The BBC are quite poor at this kind of thing, preferring their style guide to official names. The still use Czech Republic for Czechia, Republic of Ireland for Ireland, and Turkey for Türkiye.
As an Irish person, yes. Just calling Ireland Ireland when you are specifically being asked what country you are from for official purposes is a bit too orbital a view. Same goes for discussions from within a country holding contested ground sharing the name of a country with an island, blah blah.
It's a complicated subject, and nobody begrudges them the clarity.
I think if you ask around, you'll find yourself very much in the minority of Irish people. Republic of Ireland is almost never used outside of the football team, as it's simply not the name of the country.
You're not understanding my comment at all. I'm not talking about the internal use of ROI within Ireland.
Not once have I heard anyone even broach this as a topic. Nobody cares. If someone asks you where you are from, and you tell them Ireland, and they inquire the north or the republic - what are you going to do? Just repeat "Ireland" at them like some kind of contrarian idiot? Tell them you are "not from northern Ireland" so as to rule out all of the places you are not from?
ROI is a perfectly serviceable term for helping people understand what you mean, if the context isn't clear enough already.
> Not once have I heard anyone even broach this as a topic.
I have a feeling you just don't pay attention or, from previous experience with you, are incapable of determining how other people feel about this topic.
> ROI is a perfectly serviceable term for helping people understand what you mean, if the context isn't clear enough already.
It's a specifically politically charged term used by people who either don't know better or have a bone to pick. It's not commonly used in Ireland and it's not used to differentiate innocently between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
> Everybody else is (thankfully!) now moving on with their lives.
Or you're just blind to the issues. Your comments here and lack of familiarity with Irish politics and culture suggests you may be a non-Irish person making assumptions about the country? Or maybe you are Irish and oblivious.
Not a new name, but Czechia has made a concerted effort since 2016 to have it used in place of the Czech Republic. Almost all international body and most media style guides have since acceded. The BBC lags.
> To be fair, I don't think this is partisan, but rather just a way to differentiate the state from the island.
No, like the British Isles, this is very much a controversial name and one to which the Irish Government formally objects. This is even the source of a diplomatic disagreement between the Irish Government and Wikipedia due to their style guide.
If an article would use "Islamic Republic of Iran" then it should use "Czech Republic". If they would just write "Iran" then they should use "Czechia".
I don’t know about the UK but, In America I never hear Czechia, just Czech Republic. To my ears it sounds no more formal than “United States”. I understand that’s not the case in the EU though.
To be fair Czechia has been official for less than a decade. Unless people are dealing with it on a regular basis they're going to use what they know which, for most is still Czech Republic.
Czechia has been the official name in English since independence in 1993. It's only since 2016 that the Government of the Czech Republic has been making a concerted effort to change usage abroad.
No, that's not the case, as even in contexts where the long name is normally used, such as UN nameplates and resolutions, Czechia is now used in preparation for the removal of the long name.
But it is. Republic of Ireland when used to refer to the country is used almost exclusively in Britain and specifically to marginalise the country of Ireland.
I’m dubious—I’m an American who knows comparatively little about the Troubles and yet have always thought “Republic of Ireland” was the official name. I certainly use it fairly often, completely innocuously, to distinguish between it and Northern Ireland. I probably picked it up from the Wikipedia article, which prominently lists them both as common names.
the republic of ireland, or the irish republic is the official name of the country as stated on the constitution. it's not offensive at all to my irish self and is on every international letter address.
southern ireland is mildly offensive because it implies ignorance of my government but not very much so. if it was offensive we wouldn't use the term northern ireland so often. the official name for that is so long i don't remember it off hand.
> the republic of ireland, or the irish republic is the official name of the country as stated on the constitution.
No, the exact opposite is true. The Irish Government even instruct all bodies of the State to never use either term.
> it's not offensive at all to my irish self and is on every international letter address.
It may not offend you, but is not on any international address. Don't know where you get that idea.
> southern ireland is mildly offensive because it implies ignorance of my government but not very much so.
Southern Ireland and Republic of Ireland are both used in different contexts primarily by British institutions to marginalise Ireland and to appease Unionists, who complain any time Ireland is used to refer to the country.
> if it was offensive we wouldn't use the term northern ireland so often. the official name for that is so long i don't remember it off hand.
The official name of Northern Ireland is "Northern Ireland".
Honestly, I can't tell if you're trolling or actually this ignorant of your own country?
Spelling is one thing, but no one pronounces it the Ukrainian way (ˈkɪjiu̯) which is somewhat torturous for non-Ukrainian speakers. The best common pronunciation in English that more or less respects English phonetic patterns IMO is "KEE-iv".
