SpinesN Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Ok well I live on the other side of the planet from you (literally) and I got into a discussion with my dad. Why is germany called germany when the germans call it Deutschland? It just seems odd to me since every other country on the globe (that I know of) calls their own country the same thing as everyone else. Or is this the same kind of thing as americans calling their counrty america and usa?
Cube Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 French and Welsh (and probably many more languages) has different names for countries. edit: Also Wales is Cymru in Welsh Ireland is Éire in Irish Japan is Nihon In Japanese
harribo Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Well the French call England Angleterre so different languages have different names for different countries.
LukeLee Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Countries as said different in different languages and most countries call Germany... Deutschland.
SpinesN Posted July 16, 2006 Author Posted July 16, 2006 Hmmm I didn't know that. Well then... why do we who speak english (at least american english) call it germany?
AshMat Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Why do we say "yes" but french say "oui". Why do we say "dog" and french say "chien" Its just part of the lagnuage.
SpinesN Posted July 16, 2006 Author Posted July 16, 2006 er..... well.... germany is a name and well names generally cross language barriers. So I kinda thought there might be a reason we call it germany. @ cube lol :p
Noodleman Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 The reason we call it Germany is because when the Romans where conquering Europe The area was inhabited by the Germanic Tribes. The Romans named this region the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. However the Germanic Tribes actualy left Germany upon the arivial of the Huns, one tribe the Franks formed France for example. The area became known as Prussia for quite some time until the late 1800's when it was unifed and Bismarck named the newly unified country Deutschland. Im sure ive left loads of stuff out and rather simplified it, but thats how I remember it from A level History which was over 3 years ago.
Kazzahdrane Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Funniest. Question. Ever. Go look it up, French and German for example have different names from the English for pretty much every country. L'etas Unis I believe is the USA in French (been a long time since I did French at school, don't take my word for it). English-speaking people say Scotland. French-speaking people say Ecosse.
SpinesN Posted July 16, 2006 Author Posted July 16, 2006 Funniest. Question. Ever. Forgive me but curiosity is in my blood and since I'm on the other side of the world most people out here probably don't know.
Blue_Ninja0 Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 It's funny actually, because i think there are countries that have the same name in almost any language in the world. Let's see... i call: Germany - Alemanha England - Inglaterra United Kingdom - Reino Unido Spain - Espanha Italy - Itália etc
Cube Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 The reason we call it Germany is because when the Romans where conquering Europe The area was inhabited by the Germanic Tribes. The Romans named this region the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. However the Germanic Tribes actualy left Germany upon the arivial of the Huns, one tribe the Franks formed France for example. The area became known as Prussia for quite some time until the late 1800's when it was unifed and Bismarck named the newly unified country Deutschland. Im sure ive left loads of stuff out and rather simplified it, but thats how I remember it from A level History which was over 3 years ago. Then why isn't france called "Gaul", as it was inhabited by gallic tribes? (im crap at history)
Noodleman Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Then why isn't france called "Gaul", as it was inhabited by gallic tribes? (im crap at history) Because the Francs established it as a country when they left Germany and killed most of the Gauls. It was called Gaul back in the Roman days however, but it was nowhere near the size it is now.
meserlian Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 i dont mean to make things more complecated but, this just accured to me. germany is called -> deutschland, whilest the people in netherlands(hollend) speak dutch! i mean WHY ALL THE CONFUSION?
Ramar Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 i dont mean to make things more complecated but, this just accured to me.germany is called -> dutchland, whilest the people in netherlands(hollend) speak dutch! i mean WHY ALL THE CONFUSION? Deutschland not Dutchland... And its Holland, not Hollend. Without sounding rude, I never thought this concept of countries names would be hard for people to grasp. Then again something suprises me every day.
Supergrunch Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Japan is Nihon In Japanese That comes about from very mangled Dutch pronounciation of "nihon", which was then Englishified.
kopo Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Germen people speak german, in holland and Belgium they speak dutch there, i'm a genius aren't I
Bogbas Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 I don't think that many of the countries names are called the same here as in England. For example: Suomi = Finland Saksa = Deutschland Ruotsi = Sweden Norja = Norway Englanti = England (the letter "d" is hardly ever used in the Finnish language) Japani = Japan (with the added "i" it's easier to pronounce in Finnish)
Eenuh Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 i dont mean to make things more complecated but, this just accured to me.germany is called -> deutschland, whilest the people in netherlands(hollend) speak dutch! i mean WHY ALL THE CONFUSION? That's just because you're confusing stuff. In Germany, they speak German. Or you could say that in Deutschland, they speak Deutsch. Then you have the Netherlands, where they speak Dutch. Or in their language, you would say that in Nederland, they speak Nederlands. It just all depends on what language you're using. Also, I find it kinda weird that something like that can be considered confusing (the different names for countries). It makes sense that they're different, if you think about it. *shrugs*
Konfucius Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Sometimes the original name is also very hard to pronounce. I know many people can't spell Österreich, yet can spell Austria and even more confuse it with Australia.
Dark Wolf Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 French and Welsh (and probably many more languages) has different names for countries. edit: Also Wales is Cymru in Welsh Ireland is Éire in Irish Japan is Nihon In Japanese I thought Nihon was Japanese and Nippon was Japan?
Supergrunch Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 I thought Nihon was Japanese and Nippon was Japan? Nihongo (日本語 / にほんご) means Japanese (literally "the language of the source of the sun" ie. rising sun) Nihon (日本 / にほん) means Japan (literally "source of the sun") Nippon is just another foreign approximation, albeit a slightly better one.
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