In avoiding exonyms During the late 20th century, the use of exonyms sometimes became controversial. Groups often prefer that outsiders avoid exonyms where they have come to be used in a
pejorative way. For example,
Romani people often prefer that term (Romani) over exonyms such as
Gypsy (from the name of
Egypt) or the French term (from the name of
Bohemia). People may also avoid exonyms for reasons of historical sensitivity, as in the case of German names for Polish and Czech places that, at one time, had been ethnically or politically German (e.g. Danzig/
Gdańsk,
Auschwitz/
Oświęcim and Karlsbad/
Karlovy Vary) or Russian names for non-Russian locations that regained their local name (e.g. Kiev/
Kyiv). In recent years,
geographers have sought to reduce the use of exonyms to avoid this kind of problem. For example, it is now common for Spanish speakers to refer to the Turkish capital as
Ankara rather than use the Spanish exonym . Another example, it is now common for Italian speakers to refer to some African states as
Mauritius and
Seychelles rather than use the Italian exonyms
Maurizio and
Seicelle. According to the
United Nations Statistics Division: Time has, however, shown that initial ambitious attempts to rapidly decrease the number of exonyms were over-optimistic and not possible to realise in an intended way. The reason would appear to be that many exonyms have become common words in a language and can be seen as part of the language's cultural heritage.
In preference of exonyms In some situations, the use of exonyms can be preferred. For instance, in
multilingual cities such as
Brussels, which is known for its linguistic tensions between Dutch- and French-speakers, a neutral name may be preferred so as to not offend anyone. Thus, an exonym such as Brussels in English could be used instead of favoring either one of the local names (
Dutch/
Flemish: ;
French: ). Other difficulties with endonyms have to do with pronunciation, spelling, and
word category. The endonym may include sounds and spellings that are highly unfamiliar to speakers of other languages, making appropriate usage difficult if not impossible for an outsider. Over the years, the endonym may have undergone
phonetic changes, either in the original language or the borrowing language, thus changing an endonym into an exonym, as in the case of
Paris, where the
s was formerly pronounced in French. Another example is the endonym for the German city of
Cologne, where the
Latin original of has evolved into in German, while the Italian and Spanish exonym or the Portuguese exonym closely reflect the Latin original. In some cases, no
standardised spelling is available, either because the language itself is unwritten (even unanalysed) or because there are competing non-standard spellings. Use of a misspelled endonym is perhaps more problematic than the respectful use of an existing exonym. Finally, an endonym may be a
plural noun and may not naturally extend itself to
adjectival usage in another language like English, which has the propensity to use the adjectives for describing culture and language.
Official preferences Sometimes the government of a country tries to endorse the use of an endonym instead of traditional exonyms outside the country: • In 1782,
King Yotfa Chulalok of
Siam moved the government seat from
Thon Buri Province to
Phra Nakhon Province. In 1972 the
Thai government merged Thon Buri and Phra Nakhon, forming the new capital, Krungthep Mahanakhon. However, outside of Thailand, the capital retained the old name and is still called
Bangkok. • In 1935,
Reza Shah requested that foreign nations use the name
Iran rather than Persia in official correspondence. (See
Name of Iran.) The name of the country had internally been Iran since the time of the
Sassanid Empire (224–651), whereas the name Persia is descended from
Greek (), referring to a single province which is officially known as
Fars province. • In 1939, the government of
Siam changed the name to
Thailand, although the former name's adjective in English (
Siamese) was retained as the name for the
fish,
cat and
conjoined twins. • In 1972, the government of
Ceylon (the word is the
anglicized form of Portuguese ) changed the name to
Sri Lanka, although the name Ceylon was retained as the name for
the type of tea. (See
Names of Sri Lanka.) • In 1985, the government of
Côte d'Ivoire requested that the country's French name be used in all languages instead of exonyms such as
Ivory Coast, so that Côte d'Ivoire is now the official English name of that country in the
United Nations and the
International Olympic Committee. (See
Name of Côte d'Ivoire.) In most non-
Francophone countries, however, the French version has not entered common parlance. For example, in German, the country is known as , in Spanish as and in Italian as . • In 1989, the
government of Burma requested that the English name of the country be
Myanmar, with
Myanma as the adjective of the country and
Bamar as the name of the inhabitants. (See
Names of Burma.) • The
Government of India officially changed the English name of Bombay to
Mumbai in November 1995, following a trend of
renaming of cities and states in India that has occurred since independence. • The
Ukrainian government maintains that the capital of Ukraine should be spelled
Kyiv in English (See
Name of Turkey.) •
Istanbul (Turkish: ) is still called () in Greek, although the name was changed between 1923 and 1930 in Turkish to dissociate the city from its Greek past. (The name
Istanbul itself may derive from
Constantinople. Prior to , the city was known in Greek as (, ), named after its mythical founder,
Byzas.)
Hanyu Pinyin Following the 1979 declaration of
Hanyu Pinyin spelling as the standard
romanisation of Chinese, many Chinese endonyms have successfully replaced English exonyms, especially city and most provincial names in
mainland China, for example:
Beijing (),
Qingdao (), and the province of
Guangdong (). However, older English exonyms are sometimes used in certain contexts, for example: Peking (Beijing;
duck,
opera,
University, etc.), Tsingtao (Qingdao), and Canton (Guangdong). In some cases the traditional English exonym is based on a local
Chinese variety instead of
Mandarin, in the case of
Xiamen, where the name Amoy is closer to the
Hokkien pronunciation. In the case of
Beijing, the adoption of the endonym by media outlets quickly gave rise to a
hyperforeignism, with the result that many English speakers actualize the
j in
Beijing as . One exception of Pinyin standardization in mainland China is the spelling of the province
Shaanxi, which is the mixed
Gwoyeu Romatzyh–Pinyin spelling of the province. That is because if Pinyin were used to spell the province, it would be indistinguishable from its neighboring province
Shanxi, where the pronunciations of the two provinces only differ by tones, which are usually not written down when used in English. In Taiwan, however, the standardization of Hanyu Pinyin has only seen mixed results. In
Taipei, most (but not all) street and district names shifted to Hanyu Pinyin. For example, the Sinyi District is now spelled
Xinyi. However, districts like
Tamsui and even Taipei itself are not spelled according to Hanyu Pinyin spelling rules. As a matter of fact, most names of Taiwanese cities are still spelled using
Chinese postal romanization, including
Taipei,
Taichung,
Taitung,
Keelung, and
Kaohsiung. During the 1980s, the Singapore Government encouraged the use of Hanyu Pinyin spelling for place names, especially those with Teochew, Hokkien or Cantonese names, as part of the
Speak Mandarin Campaign to promote Mandarin and discourage the use of "dialects". For example, the area of Nee Soon, named after
Teochew-Peranakan businessman
Lim Nee Soon (林義順, : lim5 ngi6 sung6, : Lín Yìshùn) became Yishun and the neighbourhood schools and places established following the change used the Hanyu Pinyin spelling. In contrast,
Hougang is the Hanyu Pinyin spelling but the Hokkien pronunciation
Aū-káng is most commonly used. The changes to Hanyu Pinyin were not only financially costly but were unpopular with the locals, who opined that the Hanyu Pinyin versions were too difficult for non-Chinese or non-Mandarin speakers to pronounce. The government eventually stopped the changes by the 1990s, which has led to some place names within a locality having differing spellings. For example, Nee Soon Road,
Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency, and the
Singapore Armed Forces base Nee Soon Camp are all located in Yishun but retained the old spelling. == Exonyms as pejoratives ==