Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2007 December 21

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December 21

French sailor

I asked this question on the entertainment desk about a week ago and didn't get an answer, so I figured I'd give it a try here, because it pertains to both. In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, when the French sailor drops Will off at Cannibal Island, he says something in rapid French. I know a little French, but he goes too fast for me to catch much of it. Does anyone out there know exactly what he says? Preferably the exact French, but the English translation is cool too. Thank you! 137.186.173.69 (talk) 04:35, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

It's difficult without being able to listen to the clip. I did find attempts at a transcription here (item N22), but the commentator thinks the transcription "still does not sound to me like it matches the audio track of the film" and I think either the transcriptions or the original also have grammatical problems. For example, It should be "je l'avais dit" not "j'avais le dit", and omitting the word pas in "Je ne peux" is very unusual. To abbreviate, you can omit the "ne" in colloquial French ("j'peux pas"), but pas is the crucial indicator of negation to a listener's ears. ---Sluzzelin talk 18:32, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Omitting the "pas" can be a marker of a rather formal register of French, with such locutions as "je ne sais" and "je ne peux" (See here for example) . "J'avais le dit" would not fit in that register. SaundersW (talk) 20:06, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

There is a French version of the dialogue at http://orlandonline.free.fr/dialogues.html; search for "Sur l'île aux Cannibales".  --Lambiam 09:20, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Requesting translation of Spanish sentence

Hi. If someone would be so kind as to give me a translation which is a little sharper than Google translator of the following sentence, I would be very grateful.

"No solo se negó a facilitárnosla, sino que ni siquiera nos permitió ver el famoso informe de la Universidad de Bonn que siempre menciona como única prueba de la autenticidad de los gliptolitos."

It comes from here: [1]

Google translated it to English thus:

" Not only refused to facilitárnosla, it is not even allowed us to see the famous report of the University of Bonn who always cited as sole proof of the authenticity of gliptolitos."

I am particularly interested to know what he means by "sole proof." Thanks! Schmitty120 (talk) 06:41, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Based on my sketchy understanding of Spanish, the sentence states:

"Not only did he [or she] refuse to facilitate it for us, he did not even allow us to see the famous report of the University of Bonn that was always cited as sole proof of the authenticity of the glyptoliths."

My best guess is that "sole proof" simply means that while this report was claimed by some party to be a proof of the disputed authenticity of certain glyptoliths, no other proof on which such authenticity might be based was offered by that party.  --Lambiam 09:22, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

In case you want to give emphasis to the agent of the quotation, Javier Cabrera Darquea, the last part of the sentence could also be translated as "...the famous report of the University of Bonn, which he always (frequently) cited as (the) sole proof of the authenticity of the glyptoliths."

I agree with Lambian's view on the meaning of sole, since the author is suspectful of Cabrera's arguments (and attitudes). Pallida  Mors 22:02, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

counterpart of “blow job” for women

English is not my first language, so please tell me the correct noun for a single act of cunnilingus. For example, a prostitute could say “I gave five blow jobs last night” but what would you say if your sex partners were female? “I performed five acts of cunnilingus last night” is rather stilted. --Cinematical (talk) 16:47, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Hmm.. Cunnilingus#In popular culture gives a wide variety of slang terms, but they all seem to be verbs. I'm sort of surprised there isn't an "X job" term parallel to "blow job", "hand job", "rim job", etc. —Angr ^{If you've written a quality article...} 17:07, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

"Tongue job" would get the point across. 192.251.134.5 (talk) 19:54, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

"I went down on five women"?SaundersW (talk) 20:16, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't want to say that I went down on five women, I want to say that I performed five acts of cunnilingus (not necessarily on five distinct women). --Cinematical (talk) 21:43, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't think there is one common term that would maintain the ambiguity about the number of women. Either the above (five women) or "I ate her out five times" (one woman). - Jmabel | Talk 22:32, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

You could say you "munched carpet five times" or "ate box five times" and that would retain the ambiguity of how many women were involved. —Angr ^{If you've written a quality article...} 22:56, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

five muff dives?--ChokinBako (talk) 23:34, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

5 furburgers? -- JackofOz (talk) 02:33, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Wasn´t there a user named Cunning Linguist who indulges in labourious original research in this murky area of oral tradition ? --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 10:10, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Five box lunches? —Angr ^{If you've written a quality article...} 15:31, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

People around where I live just use 'lick job' <shrug> 62.136.163.200 (talk) 17:42, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Not exactly on topic, but I've been wondering how I know so many colloquial "dirty words" in English. Obviously, it's from reading this reference desk :) --Dapeteばか 17:45, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

• I yodelled down 5 furry canyons?hotclaws 23:05, 23 December 2007 (UTC)