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May 10

Which word should I use.

In Chinese people in the New York metropolitan area with a requested ce section; there an inconsistency with usage of dialects or languages in this specific section

Should I use Dialects or Languages to maintain MOS? Asking because I don’t know which is the correct way to use with proper guidelines. “Damn you all to hell!” Mistermisterwhosthemister? 14:52, 10 May 2026 (UTC)

Sinitic languages tells us that Mandarin is a language, and Cantonese is a dialect (it just says "lect") of Yue. Cantonese tells us that Cantonese often means Yue, and thus a language. Fuzhou dialect tells us that technically, Fuzhou is a language and not a dialect, but links to A language is a dialect with an army and navy. Mandarin has the army and navy.

To actually answer your question: turn all instances of "dialect" into "language", and get rid of that one link to the dialect article. In my opinion.  Card Zero  (talk) 15:46, 10 May 2026 (UTC)

On a related note, Wikipedia has an article for varieties of Chinese. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 17:46, 10 May 2026 (UTC)

May 12

In spoken English, is the relative clause dying? I think youtube is killing it, which I think that's unfortunate...

In the past 5 years, in the spoken English language, across the world, is it the case that "which", "that", "who" relative pronouns are being used as a "by the way"/"side note"/"on that subject", rather than as pronouns? Such uses are everywhere and I keep on hearing them. I fear it's too late to change "you guy's", back to "your", but is the use of relative pronouns, as relative. pronouns. doomed?

Some examples, while I find clips to link: "I'm going to shoot these two goblins, which, have they always been green?", "'6-7' has died a death, which, I think we can bring it back again." Bogger (talk) 09:53, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

clips: "She even cut her own hair, which, it was fine it didn't look bad..." -Bogger (talk) 06:20, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

Maybe short for "speaking of which". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:41, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

If I were to guess, I think what happened is more that (using Bogger’s example), “I’m going to shoot these two goblins, which have always been green” is a perfectly grammatically reasonable sentence. Over time, maybe younger people in the 2000s, 2010s, and reaching into the 2020s, just assumed that if that could be correct, surely appending the question form of that phrase could be okay, too. And hence we get “I’m going to shoot these two goblins, which, have they always been green?”

I don’t know, there’s my two pence; not sure if that’s actually what happened. Cheers, 𝔰𝔥𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔯 ^{(𝔱𝔞𝔩𝔨)} -⃝⃤ (they/he) 02:23, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

This seems to me to be very similar to vernacular English usage of 'which' around the early 19th century. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-27434-43 (talk) 20:55, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

One of the many, many definitions of which in the OED runs "Chiefly English regional, U.S. regional, and nonstandard. Used in anacoluthic sentences as a connective or introductory particle with no antecedent: as to which, as regards which." Usages cited include "I remember the doctor comin’ and deliverin’ the baby which we were in the other room", and "If this is your wish Mr. Standish which I'm offering no opinion then so be it, it's your call". Is that what we're talking about here? If it is then we've been using the word that way since at least 1410, so the relative clause is taking a long time to die. Hopes aren't fading yet. --Antiquary (talk) 13:04, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

Even if that was new or increasing, it still wouldn't mean the relative clause is dying. Nardog (talk) 13:23, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

Google Ngrams shows a slight decline in "which", a roughly constant "who", and a marked increase in "that" when used as pronouns from 1900 to 2022 (the most recent year): https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=which_PRON%2Cthat_PRON%2Cwho_PRON&year_start=1900&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3&case_insensitive=false. There seems to be no change at all for any of them from 2020-2022: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=which_PRON%2Cthat_PRON%2Cwho_PRON&year_start=2020&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3&case_insensitive=false.

So, probably not, at least not in the Google Ngrams corpus. Ceratarges-etc (talk) 23:01, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

French translation assistance: is this phrase just branding?

There's a linguistic issue in the AfD for "pool sharing". One of the sites being referenced is in French. I can confirm the site is using the phrase "partage ma piscine", but also uses "louant votre piscine". I know enough French to recognize the words. I don't know enough to decide which verb is the main focus. SenshiSun (talk) 15:59, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

You can read their FAQ in English. Is the question whether people pay money for this? It looks like they're expected to pay, yes.  Card Zero  (talk) 16:19, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

Thanks. I knew they were expected to pay. SenshiSun (talk) 16:33, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

OK, and here's the branch of the FAQ for "hosts". They connect hosts (people owning pools) to guests (people needing pools). How am I doing, did I answer the right question yet?  Card Zero  (talk) 16:51, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

Translation request

Could anyone please translate the message in the YouTube video Super RTL fun night by Cooler Mann from German? ~2026-22534-68 (talk) 16:53, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

