User talk:J. 'mach' wust

If you put something here, I'll answer it here.

Welcome

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If you have any questions, you can ask at the help desk or on my talk page. Two useful tips are that you can sign your name using four tildes (~~~~) and you can preview your changes before you save using the show preview button. You can regularly find new tips on the Community Portal. I look forward to reading your great articles and I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian. :) Angela. 11:47, May 21, 2004 (UTC)

Thank you so much! I'm getting along fine! Actually, I'm a litter more engaged on the German wikipedia. J. 'mach' wust 09:23, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

"German" pages

Hi! It would be great if you gave the "German" pages a look. German language, German spelling reform of 1996, ß, etc. I have started poking around a bit, but (1) some more drastic changes would be nice, and (2) things are more fun if more people are editing the same page.Thore 13:01, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I'm sorry I've overlooked this message since I barely ever look at my user page but only at this user:talk page when a message pops up that there's been left a message.

I don't see a need for drastic changes. J. 'mach' wust 19:43, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Walser/Walliser

Excuse me, you completely re-wrote the article on the Walser (or Walscher) people and dialect, but what you apparently don't know is that the term Walser (or Walscher) is reserved for the people who left the upper Valais (or Wallis) canton in the Middle Ages (except for Simplon which is part of the same canton but is on the other side of the Alpine watershed), as opposed to those who stayed, who are called Walliser. Ask any Walliser and they will tell you as much. (I just checked the other day with someone who lived all her life in Leukerbad and Brig.) The two groups are considered distinct. So, now you've hijacked the article on the Walser and changed it into an article on the Walliser (including the Walser, but without making any distinction between the two groups). I strongly recommend that you undo all your changes and start a new article on the Walliser (with all the valuable information you've added) and restore the article on the Walser to what it was before you so radically altered it. Thank you very much. Pasquale 17:49, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

OK, I read your message and saw your changes. I understand what you're saying about the Walser diaspora speaking a rather diverse group of dialects rather than a language. And I've studied enough dialectology (including German dialectology) to know what you're talking about. While in a strict dialectological sense, you are most probably quite correct, the fact remains that a lot of sources, including the Ethnologue (a link is available on the Walser page), consistently classify Walser as a separate "language" from Alemannic, possibly simply to underscore the distinctive Walser ethnic identity. This identity is very strong and it specifically identifies the diaspora, all the way from Haute-Savoie to Tyrol, but not the Walliser who stayed in Wallis. This is a very common phenomenon all around the world (e.g. the Cajuns of Louisiana vs. the Acadians who stayed behind in New Brunswick), so it's no surprise that it should be so. Historical and political considerations often trump a strictly dialectological classification and it makes sense that it should be so. Otherwise, if you were to apply a strictly dialectological approach, you would have to say that there is no Dutch language, but that Dutch is simply part of the Low German dialect continuum. While that is technically correct, it would not be very "politically correct" and it would get you into a lot of trouble. Regards, Pasquale 17:00, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Grüetzi. Believe me, it's not just me affirming that the Walser have a strong sense of ethnic identity. It is themselves! And they make a big deal out of it. Just do a Google search for Walser and you will find several websites about the Walser diaspora. Try this one, for example: http://www.wir-walser.ch/de/walser/. I understand what you say about the dialects slowly dissolving into their neighboring German dialects. Of course, when they do so, they are no longer Walser dialects. In Graubünden, for example, you can find the complete range from rather well-preserved Walser dialects to others that are Walser in name only (i.e. in the ethnic origin of the population), but are otherwise assimilated to the adjacent Nicht-Walserisch Bündnerisch dialects. So, my impression is that it is more of an ethnic than a linguistic thing. As for the Ethnologue, did you notice it also sets up an Alemannic dialect spoken in Venezuela ("Colonia Tovar") as a separate language? Now, isn't that all the more ridiculous? But when it comes to the Walser, I assure you I have seen it classified (rightly or wrongly) as a separate language in many other linguistic sources, although I am sorry I can't give you references right now. Anyway, I am not disagreeing with you, I am just reporting what seems to be some kind of consensus out there, which, as I repeat, may well be more ethnically than linguistically based. So, let's leave it at that. Pasquale 20:54, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Swedish disputes

At RfC I listed:

• Talk:Rikssvenska, Talk:Swedish language, Talk:Swedish phonology, Talk:Voiceless dorso-palatal velar fricative, and most probably soon in more related articles, souring relations between contributors with conflicting attitudes and personalities (likely related, among other things, to the status of Finland-Swedish and the Mandatory Swedish education in Finland)

I guess this is a field where you can weight in as a moderating force.

Regards!
--Johan Magnus 09:59, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Phonetics project

I'm trying to get some activity in the Phonetics project going. I've organized the project page and added some links and templates. Anyone who feels they're interested in phonetics, come and have a look. The more the merrier. Peter Isotalo 15:09, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)

Moves of language variety names to "(variety name) (parent language name)"

I'm moving articles on linguistic varieties to a name according to the de-facto standard of naming varieties as common among English varieties (see List of dialects of the English language), for instance Silesian dialect to Silesian German, Swabian language to Swabian German or Low Alemannic to Low Alemannic German. Here are the main reasons (since I cannot find again the reasons I explain on the move page):

• Avoiding the quarrel of language vs. dialect.
• Uniformity of naming conventions.
• Avoiding the quarrel of single variety vs. (sub)group of varieties.

