# Venice



## kusurija

Hi, all there!
Maybe all gigger cities have different names in different languages, but one of most confusing is Venice (Eng.) = Venezia (It.) = Benátky (Cze.) ヴェネツィア (Jap.) Venediku (Shquip) and so on et cetera ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice ). I don't know, whether this theme was discussed yet? 
But, as I took notice, in no more languages, only in Czech, the first "V" turns to "B" and the variace is the greatest. In other languages the names are more similar to - what - ?original? (And what is the original name: in Italian or in Venetian or...?)..So, what do You thing about it?


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## Flaminius

Hello, 薬屋さん  

An alternative Japanese name for the city is ヴェニス or ベニス (venisu / benisu), which is a loan from English.  Whether one follows the Italian name or the English name, /ve/ is almost always pronounced /be/ since Japanese lacks the phoneme /v/.


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## Joannes

It's *Venetië* in Dutch.


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## Outsider

The Portuguese name is Veneza. The city goes back to Roman times, so I guess the original name must have been Latin...


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## Thomas1

Strangely enough in Polish the name is not as different.

_Wenecja_, as we call it, looks like a transliteration of its Latin name -- _Venetia._

It seems that the Russians did the same as we, they call it _Венеция_.


Tom


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## irene.acler

The original name in *Italian* is Venezia.
In _Veneto_ (the dialect spoken in the region that takes the same name - Veneto -, where Venezia is located) they call it *Venezsia.*

In _Latin _it's Venetiæ.


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## palomnik

_Velence, _in Hungarian, for some reason.

In German, _Venedig._


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## deine

Lithuanian version is *Venecija*. I think it came from Latin.


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## DrWatson

Finnish:

*Venetsia*


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## Chazzwozzer

It's called *Venedik *in Turkish.


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## Outsider

irene.acler said:


> The original name in *Italian* is Venezia.
> In _Veneto_ (the dialect spoken in the region that takes the same name - Veneto -, where Venezia is located) they call it *Venezsia.*


Can you explain how the Veneto name is pronounced? How does it differ from the standard Italian pronunciation?


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## Anatoli

Thomas1 said:


> Strangely enough in Polish the name is not as different.
> 
> _Wenecja_, as we call it, looks like a transliteration of its Latin name -- _Venetia._
> 
> It seems that the Russians did the same as we, they call it _Венеция_.
> 
> Tom


Confirmed, in *Russian* Венеция is pronounced as [v'en'*e*tsiya] - v and n are palatalised, although in many foreign names consonant + Russian "e" are pronounced unpalatalised. "-ция" is pronounced as "-цыя" - "ц" is always hard.

*Chinese* have borrowed from English Venice and adjusted to the Mandarin phonetic and writing system:
威尼斯 Wēinísī

In *Arabic* it's البندقية al-Bunduqīya. Like in Japanese, Arabic lacks "v" and "f" or "b" act as substitutes, although Vienna can be written both as فيينا and  ۋيينا using Urdu "v" letter.


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## kusurija

Thanks to all, who wrote or will write. 
So till now I realized, that languages, where name/pronunciation begins with "B" letter is: Czech, Japanese (Hi, Flaminius, 初めまして) and Arabian (Hi, Mars [Anatoli], how do you do).


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## robbie_SWE

In Romanian it's *Veneţia*. 

In Swedish it's *Venedig*. 

 robbie


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## alex.raf

*Persian:
*Veniz ونیز


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## Henryk

> In Swedish it's Venedig.


In German, too. However, I've also often come across "Venezia" though I think it's only understood by a small group of people in comparison to those who can't make use of that name.


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## Nizo

In Esperanto, the name of the city is _Venecio_.


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## elroy

Anatoli said:


> In *Arabic* it's البندقية al-Bunduq*i*y*y*a. Like in Japanese, Arabic lacks "v" and "f" or "b" act as substitutes, although Vienna can be written both as فيينا and ڤيينا using Urdu "v" letter.


 A few slight corrections.


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## Anatoli

Thanks for the correction, Elias. I had some trouble finding the correct pronunciation for Venice but I don't see what's wrong with ۋيينا ? 

I actually see that your letters look slightly different but when I copy to a text editor - they look the same - isnt' it vaa' - yaa' -  yaa' - nuun - alif?


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## elroy

Anatoli said:


> [...]but I don't see what's wrong with ۋيينا ?


 It's *ڤ* and not *ۋ*.


