Words index  Vivian Cook

English names for foreign parts

Often the English name of a foreign places bears slight resemblance to the one its inhabitants would recognise. Sometimes this due simply to differences in pronunciation or spelling, for example ‘Brussels’ and ‘Bruxelles’. Sometimes places have been respelled in recent years to to bring the English pronunciation more in line with that of the inhabitants, for instance ‘Peking’ and ‘Beijing’. Sometimes the English name draws on an earlier name ‘Germany’ for ‘Deutschland’ based on the Latin name ‘Germania’ or on another language, ‘Padua’ for Italian ‘Padova’ seems closer to the Venetian name ‘Padoa’.