Quote:
Originally posted by Epona:
Yorick, you've hit on one of my pet hates there! I hate that place names get 'anglicized' or even completely changed in English to something different than the name the locals call a place. I realise that place names have and will probably continue to change as people move, languages change, cultures change etc. these things are always dynamic. But I think it is better to use as a standard name whatever the 'locals' use - Deutschland is not a difficult word in any language. Place names are of course written in a variety of characters and alphabets, but where they are translated into a different alphabet this should be done phonetically so the sound of the word stays true, not just given a different name.
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Same here Epona. It's not just in English that happens. It's an attitude left over from Rome - the Greeks would call people what they called themselves, but the Romans renamed them. The French call Deutschland: Allemagne. The Italians call it Allemani. So named to differentiate the Germanic tribe there as opposed to the Franks in France, the Lombards/Ostrogoths in Italy and the Visigoths of Spain.
There's the ludicrous situation in Switzerland where the country has a name in each language and a fair number of cities have different names depending on the language! (Italian, French or Deutsch)
Even in Singapore I got really annoyed with a fellow Aussie who inisted on
giving place names an Aussie accent! Created confusion because no place they were referring to existed. (Like Americans calling Brisbane ( - Pron. Brizbun), Briz-bane. This same Aussie REFUSED to call German Deutsch in conversation, and acted like I was wierd for referring to the language by it's name. (Boy did we get on like a house on fire. They also bagged computers/internet conversation, ignored new foods, laughed at local customs, and would 'shut off' if a conversation went into areas they knew little about. Very very strange attitude... but that's another story)
It's changing now though with examples like Congo -> Zaire -> Congo, Burma -> Myanmar, and Madras -> Chennai, Bombay -> Mumbai occuring thanks to educated journalism. Australia has called the capital of China Beijing for at least 12 years, but not all other nations do. Some still call it Peking.
I'd love to see more of those atlases that ONLY refer to a place in the local name. Praha, Roma, Venezia, Sverige, Norge, Munchen, Nippon, etc etc.
Wolgir and all the other Swedes for eg: Why not change your left hand box to 'Sverige'? Educate us!
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O.K..... what do I do now?
A fair dinkum laughing Hyena!
[This message has been edited by Yorick (edited 04-01-2001).]