Posted by Adam Quinan on June 23, 2006 at 21:05:15 from 192.75.48.150 user Adam.
Apparently, the "preferred" spelling among mountaineers for the original mountain is Kangchenjunga which more closely approximates the original Tibetan name.
As we all know Ransome used Kanchenjunga. I have always assumed that this was because the mountain was in the news in 1929-31 because of three expeditions which attempted (but failed) to climb it and that this was the most common spelling of the time. Was Kanchenjunga the usual spelling back then? Is there any evidence of that?
I recently read on Wikipedia a theory (since removed from the Kangchenjunga article as unsupported) that Ransome originated the spelling without the first G which spelling was then propagated as a result of the popularity of his books. As Kanchenjunga is the most common spelling found when searching with Google, it would mean that Ransome had a fantastic influence on English usage. However much I would like to believe that, I doubt this very much. It would be interesting (to me at least), if we could find any evidence one way or the other.