Talk:Lake Morat

The Name

"Lake Murten" is not the official name on the maps of this lake in Switzerland : it's Lake Morat (three quarters of its banks are "francophone"). In English litterature it has never been refered to Lake Murten, always to Lake Morat. For example, we say "The Battle of Morat"

The city of Morat/Murten is officially bilingual.

Please do change the entry of this lake because it is incorrect in English.

• The article now says Its official name in switzerland is "Lake Morat" with the footnote Cf. Office fédéral suisse de la topographie. (By the way, cf. means ‘compare’.) Does the French-speaking topographic office list official names in languages other than English? —Tamfang (talk) 03:47, 30 April 2015 (UTC)
  • Nothing to do. In English this name has always been Lake Morat. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.104.75.147 (talk) 11:58, 2 May 2015 (UTC)

• I do not know what you mean by "Nothing to do." —Tamfang (talk) 20:29, 2 May 2015 (UTC)

I'm not sure to understand the purpose of the citation for "Lake Morat" (Office fédéral de la topographie, Swisstopo in English). On the map it's only written "Lac de Morat" and "Murtensee". It's true that on smaller scales only the French name is visible but, unless I overlooked something, there isn't anything about English there. ZachG (Talk) 08:02, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

It doesn't matter what Swiss people write on their maps: in English that's Lake Morat (read Rousseau or some romantics for instance).

Michelin map of Switzerland I have marks it has: "Murtensee" not "Morat Lake" I'm British and I have never heard of it called 'lake Morat'. Utterly nothing historical about this madeup coinage: 'lake morat' in English. There are no maps in English or any other language bearing the words: "Lake Morat". Yours a Scotsman. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7D:411:1600:226:8FF:FEDC:FD74 (talk) 15:16, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

It's a mistake by Michelin which took a German map to establish its names in this region. Please, if you are really British, please read Byron to see what the name of this lake in English is ! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:1205:34C1:2250:80C5:42BB:3D00:C30E (talk) 15:05, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

I see that your mothertongue is German: I think this discussion is pointless.

But ere these matchless heights I dare to scan,/
There is a spot should not be passed in vain,—/
Morat! the proud, the patriot field! where man/
May gaze on ghastly trophies of the slain,/
Nor blush for those who conquered on that plain;/
Here Burgundy bequeathed his tombless host,/
A bony heap, through ages to remain,/
Themselves their monument;—the Stygian coast/
Unsepulchred they roamed, and shrieked each wandering ghost./
While Waterloo with Cannæ’s carnage vies,/
Morat and Marathon twin names shall stand;/  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:1205:34C1:2250:80C5:42BB:3D00:C30E (talk) 15:10, 21 September 2016 (UTC) 

Very nice, but Byron is only one source. A review of Google books shows that Lake Murten occurs nearly as often as Lake Morat in English sources, so both should be stated in accordance with Wikipedia's policy and practice. Bermicourt (talk) 15:30, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

Of course the sites were created by Swiss-German speakers who don't know English. More than three quarters of the shores of this lake belong to French speaking municipalities. And it was a tradition in English to give the French name: Florence, Munich and so on. Do you want to change this? Cf. for instance : A Hand-book for Travellers in Switzerland and the Alps of Savoy and Piedmont where this lake is called Lake of Morat. ...

No, which may be why the article title is the French name. But bearing in mind that "Lake Murten" is over twice as common online and in book sources as "Lake Morat", I'd keep a low profile if you want to keep the French title. Bermicourt (talk) 19:02, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

It's not the French title: that's the British one! I do not know how to convince you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:1205:C690:EA10:649D:C0BD:9308:AEC8 (talk) 19:26, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia bases its titles on English language sources. Type "Lake Murten" into Google or Google Books and you'll get twice as many hits as "Lake Morat", although both are very common. The title happens to be "Lake Morat" which I'm assuming you're happy with, so I'm not now sure what your issue is. --Bermicourt (talk) 20:29, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

Happy?? Bern, Basel, Murten .... a lot of Swiss cities are in German now on Wikipedia. Are you German yourself? Thanks lord it's still Florence, Munich, Rome and so on for other countries. I don't understand why Wikipedia uses the German names of these Swiss cities.... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:1205:C6AC:C350:8DE3:B3A0:1C48:2B7E (talk) 17:08, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

Hi I'm English, so happy to be inclusive and have both names, rather than be biased in favour of French or German. That also seems to reflect English-language sources. Lake Murten is used, for example on the English pages of Swiss tourist site here, not to mention Airbnb and thousands of other sources as I've explained above. Bermicourt (talk) 17:36, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

your sources are the Swiss German tourist site, Airbnb and millions of other sources on the Internet? Fantastic! Poets, writers and ...Baedecker will appreciate.... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:1205:C6AC:C350:E5C6:A7EB:C0FF:EF68 (talk) 19:46, 27 March 2019 (UTC) What is more : for the "Federal office of Topography Swisstop" : it's clearly Lake Morat.

It's clearly Lake Morat… and Lake Murten. Both are used and both are right. I think this discussion has run its course. Let's focus on more useful work like expanding the sum of human knowledge. Bermicourt (talk) 21:44, 27 March 2019 (UTC)