Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (language policy)

message: It is Wikipedia English-language policy that titles, persons and events be uniformly rendered in English-translation followed by foreign-language translation (in parenthesis and with Latin script in italics) in both article title and first appearance in the body of the article.
Submitted by HanumanDass 02:28, 28 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Proposed naming convention 

message: Consistency across foreign (non-English) languages would eliminate conflict. One standard would apply to all foreign languages in the translation of titles, names and events to their English-language equivalents.
Included in the original version of this proposal are "titles, persons and events" but this list can be shortened or expanded. 
HanumanDass 02:28, 28 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Please provide some examples.  I don't know how sweeping a change this is.  Preferably controversial examples.  Tempshill 18:25, 28 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Discussion 

message: Any good examples of where this sort of thing has come into conflict? Also, are recently borrowed foreign loan words like intifada to be considered English or not? Mithridates 09:02, 28 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Examples 

message: It would be hard to implement. I mean, we would have to move Israel to Israel (ישראל Yisra'el) and Russia to Russia (Россия Rossiya), and it would be a nightmare trying to agree on the appropriate transliteration. I mean, one could argue, why should we say the transliteration of Россия is Rossiya and not, say, Rossija (which is also widely used). Also, how would the article Greece be? The very name of that country in its own language is disputed. Possible titles include:
*Greece (Ελλάς Hellás)
*Greece (Ελλάς Hellas)
*Greece (Ελλάς Ellás)
*Greece (Ελλάς Ellas)
*Greece (Ελλάς Elás)
*Greece (Ελλάς Elas)
*Greece (Ελλάδα Helláda)
*Greece (Ελλάδα Hellada)
*Greece (Ελλάδα Elláda)
*Greece (Ελλάδα Ellada)
*Greece (Ελλάδα Eláda)
*Greece (Ελλάδα Elada)
*Greece (Ελλάδα Elládha)
*Greece (Ελλάδα Elladha)
*Greece (Ελλάδα Eládha)
*Greece (Ελλάδα Eladha)
:and there are many more possibilities
The edit wars would be dreadful, especially in cases like this, all of those names are used and all are perfectly valid. I don't think that this policy would be a good idea as it is now. Perhaps if it only regulated how transliterations would be laid out on the page.
For example it could follow this pattern:
:English name (Name of language: In foreign alphabet Latin transliteration)
Thus, the example Israel would be:
:Israel (Hebrew: ישראל Yisra'el)
Nice, isn't it?
Of course, it has to mention the native name only once; everywhere else, it would be plain 'Israel'.
This way, the policy is regulating style and enforcing a sense of consistency throughout Wikipedia. For example in other articles, the Latin transliteration of the foreign name might not be in italics; it could be in bold or not emphasised at all. With such a policy, all transliterations would be placed after the foreign name, in italics etc. Izehar 22:02, 28 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Italics are not allowed on page titles. --cesarb 01:12, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Change 

message: The discussion above has resulted in a broader language policy proposal at Wikipedia:Language policy. 
Synchronistically, another new policy proposal immediately preceded my new proposal at (Wikipedia:Hypothetical_Future_Concensus) and attracted my attention because it appears to address a common issue underlying both proposals, i.e., what is consensus and how is it achieved? This new proposal also raises an interesting philosophical issue concerning process versus product.  Dass 12:07, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: In addition to consensus, a reference for English names could really help. During these days we are facing a debate about names of Italian places (like Trentino-Alto Adige, Adige, Bolzano), where it is not clear if an English version for Italian or German names is commonly in use in English speaking world. -- Pietro 13:18, 9 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  New Language Policy Proposal