Why don't we call countries by their name in that countries' language?

Question

Perhaps in the past when english people discovered countries and were too lazy to pronounce it how it is,they created english pronunciations or borrowed them from other languages. But why don't we now start calling countries like with their pronunciations like they are supposed to be --"Mexico( with accent on e", "La France", "Nihon", "Brazil", instead of Russia say what it really is..i don't even know what it is in russian. etc etc.

Answer 1

Cause it's kind of hard, you know. I'll be y'all be stumped at the Chinese pronunciation of China.

Answer 2

It is a subtle declaration of power. By refusing to pronounce the names of other countries and cities in their native language, and instead imposing our own (oftentimes even changing the name completely), we make it known that we have the power to make that decision.

In more humble cultures, foreign places and names are made as closely as possible to the original, based on the alphabet and pronounciation available in that language. Russian is a good example of this. In English, we say "Spain," for España, whereas in Russian, they say "Зспания," which in the English alphabet would look like "Espaniya" which is basically the same pronounciation as in Spanish.

Back when England was out conquering the world, one subtle indication of the power they held over other countries was the language. They imposed their language (and religion and other things) on other countries, and changed the names of places to indicate the England's control. The American culture of aggression continues that tradition, and the English language is now pretty much set, so that even non-aggressive English-speaking countries are unlikely to bother changing the English names of foreign places.

Answer 3

There is actually a good reason for this.

When we are born, we are able to speak every sound of every language that exists in the world. As you grow and learn your language from parents and peers, several of those sounds are weeded out of your vocabulary because you do not need it in your own language. For example, there is a "ch" sound in the Hebrew language (prounounced "ha" - but kind of a hard "h") that is not found in the English language. These sounds gradually become less familiar to us until they become totally foreign and very difficult to pronounce. This is why, when listening to foreign speakers, their words seem to flow together and their speech seems completely incoherent.

Now, to answer the question:
My guess is that we have chosen not to call countries by their true names because it would be too difficult for us - and, because we would simply not be able to prounounce those sounds inherent in the vocabulary of different languages.

Answer 4

What will you do about the countries that have different dialects and languages within their country and pronounce the name of their country different than other people in the same country?

Will we have civil wars to decide which pronunciation becomes the 'official' one?

Answer 5

Because sometimes people can't pronounce the names well. That's how a lot of the english pronunciations came to be.

Answer 6

For the same reason that we use English in movies about Arab speaking people or people who lived in Mexico over 100 years ago and couln't possibly have spoken English. Mexican people dont refer to this country as the US. They say our country's name in their OWN language.

Answer 7

I've wonder about that myself for a long time. It's kind of like don't move to a country unless you speak the language. Germany would be Deutschland, Switzerland--Suomi (check spelling doesn't cover this one.)

Answer 8

It would be too hard, plus like you said English people invaded some many countries and forced them to speak English. So we figured that they are what we call them

Answer 9

I know that what we call Greece is Hellas. I remember hearing that the name that Chinese people have for their country is very long, but I don't know what it is.
I think this is due in part to our ethnocentrism - we're the greatest, we're the best!
Maybe we can start a new trend here!

Answer 10

lol...good point

Kinda like pressing 1 for English in America huh?