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Renaming the cities of other countries... | ||
Tags: Names | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6667 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 65 of 192 20 November 2009 at 4:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Somehow "I want to go to Londres" sounds either like someone is being very pretentious or is channeling someone else.
If a foreign city or country has a name that is difficult for speakers of one language to pronounce correctly or without inducing giggles and blushes, there should be a name for it in that one language. On the other hand, the pronunciation of Iraq as "eye-rack" comes off as jingoistic. It's easy enough for English speakers to say "ee-rock." 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Envinyatar Diglot Senior Member Guatemala Joined 5544 days ago 147 posts - 240 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 66 of 192 21 November 2009 at 3:49am | IP Logged | |||||
Not true, Arabs call it "Al-Quds". 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5529 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 67 of 192 21 November 2009 at 10:46am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, but Denmark is still inhabited mainly by non-arabs. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| masmavi Triglot Newbie Germany Joined 5716 days ago 9 posts - 17 votes Speaks: German*, English, French Studies: Spanish, Yiddish, Turkish, Italian | Message 68 of 192 22 November 2009 at 8:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I just recently figured out that Mumbai and Bombay are the same city.
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Qinshi Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5761 days ago 115 posts - 183 votes Speaks: Vietnamese*, English Studies: French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 69 of 192 23 November 2009 at 9:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Ho Chi Minh City is by far the worst city name I've ever come across. Why couldn't they
just leave it as Saigon??? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| FrenchSilkPie Senior Member United States Joined 6625 days ago 125 posts - 130 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 70 of 192 27 November 2009 at 8:03am | IP Logged | |||||
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I speak with mostly English-speaking friends, so it's always the English pronounciation, but I would change it to the majority language of whomever I am speaking to.
I agree with SamD, depending on the audience, using foreign pronounciation can come off as pretentious, snobby, know-it-all.. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6280 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 71 of 192 27 November 2009 at 11:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Central/Eastern Europe is probably the most complex. Bratislava people have heard of, but it has also been Pressburg and Pozsony. A whole swathe of Polish towns and villages once had German names.
On the subject of Jerusalem, it is called Kuds or Kudüs by Turkish speakers. Edited by William Camden on 27 November 2009 at 11:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| pfwillard Pro Member United States Joined 5707 days ago 169 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 72 of 192 28 November 2009 at 2:49am | IP Logged | |||||
Americans, especially people from LA, pronounce "Los Angeles" so many different ways that the BBC version is within the bounds of native (anglo) variations. The BBCism that is annoying is "the State of Mary [pause] Land"--why don't they just say "Queen Mary's Land"... Edited by pfwillard on 28 November 2009 at 2:50am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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