Swaziland has changed its name to avoid confusion with Switzerland

[Homer J Simpson]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/20/africa/swaziland-eswatini-africa-monarchy-intl/index.html

Now all that's left is for Australia to rename itself so it is no longer confused with Austria.

-k 

[BravoV]

Downunderia ?

[Halcyon]

I suppose we could always go back to "New Holland".

[Electro Detective]

Strayamate    

[Jeroen3]

I suppose we could always go back to "New Holland".

Yes. But youd need windmills and wooden shoes.

[daqq]

Slovakia / Slovenia anyone?

[jpanhalt]

I never saw any confusion between the two.   

[b_force]

I suppose we could always go back to "New Holland".

Yes, before the bloody brits decided to just ignore that name.
+ for getting your history right btw! Not many people actually know this 

[nctnico]

I suppose we could always go back to "New Holland".

Yes. But youd need windmills and wooden shoes.

And tulips and pot. Lots of pot!

[sarel.wagner]

  maybe the Swazies got confused between Swaziland and Switzerland.....

[Maxlor]

Yes, finally! Now if only we can get Sweden to rename itself too... 

[vk6zgo]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/20/africa/swaziland-eswatini-africa-monarchy-intl/index.html

Now all that's left is for Australia to rename itself so it is no longer confused with Austria.

-k

I can't really see the confusion between Swaziland and Confedoeratio Helvetica.

Nor, for that matter, Australia & Osterreich ( sorry, I don't know how to make the iPad do umlauts)

 

[nanofrog]

Nor, for that matter, Australia & Osterreich ( sorry, I don't know how to make the iPad do umlauts)

 

IIRC, hold the ALT key down and press O until the umlaut is displayed. Another way would be to set the keyboard to Unicode Hex Input, and hold ALT and enter in the 4 digit hex code. In the case of Ö, it's c3 96.

[raptor1956]

Here's someone that will straighten you out on the Austria/Australia issue...




Brian

[Cerebus]

Nor, for that matter, Australia & Osterreich ( sorry, I don't know how to make the iPad do umlauts)

 

IIRC, hold the ALT key down and press O until the umlaut is displayed. Another way would be to set the keyboard to Unicode Hex Input, and hold ALT and enter in the 4 digit hex code. In the case of Ö, it's c3 96.

Sorry to break it to you man, but that thing with the ALT key on isn't an iPad. 'Fraid ya got burned man.

I suspect that and iPad and a Mac work the same - in the case of the later, just hold the o key down and you'll get a pop-up at the cursor with all the accented variants to choose from. Like this:

[calexanian]

Should have just gone for Wakanda!

[Harb]

Big Brother Island in the middle of the political correct sea

[Distelzombie]

Why are you doing this?
Österreich is Austria, Bundesrepublik Deutschland is Germany, Köln is Cologne ... We don't change your names. We say how it is. This is so condescending.
Any idea why? I'm sure you can pronounce "Deutschland" somehow. It would even sound more like the actual name instead of "germany"

[Cerebus]

Why are you doing this?
Österreich is Austria, Bundesrepublik Deutschland is Germany, Köln is Cologne ... We don't change your names. We say how it is. This is so condescending.
Any idea why? I'm sure you can pronounce "Deutschland" somehow. It would even sound more like the actual name instead of "germany"

Why do you call English, englisch, why do you call someone who's British, brite? This is so condescending. I'm sure you can pronounce these words properly if only you try...

[calexanian]

It sounds to me more like they are trying to distance themselves from British rule by adopting a traditional name. I can understand why. Swaziland was a name somewhat forced upon them and may remind them of British rule. I still like Wakanda better though.

[palpurul]

Turkey anyone?

[b_force]

Why are you doing this?
Österreich is Austria, Bundesrepublik Deutschland is Germany, Köln is Cologne ... We don't change your names. We say how it is. This is so condescending.
Any idea why? I'm sure you can pronounce "Deutschland" somehow. It would even sound more like the actual name instead of "germany"

Why do you call English, englisch, why do you call someone who's British, brite? This is so condescending. I'm sure you can pronounce these words properly if only you try...

the word "Dutch" is also very confusing.
Blame the Brits for that though. OR maybe the rest of the world (incl Netherlands themselves) for not keeping the word "Diets(ch)"
Although than Diets(ch) and Deutsch would be to similar.......
You can never win 

[vk6zgo]

Why are you doing this?
Österreich is Austria, Bundesrepublik Deutschland is Germany, Köln is Cologne ... We don't change your names. We say how it is. This is so condescending.
Any idea why? I'm sure you can pronounce "Deutschland" somehow. It would even sound more like the actual name instead of "germany"

I'm not sure who you are addressing here.
I was really making the point that mostly, the real names of Countries  & places are quite different from the "Anglo" version, so there is no reason for confusion.

The origin of these silly names  are lost in history.
It seems that, particularly, the English, people had trouble getting their tongues, (or perhaps their heads) around the real names, & ended up using nicknames which became entrenched in common usage.

After I wrote the above, I had a look at an "on line" translation of Deutschland to various languages.
I was astounded by how many countries called it something else!

Most of them seem to be some variations of "Germany", maybe because the Ancient Romans called the part of Europe roughly coincident with modern Deutschland "Germania".

Others follow the French name for your Country "Allemagne".
(I hate Safari! It tried to turn that into "ale mange" )

Still others, go their own way completely.

As the old English saying goes :-" Folk are strange cattle".

[Distelzombie]

Why are you doing this?
Österreich is Austria, Bundesrepublik Deutschland is Germany, Köln is Cologne ... We don't change your names. We say how it is. This is so condescending.
Any idea why? I'm sure you can pronounce "Deutschland" somehow. It would even sound more like the actual name instead of "germany"

I'm not sure who you are addressing here.

The english-man, of course. I forgot about France. It seems nobody likes us. (Even before He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named)
If it comes from "Germania", what makes sense, then it never really changed outside of our own country. Like, you never acknowledged our name-change.

[Cerebus]

Most of them seem to be some variations of "Germany", maybe because the Ancient Romans called the part of Europe roughly coincident with modern Deutschland "Germania".

You don't have to go to ancient Rome, as recently as the 18th century will do. Educated men wrote Latin and that was the lingua franca of scholarship from early modern history up until the early 18th century (whereas French was the literal lingua franca of diplomacy). Newton's final version of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1726 was still in Latin. The men, and it was men, most likely to write to each other across borders were scholars and thus Latinate names got circulation among the scholarly and those close to them. So Greece was Græcia, not Ελλάδα, Finland got anglicized from Finnonia, not Suomi, but counties whose native name was cognate with the Latin version of it stayed the same.

"Germany" (as in the everyday English name for the country) is an odd one, as German and English are much closer languages than a lot of people realise. It's no accident that we call the short pithy words for bodily functions Anglo-Saxon; the modern English and Germans have no difficulty recognising each other's words for these things: pissen, scheißen and so on. Latin and French influences on English are relative latecomers. One can only surmise that the influence of the 'posh' scholars and society types pushed older, arguably more native, words aside.