User talk:Gilgamesh

National flags

I noticed you created two images, Image:Wikipedia_flag_united_states_large.png and Image:Wikipedia_flag_united_states_large.png. Firstly Wikipedia should not be self-referential, so these filenames are inappropriate. Secondly, there is already a complete set of national flags using the naming system "Country flag large.png". This makes it easy for people to implement a set of falgs as they know what the image will be called. If you feel strongly that there should be very large, non-AA'd flags avaliable discuss so on the flag's talk page. Perhaps a compromise would be to link to your version from the current image pages. Or you could host your images on the Commons. ed g2s • talk 21:13, 18 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Wow, this came from left field... I never dreamed in my wildest imaginations that this would be a problem. Yes, I feel strongly that the large flags should be available. But I'm totally flexible about the filename — change it to anything you want. - Gilgamesh 00:08, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Jerusalem

Check out Jerusalem#In Mandaeanism - I was really surprised to find this out today. Seems not all "People of the Book" like the city... - Mustafaa 23:15, 18 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Yes, I'm aware of them. ^_^ Thank you anyway. ^^ Samaritans don't think much of Jerusalem either. - Gilgamesh 00:04, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Oh, I'd heard of Mandaeans - but I had kind of assumed they would like Jerusalem! Might be nice to add a section on Samaritan views, if they have a lot to say about it. - Mustafaa 00:43, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Morning Star symbol

Are you aware that your morning star symbol is a Sumerian symbol for the inverted pentagram, otherwise known as a Pythagorean pentagram? --Viriditas 00:52, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

No, but it wouldn't surprise me, as many common geometric symbols have duplicates in other cultures. It may be a Pythagorean pentagram, but it is still also a Christian morning star. - Gilgamesh 00:54, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

What is the history behind the use of the "Christian morning star" from your perspective? I just found it ironic that you were using a Sumerian name, that's all. --Viriditas 01:11, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, it was commonly used in various inverted pentagram shapes by Christians — even in the United States — until about a century ago, after it became associated with Satan worship because of some popular occult literature from out of France. Fewer Christians use it today, and many are scarcely aware that it was so recently a common Christian symbol. It is still, however, used prominently by the LDS Church, chiefly in Temple design (as it has been since the mid 19th century) and is the only Christian pentagram I know of that is still in continuous use. The design as I submitted comes from the Nauvoo Temple, and features the characteristic radial light/dark relief shading and the elongated bottom point. The symbol represents Jesus Christ as the morning star, as he replaced the previous morning star — the rebellious Lucifer — in the pre-mortal existence. I'm sure there is plenty of Christian pentagram information on the Internet; just look around. - Gilgamesh 01:26, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the information. I obviously know very little about LDS, but I am willing to learn more. --Viriditas 08:34, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Hmm, I think I can think of some quick figures. 12 million worldwide... 5th largest religious denomination in the U.S... Comprises roughly 50% of Tonga's religion... Areas in the U.S. and northern Mexico with large LDS populations are called Jello Belt. Adheres to the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenants, and believes in a living modern succession of prophets and apostles. Ahh! I know some good statistical information. http://www.adherents.com/ And a brief collective statement of creed: Articles of Faith (http://scriptures.lds.org/a_of_f/1).

Thanks for your apology

Hopefully we can discuss this on the appropriate talk page. You are certainly not my adversary, nor do I see you as one.--Viriditas 05:15, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Greetings, codes and projects

Hallo Gilgamesh!

Mustafaa mentioned you are interested in Semitic languages. I've just done some work on Syriac language and Aramaic language (a little too much on the latter!).

I'm having some trouble seeing all the transliteration characters that people are using on Wikipedia: they just appear as boxes. Do you know of the easiest way to fix this?

I've had a look at the Hebrew languages project page you set up. Would it be possible to set up something with a bit more scope, like Semitic or Afro-Asiatic languages, for project? I'm unsure what the best way to transliterate here is.

Keep up the good work.

