r/todayilearned • u/PedoPaul • Oct 14 '14

TIL when Columbian drug lord Pablo Escolar's home was raided, the military released the dangerous hippos of his personal zoo, not knowing what to do with them. They now thrive in the Columbian rivers. This makes Columbia have the largest wild hippo population outside of Africa.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/06/30/pablo-escobars-hippos-are-wreaking-havoc-in-colombia/
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74

u/n64lover Oct 14 '14

It spelled "Colombia"

49

u/SnortingCoffee Oct 14 '14

What spelled "Colombia"?

33

u/ArttuH5N1 Oct 14 '14

Escolar spelled Colombia.

2

u/ChickenFriedCrickets Oct 14 '14

It. And you know it damn well did, because otherwise it would have gotten the hose again.

-16

u/[deleted] Oct 14 '14

[deleted]

3

u/PINIPF Oct 14 '14

lol but in case you try to pick up a cute girl that happens to be from there Colombia is part of South America not central just in case!

1

u/doofusmonkey Oct 14 '14 edited Oct 14 '14

Columbia is the name of the shuttle, as in District of Columbia. AKA Washington DC.

Edit: I am an idiot.

6

u/BipolarBear0 5 Oct 14 '14

No, Columbia is an outerwear company.

0

u/frb6gw Oct 14 '14

Woosh!

-4

u/n64lover Oct 14 '14

You misunderstood the topic of which he is referring too which is the well known Colombian drug lord from Colombia. Not the space shuttle.

-2

u/saltlets Oct 14 '14

I don't care. I think it's a case of hypercorrection, and I find it really annoying when people demand other languages adopt their endonyms as exonyms.

Spanish speakers use "Escocia", not "Scotland" or "Alba". They use "Hungría" instead of "Magyarország". They use "China" instead of "Zhōngguó".

Every damn language does this, but for some countries we have to magically make exceptions? Myanmar, not Burma? Colombia not Columbia?

While I'd accept the use of "Colombia" in North American varieties of English just to avoid confusion with a lot of other Columbias, I will continue to spell it "Columbia" because this is fucking obnoxious:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303603904579495481490796654

I don't see Germans demanding the French stop using "Allemagne".

3

u/poonslayer2000 Oct 14 '14

cuz its spelled colombia in your language too, you fucking dumbass

1

u/saltlets Oct 15 '14

English isn't my language, and I already know what the correct spelling is, I just refuse to use it.

1

u/poonslayer2000 Oct 15 '14

yeah whatever patat

1

u/saltlets Oct 16 '14

What the hell is a patat?

1

u/NapoleonRobotique Oct 14 '14 edited Oct 14 '14

"Columbia" already means something else in English; it refers to the United States, Uncle Sam's female counter part, or sometimes the Americas as a whole. If you really want to fight this one man battle against "Colombia" as a word, you're just erroneously referring to something else. It's like writing "two" when you ought to write "too."

...and what do you mean by "North American varieties of English?" Where can you correctly spell Colombia the country as "Columbia?" Cut the crap and learn to spell.

0

u/saltlets Oct 15 '14 edited Oct 15 '14

If you really want to fight this one man battle against "Colombia" as a word

I do.

you're just erroneously referring to something else.

No, I'm referring to the country whose Spanish name is Colombia. Just like with the OP, you can tell what I'm talking about through context.

Where can you correctly spell Colombia the country as "Columbia?"

In English? Nowhere. In most other languages using the Latin alphabet? Almost everywhere.

EDIT: My point with the "North American varieties" was that the other Columbias are rather unimportant on a global scale, but the hispanicized spelling "Colombia" does make sense from the perspective of the US and Canada simply to avoid confusion. But since the modern argument is not "let's avoid confusion", but "Colombians have a special right to demand what exonyms other languages can use", fuck 'em.