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## Dr. Quizá

Spanish: Venecia.


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## apmoy70

Greek:

*«Βενετία»* [ve.neˈti.a] (fem.).


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## AndrasBP

Just like in Czech and Slovak, the *Slovenian *name also starts with a "B":
*Benetke*


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## bibax

Another peculiarity: *Benátky* and *Benetke* are _pluralia tantum_ and diminutives (hypothetical singular forms would be Benátka, Benetka). The suffix *-ka* (Czech/Slovak plural *-ky*, Slovenian plural *-ke*) is a common Slavic feminine (often diminutive) suffix.


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## Sardokan1.0

The use of plural probably comes from the plural name "Le Venezie", used in the past to indicate the three regions that formed the Republic of Venice.

Venezia Tridentina - current Trentino
Venezia Euganea - current Veneto
Venezia Giulia - current Friuli-Venezia Giulia + Istria and parts of Dalmatia


P.S.

Also the name _Benátka_, _Benetka, _could be connected with Latin "Venetica"; the name used to indicate the region inhabited by the ancient Veneti.


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## Yendred

kusurija said:


> one of most confusing is Venice (Eng.) = Venezia (It.) = Benátky (Cze.) ヴェネツィア (Jap.) Venediku



If you refer to Italian language, the most confusing are on one side the pair *Monaco *(also called in Italian _*Monaco*) _and *Munich *(called in Italian _*Monaco di Baviera*_),
and on another side the pair *Geneva *(called in Italian *Ginevra*) and *Genoa *(called in Italian *Genova*).


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## symposium

Outsider said:


> Can you explain how the Veneto name is pronounced? How does it differ from the standard Italian pronunciation?


It's pronounced "Venessia", with a sibilant S. At least that's how it's pronounced nowadays. The V is the normal Italian V.


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## spindlemoss

In Welsh it's spelt *Fenis */ˈvɛnɪs/ because we don't have a "v" in our alphabet (f is /v/ and ff is /f/).


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## AndrasBP

spindlemoss said:


> In Welsh it's spelt *Fenis */ˈvɛnɪs/ because we don't have a "v" in our alphabet (f is /v/ and ff is /f/).


You only seem to change the spelling if the city is large enough.
Vienna is *F*ienna in Welsh, but Verona doesn't change to "Ferona".


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## spindlemoss

AndrasBP said:


> You only seem to change the spelling if the city is large enough.
> Vienna is *F*ienna in Welsh, but Verona doesn't change to "Ferona".



True!


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## Zec

In Croatian, there are two names for Venice: _Venecija_ and _Mleci_. The first one is a recent borrowing from Italian or Latin, while the second one is a traditional name now used in historical context only (when referring to the Venetian Republic). Somewhat surprisingly, it's related to Czech _Benátky_ and Slovenian _Benetke_, which is masked by the extreme sound changes it has gone through.

(Speaking in terms of Romance philology, _Mleci_ is a native word_, Venecija_ is a cultismo, while _Benátky_/_Benetke_ is a semicultismo )


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## AndrasBP

Zec said:


> _Mleci_ is a native word


"M*l*eci" and Hungarian "Ve*l*ence" are interesting because they're the only forms where the _second consonant_ is an "L".


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## Mahaodeh

Anatoli said:


> but I don't see what's wrong with ۋيينا ?


You mean فيينا. It's not that it's wrong, it's just that البندقية is a more classical (and thus formal) way of Arabising the word. It is also less likely to be misunderstood, and already established in the language.


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## Penyafort

kusurija said:


> Thanks to all, who wrote or will write.
> So till now I realized, that languages, where name/pronunciation begins with "B" letter is: Czech, Japanese (Hi, Flaminius, 初めまして) and Arabian (Hi, Mars [Anatoli], how do you do).



That's simple transliteration. 

In Spanish you write *Venecia *but also say [be'neθja/be'nesia], with B. 

Same thing for Standard Catalan *Venècia *[bə'nɛsiə].


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## nimak

In *Macedonian* it is:

Венеција (Venecija) [vɛ`nɛt͡sija]


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## bearded

Outsider said:


> I guess the original name must have been Latin..


Actually, the names_ Venezia, Veneto etc._ originate from the name of a pre-Latin (pre-Roman) people that inhabited the area:
Adriatic Veneti


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## Yendred

Yes, in the same idea, I was interested to learn that _Etruscans _and _Tuscany _had the same etymology, which is obvious when you know where Etruscans lived.


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