http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4540214Oh my.
Lex (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-26-08 02:57 PM
Original message
Mumbai is formerly "Bombay" India.
Just an FYI if you are watching the attack that took place there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai
Parche (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-26-08 02:58 PM
Response to Original message
1. Bombay
I will never call it mumbai, that is stupid
Same here.
ContinentalOp (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-26-08 03:00 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. LOL, do you still call Beijing "Peking" too?
franksolich does.
question everything (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-26-08 03:05 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. And Zimbabwe Rhodesia?
Sure.
ContinentalOp (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-26-08 03:10 PM
Response to Reply #4
9. That's at least an actual name change though.
This is just a slightly different transliteration. Really just a slight change in pronunciation.
Dorian Gray (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-26-08 06:37 PM
Response to Reply #24
35. It sounds more like Peking in Cantonese, which is what Hong Kongers (part of the British empire) speak.
That could be part of the transliteration. Mandarin has a completely different sound, much closer to Beijing to our ears.
ContinentalOp (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-26-08 03:08 PM
Response to Reply #3
8. But that's not what they did at all. It was always called Mumbai.
It's just a different Anglicization. Just like the Peking->Beijing switch.
lindbergh (61 posts) Wed Nov-26-08 05:42 PM
Response to Reply #10
30. So what's Rangoon's excuse?
varun (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-26-08 06:43 PM
Response to Reply #30
36. Rangoon is now Yangon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangon
Yangon ( MLCTS: rankun mrui., pronounced ; also known as Rangoon) is the largest city and a former capital of Burma.
Calcutta is now Kolkata
Madras is now Chennai
Bangalore is Bengaluru
Warpy (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-26-08 03:13 PM
Response to Reply #1
12. It's Constantinople! Constantinople, I say!
See how silly you sound?
Honestly, call people what they tell you they want to be called. The citizens there say the British were mushmouthed and their city was always Mumbai.
I say they oughta know.
Hmmm. The morose primitive, who announced in the morning that he was leaving Skins's island because it's not homophiliac, and then announced in late afternoon of the same day, "after sleeping on it all night," that he was staying:
Zhade (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-26-08 07:46 PM
Response to Reply #1
44. How quaintly xenophobic of you.
Your arrogance is almost cute.
Commie Pinko Dirtbag (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-26-08 08:08 PM
Response to Reply #44
47. Let me play devil's advocate a little.
Has any Japanese ever demanded that we call their country "Nippon?" Or a German urged you to say "Deutschland?" Are you annoyed when somebody who's speaking Spanish says "Nueva" York? Conversely, when I'm writing in English, I call my country "BraZil," because that's how it's spelled in English.
Odin2005 (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-26-08 03:25 PM
Response to Original message
20. I don't get the insistance of calling the city Mumbai.
IIRC "Mumbai" is just "Bombay" in the pronunciation system (phonology) of the local language. It's like insisting we say "Roma" and "Moscova" and "Praha" for Rome and Moscow and Prague just because that's the native name of the city.
XOKCowboy (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-26-08 03:34 PM
Response to Reply #20
23. Florence will always be Firenze after I went there...
My friend and I had a conversation about why we call it Florence when it's name is Firenze. Same with Venezia, Milano and as you pointed out Roma. I have no problem using the natives pronunciation if that's what they wish.
PassingFair (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-26-08 04:22 PM
Response to Reply #23
26. In India, they pronounce it both ways...
so no one should get their knickers in a twist over this...
franksolich has noticed people of Vietnamese derivation, even if second-generation American, refer to Saigon as Saigon, and so franksolich always uses Saigon rather than the really stupid Ho Chi Minh City.
I dunno.
I think once a thing or a place is named, that should be its name forever.
In my own lifetime, which is but a micro-second in the lifetime of Ireland, the name of their capital has been changed four times, but always gets changed back to Dublin.
Once something or some place is named, it should be engraved in granite.
