1. Be helpful, not hurtful
- If someone's Spanish, English, French, Italian (or whichever languages apply) isn't perfect, don't treat him/her badly.
2. Quoted material
- No web pages or copyrighted content may be inserted into WordReference posts except as indicated below. Minor fair use excerpts from dictionaries such as a definition/translation or two are permitted. Quotes and translations of texts up to 4 sentences are permitted, but see specific EHL rule #14 below. Links to content elsewhere are acceptable and appropriate, provided such links meet the requirements stated elsewhere in these rules.
- All forms of inserted content that do not meet these conditions will be removed without exception.
3. School assignments
- If you want help with a school assignment, you are required to do your own work first. Then, and only then, may you post it with a request for help with specific doubts.
4. Dictionaries
- Look for the answer in dictionaries first (click here for links to online etymological dictionaries).
5. Thread title
- Put the word or phrase in the title when asking a question (avoid "I'm new", "Help!" and the like).
6. Spelling and language
7. Be polite
- The use of "Hello", “Hi” and "Thank you" is welcome.
8. Thou Shalt Not Chat
- Don’t use the forum as a chatboard (it is inefficient); use the private message (PM) feature if you want to send a personal message to another forum member
9. Advertising free forum
- Do not post links to commercial sites. This is an advertising free forum and we want to keep it this way.
10. Questions and comments
- If you have further questions please post them in the "Comments and Suggestions" Forum or send a private message (PM) to your favourite moderator.
11. Report a post
- Use the report-a-post feature in the top right corner of each post, if you read a post that contains questionable language/pictures or if you feel it does not belong to this specific forum. This will help to run the forum smoothly.
12. General WR Rules
- Please check the forum rules periodically since they will be updated whenever necessary. For a detailed list, please check the comprehensive WR Rules.
13. Quoting previous posts
- Only quote the relevant parts of a previous post.
- Please put your reactions outside the [/quote] tag.
Not:
abc abc abc
your reaction to abc
But:
your reaction to abc
PARTICULAR RULES FOR THE EHL FORUM
14. Acknowledge the source
- Try to back up your explanations with sound arguments based on accepted methods used in mainstream linguistics. Mention your source(s) when asked for.
- When you make an educated guess, please clearly indicate as such.
- Quoting may exceed the general limit of four sentences under the conditions given below:
---> The exception from the 4-sentence rule
only applies to scientific sources, that is to sources which would be acceptable for quoting in a linguist's work. This
excludes Wikipedia and similar sites, for which our general quoting rules of 4 sentences still will apply. It also
excludes word lists - EHL should remain a discussion forum and not try and develop into a "rival Wiktionary".
---> Source must be given by
scientific quoting - acknowledge the source, and separate source and comments of yours in a way which leaves absolutely no doubt about which has been quoted and which has been your comment.
---> And last but not least - make an attempt of
reducing the overlong quote to what is absolutely necessary. We do not want to accumulate a load of long quotes which do not really contribute to the topic, or of which only some small passages are relevant.
Please note that this change of rules is made on a
preliminary basis; if it works out it will become permanent.
However, moderators may still shorten or delete overlong quotes by their own discretion.
15. Novelty theories
- This forum deals with (firmly) established historical linguistic peer reviewed theories.
- EHL is not a venue to launch or expand on private pet theories, pseudo-linguistic ponderings, idiosyncratic and fringe ideas. This also includes theories based upon random lists of similarly looking words, chance coincidences, wild speculations or associations and other pseudo-linguistic and pre-scientific methods.
- Novelty theories on the perceived relations between two languages (let's say Sumerian and Japanese), on the 'First' or 'Original language' (let's say Hebrew) or similar(ly) idiosyncratic theories, folk-etymologies etc. are outside the scope of this forum.
- These include pseudo-scientific authors as Isaac Mozeson, Edo Nyland, Zoltan Simon, Barry Fell, Joan Leaf, Polat Kaya, and, alas, many many many more.
16. Politics
- WR and EHL are forums which deal with linguistics, not with politics. We do not allow political sneers or merely politically motivated statements, theories etc. disguised as linguistic theories.
SPECIAL QUOTING RULES FOR THE EHL FORUM
Discourse in EHL is often more academic in nature than in other WR forums. Therefore we allow certain exceptions from the general rules: scientific quoting should be allowed even when exceeding the general 4-sentence-rule.
However, moderators may still shorten or delete overlong quotes by their own discretion.
We ask you to follow those guidelines:
Quoting may exceed the general limit of four sentences under the conditions given below:
---> The exception from the 4-sentence rule
only applies to scientific sources, that is to sources which would be acceptable for quoting in a linguist's work. This
excludes Wikipedia and similar sites, for which our general quoting rules of 4 sentences still will apply. It also
excludes word lists - EHL should remain a discussion forum and not try and develop into a "rival Wiktionary".
---> Source must be given by
scientific quoting - acknowledge the source, and separate source and comments of yours in a way which leaves absolutely no doubt about which has been quoted and which has been your comment.
---> And last but not least - make an attempt of
reducing the overlong quote to what is absolutely necessary. We do not want to accumulate a load of long quotes which do not really contribute to the topic, or of which only some small passages are relevant.
