Wikipǣdiamōtung:Grammar and Writing

Removal of macrons

The vast majority of content on this wiki has been written with macrons for years, ever since a vote to use them all the way back in 2005. Nearly all articles use macrons. Even the logo of the wiki uses them. Rather than unify and standardize spelling on the Old English Wikipedia, the decision to discourage their use and encourage editors to remove them when they see them will fracture the orthography of the Old English Wikipedia, and lead to inconsistencies for years to come. Furthermore, editors have gone to the effort to mark vowel length up until now, and this encourages other editors to simply throw away all of that effort. There was already a script to hide macrons for those who did not want to see them because of “historical authenticity” being ruined by being provided additional information on top of the basic historical spelling. I really can’t see any justification for this which doesn’t ultimately boil down to a few people not wanting to bother typing them, but given the way editors have written throughout the entire history of this wiki, those who don’t want to bother typing them are clearly in the minority. Serentty (motung) 03:29, 16 Se Æfterra Gēola 2022 (UTC)

It has generally been a discussion of authenticity and of preference. Textbooks use macrons to indicate vowel length, but authentic texts of the period do not use them. I go for what I read as authenticity, but other have the opposite preference - this is after all an educational resource if it is anything so there is a good argument for showing vowel length. (That said, it is not always certain which vowels are long - a word like 'tun' or 'scir' certainly has a long vowel when it is a word on its own, but as a suffix in a name such as 'Wiltunscir' it may be short, as in Modern English.)

The ceasefire position was basically to do what we prefer and leave what others have done. Latterly the no-macron view seems to have prevailed anyway, so I knocked some consistency into articles being lengthened.

There is no need for bland consistency. I vary spellings and switch between 'ð' and 'þ' because that is authentic to the texts of the time, and articles need not follow a standard on macrons either.

Hogweard (motung) 23:02, 16 Se Æfterra Gēola 2022 (UTC)

If the “ceasefire” position is to do what we prefer and leave what others have done, then the guidelines should not encourage people to remove macrons from what other people write. Currently, they do. Serentty (motung) 04:28, 17 Se Æfterra Gēola 2022 (UTC)

I take that as a friendly rebuke for any overenthusiasm on my part. I will stay my hand more than I might have done.Hogweard (motung) 11:59, 17 Se Æfterra Gēola 2022 (UTC)