On 15 Nov 2005, at 03:53, Tony Sidaway wrote:
I do sometimes wonder where the process of abandonment of English proper names of places will lead us, but no doubt in time we would all become accustomed to referring to Cymru, Alba, Euskal Herria, Deutschland, España, Confoederatio Helvetica, Österreich, and all the rest--and some of us may even understand which country we're talking about.
It seems to be a gradual trend. Leghorn redirects to Livorno but not that long ago it was the standard English version; its rather rare now.
Also there were a lot of changes post war, when German names were changed (Pressburg to Bratislava etc; we used to use the German names). And we have our entry under Mumbai. I think it is an inevitable trend; there is no reason now not to use local names and the world is becoming more internationalized.
There is still an issue as to when we change.
Justinc