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It used to be that one would just translate a proper name that was in another language into English when referring to that entity. For example, William the Conqueror, Christopher Columbus, King Philip II of Spain, King John of Portugal, the city of Munich, Vatican City, or the Ivory Coast. Or just look at Pope Francis, who goes by a different name in every country.

But the current king of Spain is not John Charles, and his heir is not Philip. In the English press, he’s Juan Carlos and his heir is Felipe.

Similarly, the country of the Ivory Coast is now insisting that it be called “the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire” in English.

So when did we stop translating proper nouns into English? Is this some part of political correctness or is it a change in diplomatic protocol? How is one to know whether to translate a proper noun into something recognizable in English, or to leave it in the original?

tchrist
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    I think it is a combination of snobbery and political correctness, so you can imagine I am often torn... And we have the same issue in Dutch. But I always say Peking and Nangking and Canton and Bombay and Madras, and Londen and Parijs. Oddly, cities in Western countries seem to withstand the tide, for now. Note also that historians commonly keep using the translated names for monarchs, so always John of Spain, never Juan. Dutch say Jacobus of England, not James. It's tradition. NB Sadly, a new disease has broken out in Holland: using English translitterations of exotic names... shudders – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Dec 23 '13 at 02:31
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    The change started in 1989, with the passing of UN resolution 2173 supporting the self-nomination of all countries, all countries get to name themselves. If you remember it was a consequence of glasnost and the fall of the Berlin Wall. – Mitch Dec 23 '13 at 02:33
  • @Cerberus it doesn't help to have a common alphabet. It's much easier to get the idea that Parijs must somehow be changed into Paris than that Париж ("Parizh") should be a Парис. – RegDwigнt Dec 23 '13 at 02:37
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    tch., there is also Leghorn, which is a city on the western coast of Tuscany, whose real name is Livorno and it is not a chicken - i.e., gallus gallus domesticus. – Elberich Schneider Dec 23 '13 at 02:38
  • @RegDwigt: Uhh I'm not sure I understand what you are saying... – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Dec 23 '13 at 03:09
  • I am not at all sure the question of personal names ran parallel to/ owed itself to the same factors as the change in place names. – Kris Dec 23 '13 at 07:08
  • @Cerberus, I presume that by ‘Nangking’ you are referring to the place in Burma (sorry, I mean Myanmar)? Because the similar-sounding city in China has always been Nanking. If the Dutch, for some obscure reason, decided to change that to Nangking, they are quite in the wrong—effectively renaming ‘The Southern Capital’ to ‘The Capital of Stuffy Noses’! – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 29 '14 at 12:35
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    @JanusBahsJacquet: Oh haha, oops! I meant Nanking. I can never remember how to spell it and Bangkok. And many a Chinese restaurant cannot either, I believe... – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jan 29 '14 at 16:30
  • On 1939-06-24 Siam proclaimed that its English name was to be Thailand. I remember reading somewhere that a British man complained at the time, "We don't tell the Siamese how to say the name of our country." On 1986-01-01 Côte d'Ivoire declared that the only correct form of its name in any language was the French one. Just last year Cape Verde asked the U.N. to call it Cabo Verde in every language. – Gwillim Law Feb 13 '14 at 19:44
  • The English Navy used to reserve the right to rename anything that got splashed by an ocean wave. – Oldcat Feb 13 '14 at 23:01
  • @tchrist I dispute that there's been any change. Name translation, at least in English, is as inconsistent and culturally arrogant as it's ever been. Anybody (or any country) can of course call themselves what they like, and others will call them what they will. – quadruplebucky Feb 21 '14 at 00:09
  • The examples of Juan Carlos for John Charles and the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire for Ivory Coast seem quite different to me. The first, as far as I know, is not caused by a request from the King of Spain or anyone else that he not be given an anglicized name, while the second is specifically caused by just such a request from the government of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. – H Stephen Straight Feb 25 '14 at 19:42
  • Peking versus Beijing is sort of a special case, as both of them are faithful attempts to transliterate and unpronounceable Chinese name into English. Peking is just an older attempt (which reflects a slightly different historical pronunciation and a slightly different transliteration scheme). – Bradd Szonye Mar 26 '14 at 05:25
  • Also, I wonder whether and how this is connected to past practices of translating names into academic and diplomatic lingua francas like (uh) French and Latin? – Bradd Szonye Mar 26 '14 at 05:30
  • Also also, there's one kind of proper name we still seem to translate consistently: Franciscus, Benedictus, Ioannes Paulus (Jan Paweł). – Bradd Szonye Mar 26 '14 at 05:39
  • @BraddSzonye Your comment about Beijing is not quite right. Beijing is transliterated from Chinese using the pinyin system, and this system is the only transliteration scheme to have been officially adopted (and also designed) by a ruling Chinese government ever. Using Peking is against the self-nomination principle. – user71815 May 03 '14 at 20:53
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    @user71815 Pinyin is currently the official transliteration used by mainland China, but the Qing dynasty officially endorsed the postal map romanization, where Beijing is spelled Peking. Some portions of China still prefer the latter, and historically the people of Beijing/Peking endorsed it too. – Bradd Szonye May 03 '14 at 21:09

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Perhaps I'm deluding myself, but I like to believe that retention of (something closer to) the forms of proper names in their language of origin results from a reduction in linguocentrism and an increase in interest in (and respect for) the world's linguistic diversity.

We can see this warming to other languages even in the way Chancellor Merkel's name is pronounced by English speakers: Angela is a perfectly ordinary name in English, but we call Ms. Merkel AHNG-guh-luh, not ANN-juh-luh. Can you imagine anyone referring to President Francois Hollande as Francis Holland? That would sound as strange as calling Giuseppe Verdi Joseph Green.

Another sort of example of this sort of reduction in ethnocentrism and rise in cosmopolitanism has arisen recently in some international athletic events where contestants, e.g. Chinese, who customarily put their surname first rather than last are designated with their names in this order both in speech and writing. Sometimes this difference is cued in writing by the use of capital letters for surnames, so that the Chinese tennis champion is called LI Na. In an earlier era the placement of her surname would have been westernized to Na Li.

H Stephen Straight
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Starting at the time of Charlemangne?

Oldcat
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