this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
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Unpopular Opinion

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I'll admit I was rather ignorant growing up and the first time I had a conversation with someone and I pronounced Iran as "I ran" everyone roasted the shit outta me and shut me down, which like fair whatever. But my point is the pronunciation is secondary if you get the concept; that's kinda the point of language and accents in general. If we have to pronounce every country or place as its residents call it then we should roast and ignore every English speaker that says "Germany" instead of Deutschland.

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[–] Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Speaking as a German:
"Germany" is different, as this is a competely different word, so you are fine.

But I would definitely judge you if you used the actual word "Deutschland" instead and competely mutilated it phonetically.

So, my take:

If your country developed its very own name for another country for some historic reason:
That's kinda cool, keep using it!

But if you are just using the country's official name:
At least make some genuine effort to get the pronounciation right.
Unless perhaps you have already been using it for centuries already, then it's part of the language and doesn't make sense to change again.

[–] greendog@feddit.org 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

So as a Serb I’m wrong when I say Nederlandi instead of Nederland, Mađarska instead of Magyarország or Francuska instead of France?

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

I don't think that is what they meant. The only one of those I think that comes close is Nederlandi. Using Mađarska is not the same as using Magyaroszag but pronouncing it Magaroša or something like that.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Agreed. As a half Iranian, it's definitely Ee-raw'n for me.