Talk:Malmedy

Malmedy, not Malmédy

Malmedy is the German form of the Belgian (French language) Malmédy. Both mean the same Belgian city located east of Belgium. --81.241.235.166 14:20, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Not so. The French name of the city is Malmedy without any accents. The "Malmédy" spelling is a kind of hyperforeignism. As is evident from the French Wikipedia pages about the city and about the 17 December 1944 massacre, and from the French-language version of the city's own website, the name does not contain any diacritics. --Bwiki 21:11, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't believe it's a hyperforeignism. I think the spelling differs historically and culturally. German stamps [1] clearly show Malmédy. I believe this is a local stamp (te betalen isn't German at least...) [2] which also has an é. But nowadays Malmedy seems to be the local spelling. The history of the name might be interesting to look into. Anyway, those who use an é are certainly not hypercorrecting the spelling. Also, 81.241.235.166 is a Belgian address, so perhaps this user could give more information. --Kevin L'Huillier 02:02, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Point taken. The "é" spelling seems to be obsolete (or obsolescent) rather than just plain wrong. For the record, my copy of the 1988 edition of Petit Robert 2. Dictionnaire universel des noms propres has the "é" spelling, but it is contradicted by the current French-language examples I listed on 27 May. Historical subtleties apart, it is important to challenge the misconception that "Malmédy is the correct French spelling and Malmedy is just the German form" because it could lead to well-meaning editors moving this article to "Malmédy" without realising that the French Wikipedia article does not use the acute accent. --Bwiki 19:12, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

According to French site, the é was added when under Prussian administration, as a kind of protest --Matthead 17:46, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

From what i have heard, this has been made since the é doesn't exist in German. Using this would thus have made the name difficult to write correctly in governement printed material. However, I don't know to which extend this story is true. --Lebob-BE 19:47, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Transfer?

Information was recently added saying that "Recently there have been talks between the Belgium and German governments over whether the city will be ceded back to Germany like during the pre World War One era." If no source is provided, the statement should be removed. Olessi 06:12, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

As no reference has been provided, I have removed the sentence. Olessi 17:09, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

And you did well, since I never have heard from this story, although I live in Belgium (and originate from the Malmedy region, even if I currently leave in Belgium). It would be amsing, to say the least, that the inhabitants of Malmedy, who have never been happy while under German domination and constantly asked to go back to Belgium, would agree with such kind of discussion. Why would a population that speaks (and, BTW, has always spoken) French ask for going back to Germany. I didn't even hear such a story for the neighbour cities of Eupen and St. Vith where German is spoken by most people. --Lebob-BE 19:40, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

French or German speaking?

First it is said to have been French-speaking and towards the end it is German-speaking. An explanation would be useful. (RJP 23:04, 30 October 2006 (UTC))

The article is incorrect to say that it is part of the German-speaking community. It is not, it is part of the French-speaking community. (There's a map here.) However, it is part of the East Cantons (see Eupen-Malmedy) which includes the German-speaking community. It's definitely a primarily French-speaking town. I changed and expanded the statement. --David Edgar 11:48, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Historically, Malmedy is Walloon. As in most of the Belgian Walloon region, the Walloon language is no longer in current use, although it is still more spoken in Malmedy than anywhere in Belgium. French is now the language commonly used by the inhabitants. Before 1914, during the "Kulturkampf", since the catholic priests were forbidden by the German governement to preach in French (since the governement wanted the area to become Protestant and German speaking), they bypassed that interdiction by preaching in Walloon. Today, Malmedy is the only Walloon city where the street names are bilingual, i.e. French and Walloon. --Lebob-BE 19:40, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Malmünd is outdated

Malmünd is'nt the current german name for Malmedy. The toponym "Malmedy" is used in the german language more often than "Malmünd", and by that I mean in the scale of at least 50:1. Already in the 19. century Malmedy was used more frequently, in particular offically, e. g. the Landkreis Malmedy. On the german wiki page of Malmedy (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malmedy) Malmünd is reffered to as outdated. What pretty muc hits the nail on the head. So, from my point of view, "outdated" should be placed in brackets (is this named like this in english? I mean those thing I am just writing between) behind the list of toponyms in other languages in the opening sentence. I may be wrong, so I wo'nt just edit it, but asking any expert or other persons with knowledge about this, if I am correct. Correct me if I am wrong, or edit the page, if I'm right. Yeah, also tell me please what the correct term fo the "brackets" is.Is this username already taken? (talk) 20:40, 24 October 2020 (UTC)