[WikiEN-l] Proper Foreign Names RESP 2 STEVEN G

[Stevertigo]

Response to STEVEN

Steven: I'm not entirely unsympathetic to this issue, but I believe that this 
| suggestion is misguided. Proper names have been translated from 
| their original language into others long before English came on the 
| scene. 

Well, no more. The point is that "long before" the web and Wikipedia were born -- a lot of things were true -- many of them little known.  Now its not the case -- on an almost daily basis we edit pages that are also edited by people from Deutschland (hey Erik), Eire (James), (complicated).... ZhongGuo (Samuel), Ceska Republika (xChaos) -etc.etc...  The proper name of Africa might be whatever the people of Africa - refer to it - namely "Africa" -- certainly European colonial history plays a role there.  

| In English, the capital of the Czech Republic is Prague. This is a 
| translation of the name. As you point out, there is some 
| momentum in the English to use translations that more closely 
| approximate the pronunciation in the dominant language of the 
| area. However, language evolves naturally. Wikipedia can declare 
| "Prague" deprecated, but it wouldn't make a bit of difference to the 
| rest of the English speaking world, and it would make the project 
| look silly.
| 
|  - Stephen G.


Well, I wouldnt want to make anyone "look silly."  Heavens no.

-Stevertigo
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