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graemeptoday at 12:03 PM3 repliesview on HN

Lots of countries change the names of things, even countries themselves.. Bombay to Mumbai, Ceylon to Sri Lanka, Turkey to Türkiye etc. Yes, some of those are specific to a name in a particular language and all have precedents rather than being entirely new. However, it is a precedent for governments deciding the names of things.

This, as its just made up, reminds me a lot of political/nationalist renaming of things like roads which is very common in parts of South Asia.


Replies

Gormotoday at 12:29 PM

Attempts by political states to attempt to nationalize the vernacular should be ignored and rejected in all cases.

The examples you're citing are less ridiculous than these recent stunts, but still should be considered in terms of their intentions and effects.

What's the motivation for trying to detatch the name of something from its existing understanding and historical context?

Why should the attempts to "rebrand" an entire country or geographical feature made by a government -- a particular instituion within society, usually under the control of one narrow faction in opposition to others -- be respected by the whole of society within that country, let alone by people in foreign countries speaking their own language?

Why should, for example, the Turkish government -- which operates in the Turkish language, where "Türkiye" already was the standard name of their country -- be respected in its attempt to get English speakers to write the country's name in orthography that is not readily pronounceable by English speakers and using characters that aren't even typically on our keyboards?

butokaitoday at 12:17 PM

I feel like instances of this kind of decision (also from your examples) fall into two groups: replacing names from colonization with local names, and... Second group name left as an exercise to the reader.

kijashdkujdfhastoday at 12:10 PM

Worse than made up, it's the sort of thing an angry 6 year old would come up with.

Totally unserious behavior, and it's ridiculous that Americans and the rest of the world have to put up with this nonsense.

A small number of Republican representatives and senators could end it all today by publicly supporting impeachment.