Talk:Newtown

Untitled
Jack Newtown, a claquing nickname of F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve - what does "claquing" mean? Loganberry (Talk) 22:53, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

As nobody knows, and I can't google any other instances of the usage, I'm removing the word. Rojomoke 00:38, 1 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm not saying it should be in, but Jack Newtown is a straight-forward, (playful?) word-for-word translation within the name.
 * Walter Nissen 2010-07-10 05:40

Newtown, MA
I know of no perfect way to measure usage of variant forms, but I did a little googling. Here are 100% of my results:

+"newtown" winthrop saltonstall feake --  903

+"newtowne" winthrop saltonstall feake --  34

+"new towne" winthrop saltonstall feake --  8

+"newtown" winthrop saltonstall feake watertown -long-island --  260

+"newtowne" winthrop saltonstall feake watertown -long-island --  3

+"new towne" winthrop saltonstall feake watertown -long-island -- 1

This is a very close match to my own reading experience.

So the word "generally" is unsourced, and apparently, inaccurate. Walter Nissen 2010-07-10 05:40 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Walter Nissen (talk • contribs)


 * "winthrop saltonstall feake". Who?  And no mention of Cambridge.  Not that google frequency is a reliable source on Wikipedia.  It's not.
 * A lot of fuss over one adverb on a disambig. page. Next time, why not just ask (or tag) for a citation?
 * I've provided a source, and changed the word. End of story. Hertz1888 (talk) 22:37, 12 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Apparently not quite the end (it was reverted), but available here. Hertz1888 (talk) 03:25, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Referring to your edit summary, "As previously sourced, Cambridge, Mass. never officially had the name Newtown": It's irrelevant whether some component was ever officially named Newtown. As the entry said, the name was attached to a larger area than occupied by the current boundaries, or some earlier boundaries. The area was briefly specified and Cambridge, Massachusetts is the most(?) helpful reference available.

But is official naming a criterion on disambiguation pages? If "Big Apple" were being disambiguated, would NYC not be listed because it's not official?

I looked around for WP policy on variant spellings and found: "A single disambiguation page may be used to disambiguate a number of similar terms. Sets of terms which are commonly so combined include: ... Variant spellings. For example, Honor and Honour both appear at Honor (disambiguation)."

So why are Newtown and New Town separate? Should Newtown, New Town, Newtowne, New Towne, Newe Towne, etc., all redirect to a single page? If they don't, is there a well-known way to find out which such pages exist? A more subtle question: Are editors doing readers a favor by trying to list all the common variants editors can find in spelling before the 19th-Century? I despair the task can be completed before google takes over all info pipes. Would it be more helpful to place a warning about variation at the top and bottom of each page? Readers of 18th-Century literature quickly appreciate the problem. Should there be a WP policy on this point? Walter Nissen (talk) 2010-07-13 19:03