User talk:Protegmatic

Welcome Message
--Apisite (talk) 21:51, 17 September 2021 (UTC)

Adding stubs
Before adding Polish stubs, it would be better to add them to requested entries, because you might not know what is or isn't considered a lemma. Vininn126 (talk) 07:19, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Adding Proto-Afroasiatic
As I have just seen it and before it’s too late: Just don’t. You have a lot to learn in those proto-languages and some of the most difficult language groups in the world, probably learning to reconstruct some of the subgroups first. And if you have learnt, you likely won’t dare claim to discern any terms of twelve-thousand years ago, as, with the limited selection of phonemes that the languages have, coincidence is always the greater likelihood—you see other possibilities. Every single of the six  reconstructions you have entered this May is ridiculous enough to be deleted, but you fail to judge because you lack the practice in the possibilities of reconstructions. (which you should cite by template if ever) is not reliable because no reference is reliable the farther you go back in time; lists of Indo-European reconstructions contain a lot of junk that does not hold water if thought through the weak points, the more so, having been spoken twice as far away in the past, Proto-Afro-Asiatic. Most have been excited only for a short time about Proto-Afroasiatic, until seeing the bottomless pit; if you start bottom-up by memorizing the individual languages you see how hard it is to get to the top. Notifying – Fay Freak (talk) 22:56, 1 May 2022 (UTC)

First of all, I didn't make anything up, I only used the etyma reconstructed by Ehret, which you can find on Appendix:Proto-Afroasiatic reconstructions anyway. Of course NO reconstruction is 100% reliable, it's all just speculation. But sure, I won't be creating any more Proto-Afroasiatic entries if it makes you happy. Protegmatic (talk) 06:45, 2 May 2022 (UTC)

Formatting
Be more careful please, I see you use the wrong amounts of "=" most of the time Stríðsdrengur (talk) 11:51, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

Sranan Tongo
Thanks for your good work in adding in Sranan Tongo lemmas. I hope you allow me to make two comments.

1) Jehovah's Witnesses are a fantastic resource, but translations between their different language versions can be quite loose. So there may be a difference between the literal text in English and Sranan Tongo. I'm happy to check any translation, if you like.

2) I notice that you tend to add images to lemmas. I personally find this unnecessary for everyday words; Wiktionary risks becoming quite cluttered as a result. If you insist on adding images, might I suggest you choose images that reflect Surinamese culture? For example, to, you added a picture of a very European window, which is far removed from what windows look like in Suriname. Appolodorus1 (talk) 13:08, 26 March 2024 (UTC)


 * 1) Yes, I've noticed that too and now I only add translations if I'm totally sure.
 * 2) I get that images aren't always necessary, but I do like to add them because I think they make entries look nicer. But thanks for the suggestion, I'll keep it in mind.
 * Btw I have a question if you don't mind. Is the /oi/ diphthong spelled "oi" or "oy"? for example, is it or ? The dictionaries I use only include the latter. Protegmatic (talk) 21:06, 26 March 2024 (UTC)


 * 2) Thanks for taking it into consideration :)
 * Btw) According to the 1986 official spelling, diphthongs "ai", "ei", "èi", "oi" and "ui" are spelled with an -i. As this is obviously still based on Dutch orthography, there have been proposals to switch this to -y, but as far as I know, this has never been made official. So could be considered an alternative/progressive spelling. For the sake of consistency, I'd propose we keep the lemma forms in the 1986 spelling, so for instance . Out of curiosity, which dictionaries do you use?--Appolodorus1 (talk) 11:22, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I use SIL - Sranan-English Dictionary and Wortubuku Sranantongo Para Brasileiros Protegmatic (talk) 20:42, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * That's cool, I didn't know the Brazilian one.--Appolodorus1 (talk) 14:51, 3 April 2024 (UTC)

I just saw that you added a picture of a European/white person's eye to. Case in point: according to the 2012 census, there were 1,667 Caucasian people resident in Suriname, out of a total population of 541,638. Sranan Tongo's native speakers are predominantly black or mixed-race.--Appolodorus1 (talk) 11:43, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

I saw that you added a quote from the Sranan Tongo Wikipedia to as a usage example without indicating the source. I'd warn against using the Sranan Tongo Wikipedia as a source, it's the origin of a few dodgy neologisms that seem to have been created expressly for it, notably country names. See my comment on the discussion page of, a lemma which I'd prefer to see deleted. It's arrogant for me to say this as a non-native speaker, but the sad reality is that literacy in Sranan Tongo is so low, and it's so uncommon to use it as a written language, that it is a tremendous challenge to write or translate an encyclopaedic text even for native speakers. There is therefore no guarantee that the texts on the Sranan Tongo Wikipedia reflect real language use. For bona fide quotations I use Delpher, DBNL, and increasingly media outlets such as de Ware Tijd and Starnieuws are quoting spoken Sranan Tongo as such in their reporting. --Appolodorus1 (talk) 14:51, 3 April 2024 (UTC)


 * Ok. Thank you for letting me know Protegmatic (talk) 00:05, 4 April 2024 (UTC)

Saramaccan/Saamaka, Aukan/Ndyuka and Kwinti are descended from (early) Sranan Tongo. So per Wiktionary's policy on creole languages, is derivation rather than a borrowing. In many Dutch lemmas, this is shown incorrectly in the descendants tree. This also applies to most Sranan Tongo words taken from Dutch, English, and African languages, except arguably for modern words like, which could be considered a borrowing. Sorry to be commenting so much, I do appreciate your work.--Appolodorus1 (talk) 07:44, 5 April 2024 (UTC)


 * Your comments are always helpful so don't worry about that. I'll use the right template next time Protegmatic (talk) 21:42, 5 April 2024 (UTC)