[Wikipedia-l] Minority/majority question

Sat Jul 31 10:49:24 UTC 2004

Gutza wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I hope I'm posting this on the right list, don't know where else to 
> turn. We have a minor dispute on the Romanian Wikipedia and I'd like to 
> ask for your advice. The dispute refers to the naming of an article 
> (would prefer not to specify which article, but it's a sensitive topic 
> with people). Now, there are two spellings proposed for the article 
> name: the one widely accepted in Romania and another one which is 
> preferred by a Romanian minority.
> 

Well, if it’s an issue with a city name or anything like that, it may be 
just as appropriate to call Temesvár Timişoara as it is to call Wien 
Bécs or Kraków Krakkó on the Hungarian wikipedia or Wien Vienna on the 
English one simply because the host language calls it that way.

It’s a matter of language, I think, not a matter of what country the 
language is spoken.  If they want a Hungarian article (I guess this is 
just another Székely vs. Romanian “trouble”), they could always come to 
the Hungarian Wikipedia and write the article there with a Hungarian 
title and Hungarian contents.

> Some people say that the article should be named the way the Romanian 
> majority spells it, others say it should be named as the minority spells 
> it, as to respect the rights of the minority, and most importantly 
> Wikiquette. The article topic itself is not per se relevant to neither 
> the minority nor the majority in particular. Of course that in both 
> cases a redirect will be made from the "other" spelling to the main 
> article, regardless of which will remain as the main article and which 
> remains as a redirect.
> 

Otherwise, I’d be really interested to know what article this is about.