-- j. 'mach' wust | ‽ 11:19, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

I disagree with this campaign.

• First, remember that a language is a dialect with an army and a navy.
• Second, it does NOT solve the language versus dialect quarrel, but promotes it by suggesting that dialects are "varieties" of a standard language and grouping them with it.
• Third, as the list of dialects of the English language shows, there is no de-facto standard for English. Please also have a look at Category:Languages of Italy.
• Fourth, failing commonly used English names for the dialects, the name in the original language should have some meaning here. The policy you are enacting here to add "German" to all of the page does does not conform to the names commonly used for the dialects in German, where the ending "-deutsch" is absolutely the exception (Schweizerdeutsch and Plattdeutsch are the only exceptions to the rule coming to mind). Martg76 18:32, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

I apologize for the straightforward proceding. I confess I also wanted at last a discussion. Anyway, Wikipedia:Be bold!

1. I believe it is possible in linguistics to make a fair distinction between languages and dialects based on the Ausbausprache-Abstandsprache distinctions. I don't believe the linguistic majority opinion will match people's feelings, but I consider wikipedia should take the linguists side. I don't question there'll always be some linguists that don't share the linguistic majority opinion, yet these are few (I've for instance never seen a linguist defend the POV that Swiss German is a language of its own).
2. I'm conscient of that. However, I hope that the XXX (parent language) naming scheme will be mor acceptable for either point of view than the schemes XXX dialect or XXX language.
3. There are, however, very few exceptions: If you follow the links on the list of dialects of the English language, you'll see that most links with naming schemes other than XXX English don't lead to varieties of English, but to places or social groups.
4. This might be a bias of where I live, since the vast majority of Swiss German dialects are named XXXdeutsch (Züridütsch, Bärndütsch, Baseldütsch, Luzärndütsch, Solothurner Dütsch, Senslerdütsch, ...). Additionally, I think the parent language name is helpful in an international context. Even a person who knows about Silesia, for instance, may be unable to guess what language a Silesian dialect belongs to.

-- j. 'mach' wust | ‽ 19:00, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

I am not a linguist (just interested in languages and dialects), so I suppose you are much more competent on these issues. My impression was that linguists didn't distinguish between languages and dialects, meaning that a standard language was more or less just a particularly prestigious dialect. In any case, wouldn't it more in line with Wikipedia policy to use the most common names (in English, if possible) for the dialects? Martg76 21:52, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm not sure about it. There's the case of Alemannisch, for instance. I dislike Alemannic languages, since there is not a single Alemannic Ausbausprache. Still, others may dislike Alemannic dialects. I fear the short name Alemannic will be expanded sooner or later to Alemannic language by someone who imposes the current naming convention for languages.

In the case of Fränkisch, it's even more complicated, since there acutally are some Ausbausprachen: Dutch, Afrikaans, Luxembourgish. However, many Fränkisch dialects are associated with the German standard language rather than with one of these Franconian languages. So Franconian languages might be chosen, but making sure it includes seperate languages as well as German dialects.

Even more complicated is the case of Moselfränkisch. This includes not only German dialects, but also the Ausbausprache Luxembourgish language. So the plural languages seems unfitting, as there's only one language in the group, but for the same reason, dialects is unfitting as well, and Moselle Franconian German might offend the Luxembourgish. Simply Moselle Franconian in this case? -- j. 'mach' wust | ‽ 12:50, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

I think these examples illustrate that the assignment of dialects to standard languages is arbitrary and mainly a matter of politics. In view of that, wouldn't it be better to just name the pages "Allemanic", "Moselle Franconian" etc.? Just watch the pages and make sure noone moves them. Martg76 22:37, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

That might be better, though I think these words might also be used in reference to other things than the linguistic varieties, so it would be difficult not to have them moved. -- j. 'mach' wust | ‽ 02:31, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

A, I see that there already has been some more discussion. I have responded to your proposal over at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (languages). Cheers, — mark ✎ 07:55, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Requested move

Hello J. 'mach' wust,
I added my "support" vote to the move to Low Germanic languages. It was late in the evening when I voted and I had already made up my mind from the entry at WP:RM, so I didn't take much notice. Anyway, no harm done. Izehar 12:08, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Tengwar transcriber page

Hello J. 'mach' wust,
You removed the link to an interactive Tengwar transcriber I wrote from the Tengwar page with the motivation that it provides faulty transcriptions. I do not know what errors you are referring to, it would be more helpful if you would actually provide some detailed feedback, instead of simply dropping the link with only a cryptic message like that. I included my own email address on the transcriber page for that very reason. I'm not a Tengwar expert, as evidenced by my misunderstanding the difference between Tengwar and Quenya, but my transcriber is based on information from this page, which does seem to be written by someone more knowledgeable than me.

