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Tangentially, what's up with what we call that country in English? "Myanmar" is the standard modern name and "Burma" is the name from the British colonial time
by legerdemain 5y ago
Tangentially, what's up with what we call that country in English?
"Myanmar" is the standard modern name and "Burma" is the name from the British colonial times.
However, we have to realize that the R in "Myanmar" reflects British phonetics and should therefore be silent. No, NPR correspondent, it's not "My Ann Mar," it's more like "Maa Maa."
Second, the renaming to "Myanmar" was approved by the ruling junta. Using that spelling for the country's name is like calling Taiwan "Chinese Taipei." Is it ethical to give this name credibility?
Finally, "Burma" and "Myanmar" are actually the same place name, written in two different orthographies. The latter prefers an archaizing pronunciation that the junta favors.
So, why still "My Ann Mar, previously known as Burr Mah"?
- fragmede 5y agoColonialism, along with a great deal of inertial, mostly. There's a long long list of things that English pronounces "wrong". Thank you for helping me update my pronunciation!
- livindub 5y agoLike Uyghur. I absolutely hate anglophone reporting in their plight because of how they butcher that name into oblivion.
- samstave 5y agoHow do you know all this? Super interesting. Do you know this level of detail about the names/languages of any other countries? /Subscribe.
- legerdemain 5y agoI mean, this degree of knowledge barely rises above bar trivia. There are lots of people whose jobs or studies give them an interest in the affairs of some region or another. I'm sure you can find some wonk's blog just by searching for <country name> + "current events." Lots of international studies students write blogs.