BBC, Belgium and Imperialism

I have been alerted to the double-standards that the BBC apply in their way of referring to foreign place names. Since I have included the word "BBC" in the title of this posting, I had better swiftly explain that "foreign" is not in any sense meant to be pejorative. Although the Asturias principality of northern Spain, for example, is "foreign" to me - it is not "foreign" to the Asturians, who no doubt think of their fine region as "home" and are rightfully proud of its long and interesting history, its sidra production and diet rich in sea-food.

But I digress. The Asturians, noble as they are, are not the subject of this morning's comments. No, it is rather  the BBC's odd way of referring to places that are abroad. In these enlightened post-imperial times, they call Bombay "Mumbai", Madras "Chennai" and Peking "Beijing". The first two of these being interesting judgement calls themselves - as "Mumbai" is so-called in Maharathi and Gujarati, yet "Bombay" in Hindi and Urdu - while Chennai and Madras are the shortened names of two locations in the modern conurbation, one of which has been favoured over the other.

And yet - the noble and brave people of Poland are quite clear that their capital city is called Warszawa - with the pronunciation of the "w"s as "v" in that fine Polish way, no doubt. To the people of Greece's capital city, their town is spelt Αθήνα - yet not a sign of that from the BBC, either written or spoken. And the capital of France, while spelt the same, is pronounced "Parree". Yet no recognition from the BBC - when for genuine authenticity and respect of the French,  newsreaders should pronounce it correctly while shrugging their shoulders, and perhaps sneer a little in that Gallic way. Oddest of all is the German football team, normally referred to as "Bayern Munich". When for the sake of consistency they should either be "Bavarian Munich" or "Bayern München" - the latter, of course, being the way they call themselves.

But today I am more concerned with the BBC's naming of towns in northern Belgium. Flanders, as the BBC call it, although Vlaanderen would fit better with their policy with regard to Asian or African areas. But then, the Flemish (or Vlaams?) are better off with a vaguely anglicized name of their region than what the BBC does to their place names.

For consider - the town of Brugge.   Even a Google search sends you to the Wikipedia entry for "Bruges" - so why would the BBC get it right? Or Antwerpen - referred to by the BBC as "Antwerp". Or Gent. Which the BBC insist on calling "Ghent".

There are 6.2 million Flemish-speakers in Belgium and 3.3 million French-speakers. I ignore the allegedly bilingual Brussels/Bruxelles (or, for the Flemish, Bruxelles/Brussels). So why does the BBC insist on giving the whole country French names? They don't call Liège "Luik" and pronounce it "lœyk".

I would argue that the BBC are engaging in a deliberate policy of belittling the Flemish. Knowing that the French-speakers traditionally held the political supremacy in Belgium, and fearful of encouraging the conservative North, who speak an arcane Germanic tongue rather than the flowing French that resembles the beautiful Latin that BBC executives learnt at their schools. The BBC are clearly engaged in propping up an ancien régime (or oude regime, as the Flemish would properly call it).

It is time to say it loud and clear - BBC, keep your nose out of Belgium. Your unwarranted involvement in the politic-linguistics of that country have been found out. And if you want to be consistent in your naming of places, just refer to everywhere that's not in the UK as "abroad". It would be in keeping with our proud island traditions, and treat everyone "abroad" equally.