[WikiEN-l] River names Oder/Odra and Neisse/Nysa

Tue Feb 18 16:28:43 UTC 2003

Mirko Thiessen wrote:
> I'd like to ask the community, which name is used more often by 
> native English speakers.

Searching only English pages for 
"Oder River" -- 2,970
"Odra River" -- 1,730
Oder River -- 35,000
Odra River --  3,940

"Neisse River" --   415
"Nysa River"   --    38
Neisse River -- 1,600
Nysa River   -- 1,920

On the other hand, [[user:Space Cadet]] on User_talk:Taw has written:

>Or, why don't we just wait a couple more months until the "official
>English name" changes to the original "ODRA" and everybody's happy?
>Let's look into the future!"

I'm not sure what this means, exactly, since there is no such thing as
"official" English, but I assume it means something, and whatever it
does mean, is probably an important factor.

What do dictionaries say?  What does Britannica do?  Encarta?
U.S. government sources?  British and Australian government sources?

--Jimbo