Is it Burma or Myanmar?

[Hopkirk]

The BBC are calling it Burma this year.

[DaisyNonna]

Suppose it depends on how old your atlas is. Have never found one which delineates Biafra. I know, I am a sad git.

[Nibble]

Both, called Burma in the english-speaking world, officially called Myanmar, but for the purposes of this site it's probably interchangable

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma

[Nibble]

Try here, Daisy

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/biafra.htm

[Nibble]

or here

http://www.biafraland.com/biafra_maps.htm

[mike11111]

There is an unfortunate trend for de-anglicising geographical names in favour of local ones. To me the capital of China will always be Peking, whilst Mumbai remains Bombay in my book. After all, we don't refer to Munchen, Wien, Oesterreich, Kovnhaven, to name but a few.

[DaisyNonna]

Thanks Nibble. Was reading Half a Yellow Sun. Your information has helped me to envisage the story.

[wildwood]

I agree mike, people frown on calling the Netherlands Holland, but the dutch themselves usually refer to their own country as Holland. Haven't yet seen a sticker that says "made in the Netherlands".

[owdhamer]

it was burma when we fighting the nips

[mike11111]

Good point, owdhamer. Nobody refers to Japan as Nippon. If they did they might be accused of closet racism. Just for the record, to me Zimbabwe is still Southern Rhodesia.

[Dodger666]

As with most things these days the answer is political. The UK doesn't recognise the legitimacy of the regime that changed the name

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7013943.stm

[Hopkirk]

Thanks Dodger.

It all sounds a bit playground childish behaviour by us really.

If they want to be called Myanmar, then that's what we should call them.

[237SJ]

A lot of the countries in the Indian subcontinent/SE Asia want their names/cities to be called something other than the names that "we" gave them. I can understand that. They want to differenciate between who they are now and who they were when under colonial rule.

[FredPuli43]

Curious, but all the Indians I've met recently, including some who actually live there,call the city Bombay! They thought Mumbai an imposition, but they were all older, prosperous , people who might be conservative in their views and who didn't like the party or people who decided to make the change.
Bring back Tanganyika and Nyasaland, that's what I say!

[Old_Geezer]

If it really is childish behaviour by us should we then call Germany, Deutschland ? And similarly for other countries ?

Each country names the world as they wish. Just as well as otherwise we'd get tongues in a twist trying to pronounce some things.

[DTCwordfan]

And they should call us England, Wales, Northern Ireland.

Scotland are doing their own thing and so who gives a toss about what they call themselves.

[sheranudeep]

I prefer to call it Myanmar .

[bookbinder]

Just to digress slightly:
when did Keenya become Kennya? I did part of my National Service there in the 1960s, and it was Keenya then.

[237SJ]

Another stange thing is that the airport codes for a lot of these places are still BOM, PEK etc.

[Old_Geezer]

The earliest I can recall becoming aware of the place bb I'm fairly sure it was pronounced "Kennya" as I seem to recall being surprised the first time I heard it called "Keenya". So my guess is that they've been alternative pronounciations for a very long time.

Hmmm a code is a code. I guess no reason to change it because the country calls the place it is located by a differnt name.

[FredPuli43]

KeNN-ya came in with independence. The terrorist/independence fighter/ leader/ statesman (according to when, and by whom, he was being described), Jomo Kenyatta, pronounced the 'Ken' part of his name as 'Kenn', not 'Keen'.No doubt distancing the country's name from the British name was also part of the decision and it was not thought necessary or desirable to create a completely new name.