Wiktionary:Information desk/2022/April

Protection request
Hoping this is the correct place. A persistent and disruptive sock-troll-stalker had been posting harassing messages to the talk pages on my account on various Wikis, some where I'm very active, some I visit sparingly, and others I have not really used at all. Just the same, my pages are having protection added to them, on the projects where they've shown up, such as this one. Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks Thewolfchild (talk) 07:52, 4 April 2022 (UTC)


 * We also have Vandalism in progress, but this is fine. Let me know how else I can help. —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 08:01, 4 April 2022 (UTC)

Statistics for articles which were searched the most by users but which aren't created yet
Is it possible to receive statistics for non-existent articles which were searched the most by users? It would be useful to know which words need to be added. For example, in Russian-Ukrainian dictionary https://r2u.org.ua/ editors can see which words were searched the most among those that aren't created yet. --Bicolino34 (talk) 07:05, 6 April 2022 (UTC)


 * I haven't heard of such a thing, though it would be interesting. Jberkel's wanted lists do, however, achieve something similar. brittletheories (talk) 14:03, 9 April 2022 (UTC)

entry search in unusual script
Is there a possibility to give in search input in scripts I do not master by my installed keyboard-layout, e.g. in Gothic script. I saw that this is possible for article-editing. --Utonsal (talk) 00:56, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

How do I search for reconstructed terms ?
e.g. PIE Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/%E1%B8%B1w%E1%B9%93) --Utonsal (talk) 01:03, 7 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Special:Search. Under “Search in” add the namespace Reconstruction. Although I opine that it should be selected by default. Fay Freak (talk) 02:13, 7 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Your proposal doesn't seem to work. This (https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?search=%2A%E1%B8%B1w%E1%B9%93&title=Special:Search&profile=advanced&fulltext=1&ns0=1&ns118=1) is the URL I produce by searching. --Utonsal (talk) 23:03, 7 April 2022 (UTC)
 * If you want to only search for reconstructions, you have to unselect (Main) too. Or you can put "reconstruction: *ḱwṓ" (no quotes) into the search bar. 70.172.194.25 01:04, 8 April 2022 (UTC)

How to link English definitions of Vietnamese derived terms to Wikipedia pages?
At https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/th%E1%BA%A5t#Derived_terms I want to link the definition Double Seventh Festival of the derived term Thất Tịch to its Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qixi_Festival, but using the standard [ [w|Qixi Festival|Double Seventh Festival] ] creates a link to the Wikipedia page for the letter 'w' rather than the article itself. Is there a way round this or do I need to create a Wiktionary page for the definition of each derived term?
 * : I think you remembered it wrong: the standard is with a colon, not a pipe (|), as in Double Seventh Festival /Double Seventh Festival. We do have the w template, which uses pipes like all templates do. Chuck Entz (talk) 04:22, 7 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Ah, ok. I wasn't aware of that. I probably just copied the pipe format from the template page. The pipe seems to work fine on the main page of an entry but not in any derived terms. Thanks! Gavinkwhite (talk) 04:58, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

Random entry
Is it possible to restrict the Randon entry search to English words only?
 * Try Special:RandomInCategory/English lemmas. 70.172.194.25 05:53, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

Regional definitions?
Hello, there's a regional definition for a term that I'd like to add (and there is evidence online that it is fairly widespread), specifically a definition for a Chinese term, and the region is a province, Xinjiang. So far I got A stupid person, what do I need to add to let viewers know it's a regional specific definition? X750 (talk) 21:47, 13 April 2022 (UTC)
 * We have a lot of dialectical and regional markers for variations, so if you edit Module:labels/data/lang/zh to add a variation for Xinjiang and use the label, then it could be categorized and you could make Category:Xinjiang Chinese and make that a subcategory of Category:Regional Chinese. Let me know if any of that is confusing or if you need help. —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 04:31, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Consider it done X750 (talk) 10:14, 14 April 2022 (UTC)

Linking
I edited roger beep and power mic. How do the links look? Are the pages over- or under-linked? --HamWithCats (talk) 22:03, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
 * LGTM. 70.172.194.25 03:53, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

Fine details of Unicode point / language differences
Alternative forms for this character 鼻 are slightly different when used (by humans) in Chinese vs Japanese. There is only one Unicode point, but Japanese-centric and Chinese-centric fonts will render it differently; many browsers will take advantage of this, so that the attribute lang="zh-CN" on an HTML element will result in a Chinese flavored font being used. This is used correctly within this Wiktionary article, and my browsers render the difference correctly.

However, the discussion of this difference does not emphasize that there is only one codepoint, and that browsers rely on the lang= attribute to select the correct font. If one does not know this fact and simply copies and pastes the character from the web page into something one is writing, one may get the wrong form, and become frustrated.

