Language Variations - City Names in English, French, German and Hungarian

This episode of Language Variations brings Lenn back to The Forking Tomatoes, along with Emma, Ashley and Petra, as they share the names of various cities around the world in English, French, German and Hungarian. Some are suprisingly similar while others are, pardon the pun, a world apart! What do you call these cities in your language?
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Music by Kama (Check him out on Twitter: @thatkamaguy )
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Images: Flaglanes.com

[@barkasz6066]

Petra et al - Fokváros literally means Cape Town. A cape (geography) is a portruding bit of land surrounded by sea. They are very important landmarks in navigation. The Hungarian translation of cape is fok. The word cape comes from Latin caput meaning “head” because a cape is a portrusion from the “body” of land behind it. The Hungarian word fok does also mean simply “angle” or “degree”, but capes are called as such, because they tend to be angular and sharp points, natural borders compared to the mellow nondescript mass of land that they are connected to.

[@azzeenn]

Hát igen... Ha már magyarázunk, akkor tudjunk is hozzá. Agócs András legalább tud hozzá...

[@AttilaOsztrogonacz]

Also good to mention, that Cape Town got its name from the nearby cape... the Cape of Good Hope, which is Jóreménység FOKA in Hungarian.

[@azzeenn]

@@AttilaOsztrogonacz Pontosan. Bármelyik irányból, addig délre haladunk a hideg Antarktisz felé, az egyre erősebb áramlatok felé, onnan pedig északra fordulunk, ahonnan már csak jobb lehet.

[@GaborDomjan]

Cape is fok, mint hegyfok, nem pedig Celsius fok. Town is (kis)város. Fokváros szó szerinti fordítása a Cape Townnak, illetve az eredeti holland Kapstaadnak.

[@borzix1997]

Exactly. Thank you very much. Btw, this meaning can be seen in other expressions, such as "a kés foka", "foki gazdálkodás" etc.

[@joshuddin897]

The Hungerian lady and the French femme have superb English accents. Can almost pass off for Brits.

[@Inferiis]

Fun fact: a lot of (mostly european) cities have very different hungarian names. In the 19th century we had a language reform and they tried to make everything sound hungarian. f.e.: Leipzig - Lipcse (means nothing, but sounds close) or the funniest, that's not actually in use anymore is Istókhalma - Stockholm and Kappanhágó - Coppenhagen. Istókhalma literally means Istók's mound (old version of István/Steven), Kappanhágó literally means Capon Pass, but both spelled similar to the original names. (They also tried to give objects weird new names, but not much went through)

[@DanTheCaptain]

I didn't know about the old Hungarian translations of Stockholm and Copenhagen. That is a very cool and interesting fact.

[@comandanteej]

Those two names for Copenhagen and Stockholm were just funny/crazy ideas from a single person that were never in real use. Many towns, especially in Central Europe that have had strong ties with Hungarian culture since the medieval ages have Hungarian names, as well as many capitals all over the word. (This is similar though in other languages in the region, like Czech.) Moreover, many settlements in the former Austro-Hungarian Morarchy and almost all in former great-Hungary have Hungarian names. Also many Hungarian towns have a German name, either because of the Monarchy or because of German-speaking inhabitants. Some of these are not in use anymore (Ofen for Buda), some still are (Raab for Győr).

[@barnykirashi]

Á igen, a "Fiahordó Górugrány"

[@The_White]

@@barnykirashi A kedvencem akkor is a "Gőzpöfögészeti tovalöködönc", de a "Nyaktekerészeti mellfekvenc" egy erős második

[@schwester6523]

Romania did so in Erdély.

[@peterattilakriszt3150]

Ja, a fok ez esetben nem mértékegység (pl.: hőfok), hanem valaminek vége, csúcsa (pl.: a tű foka). Itt konkrétan a szárazföld csúcsa/foka.

