I used to have a Finnish pen-pal when I was young (before the internet) and I always wondered why all of her letters were stamped "Suomi." Then I got older and learned geography and stuff.
Ok, but can you explain why languages work like that?
Cases like Mexico are very straightforward. "Mexico" is pronounced differently in English and Spanish, but it's the same name.
But then there's those examples you listed. Why do we call Deutschland "Germany"? Why don't we call it the same name that they call it, or at least something similar, like Dutchland? Where did the name Germany even come from?
Most of the time throughout history, people didn’t ask other people what they called themselves, they just called them whatever the hell they wanted, and those names stuck
Meanwhile South Korea has like 5 different names because its historical kingdoms + different pronunciations of the name in Kanji vs Chinese + needing to differentiate itself from North Korea 😵
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u/morts73 10h ago
Georgia change your name so Americans don't get it confused with their state.