Geographical Pronunciations...

In English, I would tell you that I, over 2 different weeks in 2 different years, I've been to Florence, Rome, Orvieto, Venice, Brenner, and Verona, Italy. After 10 days there this year, I flew back to London.

However, if I were still in Italy, my listeners would have no idea where I'd been. In the local tongue, I was in Firenze, Roma, Orvieto, Venezia, Brenero, and Verona, Italia, then flew to Londra.

And I have to wonder why it is that different languages have different titles for locales not their own. Tokyo, for what it's worth, is Tokyo in every language that uses the Phoenician alphabet. We call the larger country inhabiting the Iberian peninsula 'Spain,' and don't even have the tilde-capped letter 'n' that the proper spelling of Espana requires on our keyboards. Pronunciations are one thing-- it can be difficult to wrap your tongue around the Spanish usage of the letter 'c', and English dipthongs are a bane to nearly all inhabitants of South America.

Any thoughts or opinions...such as "Yeah, language sucks," or, "Well, historically, the difference between Latinate and Germanic dialects have led to..." or, "Give up on introspective profundity, dude."

Anyhow, London is beautiful today. I saw Yeny to the train station just after dawn and went for a walk through the early morning cool, watching the multitudes of London jumping into everyday life. London is a fun little city, in that not-at-all-so-little way, but I'm afraid the people who live here aren't able to see it. The city moves at such a sprint that few folks take the time to watch others, or stroll through any of the city's magnificient parks. I may head north to Nottingham today, otherwise, I'll probably go out to either Hyde or Battersea Park.

Take a five minute walk today. Just five minutes, to appreciate where you are. Pick up an acorn and toss it to yourself, throw rocks in a creek or pond. Pet a dog.