Talk:Piața Romană

Name

I seriously doubt whether anyone has ever called this "Roman Square". Is there any reason not to call this article Piața Romană? - Jmabel | Talk 05:14, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, this raises a number of issues. First of all, the "Roman Square" name is indeed quite false, but I only placed the article there because the link pointed towards it from the template. However, it's quite a complex issue as to how streets and squares should be named - in their English name, or in their Romanian name. We can either name them all in English, or all in Romanian, or go by the most common name (where Romanian would be used when there is no established English alternative). Another difficult issue is with places like "Piaţa Unirii" - should we call these places "Piaţa Unirii", "Unirii Square", "Unirea Square" or "Union Square"? Union Square is the direct English translation. For the Romanian variants, I think Unirea Square is better than Unirii Square, since the square is actually called "Unirea", Unirii simply meaning, as you know, "of the Unirea/Union". To me, constructions like "Aviatorilor Square", "Huniazilor Castle" and "Victoriei Way" sound very odd. Ronline ✉ 08:51, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I tend to stick to the Romanian, myself, but then, I'm in the maybe 0.2% of native English speakers who are even vaguely comfortable in Romanian. I don't imagine most English speakers have any idea what to do with "ţ" and "ş". (I make an exception for Boulevard, I guess.)

I found "Large Square" and "Small Square" in the Sibiu article pretty odd, too.

On the names you give as examples: I'd pick either "Piaţa Unirii" or "Unirea Square". I'd probably avoid "Union Square" because there is such a famous one in New York. "Aviatorilor Square" does sound a bit odd to me: I'd probably use "Piaţa Aviatorilor" and translate parenthetically on first mention ("Aviators' Place"). No opinion on "Huniazilor Castle". "Victoriei Way" does indeed sound a bit odd; I've consistently used "Calea Victoriei" (again, sometimes with parenthetical translation on first mention).

I think a good guideline is to be more inclined to translate names that refer to an immediately neighboring site than those that are merely honorific. Thus "University Square" seems fine.

Anyway: do you have any objection to moving this to Piața Romană? - Jmabel | Talk 04:03, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

No, I don't. I just think a clear policy should be established because there is probably a lot of inconsistency in the names of the articles but also in the links going towards these articles (resulting in red links). Ronline ✉ 08:50, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

As long as all the redirects are there, that should be a minor issue. - Jmabel | Talk 17:23, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

By the way, what's the name of the business college right there on the northeast corner? - Jmabel | Talk 04:20, 16 August 2006 (UTC)