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please help with new article

Karel Pic 207.218.71.25 (talk) 14:00, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

"John" vs. "Johano"

Under the "useful phrases" section, it says "My name is John" is "Mi nomiĝas Johano" in Esperanto.

But proper nouns are usually the same in foreign languages and when they are people's names, they are almost always retained. So shouldn't it be "My name is John" is "Mi nomiĝas John" in Esperanto?

Or even "My name is [John]" is "Mi nomiĝas [John]" to make the variable even more obvious.

I don't want to just change it without discussing it first.

Cheers! IndieSinger (talk) 17:08, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

People commonly translate given names. A Russian named Ivan will often say his name is John when speaking English. In Esperanto it is quite common to do this. When a name isn't translated, it is often transliterated, so "John" for example might be "Ĝano" or "Ĝan". Translation is more common for international names, though. — kwami (talk) 00:48, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

I know people commonly do it, but it's not correct to do so as it's a proper noun. In fact, in my years studying foreign languages and then a decade teaching foreign languages, I've never known someone "translate" their name in this way. I would say that it can happen where the alphabets and/or sounds don't equate, but only rarely. Plus, it surely should never be done in an encyclopaedia explaining grammar formation so that the explanation isn't confused. However, I didn't know it was common to do it in Esperanto, though, so thank you for this information. IndieSinger (talk) 21:33, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

It's routine in Esperanto. It's like Chinese people taking Western names when speaking English. And I've known plenty of Russians who translate their names, so a Dmitry will go by "James". — kwami (talk) 21:41, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

What do you mean correct? It's downright standard. In English we don't write 毛泽东. We don't even write Máo Zédōng. We mangle his name into something we can comfortably spell, Mao Zedong, and then few of us pronounce it /mɑ̌ʊ tsɤ̌tʊ́ŋ/. For ease of international use, Esperanto tends to normalize names more than English.--Prosfilaes (talk) 06:31, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes, as I said above, I've seen it transliterated where alphabets and/or sounds don't equate, so 毛泽东 becomes Mao Zedong but "Mao" does not become "Malcolm". My (German) friend is called Mathias - his name remains Mathias in the UK, we don't change it to Matthew. Similarly, Borja has not become Brian and Guillaume will not become William. IndieSinger (talk) 21:24, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Even if it's "routine" in Esperanto, it makes for a poor example on Wikipedia. At the very least, it requires an explanation. CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 21:32, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

It's a perfectly good example, and it does have an explanation. — kwami (talk) 00:36, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Where? You're not seriously suggesting the translation itself is the "explanation", are you? CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 03:25, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Of course it is, just as it is for every other word. — kwami (talk) 05:30, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

So you're of the scientifically-supported opinion that all languages are merely ciphers of each other?

"Johano" is far too likely to be taken simply as a typo for "Johno". The only clue the text gives as to what "JOhano" is supposed to mean is when it is explained that "o" is added to stems to make nouns. The only way one could deduce that "Johano" was actually another version of "John" is if you already happened to understand how this works in European languages, which is not linguistic knowledge per se, but cultural knowledge. This is not even close to being obvious to the millions upon millions upon millions of English speakers who have never been exposed to any other European language, and even quite large numbers of those who have. I think I was well into my 20s when I found out that "Carlos" was the Spanish for "Charles" (not in the least bit obvious, either through spelling or pronunciation, especially given that "Carl" is a perfectly common English name). Millions of native English speakers go their entire lives without acquiring this knowledge.

It's a perfectly horrible, misleading, error-prone example, and should be replaced, rather than clogging up this particular table with an explanation. The tale's purpose is to give one a quick idea of idiomatic phrases in Esperanto.

P.S. Please rebut with actual reasons, rather than just asserting "it's a perfectly good example". CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 08:52, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

But his name wasn't Mao. It was Máo. In any case, take Petrarch, Christopher Columbus, Nicolaus Copernicus, etc.--Prosfilaes (talk) 09:20, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

His name was neither "Mao" nor "Máo". The two are perfectly accurate representations in Roman characters of his name, with "Máo" being more precise to a given degree than "Mao". See Accuracy and precision. CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 09:56, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

In case I misremembered my high-school Spanish book doing the same thing, I looked up "Peter" and "Pedro" in GBooks, and the very first book gave this example:

"Peter and John will speak" (Pedro y Juan hablarán)

And that's from 1912.[1] I think it's had time to become established. I don't remember anyone in high school who was confused by this, though some of us, like you, were surprised by names we didn't realize were cognate.

BTW, that example was from a dictionary. They actually define Peter as "Pedro", Bertram as "Beltrán", Guy as "Guido", etc. The entry for "Peter" is:

Peter [pî′-tḙr], Pedro.

