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Monday, June 13, 2011

City names in Italian

Brace yourself, here comes something boring. Boring but useful, as is so often the case.

Yes, because as if it wasn't bad enough that you have to learn oodles and oodles of words in a foreign language, in this case Italian, you also have to learn the different words for the proper nouns i.e. those that begin with a capital letter. How pesky is that?

A case in point- city words. Yes, because the Italians will insist on giving their own names to various cities all over the globe. Especially big or famous cities.

OK, here is a non-exhaustive list as it comes to me:

London Londra
Paris Parigi
Philadelphia Filadelfia
Baltimore Baltimora
Dublin Dublino
Edinburgh Edinburgo
Stockholm Stoccolma
The Hague L'Aia (LIE-ah)
Antwerp Anversa
Leuven Lovanio
Hamburg Amburgo
Berlin Berlino
Munich Monaco ("di Baviera" is used if needed to differentiate from Monaco)
Augsburg Augusta
Stuttgart Stoccarda
Cologne Colonia
Aachen Aquisgrana
Trier Treviri
Lubeck Lubecca
Dresden Dresda
Frankfurt Francoforte
Gottingen Gottinga
Leipzig Lipsia
Tubingen Tubinga
Mainz Magonza
Konstanz Costanza
Nuremberg Norimberga
Regensburg Ratisbona (boy, they don't like German names)
Luxembourg Lussemburgo
Basel Basilea
Toulon Tolona
Zurich Zurigo
Bern Berna
Geneva Ginevra
Marseilles Marsiglia
Dijon Digione
Lyon Lione
Lille Lilla
Seville Siviglia
Strasbourg Strasburgo
Salzburg Salisburgo
Danzig Danzica
Dubrovnik Ragusa (also Dubrovnik)
Split Spalato
Warsaw Varsavia
Prague Praga
Cracow Cracovia
Saint Petersburg San Pietroburgo
Athens Atene
Moscow Mosca
Cairo Il Cairo
Beijing Pechino
Guangzhou Canton
Mexico City Citta' del Messico
Sao Paulo San Paolo
Seoul Seul
Jakarta Giacarta
Alexandria Alessandria
Damascus Damasco
Jerusalem Gerusalemme
Cape Town Citta' del Capo

God, that was so boring. And it's not even complete.