Re: Beijing, Zhongguo, etc.

Quoting Lars Finsen <lars.finsen@...>:
[snip]
> Well, the Germans perhaps are even more notorious than the English
> for having their own names for everything. Many of the German names
> were borrowed into Scandinavian, too, but have since been replaced.
> We formerly used Prag for Praha, for example, and Neapel for Napoli.
I guess by "we" you mean Norwegians, because Neapel and Prag are still the usual
forms in Swedish.

However, the German forms have largely been replaced with local ones for cities
and places in Poland and Balticum, and indeed most places in Czechia apart from
Prague. The pattern of where traditional forms have been kept or replaced seems
fairly arbitrary - notable areas of persistence are Italy and the Middle East.

Even where local spellings are used, pronunciation is almost invariably
swedishized, even when, as in the case of many English or American cities, the
local one is well known to most Swedes.

--
Andreas Johansson