Antiqua-Fraktur-Streit

I have done a draft translation of the German article de:Antiqua-Fraktur-Streit and created Antiqua-Fraktur-dispute (not too happy about the name). Since you were the one requesting it in the first place, do you mind giving me some feedack on this, of which I truly am no expert and in need of help.

Thanks

ACH 20:07, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Äuä

Would you be willing to record a sound sample of "Äuä" for the Äuä article? Preferably in the OGG Format --Godtvisken 21:52, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

I hope nobody will note my non-Bernese accent. Note however that I've chosen my preferred spelling: Media:Äuwä.ogg. ― j. 'mach' wust | ✑ 09:19, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Ah, thanks. It seems you have greatly revised the article itself as well. --Godtvisken 17:18, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Still not really sure whether this should have its own article. Well, there's that famous show by Massimo Rocchi... and methinks it's very improbable that there would be any Bernese German wiktionary entries... ― j. 'mach' wust | ✑ 18:45, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Low Germanic languages

Hi. I noticed that 83.109.159.8 apparently favors the title Low German languages instead of Low Germanic languages, as he pointed out at the very bottom of the talk page. Then, he preceded to create a new page at Low German languages [1] and make Low Germanic languages redirect to that page. [2]. I reverted his edits, but I'm not sure if that was the correct thing to do. What do you think? --Khoikhoi 23:17, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

I think you've done allright to revert since the move to Low Germanic languages was based on a move request (though it didn't call much interest). ― j. 'mach' wust | ✑ 13:49, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

German-speaking Wikipedians' board

Hallo! I'd like to make you aware of the recently-created Wikipedia:German-speaking Wikipedians' notice board. Please feel free to help with the project if you're interested! Olessi 04:09, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Or just update our to-do list of Swiss topics -- the board is a bit too Germany-centric right now, and more Swiss posters would be a great help. Kusma (討論) 13:28, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Bernese German

Gruess dich, Auf deiner Benutzerseite schreibst du dass du Bernese German sprichst, which has the rare feature among Germanic languages that consonant and vowel length are independent from each other. (Denglisch bitte verzeihen). Wo kann ich weiteres zu diesem Thema finden? Beispiele waeren hilfreich, um den Kontrast schoen verstaendlich zu machen. Vielen dank! Adam Mathias 05:58, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Hi Adam Mathias

There's a sample at Bernese German phonology#Consonant length. Be warned, however, that this is rather a poor article, because it has had only one contributor so far (me). I've added the same samples to Swiss German#Suprasegmentals. If you're looking for linguistic research of segmental quantity in Bernese German, I'm afraid none has been published, but there are two works on closely related High Alemannic German dialects which have identical segmental quantity oppositions:

• Astrid Kraehenmann [sic] (2003): Quantity and Prosodic Asymmetries in Alemannic. Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-017680-7

• Urs Willi (1996): Die segmentale Dauer als phonetischer Parameter von ‚Fortis‘ und ‚Lenis‘ bei Plosiven im Zürichdeutschen. Eine akustische und perzeptorische Untersuchung. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner. ISBN 3-515-06913-5

I hope that helps. ― j. 'mach' wust | ✑ 18:05, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Hello Mach,

I once spent a year in school in Solothurn and was "immersed" in that dialect. Are you aware of any features that distinguish Solothurner from Bernese? Also is there any good reference on Bernese other than Marti, which seems very hard to find at a reasonable price. Thanks! Tom Gewecke —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.192.255.23 (talk) 00:17, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

I have a history of not being very good at recognizing Solothurn dialect... I know of two features that are different: The Solothurn dialect shows some influence of the de:Binnendeutsche Konsonantenschwächung, that is, fortis at word onset are lenized (lenitized?). And /aː/ is rounded to /ɔː/ (or /oː/?). But then, these two features occur also in Northern Bernese German, that is to say, in the Oberaargau (a region of the Canton of Bern, not the Aargau). That region is adjacent to the Canton of Solothurn, but I guess that people living there would recognize some features that might distinguish betwenn Oberaargau and Solothurn dialects.

But that said, I believe that there is quite some deal of dialectal differenciation within the Canton of Solothurn, corresponding to its geographic differnciation, if you will.

I don't know of other Bernese German grammars. Well, there is a kind of Gotthelf grammar, but that is really based on Gotthelf's literature, not on actual Bernese German, and it is in a very 19th-centuryish tradition not at its height, and must be definitly much harder to get than Marti. -- machᵗᵃˡᵏ 06:49, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks much, Mach! It turns out someone has actually done an article on Solothurner in the de wikipedia, which I found by accident searching around.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solothurner_Dialekt —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.192.255.23 (talk) 22:56, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

I hadn’t seen that article before. However, it seems not to be very informative beyond what I’ve just said. It doesn’t even point out that the features of de:Solothurner Dialekt#Region Solothurn are found as well in the neighbouring Bernese Oberaargau. -- machᵗᵃˡᵏ 07:50, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Talk:Manx language

Es ist wahrscheinlich besser, wenn wir diesen Troll nicht mehr füttern. Angr (talk • contribs) 21:24, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

