On 3/10/06, Wikipedia Romania (Ronline) rowikipedia@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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