"Happy Birthday". Carsten I believe I still love you even though you have cheated on me three times but you'll never hear (learn?) from me what my feelings are for you you idiot. Linking service: . Now I'm tired from processing so much intellectual discourse. -- ~2026-28759-26 (talk) 19:37, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

"erfahren" is rather "find out" or "experience". Otherwise I guess it's okay. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 23:25, 12 May 2026 (UTC)

There's a spectrum of interpretations here, "Ich habe erfahren" can mean "I've heard XYZ from someone" but "erfahren" can also refer to a process of experiencing something. -- ~2026-28723-05 (talk) 07:21, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

When the object of the verb erfahren is something that happens to the subject, the meaning is "to experience". When, on the other hand, the object is a factual thing, the meaning is "to find out", "to come to know". If the German text had been, du wirst nie die Gefühle erfahren, die ich für dich habe, the meaning could have been, "you'll never experience the feelings I have for you". But in the message, the object is something the subject (du) has apparently not found out yet, and now perhaps never will. Especially von mir makes it clear that the sense here is "to come to know": "you will never find out from me how I feel about you".  ​‑‑Lambiam 09:06, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

Agreed - the only caveat is that this isn't very accomplished writing and the author might not necessarily make all those little distinctions. So I cannot completely rule out that they tried to imply something like since we're now separated you'll never experience <through my behaviours/attitudes> my feelings for you. -- ~2026-28723-05 (talk) 09:56, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

I'm reminded of the song lyric "You'll never know just how much I love you . . ." How would (does?) a translation into German compare? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-27434-43 (talk) 14:57, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

"Du wirst niemals wissen", I think, but my German is a bit rusty... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 15:48, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

May 13

Verb or adjective?

In the following quotation, found at wikt:en:humbled:

"I am humbled by them and privileged to be with them"

is the word humbled functioning as a verb or as an adjective? WhatamIdoing (talk) 04:49, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

In the combination humbled by, the preposition by invites an interpretation in which by introduces the agent that humbled the subject; "they" humbled the author, so humbled is the past participle of a verb. The quotations on Wiktionary have several more examples:

• Are you humbled by such positive reactions ... ?
• We are humbled by the responsibility ...

Wiktionary also gives another use of by, though:

3. (not in common modern use) Following an adjective.

I was aghast by what I saw.

While not really a definition, this leaves a grammatical opening for parsing humbled as an adjective. On the other hand, these uses of humbled by are very much a modern use.

However, semantically, or, rather, semiotically, the proscribed uses function as an adjective. The intention is not to describe what has happened in the past to the humbled subject and to identify the responsible agent, but to describe the subject's current, humble state. It is (IMO) reasonable to let this consideration override the grammatically most expedient analysis.  ​‑‑Lambiam 07:57, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

Do I understand this correctly? Strictly speaking, it's not an adjective, but under the circumstances it's not entirely wrong? WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:08, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

Strictly syntactically, it is a verb form in the given examples – more precisely, this is the most plausible syntactic assignment. Semantically, however, its role in this weird idiom is (IMO rather clearly) that of an adjective, basically a synonym of chuffed, also an adjective. And when people say, I am most humbled by ..., as some indeed do, the use of a superlative tells us that their on-board grammar module treats the form as an adjective.  ​‑‑Lambiam 10:02, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

Thanks. WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:44, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

American accent in other languages?

Hello, I just wanna ask, is there example of other languages (Finnish, Spanish, Chinese, ect) that use American type accent to make fun of Americans? Like a telenovela where they make fun of American character. Or rappers trying to sound American in their own language. I don't know what to say about this. Thank you. Sianliha (talk) 09:23, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

I don't know about that, but I recall one time when Johnny Carson asked a native Spanish speaker (either Ricardo Montalban or Fernando Lamas) what English sounds like to them. They said it sounds like barking dogs, in part because English speakers in general don't trill the R sound. So if a native Spanish speaker were to mimic a native English speaker, think of someone going "rar-rar-rar" or something like that. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:32, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

Is not the same thing. What I mean is that the Spanish speaker or other language speaker speaks in American accent. Think about the "gringo" and how the Latinos say white people prononse Spanish words. Sianliha (talk) 12:58, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

I'd say yes, basically. (Although British and American foreign accents might be difficult to tell apart.) Or, if not as a way to make fun, using a thick accent to make an easy borderline-stereotype identification of a character as American. (I think it's still fairly common in French films, with Brits and Americans speaking French in thick accents, for instance.) Rappers might mess with their native language(s) to increase the flow, I think, but rarely to simulate being American. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 13:30, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

