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Volume 36Why do we have different names for foreign cities other than what the country itself calls it?
Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage
Elizabeth Nobles asks Why do we have different names for foreign cities other than what the country itself calls it? For example: Rome/Roma or Moscow/Moskva. Like, why did English speakers meet people from a foreign city called Firenze… and say, “Nah, Imma tell people your from Florence”
This is a very good question, and there is no simple answer. It doesn’t apply to every city. Berlin is just Berlin, but Pari-ee is Paris, Roma is Rome, and Muscova is Moscow.
It’s really just a function of tradition and history.
This isn’t just a thing in English. Other countries do the exact same thing with cities in English-speaking countries. In Spanish, New York and London is Nueva York and Londres, but Milwaukee is just Milwaukee.
There is no simple or universal answer I can give you because the etymology of each city will be different.
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