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This page in a nutshell: 1. Categories using location should generally be of the form [thing] of [placename]
2. Categories of physical entities or events in places should be of the form [thing] in [placename]
3. Use verb forms where possible for the thing described.
4. With people, replace "of" or "in" with "from" (so as to to allow people to be classified under more than one relevant place, e.g. birthplace). |
This page was originally copied from Commons (where it was still a "Proposed Policy") in September 2007 then varied and trimmed. Please discuss desired changes on the talk page.
Introduction[]
This category scheme for places is part of the same pattern that applies to Time as well as Space (see Genealogy:By Time & Space category scheme. This scheme applies to entities such as people, repositories, censuses, and multimedia files which are classified by placenames, with example placenames being countries, provinces, states (and smaller divisions such as regions and counties), and settlements. The general pattern shall be: *"[object name]s of [placename]"' (Where "placename" uses the spelling in the English Wikipedia). Specific category names with this pattern are not to be listed in this scheme. In cases where the subject filling the "object name" position is an event, the verb form of the subject shall be used if one exists. For example, "Born in Ohio" would be preferred over "Births in Ohio".
General[]
Categories of the form [Location adjective] [object] are deprecated, and shall be transformed to the noun form with object stated first. The new pattern shall usually be [object] of [Location name].
Example: Category:Luxembourgish politicians becomes Category Politicians of Luxembourg.
(Readers interested in the full list of affected categories that were to be changed on Commons may look at Commons:User:MakBot/AdvanceNotice2.)
Preposition choice[]
"Of" is the preferred preposition except for people or for situations where "in" is totally appropriate. Existing prepositions that are uniformly used in current sets of category names shall be retained unless they are ambiguous or unless the impact of the change would be minor.
In general, the location to be noted is the one that is judged to be of most interest to the greatest audience. This choice can in some cases force the use of an alternative preposition. (We may need to create a paragraph about "occupations").
The following rules will generally be followed:
- Location When [object] "of" [placename] means location in which the object may currently be found, then "in" shall be used. Thus ""Category:Cemeteries in Ohio".
- National origin If the placename connotes place of origin, where "of" could be ambiguous, then the use of "from" is required. For example: Paintings of Russia can be taken to mean depictions of Russian landscape and so becomes Paintings from Russia. In other cases, "from" may be preferable for other reasons such as inclusiveness of members who originated in a country but are (in some or all cases) no longer "of" that country. Any term referring to people should generally use from, rather than of, so that emigrants from that location may be included. If the personage has some tie to the country, then "of" shall be used (eg Monarchs of England).
- Cultural designations which are associated with no longer existing geographical entities shall be associated with their locations. Byzantine -> "the Byzantine Empire" Trojan -> Troy
| type | example (incorrect) | example (correct) | pattern |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current location: | "London Sculptures". | "Sculptures in London". | [object] in [location name] |
| National origin things | "Mexican music" | "Music of Mexico" | [object] of [location name] |
| National origin people | "Russian dancers" | "Dancers from Russia" | [People] from [location name] |
| Cultural styles | "Byzantine art" | "Art of the Byzantine Empire" | [Art form] of [location name] |
Excluded from this scheme[]
- Ethnic Eg: Jewish/Arab/Latino writers. Such adjectives unassociated with some precise location are out of the scope of this scheme.
- Language Where the term refers to a language, this non-geographic meaning falls outside the scope of this scheme. EG: Category:"Chinese radicals" refers to a component of Chinese language characters, not political extremists of China.
- Fossilized expressions Adjectival forms which are found in phrases which have become well established over time may be excluded. EG: French Revolution, Greek Gods, Spanish-American War, "Mexican food"
Placenames[]
There's no consensus about policy to follow with proper nouns, but there are two main proposed criteria. There are some traditional English exonyms still used nowadays to refer to non-English-speaker places or geographical areas (eg Category:Firenze redirects to Category:Florence). For further information about toponym names in English, please, see Exonym and endonym.
English Wikipedia as authority[]
Due to the rule that category names have to be in a single language, and English was chosen as the category language, some Commons users purposed that the English Wikipedia should be the authority on place names used in categories. Note that this will sometimes contradict actual names used by residents. We may know it is really Firenze, Venezia, Hannover, or Wien; but, if you feel strongly, argue it on Wikipedia. If it is changed there, our category will probably change to reflect it. In order to maintain a consistent usage of category names, the English Wikipedia's designation shall prevail.
Other problem cases[]
- For historical, no longer existing entities: Use the name of the entity as it appears in the En:wikipedia. Eg: Yugoslavia, "the Soviet Union", "the Confederate States of America", "the Ottoman Empire", "the Aztec Civilization"
- English -> England if its peer categories are other UK regions such as Wales. Otherwise, "the United Kingdom".
- American, U.S. -> "the United States", not the long form "United States of America"
- Baltic -> the Baltics
- Czech -> the Czech Republic (assumption is made that Czech was being used properly, and that Czechoslovakian was not intended.)
- Czechoslovakian -> Czechoslovakia (the former country)
- Irish -> Ireland (unless it is likely to be ethnic, including Northern Ireland)
Collection names[]
- "by settlement": for categorization purposes this grouping shall refer to any settlement as large as a megalopolis or as small as a village. (Commons has "by city", which goes against common sense for small settlements.)
- "by nationality", "by Country": These categories shall be renamed "by country"; former countries may need discussion on a one-by-one basis. One can be certain where a person came from (e.g. from birth or shipping records) without knowing about his or her "nationality".
Time and space categories[]
References[]
- Exonym and endonym (from en:wp).
- List of adjectival forms of place names
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This page uses content from Wikimedia Commons. The original content was at Commons:By location category scheme. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Familypedia, that portion of the content of Wikimedia Commons is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. |