Paul Martin's page

Hi,

LOL!!!! I am getting tired, I think.  :) All fixed now, but thanks so much for catching that -- it could have been a big headache later! Best wishes, Xoloz 18:12, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Barnstar

		The Minor Barnstar
		The changing of "Low Germanic" to "Low Saxon-Low Franconian", requires hundreds tiny edits to articles that need to be equiped with the new terminology.For your great work so far I award you, J. 'mach' wust the Barnstar of minor edits. Rex 13:24, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Wow, thanks a lot. Well, it was me in the first place who promoted the names Low Germanic and High Germanic, so I'm feeling responsible to clean up that naming. I hope the current solution with High German languages and Low Saxon/Low Franconian (and Low Saxon-Low Franconian languages) may last longer... ― j. 'mach' wust | ⚖ 18:09, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Dawnstar

I would gladly award you a Dawnstar as well, if I knew how, since you are about to enlighten me on:

Dageraed oft Nieuwe opkomst der geneeskonst in verborgen grondt-regelen der natuere (1659)

This is the title of Van Helmont's treatise on medicine written for a general public in the 17th century. We both made a link to it's linguistic roots (Henry de Boulainviller): me absolutely clueless, you with enviable expertise. I now send you this reference to allow you to be absolutely correct. I am from flemish origin and my interest in the history of the language is genuine if -untill your appearance- unguided. Middle Saxon it is ?

With friendly greetings, (Lunarian 10:47, 4 July 2006 (UTC))

Having a closer look at Henry de Boulainviller, it seems more likely to be Middle Dutch, I suppose, but I can't reassure you about that. It was a more or less mechanical change by me, without much thought. ― j. 'mach' wust | ⚖ 17:02, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Dawnstar awarded ! Well deserved ! Thank you. (Lunarian 10:45, 5 July 2006 (UTC))

Low Germanic

The edit you made on the History of the Netherlands doesn't link to an article. Also, Low Germanic could be considered as a language in the Middle Ages and even nowadays. Being Dutch, i understand all the sentences portrayed in it. I have to admit that in my view, Afrikaans could be considered as a dialect of Dutch or Low Germanic.--Daanschr 18:30, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm sorry, that was my mistake. Since the article name was changed, I changed the links as well, but in this case, I made a mistake. I hesitated whether I should replace it by Low Saxon in this article, since it seems to the varieties spoken in areas that were formerly Frisian-speaking are considered Low Saxon, not Low Franconian (Dutch), but I'm not very sure about that. ― j. 'mach' wust | ⚖ 22:09, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I think that Franconian is a wrong term to describe the Dutch language since a large part of contemporary Germany is Franconian as well: Northen Bavaria, Hesse, parts of Rhineland-Palatinate and parts of North-Rhineland-Westphalia.--Daanschr 22:27, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, i just discovered that the term low germanic has been changed into Low Saxon-Low Germanic Languages, so we are talking about the same topic.--Daanschr 22:28, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Graian and Pennine Alps

Hi, since you're interested in the Alps, we're having a discussion at Talk:Pennine Alps about the limits of the Graian and Pennine Alps. For instance, is Mont Blanc part of the Graian Alps? Do you know something about that? Markussep 11:58, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm sorry I can't help you. I don't have much knowledge of the mountain chaines names outside of the canton of Berne. ― j. 'mach' wust | ⚖ 16:16, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Just noticed your edit

Hi, was too busy licking my battle scars from the latest (very tedious, idiotic and unpleasant) edit war and somehow missed your message. Here is a source from the Oxford companion to English literature (OR?) which supports the "Low German" theory. I have not found a single academic source thats uses this weird "Low Saxon-Low Franconian" monster. Ulritz 12:16, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Hi. I'd be more interested in the article that article points to, German language, history of. Also, it's not a book of linguistics, but of literature. So I wouldn't give this source more credit than the ethnologue, which up to now has been the only source found here on wikipedia for that concept (though it's called Low German-Low Franconian there). ― j. 'mach' wust | ⚖ 13:18, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

"Variation in German: A Critical Approach to German Sociolinguistics", Stephen Barbour, Patrick Stevenson

"Language and Nationalism in Europe", Stephen Barbour, Cathie Carmichael

Two more. Oxford authors have such fine works at their disposal. Basing Wikipedia articles on Ethnologue is playing with fire, I'm afraid. Ulritz 13:41, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Citing from Wikipedia:Reliable sources:

“When reporting that an opinion is held by a particular individual or group, the best citation will be to a direct quote, citing the source of the quote in full after the sentence, using a Harvard reference, a footnote, or an embedded link. See WP:CITE for more details.” ― j. 'mach' wust | ⚖ 13:59, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Page Move

This has been fixed. Could you kindly remind Ulritz not to move pages like this ever again or point out the page move button? It is really tedious to fix. pschemp | talk 15:04, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Already done so. Thanks a lot! ― j. 'mach' wust | ⚖ 15:27, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Languages

Hi There! Can you translate my name in what language you know please, and then post it Here. I would be very grateful if you do (if you know another language apart from English and the ones on my userpage please feel free to post it on) P.S. all th translations are in alpahbetical order so when you add one please put it in alpahbetical order according to the language. Don't add any more silly languages please. PLEASE answer it on my talk page Thanks!!! Abdullah Geelah 18:34, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

WP:POP

See Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation popups and my monobook.js. BTW, see also Help:User style and my monobook.css.

