[Wikipedia-l] Pronunciation guides (Was Re: Oliver is Lir II [...])

[Ray Saintonge]

Lars Aronsson wrote:

>Ray Saintonge wrote:
>
>>The issue of using diacritical marks is not about Lir.
>>
>To some extent, though, it is.  Lir is very alone in suggesting that
>Germany should be called Deutschland in an English text.  There are
>other foreign places where the English use is unstable, e.g. both the
>English spelling Gothenburg and the Swedish spelling Göteborg are used
>for the same city in English texts.  I think the NPOV policy is
>sufficient to address this.  For most smaller cities there never was
>an English name, and the use of diacritics might be justified.  But
>the name Germany never was in any of these categories.
>
>My remarks about Lir was about the "Deutschland" cases.  It was my
>interpretation that this was the result of independent thinking (which
>I admire) in combination with lack of interest in the opinion of
>others (which might come with more experience - it did for me).
>
I know that Lir was at the far end of the scale on this issue.  I too 
would find it unwarranted to refer to Germany as Deutschland in an 
English text.  Continuing to discuss the issue in terms of Lir only 
serves to keep alive an extreme POV that nobody else supports.  Once we 
remove the Lir factor we may find that our opinions are not that far apart.

For Gothenburg/Göteborg I see the issue as more in transition than 
unstable.  I just looked at a popular work: "The World Almanac and Book 
of Facts, 1998" and it uses "Göteborg".  This seems to reflect a modern 
trend.  My 1906 Encyclopedia Americana lists it under "Gottenburg".adds 
both alternatives and show "Götheborg" with the extra "h" as an 
alternative Swedish spelling..  

Eclecticology