Gareth Hughes 00:37, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Sorry for my late reply, it's been a madhouse. Anyway, the problem is an unrelated dispute at Wikipedia over font displayability. At present, Wikipedia forces a small size of the Arial typeface on all Wikipedia pages, which hinders readability for many characters and makes many alphabets illegible. This issue for unregistered users is an ongoing debate. However, for registered wikipedians, you can edit your own CSS file to eliminate predefined typeface information and allow your own browser's settings to dictate what fonts to use. You do this by editing the monobook.css file in your own user subdirectory. For me, it's User:Gilgamesh/monobook.css. For you, it's User:Garzo/monobook.css. Try editing your version by copying the material from mine, and your browser should (knock on wood) default the font to your browser settings. When no font is specified, both FireFox and MSIE fall back on multiple fonts depending on the alphabet. Your default alphabets each for Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Devanāgari, etc. ... and even Syriac (if you have WinXP). I hope this is helpful. - Gilgamesh 11:53, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Judaism, Quran, and an RfA

Hiya Gilgamesh! I couldn't get you on IM, so i'll post here.

Mustafaa began an article in a Sandbox, and gave me permission to work on it after I asked him. When I start it, I'd like it if you worked on it with me. See User:Lameen/Judaism in the Quran

Last, but not least, User:CheeseDreams has opened up an RfA against myself and 9 other users. While it's virtually for sure that the RfA will me completely rejected (he has not met followed any of the Dispute Resolution steps, nor has he adhered to the other requirements of the RfA, and has a RfM, RfC, and Vandalism in Progress page currently against him), it'd be helpful if you would give input on this issue if/when it does go through. (Or even comment on it now ;0)--Josiah 01:03, Nov 30, 2004 (UTC)

Jaffa City Page

Thank you for your words of wisdom in the Jaffa City page I agree that neither a zionist or any other point of view is the object but just the historical facts presented as dryly as possible the Isreali citizens of Jaffa are welcome to write about modern jaffa and indeed there are paragraphs on this describing the devlopmement of the city the sights etc... However before 1949 this was a arab city with only a few hundred jews and this is also very musch part of the history of the city just as it was a Christian city even before this.

Thanks for your comments its pople like you that make wikipedia and bind this community together

Thank you for your praise. ^_^ On Wikipedia I try to promote neutral uninvolved non-Zionism without passing judgment on any side, rather than embracing any Zionism or anti-Zionism with their points of view. Personally (and this is an unencyclopedic opinion), I think that if any Jew, any Samaritan, any Muslim, any Christian, any Druze, even any Ba‘al-worshipping neo-pagan etc. etc. wants to live anywhere in the region, they should be perfectly allowed to, as long as they live in peace, mutual respect, and social and civil equality with all their neighbors, as well as complete religious freedom. That applies equally to ירושלים-قدس, תל אביב-يافا, نابلس-שכם, غزة-עזה, عمان-רבת אמון, دمشق-דמשק, عقبة-אילת, etc... - Gilgamesh 08:01, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Article Licensing

Hi, I've started the Free the Rambot Articles Project which has the goals of getting users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to...

...all U.S. state, county, and city articles...
...all articles...

using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) version 1.0 and 2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to the GFDL (which every contribution made to Wikipedia is licensed under), but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles (See the Multi-licensing Guide for more information). Since you are among the top 1000 most active Wikipedians, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles.

Nutshell: Wikipedia articles can be shared with any other GFDL project but open/free projects using the incompatible Creative Commons Licenses (e.g. WikiTravel) can't use our stuff and we can't use theirs. It is important to us that other free projects can use our stuff. So we use their licenses too.

To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the {{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}} template (or {{MultiLicensePD}} for public domain) into their user page, but there are other templates for other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:

Option 1

I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

Option 2

I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions to any [[U.S. state]], county, or city article as described below:

Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace {{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}} with {{MultiLicensePD}}. If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know at my talk page what you think. -- Ram-Man 17:56, Nov 30, 2004 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Brad Levicoff

Brad Levicoff, the article created in the space to which your former redlink from Zophar had led, is up for deletion. You might want to contribute comment and to vote at its entry there. Cheers! Samaritan 01:19, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Apologist is not a Misnomer

Ok, I got around to reading the nitty gritties of your user page. There's a few things I'd like to point out *evil smile*. 1) the term "apologist" isn't a misnomer. It comes from the greek word απολογια (apologia) which means "defense", and is found in your bible in 1 Peter 3:15 [1] (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+peter+3:15&version=9), though here the word is generally translated as "answer." 2) Muslims believe Jesus was the Messiah. --The Karaite who went Frum

Alright, I cave. :Þ - Gilgamesh 07:48, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I am that I am

