Wiktionary:Information desk/2015/May

Basic linguistics
Hi. I want to learn more about the science of linguistics, like about morphology/phonetics/IPA/etc. This is not taught in my high school. Is there a way I can learn about basic linguistics science with basic wordings? As in like middle school classroom typed language? I like things I can understand easily. Thanks. NativeCat drop by and say Hi! 04:09, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Also it has to be something online and free. NativeCat drop by and say Hi! 04:15, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
 * There's a textbook for linguistics at Wikibooks, so it's online and free, but I don't know how good it is or how easy it would be for a middle-schooler to understand. Linguistics isn't usually taught before the undergraduate university level, so that is usually the target audience for textbooks. —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 10:16, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

zur
I was quite excited to come across this globe in our shop. The writing, not that you can see all of it, is in Spanish and Latin. However the Spanish is archaic, it features the writing mar del and not pictured, mar del. This is obviously not contemporary Spanish. Can anyone work out when the spelling was used? It would give me an insight into how old the piece is. Renard Migrant (talk) 15:25, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Google Books Ngrams isn't looking promising. Deliberate misspellings? Not Spanish? Renard Migrant (talk) 15:43, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
 * If you look at Abraham Ortelius, you'll see a map from 1589 that uses that spelling. Ortelius was Flemish, but was in the service of the king of Spain. You'll probably get better results by looking at the place names to see if there are any historical clues from what different places are called. Of course, there's always the possibility that this a modern copy of an older globe, with decorative details like dragons thrown in for artistic effect. Chuck Entz (talk) 02:09, 13 May 2015 (UTC)


 * Where's "our shop"? I'm coming to buy that globe. Equinox ◑ 02:52, 17 May 2015 (UTC)


 * I found a hit from 1748. --Type56op9 (talk) 14:07, 17 May 2015 (UTC)

Navarro-Aragonese
Are there any good resources on the Navarro-Aragonese language? I’d like to add some words. --Romanophile (talk) 09:51, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
 * The first place I'd look is in the books cited in the footnote section of . It doesn't actually have an ISO code; do we want to create one for it, or shall we consider it an archaic variety of Aragonese (code ) and tag it with a context label like ? —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 11:16, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Defining the name of the language would be the first thing to do. SemperBlotto (talk) 08:05, 14 May 2015 (UTC)
 * , (watch out for normalisations). — Ungoliant (falai) 15:58, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

Do we also have a term for the ancestor of Asturian? What is it? --Romanophile (talk) 10:57, 19 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Old Leonese (roa-ole). — Ungoliant (falai) 15:32, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

Problem creating new entry
I intended to create a new entry for "ZOPA" (= Zone of Possible Agreement), but when I follow the instructions at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Help:Starting_a_new_page, I simply get taken to the existing "zopa". So how do I create "ZOPA"? 86.186.14.111 02:45, 17 May 2015 (UTC)


 * Click this link Equinox ◑ 02:49, 17 May 2015 (UTC)


 * Thanks! I see that someone else has now already created the entry. I think it would be useful to update the instructions at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Help:Starting_a_new_page to include the information about how to create an entry when a case variant already exists. I would be happy to do this myself, except I am unable to edit the help page. 86.183.128.199 17:19, 17 May 2015 (UTC)
 * The easy way is to create a redlink on an existing page and then click that. For example, if you type  in the search box, it just takes you to the page zori (which is a relatively new feature; when the help page was written that didn't happen), but if you make the link ZORI on a page and then click it, you can start a new page. (You don't even have to save the page with the redlink on it; just click "Show preview" and then click the redlink.) —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 17:32, 17 May 2015 (UTC)
 * The IP is right, auto-redirects are quite irritating when you want to create an entry and the title already exists with variants caps or diacritics. For genevre yesterday it took me to génèvre so I had to type directly into the URL https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/genevre to stop it taking me to génèvre. I've been here since 2007 and it's taking me a while to get my head around it! Renard Migrant (talk) 17:32, 17 May 2015 (UTC)
 * The easiest way is to go to the existing entry and add an template at the top. That generates a red link for the one you want to add. Don't forget to do the same in reverse. SemperBlotto (talk) 06:58, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

vandal
Is there a synonym for this word that’s less offensive to ancient Germanians? --Romanophile (talk) 08:38, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

List of wiktionary user promotons
Could someone give me the link of wiktionary user promotions list? It is a list of user jobs I guess like admins and stewarts. I cannot seem to find the page

