News   Mar 28, 2024
 166     1 
News   Mar 28, 2024
 603     0 
News   Mar 28, 2024
 367     0 

News from across Europe

AlbertC

Superstar
Member Bio
Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
22,059
Reaction score
59,370
Location
Davenport
Why Europe’s new populists tell so many lies – and do it so shamelessly

Catherine Fieschi

From Matteo Salvini to Boris Johnson, populist politicians brazenly distort the truth. Don’t think they do it to be believed

Mon 30 Sep 2019 15.43 BSTLast modified on Tue 1 Oct 2019 16.00 BST

 
Ireland: no country for the young, creative or homeless

Una Mullally

The capital’s skyline is filled with cranes. They can’t disguise sky-high rents, a cultural brain-drain and growing inequality

 
Dutch government ditches Holland to rebrand as the Netherlands

As part of new strategy, the Netherlands will be official name at Eurovision in May

The Dutch government has decided to stop describing itself as Holland and will instead use only its real name – the Netherlands – as part of an attempted update of its global image.

The national rebranding, which has been signed up to by business leaders, the tourist board and central government, will be rolled out later this year.

 
The whole Holland thing always annoyed me - that's only a small part of the Netherlands, so why did so many people call the country Holland? It would be like calling Canada Manitoba!

In other country "rebranding" news, I love that the Czech Republic officially wants to be referred to as Czechia from now on.
 
The whole Holland thing always annoyed me - that's only a small part of the Netherlands, so why did so many people call the country Holland? It would be like calling Canada Manitoba!

In other country "rebranding" news, I love that the Czech Republic officially wants to be referred to as Czechia from now on.

From my understanding, the the usage of Holland to refer to the Netherlands began with the English historically for several centuries. As during those ages, encounters between the English and Dutch were often with the major cities along the Netherlands' coast, which are also the provinces of North and South Holland.

And from the prevalence of English as spoken language in the world, other nations in the world have formed their own phonetic variation of the name "Holland".

Interesting to see how around half, call them Holland instead of the Netherlands:

 
There many other linguistic quirks around country names.

It strikes me that countries should really be 'called' whatever they call themselves, with spelling being phonetic to the language into which the name is being inserted if they don't share alphabets.

But........

Deutschland which is what the Germans call their country.........and somehow we all got Germany out of it.

But I also fail to understand changing Italia to Italy (just as easy to say either in English); or Espana to Spain.

China is another one; the domestic name, as I understand it bares no resemblance to the English word China. Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó

Strange naming conventions have been used through the years.
 
There many other linguistic quirks around country names.

It strikes me that countries should really be 'called' whatever they call themselves, with spelling being phonetic to the language into which the name is being inserted if they don't share alphabets.

But........

Deutschland which is what the Germans call their country.........and somehow we all got Germany out of it.

But I also fail to understand changing Italia to Italy (just as easy to say either in English); or Espana to Spain.

China is another one; the domestic name, as I understand it bares no resemblance to the English word China. Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó

Strange naming conventions have been used through the years.

One of the more amusing naming corruptions I've always found is how a group of German settlers that spread throughout North America, were called the Pennsylvania Dutch.
 
Locals join Jewish community for vigil in German city of Halle

By Ben Knight (Halle)

Hundreds of people have gathered at a synagogue in Halle, Germany, to hold a vigil for the two people killed during a suspected far-right, anti-Semitic attack. Germany's president and interior minister are both expected.

 
'A serious urban mistake': why Paris went sour on the new Gare du Nord

As developers aim to turn France’s busiest train station into a gargantuan airport-style mall, Parisians fear for the local neighbourhood – and the station’s soul

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Thu 10 Oct 2019 06.00 BST
Last modified on Thu 10 Oct 2019 08.33 BST

 
'A serious urban mistake': why Paris went sour on the new Gare du Nord

As developers aim to turn France’s busiest train station into a gargantuan airport-style mall, Parisians fear for the local neighbourhood – and the station’s soul

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Thu 10 Oct 2019 06.00 BST
Last modified on Thu 10 Oct 2019 08.33 BST


Victoria Station in London is the same way. You have a multitude of shops and when you walk through the station towards the coach terminal there is a virtual shopping mall.
 

Back
Top