Thursday, October 02, 2003, 04:20 GMT
Why is it that when people write foreign names in English they often feel the need to change the spelling?
Of course, we make very little use of diacritical marks when we write English. I wouldn't want to see more of them introduced to the language. They are a pain to write.
However, I think it's better to keep them if they belong there. I always put the extra dot on the "i" in "naïve" and the accent over the "e" in "café". Though, if you want to spell these words "naive" and "cafe", I'm not going to complain. These words are a part of the English language and so if people want them spelt in such a was as to have them fit in better, fine.
Names, on the other hand, I'd argue are a different story. The people whose names' you are spelling deserve enough respect that you should make the effort to spell them correctly. Place names too, in fact, any name. You wouldn't want someone coming along and saying "Oh, no, no, the way you spell your name is no good for us, we're going to have to respell the thing, so there."
For example, what's the go with taking the two dots off German letters and chucking an "e" after them? We oughtn't go round transliterating German: they use the same alphabet ... at least they do if you think of it in terms of the German, Icelandic, French, English, etc. alphabets' each being a subset of a larger extended Latin alphabet.
Here's the results of some searches I did on Google ... although they're not even that reliable because I did some searches more than once and there was about 10% varience in the results. And, of course, Google web searches are not the be all and end all of how stuff is spelt. But for what they're worth, here they are.
English only
Gerhard Schröder 41 700
Gerhard Schroeder 616 000
Gerhard Schroder 12 300
The whole web
Gerhard Schröder 510 000
Gerhard Schroeder 310 000
Gerhard Schroder 19 500
As you can see, about half of the sites that deformed the German Chancellor's name were English-language ones whilst the English-language sites only about an eighth of those which got the spelling right.
English only
Erwin Schrödinger 9080
Erwin Schroedinger 4790
Erwin Schrodinger 7910
The whole web
Erwin Schrödinger 24 600
Erwin Schroedinger 6100
Erwin Schrodinger 9940
This German scientist faired a bit better, at least the people making web-sites about him had a greater tendency to spell his name correctly.
What do you think?
Of course, we make very little use of diacritical marks when we write English. I wouldn't want to see more of them introduced to the language. They are a pain to write.
However, I think it's better to keep them if they belong there. I always put the extra dot on the "i" in "naïve" and the accent over the "e" in "café". Though, if you want to spell these words "naive" and "cafe", I'm not going to complain. These words are a part of the English language and so if people want them spelt in such a was as to have them fit in better, fine.
Names, on the other hand, I'd argue are a different story. The people whose names' you are spelling deserve enough respect that you should make the effort to spell them correctly. Place names too, in fact, any name. You wouldn't want someone coming along and saying "Oh, no, no, the way you spell your name is no good for us, we're going to have to respell the thing, so there."
For example, what's the go with taking the two dots off German letters and chucking an "e" after them? We oughtn't go round transliterating German: they use the same alphabet ... at least they do if you think of it in terms of the German, Icelandic, French, English, etc. alphabets' each being a subset of a larger extended Latin alphabet.
Here's the results of some searches I did on Google ... although they're not even that reliable because I did some searches more than once and there was about 10% varience in the results. And, of course, Google web searches are not the be all and end all of how stuff is spelt. But for what they're worth, here they are.
English only
Gerhard Schröder 41 700
Gerhard Schroeder 616 000
Gerhard Schroder 12 300
The whole web
Gerhard Schröder 510 000
Gerhard Schroeder 310 000
Gerhard Schroder 19 500
As you can see, about half of the sites that deformed the German Chancellor's name were English-language ones whilst the English-language sites only about an eighth of those which got the spelling right.
English only
Erwin Schrödinger 9080
Erwin Schroedinger 4790
Erwin Schrodinger 7910
The whole web
Erwin Schrödinger 24 600
Erwin Schroedinger 6100
Erwin Schrodinger 9940
This German scientist faired a bit better, at least the people making web-sites about him had a greater tendency to spell his name correctly.
What do you think?