like do english counties have a different name in portuguese? what is the smallest town another nation would bother to translate? if its all based on historical stuff would a new town created today be called the same worldwide?
any help appreciated. thanks.
Pretty sure they donât get translated?
Like - Londres is London in French, but Manchester is Manchester in French
This is a fascinating little rabbit hole to go down on a Sunday morning
In answer to your question, I think that a lot of it has to do with colonisation
I find it weird that some of these have âtranslationsâ. Like Napoli is no harder to say or understand than Naples. Itâs a place in Italy why wouldnât it sound a bit Italian?
Also find it funny when we pick and choose when go use the local pronunciation Vs the foreign pronunciation.
âWelcome to our coverage live from Paris as we watch Par-ee Saint GermainâŠâ
Think Ned Boulting mentioned that on Football Cliches.
Brits saying Bayern Munich is the weirdest one. Bavaria Munich or Bayern Munchen, be consistent.
And theyâre just called fc Bayern anyway
The most ridiculous Italian example is calling Livorno âLeghornâ
NeufchĂątel sur Tyne
Driving in Belgium is something else.
Very much the old vs modern that fashion, isnât it? I think older names seem lodged as the Anglicised while stuff that was adopted/learned more recently gets an attempt to keep the local pronunciation.
As ccb says I tjonk it will be colonisation. Previous generations of Middle Classes wanted to show their superiority by covering up foreigners but now they want to look cultured.
I have a case of the 2016 vintage in my cellar 
It also seems to be selective when the native naming is used and when the anglicised one is. For example, it wasnât until long after I moved to Nijmegen that I learned that in English itâs called Nymegen (from a British bank statement, no less), but I have never once seen it referred to by that spelling in any English media.
Because of the poorly maintained roads?
See also âInter Milanâ
Seems like every town has a French and a Flemish name. You can be driving along looking for signs to a specific city but it might be displayed in the other language and throw you off.
Most of these are surely just mis-pronunciations of the local names that have been around so long that they have become the customary way of referring to places in English.
You can see how Livorno>Legorno>Leghorn, especially amongst generations of people whoâd not seen it written down. The naming/spelling of places even in England was pretty fluid if you go back a few hundred years.
Itâs less likely to happen with places that the English speaking world has come into regular contact with more recently.
Some weird ones for countries. Weird that we call Denmark that when they call it Danmark, and we do call the Danish people Danes.
See also Cruijff vs Cruyff and Feijenoord vs Feyenoord.
Itâs because the British donât understand the difference between âijâ and âyâ in the Dutch language. Wait until they find out about âeiâ, itâll blow their mind.
