To add insult to injury, what they call it, Deutschland, sounds like what we should call Netherlands
Americans are slowly learning about the rest of the world.
Better late than never.
America was originally just the name of South America, then the English lazily coined the term “North America”.
Entire nations: You cannot keep “America” for yourself. There is history, maps, books, the independence of other countries in the region called for the liberation of “America” (e.g. Simón Bolívar “the liberator of America”; “America for the Americans”; Sentimientos de la Nación: “America is free and independent of Spain and all other nations, governments, or monarchies”).
The U.S. of A.: Yeah… No. I’m America now. There’s no other “America” because there’s only North America and South America, 🤷🏼♂️ don’t you know? And the land is The Americas because it’s two in one. Duh. Erasure? I call it freedom! 🇺🇸🦅
The amazing thing is, people don’t refer to their home country by a two letter acronym.
UK has entered the chat
In Denmark we refer to the UK as England. If it’s more official we call them Storbritannien but no one calls them that in everyday speech. It’s just England.
I know it’s not the point.
But spitting on Scotland and Northern Ireland like that is a bit harsh.
But it’s the appropriate amount of harsh when it comes to Wales?
(Sees car with CH sticker drive by…)
Mostly found out as we feverishly seek out escape routes.
Deutschland, sounds like what we should call Netherlands
Until you then find out that the Netherlands is actually called “Nederland” in the Netherlands. And the reason they’d called “Dutch” in America is due to an archaic mix-up between the two nationalities.
It’s not really a mix-up. More a continuation of an old name for the language spoken in the Netherlands. The Dutch centuries ago called their language Diets/Duuts/Duits which means something like Germanic. This was before the countries Germany and the Netherlands existed.
Diets is not a single language but a name for all the different regional languages spoken in the low lands. Diets is also known as Middle Dutch. The name was used to differentiate the languages from the Romance languages.
Hence why the English called the people of the low lands Dutch since the people of the low lands said they were speakers of Diets/Duuts/Duits.
Also in the Dutch national anthem there is a line that says “Ben ik van Duitsen bloed” “I am of Dutch/Deutsche blood” which does not refer to modern day Deutschland but to what all Germanic people in the low lands, what is now present day Netherlands, would call themselves back then.
The Dutch centuries ago called their language Diets/Duuts/Duits which means something like Germanic.
No, it means something like “people” or “of the people”.
Wait, so Dutch is the language of people and everyone else has been using animal languages this whole time!?
Ja
Most Dutch people I met just call it Holland. We do so in Denmark as well
“We” call it Holland because foreigners say “eh?” when we call it the Netherlands.
Hah, didn’t know that
Yeah wierd situation. Internally it only refers to the 2 provinces in the west but externally we all chant it during football matches
Its the worst. Always try a “Netherlands” and get a “what??” in return and then say “Holland” - “ooooooh HOLLAND!”…
What do people from the Netherlands call themselves if not Dutch or the Dutch?
Like, people from the United States call themselves Americans, there’s the Spanish and French.
Are they called Netherlanders or something?
Well in Dutch they call themselves Nederlanders or Hollanders. Though Hollanders is technically only correct if they are from the Dutch province North-Holland or South-Holland
here is a CGP Grey video about the difference between Holland and the Netherlands https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE_IUPInEuc
And the reason why the Netherlands is also known as Holland is basically before the unification of the Low Lands every province was a self governing state and Holland was the richest province. Hence why most traders who went abroad from the Low Lands were people from Holland. It’s therefore why people abroad would call the Low Lands Holland since Hollanders were the only people from the Low Lands they met and and after the Netherlands was formed the name Holland for that area stuck in many languages.
Holland is fairytale beautiful. Would happily live there. I loved visiting.
This is what confused me so much about germany’s real name :)
You have it backwards.
German in German is “Deutsch” or “Duits” in Dutch.
Dutch in Dutch is “Nederlands” or “Niederländisch” in German.
“Deutch” comes from an old high german word “diutisc” which meant “of the people”
“Dutch” comes from “Diest” meaning “people’s language”
When the Romans invaded England, they important the Latin “Germania” to refer to Germany and gradually started to use “Dutch” for the common people of the “lower countries” (Belgium and Netherlands)
Where does “Alemania” (what they call Germany in Spain) come from?
