LL-L "Names" 2003.02.21 (09) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 21.FEB.2003 (09) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Críostóir Ó Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Names" 2003.02.21 (01) [E]


Ron wrote:
"Do you really believe that there will be a time when everyone says "Roma"
instead of "Rome", "Rom", etc.?"

No, I do not. The gradual indigenisation of place-name discourse in all
European language has not affected capital cities such as Paris, Rome, etc.
as these names are too deeply-rooted in our linguistic histories; indeed,
gradual indigenisation has only really occurred off the back of exposure to
a greater number of placenames than we can find swift "translations" for. A
hundred years ago only a handful of foreign cities were ever talked about.
Now we can and often do visit, trade and communicate with every settlement
in the world regardless of size, and we don't bother translating.

In such a context, it's interesting to see Germans still using
"Klausenburg", "Danzig", "Memel" as preferred forms, etc. I once saw a
German-language brochure for the Kaliningrad/East Prussia region describing
"Konigsberg/Kaliningrad" before lapsing into "Konigsberg". The inference was
that to attract lucrative German tourist trade, the city should pander to
Germans' sensitivities. I can't imagine the Irish Tourist Board recommending
referring to Dún Laoghaire as Kingstown merely to attract English visitors.

Where in English we tend to adapt to revised foreign placenames fairly
quickly - for example, no-one, even those from England, would ever refer to
the Irish town of Cóbh as "Queenstown" these days (likewise for Laois and
Offaly/Uibh Fháili - formerly Kings' County and Queens' County
respectively), and "Mumbai" has caught on rapidly too - Germans seem to
almost cling to their placename history in the East.

Go raibh maith agat

Criostóir.


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