What's in a Name?

Travelers have become accustomed to place name changes, many of which occurred when colonialism gave wave to independence or when nations chose to reassert their language: What was formerly Peking is now Beijing. Canton is Guangzhou. Bombay is Mombai. Rhodesia is Zimbabwe. Burma, though few people travel there these days, is Myanmar. Even in our own country, our 50th state has been spelling place names more to reflect the indigenous Polynesian langugage. Hawaii is spelling itself Hawai'i.

If Sinan Aygün, of the Ankara Trade Chamber, has his way, Turkey will join the Places with Altered Names Club. saying “Turkey is the name of a bird in English and is used in a derogatory way to reflect the low intelligence of the bird. The argument for not using Türkiye instead of Turkey is the lack of the letter ‘ü' in English. However, Greece uses its own alphabet on posters. In all movies, posters and other documents, Türkiye needs to be used instead of Turkey.”

Elsewhere in Europe, such issues are no big deal, and people seem quite comfortable when their countries' names reflect the language of the user rather than the countries themselves. To Germans, France is Frankreich. To people who live in Italia, the city of canals in Venezia. To Germans, the country is Italien and the city is Venedig. To English-speakers, of course, they are Italy and Venice. The German-speaking countries of German and Austria are Deutschland and Österreich, and major city in Bayern (Bavaria to us) is München (Munich to us). The French call the countries Allemagne and Autriche, and I can't remember what it is in French. We say Spain, but Spaniards refer to their own country as España. We say Sweden, while the Swedes themselves say Sverige. The linguistically gifted Swiss, with four official languages call their country Die Schweiz in German, La Suisse in French, Svizzera in Italian and something else in Romansch, the language still spoken in the southeastern part of the country.

If you see a new country promoted as a travel destination, consider that it might be an old one with a new name.