Comments on: Dream’s a lie, V

by: Chris

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 02:47:34 +0000

Isn’t Holland a region of The Netherlands? I may be wrong. I am weak on my geography of The Netherlands. I knew about Greece’s proper name, wonder why no one calls it that? Hellas is nice. Sounds less like something slimey. And it’s Massachusetts, not Taxachusetts. Really, our taxes here are far lower than a lot of our neighboring states. Oh and Massachusetts is a commonwealth, not a state. Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

by: Thom Holwerda

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 21:15:16 +0000

Yes, but at least I *know* the proper name for Greece is Hellas (’Ellas, right? Or does the ‘ not denote an ‘h’ sound anymore in modern Greek?). I also know the proper name for the country we call ‘White Russia’ is Belarus. Or that Eskimos should be called Inuit. Or Sweden actually is Sverige. Or that Finland is Suomi.

Get the pattern?

I know what I’m talking about, I know that when I am visiting those countries, not to say ‘our’ name, but the proper local name. I have something called respect, I actually read up on the countries I’m visiting.

Most tourists don’t. And that can royally piss me off.

by: Eugenia

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 20:01:30 +0000

>they insist on calling it “Holland” while my country’s named “The Netherlands”

Well, in Greek we call your country “Ollandia”. This is the proper name of your country in Greek (and it means “Holland”). So, naturally, many Greeks would continue calling it as such even after learning english, because this is how they were taught it is called while they were in school.

But you are not alone. Greeks want Greece to be called “Hellas”, but no one calls them as such either. The word “Greek” comes from the turkish name “graikos”, and it has a meaning close to “slave”. So, they wanted it changed. But it ain’t gonna happen either.