Culture
What does not get translated
Some words on this site do not go through translation. A house of worship, a Danube branch, a village, a living endonym. We leave them as the place says them. A calque “so people understand” does more harm than good.
Houses of worship and branches
Hünkâr stays Hünkâr, not “the Sovereign’s Mosque” in every language. Esmahan Sultan stays Esmahan Sultan. Chilia, Sulina, Sfântu Gheorghe are branch names, not metaphors. Razim is not “the yellow lagoon”.
Villages and endonyms
Журиловка sits beside Jurilovca; it is not replaced. Mecidiye sits beside Medgidia. Стара Кілія sits under Chilia Veche. The rule is at endonym: only if it is alive.
What we do translate
The etiquette sentence, the warning, the hours. Not the name. The refusal glossary says why some calques are wrong: what we do not write.