[@viktorfarkas3206]

A tengerészek foknak neveznek minden, tájékozódásra alkalmas kiemelkedést. És most beszélgessünk a fokhagymáról... Csak hogy a tető fokára hágjon a hangulat. :D

[@P.B0209]

@@viktorfarkas3206 Úgy tudom, hogy Fokföldön a viszonylag magas hőfoknak köszenhetően magas fokban termesztik a fokhagymát viszont fokazatosan vigyázni kell a fokokra mert ha túl fokozzuk akkor hajlamos a felfokozódásra és az meg már fokozottan ártalmas is lehet.

[@andrisszalai1261]

2:47 It's actually German's impact on Polish orthography that it uses "w" instead of "v": Warszawa ("sz" is the "sh" sound in Polish unlike in Hungarian where it's "s").

[@attilagabris815]

Hungarian "Fokváros" is the exact translation of "Cape Town"

[@bbybo]

Id have a suggestion if you dont mind: I think you should start out with the words/names in their original language so that the native english speaker girl would have something to say too! It also would be very interesting to see which is the closest to the original word.

[@awakened2emptiness]

Bécs (Vienna) as i know is avarian forename like Pécs and Décs. All these cities/towns got their name from avarian leaders or governors. Pécs city in Hungary, Bécs now belongs to Austria, but in the 500's it was part of Avaria. Décs nowadays called Decs is a village in Hungary. This is a very old tradition that cities named after one of the leaders or governors, like Gyula, Buda (now Budapest) or Csaba (now Békéscsaba). This is all forenames but later they also used surnames and even nationality names to name places like Tiba, Csákvár, Besenyőtelek, Kiskunmajsa (Kunság where the Kuns/Cumans live ), Jászberény ( Jászság where the Jazigs live ) ... and so on.

[@HakapesziM]

Fokváros, Grade - city, Degree - city. Oh. My. God. Fokváros is literally Cape Town.

[@magpie_girl3741]

In Polish: Cape Town -- Kapsztad [cap-shtat] Vienna -- Wiedeń [vieh-deñ] Naples -- Neapol [nea-ah-pol] Warsaw -- Warszawa [var-sheah-vah] Venice -- Wenecja [vea-netz-ya] Beijing -- Pekin [peh-keen] Saint Petersburg -- (Sankt-)Petersburg [peh-taers-boork] Mexico City - Meksyk [meksik] (The same like Mexico)

[@Inferiis]

and how do you pronounce Szczecin or Bydgoszcz?

[@bilalstyler98]

@@Inferiis Im not polish but my best guess would be shechecin and bidgoshch

[@ChickenSando]

I heard that "bécs" came from the Avar phrase "to the city" because they said it when they went to the city.

[@Dornwild]

We don't know what language the Avars spoke yet. No evidence, just placenames and some personal names. But if you do it this way, you would think we have a lot of German, Romance and English-speaking people in Hungary today as we have Ervin, Lujza, Krisztián, Izabella, Lénárd, Dzsenifer or Kitti etc,... But they are neither French nor German nor American. Personal names are like fashion, they come and go, so we cannot state somebody's origin based on it. Toponymic phrases are even more complicated with different layers of populations and migrating peoples inheriting old place names when they move somewhere, OR they bring their old names to new places. (Also during the colonization, this is how you get New York or New Orleans etc.)

[@georgios_5342]

In Greek they are as follows: Cape Town: Κέιπ Τάουν/Πόλη του Ακρωτηρίου (either transliteration with Greek letters or word by word translation "City of the Cape") Vienna: Βιέννη (Viéni) Naples: Νάπολη (Nápoli, older name Νεάπολη, meaning "New City", it's actually the first name of the city, which was made by Greek colonists) Warsaw: Βαρσοβία (Varsovía) Venice: Βενετία (Venetía) Beijing: Πεκίνο (Pekíno) Saint Petersburg: Αγία Πετρούπολη (pronounced "Ayía Petrúpoli", meaning "Holy City of Peter") Mexico City: Μεξικό/Πόλη του Μεξικό (Mexikó/Póli tu Mexikó)

[@gergelyvass2740]

Fun fact: St. Petersburg's Russian name is actually from German, they just pronounce it with softened T in Peter. When First World War began, it had been renamed to Petrograd for not having a German originated name. But communists renamed it to Leningrad, and it got back its original name after collapsion of USSR.

