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What is the Japanese Language Stack Exchange called in Japanese? I came up with 日本語のスタック交換.

Jack Bosma
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1 Answers1

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In technical documents or technical news media, the name of a foreign website or company is typically written completely as-is.

  • 米国Microsoft社のWindows
  • 日本語についての質問サイトであるJapanese Language Stack Exchange

Mass media for general public (e.g., 読売新聞) usually katakanize foreign proper nouns because many of their readers do not understand English at all:

  • 米国マイクロソフト社のウィンドウズ
  • 日本語についての質問サイトであるジャパニーズ・ランゲージ・スタック・エクスチェンジ

You should not "translate" foreign proper nouns. Even in English, Mont Blanc is Mont Blanc and Rio de Janeiro is Rio de Janeiro. You should not "translate" them into White Mountain or River of January. Likewise, since Stack Exchange is the name of a website, you must not convert it to スタック交換.

EDIT: An ordinary noun with a literal meaning can be translated, such as 大学 ("University"), 協会 ("Association"), 基金 ("Fund"), 国際 ("International"). A brand name should not be translated even if it has a meaning as a common noun (Apple, Windows, Android, Office, Fox, Seven Eleven, ...). As @Yosh said, partially-translated 日本語スタックエクスチェンジ may also be acceptable in newspapers.

naruto
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    There are some cases with partial translation of proper nouns though: the University of California systems is called カリフォルニア大学. Compare to University College London which is ユニヴァーシティ・カレッジ・ロンドン – Ringil Sep 09 '19 at 22:29
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    +1. However, Japanese Language part can also be seen as a kind of modifier to the Stack Exchange (specifying which site of the stack exchange network). Hence I feel that partially-translated "日本語(の)[スタックエクスチェンジ/stack exchange]" can be acceptable. – Yosh Sep 10 '19 at 04:24
  • @Yosh I agree, 日本語スタックエクスチェンジ may be possible in traditional newspapers. – naruto Sep 10 '19 at 04:30
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    @Ringil University College London is a quite interesting case but I don't think you can translate this "university" in a short and meaningful way. It's a rather context-dependent name that means it is a "college" distinguished from others by its former name "university". Moreover we haven't had a "college" equivalent higher education system. – broccoli forest Sep 10 '19 at 06:56
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    As comparison, the Japanese version of Stack Overflow is called スタック・オーバーフロー, but its tour mentions "Stack Exchange" in English. – Andrew T. Sep 10 '19 at 08:00
  • @broccoliforest Sure, but there's some other weird things too like Amherst College is アマースト大学 whereas Pomona College is ポモナ・カレッジ – Ringil Sep 10 '19 at 14:42
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    "You should not "translate" foreign proper nouns". Some proper nouns do have translations though. For example the German city Cologne, is actually called Köln in German or Keulen in Dutch. – Ivo Sep 11 '19 at 07:48
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    @Ringil Hmm, I thought it's conventional to translate any organizational independent "college" 大学, and otherwise カレッジ, but didn't know the case of Pomona. Anyway, many sources actually call it 大学, including an article by who studied there... http://uscanj.net/blog/pomona-campus/ – broccoli forest Sep 12 '19 at 09:39