Low/High German/Germanic/Saxon etc :)

Thank you for all these contributions! --MaEr 16:43, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the positive feedback. I was rather expecting furious reverts... Anyway, I've contributed a good part to that mess, so I wanted to clean up – well, I wanted that from the beginning, but now these articles are on a better way, I hope. ― j. 'mach' wust | ⚖ 17:20, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Hi, Thanks for your answer on the Low German Talk page. I thought it was only about the sentence "A broader term for the entire West Germanic language family unaffected by the High German consonant shift, thus including Low Franconian varieties such as Dutch as well as Anglo-Frisian." which Ulritz edited by changing "entire" into "closely related" and by deleting "as well as Anglo Frisian". Now, I was not aware that Low German may be take a meaning that includes English and Frisian, so I rather thought Ulritz do be right here.

Pommersch

Hello! I have created Pommersch to differentiate from "Pomeranian language", where the info had been for some time. I wasn't sure what the best title should be- Pommersch, Pomeranian dialects, Pomeranian (German dialects) etc., so I just went with Pommersch. Please feel free to correct, rename, update etc., as you seem quite knowledgeable about German dialects. Olessi 22:11, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

I'd have preferred Pomerian German, but you were first. ;) ― j. 'mach' wust | ⚖ 07:03, 29 September 2006 (UTC) -- j. 'mach' wust

I don't accept Pommersch as a name in English either, and you gave in too easily; I think this should, in fact, be corrected. Had included additional comments here at first, but actually, they belong at User talk:Olessi so I moved them. Mathglot 07:42, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

German orthography

Bravo for your edit of 02:45, 13 March 2006. Your English is excellent, but here and there are some minor issues.

In the title, History of the German Orthography, English does not use the definite article for intangibles (History of Medicine, History of American Literature) and so I've removed it.

The second issue concerns this sentence:

In the following centuries, the only variety that showed a marked tendency to be used overregionally was the Middle Low German of the Hanseatic League, based on the variety of Lübeck and used in many areas of Northern Germany.

There is no such word as overregional in English. Were you thinking ueberregionalisch or some such concept here, perhaps? You could use "interregionally", which does exist and wouldn't be wrong, but it isn't used much. A typical formulation here in English might be, 'across different regions', at least for the first occurrence, so that's how I've left it. In a couple of other cases, I put "interregional" and in others I substituted "common" instead, which seemed to fit the meaning there, and is shorter than repeating the same word again.

But please check it out, and feel free to substitute 'interregionally' if you feel it better captures the idea you were trying to express, as long as you get the fact that an English-speaking reader may not have seen this word before.

By the way, I first came across this article from the Wiki requests for translations page, but this doesn't seem to be a translation of the Deutsche Rechtschreibung page at all, in fact, it has almost nothing to do with it. Which is fine, as the article is a good one about its own topic, but I question the inclusion of the interwiki 'Deutsch' link pointing to the Rechtschreibung article, which I think should be removed. Is there a German Orthography article of which this is a translation?

Finally, many non-students of linguistics might be very interested in finding this article in Wiki. Unfortunately, the word 'orthography' in English, unlike its cognates in German, Fr, Es, etc., is a specialist's term, and many users would surely search under the phrase 'German spelling'. This, however, will not turn up any references to this article, although it should. Maybe we could create a new disambiguation page, or redirect page (I haven't done this yet so I have to learn how) in which the search 'German spelling' would allow the user to choose the page he actually wanted--whether this one, or the English version of Rechtschreibreform, or whatever they were actually looking for. Mathglot 06:22, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. I think I wrote that section from scratch. I wouldn't remove the interwiki link since it's common practice that interwiki links need not lead to direct translations, but to reasonably corresponding articles, and in this case, there seems to be a pretty fair correspondence. You're right that there really should be a redirect from German spelling. Will you do it? It's quite easy, see Wikipedia:Redirect.

I wasn't aware that the word *overregional doesn't exist in English. The idea is that when writing emerges, only regional varieties will be written. In a second stage, certain varieties will expand so that they are written in other regions where people speak other varieties. That's what I've used the word *overregional for, as direct translation of überregional. I think the expression across different regions is a good substitute. The expression common, however, doesn't seem to be adequate in all cases, since speaking of a common variety rather seems to evoque a single variety that is spoken everywhere, whereas a variety accross different regions doesn't need to be spoken everywhere and there may be several of them at the same time. Leo suggests the word supraregional. What do you think of that? -- j. 'mach' wust ☛ ☏ 08:18, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

No explanation necessary--I quite understood what you meant, because I backtracked in my mind from *overregional to probable überregional and substituted across different regions with nary a pause.

