ORIGINAL: mind_messing
ORIGINAL: HansBolter
ORIGINAL: Alfred
That is a trap for the unwary.
Personally I'm in favour of using the names used in December 1941 but it is easy to not pick up the modern name has been slipped in.
Alfred
I have never really understood why all those names I learned and memorized as a kid had to change.
It still feels like some kind of dirty trick.
Political motivation tends to be a large driver of geographic name change.
With China in particular, it's due to the fact that the early translation efforts varied wildly between using the Cantonese dialect and Mandarin which led to some odd Romanisation.
All name changes are politically driven.
When it comes to altering the English name of a foreign location, there are two different rationales. One is acceptable to me, the other I have an extremely strong dislike and will not adopt.
The acceptable rationale is when the foreign location has decided for its own domestic reasons, to change. An example is St Petersburg (the Russian one, not the Florida one). Changed in 1914 to the Russian version because of the war with Germany. Changed after the Revolution to Leningrad to honour Lenin. Then back to St Petersburg after the end of Communist rule. All of course written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Another exemplar being Tsaritsyn to Stalingrad to Volgograd. Local decisions with no lecturing to other countries what they had to call these cities.
The unacceptable rationale is when a foreign country has the gall to demand that only their version is acceptable. These are always an exercise in naked power. So Peking to Beijing, Rangoon to Yangoon is nothing but an imposition. We don't call Rome Roma, or Florence Firenze, or Prague Praha, and more importantly the locals don't correct an english speaker when they don't use the local domestic name.
It is quite revealing that in most instances, the locals don't use the renames. This is particularly noticeable when you speak to Indians. I've come across a lot of Indians and almost without exception they still refer to Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. Understandable when you hear their explanation of the stupid domestic politicians who in their fervour to demonstrate decisiveness have made false claims that the renames represent the original names. Madras is s good example. It was never known as Chennai in the local language.
When we all agree that going to Venezia for Carnevale would be fun, or its time to have some Deutsch bier at Bayern, then and only then will I consider calling Canton Guangzhou. Until then I'm not kowtowing.
Alfred
