>And what's wrong with "Barbarian Town" anyway? Someone - presumbly
>the Gloranthan who drew the map (some round-shouldered Lunar sage
>in his far-off ivory tower?) - called it "Barbarian Town", possibly
>because he knew there was a settlement there and that "barbarians"
>lived in it, and he had to call it something, otherwise there'd be
>a big empty gap on his map and he'd have to put in yet another hydra
>or elephant to fill it.
FWIW Barbarian town is so-called because it is a town inhabited by the Pol-Joni who are "barbarians" according to Cults of Prax terminology (cf p12 where the Nomad Gods pantheon is described under the header of "The Barbarian Gods"). Greg wasn't fully cognizant of the distinction between Barbarians and Nomads back then it seems.
I think Barbarian town is a Sartarite name and the Poljoni might call it Derikstown.
>The northern Chinese capital Peking/Beijing means "Northern Capital".
Due to their infamiliarity with the Chinese Tones, foreigners often pronounce it as "Cold Porridge".
>The Turks call it "Istanbul", which is a
>corruption of a Greek phrase meaning pretty much the same thing
>[as Big City].
Actually means "To the City" and supposedly derived from all the road signs. To bring the point back to prosiac names, the Ottoman government never used it in official correspondance and instead used "House of Happiness". Victorians felt this was awfully dreary and freely translated as "Abode of Bliss".
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