Rowan Collins wrote:
A template mechanism (either by convention, as
described by Brion, or
a more specific feature in the software) that replaces the headword
wherever it occurs seems attractive, until you realise that this would
still not solve the underlying problem - that there are multiple
formal dialects of English. For instance, a page stating that "the
Common Loon is fond of aubergines" would be incorrect [linguistically]
whoever read it, because it mixes two dialects; if the "Common Loon"
part were to be automatically "translated", the "aubergine"
("eggplant") would need to be translated as well.
...
It's a tough issue, really, and one for which
I've yet to see a really
adequate solution suggested - an automatic "translator"/converter
might be great, but I'm not personally convinced it's feasible.
--
Rowan Collins BSc
[IMSoP]
Thanks for all the ideas, I especially like the translator/converter
idea. The dialect used plus a table of conversions would need to be
stored somewhere or passed to the page on the request. I think it could
be done but it's more work then I'm up to right now. I haven't used the
redirects yet but I'll try that.
At first I didn't like the template solution for what I'm doing but I
kept finding ways around most of my objections. Having separate pages
fixes the page titles and the content is kept on a single page using the
binomial name. My main objection was how the editor gets to the template
page where the content is but that was helped by having sections and
also placing a link in the template to itself, like [[Gavia stellata]].
Still though if another bird like the Red-throated Loon is mentioned in
the text I don't see a way for it to be translated to the common name
for another area like the UK.