[@phantomsoup7261]

Hallo aus Österreich!

[@zsuut]

yeah. "fok" has a lot of meanings in hun. cape is one of them. (A fok mint vízföldrajzi-tájgazdálkodási fogalom, jelenti egy folyó medre és ártere közötti oldalirányú medret vagy csatornát, amin a folyó vize áradáskor kifolyik az ártérre, apadáskor pedig vissza. A fok ilyen értelemben jelenik meg olyan helynevekben, mint pl. Siófok, minthogy a Sió folyó a Balatonból ered, másképpen fakad, vagy Foktő település a Duna mellett, vagy a Tiszai-alföldön Nagy-fok, Fok-lapos, stb. )

[@ficzerezalan4245]

Tudom

[@FilmGamerHUN]

More please from this ! :)

[@yorgunsamuray]

Fokvaros...sounds like "Seal slum" in Turkish. As seal the animal. Interesting fact, the Hungarian word Varos is taken by Turkish, written as "Varoş" and got the meaning "slum, shanty". Here are the Turkish names: 1. Kap in the old times, now mainly called the same in English, Cape Town 2. Viyana. Ottoman Turkish had this word Beç, though noone calls it that for many centuries. 3. Napoli, same as Italian original. 4. Varşova 5. Venedik, sounds similar to German one isn't it? 6. Pekin. Sometimes some journalists or academics use the Beijing version from time to time. 7. Sen Petersburg, English spelling of St. Petersburg is used too. 8. Mexico City, like English.

[@HakapesziM]

'Város' in Hungarian, means a place, a settlement which has a castle, a fort: vár. Vár - os. A seal, 'fóka' means 'fok' in Turkish.

[@Inferiis]

You also answered their question on where Bécs came from. It's from the Ottomans

[@schawo2]

@@Inferiis The opposite. Bec came from the Hungarian name Becs

[@andrasdutko6499]

@@HakapesziM There are actually a lot of seals in Cape Town, so Seal Town (Fókaváros) should also be an appropriate name.

[@killer-kx9gc]

@@Inferiis no I think the Ottomans took it from the Hungarians

[@marcellkiss-redey8451]

Velence, Hungary was founded by Italian immigrants from Venice, that's why the two names are the same in Hungarian.

[@borzix1997]

Just like the candy named Negro was invented by Pietro Negro, an Italian confectioner, who immigrated to Hungary. He gave his inventions his own family name.

[@andrisszalai1261]

Cape actually translates to "fok" in geography in Hungarian. So it's actually a mirror-translation. Although, "fok" has different translations as well, like degree, rate, grade, extent, etc. hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fok_(f%C3%B6ldrajz)

[@TheForkingTomatoes]

Interesting, thanks for sharing!

[@mianormalis]

@@TheForkingTomatoes "fok" is found also in hegyfok which means a muntains summit.

[@viktorfarkas3206]

@@TheForkingTomatoes In this case, the fok means protrusion in the Hungarian language.

[@gergelyvass2740]

St. Petersburg's Russian name is actually German, just pronounced Russian. Peter the Great wanted to express his striving for westernisation. When First World War started, it was changed to Petrograd for not having a German name for the capital city.

[@arpad2188]

Speaking of Bécs, we have a city in Hungary called Pécs. But the French call(ed) is Cinq-Églises and, likewise, the Germans call it Fünfkirchen. Never understood these namings though, like, is this the only place in the world having five churches? :D

[@kosinusify]

German names of Hungarian cities are weird in general. Sopron is called Ödenburg, which means "bleak castle", for no apparent reason, Győr is called Raab and Szombathely is called Steinamanger (stone on the hill). Most interesting is Bratislava, though (which isn't Hungarian, I know), which has three very different names: Bratislava in Slovenian, Pozsony in Hungarian and Pressburg in German. Names are fascinating, because they can tell us so much about the history of a place!

[@geertvlaenckx9942]

Would have been great to have the endonym first and not take the English as default. It could have helped the participants in the video understand the connection between Warszawa and the exonyms.

[@Zolega89]

How do you say Wroclaw in your language? Cos we Hungarians say Boroszló!

