By that token
the French should say England and not Angleterre and so on.

Good luck on getting the Germans to say Wyoming, Wisconsin, Winchester and Western Sahara.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Thu 8 Apr 2010, 18:01, 3 replies)

This is my point
Every language has its own names for other places as it is more palatable to that language's pronunciation, a very good example :D.

The point is forefront in my mind at the moment really as I live in Hungary (or Magyarorszag as some would clearly prefer) and Hungarian has its own names for pretty much every major city in the region, largely for pronunciation reasons, in which I see the logic.
(captainbildo, Thu 8 Apr 2010, 18:13, closed)

Just because "they" do it?
I work with and interact with people from most continents and they seem to be able to pronounce English place names as well as us natives.
I'm not suggesting we must drop the 's' from "paris" or anything but it would make things a fuck of a lot easier if we at least tried to prounounce the real place names as opposed to some moron's interpritation which made it into the atlas.
I can't say Brno properly myself but I don't feel the need to call it Bono and expect everyone in the world to understand.
It seems that the world is (in most cases) hapilly adopting English as the lingua franca -- but if that's the case we should at least try and get place names nearer to the real ones so we can all understand.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Thu 8 Apr 2010, 18:44, closed)

I see your point and consider that in a recent conversation with Hungarian and Austrian friends, I was giving the same place 3 different names. Speaking Hungarian referring to it as Pozsony, in German (to Austrian ears), Pressburg and in my own head thinking in English, Bratislava.

I agree that had linguists thought of this many years ago it could have been simpler, but I guess linguistics need to appeal to the masses for very obvious reasons and therefore if we cant pronounce a place name easily in its native tounge we must use our own Moniker.
(captainbildo, Thu 8 Apr 2010, 19:14, closed)

Viva la difference
English (and every other language) has placenames that often reflect a history. `Germany' comes from the Latin Germania (whilst Deutschland comes from the same root as the word Teuton).

In addition to this I find the use of placenames in Welsh for English places interesting and they often reflect a history. Chester? Caer (it means `fortress' - was originally `Caerleon' like the place in Newport and means `fortress of the legion). Scotland is `Alba' - the ancient name for the place and based on an ancient name for Britain.

Personally, I don't give a rat's cock how they pronounce anywhere in this country overseas.
(Audax Victor, Thu 8 Apr 2010, 19:48, closed)

Mumbai.
When we owned it it was called "Bombay".
Now we've given it back to the natives......Mumbai.
They've always called it "Mumbai"
Bombay was how we interpretateteded the word when we turned up.
"Bombay" is still "our" version of what always was and always will be, Mumbai.
( Unklian Lives in the only country where "Glass" is a verb., Fri 9 Apr 2010, 10:11, closed)

Welsh
Go to Wales, look at the road signs and then try saying those place names.
(spazmataz mong-a-long-a-ding-dong, Fri 9 Apr 2010, 11:44, closed)

But the Welsh are just being awkward.
Besides, I can say abertawey as easily as swanzey so there's at least one place I don't need a redundant English name for. I'm sure it's also possible to render most welsh names into something that a language-challnged person like myself can say and sound vaguelly correct.
That said, Wales is a good example of somewhere where perhaps we can't pronounce the local names and have to rely on our own -- the same certainly can't be said of Deutschland, for example.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Fri 9 Apr 2010, 18:13, closed)