Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2009 August 27

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August 27[edit]

전용훈[edit]

Is this language Chinese? I think it is a name of someone. Mac Davis (talk) 11:50, 27 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's Korean; Google says it is "Jun Yong Hoon". Adam Bishop (talk) 12:01, 27 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Is it definitely a name, or does it also have a non-name usage? For example Mr. Pipe can have the first name of "Rusty", but not all references to "rusty pipe" refer to a person. -- 128.104.112.102 (talk) 17:26, 27 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
He is apparently a mathematician. Adam Bishop (talk) 01:09, 28 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Tongan orthography[edit]

Define orthography in the Tongan language —Preceding unsigned comment added by Faye pahulu (talkcontribs) 17:20, 27 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

added section header -- 128.104.112.102 (talk) 17:23, 27 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Orthography in the Tongan language is the writing system used by said language. That's the definition. --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 17:41, 27 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
We have an article on the Tongan language which may provide a starting point. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 18:17, 27 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Properly, 'orthography' is the "correct" or standard spelling of a word. If I write 'nayshun' for 'nation', the word has a spelling-- but it's not orthographic.
Damn. I may have to consider removing something Milkbreath once said (see here) from my list of favourite quotes. -- JackofOz (talk) 21:17, 28 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Nah. My Merriam-Webster's Collegiate gives three senses: The first is the one that Rhinoracer (in the interrupted part of his post, above) wants to be the only one, whereas the second is simply "the representation of the sounds of a language in written or printed symbols," which Rhinoracer below seems to think is exclusively French. (The third is "a part of language study that deals with letters and spelling.") One can certainly speak of "poor orthography" in English. Deor (talk) 21:31, 28 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
And it occurs to me that perhaps what the OP was asking for was a Tongan-language definition of the English word orthography, such as one would find in an English-Tongan dictionary. Do we have any Tongan speakers about? Deor (talk) 21:36, 28 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Curiously, in French 'orthographe' means simply spelling, so that one may speak of 'un orthographe incorrect'. Rhinoracer (talk) 11:14, 28 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Did it occur to no one that the OP might want to be told in Tongan what orthography is? —Tamfang (talk) 02:29, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]