Flaxman wrote: "I don't see why it's unreasonable to expect the *standard* English translation of a work's title. " ------------------------------------------ If I interpret this sentence correctly, anyone who's ever answered "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" is wrong, because the standard English title is "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," which is the title of the book and the movie in almost every English-speaking country in the world. This discussion of what English translations are acceptable has been coloured by favouritism towards defining American English as "standard," an argument that doesn't hold up when rigourously analysed. At a bare minimum, commonly used titles in English-speaking countries should be accepted as "standard" English translations, as people from most of the world's major English-speaking nations have participated in quizbowl tournaments. Should I be penalized for having read about the philosopher's stone instead of the sorceror's stone? Leniency in translations is provided because it's not reasonable to expect a question writer or editor to track down every variation of a title that has been published in every corner of the world. Nor it is fair to accept only English answers, as many people in qb have studied foreign languages and the foreign name of a work may come to mind more quickly. The main job of editors regarding translations is to make sure they are clearly identified as such, so that the distinction between exact and translated title can be made. For example, at MLK we had the following: Answer: _Huis Clos_ English: _No Exit_ which makes it perfectly clear that "No Exit" is a translation and then moderator judgments can be made accordingly. Dave
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0: Sat 12 Feb 2022 12:30:45 AM EST EST