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A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment
Hey, give them some credit, they have some diversity - there's place in europe, new place in europe, mispronounced place in europe, british ruler, catholic saint in spanish, american president, explorer related to america, and of course native american place/tribe, and random native american word
I think you're just describing how the etymology of most named places works.
The Spanish names barely count because those were originally Mexican and had been named before USA was born.
mispronounced place in europe
Americans can't pronounce Illinois
Illin-wah
N’wha!
In the west coast we typically just used the name of the native tribe we killed in order to take the land.
Or the Spanish name from when the Spanish took the land a couple hundred years before.
In Oklahoma we just use the name of whatever tribe was forcibly relocated there. Although I know of one town that was named after a misspelling of an indian chief's name. The Apollo 14 CSM pilot lived there.
It was Europeans who named those places.
Yeah, people from that city or place moved there and named their new home after their old home. There's a very Dutch area of Michigan with many immigrants from the Netherlands still there. Want to know a couple town names? Holland and Zeeland.
And at some places they even reassign them new genders: The coat of arms of Berne Switzerland has a bear with a red penis. The US town: New Berne has a bear without a penis as a coat of arms. This means during the sea transport, Berne's bear outed themselves as Transgender and changed their sex to a lady-bear. (At least in my head cannon)
Almost certainly typical American Puritanism.
Wow, history is fascinating!
Meanwhile, Alexander the Great: You'll be me lol
"Americans" as in white Europeans?
My ancestors had great names for places. Then the white invaders killed most of us and named our land after their home.
I think this meme would be better suggested to say white European immigrants to America.
It would be amazing if they had arrived to the Americas and ask some natives about how they call a place and they said "this? This is New Amsterdam. We don't know what's Amsterdam but this is a newer version of it"
There's a lot of places in America that are named after native American tribes. I guess it's the least our predecessors could do considering how badly they fucked over and slaughtered the natives.
"Yeah, we're naming this river after you guys in honor of your stewardship of the environment. No, it's not going to catch on fire or anything like that. How could a river catch on fire?"
Sure but calling them Americans is likely, mostly, sorta true but also ignores an important fact... They were Europeans (or near descendants of) calling the places that. Often a place was named that place because it reminded them of home / to honor their parents home.
Some other notable examples: New Zealand São Carlos, Brazil Munich, Saskatchewan Liverpool, New South Wales Nueva York, Colombia
First read this as “naming new borns” and I was thinking of names like Paris or London, and all of the comments kind of made sense but were still slightly off. It was a fun, confusing time for me, until I scrolled up and re-read OP. Thanks for listening to my story.
"Truth and Consequences, NM"
"Dinosaur, CO"
"City of Industry, CA"
"Why Not?, NC"
Springfield, yes
Memphis, Tennessee has entered the chat, y'all.
Along with Paris, Tennessee
I’m fairly sure Paris is Europe, not Africa.
Tennessee just loves being cultured. Did you know that Nashville has a full-scale replica of the Parthenon?
Upstate NY I went to Rome, Alexandria, Mexico, Florence, Norway, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Denmark, Coppenhagen, etc
EDIT: don't forget Swastika, NY
There is a small village in Ohio named Buena Vista.
The locals pronounce it in a way that rhymes with Loona Fista
Wow, really? We have a own with the same name in CO as well. We pronounce it like, "Byoona Vista" too.
Yeah those people are idiots though. They even claim it’s the Spanish words, they just don’t want to pronounce them like Spanish. So fucking stupid.
To be fair, many Spanish words are bastardizations of Arabic words. This is just how languages evolve. For example the word Guadalupe is believed to derive from Arabic wādī al-lubb (hidden river). When people in my town pronounce it "Guadaloop," it's actually closer to the OG than the Spanish is lol
I think there’s a difference between happenstance and purposefully doing it though. What you said is very true, but not purposeful. The people in buena vista know they are mispronouncing it, yet they still call it Spanish and they still do it. Either don’t call it Spanish or don’t do it.
insert flex tape meme slapping "New" onto the European name
Paris, Texas is a personal favorite.
Were staying in Paris! ...at the Hilton.
In Paris! ... Texas.
...on our way to see Paris! ... Hilton.
Hebron, Lebanon, and Bozrah CT have entered the chat.
Jamaica, VT has entered the chat
A new place of europe.