[Wikipedia-l] Minority/majority question

Sat Jul 31 11:15:03 UTC 2004

Sorry for replying out of the thread, my subscription suffered some 
unknown damage so I have to get the replies from the web archive, I 
don't receive them by mail although I am subscribed.

Ok, I hoped I could avoid saying what this is about, but I should have 
seen the RO/HU assumptions coming -- and it's only natural. The article 
in question is the one about Jesus. The Romanian (Eastern) Orthodox 
Church says that the name should be spelled "Iisus Hristos". Other 
religions in Romania (mainly Catholic branches) say that the Romanian 
name is Isus Cristos.

So now you know. It's not about Timisoara, and on a personal note I 
mildly resent the way you presented the analogy, as if Timisoara is 
natively spelled Temesvár in the same way as Vienna is spelled "Wien"; I 
honestly don't understand why you had to bring that into the discussion 
out of nowhere. But let's not get into this now, it would be a waste of 
our time.

Anyhow, the dispute is basically not about the language itself, because 
all religions who dispute the name do it in Romanian. On a side note, to 
put your mind at ease before you assume it as being the case, no Magyars 
are involved in the dispute itself.

Cheers,
Gutza

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.