Why are some names of cities and regions translated in other languages and others not?
I live in Belgium, some examples: Ghent is actually Gent in Dutch, Antwerp is Antwerpen. More significant translations in Dutch<>French: Tienen (city in Flanders) is Tirlemont in French (!?), Leuven Louvain in French. And my hometown Genk, doesn't have a translation.. Quid?
Languages - 8 Answers
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1 :
that how it is!
2 :
i don tknow but iknow germany is alemania in spanish
3 :
a lot of our words come from several OTHER languages. That is why its so difficult for other people to learn english. Well the word that is "english" may have been taken from another language therefore its technically already translated.
4 :
yes, i wonder the same thing. there should be an international law forbidding the change of original names. except for german names :-)
5 :
Because the carrots are fluffier over there
6 :
My guess is that it has to do with how long the place has been talked about in other languages. "Eventually" if it's been talked about enough, it'll get its own name. So for example, London UK is Londres in French, but London Canada *a rather newer place) is called "London" in French. In Switzerland (Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera) there are some places with a that have very different names, some clearly translated (Neuchatel=Neuenberg (means New Castle, called Neuchatel in English)) some just other-language-asized (Genève=Genf), some more or less similar (Morat=Murten, Bienne=Biel, Sierre=Siders, Granges=Grenchen) and a few completely different (Disentis (German, and also French and English)=Muster (Romansch).
7 :
These are not "translations" but the names of the various places in the various languages. It just so happens that sometimes the name is the same in more than one language and sometimes it is not.
8 :
Its because those areas are either really important to the country and the cultural divide or because they have a significant population of both French and Flemish cultures. Genk perhaps doesn't have a translation because it has only or a very high population of one of these cultures. Hope i helped!
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