King Mswati III, absolute ruler of Swaziland, has decreed that the name of the nation will now be "Kingdom of eSwatini" , in part because of persistent confusion with Switzerland.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43821512
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-swaziland-monarch-country/africas-last-absolute-monarch-renames-swaziland-as-eswatini-idUSKBN1HQ2NO
Confusion with Switzerland? What about Austria and Australia, or Mauritius and Mauritania?
Sounds like the name of an internet store from the 90s.
It's good to be the King. :)
Quote from: 1 on April 19, 2018, 07:18:23 PM
Confusion with Switzerland? What about Austria and Australia, or Mauritius and Mauritania?
Not to mention the scads of countries ending in -istan (I still can keep any of them straight).
Quote from: webny99 on April 19, 2018, 09:59:11 PM
Quote from: 1 on April 19, 2018, 07:18:23 PM
Confusion with Switzerland? What about Austria and Australia, or Mauritius and Mauritania?
Not to mention the scads of countries ending in -istan (I still can keep any of them straight).
That's equivalent to there being Iceland, Poland, England, Greenland, Alanland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, etc. It would be easier to remember the -stans if you lived in Asia, closer to them.
If billionaires are looking for a bank account, I would think being confused with Switzerland would be a good thing.
Quote from: 1 on April 19, 2018, 10:05:39 PM
Quote from: webny99 on April 19, 2018, 09:59:11 PM
Quote from: 1 on April 19, 2018, 07:18:23 PM
Confusion with Switzerland? What about Austria and Australia, or Mauritius and Mauritania?
Not to mention the scads of countries ending in -istan (I still can keep any of them straight).
That's equivalent to there being Iceland, Poland, England, Greenland, Alanland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, etc. It would be easier to remember the -stans if you lived in Asia, closer to them.
In that case, confusing Swazi
land and Switzer
land shouldn't be surprising. Unlike the other examples, they actually sound (somewhat) similar and have the same amount of syllables.
I, for one, don't usually mix up Austria with Australia (or Australasia ;-)).
Austria ....
G'DAY MATE!
Quote from: webny99 on April 19, 2018, 09:59:11 PMNot to mention the scads of countries ending in -istan (I still can keep any of them straight).
Really? Not even one or two?
I can very much understand Turkmeni- and Tajiki-, and perhaps Kazakh- and Kyrgyz- due to the similar rest of the names, and Uzbeki-/Tajiki-/Turkmeni-/Kyrgyz- due to all being a cluster of somewhat similar size and shape, but Pakistan is surely easy to keep straight with its non-similar name and obvious geographic location? And surely Afghanistan has been on the news enough this century for its shape to be recognisable?
In other similar names - Niger and Nigeria; Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana and Equatorial Guinea; Slovenia and Slovakia; DRC and ROC.
Even somewhat less similarly named countries in close geographical proximity don't help - Latvia and Lithuania, Montenegro and Macedonia, Iran and Iraq (though the news has mostly been a help there, though sometimes they've got it wrong).
Don't forget Dominica and the Dominican republic.
Anyway, I decided to continue knowing the country as Swaziland, much like I do with Burma, Ivory Coast and (only in Spanish) Byelorussia (Interesting enough, I don't do the same for Cabo Verde since this is already its name in Spanish).
Sounds like an April Fool's joke, albeit several days late.
I know about all the countries, and it's not just limited to those. States and provinces have that problem too (IL and IN; MS and MO; MB and MN; NB and NL, among others).
Quote from: 1 on April 19, 2018, 07:18:23 PMConfusion with Switzerland? What about Austria and Australia, or Mauritius and Mauritania?
I don't think King Mswati III would have any say over those. :awesomeface:
Quote from: cjk374 on April 21, 2018, 09:17:51 AMDilly dilly!!!
To the pit of misery with you!
As a torturer. Going 'dilly dilly' every time someone speaks and pouring kegs of Bud Light (sometimes Bud Light Lime for added horror) on the miscreants once a shift is all you need do - the misery is absolute.
Quote from: KeithE4Phx on April 19, 2018, 09:23:09 PM
It's good to be the King. :)
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1d/df/db/1ddfdb68822ed58ca0a20fe99bf1366e.jpg)
Quote from: 1 on April 19, 2018, 07:18:23 PM
Confusion with Switzerland? What about [...] Mauritius and Mauritania?
