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