Wikipedia:WikiProject Catalan-speaking countries/Style advice

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These guidelines deal with the naming of articles, categories and templates related to the Catalan-speaking countries as well as Catalan speakers, the Catalan language and Catalan culture. Please follow the conventions below. If you disagree with any of the conventions, please discuss in the talk page.

To write and edit Catalan-speaker-related articles, please follow the conventions below. Also, refer to:

• Wikipedia:Manual of Style for general cases;
• Wikipedia:History for notes on the style of history articles;
• Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English) for general use of English names in articles.

Naming issues in the Catalan Countries: an overview

Naming issues are contentious both off the Wiki and on Wiki in Catalan-speaking countries. These are generally surrounding the use of the Catalan language vs the Spanish language and the use of Catalan ethnicity in the lead of articles.

Current nomenclature

Places in the different areas are known in either Catalan or Spanish, but are generally broadly similar.

• identical between the languages – (C) Barcelona → (S) Barcelona;
• broadly similar – (C) Castelló → (S) Castellon;

Wikipedia standards

Wikipedia's approach to dealing with disputed placenames is set out in Wikipedia:Naming conflict. The naming conflict guidelines operate alongside the guidelines on general naming conventions, the conventions for geographic names, and those for common names. Bear in mind that the English version of Wikipedia follows prevalent naming conventions in English, which may conflict with those in operation on the non-English Wikipedias. There is no common naming standard across all Wikipedias.

Wikipedia's naming conflict guidelines mandate that articles on self-identifying entities should use the name chosen by the entity in question, or an equivalent English translation. A self-identifying entity is, in this context, a political entity (such as a municipal or regional government) or a public or private organisation.

A name may be controversial due to political disputes over the right of an entity to use the name that it has chosen for itself. Wikipedia does not take any position on whether a self-identifying entity has any right to use a particular name; this encyclopedia merely notes the fact that they do use that name. Wikipedia is descriptive, not prescriptive. We cannot declare what a name should be as this would be a violation of the neutral point of view policy; we can only state how a term is actually used.

The key principles of relevance to the case of the Catalan countries are as follows:

• Self-identifying entities such as localities, organisations and people are primarily named according to the name that they give themselves, except where a common anglicised equivalent exists – e.g., "Munich" for München.
• Inanimate entities such as geographical features are named primarily according to their most common name in English, or if there is no common English name, then the non-English name most commonly used in English-language sources. The modifying noun ("River", "Mount[ains]", "Lake" etc.) given in English – e.g., "Orlické Mountains" for the Czech Orlické hory.

Guidelines

Geographical naming

Each region has a different name which is primarily used per WP:COMMONAME. Catalonia, Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community are the anglicized names of the autonomous communities of Catalunya, Illes Balears and Communitat Valenciana respectively, and should be referred to in their anglicized names except when important to state their Catalan name.

Andorra and La Franja are both known by their Catalan names and have no common anglicized name, and therefore they should be referred to in their Catalan name and only in their Catalan names, following WikiProject Andorra's guidelines for Andorra-related articles.

Northern Catalonia and L'Alguer should only be referred to in their Catalan names when it is contextually significant (as in relation to the other Catalan countries or in relation to Catalan culture) and at all other times should be referred to following WikiProject France and WikiProject Italy's guidelines.

Geographical Places

Geographical features in the Catalan Countries are typically known by Catalan names, with the notable exception of Northern Catalonia, L'Alguer and La Franja. To comply with the requirements of Wikipedia:Naming conflict#Proper nouns, features located predominately in a particular linguistic area must be termed according to the most common name in English, or if there is no common English name, then the non-English name most commonly used in English-language sources. The modifying noun ("Mount[ains]", "River", "Lake" etc.) must be rendered in English.

As with municipal names, articles on these topics must start with the predominant local or associated place name followed by the equivalent name in the other language.

Political entity naming

Catalan Countries

The Catalan Countries are not actually a series of different countries, but are different Catalan-speaking regions. Catalan Countries holds no legal basis in the law and should be recognized as such. The areas of the Catalan Countries are currently located in Spain, Andorra, France and Italy and have varying degrees of autonomy. All regions should be addressed as per their legal standings in the respective constitutions of the different governments.

Catalonia, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands are all autonomous communities of Spain with the status of nationality, while La Franja is not recognized by the Catalan, Aragonese or Spanish central government and therefore should be referred to as a region.

Andorra is an independent country which is United Nations-recognized, and should be treated as such.

Northern Catalonia has no legal standings, and should be addressed similarly to La Franja, while at the same time placing it in the context of the départment of Pyrénées-Orientales, which is a bit larger than the proclaimed borders of Northern Catalonia.

L'Alguer is a city in Italy with the limited special status of having Catalan as a co-official language, and should be treated as such.

Comarques

Comarques are generally translated as counties or as parishes. They should be referred to only by their name with no prefix added (like Baix Llobregat, instead of Baix Llobregat county).

Municipalities

The names of municipalities differ depending on which area they are located, but generally, municipalities in Catalonia, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands and in Andorra should be in Catalan, while municipalities in La Franja, Northern Catalonia and L'Alguer should be in Spanish, French and Italian, respectively. WP:COMMONNAME takes precedence over these rules and may create occasional divergences from these guidelines (as in Castellón and Alicante).

Regional Identity of Biographies

Regional Identity of Spain was addressed in a 2018 RfC in which consensus was reached that if sources identify the person as their regional identity and they themselves view them first and foremost with that regional identity, then they should be identified by that identity (ie Carles Puigdemont, which was the reason of the RfC). Consensus on each individual page must be reached if wishing to place a compromise identity (like Spanish Balearic or Valencian from Spain) beforehand, while no consensus beforehand is needed to place the person as a Catalan/Valencian/Balearic [...] or as a Spanish [...]. However, if asked to explain why, you must reach consensus due to WP:CONSENSUS.

Andorrans must be referred to as such, while people from Northern Catalonia and L'Alguer are generally referred to as French and Italian, respectively.

Type of English used

British English is generally preferred, due to the proximity of the Catalan-speaking countries with the UK.

References