Talk:Saeima

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July 2005[edit]

Alot of this page looks ripped from here: http://www.saeima.lv/Informacija_eng/likumdeveju_vesture.html Thanx 68.39.174.91 19:13, 30 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed. – Quadell ^{(talk) (random)} 20:05, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Riots[edit]

Shouldn't there be some discussion on the recent rioting? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.58.149.18 (talk) 17:40, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Name[edit]

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Move. Jafeluv (talk) 23:20, 22 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Saeima of Latvia → Saeima
Seimas of Lithuania → Seimas

– Following discussion below and here. — HELLKNOWZ ▎TALK 08:02, 15 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There is absolutely no reason to use the name 'Saeima of Latvia', yet one user continues to move it to that against Wikipedia policy (the same applies to the Seimas of Lithuania). He or she also refuses to discuss the issue - despite two users challenging the move. Per WP:BRD, the onus is on him or her to explain the move when challenged with another interpretation of policy.

Policy is as follows. The name of the institution as used in common English-language discourse is the 'Saeima', not the 'Saeima of Latvia'. Per WP:PRECISION, thus, this is the presumed name of the article. A longer article is only required if the name 'Saeima' is required for WP:DISAMBIGUATION. However, since there is no other article called 'Saeima' or similar, disambiguation is not required. Ergo, 'Saeima' is the name that Wikipedia policy prescribes. Bastin 08:30, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

"Saeima" is WP:COMMONNAME and no disambiguation by country is necessary, as it is also WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. If there is a reason to move, it is certainly not unambiguous. The move warring should stop and WP:REQMOVE should be opened if there are arguments for the move. — HELLKNOWZ ▎TALK 08:54, 14 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with the above. There is only one Saeima, period. Saeima equals "Latvian parliament", and there is no need to name this article "Latvian parliament of Latvia". The title Saeima is unambiguous. ^Talk/♥фĩłдωəß♥\^Work 09:45, 14 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There is also only one States-General, only one Islamic Consultative Assembly, only one Sejm, only one General Council, only one Supreme Council, only one Constituent Assembly, and only one Lagting. There is plenty of examples of unique names for national legislatures including the country's name. Explain that. Fry1989 ^eh? 19:08, 14 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have already answered this point when you raised in on my talkpage. There is not only one States-General. There is not only one Sejm. There is not only one General Council. There is not only one Supreme Council. There is not only one Constituent Assembly. There is only one Saeima. As for the Islamic Consultative Assembly: nobody has opposed the three-month-old proposal to revert the previous, unilateral move.

There is no need to disambiguate Saeima, as there is no other article using that name or that plausibly use that name. Thus, Wikipedia policy prescribes 'Saeima' as the article's name. Unless you have a suggested article to take that place...? Bastin 19:15, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Yes, there is only one of everything I have listed. Fry1989 ^eh? 19:33, 14 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No, there is NOT only one 'Supreme Council', as I proved by linking to Supreme Council (go on, click it). Indeed, there are twenty-four that have articles on Wikipedia (and I suppose countless others that don't have articles). The same is true of all of the examples that you gave (as I proved by linking to the respective articles). I have reproduced policy above, and you have yet to argue substantively against it. We cite policy to resolve disputes on Wikipedia; we don't accuse more experienced users of vandalism when they deign to uphold it. Bastin 11:41, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

I protected the page until this is settled. For what is worth, if someone is going to have proper WP:RM procedure, count me in opposition to having "of [country]" in these titles. Renata (talk) 19:54, 14 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Can we agree that the latest stable title was "Saeima", and there should be a WP:RM as to whether the title should be "Saeima of Latvia"? ^Talk/♥фĩłдωəß♥\^Work 22:28, 14 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Support the move to no "of [country]" title. Renata (talk) 20:26, 19 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Support move to "Saeima". ^Talk/♥фĩłдωəß♥\^Work 20:28, 19 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Saeima as a constructed word[edit]

Surely it was inspired by Seimas <-- Sejm and meant to combine the familiar sound with a native form? 89.231.108.159 (talk) 22:35, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The etymology is explained in lead section. There is also little reason to jump to this conclusion given that Poland was probably marginal at time and Lithuania probably did not have parliament at the time word was invented. Also Lithuanian word has native origin. And as much as some of Young Latvians liked to borrow words from Lithuanians, this one can also have purely native origin (prefix+to go) ~~Xil (talk) 10:19, 14 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Saeima's etymology[edit]

You say: "The word "Saeima" meaning "a gathering, a meeting, a council" was constructed by the Young Latvian Juris Alunāns. It stems from the archaic Latvian word eima meaning "to go" (derived from the PIE *ei "to go" and also a cognate with the Ancient Greek eimi, Gaulish eimu among others) [2] Cognates with Polish sejm and Lithuanian seimas as they all have common ancestor - the parliament of Commonwealth of Both Nations."

