Ever wondered about UK place names? My new web app lets you search place names (starting with 'south', ending with 'burgh', containing 'sea' etc) and plot them on a map - and then share those maps with friends.
If you are into history and Scotland's languages, I heartily recommend you follow @dgplacenames
Just arrived here from 'other places', and extremely interesting and knowledgeable about the meaning and history of place names!
Taigh-osta Bhaile a' Chaolais is Creag Gorm air a chulaibh. Blas mhic na bracha air na barran is an Linne Sheileach.
Ballachulish Hotel with Creag Gorm sitting behind it. Whisky-coloured mountain summits and Loch Linnhe - (actually an Linne Sheileach south of Corran).
Many Icelanders tend to think that #Icelandic is the only #language which has its own version of #placenames. They also think of these names as translations. They usually aren't.
For instance #Kyiv is Kænugarður. The name comes from the Viking Age when some Norse (often Swedes) went east while the more famous ones went west.
Another example is the #Danish#Aarhus. The Icelandic Árósar retains the original meaning of "the river mouth" while the modern Danish name is a bit like "river house".
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"Bharat" is already India's name in most local languages, including Hindi, and is mentioned as a synonym of "India" in the English version of the country's constitution, but hasn't been used in formal international contexts until now.
The name "#India" was already used by the Ancient Greeks more than 2000 years ago, though some in the region associate it more now with the #UK's colonial subjugation of the country in the 1700s-1900s.
@daviddlevine In Sweden we've dealt with another transition: old established but ad hoc renderings of Sámi place names have been changed into correct Sámi orthography. A few weeks from now my kids and I are hiking to a place named Kårsavagge on old maps, Górsavaggi on new ones.