Talk:Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
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[edit] English of Name
English name seems to be Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Searching Google (English pages only):
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: 7,830 hits
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 38,200 hits
-- Nico 04:27, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)
- Unfortunately it took a rather long time until I realised this page move.
- 1. Counting Google hits is not a sufficient basis for this decision. Britannica calls it Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, almost every serious English source calls it either Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania or Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.
- 2. Doing such a massive page move should be done after some talk only. There were numerous links pointing to MWP and dozens of pages calling the state MWP.
- 3. You did the page move via cut and paste what is generally a bad procedure.
- -- Baldhur 13:29, 29 Jan 2004 (UTC)
It was discussed (with Adam Carr, i think). You should also see Talk:Vorpommern Nico 14:26, 29 Jan 2004 (UTC)
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is confusing, because Polish Voivodship around Stettin/Szczecin is also called Western Pomerania. 62.104.210.101 15:08, 29 Jan 2004 (UTC)
- I much prefer Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, firstly, because 'Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania' is quite hideous, and secondly, because it's used far more.
"Vorpommern" should be more accurately translated as "Further Pommerania". But, I agree, "Mecklenburg-Vorpommern" is a more commonly used and better-sounding title. -Alex 12.220.157.93 01:17, 24 December 2005 (UTC)
I'm from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - So you decide the name like what sounds best? that's really unprofessional... It's logic that there are more hits on google under Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, even in the english version, cuz MV (MWP) is mostly quiet unknown outside germany. For me it's clear that the english name for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania... you can read that in every dictionary (one lying next to me) - this discussion is kinda rediculous...
[edit] West in Name
The preference in the title for "Western Pomerania" over "West Pomerania" misses a subtle difference in English. Plain "West" is generally used for clearly delineated territories, whereas "western" (often not capitalized) refers to more vaguely defined regions.
The choice between the two always carries political implications, for example the "South Lebanon Army" was so named to suggest a territorial exercise of control within a part of Lebanon occupied by Israel, whereas "southern Lebanon" was a phrase that stressed that all the south was an inalienable part of Lebanon. The term "West Germany" refers to the pre-1990 Federal Republic of Germany, whereas "western Germany" refers vaguely to all places between the centre and the Benelux/French border.
The one notable exception to this usage is "Northern Ireland" to describe the "Six Counties" of Ulster. The reason for this illustrates the distinction: the drafters of the Anglo-Irish Treaty chose "Northern" as a way of denying that the treaty itself was the instrument of partition and of emphasizing the temporariness of the division. In fact, only Southern Ireland was temporary.
In historical and cultural contexts, "western Pomerania" is the correct term for Vorpommern, particularly to make clear that some areas on the right bank of the Oder may be included, and titling the western Pomerania article in this way is clearly correct, since the article explores how that term refers to many entities. But in speaking of the modern German political territory known as Vorpommern, "West Pomerania" would be correct because the border is final and not in dispute.
It is true that there was some confusion in 1990 when the state was created, and that multiple forms of the name entered currency (it was even suggested that the closest English term, cis-, be applied, to make it Cispomerania). Since then, international English-speaking news organizations have generally chosen "West Pomerania", whereas as far as I can see, "Mecklenburg Western Pomerania" is a construct that originated with German speakers of English, rather like those odd "Made in Western Germany" labels that used to appear on a few goods.
It's not clear what the -ern suffix was supposed to imply in the 1990s. It was longer, yet without any semantic enhancement. Perhaps it merely sounded more impressive to non-native speakers of English? However some readers might interpret that term, "Western Pomerania", as suggesting that the political boundaries of Vorpommern are not final, and thus as questioning the international border to Poland. For all these reasons it should therefore be deprecated when referring to today's German political region.
If there is no consensus to use the German term "Vorpommern" for the political entity, as Nico suggests above, I would certainly suggest reverting the title of this article to Mecklenburg West Pomerania. I would also suggest not punctuating with a hyphen, as hyphenation here does not conform to English punctuation usage. If used, the hyphen creates a stronger bond between Mecklenburg and West than between the parts West and Pomerania, which is contrary to sense. --PubliusTacitus 17:46, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
