Re: Lukashenka (jara: Country names still needed)

 --- Muke Tever skrzypszy:

> > Names in foreign alphabets are always a problem-- do you do a straight
> > transliteration? if so, which system do you use? or do you transcribe them
> > so as to be pronounceable by the average reader???
>
> I think the normal practice is to do a transliteration (by whatever system
> you choose to use...), until/unless you have on record the way the person in
> question spells it in English use... Even then it may not take hold.
Yes. And which transliteration you choose should depend largely on the kind of
text you are writing and the kind of audience you expect. Basically, there are
two ways: either you use a scientific transliteration (Library of Congress, in
the case of Russian), or you use a popular transcription that fits your
language.

But o horror, what happens here in the Low Lands? Writers, journalists, etc.
have not a clue about Russian, and I can't blame them for that. But then they
borrow their information from other sources, mostly German or English, and
borrow the German/English popular transcription directly into Dutch. Even
worse, in one text you can encounter "Schostakowitsch", "Prokofieff" ánd
"Chatsjatoerian".

And journalists? I don't blame them for not knowing the language (although I
can't really take seriously those correspondents who don't know the language of
the country they are stationed in). But I do blame them for not making the
effort of consulting a specialist before they submit their stuff to be read by
millions of people.

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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