Does anyone know why the places names in Italian are different?

Question

Eg Rome is actually Roma
Milan = Milano
Florence = Firenze

etc..

Why didn't they stay the same? It's not as if they are hard to pronounce or spell?

Answer 1

Latin origin cannot be the reason why names are changed.
Otherwise we can't explain why for example the original name Moskva becomes Moscow in English, Mosca in Italian, Moscú in Spanish, Moskau in German and Moscovie in French (and here I stop but still so many others names for Moskva in different languages...!).
I guess all of us we have the tendence to change the names of the main cities (but strangely not the one of the small towns or villages...!!) just to make them sounding better ..!!
Exactly the same thing is happening with Nations names and in my opinion it's a bad habit.
I feel nobody would be happy for instance to be called Anthony if his real name is Antonio.

Answer 2

Because the names aren't differnet in Italian, they're changed in English. Roma, Milano, Firenze, Venezia are the PROPER way to say the name of the city. Rome, Milan, Florence, Venice, etc are the English name. Kind of like how Italians say the United States are gli Stati Uniti. It's just a language differnence.

Answer 3

Martox is right, of course (I know because I am italian, too!)

I would just like to add one little detail:
The names of big cities are translated in virtually every language (not just from Italian to English, and vice versa)
For instance, London becomes Londra in Italian, Londre in French and so on. Even stranger, Milano becomes Mailand in German (go figure, who would have guessed!), but then again, we call Khol "Colonia", Wien "Vienna" and Munich "Monaco". Only a few examples!
The reason for that was weel explained before!

Answer 4

Actually, Milano and Firenze are the original names, in Italian.

The names of words change because there is either an adaptation or a complete change in languages with different linguistic origins (Italian is closer to Latin, while English is not).

Answer 5

People tend to change foreign words to something that fits in more with the way they are used to pronouncing their words. You're right, it's not like Roma is that much harder to say than Rome, but foreign words just tend to get changed by speakers of another language.

I've wondered about that, too. Why did "baseball" get changed to "beisbol" in Spanish? Is it that difficult for them to say "baseball"? Either it is, or it just sounds weird to them, so it got changed.

Answer 6

Ermmmm

Because the second one in your list is the proper Italian spelling, the first is the English spelling and usage.