Talk:Yehoshua Blau

This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Biography: Science and Academia This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles This article is supported by the science and academia work group. Linguistics Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Linguistics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of linguistics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LinguisticsWikipedia:WikiProject LinguisticsTemplate:WikiProject LinguisticsLinguistics articles Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. Israel Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Israel, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Israel on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.IsraelWikipedia:WikiProject IsraelTemplate:WikiProject IsraelIsrael-related articles Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. Project Israel To Do: edit history watch purge Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Public Defence (Israel), Prisoner of Zion, Trial of Benjamin Netanyahu, Day to Mark the Departure and Expulsion of Jews from the Arab Countries and Iran, Pre-Modern Aliyah See also Basic Law proposal: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People Other : Translate to Hebrew : David Bar-Hayim, Guy Bavli, and Guy Oseary. Merge Nahal Rafiah (draft, heb) into Nahal as requested by Wikipedia authority

Probably the best one-word description of what Joshua Blau does would be "Semitologist", but that word seems to be used rather infrequently on English Wikipedia, so I'm unsure about adding it to the article... AnonMoos (talk) 06:43, 20 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I thought there might be some publicity associated with his 100th birthday, but I can't find anything on it by searching. There's a Haaretz interview from shortly after his 99th birthday... AnonMoos (talk) 02:29, 20 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Romanian and Hebrew Wikipedia articles are quite long and detailed... AnonMoos (talk) 20:17, 29 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

He published all his books and articles in English under the name "Joshua Blau". Changing it to "Yehoshua" means substituting what you think is most theoretically correct in place of what he actually called himself when using the Latin alphabet... AnonMoos (talk) 21:04, 21 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes but Joshua was merely a modification to make his name more recognizable to Western audiences. His legal name was Yehoshua, in Hebrew it's J+H+W+ShW+E+, in Israel he was known by this name name.--RM (Be my friend) 21:19, 21 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Whatever it was, it was his choice when using the Latin Alphabet, and what appears on all the title pages of his books published in English. You don't really seem to have addressed my point that you're substituting what you think is the most theoretically correct adaptation of his name from Hebrew into English over what he chose as his preferred adaptation of his name from Hebrew into English. AnonMoos (talk) 21:25, 21 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

His works in English, yes. His published works in Hebrew used the name Yehoshua. When writing to a foreign audience he used a name more recognizable to them. I think we need to think really carefully before choosing to replace someone's actual, legal name and present them in Wikipedia's voice with a different name.--RM (Be my friend) 21:31, 21 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

His published works in Hebrew used the name Yod-He-Vav-Shin-`Ayin in the Hebrew alphabet. Blau's preferred conversion of the Hebrew alphabet form Yod-He-Vav-Shin-`Ayin into the Latin alphabet form is "Joshua". It could be said that you should think carefully before choosing to replace someone's actual preferred Latin-alphabet name with another one that you personally think is more theoretically correct. If you look at

WP:COMMONNAME, you can see that Wikipedia article titles aren't always what is most theoretically correct. Plenty of Wikipedia articles have titles like "Joe Biden" instead of "Joseph Robinette Biden Jr." -- AnonMoos (talk) 02:28, 23 October 2020 (UTC)[reply

]

AnonMoos, Do you think we can go ahead and restore-move this article back to his English common name? — al-Shimoni (talk) 07:20, 13 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That would be my preference, yes. I haven't done it myself, since I don't want to get into an edit war, and I've had bad experiences trying to rename things over redirects in the past. Thanks... AnonMoos (talk) 07:54, 13 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]