Why do we (English) mispronounce or rename so many foreign place names?

Question

For example Paris - the French pronounce this Paree. Other examples that spring to mind are - Rome/Roma, Munich/Munchen, Venice/Venezia and Germany/Deutschland. Ok, possibly some names would be hard for the English tongue to accurately reproduce, but we could try, couldn't we?

Answer 1

I hate it, and it can be confusing. On the other hand I would feel pretentious talking about Paree in the UK.
Here in Switzerland, where they have 4 official languages, Geneva is Genf for the German speakers, Genève for the French and Ginevra for the Italians - don't know what it is Rhaeto-Romantsch.
I once had the embarrassing experience of stopping a pedestrian in the town of Lüttich in Belgium and asking him the way to Liège (it's the same place). He was very polite and asked me where I was heading. I didn't say Ostend, having realised my mistake I said 'Oosteende,' and he gave me directions. Nice guy, thanks.
According to Italians the 1972 Olympics were held in Monaco and not Munich/München.
Working with asylum seekers, I rang a refugee centre for information about an asylum seeker. The name was OK, but I said he came from Belarus. I was told that there was a person of that name, but he came from Weiss Rusland. (White Russia) - he was surprised when I told him it was the same country.

Answer 2

Why should we call foreign places by the same names as the natives? I see no reason why we should call Prague Praha just because the Czechs do. The point of having a different language is having different names for things: why shouldn't this extend to place names?

This is certainly not restricted to English speakers either. The Finns call Russia Venäjä (Russians call it Rossiia), while England is Lloegr in Welsh.

Even if we did decide to start using foreign names and pronunciations, it would raise many problems: first, how accurate should we be? The French don't pronounce Paris as we would pronounce "Paree" - the /p/ and the /r/, in particular, are different, and neither sound exists in most English speakers' inventories. In other words, Paree, as most English speakers would say it, is barely more French than Paris as we say it now.

Second, people are used to certain forms in their own language. If you start calling Copenhagen København, a lot of people aren't going to recognise it -- and there's no reason they should.

Third, which names do we choose? Do we pronounce Kiev/Kyiv as in Russian or Ukrainian? Do we say Swansea or Abertawe? Cardiff or Caerdydd? Baile Átha Cliath or Dublin?

It is far better to just stick with the standard form in your own language. Are you offended that London is known in other languages as Llundain, or Londres? That New York is known as Efrog Newydd in Welsh? I'm sure you're not. Anyone who is, like any Bavarians that are really annoyed that we call their state capital Munich, needs to find something to care about that's worth the time spent on it.

Answer 3

There's a difference between having different names for countries and having different names for towns/cities. EVERY country uses different names for countries (e.g. 'Germany' is 'Deutschland' in German and 'Allemagne' in French). Having a different name or pronunciation for a town is less common, but English isn't the only language to do this either. For example, the German town 'Aachen' is 'Aix-la-Chapelle' in French and 'Aken' in Dutch. The German town 'Muenchen' is 'Munich' in English and French, and 'Monaco' in Italian. As for the Paris example, the French pronounce it 'Paree', Germans say 'Parees' and English-speakers say 'Paris'.

The reasons why there are different names for towns can vary - sometimes a town is near a border and/or has changed hands several times (e.g. Aachen is near the border between France, Germany and the Netherlands), sometimes the name of a town has been misheard by foreigners or it's too difficult for them to pronounce.

Answer 4

imagine, if we dont have one standard language acceptable and we all speak our different languages,could we understand each other?Each country has their own language and has the equivalent word to each place, most probably indians have their own way of calling and pronuncing the word "Americans", Filipinos do have too. Filipinos do say Amerikanos and look at how they spell it, in other words, it leads to confusion to other people who speak differently to these groups. So to attain clarity and unity, we are using english as a medium of communication, So in otehr words, this wont only benefit the Americans, but everyone around the world. Trust me, coz in our country, we have a lot of dialects, there were misunderstanding before, and each region wanted to claim their dialect as the best and that should be used, so one of our presidents, decided to have one language common to everyone. If we wont do this thing, maybe it would lead to fighting over whose language is the best. Besides, the word Paree is a french word so we try to give an english term for that.

Answer 5

In Spanish: Londres, Moscú, Marsella, Lisboa, Nápoles, Estrasburgo, Bruselas, Colonia, Aquisgrán, Burdeos, Edimburgo, Estocolmo, Gotemburgo, Lieja, Malinas, Brujas, Ginebra, Lausana, Maguncia, Viena, Basilea, Atenas, Varsovia, Praga, etc...

Italia, Francia, Portugal, Alemania, Inglaterra, Escocia, Irlanda, Bélgica, Suecia, Noruega, Dinamarca, Rusia, Finlandia, Hungria, Polonia, Austria, Bulgaria, Grecia, etc...

:-) I guess it's different in every language.

Answer 6

It's not that we CANNOT say it, it's that we are trained to speak differently than the rest.


Our language sounds very different than other languages. Combinations of letters sound differently than others would make them out to be. We have different formats and rules to the english language that other languages don't share. It's not that we misspeak words out of malice or ignorance -- we're just taught different rules to speaking than others.


Don't you think that other languages share the same differences? There's no saying the Germans will speak french words and cities as the french do. There's no saying that the italians will be able to master irish pronunciations. It's the same logic in every single language.

Answer 7

That is a tough one, but you should try the English over here in the New England area of US. Many of the people here have a problem with adding letters to words such as words that end in the letter a, like idea and linda. They are pronounced idear and lindar. Then to top it off they remove letters in other words like the word Worcester is pronounced 'Wooster'. Drives me nuts.

Answer 8

The place names are different in each language.
Italian for Paris is Parigi, Germany is Germania.
I am sure that german/ french/ japanese etc names for the places exist as well.
Also pronunciation is down to the structure of the language. Certain letter combinations are said in different ways in different languages

Answer 9

The English have difficulty in pronouncing foreign names and on top of this many don't try as they think it sounds silly.
Just listen to them speaking Spanish or Italian.They can't pronounce the vowels properly ,they use diphthongs..hard to explain but I'll try:-

Por Favor..becomes Paw Favoa
Milano....Milanow
Pronto...prontow.

You should hear some trying to pronounce some Welsh names, now that IS funny.

Answer 10

Here are just a few for starters; Bideford, pronounced Bidd-y-Ford. Tideford, pronounced as it is spelt. Curling-Tye Green, Colicky Green and Woolfardisworthy, Woolsery.