A proposed solution for descriptions

[Debbie Garside]

John wrote:

> Fourthly (from
> Wikipedia):
> 
> # Name
> #
> # History
> #
> # The country was originally known in English as Ivory Coast, 
> and # corresponding translations in other languages: 
> Côte-d'Ivoire # in French, Elfenbeinküste in German, Costa 
> de Marfil in Spanish, # Norsunluurannikko in Finnish, Pantai 
> Gading in Indonesian, Ivoorkust in # Dutch, Wybrzeże Kości 
> SÅ‚oniowej in Polish, Costa d'Avorio in Italian, # 
> Elefántcsontpart in Hungarian and so on. In October 1985 the 
> government # requested that the country be known as Côte 
> d'Ivoire in every language, # without the hyphen, 
> contravening the French grammatical rule that states # 
> geographical names with several words must be written with hyphens.

Which brings us back to my original comment:

"I am sure there is both "currency and historical usage" for translation of
most of the names in many a number of languages.  Bad move to add it just
because it is an English translation."

Debbie


> #
> # Usage
> #
> # Despite the Ivorian government's ruling, "Ivory Coast" 
> (sometimes # "the Ivory Coast") is still used in English. 
> Governments, however, # use "Côte d'Ivoire" for diplomatic 
> reasons. The English country # name registered with the 
> United Nations and adopted by ISO 3166 is # "Côte d'Ivoire". 
> Journalistic style guides usually (but not always) # 
> recommend "Ivory Coast":
> # 
> #     * The Guardian newspaper's Style Guide says: "Ivory Coast, not
> #       "the Ivory Coast" or "Côte D'Ivoire"; its nationals 
> are Ivorians"
> #     * The BBC usually uses "Ivory Coast" both in news reports and on
> #       its page about the country [1].
> #     * The Economist newsmagazine's Style Guide says "Côte d'Ivoire
> #       not Ivory Coast".
> #     * The United States Department of State uses "Côte d'Ivoire" in
> #       formal documents, but uses "Ivory Coast" in many 
> general references,
> #       speeches and briefing documents [2].
> #     * Encyclopædia Britannica uses "Côte d'Ivoire".
> #     * ABC News, The Times, the New York Times and SABC all 
> use "Ivory
> #       Coast" either exclusively or predominantly.
> #     * Rand-McNally Millenium World Atlas uses "Côte d'Ivoire".
> #     * FIFA uses Côte d'Ivoire when referring to their 
> national football
> #       team in international games and in official broadcasts.
> 
> > I brought up "Côte d???Ivoire" just as part of the rhetoric. I'd be 
> > happy to leave it as "Côte d???Ivoire" (preferably with an 
> apostrophe 
> > adjustment) in the Language Subtag Registry. I would NOT be 
> happy with 
> > using "Cote d'Ivoire", however, as that is a misspelling. 
> Translating 
> > it to English (in addition to "Côte d???Ivoire") would be 
> acceptable though.
> 
> Acceptable to you personally, but obviously *not* to the 
> people chiefly concerned.
> 
> --
> John Cowan  cowan at ccil.org  http://ccil.org/~cowan In 
> computer science, we stand on each other's feet.
>         --Brian K. Reid
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