Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2009 September 15

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

September 15

Ruby

What is red heat?174.3.110.93 (talk) 00:26, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

It's a temperature range. See red hot. Dismas|^(talk) 00:49, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

What is curved striae?174.3.110.93 (talk) 00:33, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

There should have been a comma in between the words "curves" and "striae". I've added one and now the sentence makes more sense. The word striae is linked in that sentence, so you can follow the link. Dismas|^(talk) 00:51, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

What is stylii material? It seems kind of confusing because stylii is a plural, and it means writing tool. But we use singular lexemes adjectivals in compounds.174.3.110.93 (talk) 00:56, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Fixed. It wasn't even a correct plural, by the way. --Anonymous, 05:12 UTC, September 15, 2009.

Classics

What does editiones principes mean?174.3.110.93 (talk) 05:58, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

You have linked to the page where the singular is defined, so I'm guessing that you are not aware that editiones principes is simple the Latin plural of editio princeps. I've added a parenthesis to the article specifying this.

If that's not the burden of your question, you'll need to be more specific about what you are asking. --ColinFine (talk) 07:14, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Did you mean simply?174.3.110.93 (talk) 01:35, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Japanese translation

We have this Japanese text, and I'm very proud that I have been able to type it, but we still don't understand it:

焼き物

田舎の最高のおもてなしは

採れたて海の幸と山の幸を

そのまんまいただくこと

みんなで囲炉裏を囲む

気取らない食事が田舎流です

Could anybody help us with it? Many thanks, MuDavid (talk) 13:04, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Grilled and pan-fried dishes
The best treat in the country is
Fresh delicacies from land and sea
And have them in a simple way
Sitting around the fire with friends
And enjoying the meal informally
That's the way of the country Oda Mari (talk) 14:21, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Okay, thanks a lot! MuDavid (talk) 08:44, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Chinese translation desired, please

Chinese bomb #1

Chinese bomb #2

What do the plaques in these pictures say, in English? I understand, of course, that one of the characters is somewhat obscured. Thank you much. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:36, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

I can't make out the 5th and 6th characters very well, but directly translated it seems to say "Our country's first 'egg bomb'". Maybe the translation 'egg bomb' is wrong, or it's a nickname for the bomb. I am preparing myself to be very embarrassed here as I may end up with egg on my face.... <- Based on looking at the 2nd picture only. After looking at the 1st picture, I can say the characters are '颗原' which means something like 'elementary particle' and therefore 'atom'. "Our country's first atom bomb.":) --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 16:51, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

I don't understand the letter '颗'. But #1's 原子 might be 原子弾/atomic bomb and #2's 氢弹 means hydrogen bomb. Oda Mari (talk) 18:09, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

(ec) 颗 is a classifier for bombs (among other things), and 原子弹 is (quite literally) "atom bomb". So the first plaque is "our country's first atom bomb" (the final character is cut off); the second plaque is something similar, but the first hydrogen bomb. rʨanaɢ ^talk/_contribs 18:10, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

chinese	我国	第一	颗	原子弹 氢弹
pinyin	wǒguó	dìyī	kè	yuánzǐdàn qīngdàn
gloss	'our country'	first	CL	atom bomb hydrogen bomb
translation	China's first atom bomb/hydrogen bomb.

Yup, not thinking straight today (sun's in my eyes!). I was thinking they were the same picture and wondered why I was finding it difficult to reconcile the two signs (thinking they were one and the same....Time for a break, I think.... --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 18:21, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Huh, that's pretty interesting. The second one is impressively small for a first-generation hydrogen bomb. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 01:41, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

These might just be scale model representations of the original bombs - judging by the stands they are on, they don't look much bigger than hand-grenades. Besides looking impressively small, they also look impressively clean for bombs which have been knocking around since the mid 60s. Alternatively, it may just be a matter of perspective - we don't know how big the signs are :) .--KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 08:52, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Is there a red button at the bottom, with a caption "Don't push this?" No such user (talk) 07:05, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

They certainly look a lot bigger than hand grenades, though I agree the scale is hard. I was assuming the floor tiles are probably about 2 feet across. This picture of what appears to be a similar model to the first one (though it differs slightly in the geometry) is more about the size I assumed it would be (e.g. something comparable to the Fat Man bomb). This one seems to be the same scale as the photos above, e.g. somewhat smaller than real life. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 12:09, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes, both of those look FAR bigger than I could make out from the OP's pictures, leading me to understand now that the signs must be pretty big, as well as the metal stands that the bombs are resting on. I was using those two as my point of reference. In the two pictures that you have just supplied, I now can see the cordon, which makes the bombs look much bigger to me, now. --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 13:27, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Bi-Bi Pedagogical Method Historical Origins

Where and when did "bi-bi", the bi cultural bi-lingual method for teaching English to the deaf, originate? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 143.246.9.103 (talk) 19:26, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

It looks like we have a small article about this: Bilingual-bicultural education. Have you checked the sources that are linked in that article? Particularly, the second one (here) looks like it might have the answer. rʨanaɢ ^talk/_contribs 05:29, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Pronunciation

How does one pronounce "depot" in the medical sense, as in Depo-Provera? Does the pronounciation vary (like "depot" in the non-medical sense) between British (/dɛ'poʊ/) and American (/'diːpɵ/) English? Tevildo (talk) 20:50, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

From television commercials in America I recall it as being pronounced "deh-poh" where deh sounds like wet and poh sounds like dough or flow. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 05:24, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

That's the /dɛ'poʊ/. rʨanaɢ ^talk/_contribs 05:26, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Actually, the American pronunciation of this component in a medical context stresses the first syllable, so /'dɛpoʊ/. Marco polo (talk) 14:22, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

I can't read IPA, but isn't the depot in "Home Depot" pronounced "DEE-poh" in the US? 80.123.210.172 (talk) 14:48, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes, but "Depo" in "Depo-Provera" is pronounced differently. Marco polo (talk) 17:28, 16 September 2009 (UTC)