Talk:Biography of Nikola Tesla

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Why does this exist separately from the biography in Nikola Tesla? --Joy [shallot] 21:31, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I am trying to make Nikola Tesla a featured article. One of the objections upon the nominations was that the biography was too long, while I also recall that earlier someone wanted to add even more to it. So, the biography in the article will be trimmed down, while this could be expanded. Nikola 14:14, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)

(William M. Connolley 20:18, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)) I have stripped out almost everything from this article - everything that was duplicated on the main article. This included quite a few things that had been corrected on the main article but not here - the main reason to avoid duplication.

Why? Because duplication is bad. I considered moving the main article stuff here, but that would have left the main article hollow. I considered moving the novel stuff from this page into the main one, but the main one is 44k already. Ideally, some peripheral biog detail from the main article will shuffle across to here, in time.

Six or seven languages?

Fluent in seven languages (English, French, German, Italian, Serbian, Croatian, Hungarian)

Ok, seven languages then, but unless you indicate this orthographically, casual users like me will regularly make this "correction." since the hyphen indicates a single entity, ie one language. Why not Serbo, Croatian, ... -- Viajero 12:30, 11 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Tesla was born in Serb populated area to Serb parents. His mother's tongue was Serbian. He was never learning nor he lived in Croatian populated area of Croatia. To sum it up: If Serbo-Croatian is one language, Tesla was speaking six languages. If Serbo-Croatian is two languages, Tesla speaked only Serbian and no more Croatian then anyone who speaks Serbian. Do you people honestly believe that I am fluent speaker of four languages (English, Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian) and that, if Montenegro proclaims its own language I will suddenly become, without any personal action, speaker of five languages (English, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin)? Nikola 19:52, 11 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Ok, this is my mistake. period. I tried to figure out the languages ... and as I put specific items into this [and I'm not as versed in the minutia of languages in the ex-yugoslavian area] ... SO ... I took the references to him speaking both Serbian and Croatian as to mean Serbo-Croatian. Now, it is widely accepted that he spoke seven languages (let's not take away a talent of his ... page after page say this ... [the only other amount I saw was 5, but the vast amount of 7 is numbing]) ... so I will edit the list to include Serbian and Crotian language. [BTW, he was born and raised early on in Serbia ... but went to school in Croatia]

No. Both the city where he was born and the city where he was raised are today in Croatia but at the time they were populated by Serbs. And about the talent... it does not require any special talent to speak both Croatian and Serbian :) Or I will ask you to bow to speaker of four languages when talking to me ;) Nikola 06:40, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Not that it matters much, really, but I feel I need to point out that Tesla's birthplace and towns in which he was schooled were part of the Military Frontier, and were returned to the civilian administration of Croatia between 1871 and 1873, at the time Nikola Tesla was studying in Karlovac. I suppose that there's a possibility that Tesla really never came in contact with the Croatian language, but really... --Shallot 21:37, 29 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I doubt the physicist came into contact with the Croatian language and spoke it as at that time, from what I know, the official language of instruction was shtokavian. -- Igor 17:00, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

That shtokavian is only Serbian is patent nonsense, regardless of whether Vuk Karadzic advocated it or not. Grow up. --Joy [shallot] 21:22, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Also .... while the subject is brought up, I'd like to discuss the others, as to not be in error (as I apearantly was here) ... English - he spoke this surely (worked n lived in america many years), French - worked n lived in france a few years (and there were a few references to him speaking this), German - a page said that he spoke this, Italian - a page said that he spoke this, Hungarian - he went to school in the austria area (and there was a page that said he spoke this) ....

Perhaps there's another you haven't traced. I can't find any information :( Nikola 06:40, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Yes there is another language, Romanian. In the 14th century, probably because of the expanding Turkish Empire, around 900 families of Wallachians left current Romania to settle in Croatia, most of them in Serbian villages (probably because of the common religion). Speaking of religion, Serbian and Greek orthodoxy is the same thing. Nikola was born in one of these Serbian-Romanian villages, where, AFAIK, there are still living Romanians. Bogdan 18:48, 19 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Bogdan, there are no Romanian-speakers in Like, where Tesla was born. Where do you get this claim about 900 Romanian families?