This definitely happens in German. I’ve seen it, for example, in cabaret or comedian acts or parodies of well-known American songs in German. Typically, the Rs are pronounced softly, and vowels that don’t exist in English are shifted—for example, the umlauts Ü and Ö become U and O. Or the CH sound, which is then pronounced either like K or like SH. It’s exactly what Americans do when they try to speak German. ~2026-28884-43 (talk) 13:56, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

Found this video. https://www.youtube.com/_7BdSnu4Wos?si=flOz5HRe1n5JAYoZ It shows a Mexican American girl saying how Americans would say Spanish words like Despacito (the song) and gracias (thank you). Now I look for something like that but in the whole of Spanish, like a telenovela or a movie. Or different language example. Thank you for your help everybody. Sianliha (talk) 18:25, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

ups, I mean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7BdSnu4Wos is the video. Sorry. Sianliha (talk) 18:27, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

This question clearly requires a mention of Prisencolinensinainciusol. All right. --Trovatore (talk) 19:58, 16 May 2026 (UTC) That said, I don't think Celentano is "making fun of" Americans exactly. He acknowledges his debt to American music and says he likes American slang. But also he says the theme of the song is inability to communicate, so hard to say. --Trovatore (talk) 20:02, 16 May 2026 (UTC)

Definitely, there is a stereotypical "English accent" used in Spanish when telling jokes. Sometimes it is different for stereotypical Englishmen and stereotypical Americans. It would be different than the "Texan" accent or rather tone used by José María Aznar after meeting George W. Bush for which he was ridiculed in Spain.

--Error (talk) 12:38, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

Mandarin has many examples of using American-accent words:

- "Dashi" is derived from "taxi", but pronounced with a hard accent on the first syllable, the way American's pronounce it.

- "Ku" has taken on the meaning of the American slang "cool".

- "Boali" is pronounced with a strong first syllable, often stretched out in the way Americans would say "violence".

- "OK" is used to mean OK.

- There is a slang term (美式发音) that means "American-style pronunciation," often used by comedians and live streamers to sound "ku."

Americans likely don't notice it much because the hard first syllable and rising-falling tempo sounds normal. But, if you aren't used to the American accent, hearing it imposed on another language, especially a tonal language like Mandarin, it has a distinct "Oh, you are trying so hard to sound American" quality to it. ~2026-16820-81 (talk) 14:49, 22 May 2026 (UTC)

May 14

Why does GoogleTranslate write the pronunciation of 'sour' as [souər] (contrary to the audio that pronounces [sauər])?

HOTmag (talk) 20:41, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

I saw some speculation online that Google Translate uses some sort of pronunciation respelling scheme similar to the New Oxford American Dictionary, and based on some testing (e.g. chair = CHer, cutie = 'kyo͞odē , shingle = 'SHiNGgəl, poor = po͝or, etc.) I'm inclined to agree. In that scheme, sour would indeed be written as souər. GalacticShoe (talk) 12:44, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

What a terribly useless pronunciation scheme..! That would make me think chair is pronounced "share", because... Cher 😝. I also strongly dispute that the t in "cutie" is pronounced as a d. It is clearly an unaspirated, and unvoiced, t. Shingle - wTf? And the one for "poor" really tells me nothing at all on how it shouldbe pronounced.

I'm sure it all makes sense (maybe) if you learn this system - but who's gonna go to the trouble to do so? And why are people being paid to dream up this nonsense? ~2026-29227-41 (talk) 05:00, 16 May 2026 (UTC)

Well, if there are particular pronunciation system, they would need easily accessible keys to be of any use. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 17:19, 16 May 2026 (UTC)

How do you make Google Translate produce a written phonetic representation of sour? I see icons, but no transcription.  ​‑‑Lambiam 15:06, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

Just put the word only. Nardog (talk) 15:40, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

English questions

1. Are there any words in English where word-final ⟨ould⟩ is pronounced /aʊ̯ld/?
2. Can English questions be answered using echo answer, like this way:
   
   1. – Can it happen? – Can.
      
   2. – Is he there? – Is.
      
   3. – Does he eat? – Eats.
      
3. Can English have multiple possessives in a row, like the cat's tail's stripes' fading's care (cf. Finnish kissan hännän raitojen haalistumisen hoito)?
4. Does English use words like "mother's mother" to refer a maternal grandmother? --40bus (talk) 20:58, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

2. Not generally.

3. Yes. (Although your example sounds strained for various reasons.)

4. Occasionally for clarity.

惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 21:16, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

2. The subject would be required in all of these sentences (it can, he is, he eats). Zacwill (talk) 21:19, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

The last one would usually be "he does", I think. Deor (talk) 22:42, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

