Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2012 March 25

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.

March 25

*****phone = speakers of *****, or where ***** is spoken

Besides "francophone" and "anglophone," are there no other words in English to indicate speakers of a particular language, or regions where that language is spoken? This would be a neat solution in referring to the language and avoid the ambiguity as the language name might be taken to refer to the sole country or nationality whose name it shares. This Wikipedia has Russophone (borrowed from the French?) and Hispanophone (presumably anglicized from hispanohablante), though these words don't appear in English-language dictionaries I've consulted. Evidently French already has germanophone. Are these and similar words likely to enter English? -- Deborahjay (talk) 07:02, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Lusophone - Cucumber Mike (talk) 07:20, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Actually, on further investigation, we have articles on Arabophone, Francophone, Lusophone and Hispanophone, whereas Anglophone, Germanophone, Russophone and Sinophone are also well-known enough to gain a redirect. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 07:27, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Swahiliphone and an Italophone world map. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:32, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

And a Roumanophone world map. --Theurgist (talk) 07:57, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Wiktionary lists quite a few (some red links, though). Click on show @ "speaker of a specific language". -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 08:20, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks to that link I learned a new meaning of allophone (as opposed to allophone). ---Sluzzelin talk 09:00, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

And I discovered "batavophone" which, far from having anything do with 18th century Javanese, simply means a speaker of Dutch. I also love "polonophone", but it's a redlink. -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 10:34, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

What do you call someone who speaks Micronesian? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:03, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

They speak many languages in Micronesia. But I suppose if you were speaking at a general level, you could say "Micronesophone". Which makes as much sense as Americophone or Aboriginophone or Africophone. -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 11:17, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Some people who live in the Bundesland of Saxony might possibly speak both Germanic and Slavic languages. Those good people are obviously transposing Saxaphones. --Shirt58 (talk) 11:44, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Allophone is used commonly throughout Canada, not just in Quebec as the Wikipedia article claims. Canadians elsewhere may talk about allophones a bit less often, but when they need a word, the one they use is always allophone.64.140.121.160 (talk) 20:22, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

We've turned up a few more words in previous discussions of this point. --Antiquary (talk) 10:26, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

In French, you also have albanophone, bascophone, danophone, norvégophone, polonophone, slovacophone and tchécophone. Néerlandophone is extremely common (in the Belgian context), but as mentioned by Jack of Oz, the English word seems to be batavophone (from Batavia), and nederlandophone seems to be an alternative. Turcophone would be much better than turkophone, which looks silly with its un-Latin k. Swahilophone looks better to me than swahiliphone, though both can be found on the internet, and suahelophone (from lingua suahelica), which I would have expected, is nowhere. Hungarophone is an alternative to magyarophone. Swedophone (mentioned in a previous discussion) definitely doesn't look right. In French, the word you'd use to be really pedantic would be suécophone (like suecus in Latin), not suédophone (like Suède), although most people seem to use the latter. Lettophone means Latvian-speaking. The pedantic way to do things in English seems to be either to borrow the word from French or to look up the name for the language or country in Latin and add -ophone to the root, though people have obviously taken liberties. 64.140.121.160 (talk) 20:22, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

German fraktur

hello,

I have troubles to "decrypt" a caption writte in Fraktur. The image is on the right side. I managed to decode the first words, except the name of the author! :/ It begins with: "Ihr Roulette in Homburg, nach einer Originalskizze von L.B. Hi?igre". I am pretty sure that the second initial is "B" and the first letter of his surname is "H" (see "Homburg"). The next letter is what I think an "i" (but it could also be an "s" or "e") and I can not indentify the third letter (maybe it is not only one, but two coherent letters). Then I see an "i" followed by "gre". It is possibly a French name, but my French is not very good so any help is appreciated. Thanks.--GoP_T^C_N 12:49, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

I make it "??t Roulette zu Homburg, nach einer Originalskizze von W. Hilliger". I'm not at all sure about the name, though. I'm also not sure about the first word - I don't think it can be "Ihr" both on grounds of sense and because it seems to end in 't'. --ColinFine (talk) 16:17, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your quick response! :) Now as I found my real loup, not the Microsoft's screen magnifier, I clearly see it is "zu" and not "in". Yes, I think W. Hilliger is correct (I thought these were 2 initials instead of 1), and the last two letters look at a first glance like "re", but then I watched more carefully and saw that it is actually "er". Thanks again!--GoP_T^C_N 17:01, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

I linked the commons image to a full description Die Roulette zu Homburg. Note that die Roulette is the wheel and das Roulette the game. --Pp.paul.4 (talk) 19:24, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Resolved

What are these black structures called ?

What are these black structures ? The are usually found in library shelfs. http://www.olympia-interiors.com/images/LibraryRack/WoodenLibraryRack1.jpg — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.178.163.254 (talk) 13:38, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Bookends. --TammyMoet (talk) 13:49, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Bookend. Bus stop (talk) 13:52, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

The 1st vowel in the 1st syllable for the words listed in this question

I live in the southeastern United States and that's how I want to learn to pronounce thing.

Is it true that eclipse sounds like close to

the i in the word pin(1) environment, encode, endorse, embed, encyclopedia, engage, election, & edition

as opposed to

the short e in dress (2) experiment, example, exactly, excite, exclaim, excommunicate, & excrete?

If you can, tell me why and try to give me a rule.--98.88.87.149 (talk) 19:31, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Can you be more specific about how you pronounce the e in all of those words? I grew up in Texas, and I pronounce the initial e in all of those words (in both groups!) except excommunicate as [ɪ], i.e. like the short i in kit. The initial e in excommunicate I pronounce [ɛ], i.e. like the short e in dress. Angr (talk) 19:43, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

If you pronounce exactly and environment with a short i, then you don't prounounce it like Georgians.--98.88.87.149 (talk) 20:03, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Here in Detroit, we pronounce it E-klips. That is, we say it like the letter E was separate, as in EKG or e-commerce. (If there was an electronic clip, and they were called eCLIPS, we would pronounce it the same.) StuRat (talk) 20:41, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

• Based on the pronunciation in this news video, the e is eclipse sounds like the e in environment, not like the e in experiment.--98.88.87.149 (talk) 21:31, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Listen carefully to 0:56.--98.88.87.149 (talk) 21:35, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Is it just me, or does that sound like a synthesized voice? 64.140.121.160 (talk) 05:12, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

98, I know you're asking about the southeastern U.S., but I'll just say that even though I'm Canadian and Angr is Texan, we agree 100% on the pronunciation of all these words. Also, your reference to "the e in environment, not like the e in experiment" is confusing to me, because I pronounce both of them with the pin sound. I don't have it here, but the Merriam-Webster Third New International Dictionary might be a good source for regional U.S. pronunciations. Their smaller Collegiate Dictionary, available online here, will provide the most common pronunciations in the U.S.64.140.121.160 (talk) 05:12, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

I was raised in Illinois and spent most of my adult life (so far) in California. I believe I pronounce all the en, em words with the 'dress' sound. —Tamfang (talk) 18:30, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

I think the OP is asking if that initial 'e' is pronounced 'ih' or 'eh'. That would depend on your regional dialect, although as someone living in the Mid-Atlantic area of the US, I can say I have heard both used (OR, sorry). Merriam-Webster says the 'ih' is correct, although that is probably debatable in areas with the Pin–Pen Merger. Helene O'Troy - Et In Arcadia Ego Sum (talk) 18:12, 27 March 2012 (UTC)