Template talk:RussiaBasicLawRef/kgd

Translation

Is it typical to show the source text in the native language... as well as what I'm assuming is a reliable translated text below it? Studying Wikipedia:Translation and Template:Translated_page seems to encourage citing the translatation source, but does not speak to repeating the source on the page. (Thinking it through to this logical conclusion, any translated text would appear twice in every article, 1 in the native language and once in English) Cander0000 (talk) 05:41, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

Hi, Cander! I am not quite sure what the problem is, but the translation in these type of templates is done by me. These laws are rarely available in English, or I would have, of course, used the official translations (incidentally, the en_url parameter allows for linking to the English translation if one is available, which indirectly alleviates the sourcing concerns). When no official English translation is available, my translation can be treated as any other contribution to the wiki, which is to say, if you don't trust it, feel free to translate the Russian title on your own :). The translation is there merely for convenience, so readers who don't speak Russian would at least have an idea of what kind of source is being cited.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 14:44, February 16, 2010 (UTC)

Great comments! By no means am I qualified to clarify or even judge the Russian translation. My basic point was whether it was desirable to show the original Russian text alongside the English translation in an English encyclopedia. An alternative would be to include a link to the original Russian such that speakers could check the translation or see the original, while non-Russian speakers would not have a big block of unfamiliar (literally 'foreign' from their perspective) language mixed into the article.Cander0000 (talk) 07:36, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

I understand what you mean, but per our own guidelines, referencing should be done in the language of the reference. That is, if I'm citing a Russian source to reference something, the title must be in original Russian. English should be added for convenience, of course (which is what's done here), but since the source itself is not in English, showing only English text would be quite misleading. Case in point—if you search for "On the Charter (Basic Law) of Kaliningrad Oblast Taking Effect", you will find no non-wiki hits at all. If English title is all there is, it makes it nearly impossible to find (and thus verify) the actual reference, especially considering the fact that the translation is not "official" and that there is no external link to either Russian or English version from this template. On the other hand, searching for "О вступлении в действие Устава (Основного Закона) Калининградской области" immediately gives you several links to full (albeit not very current) text. The title in the original language should always be available, even if only for verification.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 14:30, February 19, 2010 (UTC)