Discovery/Status updates/Next

This is the weekly update for the week starting 2019-02-18

Highlights

 * Something goes here

Search

 * A new Korean language analyzer has been configured for Korean-language wikis, however it won't be activated until after we finish the upgrade to Elasticsearch 6, which is ongoing.

Analysis

 * Something goes here

Portal

 * Something goes here

Events and News

 * Something goes here

Other Noteworthy Stuff

 * Something goes here

Did you know?
Grammatical gender often confuses speakers of English and other languages without a similar system. “Why is a bridge feminine in German (Brücke ) and masculine in Spanish and French (puente & pont )?” they ask—though usually without links to Wiktionary.

Grammatical gender is really just a system of noun classes where there are two or three classes, and most things classified as male or female end up in different classes. Other languages have noun classes based on whether or not the nouns are animate, whether they are human or animal, by shape, and sometimes just arbitrarily groupings; languages can have nearly two dozen noun classes, like some of the Niger–Congo languages!

Now hold on while we veer off on a brief tangent: diminutives are words that convey a smaller, lesser, or more intimate sense of their root form. They are common in American nicknames, often showing up as a -y or -ie ending (Billy vs. Bill, Peggy vs Peg, Bobbie vs Roberta). Sometimes diminutives, especially when applied to small cute things, can become the main or only form of a word. For example, English baby from babe, or kitty from kit.

Diminutives and grammatical gender collide in German Mädchen (“girl”) which is historically from Magd (cognate with English “maid”) plus the diminutive suffix -chen; all diminutives formed with -chen have neuter gender in German. Over time, Mädchen became the predominate term for a girl, despite the fact that the word is grammatically “neuter”.

Development

 * Something goes here

--
 * View all open tickets related to Discovery.
 * Looking to get involved? See tasks marked as Easy or volunteer needed