{"id":7087,"date":"2020-04-17T15:34:36","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T15:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/?p=7087"},"modified":"2022-07-06T12:52:53","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T11:52:53","slug":"why-do-we-call-it-that-national-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/why-do-we-call-it-that-national-names\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do We Call It That?: National Names"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Heimat\u2014a very German concept of \u2018homeland\u2019, referring to a place (country\/city\/town), or even a time or emotional sense. Find out more here<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How often do you think about where words come from? Probably not that much, right? And yet, every word has its origins. Some have been passed down from ancient roots that, in some cases, are barely recognisable when compared to the words they have become today. Some have been borrowed from other languages and either left as they were or adapted to fit the new rules they\u2019re surrounded with. In this post, we\u2019re going to take a look at the names of some countries, how they differ across languages, and where they may have come from.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post came into being because of the M\u0101ori term for France. Now, the area we know as France (or La France, if you\u2019re French), used to be called Gaul, which is where the word \u2018gallic\u2019 comes from. In Greek, in fact, France is still known as \u0393\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03af\u03b1 (Gallia), but in most other languages, its name is some variation of \u2018France\u2019 (Frankreich; Francia; \u0424\u0440\u0430\u043d\u0446\u0438\u044f (Frantsiya); \u6cd5\u56fd (f\u00e0gu\u00f3)).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not, however, when it comes to M\u0101ori. That\u2019s because the M\u0101ori word for France is W\u012bw\u012b.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yep, you read that right\u2014W\u012bw\u012b\u2014and if you know some French, you can probably make an educated guess about where it came from.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When French explorers first reached New Zealand, the native M\u0101ori referred to them as Ng\u0101ti W\u012bw\u012b<\/a>. Ng\u0101ti means tribal group and W\u012bw\u012b is derived from what the M\u0101ori heard the French saying to each other: \u201cOui, oui.\u201d (Yes, yes.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This word has been carried through the generations, so that even in modern M\u0101ori, France is W\u012bw\u012b!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve done some research and found a few other countries that have (at first sight) strange origins surrounding their names in other languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germany: The Mute Ones<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At first glance, the English word, Germany, seems to be the outlier here. In many of the languages that neighbour the country, the name for Germany is related to the Alemanni tribe (French\u2014Allemagne; Spanish\u2014Alemania), who lived on the Upper Rhine River in the third century.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, speakers of Italian, Greek, and even Romanian, all call Germany Germania, which is a word that cropped up in Latin in the third century, simply describing \u2018fertile land behind the limes\u2019 (a limes being a frontier of the Roman Empire). The word Germany was not actually used in English until the sixteenth century; before that, English speakers would call it \u2018Alman\u2019 or \u2018Almain\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, then, all the names used for Germany are related to people who lived in that area or where they lived within it. Looking to the east, then, to the countries where Slavic languages are spoken, we would expect to see a similar naming convention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Polish, however, Germany is referred to as Niemcy. It is a similar case in Slovak (Nemecko), Czech (N\u011bmecko and Slovenian (Nem\u010dija)\u2014though, oddly, not Russian, where \u0413\u0435\u0440\u043c\u0430\u043d\u0438\u044f (Germaniya) is used. Even more strangely, no part of the word Niemcy, or any of its variations, refer to locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

