Comments on: A Special Ben’s Place of the Week: The Year in Geography

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 20:19:50 +0000

Love the roundup of geographical events. I’ve link to this page from http://gislounge.com

By: Daniel Kostelnik

Daniel Kostelnik — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 19:47:24 +0000

Regarding place name changes:
The mountains of Montana have seen some renaming lately, for reasons of intercultural sensitivity and marketing. A couple of examples come to mind.
1 The Jack Creek drainage was sold to a developer and became Moonlight Basin.
2 Someone claimed that the original meaning of the word “squaw” was not “native american woman” but rather a vulgar term for female genitalia. The english equivalent would be the “c-word.” This launched a campaign to rename everything formerly known as “Squaw” in the State. This, in turn, launched speculation and debate about what to name all these creeks, peaks, islands etc. Possibilities abound, bringing up the question, “What makes an acceptable place name?”

By: Away With Words

Away With Words — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 16:22:53 +0000

Word of the Year

Macaca? Zerotasking? No, the New Oxford American Dictionary’s 2006 word of the year is carbon neutral. Okay, that’s two words, but they’re the lexicographers, so they get to write the rules. Here’s how the OUP blog defines and defends its

By: bill ecenbarger

bill ecenbarger — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 13:55:36 +0000

TO: Ben Keene
FM: Bill Ecenbarger, Reader’s Digest

I’m writing an article on changing place names.

It seems to me that currently we are literally all over the map on geographical names. Overnight, our new atlases become yesterday’s mashed potatoes. In a globalized economy, it is no longer enough to memorize all those European and Asian capitals. Now we need to know where Kinshasa is, be able to book a flight to Ouagadougou, and make sure we spell Llubiljana correctly. The simple fact is that nearly every place in the world used to be called something else.

Are we in an global orgy of name changing? Have then been more chnavges in the past 10 years than any other times in history?

I’m interested in your general comments on the topic. When are changes justified? When are they not? What are some of the problems with changing names?

Plus I invite you to weigh in on specific topics–Peking to Beijing, Bombay to Mumbai, the post Soviet Union changes (especially St. Petersburg vs. Leningrad, Sea of Japan vs. East Sea, Pretoria vs. Tshwane, other African changes, Burma vs. Myanmar, Persia and Iran, etc., etc., etc.

Although I am seeking serious information, humor is welcome. For example, in my lifetime, I have seen the present capital of China spelt Peiping, Peking, and Beijing (depending on whether Chiang, Mao, or Deng held sway, and which Chinese dialect was to be dominant). Peiping and Beijing notwithstanding, Peking duck is still on the menu in fine restaurants in the capital. And the little dog, originally bred at Beijing’s summer palace, is still a Pekinese.

We can do this via email, or I can telephone (I am located in the U.S.). Your input will be appreciated.
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