Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 October 13

= October 13 =

Metaphors that become so ingrained that no-one thinks of them as metaphors
Is there a name for this phenomena? And is there a list of examples? (Examples of the sort of thing I mean: "temper" as in the result of heat-treating metal, hence metaphorically a person's state of mind, now primarily specifically meaning a "bad temper". Or "clew"/"clue", a ball of thread, as used by Theseus to find his way out of the Labyrinth, hence clue in the modern sense). Iapetus (talk) 12:08, 13 October 2020 (UTC)
 * It's a form of semantic change, but there may be a more specific term. Mitch Ames (talk) 12:34, 13 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I can't think of a more specific term for these examples. There are some sub-categories of semantic change, like the euphemism treadmill, but these don't seem to fit any more specific category that I know of.  They are just "semantic change" in general.  -- Jayron 32 15:54, 13 October 2020 (UTC)


 * WP:WHAAOE: Dead metaphor. --ColinFine (talk) 17:47, 13 October 2020 (UTC)


 * "It's safe to say that he literally exploded in a Twitter tantrum." It's safe to say that for the author of this sentence the metaphor of exploding-from-anger is literally dead. --Lambiam 13:31, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

For Spanish linguists
An editor has changed the phonetic spelling of Juan Ponce de León from xwan ˈponθe ðe leˈon to xwamˈponθe ðe leˈon. He says that an "n" before a word beginning in "p," "b" and "m" has the sound of "m" in Spanish.

I am aware of that rule or convention. Examples: tambien and tampoco. I am aware also that "un pozo" is often pronounced as "um pozo." However, my ears don't hear "Juan Ponce de León" pronounced as "Juam Ponce de Leon." (Yo hablo castellano bastante bien, pero no soy linguista.)

I can find examples of both "xwan" and "xwam" for "Juan" on wikipedia. For example xwan ˈpaβlo monˈtoʝa rolˈdan for Juan Pablo Montoya and, conversely, xwam ˈmata for Juan Mata. So, my question: On wikipedia should the name "Juan" followed by a word beginning with p, b, or m, be written in the phonetic alphabet as "xwan" or "xwam?" Does it matter? Smallchief (talk) 15:01, 13 October 2020 (UTC)


 * At the suggestion of an editor, I also posted this discussion at Help talk:IPA/Spanish. Maybe that is a better place to respond. Smallchief (talk) 15:47, 13 October 2020 (UTC)