Comments | jrittenhouse: Geography quiz #1:

jrittenhouse

Geography quiz #1:

Jan 05, 2009 20:19

Many countries are called something in English that the people who actually live in those countries would never use (we don’t use Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika or Meiguo). The English names for these countries (or recently former countries), please:

(Scoring: give yourself three points for each correct guess, and No Googling or Wikipediaing - ( Read more... )

linguistics, geography, language

Comments 15

chipuni January 6 2009, 01:41:42 UTC

This is far, far easier than your Geography Quiz #2...

By the way, Wikipedia was slightly wrong for 29:

الأردنّ is better transliterated as al-'Urdunn (with an apostrophe). Arabic never starts a word with a vowel -- unfortunately, Arabic counts a glottal stop (hamza) as a consonant. (This gives us names like Iraq, Iran, Abdul, Omar, and the like...)

jrittenhouse January 6 2009, 03:23:18 UTC

It's hard enough. Look, I give up on Arabic transliteration.

dewline January 6 2009, 02:16:38 UTC

I can't get them all, but here's what I can remember correctly:

1. Switzerland
3. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
4. India
6. South Africa
9. Czech Republic
11. Georgia
13. Austria
15. Cambodia
18. Latvia
20. East Timor
22. Mauritania
25. Belarus
27. Greenland
28. The Philippines
30. Wales
32. Cyprus
31. Iceland

And that's as far as I can go.

jrittenhouse January 6 2009, 03:34:40 UTC

3 - no.
18 - no.
22 - no.
Otherwise, VERY very good!

(The comment has been removed)

jrittenhouse January 6 2009, 03:47:04 UTC

Your numbering is off after 14. 17 was not answered, and is still open.
21 - Try again.
29 - nope.
Otherwise, simply incredible!

stickmaker January 6 2009, 02:25:45 UTC

Nippon?

jrittenhouse January 6 2009, 03:22:28 UTC

Not added; too easy. Ditto Deutschland.

peteralway January 6 2009, 02:43:17 UTC

Helvetia --> Switzerland
Česko --> Czech Republic?
Österreich -->Austria
Kâmpŭchea -->Cambodia
Timor-Leste --> East Timor?
Osztrák-Magyar -->Hungary
République de Maurice -->Mauritania?
Biełaruś -->Byelarus, or White Russia
Suomen tasavalta -->Finland
Kalaallit Nunaat -->Greenland
Pilipinas --Phillipines?
Ísland -->Iceland

I know most of the European ones because I was married to someone who had collected stamps

jrittenhouse January 6 2009, 03:48:07 UTC

Off on Osztrák-Magyar and République de Maurice (which was answered elsewhere) but otherwise excellent!

peteralway January 6 2009, 04:04:16 UTC

Maurice was just a wild-ass guess, but I remembar Magyar Post on Hungarian stamps--this isn't an old name from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, is it? Or am I just totally clueless

jrittenhouse January 6 2009, 04:34:36 UTC

DING DING DING - Austria Hungary it is!