Re: How you pronunce foreign place names

li [Andreas Johansson] mi tulis la


> We're sometimes told we should use the natively prefered
> names of countries and
> places - eg. Myanmar rather than Burma, Mumbai rather than
> Bombay, and even
I have a tendency to say "Bombay" but that just out of habit, but when I
was there the signs almost always said "Mumbai".


> Belarus rather than Vitryssland - but I can't recall anyone
> ever arguing we
> should use native *pronounciations* of those names.
Well, I'd say pronounce them as close to the native version as possible
within the confines of your own language's rules.  In other words,
*don't* do as many "hispanic" newscasters in the U.S. do,  when they
code-switch into Spanish every time a Spanish name crops up in what is
otherwise a stream of English speech.  If there's anyone out there from
the L.A. area, you'll know exactly what I'm ranting on about.