titicaca or titikaka

[balakrishnanijk]

Which would be more appropriate ? Titicaca or Titikaka?

 

[Rover_KE]

I googled Titikaka and it said 'Did you mean Titicaca?

Rover

 

[Tdol]

Wouldn't that question be better on a forum discussing the Quechua and Aymara languages?

 

[Rover_KE]

Are you referring to the lake, or this Chinese firm which makes shoes and fashion accessories?

Rover

 

[balakrishnanijk]

I must confess to you that my post merits a little attention because I am reading Stuart Redman's English Vocabulary in Use for pre-intermediate and intermediate learners and the thing that you find there is 'Lake Titikaka'. So it is clear that it can also be spelled like that. Just one of the vagaries of English spelling!!!

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


I most respectfully suggest that you spell it as Lake Titicaca. (I believe that the other spelling would look strange to

most Americans.)

 

[Raymott]

I must confess to you that my post merits a little attention because I am reading Stuart Redman's English Vocabulary in Use for pre-intermediate and intermediate learners and the thing that you find there is 'Lake Titikaka'. So it is clear that it can also be spelled like that. Just one of the vagaries of English spelling!!!

No, that's not a vagary of English spelling. It's a vagary of Spanish spelling. Even if it was originally Titikaka, we use Titicaca because that's the way the Spanish have transliterated the word.

 

[Tdol]

There's a minor variant in the spelling of a word of uncertain derivation and meaning that has been transliterated into another language and then into English. If you know enough about the languages it appears to come from and have a case to make, then make it. Google suggests it's 4-1 for the c-c spelling. Go with the majority. Or the minority. There's no ruling body on the English language, let alone one to rule on the transliteration of words of uncertain derivation in South America.

I honestly can't see that your post merits that much attention, even with exclamation marks. You have found an alternative spelling of a place name that isn't English. Variations occur. W00t!!!

On a personal note, I shan't be opening any more of your threads unless action needs to be taken.

 

[balakrishnanijk]

I am not suggesting or insisting that Titikaka is the only correct spelling or that Titicaca is incorrect. I only posted it because that is what you see in the book on English vocabulary by Stuart Redman mentioned above. According to Oxford University Press, Mr Redman has been involved in English language teaching for over twenty-five years and has taught both in the UK and overseas and I am well aware that his title is one of the most widely used books on English vocabulary here. (Whenever you visit a bookstore and look for titles on English grammar and vocabulary,you are left with not much choice because everyone is heavily into learning vocabulary and grammar and such books sell like hot cakes.) If a person like him has used the spelling three times in a book on English vocabulary, you cannot help asking why he prefers it to the accepted spelling.

 

[TheParser]

If a person like him has used the spelling three times in a book on English vocabulary, you cannot help asking why he prefers it to the accepted spelling.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Balakrishnanijk,

(1) I can understand your feelings.

(2) I thank you for this question. I had always assumed that "Titicaca" was the only spelling. I learned something

from your post.

(3) I did some googling and discovered that some people do insist that the "correct" spelling is "Titikaka." In fact, one

American blogger claims that in at least one South American country, the people prefer to spell it that way.

(4) Perhaps Mr. Redman feels that he is using the correct spelling, no matter what the majority of people say.

(5) You have read all the posts in this thread. It is now your right to use the spelling that you feel most comfortable with.

Please remember that if you spell it with a "k," most native readers of English will feel that you have "misspelled" the word.

 

[emsr2d2]

The problem with place names (or rivers or lakes etc) is that they got their names many years ago, the origin is frequently unclear and the spelling can change over and over again during its history. Consequently, you could say that many place names don't have a "correct" spelling - they only have the current spelling used by the majority of people who actually live there. There is also the fact that many languages didn't/don't have a written version so the names were only used verbally until written language arrived and someone needed to come up with a spelling.

 

[BobK]

I am not suggesting or insisting that Titikaka is the only correct spelling or that Titicaca is incorrect. I only posted it because that is what you see in the book on English vocabulary by Stuart Redman mentioned above. According to Oxford University Press, Mr Redman has been involved in English language teaching for over twenty-five years and has taught both in the UK and overseas and I am well aware that his title is one of the most widely used books on English vocabulary here. (Whenever you visit a bookstore and look for titles on English grammar and vocabulary,you are left with not much choice because everyone is heavily into learning vocabulary and grammar and such books sell like hot cakes.) If a person like him has used the spelling three times in a book on English vocabulary, you cannot help asking why he prefers it to the accepted spelling.

Are you sure it's an OUP book. The edition Amazon sells is CUP. Anyway, in either case, those two University Presses can be very 'sniffy' about using what they regard as academically 'correct', and probably congratulate themselves on making a heroic stand on the side of the minority. ;-)

b

 

[5jj]

Personally, I consider it to be two lakes, and use the Bolivian names Lago Huiñaymarca and Lago Chucuito. I must confess that I have been known, in informal correspondence, to omit the tilde in Huiñaymarca.