It is sometimes hard to decide. In French, Gérone for example, is traditional. So, the change from Gerona (Spanish) to Girona (catalan) makes no problem. In French, it remains Gérone. But I hesitate between Lérida and Lleida. Lérida is more likely to be recognized. Lleida is more respectful of the now official name.
That is partly what I meant. And even more when saying Barcelona or Milan in English is indeed closer to the real local name, what makes the attempt to show off even more embarrassing.
Yes, Budapest is a strange case. I think that one of the reasons for the phenomenon is that the spelling of the English and Hungarian versions is the same.
This reminds me of an incident when I was in college. My ancient history professor was from Germany and kept referring to Herodot (accent on the first syllable) one day in his lecture; it was on the Persians, as I recall. I kept thinking, "Gee, this HERodot said the same things about the Persians as HeRODotus did ..."
Yes, especially when the speaker has to suddenly alter all their normal vowels in order to pronounce the place name according to the language of the people whose place it is. Reporters on NPR (National Public Radio) in the US used to go right along merrily using their ordinary standard American accents until they got to something like Nicaragua, when suddenly the country name sounded as though it were badly dubbed in.
NPR reporters are the most likely people to say "live from Budapésht" or "reporting from historic Praha". Yesterday I heard a PBS anchor say "Kyiv" and Afghanistan and Pakistan pronounced "Ahfghahneestáahn", "Pahkeestáahn".
Especially because they pause and take a deep breath before they attack the word
If it's the name of a person, the US rule is "pronounce it the way the person pronounces it". Many English names (both first and last names) have multiple pronunciations with the same spelling. The same happens with foreign person names.
But, is it really possible no to anglicize them? Who can master the right phonetics for all the toponyms of the world? You may try to say Lisboa instead of Lisbon, but unless you know portugese (European portugese in that case), you will only read the letters as if they formed an English word. And since English orthography, anyway, is so misleading, you will be at risk of sounding more ridiculous than respectful.
Kind of relevant... Guyane Française does have French names for its towns and regions.... so I shouldn't have said South America.
If you mean only cities and towns, there are few : Mexico (Sp. : Ciudad de México), Cartagène (Sp. : Cartegena).
I'd rather say that what was over was the dual versions of any name, be it of a person, place, etc, in the local language and in Latin. Most translated exonyms were adapted from the Latin versions, which in many places used to be the most used in documents.
«Μεξικό» [me̞k͡s̠iˈko̞] (neut. declin.), «Γουατεμάλα» [ɣua̯te̞ˈmala] (fem. decl.), «Βενεζουέλα» [ve̞ne̞z̠uˈe̞la] (fem. declin.), «Κολομβία» [ko̞lo̞mˈvi.a] (fem. declin.), «Περού» [pe̞ˈɾu] (neut. indecl.), «Βραζιλία» [vraz̠iˈli.a] (fem. decl.), its capital is «Μπραζίλια» [braˈz̠ili.a] (fem. indecl.)
, «Αργεντινή» [arʝe̞ndiˈni] (fem. declin.), its capital is «Μπουένος Άιρες» [buˈe̞no̞s̠ ˈaɪɾe̞s̠] (neut. sinɡ. indecl.), «Χιλή» [çiˈli] (fem. declin.), its capital is «Σαντιάγο» [s̠antiˈaɣo̞] (neut. indecl.), and not the translation «Άγιος Ιάκωβος» [ˈaʝi.o̞s̠ iˈako̞vo̞s̠], «Βολιβία» [vo̞liˈvi.a] (fem. declin.), «Σουρινάμ» [suɾiˈnam] (neut. indecl.), (river) «Αμαζόνιος» [amaˈz̠o̞ni.o̞s̠] (masc. decl.), (reɡion) «Aμαζονία» [amaz̠o̞ˈni.a] (fem. declin.), «Παταγονία» [pataɣo̞ˈni.a] (fem. declin.), «Κόλπος των Αγίων Πάντων» [ˈko̞lpo̞s̠ ˌto̞naˈʝi.o̞n ˈpando̞n] (Baía de Todos-os-Santos), «Κάτω Καλιφόρνια» [ˈkato̞ kaliˈforni.a] (Baja California), «Ουρουγουάη» [uɾuɣuˈaɪ] (fem. decl.), the Uruɡuayan capital is «Μοντεβιδέο» [ˌmonte̞viˈðe̞.o̞] (neut. indecl.), while the Paraɡuayan one is «Ασουνσιόν» [as̠uns̠ˈço̞n] (fem. indecl.), used in Spanish and not translated to «Ανάληψη» [aˈnalip͡s̠i] (fem.) --> Assumption, and the country is «Παραγουάη» [paɾaɣuˈaɪ] (fem. decl.).
? There are many German words with intervocalic z, for instance Polizei.
They "escaped" it because these place names are less old.
Not exactly: Santiago du Chili may be considered a hybrid (dated, though).
(and whose name does not come from French according to Bonaire's History)In Swedish the names of the last two cities are the same as in their own languages (well, just a difference in spelling), Lissabon, Prag, Wien and Köpenhamn. When I lived in Göteborg, I was always unsure if I was to say/write Göteborg or Gothenburg when speaking/writing in English.
Are you sure? It should be lɨʒ'boɐ with a J sound as in English measure or French Jour, while in Budapest you have got a sh sound.