Should I add information about the attribute to the page? Or is that off-topic for Wiktionary? Rpresser (talk) 17:42, 18 April 2022 (UTC)


 * I think typographic information like that is completely relevant and valid, so please do insert it. —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 05:01, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

How to use
How is one meant to use the template to request clarification of an inadequate definition? So far I've added it to an offending entry (I decided was a bit too strong), but the only statement of the issues is in the change comment. That seems woefully inadequate. --RichardW57 (talk) 19:44, 18 April 2022 (UTC)
 * You can add a &lt;!-- ... --&gt; comment in the source code too. While a parameter could be added to the template to specify a reason, like allows, it might be too much for the reader-facing definition line. 70.172.194.25 03:47, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

a minor audio-clip error
Hello, Mister/Miss; in the entry of the word 'grande' in the English language, please replace or remove the audio clip of its 2nd etymology, because the pronunciation has a phoneme that is not prescribed in its IPA transcription—i.e. the diphthong /ɛɪ/.
 * Done. I've replaced it with the pronunciation at grand, for which it appears to be just a spelling variant. 70.172.194.25 03:50, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

Language code for adding Cypriot Greek translations?
I could not find anything in the documentation. Spiros71 (talk) 15:48, 22 April 2022 (UTC)


 * Perhaps because Cypriot Greek is not considered a separate language. If you want to add, for example, πίσσα at, you could use
 * which will display as
 * Greek: (el) f (tsíchla), (Cypriot)  (el) f (píssa).
 * --Lambiam 20:33, 22 April 2022 (UTC)
 * --Lambiam 20:33, 22 April 2022 (UTC)

Request for edit to Module:wikipedia
On Module:wikipedia, could a template editor or admin please replace both usages of  with  ? I noticed that the produced image is blurry (at least for me) because it's a PNG, and replacing it with an SVG would be nice. Thanks! Tol (talk) 17:13, 25 April 2022 (UTC)


 * I think the older logo is fine, Tol?? Al175an (talk) 11:31, 29 April 2022 (UTC)


 * They are the same logo, but PNGs get blocky when viewed at different sizes, whereas SVG looks good at all sizes. Equinox ◑ 11:34, 29 April 2022 (UTC)
 * @Al175an: Sorry; I didn't see this! What @Equinox said is right. PNGs are raster, so they get pixelated at large sizes, while SVGs don't. Tol (talk) 22:25, 6 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Should I make the change or do we need wider consensus? J3133 (talk) 08:06, 29 May 2022 (UTC)


 * ✅, pretty trivial change. —Svārtava (t/u) • 09:28, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Tol (talk) 16:49, 30 May 2022 (UTC)

Chinese dialects
What sources I can use to make Chinese dialect pronounciations? Al175an (talk) 11:30, 29 April 2022 (UTC)


 * "Make"? —Fish bowl (talk) 08:23, 30 April 2022 (UTC)

no quotation
Hello, Mister/Miss; in the entry of the word 'counterfeit' as a noun, the second bullet under the first sense does not have a quotation that has the word counterfeit. Ostensively it only has a citation to a literary work and, mysteriously, the numeral 16 as its "quotation". Please either remove or replace it.

Thank you. A Mediocre Lifetime Student (talk) 08:04, 30 April 2022 (UTC)


 * Hello,
 * I have fixed this. Thank you for reporting the mistake.
 * Regards. 70.172.194.25 08:24, 30 April 2022 (UTC)

Mary-merry-marry
This is a pronunciation of an imaginary word bary followed by berry. Could someone transcribe them in close IPA for me. Dngweh2s (talk) 18:35, 30 April 2022 (UTC)


 * (beary?) Equinox ◑ 18:37, 30 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Hello, I do not know what you mean by close, but I assume you mean the basic form (which is transcribed inside forward-leaning slashes).
 * The pronunciation of the audio clip distinguishes between the words berry and bary, so I believe it does not have the 'Mary-marry-merry merger'.
 * bary - /ˈbæ.ɹi/
 * berry - /ˈbɛ.ɹi/
 * beary - /ˈbɛə.ɹi/
 * Thank you. A Mediocre Lifetime Student (talk) 08:22, 1 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Close means the exact form using square brackets. Also, I believe bary and beary are homophones in all accents.  The word pronounced [æ˞] would be barry which I'm pretty sure is the only way for that sound to be written.  I'm just trying to figure out if the phoneme my local dialect uses for all three of these words is the "ary" or the "erry" sound.  At this point I think the unmerged pronunciations would be:
 * bary, beary - [beɹi] (which can also be written as [beɚ̯i])
 * berry    -  [bɛ˞ i]
 * barry   -   [bæ˞ i]
 * Dngweh2s (talk) 23:16, 1 May 2022 (UTC)
 * We might as well throw bury into the mix. The sound file there is pretty close to how I pronounce all of the above. In your recording, the second syllable sounds like Barry in most unmerged dialects, and the first is more like what I would expect for berry. Chuck Entz (talk) 00:01, 2 May 2022 (UTC)