CHOGM

[Milfmog]

They can change the name of their country if they like, but how can they change the English translation of it? Surely that is for us to do, or not. There is no reason why the English name for a country should be the same as the local name. Nobody tells us we should call Germany "Deutschland" or FInland "Suomi".

True, but it is generally courteous to call people by their name in the language of their choice; why should countries or towns be treated any differently?

However, that is not the issue in the case of Burma / Myanmar where it is more a case of the people in the country not being able to agree about the legitimacy of the government that made the decision to rename the state. In this case I suspect the name used is more a reflection of which side of the legitimacy argument the speaker is on.

Have fun,


Ian.

[crfriend]

There is no reason why the English name for a country should be the same as the local name. Nobody tells us we should call Germany "Deutschland" or FInland "Suomi".

I have no problem calling the German state by either name, but remain curious as to why the translation is what it is. Some Anglicised names (e.g. "Japan") likely came about because many English speakers (in the broad sense, even though we know that English is not monolithic) have difficulty with some of the sounds. Too, whatever of "Siam" and "Thailand"?

There's nothing that says a country can't change its name, just as it's not all that uncommon for individual persons to do so. Given all the hassle I've been having recently with e-mail during my job-search I'm half tempted to change my name to the Germanic spelling in an attempt to keep my messages from winding up in folks' junk-mail buckets.

[skirtilator]

I believe the Taliban always deal in absolutes too.

In my opinion, your statement is no more sensible or tolerant than that of the "men can't wear skirts" brigade.

Yeah, but only if you take the only seriously. It is not smart to force people to look like penguins or similar. I dislike suits in any shape or form and the only thing that works for me is a skirt suit. The brigade is sexist.

[skirted_in_SF]

I always thought it was back to being "Burma"

I believe the BBC World Service that I hear on my local public radio station always called it Burma. NPR called it Myanmar.

[skirtingseattle]

I asked everywhere we went about the name change and people said that they were Myanma and that their country was Myanmar; however, the national language is Burmese. We did not run into anyone who used the word or expressed a preference for Burmese or Burma. The decision by the military government to rename the country is probably one of the least controversial of its acts according to all of the folks we ran into, and they were quite vocal on a number of political issues so much so that I was convinced their statements on the use of Myanmar could be accepted with confidence.

The name Burma came from the British colonial overlords who chose the dominant Bamar people as the name for the country, and their language (Burmese) became the de facto official language. But this country has nearly 200 different ethnic groups and the military authorities are fighting many different ethnic separatist groups. This has been the major reason why they haven't wanted the outside world to know much about what was going on internally. In fact, while we were there, the English language newspapers that were available in Yangon and Mandalay were talking about the central government's offer of a countrywide ceasefire with 29 separate armed groups. It appears that many are ready to take up the government's offer, but there are some that are holding out for certain pre-conditions.

NOTE: Pronunciation is not MEE AN MAR but: MYAN MAR

Similarly, Siam is not SIGH AM but: SEE AHM

Chris