For example we say Seville for Sevilla yet all the other Spanish cities retain their original name.
2006-11-11 08:24:31 · 3 answers · asked by Living in Spain 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Well, some of it could be based on a regional dialect from times past. Like Rome is ROMA and Milan is MILANO. Another possibility is that the name could have been updated from the old language in to the newer higher (current) form.
What is really strange is that in France there is not really any sort of anglicization of ANY names that I have ever been aware of... I lived on France for 2 years.
2006-11-11 08:53:49 · answer #1 · answered by Zip 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think the same happens in every language. I think it's due to some cities having been frequently said or known in the past, and therefore, make them sound more appropriate for your language.
In Spanish, we say; Moscú, Londres, Burdeos (Bordeaux), Maguncia (Mainz), Colonia (Koln), Nápoles, Estocolmo (Stockholm), Gotemburgo, Atenas, Brujas (Brugges), Gante (Ghent), Lovaina (Leuven), Ginebra (Geneve), and so many more.
In French they say Barcelonne (Barcelona), Cordue (Córdoba), Saragosse (Zaragoza), etc...
I think it doesn't have to do much with just "making it easy to pronounce". Other than "Moscu" I don't recall any more slavic names being "spanishiced". Same with chinese or far east cities. Same with arabic names except, some cities in Northern Africa which names we also have "spanishiced". So it's probably more related to contact throughout history. I guess it's the same with english or any other language.
2006-11-11 13:52:37 · answer #2 · answered by rtorto 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
LoL!! trust you're the only ppl. who do that we also "Arabize" some names LoL..I like that word.
maybe because its easyer to say it "phonaticly"
2006-11-11 08:53:44 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