Language desk
< November 4	<< Oct \| November \| Dec >>	November 6 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

November 5

Verbs in French

Hi. Do French verbs have both formal and informal (similar to Spanish) in the second person, or is there only one second person form? Regards, Lexicografía (talk) 01:01, 5 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

French does make the T–V_distinction. ---Sluzzelin talk 02:21, 5 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

However, it only does it in the singular, whereas Spanish (in at least some countries) does it in the plural as well. In French the formal singular is the same as the plural. For example, "You are" is "tu es" (informal singular) or "vous êtes" (formal and/or plural). The two forms are derived from the original Latin second person singular and plural. --Anonymous, 03:51 UTC, November 5, 2010.

Just a little trouvaille from the article:"Tu can also be used to show disrespect to a stranger, such as when surprising a thief or cursing other drivers on the road." ---Sluzzelin talk 03:55, 5 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, "foutrez vous" doesn't sound quite right, does it? --Jayron32 05:02, 5 November 2010 (UTC) [reply]

For sure (though someone once did say "Vous êtes con" to me). What threw me off was the bit about surprising a thief. Hasn't happened all that often in my life, as opposed to swearing at drivers :-) ---Sluzzelin talk 15:55, 5 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

In the Paris riots in 2005, the main grievance was cited as: 'they (second-generation immigrant youths) want police to stop insulting them with use of the familiar form for you: "tu".'[1]. Still, the French love a good riot, even more than us Brits. Alansplodge (talk) 16:27, 5 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Lexicografía (talk) 12:08, 5 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Why doesn't Google's translator have an option to translate Austrian into English?

--75.33.217.61 (talk) 22:03, 5 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Because German is the official language in Austria. --Saddhiyama (talk) 22:07, 5 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

see Languages of Austria (there is no austrian language)Sf5xeplus (talk) 08:39, 7 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ureter

How do you say ureter in Latin? And internal sphincter muscle of urethra in German (Austrian :-) )? --151.51.29.169 (talk) 22:38, 5 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Probably Galen or another ancient anatomist knew of the ureter, but knowledge of anatomy was much more limited in ancient times, and I doubt that there was a standard term meaning "ureter" in Latin. An author wishing to refer the ureter might use a descriptive phrase such as canalis de rene ad vesicam. As for the German term for the internal sphincter of the urethra, German tends to use Neo-Latin terms for muscles. In this case, the term would be musculus sphincter vesicae. Marco polo (talk) 00:02, 6 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ureter comes right from Greek (well, through Latin), and Galen did know of it, according to Liddell and Scott. Earlier authors (I don't know whose those abbreviations refer to) use "ureter" and "urethra" interchangeably. Adam Bishop (talk) 03:36, 6 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

According to this source, the term ureter comes from ancient Greek but was not incorporated into Latin with its modern meaning until early modern times. Marco polo (talk) 08:18, 6 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, that seems likely. According to Lewis and Short, "urethra" was borrowed into Latin, but they (well, Celsus, at least) used the phrase "iter urinae". Adam Bishop (talk) 13:49, 6 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]