.45 (talk) 05:46, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * You can see this article in Urdu here. Muhammad Shuaib (talk) 14:45, 24 November 2016 (UTC)