Talk:Les Vingt-quatre Violons du Roi

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Page title; translation[edit]

Details:

Changed translation from "King's Twenty-Four Strings" to "King's Twenty-Four Violins". Someone may wanna check standard English translations. I think "violins" more probable than "strings" but you never know. Do standard translations say "King's" or "of the King"?
English-language titles using the French phrase: "Les Vingt-quatre..." or "Vingt-quatre..."? "Roi" or "Roy"?

PS: Just noted Les Arts Florissants uses "Les Arts..." as content page title and "Arts..." as redirect. If this is standard WP practice (WP:MUSORG not very helpful here and I don't even know if a historical long gone musical ensemble reasonably fall under WP:MUSORG in the first place) then the page here follows that practice. It remains to be seen if this is universal standard practice (as opposed to standard WP practice). Contact Basemetal here 14:16, 29 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

All good changes, in my opinion. "Violins" may be understood in English (historically informed English, at any rate) in the same way as "violons" in French: to include all members of the violin family and, since French also has the word cordes corresponding to English "strings", using the cognate form "violins" for violons avoids possible misunderstanding that this title (as opposed to the actual instruments found in any given performance) is meant to refer also to the archlute, harpsichord, cittern, banjo, or other stringed instruments not of the violin family. I have seen "of the King" more often than "the King's", but I don't believe there is anything like a "standard" translation, and "of the King" seems to me a more stilted, literal rendition than using the possessive case. In any case, it is usual in the literature to use the French title, only offering a translation (if at all) at the first appearance.

You have also raised the question of the article title, and inconsistencies in titles of some other Wikipedia articles (specifically, the one on Les Arts Florissants). You have not mentioned the question of capitalisation, however. I believe that the (English) Wikipedia follows the simpler of the two main styles of capitalisation for French titles, which is to use sentence case. I think this would mean in the present instance (unless institution names are special cases): Les vingt-quatre violons du roi or, without the article: Vingt-quatre violons du roi. (I'm not completely sure about the treatment here of "roi". Perhaps it is regarded as a proper noun?) Historically, of course, capitalisation preferences varied considerably, in both French and English, but that has no more bearing on this case than does the idiosyncratic typography found on the cover of a book.—Jerome Kohl (talk) 17:37, 29 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]