Talk:Chojna

Improper Italicization

There is no grammatical or expository reason to italicize former German names of now-Polish localities in the areas given to postwar Poland under border changes promulgated at the Potsdam Conference. In English, italics usually denote foreign (non-English) words for things or concepts, but not place names. Prior to 1945, Chojna was officially Königsberg in der Neumark, not Königsberg in der Neumark , and the German name should not be italicized.

The automatic italicization of former German names of now-Polish or -Russian places misleads English-speaking readers to think the former, historically actual German names are merely German exonyms [1] for pre-existing Polish or Russian place-names, which often is not the case. Sca (talk) 14:45, 12 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You're over-inferring. This is the standard way of presenting the info on Wikipedia.Volunteer Marek (talk) 15:03, 12 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

That doesn't make it correct. What I said above about the proper use of italics in English has been correct for ages. The fact that Wiki has developed a shortcut for inserting italicized former place-names might seem nifty to geeks, but it's not English practice.

(I am a native English speaker — are you? I'm also a former journalist and editor.) Sca (talk) 16:22, 12 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

PS: Among the corrections you summarily, without due consideration, reverted was my repair of this absurd sentence: In 1939 the WAFFe constructed an airfield nearby. And what pray tell is "the WAFFe"? Sca (talk) 16:30, 12 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]