Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 January 12

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January 12

Yakut/Sakha transliteration/transcription

Does anyone at Wikipedia speak Yakut/Sakha and would be willing to transliterate a few words for me? I have created a transliteration via autotools but they are notoriously unreliable when represented in non-Roman characters and unfortunately there is no support for this language at WP:TRLA... -Thibbs (talk) 02:11, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Link Yakut and Sakha. Thanks. Anton 81.131.40.58 (talk) 10:05, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

Do you have the source text? If you can post it here, we will be able to simply replace the Cyrillic letters with the corresponding Latin ones indicated in Yakut language#Writing system. While I'm not sure how official that transliteration standard is, it is akin to what is used to write or transliterate other Turkic languages, and I guess the result will be perfectly readable. --Theurgist (talk) 02:02, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

La milie, de Borabora

What does “La milie” or “La miliee” mean in French? Found here. — KAVEBEAR (talk) 06:05, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

It should be la milice, "the militia". The final e in the image caption is damaged.Deor (talk) 06:20, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Thanks! KAVEBEAR (talk) 10:59, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

dans la partie la moins noble de son individu

Can someone translate “pieds dans la partie la moins noble de son individu" into English? Is it correct to say kick in the groin? KAVEBEAR (talk) 11:01, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

"La partie la moins noble de son individu" seems to have been a rather clichéd euphemism for a person's posterior in French. Fut.Perf. ☼ 13:56, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Is there a reliable source translating this term that I can use? KAVEBEAR (talk) 17:45, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

It's a quote from Paul Féval, fils in his 1925 adventure novel series D'Artagnan contre Cyrano de Bergerac from Volume I: Le chevalier mystère (p. 30):

"...il dut faire volte-face et présenta à la botte de son terrible assaillant la partie... la moins noble de son individu" - perhaps "he had to turn around and presented his boot to his terrible assailant... on the least noble part of his person presented to the boot of his terrible assailant... the least noble part of his person". I had to take my French O-level twice, so someone else might do better.

An English translation of the series, The Years Between was published in 1928, The Years Between: The Mysterious Cavalier is available to buy but I couldn't find one that can be read online, probably thanks to the US copyright laws.

Alansplodge (talk) 18:19, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

I'm not sure the D'Artagnan novel is the first or original attestation of the phrase; several you can find on the net (including the one Kavebear is probably thinking of) seem to predate it. That's why I assumed it's just a common cliché. (And the sentence you quote wouldn't be "presented his boot to his terrible assailant…", but "presented to the boot of his terrible assailant…", i.e. had to take a kick in the butt from him). Fut.Perf. ☼ 18:30, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Ah yes Fut.Perf., that makes more sense, thank you. You're also right about the chronology; I was looking at the same phrase in a much later book. It must be a French idiom then. Alansplodge (talk) 18:37, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

I'd say a rare idiom rather than a common one? NGram shows the phrase "partie la moins noble" back to the beginning of their corpus in the early 19th century but it is not a common phrase at all in the corpus, and the version with "de son individu" on the end doesn't appear at all. What's more, many examples in the corpus aren't using it in this same metaphorical sense - the first few hits refer to things like "the least noble section of the Polish police," "[disease linked to] the least noble part of the brain", "the body is the least noble part of human nature," "hand-to-hand fighting is the least noble part of the profession [of war]." However round about the time of KAVEBEAR's book I did spot another use in the same sense: ...c'était une chaise cannée — et hérissa d'un seul mouvement tous les piquants de son dos qui, évidemment, piquèrent la partie la moins noble de ce cher fonctionnaire... (it was a cane chair - and every movement ruffled each quill against his back which, obviously, pricked the least noble part of this beloved official) 70.67.193.176 (talk) 17:38, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

Is the best direct translation “a kick in the least noble is part of the person” or “a kick in the least noble is part of the individual”? KAVEBEAR (talk) 17:12, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

I would say "the least noble part of his person" (if that makes sense in American English), or maybe " "the least noble part of his anatomy". Alansplodge (talk) 18:21, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

"his person" is perfectly cromulent; "his anatomy" smells of extremely tired humor. —Tamfang (talk) 01:52, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

Force from

Is "force from" a genuine usage? If so can I get a webpage having some examples? I see this in Melitta Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg: "But in 1936 she was forced from her job as aeronautical engineer because of her paternal grandfather's Jewish origins." -- 13:48, 12 January 2020 Jay

What an odd question. And administartors are usually expected to sign their posts. There's plenty of usage of that particular string in both news outlets and literature. All the best! ——SN54129 14:07, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

A Dictionary of the English Language: In which the Words are Deduced from Their Originals etc. Volume II (1805 edition) p. 287 by Samuel Johnson: "IMMOVABLE. adj. 1. Not to be forced from its place". Alansplodge (talk) 15:13, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for the references. It did not occur to me to search News or Books in Google. I was just not getting any examples nor getting the usage from dictionary sites. I haven't used "forced from" nor seen its usage, hence the query. And sorry for missing the signature, it has not happened before. Jay (talk) 13:02, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

No problem at all Jay, I see I probably sounded snarkier than it was intended to  :) ——SN54129 13:33, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

"Forced from" is another way to say "forced out of". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:48, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

"forced from office" is a common term, e.g. BBC, ABC (Australia), Washington Post. I yearn for the day I hear those words in connection with the POTUS. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:30, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

What, 1974 not good enough for ya? —Tamfang (talk) 01:53, 19 January 2020 (UTC)