[Talk-GB] City names translation

[Philip Barnes]

On Mon, 2014-08-11 at 06:55 +0200, Marc Gemis wrote:
> Can I apply this reasoning to English names for Belgian towns as
> well ?
> Where can I verify that the English name for Antwerpen is
> Antwerp ? What is the source of this data? Under which license was
> that made available ?
> How can someone who's local to Antwerp actually verify that the name
> that you've added is correct?
> 
I must admit I agree with you, we know because we know. Although I guess
thats expected as Belgium and the UK are neighbours with a history of
travelling between the countries. 

There are too many translated names, many European cities have English
names I was not aware of. I tripped over reading a news article today
which mentioned Wuerzberg, it took a few seconds to work out it was
referring to Würzburg. If I was writing that article it wouldn't have
occurred to me to look up an English spelling. Wuerzberg, may be closer
to to the pronunciation, not sure, I can cope with umlauts.

Modified spelling do not help however, most people are far more likely
to encounter the word Würzburg on a motorway sign or a railway departure
board than are likely to want to say it, its far easier to gloss over
the umlaut than have a strange spelling that doesn't appear on the
signposts.

Although the Belgians did confuse me once, driving through Belgium
towards Lille, the signs suddenly changed to Rijsel for no apparent
reason.

Phil (trigpoint)