Talk:La Nouvelle branch

A fact from La Nouvelle branch appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 15 November 2008, and was viewed approximately 1,617 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the final section of La Nouvelle branch (pictured), a canal in south-central France, was constructed in 1776 to link Narbonne to the Canal du Midi?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2008/November.

Wikipedia

Possibly wrong spelling (and capitalization)

The spelling "La Nouvelle branch" is awkward. The words "la" and "nouvelle" are French, while the word "branch" is not. The correct spelling in French is "branche". Is it a spelling mistake? --Edcolins (talk) 22:59, 13 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

May I add that "branche" ought to have a capital "B"? --83.153.198.94 (talk) 23:33, 14 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

La Nouvelle branch (no e) is how to is referred to in all the English sources, not just the ones referenced in the article. Rolt is of course the definitive but From Sea to Sea is not online however McKnight is - see here. I suppose one should think of it rather like the naming of articles such as Grande River where the descriptor - river - has been translated but the name - Grande - has not. Nancy ^talk 07:33, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

And specifically with to regard to the capitalisation - Rolt doesn't capitalise branch & as I said, he is really the definitive (English) source for the waterways in the Midi although I do absolutely agree that it looks a bit odd - I've been working with this article for a week now and it still jars a little! Nancy ^talk 08:03, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Is it possible that because a source has mis-spelled a name, wikipedia should not only continue with the mis-spelling, but even promote it? English-spoken sources have of course little validity when it concerns foreign places, or am I mistaken? (edit) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Naming_conventions_(geographic_names)#Use_English implies that widely accepted english spellings should have precedence; our aim should be to promote the local, true spelling before there is a wide consensus on an erroneous one, as there is so far not a wide acceptance of the erroneous spelling, only one reference. Any thoughts? Another point is that it is probably a typo, or a spelling mistake on Rolt's part - not a deliberate attempt at wronging both french and english. Best regards Seb.mag (talk) 10:33, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That may be true if it were a one off but all the English language sources are sans "e", not just Rolt. Nancy ^talk 10:48, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Also, can you find any French language sources calling it "La Nouvelle branche" (capital B or not) - I can't? Nancy ^talk 10:59, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Seb.mag - whilst you're here could you kindly explain why you refactored my comment to make it look like I was having a dig at Edcolins? Completely unacceptable. Nancy ^talk 11:05, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Probably a mistake... I am surely not a definitive source regarding waterways in Europe ;-) --Edcolins (talk) 11:13, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't found any English source using the spelling with "e" indeed. Strange, but, well, it seems to be accepted among authors (see also Roger Calvert, Inland Waterways of Europe, 1963, page 64 - snippet view on Google Books). I have just noticed however that McKnight capitalized "Branch". Shouldn't we at least mention the alternative capitalization? --Edcolins (talk) 11:13, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, a nod would probably be appropriate - I'll stick it in as a note. Nancy ^talk 11:50, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Looks great. Thanks for the good work. Cheers --Edcolins (talk) 13:04, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I humbly apologize I had a copy/cut go wrong on me, and I suppose that's what happened. 100% my mistake, sorry. In fact I also apologize for the trouble I brought, it came from a hasty reading of the article. There is no global name for these three contiguous waterways, in french. They are known independantly as the Aude river, the canal de la robine and the canal de jonction only. Therefore the english name must stand. Seb.mag (talk) 12:50, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No problem - important thing is that we all reached agreement in the end. Nancy ^talk 13:00, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, the article refers to the La Nouvelle canal branch. Its name in French is embranchement de La Nouvelle (or embranchement de la Nouvelle), and it is sometimes referred to as branche de La Nouvelle (or branche de la Nouvelle) or embranchement de Port-la-Nouvelle. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Korg (talk) 23:02, 15 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ahhhh - of course! Thanks Korg ....seems so obvious now with the benefit of hindsight. Cheers, Nancy ^talk 10:35, 16 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You're welcome. I felt the note about the capitalisation was no longer really necessary, so I went ahead and replaced it with one about the other denominations in French. Best regards, Korg (talk) 19:32, 18 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]