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Historically, no-one ever decided to change Roma into Rome. Both the English and the Italian names derive from a common ancestor, Roma; just as the modern names Florence and Firenze do; or Paris and Paris: in modern French the final S has become silent, so their pronunciation is now more divergent from the common ancestor than ours. Typically, the names in different languages are the normal historical reflexes of the same original name. No one is any more correct than any other.
Don't confuse pronunciation with spelling. You might write Szczecin or Madrid but would probably pronounce it very differently from the local way. The newsreader "not anglicizing" is probably introducing just as great a distortion as if the odd letter had been changed.
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Beijing is the Pinyin transcription and Peking is Wade-Giles; they represent the same name and pronunciation, and are both of the Standard (Beijing) dialect.
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Carpal Tunnel
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NicholasW said We learn place names the same as we learn common names: in our cradle and from those around us. They are part of English like any other words.
I don't think that anyone is arguing against your premise. The question was "Why are they different?", not "Why don't we use the local names?".
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Because all languages change all the time. Each undergoes the phonetic changes that all the rest of the language undergoes. And millions and millions of people in every generation learn about Paris and Germany and Athens -- very very few of them ever get to the sophistication of learning that the foreigners at home there call them "Paghee" and Deutschland and Athine. There just isn't the impetus to adopt foreign names for things we already have familiar and simple and long-established English names for.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Drew Barrymore's greatest assets are not verbal, neither of them.
She does have nice eyes, doesn't she? [warning-glower
icon]
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Carpal Tunnel
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nice eyesAs in, "Aye, aye, what a pair!", Jackie? 
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As in, "Aye, aye, what a pair!", Jackie?
Ignored my warning glower, did ye, S'Ayleur?
Wal, walk the gangplank into the gutter then, mate.
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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my warning glowerWarning Becomes Eclectic ?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Warning Becomes Eclectic ?
Er--sorry, I think there's something here I'm not getting.
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i know, i know--I misspent my youth being sober and industrious-- and going to somber greek plays--
Mourning Become Electra-- which actually is quite wonderful, when you actually learn the history of the time, and what was going on,,,,, otherwise they all seem like very old, very slow versions of a Staleone movie-- everyone is killing everone, or plotting their death-- no bomb or car chases, but the same level of violence--
(and yes, i am reformed-- I party much more now than i ever did in my 20's! )
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