An interesting historical case is Istanbul, whose name comes from the Greek phrase "eis ten poli" ("to the city" -- first "e" is epsilon, and second "e" is eta). That phrase tended to be pronounced "istimboli" and with dissimilation "istamboli". So when the Turks changed the name from Constantinople to Istanbul, they simply changed from a name with an obvious Greek derivation to one with a nonobvious Greek derivation.
This explanation seems rather Byzantine to me.
-- Curtis Clark http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/ Web Coordinator, Cal Poly Pomona +1 909 979 6371 Professor, Biological Sciences +1 909 869 4062
