[SV] Formal name for United Kingdom

[melissis]

In 2016 or so, the offical Swedish name for United Kingdom was rather quietly changed from "Storbritannien" to "Förenade konungariket Storbritannien och Nordirland", with "Förenade kungariket" as a short form. This is a more literal translation of the name in the original language, while the former translates to "Big Britain". Using the new name probably sparks confusion in most people, but the authorities use it.

I'm not sure if it should be added to country info, and if so, how it should be written. This is the introduction on Swedish language Wikipedia:

Storbritannien, formellt Förenade konungariket Storbritannien och Nordirland med kortform Förenade kungariket [...]

E.g.:

Storbritannien, formally Förenade konungariket Storbritannien och Nordirland with short form Förenade kungariket [...]

[axelboc]

Hi @melissis, thanks for the heads-up! However, as per our guidenlines, we take country names from the titles of the Wikipedia articles. In this case, the title is still Storbritannien. There's a discussion thread about changing it, but it doesn't seem to be going ahead for now. FYI, Wikipedia's guidelines dictate that a country name has to become mainstream before it can be used as the title of the country's article.

That being said, please feel free to mention Förenade kungariket in the Country info field! Either "Also know as" or "Formally known as" would work I think, but up to you.

[melissis]

However, as per our guidenlines, we take country names from the titles of the Wikipedia articles. In this case, the title is still Storbritannien. There's a discussion thread about changing it, but it doesn't seem to be going ahead for now. FYI, Wikipedia's guidelines dictate that a country name has to become mainstream before it can be used as the title of the country's article.

That being said, please feel free to mention Förenade kungariket in the Country info field! Either "Also know as" or "Formally known as" would work I think, but up to you.

I should have been a bit clearer, perhaps. I was only thinking about the Country info field.

Some of the Swedish columns have "Formally", but I don't know I should put the long name there, or the short name, or both.

[axelboc]

Oh my bad! I think just the short name is enough, then, don't you think?

[horwitz]

@melissis are the other Swedish examples (at least mostly) using long names?

[melissis]

@melissis are the other Swedish examples (at least mostly) using long names?

@horwitz you mean if other cards also include the full formal names? I guess not. For example, Sweden is just "Sverige", even though the formal name is "Konungariket Sverige" (Kingdom of Sweden). But the thing with United Kingdom is that the short form formal Swedish name is completely different from the Wikipedia common name ("Förenade kungariket" vs. "Storbritanien"). I don't remember now, but I think other cards with a similar dilemma added the formal name in country info. Not sure if both long and short names. Should I look?

[horwitz]

@melissis I was thinking that the deck should at least be consistent... if there aren't other examples, then maybe this issue isn't so relevant? or, if deemed a change that should be made, perhaps this change would belong to one of broader scope (i.e., affecting more countries)? (and, thus, perhaps not for v5.2)

[aplaice]

I suspect that there aren't many other cases, here, similar to the UK, so I don't think this needs to be part of some broader re-evaluation.

There's Kongo-Kinshasa (formally "Demokratiska republiken Kongo") and Kongo-Brazzaville (formally "Republiken Kongo"), but here the formal names are short.

The most similar might be the USA:

Formellt Amerikas förenta stater, även känt som Förenta staterna.

(Swedish Wikipedia just uses "USA" for the article title.)

so there's some argument for including both long and short (with the same structure as for the USA), but I'd go with just short ("Formellt Förenade kungariket."?); I think I'd be mildly opposed to having just the long form. (But whatever sounds most natural!)

[horwitz]

has it been resolved what (if any) changes actually should be made here? (it sounds like the issue is whether or not to update the SV "Country info" field for the UK(?))

[axelboc]

Just need to add "Formellt Förenade kungariket." to the SV Country info field, if you're up for it @horwitz