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While movies tend to retain their original titles worldwide, with a bit of leeway in the translation, TV series and books translated in other languages often have titles that are far removed from the original title.

Should we allow the use of non-English titles, alongside the English title if/when we have it, on the site?

I'm thinking about the questions, but also about the tags and the wiki entries.

3 Answers 3

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Use English as much as possible

The site is English speaking all over so English should be used as much as possible. Tags should most certainly be in English. However, questions and tag wikis are fine to mention the original name of the work too though I’d lean towards using English first most of the time.

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  • Edited my question to clarify that I asked for the use of non-english titles along the english title if we have it.
    – Sava
    Oct 2, 2018 at 20:51
  • @Sava Answer stays the same always use the English if we have it. If you want use the original too, preferable in a lot of cases. Also possible to get a tag synonym of the original to the English name tag.
    – TheLethalCarrot Mod
    Oct 2, 2018 at 20:53
  • What if the work has not been translated into English, so there is no official English title? Can we use the original title, or should we attempt a literal translation of the original title into English?
    – user14111
    Oct 5, 2018 at 5:18
  • @user14111 I’d imagine trying a translation yourself would be a good idea but it most likely comes down to a case by case basis.
    – TheLethalCarrot Mod
    Oct 5, 2018 at 6:58
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Tag names: English.

Tag names are important, because we can only put one name there (perhaps adding others as synonyms). We should use the English name there, because we're an English-language site. As for what kind of English: in general, network-wide consensus is to use US English for tag names, although I think (can't find the meta now) that there's some leeway for this if we're talking about a work of fiction originally published in British English like Harry Potter and the Philosopher's [Sorceror's] Stone.

Tag wikis: English and original language.

A good tag wiki should include a lot of useful information about the book/film/whatever, and I think the name under which it was originally published counts. This might be helpful for someone who wants to look up about it or find translations into other languages. So mention the English title and also the original title, and also any other alternative English titles (since some books have multiple translations with differing titles).

Question body: whatever you want (preferably at least English).

There's a lot more leeway in what you're 'supposed' to put in a question body, since that's (to some extent) 'yours' whereas tags and tag wikis are for the whole site. I'd recommend including the English title, since that's the tag name and what a lot of site users might be most familiar with, but you're also free to include the original title or any other versions you want.

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  • I was gonna write something up more like this when I had more time as it's what I was hinting at +1 for saving me the time.
    – TheLethalCarrot Mod
    Oct 3, 2018 at 8:03
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    HP and the Sorceror's Stone is an example of a variant title but has nothing to do with language translation. American English for "philosopher's stone" is "philosopher's stone".
    – user14111
    Oct 5, 2018 at 5:15
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    +1 to "English tags with synonyms in other languages" - I'd especially recommend this for anime and manga, which tends to use both the English and Japanese names (but many fans will only know one or the other).
    – Kevin
    Oct 6, 2018 at 22:25
  • I also think that you should include the official English title, even if another title is used really commonly (e.g. you should probably still include "My Hero Academia", not just "Boku no Hero Academia") Jan 22, 2019 at 1:34
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For me, it depends on what question I'm answering, and where the media originates. Since we are a site based on English, I always try to provide the English title, whether or not that was the original language. If a work originated in a non-English title, unless it's become more known under that title, I give the original title, followed by the English one, e.g.

Enthiran aka Robot in the United States, is likely the film you're looking for".

If the querent indicates they read the work in another language, I'll generally provide that title first, even if it wasn't the original language, e.g.

"Based upon you reading it in Spanish, I suspect you read La esclava de Gor, aka Slave Girl of Gor, by John Norman."

Just for the sake of completeness, I tend to do the same thing for title changes, using the title most likely to match up against what the querent was looking for, and then providing the original title.

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