Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2011 September 29

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September 29

translation needed

I found a piece of paper in my grandmothers bible, it starts out in English then switches to something i have never seen like a short hand or different language i was wondering is there anywhere i can get it translated. Any help would be very appreciated. Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.142.180.26 (talk) 03:08, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

If you can scan or photograph the sheet and upload load it (at Tinypic or another image hosting site), we could give it a shot. The two most common shorthand systems are Pitman and Gregg shorthand; you might have a look at those to see if any of the symbols are similar. Lesgles (talk) 04:10, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Did your grandmother, or anybody whom you know to have had the Bible speak a language (or languages) other than English? Falconus^{p t c} 08:21, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

The English text could also give a clue if they're on the same paper. – b_jonas 10:49, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Question about Chinese reading

Hi! I get two options for the first character of 燕兒 (Yan'er) - Character in Raise the Red Lantern Yān or yàn Which is it? Thanks WhisperToMe (talk) 03:14, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

I think it might be yàn because it is referring to the swallow bird. See here, for example. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 03:52, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

The character's name in the novel is Swallow, so I think you are right. Thanks :) WhisperToMe (talk) 03:53, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

In the movie it's pronounced Yàn. (Also in my DVD of that movie the traditional character subtitles have it as 雁, not 燕; that's also a bird word.) rʨanaɢ (talk) 04:14, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

燕 might be a mistake. See these. a film page, a novel page, and zh:大红灯笼高高挂. But Google results are [1] and [2]. Oda Mari (talk) 06:53, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

“Glitze Glatze Glotze”

What is “Glitze Glatze Glotze, Fitze Fatze Glotze!”? --84.62.204.7 (talk) 12:18, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

It's a bit of meaningless German onomatopoeia, probably made up by puberty-stricken schoolboys to trick each other into saying "Fotze" (which is a rather rude word for female genitalia, and sure to produce giggles among ten-year-olds). If you're curious about the individual words, "Glitze", "Fatze" and "Fitze" don't mean anything in standard German (although they might be words in some dialect), "Glatze" is a bald head and "Glotze" is an old-fashioned slang word for a TV set. (you might also be interested in Helge Schneider's song "Fitze Fitze Fatze", which works with very similar onomatopoetic lyrics) -- Ferkelparade π 12:30, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Good response, but while Glitze, Fitze, Fatze will appear like nonsense words to most German speakers, they are not:

• Glitze is the imperative of the verb glitzen, a variant of glitzern (glistle, glitter, sparkle, twinkle). [3]
• Fitze (skein) is an old technical term related to sewing. [4]
• Fatze is a technical term from sailing. [5]

All three words are probably non-standard or obsolete. Hans Adler 12:59, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Glotze for TV set is old-fashioned? I hear it all the time, including from younger people. Angr (talk) 06:53, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

That would be our old friend, WP:RDTROLL.

At the risk of being a smartass, how does not a Germany-related nonsensical and lascivious question from an 84* range ring the bell for regulars here, after all this time? Anyway, his behavior is pretty childish and not really harmful, but it's wasting everybody's time. Heck, I wasted plenty of mine already... No such user (talk) 07:14, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

Actually I learned something. Though I'm a native speaker, I had no idea that Fitze and Fatze were actual words. No time wasted in my book. As for how a 84* range doesn't ring the bell, well, not everyone pays attention, some of us don't care or have a bad number sense, which is why your efforts of warning us or removing the more blatant nonsense (preferably before anyone has answered) are all the more appreciated. ---Sluzzelin talk 07:20, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

By the way, in most Swiss German dialects "Fitze" also means a birching rod used by Saint Nicholas or his companion "Schmutzli" to scare those children who've been naughty, not nice. ---Sluzzelin talk 07:40, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

There is a Polish version of this: "Ząb, zupa, zębowy. Dąb, zupa, zebowy" (Tooth, soup, dental. Oak, soup, oaken). The trick is not to say "dupa", which is a vulgar word for backside. A more elaborate version is the English "I'm not a pheasant plucker": I am not a pheasant plucker, I'm a pheasant plucker's son. I am only plucking pheasants 'till the pheasant plucker comes. Dominus Vobisdu (talk) 11:25, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

See Tongue twister for more, in many languages. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 22:14, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

Russian: troika and perestroika

Does these words have anything in common? (maybe just etymologically). Wikiweek (talk) 22:11, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Not even etymologically. The spelling similarities are purely coincidental. It would be like asking if the words "dental" and "coincidental" have a common etymology or were related, or maybe the words "table" and "notable". In this case, the word "troika" comes from the root "three" (as in "tri-") and in politics usually refers to a triumvirate. Perestroika means something like "reorganizing" or "restructuring" and its root is "stroika", meaning "to build", and probably has the same root as the English word "structure". See [6]. --Jayron32 22:23, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Actually, Russian stroi seems to come from the same IE root as Latin stria, "furrow".[7] Lesgles (talk) 22:48, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

And, Jayron, I'm sure you didn't mean to direct Wikiweek's attention to an article about a punk rock band. You meant triumvirate, from "tres" = three and "vir" = man (as in virile, not verile). -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 10:56, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

Fixed. My bad. --Jayron32 18:56, 30 September 2011 (UTC)