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Thread: Spelling of names.

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    Platinum Member Derlyn's Avatar
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    Spelling of names.

    Is it custom for the spelling of one's name and surname to change depending on the language being used ?

    Never thought of this before.

    Wonder what the spelling of my name ( Derek Stuart ) would be in Afrikaans ?

    The reason I'm asking is because the president of Russia who happens to be Vladimir Putin is referred to as Wladimir Poetin
    in the attached article by Maroela.

    https://maroelamedia.co.za/nuus/were...in-se-dogters/

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    Well in Russian his name is Владимир Владимирович Путин, so who is to say? But I have to be honest, I have never seen "Poetin" before. Kind of fitting

    Zelensky is Володимир Олександрович Зеленський

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    Platinum Member Derlyn's Avatar
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    I'm thinking Derekadus Van der Stuart should go down well in Attikaans.

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    Derek is normally short for "Dear die k@#"

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    Platinum Member Derlyn's Avatar
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    LOL. I'ts actually "deur" not "dear".

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    Diamond Member Blurock's Avatar
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    Cool

    Agreed Derlyn. I can understand that the Russian Cyrillic alphabet may be hard to interpret and translate, but why do we change names of people and places just because we cannot pronounce it? I could never understand why Roma had to be changed to Rome etc. Both the English colonisers and the Boers are guilty of this.

    The Brits bastardised so many indigenous place names that had to be changed after de-colonisation.
    The core of the Afrikaans press are guilty of the same thing as they want to write the way they pronounce it.
    E.g Dubai now becomes Doebai. Almost sounds like koebaai! I don't know if Calcutta is Koelkatta in Afrikaans. Translated back to English it will be Cool Cats!
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    Platinum Member Derlyn's Avatar
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    Yep, and to make oneself sound more larny, you just change the pronunciation of Bloemfontein to Bloemfonteen. It's only common people that call it Bloemfontein.

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    Johannesburg. Pretoria. Cape Town. Port Elizabeth. East London ... this could go on forever. Perhaps it is just a normal trait.

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    Platinum Member Derlyn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Andromeda View Post
    Johannesburg. Pretoria. Cape Town. Port Elizabeth. East London ... this could go on forever. Perhaps it is just a normal trait.
    No my brother/sister

    The above are all pronounced correctly 99.9% of the time but when Bloemfontein is pronounced Bloemfonteeeen, I get annoyed instantly.

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    Diamond Member Blurock's Avatar
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    ...and Firenze is called Florence and Milano is called Milan, Den Haag is called The Hague, Brugge is called Bruges, and so we carry on, just because we cannot pronounce the original names.
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