Talk:2007 Kosovan local elections

Requested move 22 January 2016

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: no consensus to deviate from WP:NCGAL in this case. Jenks24 (talk) 09:49, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

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Kosovan local elections, 2007 → Kosovo local elections, 2007 – Common name; "Kosovo local elections" (126) vs. "Kosovan local elections" (32). – Zoupan 15:40, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

This is a contested technical request (permalink). EdJohnston (talk) 22:40, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

• Comment: If there is consensus for this move, then seven other requests also filed at WP:RMTR could also be performed. This link shows the full list of similar articles. EdJohnston (talk) 22:40, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

• Oppose all of these Kosovan→Kosovo ones, as the relevant guideline, WP:NCGAL, says to use demonyms for election articles. RGloucester — ☎ 16:42, 22 January 2016 (UTC)
• Also oppose using nouns in place of adjectives. It's a common shorthand used for news article, especially titles, but should not be taken as official. --Article editor (talk) 19:14, 22 January 2016 (UTC)
• The thing is that Kosovo is used as the adjective. Note Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo Albanians. International organizations use "Kosovo" and not "Kosovan". ECMI Kosovo uses "Kosovo local elections", ENEMO uses "Kosovo local elections", Helsinki Committee uses "Kosovo elections", etc.--Zoupan 22:49, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

• Comment: If you don't believe me, explain why the government itself uses: "The Kosovo government welcomes the ratification of the SAA between Kosovo and the European Union".--Zoupan 23:08, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

No one would know why non-native English speakers might make mistakes in the English language. Nouns should not be used as adjectives, except in a few rare circumstances. Our guidance is quite clear on the matter, and there is no reason to deviate from WP:NCGAL. If one is thinking about the commonality of titles, one must take the whole, not parts. One is not likely to find Kosovan local elections, 2007, or Kosovo local elections, 2007, in any RS anyway, as these titles are WP:NDESC in line with our guidelines for Wikipedia elections articles, as opposed to common names. RGloucester — ☎ 04:03, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

• Support despite WP:NCGAL guidance, Liechtenstein (for one) uses the noun. The blunt Google Books search comes up with no hits for Kosovan, three hits for Kosovar and about 60+ for Kosovo. The same pattern can be seen in Google Scholar searches. Given the other terms are almost unknown in books and journals, I believe Kosovo should be an exception to the guidance. Cheers, Peacemaker67 (crack... thump) 03:29, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

"Liechtenstein" is not comparable, as there is no commonly acceptable adjective for that country in English, whereas there is one (or two; I have no opinion re: "Kosovar"/Kosovan") for Kosovo. We should follow the guidance as it is written per WP:CONSISTENCY. RGloucester — ☎ 04:03, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

But those two are not used. Note that the guideline says: "that editors should attempt to follow, though it is best treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions may apply". This would be a plausible exception. As per consistency, the adjective is Kosovo, as per Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo Albanians (as already pointed out). Peacemaker67 showed that this is as clear as it gets. Other examples are Luxembourg communal election, 2005, Liechtenstein general election, 2001, Guinea-Bissau general election, 1999–2000, Lesotho general election, 2002, Hong Kong local elections, 2007.--Zoupan 06:28, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

"Kosovan/Kosovar" are used, they are the standard demonyms/adjectives for Kosovo. Those are not comparable examples, because as I said, no such adjective exists in those particular cases. There is no exception in play here. As for Kosovo Serbs, that's titled incorrectly, and irrelevant here. It either needs to be Serbs in Kosovo or Kosovan Serbs. That's neither here nor there, however, because we're discussing this article right now. RGloucester — ☎ 07:44, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

The thing is that nobody uses "Kosovan, Kosovar", obviously. It was a failed attempt to adjectivize. In English, Kosovo is the de facto adjective, whether linguists like it or not. As for Wikipedia, using Kosovan/Kosovar would break more naming conventions than NCGAL.--Zoupan 08:15, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

• Strong oppose Firstly, the naming guideline for elections (WP:NC-GAL#Elections and referendums) is very clear that the demonym (Kosovan) should be used; the articles cited above supposedly showing that it isn't used all the time are (as RGloucester quite correctly points out) irrelevant and misleading as those are all countries for which there is no appropriate demonym to use (or, in the case of Luxembourg, the country name is also a demonym). Secondly (and more importantly), the claim that "nobody uses "Kosovan"" is very clearly untrue – see, for example, its frequent usage by the BBC, the Guardian etc. I generally dislike the use of "strong support/oppose/keep/delete", but the move rationale is so flimsy and misleading that I felt compelled to make an exception to express my misgivings. Number 57 22:44, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.