skivvynine (imported) wrote: Thu Jun 12, 2008 9:22 pm there is no country called Holland. Holland is a providence of the Netherlands. It is like making Texas and The US synonymous. I have a degree in Geography. The countries should be called by their correct names. ...
Nevertheless, Holland, though a province of the Netherlands, has (by synecdoche) been the English name for the country for hundreds of years. Perhaps you could also reprove those who use the word vagina to refer to all of the vulva, or scold those who refer to the federal executive of the USA by the fairly broad term America or the guvment, or you could castigate anyone who uses metonomy at any time.
The common English name for the Hellenic Republic (Elliniki Dimokratia) is Greece; the common English name for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Al-Mamlaka al-Arabiya as-Saudiya) is Saudi Arabia; the common English name for the German republic (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is Germany; the common English name for the kingdom of Sweden (Konungariket Sverige) is Sweden. When people of these and numerous other countries decide to pronounce the proper names of towns and countries in the English-speaking world as they are locally, then I for one might consider using their terminology for their places. Until then I shall stick with, for instance, the understandable English names of Copenhagen instead of København, Munich instead of München, Rome instead of Roma, Japan instead of Nihon, Bangkok instead of Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, and even L.A. instead of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula, and so forth.