Axel Boldt wrote:
--- Erik Moeller erik_moeller@gmx.de wrote:
I think we need to change our naming convention to use the more
correct
article title if everybody who knows the history of the term in
question
agrees that it is correct; that is, if everybody who has a coherent
POV on the matter shares the same opinion. In other words, we should use
academically correct titles, not those which Google prefers.
I agree. Two reasons:
- The text of our articles always aims for correctness as recognized by
those who know what they're talking about, not for "correctness" as recognized by the majority of the people. The same should apply to article titles.
- We're here to educate, not to provide people with the warm and fuzzy
feeling that comes from reading something familiar. For retaining memory, there's nothing better than a healthy shock. You follow a link to X and end up on page Y, how is that possible? Shock! Confusion! Immediately you investigate and the article gives the answer, right there in the second paragraph. You're not going to forget that one easily.
I share those sentiments. Still, inconvenient as it may be, it does end up on a case by case basis.
Of the two specific proposals by Erik I happen to agree with one and disagree with the other.
I agree with Ockham because it is English and he was English. There are apparently two such villages in England with no certainty about which of them produced old Bill. If we're going to use a Latinized version why not go all the way and refer to him as [[Gulielmus Occamensis]]?
I disagree about [[Pennsylvania Dutch]]. That term is not just about language, but about three centuries of cultural life. That term has developed a large range of connotations that go well beyond what the term "Dutch" may mean by itself. As the popular saying goes: "The whole is bigger than the sum of its parts." There is still room for [[Pennsylvania German]], but it seems to me that this would have a more restrictive sense that deals with linguistic aspects of German in Pennsylvania including in areas that are not familiarly considered to be "Pennsylvania Dutch".
Eclecticology