Talk:Zbignev Balcevič

Name

Why in the world is this under "Zbignev Balcevič"? His name is Zbigniew Balcewicz. Just because the Lithuanian government forces its citizens to Lithuanize their names that doesn't make it a Wikipedia policy. In English language sources he is Zbigniew Balcewicz [1], [2]. Needs movin'.radek (talk) 02:37, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

Are you here just for some anti-Lithuanian government crusade? Because in every other post somehow manage end on high note about evil repressionist government. Answer to your statement that "Lithuanian government forces its citizens to Lithuanize their names" is simple - NO IT DOES NOT. Lithuanized version of Zbignev Balcevič would be Zbignevas Balcevičius. No one is forced to Lithuanize they name in Lithuania, unlike in states like Turkey, also not sure about Greece and Latvia, where change of the name is obligatory. Anyone can write they name as they like. But in official documents Lithuanian transcription is used because ... prepare for major surprise... Lithuanian is official language in Lithuania. Just like Lucy Liu Chinese name is 劉玉玲, but is spelled Lucy Liu in her American docs I guess. AndPau (talk) 11:17, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

The Lucy Liu example is ridiculous, obviously the transcription has to be used there because the Chinese use the hanzi character. As for the claim that the "in official documents Lithuanian transcription is used because Lithuanian is official language in Lithuania." that doesn't hold any water. Polish is a minority language in Lithuanian and as such people should be able to use their name in the documents. At least that's the established standard everywhere in the European Union. Forced translation of names is something which should be a thing of some darker past times.  Dr. Loosmark  15:01, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

people should be able to use their name in the documents. At least that's the established standard everywhere in the European Union. Forced translation of names is something which should be a thing of some darker past times. - and it is certainly NOT Wikipedia policy.radek (talk) 20:28, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

Re: "The Lucy Liu example is ridiculous, obviously the transcription has to be used there because the Chinese use the hanzi character"

Exactly, exactly. Just like in Lucy Liu case because English alphabet is lacking characters that Chinese has, transcription is used. So in this case because Lithuanian alpahbet does not have diacritic characters that Polish alphabet has transcribtion is applied

Re:"Forced translation of names is something which should be a thing of some darker past times."

Indeed it should and probably is. I don't know any country in Europe that would translate it citizens' name. Turkey maybe? Do not know this for sure.

Re:"At least that's the established standard everywhere in the European Union".

I'm affraid that is just a fruit of your imagination. In Latvia Zbignev Balcevic would have Zbigņevs Balcevičs written in his passport. But I've never seen any representative of Polish conservative-far right political spectrum going apepoop about that.

There were no Polish diacritics in German and Irish passports that I've seen. But in Irish case that might change soon since Polish minority of Ireland is demanding to make Polish the third official language there. When most likely diacritics would become optional but now they aren't.

In British passports also only A-Z is used, hyphen is also allowed but no diacritic characters. So no exceptions for Polish minority there.

As for Wikipedia, in case of Polish-German person - Miroslav Klose is in use not Mirosław Kloze

in case of Polish-Latvian person - Zbigņevs Stankevičs, not Zbigniew Stankiewicz is used.

in case of Polish-American person Zbigniew Brzezinski, not Zbigniew Brzeziński,

and Andrew Golota not Andrzej Gołota. AndPau (talk) 14:34, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

AndPau, your example falls down in the case of Zbigniew Brzezinski. You'll note that his name has retained all of its original spelling upon his move to the US, omitting the accent above the 'n' in Brzezinski. If we were to apply the Lithuanian situation to the US, he'd become Zbignyev Bzhezinski (or something to that effect), but as we can see it hasn't ended up like that. It seems like the Latvians are just as backwards as the Lithuanians here, so therefore not a good comparison.

Your example also falls down in the example of Miroslav Klose, as from memory he officially changed his name to the current spelling from the original Polish. So the Polish spelling gets a cursory mention, but nothing else. Podagrycznik (talk) 11:28, 6 October 2010 (UTC)