Talk:Loukhi

Move the page to Louhi (town)

Many names in the Republic of Karelia are in Finnish, eg. Hiitola, Lahdenpohja, Louhi, Pitkäranta and Suojärvi. In Russian they have been transliterated to "Khiytola", "Lakhdenpokhya", "Loukhi", "Pitkyaranta" and "Suoyarvi".
Although the Finnish towns are Hämeenlinna, Jyväskylä, Äänekoski etc, in Russian Хямеэнлинна, Ювяскюля and Яянекоски, nobody insist that they have to be in English Khyameenlinna, Yuvyaskyulya and Yayanekoski.
--WPK (talk) 16:53, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

In that respect this practice in en-wikipedia is funny, that the russians themselves well understand that they are using finnish language names (in part of the area, that was formerly Finland, the names really were changed into russian names, eg. Koivisto became Priozersk and Käkisalmi became Primorsk, but in some areas - and also some names in areas that never have been part of Finland - the names were not changed). So, the only change that occured is in english Wikipedia, not in Russia by any means. Also, it is funny that when the practice in en-Wikipedia with place names is this (the russians themselves understand, that they use finnish language names, but not the english wikipedia), the practice with personal names is what it should be also with place names, ie. the names that are used in russia but which everybody (also the russians themselves) understand that they are not russian names but names in some other language, may be written as they are written in the original language. And finally: I understand well that this is the practice in english language Wikipedia. But how good and wise the practice is, is a different question, when we have Eduard Hämäläinen and not Eduard Khyamyalyainen, while we still have Lakhdenpokhya and not Lahdenpohja, and meanwhile the russians themselves (but not the english Wikipedia) all the time understand that the names they are using are finnish language names. Urjanhai (talk) 06:13, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Hi, Urjanhai! While WPK did not receive an answer on this page, his question was answered on other pages where he also posted it. Not to bore you with the details (which are a great many), the short answer is that the English Wikipedia does indeed understand the intricacies of the situation, and the naming of this particular article (as well as the name of the article about Eduard Hämäläinen) is in full compliance with WP:RUS (which, in turn, is based on BGN/PCGN standards). If it helps, keep in mind that this is the English Wikipedia, not the Finnish or Russian, so, naturally, we follow the standards which are used in English. I, for one, can easily see how in this situation these standards may see "unnatural" to a native speaker of Finnish/Russian, but those people are not our primary audience; Anglophones are. Cheers,—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); March 22, 2010; 04:06 (UTC)

Loukhi > Louhi

The place has gotten its name from Finnish Louhi, Kalevala; look at the flag of Louhi. There is not a figure called "Loukhi". --Dialection (talk) 20:55, 24 July 2017 (UTC)

The same discussion is going on at Talk:Rakhya. The user has no edits outside of these pages and their talk pages.--Ymblanter (talk) 20:03, 25 July 2017 (UTC)

And the answer is actually directly above, so the user is advised to read before they post.--Ymblanter (talk) 20:04, 25 July 2017 (UTC)

Then those WP guidelines should be corrected for similar cases. For non-russian-language names in Russia or former Soviet Union. And similar cases in other areas where local dialect or name and state language are not same. Likewise, there is town in Russia named Togliatti, after italian communist. It is wrong to name this town in English Tolyatti. If you were to translate text about him from Russian into English, would you name him in English text also Tolyatti or rather Togliatti? Or welsh etc names in UK... If you ban Finnish names from use when they are in Russia now, do you ban Welsh names from use in English texts? For Karjala, correct place names are those in Finnish form, and should as such be used in languages with latin letters. As to not confuse politically, should be added their transcription into Russian, or name in Russian, as used in Russia. And btw, English language wikipedia is for all who understand English, not just native anglophones. :) BirgittaMTh (talk) 09:14, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Good, another editor with 130 edits but a strong opinion of what policies we should use... Well, we use the names which most commonly appear in English. We use them for Russian localities, for Welsh localities, and for Tanzanian localities as well. This is a long-standing policy. You can try to change it, though I doubt that you will achieve any degree of success. In any case, for this you would need to oipen an RfC on a policy talk page. Another question is, assuming we stick to this policy, are Tolyatti and Loukhi are the most common names for these localities in English, or are Togliatti and Louhi the most common names. I guess Tolyatti can be check directly by a number of Google hits, as soon as you figure out how to only count hits related to the name of the locality and not directly to Palmiro Togliatti. Loukhi is I guess so obscure and so seldom gets mentioned in English-language sources that it would be difficult to come up with any result by just looking at search engines, but a lot of things like road signs still use Loukhi. In any case, if you can come up with the arguments showing why Louhi and not Loukhi is the most common name for this locality please bring them here, they could make a strong case for moving the page.--Ymblanter (talk) 09:24, 20 September 2017 (UTC)