And to verify that the same thing happens in Esperanto, I entered "Petro" and "vortaro" in GBooks, and even though I didn't search for "Peter", this was in the first hit:

Peter's hat = la ĉapelo de Petro, &c.[2]

The Reta Vortaro gives translations of its words in various languages, after defining them in Esperanto. For English, guess what: they translate Johano as "John". — kwami (talk) 12:19, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Which completely ignore the millions of, say, East Asians who have never studied any European language other than English, and aren't used to these pan-European cognates, or even the very concept. You and I have been exposed to these things since childhood, so when we run into it, it's merely surprising, but we're able to slot it into that recess of our brain that learned long ago that these these happen across European languages. We also had teachers to explain to us that they were cognates if we needed that prodding, which is not the case when using Wikipedia, alone, as an adult, and possibly when English isn't your first language.

Further, it's plain as day that "Pedro" is not a typo of "Peter" (what a typo that would be!). You're forced to assume "Pedro" is the Spanish equivalent of "Peter" (or run whining to the teacher, which would also fix it). "John" and "Johano" are so close that one could easily assume it was a typo.

It's also far more common for the Spanish to Spanishify names (i.e. "Carlos Darwin"). I'm Canadian, and didn't learn Spanish. I learned French, and they are far less inclined to Frenchify foreign names in French. In French class, even though my name had a common French equivalent, it was never once used in class, nor any of the times I visited Québec. When I visited South America, however, quite often people would use the Spanish equivalent of my name. Doing that kind of thing is far from universal, and is getting less so in the modern world.

Note, I've not denied at any point that this happens in Esperanto. I'm protesting that it shouldn't be introduced into an overview of Esperanto without explanation, because it's not self-evident, so popping it into a dictionary is just simply missing the point. For millions around the world, the very idea that a name needs to be translated is dumbfounding. CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 12:44, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

"Peter" and "Pedro" are just as close as "John" and "Johano". Your opinion that the diff tween the first is "plain as day" while the second would be thought a typo doesn't seem reasonable to me.

East Asians are perfectly acquainted with the concept. Chinese names are found throughout East Asia, with differing pronunciations even within China. In Japan, there are even "Japanese" and "Chinese" versions of Chinese names, with the Japanese forms written in Chinese characters and the Chinese forms written in katakana. The same kind of thing happens with classical names in India, or Arabic names throughout Africa. Europe isn't the only place in the world that's multicultural. — kwami (talk) 13:19, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

As a matter of fact, I agree with CüRlyTüRkey. It's not that it should necessarily be removed, it's just that it should be explained. An explanation would already be in place because it's not at all obvious how these things work in e-o. Okay, let's assume that "Petro" comes from "Peter". A syllable that's kind of mute disappears and -o is added. But since Peter = Pedro, does that also mean that Spanish Pedro becomes Petro as well? That would suddenly imply a d > t change! And how about adding -o, does it also mean that "Maria" becomes "Mario"? The reason that John = Jean = Johannes = Giovanni = Ivan = Iannis = Juan etc. is a historical one. These common names in Europe have mutated along with the languages that use them, and therefore, representing Pedro as Peter or vice versa is a matter of translation. As far as I know, it is not very common nowadays to translate given names, except in the case of kings, popes etc. In any case, Esperanto is an artificial language, in other words, it does not have the history that causes these names to change. Neither is it a naturalistic language in the sense that it applies regular sound changes to some proto-language. It should therefore be explained what the reasoning is behind Peter/Pedro > Petro or John/Ivan > Johano. Is it a matter of undoing language differences, and if so, then why surnames like Farmer, Bauer, De Boer and Rolnik aren't translated in the same way? —IJzeren Jan _Uszkiełtu? 16:29, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

That's an awful lot of detail to put in an intro article, on a subject that even a dictionary doesn't find necessary to discuss. It would be more appropriate in the vocab article. — kwami (talk) 16:46, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

I live in Japan (check my user page). Japan uses Chinese characters, but they do not (normally) use Chinese names. There is definintely nothing even remotely like John/Jean/Juan/Johan or Peter/Pierre/Pedro going on there. You sure won't find common given names in Japanese dictionaries with their Chinese cognates--mainly because such cognates don't exist. They didn't evolve from Chinese names into Japanese ones (as IJzeren Jan was explaining above about European names). Nor in Thailand or any other countries that don't use Chinese characters (East Asia's a big place).

