Railroad vs Railway?

OK, now I understand. However, Canadians (usally) don't call it the "USA", they call it the "States". At least in this part they (usually) do.

If, again, you re-read my post, then it becomes obvious that I think they are wrong. ALL names should be spelt (Translated to our alphabet naturally as otherwise many would be unreadable) and pronounced the way the locals pronounce it.

You realise that Mexico, Cuba and all the Caribbean Islands are part of North America and that many of these places speak languages other than Spanish?

-- Cheers

Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

Roger T. spake thus (referring to my sig):

You're missing the point; is that a side effect of being British?

Tell me this: when you listen to the BBC describing events in the capital of Russia, do they refer to it as "Moskva"? Would they refer to the city by its Italian name, Firenze? No, I don't think so: they'd say "Florence".

The point is that there are local names for these places, yes, but they're used by *local people*. We're talking about here an American television network broadcasting to Americans. We have always used the English names for these places--as have you, I'm sure. Except that now some effete snobs think it's suddenly time to use the "correct" names, which I find quite pretensious and too cute. That's what was being complained about. (Try to remember that I didn't write this, even though I agree with it; it was on someone's blog, and I didn't even bother to bookmark it.)

For just another example: do you think you'd ever hear one of your news commentators refer to the country known as "Magyarország"? No, of course not: it's "Hungary".

Of course, were I actually in Torino, I'd use that name, of course. But I'm not, and you're not. We don't use those names.

Besides, as a Brit, you're among those most guilty for butchering foreign names; to hear a Brit pronounce Nicaragua ("Ni-car-ag-YOO-ah") is truly an excrutiating experience. (Well, not that we 'Merkins can't butcher names too, but I think y'all hold the world records there.) Or my favorite, that effete, faux-upper-class "jag-YOO-ah" that's used in the commercials here for those high-end status symbols. It's like the proverbial nails on a chalkboard.

I rest my case.

tobias b köhler spake thus:

No, not unless they're singing the old song, "I've been working on the railway". We ('Merkins) use "railroad". (As in "he got railroaded by the court into a 5-to-life sentence".)

Roger T. wrote: [...]ALL names should be spelt (Translated to our alphabet naturally

The historical fact is that many geographical names have developed differently in different languages. It's quite OK to say "Rome" or "Vienna" in English because those are the English names of those cities. OTOH, the vast majority of names exist in only one version, and people do the best they can to pronounce them in the original language. But the fact is that by and large we can't - so what we say is as close as we can get to the original.

Try "Rouens", "Hildesheim", "Guajarati", etc. :-)

Roger T. wrote: [...]

Here in Northern Ontario we call it the US (you-ess), generically. If the talk is specific (eg, a destination), we just name the state/city itself. "(The) States" is quite rare, and almost always marks the speaker as being from elsewhere (eg, from bee-see :-)).

Roger T. spake thus:

Well, both Mexico and Cuba use Spanish predominantly, last time I checked.

As for your prescription above: so you're saying we should change all our history and geography books to now use "Magyarország" instead of Hungary? "Espana" instead of Spain? "Polska" instead of Poland? "Hellás" instead of Greece? "República Portuguesa" instead of Portugal? "Repiblik d Ayiti" instead of Haiti? "Rossiyskaya Federatsiya" instead of Russia? "Türkiye" instead of Turkey?

Are you serious, man?

. . . one shouldn't get one's knickers in a twist over Torino or Milano (no, not the cookie)

Ya mean that raggedy tarp over the rusting ole hog back of the garage?

Steve Caple spake thus:

No, you're thinking of that other one, the "Shroud of Gremlin".

"David Nebenzahl" <

David, I'm not missing the point, you are.

I don't care how (say) an Italian city name is pronounced in Canada, in the USA, in the UK, in France, in Germany or Outer Mongolia. I'm one of those "effete snobs", and have been since I was a teenager back when Noah was a babe in arms, who believes that the only correct way to pronounce and spell (Given alphabet differences) a city or place name should be the way the locals pronounce and spell it.

I just wish I had the knowledge to know all the local pronunciations.

-- Cheers

Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

"Wolf Kirchmeir"

Vs On-tar-rio or T'rona? :-)

-- Cheers

Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

"David Nebenzahl" <

Yep. But I'm a minority. :-)

-- Cheers

Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

Ya mean places like Oconomowok, or Menomonie Falls?

oCONomowok, meNahmonie.

Native American names ain't hard, it's the french ones that gets you.

Rich.

How about Köln? It has been spelt numerous ways by the local residents; Coln, Coeln, Cologne, Koln etc etc. It was only about 50 years ago that the local government insisted that there should be just one spelling. However, the locals all seem to pronounce it as we would say 'Cooln'.

Anyway, that's an irrelevant aside. :-)

I picked up a Canadian hitch-hiker recently - she came from the East of Canada, the non-French speaking bit with fishing ports. I have not the faintest idea what the name of the State was, even though she said it half a dozen times in the course of an hour. I keep meaning to check my Atlas!

Regards, Greg.P.

Roger T. spake thus:

OK, now *that* I can appreciate. (Like my lone stand in some photography groups that photography is not an art: a losing battle if there ever was one.)

Don Quixotes of the world, unite!

It most likely wasn't a State, Greg :-)

Talking about car names , would you believe that Skoda in Chzechia ( where they come from ) means "what a pitty ". Now i know there's a lot of names all over the world that mean something stupid in another language but in the native language is kinda dumb to me.

Grtz Jan, wich is a guys name where I come from.

So you'd say 's Gravenhage instead of The Hague, I like pain seekers :-)