"Wikipedia" and "the Foundation" sounds right to me. When in doubt, if
it
sounds right, it probably is. German grammar, I can't help you... Dieser
Benutzer *hat keine
*.
On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 1:16 PM, Ziko van Dijk <zvandijk(a)googlemail.com>wrote;wrote:
When I look into Duden Die Grammatik, this
authoritative reference
work about German grammar says that proper names (Angela, Berlin,
Christmas) don't get an article: "Hamburg liegt an der Elbe." But it
mentions many exceptions, like for rivers who actually do get an
article (such as "die Elbe"). An article you use also for institutions
("die UNO") and works ("der Wallenstein", "das Ave
Verum").
So what is "Wikipedia", an institution, a work, a proper name? In
German texts I find a lot of inconsequences, sometimes in one sentence
there is "die Wikipedia" an then again "Wikipedia". I believed that
that has to do with the context: "I am registered at Wikipedia"
(institution), and "I have written something in the Wikipedia" (work).
But this does not fit with my actual findings. Then I thought that
"Wikipedia" without article is an anglicism, but it seems not to be
that easy, too.
What else do we compare (the) Wikipedia with, except for other
encyclopedias? A web site like Google? A social movement like
Greenpeace?
And how about "Wikimedia"? In a short corpus I studied the reporter
said "Wikimedia e.V." in German, although I say "die Wikimedia". In
English, is it "the Wikimedia"? "The Foundation"? "The
Wikimedia
Foundation"?
Kind regards,
your confused
Ziko
2009/6/27 Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com>om>:
2009/6/27 Michael Snow
<wikipedia(a)verizon.net>et>:
Ziko van Dijk wrote:
Hello,
Could someone explain to me why "Wikipedia" is without definite
article? In English you say "the Britannica", so why not "the
Wikipedia"? I am wondering that also in German Wikipedians and
non-Wikipedians tend to drop the article, although we say "der
Brockhaus".
Actually, singular proper nouns commonly do not take the definite
article in English. I would not say "the Britannica" anymore than I
would say "the Wikipedia" (or, as noted, "the Encarta"). This
particular
case may indicate a difference between British and American English
here, I'm guessing from the other comments.
There are some situations where you would use the definite article for
singular proper nouns, such as with some geographical names, or when the
name is actually a combination of common and proper nouns. Thus, I might
refer to "the Encyclopedia Britannica" because it's "the
encyclopedia"
and "Britannica" identifies which encyclopedia I mean.
I agree with you, and I speak British English. I would say "the
Encyclopaedia Britannica" (NB. the middle word has two a's. As
suggested by the final word, it is (originally) a British thing, so
takes the British spelling, which has two a's [or an "æ" if you want
to be pedantic].). I would, however, say "Britannica" not "the
Britannica".
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Ziko van Dijk
NL-Silvolde
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