• shalafi@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I’m annoyed by the inverse. I speak English, why shouldn’t I use English words? I use English words for everything else in life. Does every other country say “United States of America”?

    “Because that’s what I call it and so should every other language!”

    See how that sounds?

    • spongebue@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      And honestly, some of them do just translate (more or less). Like España vs Spain, pretty much any Spanish word that starts with es(consonant) drops the leading e when translated to English (estado, estudiante, and escuela for state, student, and school). We also don’t have the same o/a suffices. So that leaves spañ, except I don’t think any Spanish word ends with ñ (it makes a “ny” sound to bridge with the next letter, for those who don’t know) and Spain comes pretty darn close.

      Not too mention that pronunciations and even alphabets are bound to change. Just how much do you want to stay authentic? Because if I start talking about عُمان (Google says that means Oman in Arabic, and looks about right from what I remember seeing on license plates there) I’m going to lose a lot of people.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Asked my half-Japanese wife how to say “Japan” in Japanese. First she said “Japan”, then “Nippon” pronounced “Nihon” (silent P), then “Nippongo” (silent P), or something I can’t type exactly. She also wrote down “Wakarami” with a note “I don’t know”. She was born and bred in the Philippines, so there’s that twist.

        Now I’m totally confused, fuck it, Japan it is.

        So yeah, how authentic do you want to be?! Bitching about such things is a sign I can’t take one seriously.

        I’m not insensitive. Lady at Lowe’s saw my Ukraine patch and said, “Slava Ukraini!” I said it back, but came on here to ask for proper pronunciation.

        And Turkey is fucking Turkey. Fuck the haters.