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why is it Czechia now ?

Number 57 said:
The REAL problem is why do we have different names in English then the real name.

Classic exemple for this is Russians call it ''Moskva'' but in English it's Moscow?? Like who's the def british explorer who got this wrong

And Spain instead of Espagna?????? Can't English people pronounce these words? They're really not that hard to learn
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ya, good point.

not only English who do this, though.

I watch 6 nations rugby in French

Scotland is Ecosse

Wales is Les Pays Du Gauls (which i think is really cool and gives a bit of a French view of history)
 
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Dingo said:
ya, good point.

not only English who do this, though.

I watch 6 nations rugby in French

Scotland is Ecosse

Wales is Les Pays Du Gauls (which i think is really cool and gives a bit of a French view of history)
Click to expand...

I'm French and yes you're right, we do it too. No idea why. I'm guessing most languages have their own version of other countries' name which is just stupid, especially if they're easy enough to pronounce.

Wales = Le Pays de Galles. How the HELL did that even happen. (edit so apparently old French people would sometimes pronounce the 'W' as a hard 'G' which gave them Gales from Wales)
 
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Number 57 said:
I'm French and yes you're right, we do it too. No idea why. I'm guessing most languages have their own version of other countries' name which is just stupid, especially if they're easy enough to pronounce.

Wales = Les Pays de Galles. How the HELL did that even happen
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id like to know more about that name, too.
For me, in my reading, Ive before felt like the Gauls were pushed out, bred out or murdered out of most places. Scotland and Ireland get a lot of celtic clout, but they are very Norse as well, and were Scots and Picts rather than Britons, so different tribe. Brittany in France and Asturias in Spain are rather Gaulish (i think) pockets that survived, and i think Wales is the biggest survivor.

But i could be totally wrong, and maybe Galles isnt even Gauls? I do think the name is really, really interesting though, as France was the heart of the Gallic Kingdoms originall.

I agree with your overall point - it isnt a lot to ask everyone to learn ONE WORD in each other language!
 
This isn't something new. "Czechia" has been used for a long time now. I never thought I'd give in, but eventually I did. It's just a matter or perception and what people are used to. Unless I'm mistaken, Slovakia's official name is the Slovak Republic, but no one ever uses that either.
 
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Number 57 said:
I'm French and yes you're right, we do it too. No idea why. I'm guessing most languages have their own version of other countries' name which is just stupid, especially if they're easy enough to pronounce.

Wales = Le Pays de Galles. How the HELL did that even happen. (edit so apparently old French people would sometimes pronounce the 'W' as a hard 'G' which gave them Gales from Wales)
Click to expand...
Dingo said:
id like to know more about that name, too.
For me, in my reading, Ive before felt like the Gauls were pushed out, bred out or murdered out of most places. Scotland and Ireland get a lot of celtic clout, but they are very Norse as well, and were Scots and Picts rather than Britons, so different tribe. Brittany in France and Asturias in Spain are rather Gaulish (i think) pockets that survived, and i think Wales is the biggest survivor.

But i could be totally wrong, and maybe Galles isnt even Gauls? I do think the name is really, really interesting though, as France was the heart of the Gallic Kingdoms originall.

I agree with your overall point - it isnt a lot to ask everyone to learn ONE WORD in each other language!
Click to expand...
It comes from the same root word as Walloon (the French half of Belgium) and Cornwall, which all in some way mean a place where Celts lived.

French also takes a lot of words that English uses W and transliterates as G or Gu- since French almost never uses the letter W outside of loanwords from other languages. Wafer being Gaufrette, Waffle being Gaufre, William becoming Guillaume, War becoming Guerre, etc. And because French in turn came to heavily influence the English language when the Plantagenets were kings of England and ran the court in Norman French, you often find English having two sets of words that mean nearly the same thing with the G one being more high register/formal and the W one being more low register/colloquial. Guarantee/Warranty, Guard/Ward, Guardian/Warden, Guile/Wile, etc.
 
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I prefer using the name Czechia because it puts the emphasis on the nation and not on the form of government. The Czechs are a people and a nation and have been as such under empires, monarchies, nazi protectorates, socialist states, and republics both with and without their Slovak brothers over the last 300 years. And as much as post-Cold War "End of History" triumphalism tries to convince itself that the liberal democratic republic is the culmination of all governmental systems, history shows that it really isn't. So putting emphasis on the Czechs and not on the Republic is a better representation of the nation to the world anyway.
 
