Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2014 January 7

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January 7

Latin in Bayeux Tapestry

I may have asked this long ago, but I don't recall. Looking at the Latin in the Bayeux Tapestry, there are occasions where a trailing "M" is omitted and a horizontal bar (kind of like a tilde) is placed over the previous vowel. Example: VENERVNI : AD WIDONEM is rendered VENERVNI : AD WIDONE with a bar over the E. Anyone know what this is about? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:54, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

The loss of word-final m is typical of most stages of Latin after the classical. It's dated in Latin texts to as early as 150 BC. It is a universal development of Vulgar Latin and common to all the Romance languages, none of which preserves the final accusative m. For example, the French homme and the Spanish hombre (both from VL *homne) develop from the Latin accusative hominem with the final m dropped. (The nominative Latin homo is continued in the French on, "one")

Vulgar Latin influences are common in formal Mediaeval Latin, and the Bayeux Tapestry shows such influences, as well as local developments. The bar itself is usually called a macron, although a specialist may have a different opinion in this case; I have only formally studied classical Latin. See this unsourced claim: Macron#Omission. μηδείς (talk) 04:09, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

See also scribal abbreviation, especially the section "Marks with independent meaning": "The straight or curved macron above a letter means that an n or m is missing." While it's true that word-final m wasn't pronounced in Latin, that may not necessarily be the reason for its replacement with a macron, since lots of other sounds that were pronounced were also abbreviated with various marks in medieval manuscripts. Aɴɢʀ (talk) 08:08, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

See especially scribal abbreviation, but also Tilde and Ogonek. You are right that these abbreviations don't necessarily (or even usually) mean that the abbreviated part was not pronounced, but the habit to abbreviate word-final m, like the replacement of ae with æ or ę (the E caudata) in Medieval Latin or the incipient distinction between u and v or i and j respectively, was certainly boosted, if not precipitated, by the developments in the spoken language. When no Romance dialect and no regional pronunciation of Latin retained a diphthongal ae, it would have been terribly inconvenient and strange to keep writing it as if it were one (especially by a time when the spelling was still reasonably phonetic – at least in many regions – and the pronunciation had not diverged enough from the orthography for people to be used to such quirks of historical spelling), especially when the (early and universal) effective merger of ae and short e made it impossible to figure out which to use intutively, only by reference to tradition. Of course it did depend on how educated the writer was and how well-read in the classics. If you didn't know a lot of Latin, you had no chance to put your hs correctly because they had been gone since centuries. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 16:41, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Should college subjects be capitalized?

Not necessarily here on WP but in general, when writing about where you went to college, should the subject be capitalized? Such as "...earned a degree in Economics from Michigan State University with a minor in Political Science." I'm referring to American English, if it makes a difference. Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 11:47, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

This answer from Stack Exchange seems to be helpful. In short, no, the subjects in the example you give would not be capitalised, if following the Chicago Manual of Style. If you have access, see Chapter 8 for the original guidelines. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 11:56, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! Dismas|^(talk) 14:01, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

However, a specific class or degree, like Science 101 or Bachelor of Science, should be capitalized, and the names of languages should always be capitalized. But you could say "I have to go do my science homework now" without caps. StuRat (talk) 14:16, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

Japanese to English translation request for a Wikimedia Commons photo

I am interested in the volcanoes of Japan. On Wikimedia Commons, there is a photo of a volcanic rock https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fujisan_Hong%C5%AB_Sengen_Taisha_Volcanic_bomb.jpg that I would like to know more about. The photo shows a volcanic rock. Beside the rock is a notice written in Japanese. Perhaps the notice gives descriptive details about the rock? Can someone translate the Japanese into English for me, please? GeoWriter (talk) 14:23, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

名称/name, 火山弾/volcanic bomb. 目方/weight　約三十貫(約百キロ)/about 100 kirograms. The first sentence is the explanation/definition of volcanic bombs and how they are formed. The second sentence says it is rare to find a beautifully shaped large bomb like this one. Oda Mari (talk) 15:48, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

Thank you. GeoWriter (talk) 16:19, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

sayanim

Why was sayanim deleted from wikapedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:7:A580:2E7:994B:BB32:E0CD:54CF (talk) 19:19, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

See the discussion here: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Sayanim — Richard-of-Earth (talk) 20:06, 7 January 2014 (UTC)