Re: Myanmar (formerly Burma)

"Mary" <mrfeathers@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:QrGVj.159584$yE1.64824@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Don K wrote:
>> "NadCixelsyd" <nadcixelsyd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
>>
news:5b3d79d8-51ad-40e6-8f26-6ab6817e9e1f@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> Why does every mention of Myanmar on radio/TV have to add "formerly
>>> Burma" to the text.  Does anyone say, "formerly British Honduras" or
>>> "formerly Ceylon" or "formerly Hot Springs, New Mexico"?  Does the
>>> stewardess say, "Welcome to New York (formerly New Amsterdam) Kennedy
>>> air****t, formerly, Idlewild"?
>>>
>>> Anyone that, by now, doesn't know Myanmar's former name probably
>>> doesn't care.
>>
>> If they hadn't told me Myanmar was formerly Burma, I'd have thought it
>> was a sandwich spread.
>>
>> That sort of thing is necessary whenever some yoyo seizes control of a
country
>> and changes the name without telling anyone.
>>
>> Don
>
>
> Meaning what, that the local yoyos should keep on using whatever name
the British Raj 
> stuck the country with?

No, meaning what I said.
>
> Was the country known as Burma to the inhabitants themselves prior to
British rule?

Within the Burmese language, Myanmar is the written, literary name of the
country,
while Bama or Bamar (from which "Burma" derives) is the oral, colloquial
name.
In spoken Burmese, the distinction is less clear than the English
transliteration suggests
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma#cite_note-CIA-1

To me, it sounds like six of one, half-dozen of the other.

Don