There is a pattern that often happens when people feel the need to change the behaviour of others, where for some reason those who want the change seem to see it as in some sense punitive and so actually make it less attractive and so less likely to happen.
There are many examples in the environmental movement, but another is in the area of aboriginal place names.
Frequently while driving around BC, I would be happy to learn and use an aboriginal name for the place where I find myself. But I am obstructed by the unnecessary use of unfamiliar symbols to display those names. Of course I am aware of the fact that the Latin alphabet only imperfectly and inconsistently specifies the pronunciation of a word, even just in the English language (and if you don’t believe me then I’ll desert you in a desert). But the use of an imperfect transliteration into the Latin alphabet would at least allow me to get started.
The following comment by Bob Jones on a recent Tyee article says it maybe better than I could.
Getting rid of Powell River? – I understand, and no objection there.
Renaming it with local indigenous moniker? – Great idea.
But representing the name using an IPA linguistic orthography that’s no less a colonial construct than the Latin alphabet – I’m out.
I’m not saying that obscure IPA orthographies don’t have a place in academia or in assisting with the pronunciation of a distinct language that historically was communicated only orally. But the pronunciation aid should not eclipse the accepted alphabet (for better or for worse) of the country and province, and the rest of the western world for that matter.
Maybe the main impediment is not the fear that the new name will be “hard to pronounce.” It’s more likely the fear that the new name, in written form, will be completely indecipherable to almost everybody.
So instead of: θaθχaysəm (thath-hay-sum)
How about: Thath-hay-sum (θaθχaysəm)
Source: The Case for Changing Powell River’s Name | The Tyee