This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of politics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PoliticsWikipedia:WikiProject PoliticsTemplate:WikiProject Politicspolitics
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Italy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Italy on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ItalyWikipedia:WikiProject ItalyTemplate:WikiProject ItalyItaly
I would actually argue for the move of Italian People's Party (1919) to "Italian Popular Party (1919)", People's Party (Spain) to "Popular Party (Spain)", etc. as "popular" is a more literal translation for popolare, but I won't (for now, at least) because most sources refer to those parties as "People's Party". The European People's Party is a different story: that is the party's official name. Italian parties including popolare in their names refer to the Italian variety of Christian democracy, popolarismo, that is why I would not move this article to "People's Alternative". When possible, literal translations are better. --Checco (talk) 14:17, 30 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
There are two basic rules in the translation business: As literal as possible, but also as free as necessary. Some words do not have an exact equivalent in another language. The English word 'popular' does not have the broad meaning of "relating or belonging to the (whole) people" that popular/popolare/populaire have in the Romance languages. In English, 'popular' means more specifically "liked, admired, or enjoyed by many people" or "intended for or suited to the taste, understanding, or means of the general public rather than specialists or intellectuals". Neither is the meaning intended by the names Partido Popular or Partito Popolare, they are just intended to mean "party of the people", which is rather conveyed by the construction 'People's Party' than by 'Popular Party' (which would be understood as: "a party that is liked by many people"). Different languages have a different synthax: Romance languages tend to use adjective constructions more often, while Germanic languages use compound nouns (in German, by the way, you have to translate Partido Popular or Partito Popolare as Volkspartei, it would be totally wrong to write populäre Partei or völkische Partei, even though these might be the most literal translations). The English equivalent of Repubblica Popolare is "People's Republic", not "Popular Republic"; the equivalent of Democrazia popolare is "People's Democracy". You can say Cina popolare/China popular/Chine populaire in Romance languages, but it would be very awkward to say "Popular China". Italian and Spanish even use laburista/laborista as an adjective, while English would always use the compound noun "Labour ..."
Therefore Italy is Popular makes absolutely no sense in English. Readers may ask "Italy is popular ... with whom?" Popular with tourists? Popular with investors? In English, this would mostly be understood as "Italy is liked by many", while the original Italian name is probably intended to mean "Italy is belonging to the people" or "Italy is Christian-democratic", given that in the context of Italian politics popolare is used synonymously with "Christian-democratic", a connotation that is impossible to translate into English.
Personally, I would also translate Alternativa Popolare as "People's Alternative" and Area Popolare as "People's Area". However, unfortunately ANSA has started to label this party as "Popular Alternative" in their English-language articles, which other English-language news outlets have adopted. So, per WP:ESTABLISHED we should stick with the current title. --RJFF (talk) 21:45, 17 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]