The fact that an English/Esperanto dictionary doesn't bother to discuss it only tells us that the dictionary assumes that if you're looking up a name in the first place, it's because you're familiar with what happens to names in European languages. Why on Earth else would you look up a name in the first place? Context and capitalization weren't enough? Dictionaries, unless they're something like the unabridged Oxford, normally give as little context as they feel they can get away with. These dictionaries are quick references, not scholarly treatises on each word in the language.

I totally agree that an explanation would be too much for a quic-reference table. This is why I think "Johano" should be replaced with a name that doesn't change in any non-obvious way. For instance, "Jacob" changes to "Jakobo" in ways that are explained in the body of the article. Anyone who doesn't understand right away can search through the article to find out what happened. CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 22:33, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Of course this happens in Japan. Both Chinese personal and place names are read in ways one wouldn't expect from their characters, reflecting their pronunciation in Mandarin. Mao Zedong, for example, is written 毛沢東, as in Chinese, but pronounced either もう たくとう ('translated' into Japanese) or マオ・ツォートン. This is the same thing we have with John/Johano. — kwami (talk) 01:11, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

This isn't even remotely equivalent to John/Johano. There are no Japanese with names like 毛沢東, or any other Chinese name, except by sheer serendipity. Again, see IJzeren Jan's explanation above. Japanese and Chinese names have no genetic relation. (I hope you're familiar with the linguistic use of the word "genetic" here, so we don't have to go off on another irrelevent tangent). It also requires no insertion of strange characters---merely the common Japanese readings of Chinese characters, as no other clue is given as to the pronunciation (and just try and find how many average Japanese are aware that it's "really" "マオ・ツォートン". It's like finding English speakers who know the "real" pronunciation of "Julius Caesar").

Just to make things crystal clear: the Japanese pronunciation of 毛沢東 did not "evolve" that way in the way John/Jean/Juan/Johann evolved from a common source. Only the readings of the characters evolved, completely indepedently of Mao's name. CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 11:38, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

So you're saying that "Johano" is incomprehensible to English speakers because it's written with "strange characters"? That's a truly bizarre argument.

As for how many Japanese know that pronunciation of Mao, I don't know. But it is normal to pronounce 北京 pekin rather than *hokkyō. Why you think Asians would be befuddled by this I don't know. I've never heard of any confusion. And then of course there's the point that we're English WP. — kwami (talk) 11:48, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

"So you're saying that "Johano" is...": I made no such claim. As is perfectly obvious, I was talking about the unexplained insertion of the character "a" into the name "John". You knew this, too, so I don't know why you would make such a bizarre statement.

As for the reading of 北京, the reading 「ペキン」, in the Edo Period, apparently it was read...「ホッキン」. Read about it at the Japanese wiki article on Beijing, which has an entire section (the first, no less) devoted to the reading of those two characters. If you strain hard enough, you can find other out-of-the-way and equally irrelevant examples, like "Shanghai" and "Hong Kong", that represent irregular readings. What stands is that no Japanese given name has evolved naturally from any Chinese given name in the way that John/Jean/Juan/Johann/Ivan evolved from a common source. What also stands is that it is not reasonable to expect a Chinese or Japanese person to know that "John" and "Ivan" are actually "the same" name, and you have given no argument to suggest otherwise. CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 12:08, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

• May I suggest that both sides of this argument start looking for sources describing the standard usage of naming translations or not in Esperanto? Languages differ on how they treat names (hence chinese or english usage is irrelevant) and wikipedia should reflect usage as well as possible - and we should use reliable sources to decide which usages are more common. ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 22:52, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Whether "Johano" is correct or not is not at issue. It is correct, and nobody on either side has said otherwise, so what would references accomplish?

The issue is whether it belongs in that table, given that nowhere in the entire article is it explained where that mysterious "a" in "Johano" comes from when translated from "John". At least three editors in this discussion think it's not obvious from context, and one maintains it is. A mountain of references to prove it's correct only wastes everyone's time by missing the point. CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 23:36, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Nowhere in the article do we explain where that mysterious "o" in "nomiĝas" comes from, when English "name" has an "a". — kwami (talk) 01:11, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

This is easily the most obtuse response in the whole of this discussion. CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 02:53, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Ok so your point is that this is just a matter of opinion. My opinion is that it is obvious from context. No need to choose another name or to make a footnote to suggest that Johano is the Esperanto for John when it is obvious that it is meant as a translation of that word.·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 23:50, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Of course it's a matter of opinion. Otherwise we'd simply slap a ref on it and be done with. However, we are not discussing whether or not the translation is correct, but whether it is the most appropriate one given the context. Three people, including a professed linguist, did not find it obvious. You can now call us liars, or take our words into account. Or do you have a ref stating "all speakers of all languages around the world are familiar with the translations of names from one language to another"? CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 03:00, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Out of principle I don't attribute to malice that which can be explained by other causes.·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 14:54, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." – Robert J. Hanlon

Way to be CIVIL, Maunus. You've now dumped an ad hominem on three of your fellow editors, while doing nothing to advance the discussion. Of course, you thought you'd get away with it because we're all (as per the quote) stupid.

