An English exonym is a name in the English language for a place (a toponym), or occasionally other terms, which does not follow the local usage (the endonym). Exonyms and endonyms are features of all languages, and other languages may have their own exonym for English endonyms, for example Llundain is the Welsh exonym for the English endonym "London".
Romanization, or transcription of a non-Latin alphabet endonym into a Latin alphabet, is not generally regarded as creating exonyms: "The application of any scientifically sound romanization system to a non-Roman endonym merely re-creates that original endonym in another legitimate form" (Päll, 2002).[1][2] However old romanization systems may leave a legacy of "familiar" spellings, as in the case of, for example, romanization of Burmese.[3] This affects romanization of Arabic, romanization of Chinese, and many other non-Latin alphabet place names.
Translations of non-proper nouns such as "river" and "lake" also do not qualify as exonyms.
This section lists English-language exonyms that are for places located in multiple countries, English names of countries, and typical patterns.
Countries and territories
The following is a list of countries and territories whose names in local languages differ from their (non-local) English ones. The list includes countries with limited recognition, autonomous territories of sovereign countries, and fully sovereign countries.
Country names are listed in their short form, and do not include names spelled identically in English. Near-identical names in pronunciation or spelling are included, but countries named with non-proper nouns (like Central African Republic or United Arab Emirates) are not. It is debatable whether the mere omission of a diacritical mark (as in several instances in the table below) creates an exonym.
The languages listed are official languages and/or prominent local languages, except if the name for the associated country is spelled the same as in English. Languages in italics are no longer spoken in the given country, but the name listed retains some use.
Likewise, exonyms in italics are obsolete or are disputed.
Historically, English borrowed French names for many places in Dutch-speaking areas of Belgium. With a few exceptions this practice is no longer followed by most sources.[7]
Numerous places in the predominantly French speaking province of Quebec have historically had English exonyms; in most cases, the exonym was a straight translation of the place's French name, with only one major city[which?] which ever had an English exonym that was entirely different from its original French name. With a few exceptions, such as Quebec City, these are no longer widely used. Exonyms are also commonly seen with regard to First Nations and Inuit peoples and communities; although government and media sources have evolved in recent years toward using these places' native endonyms, common usage may still favour the older exonyms.
During the Khmer Rogue period (1975–1979), the country was known in English as Democratic Kampuchea, closer to the endonym than its modern English exonym. The English exonym of Cambodia is based on the French exonym, Cambodge. The endonym is sometimes used in English, but the exonym is far more common.
Some of the apparent "exonyms" for China are the result of change in romanization of Chinese to modern pinyin, for example "Tientsin" to "Tianjin". Other apparent exonyms are the result of the English name being based on one of the other varieties of Chinese besides Mandarin. Additionally, certain names which may now be considered exonyms actually preserve older Mandarin pronunciations which have changed in the intervening centuries.[9][10] For all areas in mainland China, names written in Chinese are written in simplified characters. For all areas in the special administrative regions (SARs), the names will be written in traditional characters.
Historically, English-language sources used German names for many places in what is now the Czech Republic. With some exceptions (such as the Elbe and Oder rivers, both of which flow into Germany) this is no longer done by most sources.[13]
The exonym for Greece in English comes from Magna Graecia, which was a historical region in Italy colonized by the Greeks. The endonym Ellás comes from Helen of Troy, the legendary Greek figure whose abduction caused the Greek city-states to unite and fight against Troy during the Trojan War.
The vast majority of placenames in Ireland are anglicisations, or phonetic renderings, of Irish language names. The exceptions to this are listed here:
The below listing is only a summary. Modern Israeli transcription systems (romanization of Hebrew) vary from the spellings of many hundreds of place names of Ancient Israel adopted by Bible translations - both Christian, such as the King James Version (1611) and also Jewish versions such as the JPS (1917).[15]
The English name for Japan derives from the Portuguese name for the country, Japão, which was based on a Chinese transcription of Japan's endonym, Nippon or Nihon (日本).[16]
The English name for the country derives from the city name Marrakesh.[20] The Arabic name for the country, al-Magrib (المغرب), is Arabic for "the west".
Historically, English-language sources borrowed French-language names for some places in German-speaking Switzerland. This is no longer done, and many sources now use German names for most Swiss German-speaking places.[23]
Bangkok was the name of a village built on the west bank of the Chao Phraya river before it grew and became the new capital of Siam, after the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767.[24] The city is called Krung Thep among Thai citizens, but Bangkok among non-Thai citizens. The Thai government has attempted to change the official English name to Krung Thep, but the unofficial name of Bangkok remains in common use.
In June 2022, the United Nations agreed to change the country's official name in English as Türkiye at the request of the Turkish government.[29] However, the majority of English speakers still refer to the country as Turkey in daily use.
Russian name; though the Russian endonym Kiev prevailed after the Soviet Union ended in 1991, in the late 2010s media outlets and governments began using Kyiv at the request of the Ukrainian government.
^Peeter Päll, Estonia, "Do Romanization Systems Create Exonyms?" UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Working Group on Romanization Systems (2002)
^Exonyms and the International Standardisation of Geographical Names Peter Jordan, Milan Orožen Adamič, Paul Woodman - 2007- Page 16 "2.2.11 This brings us on to the question of romanization. Does the application of a romanization system turn an endonym into an exonym? In his GeoNames 2000 paper Do Romanization Systems Create Exonyms?, Peeter Päll argued convincingly.."
^M. B. Hooker Laws of South-East Asia: The pre-modern texts 1986 - Page 23 "Place names such as Rangoon, Mandalay, Pegu and Moulmein have been left in the English form which is familiar to the non-Burmese reader. Personal names also have been left in the old romanization which seems to be familiar to.."
^ abcdefWorsch, Wolfgang (2004). Langenscheidt Muret-Sanders Großwörterbuch, Teil II, Deutsch-Englisch , Langenscheidt KG, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Zurich, New York, pp. 1269-1272. ISBN3-468-02126-7.
^Dorit Diskin RavidSpelling Morphology 2012- Page 10 "For example, in the Hebraist tradition, current v would be transcribed as either w or b following Hebrew graphemes – so that official place names on road signs in Israel can be quite misleading to non-Hebrew readers traveling around Israel."
^Exonyms and the International Standardisation of Geographical Names: Approaches towards the Resolution of an Apparent Contradiction Peter Jordan, Milan Orožen Adamič, Paul Woodman, Vienna 2007 Page 210 [lists Istanbul, as an English exonym of İstanbul. Istanbul appears to be the only English exonym listed for any Turkish city].
^Lonely Planet Turkey ed. Verity Campbell 2007 Page 233 "There are also flights between İzmir and Europe on various European airlines (see p672). With the launch of İzmir Airlines, direct flights to Europe will greatly increase, and İzmir is billed to become one of Turkey's biggest hubs." and Page 291 "Original İznik tiles are antiquities and cannot be exported from Turkey, but new tiles make great, if not particularly cheap, souvenirs."
^James Steele (1990). Turkey - A Traveller's Historical and Architectural Guide. Scorpion. pp. 161–162. ISBN0-905906-72-1.
^Jean-Pierre Duteil Alexandre de Rhodes' Histoire du royaume du Tonkin 1999 Page 37 "Tourane se développe aux dépends de Faifo à la fin du XVIfle siècle, et l'éclipsé à peu près complètement au XTXe. "Faifo" doit son nom au "marché" (phô) de Hôi an (Hôi-an phô). "Tourane" correspondrait à la pronunciation chinoise de .."
