Talk:Sonian Forest

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"was assigned in 1815 to the Duke of Wellington, who is Prince of Waterloo in the Kingdom of Belgium"

This does not make sense! In 1815, there was no Kingdom of Belgium or anything like it. As far as I know, there has never been a Prince of Waterloo in the time Belgium existed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.203.215.200 (talk) 15:10, 14 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It might have been worth looking into before posting: begin with Arms, titles, honours and styles of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington and Prins van Waterloo, to take off that perfect untouched bloom on "as far as I know". --Wetman (talk) 18:05, 14 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sonian?

I wonder if there is a source or a reference for this name. I confess to ignorance despite having lived in Belgium for almost 40 years. The article itself seems unsure as the quotation from Wellington refers to the Forest of Soignies. Might it not be more advisable to use the most common appellation Soignies and to mention the names used in other languages such as Dutch and apparently in English in the body of the article? Everybody got to be somewhere! (talk) 21:22, 27 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Couldn't agree more. I've known these woods for a similar length of time and have never come across this form of the name. It's quite unusual to anglicise epithets for foreign places (except when the name has arrived in English via French). Semudobia (talk) 10:29, 9 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Or when the name has been in English for a very long time. Keep in mind that there wouldn't be very many chances to encounter the English name for something that specific in a place where most people speak French or Dutch. I could ask how many times you've encountered local mention of 'Anthony, Duke of Brabant' (and not 'Antoine' or 'Anton'). I suspect the answer is also zero.

I found a bunch of sources for 'Sonian Forest' or 'Sonian Wood': [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. 4 of the 5 I've chosen are from over 100 years ago to show that it is not a recent neologism. There are many more if you care to look, including a great many recent ones, many of which predate even the existence of Wikipedia (so we know it's not citogenesis). So 'Sonian Forest' or 'Sonian Wood' is definitely the name in English. Oreo Priest ^talk 10:31, 24 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Well, for the record I'd support a move to the French term per Brussels naming conventions. I see Oreo's sources, but I'd say that the term "Sonian" is archaic (even if it is sporadically used by more modern sources - I'd be interested to see what other modern ones there are) and is certainly not the common name. By the same reasoning, it would follow that we rename Kortrijk its archaic English name of "Courtray"! Brigade Piron (talk) 10:39, 24 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I oppose a move to the French name. Firstly: it has been established by other editors that Sonian Forest is a correct English language term. According to Brussels naming conventions, which actually states that if the subject has an English name or can easily be anglicized to facilitate reading and keep language neutrality: that name should be used as a title, and thus it should be the current title. Secondly, giving it the French name in the English-language wikipedia discards the fact that 56% of the wood is situated in Flanders and not in Brussels. -- fdewaele, 24 July 2014, 13:40 CET.

Brigade, I don't think 'Sonian' is purely archaic, although it might not be something every writer or resident knows about. Please do compare to 'Courtray'; you'll find that there are no modern sources that use 'Courtray' for the modern city. I do think however, that the French and Dutch names should be directly in the lead, as they're both very likely to be encountered.

fdewaele is also right that if the subject has an English name, the Brussels naming conventions require the use of English. It clearly does have an English name in this case, so even if the French name were adopted more often by English speakers, it would be a moot point. Oreo Priest ^talk 12:55, 24 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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