An article you might like to edit. - Mustafaa 18:35, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Rename of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Can you please support the rename and requested move to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter=day Saints Wikipedia:Requested moves#Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints_.26rarr.3B_The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints Thx in Adv --Trodel 06:35, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Clan of the Cats categorization

May I ask why you're categorizing CotC as an anthropomorphic comic? It doesn't seem to fit: aside from Sebastian, who can talk but is physically indistinguishable from a normal housecat (and thus not visually "anthropomorphic"), the main cast is almost entirely human, and I don't think lycanthropes usually fall under the heading of anthropomorphics. — Gwalla | Talk 00:58, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Well, he may not he visually anthropomorphic, but he is still anthropomorphic in that human characteristics are applied to him—in this case, his ability to talk. However, if his role is so minor, then I personally wouldn't care if the category were removed. - Gilgamesh 06:57, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Great Slave Lake a rift lake ?

If I read the history correctly you added Great Slave Lake to the rift lake category. Are you sure it is a rift lake? I did a google search, and couldn't find anything to back that up...

Well, it exists on a continental tear, which is technically a kind of rift. Other lakes like Lake Balkhash are similarly formed. - Gilgamesh 21:00, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Daniel et al

You changed the Hebrew in Daniel. -> (דָּנִיֵּאל),

I know (almost) nothing of Hebrew but I see that less characters are displayed in my browser. Maybe other readers have the same effect. Just a friendly word - I thought you should know. Peter Hitchmough 06:53, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

They're vowel pointings. Many fonts support them, but until recently, they were combined properly in Internet Explorer and only a few other browsers. Now Mozilla Firefox-based browsers (real 1.0 release) combine them correctly too, and that's 99% of the people out there. It's great now. - Gilgamesh 06:55, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Wow! You're online. :) Yes, I'm on Firefox 1.0 (final). Looking closer I see the pointers you added. They looked like spaces to me eyes, so I should get them checked. - Peter.

They're very useful information. See nequddoth. ^_^ - Gilgamesh 07:04, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Tenjo san Volcano

Is there an article on the Tenjo san volcano near Kozushima? I couldn't find one, and thought that with your interest in volcanoes, you might like to? ;) --Josiah 19:13, Feb 7, 2005 (UTC)

Not now. Having a bad day. :| - Gilgamesh 02:06, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Hebrew Transliteration

I noticed your transliterations of Hebrew, both Tiberian and Modern Israeli, to Latin script. Why not use IPA for the task? --Jill St. Crux 22:13, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Linguistic transliterations are phonemic, not phonetic. However, phonetic IPA supplements might not be all that bad an idea. - Gilgamesh 03:21, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Also, I used Standard Hebrew, which has a slightly different definition from Israeli Hebrew. Standard Hebrew is one of the official languages of the State of Israel, and it's based on the Sephardi Hebrew derived standard compiled by Eliezer ben Yehuda. However, it is linguistically conservative in some ways that Israeli Hebrew (the actual vernacular) is much looser about. For example, Standard Hebrew and Israeli Hebrew have different pronunciation. Standard Hebrew is based on true Sephardi Hebrew, as traditionally spoken in the Mediterranean basin by Sephardi Jews for centuries (distinct from Mizrahi Hebrew spoken by Mizrahi Jews also spread throughout the Arab parts of the region). But Israeli Hebrew is Sephardi Hebrew further constrained to Ashkenazi Hebrew phonology, as the cultural elite in the region for decades have been Ashkenazi Jews from Northern Europe. Also, the results of millions of people learning a dead language as a form of daily communication means inevitably that many features of the languages were simplified from their ancient form, including phonology and grammar. So, I could give Standard Hebrew pronunciation guides, though you must understand that Israelis don't speak that way. There would have to be a separate pronunciation guide for Israeli Hebrew to mark the differences. Also, there are some things about Israeli Hebrew I still don't completely understand—such as the exact semantics of the more recent phonetic shift where ה hê is pronounced as a glottal stop by the younger generation. - Gilgamesh 08:51, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for explaining my own socio-lingual heritage to me.

Flattening of the language by present-day Israeli speakers aside, by standard Hebrew, I meant modern Israeli. I don't consider the lack of distinction between het and khaf, nor ayin and alef -- and lately even he -- to be a proper standard; but I do recognise the guttural resh as a 'proper' standard of the Israeli dialect. Just my native speaker POV, I suppose.