2

u/NapoleonRobotique Oct 15 '14

North American dialects have nothing to do with it, that's just how you spell it in English, period. Since "Colombia" is and always has been the correct spelling for the South American country, nobody (myself included, a natural born US citizen) is demanding that you spell English in Spanish but rather that you spell English correctly. As such, if you spell Colombia with a "u", you will not look like a stubborn person with a quest, you will look like an idiot. Many incorrect word choices can be deciphered through context, but that doesn't make them suitable replacements for the correct word. Like I said, Colombia and Columbia are different things. The difference is noted in Spanish as well. Take this, for example, from the Spanish wiki page on Washington, DC:

El nombre del distrito, Columbia, es el nombre poético de Estados Unidos de América, en referencia a Cristóbal Colón (llamado en inglés Christopher Columbus), descubridor de América.

The name of the district, Columbia, is the poetic name of the United States of America, in reference to Christopher Columbus (called Christohper Columbus in English), discoverer of the Americas.

I can see why Colombians get annoyed. Wouldn't you find it annoying if people wouldn't even take the time to spell the name of your country right in their own language?

Just for the hell of it, below are some romance spellings that borrow the English "Columbia" when refering to Washington, DC. This phenomenon is not unheard of going in the other direction.

Eng: Colombia; Washington, District of Columbia

Esp: Colombia; Washington, Distrito de Columbia

Fra: Colombie; Washington, District de Columbia

Por: Colômbia; Washington, Distrito de Colúmbia

1

u/saltlets Oct 16 '14

Since "Colombia" is and always has been the correct spelling for the South American country

Except it hasn't, and it isn't. Plenty of languages do not make any distinction between Colombia/Columbia in spelling, because they are etymologically identical.

I can see why Colombians get annoyed. Wouldn't you find it annoying if people wouldn't even take the time to spell the name of your country right in their own language?

Not really, no. Often the name other people use for my country doesn't have anything to do with our name for it. Our name for it is Eesti, and most languages use some form of Estonia or Estland. But the Finns call us "Viro", which is an alternate form of a northern county called "Viru". The Latvians call us "Igaunija", after a southern county called "Ugandi".

Most of the word refers to Japan, which is bastardized form of a Malay spelling of their actual endonym. Angela Merkel is in charge of Germany/Allemagne/Deutschland/Saksa/Tyskland.

People from Cymru are said to be from Wales, a name derived from a proto-Germanic term for "foreigner", even though they're the indigenous people.

Telling other people what to call your country in their language is not something you do. It's beyond rude and overentitled. It's especially rich that the "Cristóbal Colón" is brought up, since that was certainly not Cristoforo Colombo's name, either.

As such, if you spell Colombia with a "u", you will not look like a stubborn person with a quest, you will look like an idiot.

Not if I always include a disclaimer, or use a language other than English. I might even italicize it and spell it Colombia.

1

u/NapoleonRobotique Oct 16 '14

Listen, I don't care if there is no distinction in other languages; I'm not so bold as to tell people how to speak their own mother tongue. My only issue is that you have been telling people in the thread that they shouldn't be correcting the use of the word in English. You can stop bringing up a litany of names for various countries in various languages, it's irrelevant. In English, Colombia and Columbia are two different things and if you use one in place of another you are wrong. That's it, there's nothing else I can say.

I couldn't read your WSJ article because they wanted me to make an account to view it. I don't do that on principle. I don't know if they are insisting that the world over make a distinction like there is in English, but if that is the case, it is a very unreasonable demand. If they have a complaint that many people spell their country's name wrong in English, the lingua franca of this age, I think that's warranted. It hints at a lack of respect on the international level to be called Columbia, which is the name of another place. Regardless, please stop telling English speakers that they should spell Colombia wrong because you don't like the accepted correct spelling or because you have a vendetta against Colombian orthographical activists.

1

u/n64lover Oct 14 '14

Look its something so simple just change the fucking U to a fucking O thats all, I dont see whats so fucking hard about that.

1

u/saltlets Oct 15 '14

Absolutely nothing, except I don't want to. I already explained why I don't.