N\u011bm\u044cc\u044c, the Proto-Slavic word that Niemcy, Nemecko, and all these related words are derived from, actually means \u2018the mutes\u2019 or \u2018not able to speak\u2019. Literally, it means \u2018a mute\u2019 but over time, it came to be used to signify \u2018those who do not speak (like us)\u2019; or, foreigners. It is suspected that, at first, this term was applied to any non-Slav foreigners, but eventually was only applied to Germans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Russian (and Bulgarian) speakers use a derivation of Germania to refer to Germany, they still stick to their Slavic roots when using the adjective \u2018German\u2019\u2014Russians say \u043d\u0435\u043c\u0435\u0446\u043a\u0438\u0439 (nemetskiy) and Bulgarians \u043d\u0435\u043c\u0441\u043a\u0438 (nemski).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germans, of course, refer to their own country as Deutschland. Deutsch is an adjective that comes from the Old High German thiota\/diota, meaning \u2018people\u2019, \u2018nation\u2019, or \u2018folk\u2019. So, technically, Deutschland is something close to \u2018people\u2019s land\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italy: The Foreigners<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although linguists are not one hundred percent certain of the origins of \u2018Italy\u2019, they can hazard a good guess. Obviously, it comes from Latin, from the word Italia (originally spelt Vitalia), which was used to refer to tribes that lived in what is now known as South Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is likely that Vitalia was derived from Oscan v\u00edteli\u00fa, meaning \u2018[land] of young cattle\u2019, so it probably took its name from being fertile land that was useful for farming. Across Europe, now, Italy\u2019s name is similar in every language\u2014with the exception of Polish and Hungarian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Hungarian, Italy is known as Olasz; in Polish, it\u2019s W\u0142ochy. And, despite their apparent differences, they both come from the same word\u2014Walhaz. Walhaz is a reconstructed Proto-Germanic word which means \u2018Roman\u2019, \u2018Romance-speaker\u2019, or \u2018Celtic-speaker\u2019 and, over time, came to be used to refer to foreigners in general. Wo\u0142ochy was first used by Polish speakers to refer to the Romanised tribes of the Balkans<\/a>; later, this changed slightly to W\u0142ochy, which came to be used only to talk about a more southern group\u2014the Italians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wales: Fellow Countrymen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Wales\u2014and Welsh, actually\u2014both also derive from Walhaz, as seen above. This term was used often by Anglo-Saxons, who spoke Old English, to refer to Britons (the native people of Britain); the plural form of Walhaz, W\u0113alas, was the term that ended up becoming the name of their territory, Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also where Cornwall, a then non-Germanic area, got its name, as well as places that were in Anglo-Saxon territory, but tended to be where Britons lived (e.g. Walworth in County Durham, or Walton in West Yorkshire). The -wall\/Wal- comes from Walhaz!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Welsh, however, the word for Wales is Cymru. This is derived from the Brythonic (a branch of the Celtic language family) word combrogi, which means \u2018fellow-countrymen\u2019 and emphasised that the people living in modern-day Wales, as well as those Britons living in what is now northern England and southern Scotland, were all one people. It was not used to refer to Cornish people or Bretons, even though they shared a similar language, culture and heritage with the Welsh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It became used as a self-description probably before the seventh century, though it was spelt either as Kymry or Cymry until around 1560.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argentina: The Land of Silver<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although the name Argentina has been borrowed into English from Spanish, it is actually Italian in origin. Venetian and Genoese navigators were among the first to explore the Americas since the Vikings landed in North America in the eleventh century. As the word Argentina was found on a Venetian map in 1536, far earlier than the first reference to the country in Spanish (1602), it is likely that they were the people to name it as such.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argentina, in Italian, means \u2018of silver\u2019 or \u2018silver-coloured\u2019; it is probably borrowed from the Old French adjective argentine, which has the same meaning. By the eighteenth century, the term Argentina was in common usage, even though the country was formally called Viceroyalty of the R\u00edo de la Plata (R\u00edo de la Plata\u2014river of silver) by the Spanish Empire and then United Provinces of the R\u00edo de la Plata after independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first use of the name Argentine Republic occurred in the 1826 constitution and, in 1860, a presidential decree settled the country\u2019s name as the same, ruling all names since 1810 as legally valid. In English, Argentina was usually referred to as \u2018the Argentine\u2019 until the mid-to-late twentieth century, mimicking the Spanish\u2014La Argentina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China: A Special Case<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re going to take a quick look here first at how country names are translated into Chinese\u2014specifically, Mandarin. China has a 5,000 year history, with interactions and