http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/foreign-place-names-2 Language in a word Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:34:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/foreign-place-names-2#comment-624 Athel Cornish-Bowden Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:47:02 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/foreign-place-names-2#comment-624 Having lived in Marseilles for the past 20 years I was interested in your convincing explanation of how Paris and Lyon came to have the forms and pronunciations they have in English. However, most of what you say about Lyon applies equally well to Marseilles, and they are cities of approximately the same size and about equally well known to English speakers. Both have lost their final s in French, but whereas Lyons with an s has just about completely disappeared from English, Marseilles with an s still has some life in it. Am I wrong in thinking that the spellings in English are changing at different rates, and if I'm not wrong, why should that be? For that matter, is there any simple explanation of why so many place names acquire a final s when translated, not just from French to English (Lyons, Marseilles, Algiers, Tangiers), but also in the reverse direction (Londres, Douvres, Cornouailles), and between other language pairs (Brussel -> Bruxelles; Genoa -> Gênes; Arle, Nime (Provençal) -> Arles, Nîmes; maybe Naples and Athens, though there the names are at least plural-looking (though s-less) in their native languages; and others that I can't think of at this moment)? Having lived in Marseilles for the past 20 years I was interested in your convincing explanation of how Paris and Lyon came to have the forms and pronunciations they have in English. However, most of what you say about Lyon applies equally well to Marseilles, and they are cities of approximately the same size and about equally well known to English speakers. Both have lost their final s in French, but whereas Lyons with an s has just about completely disappeared from English, Marseilles with an s still has some life in it. Am I wrong in thinking that the spellings in English are changing at different rates, and if I’m not wrong, why should that be? For that matter, is there any simple explanation of why so many place names acquire a final s when translated, not just from French to English (Lyons, Marseilles, Algiers, Tangiers), but also in the reverse direction (Londres, Douvres, Cornouailles), and between other language pairs (Brussel -> Bruxelles; Genoa -> Gênes; Arle, Nime (Provençal) -> Arles, Nîmes; maybe Naples and Athens, though there the names are at least plural-looking (though s-less) in their native languages; and others that I can’t think of at this moment)?

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