Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging • Hacker News Board

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#131

Post by donmcronald » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 7:49 AM UTC

flowerlad wrote: post #9

A lot of people don't know this, but it takes about 30min to go from Petting to Fucking. See https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Fucking,+Austria/83367+Petti...

Haha. That's awesome. My nephew thought it was hilarious when he found Fucking on the map. We spent a quite a while joking about taking a Fucking vacation to Fucking Austria to see if they have a Fucking Starbucks where we could hang out with the Fucking people. But once my sister got annoyed I had to tell him to stop joking about the Fucking place and then we started all over. Lmfao.

I guess that's all in the Fucking past now :-(

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#132

Post by sdiq » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 7:59 AM UTC

Kumamoto in Japan has a similarly bad name in Swahili. If you break the city's name into 2 four-letter words, you get vagina (kuma) and hot (moto) in Swahili. Thankfully, Swahili speakers are not going to harass this city's residents anytime soon.

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#133

Post by a4444f » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 8:13 AM UTC

mensetmanusman wrote: post #92

Why do people believe there are bad words?

Why are there irrational numbers? Why so many, why so different? Are rationals not enough?

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#134

Post by devy » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 8:18 AM UTC

sasaf5 wrote: post #99

bartread wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Shitterton in Dorset: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Shitterton,+Bere+Regis,+Wa...

Don't forget Boring (Oregon), sister city of Dull (Scotland).

NJ Turnpike has an exit at Bordentown, first time I saw them many many years ago, I mistook it as "Boredom Town".

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#135

Post by ephaeton » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 8:18 AM UTC

riffraff wrote: post #124

ithkuil wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In 2012, there were reports that the village of Fucking in Upper Austria attempted to change its name to Fugging through a referendum after receiving large amounts of prank phone calls from English speakers about the village's name.[3] According to these reports, they were unable to do so because Fugging in Lower Austria was already so named; Prank phone calls are definitely more annoying than some tourists taking…

GP didn't say taking pictures, but that the sign was being stolen. I do not know if this is true in the specific case but I have met idiots who stole street signs, so this seems at least plausible.

I live about 5km away from Fucking. Their signs are _regularly_ stolen, even despite their countermeasures. They even stopped replacing way signs ( | Fucking > ) that were stolen.

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#136

Post by devy » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 8:19 AM UTC

carstenhag wrote: post #120

flowerlad wrote: post #8

Well, that's unfortunate that they decided to change the name. But there's always Intercourse, PA if you're looking for a fun sounding place to go: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Intercourse,+PA/@40.036806...

Also Kissing, Germany. I live next to it :P

There is also Kissimmee in Florida :)

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#137

Post by ephaeton » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 8:21 AM UTC

Leherenn wrote: post #129

conformist wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a German speaker, their choice seems quite natural, because it won't alter the modern pronunciation a lot. I'd even guess that the new spelling might represent a typical Austrian pronunciation with a soft "k" sound more accurately.

Is Austrian like Swiss German where "gg" is "k"? If so the pronunciation might have not/barely changed for locals, but is no longer funny for English speakers.

Locals don't speak a phonetically hard 'k' in the middle when refering to that village. If you heard them say the name, you'd not be sure whether to write it with gg or ck in the middle. (NB: I live in a village essentially next to Fucking)

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#138

Post by teekert » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 8:21 AM UTC

DoreenMichele wrote: post #44

"Don’t people have any sense of humour these days?” asked one OOeN reader. Another noted: “They’re getting free publicity – they ought to have been happy to have a funny name." Free publicity that leads to sign posts being stolen. For a tiny village of 100 people, this is likely a serious hardship. If it isn't bringing in more money than it's costing them, it's an attractive nuisance , not free publicity.

Moreover, is it really so difficult to imagine that there are still people that don't like publicity these days?

Re: Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging

#139

Post by jelliclesfarm » Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 8:22 AM UTC

devy wrote: post #136

carstenhag wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also Kissing, Germany. I live next to it :P

There is also Kissimmee in Florida :)