Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2007 December 14

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[edit] December 14

[edit] Help creating page in Hebrew

Perhaps someone can please create a Hebrew page for Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Glasner, משה שמואל גלאזנר and also replacing the aleph in גלאזנר with an ayin משה שמואל גלעזנר and deleting the aleph altogether משה שמואל גלזנר (these are three different spellings I've seen; any of the two can redirect to the third; the most recent publication of his book Dor Revi'i has the ayin in his name, so perhaps that is the best one to be the "homepage").

This page could just have a WikiProject Echo tag {{FAOL|English|en:Moshe Shmuel Glasner}}, and hopefully someone will come along and translate this page into Hebrew. At that point, someone can make sure the two pages are suitably cross-referenced to each other.

My Hebrew skills are still very rudimentary; therefore, when the "cannot find this page" page comes up in Hebrew, I don't know which link is the link to actually create a new page.

Thank you! Sevendust62 (talk) 04:27, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't know what the rules are like at Hebrew Wikipedia, but if I found an article here that consisted of nothing at all but a link to another language's featured article, I'd delete it. —Angr If you've written a quality article... 11:28, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
Moshe Shmuel Glasner isn't even featured here, so the WikiProject Echo tag would be incorrect. (And it wouldn't work anyway, since there is no template at he:Template:FAOL. —Angr If you've written a quality article... 11:32, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Using `Ayin ע as a Mater lectionis is a feature of Yiddish, orthography, but not Hebrew orthography, and is considered a "Yiddishism" in Hebrew... AnonMoos (talk) 14:37, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

And in Yiddish it represents the vowel /e/. The Yiddish spelling of "Glasner" should be גלאַזנער. I'd expect Hebrew to leave both vowels out (since neither /a/ nor unstressed /e/ is usually written with a mater between two consonants) and just be גלזנר. —Angr If you've written a quality article... 16:51, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Italics

In languages that don't read left to right, how are italics slanted? Clarityfiend (talk) 09:25, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, copying some Hebrew from the question above and putting italics tags around it produces this:

משה שמואל גלאזנר

So assuming the Wiki software is handling it correctly, the same direction as left-to-right scripts. -Elmer Clark (talk) 09:29, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
The italic Arabic font on this page slants to the LEFT. But I wonder when italic Arabic is used.--K.C. Tang (talk) 10:17, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
What about Chinese? Clarityfiend (talk) 10:12, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
中文--K.C. Tang (talk) 10:17, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
日本語 Japanese. Oda Mari (talk) 10:21, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Um... none of these writing systems normally uses italics. Strictly speaking, what's shown above is automatically computer-generated oblique forms, not true italics (which involve more than just being slanty, they also involve slightly different letter shapes). As far as I know (and I asked about this once a while back at the reference desk), the only alphabets that use true italics are Latin and Cyrillic. —Angr If you've written a quality article... 10:36, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Considering italic script is generally based on cursive writing, it should be possible to create fonts that would imitate cursive Hebrew, for example. I don't know if this is actually practiced, though. — Kpalion(talk) 10:48, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

When you italicize Arabic on Wikipedia it looks really strange. Imagine slanting English letters the opposite way. Arabic already has it's own styles of writing that look much better, Arabic calligraphy. Adam Bishop (talk) 16:48, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Same with Japanese and Chinese. When written in a calligraphic way, the question of italics becomes irrelevant.--ChokinBako (talk) 00:12, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Eclampsia

Somebody told me that this word is derived from the Latin for "lightning bolt." Is that true? Fenton Bailey (talk) 11:31, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Nearly: it in fact comes from the Greek for "sudden flash[ing]", "lightning" or "lightning bolt". Last paragraph here makes reference, as does the first sentence here. Hassocks5489 (talk) 12:29, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Epi-something

I can't remember the word for the part of a name such as Richard the Lion-hearted. I think it begins with the prefix "epi." Epigraph... no. Epitaph... no. Epi- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.16.89.80 (talk) 13:33, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

That's an epithet. Hassocks5489 (talk) 13:49, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
Mrs. Malaprop was known for her "nice derangement of epitaphs"! AnonMoos (talk) 14:32, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
Oh God, I really am the original Mrs. Malaprop! Oh well... Thanks a lot for the help! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.16.89.80 (talk) 16:54, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ich fing Feuer

I've come across this, and the context doesn't really call for its literal meaning - "I caught on fire". Is there any idiomatic meaning to this? --Bearbear (talk) 16:41, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

I can think of some metaphorical meanings it could have. What's the context? —Angr If you've written a quality article... 16:44, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
It's in a song lyric - "Doch als du noch einmal fragtest, kam ich aus der Fassung. Über uns hing, als ich Feuer fing, ein rosaroter Lampion." --Bearbear (talk) 17:33, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
Feuer fangen means "to catch fire", "to ignite". It strengthens, in a poetic way, the speaker's loosing their equanimity. I don't know the context, but I suppose that as a metaphor this is similar to "Come on baby light my fire". --talk 18:33, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
That doesn't seem to fit. The entire song can be found here --Bearbear (talk) 20:24, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
I think it just means she felt like she caught fire when he kissed her. I like the idea of rhyming Fassung with bon / non / Lampion. —Angr If you've written a quality article... 20:43, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
Another Fassung found on the web has "Façon" (whatever that may mean here).[1] What I like is that it rhymes with une poupée de son :)  --Lambiam 03:07, 15 December 2007 (UTC)
How can you say it doesn't fit. First she sings how cool it is to dance under a red Chinese lantern, because "red is the colour by which you should fall in love". Who cares, she sings, that "you" [her dance partner] were not good at dancing; it was good, we had the red lantern hanging over us. Then he wants to kiss her, and first she says (you know how women are) "Non, non, non", but then, when he asks again, she "catches fire": he has lit her fire.  --Lambiam 03:07, 15 December 2007 (UTC)
The "aus der Fassung" thing caught me out. I've seen it as "Façon" too but I don't see what that could mean in this case. --Bearbear (talk) 10:17, 15 December 2007 (UTC)
"jdn aus der Fassung bringen" has a meaning of confusing someone, flustering them, or putting them off balance. I take it as "But as you asked me once again, I lost my (cool/control), and hanging above us, as (my love) was kindled, was a pink lantern." --Narapoid (talk) 05:35, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
That fits really well, thanks! --Bearbear (talk) 10:25, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
I did not realize you had not understood that part; it was included in my reply in the form of "the speaker's loosing their equanimity".  --Lambiam 12:31, 16 December 2007 (UTC)