Talk:Taranto

Untitled
This town has an established English name: Tarent. These articles and texts should use it. 62.78.104.103 23:04, 28 May 2005 (UTC)


 * Where is "Tarent" used in English texts? I have always seen it as Taranto. Adam Bishop 03:25, 29 May 2005 (UTC)
 * 62.78.104.103 is wrong. "Tarent" is the French name, that is widely used in heraldry, and he probably copied the names from such a book. The name of the city was Taras in Greek times, Tarentum in Roman times, and Taranto later. No English names.--Panairjdde 08:51, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

I think English then uses both names, since I have seen Tarent somewhere in English materials. The reason probably is that in Latin, it is Tarentum, and high English uses almost everything according to forms in Latin (Any scholar knowing something about theory of English language knows that Latin vocabulary is there within). I would assess that the name is Tarent in high English. But, of course, tourists, travellers, tourist guides and such use more frequently the contemporary native names. Thus, the Italian name form has apparently come deep into English usage, at least nowadays (if I am to trust the previous two commentators). However, it is very nice that at least one commentator confirms that Tarent is in use in heraldry materials. I think that medieval lordships are matters whose names are best kept in forms given by English heraldry materials, if it is not directly against the acceptable English language. To change it from heraldry usages to today's tourist usages would be sort of anachronism. 62.78.106.188 13:53, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Taranto has been used in English at least in the last century. See, for example, the Battle of Taranto, as it was called in UK newspapers. As regards heraldry, you can use the form you prefer for unknown offsprings of unimportant nobles, but a prince should be called with the name he ruled with. If you are interested in Renaissance history of Southern Italy, you will find Giovanni Antonio del Balzo Orsini on history books, not John of Tarent, as in your heraldry books.--Panairjdde 08:50, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

This is rather funny. Usually, if someone is a historical ruler, his/her name appears translated in English texts. Thus, if Giovanni was a real ruler, a real feudal lord, we expect his name be John of Taranto (or of Tarent) in history books written in English. Not "Giovanni Antonio del Balzo Orsini" which form is clearly the practice used for unknown and unimportant and obscure noblemen who did not reign and who were not feudal princes, not recognized as rather independent rulers by other rulers. Of course, history books written in Italian are no evidence for this. Which history books on Renaissance of southern Italy mention him as "Giovanni Antonio del Balzo Orsini"??? Please list the names and authors of the said books. One of the reason of translated names in use for historical rulers is that they communicated directly with other monarchs than their own suzerain, and because of this, their names have often been preserved as parts of history of other than their own country. Thus, in contemporary, translations of name were used and usually spread, and therefore it is difficult to presently cut that variance to just the name form in original language. If the history books written in English really use that obscure Italian name for him, it is a signal for which we probably should reassess that person's role in history - if he really was just a local nobleman, without any sort of ruling status??? 62.78.104.96 06:54, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Battle of Taranto seems an event of our contemporaries. (There are plenty of people living now who lived during that battle.) If you had read the naming conventions of Wikipedia, you would probably understand that contemporary things are more often named in native language. Translations of names in history deals with time before our contemporary. You know, in 20th century, the media and the flow of information (due to technology, such as wires and movie recordings) became almost real-time. Before that, information transmitted by letters tended to use translated names. Perhaps it is wise to conclude that the naming of Battle of Taranto proves nothing more than the usage of king Juan Carlos I of Spain.... 62.78.104.96 07:01, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * It looks like you are more interested in heraldry than in history. Do as you please.--Panairjdde 07:23, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Translation
Beth Holmes 1 (talk) 12:23, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

Twinning
I found and added references for twinning with Brest and being a sister city to Donetsk. The others should probably be removed though, I can't find any evidence of them being true. Anyone know about this? Beth Holmes 1 (talk) 16:17, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

The Great Sea and the Little Sea diagram
It may be more useful if this was presented graphically. Possibly the arial photo could be labled, or a separate map created.Joshden (talk) 17:05, 7 July 2012 (UTC)

Michael of Taranto?
Who was this man? I can not find anything on him or on his occupation.--88.152.148.24 (talk) 20:24, 28 October 2012 (UTC)

