voz semiculta

21:33 Apr 26, 2016
This question was closed without grading. Reason: Other

Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Linguistics / dictionary entry - etymology
Spanish term or phrase: voz semiculta
This is from a dictionary entry I'm being asked to translate for the word "ejecutoria"

Voz semiculta, from Low Latin, executorius, -a, -um, derived from ... etc
wendy griswold
Local time: 09:36


Summary of answers provided
4 +5semi-formal register
neilmac
4 +4semi-learned word / semi-learnèd word
Charles Davis
4a semi-literate voice
jude dabo
Summary of reference entries provided
David Hollywood

Discussion entries: 16





  

Answers


9 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +4
semi-learned word / semi-learnèd word


Explanation:
Despite what you might assume at first glance, "semiculta" doesn't refer to the register of the word but purely to its form, and specifically to its phonological assimilation. If you look up "semiculto" in the DRAE it says (typically) "Perteneciente o relativo al semicultismo", and "semicultismo" means:

"Palabra influida por el latín, o por la lengua culta, que no ha realizado por completo su evolución fonética normal"
http://dle.rae.es/?id=XWmeacR

They give the examples "siglo" and "tilde"; obviously neither of these is formal or semi-formal register.

Here's a blog piece about such words, giving other examples:
http://www.curiosidario.es/palabras-semicultas/

Well, in English the corresponding term is "semi-learned". Some people spell it "semi-learnèd", with a grave accent, to make it clear that learned means "erudite", not "the result of have been learned".

"semi-learnèd word A word in a language which is in principle inherited from an ancestral language but which shows the effects of only some, and not all, of the regular phonological changes which have applied in the language. For example, Latin rēgula(m) should have yielded *reja in Spanish by normal developments, and indeed does so in the sense of 'ploughshare', but the form meaning 'rule, ruler' is regla, in which the word has undergone the popular loss of the medial vowel but not the normal treatment of the cluster. Compare learnèd word."
Robert Lawrence Trask, The Dictionary of Historical and Comparative Linguistics, 306
https://books.google.es/books?id=EHeGzQ8wuLQC&pg=PA306&lpg=P...

"esp. mod gigante (xiyante) (velarización) > [yjyante) (uvularización) (voz semiculta, la forma patronimica seria "geante)"
https://books.google.es/books?id=LyLYCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA83&lpg=PA...

This means that "gigante" is a "voz semiculta", because the normal process of phonological development would have led from gigantem to geante, but it hasn't (contrast French, where it has led to "géant"). Obviously there is nothing formal about the word "gigante". "Semiculto", as I say, has nothing to do with register.


Dictionaries don't usually specify this, but the one you're translating from does, and this is what it means.

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Note added at 12 hrs (2016-04-27 10:26:57 GMT)
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"Ejecutoria" is semiculta, semi-learned, because it has undergone xs > j.

Just to back up my interpretation of this word, here is another entry from the same dictionary (I won't give the source here in case of confidentiality issues but it contains the exact entry you've quoted). It makes it quite clear, I think, that "culto" has a meaning here related to etymology, not to register; contrato is not a formal or even semi-formal word. "Culto" here simply means less evolved, closer to Latin.

"CONTRATO Es una voz semiculta (el derivado culto es contraído, ya de formación romance y el derivado popular antiguo contrecho, actual contrahecho “contraído, jorobado”) del latín contractus, -a, -um, literalmente “contraído” del verbo contraho, -ere, originalmente “juntar” y en la acepción “contraer” (una deuda, un negocio). Ya en la época latina el participio contractus, -a, -um se sustantivizó en contractus, -us, de donde proviene el término contrato, pero el verbo no se especializó en este sentido, sino que conservó su acepción concreta de “traer una cosa junto a otra” o “acercar dos cosas entre sí”. "

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Note added at 12 hrs (2016-04-27 10:27:54 GMT)
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This is essentially an etymological dictionary of legal terms. Formality of register is not an issue.

Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 14:36
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 59

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  neilmac: Oh, go on then. I still don't like it though... To me, formal/learned = six of one and half a dozen of the other...
17 mins
  -> I'm not very keen on it either; I'm just reporting it. American historical linguists always seem to use it. But it's a very minor point. / Spoken like a gent :) But you know how people are about their technical terms...

agree  Robert Carter: Well done Charles, I was entirely ignorant of this concept, but you're right, this is not about register, it's about etymology.
5 hrs
  -> Thanks very much, Robert. I would love to pretend I knew all about it, but I didn't :)

agree  philgoddard
6 hrs
  -> Thanks, Phil :)

agree  lorenab23: Another great discussion and answer, thank you!
20 hrs
  -> Thank you, Lorena :)
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14 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
a semi-literate voice


Explanation:
a semiliterate voice

jude dabo
Local time: 13:36
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
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18 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +5
semi-formal register


Explanation:
Is how I'd put it, but am a bit old school. (Especially in language teaching, the term "register" often forms a shorthand for formal/informal style, although this is an aging definition.)

Other options are possible depending on the classification scale used.

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Note added at 18 mins (2016-04-26 21:52:11 GMT)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Register_(sociolinguistics)#Re...

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Note added at 24 mins (2016-04-26 21:57:17 GMT)
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"Voz" -> f. Palabra o vocablo :)

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Note added at 18 hrs (2016-04-27 15:47:43 GMT)
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For examples of 'learned' and 'formal' as synonymous, see Google:
"For more learned or formal language, Urdu is more likely to borrow Persian loanwords..."


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Note added at 18 hrs (2016-04-27 15:55:31 GMT)
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Nb: As phil notes below, "Words are either formal or informal", so perhaps 'formal' might be a better option in this case. Whatever the choice, I still prefer it to "learned', although in this context ithey would be largely synonymous IMHO.

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Note added at 18 hrs (2016-04-27 15:59:35 GMT)
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http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/my-lear...

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/learned

Formal: "Of or denoting a style of writing or public speaking characterized by more elaborate grammatical structures and more conservative and technical vocabulary."



neilmac
Spain
Local time: 14:36
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 32

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Helena Chavarria: That's what I immediately thought of, too! Though I don't think 'register' is necessary for English dictionaries. You usually just see 'formal', 'archaic', 'slang', etc.
9 mins

agree  David Hollywood: yep, just "semi-formal"
11 mins

agree  MarinaM
2 hrs

agree  Gordon Byron
8 hrs

agree  David Ronder: 'Register' isn't at all archaic in English language teaching, it's alive and kicking, though I agree it may not be necessary here in a dictionary entry.
8 hrs

neutral  Charles Davis: You would have thought so, but "semiculta" doesn't refer to register. // See discussion area. In linguistics "semiculta" doesn't mean semi-formal, and in a dictionary that's the relevant point.
9 hrs
  -> Au contraire, mon frère. It means "semi-formal" and as such could refer to lots of things IMHO :)

neutral  Robert Carter: Aside from the issue Charles has raised, I'm not so sure we even see this registry qualifier in dictionaries, "formal", "archaic", and "slang" perhaps, as Helena says, but "semi-formal"?
14 hrs

neutral  philgoddard: I'm not sure what this would mean. Words are either formal or informal.
16 hrs
  -> You have a point. I tried to mention this in the discussion, but it doesn't seem to be loading.
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Reference comments


30 mins peer agreement (net): +1
Reference

Reference information:
www.espressoenglish.net/formal-semi-formal-and-in...

Learn the differences between formal, semi-formal, and informal English in this free ... Learning another language can improve your career and social life.

David Hollywood
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 27

Peer comments on this reference comment (and responses from the reference poster)
agree  neilmac
9 hrs
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