Читаю интереснейшую статью о том, как изменились названия гор с пришествием европейцев в Америку. Не могу не поделиться следующим, ибо поминают переводчика, конечно же:
Active volcano mountains contain potential infernos, but they do not necessarily have infernal names. The satanic names appear bestowed at random. In the case of Devils Tower, one story says the name originated in 1875 during an expedition led by Col. Richard Irving Dodge when his interpreter misinterpreted a conversation with an Indian.
While the tribe is not mentioned, I’m guessing the conversation to have been about the Bear spirit, since the Kiowa, Crow, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota all relate the tower to Bear. The interpreter probably made the common European mistake of translating “spirit” as “god” and what he told Dodge was “Bad God’s Tower,” which Dodge duly wrote down as “the Indian name.”
Еще интересное оттуда же (свои мысли оставлю при себе, просто цитирую):
Many indigenous names need shortening to be practical, and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names will not approve names so long as to be “difficult or cumbersome to use in written or spoken form.” However, the Board’s written policy also “supports and promotes the official use of geographic names derived from Native American languages.
