User talk:Twpsyn Pentref

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Etymologies for taxonomic names

Please note this edit. The original version says the word is English and derives from modern Greek (code el). My revision makes it a Translingual word derived from ancient Greek (code grc). this also affects how and where the entry is categorized. --EncycloPetey 03:07, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Also note that Ancient Greek transliterations do not use ā, ī, and ū, as we do not distinguish between long and short vowels in them. Additionally, the accent should be in the first portion of {{term}}, as the accent is used in entry titles (generally, Ancient Greek almost never makes use of the second parameter of {{term}}, as we generally want to display them exactly as their entry title. Of course, there are exceptions.). Finally, please note that many editors do not start definitions with caps and end with periods, as they are not complete sentences. To my understanding, the matter is not really finalized, and so you are free to use them when you create entries, but please don't change what other editors have done in this regard. Also, please don't reabbreviate things like confer to cf. One of the primary advantages of being an online dictionary over a paper dictionary is that we have the enough space that we don't have to do that. Just to be clear, your work is appreciated, and I hope these critiques will not prevent further work from you. Any questions, feel free to ask. -Atelaes λάλει ἐμοί 00:22, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Okay. I should think that the thing about punctuation ought to be stated less definitely in the Layout Conventions (which I have been trying to follow as strictly as I can) if it is not actually a settled guideline. But that's fine.

About the Greek etymology, I seem to remember copying-and-pasting the template on that occasion directly from a guidelines page. I guess that's not always safe—ha. But I don't really understand the reasoning behind not showing vowel quantity—sure, it is not shown in the Greek, but it might be useful for etymological purposes. And quantity is shown in the transliterations of the entries of the Greek words themselves, are they not? Like in σιγή (which came to hand), for example. Twpsyn Pentref 01:02, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes, our policy pages are woefully outdated, as there is a lot of red tape involved in fixing them. I attempted to cut out a bit of it, but was unsuccessful. As such, your best bet is to follow what's written as best you can (as you've obviously been doing), and wait for comments from experienced editors. As for vowel length in transliterations...... Ultimately, it would be most accurate to say that I dislike putting vowel length in transliterations, but there was a rather prolific editor who did not share my distaste for them. We disagreed on this point, and this was never resolved. I've spent a lot of time being the only serious Ancient Greek editor here, and thus have had to create Ancient Greek policies based on my own best judgment. Perhaps this has made me a bit too forward in imposing my views on others. I suppose this is something which is ripe for another discussion. My reasoning is that transliterations are meant for the uninformed, for those who can't read Greek script. As such, they are not meant to be precise, but rather simple, and easily understood. Our inclusion of the actual scripts frees us from the need for comprehensiveness in them. Vowel length is often quite difficult to ascertain, and so I think that it would be infeasible to consistently note it in transliterations. We include the macrons with e and o to differentiate different letters, which are a great deal more important than vowel length (and a great deal easier to check), in my opinion. Now that you have my thoughts on the matter, I'll give you my blessing to act as you see fit, but I would ask you not change my work (or that of others), as I think my opinion should be given equal footing with yours. Oh, and I should also state ahead of time that WT:AGRC is in terrible need of an update, even if it is still worth reading. Since it's not official policy, I have no red tape excuse. -Atelaes λάλει ἐμοί 01:26, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! It's nice knowing the reasoning behind both stated and unstated convention. Twpsyn Pentref 07:57, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

illaesus

Please see the changes I have made here to illaesus's entry and here for changes I made earlier to suasor. Don't forget to add macrons for all related terms. The other changes were minor ("ˈ" for "'" in the pronunciation section) and alternative forms for spellings (see discussion at [1]). Also, I am not sure about the use of {{ladecl3}} and all other similar templates, like on plantāria; I was under the impression that these were deprecated. Caladon 11:37, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

taxon template

Please see the current Lilioideae entry, and in particular how the use of the {{taxon}} template makes life easier for editors of taxonomic entries. --EncycloPetey 23:14, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes, it's become standard. It has the advantage of allowing a wide-spread format cleanup (if that should ever become necessary). --EncycloPetey 00:02, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Also, when you add (or restore) an etymology to a Translingual entry, please be sure the {{etyl}} template includes both arguments, or else the word is categorized as English. That is, {{etyl | la}} categorizes the word as an English word from Latin, so you need to use {{etyl | la | mul}} instead. --EncycloPetey 21:32, 27 December 2009 (UTC)