A Pronounced Mistake

Narrow fabric

I come from a family of ribbon makers whose business was based in Basle. In fact, ribbons were in the town of Basle before pharmaceuticals. Dye-makers who supplied the necessary colour for the ribbons branched out into making drugs To return to the ribbons, latterly all sorts of material was used for the ribbons but originally, the raw material was silk. This was bought from Lyons in France. A major market was Britain. The tradition in the family seems to have been that the male and Swiss Senn would marry a non-Swiss woman. My wife is British, my mother was British, my father's mother was half French and half British and my father's, father's, father's wife was French (I think).

Language Spectrum

In my family of Senn cousins you can find a wide spectrum from the pole (to mix metaphors) of very Swiss to the pole of very British . However, most of us have some familiarity with English and German and many of us with Swiss-German and French. Despite my being born Swiss, English is my first language and the only boast I can make about my French and German is that I speak the former better than many Swiss-Germans and the latter much better than most Swiss-French.

One rule has generally been observed by us when speaking whatever language we are speaking, We use the name of our hometown in the language we are speaking. The name of it is Basel in German but Bâle in French (rhymes approximately with "shall"). If I spoke Italian (but I don't, alas), I would call it Basilea. In English the name is Basle (rhymes approximately with "Carl").

A Swiss Oddity?

I sometimes get pulled up by English-speakers who say, shouldn't it be "Basel". To which I reply, indeed when speaking German but it's "Basle" in English.

"But isn't it correct to use the local name?", to which I reply, "what do you call that other border Swiss town on a lake with a big water spout where the WHO has it's headquarters?".

"Geneva" they reply. "And what's it called in French?", I ask.

"But, but, but.." they reply.

"But what?"

But me no buts

What do you call the capitals of France, Denmark, Russia, Italy and Portugal in English? Do you use the local name? The more important a place is, the more likely it is to have a name in English that is different and vice versa. What do you think the French call London or Edinburgh, for that matter? So, do me a favour and understand how painful it is to me if you refer in English to my home city as "Basel" but would never dream of using anything other than "Geneva" for the City of Calvin.

It's a great little city and an important one and it has an English name.