Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2017 April 4

= April 4 =

Why do we have Wikipedia?
why do we have wikipedia — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2406:E007:143:1:CE5:60EB:DABE:6AF9 (talk) 06:21, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Read Wikipedia for some insight. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 06:34, 4 April 2017 (UTC)


 * When an encyclopedia and a wiki love each other very very much ... —Tamfang (talk) 04:24, 5 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Of course, the wiki went way too fast for the encyclopedia, but they found a way to make it work (the encyclopedia would just close it's eyes and think of Britannica). StuRat (talk) 16:43, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

How can such a glaring spelling error be made in Supergirl?
Check Supergirl.S02E11.png. I cringed when I saw this. How can this pass their editorial and QA process? Sandman1142 (talk) 23:42, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
 * deadline and Time limit are probably relevant. Ian.thomson (talk) 00:00, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Comparatively less glaring, but it reminds me of this shot from Captain America: Civil War, where they obviously used a word processing program that couldn't connect Arabic letters properly. All that money down the drain! Adam Bishop (talk) 01:02, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Adam Bishop -- see the history of File:Ramadhan_Greetings_Image.jpg... AnonMoos (talk) 03:10, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * I don't think the older version even has the same letters. —Tamfang (talk) 04:26, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Both have ر م ض ا ن, but in an ornamental font unconnected left-to-right in the first-uploaded version, and in a simple book font connected right-to-left in the current version. AnonMoos (talk) 05:06, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * , I see this mis-rendering of Arabic (disconnected LTR letters) very often: on tourist postcards, Chinese toy tags, web stock images, and most recently, in a presentation by a Cambridge professor of linguistics. --31.168.171.66 (talk) 05:01, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * I was having a lot of difficulty figuring out what that was supposed to be for least 15 seconds, when it suddenly occurred to me, "Of course, marħaba!" SFriendly.gif -- AnonMoos (talk) 05:19, 5 April 2017 (UTC)


 * These things happen. There was a famous movie in the 1970s called Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The original soundtrack album had a track called "The Appearance of the Vistors". Later issues changed it to "Visitors". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:45, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * That's not the only misprint on that record cover, either. --Viennese Waltz 06:54, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes, "seige" instead of "siege", for one. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:15, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Sigh. Back in the 70s they had to use dictionaries. Now they have spell chequers (sic), at least ;) Sandman1142 (talk) 08:17, 5 April 2017 (UTC)


 * I spent a while looking at your image, trying to work out what is wrong with it - it looks correct to me. Then I realised that you must be an American who thinks it has to be "stabilise" - spelling it with a "z" is a perfectly acceptable form in some parts of the world.Wymspen (talk) 09:56, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Not sure if that's a joke. "Stabilize" with a z is the American spelling.  But the s-or-z is not the point; the problem is that it's missing the first i, the one that goes between the b and the ell: stablize.  I didn't see it at first either. --Trovatore (talk) 10:02, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * See Help desk. 86.147.208.39 (talk) 10:33, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * I knew something was wrong with the pattern when it flashed across my screen at first. Going back and pausing was the AH moment. Common misspelling whether you are American or Martian (Supergirl reference) Sandman1142 (talk) 12:13, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Anyway, it's common enough for technical interface messages like that to have typos, so you could choose to call it an "in universe" error (see IMDB Submission Guide: Goofs for some general discussion). AnonMoos (talk) 13:01, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * My thoughts exactly. Part of what makes entertainment like books and movies seem unrealistic is that there are relatively few spelling errors, audible pauses in conversation, and so on. Maybe it's because I find it so irksome, but I rarely go a day without seeing multiple spelling errors in all kinds of supposedly proofread documents. I think if I did, I'd begin to suspect something was up. Matt Deres (talk) 20:05, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * And how often an investigation team talks about needing some vital information, and just then the cellphone rings, with someone who has exactly what they were wanting. A miracle! ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 02:53, 11 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Shit happens? μηδείς (talk) 19:57, 7 April 2017 (UTC)