What standard do you use when transliterating Hebrew? What is your target audience? Without a guide, I can't make head or tail of it. One of the advantages of IPA is its applicability to many different languages. One system to learn.

Also, any standard imposed on the language by the Academy is a farce.

On a side note, unless your definition differs greatly than mine, Ashkenazi Jews do not come from Northern Europe. --Jill St. Crux 11:48, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, I meant no disrespect nor rudeness. I just don't make ethnic or religion assumptions about the people I talk to. And when I say "Northern Europe", I mean a lot of Central Europe too, as far south as Austria and Romania and such; that's to differentiate from Spain, Italy, Greece, and other regions where local Jewish populations were typically not Ashkenazi. Anyway, the standard I speak of has a few minor differences from the vernacular...

ח Het is pronounced as a pharyngeal rather than as a velar, and is transcribed as ḥ.
ע Ayin is pronounced as a pharyngeal rather than as a glottal or silent, and is transcribed in all positions as ʿ.
ק Qof is still pronounced /k/ (no change), but is transliterated q and never k in the academic standards.
ר Resh is pronounced alveolar rather than uvular.
ְ Sheva is written where it would be fully vocalized in the ancient form, e.g. šəva instead of šva.
ֵי Zere male is regarded as a pure vowel e instead of a diphthong ei, e.g. Elat instead of Eilat.
Doubled consonants are fully transliterated, even if they are not spoken, e.g. Tammuz instead of Tamuz. This also includes yy, e.g. Toviyya instead of Tovia.

However, unlike true Sephardi Hebrew but like in modern Israeli:

ָ Qamaz gadol is pronounced as a pure /a/ like patah, rather than the rounded vowel /ɔ/ traditionally used by Sephardim and Ashkenazim alike.

It more or less reflects Ben Yehuda's preference for Sephardi Hebrew, as spoken by Sephardi Jews. It is believed that much of this was adhered to in the early aliyot, but that speech was gradually constrained to phonetic pronunciations Ashkenazim elite were more comfortable with, resulting in the phonetically simplified Israeli Hebrew of today. But I'm much less familiar with the quirks of Israeli Hebrew—they don't seem to be as well documented in the literature I've studied, and my Israeli friends can rarely give me a straight answer (considering most people in the world rarely think about the linguistic properties of their own language in regard to others). ^_^; I've seen these more academic transliterations used on maps, particularly with maps (such as National Geographic) that try to be as appropriately multi-lingual with their place names as possible, putting standard linguistic names in parentheses. - Gilgamesh 12:25, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I am still puzzled when faced with decyphering the notation you use for niqqud. What standard is that? Where can I read and learn it?

Also, how important is Tiberian Hebrew in modern linguistic research? --Jill St. Crux 13:05, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

It's a common Semitic transliteration standard, easily adapted and used for Hebrew, Phoenician, Akkadian, Aramaic, Arabic, etc.; I've encountered it in many places, from dictionaries to college textbooks. In this case, a macron indicates audibly longer vowels, and a circumflex indicates the presence of a quiesced consonant. (In this sense, āh could just as easily be spelled â, but āh is much more traditional, as you see everywhere.) This stuff is documented on Wikipedia; see Hebrew alphabet, niqqud, etc. See also List of Proto-Semitic roots to see how this transliteration system is used to compare the Semitic languages with each other.

As for Tiberian Hebrew, it is very important as it was the form of the language standardized with the Masoretic Text at Tiberias in the 12th century. It is the oldest standard for Hebrew that clearly defines all the vowels. That is to say, the nəquddôṯ themselves were the very basis of Tiberian Hebrew as we understand it academically. - Gilgamesh 13:24, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Yes, I'm quite familiar with the development of the modern system of niqqud from the Tiberian system and its relation to the Masoretic Text.

