Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2007 August 3

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August 3

Ancient Greek

Is

ό την εφορος όλιγορχηιν

grammatically correct for "the overseer of the oligarchy"? - using Ephoros as overseer (is it correct to do so?). Thanks ΦΙΛ Κ 00:49, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

It doesn't look correct to me. Where does this come from? Should this be modern Greek? In that case I would use ο έφορος της ολιγαρχίας. Google searches tell me that έφορος is also used in modern Greek.[1] Disclaimer: my knowledge of modern Greek is limited to what I've picked up on occasional visits.  --Lambiam 06:13, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

For Ancient Greek I'd use the word order ο της ολιγαρχίας έφορος. —Angr 06:33, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I can't address whether or not using "ἔφορος" is correct for overseer, but I believe the correct form in Ancient Greek would probably be something like "ὁ ἔφορος τῆς ὀλιγαρχίας". The lack of breathing marks and accents makes "ό την εφορος όλιγορχηιν" look to me like modern Greek, but the use of "την" doesn't look like a genitive to me (it's accusative) and "όλιγορχηιν" also looks weird. I believe the accusative form of "ὀλιγαρχία" is "ὀλιγαρχίαν". Mike Dillon 06:43, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure it was normal in Ancient Greek to stick the genitive modifier between the definite article and the noun, thus "ὁ τῆς ὀλιγαρχίας ἔφορος". —Angr 08:00, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I didn't see your comment before I made mine. I agree that your word order seems more natural. Mike Dillon 08:05, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Period in numbers

According to full stop, "In most English-speaking countries, the full stop has the former usage while a comma or a space is used for the latter"

"In much of Europe, however, a comma is used as a decimal separator, while a full stop or a space is used for the presentation of large numbers"

Why the difference? 68.231.151.161 02:00, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Your question leaves out the beginning of the quotation, which is needed to understand it -

“ The same glyph has two separate uses with regard to numbers, the one applied being determined by the country it is used in: as a decimal separator and in presenting large numbers in a more readable form. ”

The difference simply represents the survival of different traditions in accounting and in writing numbers which have grown up over about the last two hundred years. These usages became standardized at each national level, and not at a pan-European level, though in practice the French forms came to dominate much of continental Europe, while the English-speaking world held onto its own quite different ideas. Until recently, much the same was true of the systems of measurement in use in Europe, though the metric system is now in the ascendant everywhere. Xn4 02:26, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Even within English-speaking countries, the use of the dot as a decimal point didn't come close to universal until the last 40 years or so. Before that, it was common practice in Britain to use a centered dot (·). --Anonymous, August 3, 2007, 03:10 (UTC).

A centred dot is what I was taught to use at school, and if I'm writing a decimal point by hand I still use it. Actually, I believe it's still used by some schools in the UK. Xn4 20:36, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Greece letters

I've seen a picture from a riddle that contains greece letters, and I can't quite make 'em out. I've tried putting down the letters ín a dictionary but no founds were made. I also tried to search it on google, but there was 0 founds.

Therefor I've turned here in hope that someone from greece could try understanding the 2 words, and if you don't, you could just transliterate them for me, that would be really helpful.

Words: Ρυσσιαν ΡουλεΦτε

Thanks /Daniel

'Russian Roulette' created by typing the letter in with a Greek layout, it's not necessarily a proper transcription--Duomillia 15:16, 3 August 2007 (UTC).

And misspelled "Roulefte". --Anon, August 3, 20:37 (UTC).

Okay, thx for the translation.. All well to you

MM implies that this is what you'd get if, accustomed to a QWERTY typewriter, you tried to type "Russian Roulefte" on a Greek typewriter; but I believe the layout of the two typewriter standards is not similar enough for this to work. (I remember an episode of some detective show, likely The Streets of San Francisco, in which the criminal provided a clue by typing "I worked with the butterfly" (meaning the victim) in English on a Greek typewriter in that way, without respect to the actual values of the letters. The result was not what you'd get if you tried to transliterate.) —Tamfang 02:42, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

So, would that mean that when you type double-t on a Greek keyboard, you get the combination 'ft' as in Ρυσσιαν ΡουλεΦτε?--Manga 18:07, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

That does indeed look like a reasonable mistake on a Greek keyboard, since φ is on the English f key.[2] — Laura Scudder ☎ 18:57, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Hm, when I try to type Russian Roulette with the Greek setting in MacOS, I get Ρθσσιαν Ροθλεττε; theta is on the U key, otherwise what you might expect. I wonder how many Greek typewriter layouts there are. —Tamfang (talk) 06:05, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

"Practice Makes Perfect" & "Nothing is Perfect" = Oxymoron?

Hello. If "nothing is perfect", how can "practice make perfect"? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare 15:33, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Same way "absence makes the heart grow fonder" even though "out of sight, out of mind". --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 15:39, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Or "don't sweat the small stuff" even though "the devil is in the details". Recury 16:32, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Practicing nothing will make you perfect, I guess. Or maybe not. — Kpalion^(talk) 15:40, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

It just means it's impossible to practice long enough. —Keenan Pepper 17:32, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Why are we talking about practice? I mean listen, we're sitting here talking about practice, not a game, not a game, not a game, but we're talking about practice. Clarityfiend 21:46, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm thinking that people say "practice makes perfect" because doing the same thing over and over will give you the confidence to do that activity, to the point that one might do it without being aware they've done it. However, because of human error, you cannot guarantee it to be done right 100% of the time. --JDitto 05:38, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Linguistically, because they're as short and memorable as possible. "Practice always improves" is more true, but doesn't sound quite as good as "Practice makes perfect". 68.39.174.238 02:25, 10 August 2007 (UTC)