--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., "Grant Hutchison" <granthutchison@c...>
wrote:
> Is there not also some consideration of courtesy (as I think you
have
> alluded to already in this thread) to call a country by the
name "it"
> chooses for "itself"?
I don't know... I think it's nice so many languages have a special
word for "the Netherlands". For example, I found it very flattering
to learn that Polish has a special form for the (not too large) city
I live in (which is Leiden): Lejda. It means that my city means, or
meant, something more special than your average city to the Poles.
> The official name I find in various encyclopaedias is "Koninkrijk
der
> Nederlanden" which to my Deutsch, at least (not Dutch), looks like
a
> plural: "Netherlands".
I think that in most languages "the Netherlands" is plural, after the
official Dutch name.
It's just like the country names with an adjective, which seems to be
going out of fashion at the moment: The Ukraine, the Lebanon, the
Gambia (meaning a region, a mountain, and a river, respectively). I
happen to like it. With a plural it is more difficult to do away with
the adjective, though: "I live in Philippines" sounds silly.
> An odd exception to this direct-as-possible-translation rule is
Cote
> d'Ivoire, the government of which have officially asked to be
> translated into English as, well ... "Cote d'Ivoire".
Really a pity, in my opinion. The country is called Wybrzeze Kosci
Sloniowej (leaving out the diacritical marks) in Polish, and
Elfenbeinkueste in German (Ivoorkust in Dutch).
Belgian Congo was known as Belgisch Kongo in Dutch, and Congo Belge
in French. After it became independent and Zaire, the name
disappeared. But now the name Congo is back. The Dutch Language Union
(an intergovernmental (be-nl) body standing guard over the Dutch
language, or so they say) said that the proper name for the country
now was Congo, because the official language of the country is
French, and they use the C rather than the K. But the official policy
of the Language union is to prefer the use of the original,
indigenous name for a country.
The word Congo comes from the people of that name. And they write it
with a K. An example of our beloved language union shooting itself in
the foot.
>
> Reminds me of a Richard Feynman story.
> Feynman once met Murray Gell-Mann (who is a linguist as well as a
> physicist) in the corridor outside his office.
> "Murray," said Feynman, "haven't seen you for a while. Have you
been
> away?"
> "Yes," said Gell-Mann. "I've been to ..." and he here emitted a
word
> that sounded to Feynman like "MOHNG-RRRHay-al".
> "Where?" asked Feynman.
> "MOHNG-RRRHay-al," repeated Gell-Mann, slowly and clearly.
> After a bit more to-ing and fro-ing, they established that Gell-
Mann
> had been to Montreal, but was using the Quebecois pronunciation.
> "Tell me, Murray," said Feynman, putting his arm around Gell-Mann's
> shoulders. "As a linguist, don't you feel that the primary purpose
of
> language is *communication*?"
>
> I don't know what the moral of the story is; I just like to tell it.
"I've been to Coat d'Eve war?"
>
> Grant
Peter S.