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Terrorists Strike In Indian City (Formerly Known As Bombay)
€śTerrorists Strike in Indian City€ť
"That was the rather long and uninformative headline a few days ago in the local newspaper. They couldnt say €śTerrorists Strike in Mumbai€ť because few of the local rags the readers know in what country €śMumbai€ť is. Readers have heard of €śBombay.€ť Theyve eaten at Bombay Bicycle Club restaurants and theyve bought end tables from Bombay Co. Furniture stores, so they mostly know Bombay is a city in India. But, Mumbai they dont know from Kolkata or Chennai. So, the headline writer has to refer to €śIndian City€ť because the English-language media recently stopped using the place name that has been used in English for centuries. The effect, of course, is what normally happens when names are changed. The Name Game just makes most people more ignorant (while giving a few people another reason to self-congratulate over their superior sensitivity). Older Americans who grew up hearing about Bombay cant understand todays news; and younger Americans who are growing up hearing about Mumbai wont be able to understand all the books in the library that refer to Bombay. Fortunately, theres a double standard that prevents the media from junking Anglicized spellings of places in the white world. Were in no danger that €śFlorence€ť or €śGermany€ť will disappear from the AP stylebook to be replaced by baffling references to €śFirenze€ť and €śDeutschland.€ť http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2008/...n-indian-city/ -- Message posted using http://www.talkaboutaudio.com/group/rec.audio.opinion/ More information at http://www.talkaboutaudio.com/faq.html |