Talk:Rauk

Why is there a separate English page on this?
Why is there a separate English page on this? "Rauk" is just Swedish for stack: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_(geology) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.100.23.209 (talk) 17:03, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

The word may be generic in Swedish, but in English it refers to specific limestone formations: "A few miles south of Farosunds Fastning, Lergravsviken nature reserve is home to a hillside of raukar, odd limestone formations found along the coast on Gotland and Faro. Molded by erosion over millenniums, the strangely shaped, hulking gray stones contribute to the spooky, dramatically cinematic landscapes that inspired the director Ingmar Bergman, who lived and filmed on Faro. It’s easy to imagine Bergman’s famous image of Death personified lurking behind one of the eerie stones." (NYTimes 2010 http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/travel/25Next.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all) -71.174.187.200 (talk) 13:11, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Suggested merge
In my experience with scholars of many countries, a "Kekur" (Russian), a "Farallón" (spanish) and a "Rauk" (Swedish) are also a "Sea stack". --Estaurofila (talk) 22:01, 11 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Merged. Vsmith (talk) 13:13, 26 December 2010 (UTC)

Suggested rename of article title
Since 2010, this article has been replaced by a redirect and merge to Stack (geology) after comments on this talk page in 2008 and 2010 claiming that "rauk" was merely a Scandinavian translation of "stack". On 23 March 2019, Lappspira removed the redirect and this article was expanded by Lappsipra and other editors. Expanding the information about landforms in Scandinavia is a good idea but I think that there are problems with this article, for example, the title, because I have not found any reliable source to support "rauk" being an English word for such a landform (echoing comments that led to the creation of the redirect). Aeolian rauks are mentioned in this article as being formed differently from water-created rauks (i.e. stacks) ("In Sarek National Park rauks originate as aeolian landforms, thus contrary to other rauks, they are shaped more by wind than by water."), but the Stack (geology) article states that "Without the constant presence of water, stacks also form when a natural arch collapses under gravity, due to sub-aerial processes like wind erosion." Are Sarek rauks also merely a type of stack (or a type of pinnacle)? I suggest that this article should be renamed. I think "Stacks in Scandinavia (landform)" would be a better title than "Rauk". (Also then create a new redirect from "Rauk" to this renamed article). — GeoWriter (talk) 15:38, 24 March 2019 (UTC)
 * There are other article that use the Scandinavian word as title since they apply to specific Scandinavian subjects, like socken and punsch. I don't see why we can't keep 'rauk' per WP:COMMONNAME. It is much simpler and more elegant than renaming the article to some long title no one uses and having the word people use as a redirect. cart -Talk  15:51, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

W.carter, the Swedish common name is "rauk" but this is English Wikipedia not Swedish Wikipedia. The English common name is "stack". "Scandinavia" and "landform" are also English common names. Who uses "rauk" in English? WP:COMMONNAME states "... generally prefers the name that is most commonly used (as determined by its prevalence in a significant majority of independent, reliable English-language sources)". Where is the significant majority of independent, reliable English-language sources supporting "rauk" rather than stack? An example of a reliable English-language source that describes the "rauk" landforms of Gotland, mentioned in this Wikipedia article, as stacks not "rauks" is: Bird, E. (editor) (2010) "Encyclopedia of the World's Coastal Landforms" volume 1, Dordrecht, Springer, page 593 figure 8.2.6. — GeoWriter (talk) 17:29, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

W.carter, your comparison with other Swedish words used for English Wikipedia article titles (e.g. socken and punsch) does not persuade me that "Rauk" should continue to be this article's title. Socken appears to be similar to a parish; punsch appears to be a type of punch. "Rauks" appear to be stacks, not similar to stacks nor a type of stack. — GeoWriter (talk) 17:54, 24 March 2019 (UTC)


 * If you link to my talk page like you did above, I do not get a notification. A notification is written like this: GeoWriter. That might be good to know the next time you want to alert somebody. Back to land formation talk: So an alp is just a mountain? It is used to describe land formations in a specific part of the world. --cart -Talk  18:44, 24 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Evidence for usage in English:
 * The 2006 article "Significance of microbialites, calcimicrobes, and calcareous algae inreefal framework formation from the Silurian of Gotland, Sweden" published in Sedimentary Geology
 * A 1967 English-language article by Sten Rudberg in Geografiska Annaler.
 * As expected for pictoresque landforms, research on rauks is not a hot topic. Rauk is widely used in English-language tourist litterature on Gotland. Lappspira (talk) 02:38, 25 March 2019 (UTC)