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Help wanted: Artist names/titles in non-latin alphabets like Hebrew - what are the rules?

Moebeus

Retired Editor
Posts: 175

Moebeus @ 2017-05-19 21:11:08 UTC

I was just entering a Burt Bacharach cover by Israeli singer Edna Goren (https://secondhandsongs.com/case/69983) and I hit a wall - mixing Hebrew and Latin alphabets in the same entry looks weird but admittedly makes it easier for people like me who don't read Hebrew well:

  • The artist name is עדנה גורן.
  • Edna Goren seems to be the accepted transliteration.

Do I enter the artist as " עדנה גורן ", "Edna Goren", "Edna Goren ( עדנה גורן)" or some other variant? What about the song title?


If anybody can point me in the right direction as to how to handle these it would be much appreciated.


m.

Tar Heel

Member
Posts: 5771

Tar Heel @ 2017-05-19 23:30:31 UTC

I would think one would pick a "main" name for the artist and then add the other as an alias.

Moebeus

Retired Editor
Posts: 175

Moebeus @ 2017-05-20 00:56:34 UTC

Makes sense. Always pick the transliterated name as the "main" name then, for readability? I'm thinking there needs to be a rule, one way or the other.

Tar Heel

Member
Posts: 5771

Tar Heel @ 2017-05-20 02:06:09 UTC

You'll have to check with an experienced editor re: any existing rule. Either way, I would suggest to default to English/Latinized, as English is the de facto lingua franca of the internet.

sebcat

Managing Editor
Posts: 7967

sebcat @ 2017-05-20 08:03:02 UTC

Piergiorgio (Quentin) is your man on this question - but I think we prefer to use the non-latin alphabet as the primary formulation, with the option of including the latin transliteration in brackets after.

Quentin

Retired Editor
Posts: 3427

Quentin @ 2017-05-20 11:12:26 UTC

You did great, IMO, mentioning both עדנה גורן and Edna Goren. To make it perfect, I would also add a transliteration of the title.

Although it's not an official rule, that's what I do as an editor:

Artists:

- Use the transliterated name for both the common name and the real name;

- Set the name as it appears on the releases as an alias.

Releases/Works/Performances:

- Original title first, followed by a transliteration between curly brackets or, if there is a more or less official alternate/translated title, the alternate/translated title between square brackets.

As long as we have all this info, we're good to go.

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