Talk:Slovak exonyms

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Contents 1 Wrocław -> Vratislav 2 Traditional Slavic Names 3 Current vs. Archaic name 4 Names of countries and areas 5 Bethlehem and Beersheva 6 Bilingualism 7 Minor reverts from May 28, 2008

[edit] Wrocław -> Vratislav

I changed the name to Vratislav; as defined in Lexikón slovenských dejín, SPN, Bratislava, 1999. Jancikotuc 08:00, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Traditional Slavic Names

This article lists some non-Slovak but Slavic traditional names for towns in non-Slavic countries. Such cities include: Skadar, Bendery, Drač, Belák and most of German cities (whose Slovak names are undoubtedly of Czech origin, e.g. Cáchy). Jancikotuc 20:29, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Current vs. Archaic name

It can be tough to judge whether or not a Slovak name of a city is a contemporary one. Many small towns in present-day Austria, Germany, Hungary and Romania phased out of everyday talk after the WWI. As a result, names such as Rezno, Štajerský Hradec, Ráb and Veľký Varadín might sound old-fashioned to some Slovaks, but technically they are not.

The Slovak names of Italian cities usually stem from their original Latin version (Trident, Tarent, Neapol) or German version (Turín).

Slovak names of Ukrainian cities usually resemble their respective Russian equivalents. Jancikotuc 20:42, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I would agree. Determining whether an exonym is historical is nearly impossible. Many exonyms are only used in specific, often local contexts. For example : most German exonyms for towns in Sonderjylland will be unknown to most Germans, while they are well known and widely used in Schleswig-Holstein. I would usually regard an exonym and historical if it doesn't appear in any literature post 1900, i.e. it is only used in pre-1900 books, maps, newspapers etc. Travelbird 22:26, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Names of countries and areas

I removed the names of countries and other areas (states, regions etc.) because that will make the list to encompassing and might lead this list to be deleted. E.g. if all names of countries were added, this list would have an additional 250-300 names on it, all of which would not be particularly notable, since all languages have slightly different names for most other countries. Travelbird 22:12, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't think this is the right way to go. Lists of exonyms in other languages do contain states and regions, not only towns and villages. Besides, Slovak exonyms only exist for a handful of objects outside Europe, and even for those in Europe, the list was nearing completion. We can reach a compromise by only allowing exonyms that substanially differ from the local name, such as Sedmohradsko - Transilvania. Jancikotuc 19:40, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

And please allow Rujana (Rügen). It used to be a Slavic stronghold and a place of worship, so it deserves a place in this list. ;) Jancikotuc 19:53, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

The main problem is notability. While it is notable that, lets say, Szczecin is Stettin in German and Greifswald is Gryfia in Polish, the fact that Germany is Niemcy in Polish and Polska is Polen in German is not. Including the latter would make the list unnecessarily extensive and full of not really notable facts.

As for Rügen/Rujana : you will notice that I didn't remove those. Travelbird 00:16, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bethlehem and Beersheva

I also removed the two towns listed above since "Berševa" and "Betlehem" aren't really exonyms. They just differ in transliteration method from the normal English spelling. Travelbird 22:15, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bilingualism

Since Belgium has two official languages, i thought it would be nice (politically correct?) to give both names for every Belgian city. Anybody thinks it's inappropriate? Jancikotuc 15:57, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

The problem is that Belgium kis acctually no longer officially billgual. Until about 20 years ago all of Belgium way officially bilingual and cities like Antwerp and Liège were offcially called Antwerpen-Anvers and Liège-Luik. After the regionalisation of Belgium into 3 Regions and 3 Language areas this is no longer the case, the only exception being the Brussels Region. Thus names such as Luik are now also offical exonyms in addition to being actual exonyms. Since this list is about exonyms (right column) as compared to endonyms (left column) we probably shouldn't mix the two columns for clarity's sake. Travelbird 16:24, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

THX, so be it. Jancikotuc 20:04, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Minor reverts from May 28, 2008

Hi, i reverted the Slovak names of Shkodër and Iaşi back to the reference found in [1]. Yes I know how the Romanian word Iaşi si pronounced, but that's no point. The traditional Slovak name is pronounced Jasy (yah-see).

Next, please abstain from adding such meaningless entries as Monaco = Monako. Such additions will only make the list unnecessarily long, while adding no extra value. A Slovak name must differ somehow from the original name to be considered exonym. Jancikotuc (talk) 08:50, 28 May 2008 (UTC)