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Talk:Murtaja (1890 icebreaker)

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English translation of the name Murtaja

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I disagree with User:Ermöglicht's edit regarding the English translation of the name of the icebreaker Murtaja in the |Ship namesake= field. While the literal translation of the Finnish word "murtaja" is in fact "breaker" or "buster" (as in the Finnish name of Mythbusters) and "jäänmurtaja" is either "icebreaker" or "breaker of ice", in my opinion in this context "icebreaker" is a more proper translation (or namesake) for Murtaja. The word "murtaja" (without the prefix "jään-") is often used when referring to icebreakers in news articles, reports etc. Furthermore, in the late 1800s the icebreakers, which were few in number, were often named just "Icebreaker" in the local language ("Isbrytaren" in Swedish, "Bryderen" (again just "breaker") in Danish, "Eisbrecher" in German and later "Ledokol" in Russian), sometimes with a number as a disambiguator. Murtaja/Icebreaker fits to this naming culture. Finally, the field is "namesake" and not "translation", so we don't have to strictly follow the dictionary.

Anyway, I'm open to discussion. This issue can also be brought up in other relevant forums (language groups?). Tupsumato (talk) 22:21, 26 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]