[tz] Godthab->Nuuk (was: WSJ follows AP to Kyiv)

[Paul Eggert]

On 11/19/19 2:01 PM, Guy Harris wrote:

> Perhaps Calcutta -> Kolkata, although that one may not have been as politically sensitive as this one.

Another one is Godthab->Nuuk, a renaming that is long overdue, as the 
consensus English-language spelling changed years ago. I'd rather follow 
Calcutta's precedent, which is to change the name with a 
backwards-compatibility link. Proposed patch attached, and installed 
into the development version. Kiev->Kyiv could be handled similarly, 
though two of my three most-used news sources (Los Angeles Times, New 
York Times, Economist) write "Kiev" so caution is advised.

The New York Times switched from "Godthab" to "Nuuk" in the mid-1980s, 
so if it switches from "Kiev" to "Kyiv" later this year and we follow a 
similar timetable, we could rename Europe/Kiev in the year 2053 or so. 
(I'm not seriously proposing this; just giving a little perspective.)

For what it's worth, the mid-1980s spelling change was in response to 
what the New York Times called "militant Eskimos, and everybody who 
wants to avoid offending them". See:

Borders W. Eskimos are showing new militancy. New York Times. 
1982-03-07. 
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/03/07/world/eskimos-are-showing-new-militancy.html
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 0001-Rename-America-Godthab-to-America-Nuuk.patch
Type: text/x-patch
Size: 3524 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/attachments/20191119/f9202aee/attachment.bin>