Talk:Étang de Thau

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	Lakes portal Étang de Thau is within the scope of WikiProject Lakes, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of lake-related articles on Wikipedia, using the tools on the project page. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LakesWikipedia:WikiProject LakesTemplate:WikiProject LakesLakes articles
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This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 14:34, 10 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Title

Is there any reason why this should not be placed under the English title for this lagoon, "Thau Lagoon"? --Bejnar (talk) 19:32, 8 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

One reason might be that it is hardly ever referred to by that title. I've never known it used, other that in the Independent article sourced (other articles in UK newspapers don't do it - see Guardian, 1 Aug 2009, Guardian, 4 May 2013, Guardian, 5 Aug 2006, Guardian, 12 Nov 2005, Glasgow Evening Times, 2 Sep 2014). On most English language maps it's Bassin de Thau; official French sources refer to either Etang or Bassin as do most English language guide books; English navigation guides use French. Besides, what's wrong with using the name the French use - it's their lake? Emeraude (talk) 11:23, 10 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The reason would be that this is the English Wikipedia. Take a look at the thousands of hits for "Thau Lagoon" on Google scholar. --Bejnar (talk) 08:32, 11 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

That's an argument for linguistic imperialism. As for Google (admittedly not Scholar): Thau Lagoon - 92,600; Etang de Thau - 502,000; Bassin de Thau - 886,000; Thau bassin - 552,000. Emeraude (talk) 08:57, 14 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I am not sure what you mean by "linguistic imperialism". The Wikipedia guideline on naming conventions says If a particular name is widely used in English-language sources, then that name is generally the most appropriate It seems to me that thousands of uses of "Thau Lagoon" is pretty wide, and that usage is even more prevalent in academic works which tend to be reliable sources. --Bejnar (talk) 20:36, 15 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]