>> Thereby we speak Dutch (where the hell came that word from?)
>
>Isn't only the English speakers that use the term "Dutch", which is a slur of Deutch. Really a failure to fully grasp or care about the difference between the Netherlands and Germany. It really ticks me off all of anglicizing of foreign places.
>
>Lisoba: Lisbon
>Koln: Colonge
>Munchen: Munich
>Deutchland: Germany
>Nippon: Japan

Though this also ticks me off, I honestly had to concede that it's the unwritten rule in all languages. Traditionally, people have used their own names for foreign toponyms with which they came in contact. Sometimes, that's sheer deafness (like caling Beijing Peking, or Warszawa (pronounce Varshava, each "a" as in "ah") as Warsaw), but most of the times that's just tradition.

In Serbian, albeit we try, as a rule, to pronounce foreign names phonetically as close to original sound as possible, this rule doesn't apply to traditional names: for Wien (veen, aka Vienna), we say Beč (batch - and, btw, so do Hungarians). Some other cities in the 'hood: Romania - Rumunija, there Jimbolia - Žombolj (zhomboll), Timişoara (timmyshwara) - Temišvar (temishvar), river Bega - Begej (begey). Magyarórszág (magyarorsahg - Hungary) we call Mađarska (magyarska), there Szeged (seged) we call Segedin, Budapest (budapesht) - Budimpešta (budimpeshta). Istambul - Stambol. Roma - Rim, Napoli - Napulj (nahpull), Venezia - Mleci (mletzi) etc etc.

It's amazing that the Germans have so many different names around. The French call them Alleman (sp?) after the first tribe they met, or something to that effect. They call themselves Deutch (doych) but most of the western languages call them Germans. And then all the Slavs (plus Hungarians) call them Nemci, Nemeckie, Német etc... which all comes from "nem", mute. IOW, from the POV of Slavs, these guys just couldn't speak :).

Italians call the Austrians Tedeschi; Hungarians call the Polish Lengyel, Albanians call themselves Sqiptar (shkiptar) but everyone else has to call them Albanians. Georgia (ex-USSR) call their country Gruzia (or that's how Russians call them, at least - I don't speak their language).