Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Spain or España, Lisbon or Lisboa? - Carver

We are currently in Lisbon. But here, nothing will say we are in Lisbon. The signs on the highway pointed to Lisboa. Similarly, back in Spain, nothing said Spain. We were instead in España. So the question is, why in English, do we change names of cities and countries. Because I am fairly certain that where I am now was not called Lisbon and the Portuguese changed it to Lisboa.

However, English is not the only one to change the names. Take Deutschland for an example. In English, it is called Germany. In Portuguese, it is called Alemanha. It seems fairly sensible that we change the name of España because it has a letter that in English, we don't have. But why don't we just change it to Espanya or something like that. In Portuguese it is called Espanha. Admittedly, in English, the nh doesn't make the ñ sound. But the ny would be close. But why do we change it to Spain. But Deutschland doesn't have any letters or sounds that we don't have.

We have done a few things in Lisboa. We did the Science Museum yesterday but we are staying home today because yesterday, Syarra was running a fever. She will get lots of rest and tomorrow we will explore more of the city.

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