Should I use English in profiles for Spain?

Question

I'm working on adding bios and sources to profiles from Spain, from the period 1200–1500.  Working in the language from their time and place, I've been doing them in my very poor Spanish.  I planned to ask the Spain Project for help when I am finished, having someone proofread for spelling, grammar, and vocabulary errors.  

In this process, I have run across other profiles, some even created by Spain Project members, and they are all in English.  Is that the standard for Spain?  It would sure save me a lot of time and work if that were the case, and the bios would look a lot more accurate.

What say you, Spain and Medieval projects?

Answer 1

Concerning the long run ideal I don't know if there is a real consensus in cases like this. However I do not think our collection of Spanish medieval profiles are close to being "ideal" yet.

I think the more important point is that if you are creating or improving profiles, English will do just fine. I don't think anyone would want to stop you working in whatever language (or languages) you can best work in.

There is a lot of work to do. :)

Answer 2

I think in an ideal world, profiles would be written in the language in which the person spoke, or with the location they are tied to.

However, one thing I think we should never do is try to create a biography based on translations. For example, writing a bio and using an online translator can have disastrous consequences.

While I have experience with writing and reading in Czech and other Slavic languages, I am nowhere near proficient in them so I write all biographies strictly in English. If I run across a profile in another language, I just fo a right-click -> Translate to English in Chrome and there I am, reading the bio in English.

It may not be perfect, but it works...

So, to answer the question:

In this process, I have run across other profiles, some even created by Spain Project members, and they are all in English.  Is that the standard for Spain?  It would sure save me a lot of time and work if that were the case, and the bios would look a lot more accurate.

Not speaking on behalf of any project here - but I don't think there should be any forced standards by projects to set biography languages. It really needs to depend on the writer (us), the considerations for the profile (who are we writing about), etc.

If the Spain Project forced Spanish, Catalan, Basque, etc. then it would be nearly impossible for 99% of the community to engage with the profiles and contribute to them.

For instance, my family came from Moravia and only spoke Czech. I still write their profiles in English - because it would be nearly impossible (and overly time consuming) to try and write it in Czech with my limited abilities.

Answer 3

A profile in English got merged with a profile in Dutch and we ended up with many records and both English and Dutch on the profile of the Explorer Henry Hudson.

Answer 4

I don't know how Spanish has evolved since the 1200-1500 period, but if I look at French (my native language), I could not read, let alone write, a biography written in 13th century French (supposing there is a consensus on what French was at that time).

Not even going that far, my Breton ancestors of the early 1800s, although French citizens, for most of them spoke only Brezhoneg. Should I write their bio in this language I have lost myself? No, I write them in French, because it's my native language as well as the language of most of their descendants.

I think we should apply common sense on this issue. If the profile is notable enough to drive international interest, or if they have many US descendants, for example, write the bio in English, and if you are fluent enough, double it in the local language.

Comments

This is a good point. Medieval languages were quite different from their standard modern equivalents. On the other hand among the various ideas which float around I know people feel that at least the main modern languages should be used on Wikitree, for profiles from the appropriate areas. In practice this is not as simple to decide upon as it sounds.

However, to emphasize the same theme again, I suppose most of us would welcome articles written in French, Spanish, German, etc. It is better than having no article.

Answer 5

To be honest, the Spanish I am using is more 1700 century Mexico Spanish since those are the records I use the most.  I think I will change them to English since I will be able to write a more nuanced and accurate bio.  Thank you everyone!

Answer 6

I think we do what we can do. My father was Spanish, so I have a lot of Spanish ancestry, but I did not learn to speak Spanish as a child because we grew up in Canada and Germany and we didn't speak Spanish at home because my mother didn't speak it. I can read Spanish well enough to decipher documents, but not nearly well enough to write a decent profile. It would be great if profiles could be translated into multiple languages so that everyone to whom they might be relevant could easily read them, but that would be a big job.

Answer 7

I see no problem in the profiles being written in English or whatever language the writer feels most confortable in.
Writing in the language of the day is obviously problematical, and mostly unintelligible to most readers. References should be as is, with optional translation if required very much a help.