Nor me. I think this is a joke (by an emigrant from Taranto). I'm going to remove the entry Marinheiro (talk) 22:47, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Place-Name again
The name used in modern English atlases, guidebooks and elsewhere is Taranto. It is amazing that above there is an apparently earnest discussion about the place-name. See, for example, The Reader's Digest Illustrated Atlas of the World, 1st ed., 1997. p. 95. For Victorian usage, see for example, Beeton's Dictionary of Geography ..., 19th thousand, n. d., [c.1860], where the place is also called Taranto. What's more, this astounding lack of common sense doesn't even seem to be motivated by the usual Wikipedia horror of 'original research'. Norvo (talk) 03:32, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

The city is called Tarent not only in French but in German too. If this name is found in English texts, I would bet that they are translated and the translator didn't know, or didn't consider the possibility, that the place is named differently in English. The reason I'm on this page at all is that I am just translating a text from German that uses "Tarent" and I felt the need to check what is usual in English... 217.95.233.248 (talk) 10:34, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

Ancient population
The article currently claims that ancient Taras, c. 500 B.C.E., had 300,000 people. This is extremely large, though not impossibly large, for ancient cities. This is referenced to four sources. I can't check two of them. I can check the other two, which data from 1811 and 1854, before the emergence of historical demography, before much development of archaeology, etc. I don't see how these sources could have any reliable information about the population of Taras. Mogens Herman Hansen, in The Shotgun Method, states that the walls encompassed 530 hectares, which, given his formua, would give an estimated population of 26,500 people. 96.231.17.143 (talk) 02:24, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

Steel works
There is a big issue going on there with metals dust. I saw a thing last night on abc.net.au and really it was shocking.

The health risks in Taranto are very substantial, as I learned, and navy ships should not dock there often or for more than a short time. If I was Italian and had a son in the navy, I would urge him to find each and every loophole to not be in Taranto, even leaving the forces. It is a topic that should not be omitted. 2001:8003:AD87:D400:DCDF:1EB4:18E0:5D4 (talk) 02:39, 6 December 2018 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 23:23, 11 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Monumento al Marinaio di Taranto.jpg

Semi-protected edit request on 15 September 2022
I would like the protection template added. 64.114.239.31 (talk) 16:44, 15 September 2022 (UTC)
 * ✅  Madeline  ( part of me ) 17:30, 15 September 2022 (UTC)

Commons files used on this page or its Wikidata item have been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons files used on this page or its Wikidata item have been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 03:20, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
 * City Hall of Taranto.jpg
 * Colonne Doriche.JPG
 * Ponte girevole.JPG

WP:NOTDICT
1) I know there are cites but, once you're laundry listing every possible way English speakers mispronounce the Italian name and since there's no common way to badly misread it, you're not actually helping any at all by bloating the lead sentence like that. That mess belongs at Taranto's Wiktionary entry, not here. (Neither here nor there but the cites don't seem particularly accurate in this case anyway. Some Brits will read it with an /ɒ/ that they can't much distinguish from US /ɑ/ and some Yanks will use /æ/ and it's all six of one, half dozen the other. Similarly, even the current mess doesn't include the common and perfectly acceptable variant pronunciations that use /ɛ/ in the first syllable.

2) I personally don't think the Italian IPA needs to be here either since Italian orthography is very straight-forwardly phonetic in this case, but I do know it's common enough in our articles and, since it's short enough, I'll just leave that as a compromise towards the earlier editors who wanted some IPA in the lede til another editor agrees with me enough to remove that too. (Full support.)

3) What would be better down the road would be for a separate #Name or #Names section to include the various names of the place in various involved languages all together. Once that's created, all the pronunciation info could be dumped there or footnoted from there without the problems caused by mucking up the lead sentence like we have been doing. —  Llywelyn II   08:17, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Further cleanup
"Overview" is what the article's lead paragraphs should already be doing. That section should be removed as soon as possible by any interested editor and the sections around it changed to incorporate its points appropriately. — Llywelyn II   08:17, 10 March 2024 (UTC)