Quote:
Originally posted by Moiraine:
I was not really advocating any side, I merely pointed out that names change over time according to how people refer to them.
I agree wholeheatedly with Yorick when he says that it is a matter of politeness to refer to local places with the name the natives give them.
However, I made the remark that the 'native' name may have been given by foreigners long ago (like "Gratianopolis" -> "Grenoble" - funny, since the Romains gave this name to make the name of their Emperor remembered, but today almost nobody correlates "Grenoble" with Gratian !).
There is also the fact that a native name can be unpronounceable by foreign tongues, so in some cases a 'foreign' name may be better in the sake of communication. Or maybe the translation of the meaning of the native name ?
A balance must be found between respect of local cultures and communication needs.
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Well said Moiraine, I guess going on the pronounciation its easy to see why soldiers in world war one called Ypres "wipers". Ypres isn't so easy in English
Still the problem remains in English where even we pronounce our own place names differently to there spelling e.g. Worcester
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