MANCHESTER 1

[Fairdealfrank]

Pedant's Corner

Bombay is Mumbai

.....in Marathi

Canton is Guanghzhou

.....in Cantonese (please note, not Guanghzouese!)

Peking is Beijing

.....in Mandarin.


Also enjoy eating Bombay aloo, Bombay duck (before the EU banned it) and Peking duck.

Am writing in the English language, so use English language names where they exist.

Do you not say "Moscow" rather than "Moskva", "Vienna" not "Wien" or "Al Qarihah" not Cairo?

The same applies in other languages, for example: in French "Peking" is "Pékin", in German it's "Pekin".

Am no linguistic expert, so what exactly is the difference?

Please bear in mind in some cases using the old name will cause offence to the people of that country.

Why? What is offensive about using English language words in an English language post on an English language forum?

Unbelievable!