This map was recently featured in an episode of Map Men covering Soviet cold war cartography. It shows southeastern British place names spelled phonetically to teach would be Polish invaders how to pronounce them.
The map was originally put on Twitter by former Economist researcher Alex White but the original tweet appears to be gone. The image above is via The Sun. Some fun names include Saufend-on-Sji (Southend-on-Sea), Hejstynz (Hastings) and Byszeps-Stofed (Bishops Stortford).
A bit shocking to think about perhaps but it makes for some nice wall art
This version was created by Maple Tea based on the original version.
3 comments:
It is ridiculous to call those maps as being prepared for "Polish invaders"!
Some languages transcribe foreign names even when using same script. In my home country, even names in Latin-using languages are phonetically transcribed in books, maps and elsewhere.
It is likely just regular Polish maps, not some sinister war maps.
no, it's names written in polish phonetics.
We don't say londen but londyn ;)
But yeah, some names are different (Aachen -> Akwizgan, Milan -> Mediolan)
What do you mean, Polish "invaders"? Polish airmen fought for the Allies and incredibly bravely.
Wash your mouth out!!!
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