Written by: Gilberto Castañeda-Hernandez

Professor of Advanced Studies of the
National Polytechnic School in Mexico City

Adapted by:  Laura Bazzurro

Translating the names of geographical entities (names of cities, states, provinces, countries and other geographical terms) is like navigating in treacherous waters. 

When there is doubt about translating the name of a given place, it is recommended that a document be found that serves as a primary source.  Translating, transferring or adapting geographical terms accurately is a most difficult, yet rewarding, task.

Old places, but not new ones, change names.  True or false?

I have always wondered why certain cities and places are not known in their native forms in other languages, while others are.  For example, Firenze is also known as Florencia and Florence, and London is known as Londres and Londra.  Cities that change their names in translation are often old European towns, having been founded in antiquity or in the Middle Ages.  This is the case of Lisbon, Krakow, Brussels, Rome, Cologne, among others.  On the other hand, many cities in the American continent, founded as of the sixteenth century,  keep their original name in different languages, Chicago, Toronto, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Acapulco are a case in point. It could therefore be deduced that European cities have different names in translation (exonyms), because they are old, but the names of some American cities do not get translated, because they are more recent.

On the other hand, Amsterdam and Madrid are simply transferred, not translated.  Some cities located in the Caribbean, which are considerably less old, such as Port-au-Prince in Haiti, and Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago, the names changes when translated into Spanish, becoming Puerto Príncipe and Puerto España, respectively.  Another Caribbean city christened after its patron saint, Santiago de Cuba, keeps its Spanish denomination unchanged when rendering it in French.  In English, Puerto Rico is simply transferred from Spanish.

The Galician city of Santiago de Compostela is translated into French as Saint Jacques de Compostelle, and into English as Saint James of Compostela.  Also located in the North of Spain, we find San Sebastián, a city that keeps its Spanish name unaltered in both English and French.  It is simply transferred, not translated.  Therefore, the theory that ancient cities change their names in different languages, while newer towns do not, applies to some, but not to all cases.

If you don´t know the exact translation, keep the name in the original language.  But, which one is the original language sometimes?

When the translation of a geographical entity is not available, or it is not known to the translator, the best solution is to keep the place´s name in its original language.  This is the case of the Dutch city of Maastricht.  In Spanish, however, there is no generally accepted translation or adaptation available.  The Low Countries pose a special challenge when it comes to the translation of geographical names.  This region includes The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the North of France.  The Low Countries once belonged to the Spanish crown.  While some provinces became independent, others remained possessions of the Hapsburgs –these being initially Spanish and then passing on to Austrian suzerainty.

The tongue spoken in the north of the Low Countries is known to its inhabitants as Nederlands.  Nederlands is translated into French as Néerlandais, and into English as Dutch.  Nederlands is the name of the actual language, which comprises all the local dialects spoken in The Netherlands and Flanders.

In many cases, when there is doubt about translating the name of a given place, it is recommended that a document be found that serves as a primary source.  This can be complicated in the Low Countries.  Let´s look at the city of Lille.  Lille is located in the Nord-pas-de-Calais region of France.  Lille translates into dutch as Rijsel.  Lille has no translation into English.  So, following the recommendation of keeping geographical names in their original tongue, Lille will remain Lille when translating a document.  Englishr efer to Lille as Rijsel.

Also the main port of Belgium is Antwerpen (in Dutch) and is translated as Antwerp in English, amberes in Spanish, and Anvers in French. 

The town of budweis, for example, home of the famous Budweiser beer is the town´s name in German.  Pilsen another bohemian town famous for its beer.

We have already seen that San Sebastián is transferred as such into English and French.  San Sebastián is a bastion of Basque nationalism and many natives prefer to designate it as Donostia.

The “o” in burgo did not make it across the Atlantic

Many European towns started as burgs.  Thus, the suffix burg, or one of its variations, is frequently found at the end of a city´s name.  Hamburg, Strasbourg, Edinburgh, and Saint Petersburg are good examples.  In Spanish they are translated as Hamburgo, Estrasburgo, Edinburgo, San Petersburgo.  Sin embargo, Pittsburgh it remains the same in English. 

When translating the names of Canadian towns, beware not only of English and French, but also of a capricious use of Latin:

Canada, as Belgium, has more than one official language.  In most cases, the names of Canadian towns are  simply transferred, not translated.  This is the case of Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Regina.  But the island of Newfoundland is known in French as Terre Neuve.  In Spanish, the name of the island is Terranova or Terra Nova as recorded in the early geography books. 

Latin medical terms, on the other hand, frequently undergo changes in Spanish (eg. Post partum = postparto), but not in English.   In Spanish, Nova Scotia´s name is translated as Nueva Escocia. 

Names including the word “New”:  Gender and translation issues.

When colonizing America, the English, French, and Spanish frequently named the new territories after cities, regions, or provinces in their home countries –adding the word “new” to the original name.  This is the origin of New York, Nouvelle Orléans, and Nuevo México.  The word state translates as état and estado in French and Spanish, respectively, being masculine in both cases.  On the other hand, city translates to ville and ciudad, both feminine.  New Orleans is translated as Nouvelle Orléans.  It could be argued that the French prefer to leave the names of the New towns in their original tongue.

Ending in “a” is normally feminine in Spanish.  How does it translate into French?

It is a rule of thumb that in Spanish, with few exceptions, words ending in “a” are feminine, while those ending in “o” are masculine.  This is not the case in French, were feminine names frequently end in “e”.  It can thus be assumed that geographical names ending in “a” in Spanish will end in “e” in French, e.g., Barcelona-barcelone, Bolivia-bolivie, Argentina-Argentine.  However, for other names ending in “a” in Spanish, their rendering into French keeps the name´s spelling unaltered, but the gender changes.  Such is the case of the Central American countries of Guatemala, Panama, and Nicaragua which are feminine in Spanish and masculine in French.

Careful with the accent: Same symbol, different values:

In Spanish the acento or tilde indicates a stressed syllable.  In French, however, the same symbol, known as the accent aigu, denotes a change in the pronunciation of the vowel.  In some cases, when these two different types of accents are considered equivalent, as the diacritic is the same, mistakes can be made.  Let us consider the city and province of Quebec in Canada.  In French, the spelling is Quebec.  In Spanish, in order to respect the original pronunciation, the spelling must be Quebec. 

In French, the name is Montréal , where the accent does not indicate the stressed vowel, but the way the “e” should be pronounced.  In Spanish, the unquestionable spelling is Montreal.  In English we say Orleans without accent, and in French we say Orléans.

Can you find some more cities that are spelled differently in English and Spanish?? Or in other languages ??