Torino vrs Turin. winter olympics question (1 Viewer)

[Jay H]

This might be a simply question or not. But why do I see two different references to the Winter Olympic games this year?

I've heard of Torino, Italy, but then I've heard of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy... Which is it? Torino or Turin???

This website below lists both!:

http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/torino/index_uk.asp

Maps I see list it as Turin, IT, however, you can find Torino, Italy as well.

Confusing!

Jay

 

[JeremyErwin]

Torino is Italian, Turin is English.

Similarly, the German cities of München, Köln and Nürnberg become, in English, Munich, Cologne and Nuremberg

 

[Jay H]

So, they really should be consistent, like Torino, Italia, versus Turin, Italy...

Hopefully, I get my HD Cable installed on friday, I can watch the opening ceremonies in HD...

Jay

 

[NickSo]

i thought torino was the city/mountain where the competition were held, and the closest city to that where other events are held is in Turin.

at least thats how I understood it watching Conan last night.

hmm, i guess not: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turin

 

[Richard Travale]

Nope, Torino is how the Italians say it(Turin).

I read an article about how the NBC execs went to Italy and were so enamoured by the way Torino rolled off the Italian's tongues that they decided to go with Torino in all of their advertising.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

I am just hoping that the Olympics in Torino/Turin is 'Grand' and 'shrouded' in snow. buh-dah-bup! :b

 

[Patrick Sun]

Anyone actually watching the Winter games nowadays?

I admit to being a bit moved by the Chinese pair skaters Zhang Fan and her partner Zhang (forget the first name) after she tried the quad Salchow and landed as as badly as one could, imagine landing with your legs in a wishbone position, facedown, and then sliding hard into the walls of the rink. You could tell her knees weren't feeling all that great after the disasterous landing. Amazingly enough, they collected themselves, got in sync with the music once again, and were able to finish their program and even captured the silver medal for their efforts. Pretty inspiring stuff.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Yeah, I saw that. Pretty tough of her. I said in one of the hockey threads that I would rather play pickup hockey on 3 AM ice and lose to a girl's team than win the gold medal in figure skating, but that does not mean they are not athletes. Anyone who can skate flat out for 4 minutes (whereas the average hockey shift is 45 secs - 1 minute) while also jumping around every once in a while is tough as nails in my book, no matter how froo froo the costume. The young lady from China further proved it last night. I'd have been in traction after that fall.

 

[Mark Paquette]

 

[Malcolm R]

Not me. Couldn't care less.

Seems the ratings are in the cellar compared to the last two olympiads, as well.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

It would help if you could find out when something was on. I'd be watching women's hockey if I could find a schedule... assuming it's being broadcast.

 

[Bill Cowmeadow]

We are watching in Hi-Def. Awesome.

 

[Mike Slade]

From what i've seen that all that's been on MSNBC in the afternoons.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Yes! Both recorders on the DVR at times.

 

[Jay H]

Watching in High Def too.. I just got digital cable and an HD box on Feb 10th (just in time!).

Anyway, women's hockey I've seen on USA network too in the afternoons. I have also seen it on Cablebvision's INHD channel for those who get HD through cablevision.

Jay

 

[Reginald Trent]

OK somewhat off topic...I've also wondered why americans spell Brasil with a Z (Brazil) instead of the S like they do?

 

[Lew Crippen]

Indeed!

This could go on forever. Place names in one language frequently get different spellings when translated to other languages. And the spellings often change over time (e.g. Peking then and Beijing now).

As for the ‘z’ vs. ‘s’ spelling, countries whose primary language is English can’t even agree among themselves. For example the English (and most of their former colonies) commonly substitute an ‘s’ in many words containing a ‘zed’.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

They talked about the spelling of countries during the opening ceremonies. Seems the Italian spelling sometimes differed so much from the English the countries were marched in out of (English) alphabetical order; including some that were different right from the first letter of the name.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Always the case, depending on where the games are held. Even in Romance languages, the names for the same countries may be different. And even when the word is similar (at least the first letter) there can be some very big differences.

Consider United States for example. Even though United may be translated in Spanish as Unido(s) the fact that the first three letters are the same in both English and Spanish is meaningless (as any first year student of Latin would know) because the modifier comes after the word being modified in French, Spanish and Italian. Therefore the United States is Estados Unidos in Spanish, Etats Unis in French and Stati Uniti in Italian (here again, the first three letters for state are the same in two languages, but the position of the modifier makes this meaningless).

Of course The United States is very easy because there is a direct translation in most languages, neither word being a place name. For countries where this is not true, place names may be very different. Deutschland is the proper name for Germany—but it is Alemania in Spanish.

I stayed aware from non-Roman alphabets (such as Greek) on purpose.