[@martinwebermann4252]

It seems like the Hungarian word is related to the city’s German name before 1945, Breslau.

[@Zolega89]

@@martinwebermann4252 German kinda influenced Hungarian

[@Timeaaa_]

Nekem nagyon tetszik a videó 😅 (I really like the video)

[@krisztiansandorbak8529]

It was a really, really nice conversation about differences and variations of similars... I like that Emma has speaks a lot relatively, 'cause she was the most naturally beauty and mind in this video, and hers were the most naturally reactions all about your names of those cities, and all about other things. If I wouldn't have darling, lover, I would say to I have I felt in love suddenly, in my mind. :D Sorry, it is my opiniation, fellas. But I needn't please to talk any sorry, I think so. :D Peace! It is good to be good, fellas! I am Hungarian, so sorry about my grammatical mistakes. Thanks!

[@saraumea]

A idea is to the same but with animal and their noises, I think that would be fun for you to do

[@TheForkingTomatoes]

Hey Sara! We have two videos about that, which were definitely a lot of fun to record: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKi8mp6bZtKjbMU

[@becherbecher]

In Czech: - Kapské Město - Vídeň - Neapol - Varšava - Benátky - Peking - Petrohrad - Mexiko City

[@martinwebermann4252]

The Danish names used to be very similar to the German ones but increasingly, the names in the native language are taking over, making the old Danish names outdated Cape Town --> Cape Town (used to be Kapstaden) Vienna --> Wien Naples --> Napoli (used to be Neapel) Warsaw --> Warszawa Venice --> Venedig Beijing --> Beijing (used to be Peking) Saint Petersburg --> Sankt Petersborg Mexico City --> Mexico City In particular, the names of Italian cities have changed to the Italian names over the past 50-100 years. More or less only Rome and Venice still have the Danish names that correspond to the German ones (Rom and Venedig). Neapel --> Napoli Florens --> Firenze Genua --> Genova Turin --> Torino Mailand --> Milano Ætna --> Etna

[@anonymelv9881]

Some cities in vlomkwi language : Megwalis, Bolej, Pilrem, Lam, Pisemig, Dasea, Nottletch, Folkwow, Kwiher, Naxe...Ramttil.

[@andyharth]

Could be even more interesting with some Slav language, Czech or Slovak.... For example Venice - Benátky 😉

[@arpad2188]

3:49 No mein Herr, that's not the most different, it's the closest to the original (Venezia) ;)

[@georgios_5342]

It was interesting to see them, but I knew them in English and French already 😅. Though the story behind Beijing definitely seemed the most interesting to me.

[@barnykirashi]

0:35 Britain France Hungary Germany Wait a second, I've seen this before! let's just add a "-" Britain France - Hungary Germany YEAH, WORLD WAR TWO IT IS!

[@tabiripetrovich517]

Vienna is Becs because at one point of history the Hungarian army occupied Vienna and named it as a Hungarian village. :)

[@Xerxes2005]

Very interesting, but it would have been nice if you gave the name of these cities in their own languages.

[@sovegjartogabor4369]

In old hungarian Bécs means "our border city" because in the X. century half of Austria belonged to Hungary.

[@matejsvincak6999]

In Slovak Venice is Benátky

[@Maria-oz9kh]

azat de jó hallani más nyelveken is ezeket a szavakat

[@ficzerezalan4245]

My country is HUNGARYA!

[@ladypurple3851]

Guten Abend

[@_.-.SHADOW.-._]

Testvérek! Miért ilyen nehéz megtanulni ezt a nyelvet?? Jó tudom. Az ékezetes magánhangzók. Stb.... De na.. Biztos értitek.

[@liltinglullaby3282]

Some more cities for possible future videos like this: Brussels, Belgium Bratislava, Slovakia Jerusalem, Israel Copenhagen, Denmark Athens, Greece Moscow, Russia Seoul, South Korea

[@foxboiii96]

Brüsszel Pozson Jeruzsálem Koppenhága Athén Moszkva Szöul

[@abc4828]

German is: Brüssel, Belgien Preßburg, Slowakei (today we also use Bratislava) Jerusalem, Israel Kopenhagen, Dänemark Athen, Griechenland Moskau, Russland Seoul, Südkorea

[@gergelylazar6647]

Hungarian took the name of Vienna from the Slavic people. In other words, it is a Slavic loanword. We have tons of Slavic loanwords, for example the days of the week, except for Sunday.

