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March 27[edit]

Translating a Wikipedia article[edit]

How can I translate an english page from Wikipedia to its romanian version of Wikipedia and post it there ? Just like that ? no mention of its source neither ? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ciocanelvalentin (talk • contribs) 15:02, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

You should mention either in a little note at the bottom of the article or on the talk page that it was translated from the English version. —An gr 15:13, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

At the very end of the article, write something like this (in Romanian): This article was initially translated from this Wikipedia article « en:Foo » , specifically from [http:// this version]. Link "this version" to the permanent link to the copy of the article you used. If you want help on translating, check out ro:Wikipedia:Articole de tradus, the Romanian version of Wikipedia:Translation. − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 17:23, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Intrigued by vandalism[edit]

Hey hey! I saw this vandalism [1], and couldn't help wondering what it says. I assume it's arabic, but know little about this. Obviously, babelfish doesn't support such languages. Anyone know roughly what it says? I'm intrigued. Skittle 16:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC) ps Hope this is on the right desk; I seem to find the humanities areas oddly hard to categorise.[reply]

Google Translate has a beta version of Arabic-English. The service translates the start of the added paragraphs thus: "Evolution of change in the population from one organism to generations. The product differs from the raids in different ways. When this useful differences, a great opportunity to receive product from the remains and overwhelms, making the differences more normal in the [Nakst Jenraishn]. In this way, differences can stockpiled plenty [Tim], lead to major changes in [a] population. Evolution occurs through changes in the genes, the "recipe" for the building, located neighborhood." (Nakst Jenraishn is apparently a rendering of English Next Generation.) The last sentence, as served up by Google Translate, is: "This has resulted in the many diverse forms of life that exists today." The whole appears to be an attempted translation into Arabic of the lead of our article Introduction to evolution. --Lambiam ^Talk 21:58, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that's great. Maybe I'll give the user a quick message, letting them know about different language wikipedias :-) Skittle 23:43, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Bella![edit]

As I was passing two young women in the street in England, one of them said "Bella!", apparantly in reference to me.

What does "bella" mean exactly? I thought it was an italian expression, but there are many Portugese locally.

Searching Wikipedia or the internet only produces results about a magazine or a place. 62.253.48.20 21:26, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I believe it means "beautiful" in Italian. I guess that means you've been given a lovely compliment. Presumably you're a female, otherwise it would have been "bello". JackofOz 22:09, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe you have a doppelgänger named Bella. --Mathew5000 23:03, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Or maybe they thought you looked like Bella Abzug or Bela Lugosi ? StuRat 03:55, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Or Béla Bartók. —An gr 04:05, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Bela means beautiful in Portuguese! If you're not a female, I guess it's an insult or irony of some kind, but that's just a guess. Brazilians don't use this word very much, so if it is Portuguese at all it was a Portuguese young woman that thought you were beautiful. In Brazil we'd in general prefer to say "linda!" to a beautiful woman, like does the poet:

Olha que coisa mais linda

Look, what a most beautiful thing there

mais cheia de graça

moreover full of grace

É ela menina que vem e que passa

and she, this girl that comes and goes

num doce balanço, caminho do mar ...

with this sweet, swinging gait, along the way to the sea. . . .

Moça do corpo dourado, do sol de Ipanema

The girl with this golden body from the Ipanema sun

O seu balançado é mais que un poema

Her swinging gait is more than a poem

é a coisa mais linda que eu já vi passar...

and the most beautiful thing that I ever saw go by

Ah! Porque estou tão sozinho

Ah! why am I so alone?

Ah! Porque tudo é tão triste

Ah! why is everything so sad?

Ah! A beleza que existe

Ah! the beauty that is there!

A beleza que não é só minha

The beauty that is not just mine . . .

que também passa sozinha

that is also passing by alone.

Ah! Se ela soubesse que quando ela passa

Ah! if she only knew that when she passes by

o mundo sorrindo

the world is smiling

se enche de graça

filling up with grace

e fica mais lindo

and turns more beautiful

por causa do amor

because of love

por causa do amor

because of love

por causa do amor

because of love

That's both LINDO and BELO! The word beleza is bold as well. It means beauty and has the same root as the word belo.

And here is a versicle of the Bible containing the word bela:

Porque não tinha pai nem mãe;

For she had neither father nor mother,

e era jovem bela de presença e formosa

and the maid was fair and beautiful (Esther 2:7)

In italian Bella has the same meaning. The title of the movie La vita è bella was translated into English as Life is beautiful and into Portuguese as A vida é bela.

A.Z. 21:46, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What[edit]

What is that word (it might start with an 'e' like 'expedition' or 'excavation', but definitely not those words, but with the same 'ex' sound) that follows 'archaeological'? Like 'archaeological expedition' or 'archaeological excavation'?100110100 22:49, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It depends what you are trying to say. If it's the dig itself, then "excavation" is the word. But in the right context you might describe an "excursion", "expedition", "experiment", "exclamation" or lots other nouns as "archaeological". --Mathew5000 23:07, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think you nailed it on the head with "excursion", Mathew5000. − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 06:00, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Archeological expedition is infinitely more common than "excursion" (which would, however, be the one if we mean a trip tourists are taken on to see something archeological); in my opinion, "expedition" is the only candidate worth setting beside "excavation." Wareh 17:21, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The user 100110100 asked specifically for a word that was not 'expedition' or 'excavation'. − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 18:10, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, duh! Don't know how I misread it. Wareh 18:27, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Exhumation? Clarityfiend 22:47, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

L-colored vowels?[edit]

(trying to ask concisely) There are R-colored vowels for alveolar approximants, but are there L-colored vowels for the accompanying lateral approximants? Hyenaste ^(tell) 23:00, 27 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

never thought of that before. But I've never heard of them, and don't think they would exist. r-colouring basically means the tongue blade is somewhat backed, not normal for vowels. l-colouring would mean the sound was almost lateral (air almost only flowing down the sides of the mouth), which doesn't really make any sense: once the air is flowing through the centre of the mouth, it's no longer lateral. Laterals can be syllabic (are so phonetically in my variety of English, as in 'bottle') in some languages, but they are still consonantal, as there is an obstruction in the airflow. Also in some varieties of English and Portuguese, the letter l represents a back vowel or non-lateral approximant in some environments, e.g. end of word, but that backing originates in the secondary articulation of velarisation of once-present l. Think Cockney 'bottle'. Drmaik 09:09, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

More at L-vocalization. jnestorius^(talk) 21:02, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

(To Drmaik:) Nevertheless, /l/ does influence following vowels; "meal" and "meek" both are /mi/ + C yet the vowel qualities differ somewhat. --Kjoonlee 22:56, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Good link, jnestorius. And, kjoon, it seems to be the velarization that's changing the vowel quality, rather than the lateral articulation: compare "leak" and "meek" (I think you meant preceding, not following) Drmaik 12:09, 29 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ahh, very good points.. --Kjoonlee 19:29, 29 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]