Some answer ellipsis like this is done with adjectives. It's common to hear "Are they ready? — Ready!", "Are you here? — Here!", "Coming? — Coming!", "Did you ensure that the extras are all choreographed? — Choreographed!", but "Are you there? — Am!" is not the idiomatic ellipsis. I think idiom comes into this a lot because ambiguity becomes a hazard when we leave things out, so sticking to (unwritten) conventions keeps the meaning clear. This ellipsis has an advantage of clarity over "yes", and brevity over a full phrase, so it's common in active work situations, and wouldn't happen with example 1 because it's too philosophical. We rarely discuss counterfactuals under time pressure.  Card Zero  (talk) 08:03, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

1. Maybe in Old English?

2. I wouldn't say the subject is "required", although the one-word answers seem excessively terse.

3. Sure.

4. I use expressions like that when talking about family trees, in lieu of "maternal grandmother" or whatever.

←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:26, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

3. I see the Finnish for tonguetwister translates to tongue gymnastics ditty, delightfully. But anyway we tend to work around these by using a phrase like "the application of Just for Men to the fading stripes of the cat's tail", because a long sequence of -'s followed by consonants (especially those that don't go after s, such as d) is hard to say.  Card Zero  (talk) 08:23, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

1. The Irish-English adjective ould, a dialectal variant of old.  ​‑‑Lambiam 09:38, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

Wiktionary helpfully provides the category wikt:Category:Rhymes:English/aʊld which, combined with a quick skim through the list of words ending with -ould, suggests indeed that ould is unique in this regard. GalacticShoe (talk) 12:26, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

4. This way of specifying grandparents famously occurs in the Table of Kindred and Affinity of the Book of Common Prayer, "wherein whosoever are related are forbidden by the Church of England to marry together" (in 17th-century English).

It lists: "Father's father's wife, Mother's father's wife, Wife's father's mother, Wife's mother's mother, Wife's son's daughter, Wife's daughter's daughter, Son's son's wife, Daughter's son's wife," etc. etc. Alansplodge (talk) 18:31, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Not mother but father: "They've bled us white, the bastards. They've taken everything we had, and not just from us, from our fathers, and from our fathers' fathers. - And from our fathers' fathers' fathers. - Yeah. - And from our fathers' fathers' fathers' fathers."~2026-30146-92 (talk) 14:39, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Does English ever use words aunt and uncle to refer any people that are not close relatives, like how Finnish colloquially uses words täti and setä to refer to adult male and female strangers respectively, like kaupantäti and poliisisetä? --40bus (talk) 21:00, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Aunt and Uncle are often used for close family friends, but using them for strangers seems very odd. The closest usage I can think of to that is the old "Aunt Jemima" and "Uncle Ben" brand names, which were apparently inspired by the usage of such terms for elder black people and which were eventually changed due to the racist connotations. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 16:46, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

I would assume this is a semantic loan from Swedish, as "tant" and "farbror" are used similarly there. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 22:21, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

Yes they are, though less nowadays than in the past. When I was at primary school in the 1970s the dinner ladies (who cooked and served the school dinners) were addressed as "Aunty" or if you needed to distinguish which one then "Aunty <surname>", and collectively as the Aunties. Aunt and Uncle are, or were, used as terms of respect for some older members of the community. Shakespeare of course has nuncle, for "mine uncle", as a term of respect and endearment. DuncanHill (talk) 22:40, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

2. Adjectives, as has already been noted, are relatively common. On verbs: It can happen in some ways if you put the right emphasis on it, in specific contexts. For instance, your "Does he eat? - Eats" example could be plausible if it was "Does he eat? - Eat!?" -- i.e., "Of course he hasn't eaten!" I think this might be Yiddish-influenced, but I could be wrong. I can't really see it with the other two, though, for reasons I can't quite explain. It could happen with other verbs, though, typically only for some responses and with strong, typically negative, emotion: "Can she sing?" - "Sing!?" ("If you're deaf, I suppose..."). But that's just my thoughts, and they might not be grammatically correct.

3. Yes, at dinner today I used the phrase "my mother's students' opinion" (or something along those lines)

4. Yes. I remember some poem -- Google suggests From My Mother's Home by Lea Goldberg, although, to be fair, it's translated from Hebrew -- that starts with "My mother's mother died in the spring of her days". Ceratarges-etc (talk) 22:54, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

May 15

Sokuon

Why was a smaller version of the hiragana/katakana character "tsu" (っ/ッ) chosen to be the symbol for Sokuon instead of any other possible character? Thank you? ~2026-29396-78 (talk) 13:02, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

While Wakuran is working on the real answer, I'll observe that つ is the generic Japanese counter word for items. Tenuously related to doubling a sound?

