Talk:Pityusic Islands

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Pityussa in Antiquity

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Just added details w/ regards to Antiquity. I was studying the life of Sertorius and there is an episode that involves these islands. It was very confusing because Pityussa also refers to two places in Asia Minor, and it was difficult to track down Pine Islands. This English name for them obscures any link to their name in Antiquity. The Jackal God 20:29, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Pityusic or Pityusan?

In 1984 three non-British biologists, Heinrich Kuhbier (from Bremen), J. A. Alcover (Tarragona) and C. Guerau d'Arellano Tur (Ibiza) established the word 'Pityusic' in an important scientific book which appeared under their joint editorship, namely "Biogeography and Ecology of the Pityusic Islands" (no. 52 in Springer Verlag's "Monographiae Biologicae" series). The fact that none of the editors was a native English speaker, hardly any (possibly none) of its contributing authors either, and that it was published in The Hague (Netherlands) helps account for the fact that 'Pityusic' appeared in its title, which would doubtless have been questioned and altered in an entirely English-speaking publishing house. This is not at all an English toponymic adjective, but rather Germanic, corresponding to "Pitiusische" or "Pithiusische" (in both German and Dutch), well established for at least two centuries among travel and scientific literature in those continental languages. In English, by contrast, there is no clear candidate, although I strongly recommend 'Pityusan' as an alternative in preference to 'Pityusic', as it sounds more appropriate in English, much less like a Germanic loan-word, but rather suitably Anglicised from its Spanish origin. Strictly geographical adjectives in English do frequently use the -an suffix (Andalusian, Catalonian, Majorcan, Formentera, Ibizan, Galician, to take a handful of Spanish examples), but I can't think of a single example of the -ic one for a place (which corresponds to 'isch' in German, where it is extremely common (perhaps the most common suffix). In English the 'ic' adjectival suffix is used in the sense of 'pertaining to a family of peoples or languages', e.g. Semitic, Turkic and Finnic, and also in the style of certain writers, e.g. Byronic, Miltonic. Recent musicological articles about the archipelago's traditional music and dance have also carried the adjective 'Pityusic' over from biological literature, but it remains a stark Germanism, which never looks correct in an English-language context. In some publications (e.g. "The Rough Guide to Ibiza and Formentera", 2003), the (native English) author has opted for 'Pitiusan', but this particular spelling derives from the Spanish Pitius(o/a); the 'iu' combination is not really appropriate for English, as it is extremely rare, while the 'y' (Pityusan) is much more in keeping with traditional spelling procedure. I would like to propose that Wikipedia adopts Pityusan Islands (or the Pityuses) as its new heading. The Pityuses is by far the commoner term, but if it has to include the word 'islands', then Pityusan is far preferable in English to Pityusic, despite the latter's precedent in scientific (above all biological) literature, established by the above mentioned trio in 1984, unaware of its unsuitability among those accustomed to the nuances of the English language, both with regard to sound and meaning.Martin P. O. Davies (talk) 21:17, 29 December 2021 (UTC)