New evidence of Viking life in America?

[meridannight]

Thank you for placing on me and the rest of the Spanish speaking population such lovely adjectives.

But, if that is so, you can direct your usual irrational anger towards the parent language from trumping over Italian and not towards Spanish speaking folks.

Of course, you can also blame it on Spain colonizing much more of the world than Italy ever managed (oh wait, Italy didn't even exist back then, oops), rendering the 470 million current native Spanish speakers in existence all of whom know the name Américo Vespucio vs the more modest 65 million Italians ever suffering from having their cities and names all called differently.

Have you noticed how Anglo-speakers almost never anglicize Spanish location names, pronunciation aside? And instead you peeps get Rome and Naples and Milan and Venice? (the nerve!). Oh the shame on poor Italians.

i didn't say 'Spanish-speaking people'. i explicitly said 'Spanish'. i don't consider Chileans Spanish. I also don't say 'Spanish' and mean Colombians, Argentines, Brazilians, or anybody else other than a Spanish national. i say Spanish and mean Spanish. do you consider Chileans, for example, being Spanish? my experience is with people of Spain. i have no experience with people of Latin America. thus i cannot speak of them.

Amerigo Vespucci is the way his name is spelled in English as well. if you insist on going by the numbers that adds to 1.2 billion people who use Amerigo Vespucci.

[MENTION=18457]LONDONER[/MENTION]'s post was in English meant for people speaking/communicating in English. ergo, the correct form is Amerigo Vespucci in that context. it is completely nonsensical to use the Spanish version in English. it is inauthentic and grammatically incorrect. just the same, i don't say Giulio Cesare when talking about Julius Caesar, when i communicate in English language. although that is how his name is written in Italian and the form i was taught at school, and the one i use when talking to my friends about him. i don't say 'Stati Uniti' instead of 'United States' or 'Unione europea' instead of 'European Union'. doing that would amount to what LONDONER did by pushing for the Spanish version on Amerigo -- it would be an incorrect and uneducated use of language.

it has been my opinion ever since i knew anything about cultures beyond my home that names of people, places and works of art should be preserved in their original form (spelling and pronunciation) and not translated into other languages. this practice is distasteful and i will fight against its use as long as i live. (you guys aren't the only ones on the receiving end of this. i do this in real life with friends/acquaintances/strangers too). i'm a purist in this matter: François I should never become 'Francis I'. Firenze should never become stupid 'Florence' (what a ridiculous version). and just as well - the pronunciation of the Spanish name 'Jesus' should never become the English 'jesus' /ˈdʒiːzəs/. it's completely perverse in its 'translated' form.

this kind of practice is complete bullshit and disrespectful to the individuals and their place of origin and cultural heritage.