Talk:Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich

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[edit] English spelling of Zeldovich name

Why a spelling Iakov (Я́ков) is used here instead of Yakov? Can someone explain this? I believe that я is in English spelled »ya«, not »ia«. Once I've read that this man was Russian Bourbaki in physics and related fields and that's why he deserves a better article. Best regards. --XJamRastafire 22:50, 27 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I took the liberty of changing it since no one had piped up, one way or the other. His last name is normally transliterated with an apostrophe in English, Zel'dovich. Don't ask me why. He really is deserving of a thorough biography, as he is one of the most important theoretical astrophysicists ever. One day, perhaps. --Joke137 00:13, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Well, if you really want to know, it's because in that "льд" in the Cyrillic spelling of his last name, the "л" is the "l", the "д" is the "d", but the "ь" has absolutely no equivalent in English, or the Roman alphabet, because it represents palatalization of the preceding consonant (makes it sound a bit more "y"-like). So, I guess they have to indicate it somehow, and they went with "'".

As for the first name, I would definitely agree that "Yakov" would be the more usuall translation than "Iakov". It's yet another palatalization thing. --John Owens (talk) 23:38, 2005 Mar 19 (UTC)

I think simple "l" would be rather correct transliteration in this case. The word itself is not of Russian origin, it has Jewish (and as such, Germanic) origin.--Nixer 20:20, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Some info added, more needed

I've just added some info about Zeldovich, but I think, more, especially in astrophysics, needed. Also the photo and perhaps copyedit of my bad English. Cmapm 16:15, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

This is great. I've tried to copyedit it and add what little I know about Zel'dovich. I think he did some very important work in black holes and stellar structure, but it's not something I know much about. --Joke137 05:07, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for additions, copyediting and for you kind words. Although, I think, actually, the scientist was great, I only did my best to make a short summary of his bio. The section on astrophysics looks much better after your additions and in my view, the article is almost complete. Cmapm 11:52, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)