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Re: new Klingon spelling

From:Joe <joe@...>
Date:Tuesday, January 6, 2004, 9:12
Andreas Johansson wrote:

>Quoting "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>: > > > >>Personally, aside from these issues, I find it disrespectful >>not to make an effort to pronounce the latter category of terms >>as it would be in the source language. It's not "wrong", except >>insofar as it is "wrong" not to take into consideration other >>people's cultures as valid just as your own. I find anglophones >>to be very insular in this respect. >> >> > >I've never got why it should be disrespectful, but let's not go down that road. > >Instead, I thought I ask what you feel about "quasitranslations". For example, >the traditional Swedish name of Belarus is _Vitryssland_, which is a perfectly >transparent compound meaning "White Russia"*. After the place got independent >in '91, some voices were raised what we should ditch that name and adopt >_Belarus_ out of "respect". No idea what the Belarussians would have thought >of it had it been done - likely they hadn't cared much at all - but I know I'd >be anything but happy if anglophones suddenly replaced "Sweden" with some >mangling of _Sverige_. What's your view? > > >
Traditionally, English did the same. Belarus was often simply called "White Russia". During the cold war it was Belorussia, and now it's Belarus.