Pax to your Thanksgiving, Jimbo. Please accept that this is not about Lir, but rather just about nomenclature and an attempt to support the way we've been doing things.

I just read with interest what Lir's friends have to say about the anglicisation (for you, Steve) of foreign words. I also looked at what Lir had to say. Based on that, I am even more convinced that the article titles should remain in English. They are completely valid words in English. Moreover, I was just thinking about what we do with foreign names in English. Often it's true that the names were changed or misspelt or otherwise mutilated at Ellis Island. Sometimes, though, the bearers of those names changed them -- or their pronunciation -- to make them sound more "American" (I think the same is true in England). When one correctly pronounces those names (as I did after living in Germany for several years), one is often the immediate giver of offense.

Furthermore, when I think back to the old days of "it's Prussia," "No, it's Poland," (the argument was over what name to use for cites which spent much of their history as part of Prussia, but are presently located in Poland) the only way to come to a reasonable agreement was to rely on what English speakers most normally (and currently) use.

As for leading through good example -- I have to ask about this. As I understand Lir's argument, he says: It's correct to use the local name for a place, because we should be more sensitive to others,

But speakers of other languages may in fact not do this(I personally know people who speak French, German, and Spanish as their native languages -- they all use that language's version of US when speaking the respective language)

If these other-language-speakers don't practice the "local-name-use" rule, then they aren't behaving as they should, BUT, we should be better than they are and lead by example -- then they may catch on.

Can we please leave it alone, and accept that languages reflect a good many things, but that, unless terms are not translatable, it's best to try and speak one language at a time in the Pedia?

Jules

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