‘bourgogne vs. burgundy – what’s in a name?’

Update 13.7.2019(28.2.2019)billn

I dismissed the BIVB‘s press release about this time last year, probably because I had better things to do around the time of the harvest – actually it was the 12th September, so I’m sure I’d probably finished by then – but I digress!

In essence, they want to change the way that others speak:

“To re-affirm its identity as one of the most iconic vineyard of France, the region and its producers are reverting back to the original French iteration of its name: Bourgogne.”

They say that if we all revert to ‘Bourgogne’ then it will aid them in “maintaining one true identity.” It’s not just a swipe at Anglo-Saxons like me, but also Germans and any number of other ‘non-French translations’ of Bourgogne. It sounds like the first step on the road to ‘Frexit’ to me!

To be honest, I’d completely forgotten about this, until last week, when a stalwart of the BIVB asked me why I don’t ‘change to using the word Bourgogne instead?’ Whilst not fully prepared for an in-depth rebuttal, I did manage to muster that when the French officially stop referring to Angleterre or États-Unis d’Amérique or Londres, and adopt local usage, I would begin to think about it!

It seems to me a silly thing to spend time on, particularly in a region where many of its rules and classifications derive from what are described as traditions that are ‘loyaux et constants‘ i.e. they are trustworthy, established practice.

I know that I’m going through a site update – online, hopefully, by the first week in April – but I’m still not planning to rename the site to Bourgogne Reportage! Not yet, anyway 😉

Leave a Reply to ClaesCancel reply

There are 2 responses to “‘bourgogne vs. burgundy – what’s in a name?’”

  1. Claes28th February 2019 at 9:17 pmPermalinkReply

    Silly indeed,

    And they are looking at it the wrong way. To have your city’s, region’s, etc. name translated, is a badge of honor. It means that now, or in history, that place was of enough importance to people of foreign tongues, that they bothered to come up with a more phonetically pleasing way of pronouncing it. You only do that with places like Firenze and Napoli, but skip Frosinone.

  2. Mike de Lange1st March 2019 at 2:31 pmPermalinkReply

    There… you tell ’em, Bill. What utter nonsense, from the institute which kept blaming corks and bad transport practices for the p’ox in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Burgundy Report

Translate »

You are using an outdated browser. Please update your browser to view this website correctly: https://browsehappy.com/;