I asked this, because I mistakenly thought you transliterated the Tiberian Hebrew pronounciation of non-Biblical Hebrew names, which made me wonder about the importance of Tiberian Hebrew where it never applied. Another glance proved me wrong. --Jill St. Crux 14:39, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Pedantic sense, I guess. ^^; I tend to think in terms of Tiberian Hebrew, as I study chiefly in Biblical Hebrew. ^_^ - Gilgamesh 02:29, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Tessaiga

Hi. I have posted a request to revisit this topic at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (Japan-related_articles). Thanks. Your input will be appreciated. LG-犬夜叉 09:40, Feb 26, 2005 (UTC)

Tenochtitlan

Hi. See Talk:Tenochtitlan, and comment on the reasons if you think the page should be retitled. Thanks, -- Infrogmation 16:51, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

VFD on Israel Revealed (tourism)

FYI - I updated the Daniel Rona page. And, before posting (tourism) for delete, I changed the Israel Revealed page to redirect to Daniel Roma in case people searched for it. Have a good day, User:Trödel/sig 22:39, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Scanian language

Hello. You are the originator of this article. The article is under NPOV dispute. The main point of the argument seems to be that Scanian is a dialect and not a language. Since you are the original contributor, I kindly ask you to provide the sources you used. Regards, --Fred-Chess 07:38, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

Hawaiian

Hi. You seem to be knowing Hawaiian. Is it possible to add a sentence in the Hawaiian wikipedia for India (you'd have to make a new page there I guess)? I looked on the net for a translation but didn't find any. If you could write a line or two, please link it on the India page here. Thanks, =Nichalp (Talk)= 19:11, May 31, 2005 (UTC)

I only know very marginal Hawaiian. I can't help you. - Gilgamesh 19:12, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Ok no probs. =Nichalp (Talk)= 19:25, May 31, 2005 (UTC)

Tanzania a portmanteau?

You simply added the article to the category, without any supporting/explanatory text to the article itself. Could you please elaborate? Dewet 09:02, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Sure. Tanzania was named as a combination of abbreviations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Tan+Zan+ia. Look at Category:Portmanteaus and see many other examples. :3 - Gilgamesh 16:15, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Ah, thank you! I've tried adding it into the history section, but I can't seem to make the sentence work... Dewet 03:51, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

lots of edits, not an admin

Hi - I made a list of users who've been around long enough to have made lots of edits but aren't admins. If you're at all interested in becoming an admin, can you please add an '*' immediately before your name in this list? I've suggested folks nominating someone might want to puruse this list, although there is certainly no guarantee anyone will ever look at it. Thanks. -- Rick Block (talk) 00:29, Jun 16, 2005 (UTC)

ʻ looks like a rectangle under IE 6 / Win XP

Hi, Gilgamesh: just to let you know, on my PC, ʻ looks like a rectangle, not an okina. ‘ may not be strictly correct, but may be closer to the truth on many people's computers... just fyi. -- hike395 22:05, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I'm aware it may not always display properly. But it's better to use correct Unicode than to cater to a broken browser. Going by standards is the greatest NPOV. - Gilgamesh 22:12, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Yes, what are you doing. You cannot use Unicodes like ʻ. They are not recognized by most browsers (not broken browsers). You will essentially destroy all of the Hawaii articles for the majority of users. Why on earth would it be better to use "proper" Unicode? This is Wikipedia and the greatest POV is not going off on your own and making a decision that essentially screws up all of our work in getting the 'okina used in Hawai`i articles. If all people see is a square (and that is all I see), you can bet we will not win any arguments about using the 'okina anywhere. In essence, all of them will need to be removed. I would certainly vote for no 'okinas if the only choice were a square where a diacritical should be. Give some thought to this, you are just setting us up for a huge battle that none of us want for a pretty obscure reason. - Marshman 01:48, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Marshman, what you are doing looks a lot like vandalism. My guess is that your assertion that your browser isn't broken is correct, but you apparently don't have a font with the latest unicode characterset installed, or it's not the default. This is in part why the {{Unicode|}} template exists. On my screen, ʻ is a box, but Template:Unicode ({{Unicode|ʝ}}) is Template:Unicodeokina. There is a good reason to use okina instead of lsquo: the browser regards lsquo as punctuation and at wordwrap point will split a word up in the middle, essentially making it appear that a Hawaiian word is ending with okina. That's hardly obscure. Tomer ^TALK 03:04, Jun 21, 2005 (UTC)

ABBA

Just so you know, I wasn't the person who removed it the first time. I'll start a discussion before changing it again. Sahriar 01:40, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Alright, thank you. You realize why they are considered a gay icon, right? They are extremely popular in gay dance (disco itself evolved from a fusion of gay dance and rhythm and blues). Dancing Queen is considered one of the gay anthems. - Gilgamesh 03:31, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

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