It comes from from french and originally from latin alamanus. There was a germanic tribe there called the the Alamanni.
AFAIK French has something similar. I might be wrong, but similarly to the Holland/Netherlands (Nederlanden) story, it was named after one of the tribes in Germany (alamanni, “all men”), before the great unification.
I think the term “The Nethetlands” was coined after the Reformation and Counter-Reformation when the northern provinces ,which became Lutheran, separated from the southern provinces which remained Roman Catholic.
The country was usually referred as “Holland” (a northern province) before then.
There’s no actual difference in meaning/etymology between ‘Diets’ and ‘Deutsch’. They’re both derived from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz, meaning ‘of the people’. Well into at least the seventeenth century, probably the eighteenth (I’m basing this off what I’ve read myself in primary sources) ‘Duits’ was still commonly used in the Netherlands as well. It was essentially part of a distiction between ‘Duits’ and ‘Waals’, where those who were ‘Waals’ were the ‘others’.
Wait till you find out that Germans have different words for all the other things we have words for, too!
Seriously though, the names of countries are just words. There’s no reason to expect them to be the same in different languages.
I think it’s so funny that almost all languages have some variation of the name “Hungary”, except in Hungarian, where it’s called “Magyarország”.
I believe the languages of some neighbouring countries such as Turkey resemble Magyarország more closely :)
I’ve always wanted to make a map that used the native names for countries instead of their English/American names.
Looks like they specifically chose the official English names for countries even when the indigenous name is also official.
They explain the methodology - where there is more than one official name, the name in the language with the most speakers in that country is used.
That’s certainly a decision.
How would you pick along multiple official names in different languages?
I mean it’s mostly a criticism of whoever suggested this map as a way to see country names in the language of the country, rather than just English.
But it’s also kind of a pointless map as it’s not useful to an English speaker but it doesn’t commit to teaching you indigenous place names either.
Most of them are fairly expected. That Finland tho…
Etkos puhu suomeä? :)
valitettavasti en :(
I do watch a lot of Hydraulic Press Channel though so i at least have an ear for Finglish :)
It gets interesting when you hear how the Chinese call countries.
Oh, it’s all interesting IMO!
No… I have a name. Someone talking to me in a different language doesn’t make my name different. It’s intuitive to think country names are the same.
Other languages use different characters or might not even be able to pronounce the name as they don’t have the sounds. It might be simple to think that, doesn’t make it correct.
You’d still expect to call them something similar to what they call themselves as best as another language can, but nope!
But they specifically said “There’s no reason to expect them to be the same in different languages.” Which there absolutely IS a reason to expect that.
Expectations end where knowledge begins, I guess.
Never said it was correct to not translate country names. Only that there is a reason to think they wouldn’t be.
Countries aren’t people though. And depending on language and context, this does happen, and used to happen even more. Finns might refer to a David as Taavi in Finnish. John Cabot’s name in Italian was Giovanni.
Never said we shouldn’t be translating the names of countries, only that there is a reason to think we shouldn’t. Because the comment I was replying to said “There’s no reason to expect them to be the same in different languages.”
My name is said differently in different languages, I’d expect nothing different
Your name is your name. Things like Jack versus Jacques or Matthew versus Mateo exist, but those aren’t your name.
Technically, Japan is not called Japan in Japan. Its Nippon.
In France it’s called Japon.
France also uses the world “nippon” as an adjective equivalent of “japanese”
Same both Japón & Nipón for Spanish language but with its phonetics
Same in Italian. Giappone and nipponico.
I love this exchange.
It is interesting, because Nippon is a somewhat archaic version in Japanese. They usually say Nihon now.
But of course, these exonyms will have been borrowed into these various languages a long time ago, so it kind of makes sense.
Maybe it’s just regional for me, but we say Japonais
In Germany Nippon is a brand of puffed rice with chocolate.
That’s it, I’m going back to bed
Not technically, it just plain isn’t called Japan.
