The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1870-12-10
Foreign Names.

from Me CHIcugO 4FVHbS' r,r ..I
We should probably he not little sur.
prised to find, on taking up o Chinese,
Bengalese or Portuguese map, that the
foreign map.maker had persisted in de-
signaling the United States OF America Us
Columbia, or Virginia. or Nieuw Nedter-
landts, or KnickerbOCker, or VcreZzAnO,
or some other such name, because in the
fifteenth or sixteenth century, some early
navigator had given us that cognomen.
And yet the entire. system on which our
own maps of other nations arc constructed
must present an equally absurd anomaly
TO the people Of those nations.
Europe and America, for instance, en-
gage periodically in discussing the interests
Of the Turkish Empire. But there Is no
Turkey or Turkish Empire in existence,
so far rs the people who inhAbit It are
aware, The term "Cherokee Nation"
would apply to the United States nearly
as well as the term Turkey" applies TO
Demand TIldieti pronounced Os7a1Qg- Ice
Te.la.aet'ee) or the Osman Empire, some
times corrupted into the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman and Turcoman races are
not identical, and there seemsno other
reason than habit, inherited from our an.
cestors, why tho Osman Empire should be
known rs Turkey throughout Western
Europe. Its chief city We style Constan'
tinople, aGter mediaval custom, though
Its inhabitants know It Us Stamboul
Adjoining Turkey, We apply the Latin
term Austria to the empire Of OeSterTeich-
pronounced, nearly, OSter.rE&U. II we
should call the empire Of Francis Joseph
something between IN oySter-rake and
"yOu strike" We should not have hitit cX-
actly. but VIC should have come much
nearer tll0n we do. Its capital is q word
of one syllable, which we should pro:
nouncc lecn. We invent new word OF
three syllablcs, Vienna. The Germans
exercise the same usurpation over the
Empire Of "FranCe," which they Cesig-
nate Frank.reich, equivalent to Frank
kingdom. Right adjoining Austria Is
Deutschland pronounced Doitclt-Idnt,
10 which we, without the least sane
ton, apply IL name Germany, which we
inherit IRON the Latin Gel1nGnEa, though,
having lost its Latin pronunciation, It is
really, as pronounced by Englishmcn, q
new:conei word which never belonged to
any race or country. The French recog-
nize their present enemies by u name
which is neither DeutSch nor Latin, viz:
Allemagne, or descendants of the ancient
IillamaHi. Spain is to US word Of ono
syllable, while, in fact, It has three, while,
on the contrary, we make three syllables
(Switzerland) Of Sclttoeiz or Swiss. We
lake the Deutsch name Sweden for SeeTfge,
pronounced Sea 'dUe6'kd. We designate
Egypt by name to which tits stranger,
and to It's capital, Ell MaSr, We give the
name Cairo, u corruption Of the Arabic
title.
A mere mispronunciation Of foreign
names is an inevitable necessity. But we
fail to see why, in this age Of rapid inter
communication and travel, we should 'des'
ignate nations, races, towns, and every
subject of geographical knowledge by
names which either never applied TO them
at all, or which have long since ceased to
be borne by them 1t would be a COM
mendable enterprise If some Of our pub
fishers Of textbooks on geography should
at least inform their students Of the true
names Of the localities Of which they
treat as well as those which have obtain.
ed currency in foreign or English.speak'
ing countries. ~. .,.... ..,r.r-U