relationships with all kinds of civilisations that have existed in that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that there are lots of different names for different countries in Chinese and that there are different ways these country names have been transferred into the language. Some are direct transliterations\u2014so the name in Mandarin is supposed to sound similar to the name in another language. For example, \u53e4\u5df4 (g\u01d4b\u0101) is Cuba; \u4e5f\u95e8 (y\u011bm\u00e9n) is Yemen. This is the case for many country names in Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there are some that don\u2019t appear\u2014at least on first glance\u2014to be transliterated at all. This includes countries like \u7f8e\u56fd (m\u011bigu\u00f3), the USA; \u82f1\u56fd (y\u012bnggu\u00f3), the UK; and \u6cd5\u56fd (f\u01cegu\u00f3), France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s interesting about these names is what the first characters in the pairs mean. The second character for all of them\u2014\u56fd (gu\u00f3)\u2014means country or nation. However, \u7f8e (m\u011bi) means beautiful, \u82f1 (y\u012bng) means brave, and \u6cd5 (f\u01ce) means law.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, we have: the USA = beautiful country; the UK = brave country; France = law country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nice, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, that\u2019s not exactly<\/em> how it works. These names are actually all abbreviations<\/a>; the full name for the USA in Chinese, which has undergone many changes over the years, is \u7f8e\u5229\u575a\u5408\u4f17\u56fd (m\u011bil\u00ecji\u0101n h\u00e9zh\u00f2nggu\u00f3). The first part of the whole word, \u7f8e\u5229\u575a (m\u011bil\u00ecji\u0101n) is a transliteration of America; \u5408\u4f17\u56fd (h\u00e9zh\u00f2nggu\u00f3) means a country of united peoples. When abbreviated, then, this becomes \u7f8e\u56fd (m\u011bigu\u00f3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar thing happened with the UK and France, where full names have been abbreviated down (and, in France\u2019s case, still end up sounding pretty similar to the original!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for China itself\u2014the most common name for the country in modern-day Chinese is \u4e2d\u56fd (zh\u014dnggu\u00f3), meaning middle state or nation. Before the Qin unification of China (221 BCE), this word was used to refer to the Central States, an area centred on the Yellow River Valley; the term differentiated this place from the surrounding tribal areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u4e2d\u56fd (zh\u014dnggu\u00f3) first appeared in a formal international legal document during the Qing Dynasty, in 1689. This was a shift as the term grew to encompass not only the geographical nation, but also the varying ethnic identities within it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Middle Kingdom\u2019, the English translation of \u4e2d\u56fd (zh\u014dnggu\u00f3), entered European languages via Portuguese in the sixteenth century. The word \u2018China\u2019, too, has old origins. A Greek document from the first century mentioned a country known as Thin (\u03b8\u03af\u03bd), but the English word is derived from Middle Persian \u0686\u06cc\u0646 (Ch\u012bn\u012b). The modern word China was first recorded in Portuguese in 1516, in a document that was translated into English in 1555. It is suspected that this word comes from the Qin (which is pronounced like Chin) who unified China\u2014and this is the most commonly held theory\u2014but there is still some debate!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about your country?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The origin of words is a large subject to cover anyway, but especially when it comes to the names of things like countries, which have changed in form and function so drastically over the centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if we\u2019ve missed your country off the list (and, let\u2019s face it, that\u2019s pretty likely), let us know! Drop a comment below and we\u2019ll try and cover it in another blog post\u2014or, if you know the origins of your country\u2019s name, tell us that too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you\u2019re interested in learning the names of more than 50 countries in over 150 languages, subscribe to uTalk today!
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How often do you think about where words come from? Probably not that much, right? And yet, every word has its origins. Some have been passed down from ancient roots that, in some cases, are barely recognisable when compared to the words they have become today. Some have been borrowed from other languages and either … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1828],"tags":[1411,1829,1830,254],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7087"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8845,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7087\/revisions\/8845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}