Michel Clasquin wrote:
I agree in principle, but Beijing actually is not a
good example. It
reflects the way the place's name is pronounced in the official dialect of
Chinese. Peking OTOH is a pronounciation based on an out-of-the-way
dialect where some missionary first wrote down "Chinese" words in the
Roman alphabet. It's as if the only Swedish a foreigner could learn was
the way it was pronounced by the Finns, I guess <g>
In my mind Peking/Beijing is just as good an example as Cologne/Köln,
Vienna/Wien, Munich/München, Germany/Deutschland, or Sweden/Sverige.
These names *are* the first version written down by some missionary.
(In fact, "Finland" is the *Swedish* name for the country that the
Finns call "Suomi". It was conquered by a Swedish crusade in 1200,
then conquered by Russia in 1809, and became independent in 1917.)
--
Lars Aronsson
<lars(a)aronsson.se>
tel +46-70-7891609
http://aronsson.se