I had a long answer earlier today, but the computer ate it when our web connection went down.
Misbunny: Sorry. I used to read a lot of history and play a lot of Diplomacy. I still think of it as Smyrna. Never been there.
Hmm… I actually did some specialized research into this exact question, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, except I was curious just like you were. And in my field, Japanese linguistics, the problem is particularly acute because of the use of kanji. There are some exceptionally odd combinations of kanji symbols for some of the cities of the world. Some of the cities had straight forward translations, like ro-ma (Rome) but some cities used the symbolic meanings of the kanji. Some Japanese place names use “ateji” which don’t seem to follow any rules, but are derived from a complex system of religious, geographic and family name symbols. This is all too complex to deal with here, one of my professors wrote a lengthy book about it and it is far too lengthy and excruciatingly boring to go into here.
But anyway, suffice to say that the primary reason for weird place name spellings is the difference between writing systems. Not all sounds map one-to-one between languages. Sometimes contracted names catch on, like Shisuko is short for San Francisco in Japanese. And sometimes it depends on which country taught the names of these world cities. Like in Japan, the Dutch and Russians brought the first world maps to Japan at a time when they hadn’t even mapped as far as Korea. and China. So the place names of the world in Japan follow a phoneticisation as taught by the Dutch. Read it today, you’re maybe reading the name of a Scottish city as interpreted by the Japanese who learned it from the Dutch who took it from English (i.e. edin bara is Edinburg).
Anyway, I put up a weird little web page obliquely related to this subject at:
http://member.newsguy.com/~sakusha/byoubu/byoubu.html
I can also think of lots of examples of how quickly we change
We say Saint Petersburg, Iran, Istanbul, Oslo, and Thailand not Persia Constantinople, Christiana or Siam.
Look how quickly we change Congo to Zaire and BACK again to Congo
When China said spell it Bejing NOT Peking or we WON’T deliver that mail we change.
When a country insists we change no matter how famous. Jounalists reported from Ho Chi Min City NOT Siagon.
HiJack
How come the French LOUIS became
Saint LEWIS in MO but Lewyville in KY.
Since it is spelled Shqipëri and means land of the eagle why not simply call it Eagle. (hey we got Turkey)
What about Canberra. Aussies tend to say CAM-BRA.
Lets not forget the Czech Republic. It’s awkward to say. Why not Czechland or Czechia?
I kinda wish that Illinois was pronounced in the original (french) way: instead of ill-uh-NOY it would be ee-lee-NWAH.
Way better sounding, IMO.
Bill