Idle banter forum

The pronunciation of Chinese never changed. What changed was the system of romanizing Chinese.The spelling "Peking" is probably from the older Wade-Giles system which has been supplanted by pinyin.

The advantage to pinyin is that the spelling is closer to the actual pronounciation. While in the Wade-Giles system, only the those familiar with the system knew that Peking was pronounced more like Beijing.

It works both ways London is Londres to the French.the above writer is correct as far as languages which have to be transliterated.The one thing I refuse to do is call Saigon some stupid commie name which takes half hour to pronounce.We all do it-why because that's the way it is.My girl takes no offence when I call Moskva Moscow.BTW why do you Americans rhyme Moscow with cow as in the animal?

LOL.

Anyway, there are a lot of distinctions when it comes to name changes. The above are correct but there are several other reasons.

- english/roman names may change but for many local people the names remain the same in their own language. (China)
- after liberation from colonial/suppresive powers a country wants to emphasize this and go back to previous names as a statement (South Africa, India, Myanmar) and strength of own identity
- names just change. Some or most european cities names can be derived from latin because that's when the first names were given. Most have changed however to a more modern form. Some keep changing with the winners (Strasburg (german)/Strassbourg(french))
- language itself is fluid. Many cities or countries were spelled differently 100 years ago while they were exactly the same cities and pronounced the same.

'Have you seen the babushkas?'
Frightened me to death.

Is that true that Bangkok means village of plums?
I'd never heard that before; so Travelfish is certainly educational

I know Krung Tep is only a shortened form-you have that funny little squiggle underneath in Thai to denote this.Most Thais call it Krung Tep so it's strange farang call it Bangkok.
Why is Nakorn Ratchasima called Korat?
Why is Kuala Lumpar called KL? All Malaysian cities seem to have these abbreviations.

"Is that true that Bangkok means village of plums?"

It's one possible explanation for the origins of the name. There are a couple. Bangkok is not a direct translation of anything. What is known is that the name if much older than "Krung Thep" and, in a sense, much more Thai. But today when not talking to foreigners, Thais mostly refer to the city as Krung Thep. However, on the sides of at least some of the buses going to Mukdahan from Bangkok, they will read บางกอก which is Thai for Bangkok. But most buses do not use it. Not sure why some going to Muk do.

Mac
Have you installed the font on your computer?

This article fits perfectly in this thread

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9209343/Austrian-village-F-ing-to-vote-on-name-change.html