Posted on 08/02/2016 11:45:06 PM PDT by HarborSentry
There is no Guantánamo Bay.
That's right. In English, the name is "Guantanamo Bay." There is no accent in the English spelling.
It's not "Guantánamo Bay" in Spanish either. They call it "Bahía de Guantánamo."
But we're usually not even talking about Guantanamo Bay itself. Most of the time, we're talking about Guantanamo Bay Naval Base or the detention center. Being American facilities, neither of them have accents in their names.
Do we do this for Deutschland or München? No, we call those Germany and Munich. We do this even though just about anybody dealing with Germany knows that they call it Deutschland.
Admittedly, this is a small thing. But I have to admit I find it funny.
First, most Americans are monolingual. Using an accented character allows people to feel pretendo multilingüismo. It's like saying "internationale" when you really just mean "international." (Yes, people actually do that.)
And second, let's face it: Guantanamo is a hot-button issue that progressives like to claim they care about. Calling it by a half-Spanish name must appeal to their "¡No pasarán!" spirit of Résistance.
This is the kind of stuff you get when people learn Orwell from Stalinists.
Language IS culture.
Control language and you control the culture.
This thread discusses the highjacking of our culture.
So yeah, keep your ancestor’s’ umlauts, but be cognizant of the attack on our culture that this represents!
English nations call it Germany. Germanic nations call it Deutschland or Duitsland. The French call it Allemagne. Spain Alemania. Italy calls it Germania. Scandinavians call it Tyskland. Poland calls it Niemcy.
Exactly.
And we call Guantanamo “Guantanamo.”
>> Il y ont bien des gens américains qui ont fait l’effort d’apprendre une autre langue <<
Not so many, in my acquaintance. I would say the number in percentage terms is tres peu.
And by the way, have you ever been to New Orleans? The way the local “Yat” speakers Anglicize the city’s French and Spanish street names might have you rolling on the ground with uncontrollable laughter!
(On the other hand, I think the funniest street name in N.O. has gotta be Elysian Fields. Pretty hard to beat that one for a butchering of French!)
>> Poland calls it Niemcy <<
FWIW, the Chinese characters used officially for Germany can be roughly translated as “Virtuous Country” — while Chinese call the USA the “Beautiful Country” and Russia the “Hungry Country.”
Obviously there’s a certain logic in the latter two, but maybe not in the former!
Anyone who doesn’t like it can turn around and get...
I’ve been to New Orleans four times now. And I’ve been to Orléans, as well.
Actually, I love New Orleans. It has a rather European flavor to it.
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