694:, were discovered in Indonesia in 2003, and have been nicknamed "hobbits", the name of a race of fictional Middle-earth people from Tolkien's stories. We cannot trust that school children reading Knowledge (XXG) fully understand the exact dividing line between fictional and real-world things that share the same name, nor can we assume that all learners of English as a second language are certain of the definitional limits of unfamiliar terms in our language. Millions of readers in both categories use the English Knowledge (XXG) every single day, so keep them in mind.
350:" would imply a topic of the authorial treatment of languages in the series, in the voices of various fictional characters, perhaps including critical study of how the author used differing cadence and formality levels to imply cultural and class differences, etc. (While that might be a valid topic for someone to write a literature paper about, it's likely not an encyclopedic topic for a Knowledge (XXG) article, and definitely not under such a title.) Meanwhile, "
21:
422:" in an attempt to be over-precise and nit-picky, to exclude the small number that aren't in North through South America, is apt to confuse readers into thinking you mean or at least include groups who are sometimes defined as ethnic, who are from other places, and who have relocated to the Western Hemisphere, such as the
413:
the
Americas or the Western Hemisphere in general – you won't find populations of them in Botswana or New Zealand. Technically, a few of the northernmost of them have ranged a little into Siberia (part of Russian Asia) and into Greenland (which may or may not be classified as part of North America,
373:
at that invisible jungle boundary which is just a surveyed line on a map – except in culturally irrelevant senses (e.g., the fact that the
Brazilian Yanomami get counted, roughly, in the Brazilian census, and Brazilian regulations that affect anthropological, medical, and other expeditions to these
447:
could also be used in a context discussing those differences, but it should probably not be done otherwise, because the reader may be mislead into thinking these populations are distinct in every way and in every context, which is definitely not true; their culture, like other cultures (Scottish,
559:
in the majority of mainstream
English for the particular place in question, as judged from major, contemporary, reliable sources (not local publications – Knowledge (XXG) doesn't care how residents of the place talk, since the encyclopedia is not written in 1,000 micro-dialects). It will almost
109:, or none of the above) in the content or title of a Knowledge (XXG) article (or category, portal, template, etc.). The advice below generally applies to all of this, including in-article text, though editorial conflict and confusion about it most often arises in title discussions.
648:. E.g., one might write "The family lived on Dundas Street in Toronto until 2001" in North American English, but "The family lived in Dundas Street in Edinburgh until 2001" in British English. (Neither of these actually make much sense if taken literally, of course; people live
296:
it. However, they are not always mostly within a particular geological landmass or a modern political boundary, especially after centuries of migration. When a specific one is not (aside from individuals moving around – we care here about mass settlement), use
690:" would be out of the question, suggesting real ethnic groups who live today in Indonesia or France or where ever but moved there from Middle-earth. This example was chosen carefully, because fossils of a real proto-human subspecies,
385:" implies they are not exclusively endemic to those countries and that there are also Yanomami populations in, say, nearby Colombia and Uruguay, which isn't true. Contrast this with the Jews example; there are populations of Jews
560:
always resolve to using "on" for small islands; using "in" for larger ones; using "in" for independent countries that happen to be (or to be within) islands; and also using "in" for island groups. Thus, "on
374:
tribes may differ from
Venezuelan ones, a distinction that is not about the Yanomami themselves). Collectively, the two arbitrary segments of this singular culture can be referred to as "
354:" implies that the topic is the invented languages themselves – their grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and writing systems – and we do have a whole category of encyclopedic material on this.
254:
the broad
Northern European folk tradition. Tolkien's inventions are the languages, races (including elves of various unique sorts particular to his oeuvre), places, and other elements
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that fictional place and series of works of fiction, they didn't fictionally move there from Narnia or get borrowed by
Tolkien from C. S. Lewis's Narnia stories). The awkward "
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There are many cases where no such wording should be used at all and a prepositive modifier (such as an adjective) should be used instead. For example, we have an article at
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fiction series, and they originated therein (though not, of course, without inspiration by prior materials). To make the distinction clearer: lots and lots of things are not
192:
314:
in
Knowledge (XXG) article titles is for the unusual case that an article on the characters in a work of fiction is not a list article (which would be a "List of
275:
Canada's ports are established and maintained by the government of Canada and its provincial and more local subdivisions, so they are intrinsic, ergo they are
738:
template). This is best done on the scale of broad meta-topics, e.g. moving all "national monuments in" articles and categories to "national monuments of".
507:". (Did they emigrate from the Star Wars universe after getting refugee status in the Star Trek franchise?) The convention for such pages is the "List of
797:
792:
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is the normal usage, regardless of size, though it may be clearer writing to use the full name of the jurisdiction (e.g.: "The legal system in the
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various countries, as they are extra-nationally defined by an independent worldwide organization, whether the country in particular agrees or not.
