Linguistic doubt.

[Enrique]

Maybe some gentle soul could help me to translate the following two Spanish words, which are not easily found on books: columna and losa, in the context of civil architecture, more specifically apartment buildings. The flats are separated by what? What is the technical name for that which is both your ceiling and the floor of the person living above you? Well, this is the losa.

Columna: literally column. In a very modest apartament building there should be at least four columns, which support the weigh of the whole building and are buried well bellow the ground and, at the same time, reach the top of the building. Lets say that in its bare bones, a building is columnas and losas, and so you can see it during the first stages of it construction.

[Chris]

The English word for "losa" is "slab". This could mean a floor, ceiling, or the combination of both to which you are referring. If you want a more specific term for that, you would say something like "floor-ceiling assembly".

For "columna", you could say "column". "Column" generally refers to the sort of load-bearing member you are talking about. It can also be called a "pillar".

[Enrique]

Oh thank you very much. If it is not abusing, one more term which makes me doubt is loudspeaker cabinet. Is that not too formal. How do Americans say it in informal speech? And does the word bafle, perhaps baffle, say anything to you in this connection?

[Chris]

It's something you would hear from professionals who work with bands or in studios, mostly. If you are just talking about those things that sound comes out of, we usually just call them "speakers". If you are talking specifically about the case that holds all of the components for them, you could say "speaker cabinet".

[Enrique]

I had some confusion with this, as for some purists speakers are drivers an, whats more, they contract speaker cabinet to speaker, whereas in the old jargon, a speaker was just a loudspeaker, that is a driver. Trying to avoid confusion by making precise definitions, they enlarge it. Not a problem for the younger generations. Thanks again.

EDIT: maybe I'm influenced by usage in Argentina.

[Enrique]

It's something you would hear from professionals who work with bands or in studios, mostly. If you are just talking about those things that sound comes out of, we usually just call them "speakers". If you are talking specifically about the case that holds all of the components for them, you could say "speaker cabinet".

You have to excuse my plebeian insistence, but tis important for me. So we can say, in professional informal speech, you have:

bafle = speaker cabinet
speaker = driver

Is that correct?

[Chris]

It may depend on whether you are dealing with passive or active units.

[Enrique]

Well, let's assume they are passive speaker cabinets for, normal speakers, I take it are always passive.

[Chris]

A speaker driver is the round thing. Sometimes those are just called "speakers". Sometimes speaker cabinets are just called "speakers" too. You infer it from the context. If you could not infer it from the context, don't say "speaker" -- use the specific term.