Igor 4:55, 11 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Igor, Bogdan is right. I've been there (before the coward American bombardment of Serbia, that is).

What are you talking about? The NATO bombing of Serbia did not come close to the Krajina or Tesla's birthplace? You are off by 300 km-- Igor 17:00, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Serbs did everything to deny ethnic Vlachs the right to study, use and be educated into their language. Onle the Greeks were worse in that respect.

Really, you don't say? In Socialist Yugoslavia where a measly 15,000 strong ethnic group has its mother tongue as one of the official languages of a 2 million province? Maybe you were on a different planet altogether? But Serbs are human beings, and they are brave. We respect them as much as we respect the truth. -- Igor 17:00, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Nicu Teslea is istro-romanian from both his parents' ancestry.

Say hi to this Nicu guy for me. Never heard of him though. -- Igor 17:00, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

If you look in Google, you'll find less than 500 living speakers of Istro-Romanian. Yet there was a time, before the arrival of a sea of Slavs, brought by the Avars south of Danube, when all Dalmatia was Latin, and everybody spoke Aromanian, or Vlach. Yours, - irismeister 16:21, 2004 May 17 (UTC)

Istro-Romanian is spoken on the Istrian penninsula. You are off by 200 km. -- Igor 17:00, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

now ... 2 possiblities (as I see it atlease) ... one : take out german and italian and go with five [and go against the vast majority of references to the 7 figure; including many books that comment on this from what i can tell] ... OR ... two: seperate the serbian and croatian languages ... and go with the 7 ... ... [NOTE: I already edited the page to reflect the seven number (as that was the original figure)] ...

Wikipedia is to be more accurate source then any other, no? If everyone is wrong, why should we also be wrong :) Nikola 06:40, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)

any and all flames, comments, and responses would be welcome ... reddi

The real issue here isn't whether Serbian and Croatian are two languages or one. The thing is that in the context of polyglottism it doesn't make sense to say a person speaks Serbian and Croatian since this "feat" is easily achieved by virtually every Croat and Serb. On Croatian TV Serbian movies are shown without synchronization or subtitles (ditto for Croatian movies in Serbia), because it would be absolutely pointless. Tesla effectively spoke six languages, and I suggest that "Serbian, Croatian" be changed to "Serbian/Croatian". If anyone reads this and agrees -- go ahead and do it...

No, the language is Serbo-Croatian. RickK 21:16, 11 Nov 2003 (UTC)

If this is done, please note a possiblity "unknown" language (possiblely, Romanian [see above]) ... OR @least make it obvious that he spoke 7 (as that is what the vast majority of authoratative sources say). Thnks, reddi

Done - irismeister 16:21, 2004 May 17 (UTC)

(William M. Connolley 22:16, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)) Note: http://www.tfcbooks.com/teslafaq/q&a_048.htm says latin, and not hungarian. I have rephrased the statment. In addition to S-C, I have listed the four generally agreed on, and put the others as possibles. Hopefully this won't offend too many.

Merge

See my comment at Talk:Nikola Tesla#Merge. --Pjacobi 17:03, 2005 Jun 15 (UTC)

Book

Because of the edit wars, should this bee moved to wikibooks? [this insightful and well-spelt comment is by 204...]

Why would we want to dump an edit war on wikibooks? How would that help? William M. Connolley 22:24, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC).

3RR reported for 204...

I've reported 204...'s violation of the 3RR. Who knows, it may get actionned. William M. Connolley 17:43, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC).

I've noted that you violated the 3RR too. - Anon

Did I really? But since you failed to do so properly, your complaint will be ignored. As, alas, are the perfactly valid complaints against you. William M. Connolley 22:13, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC).