Names of places
Often, the names of places in other countries
remain the same in our own language or are recognisable
beyond doubt (Londen/Londres = London). Nevertheless,
we can still be caught out by the translations
of place names and other such phenomena in texts
written in other languages, or be unsure as
to how to render them correctly when writing
ourselves in a foreign language.
The aforementioned problem is accentuated in
a country like Belgium where there are already
three official languages at play! Although many
outsiders are unaware of the full details of
the political structures in Belgium, this is
how we talk about you in English:
- The people in the North of Belgium are living
in Flanders, they are Flemings
governed by Flemish institutions and
are known to speak Flemish (note, however,
that official EU documents refer to the language
as Dutch).
- The people in the South are living in Wallonia,
they are Walloons governed by Walloon
institutions and are known to speak French.
- As for those in the middle (well, almost),
they live in Brussels and would be
referred to in a manner such as 'the people
of Brussels' as no collective noun exists.
Similarly, the adjective is quite simply Brussels
as in the infamous Brussels sprouts.
Importantly, when referring to language groups,
such as the fourth smaller but equally important
Belgian community not mentioned above, the terms
germanophone, francophone and
néerlandophone in French are rendered
German-speaking, French-speaking and
Dutch-speaking in English, NOT germanophone
etc. The nouns from this would be German speaker
etc.
As to the other main cities and areas of Belgium,
my general advice would be that where no anglicised
form exists, you should use the name in the
language of the area concerned, i.e. Mons
and Liège should be known as such
and Leuven remains Leuven and
not Louvain. Four special cases exist
in which we have adopted our own preferred versions.
These are:
Antwerpen / Anvers = Antwerp
Gent / Gand = Ghent
Oostende / Ostende = Ostend
and, finally, Brugge takes the French
version Bruges.
Some other countries also provide us with good
examples of this problem.
Just across the border in France, two main differences
which are often overlooked as they are so small
are Marseilles and Lyons, where
English, for reasons unknown, adds an extra
's' at the end! Picardie and Normandie
are known as Picardy and Normandy
and don't trip up on Bourgogne which
is Burgundy. Across the border further
to the East is another unexplained anomaly.
In English, we have decided to use the French
version of Köln, which therefore
becomes Cologne. Den Haag in the
Netherlands (NOT Holland) is, of course, The
Hague (capital T). Another country within
the EU for which English has many of its own
names is Spain. Thus, Cataluña is Catalonia
and the País Vasco is the Basque Country,
for example. And Mallorca and Menorca
have more commonly become Majorca and
Minorca. Other geographical features
such as rivers can also catch you out. I'm not
sure I would recognise the Tamise as
being the famous Thames.
