Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2015 April 21

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April 21

Spanish translation request

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Could someone translate this message for me? It's a question from an eBay user I got who just bought some Magic: the Gathering cards from me.

buenas nose si has recibido bien mi direccion a la que me tienen que enviar las cartas es españa 03004 alicante calle belando nº 29 2º derecha. y tambien queria preguntar cuanto me tardara en llegar??

Also could someone write a reply to it for me? Whatever you think would be the most likely reply assuming all is well. Thanks, 2A02:8084:9300:A80:90AD:946E:EF56:F50 (talk) 14:03, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Did you try Google Translate? Also, "nose" is not a Spanish word. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:40, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Yes, I did. And Bing translate. It's hard to make out what's being said. I'm guessing "nose" is a misspelling of something. 2A02:8084:9300:A80:90AD:946E:EF56:F50 (talk) 14:43, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

"No sé" > "I don't know". KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (もしもし！) 16:01, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Could be. As in "I don't know if you have received..." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:03, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Yes, he is basically asking the OP if he has the right address (provided in the message) or not and how much will it cost. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (もしもし！) 16:05, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

With that, it seems fairly clear from Google Translate, except it doesn't know what belando means. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:10, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Name of the street 'calle'. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (もしもし！) 16:32, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Yes. As it turns out, this is back at the talk page, as the OP needs to do some interaction. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:20, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

There is a valid address 29 Calle Belando, Alicante 03004, Spain. From google street view the building has a restaurant on the left, some sort of telecommunications store on the right and what must be the entrance for the flats above ground level in the middle. All 3 entrances share the same address, so "2º derecha" 2nd right must mean the entrance to the flats (2nd door). It might mean 2nd floor as well. Richard-of-Earth (talk) 19:32, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

What we need now is the requestor's message he wants to send, so someone can translate it into something like good Spanish. That discussion will necessarily have to occur on the talk page. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:41, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Better by email. Google image search for "1º derecha", "2º derecha", "3º derecha", etc. turns up pictures of flats, so it defiantly means 2nd floor. Richard-of-Earth (talk) 19:46, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Are IP addresses email-enabled? I don't think so. However, I think the OP has enough information to answer his question. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:02, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

• You don't want to translate the snailmail address, since presumably the locals know best, but a good non-word-for-word translation is "Hi, I don't know if you've properly gotten the address where you have to send me the letters in Spain; [Name], Calle Belando nº 29 2º derecha, 03004 Alicante, España. I'd also like to ask how long they might take me to arrive." Unfortunately it is all very sloppy, improperly capitalized, punctuated, and lacking proper verb agreement. No wonder a Google translation would be inscrutable. μηδείς (talk) 02:30, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

doctor

Hello, for example, the doctor's full name is Tommy Johnson, I knew that it's respectful to call him Doctor Johnson, but is it respectful to call him by first name too? Doctor Tommy? 雞雞 (talk) 16:17, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Depends on what he wants you to call him. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (もしもし！) 16:33, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

True, but it's much more usual to say Doctor Johnson, or just Doctor. If English isn't your first language, stick to that, it will be unproblematic. Itsmejudith (talk) 22:27, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

If he's your medical care provider, call him Doctor Johnson unless he tells you otherwise, he will presumably also call you by you family name. I have never had a doctor call me by my first name since I was a child. If he is your friend and uses your first name, then use his first name. This applies in almost all cases in American English, the only asymmetry being that a direct boss may call you by your first name, but you should call him by his last name unless he says to do so. You can always say, my name is Bob, can I call you by your first name? But this is usually not done unless you eat together or meet regularly outside of a professional situation. μηδείς (talk) 02:40, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

That's an East Coast thang. In California, a manager who insisted on being called by his last name (at least in the tech industry) would be a serious outlier. --Trovatore (talk) 05:52, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

It is not at all uncommon for a general manager (who has assistant mangers between him and the employees) to advise an employee to address him by first name. Assistant managers always went by first name. At the publishing company where I worked only the owner was addressed by his last name, except by senior management, who called him "Chuck". μηδείς (talk) 17:17, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

But in Silicon Valley, the use of first names is pretty much just assumed. It would be unusual to ask before using a first name, and unnecessary for the manager to advise its use. --Trovatore (talk) 20:49, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

My GP always introduces himself by his first name (Raj), as he doesn't expect anyone to be able to pronounce his last name. This becomes a problem when I get asked by related services what my GP's name is, because I don't know. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (もしもし！) 05:01, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

