From the character names guide, "For descriptive character names (e.g., Mayor, Man #1), they should generally be entirely in the language of the original version..."
In cases where the character name is not in the on-screen credits (so the 'as seen on screen' rule doesn't apply), does the 'original language' rule for character names apply for 'variants' of English? Should we use British/Australian/Canadian/American English as appropriate depending on where the title was produced?
For example, an actor might be listed with a character name of 'Neighbor'... but if it was a Dutch production, the 'original language' rule kicks in and the character name could be listed as 'Buurman'; for a Swedish production perhaps 'Granne' (apologies if my lack of language skills are showing, but you get the idea)... but if it's a British production, does the 'original language' rule mean we should use the British-English 'Neighbour', or does IMDb's general preference for American English override that and keep it as 'Neighbor'?
(punctuation rules, such as those raised in another thread may also be impacted by this, since general grammar also varies by location for English and possibly other languages too)
In cases where the character name is not in the on-screen credits (so the 'as seen on screen' rule doesn't apply), does the 'original language' rule for character names apply for 'variants' of English? Should we use British/Australian/Canadian/American English as appropriate depending on where the title was produced?
For example, an actor might be listed with a character name of 'Neighbor'... but if it was a Dutch production, the 'original language' rule kicks in and the character name could be listed as 'Buurman'; for a Swedish production perhaps 'Granne' (apologies if my lack of language skills are showing, but you get the idea)... but if it's a British production, does the 'original language' rule mean we should use the British-English 'Neighbour', or does IMDb's general preference for American English override that and keep it as 'Neighbor'?
(punctuation rules, such as those raised in another thread may also be impacted by this, since general grammar also varies by location for English and possibly other languages too)
Posted 10 months ago
Will, Official Rep
Hi Phil G,
In those cases I would suggest submitting the uncredited cast role to match the same language as the rest of the cast credits.
I hope this helps.
In those cases I would suggest submitting the uncredited cast role to match the same language as the rest of the cast credits.
I hope this helps.
[Not necessarily uncredited - an actor can be credited on-screen without a character name. But that's not really relevant to the question]
Sorry Will, but I'd like a clearer statement on this please. When you say "match the same language..." do you consider British-English, American-English, etc to be different languages, or do you consider the language to simply be 'English'?
(for the record, I'm not actually dealing with a specific case here, I'm just curious about the general policy since it came up in discussion)
Sorry Will, but I'd like a clearer statement on this please. When you say "match the same language..." do you consider British-English, American-English, etc to be different languages, or do you consider the language to simply be 'English'?
(for the record, I'm not actually dealing with a specific case here, I'm just curious about the general policy since it came up in discussion)
(Edited)
