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Renaming the cities of other countries... | ||
Tags: Names | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Hello Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 5428 days ago 40 posts - 45 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 81 of 192 20 February 2010 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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That whole replacing cities' names thing is also going on in French, examples:
Warsaw = Varsovie Beijing/Peking = Pékin Vienna/Wien = Vienne Etc.. It just seems that every language wants to translate city names on its own... except few exceptions, maybe? Like Oslo, I think. And about cities having the same name, you can find here in Québec two cities named Cleveland and Milan. Also, did you knew that there was a city named Rome/Roma on every continent? Edited by Hello on 20 February 2010 at 7:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5863 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes  Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 82 of 192 20 February 2010 at 7:13pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Totally ageed. For Seoul, there is an interesting name change. In the past (before 2003), the Chinese name for Seoul is called 汉城 - the city of Han. It seems like this way of calling upsets Koreans a lot, and the Chinese government, in order to foster a better ties, decided to call it 首尔 instead. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5575 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 83 of 192 20 February 2010 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Aren't there exceptions to this though? For instance 上海 (Shànghǎi) is "Shanhai" in Japanese, as opposed to a Japanese reading of the characters.
首尔 is a relatively new name for Seoul. It is a Mandarin transcription of the Korean pronunciation (like the Japanese katakana name). There is no way to write "Seoul" in hanja, so the Chinese picked two characters that closely resemble the sound of the word. Until 2005 it was known as 汉城/漢城 (Hànchéng) in Chinese, which I think would have a Japanese reading (Kanjō?). Edited by Levi on 20 February 2010 at 7:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| nescafe Senior Member Japan Joined 5417 days ago 137 posts - 227 votes | Message 84 of 192 21 February 2010 at 2:57am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Hancheng. Its an ellegant name but, Why Han for Korean capital might be polyticaly problematic.
Yes. Another example is Hong Kong. "ホンコン Hon Kon" in Japanese but it will be "Kou Kou" or "Kyou Kou" in traitional pronounciation. "Peking" itself already be an imported sound. 北京 will be "Hokkei" in natural Japanese.
I heard the origin of the name "Seoul" is unknown. In the pre war Japan Seoul was called 京城, Keijou in Japanese, "capital city". 首尔 would be half-phonetic half-literal spelling. Yes, 汉城/漢城 (Hànchéng) will be "Kanjo" in romaji. the city names of "-cheng 城" sounds like very continental naming style to Japanese. I find it cool. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| FinnDevil Triglot Newbie Finland Joined 5400 days ago 7 posts - 15 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish | Message 85 of 192 21 February 2010 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I just looked up the etymology of Karkkila. It comes from some Germanic surname (Gericke/ Kercho/ Garko). Helsingfors and Dickursby are older than Finnish names, but I think that Lahti and Tampere are older than Swedish names. And yes, some "renamings" can be really confusing, such as Pressburg (=Bratislava in German). Edited by FinnDevil on 21 February 2010 at 11:03pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| brandon Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 7055 days ago 54 posts - 55 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, French Studies: Dutch, Swedish, Italian | Message 86 of 192 23 February 2010 at 3:12am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Someone asked why New Orleans is pronounced differently in the US, sometimes "New Orleens" and other times "New Orlins" I believe it's regional, but when I was in New Orleans, a local told me they say it Or-le-uns, stress on the first syllable, the middle E said like the E in bed, and "uns" rhymes with buns. I believe it dates back from its French influence, being named after the French city Orléans.
Also, in regards to US place names, some Americans pronounce places in the US "incorrectly" because the US is a very large country. It's sometimes impossible to pronounce some of these smaller places correctly without having a local inform you. I've even heard someone pronounce Illinois with an 's'. There were a couple towns when I first moved here that I had mispronounced because I'd never heard of them. When I visited New York City, Houston Street is pronounced "How-stun" not Houston like the city in Texas. The examples are endless. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| FuroraCeltica Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6873 days ago 1187 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 87 of 192 23 February 2010 at 1:36pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I think in Belgium we have a few places like that. We have Kortrijk/Mons.
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| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5461 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 88 of 192 23 February 2010 at 1:47pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Happens in smaller countries too. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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