Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2018 March 4

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March 4

Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphioparaomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon

How has it been decided that this is the longest word in ancient Greek literature, let alone the longest word in all literature? Word divider notes that letters of consecutive words were often run next to each other in ancient Greek, rather than being divided; why should we say that Lopadoterm... is a single really long word and not a long string of separate words? Nyttend (talk) 04:53, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

In lay terms, (which are all I'm capable of) it's because all of the successive 'adjectival' terms within the word, which are all modifying the final noun 'pterygon', end in '-o' and can only be attached prefixes, which in Aristophanes' Greek (just as in modern English) can be concatenated in this way (although of course not usually to this extent – he's having a laugh): if any of them were to be functioning as separate words, grammar would demand that they take a different form. I'm sure someone (μηδείς?) will be along soon to give a more learned and informative (and correct) analysis, however. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.220.212.253 (talk) 08:24, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

No, your answer is essentially the correct one, as far as I can see. The -o- elements at the boundaries in lopad-o-temach-o-selach-o-gale-o-... are typical of nominal compounding in Greek. Fut.Perf. ☼ 16:20, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

Urgent translation request to Japanese

@Toreightyone: and I have been desperately attempting to retrieve an image for Konomi Suzuki. We had earlier contacted event organizers from the Philippines, the United States, and Singapore for images. However, as we have not received any response or have received negative responses, our last resort is to contact her agent directly. If anyone is knowledgeable in Japanese and is not too busy, could you please translate this request for permission for us? That would be extremely helpful.

Dear Amuleto: I am one of the many volunteer editors of Wikipedia (wikipedia.org), a Web-based collaboration.

We are currently improving an article based on singer Konomi Suzuki. Wikipedia is a multilingual open-content encyclopedia that strives for complete and reliable content. Volunteers from around the world collaboratively create content. However, the article could use an image of her: an image provided by your company and approved for licensing would really help our readers understand her singing career. We plan to use the image on our article on Konomi Suzuki.

It is to that noble end that I make this request. However, for Wikipedia to use the material, you must explicitly release the image under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 International (often referred to as CC-BY-SA). In essence, CC-BY-SA allows you to retain the copyright and authorship of your work, but grants permission for others to use, copy, and share your materials freely, and even potentially use them commercially, so long as they do not try to claim the copyright themselves, or try to prevent others from using or copying them freely (e.g., "share-alike"). You can read the complete license at "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License".

If you grant permission for use, we will credit you for the images, and state that it is used with your permission and link back to the article it is featured on.

I sincerely appreciate your consideration of this matter. Please advise me of your decision by email, at example@gmail.com and I will gratefully forward it to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Thank you, and I hope you will consider accepting this request.

We have already asked WT:JAPAN about this; they directed us to some Commons pages: however, there are no Japanese-language example permission request e-mails on Commons, so instead, I request that this on be translated into Japanese. We appreciate any help you can provide, thanks. Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 15:38, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

If she tours the Philippines, the United States, and Singapore, then it's highly likely that some people in her entourage and affiliated organizations know English. I'm not sure that you'd need to contact higher-up people close to her just to get a publicity still licensed under a suitable CC license... AnonMoos (talk) 17:38, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

We have tried a few, except the ones we have contacted didn't work out because their images were given by the singer. Most of the images are owned by her agency, so it might be easier to contact them directly. Toreightyone (talk) 22:06, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

That's kind of what I meant -- instead of concert promoters outside Japan, maybe you should contact her agency or personal organization directly. If you wanted to get your message to higher-ranking individuals, or those closest to her, then writing it in the Japanese language could be helpful, but for your purposes contacting those there who know English could be sufficient. Of course, the other approach would be to go through photo-sharing sites, looking for pictures taken by concert-goers, to see if any of them are suitable and suitably-licensed. AnonMoos (talk) 10:49, 6 March 2018 (UTC)