633:). Knowledge (XXG) has a strong interest in category names forming consistent patterns (otherwise people are apt to create duplicate categories).
727:
489:. This word is used in the titles of categories and lists of individual people to indicate their place of origin or strong association, e.g.
169:
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more specifically, for example. If reliable anthropological sources have identified crucial differences between those two populations, then
217:
The Rocky
Mountains run through Canada and the United States (and Northern Mexico, depending on definitions); it's a single range that is
45:
630:
183:
176:
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was unpopulated for much of human history, but we can still write that "the environmental effects of vulcanism in
Iceland during the
754:
About this example: They are designated by the laws of particular countries, not imposed on them by some external body, so they are
714:
of the site. This has been cleaned up a tiny bit at a time, often with single-page moves. It can and should be expedited with mass
370:
404:
430:. Remember that our goal is to communicate to the world with clarity, not to play hyper-technical logic games with ourselves.
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in broader types of categories or articles, especially if the resulting construction seems informal or is ambiguous. Avoid: "
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Indigenous peoples and other ethnic groups exist all over the world, but each is endemic to a particular region and thus is
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or vice versa can produce a shift in meaning sometimes, not just a lack of sensible meaning. For example, the topic "
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418:" (same goes with alternative phrasing such as "indigenous groups", "traditional cultures", etc.). However, using "
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streets.) This sort of usage difference is not likely to affect categories or article titles, just running prose.
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is a mixture of Norman, English, and modern French traditions"). The same island, when being written about as a
44:
This page provides additional information about concepts in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one of
369:" implies a meaningfully definable distinction between that segment and the segment who live in Venezuela, but
395:", which is simply a narrower case where "various countries" with such populations has a total count of two.
365:" refers to the segment of this population that is within the political boundaries of that modern country. "
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various countries, owing to various mass migrations from ancient to modern times. This is like "
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Explanatory essay about the
Knowledge (XXG):Article titles and Knowledge (XXG):Manual of Style
568:". It has nothing to do with population level, or with inhabited versus uninhabited status;
427:
153:
678:" (logically incorrect on two different levels: it is not a real place so no one is really
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characters" page); such non-list characters articles are titled in the form "Characters of
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378:" because they are autochthonous to an ecological zone within that two-country region.
235:" would imply two unrelated ranges with coincidentally the same name, each separately
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them, such as castles and horses and hats, friendship and warfare and perseverance.
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depending on definition). In a broad context, they can still be included in "
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it. They didn't creep into the country from the US and Russia and Greenland.
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Arabian, Japanese, etc.), intergrades across their entire contiguous range.
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Let's look at these examples in more detail. Jewish people may be born
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is well understood." When writing about an island as a jurisdiction,
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Lots of fiction (and pre-fiction folklore) has elves; they're found
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Do not confuse or mislead our readers with sloppy wording. Using "
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In a context where the distinction matters, one can write of the
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can sometimes conflict in usage. When writing about an island,
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are a small tribal culture native to Brazil and Venezuela. "
710:, and vice versa, and this situation is even messier in the
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for any category that would use that word for a non-island (
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Russia and move to the UK or to Botswana, or wherever. "
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As of 2018, we have a large number of articles misusing
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603:, and their descendants still live there today").
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46:Knowledge (XXG)'s policies or guidelines
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656:Sometimes prefer a prepositive modifier
150:(if we had an article on that subtopic)
644:usage patterns are simply a matter of
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223:all these places incidentally, and is
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171:Category:Ports and harbours of Canada
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383:the Yanomami in Brazil and Venezuela
376:the Yanomami of Brazil and Venezuela
229:Rocky Mountains of the United States
147:Rocky Mountains in the United States
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621:for a category about a non-island (
371:no such distinction actually exists
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793:Knowledge (XXG) supplemental pages
682:it, and its fictional peoples are
557:use whatever is actually idiomatic
485:There can also be confusion about
185:Template:Languages of Middle-earth
178:Indigenous peoples of the Americas
50:thoroughly vetted by the community
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688:List of peoples from Middle-earth
505:List of characters from Star Wars
607:For most categorization purposes
268:those fictional works but found
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676:List of peoples in Middle-earth
668:List of peoples of Middle-earth
591:, not a legal entity, might be
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38:Knowledge (XXG):Manual of Style
492:Category:People from Melbourne
420:native peoples in the Americas
416:native peoples of the Americas
165:for the intrinsic or endemic:
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227:North America endemically. "
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766:each country. Contrarily,
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352:languages of Middle-earth
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718:of articles (with the
636:Some island-unrelated
403:Avoid splitting hairs
393:the Yanomami in Brazil
367:The Yanomami of Brazil
363:The Yanomami in Brazil
706:when they should use
562:Santa Catalina Island
399:Don't take it too far
357:Another example: the
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135:History of the Jews
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437:and the
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303:– thus "
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