|
Jerry B
|
Mount Everest names in other languages include: (
Tibetan: ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ, Chomolungma or Qomolangma /ˈtʃoʊmoʊˌlɑːŋmə/ CHOH-moh-LAHNG-mə, "Holy Mother";
Chinese: 珠穆朗玛峰; pinyin: Zhūmùlǎngmǎ Fēng;
Nepali: सगरमाथा, Sagarmāthā)
Many local names existed, including "Deodungha" ("Holy Mountain") in Darjeeling and the Tibetan "Chomolungma", which appeared on a 1733 map published in Paris by the French geographer D'Anville. In the late 19th century, many European cartographers further believed (incorrectly) that a native name for the mountain was "Gaurisankar",. (Gauri Sankar is a mountain between Kathmandu and Everest.)
Waugh argued that with the plethora of local names, it would be difficult to favour one name over all others. So, he decided that Peak XV should be named after George Everest, his predecessor as Surveyor General of India
George Everest opposed the name suggested by Waugh and told the Royal Geographical Society in 1857 that Everest could not be written in Hindi nor pronounced by "the native of India". Waugh's proposed name prevailed despite the objections, and in 1865, the Royal Geographical Society officially adopted Mount Everest as the name for the highest mountain in the world. The modern pronunciation of Everest ˈɛvərɨst, ˈɛvrɨst is different from Sir George's pronunciation of his surname, which was /ˈiːvrɨst/.
The official Tibetan name for Mount Everest is Qomolangma (Tibetan: ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ, Wylie: Jo mo glang ma, ZYPY: Qomolangma; often spelled Chomolungma; literally "Holy Mother"). The official Chinese name is Zhumulangma (simplified Chinese: 珠穆朗玛峰; traditional Chinese: 珠穆朗瑪峰; pinyin: Zhūmùlǎngmǎ Fēng; literally "Qomolangma Peak") although it is sometimes known as Shengmu Feng (simplified Chinese: 圣母峰; traditional Chinese: 聖母峰; pinyin: Shèngmǔ Fēng; literally "Holy Mother"). In the early 1960s, the Nepalese government coined a Nepali name for Mount Everest, Sagarmāthā (सगरमाथा), allegedly to supplant the Tibetan name among the locals, which the Nepali government felt was "not acceptable".
|