Posts by robbo the yobbo

Re: Burma

Burma in British English; the trailing 'h' is now optional. This is the only such name that the BBC doesn't use, since it was invented by e régime of which it disapproves. Governments may invent a preferred name in English for their country, but we do not have to use it. Too much kowtowing in this respect gives us such absurdities as 'Czech Republic' and 'Belarus'; while we are not supposed to use the English names for the unhappy countries Ivory Coast, and Saint Thomas and Prince. I don't recall a democratically-elected Chines government asking us to call Peking 'Beijing'. Speakers of non-English languages are spared these indignities.