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

= February 4 =

Why is there a city called Nyala in Sudan
A Nyala is an antelope native to East and Southern Africa. The country of Sudan has a city called Nyala. I'm trying to find out/ figure out if the city was named for the animal or the other way around, or neither? Thanks if you can point to references that answer the question. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.210.155.173 (talk) 12:07, 4 February 2017 (UTC)
 * According to our articles, they're unrelated. Nyala, Sudan says the town's name is from Daju, meaning "place of chatting" or "theatre", whereas Nyala says that the name of the antelope is of Bantu origin. So they would appear to be accidental homographs, like English flat and Latin flat. Deor (talk) 12:36, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for that. It was right there for me to read, but I didn't see it. Asked and answered... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.210.155.173 (talk) 12:39, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

Explain a joke
Could someone explain this joke - https://www.davesjokes.com/?joke=chan ? The punchline is "Boy-foot bear with teak of Chan." This seems to be a pun on a well-known phrase or saying, but I can't work out what the original is. Thanks. 212.105.160.248 (talk) 14:04, 4 February 2017 (UTC)


 * There is the "barefoot boy with cheek of tan" by John Greenleaf Whittier. ---Sluzzelin talk  14:15, 4 February 2017 (UTC)


 * (e/c) There is a now quite obscure (at least to me - I'd never heard of it) piece of verse by John Greenleaf Whittier - full text here - which starts with the lines "Blessings on thee, little man, Barefoot boy with cheek of tan!..". The joke relies on people knowing that line, and noticing the spoonerism.  Was it a well-known piece of verse at some time?   Ghmyrtle (talk) 14:17, 4 February 2017 (UTC)


 * Apparently it became something of a "cultural touchstone" in the US being featured in schoolbooks such as McGuffey Readers. (Diane Ravitch, Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform, Simon and Schuster, 2001, p22) . The poem is recited in the film Barefoot Boy too (which I've never seen). ---Sluzzelin  talk  14:34, 4 February 2017 (UTC)
 * It was enormously popular during a period before television, when people amused themselves and others by memorizing poems and giving public recitations. John Greenleaf Whittier, James Whitcomb Riley, and Robert Service were favorites. Other poets were one hit wonders, like Felicia Dorothea Hemans Casabianca (poem)- Nunh-huh 15:02, 4 February 2017 (UTC)


 * I had no idea that Hemans (and not Noel Coward) also had coined the phrase "the stately homes of England" in "The Homes of England" (1827) (a pun of which appeared in the 1965 musical Baker Street: In Moriarty's song "I Shall Miss You, Holmes" the villain dreams of the day "when the stately Holmes of England is no more"). ---Sluzzelin talk  05:11, 5 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Where I come from, the "l" in "Holmes" is enunciated, though in other parts of the English-speaking world it's often pronounced like "Homes". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:01, 5 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Sheldon Harnick (of Fiddler-on-the-Roof fame) wrote the lyrics of that particular song. He grew up in Portage Park, Chicago. ---Sluzzelin talk  07:53, 5 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks everyone for the answers. I hadn't heard of Whittier before now. 212.105.160.248 (talk) 16:11, 4 February 2017 (UTC)
 * I first heard that joke over 50 years ago. And I recall in a Lost in Space episode where Dr. Smith affectionately called Will a "barefoot boy with cheek of tan." Though much of the public (including me) wouldn't necessarily have known who wrote it, it was still part of the public consciousness. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:38, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

Malay phrase "sikit sikit lama lama jadi bukit"
What is the similar phrase in English (and other languages)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.75.45.70 (talk) 17:37, 4 February 2017 (UTC)
 * many a mickle makes a muckle --81.96.84.137 (talk) 18:41, 4 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Or this. Shock Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 20:42, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

Why website not English version but company and product names still in English?
Apple has website in Chinese (http://www.apple.com/cn/), Russian (http://www.apple.com/ru/) and Thai (http://www.apple.com/th/) but names like Apple, AirPods and iPad Pro all in English. Same for Google and other websites. Same if set computer or phone to other languages. Why? Only make website and computer harder to use. Is fine for languages which use English letters (like German or Malay) but Chinese, Russian and Thai all not use English letters, already have good translations like 苹果公司. --Curious Cat On Her Last Life (talk) 17:50, 4 February 2017 (UTC)
 * The Chinese, Russians, and Thai are quite familiar with and comfortable with English letters and English words. Those websites that are written in Chinese are written by educated Chinese speakers, and the Chinese themselves decide on how to write and display these names. It is the same with Russian pages and Thai pages. —Stephen (talk) 20:14, 4 February 2017 (UTC)
 * It may also have something to do with trademark law. — Kpalion(talk) 11:44, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

The people who write the websites must be good in English and the other language. Is really most people who use the Chinese, Russian and Thai websites also know English letters and enough English words? If Samsung website in English still use 삼성 then the English people will say is nonsense. Maybe is trademark law but can tell me more about trademark law? Cannot translate trademark or make trademark in other languages? --Curious Cat On Her Last Life (talk) 14:24, 7 February 2017 (UTC)


 * English is the global language of business. Name and symbol recognition are important. Trademarks might not translate well. Here's a picture of a McDonald's somewhere in China. I'm guessing the Chinese characters are either a transliteration of the three syllables in "McDonald's" or some expression that indicates a place you can get burgers. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 14:35, 7 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Languages borrow words from each other all the time. Even English has words for items which come from other languages.  If you are eating chocolate (nahuatl) on your croissant (french) while watching an opossum (powhatan) scurry across your lawn, then you should recognize that.  That other languages incorporate English words is not surprising nor unusual.  -- Jayron 32 14:47, 7 February 2017 (UTC)