Actually, supraregional was the first word that came to mind, but I think it suffers from the possibility of misinterpretation since it's even rarer than interregional. When it did come to mind, it felt like a neologism, and I wasn't sure if I was creating it, or if it really existed (it does). As for common variety, it's true that this is less precise than across different regions or interregional but in the context of talking about a language spoken in different regions in the previous sentence or paragraph, common would be interpreted correctly. However, there's no reason to insist on it either, other than to avoid endless repetition of interregional, but if you feel that the latter is more precise and avoids misinterpretation, then I have no objection.

it's common practice that interwiki links need not lead to direct translations, but to reasonably corresponding articles, and in this case, there seems to be a pretty fair correspondence.

I buy the former, but not the latter--that was actually my point, namely, that while the two articles are related by the common thread of German spelling, after that, they part company and have almost nothing in common. To be linked by an Interwiki, the German article would have to have a table of pronunciations, in German of course, telling the student of German orthography/phonology how 'b' is pronounced in initial position (like /b/) and how it's pronounced in final postvocalic position (like /p/) and so on, for every letter. The concept of Deutsche Rechtschreibung has almost nothing to do with this. Conversely, the English article has absolutely nothing to do with Rechtschreibreform, apart from a single reference.

There is, in fact, an English article that almost (but not quite) corresponds to Deutsche Rechtschreibung, and it's called German spelling reform of 1996, which correctly points to the German article about the 1996 act. However, even this article, though much closer to the German Rechtschreibung one than the Orthography article, is still not a counterpart for it, and to my knowledge there is no exact English counterpart to the de:Deutsche Rechtschreibung. The German orthography article certainly is not it.

What we need, perhaps, is an English article on German Spelling Reform (or a generalization of the existing one about the 1996 Act), and an equivalent German article about German orthography that can be linked to from the existing English one. I studied up on redirects and disambiguation, and decided that the most appropriate for now is a disambiguation top link which I added to the Orthography page. Mathglot 10:58, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, that still didn't solve the search problem, so you're probably right that we still need a disambiguation or redirect page of its own at German spelling. Mathglot 11:11, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

Style guidelines for sound pages

Hello. Recently CyborgTosser and I discussed and came up with proposed style guidelines for all the individual consonant and vowel pages wherein the Occurrence section would have a table rather than a bulleted list. You can see the discussion here. So far nobody else has commented on the proposed guidelines and I believe it's safer to get a solid consensus before undergoing the work to change so many pages. If you could comment on what has been proposed, even if it's a simple yay or nay, this would help us out quite a bit. Thank you very much. Ƶ§œš¹ _{[aɪm ˈfɻɛ̃ⁿdˡi]} 06:40, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Mecklenburgisch-Pommersch

Ich habe die Anmerkung auch in dem betreffenden Artikel gemacht. Es gibt kein Mecklenburgisch-Pommersch, der Dialekt heißt Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch. Ferner gehört Wendländisch nicht zu diesem Dialekt. Falls Du Dich darüber informieren möchtest, dieses Problem ist auf der niederdeutschen Wikipedia ausführlich diskutiert wurden (allerdings auf Platt) [3]. --89.53.45.236 22:36, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Hoi

Just out of curiosity, is Swiss German still on your watchlist? I just compared your last entry with the current version, and, well, the result wasn't as sobering as I expected, but not entirely satisfactory either. Take care. (I'll give it a shot in a few days, but some of the added elements might be relevant while also deserving some educated rewording... oh, and I'm aware of WP:OWN, but still, you know, much appreciated :-) ...) ---Sluzzelin talk 15:41, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

prononciation de l'allemand

In den französischen Seiten hast du in den Artikel "prononciation de l'allemand" in ein Paar Linien phonetische Zeichen, die nicht lesbar sind, hineingeschrieben: das zweite Zeichen von den Linien brutal Dürre essen Atem Nabel Räuber Gans Hase und die erste Linie von Aktion. Wenn ich aber diese Zeichen in ein Text-Dokument kopiere, dann werden sie lesbar. Warscheinlich kommt das von Wikipedia selbst,und deshalb ist es vielleicht auf deinem Komputer nicht bemerkbar, gerade weil du sie selbst geschrieben hast. Willst du sie ändern oder soll ich das selbst versuchen? --Gad Zorbert 20:20, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Je vais essayer de le corriger. Je pense que c'est plutôt un problème de browser. Certains browser sont capables d'élégir un fonte de caractères appropriée eux-mêmes, mais il y a toujours des browsers qu'il faut instruir sur chaque fonte. Pour ce problème, on a des template/modèle. Il semble que dans la wikipédia française, on utilise le fr:Modèle:APIb en ce cas. En ce moment, je suis un peu handicappé parce-que mon éditeur de textes préféré ne fonctionne plus et je ne peus modifier des document en unicode que dans mon browser, mais je peus corriger les mots que tu m'as dit. -- j. 'mach' wust ☛ ☏ 10:06, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Vielen Dank für die Verbesserungen. Alles ist jetzt sehr shön anzusehen in diesem Artikel. Es fehlt nur noch ein Hörbeispiel der verschiedenen Phoneme. Wenn du das kannst, wäre es sehr schön, die Tabelle damit zu ergänzen. Wenn du das selbst nicht kannst, schreibe mir zurück. Freundliche Grüße aus Frankreich.--Gad Zorbert 22:28, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

