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vidarh • yesterday at 3:36 PM • 1 reply • view on HN

In Scandinavia or categorically always includes Denmark.

Only English speakers ignorant of the history of Scandinavia sometimes excludes it.

Tjere is no English language authority that has any business redefining what Scandinavia means at all. It's just insulting when English speakers believe they get to decide to redefine the names of regions that don't belong to them. It's rude.


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margalabargala • yesterday at 4:26 PM

> Tjere[sic] is no English language authority that has any business redefining what Scandinavia means at all.

Right, and none exists.

> In Scandinavia or categorically always includes Denmark.

> Only English speakers ignorant of the history of Scandinavia sometimes excludes it.

These two sentences are contradictory.

Maybe this is a translation error for you where what you mean when you say "Scandinavia" and what others mean when they say "Scandinavia" don't match up, and this upsets you?

Like I said above; what you're doing is tantamount to a German fighting to get English speakers to call their country "Deutschland". Who are we to redefine them as "Germany"? The difference here being that the English word in the "Scandinavia" case actually does have a slightly different meaning than your own native word, but this is upsetting to you because unlike with "Deutschland" it is pronounced the same.

"Scandinavia" is an English word as well despite its resemblance to words in your native tongue. Who are you to tell English speakers what their own language means?

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