Talk:Zikuala
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[edit] Page name
The Ge'ez for this page is ዝቅዋላ or ዝቋላ (ziqwala/ziḳwala or ziqʷala/ziḳʷala). I have seen the area (specifically the mountain) also spelled more commonly as "Zeqwala," and the WP:ETH transliteration standard is to use "q" in the simple transliteration. While we've used "u" like in Italian for "ʷ" letters (cp. Yekuno Amlak for Yikʷino Amlak), I'm not sure what the spelling is in this case; the use of "q" would be independent anyway (though the agreed-upon simple and complex transliteration for ዝ would be "zi"). — ዮም | (Yom) | Talk • contribs • Ethiopia 18:11, 30 December 2006 (UTC)
- I'm not quite sure I understand your point here, Yom. So in response I have to ask:
- Are you proposing that we change the name of this article? While I have no objections to this, based on my respect for your knowledge in transliteration from Amharic to English, this leads to my next question,
- This woreda is not the same as the mountain. In fact, Mount Zuqualla is located nowhere near this woreda. So is the name for both of these places spelled the same way in Amharic? Are they often confused by naitve speakers? If they are confused even by the locals, then we need to provide links between the two places; maybe, even if the locals carefully distinguish between the two, we need these links for us ignorant Ferengi who can't even keep "your" & "you're" separate.
- If the mountain & the woreda are pronounced in ways that the locals clearly distinguish between the two (as in English we distinguish between "minute" meaning small & "minute" refering to a brief period of time), then should we transliterate the two names in the same way? Or should we try to preserve these different pronounciations in our transliteration? -- llywrch 00:13, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
- Apparently the correct spelling is with 3 letters (i.e. with the letter qWa not qi & wa), and the spellings for both areas are the same. Mount Zuqualla's spelling is due to the fact that both short "u" and short "i" merged in short "i" in EthioSemitic languages, but the correct transliteration (and pronunciation) would include "zi-" not "zu-." The pronunciations, like the spellings, are identical, however (as they almost always are; Ge'ez writing is largely phonetic, with differences in spelling and pronunciation only occuring in a few rare instances where an older spelling is kept, often with the bastard "w" letters"). The name for both the mountain and woreda should be spelled the same, as they are the same in the Ge'ez alphabet and pronunciation. I don't think the woreda and mountain are usually confused, though; I simply assumed that the woreda was named after the mountain (I hadn't read the article, I just noticed the spelling). The most accurate choices would be Ziqwala or Ziquala (the u variant being more Italian). The "ll" isn't supported by pronunciation. — ዮም | (Yom) | Talk • contribs • Ethiopia 02:51, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