TfD nomination of Template:Unicode Latin

Template:Unicode Latin has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you. — ✉Hello World! 06:35, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

IPA k͡p

Warum hast Du z.B. k͡p statt kp͡ in Template:Consonants geschrieben? Wenn ich mich nicht irre, das wäre richtiger und schöner. BartekChom 13:57, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

The correct form is k͡p. Due to a bug in Arial Unicode, the incorrect form kp͡ will look right on many Windows systems, see the note at the bottom of IPA#Affricates_and_double_articulation: "If your browser uses Arial Unicode MS to display IPA characters, the following incorrectly formed sequences may look better due to a bug in that font: ts͡, tʃ͡, tɕ͡, dz͡, dʒ͡, dʑ͡, tɬ͡, kp͡, ɡb͡, ŋm͡." -- j. 'mach' wust ☛ ☏ 15:24, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Gut. Eigentlich habe ich das schon gelesen. BartekChom 11:38, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Categories for speakers of Alemannic

Ich frage mal beim Schöpfer von "Template:User als" nach wie man das wackere aber derzeit verlorene Häuflein der Alemannisch-Sprecher wieder in Kategorien "einfangen" kann. Momentan haben all die schönen Templates keine Kategorie mehr integriert, da herausgelöscht [4] in Folge von [5]. Das Kürzel "als" soll "entvölkert" und dann für Albanisch genutzt werden. Die Betroffenen sollen sich in ISO 639-3 Subkategorien (swg für schwaben, gsw für Eidgenossen, ...) einordnen, so wie ich es verstehe (kaum). Was machen wir nun? -- Matthead ^discuß!     O       03:46, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Grützi!

Bitte entschuldigt diesen dümmlichen Fehler um [ː] ([ˈχuχːiˌχæʃtli]). Ich weiss nicht mehr, was ich machen wollte… Ich werde was zu alt oder möglicherweise bekloppt!
Bald! vielleicht! ✓ Kanġi Oĥanko (talk) 14:18, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Whoa, no need for excuse at all! It is a strange notation. Not all use them. Some redouble the consonant sign instead; others use the plain voiceless sign but mark the lenis with a voiced sign instead, for instance [ˈʁʊχiˌʁæʒdli] or [ˈʁ̥ʊχiˌʁ̥æʒ̊tli] or something alike, or rather [ˈɣ̊ʊxiˌɣ̊æʃtli], as the allophonic uvularity is not usually notated.

But just as a sidenote: It's grüezi with the üe diphthong, but this is more of a Zürich greeting and in my place, people say grüessech instead. -- machᵗᵃˡᵏ 04:42, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

shorthand history book

Hi! I noticed you added Walter Kaden (2000), Neue Geschichte der Stenografie as a reference in the Shorthand article (already a few years ago). I have tried to find the book but no luck so far. Do you know whether the book is available in bookstores somewhere, or do you have any other advice for finding the book, preferably via mail order? --Ryhanen (talk) 10:57, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Possibly it's not available. I got it from Zürich or Basilea University library, and if I remember correctly, it looked kind of home-printed. -- machᵗᵃˡᵏ 07:07, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Internationalism (linguistics)

The article Internationalism (linguistics) has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

Tagged for no references since July 2009. "Internationalism" and "international word" do not appear to be terms used in linguistics, as confirmed by two Google Scholar searches [6] [7]. One source that mentions internationalism in linguistics is Piirainen (2005), who says the word is not specifically defined, but used "carelessly" in discussion of cross-language idioms.

While all contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{dated prod}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing {{dated prod}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. The speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Cnilep (talk) 16:09, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

WinFixes.css

Moved the class descriptions over. Let me know ASAP if you see any problems and I'll revert my changes.

Re: Lang-he-n

Hi J. 'mach' wust! I welcome any technological solution to the problem (even though I can't really see it myself). I can try what you suggested if it will actually help, but if you can actually test this, please make the changes you proposed. The bottom line is, the text must display as serif (preferrably SBL Hebrew or the David font, which is found in Windows) and be larger than regular text in order to see the diacritics. If you know of a way to do this without causing other problems, more power to you :) —Ynhockey ^(Talk) 12:06, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

I am afraid I cannot do this because I am no administator. I would not hesitate to make the changes, but both pages that I have proposed to be changed on your talk page are protected, {{Lang-he-n}} and MediaWiki:Common.css/WinFixes.css.

I am also afraid there is no way to test this in advance. However, since the CSS stays the same, nothing should change on Windows. What is supposed to change is only that modern browsers would no longer be affected from this Windows fix. For instance, I could finally see the Hebrew characters in a nice serif font instead of the ugly Microsoft Sans Serif. -- machᵗᵃˡᵏ👍 12:40, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

BTW, if you are not sure what changes are required, I can ask Kwami again. -- machᵗᵃˡᵏ👍 12:41, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

Hi again,

About Firefox on Mac OS X, the bug is knows and I think someone opened it in Bugzilla years ago, but apparently it's not important enough for them. I'll comment on it later (not home now). However, I can't reproduce the bug you are referring to on IE. For me the font looks great on IE. Can you send a screenshot of what the bug is like on IE?

