Talk:Powiat

WikiProject Polish Voivodships

I started Wikipedia:WikiProject Polish Voivodships some time ago to settle the naming conventions for Polish Voivodships, powiats/counties and gmina/communes. Please participate. Halibutt 13:11, Sep 21, 2004 (UTC)

Use of the word in English

The entire section at Powiat#Use of the word in English is ridiculous and I suppose was added to prove some point. Currently it states that some of the dictionaries define the term with other terms and not idem per idem. It seems rather obvious, otherwise dictionaries would make no sense. Just imagine a dictionary entry "explaining" that "Conjunctivitis is conjunctivitis" - would it be of any help to anyone? Because of that I'm commenting it out until someone rewords it or states his or hers point more clearly here. Halibutt 12:29, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

BTW, the very same section could be added to any other article describing any other non-English phenomenon, those related to geography included. Raion, Bailiwick, Guberniya, Gewog, Frazione, Qadaa, Wilayah, Zhou, Sumu, Mkhare, Mintaqah, March, Comune, Comarca... just pick your poison and add the very same section to those articles as well, as most of those regions would be approximated to English terms as either "regions" or "counties" for the sake of clarity. Halibutt 21:58, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Etymology

The source of powiat should be included. Those who wish to explain "why it's not a county" may find their strongest evidence there. Septentrionalis 14:59, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Another view

Powiat is a great word in Polish, but it is not an English word. Using 'powiat' in English is utterly unhelpful because it assumes the person knows Polish ... in which case he would not need a translation. It's a similar problem with the Polish provinces, where the beastly word retailed by Wikipedia is not a translation of województwo but an anglicization. In other words, to know what a 'voivodeship' is you need to know what a 'wojewoda' is (or, rather, was!) ... in other words, you need to know Polish and therefore do not need an English word for the Polish word you already know.

As for 'county', it's not superb, but I think the writer in the entry here is confused when assuming that 'county' here is based (directly) on 'county' in the UK and therefore must avoid confusion with that. In fact 'county' for 'powiat' is taken directly from the US system, in which a county is an administrative subdivision of a state. This makes sense because a Polish province is divided into several powiaty much as a US state is divided into several counties.83.31.214.85 (talk) 18:55, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

A county is a subdivision of a state in the UK as well. I think the problem here is remembering that the UK (United Kingdom) is also a number of states: Scotland, Wales. Northern Ireland, England etc. Lublin Trev (talk) 07:59, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

To explain further. I used to live in the county of Kent, but I now live in the powiat of Krasnystaw. I am sorry, but you will have to look up 'Kent' and 'Krasnystaw', but that is relatively easy as they are placenames. 'County' and 'powiat' are regional districts, and you should also be able to look them up. Other people I know live in Bishopsbourne and Francisków, yes you will have to look them up as well, they are the names of a village and a wieś. Google translate can deal with all the terms that you do not understand. This is how language works, just as we learned the word 'spruce' without having to translate that it was 'Z prus' ('from Prussia'), today's northern Poland.

The world is divided up into parts named by local people, and learning these names is part of what Wikipedia is about, or should be about, just as we have to learn some of the names for the parts of a care if we wish to talk sensibly to our mechanic. Lublin Trev (talk) 08:40, 8 May 2023 (UTC)