Originally Posted by
chococat
So can anyone explain to my why Kiribati is pronounced "Kiribas"?
Originally Posted by
Mr H
Because their language has no letter "s" and "ti" is used to represent that sound. There is an island there called Kiritimati which you may know better as Christmas Island.
I believe it's because the typewriter belonging to a missionary in the 1840s had a broken "s" key. When he was translating the Bible, he thus used "ti" as a replacement (God only knows why he chose that particular combination).
http://language-directory.50webs.com...s/kiribati.htm
"
The Kiribati language is written in the Latin alphabet, and has been since the 1840s, when Hiram Bingham Jr, a missionary, first translated the Bible into Kiribati. Previously, the language was unwritten. Bingham had only a typewriter with a broken "S" so it does not occur in the language and "ti" is used for that sound instead. "
Originally Posted by
chococat
And to stay on topic, I think it is silly and pretentious to pronounce the name of a place in the local language if that is the only word of the local language that one knows. I find that people do this are the same people who maintain a British accent for MONTHS after having vacationed in the UK for a long weekend.
I find that ridiculous in the extreme.