name changes

[Tastes_of_Chocolate]

Another from Africa
Tanganyika + Zanzibar = the United Republic of Tanzania (or Tanzania for short)
Urundi is now the Republic of Burundi

[Anaamika]

I hope no one mentioned it already, but India was formerly named Bharat.

[Giles]

@Anaamika

I hope no one mentioned it already, but India was formerly named Bharat.

Isn’t Bharat, or something like that, still the name in Hindi and related languages?

But another old name for India was Hindustan.

[nivlac]

Congo -> Zaire -> Democratic Republic of Congo

[Anaamika]

@Giles

Isn’t Bharat, or something like that, still the name in Hindi and related languages?

But another old name for India was Hindustan.

Yes. Though I’m not fully sure of the politics, whether it’s like Peking <—> Bejing or like Mumbai <—> Bombay.

And Hindustan has been deemed somewhat politically incorrect - lit. means “land of the Hindus”, and there’s lots of non-Hindus living there.

[Leaffan]

@bloo-bird

I should have mentioned that Formosa is now Taiwan.

Taiwan has always been Taiwan; to the Taiwanese at least.

[Excalibre]

@nivlac

Congo -> Zaire -> Democratic Republic of Congo

Does it bother you to say something like this when it’s already been mentioned three times in the same thread?

Just wondering.

[Cluricaun]

Did I miss Viet Nam? Used to be French Indochina, right?

[Acsenray]

@Anaamika

I hope no one mentioned it already, but India was formerly named Bharat.

No, not “formerly” at all. The Indian constitution gives equal status to the names “India” and “Bharat”

@Anaamika

And Hindustan has been deemed somewhat politically incorrect - lit. means “land of the Hindus”, and there’s lots of non-Hindus living there.

“Hindustan” does not literally mean “land of the Hindus.” It means exactly the same thing as “India” does: “Land of the Indus river.”

Sindhu (Sanskrit) → Hindu/Hind (Persian) → Indos/India (Greek) → Indus/India (Latin).

“Hindustan” is simply “-stan” stuck on the Persian version of the word.

I don’t know who’s been calling “Hindustan” politically incorrect, because in the popular culture of India, “India,” “Bharat,” and “Hindustan” are used freely and interchangeably. “Hindustan,” however, is not used for official purposes.

[Anaamika]

@acsenray

No, not “formerly” at all. The Indian constitution gives equal status to the names “India” and “Bharat”

“Hindustan” does not literally mean “land of the Hindus.” It means exactly the same thing as “India” does: “Land of the Indus river.”

Sindhu (Sanskrit) → Hindu/Hind (Persian) → Indos/India (Greek) → Indus/India (Latin).

“Hindustan” is simply “-stan” stuck on the Persian version of the word.

I don’t know who’s been calling “Hindustan” politically incorrect, because in the popular culture of India, “India,” “Bharat,” and “Hindustan” are used freely and interchangeably. “Hindustan,” however, is not used for official purposes.

Thank you for the corrections. As for the Hindustan part I only repeated what I’d been told by my family. They are, unfortunately, fallible.

[Excalibre]

Can I point out how odd it is that India is named after a river that mostly doesn’t flow through it? (Yes, I understand the historical circumstances. It still seems odd to me.)

[Giles]

@Excalibre

Can I point out how odd it is that India is named after a river that mostly doesn’t flow through it? (Yes, I understand the historical circumstances. It still seems odd to me.)

Well, if Mahatma Gandhi had had his way, the Indus would still be flowing through India.

[aktep]

@Polycarp

The area north of the Black Sea and Romania was always called “the Ukraine” – which means roughly “the southern steppes.” When it became independent, it adopted the name Ukraine, specifically omitting the “the” in English usage. More simply, the nation “Ukraine” occupies the land area formerly known as “the Ukraine” in English. (There’s a touch of prickliness about getting this right: with the English “the,” it’s a descriptor hung on it by the Russians; without it, it’s the name they adopted for themselves, redeeming it from the snide “south” of the Russians.)

I was taught the name Ukraine / Украина comes from у (by/near) + край (edge) making the name more like “the place on the edge” or “the hinterlands”. “Souther Steppe” would be closer to “Южная степь” (Yuzhnaya Step’).

The prickliness about the use of “the” still stands, though, for the same reason. Made doubly complicated by the fact that Russian and Ukrainian don’t have a word for “the”, anyway.