Interwiki problem with proverbs
The names of pages with proverbs start with minuscule letters and do not end with full stops, even when the proverbs are sentences (barking dogs seldom bite). Czech Wiktionary has a different attitude: all the proverbs that are sentences there start with capital letters and end with periods (cs:Pes, který štěká, nekouše.). Is there any way how to connect the English Wiktionary page pes, který štěká, nekouše with the Czech Wiktionary page of the same proverb? They are the same proverbs, the same wording, the same spelling, everything is the same, only the attitude to naming proverb pages is different. Jan.Kamenicek (talk) 20:29, 26 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Probably the best way would be to make a redirect from Pes, který štěká, nekouše. to pes, který štěká, nekouše here at en-wikt as well as a redirect in the opposite direction at cs-wikt. That way the bots will connect one language's entry to the other language's redirect and vice versa, and both pages can be found. —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 20:43, 26 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Jan.Kamenicek (talk) 11:43, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

The best way is actually to correct bots to not assume that interwikis will be always in the very same form. Danny B. (talk) 11:50, 27 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I Agree. However until this is done I think we have to accept Angr's suggestion. Jan.Kamenicek (talk) 12:12, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

There are two problems.
 * 1) When is bot running in   mode, it ignores all pages, which have not identical names, even if they are redirects. Without this mode it will follow all redirects (there are in some small languages redirects from english words to local language).
 * 2) When is bot running with manual conrol, there exists some abuse filter in en.wikt which prevents to save differenrt form (example). JAn Dudík (talk) 13:10, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

I think there are not many cases like that, so it could be done manually. Unfortunately, it is impossible too. If you do it, you get abuse filter warning first, and if you continue, your edit is promptly reverted anyway, no matter that the edit was explained in the summary in detail. Jan.Kamenicek (talk) 18:26, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

newbie spellin query
how do i find a word in the wiktionary if i do not know what the proper spelling is?

newbie spellin query ariola
how do i find a word in the wiktionary if i do not know what the proper spelling is? ariola


 * The search mechanism will try to suggest similar words, but it's not perfect. Perhaps aureola? Equinox ◑ 22:43, 26 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Almost certainly . SemperBlotto (talk) 06:33, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

secret underworld auction
On the TV show I heard a UK (criminal jargon?) name for a secret underworld auction, presumably for stolen art and other similar items, that was something like nablus. Does anyone know a good spelling for this? DCDuring TALK 00:00, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

getting started with adding kanji definitions
As I'm fairly new to any serious editing/entering of information that require sources, I would like information on how to properly edit entries. Would anyone be so kind as to get me started or direct me to relevant information?

Specifically, as I'm studying Japanese Kanji, I occasionally run into words that haven't got a definition yet and before contributing I would need to know which sources are considered valid, what issues I should avoid with regards to "non-latin" characters, proper romanization.

I am familiar with basic editing and format coding, apart from correctly adding sources, so 'Help:How to edit a page' unfortunately isn't providing me with anything useful or new.

Thanks in advance, OmikronWeapon (talk) 10:21, 31 May 2015 (UTC)


 * Generally speaking, you don’t need sources when you enter definitions. You might ask if he has any suggestions or needs as far as entering definitions for Japanese Kanji. You may be thinking of Wikipedia, where everything has to be sourced. Here we usually don’t need sources (as long as you’re not copying a lot of copyrighted text word for word). —Stephen (Talk) 08:21, 2 June 2015 (UTC)

Use of the term "CC-BY-SA"
The Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license is not abbreviated to "CC-BY-SA"; Creative Commons' official abbreviation is "CC BY-SA", per their website and others. I'd like to get consensus to deprecate the term "CC-BY-SA" and replace it in all visible places with "CC BY-SA". Thanks, --L235 (talk) enwiki 21:58, 31 May 2015 (UTC)
 * There are... quite a lot of these, and unfortunately neither the search engine nor Google can distinguish between hyphens and spaces, so I don't know how many. Given that the form with the hyphen is pretty common anyway, is it worth the work? ObsequiousNewt (εἴρηκα|πεποίηκα) 17:14, 1 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Well, there doesn't need to be a systemic race to find them and get rid of them; just a passive "if I notice it I'll change it over". Does that sound fine? --L235 (talk) enwiki 18:12, 1 June 2015 (UTC) Looks like first ping didn't work; repinging: --L235 (talk) enwiki 18:13, 1 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I think he means that they cannot distinguish hyphens and spaces on the internet, so we can’t get an idea about which spelling is more common. "CC-BY-SA" is certainly used in printed books, and that makes it a valid spelling as far as we are concerned. See here for some examples in printed works. If there are three or more, that’s enough for it to be included here. —Stephen (Talk) 03:37, 2 June 2015 (UTC)
 * (Sorry for late reply) I mean, can we change it to the non-hyphenated version within Wiktionary policies and project pages only. Thanks, --L235 (talk) enwiki 21:31, 5 June 2015 (UTC)