[WikiEN-l] Naming convention: popularity vs. correctness

Sun Feb 9 22:43:30 UTC 2003

At 05:20 PM 2/9/03 -0500, the Cunctator wrote:
>On 2/9/03 4:47 PM, "Erik Moeller" <erik_moeller at gmx.de> wrote:
> > 1) Ockham's Razor should not reside at Occam's Razor (Occam is the
> > latinization of the town name Ockham; the town still exists today).
> >
> > 2) Pennsylvania Dutch should be at Pennsylvania German (it is not Dutch at
> > all; the word is merely a corruption of "Deutsch" or "Dütsch").
> >
> > As I wrote on [[Talk:Pennsylvania Dutch]]:
> >
> > Regarding the title, I agree this should be under Pennsylvania German.
> > This is a case where a redirect makes perfect sense. I support anglicized
> > article titles, but I do not support using an obviously inccorect title
> > because it is more popular among the uninformed. It is not POV for us to
> > assert that "Pennsylvania German" is correct if there's nobody who
> > disagrees, based on factual arguments and not mere habit, with that
> > statement. This "Dutch" has nothing to do with Dutch.
> >

<snip>

>For example, I know about the term "Pennsylvania Dutch" and have seen it
>used in many contexts (social, political, commercial branding, etc.) whereas
>"Pennsylvania German" is just not a term in use.

I agree. In this particular case, we're not dealing with a long-dead
philosopher: we're dealing with the language of a thriving community. The
question is, or should be, _what terms do they use_? In particular, what terms
do they use when they're speaking English? (In Pennsylvania Dutch, I suspect
they call it "Deutsch".) Certainly, the region is called the Pennsylvania Dutch
Country, not the Pennsylvania German Country. Googling won't get
you this one--the Amish avoid the Internet.

-- 
Vicki Rosenzweig
vr at redbird.org
http://www.redbird.org