I'm willing to forget this nastiness if you're willing to get back on topic, and stay there. CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 21:46, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

I think the thing is that it's not obvious why someone's name has been translated. I certainly wasn't aware that it was "routine" to do this in Esperanto and doing so left me, as a linguist, confused. IndieSinger (talk) 23:56, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

What kind of an explanation would you prefer? I am not sure about how one would answer the question "why has someone's name been translated". And I certainly don't see how changing John to Zbigniew would solve the problem. ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 00:04, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Nobody suggested Zbigniew. Someone did suggest Jacob/Jakobo. What's your objection to that? CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 02:43, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Maybe a footnote explaining that, unlike most languages, it's routine to translate proper nouns in Esperanto. IndieSinger (talk) 00:21, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Interesting stuff. If it's routine to translate proper nouns in Esperanto, does that mean if, say, John Major was giving a speech and it was being simultaneously translated, the Esperanto speaker would say, in Esperanto, "Johano Majoro states that..."? IndieSinger (talk) 23:55, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

It depends on the person. Some individuals' names have Esperantized forms, others do not. Shakespeare and Schiller, for example, are transliterated (Ŝekspiro and Ŝilero), but a current politician like John Major probably will not be. (You tend to get both the original orthog. and either transliteration or transliteration plus translation, one restricted to a parenthetical after the first mention so that people can (a) read the name (if original orthog is used) or (b) recognize the name (if trans. is used).) Much the same thing happens to names when writing in a different script: John Major is Джон Мейджор in Russian and サー・ジョン・メージャー in Japanese. An individual named "John" may choose to keep the English spelling, transliterate into "Ĝan", or translate into "Johano", but the translation is possible because Esperanto has an established form of the name. This is the same thing that happens with other languages, such as a Russian American who goes by the name Dmitry in Russian but James in English. — kwami (talk) 01:11, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Fascinating stuff. It's unfortunate that someone had to visit the talk page to find out about it. So much for it being obvious and self-explanatory. CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 02:52, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

So, a bit of a summary. I still don't think you can equate changing a name when it's transliterated from one script to another (e.g. "毛泽东" to "Mao Zedong") as this happens so that the receiving audience can enunciate the name. For instance, "毛澤東指出，..." [Google Translate - sorry for any inaccuracy] would not be translated as "毛泽东 stated that..." as that doesn't help the audience at all. So it's transliterated to "Mao Zedung stated that..." If, however, a French newspaper said "Guillaume a déclaré que...", the correct translation would be "Guillaume stated that..." and not "William stated that..." So if, in Esperanto, proper nouns are routinely translated, then this needs to be a footnote as it's not commonplace. And this article serves to inform people about the grammar and syntax of a sentence in a language with which they're probably not familiar, so it's only fair to explain why "John" has changed to "Johano" as this would not be the case in any of the languages with which I am au fait. Also, just to satisfy my own curiosity, how would you put a name into Esperanto if no equivalent existed? Say, "Callum", for example. Would it just be subjected to some regular Esperanto inflections? IndieSinger (talk) 10:43, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

It would be the same as Russian names into English: you may choose to translate, but only of course if a translation exists. You will generally transliterate if you don't translate. Since Eo and En both use the Latin script, transliteration is more optional. So, "Callum" might be Callum (not necessarily in italics), Callum ("Kalum"), Kalum (Callum), Kalum, or Kalumo. If you assimilate with a final -o, then you inflect as normal. If not, you tend to tack on a hyphenated -on for the accusative, or else rework the clause: mian amikon Callum, say, where only 'amiko' needs to take the acc. cuz 'Callum' is in apposition. — kwami (talk) 10:52, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Whatever be the case, the whole issue of representing names in Esperanto deserves it to be explained in the article, or even in a separate article about names in Esperanto. Because indeed, the whole thing is not at all obvious. Well, I am not an esperantist by any standard, but one thing I've noticed is that my own name is mentioned here: "La Venediko (propralingve Wenedyk) estas fikcilingvo kreita en 2002 de Jan van Steenbergen". In other words, no "Johano Ŝtonomontano", no "Jano van Steenbergeno", just my name the way it is. Ergo, the ending -o is not something that is added mechanically the way Lithuanian male names add -as, -is etc. Another case in point is this one: "Jacques René Chirac (esperante Ĵak Rene Ŝirak)" – no Jakobo, no Ŝirako. So whatever be the case, let nobody tell it's obvious!