Number 57 said:
The REAL problem is why do we have different names in English then the real name.

Classic exemple for this is Russians call it ''Moskva'' but in English it's Moscow?? Like who's the def british explorer who got this wrong

And Spain instead of Espagna?????? Can't English people pronounce these words? They're really not that hard to learn
Click to expand...
Nothing new. Russians pronounce Canada like (kah-nah-dah). It threw me off the first time I heard it. I get why countries tend to make pronunciation easier for their native tongue. Obviously this isn't a great example, since it sounds similar enough to our pronunciation.
 
Number 57 said:
The REAL problem is why do we have different names in English then the real name.

Classic exemple for this is Russians call it ''Moskva'' but in English it's Moscow?? Like who's the def british explorer who got this wrong

And Spain instead of Espagna?????? Can't English people pronounce these words? They're really not that hard to learn
Click to expand...
This is pretty far detached from reality.

3 biggest cities in my country are Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda and I give 90% chance you wouldn't come close to pronouncing either one of those correctly, not to mention all of them. There is indeed a whole lot of words English people cannot pronounce and it is very hard to learn without putting in significant effort.

I'm actually fairly certain you don't know how to pronounce "Moskva" correctly either since the whole a/o thingie.
 
Dingo said:
id like to know more about that name, too.
For me, in my reading, Ive before felt like the Gauls were pushed out, bred out or murdered out of most places. Scotland and Ireland get a lot of celtic clout, but they are very Norse as well, and were Scots and Picts rather than Britons, so different tribe. Brittany in France and Asturias in Spain are rather Gaulish (i think) pockets that survived, and i think Wales is the biggest survivor.

But i could be totally wrong, and maybe Galles isnt even Gauls? I do think the name is really, really interesting though, as France was the heart of the Gallic Kingdoms originall.

I agree with your overall point - it isnt a lot to ask everyone to learn ONE WORD in each other language!
Click to expand...
Yeah gaulois is something different, in the same way some people in England might refer to themselves as Anglo-Saxon I think is the best comparison, we even have a AAA team in Québec called gaulois. Overall I’m flexible with names but prefer the least-anglicized version possible
 
Number 57 said:
The REAL problem is why do we have different names in English then the real name.

Classic exemple for this is Russians call it ''Moskva'' but in English it's Moscow?? Like who's the def british explorer who got this wrong

And Spain instead of Espagna?????? Can't English people pronounce these words? They're really not that hard to learn
Click to expand...

This isn't a phenomenon specific to English, it happens across languages for a variety of linguistic, historic, and other reasons. For example, London in Spanish is Londres and England is Inglaterra. It's also Londres in French, but with a very different pronunciation, while England is Angleterre.

Edit: Wait, you're French? Come on now, man. You have infinite examples of this in your own native tongue. :laugh:
 
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Number 57 said:
The REAL problem is why do we have different names in English then the real name.

Classic exemple for this is Russians call it ''Moskva'' but in English it's Moscow?? Like who's the def british explorer who got this wrong

And Spain instead of Espagna?????? Can't English people pronounce these words? They're really not that hard to learn
Click to expand...

Wait til you hear how "Japan" came to be. :laugh:
 
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Number 57 said:
It was always Czech Republic then all of a sudden you open the TV to watch a fricking hockey tournament and everyone's saying 'Czechia' as if that's what's it's always been without acknowledging the change??? Like what the hell
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It started at the winter tournament before it was paused and it was widely reported on and explained constantly by the announcers.
 
majormajor said:
I don't mind the sound of Czechia, I think we'll get used to it easily.

If it started that way and folks suggested calling it "Czech Republic" it would be weirder, because every other country has an English language noun form. It would be like saying "Pole Republic" instead of Poland.
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Though the official name is Rzeczpospolita Polska which means as much as Polish Republic. Furthermore, the word Rzeczpospolita is only used in reference to the Polish state and not any other so it can be used independently as well.
 
McGarnagle said:
I prefer using the name Czechia because it puts the emphasis on the nation and not on the form of government. The Czechs are a people and a nation and have been as such under empires, monarchies, nazi protectorates, socialist states, and republics both with and without their Slovak brothers over the last 300 years. And as much as post-Cold War "End of History" triumphalism tries to convince itself that the liberal democratic republic is the culmination of all governmental systems, history shows that it really isn't. So putting emphasis on the Czechs and not on the Republic is a better representation of the nation to the world anyway.
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Orban has entered the chat.
 
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