Hi, Jerome.

In many cases, if there's no English title appearing in the Translated Title (English) field, the English-language title will be found added to the Alternative Titles page for the film in question.

Having said that, as a general rule if a film is, let's say, a German movie with its original release having borne a German title, and there's a known equivalent English-language title for the film, you (or someone) should add that known English-language title to the Translated Title (English) field.

A few examples that I'm familiar with:

Battleship Potemkin

The Passion of Joan of Arc

The Phantom Carriage

Meanwhile (for your reference), there's also the Alternative Titles page for each of those films:

Battleship Potemkin (alts.)

The Passion of Joan of Arc (alts.)

The Phantom Carriage (alts.)

The procedure is explained in the Bible: https://www.themoviedb.org/bible/movie#59f3b1749251414f2000000d

1. The "Translated Title (English)" should be locked blank for all English language content.
2. For non-English content, we usually want the title of the first official release (excluding premieres and festivals) in an English speaking country.
3. Duplicates are unnecessary. If the English title is the same as the orignal foreign title, just leave the field blank.
4. For non-English content without an official release, you can use semi-official titles like an English festival title or an English title use by the producer/foreign distributor.
5. A romanized title can be used for non-Roman content without an official release.
6. Unofficial translations are not allowed in the "Translated Title (English)" field. IMDb, for example, has a lot of fan-translated titles. They are fine as alternative titles, but shouldn't be used as the main English title.

A romanized title can be used for non-Roman content without an official release.

Does it apply for non English translation records too? E.g. for Czech transliteration (different from English transliteration) of Japanese anime? I've removed some because in the Contribution Bible it is mentioned as an exception for EN-US...

They are fine as alternative titles, but shouldn't be used as the main English title.

Hah! Didn't know that (I didn't find it in the Contribution Bible).

Does it apply for non English translation records too?

I don't remember ever discussing it with the other mods, but I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't.

@Jerome_Pine said:

Just wondering about how the field Translated Title (English) is to be completed. I notice that many foreign movies has this field as empty when a clear English translation exists....What are the rules in completing this field?

Jerome, when there's a known official original-release (English-language version thereof) English translation of a film's title, in the Translated Title (English) field is where it belongs. Known shortened, lengthened, or however else different variants, including popularly-known-as titles, should be added to the film's Alternative Titles page.

@talestalker said:

A romanized title can be used for non-Roman content without an official release.

Does it apply for non English translation records too? E.g. for Czech transliteration (different from English transliteration) of Japanese anime?

I wonder, since it's transliteration (thus follows its own Romanization orthography), and since Czech and English both uses Latin script, how will it be different in Czech than in English?

I wonder, since it's transliteration (thus follows its own Romanization orthography), and since Czech and English both uses Latin script, how will it be different in Czech than in English?

In Czech we use 16 more special characters than English and we pronounce some characters in different ways than English speakers. Therefore we have our own transliteration systems for Japanese, Chinese, Russian etc., which is often more precise than English transliteration because we have more common vowels and consonants than English. For example ようこそ実力至上主義の教室へ Japanese anime is transliterated as:

• "Jókoso džicurjoku šidžó šugi no kjóšicu e" in Czech (using Chekoshiki rōmaji)
• "Yōkoso jitsuryoku shijō shugi no kyōshitsu e" in English (using Hepburn)

While most Czech speakers can read Hepburn correctly after some light training, Czech transliteration is way more natural and is de facto standard in Czech.

@talestalker said:

In Czech we use 16 more special characters than English and we pronounce some characters in different ways than English speakers. Therefore we have our own transliteration systems for Japanese, Chinese, Russian etc., which is often more precise than English transliteration because we have more common vowels and consonants than English. For example ようこそ実力至上主義の教室へ Japanese anime is transliterated as:

• "Jókoso džicurjoku šidžó šugi no kjóšicu e" in Czech (using Chekoshiki rōmaji)
• "Yōkoso jitsuryoku shijō shugi no kyōshitsu e" in English (using Hepburn)

While most Czech speakers can read Hepburn correctly after some light training, Czech transliteration is way more natural and is de facto standard in Czech.

Fascinating! I never found anything on Google about this. Maybe someone should edit the Wikipedia entry which only briefly mentions the letter J. Thank you!

(Correction: now that I know which keyword to use, https://www.lib.cas.cz/space.40/KUNREI/JAPANC.HTM https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedie:Transkripce_japon%C5%A1tiny There doesn't seem to be much information in other languages though.)