Well, most people have heard of neither; so, if there's any confusion, it stems from the fact that these countries even exist, rather than distinguishing between the two. :)
Quote from: GenExpwy on April 19, 2018, 06:51:21 PM
... "Kingdom of eSwatini" ....
Too bad they're landlocked so they don't have a bay.
"eSwatini" sounds like a drink you'd order at a bar.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on April 21, 2018, 09:46:53 PM
"eSwatini" sounds like a drink you'd order at a bar.
It sounds like a lot of things. When I first read "eSwatini", the first thing that came to my mind was a video I had seen ages ago. For some reason, "Swatini" refreshed my memory on this video, I had no idea I even remembered it until now. Funny the name change of a country reminded me of a tiny little ridiculous memory from a while ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGGOn-H7s3Q
He also changed the official language of Swaziland to Swedish and declared that all children under 16 years of age are now 16 years of age.
Quote from: 1 on April 19, 2018, 07:18:23 PM
Confusion with Switzerland? What about Austria and Australia, or Mauritius and Mauritania?
Yes. A friend of mine used to send letters and packages to her dad in Vienna, and finally starting addressing them with EUROPE written at the end of the address, because otherwise they all went the (very) long way.
Quote from: vdeane on April 19, 2018, 08:05:09 PM
Sounds like the name of an internet store from the 90s.
:-D
My friend I grew up with was born in Australia.. she had someone tell her you speak English so well for being from Australia
Z981
What to think of the Slovenia / Slovakia fiasco :pan: And throw in the nearby Slavonia region too!
We have the problem of Dutch > Holland > Netherlands. Three names for the same thing. In Dutch it's just "Nederland(s)".
"Holland" is a region, it makes up 2 of the 12 provinces. A Dutchman would not refer to the country as Holland in Dutch, though it's common in English for simplification issues. Holland is also a bit of an international brand name for the Netherlands.
I had a Internet friend from a Dutch town near the German border (can't remember the name of it at the moment), not in the Holland region, who was very particular about people referring to the country as Holland. He made the point that it was rather like referring to Houston as being in "California" because that is one of the United States's best known regions.
Holland's Dutch? Here's me thinking it is a former county-level entity run from Boston in the Fen area of Lincolnshire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parts_of_Holland). ;)
Quote from: Scott5114 on April 26, 2018, 07:47:51 PM
I had a Internet friend from a Dutch town near the German border (can't remember the name of it at the moment), not in the Holland region, who was very particular about people referring to the country as Holland. He made the point that it was rather like referring to Houston as being in "California" because that is one of the United States's best known regions.
Well, some Europeans use "America" to describe the USA and Canada (which probably pisses off Canadians and Latinos in equal measures), so...
Quote from: abefroman329 on April 27, 2018, 10:04:29 AMWell, some Europeans use "America" to describe the USA (which probably pisses off Canadians, Caribbeans, and Latin Americans), so...
FIFY.
Though, this is from a continent where a political union of just over half the countries, and about 70% of the people, is treated as the entire continent by so many - and some aggressively so. I've had people have a go at me for correcting 'Britain is leaving Europe' by saying 'how? outboard motors?' and for responding to 'all of Europe hates Brexit' with 'Iceland have been nothing but incredibly positive, and you keep blaming the Russians for it' - not because of my belligerent tone (though there is that), but because I've acknowledged the existence of a Europe outside of the EU and that is blasphemy to these Little Europeans for whom even parts of Europe are something to ignore - let alone the wider world of Asia, America, Africa and Australia.
Quote from: Chris on April 26, 2018, 03:58:14 PM
We have the problem of Dutch > Holland > Netherlands. Three names for the same thing. In Dutch it's just "Nederland(s)".
"Holland" is a region, it makes up 2 of the 12 provinces. A Dutchman would not refer to the country as Holland in Dutch, though it's common in English for simplification issues. Holland is also a bit of an international brand name for the Netherlands.
King of Swaziland logic: "My country has problems with poverty, AIDS, civil unrest, etc., but let's forget all those problems and instead change our country's name because we get confused with the European country with the watches, knives, chocolate, and banks."
Quote from: theroadwayone on May 01, 2018, 03:32:09 PM
King of Swaziland logic: "My country has problems with poverty, AIDS, civil unrest, etc., but let's forget all those problems and instead change our country's name because we get confused with the European country with the watches, knives, chocolate, and banks."
They learned the art of distracting the population from their real problems from the west.