I’ve been looking for the answer to this little history question for a while…
when did the name “Formosa” change to “Taiwan” ??? (for the English-speaking folks)
Even on maps & tour books(English, published in the US) dated 1960,
Taiwan was still referred to as “Formosa”…
Thanks! 
“formosa” was/is portugese, right? the people on taiwan had a name for taiwan long before the portugese floated in. it seems the switch to taiwan over formosa was simply a recognition of the local sentiment. maybe some of our friend here who have written for newspapers can clue us in as there are guidelines for such.
the names used for places is fascinating indeed. macao is also aomen.
bombay is now mumbai, so as to better represent how the locals say the name. IIRC Burma was change to Myahmar (sp?) specifically so that the the spelling would better capture how the folks said the word.
i has a question for a cool teacher once: why don’t we call nations by the names they call themselves? why do we still use China when Zhongguo is the preferrred name of the nation itself? kinda like having the kirk and being called harold because that is what your great grand father was named. (and if we called china “zhonguo” it remove many headaches attached to the catch-all term that is china- be it national, linguistic, ethnic…)
his answer? “good question”.
That means “Kathmandu” would have to be pronounced with two retroflex dentals.
“Christmas Islands” would become “Kiribas” (i.e., Kiribati). Oh wait, we do that…
“Jerusalem” would either be Yerushalayam, al-Quddus, or possibly both at once.
Turkey (Turkiye, plus umlaut u) would be less embarrassed, Egypt (al-Misr) would be more, ah, misr-able.
“Niger” would sound, like, almost French or something, when stripped of its hard consonant.
And “United Arab Emirates” would become “Dahaka dahaka dahaha hakgh hakgh”
On the other hand, Oesterreich would no longer be confused with Strahlia, or Yurtzia with Jawja.
And people might learn the difference between the Netherlands and Holland.
Myanmar is the written/literary name of the country while Burma is the verbal/colloquial name of the country. The gov’t decided to change the official English name from the spoken version to the written version.
Less headaches? How many non-Chinese speakers can say “Zhongguo” properly without assistance? Most English speakers in North America, for some odd odd reason, already have enough trouble saying Beijing properly (pronouncing j in a French fashion) let alone a sound as unfamiliar as “zh”.
Aside from formal uses, who actually uses Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in place of North Korea? If you want to use the local term, N. Korea would be Joseon while S. Korea would be Hanguk. I think using North and South Korea is more informative.
No, that isn’t it. It has more to do with pan-ethnic representation and also to mark regime change. The new name “Myanmar” has been recognized by the United Nations, but the governments of English speaking countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, refer to it as Burma, possibly because they do not accept the legitimacy of the unelected military regime to change the official name of the country.
It’s quite complex, actually. You can read more here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Burma/Myanmar
Next thing you know, the Greeks are going to start calling Macedonia “Macedonia”!
[quote=“skeptic yank”]
i has a question for a cool teacher once: why don’t we call nations by the names they call themselves? why do we still use China when Zhongguo is the preferrred name of the nation itself?
his answer? “good question”.[/quote]
I brought up the same issue when they added “TAIWAN” to the “Republic of China Passport”
a few years back.
If I were working for President Chen, I would suggest that he sign an executive order
(or the equivlant in Taiwan) and change the front of the passport to say this:
[b]Zhong Hwa Min Guo
TAIWAN
PASSPORT[/b]
That way, no foreigner will mistake Taiwan’s passport as China’s passport.
Hell, he can even change the country’s name to Zhog Hwa Min Guo-Taiwan.
I guarantee you that 99.99% of the foreigner will skip the first part and just
call it Taiwan… 
In either case, Beijing (and Foggy Bottom) can’t complain that Taiwan had
declared independence… they simply chose to spell “Republic of China”
in a different way.
I thought the English phrase “Republic of China” was also official, and one of those thing’s he’s not supposed to change (on pain of being an even more of a bad boy). At one point there were other working translations like “United Provinces of China.”
I mean, what does “Zhonghua Minguo” even mean anyway? He could say that Taiwan is the “Central [Font of Cultural] Fluorescence” (as Victor Mair might translate it) and how would anybody know that this doesn’t refer to Chinese Taipei?
re: burma- i studied with a professor from burma back in university. he is the guy who updates burma’s entries in encyclopedias. it was his assertion that the name change was to reflect the wishes of the people to spell the name of the country the way they say it.
when he says the name it sounds like the initial sound is a “b/m” sound not represented in english.
but to keep this thread on track, any ideas as to when the west switched from using “formosa” to “taiwan”?
Well I too update Burma’s entries in encyclopedias–like Wikipedia! Here’s their take on the name issue:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Burma/Myanmar
Wasn’t “Taiwan” carried into English after Chiang Kai-shek took over?