BootsnAll Travel Community

I have heard names for countries in other languages, or just pronounciations, that have thrown me for a loop. This evening it happened again while chatting with a native German speaker.

'Jordania' for Jordan. That sorta threw me for a bit.

Any other entertaining examples?

Well. I guess it is interesting.

Kipar = Cyprus in some Slavic languages
Vienna = (Bec ("bech") in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia)(Dunaj in Slovenia)
Netherlands = Nizko zemlja or something similar - translated into "low lands" in Slovenian
"Beautiful Country" - US in Chinese
Rice Land?- US in Japanese
SAD - abbreviated US in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia.

The country English speakers call Montenegro (Black Mountain in Italian) calls itself Crna Gora in its own langauge...which means Black Mountain. I'd be curious to hear what it's called in other languages...although I don't know how much people have to say about it.

Here are a few interesting Turkish ones, they like the suffix -istan:

Greece = Yunanistan
Hungary = Macaristan
Georgia = Gurcistan
Bulgaria = Bulgaristan
India = Hindistan
Croatia = Hirvatistan
the USA = ABD
the UN = BM

This has been discussed before a bit here. I thought there was another even better/longer one but I can't find it...


Where's Slip with all his
Here
Here
Here
and Here's when you need him?

quote:

Originally posted by Callilucy:
This has been discussed before a bit here. I thought there was another even better/longer one but I can't find it...


Where's Slip with all his
Here
Here
Here
and Here's when you need him?

gawdz...i started that thread!!! i forgot about it...But that was really more about people getting wound up and all that jazz about country names rather than the names themselves. this is thread was ment to be more of a 'what are the different names'.

(That...and this worthy forum needs a bit-o-participation to keep it from suffering the same fate that new-but-sucky furum did...)

My favorite is the Russian word for "German" > Nemets. It comes from "nemoj", which is the Russian for "mute." Traveling east from the Slavic-speaking lands in Eastern Europe, the first major bloc of non-Slavic speakers are the Germans. While Polish and Czech are related to Russian, German bears little relation to Russian, and as such the Russians labeled the Germans as mute. The name stuck, to this day.

Hebrew has a couple of interesting country names too.

France > Tsarfat. There are a lot of Sephardi Jews with the name Tsarfati, or some variant thereof. It means simply "French."
Spain > Sfarad. From this comes "Sephardi(c)". The word "sfarad" itself is really close to "sefer," the word for "book."

Germany tends to be named by names of various tribes that inhabited northern Europe during classical times. Most Latin-derived languages call it after the Alemanii: French "Allemagne," Spanish "Alemania," Portuguese "Alemanha." However, the Italians split it: the call the Germans "tedeschi," but the country "Germania." Arabic speakers usually base it on who colonized them. The Maghrebins call it "Alimania," while those colonized by the English use some variant of "Germany."

When I learned a bit of Korean, I developed a theory about where the slur "gook" originated. -guk is a word ending that denotes "nation" or "nationality." Korean for "America" is "Miguk" (sounds like "mee gook.") China is "Chunggook," England "Younggook."

quote:

Originally posted by Felix:
My favorite is the Russian word for "German" > Nemets. It comes from "nemoj", which is the Russian for "mute." Traveling east from the Slavic-speaking lands in Eastern Europe, the first major bloc of non-Slavic speakers are the Germans. While Polish and Czech are related to Russian, German bears little relation to Russian, and as such the Russians labeled the Germans as mute. The name stuck, to this day.

That's a good one and the first thing I thought of to. Probably because I spend all day studying Russian.

USA in Russian is pronounced like "seh-sheh-ah" and when you say it with excitement it sounds like a good comic book noise: "SESHAAAAA!"

Malaysia is also known as Malasie in French

.. and that's all I can contribute to this thread, ba da boom!

My favorite is "Island." It means "Iceland" in Swedish (is= ice) but it's extra cool because it looks exactly like the English word "island."

I find it interesting when the names illustrate points of political contention. The Sea of Japan is called the West Korean Sea on Korean maps. I noticed that on the inflight map on a Korean Airlines flight from Kansai to Seoul, they even called it that on the Japanese version of the map (the screen changes from Korean to Japanese to English preiodically).

Another interesting one is the Turkish names for Cyprus.

North Cyprus is Kuzey Kibris Turk Cumhurriyeti (The Turkish Republic of North Cyprus)

The south is referred to as Guney Kibris Rum Yonetimi (The Overseas-Greek Directorate of South Cyprus).

Does anyone know the Greek equivalents of these names?

E.E.U.U. when in spain in 1990, i seem to recall this is means U.S.A. cuz it stands for estados unidos and since both are plural, the initials are doubled.

i dont recall ever encountering this since then.

Netherlands I always thought this was a funny word for a country and it reminds me of "netherworld"

Chipre since we are on the topic of cyprus, this is how the germans say it

Bootsnall Nation is an awkward name for a little country which will perhaps change its name soon.

quote:

Originally posted by skobb:
USA in Russian is pronounced like "seh-sheh-ah" and when you say it with excitement it sounds like a good comic book noise: "SESHAAAAA!"

