Talk:lever
Error in the transcription of the English pronunciation?[edit]
I think that there is an error in the transcription of the English pronunciation of this word (the IPA transcription).
1) Why do I think that there is an error?
Answer: In the transcription the second vowl is shown as \e\, while in reality it certaily is not such, it is something closer to \ə\. Also, the stress is indicated as if falling on the second syllable, namely \Lev"er\, which is not correct both for the British and for the American English. And also the symbol for the stress itself is wrong, it must be not double quotes ( " ), but a sigle quote ( ' ). Plus, the transcription must begin with a lower-case letter \l\, not with an upper-case \L\.
Finally, the article only shows the transcription of the American English pronunciation without any clarification that it is only valid for American English and is not for British English. Thus the reader is misled to believe that there is only one possible transcription of the pronunciation, which is incorrect.
2) How should the error be corrected?
Answer: The following needs to be done:
2.2) The transcription of the American English pronunciation must be changed to show the correct second vowl and to show the stress correctly falling on the first syllable (and not on the second syllable, as it is now). Explanation: in a transcription of the pronunciation using IPA the stress is denoted by a single quote symbol ( ' ) inserted in front of the stressed syllable and not behind it, namely \'lɛvə(r)\.
2.2) The existing transcription of the American English pronunciation must be clearly labelled as such.
2.3) A new transcription for the British English pronunciation must be inserted and must be labelled as such, something similar to \'livə(r)\
3) How could my allegations be varified? E.g. how do I know that there are different transcriptions for the American English and British English pronunciations and how do I know that the stress is indeed on the first syllable?
Answer: For one possible proof of the above you may want to listen to the audio files in the article.
4) Why have I taken the trouble to point out the above-listed errors, but have not edited the page?
Answer: I am not a linguist, and I am not even a native English speaker. Hence, I would like to ask someone more knowledgeable to correct the errors, having before that validated the above statements.
Plamka 12:53, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for cleanup.
This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.
rfc-sense. French: the morning ritual, extremely elaborated in Versailles. I have no idea what it means. I propose it be deleted unless someone can clean it up, as it might be just totally wrong. Mglovesfun (talk) 15:10, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
- I'm pretty sure that's the levee (or levée in French). Ƿidsiþ 15:29, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
- What does morning ritual mean? I thought it was a euphemism for defecating. Mglovesfun (talk) 15:40, 10 February 2010 (UTC)
- No, it was basically a kind of formal reception held by the king, originally while he was still in bed. Or at least that's what I understand by levee -- if lever has some related meaning then I at least have never heard it. Ƿidsiþ 16:07, 10 February 2010 (UTC)
- What does morning ritual mean? I thought it was a euphemism for defecating. Mglovesfun (talk) 15:40, 10 February 2010 (UTC)
- 1) it's what every one of us does after sleep = to get up, both the time and the routine. 2) At Versailles there were 2 kinds of circumstances: le petit lever and le grand lever. the differences were about who was invited, I don't remember the subtleties, if of interest I will look it up. lever is the infinitive used as a substantive see le lever et le coucher, le boire et le manger, le venir et le partir, le rire, le parler, etc. usually concerning the basics of daily life. levée is something else: the lifting of sth (la levée des scellés, de l'immunitée, du corps etc.), or a river bank (is higher than the river) constructed, used for convenient access, boats and likes. From the same verb also levage (action of lever), levant (the "lever" of the sun) and levantin (from the levant); and extended to éléver (higher), élévation (a geographic term for high spot, or to an higher position or honour), élevage (raising of youngs, generally of animals). any questions? Hope&Act3! 21:39, 4 June 2010 (UTC)