Re: OT: baloney and cheese

Andreas wrote:

> I used to believe that the jokes about Americans whose only knowledge of
> Sweden is that Switzerland is the capital of Stockholm were quite unfair,
but
> life has tought me otherwise. Is there any particular explanation for this
in
> my eyes very strange confusion? Are there similar confusions about, say,
> Portugal and Poland?
I can understand how people, in my Spanish-speaking environment, would
counfuse Suecia with Suiza (Peninsular /"sweTja/ vs. /"swiTa/, change /T/
into /s/ for American dialects), but "Sweden" and "Switzerland" look and
sound quite different to me.

I am trying to figure out if there is another such doublete in Spanish but
none as common and consistent as Suecia/Suiza.  Well, probably
Lituania/Letonia (Lithuania/Latvia) but the fact they are less know,
ex-Soviet neighboring countries... You could even add Estonia and most
people I know will probably fail the test.  I am not sure about
Paraguay/Uruguay, I can tell them appart very easily, but I am not sure
about my fellow countrymen (I mean, further than knowing that Uruguay has a
skyblue shirt and Paraguay's red and white, in soccer uniforms, I mean).
Hmmm, the Guayanas: Guyana, Suriname and French Guayana... they are not even
in Conmebol...

Well, please don't ask me about Africa.

-- Carlos Th

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