why is it Czechia now ?

[SoundAndFury]

British guy: So what's the name of this city?
Russian guy: Moskva
British guy: What?
Russian guy: Moskva
British guy: Well Moscow it is!

Doesn't make sense

Well, if you truly want to get deeper into this, English "Moscow" is just taken straight from the German "Moskau". So the British guy isn't really much at fault here, he just wrote down what the German guy told him to. Who might just been told that by the Lithuanian guy who called the city itself Maskva (which is more or less same-sounding as in Russian) but the land around it Maskovija or Maskolija (Muscovy in modern English as Russia meant entirely different thing back then). So the German guy could have just gotten confused, assumed whole this means the same thing and just cut it to "Moskau". As in Lithuanian, Russian, Czech, etc. nouns have cases which makes the whole situation much more difficult to begin with as the endings of the same word differ all the time.

So, long story short, those situations are way more fluent than you make it seem. It's not like the king of England sent an official envoy to Moscow to write down how they want to have their name pronounced like you make it sound. And then told everyone to learn it the right way too.

 

[mazmin]

My vote would go to Bohemia as the new (old) name

 

[lamini]

My vote would go to Bohemia as the new (old) name

Bohemia (Cechy) is just part of the country, other parts are Moravia and Silesia (or that small part of it that is not in Poland). Czechia sounding similar to Cechy (czech name for Bohemia) is why it is refused by many people especially in Moravia. Bohemia would be even worse.

 

[llwyd]

Germany's name in different languages is interesting. Most of the other romance languages basically calls it some form of Alemania/Allemagne, after a Latin exonym for the tribes along the Rhine which was Allemania. But English and Italian took the latin name for one of those tribes, Germania, and refers to the nation as Germany/Germania.

Yep, in Finnish it's "Saksa" which comes from the Sachsen, another germanic tribe.

 

[Vancouver Canucks]

Czechs wanted to follow Slovakia. Czechia. Slovakia.

 

[llwyd]

In English it does seems bit weird and artificial - Czech Republic sounds much more impressive. And yeah, I get the point about logic, but Czech Republic could easily just be an exception to the rule that the form of government is rarely used when referring to a country. These things seldom are very exact but usage and tradition have brought various varieties. In Finnish "Tsekki" sounds bit blunt - Tsekinmaa (Czech Land) somewhat overly poetic and Tsekin Tasavalta (Czech Republic) would really sound weird.

 

[Fjorden]

TBH Czech republic sounds more legit. Czechia sounds like a fictional country you would hear about while watching Borat

In norwegian language we say Czechia but we spell it diffrent. (Tsjekkia)
So it will be almost the same as in norwegian language. Similar prononouncation

But we tend to use the local version without changing it into our own version. E.g we say Roma as the Italians do, not Rome, Moskva as the russians do not Moscow, København as the danes say, not Copenhagen. Praha as the czechs say, not Prague. Milano as the italians say, not Milan.

 

[Albatros]

Milano as the italians say, not Milan.

Milan is the local name though, that's why it's also AC Milan and not AC Milano.

 

[Fjorden]

Milan is the local name though, that's why it's also AC Milan and not AC Milano.

no, Milano is the italian version Not Milan

 

[mazmin]

Bohemia (Cechy) is just part of the country, other parts are Moravia and Silesia (or that small part of it that is not in Poland). Czechia sounding similar to Cechy (czech name for Bohemia) is why it is refused by many people especially in Moravia. Bohemia would be even worse.

Thanks for this. I wonder if there is any chance to please the majority?

 

[Albatros]

no, Milano is the italian version Not Milan

Locals traditionally speak the Milanese dialect of Lombard (Milan) rather than standard Italian though.

 

[Jungle Boy]

Just to make it worse. Here in Brazil (where we speak portuguese, not spanish) we call Stuttgart in Germany (Alemanha) like the germans do (its not a common word with All those consonants and only two vowels) in Portugal they call the city Estugarda. Once in a flight I had to compare two Maps to understand it.
There is also the Netherlands, here in Brazil we call them Holanda, in Portugal they say Países Baixos, when we down here use the therm Países Baixos we are talking about three countries (Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburgo) alltogether

 

[Nowotny]

TBH Czech republic sounds more legit. Czechia sounds like a fictional country you would hear about while watching Borat

I was born in Czechoslovakia (left in 1985) but Czechia sounds awful to me.Something like Canadia

 

[Esko6]

Yeah, but in English "Czech Republic" sounds cool while "Czechia" sounds f***ing stupid.

Why? There are places like Bohemia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Carpathia, Ruthenia around, why not Czechia? I love it, especially because in Finnish and Swedish and most european languages already use the short form.

 

[Paul4587]

None of the Czechs I know call their country Czechia, most of them call it the Czech Republic or just Czech.

 

[Future GOAT]

Czech Rep sounded way cooler!

 

[EK47]

Why not? It's better than going the other way around where we'd start using Swede Monarchy and Finn Republic.

How about Team The Totally Democratic Federation of Russia?

Honestly just calling it ”the democratic republic…” of what ever would cut it. Everytime a country stuffs the Word democratic into their official name, you know its not a democracy in any way shape or form.

 

[EK47]

Germany should just annex it anyways.

You mean West Poland?

 

[sr edler]

It's better than going the other way around where we'd start using Swede Monarchy and Finn Republic.

Sweden already means "Kingdom of the Swedes" or "Swedish Kingdom", so putting Monarchy there seems a bit abundant. It's like calling the United Kingdom "United Kingdom Monarchy". The Swedish name for it, Sverige, is a composite word for Svea Rike.

 

[Jukurit]

After win against USA should call it "CHADCHIA".

 

[Lolonegoal]

I'll probably never remember this and will continue to call them the Czech Republic.

Just like the Phoenix Coyotes

 

[sr edler]

Czech Republic is fine, even better though would be Czech Inc., like a corporation.

Czechia sounds too much like Chechnya, or like a fake country from a Tintin album.

 

[karhukissa]

I think it just reminds people of something eastern, communism and stuff like that. Romania, Bulgaria, Russia etc. which always doesn't give you the best picture when you think about them.

Czech sounds way better, just as Poland sounds better than Polandia. Even when Marvel had to come up with some imaginary dictatorship somewhere in Europe, they named it "Latveria".

 

[teravaineSAROS]

Sweden already means "Kingdom of the Swedes" or "Swedish Kingdom", so putting Monarchy there seems a bit abundant. It's like calling the United Kingdom "United Kingdom Monarchy". The Swedish name for it, Sverige, is a composite word for Svea Rike.

The Swedish version of the name means that, not the English one. The name Sweden (in English) is based on the Middle Dutch dative plural of Swede. Two different names, two different languages.

 

[Sideline]

I'm glad they changed their name. I used to make fun of my dad for still calling them Czechoslovakia, but now that I'm getting older kids will be able to make fun of me for calling them the Czech Republic.