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<DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>This may sound offlandish - but I want to throw support
behind the idea of<BR>spelling proper names in close accord to their actual
names' pronunciation.<BR>The English spelling/pronunciation "Prague" would
redirect to "Praha" - the<BR>actual name of the place. This is not something
that should simply be left<BR>to stand along English lines.<BR><BR> The
idea of keeping English consistent is valid -- the proper spelling of<BR>English
words means that all who read that word can interpret it to a<BR>reasonable
degree of similarity - albeit in their own accents. (Dan and I<BR>have been
talking at length about this). Proper English spelling then
is<BR>generally important because it provides an anchor for the word - which
is<BR>used by billions around the world. Similar to Han characters, which
can be<BR>read consistenly by peoples who can barely say hello to each
other.<BR><BR>Hence this is also a good reason also to name proper names
according to<BR>their proper pronunciation. Proper names have long
undergone a normal<BR>Anglicization when translated to English. Attempts
in different aread have<BR>been made to reform this -- the Hepburn system
given way to the pinyin,<BR>being an example -- We do it here already too: [[The
Chang Jiang]] article<BR>redirects from Yangtze - perhaps in tune with the
proper name of the<BR>Yangtze - I dont know for certain -- but this edit was
done by a<BR>ZhongGuo-pedian, and not an Anglo-pedian - hence deference in
Chinese<BR>matters would naturally goes to the guy/gal who is actually
Chinese. Im not<BR>going to give Erik any lectures about travel in
Deutchland.<BR><BR>A part of the reason why the En.Wikipedia has far more
traffic than all of<BR>the other languages combined. (Internet access
issues, WP founded by<BR>English speakers, etc.) is that English itself, being
the world lingua<BR>franca - tends to attract people to it - simply because of
the numbers.<BR>There is no reason why a foreign speaker, even with poor English
skills,<BR>should feel like they are unwelcome - (as long as they can
take<BR>correction - but thats attitude -related) - nor should they need
to<BR>excercise some kind of compartmentalized way of thinking about
their<BR>articles - certainly integrated language tools
-implementation might<BR>someday speed up the process of making more articles
avaliable.<BR><BR>In fact - what it looks like to me is that the En wikipedia
will be the<BR>major component in a world language wikipedia - that allows for
all kinds of<BR>cross-textual content. To separate these out by language makes
some sense -<BR>for sake of non-confusion, but I submit that these other
variants represent<BR>rifts between English and these other languages - and
hence the willingness<BR>of people to use them. Perhaps a WorldPedia where
only a few of the major<BR>languages are allowed would fit the bill to
start.<BR><BR>Naturally grammatical errors will come up, and this is just the
price to be<BR>paid for being the common tongue. There will always be a
struggle between<BR>the forces of ethnoconvergence and ethnostasis - both of
which see each<BR>other as being 'diverent' and 'destructive' - according to
their different<BR>value systems. The one reveres multiculturalism, while
the other reveres<BR>only its own.<BR><BR>All that said, I'd just like to see
Prague redirect to "Praha" -(etc) let<BR>"Prague" be recorded as a
depricated way of naming the capital city of<BR>Czechlosovakia. Proper
names, at least we can all agree - belong to the<BR>denzens of those cities, and
not to people elsewhere. Why depricated?<BR>Because I play go, chat, etc,
with people from Czechlosovakia (for example)<BR>. Not something that was a
reality as little as a decade
ago.<BR><BR><BR>WLBUY,<BR>-SteveM.<BR><BR></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>