Well, sure: people wouldn't recognize your name if it were Esp-ized. The only hope they'd have at identifying you would be if your name were left as-is. It would be different if Eo were a major language, but as it is even Jacques Chirac is not well-enough established to warrant an Eo name. — kwami (talk)

Taking Johano as an example, a few questions need answering:

• Is the ending -o is just something that is automatically added, and if so, why wasn't that done in the examples I quoted?
• Where does it come from? Latin? But then, E-o doesn't borrow much from Latin, rather from contemporary languages, doesn't it? Or perhaps from German?
• If John becomes Johano, does the same go for Jean, Juan, Giovanni, Séan, Yann, Iannis, Ivan etc.?
• Are there any official rules for this in Esperanto, or is it just a matter of current practice?

As I explained above, no, it's not automatic. It's a stylistic choice.

I don't know where it comes from. Either German or Latin would fit, or Hebrew for that matter. It's often not possible to ID a single source for Eo words.

Yes, they'd all be Johano, assuming one wanted to Esp-ize them, just as they'd all be John in English and Juan in Spanish. After all, Juan Bautista in es is Jean le Baptiste in fr is Ioann Krestitel' in ru is Johannes der Täufer in de is Johano la Baptisto in eo.

No, just stylistic preference. — kwami (talk) 12:14, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

I have an Esperanto dictionary that gives a list of names indeed, but it contains several oddities: Antonina > Antoneta, Anastazja > Anastazio, Władysław > Ladislao, Jacek > Jakvo, Jakub > Jakobo, Jordan > Giordano... not very helpful either, if you ask me.

For what it is worth, I know by experience that the issue of representing names in an artificial language can be extremely tricky. In Interslavic, there is always a dilemma between:

• keeping the original spelling of a name (which gives transliteration problems between Cyrillic and Latin) - Jarosław Kaczyński
• adapting it only to the alphabet - Jaroslav Kaczynski
• adapting it to alphabet and pronunciation (which is more or less the same as transliterating into Cyrillic and then back) - Jaroslav Kačinski
• adapting it to etymology as well - Bělgrad vs. Belgrad vs. Beograd, Petr vs. Piotr vs. Петро vs. Пётр.

And what makes it particularly complicated is that none of these solutions works in all cases. Representing Polish w and ó as v and o is never a problem, but representing rz as ž already is. Not even to mention the nasal vowels ą and ę! —IJzeren Jan _Uszkiełtu? 11:51, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

This is somewhere where Esperanto is totally arbitrary. There is an Esperanto version of my name (my real given name, I mean. It's a common pan-European sort of name, like Michael or John). I've attempted using it when speaking with other Esperatists in Japan, but they always end up speaking to me using the English version of my name with Esperanto pronunciation, without even adding -o except when context required it. This is acceptable in the Esperantujo, and there is no universal rule requiring or prohibiting it. CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 12:20, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes, it is arbitrary. I suspect that people wouldn't like being told what they have to call themselves, though. Some Eo authors object even to transliteration. Myself, I take the -ĉjo suffix, but then I adopt a local name wherever I go. Simple transliteration would feel odd to me. — kwami (talk) 12:34, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

My name in English is Richard, the usual translation adopted by people for this name is Rikardo, however I have always called myself Riĉardo. In regards to Johano, you will find this in the Esperanto Bible, along with many other Common Esperanto Names, When I was in China, no chinese Esperantist called me Richard, they called me what I introducted myself as: Riĉardo. Esperante: Mia nomo estas Richard, la kutima uzata tradukaĵo de aliuloj por tia nomo estas Rikardo, tamen mi mem ĉiame nomas min Riĉardo. Koncerne Johano, vi trovos ĝin en la Esperanto-biblio, kun multaj aliaj komunaj nomoj. Kiam mi estis en Ĉinio, neniu ĉino nomis min Richard, ĉar ili nomis min kiel, tiel mi prezentis min: Riĉardo--Evildela (talk) 00:38, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

We've already established that "Johano" is both correct and normal (though perhaps not universal) in the Esperantujo. The debate is over whether it is appropriate to use it as an unexplained example on the English Wikipedia—whether it is self-explanatory to a reader who has no prior experience with Esperanto. Further, my own point is that, while an explanation somewhere in the article would be great, I think it is inappropriate for a quick-reference table, so that it should be replaced with something more obvious and straightforward, rather than slapped with an explanatory footnote which would only overcomplicate the table. CüRlyTüRkey^Talk_Contribs 01:33, 17 February 2012 (UTC)