Still, people need to respect the fact that each language can create their own variants. English speakers are under no obligation to call Wales "Cymru" or Finland "Suomi". It's fine.
why single it out? even the countries that use (mostly) latin alphabet don't necessary have the same name in english - Poland is Polska, Lithuania is Lietuva, Estonia is Eesti, Finland is Suomi, etc. And latinizations/romanizations are often wildly inaccurate - Ukraine is actually Ukraina, Russia is actually Rossia, and the english pronunciations are completely wrong. Japan is Nihon. etc etc.
>Republic of Ireland for Ireland
there are two irelands, fyi
>Türkiye
no one can type that u on a keyboard without googling and copypasting it. you might as well insist on using hieroglyphs for CJK things
>Republic of Ireland refers to the soccer team and nothing else, FYI.
'The Republic of Ireland' is the official descriptive term for the country named 'Ireland' in English, per the Republic of Ireland Act 1948. I have certainly heard 'Republic of Ireland' used in Ireland, or just 'the Republic', but almost always in cases where the descriptive distinction is important. I'd agree that outside of those cases, using 'Republic of Ireland' by default can be a problem.
>Because the country of Czechia has asked the English-speaking world to refer to it that way.
Unlike the political complexities around 'Republic of Ireland', 'The Czech Republic' actually is the official long name of the country in English, with 'Czechia' the official short name; the country's government promotes 'Czechia', but I don't think there is a suggestion that 'Czech Republic' is no longer acceptable. I have also never actually heard anyone in the country refer to it as Czechia in English.
> The Republic of Ireland' is the official descriptive term for the country named 'Ireland' in English, per the Republic of Ireland Act 1948.
The context is important. The Act revoked dominion status and role of the British Crown in the Irish executive branch, thus making Ireland a republic, and so deserving of a new description (the previous having been the Irish Free State).
Czechia is the only way I've heard the country referred to (in the news as it rarely comes up in person).
Accusations of colonialism are preposterous. Every language has its own names for other countries and cities. These range from adaptations to the phonetic patterns of the language (pl: Warszawa -> de: Warschau; fr: Paris -> nl: Parijs) or completely different (pl: Polska -> hu: Lengyelország; cy: Cymru -> en: Wales).
No, you're completely wrong. We - as an international society - generally accept the name that countries would like to be called, even in our own languages.
In English, we say:
Sri Lanka, not Ceylon,
Burkina Faso, not the Republic of Upper Volta,
Botswana, not the Bechuanaland Protectorate,
Bangladesh, not East Pakistan,
The Netherlands, not Holland,
Thailamd, not Siam,
Etc
Colonialism perfectly sums up the arrogant attitude that you can decide for them what another country will be called.
So Americans/Irish/English/Scots/Welsh/Australians are all being "colonialist" when they refer to Wien as 'Vienna', Čechy as 'Bohemia', Abertawe as 'Swansea' and La Manche as 'The English Channel'?
Sadly, this kind of illogical and undiscerning paranoia has invaded school curricula and universities as an overreaction to imperialism. It's part of the "hermeneutic of suspicion"; behind everything lurks an insidious evil intent, whether it is self-serving power and a will to dominate others, racism, colonialism, misogyny, or whatever. Those things exist, absolutely, but minds steeped in the hermeneutic of suspicion have one track minds. They read this threat into nearly everything.
Curiously, they don't seem to notice it in the workings of the very hermeneutic itself.
According to your logic, the Germans should harangue the Azerbaijanis till they change "Almaniya" (the word for Germany in their language, which probably derives from the French "Allemagne") to "Deutschland".
The Finns call Germany "Saksa", those Finno-imperialists!
Exactly. And in the case of "Niemcy" above (which ultimately comes from the proto-Slavic "*němьcь", meaning "mute"), it would be ridiculous to claim that Poles have some kind of colonial relationship with the Germans. If anything, the reverse has been true in history: it was the Germans who engaged in colonial politics toward Poland, including the enactment of cultural policies that were designed to ethnically cleanse and germanize the country.
Yes, Germany could request that all of the above rename Germany in their respective languages and at least the EU nations would.
This has already happened quite recently as the Netherlands requested that countries moved to translations of Netherlands when referring to their country (as opposed to Holland and translations thereof) and all the EU nations did. This was in 2019.
So if Germany so desired, they could make those requests and they would be honoured. In a few decades, the old names would be as antiquated as Rhodesia, Burma, or Zaire are now.
We don't give a damn. But the bureau of tourism does, that's how all the 'Holland' nonsense got started because they though 'the Netherlands' is too hard for the tourists. Ironically, 'Holland' only refers to a small fraction of 'The Netherlands'.
Do you mean it's not popular or people don't use the name?
If the former, you're wrong: soccer is the most played sport in Ireland.
If the latter, you're wrong: football is Gaelic football almost universally outside Dublin and soccer is soccer. In Dublin, it's 50/50 depending on area, but no-one will blink if you say soccer.
