Why do we have our own words to name countries

[EvianBaby]

I may end up feeling really dumb for asking this but why do we have our own spellings and pronounciation for other countries? Why don't we just call them what they call themselves?

For example, we say Sweden whereas the Swedish call it Sverige. Why don't we also call it Sverige?

[pips1]

Do you know what? I have asked myself this many times, it seems weird!

[Frank97]

Is it to do with British Imperialism when we went round naming places irrespective of what the locals called them?
Thinking about it probably not in every case though as the Sweden doesn't fit with that idea.

[Frank97]

Sweden example

[ichkeria]

It's probably for the same reason that we don't use, say, the Swedish word for "fish". When it comes down to it, they are foreign words for which we have our own equivalents. Many countries are ancient, and we have therefore developed our own names for them over time for a variety of reasons.

[EvianBaby]

Having spent the last 10 minutes trying to pronounce Sverige wiithout sounding like I have some sort of speech impedement, maybe that explains why.

We don't do it with names though, or do we? If someone is called Johan, we call them Johan. We don't make up something else that suits us better. Or maybe we do.

[bednobs]

i think we do - i have a german friend called karoline
i proniunce it karoleena, cause that's the closest i can get to how you actually gemanically pronounce it which involves half a pint of flem, that i'm justnot up to producing!

[ichkeria]

"We don't do it with names though, or do we? If someone is called Johan, we call them Johan. We don't make up something else that suits us better. Or maybe we do. "

Well, we do sort of. Johann after all is John, in English, But that's a matter of convenience. If you call someone by a different name they are not likely to respond :-)

[scotman]

As well as all the above it may have something to do with the differences in language construction and pronunciation etc. Things like the umlaut, grave and acute accents etc which do not exist in English. Also the way double consonants are said in Italian is different to English. There are many other examples of this.

[plautus]

There has bee some attempt to imitate local pronunciation. For example Peking is now called Beijing and Bombay Mumbai. Other languages have their own local pronunciation for names: in French London is Londres and Dover is Douvres. Whilst people may understand the Welsh names Llundain, Bryste and Lerpwl, they might struggle with Rhydefen, Manceinion, Caegrawnt, Y Trallwng, Kernyw &c.

[Calibax]

Some nations have multiple names for their own country.
Belgium for example is known as Belgie, Belgique or Belgien depending if you are a Flemish, French or German speaker.

[EvianBaby]

Hhhhmm, so it would appear the answer is simply, because we do :o)

[Carakeel]

I tend to agree with you, it is a bit strange. I would think that the reason is that some of the names are unpronounceable, which is probably why we have our own names for these countries.

[boxtops]

why do we have our own regional words for food and drink? When I first went to live in Scotland, I got very confused between bacon and gammon and ham, and all the different names for bread rolls.

[heathfield]

Some years ago the BBC tried to adopt a policy of using other countries own place-names instead of the anglicised versions. This wasn't 100% successful - e.g., they still refer to München as Munich.

[Quizmonster]

In Old English, what is now Sweden was called Sweoland. The 'd' and 'n' elements first appeared in Scotland in the 16th century, when it was referred to adjectivally as Swadene. A century later, with some spelling simplification, it had taken on the form we now use, Sweden.
Put simply, the names of countries have been subject to the same kind of modification as other words over the centuries.

[Brinjal]

Other lanugauges do the same tho. Inglaterra is spanish for England and so on.

[Ann]

If we did we wouldn't have half as much fun listening to them pronouncing our country's name on the Eurovision Song Contest WHY-OH-MINNIE !!

[plautus]

It took me a moment or two tow work out that you M0eant Royaume Uni.

[swedeheart]

Hi EvianBaby if you're still there, I understand you're not asking about 'Sweden' in particular but merely using it as an example. But this may still interest you: The way we say it over here - Sverige - is a contraction of 'Svea rike', meaning 'Realm of the Swedes' or 'Region of the Swedes'. The Swedes were a North Germanic tribe in Scandinavia. Their power was to grow but originally they didn't inhabit all the land that is now known as Sverige, just this small part in dark green here http://en.wikipedia.o...ndsdelar_Svealand.svg which was called Svealand - land of the Swedes. My point: Note how similar that is to Quizmonster's Old Norse 'Sweoland', hardly any distortion at all!

Now, to help you untangle your tongue, lol, say after me: Konungariket Sverige, Konungariket Sverige... http://upload.wikimed...ungariket_Sverige.ogg ('Konungariket' means 'The Kingdom of'.) There now, wasn't all that difficult was it! ;)

[jno]

"For example Peking is now called Beijing"

You're talking about Peiping?

We have a capacious language that has words for many things, including the names of a lot of other countries. Given that your average medieval peasant never went to Rome, he wouldn't have had the slightest reason to call it Roma. And even though I have been to Bangkok I'm not going to call it Krung Thep Maha Nakhon.