I'm sorry, but it doesn't make much sense. The word comes either from "Sejm" or from the word "eima", which is apparently a different word (no "sa-"). The name for the Latvian parliament may very well have been "constructed" but it clearly is a Latvian version of the Commonwealth's Sejm. If you're looking for any other word that it cognates with, why not English "same", as in "almost the same as Sejm"? :)

a. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.77.220.60 (talk) 15:01, 23 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Juris Alunāns died 1864 and to be fair his constructed word was "seims" with absent "a" in shortened prefix "sa" and which sounded more native Latvian, as "Saeima" has too many vowels for a Latvian word. By the standards of those times, Alunāns had excellent education and most probably he knew about Sejm, but that is only speculation. We might also speculate why would anyone borrow Sejm from a weak and defeated form of government, as that what had happened of poles in 19th century - they were not mighty poles, but rather puny poles with some backward type of government. The logic of "New Latvians" was not borrowing names from other languages, but enrich their own language, by creating new terminology and definitions(there is similar pressure in digital era) - and not abandoning their own language, but make it equal to modern and widespread languages, such as German, Russian and English - hardly Polish ;)

Polish usage of "Sejm" is exclusively parliament, which is not so with "Saeima", even though nowadays it is exclusively used for Parliament. First usages of "Saeima" were about gatherings of "Zemes padome" or "Valsts sapulce". Note, that with prefix "sa", during "New Latvian" era(roughly ~100 years before independence of Latvia and Poland) there were created many words which were synonymous to each other and were used interchangeably in different times - long before idea of independent Latvia was formed: "sapulce, sanāksme, saeima, saiešana". Btw, all(4) of the mentioned words can be derived from meaning: "to go", or better: "to come" (together). Previous name of Latvian parliament(before invasion of bolseviks) was "Satversmes Sapulce", so it is not that Saeima was created for Parliament or that was exclusively name used for Parliament, which is the case of polish "Sejm".

To make things more interesting, I had an impression, that Saeima was derived from ancient word "Saime" - which is extended meaning to family and anyone under household. In Finland there is also a lake named Saimaa which is baltic hydronym and interestingly it is family of lakes.

Latvian "Saime" corresponds to Lithuanian "Šeima". Anyway, polish and slavic versions of "Sejm" might actually come from baltic word "Saime"(it seems, that some words that are preserved in latvian are more archaical ancient western baltic), where i has transformed into j. Today eastern slavic people use this word with the exclusive meaning of family: Семья, Сям’я, Сім'я because eastern slavic people spoke eastern baltics when Kievan Rus was created and switched to slavic languages with introduction of church slavonic, but kept many words with baltic origins - if they were not used in church liturgy. Sejm seems to have been well used among Belorussian speaking people long before Lithuanian-Polish union, when Belorussians were Lithuanians. Well, to make things even more interesting "Saime" also has meaning as a gathering, just like derived "Sejm", where it doesn't make much sense in explaining etymology of "Sejm" with that what is used to explain it :P 195.147.206.144 (talk) 16:32, 12 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Information on the building itself[edit]

The article could do with some information on the building itself - name, whether the parliament has always been in this building, history, pictures, etc. That was the reason I came to this article and it doesn't really contain any of that information at present. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.143.82.199 (talk) 13:34, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect presentage for development for in mot recent election[edit]

Hello i noticed this problem if someone could fix it i would be most thankful 176.72.36.245 (talk) 16:48, 3 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

More detailed example of vote counting[edit]

Voting for the Saeima seems to be one of the few governmental elections using score voting, also known as Combined approval voting.

What do the ballots look like? How do people vote for the parties? What happens if people vote for candidates in multiple parties? ★NealMcB★ (talk) 05:13, 18 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]