Talk:Saane/Sarine

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The title of this article is not very satisfactory; we should stick with one spelling and have a redirect from the other. I am not sure what the English spelling should be; the article mentions each spelling once. I've had a look at the different websites of Fribourg, and after a quick glance, I have found many "Sarine" (for example on the English gallery of images at http://www.fribourgtourisme.ch/cms_galerie01/showlinx.asp?lang=e or on some pages at http://www.pays-de-fribourg.ch (which can not be linked to directly)). But this may be biased simply because Fribourg and its tourist offices are mainly French-speaking. Anyone has a reference ? Schutz 22:02, 10 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In Switzerland, for places, it's usual to write names for places available in two local languages that way. I agree for the river, it's not ideal, but it seems preferable to choosing one over the other or to write two different articles about the upper and the lower part of the river. -- User:Docu
Since we are on the English wikipedia, the main criteria should really be which name (if any) is used in English (I doubt there would be an "official" name in English, but who knows); for example, by checking in an atlas — cf the discussion about the spelling Bern/Berne (which you know about, obviously) where noone suggested to name the article using both names. As a side note, what you mention is usual, but (as far as I know) not official: e.g. there is no town called "Biel/Bienne"; there is one town with two names. Schutz 12:24, 17 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
IMHO both samples are somewhat different: "Berne" is not being used because it's the French version, but because it's a version often used in English (IMHO) and "Biel/Bienne" is now the city's official name (current situation: in French, in German, in Italian; description of the previous situation: in French, in German).
If there is a convincing explanation of which version is to be used in English, I'd go for that, otherwise I'd use the current.
http://www.gstaad.ch uses "Saane" in English, places in Vaud et Fribourg are likely to use "Sarine". As the river mostly runs through the later, this could be an argument for the later. -- User:Docu
I basically agree with everything you wrote here (and this is more or less the same as what I wrote above) — but I don't think I have written anything about the French language, be it for Berne or for Sarine (except to say that tourist offices in Fribourg may not use the correct English word, if it exists, but may tend to be biased towards French); this is why I was thinking of checking English publications (for example, Lonely Planet uses Sarine, with Saane added in parenthesis on some maps). As for Biel/Bienne, I stand corrected. Interesting situation where there is an official name, and separate translations in both French and German are provided... Thanks, Schutz 21:11, 17 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]