The discussion was very useful to me. But I'm not quite done yet :-)

Grosso modo we have two kinds of languaged strings:

a) appellations (names, titles, terms, i.e. identifiers);
b) annotations (statements, notes etc.).

Right ?

For these entities, we have to deal with translations, transliterations and orthographical variations. Right ?


So, simplifying (and shortcutting and ignoring - as a simpler case - the annotations), I would suggest things like 
these:

1) person appellation:

<name type="real">
	<version xml:lang="en">
		<segment type="forename">Pieter</namePart>
		<segment type="surname">
			<variant preferred="true">Bruegel</variant>
			<variant>Brueghel</variant>
			<variant>Breueghel</variant>
		</segment>
		the Elder, called Peasant Bruegel, also called  Pieter the Droll
	</version>
	<version xml:lang="fr">
		<segment type="forename">Pieter</namePart>
		<segment type="surname">
			<variant preferred="true">Bruegel</variant>
			<variant>Brueghel</variant>
			<variant>Breueghel</variant>
		</segment>
		le Vieux ou l'Ancien, dit Bruegel le Rustique, dit aussi Bruegel le Drôle
	</version>
	<version xml:lang="ro">
		<segment type="forename">Pieter</namePart>
		<segment type="surname">
			<variant>Bruegel</variant>
			<variant>Brueghel</variant>
			<variant preferred="true">Breueghel</variant>
		</segment>
		cal Bătrân, zis Breughel al Țăranilor
	</version>
<name>


2) person appellation:

<name>Aristotle</name
<name>
	<version xml:lang="en">The Stagirite</version>
	<version xml:lang="ro">Stagiritul</version>
	<version xml:lang="fr">Le Stagirite</version>
</name>


3) manifestation appellation:

<title xml:lang="ru">
	<value>Война и мир</value>
	<transliteration standard="?">Voyna i mir</transliteration>
	<translation xml:lang="en">
		<value>War and Peace</value>
		<transliteration standard="none"> Уор енб пеаке</transliteration>
	</translation>
</title>

(where <value> is the "original" and the others are "transformations").

Is that sophisticated enough ?

Dan

PS.
Please note that I'm not dealing with different personas (pardon the simplifications), like:

persona a1
<name>Bill Clinton</name>
<name type="at birth">William Jefferson Blythe III</name>

persona a2
<appellation>Bill Clinton (governor of Arkansas, 1979-1981, 1983-1992)</appellation>

persona a3
<appellation>Bill Clinton (president of the United States, 1993-2001)</appellation>

persona b1
<appellation>Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (English mathematician)</appellation>

persona b2
<appellation>Lewis Carroll, (English writer)</appellation>


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Matei, director
CIMEC - Institutul de Memorie Culturala [Institute for Cultural Memory]
Piata Presei Libere nr. 1, CP 33-90
013701 București [Bucharest], Romania, www.cimec.ro
tel. (+4)021 317 90 72; fax (+4)021 317 90 64
www.cimec.ro