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April 11

What is this wide U-shaped symbol? (Transliteration of Hebrew)

At the bottom of this page, they transliterate מקום (with niqqud: מָקוֹם) as [måUqom]. Except it's not quite a U. What does this symbol represent and what is its Unicode encoding? Is it there because of the kamatz, or does it indicate a stressed syllable, or what? 70.172.194.25 (talk) 02:10, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That bit was copied from our article Root (linguistics), in which we read:

"Similar cases occur in Hebrew, for example Israeli Hebrew מ-ק-מ‎ √m-q-m ‘locate’, which derives from Biblical Hebrew מקום‎ måqom ‘place’, whose root is ק-ו-מ‎ √q-w-m ‘stand’."

Apparently, some code mismatch mishap occurred in the copy-paste process from Unicode to some Unicode-ignorant document preparation system, resulting in the appearance of a random character. --Lambiam 10:25, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Unicode symbol with the closest appearance is the LOWER HALF CIRCLE ◡ (U+25E1); see Geometric Shapes (Unicode block). Depending on the font, it might also be UNION ∪ (U+222A) or N-ARY UNION ⋃ (U+22C3). Less likely, it is the SMILE ⌣ (U+2323). --Lambiam 10:37, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Is it meant to symbolize the niqqud, or just a confused error? 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 12:03, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The linked article spells Biblical Hebrew words in square brackets with primary stress marked. The word you pointed out, [måUqom], has the "U" where the stress marker ought to be. So they presumably intended [må'qom], but the vertical tick indicating stress somehow got typeset as a different character that happens to look like a "U". --Amble (talk) 16:26, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, is å used in transliterated Hebrew, or is it meant to be another character? 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 22:15, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

See ISO 259. (I don't know if other systems use it; it seems to be consistent in the OP's linked source.) --Amble (talk) 22:28, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Putting it between IPA-style square brackets is confusing, though; in IPA notation a small ring denotes voicelessness. --Lambiam 22:59, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It’s also confusing because they use totally different systems for Biblical Hebrew and modern Israeli Hebrew so that it’s hard to see the connections the article is talking about. —Amble (talk) 01:56, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wazir e-azam

Looks like Prime Minister of Pakistan has a mistranslation of its Urdu name, wazir e-azam, Grand Vizier of Pakistan. Probably should be wazir e-Pakistan, because Quaid-i-Azam is translated as "Great Leader". Thanks. 212.180.235.46 (talk) 18:31, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The full name of the office (the transliteration of the Urdu given) is wazīr-e-āzam pākistān. Wazir = vizier, azam = grand, Pakistan is, well, Pakistan. 70.172.194.25 (talk) 20:39, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The term "Grand Vizier" and its various Arabic, Persian, and Urdu versions all appear to basically mean the same thing as "Prime Minister". Vizier/wazir/etc. just means "advisor" or "minister", and "e-azam" could be translated as great/grand/prime which all mean roughly the same thing. --Jayron 32 11:19, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]