[@mianormalis]

What about Monday? -.-

[@gergelylazar6647]

@@mianormalis That is an exact literal translation of the Russian word понедельник, which means start of the week. Or head of the week. Tuesday means the next day, the second day.

[@J.P.MistaPista]

@@gergelylazar6647 Ponedelnik means 'after Sunday'

[@hungarianspectator6847]

Hétfő (Monday) obviously comes from "hét" (week, also number seven) and "fő" (head in older Hungarian) i.e head of the week. Kedd (Tuesday) comes from "kettedik" (which means second in an archaic form) and later it was simplified to "kedd". Szerda (Wednesday) comes from the slavic "sreda/streda/srijeda" (middle) word. Csütörtök (Thursday) also has slavic origins (četrtek/csetvrtek=fourth). Péntek may have come from the slavic word (piatok, pete= number five) or the greek penta (also five). Szombat (Saturday) has its roots in Hebrew (Sabbath), which shows this word came into Hungarian and other languages through Christianity and the Church. Vasárnap (Sunday) comes from "vásár" (fair, market) and "nap" (day).

[@hungarianspectator6847]

@@gergelylazar6647 I highly doubt wandering Hungarians (Magyars) on the steppes were translating Russian words to name the first day of the week... Different peoples tend to find the same (or very similar) solutions when they give names to common phenomena.

[@emesegabor3022]

Remete st Pál pápa is 12 ige után is fogom tudni kell me meg 👑

[@anonymelv9881]

Pittobikwitch, Pisolikwitch. Pittobikwitch 'ikd ro sobedor tti ro Thamilehehok 'id Pisolikwitch 'ikd kwir tti ro Lenomok.

[@--tb__m]

Toto wolf in his free time xd

[@kornelmarkhorvath9257]

Im Hungary

[@MRDodek-hn2vj]

Ott a hungary ember.

[@mysaviourjesus4134]

Vienna is „beč“ in Croatian, do not far off from Hungarian!

[@piros100]

yeah, we use a lot of words in Hungarian that are borrowed from our Slavic neighbours.

[@DawgMynameisNyx]

Okay sooo i speak hungary and i think the french is very hard

[@benjaminboda4272]

Szia qetra

[@blackmore1030]

Mexicans don't really say "Ciudad de Mexico" either. If it's obvious from the context that they're talking about the city, then they just call their capital Mexico.

[@eufrozinasamu-borbas9013]

Én Magyar vagyok!!!

[@jozsefkurucz8635]

Magyar🇭🇺

[@kornelvovesz4336]

Fokvárosról se hallodtam még!

[@leutnant4591]

FokVáros nem úgy fok -.- nem hőmérsékleti, hanem szélességi/hosszúsági FOK !

[@gergelycsontos1435]

Még csak nem is úgy :) "A fok a földrajztudományban - nem mérésügyi értelemben - egy környezetéből kiemelkedő földterület nagyobb vízfelületbe benyúló kiszögellését jelenti."

[@leutnant4591]

@@gergelycsontos1435 na basszus, ennyit a föci tanárunkról :D köszönöm a korrekciót !

[@user-sx1ht3tm6q]

Hi 👋Petra I like you very well ,and l like married you

[@user-sx1ht3tm6q]

Please, Petra write ✍ to me your instagram

[@Riot076]

Maflácska

[@user-sx1ht3tm6q]

@@Riot076 I don't andestend. What do you mean?

[@boglarkanemeth6564]

I love how everyone is talking abt the hungarian names. finally i dont have to get the answer "what is hungary?" if I tell someone I'm from Hungary. Hungary's reputation goes brrrr these days :D (sorry for my low budget English I'm 13 yo-)

[@HUNVilly]

Fokváros literally means cape town... pl: the Cape of Good Hope. is Jóreménység foka, vagy ott van Cape Cod