Eh, no. ja:っ has the answer, but I can't translate it well. Something about "tsu" being used for a glottal stop for borrowed Chinese words, and gemination proceeding from that.  Card Zero  (talk) 15:25, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

Sorry, despite my Japanese moniker, I am not really an expert in Japanese. I just did some dabbling a few years ago, but thanks. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 16:14, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

No shame in that. Expert is from ex-, "beyond", and spurt, "little squirt under pressure".  Card Zero  (talk) 16:22, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

My Japanese skills are also rather limited, but I have the impression it was used more generally for indicating that a word-final voiceless stop has no audible release – unheard in native Japanese words. Gemination is similar in that the release is also withheld, but not indefinitely; it is only delayed.  ​‑‑Lambiam 00:44, 16 May 2026 (UTC)

May 17

When we eclipse

"One touch, one kiss, all my life for a night like this. The world stops for us, only love exists, when we eclipse..." - what is Delta Goodrem actually saying with this, and how could you paraphrase "eclipse"? In de:Eurovision Song Contest 2026, it is translated as "verfinstern" which is a strong word for "darken", but that very much feels like missing the point. --KnightMove (talk) 00:08, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

Well an eclipse is a coming into alignment of two bodies. Or else he's saying he's another poor lyric writer stuck for a rhyme. Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:22, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

Maybe it makes more sense in his original language? Wait, she's Australian. But of course, when you see nonsense in pop music, assume sex. One heavenly body clambers on top of another, in what is widely agreed to be a significant and amazing event, even though objectively speaking nothing much happened at all. We lack an article on sexual metaphor in popular music, the goal's wide open. I suppose German Eklipse can't turn into a verb? Seems like that would be fine as a translation of the title, anyway, so I don't understand the verfinstern choice. I checked the full lyrics, there's "shadows", but nothing else about darkness, it's definitely not a song about things getting darker.  Card Zero  (talk) 07:31, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

Wiktionary gives four translations for "converge" ; konvergieren, zusammenstreben, zusammenlaufen, zusammengehen. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 08:33, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

Thanks. But Eklipse, noun, is surely the right translation of the title, Eclipse.  Card Zero  (talk) 12:38, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

As she uses the word so obviously as a verb in the lyrics, and only so, it is hard to interpret the title as a noun. Indeed Eklipse can not turn into a verb.

The verfinstern translation is taken from online dictionary dict.cc. Maybe this translation should be questioned in general. --KnightMove (talk) 13:27, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

That would mean the love song's title is a bare verb, in the infinitive. Isn't that very unusual, in English? Or it could be a command, like Come together, but the grammar is still wrong. Eclispe takes an object, "eclipse the ...", I mean it's transitive. Though admittedly she doesn't seem to care about that in the lyrics.  Card Zero  (talk) 16:24, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

Song lyrics are a form of poetry, in which inventiveness is not unusual, and English is a flexible language that tolerates some grammatical variations. As a native English speaker (and retired editor) I find "When we eclipse [each other, perhaps?]" perfectly acceptable in the context.

Verfinstern contains the element stern (star): thinking astronomically, I would associate it with being occulted rather than eclipsed. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-27434-43 (talk) 02:27, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

I can't tell whether you're serious or not, but just to clarify: there is not star in verfinstern. The adjective is finster (dark, gloomy), the prefix and the n turn it into the infinitive of a verb. --Wrongfilter (talk) 09:48, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

I was thinking in terms of poetry, in which parts of words can punningly suggest other associations. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-27434-43 (talk) 23:13, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

This would a particularly odd pun though - even more since "Stern" is pronounced differently from the -stern at the end of "verfinstern". It's like saying that "Passthrough" is related to "rough". -- Jungleman33 (talk) 15:10, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Now I remember that YouTube skit where a Chinese woman teaches her daughter English with words such as "Ho-Meow-Ner" and "Man's Laughter"... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 17:12, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Referring to the German translation in order to understand the meaning of a passage in a song written by a songwriter in her native English seems (to me) not particularly likely to be helpful.

Here is one tentative exegesis (which is in agreement with Card Zero's default assumption stated above). During a solar eclipse, the celestial disks of Sun and Moon align to become one, to "love as one", briefly, but when it happens, it seems as if "the world stops". The song uses this eclipsing of celestial bodies as a metaphor for what occurs in "a night like this", when two earthly bodies become one and "only love exists" while the world stops for the lovers, even though "it won't be long till the morning comes".  ​‑‑Lambiam 14:39, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

Thank you. Just to clarify: I did not post the German translation for finding the solution - it is the motivating problem. --KnightMove (talk) 09:26, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