More often Nihon than Nippon. The latter is somewhat archaic.
Both are spelled almost the same in Japanese (kana): にほん vs. にぽん.
日本 could be either, but most often Nihon.
Fun fact:
You might know China as 中国
But Chinatown is not China 中国 + Town 城
I never heard of any Chinese diaspora use 中国城
It’s always 唐人街 Tang-People Street, Tang referring to China’s most powerful dynasty, or 華埠 Hua-City, Hua also refers to Chinese people, it’s actually a character in the official name of both PRC 中华人民共和国 (in simplified) and ROC 中華民國 (in traditional)
Overseas Chinese is typically not referred as 中国人 but as 華人 (Hua People)
Chinese Americans are not really referred to as “Americans” but the emphasis is put on the Citizenship, rather than being an “American”
Like in 美籍華人 which Google Translate says is “Chinese American”, but really transliterates to “Hua (meaning ethnic Chinese) Person with American Citizenship”
To emphasis on the “American-ness” I’d have to use 華裔美國人 which transliterates to “American of Hua (aka: Chinese) Ethnicity”, which I think would sound really weird and I think I’d get weird looks if I use the term 美國人 (American), so I probably would never call myself an “American” in front of Chinese-speaking people, but use 美籍華人 instead.
(Sort of like code-switching. I call myself American in front of other Americans to fit in, but call myself 華人 (ethnic Chinese person) to other ethnic Chinese so I could also fit in.)
Another fun fact:
In Dutch, the US is called Verenigde Staten.
But, the English United States sounds like u naait het steeds and means “you keep sewing it” or “you keep fucking it”.
“I fok horses” “Pardon?” “Yes, paarden!”
Just wait til’ you hear about what they call Japan in Japan.
Nihon-koku or Nippon-koku
ni!
In Spanish Germany is Alemania. Just to add more confusion to this topic.
Allemagne in french.
And in Italian we call the country Germania but the inhabitants are called “tedeschi”
Danish is closer, we call it Tyskland
*Alemania, no accent
Thanks, fixed
Tedesco
To be fair, Alemania (Ale Mania!) sounds like a kick ass name for Bavaria.
i really wonder where you are from
Likewise, Germans feel betrayed when they find out that you don’t call your country Deppendorf
But we are not a village
Deppenmetropole*
A metropolis in size can still be a village in spirit.
Wait until you learn about Japan
Nippon! Wait…Nihon! Err…
At least they call Germany “doitsu”
I hear “doitsu,” I can’t help but think
I’m a Newfoundlander. My sister felt betrayed when she found out that what we call turnips, most people call rutabegas
I could have sworn rutabagas were a different vegetable…
They are, I can buy both at the local grocery. Turnips are white, rutabaga are a yellowish color.
I’ve never heard the word rutabega, it’s what we’d call a swede in the UK
and Japan is is not Japan in Japan.
NaNi-ppon?
As someone from Czech Republic, I am not surprised. There are sometimes huge differences between country names in czech and English. And the closer the country is, the bigger the difference.
For the German speaking countries eng - ger - cze:
- Germany - Deutschland - Německo
- Austria - Österreich - Rakousko
- Switzerland - Sweiz - Švýcarsko
Other examples (eng - cze):
- Czech - Česko
- Slovakia - Slovensko
- Slovenia - Slovinsko
- Greece - Řecko
- Georgia - Gruzie
- Spain - Španělsko
- Greenland - Grónsko
- Hungary - Maďarsko
- Croatia - Chorvatsko
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Exactly, instead of saying USA, we say NAZI now.
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Americunt! As an American myself I wholeheartedly approve of this epithet for us. The majority of my countrymen are positively unbearable.
美國 “Beautiful Country” in my language.
“America” as in the continent would be 美洲
“American” as in American Nationals would be 美國人 and is distinct from 美洲人 which means the “American” as in "People who live in the Americas.
So you don’t need terms like “US-Americans” or “USA’ians”.
Chinese is such a simple and beautiful language. Easy to understand.
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Eh. The country is beautiful.
Politics is ugly, regardless of where you are in the world.
No shit?!
