Talk:Lithuanian encyclopedias

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An entry from Lithuanian encyclopedias appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 3 September 2006.

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Could you please give an English translation of Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija? Clearly it means "Something Lithuanian Encyclopedia" or "Something Encyclopedia of Lithuania" (which one?), but what is Something (i.e. Visuotinė)? Lupo 08:25, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Ok, but the basic problem is that those encyclopedia writers are very uncreative an cannot come up with some distinctive titles :) I have no clue how to make a distinction in English between Lietuvių enciklopedija and Lietuviškoji enciklopedija, Lietuviškoji tarybinė enciklopedija and Tarybų Lietuvos enciklopedia. So I will have to go by Lithuanian names if I decide to create individual articles about them. Renata 10:50, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

That would've been my follow-up question (Lietuvių vs. Lietuviškoji, I mean). I know nothing about the Lithuanian language, so I can't help at all. Foolish as I am, I'll make a suggestion all the same: maybe use "Lithuanian E." and "E. of Lithuania"? I.e. "Lithuanian Soviet Encyclopedia" and "Soviet Encyclopedia of Lithuania"? Just a short in the dark... Lupo 10:55, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Lietuvių means of Lithuanians. Lithuanianians Encyclopedia sounds really weird. Encyclopedia of Lithuanians is completely misleading. Encyclopedia for Lithuanians? That's the only way I can think of.

Lietuviškoji is a special grammar form of lietuviška (i.e. Lithuanian), the closest English form, I guess, would be The Lithuanian. The Lithuanian Encyclopedia? Ergh...

It's easier with soviet stuff: Lietuviškoji tarybinė enciklopedija could be translated as Soviet Lithuanian Encyclopedia (or maybe, Lithuanian Soviet Encyclopedia, not sure where soviet fits best) and Tarybų Lietuvos enciklopedia could be Encyclopedia of Soviet Lithuania (which is really appropriate, btw). But then, translate half titles and leave the other half untranslated? Ergh... Renata 11:32, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Ergh indeed :-) As I said, it was just a completely uninformed, foolish shot in the dark. You're the expert here. Using the Lithuanian titles is certainly OK. In any case, I doubt anyone is going to search for these articles using any English translation that Wikipedians might invent. The most probable starting point would be this article anyway, I guess, and then the interested reader can find the other articles on the individual encyclopedias whatever titles they have as long as they're linked. Lupo 11:45, 31 August 2006 (UTC)