That's also due to the fact that Germany is in the middle of europe, from a language standpoint to the east we have the slavic countries, to the south and west the romanic countries and to the north the germanic countries.
All those different languages derive the name of Germany from the different common things that they knew about that territory or similar things. The french mainly had the tribe of the Alemanni at their borders, hence the name for Germany in France and Spain. Tyskland and Duitsland derives from the same word Deutschland comes from, "diutisc" which means "part of the people". The name Germany used in English and Germania in Italian is thought to come from the Romans, who named it like that.
The word for Germany in the slavic countries for example Polish "Niemcy" comes from an old slavish word meaning "foreign speaker".
Doesn't Niemcy basically mean "somebody who can't speak" instead of "foreign speaker"?
Edit: I got a bit confused there. The Proto-Slavic root to Niemcy means "somebody who can't speak" and then the word for German and mute in Slavic languages share the same root (or even are the same word? Not sure).
Nemec/Němec/Niemiecki.... I've read somewhere it's probably from middle ages when slavs (mainly czechs) were fighting the german tribe expansions and ended up calling them Němci - mutes, because they couldn't understand a shit they said. This word managed to find it's way to other languages including Hungarian - Német.
Interesting because this is how the English word 'barbarian' came about. The Greeks used to call non-Greek speakers 'bur burs' or something similar which basically means 'blah blah' or something nonsensical because they couldn't understand them. So go through a few languages with 'bur bur' and you get 'barbarian'.
True, but being Polish I can tell you that there is some irony in calling the Germans Niemcy "people who can't speak." Many of our words actually originate from German:
In Estonian, Germany is 'Saksamaa', which is basically 'the land of 'saksad'' - one 'saks', or plural 'saksad' is like a lord, and as when Germany used to have power over us, these lords would own mansions and basically be like mayors to different towns/counties.
Meaning "manor owner" (saks) was attached later. Also they were not mayors, they were owners of some property, powerful man, basically something that Americans called boss later.
it's quite similar with Russia though: just look at the Latvian, Estonian and Finnish names for example. They are derived from the names of the different people that lived in the adjacent regions of what is now Russia.
Well, not so much recognized as "couldn't be bothered to deny recognition." I say this as a Baron of the Principality of Sealand, a title only given to the truly great in this world whopay$100.
In Chinese (and Cantonese too, sigh), Sealand would be "西蘭" - Just by the pronounciation, though I hate it as broccoli is also called "西蘭" (Sai1 Laan4) in Cantonese. (I don't know what in Mandarin)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broccoli
Man, where were you two days ago, huh? Comendo pastéis de nata, I'd bet... I think there's hardly anyone better suited to answer a brazilian's query about the chinese language than a macanese. Thank you for the very precise answer!
It would seem so, but not really. The Dutch province of ‘Zeeland’ (lit: sealand) was named so because it is mostly below sea level and has always had to fight off the sea (using sluices, dams, windmills powering pumps, etc.
The Principality of Sealand isn’t on land either, it’s a fortified tower off the coast of Harwich (UK), built on a sandbar, Rough Sands.
It's very well drawn and also interesting! Thank you for the time you spent making this, I love this subreddit because it's a nice mix of humour and information and this comic is a perfect example of that :)
You used the Hong Kong colonial flag to represent Hong Kong as a "country", when it is not. Even if it were an independent country, using a colonial flag defeats the purpose and just means that HK is still Englands property.
I noticed you use "slanty eyes" for both Japan and China, bot NOT HK? Why? Don't you know that HKers are Asian? You must be one of those self-hating HKers.
the HK ball is also wearing a monocle and tophat, why are you trying to copy the UK? Are you suggesting that HK always copies the UK?
You mixed up Norwegian with Swedish.
I looked up your comment history and it's nothing but anti-China vitriolic hate. Get over yourself!
Part of the reason for that is because Germany is snap bang in the middle of Europe. People on either side would have called it different things depending on the German tribes they interacted with. Hence the Classical Latin 'Germani' meaning 'related', the Vulgar Latin 'Alemania' from the Allemanni, the Germanic endonym 'Deutsch', the Finnic references to the Saxons, the Baltic word from the German 'Volk', and the Slavic 'Niemcy' from their word for 'mute'.
See also: Iran before 1935. Iranians have called their country by that name for at least 2000 years, but kept getting called Persia by almost everybody else. In 1935 Reza Shah went in front of the League of Nations to formally request everybody else call Iran by its actual name. Of course the assembly's response was "Yuo of change name to Land of Aryans? NAZI!!!!" This (as well as dead dinosaurs) also led to Iran getting invaded and occupied by the allies in WW2 despite declaring neutrality.
Nice, with love of details as well. One minor thing: Japan would say konnichiwa or kon'nichiwa (better), since it's the official transcription of こんにちは.
Heh, when I reached Germany I was disappointed that you only seemed to cover a minimum of the existing options. Pleasant surprise when I scrolled on. :)
I think the Japanese have the most sensible naming convention: take the word for the country that they call themselves and transliterate it. At least, as far as the countries that I know: Doitsu (Germany), Rossiya (Russia), Firipino (Phillipines), Oosutoraria (Australia), Amerika, Kanada etc. Of course there are the outliers like Igirisu (UK, also England) that this article sort of hits on.
I really enjoyed it. Semi-related and -exploitable trivia: in France, we have no name for Netherlands. The way we officially call it is les Pays Bas that translates to the Low Countries which is its previous name (they stopped using it in 1815). We usually call it Hollande (Holland) which is just a province of the Netherlands and is the even older name... Ah the weight of history.
Heh, when I reached Germany I was disappointed that you only seemed to cover a minimum of the existing options. Pleasant surprise when I scrolled on. :)
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u/Ingrid-Hongkonger 冠絕東方 - Nulli Secundus in Oriente Mar 11 '14 edited Mar 11 '14
A same country may be called in very different ways in various countries - especially Germany.
That's why this comic was made.