Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2008 May 8

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May 8

Plural for staff

I'm aware of "staves" for more than one staff in music and barrel making, but it seems strange for a collection of more than one staff unit of employees. What is the plural for more than one "staff" group – in the sense that there is staff from this department and that department etc, gathered together? I'd go for staffs, but is there a correct term? Julia Rossi (talk) 01:53, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

'Staffs' sounds fine to me, but it doesn't strike me as particularly 'correct'. To be absolutely correct, I'd expand it to staff groups, or even staffing groups. Or remove the need by talking about 'the staff from all departments' rather than 'all the department's staffs.' It may, of course, be unavoidable. Steewi (talk) 02:59, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

I'd stick with 'staff'. 'Staff from X department and Y department' sounds perfectly fine for me.--ChokinBako (talk) 03:02, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

It does sound collective in that way too. I found an example in the article Imperial Presidency, "The office is no longer used except for ceremonial occasions, but in nineteenth and early twentieth century presidents were based there with their small staves on a day-to-day basis." Staff then, Julia Rossi (talk) 03:26, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

This might help clear it up. [1] Different uses, different plurals. For translations "employee" is easier to handle. Groups of employees would be more than one group. 71.236.23.111 (talk) 05:37, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Hi Lisa4edit, well the reason I gravitated to "staff" was that both instances required a sympathetic solution because it was terminology already in place. Employees is good but doesn't quite have the collective or ranking sense of "staff" – as per Steewi's "unavoidable" for continuity's sake. Eg, with the Whitehouse example, the president's employees might include groundsmen, caretakers, caterers and staffers, but "staff" seems to be a select group. Julia Rossi (talk) 06:29, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

English-bilingual people online

How many, of the estimated number of people with online access, are (at least) bilingual with English as their second language? All I can find are Internet access and List of countries by number of Internet users. (and Internet access worldwide?)

I am asking because I have noticed numerous forums in foreign scripted languages (Korean, Japanese, etc), seem to use English in their message headers, and almost interchangeably with their local language. And that trend seems to span subject categories, from art to electronics. But I'm interested in any other related insights.

thankyou (-: 24.68.135.43 (talk) 04:54, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

The vast majority of Japanese speak little or no English in spite of their ability to look up words in the dictionary and use them for Internet forum titles. Paul Davidson (talk) 10:41, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Egotism

All variants of this word please —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.67.203.60 (talk) 09:56, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by variants. Do you mean varying definitions, or synonyms and related terms or derivations of egot? There's also an article on egotism. ---Sluzzelin talk 16:06, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Human-read articles

Where can I find human-read articles? (besides Project Gutenberg). I need both, text and audio. GoingOnTracks (talk) 11:15, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia has a lot of 'spoken articles', which are audio files of Wikipedia articles read out loud. The only catch is that articles may have changed after the recordings were done. Kreachure (talk) 13:13, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Another Russian question

What does this mean?

Shto eto. Po-russki davaj! Ty izuchaesh russkij.

The only thing I understood is "po-russki", meaning "in Russian". JIP | Talk 16:55, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

It means: What is this? Speak in Russian! You're learning Russian. -- JackofOz (talk) 17:41, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Thank you (or spasiba). So does "davaj" mean "to speak"? I keep hearing that word spoken by Russians, but it's another of those Russian words whose meaning I have no idea of. JIP | Talk 17:45, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Nye za shto (or don't mention it). Davaj (давай) is one of those words whose meaning very much depends on the context. It's the imperative form of davat' (давать), to give, but it can also mean "let's" (let's go, etc), "come on", "just" et al. In the context of your question, "Po-russki davaj" can be thought of as "come on, how about Russian", but we'd be more likely to say "talk in Russian", or "speak Russian". It could also mean "give me the Russian word" (as opposed to the English or whatever word). The "Shto eto" could also mean "what's going on", or "what the ....". -- JackofOz (talk) 18:02, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Hmm... my husband learned to swear in Russian from some co-workers, who taught him that "Davaj, suka!" means "Hurry up, bitch!", so is "hurry up" another possible meaning of "davaj"? —Angr 22:00, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Yes, it can certainly mean that. Its nuances are endless, and how it's translated into other languages depends completely on the context, and the pitch of the target language. -- JackofOz (talk) 22:20, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

So it is similar to "please" pronounced "puh-lease!" ? SaundersW (talk) 12:13, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

It might be translated that way in some contexts. -- JackofOz (talk) 07:02, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Toon-to-Japanese

Hi wikipeoples. If you were to accurately translate, say, "Sonic the Hedgehog" into Japanese, how would it be? They've always translated it phonetically (I guess it's what it's called), so I wouldn't be asking for that. Thanks in advance, Kreachure (talk) 17:34, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

As ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ (Sonikku za Hejjihoggu), you mean? I don't really understand the question. -- The Great Gavini 18:42, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Hedgehog is ハリネズミ, which would give ハリネズミのソニック (harinezumi no sonikku). I think that's about as far as you can go with the translation. I imagine the name "Sonic" derives from "sonic boom", which is "sonikku buumu" in Japanese. -- BenRG (talk) 21:51, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, it's the second one I was looking for. I always get confused by the use of "no". The first one ("Sonikku za Hejjihoggu") is what I meant by phonetic translation, i.e. translating how it sounds in English directly to Japanese. Kreachure (talk) 22:17, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

One note, though: the Japanese never call him ハリネズミのソニック. Ever. ···日本穣^{? · Talk to Nihonjoe} 03:57, 9 May 2008 (UTC)