Talk:Carlos Tomás

Island/Province/Autonomous Community birthplace information for Balearic football players

The Balearic Islands are a province of Spain, an autonomous community of Spain and, strictly from a geographic perspective, an archipelago consisting of four main islands-- Majorca (Mallorca in Spanish and Catalan), Minorca (Menorca in Spanish and Catalan), Ibiza (Eivissa in Catalan) and Formentera. Only the Catalan-language names are official (and thus Ibiza may best be known as such in English as this is also its Spanish name, but only Eivissa is official). The Balearic Islands, in addition, are a "nationality" in Spanish constitutional terms.

In the infobox, given that the "Balearic Islands" constitutes four separate pieces of data-- province, autonomous community, archipelago, and nationality, I have added it to Balearic footballers generally (it should be noted that "Balearic footballers" is already a Wikipedia category, one I had no hand in creating). Readers can interpret the addition as a geographic or political or national heritage indication, or some or all of these. In all cases, readers will note immediately the birth place is not on the Spanish mainland, but is rather something akin to the US equivalent of Hawaii.

One exception I have made is the most important and most numerous exception-- the capital and largest city, Palma or Palma de Mallorca (listed in Wikipedia as Palma, Majorca-- writing it in this fashion was an option, but does not accord with Spanish practice). For Palma, I have merely ensured the full name is listed, such that it is clear that we are referring to the Palma on the island of Mallorca and thus in the Balearic Islands. Similar exceptions can be made for Ciutadella, the largest city on Minorca, which can be made clearly Balearic merely by using the full name Ciutadella de Menorca. Ibiza presents a slightly different case-- it's largest city, similar to the island itself, is called simply Ibiza (and thus officially Eivissa). Though the question of whether the Spanish/English unofficial name or the Catalan official name for the town should be used (and indeed two of three references in the article itself use "Eivissa" even in English) is an interesting one, references to Ibiza, which redirect to Ibiza (town), need not have "Balearic Islands" added for the same reasons as Ciutadella de Menora or Palma de Mallorca. It's obviously where they are; that is, on Majora, Minorca or Ibiza/Eivissa in the Balearic Islands.

Thus the addition of "Balearic Islands" as a practical matter only affects relatively small towns whose locations will be unknown even to readers otherwise well acquainted with Spain. RangerRichard (talk) 17:22, 24 November 2014 (UTC)