That is too cool.

In Slovak, Austria is Rakuscko.

Also, I think this:

quote:

My favorite is the Russian word for "German" > Nemets. It comes from "nemoj", which is the Russian for "mute." Traveling east from the Slavic-speaking lands in Eastern Europe, the first major bloc of non-Slavic speakers are the Germans. While Polish and Czech are related to Russian, German bears little relation to Russian, and as such the Russians labeled the Germans as mute. The name stuck, to this day.

is brillian. It fits with the Slovak word as well and my teacher was very impressed with the explanation. She hadn't heard it but it makes sense.

In Arabic, Sudan, or its variations, Sudanee, literally means the land of the blacks.

In Japanese, the USA is usually called アメリカ (America), but another way of saying it is 米国, (bei goku), which literally translates to "rice country." Go figure.

Well this isn't exactly another word or meaning for South Africa... but for some reason we have Republique D'Afrique Du Sud on the cover of our passports! As far as i know, French is not one of our 11 official languages... very strange!

Here's a bunch more of the old style Japanese names for countries and their meanings (taken from everything2.com):


Australia: 濠洲 = "moat island"

Austria 墺太利 = "land of vast profit"

Belgium: 白耳義 = "white ear righteousness"

Brazil: 伯剌西爾 = "you biased western chieftan"

Chile: 智利 = "wisdom profit"

China: 中国 = "middle country"

Denmark: 丁抹 = "painted street"

England: 英吉利 = "glorious lucky profit"

Egypt: 埃及 = "come to dust"

Finland: 芬蘭 = "perfume orchid"

France: 仏国 = "Buddha country"

Germany: 独国 = "alone country"

Greece: 希国 = "begging country"

Holland: 蘭国 = "orchid country"

India: 印国 = "symbol country"

Italy: 伊太利 = "that fat profit"

Ireland: 愛蘭 = "love orchid"

Korea: 朝鮮 = "vivid morning"

Malaysia: 馬来西亜 = "horse come west Asia"

Mexico: 墨国 = "black ink country"

Mongolia: 蒙古 = "ancient ignorance"

Peru: 秘露 = "secret tears"

Portugal 葡国 = "wild grapes country"

Russia: 露国 = "tears country"

Spain: 西班牙 = "west group fang"

Thailand: 泰 = "peaceful"

United States: 米国 = "rice country"

Vietnam: 越南 = "surpassing south"

The word Wales actually means foreigner in old English, the Welsh name for Wales is Cymru, but when you arrive in Wales you'll see signs that say 'Croseo i Gymru'

The Welsh for England is 'Lloeger'

There are loads of small non-nations in Europe. The Basque Country in Northern Spain for instance is called 'Euskadi' in it's own language, and the French speaking part of Belgium is called Walloonia - which I think is a great name for a country.

Another funny thing is that English speakers sometimes call Ukraine "the Ukraine" when Ukrainian language doesn't have articles at all (the/a/an).

I asked a Ukrainian colleague about this once and she didn't fully know where that came from...maybe some mistake in a document or speech or something...but she confirmed there is no "the".

Here's a somewhat belligerent take on the "Ukraine vs. the Ukraine" issue. It's not exactly helpful to those of us who'd like to unlock the key to this mystery -- but the writer sure as hell doesn't like it when you call Ukraine "the Ukraine."

The writer discusses (and dismisses) two possibilites regarding the article "the." First, that for some reason it comes from French, and second:

quote:

Geographical regions such as the Arctic, the Atlantic, the North, the West, and the prairies all require the definite article, but these are not countries. Since 1917 Ukraine has had very definite borders so it cannot be regarded as merely a region. Some people have mistakenly thought that Ukraine is a general word meaning "the borderland;' "the steppes" or "the prairies;' which would require the article. A few neanderthal writers in the past have even promoted "the Ukraine" to reflect the original meaning "the borderland" in order to diminish the international political stature of Ukraine. They betrayed their ignorance of Ukraine, or their bias against it, with this usage. See for example, the view of Robert 0. Grover in the U.S. News & World Report (Dec. 9, 1991).

I see several things wrong with this statement ... Ukraine hasn't had much recent history as its own country, and contrary to the writer's assertion, its borders have changed often. And even *if* the "neanderthal writers" were mistaken about the meaning of word Ukraine or krayina, their ignorance perfectly explains the use of the article "the."

That's the best I can think of -- you have this region, rarely independent over recent history, lacking in definite borders, and often referred to as "the borderland" (and for a while "the Ukrainian S.S.R"). You could see how "the" could end up preceding its name. I know Ukranian nationalists don't like it, but for a long time, Ukraine was "just a region" in the eyes of most of the world.

More on grammar: This has an interesting part on the change the preposition in referring to Ukraine, perhaps supporting the theory above ...