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Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Maribor, Slovenia.
Portoroz, Slovenia.
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Rail Map: Europe proudly presents: Slovania!
How do you pronounce Slovenia? I’ve always said Slo-VEEN-ia but regularly hear people (both English speakers and locals) saying Slo-VAIN-ia. The reasons vary. Natives will usually tell me that this more closely resembles the way it’s said in Slovene. I strongly suspect foreigners are subconsciously thinking of “Transylvania” and pronounce it accordingly.
It’s kind of a weird subject. I’ve actually had people (note the plural) get angry with my pronunciation. It’s odd.
Anyway, that just came to mind when I saw this mess of a map, which features the definitely-100%-wrong “Slovania.” The zoomed-in map fixes that mistake, but adds more in its place: displaying “Maribo” (macht Kinder froh?) instead of “Maribor,” not to mention a creative interpretation of where Ljubljana is. For that matter, Maribo, too, seems to have moved from the Austrian border to the Croatian one for no apparent reason.
But how would you pronounce Maribo? Mar-ee-bo? Or Mar-eye-bo?
Life is full of linguistic mysteries.
(Big thanks to Gary in Florida!)
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Slovenes pronounce Slo-VAIN-ia because of Oxford english they (we) learn in schools. You say an american accent world in school and you’re doomed. It’s stupid slovene school system.
Did you know that Piuka, Ostarije, Lapovo and Dimi(s)trovgrad are among the most significant cities of former YU? That Zagreb lies in the south of river Sava?
… and in former Krško we now have Ljubljana nuclear plant…
funny… However… in zoom-in map, Slovenia is Slovenia, however Croatia is Croation…
Maribo? Just a step away from Haribo :))))
But respect to them. They managed to write all (at least those, that I checked) unlegible hungarian names correctly. I mean, what is more difficult to write: Maribor or Szehesfehervar, or maybe even Kiskunfelegyhaza
@ Mitja: That’s not true; the word Slovenia is pronounced the same in British and American English. And it’s ’sl-err-vee-nee-err’ (IPA /slə.’viː.nɪə/), or for some speakers the first schwa is replaced by the diphthong /əʊ/ (/oʊ/ in American English).
)
And it hasn’t been my experience at all that schools in Slovenia dislike American accents; in fact, most Slovenes tend to speak English very much more like the Americans than the British. I think it has to do with all the American films shown on television. (It’s perhaps a bit unfortunate - to me, many of the popular American English accents are sort of grating with all the nasal sounds. But you know, as long as we understand each other, it’s all good.
Most of the Croatians I know say ‘Slo-VAIN-ia’.
Most of the Brits I know say ‘Where?’.
@Catherine:
re Cro: They don’t like their neighbours, huh?
re Brits:
[i]I strongly suspect foreigners are subconsciously thinking of “Transylvania” and pronounce it accordingly.[/i]
There is something about the Slovenia - Transylvania mix-up. I’ve seen it in a few places so far, for example the All Movie Guide overview of “The Fearless Vampire Killers”:
wc04.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:16980
Its true - most Brits don’t know Slovenia exists let alone where it is or how to pronounce it. The much trailed Michael Palin series on “Eastern Europe” didn’t do much to raise its profile either - an opening 30 second sequence on top of an Alp then straight off to Croatia. Very disappointing, as is the programme as a whole so far.
Also it was nice to see on the map that Scotland is no longer in the UK - a bit premature but only a matter of time.
The slightly larger Slovakia, however, isn’t named on this map at all. “Slovania” may well be a product of the fusion of Slovenia and Slovakia. (The eternal … ;o)
@ cija: It’s Székesfehérvár and it’s totally legible. It’s even not that hard to pronounce, I mean it’s only a short word. But try this one:
megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért.
Yep, it’s an actual Hungarian word.
megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért
I’m impressed, what does it mean?
megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért is the hungarian word for that little piece of plastic on the end of a shoelace.
Michael: I think if you do a little research you might find that Miss Teen South Carolina, the unfortunate YouTube star of some weeks past, is now the Director of Cartography for Rail Europe. Seriously, I hope this puts an end to the constant “Americans don’t know world geography” drum-beat.
Can’t wait to get to Maribo and buy you a beer!
kevin… did you mean that Miss Teen
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww
“Slovania” is not the biggest disaster on this map. Notice that the Czech Republic has annexed Slovakia while the Russian iron boot has taken back the once-Soviet lands of Eastern Europe and the Baltic coast, save a tiny sliver of western Ukraine… Meanwhile, Scotland has become a separate entity from the United Kingdom.