Talk:1920 Czechoslovak parliamentary election

Requested move 12 May 2015

• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1920 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1920
• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1925 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1925
• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1929 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1929
• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1935 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1935
• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1946 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1946
• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1948 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1948
• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1954 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1954
• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1960 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1960
• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1964 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1964
• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1971 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1971
• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1976 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1976
• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1981 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1981
• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1986 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1986
• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1990 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1990
• Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1992 → Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1992
• Czechoslovakian peace pact referendum, 1951 → Czechoslovak peace pact referendum, 1951

– The correct demonym is Czechoslovak, not Czechoslovakian (similarly Slovak vs Slovakian, the name of the country is the Slovak Republic, not the Slovakian Republic). Although the incorrect version is commonly used, trusted sources such Encyclopaedia Brittanica use the correct form only. The correct version can be also found in several wikipedia articles such as List of adjectivals and demonyms for former regions. Martin.Jares (talk) 21:20, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

• Support all – It is about time that this error got corrected. The proposed titles are not only the only correct titles, but they are also more WP:CONCISE. RGloucester — ☎ 21:33, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

• Oppose all To claim "Czechoslovakian" is "incorrect" or an "error" is completely untrue; the word is in the Oxford English Dictionary and is more common than "Czechoslovak" (703,000 Ghits for Czechoslovakian opposed to 597,000 for Czechoslovak). Czechoslovak is also the wrong option here, as it is used more specifically to describe the people of the country, rather than things related to the country itself. Number 57 08:58, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

It is indeed true that the form "Czechoslovakian" is quite common and widely used and that it has become part of the English language. The fact that it is listed in the Oxford English Dictionary confirms it. But I am not sure that we can draw a distinction that "Czechoslovak" relates to the people while "Czechoslovakian" relates to the country. I think one would need to use "Czechoslovakia" or "Czechoslovakia's" in that case, like for example Czechoslovakia national football team. "Czechoslovak" and "Czechoslovakian" are in fact used interchangeably by some, you can even encounter for example "Czechoslovakian Republic". The term "Czechoslovak" is clearly preferred for all official purposes, for example the Cyprus-Czechoslovakia Tax Treaty or Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) (full text here) which says "the Czecho-Slovak Republic". "Czechoslovakian" seems to be more part of the English vernacular rather than the standard or academic English. That is why I think "Czechoslovak" should be the preferred version here. Martin.Jares (talk) 13:57, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

We don't use "official" words when more common ("vernacular") ones are available – see WP:COMMONNAME. Czechoslovakian is clearly part of standard English, which is why people like myself use it. The naming of the football team article is wholly irrelevant to this conversation as they follow a defined format of country name + national football team (e.g. England national football team. Number 57 14:03, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

Sorry if my previous comments implied that I considered "Czechoslovak election" somehow more official than "Czechoslovakian election". I used the reference to official sources just to illustrate that although "Czechoslovakian" is commonly used, it is not as "good English" as "Czechoslovak" because more effort is usually put into official documents to use the proper language (I illustrated the same point by the Encyclopaedia Brittanica link in my first comment). I am also not sure that "Czechoslovakian" can be described as more common. The British National Corpus (the 86,800 most common words are available here) reports "Czechoslovak" with a ranking of 16,726 while "Czechoslovakian" has a ranking of 31,204, so "Czechoslovak" is clearly more common. Martin.Jares (talk) 15:37, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

You can't say that one is "not as good English" as the other when they are both in the Oxford English Dictionary. I appreciate you may not be a native English speaker, so perhaps you haven't experienced it, but my experience is that I don't think I have ever heard someone use the word "Czechoslovak" in speech; it is not a natural English word in the way that "Czechoslovakian" is, largely because the common way of forming demonyms for countries whose name ends with the letter "a" is simply to add an "n" on the end (e.g. Angolan, Austrian etc). Number 57 16:01, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

• Support While I don't think that "Czechoslovakian parliament..." is incorrect, "Czechoslovak parliament..." is, I think, more proper. See Ngrams for "Czechoslovakian parliament,Czechoslovak parliament,Czechoslovakian national,Czechoslovak national,Czechoslovakian elections,Czechoslovak elections" and for "Czechoslovakian,Czechoslovak". GregKaye 02:30, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

• Support per nom and User:GregKaye. While from a descriptivist perspective "Czechoslovakian" might not be "incorrect", it rings a little awkward (like "Argentinian"). —  AjaxSmack  02:35, 14 May 2015 (UTC)