He hails from Snowy River, up by Kosh-choosh-ko’s side . . .
And down by Kosh-choosh-ko, where the pine clad ridges raise . . .
Paterson would turn in his grave at the proposal by the NSW Geographical Names Board to revert to the “”correct” Polish spelling and pronunciation of Polish patriot General Tadeusz Kosciuszko, with an acute accent over the first s, for the name of Australia’s highest mountain.
The board made the recommendation after it found compelling evidence of the use of the “”correct” spelling of the general by explorer Paul Strzelecki who named the mountain.
Let us leave aside for the moment some fairly solid evidence that Strzelecki was looking at what is now Mount Townsend when he applied the name to what he thought was Australia’s highest mountain. Townsend is some 10 to 20 metres lower than Kosciusko, but it is more jagged and appears to be a higher mountain.
It is likely that others later applied Strzelecki’s name to the correct mountain. It is certain that they changed Strzelecki’s spelling and that others changed the pronunciation. It is likely that the new spelling and pronunciation followed the pattern of many transliterations and translations into English: a new form easier on native English speakers was adopted. From time to time transliterations and translations get corrected and recorrected: thus Peking becomes Beijing. In the case of Kosciusko, the name has been firmly entrenched, both in spelling and pronunciation, in the hearts and minds of generations of Australians such that the present spelling and pronunciation transcend the original. They have their own place in the public history and literature of the nation and in the private memory of the many of its inhabitants. These links have become of greater longevity and of greater importance than the Polish patriot.
This emotional and historic attachment to the existing spelling and pronunciation is reason enough to resist change, leaving aside mundane matters like cost.