By Patricia VollmerEmail Author<\/p>\n
January 17, 2013 |<\/p>\n
9:30 am |<\/p>\n
Istanbul, not Constantinople. How and why does our world\u2019s geography keep us on our toes? Image: Flickr user Library_of_Congress.<\/p>\n
This past week I did some Air Force Reserve duty. As a weather officer, one of the things I do is prepare an assortment of weather \u201cbriefings\u201d for an assortment of military decisionmakers. We look around the world and highlight the global \u201cbig ticket\u201d weather features. We also point out other earth-science items of interest, from solar flares to earthquakes to volcano eruptions. For example, if there\u2019s a tropical storm heading towards the Korean peninsula, we would bring that to the military decisionmakers\u2019 attention, since we have a military interest there.<\/p>\n
Since I only perform my duties for one week out of every two-to-three months, I have to keep aware of changes in our procedures and schedules for our weather briefings. A more subtle change I saw last week was someone mentioning the \u201cArabian Gulf\u201d on a piece of correspondence.<\/p>\n
What a second\u2026I\u2019ve heard of the Arabian Sea\u2026and the Persian Gulf. But you keep using that word\u2026Arabian Gulf. I don\u2019t think it means what you think it means.<\/p>\n
Or does it?<\/p>\n
Some quick Googling led me to an article from late 2010 about the U.S. Navy quietly encouraging the term \u201cArabian Gulf\u201d as opposed to \u201cPersian Gulf\u201d in the online U.S. Navy Style Guide. According to the article, the Iranians weren\u2019t happy about the change in Navy nomenclature. Under the term \u201cArabian Gulf\u201d in the guide, it reads, \u201cArabian Gulf – use instead of Persian Gulf\u201d and under \u201cPersian Gulf\u201d it says, \u201cPersian Gulf – use Arabian Gulf. \u2018Gulf\u2019 is acceptable in second reference. Note: The Arabian Sea is its own body of water and should not be confused with references to the Arabian Gulf.\u201d In the article, you can learn quite a bit about the history of the name of that body of water that separates Iran from the Arabian peninsula.<\/p>\n
GeekMom Jules and I had a conversation after the big earthquake that struck British Columbia during the last time I was performing my AF Reserve work. I was talking about it on Facebook and Twitter after work on the day it happened, and I had refered to the location as \u201cthe Queen Charlotte Islands\u201d, since that\u2019s how I had read about it through the US Geological Survey reporting. Jules explained to me that the name had been restored to its native Haida Gwaii in 2010.<\/p>\n
This got me thinking about other culturally sensitive geographic naming conventions that exist in our ever-shrinking global perspectives. It happens all the time, sometimes Americans are taught one name, but Europeans might be taught another.<\/p>\n
Here are but a few examples of naming conventions that have changed throughout history, or have differing names based on our backgrounds. Some of the changes are internal and peaceful, many are related to external power struggles. Some of the changes are simply a matter of restoring traditional names, some are related to winning a contest for a game show. I\u2019m not going to delve into the history of each naming convention, but I\u2019ve offered links that you can click to explore more.<\/p>\n
St. Petersburg to Petrograd to Leningrad back to St. Petersburg<\/p>\n
Ceylon to Sri Lanka<\/p>\n
Siam to Thailand to Siam to Thailand<\/p>\n
Burma or Myanmar?<\/p>\n
Constantinople to Istanbul<\/p>\n
Peking to Beijing (and other Chinese geographic names\u2026was that really a change? read the link to learn more)<\/p>\n
Bombay to Mumbai (similar to China\u2019s changes)<\/p>\n
Yugoslavia to Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro<\/p>\n
Rhodesia to Zimbabwe (or was it really ever Rhodesia?)<\/p>\n
U.S. Civil War battle names such as Antietam vs. Sharpsburg or Manassas vs. Bull Run<\/p>\n
Denali vs. Mount McKinley<\/p>\n
The creation of the Canadian Territory of Nunavut in 1999<\/p>\n
Hot Springs, New Mexico to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico<\/p>\n
The moral of the story? Keep on your toes with your geography! Things are always changing.<\/p>\n
Can you think of any others? I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve missed many; my world view is very limited!<\/p>\n
via Istanbul or Constantinople? Thinking About Names in Geography | GeekMom | Wired.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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