Cities lose all identity when they insist non-native speakers use and remember names like Utqiagvik & Gqeberha. They completely disappear from the public mind.
Instead we should force native speakers to use and remember names, that are difficult and foreign to them. Because clearly, the view of western people is more important than local identity.
No one is forcing people to speak English. The average English speaker on the other hand isn't going to try to decipher alphabet soup like Utqiagvik & Gqeberha that make zero sense in English. Nobody is going to remotely pronounce it correctly in a language they have absolutely zero knowledge of. They'll simply forget those places ever existed.
The real hypocrisy is that in foreign languages they don't suddenly drop in accurately pronounced English place names that break the rhythm of their own language. If you've already gone so far as to learn an entire language of vocabulary, grammar, and context, it's not difficult to go that extra millimeter and mispronounce New York and London so it matches that entire other language you've learned.
"western people" - Do you think Chinese, Indonesians, Arabs and Russians will have an easier time pronouncing Utqiagvik and Gqeberha than Barrow or Port Elizabeth? And not all name changes to local names are bad. eSwatini is easy enough to pronounce more or less accurately for non Swazi speakers.
I get your point, but I think that giving the autonomy to the people of the place that live there in how they want to be known is more important than the inconvenience of someone who will likely never go there (especially when both of your examples were places with a history of colonization). In any case, there are tons of cities that have non-English names that English-speakers have nonetheless adapted (Reykjavik, Beijing, Ulaanbaatar, Guadalajara) that we have managed to (mostly correctly) learn and pronounce
I disagree, in my opinion cities with a name in an Inuit or Xhosa name have much more character than the same English names copy-pasted all over the world.
For example, Iqaluit is a much more interesting name than Frobisher Bay, and within a decade, a whole new generation of Canadians became familiar with the former.
Agreed. Having an official name in the local language, as well as acceptable foreign translations, is the ideal setup. I'd be totally fine if foreigners called New York Ngojrka or whatever
I'm not sure that they lose their identity - "Gqeberha" to me is really memorable, but I certainly wouldn't risk trying to pronounce it. I'd still say "Port Elizabeth", for fear of mangling someone else's language, which seems to defeat the point. "Polokwane" on the other hand - easy.
Giving cities new names in 'new' languages is fine, but I see little sense in the assumption that we have to abandon the English (or whatever) name. As if anyone minds French people talking about Londres, or that it's somehow disrespectful to say 'Germany' instead of 'Deutschland'.
Not sure how you reached this conclusion. Colonial names like "Port Elizabeth" and "Barrow" have no connection to place, whereas "Gqeberha" and "Utqiagvik" carry meaning and significance. If anything, re-establishing traditional place names can be an act of *reclaiming* identity. The "public" that should be considered here is the public of the places involved, not the public of English speakers who might be scared by consonant clusters.
So, in the same place, no? Sounds like the same city. Structures in every city get razed and rebuilt all the time. I don't think it matters whether the buildings all come down together or one at a time.
My verdict: yes, it's fun. :) I know Utqiagvik partially because it's one of the cities I monitor on the weather app on my phone. High of 3°F and low of -14°F today.
Was actually pretty fun, got 25. Toronto was obvious for me but a lot of people seem to forget about how it was York. Didn't expect to get something for Dubrovnik, just guessed randomly
Oh man, I even thought of Vancouver for Granville because of Granville Island. But I didn't put that because "there's no way they put two Canadian cities in this". Derp.
The real hypocrisy is that in foreign languages they don't suddenly drop in accurately pronounced English place names that break the rhythm of their own language. If you've already gone so far as to learn an entire language of vocabulary, grammar, and context, it's not difficult to go that extra millimeter and mispronounce New York and London so it matches that entire other language you've learned.
For example, Iqaluit is a much more interesting name than Frobisher Bay, and within a decade, a whole new generation of Canadians became familiar with the former.
Giving cities new names in 'new' languages is fine, but I see little sense in the assumption that we have to abandon the English (or whatever) name. As if anyone minds French people talking about Londres, or that it's somehow disrespectful to say 'Germany' instead of 'Deutschland'.
Not that the residents of Abest... Val-des-Sources probably mind :)
Another one I forget: Dnipro (formerly Dnipropetrovsk).