[WikiEN-l] Accented characters (was Re: fancruft)

[Mark Gallagher]

G'day John,

> I fully understand that. The most common way you see Dvořák's name
> printed in English is "Dvořák," fully and diacritically correct.
> 
> That said, if the full policy is that the most commonly recognized
> English name for the person or thing addressed in the article is where
> the article should reside, then [[Jaromir Jagr]] is right where it
> belongs.

<snip />

English is not --- any longer --- the twenty-six characters we learn 
about in school.  "Café" is still "café", even if a couple of very silly 
people in Millwall insist on pronouncing it "kaiph"; I find it rather 
astonishing that there are people who would be very unhappy at the idea 
that our article wouldn't spell it "cafe".  "Göring" is "Göring", 
"Schrödinger" is "Schrödinger", etc., etc.

There are words we know best in their Anglicised form, and there are 
words (and names) which we don't.  I appreciate your approach --- the 
most commonly recognised name, in English --- although I hope *you* 
appreciate that English is not just a language spoken in parts of North 
America ... and the views of an English-speaking fellow in Poland are 
just as important as those of someone who once rang up and complained 
because his copy of /TV Guide/ included diacritic marks over the names 
of a football player.

Displaying an Anglicised word because that's how the word is best-known 
amongst English speakers is bonza.  That doesn't mean we need to operate 
with a deliberate bias against those funny little foreign characters 
used by funny little foreigners.

> We're not saying "change Dvořák," we're saying "respect policy."

Fuck policy.  Policy is a stick to hit stupid process wonks with until 
they're willing to do the Right Thing.  If policy currently prescribes 
the Right Thing, then don't say "respect policy" --- it's senseless when 
you could just say "do the Right Thing".  If policy is *wrong*, then 
don't say "respect policy", because then you'll be doing the Wrong Thing.

(Well, policy is also useful when the identity of the Right Thing is 
ambiguous.  My alternative proposal --- everyone does what Mark 
Gallagher says --- hasn't quite caught on the way I hoped it might, so 
following policy can be a good compromise.  But we should follow policy 
for a good reason, *never* "just because it's policy".)


Cheers,

-- 
Mark Gallagher
"What?  I can't hear you, I've got a banana on my head!"
- Danger Mouse