Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2016 April 18

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April 18

Bilingualism in Canada

Is Ottawa the only city or place in Canada that is officially bilingual?Donmust90 (talk) 14:54, 18 April 2016 (UTC)Donmust90Donmust90 (talk) 14:54, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

New Brunswick is the only constitutionally bilingual (English–French) province. The three territories, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon are also officially English/French bilingual. Nunavut has 3 (4) official languages with the Inuit language, Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun. The NWT also has Chipewyan, Cree, Gwich’in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey and Tłı̨chǫ as official languages. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 15:24, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

See "Official bilingualism in Canada".—Wavelength (talk) 15:33, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

list of verbs in different languages

Is there a websites or some websites that shows the list of verbs, both regular and irregular, in Arabic, Bengali, English, French, Persian, Somali and Punjabi and their conjugation to different pronouns (ex. I eat, you eat, he eats, she eats, we eat, they eat) in different tenses (ex. I eat, I ate, I will eat, I am eating, I was eating, I have been eating, I have eaten and etc..)? If so, please tell me and thanks.Donmust90 (talk) 15:08, 18 April 2016 (UTC)Donmust90Donmust90 (talk) 15:08, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

Er, are you really asking for a site that lists all forms of all verbs in seven languages? —Tamfang (talk) 08:35, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

Yes, I am. Donmust90 (talk) 14:49, 19 April 2016 (UTC)Donmust90

You can get the French ones at Le Conjugueur, and I think Bengali here. Taknaran (talk) 18:07, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

Here for many languages.--Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 10:18, 21 April 2016 (UTC)

translation of the article on "leverage buyout" in French

Hello!

I recently noticed in a French page that that the concept "achat à effet de levier" doesn't have its page in French, yet, there is a page for "leverage buyout" in English. Does Wikipedia ever translate existing page or would the article in French have to be created separately? Many thanks! kind regards, Olivia — Preceding unsigned comment added by Oliviajoy (talk • contribs) 15:13, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

You will have to ask at the French Wikipedia about their policies, but obviously a machine translation would not be acceptable because at least some of the translated text is likely to be nonsense. In general, if you are fluent in French, have some expertise on the subject, and wish to translate it yourself, then why not go ahead and create the page? It would be better if you can find references written in French, or at least provide French translations for references written in English. Having said all that, I notice that French Wikipedia has had an article "Achat à effet de levier" since September 2005, though it needs improvement. Dbfirs 16:12, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

Translation between Wikipedias is encouraged, Oliviajoy, but it is never automatic, and machine translation is usually regarded as not good enough. Please see Translate us. --ColinFine (talk) 18:01, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

Why no "distrustworthy"?

• She has earned my trust. I trust her.
• He has earned my distrust. I distrust him. Also, I don't trust him.

Also:

• She is trustworthy.
• He is untrustworthy.

But we don't say

• He is distrustworthy.

My question: Why don't we form a -worthy word from "distrust", rather than negating "trustworthy"?

I hasten to add that these are just examples of words we use, and one does not follow from the other. In other words, I am NOT suggesting that someone I distrust is necessarily untrustworthy. The latter is a statement about the person, whereas "I distrust him" or "I don't trust him" is a statement about me, not about him.) -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 23:02, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

There seems to be a subtle difference in the prefixes "dis-" and "un-".[1][2] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:12, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

• Anyone who mistrusts "distrustworthy" as a real word as a supposed English speaker is neither an educated legitent, thereof, nor is familiar with the concept of productivity (linguistics). I suggest pursuing either a BA in linguistics, or suing for a refund for any fees charged towards a BA in linguistics. Garn! μηδείς (talk) 01:51, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

Jack didn't say it's unintelligible, he implied it's not really used. And he's right. I do see 180 hits in google books, at least some of which match the used expected via productivity/ compositional semantics. SemanticMantis (talk) 14:00, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

The does seem to be a distinction between someone who it not worthy of trust (untrustworthy) and someone who is worthy of distrust (distrustworthy). The second is an odd concept - the concept of being worthy hardly seems appropriate when something negative is being considered. 81.132.106.10 (talk) 11:25, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

You're describing un-trustworthy vs. distrust-worthy. The latter would be a built-in irony. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:11, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

According to this Wiktionary list, there are numerous words with negative connotations that take a –worthy suffix: barf-, blame-, block-, cringe-, curse-, damn-, despise-, doubt-, fault-, groan-, hate-, kill-, mock-, puke-, shame-, shun-, spank-, stab-, suck-. Some of those are obviously used only ironically, but 'distrustworthy' seems to be a serious candidate that so far has not made the list. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:13, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

Detroit (Wayne County, actually) has a prosecutor named Kym Worthy who took down the former mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick. So, does that mean any case she takes on is Worthyworthy ? StuRat (talk) 20:58, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

I think maybe it's the same reason we don't say "unpossible". We can assert that it's technically valid, and it is definitely intelligible, but there are all kinds of potential words that fit that description that nonetheless remain basically unused (like "contraviable" or "mislatination"). Here's a google ngram [3] of some of these words, the 180 uses of distrustworthy I linked above don't even register here. SemanticMantis (talk) 14:00, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

English is not always logical in the way it applies prefixes. Consider the opposite of "overwhelmed" as one of many examples. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 14:51, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

As with most "why" questions about language, the whole of the answer is "because that's the way it is". Sometimes you can give a historical account of the path that things moved through to get to the current state, but that still doesn't answer "why". --ColinFine (talk) 18:04, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

I mostly agree, but that's giving a bit of short shrift to Proximate_and_ultimate_causation. Consider the question "Why are students taught not to split infinitives?" There are much better answers than "because that's the way it is", even though that is also technically correct. See also [4] :) SemanticMantis (talk) 18:45, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

In my OR view, untrustworthy implies that there is a degree of doubt as to the extent to which the subject can be trusted. That is, he/she may be trustworthy at times but not at others, or has been found to be trustworthy by some but not by others. "Distrustworthy" would be much stronger. If it were a word, it would imply that the person has been judged to never be worthy of trust. Being a stronger statement, it would carry a sense of judgement, which may be why it's never become a word since most people are reluctant to pronounce adverse judgement on another. Akld guy (talk) 21:48, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

• I really don\t see the difficulty here. She's an untrustworthy drunk, she shows up late, she was fired for not being worthy of trust. The Master is a distrustworthy villian. He enjoys betraying The Doctor, and should always be treated with distrust. μηδείς (talk) 22:12, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

• Thanks, all. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:50, 21 April 2016 (UTC)

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