Off the Map: The Curious Histories of Place-Names - Softcover

Nelson, Derek

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568362986 ISBN 13: 9781568362984

Publisher: Kodansha Amer Inc, 2000

Synopsis

Explores the origins of place names and the relationship between geography, cartography, and historical events

About this title

Product Description

A book about geographic place-names, maps and their origins addressed in an entertaining format.

From the Author

Writing this book was both fun and enlightening.
Since I grew up in Japan, I knew that Americans don't always call other countries by their own names. We say Japan, they say Nippon. But until I started researching this book, I didn't know why -- and I had no idea of the number of countries whose real names sound foreign to speakers of English. Suomi, Sverige, Misr -- all countries whose names you would quickly recognize in the oddly translated versions that we are used to. Luckily for me as an author, the answer to why we don't use the "real" names is complex and entertaining enough to warrant a book. Here are a few hints: many explorers didn't care what the native people called their own lands, and conquerors often wanted to impose a different name on purpose to show ownership. Toss in centuries worth of misspelling, misunderstanding, and faulty translation, and you begin to get an idea. I talked to and corresponded with nearly 100 people in other countries during my research, and the experience re-drew my mental map of a world that I thought was familiar.

Edition details

• Publisher: Kodansha Amer Inc
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1568362986
• ISBN 13: 9781568362984
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200