May 18

Questions

1. Are there any common Germanic-origin words in English that with the letter Y before a consonant? Are there any place names in UK that start with this combination?
2. Are there any verbs in Italian that are spelled with letters J, K, W, X, or Y?
3. Are there any words in Italian where the geminate consonants occur after another consonant, like in made-up words calzzo, poltte, runcchi or vanssa?
4. Why is word-final unstressed /u/ sound so rare in Italian, compared to other four vowels?
5. Why does Swedish use letter Y instead of Ü for /y/ sound, if its uses letters Ä and Ö?
6. Are there any languages that forbid syllable onsets and null codas?
7. Can syllables in any language have a null nucleus?
8. Why does Italian not spell ⟨gia⟩, ⟨gio⟩, ⟨giu⟩ as ⟨ja⟩, ⟨jo⟩, ⟨ju⟩, respectively? Have they ever been spelled that way?
9. Do any English speakers think that pairs like heat-hit differ only in vowel length?
10. Can consonants be geminated after long vowels in Japanese?
11. Do English speakers ever pronounce Bordeaux as /bɔrˈdoʊks/, as a spelling pronunciation?

--40bus (talk) 19:55, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

2. The following should be a pretty comprehensive list of all such relevant verbs in Wiktionary (assuming that all verbs are present and conjugated with the -are form):

J: none that I could find in the Wiktionary category.

K: cokificare, hackerare, killerare, kirkificare, linkare, parkerizzare, rankare, scekerare, shakerare, skateare, skippare, stalkerare, wikificare

W: forwardare, spawnare, twittare, wappare, wikificare

X: biluxare, boxare, bruxare, faxare, flexare, mixare, multiplexare, remixare, texturizzare, xerocopiare

Y: bypassare, tryhardare

GalacticShoe (talk) 21:13, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

11. Only if they are unaware of the standard pronunciation. GalacticShoe (talk) 21:26, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Not only must they be unaware of the fact that the <x> is silent, they must be aware of the standard pronunciation of <eau> as /o/ (which is then garbled to /oʊ/). PiusImpavidus (talk) 10:59, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

1. The originally Middle English adjective yclept is still used, but mainly in jest.

8. Inasmuch as ⟨j⟩ was used in earlier Italian orthography, it was as a variant of the letter ⟨i⟩, not as a different letter. Today it survives in some surnames, such as Majorana, in which the pronunciation is a /j/, not a /d͡ʒ/.

10. The interjection あざーっす (azāssu) – slang, but not uncommon. It was the name of a Japanese television show that has an article on the Japanese Wikipedia.
 ​‑‑Lambiam 21:50, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

1. "Common" is pushing it, but quite a few people would know the Christmas carol Adam lay ybounden (no relation). Adam Sampson (talk) 00:04, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

1. It seems that the wych in wych elm (and in wych hazel) is of Germanic origin. The article for the elm says that it comes from Old English wice meaning "pliant" or "supple", but Wiktionary says it comes from wiche or wice referring to a type of tree. Etymonline reconciles this by stating that the latter "type of tree" is specifically trees with pliant or supple branches, and that it derives from wican "to bend or yield". Assuming this is the case, wych would have roots (no pun intended) in the Proto-Germanic wīkwaną meaning "to yield". GalacticShoe (talk) 13:08, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

1. Presumably compound words like babysitter, and plurals like stays, would be cheating. In fact did you mean "start with"?  Card Zero  (talk) 20:36, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Yes I meant that if there are any Germanic words in English that start with the letter Y before a consonant. --40bus (talk) 20:58, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

There were many in Old English, but in Old English Y was always a vowel, and had the sound /y/. It was also not uncommon in Middle English, but ME spellings were very unstandardized, and by then /y/ was lost from English and the letter Y, when a vowel, had the same function as I. Some such words were still usually spelled with a Y instead of I (or E), but nowadays most (or all) are spelt with one of those two letters. An example is evil, which was yfel in Old English (the F was pronounced /v/) and yvel in Middle English. ~2026-30333-18 (talk) 23:35, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

9. Yes

11. Yes ~2026-30091-96 (talk) 11:07, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

5. Apart from the centuries of tradition, this is a complicated question. The Gustav Vasa Bible seems to have been heavily inspired by the German Martin Luther Bible, and as far as I have understood it, Gustav Vasa wanted to distance himself from the Danes and approach the Germans, which would have made picking up ü for [y] a logical choice. This didn't happen, though, but why it didn't happen, I have no idea. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 23:05, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

Are there any verbs in Italian that are spelled with letters J, K, W, X, or Y?

W il Papa! --Error (talk) 12:44, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

"Vivi" il Papa! ? 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 23:05, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

What does this Arabic song mean in English?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gVRfFss5DI&list=RD7gVRfFss5DI&start_radio=1 I listened to it because it was on the soundtrack of Lee Cronin's The Mummy. ~2026-29519-98 (talk) 22:02, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Here are the lyrics in Arabic plus an English translation.  ​‑‑Lambiam 09:40, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

How do I put a pronunciation in an article's lead?

Here is the source for the pronunciation.

