User talk:Jchthys

Welcome!

Hello, welcome to Wiktionary, and thank you for your contribution so far. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

• How to edit a page is a concise list of technical guidelines to the wiki format we use here: how to, for example, make text boldfaced or create hyperlinks. Feel free to practice in the sandbox. If you would like a slower introduction we have a short tutorial.
• Entry layout explained (ELE) is a detailed policy documenting how Wiktionary pages should be formatted. All entries should conform to this standard, the easiest way to do this is to copy exactly an existing page for a similar word.
• Our Criteria for inclusion (CFI) define exactly which words Wiktionary is interested in including. There is also a list of things that Wiktionary is not for a higher level overview.
• The FAQ aims to answer most of your remaining questions, and there are several help pages that you can browse for more information.
• We have discussion rooms in which you can ask any question about Wiktionary or its entries, a glossary of our technical jargon, and some hints for dealing with the more common communication issues.

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wiktionarian! If you have any questions, bring them to the Wiktionary:Information desk, or ask me on my talk page. If you do so, please sign your posts with four tildes: ~~~~ which automatically produces your username and the current date and time.

Again, welcome! JackPotte 10:30, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

escribe

is a term in geometry. Equinox ◑ 18:35, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know. Somehow I didn't see the English section of that page. My bad.Jchthys (talk) 18:37, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Weihnachten

Hello. In my opinion your change of "can also be pluralized to refer" into "can also be treated as plural when referring" can be misunderstood:

1. That could mean that "Weihnachten" (plural only) is used to refer to Christmases. But both "Weihnachten" (neuter) and "Weihnachten" (plural only) are used to refer to a single Christmas. "Weihnachten" (neuter) however also has a plural to refer to Christmases.
2. That could mean that "Weihnachten", the plural of "Weihnachten" (neuter), is actually the singular used for a plural meaning, that the singular being "treated" as a plural. Like one could use "a Roman" to mean "all Romans" collectively. But "Weihnachten" is a real plural of "Weihnachten" (neuter). E.g. see "(der) Handwerker" which has the (unchanged) plural "(die) Handwerker". So it's not a matter of "treatment" but of "pluralizing", of making and using the plural.

-Ikiaika (talk) 19:07, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for discussing! The problem with saying "pluralized" is that Weihnachten is already in the plural form – the plural form etymologically came first. I understand what you mean now, though. I decided to change it again to say "true plural"; does that work for you?—Jchthys 21:51, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

So your change was actually about treating "Weihnachten", which originally is a plural, as a singular.
I think that's better, thanks.
Well, maybe the usage notes should be split, as to avoid confusion. Like:

• "Weihnachten" (plural only) originally is a plurale tantum.
• The form "Weihnachten" (neuter) has a plural.

But I'm not sure about it. I'm not even sure about the gender of "Weihnachten" (singular). Nowadays it should usually be neuter. But dictionaries also mention masculine and feminine gender. Deutsches Wörterbuch (DWB) from the brothers Grimm has "weihnachten, m. f. n."; the Etymologisches Wörterbuch at DWDS has "Weihnachten [...] (schon vereinzelt im 14. Jh.) singularischen Gebrauch mit wechselndem Genus (m. f. oder n.)"). If the other genders can be attested, the usage note should be updated to mention them. And then it might make more sense to split it.

-Ikiaika (talk) 04:38, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

My hunch is that when Weihnachten is used as a "singular", it's still the plural form, but that it's actually treated as a proper name. Note that it doesn't take the article in that case. When it's used as what I called a "true plural", then, it's not that it's an inflection of a neuter noun, but perhaps reverting to the original plural idea. Unfortunately, German articles and adjectives have the same endings for all three genders in the plural, so we can't tell whether Weihnachten as a "true plural" is feminine or neuter.—Jchthys 17:22, 15 April 2016 (UTC)