In any case, if I have time later today, I'll try something else: simply change the Script/Hebrew template itself (or any template it transcludes—haven't checked the technical details yet) so that it simply uses a larger font; I think this should solve both problems. Not sure though, it could require some testing. I'll get back to you on the results.

Cheers, Ynhockey ^(Talk) 14:41, 7 April 2011 (UTC)

All three fonts you mentioned display Hebrew correctly, so it shouldn't be a problem. This is as long as we're talking about Mac OS only of course. Thank you for taking the time to fix this bug. —Ynhockey ^(Talk) 22:00, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

sockpuppet editing

There is an open WP:SPI case looking at sockpuppet editing primarily on the Johann Hari/ Talk page. As you edited the Johann Hari/Talk page between 2004 and 2011, your input is welcomed.

Bernese Mountain Dog

Thank you. The edit summary was peculiar!!. (Not yours, the predecessors.) So emphatic that it was like an invasion! Having a dispassionate look from someone who understands the languages and the social nuances was very helpful. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 20:48, 2 October 2011 (UTC)

Rabbits in the arts; Rabbits in the arts, German Wikipedia

J. 'mach' wust, I know this is outside your bailiwick, so I apologize for asking. Nevertheless, we could use your help on the English language version of the German Wikipedia article. Google will translate the article, but we need an interpretation, not a mere translation. If you could help, it would be appreciated. Of if you could recruit a 'volunteer' . . . Happy editing.

May 2013

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File:Sz modern.png listed for deletion

A file that you uploaded or altered, File:Sz modern.png, has been listed at Wikipedia:Files for deletion. Please see the discussion to see why it has been listed (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry). Feel free to add your opinion on the matter below the nomination. Thank you. Sfan00 IMG (talk) 21:53, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

IETF tags

There is currently no support for IETF tags. Is this something we have a complete list for? If we add support, will the tags be added consistently across articles? — kwami (talk) 19:10, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

Please see Template talk:Infobox language#IETF language tag. --mach 🙈🙉🙊 19:13, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

Ah, thanks. Do you have a ref for the tags, so we know they're legit? I.e., that de-AT is Austrian Standard German, the subject of the article, and not just Austrian German, the subject of other articles? — kwami (talk) 19:22, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

There are plenty of sources in IETF language tag. If you set a computer to de-AT, it will certainly not use some dialect, but standard German in the form that is used in Austria. Austrian German is the same as Austrian Standard German. --mach 🙈🙉🙊 19:40, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

No, they are not the same. "Austrian German" just means the German of Austria.

Yes, computer interface will be in the standard language. But that doesn't mean that the code is for the standard language. If you set it to Japanese, you will get standard Japanese, but that doesn't mean that the ISO code is restricted to the standard language. — kwami (talk) 20:03, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

July 2015

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August 2015

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• possibly influenced by the Middle English letter ''[[yogh]]'' (Ȝȝ), which represented {{IPA|/j/}}. (Yogh's other sound, {{IPA|/ɣ/}}, came to be written ''[[gh (digraph)|gh]]'' in Middle English, and
• , ''Hyäne, Hysterie, mysteriös, Syndrom, System, Typ, Yacht (variation spelling: '''J'''acht], Yak, Yeti''; however, e.g. yo-yo is spelled "'''''J'''o-'''J'''o''" in German, and yoghurt/yogurt/

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• ] provides a collection of such differences. Its data is used by major [[Operating system|OS]] (including [[Microsoft Windows]], [[OS X]] or [[Debian]], and by major internet companies or

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Censoring info

If you have an estimate, provide one. Otherwise stop deleting info. And no, not saying anything is not an "obvious" way to provide info to our readers. We provide info by actually providing it. — kwami (talk) 22:23, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

IPA symbolization as OR

I am responding here to go along with Blueboar's request to let others respond at the Wikipedia:No original research/Noticeboard. You are right that, by itself, the examples listed at WP:OR cannot be concretely determined to be exhaustive. I went through the three examples to demonstrate that our IPA transcription symbolization does not fall into any of these three examples (original facts, original allegations, and original ideas). I then used our romanization policies to show that the practice of novel modifications of sourced transcription schemes has approval in the community, thereby showing that, although not spelled out, the de facto policy is that transcription does not require the sort of complete faithfulness to sources' transcription choices that you are asking for with our IPA transcriptions. It thus follows that transcription choices are not material as WP:OR explains it and therefore does not qualify as original research. Your response to my coverage of our romanization schemes was to fixate on how the modifications made the transcription systems more readable. But you are guilty here of equivocating original research with readability. Those are two separate things. As you have been arguing it, if a transcription systems really falls under the purview of WP:NOR, then it doesn't matter if it is more readable. — Ƶ§œš¹ _{[lɛts b̥iː pʰəˈlaɪˀt]} 19:30, 8 November 2015 (UTC)