The article is The Arras. I don't know what the various symbols mean, so I doubt I would do it right.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 23:01, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

It's a very odd pronunciation of Arras. Any idea why it's called that? DuncanHill (talk) 23:10, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

I'm blocked from the sources I used and newspapers.com is making it difficult to find them.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 23:36, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

According to Google AI Overview (so possibly complete bullshit) "The name "Arras" for the hotel in Asheville, NC, originates from a Flemish word meaning tapestry, chosen to reflect the city’s diverse, woven arts community and its, often, colorful, art-forward downtown atmosphere. It is a nod to a region in France famous for its woven fabrics."

Possibly an enquiry sent to Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants might elicit a response. See also Arras. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-27434-43 (talk) 23:21, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

The term arras for a tapestry is not Flemish. The hotel's website explains the name thus:

Named after a region in France famous for its woven fabrics, Kimpton Hotel Arras reflects the tapestry of color and energy that is Asheville, charmingly known as “the Paris of the South.”

 ​‑‑Lambiam 09:29, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Yes, AI Overview is clearly doing its usual botched combinatory thing. However, to be scruplously fair to it, the word for the tapestry does come from the name of the town, of which the origin is uncertain, and the town was once within the Spanish Netherlands, so there is Flemish adjacency, so to speak. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-27434-43 (talk) 09:59, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Even more adjacent to French Flanders. Alansplodge (talk) 13:57, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

Arras used to be part of the county of Flanders, before the county of Artois was split off from that. Both were fiefs under the kingdom of France, but ended up in personal union with the kingdom of Spain, until taken back by the French. The architecture looks Flemish, but the language went from Celtic via Latin to French. Not the Germanic spoken in modern-day Flanders. PiusImpavidus (talk) 17:02, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

"The Paris of the South"? Someone's talking to Buncombe. DuncanHill (talk) 10:08, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

One is moved to ask: how many people refer to Paris as "the Asheville of the North"? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-27434-43 (talk) 21:58, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

I hope parking in Paris isn't bad. I've parked in many regional cities and some major cities in the eastern US — including heaps of times in DC, twice in Philadelphia, once in Boston, several times in Raleigh, etc etc etc — and Asheville was the hardest of all. Cambridge MA was harder to find a spot where I was allowed to park, due to their 24/6 prohibition on non-resident-permit parking, but finding a streetside spot where I could physically park wasn't hard. Nyttend (talk) 11:07, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

-- ~2026-30644-67 (talk) 20:39, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

Having said how odd "Air-us" is, I see the OED gives AIR-uhss /ˈɛrəs/ for the American pronunciation of the tapestry. DuncanHill (talk) 23:14, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

What is the correct way to show it in the article?— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 23:36, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

/ˈærəs/ ARR-əs per MOS:PRON, including WP:DIAPHONEMIC. For Americans this is no different from AIR-us because of the Mary–marry merger and the STRUT-commA merger, but not for other speakers of English. Nardog (talk) 23:57, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Wiktionary writes this as /ˈæɹəs/, with a voiced postalveolar approximant instead of a trill. For some reason, {{IPAc-en}} turns ⟨ɹ⟩ into ⟨r⟩.  ​‑‑Lambiam 09:57, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

See Phonetic transcription#Narrow versus broad; phonemic versus phonetic and Handbook of the IPA, pp. 27–30. Nardog (talk) 15:39, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

While it may be true that Americans with the marry-merry-Mary merger would pronounce a word that speakers without the merger pronounce /ˈæɹəs/ as AIR-us, that would be the wrong IPA for said Americans. Also, lots of Americans do not have the marry-merry-Mary merger, you just wouldn't know it from watching American television and films because California does have it.

I've also heard some (English) Brits pronounce the word air as [æ], though. No idea what part of England they were from, but I guess they would also pronounce "Arras" and "air-us" the same? ~2026-30333-18 (talk) 21:43, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

But is Polonius hiding behind it? Chuntuk (talk) 15:05, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Do we know whom his daughter fancies?  ​‑‑Lambiam 20:22, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Stabbed, right through the arris! <insert Kenneth Williams gif> DuncanHill (talk) 22:11, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Ooh matron!! Alansplodge (talk) 13:59, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

May 20

"Three parts of X" in Tolkien

At least twice, Tolkien uses "three parts of X" to refer to large numbers.

• The hobbit, chapter XVIII: "Songs have said that three parts of the goblin warriors of the North perished on that day"
• The lord of the rings, Book III, chapter VII: "Behind us in the caves of the Deep are three parts of the folk of Westfold, old and young, children and woman".

I don't remember encountering this usage in other authors, and Google searches are filled with references to tripartite concepts. I've always assumed that it was a figurative usage (the total number of parts not being mentioned), comparable to today's common usage of decimated, which is no longer connected with ⅒.

