Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2019 June 8

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June 8

È finita la pacchia!

One of the most recognizable catchphares of Matteo Salvini is: è finita la pacchia (or, alternatively, la pacchia è finita), meaning: the party is over. How is it translated in official news outlets in other languages? For example in German, French, Spanish... Thank you! --87.18.64.165 (talk) 12:31, 8 June 2019 (UTC)

In French it's translated various ways: "la fête est finie" (Le Figaro, Courrier International), "le bon temps est fini" (Le Monde), "la belle vie, c'est fini" (Europe 1), "la planque, c'est fini" (Le Figaro), "le pique-nique est fini" (Le Figaro again). Adam Bishop (talk) 10:03, 9 June 2019 (UTC)

In German, so far, I found "Das schöne Leben ist vorbei" (Tagesspiegel, Der Standard Neue Zürcher Zeitung), "Der Spaß ist vorbei" (Zeit), "Die Party ist vorbei" (Süddeutsche, Tages Anzeiger), "Das Vollfressen ist vorbei" (n-tv), "Die Schlemmerei ist vorbei" (SRF). Some of those articles give the translation in indirect speech, so you won't find all these examples verbatim in the linked articles. ---Sluzzelin talk 21:32, 11 June 2019 (UTC)

I am unfamiliar with the œuvre of Signor Salvini, but is the phrase an echo of La commedia è finita!? DuncanHill (talk) 17:54, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

I doubt it very much, especially as "è finita la pacchia" and varieties thereof are not part of Salvini's "œuvre". The phrase is older. See for example Treccani. I found a book published in 1873 using it (edited by Adriano Salani). Leoncavallo was still a teenager then, and Pagliacci hadn't been written yet. ---Sluzzelin talk 18:13, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

By the way, a similar phrase often used in German is "Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei", literally "The fat years are over", and clearly a reference to "sieben fette Jahre", the seven years of plenty or years of abundance, as explained to the Pharaoh by dream-interpreter Joseph in Genesis 41. I'm not saying that's where "é finita la pacchia" originated, though. ---Sluzzelin talk 13:28, 15 June 2019 (UTC)

È finita la pacchia! is a common Italian expression and did not originate from Salvini. This is the relative entry in the Treccani site: http://www.treccani.it/magazine/lingua_italiana/domande_e_risposte/lessico/lessico_002.html --87.18.64.165 (talk) 17:03, 15 June 2019 (UTC)

Chinese-like language or writing systems

Is it have other language or writing systems similar to Chinese, which text can be thousands or ten thousands which each word are unique writing, which can be evolution from pictograms or logo like, or use symbol as a text such as ❤ mean love or "I ❤ take ✈️" mean "I like take a airplane"???Hmht45tgree3d (talk) 15:56, 8 June 2019 (UTC)

Egyptian hieroglyphs have some of the features you mention. Deor (talk) 16:22, 8 June 2019 (UTC)

You may also be interested in Mesoamerican writing systems. -- Hoary (talk) 00:37, 9 June 2019 (UTC)

I think that Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform actually has the most detailed resemblance to Chinese, though in that writing system the determinatives are separate characters (instead of coalesced, as happens in Chinese). Akkadian writing has some structural resemblances to Japanese, with "Sumerograms" (parallel to kanji on readings), "Akkadograms" (parallel to kanji kun readings), and cuneiform characters used primarily for phonetic syllabic value (parallel to kana). AnonMoos (talk) 01:25, 9 June 2019 (UTC)

Logogram gives several examples of similar writing systems.--Wikimedes (talk) 02:41, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

Note that Chinese is not a pictogram language. While ancient Chinese did use pictures to represent words, modern Chinese does not. When words are formed, they are often created from two characters to create a "family" and "sounds like" combination. Sometimes it retains some pictogram information, such as "electricity" using a kite symbol, reminiscent of the story of Franklin flying a kite in a thunderstorm. More often, the two-character word has one character that places the word into a group like a person, place, or thing and another one that simply tells you what the word sounds like - which is important because Chinese is a tonal language and if you get the tone of the sound wrong, you completely change the meaning of the word - usually turning it into complete nonsense. 68.115.219.130 (talk) 15:27, 12 June 2019 (UTC)