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Canada does not use the commonwealth in its official name?Australia's official name is The Commonwealth of Australia.
Canada was originally founded as "Dominion of Canada" from the confederation of four provinces, and no law has ever abolished it. Since the 1940s it has fallen into disuse, and the word "dominion" does not appear in any modern government documents, not even the Constitution.
Mexico is officially "United Mexican States" (Estados Unidos Mexicanos).
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The name of a country is not like the name of a person. A country doesn't feel offended if someone translates its name. Names of countries are like more like the words for animals or foods or any other words; every language has its own names for things.
But if you really want to call Albania "Shqipëria", China "Zhōngguó," Hungary "Magyarország," and the United Arab Emirates "Al-’Imārat Al-‘Arabiyyah Al-Muttaḥidah," knock yourself out.
Or some countries have multiple official languages like Belgium which has Dutch, French and German, so it technically has three names lol.
België, Belgique, Belgien
Or Switzerland which has four languages, French, German, Italian and Romansh
Suisse, Schweiz, Svizzera, Svizra
If it’s fine by them, then it stands to reason it’s fine for us to call them by whatever name suits or language.
And Key West is not Keyo Hueso! Bone Key? Really? Isn't west oeste? Call Miami Meeami or Texas Tehas if you want as that is just a pronunciation issue. But no need to change names but whats done is done!
The name of a country is not like the name of a person. A country doesn't feel offended if someone translates its name. Names of countries are like more like the words for animals or foods or any other words; every language has its own names for things.
But if you really want to call Albania "Shqipëria", China "Zhōngguó," Hungary "Magyarország," and the United Arab Emirates "Al-’Imārat Al-‘Arabiyyah Al-Muttaḥidah," knock yourself out.
Yes...some are real tongue twisters for english speakers....
Focusing on europe....
Germany ....Deutschland
Denmark.....Danmark (only one letter is different...imo should have not changed it)
Spain.....Espana
Italy ....Italia (not a big change ...imo didn't need to be altered)
Netherlands.....Nederland....(again subtle change in english)
Norway....Norge....(I prefer Norge...no need to have changed it in english)
Sweden.....Sverige (prefer the "english" spelling)
Finland.......Soumi (Wow, so different ...I like both)
Austria ...Osterreich (I think it means eastern kingdom...or something like that )
Poland ....Polska (Polska sounds cool...no need to have changed it)
Estonia....Eesti
Latvia....Latvija
Lithuania ....Lietuva
Albania....Shqiperia (difficult for an english speaker to pronounce)
Croatia ....Hrvatska (another tricky one)
Greece ...Hellas (sounds hella good to me )
Slovakia ....Slovensko
Iceland....Island (yeah, their country is an island and they call it "Island")
Here is a list of countries not changed at all...
Andorra
Angola
Argentina
Bangladesh
Belize
Benin
Bolivia
Botswana
Brunei
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cote D'Ivoire
Cuba
Ecuador
El Salvador
Fiji
France
Gambia
Grenada
Guatemala
Guyana
Honduras
Hong Kong
Indonesia
Iran
Jamaica
Kyrgyzstan
Lesotho
Libya
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Malawi
Malta
Mali
Mauritius
Mexico
Moldova
Monaco
Nepal
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Pakistan
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Portugal
Romania
Samoa
San Marino
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Tanzania
Togo
Tuvalu
Uganda
Uruguay
Venezuela
Vietnam
Zambia
Zimbabwe
A weird one for me is Brazil....it is Brasil...why bother changing one letter
Speaking of changing one letter ....
Rome .....Roma (come on...had to change one letter...)
Lisbon....Lisboa (again one letter difference)
Milan....Milano (Milano even sounds better!)
Here is a list of european cities not "changed" in english...
Berlin
Oslo
Stockholm
Helsinki
Frankfurt
Budapest
Riga
Vilnius
Chisinau
Tirana
Amsterdam
Paris
Madrid
Bratislava
Ljubljana (you'd think maybe would have/should have been changed!)
Some well known european cities with spelling "changed" in english...
Chinese has no traditiomal names for other countries, because centuries ago, they had no knowledge of them. As foreign cultures presented themselves, the Chinese coined simple names. E-gwo is ""English-speaking country", De-gwo is "Deutsche-speaking country, Later, Mei-gwo was needed to distinguish countries who call themselves a-MEI-ricans. The Chinese call themselves Jung-gwo, "Central country".
Basically, this underlies names of all language/country forms. They were hammered into shapes that would match the existing language. English doesn'y like the sounds we associate with the spelling "Hrvatska" so we spell it "Croatia", which is easier for English-speakers to say.
Norway....Norge....(I prefer Norge...no need to have changed it in english)
That might upset the users of Nynorsk i Norway. Their name for Norway is Noreg. A subtle difference, but still important enough for the Nynorsk supporters
Norway has two official written languages: Bokmål (based on Danish) and Nynorsk (based on various Norwegian dialects).The latter is used by less than 12% on the inhabitants. Sami is an official written language on a local level (municipality) and has around 15k users.
A very glaring conflict is the English name for Germany. The German language cannot say "Germany -- they have no soft-G. G is always Hard, and J is like English Y. Until they have a lot practice, a German would say "Churr-many". Caesar called the region Germania, it surved as the name only of their language. Then nodern Germany was unified in the 1850s. Washington and Franklin never heard of Germany, most German speakers lived in Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria and other sovereign entities.
Again, language survives. German has held sway as a language for more than twice as long as any modern country.
I find it fascinating how in Finnish all their neighbors have different names due to historical reasons, but then all the other countries sound pretty typical.
Examples
Austria / Itävalta
Denmark / Tanska
Estonia / Viro Finland / Suomi
France / Ranska
Germany / Saksa
Russia / Venäjä
Sweden / Ruotsi
I believe that the word LAND is a Germanic word (like in English, German, Dutch and Swedish). But the Finnish language is not Germanic so it is not surprising that the name for Finland in Finnish would be different - Suonmi.
There aren't many countries with single-word names like "Canada". . Most are officially "Repubblica Italiana" or "Lao People's Democratic Republic". when translated from their language.
Another such is Japan, which is just Japan. I have never seen that name with any additional word. And the third is probably Romania, which is just Romania.
London is Londres in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician, and Filipino.
Hahaha, I didn't know this. I am using Duolingo to learn Spanish, and Maria vives en Londres has appeared in one of the exercises. I assumed it was a city in a Spanish-speaking country.
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