Re: Translation of personal names (was: Re: XHTML Basic)

Hello translators,
Hello Alexander,

> > just to swim against the tide. I never translate peopleīs names, not
> > because Iīm afraid of the work to find all languages for the
> > xml:lang, but I think it is simply not necessary.
>   Ordnung muss sein, Stefan.
Tell me, where do you know this sentence from?
Itīs the most popular sentence in Germany. ;-)

>   For this purpose the following is done by the respectable Russian
>   newspapers: the first appearance of a name is translated into
>   Russian following by the English form in parenthesis.
>   A hypothetical article:
>      <h1>Deiv Reggit vstrechaet'sa s Martinom Dyurstom</h1>
>      <p>Segodnia v 14:00 po moskovskomu vremeni v kongress-tzentre
>      gostinitsi Radisson-Slavyanskay vstrechalis' dva nebezizvestnih
>      predstavitelya konsortziuma W3C: Deiv Reggit (<span
>      xml:lang="en">Dave Raggett</span>) i Martin Dyurst (<span
>      xml:lang="de">Martin Duerst</span>).</p> <p>Gospoda Reggit i
>      Dyurst obsuzhdali problemi rasshireniya geografiyi W3C za schyot
>      vostochnoy Evropi.</p>
>   Note that the first appearance of "Deiv Reggitt" was not translated
>   (because it's a heading) as well as the third one (because it's not
>   the first appearance). If you use this style any reader who reads
>   the article from the very beginning will notice the original form.

Ok, so if your newspapers do it this way, your readers are used to 
it. So itīs the right way for you.
(Personly I would prefer to always read the original name of somebody 
and see the pronounciation once.)
Our newpapers handle that a bit different. 

> >> XHTML Basic is to be enclosed in <span xml:lang="en"> too.
> > Not necessarily.
>   Assuming you're right what is the purpose of xml:lang attribute?
In this case I wouldnīt use the xml:lang, because itīs quite obvious, 
that XHTML Basic is an english term. Why explain (with xml:lang) 
something, that is already known. 
But thatīs a point we surely can argue about hours and hours, where 
to use it and where not.

In cases where you find similar terms in both languages, I would use 
it to explicitly distinguish between both terms.
Or like you use it to tell your reader the english spelling. And 
maybe in several other cases.

Happy weekend,
Stefan
-- 
Stefan Schumacher
Oesterberg 20                                   0172/2718968
58553 Halver                                    02353/130119
Germany
www.schumacher-netz.de

Received on Saturday, 13 April 2002 17:24:04 UTC