The North Korean place names for foreign places reflect the native pronunciations, while South Korean place names reflect English pronunciation. Syria is "suria" vs "siria" for example.
Large scale collective farming I guess. The US' farmland in the central states was also organized by a centralized process (homestead act) leading to similar geographic patterns on a bigger scale. https://maps.app.goo.gl/idNBdXv5oKSF1oVo7
But that's only because the conservative government that took power in South Korea took a hardline anti-unification stance and instead decided to strengthen relations with the US.
The US has a rich history of undermining unification processes. Like in 2005 when Bush Jr broke promises related to light-water reactors and the 2005 agreement (where North Korea would stop nuclear development in exchange for a non-aggression pact and relief from sanctions).
Or in March 2017 when the U.S. has dismissed a joint China-North Korea proposal where North Korea would end its nuclear weapons development in exchange for the U.S. stopping its military maneuvers with South Korea
Not sure exactly how obvious it is to most Americans, but the Navajo reservation is extremely poor by American standards. When I went there, the local roads were all dirt and the houses seemed to have no electricity.
When I lived in Chicago, no one was silent about Chicago's violence. It was widely acknowledged as one of the city's biggest problems and there was a ton of effort put into stopping it by the government and nonprofits, including grassroots initiatives.
To steelman what you're saying, it's true we lived with it so long that it came to seem normal in a way if you weren't personally affected. But "everyone has been silent" is just not true.
Question for Arabic speakers: The Arabic transliterations don't have vowel markings (harakat). So how are you able to reproduce the pronunciation? Are you able to just guess and get it right most of the time? Same with place names that you've never seen (the name of some random village you see on a map), how do people have any confidence that they're saying it even remotely correctly?
Harakat (diacritics) are actually pretty rare in _any_ Arabic writing, unless it's the Quran (because meaning needs to be very exact/nuanced) or educational (for kids or other learners of the language). In fact, I think historically, not just the diacritics but even the dots (eg ب or ت) would be skipped, and people would guess the letter and pronunciation based on the context.
But you're right, with transliteration, it's much harder to guess because the sounds/combinations of letters are not typical, and the words are unfamiliar. So you just guess a bit and then you get corrected when you hear the sound (eg, on the song).
> Same with place names that you've never seen (the name of some random village you see on a map)
I’m just guessing here, albeit as someone with linguistic training: toponyms in a given region are typically formed by a limited inventory of words (“topoformants”) possibly extended by, for example, the name of a landowner, a tribe, etc. (a “specific”). Speakers growing up in a region will subconsciously learn the typical topoformants and therefore be able to read at least them without the vowel markings.
Also, don’t forget that Arabic does write the long vowels through the use of matres lectionis. It’s the very early Semitic inscriptions, from before this device was invented, that I am amazed that anyone could read.
In some occasion, when I was a student as native speakers, we came across people who would say words that would be hilarious to hear. They would drop a hidden vowel and say some words that made us laugh because they would allow two consonants clusters which is not used in Arabic. Such as Kamouj al bahr,instead of Kamouji elbahr (as sea wave).'The principle that two vowelless consonants (saakin letters) cannot meet is a fundamental rule in Arabic pronunciation, often referred to as التقاء الساكنين the meeting of two saakin letters).This is why English spoken by some Arabs, Egyptian in particular, has a distinctive accent that reflect that, so James sounds Jamsi, Street becomes Istreet.
It's a lot of trouble and hard to get right, but you can make it at home! The ingredients are easy to buy online. It keeps in the fridge for a long time, though after a while it stops tasting like makgeolli; the clear sediment-free layer starts resembling white wine.
If you like Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, you owe it to yourself to read this deep dive into the philosophy behind it. https://paeantosmac.wordpress.com/