Does this term appear elsewhere, and do we have other usages to illuminate it? Or is this phrase just almost a hapax legomenon? Nyttend (talk) 07:18, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

In 17th-century books and earlier, you can find it in financial contexts, e.g. in patent rolls specifying division of ownership of lands etc. . In this it's explicitly explained as meaning "3/4": That every person if he will shall receive the three parts of the value of his Pawn that is to say if the pawn be worth twenty Shillings he shall have fifteen Shillings. Fut.Perf. ☼ 08:10, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

And you can generalise it. The OED says With a cardinal numeral, implying a number of portions one less than the number which constitutes the whole, and gives examples including "two parts" (2/3), "three parts" (3/4), "seven parts" (7/8) and "nine parts" (9/10). Adam Sampson (talk) 10:03, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

Where did you find that? Is it in the "part" definition? Nyttend (talk) 11:07, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

Oxford English Dictionary, "part (n.1), sense I.2.a," March 2026, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/6420715470 DuncanHill (talk) 11:45, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

It seems odd to me that anybody wouldn't understand it, although I have no direct recollection of anyone using the phrase. However, Googling "three parts full" produces lots of published results from the late 19th century and early 20th century, an era which my grandparents (and indeed JRR Tolkein) grew up in. The latest example I could find was this 1952 novel which has; "He went back and brought up a bucket three parts full". Alansplodge (talk) 13:49, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

I have to disagree. I can't understand how anybody would be able to understand it. "Three parts full" only causes me to ask "three out of how many parts?" Three parts out of four is a very different thing than three parts out of one hundred and this construction gives me no reason to prefer one interpretation over the other. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 14:45, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

Alansplodge, when you say "wouldn't understand it", do you mean "wouldn't understand it as ¾" or "wouldn't understand the general force of the phrase"? Being deeply familiar with Tolkien since childhood — I own nineteen different volumes of his works on Arda — I'm familiar enough with the phrase that I've used it myself, but always with a figurative sense of "most" because that's how I've interpreted the passages that I've quoted. Nyttend (talk) 20:57, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

Nyttend, I meant, wouldn't understand that it meant three quarters. Maybe a generational or regional thing. Alansplodge (talk) 13:54, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

Similar expressions are possession is nine points of the law, understood to be nine out of ten, or the earlier possession is ten points of the law, understood to be ten out of twelve. The intended audience, familiar with this way of expressing nigh completeness, understands that the number of parts or points constituting the whole is a slightly larger round number.  ​‑‑Lambiam 07:11, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

FWIW, I'm not sure I would understand that ten points of the law is meant to mean 10⁄12...I would understand nine points of the law, but it would also help that I've always heard that expression phrased as nine tenths of the law. Within certain subcultures in America, a point is also used colloquially to mean, specifically, "one tenth of a gram". ~2026-30333-18 (talk) 20:53, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

In my experience, in Britain, "nine points of the law" is the common expression. OED says (under point) "One tenth or (formerly) one twelfth. Chiefly in nine (formerly also †eleven) points of the law, used allusively, with reference to the proverbial phrase possession is nine points of the law. DuncanHill (talk) 20:58, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

So it means ten twelfths. Or eleven twelfths. Or nine tenths. How could anyone be confused by that? Matt Deres (talk) 18:37, 22 May 2026 (UTC)

Only literalists. They should read the formal scientific definition of "alot" [sic] and then recalibrate their lives. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:23, 22 May 2026 (UTC)

May 23

Question for a Russian speaker

Hello. I uploaded this video to the internet today so that I could refer to it in a conversation here on Wikipedia. I don't intend to keep it up permanently since it presumably breaches the copyright of each clip that makes it up. I just created it for my personal use.

But anyway, while it's up, I have a question, which is whether the words spoken in Russian at approx. 2 minutes in actually match the translation in the subtitle to the same clip? AndyJones (talk) 10:22, 23 May 2026 (UTC)

It's so brief, it would take a native speaker (which I am not) to really catch it.

FYI, it's from Hamlet (1964 film), a Soviet production starring Innokenty Smoktunovsky. The script was based on a translation by Boris Pasternak but the director (like all makers of Hamlet films except perhaps Kenneth Branagh) took massive liberties with what Shakespeare wrote, by cutting out vast sections, reordering some of the remaining scenes, and rewriting much of the script. Then there's whoever did the subtitles: did they return to Shakespeare's original, or did they translate it themselves ab initio? So, given all that, the chances that what the actor is saying and what the subtitles say he's saying actually match ... anyone's guess. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 23:10, 23 May 2026 (UTC)

It's funny how some writers think they can improve on Shakespeare. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:59, 24 May 2026 (UTC)