I would epect it to be on your paperwork. If not, I'd ask for a business card. StuRat (talk) 17:51, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Medeis works in different circles than I do. I started working in the late 70s, and it was usual then and into the 80s in places where I worked (in the United States) to address bosses as "Mr./Mrs./Ms. X", where X was their surname. But at some point in the 90s, I stopped hearing managers (on both the east and west coasts) referred to by their surnames. At my present employer, a large multinational media company where I have worked (on the east coast) for more than a decade, even the CEO has always been known by his or her personal name. (This applies to the present CEO and the previous one.) That said, I agree with Medeis that doctors in the United States are generally addressed as "Doctor X", with X being their surname, unless the doctor is at least a friendly acquaintance. (If the doctor is a friendly acquaintance, you'd address him as "Tommy" rather than "Doctor Tommy".) The same is true for random strangers one meets for brief business transactions, especially retail transactions, in the United States. You would refer to those people as "Mr./Ms. X". Companies (where I've worked) are an exception because one's coworkers in the company (including top management) are all supposed to be part of a team, with a (fictional) egalitarian ethic. Another exception is when your business interaction involves a relationship. In that case, people are likely to introduce themselves with their personal names and to use personal names to refer to one another. Marco polo (talk) 18:12, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Well, I think this is getting a bit overcomplicated. Two general managers of 200 employees in a fortune 50 company I had in Manhattan since '99 advised us to call them by first name. No one would have called them by their first names had they introduced themselves as Mr X, which a few short-lived GM's did. All the assistant managers went by their first names with us, but expected us to call them Mr/Mrs X when speaking to customers.

Basically, you address people by how they introduce themselves to you, and new managers ask you what you want to be called, it being implied they wanted your first or nickname. Silicon Valley is an odd subculture, and one that's far overrepresented among WP editors. I am well into middle age, and I still do not call the adult friends of my parents or the parents of my friends by their first names unless invited to do so, even though I am 2/3 of their age, and everyone calls me by an adult honorific who doesn't know me personally. I have even told my niebles it is okay to use my first name on the occasions when the have not used my honorific, and felt awkward.

The bottom line is, no one ever minds the honorific, and asking people what they want to be called, calling them what they suggest you call them, or calling them what your co-workers of the same rank call them to their face will not get you in trouble anywhere in the US. μηδείς (talk) 21:38, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

If I heard somebody addressed as "Doctor Tommy", I would think that either Tommy was their surname, or the person speaking was not a native English speaker, or (just possibly) the speaker was a close friend, who probably knew Tommy before he qualified as a doctor, and calls him that as a sort of friendly joke. It is not a mode of address that I would otherwise ever expect to hear. --ColinFine (talk) 13:26, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Of course, just like Judge Judy. Everyone is a close personal friend of her. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (もしもし！) 16:58, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

This phenomenon of calling by a first name instead of by a title (such as Mr.) in a company, I have heard called "formalized informality". That is, calling the CEO by his first name is an artificial informality. It's not a new thing. Walt Disney insisted everyone in the company call him "Walt", but he didn't tolerate being disrespected. In the case of a professional, it's best to call them by a title (such as Dr.) until or if they tell you otherwise. Doctor Phil and Judge Judy are TV personalities, so the standard rules don't necessarily apply to them. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:00, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

• As for Fox's Judge Napolitano, who names their boy "Napolitano"? μηδείς (talk) 17:45, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

pronunciation of -iza etc.

Is the first iota of -ίζειν (and more specifically of κτενιζειν) long or short? I'm wondering where the stress falls in English derivations. — kwami (talk) 20:46, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Couldn't find a definite resource on this so quickly, but these old grammars [1] would appear to indicate it's short. Fut.Perf. ☼ 21:32, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Thanks! — kwami (talk) 21:43, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Is this for the Ancient Greek language, kwamikagami? If so, you should know that ζ is pronounced -dz- and the length of ι is not distinctive, but its tone/stress is. Verbs have a recessive tone (one that prefers to be as far from the ending as possible; i.e., up to three morae), and hence the high tone/stress always falls on the ι in ίζειν, since ζειν has two morae. μηδείς (talk) 21:15, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. No, it was for stress assignment in Latin. I forgot that z closes the preceding syllable, so length doesn't matter. But why do you say the length of iota is not distinctive? Did it only become distinct later? — kwami (talk) 22:26, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Latin works differently, and length of i certainly matters, (short I sounded as in English sit, long i as in machine) and you get double i sequences. In Attic Greek only the mid vowels e, o retain an overt length distinction, with a vowel quality distinction causing the difference between ε and η and between ο and ω. The length of ι, υ and α would mostly be realized in where the stress was drawn, the quality distinction was lost over time.

I did make a mistake above, since the recession of the accent in Greek only necessarily applies to (non-contracted) finite (i.e., conjugated) forms [2] and -izein is an infinitive ending, not a conjugated form. In any case the stress could still not come earlier than the first i in such forms, given the length of the final syllable. μηδείς (talk) 19:45, 23 April 2015 (UTC)