Talk:Basel

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Contents

[edit] Links

http://www.basel.ch

http://www.basel.com

[edit] Basle?

The article claims that the traditional English spelling be Basle. Is this really the case? I thought it is an alternative English spelling that is more or less disused today. Kokiri 09:21, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

I used to see "Basle" in British English texts written before WW 2. Occasionaly I still see it. But the prevelent spelling today seems to be "Basel". --TGC55 18:54, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
  • I think writing "Basle" is incorrect and has to do with writing what is closest to what was pronounced. But in order to be politically correct, one should separate pronounciation and style of writing - I think. LIllIi 23:13, 2 January 2007 (UTC)Ran J. 21:23, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
I disagree. Does anybody have any proof that English speakers other than bankers refer to the city by its German name? If we start calling Basle "Basel" where will it all end? Calling Geneva "Genf" or "Genève"? Surely an encylopaedia has to reflect fact as it is today rather than what the Basle tourism board wants. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.6.205.113 (talk) 03:12, 24 May 2007
This English speaker (in the U.S.), along with everyone I know to have an opinion the matter, uses "Basel." If this is not enough to satisfy you, check the work of the leading American scholar on this city, Lionel Gossman. In his earlier work he spells the name "Basle," but he switched to "Basel" well before the end of the last century. So "Basle" appears to belong with "Peking" on the list of obsolete English spellings of geographical names. -- Rob C (Alarob) 20:17, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
  • As a Briton living in Basel, I too have seen Basel spelt "Basle" and pronounced the French way. My understanding is that this is the traditional way. However probably because of the not so great impact of the town in the English-speaking world, this has almost mostly been forgotten. Note that in UK airports today, it's still spelt "Basle" and pronounced as it is in French. After reading the Wikipedia "Circumflex" article <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumflex>, it seems translating the letter "a" with a circumflex or carret ("â") into English becomes "as". So "Bâle" becomes "Basle" like French "hôpital" becomes English "hospital". However for some reason we're still using French pronunciation for "Basle". --Rdiggle 12:46, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
  • I disagree with the usage of the phrase "British English traditionally: Basle". "British English" describes a dialect of English. Here I believe you're trying to refer to what the people of Britain (exclusive to the rest of the English speaking world) have traditionally used (which I disagree with anyway--see my previous paragraph). --Rdiggle 12:46, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
  • I always assumed that the English people choosing to pronounce it Bale did so under the misapprehension that Basel was in fact a French speaking city or a split city like Biel/Bienne. Now whilst we may not want to call Geneva Geneve, we certainly wouldn't call it Genf either. Fundamentally, I don't think that Bale/Basle have had enough impact on the English language to become so ubiquitous that we absolutely have to maintain them out of deference to 18th century travel writers, as frankly, they are ludicrous. It should be Basel, of course.

Some Google figures: Google, Basel 51 million, Basle 1.4 million. Google Scholar, Basel 1 million, Basle 90'000. Google Books, Basel 10'000, Basle 4'000.

213.38.11.86 (talk) 08:58, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation

@CdaMVvWgS:
At http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=basle you will find that the traditional English pronunciation which corresponds to the traditional spelling is [ba:l] rather than [ba:sl] (which is what you wrote) or [ba:zl] which is the more modern English rendering corresponding to the endonymic spelling. --Akkolon 10:05, 30 May 2004 (UTC)

That is incorrect. The website you linked in your post reads, quote "Pronunciation: ['bä-z&l]". This surely is a misunderstanding on your part, because [ba:l] - what you suggested to be the traditional spelling - is infact the French variant: Bâle. LIllIi 23:13, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
Actually, even though its traditionally written Basle in British English its spoken like the French [ba:l] (mind that travelling from Basel, Switzerland to England (and back) ment travelling through France...) - Kind regards from Basel, --Goonies 10:32, 12 April 2006 (UTC) (Oh, btw... nobody's going to kill you if you still use Basle)
Helen Williams, in her 1798 book (A tour in Switzerland; or, a view of the present state of the governments and manners of those cantons...), consistently spells the city's name Basil, suggesting to me that she pronounced it like the name of the herb (or of certain men...). -- Alarob 19:09, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
She might have taken it from the italian/latin name of Basel: Basilea. Plus, 'Basil' in English and 'Basel' in Swiss-German are pronounced pretty much the same. --Goonies 09:31, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ciba SC

