Benutzer Diskussion:Nyttend/Spielwiese

"(...) informal usage - Village is sometimes informally used to refer to a relatively small unincorporated community, similar to a hamlet in New York state, or even to a relatively small community in an incorporated city or town. This informal usage may be found even in states that have villages as an incorporated municipality and is similar to the usage of the term "unincorporated town" in states having town governments. (...)"

In my opinion, this best discribes what in German language would be a "Dorf". But this is not a village in the Ohio case. Although this may be seen as an agrument for "Dorf" as a translation for village, I'd rather find an adequate translation for the term village in its official meaning. This translation must be orientated first of all at the functional aspects and the administrative (political) status. That means, that the character as incorporated municipality within the the state of Ohio is decisive. This can be translated into German either with the term Kommune or the term Gemeinde. Kummune includes the lowest level of administrative districs including Gemeinde, Stadt and Kreis(sic!) and is not precise at all. Maybe, Ortschaft is too much an geographical term, like Dorf, but it is not contradictonary to what a village represents refering to its functions. However, hamlets or towns may be described as Ortschaften as well. And Ortschaften are not necessarily municipalities.

After reading the information on the definition of villages in Ohio, I would like to translate them, if necessary, with the German term Gemeinde, for this term is well desribed in the German wikipedia (I ignored that before...). (The eclesiastical "Gemeinde" should not confuse any more.)

Although there may be differences between a German Gemeinde and a US village, both are running schools and other civil services and are led by elected boards and a mayor as major representative. Though differences between a village and a Gemeinde exist, this term imho represents a village in Ohio most adequate. Different kinds of villages in the USA may require altering German translations respectivly. For Ohio, however, it's either Gemeinde or no translation. Townships, that do not exist in Germany, are also translated as "Townships" already. So if we go forward and translate the article on villages into German, we may avoid translation.

Summary: 1) The Term "Gemeinde" describes a Ohio village quite precisely. This may not be the case with villages in other states. 2) The best way to handle it may be producing an German articel on the Lemma "Village" - similar to the one on the lemma "village" in the English WP. Then no translation is necessery. (This is done in a similar way with "township".)

- M.Birklein 19:24, 17. Okt. 2007 (CEST)