SummitPost.org

BorutKantuser wrote:Hello yatsek and ya'll!
We're having an amusing chat on a neighbouring thread about the relative "importance" of ranges in Europe…HELP
BK

OK I'll try and help on the other thread in a moment.

yatsek wrote:Low Beskid album

I never understood the awkward Polish inclination towards translating the original Polish toponyms to English.

Cordillera Blanca is not White Mountains, Les Aiguilles Rouges are not Red Needles. Why can't Beskid Niski keep it's name too?

Petro wrote:

yatsek wrote:Low Beskid album

I never understood the awkward Polish inclination towards translating the original Polish toponyms to English.
Cordillera Blanca is not White Mountains, Les Aiguilles Rouges are not Red Needles. Why can't Beskid Niski keep it's name too?

The way I see it, it

1 conveys meaning to the SP'ers who don't speak a Slavic language

2 is more convenient (one name instead of several) and "politically neutral" within multiethnic areas, such as most of the mountains of EC Europe (compare Beskid Niski/Nyz’ki (?) Beskydy/Nizke Beskydy; also, have a look at the problem here)

More Romania pix



Little Pieniny

Petro wrote:Cordillera Blanca is not White Mountains, Les Aiguilles Rouges are not Red Needles. Why can't Beskid Niski keep it's name too?

That's a very good question. I've seen it many times, even so may times even into French (Petites Beskides / Bas Beskid). Let's keep in mind that each Slovak name has one in Polish and opposite, except perhaps Giewont; and a wide majority has equivalents in German and Hungarian. It's not so surprising for me and Polish mountain names are not the only ones to be "translated" somehow.
Of course there is certainly a willingness from the Poles to make those names understood by others, perhaps we could say a sort of expected recognition from strangers, as Poland is often the object of bad stereotypes and poor publicity abroad concerning her beauty.
But in my opinion the main thing comes from how much a name is abstract. To understand what I mean you should put yourself in a region (in mountains, let's say a range <i>or whatever, BK</i>) where more than one language is used to spell a mountain name. As you could expect I'll take my Pyrenees to illustrate, they are perfect. We rarely translate a name from Spanish to French apart from few examples with modern words (Le Casque / El Casco, Mont Perdu / Monte Perdido, la Table des Trois Rois / Mesa de los Tres Reyes). I mean if we speak about La Collarada, it's La Collarada in French too even if we could say sth like "Collerette". But let's consider also the dialects and languages spoken in Spain. Let's move for example in the Val d'Aran where no less than 4 laguages are spoken together (Catalan, Aragonese, Aranese and French). Each place name has its translation, rather "transcription", in each. For example a peak like Mulleres has dozen of spellings and it's a mess.
Same, ask our fav Slovenes (Vid or BK) in those Friulan border regions where at least Italian, Slovene, German and Friulan are used along, with different names but often meaning the same thing.
Finally, a last point, beware of "etymology traps", or "fake friends". Les Aiguilles Rouges are not Red Needles because Rouges is not Red in this case, Claude Maugier explained it <a href="http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=52338">here</a>

Little Peregrine Falcon LIVE from... Warsaw Plus a few storks

Ceahlau (in Romanian only)

peterbud wrote:Ceahlau (in Romanian only)

Yes !!! Is so beautiful there! I found another pages where are and legends of the stones . Wish to know english better to can make a page about the massif and with the legends .

About a year ago Peter told me about this absolutely amazing series of videos by an SP member, endy and Co. (One of the videos was made in the Turda/Torda Gorge - SP page by Mihai on the front page at the moment - last April.)

Southwesternmost Carpathians



And more albums today

Domogled - Valea Cernei National Park

To those who may be concerned:

Beginnig from May 2010, a small admission fee of 5 RON shall be paid upon entry into the Retezat National Park. The ticket is valid for 7 days, independently of the number of entries within this period.

peterbud wrote:To those who may be concerned:

Beginnig from May 2010, a small admission fee of 5 RON shall be paid upon entry into the Retezat National Park. The ticket is valid for 7 days, independently of the number of entries within this period.

Yes true. Hmmmm... hope at least this money to go where it should go hmmm. Im wondering if I cant get to that point where to pay cause is not in my way what will happenend...

Another Fagaras album

andreeacorodeanu wrote:Yes true. Hmmmm... hope at least this money to go where it should go hmmm.

Me, too. The fee itself is very small, but if it can help the staff to keep the park in shape I would be also willing to pay even a little more.

andreeacorodeanu wrote:Im wondering if I cant get to that point where to pay cause is not in my way what will happenend...

I asked this from the NP in an e-mail, they answered that at every entrance there will be possibility to pay the entry fee, as well as to rangers on the field. Right now there is a transitional time but I guess for the summer these will be working.