[Wikipedia-l] What variant to use for Irish, Scottish and Welsh localities?

[Cormac Lawler]

On 3/10/06, Wikipedia Romania (Ronline) <rowikipedia at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm planning to work on a number of articles related to Irish, Scottish and
> Welsh localities on the Romanian Wikipedia. I am currently in a dilemma as
> to what name to use - the Celtic variant or the English variant. I have
> realised that most non-English Wikipedias use the English variant - so that
> place names such as "Cork", "Dublin", "Edinburg" and "Cardiff" are used. For
> the exception of Dublin, perhaps, many of these place names, particularly
> smaller towns, do not have native variants in languages such as Romanian,
> German, French, etc.
>
> So, why should the English name be used in this situation? Wouldn't the
> Celtic name be more appropriate? Celtic languages are co-official in
> Scotland and Wales, while in Ireland, Irish is the first official and
> national language. Due to this, I would prefer to use placenames such as
> "Corcaigh", "*An Uaimh*" (for Navan), "*Chill Dara" *(for Kildare), etc.
> However, this sounds quite odd and are not frequently used, even though they
> are the first official name. What do others think? I am inclined to use them
> so that people are actually educated that there exists an Irish language as
> the first official language of Ireland. Too often, people in Romania say
> "the Irish speak (just) English" and stop it at that. They're surprised, for
> example, when I tell them about Irish names such as "Baile Atha Cliath" for
> Dublin, etc.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ronline


I'm impressed you know so much about Irish placenames - I don't think
that many people even in Ireland would know where "An Uaimh" is.

And that, I think is the point - in Ireland (as in Scotland and
Wales), the undisputedly *main* language is English, whatever about
the *official* situation. I regret to say this, but it's true - this
is coming from an Irishman who feels daily guilt about not speaking
Irish properly. These languages are in various states, with "revival"
as the key word, and Wales being the most successful in this regard.

But this doesn't really answer your question, and I think that it
comes down to the local community's decision. On the Romanian
Wikipedia in general, do you use local names of all places? What about
placenames of a country that has more than one local, or even official
language? Phil's solution seems pragmatic enough. What do other
Wikipedias do?

Cormac


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