Added it back to the article as it isn't a subsiduary of Novartis. Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy merged in 1996 forming Novartis, and Ciba Specialty Chemicals was formed as an operationally independent company the following year.

[edit] Roger Federer & Patty Schnyder

Hello, I think that those two people:

  1. Patty Schnyder (1978--), tennis player
  2. Roger Federer (1981--), tennis player

Are not from basel city, they are actually from basel country. Roger currently lifes in Oberwil ( a little village) and about Patty I don't know.Fanatisch 13:31, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Please note that this is the Basel article not the Basel-City one. Roger Federer is from Münchenstein, which is technically in Basel-Country but belongs to the agglomeration of Basel(-City). It's a bit of a gray zone but usually everybody in the agglomeration of Basel states that he/she is from Basel, when beeing asked. (Except if a local person asks). Therefore I think its ok to have those two (and some others) in the list. --Goonies 09:14, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
You are contradicting yourself if you are arguing in favour of keeping mentioned individuals stating that this is an article about Basel. Basel is a city in the canton of Basel-Stadt. Inhabitants of cities located in Basel-Land should be mentioned in their respective cities' article. LIllIi 23:24, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
Oh well, sorry, I always confuse this basel/basel-city thing... dooh! But I did some research: According to Patty Schnyders official webpage she IS from Basel. Also, for me it's OK to have Federer here as well. First, you can find the precise details in his Biography. Second, it's not me wanting Federer to be in the Basel article, its just that the information, that he's from that region might not be that obvious anymore after removing. Where else do you want to put this useful information? He's born in Binningen (stub, there is a note in the article already) as many, many of the people in the agglomeration of Basel (why? its where the Bruderholz Hospital is located). He grew up in Münchenstein (stub) and lives now in Oberwil (stub). All these cities are in the agglomeration of Basel (see also my comments above). But I agree that technically he is not from Basel and you could remove his name if you'd feel the need to do so. --Goonies 16:07, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Basel population

Although this article says that Basel's conurbation, with 690,000 inhabitants, is Switzerland's second-largest, that honor in fact belongs to Geneva (750,000). Brendan 619Brendan619 19:11, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Person rellevant?

I'm afraid this person (Daniel Bernoulli (1936-?) Geologist) is not rellevant, because:

I suggest erasing this name from the article, unless notability was proven.--Pere prlpz 18:34, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

The same applies to those not well-known (only locally or nationally) football players (I am going to delete them). We should be a bit careful to add people which are still alive. Everybody can claim to be someone.

[edit] Quarters

"Basel is not subdivided into official counties, districts or boroughs, but into unofficial quarters. There are 19 quarters; the municipalities of Riehen and Bettingen are not included." It's not at all clear what that means. If the quarters are unofficial, who defines them? The author of that sentence? What's the distinction between a "quarter" and a "district" anyway? Lfh 10:58, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Here's a link to the official Basel-City statistical website: http://www.statistik-bs.ch/quartier -- The terms Quartiere (quarters) and Gemeinden (districts, more literally communes) are used by the city. The word "unofficial" may be confusing here. -- Rob C. alias Alarob 14:49, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Basel Elite

sources? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sochi is mine (talk • contribs) 03:59, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

[edit] German-speaking?

The article does not currently mention whether most people in Basel speak French or German. Could this be added? thanks. Itsmejudith 12:45, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Swiss-German —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.164.252.161 (talk) 15:43, 22 February 2008 (UTC)