"Trastevere" - correct pronunciation?
 

<BR>We will be staying there in September. I am confused about which is the accented syllable?<BR><BR>(I saw your assistance with "Uffizi", thanks for letting me ask a followup from the previous poster.)<BR><BR>Susan

Trastevere literally means "across the Tevere," the Tevere being the Tiber River. So the accent is on the 'te' of tevere.<BR><BR>tras-TE'-ve-re

<BR>Thanks!

I think it's tras-TEV-a-ray

Yes, accent second syllable - but be warned, in Rome you'll hear it pronounced 2-3 different ways. Neat area, particularly on Sunday when you can have a late lunch outside, and then walk along the river back toward the old part of the city. I think we were bombed on wine the last time, so I'm not sure which route we took. But it was a joy, that much I can assure you.

Is what the English speakers call the Tiber really the Tevere in Italian?

Yes, Nancy.

Then why don't we all just call it by its rightful name? If I use the word Tevere, Romans will know what I am talking about. So thenr even when we speak Italian we are not speaking Italian really. I could say I am crossing the Tiber in Italian, but I should be saying I am crossing Tevere?<BR>I am not that dumb, just not bilingual.

This is such an age old question - - why do we transliterate the name of any place into our own language?<BR><BR>Why do we say Rome instead of Roma?<BR>Firenze instead of Florence?<BR>Germany instead of Deutschland?<BR>Switzerland instead of Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera, or Schwyz?<BR><BR>And why DO they have four different names for their own country, and then still fall back on that old Latin expression for CH? (Confederacio Helvetica)!?<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

Most of all, who told us we had to start saying Beijing instead of Peking? And why did we obey?

Wasn't the name change from Peking to Beijing an official one?<BR><BR>Like from Burma to Myanmar etc..

Rex: <BR>Schwyz is not the translation into to Romantsch of Switzerland! It's Svizra.<BR><BR>Schwyz is just one of the cantons which in Romantsch would be Sviz.

Well, I can (partly) answer the last one! (I do realize it's probably rhetorical, but I so rarely get to post on the Europe board I couldn't resist). <BR><BR>The reason Peking suddenly changed to Beijing is that China officially changed the system used to transliterate Chinese characters into Roman letters. <BR><BR>Under the old system, a p’ (with an apostrophe) was to be pronounced “b” (try saying "Bay Pay Bay Pay" without concentrating on enunciating for about 30 seconds & you can see why). The king/jing switch is probably because it’s pronounced “king” in Cantonese (the language spoken in Hong Kong).