[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#2587) class and legend data patch -- oops, with patch this time!

["esr@xxxxxxxxxxx via RT" <rt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Miguel Farah via RT <rt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> >Friendly amendment accepted.  In fact "Catalan" is a word in English, but it
> >is rarely (almost never) used as a noun.
> 
> Really? I didn't know that.

There's a general trend in modern English towards discarding
traditional Anglicizations of words like "Catalunya" (names of
countries, peoples, and languages) in favor of forms that are closer
to the native ones -- at least, when the native ones are pronounceable
for a native English-speaker.  This is over the last 30 years or so.

So yes, "Catalan" is recognized as the correct form when used as an
adjective or adjectival noun.  One can say "Catalonian" but that
sounds slightly old-fashioned to a native speaker.  So in current use
one would say "a Catalan" (for a Catalan person) or "Catalan grapes",
but the name of the region would still be "Catalonia".

In fact, "Catalan" would probably by now have replaced "Catalonia" as
the English name of the country as well, except that English also has
a strong pattern of country names ending in the Latinate "-ia"
suffix.  I think Spanish has that rule too, yes?.

> My fault, for not being clear enough. I'm too used to discuss this kind
> of things with spanish-speaking people, where spanish/catalan
> translations are usually pretty much automatic and explicit ones aren't
> really needed.

And my Spanish is very rusty.  (I speak a bit of French and Italian as
well, in case it's ever important.)

(That's right, I'm a white native-born American who's *not
monolingual*!  Try not to expire from the shock... :-))
 
> >I thought I was correcting a typo.  Spanish usage does not capitalize "alto"
> >as a part of placenames?  I thought it did, and I used to speak Spanish.
> >But perhaps Venezuelan practice is different from Chilean.
> 
> *Proper* spanish usage does not capitalize "alto" ("puente alto" means
> "high bridge", so if you convert it into a name, only the 'P' should be
> capitalized). However... latin american usage, influenced by english
> language, does capitalize the 'a'.

Ahhhh.  Well, if it were a high-bridge in Spain, I think you'd win the
argument...but as it is, you have "corrected" South American Spanish
with a Castilian usage.

> Oh well... we spaniards tend to be spanish language zealots (don't let
> me ever get started on the '�' letter).

In 1998 a Venezuelan described my Spanish accent as "very good, very
upper-class".  But I speak Venezuelan rather than Castilian Spanish
and actually pronounce the letter s, so you would probably think I
sound like a bumpkin :-).

(A few years later, in Mexico, I was told that other South and Central 
Americans consider Venezuelan a very pleasant accent to listen to,
even though they wouldn't necessarily want to adopt it themselves.  
Rather parallel to Irish and Caribbean accents in English.)

> >Do you want to submuit a correction patch for these, or shall I?
> 
> It's your patch. I'll leave the glory to you. :->

Done.  I'll submit today.
-- 
                <a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/";>Eric S. Raymond</a>