Talk:Kaunas
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| Comments | Very sketchy, no references. Renata 17:57, 13 August 2006 (UTC) |
The name "Kovno" is frequently used in English. It should be mentioned in the article. It's obviously an anglicization of the name "Kowno"...I shall try to rephrase. john k 20:19, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Actually, it's simply the Russian traditional name. --Explendido Rocha 10:05, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I am always wondering why all Lithuanian city names in wikipedia have Polish equivalent writen inthe article? Why not Latvian or Swedish or German? Has Poland anything to do with Kaunas? Dirgela 18:02, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- Check the article on Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for instance. Halibutt 19:21, Feb 2, 2005 (UTC)
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- To see what? Shall I put all Lithuanian names for Polish cities? Varšuva, Poznanė, Gdanskas, Krokuva to name just a few. Warsaw surprisingly sends us to a separate page (Cities_alternative_names) to see alternative names, where Kaunas is listed either. So what is that special relationship between Kaunas and Poland that makes this article to provide the Polish version of its name in the first sentence? Dirgela 20:16, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- Dear Dirgela, first let's make one thing clear: I don't want to offend anyone's feelings or sense of national pride. Keep it cool and I'm sure we're get somewhere. All right?
- As to Kaunas - it was a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and then of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The official state language of that state was, from certain point in time, Polish. I wonder why didn't you know that, but now you do. Here in wikipedia we usually list all former official names of a city (if it had such). Check the articles on a plethora of Polish cities, including Suwałki that lists the Lithuanian name of the city. Halibutt 01:35, Feb 3, 2005 (UTC)
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- That much I can understand, but I still don't wee any consistency I would expect from encyclopedia. Let's look at some examples: Suwalki has never been part of Lithuanian, nor Lithuanian was ever official language of that city. Lithuanian name there is probably because there was relatively large Lithuanian minority living there. Klaipeda has Polish version in the first sentence, however Polish has never been official language there, even when Prussia was dependent on Poland. Vilnius has Russian, Belorussian and Polish equivalents (all three languages used as official in different time periods). Siauliai has German, Polish, and (surprise surprise) Yidish versions. Yidish was widely spoken there at certain period in the history (Jews made a very large proportion of its population). Panevezys has only Polish version, Alytus has no versions, although as far as I know traditionally it was called "Olita" in Polish. These are 6 biggest Lithuanian cities. Every city has random collection of their name versions in other languages. Some may be justified as former official names in different than Lithuanian official language, some might be related to ethinc minorities living there at certain period of time, for some I do not see any justification (Klaipeda - Polish version of this name is used probaly since the end of WWI, Polish has never been oficial language there, there were virtually no Polish people living).
- I am not against Polish language in particular, traditional German names for some cities look as strange as Polish, however it seems that somebody was going around in wikipedia and putting in brackets Polish city names as many as he/she knew ;) Some of them were zealously translated in many languages (Klaipeda). As it seems that there is no agreement on the use of these alternative names I would suggest to put them into (Cities_alternative_names), however I am afraid that somebody will find that I do it because of "feelings or sense of national pride". ;) And as far as I know, to delete something is almost taboo, so I don't think something will be different anyway, just could not stand to express my wonder. Dirgela 17:15, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Well, indeed, the whole fuzz with Klaipeda makes me wonder, since I can't remember any city of that name, neither in the times of PLC nor in the times of Poland ruling those lands. There was a small settlement named Memel, but I doubt the Poles (even the locals, if there were some) called it differently. As to the rest of names - I believe this should be left as it is - or cleansed slightly for greater consistency, but this might only create more troubles. I believe that leaving the alternative names would be the best choice. Firstly, they are not so many and in all cases you quoted are relevant, at least to some extent. Secondly, the whole problem with Warsaw and Cities alternative names emerged after an attack by an anon vandal, who erased the Polish version of the name and replaced it with German. Since the guy (or a gal) was using lots of different IPs and could not be blocked, we decided to put a link there to make him stop - and it worked (the German name of Warsaw was "official" only during WWII). As to Olita - you're right, that's the Polish name for that town. As to the traditional German names for Lithuanian cities - I'm not sure, I can't tell whether they are relevant or not. Apart from Memel, which is a slightly different case, the only period when those names were official (thus relevant) was WWII. Am I right? Halibutt 00:01, Feb 4, 2005 (UTC)
- It maybe is more appropriete for Talk:Klaipeda but truly "Klaipeda" is traditional Lithuanian name for "Memel". Traditionally it was called Memel in Polish either. I am guessing that the "Klajpeda" version appeared after WWI when Poland had claims to Memelgebiet as compensation for Gdansk. So basically it is similar to Baltstoge/Bialystok or any other Polish city which was never a part of Lithuania, however has a Lithuanian version of its name. However you're probably right - the question is not so important to start changing everything to one consistent model and risk an editing war.Dirgela 15:03, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)
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[edit] Infobox
Could anyone from Kaunas really confirm that Kaunas yra Kaunas is an official motto? DeirYassin 10:46, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
- Well, it depends what do You define as "official"... Of course, it is not bureaucratized by solution of city council ("Miesto tarybos sprendimas"), but it is in use de facto - it's in use on stickers, T-Shirts, advertisments. Ask Your reallife friends from Kaunas, dude;-> A.BigHead 02:56, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Soviet repressions 1940-1941
People were deported to the East, imprisoned in the 9th Fort. As far as I know some murdered prisoners were found after the Soviets left the city. Some prizoners were murdered in Belarus (Bigosovo ?). Xx236 14:54, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Wikilinks?!
This article uses wikilinks very heavily, often redundantly. I noticed through the Special:Random page, noting heavy use of wikilinks and correcting the "Basic Information" section. I, however, don't have time to remove all the redundant links, and thus request that it be done by another Wikipedian. Thank you. Nihiltres 03:07, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Tables?
Maybe, who have time and skills could do the tables for inhabitants and ethnic pop., cuz it distort article quite bad now. M.K. 16:26, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Statistic data?
I find the statistics of 1919 disturbing. 42 percent of Kaunas inhabitants were polish? correct me if i'm wrong but i don't think it is true. Where did all those people go in 1939? There were population census in 1897 and in 1923. So the data of 1919 might be (and i think it is) inaccurate. Adm.alvin.k 18:20, 10 Oct 2006 (UTC)
[edit] University Wikilinks
Shuold the Universities have wikilinks to their respective articles in wikipedia and not to their websites? Iulius 19:34, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
- I guess the articles of the individual universities would have the links to their respective websites already, so other articles could just wikilink the universities. --Lysytalk 21:45, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
- It should be wikilinks. But I guess some universities do not have articles yet and therefore to avoid red links someone put external links. BTW, WP:LITH collaboration is on the university articles, but because of this whole PL-LT nonsense it got neglected... :( Renata 21:51, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Gentle suggestion
There are 244 books returned by Google Book Search which use the name Kovno for this city, almost as many as Kaunas (266), yet that name is not mentioned anywhere in the article (apart from one external link at the very bottom). I think omitting it is quite simply a disservice to Wikipedia readers. I hope some way may be found to work it in. Any suggestions? Balcer 16:06, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
