Talk:Formosa

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[edit] Ethimology

Should this just be a redirect to Taiwan, or is there a reason to have a separate article? --Brion VIBBER

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Isn't "formosa" Portuguese, not Spanish? -- Zoe

Yup... I'm just going to make this page a redirect until told otherwise. --Brion VIBBER

Actually, old Spanish also had the word, during the transition when F became H in many words (Farina->Harina, Fumo->Humo, etc). The Argentie province of Formosa is named after the old spanish word. Mariano(t/c) 09:51, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

This is not true. The argentine province is named Formosa because it is in the exact antipodes of the island, and so it derives from portuguese. Check out the map at Antipodes. When the Spanish people went to the New World, spanish already used hermosa exclusively. And old spanish for hermosa was fermosa not formosa. 84.90.18.136 22:43, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

sorry, but there is no real evidence to support such nonsense, btw: formōsa > fermosa > formosa --Shmi

Perhaps it is nonsense, but citing the etymology of fermosa/formosa is equally nonsense. If it is Hermosa in Spanish, it is completely irrelevant that it is etymologically related to Formosa. The question is, why did the Spanish use Formosa instead of Hermosa?

Bathrobe 01:03, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Because the word in Spanish was Fermosa, see my message above. Several words starting with F mutated into H. Royal Spanish Dictionary --Mariano(t/c) 15:41, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

So the question is, why did Fermosa mutate into Formosa?

Bathrobe 01:28, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

That I don't know, probably just speach deformation; I was clearing out why I was saying it was an Old Spanish word. --Mariano(t/c) 14:17, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

If you really want to talk linguistics, you need a better justification than "speech deformation".

Bathrobe 23:38, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

I never claimed the Spanish version over the Portuguese; I was trying to bring some light on why would the Spanish use such a word. We could especulate on a conquistador from Galicia, a later Portuguese deformation, or plainly Portuguese name; I simply don't know.

I can give you a couple of absolutelly non-encyclopedic sources that give the original Spanish name of the Argentine city of Formosa as Vuelta Fermosa[1][2][3][4] named by Juan de Ayolas.

But there seams to be a connection between words 'fermosa' and 'formosa' in Portugues; I think Formosa used to be Fermosa[5][6].

Good luck, --Mariano(t/c) 12:15, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

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[edit] Disambig Taiwan

Should the Formosas on those ship articles be disambiguated as [[Taiwan|Formosa]] or just replace [[Formosa]] with [[Taiwan]]? Any reason not to or to do so? --Menchi 17:37, Aug 9, 2003 (UTC)

Change it to Taiwan. --Jiang

The ship articles tend to use contemporaneous names, and when the Japanese controlled it, it was "Formosa". It would be a bit jarring for some to read that the "US Navy shelled enemy installations on Taiwan" ("we were at war with Taiwan!?"), but aside from that moment of confusion, I think it's OK either way. Stan 05:34, 11 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Do [[Taiwan|Formosa]]. --Kaihsu 13:59, 21 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Stick to historical names for the sake of accuracy. A-giau 03:50, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] 'non-native name'

I've deleted 'non-native name'. I do not believe there is any need to flag that this is a 'non-native' name. As usual with Chinese names, the problem seems to lie in a perception that the use of a non-Chinese name for something that is part of China is a violation of national sovereignty. Even if it is unquestionably accepted by most Chinese, it is arguably an extreme position and does not need to be unnecessarily emphasised.

Bathrobe 02:56, 6 May 2005 (UTC)