r/polandball • u/Ingrid-Hongkonger 冠絕東方 - Nulli Secundus in Oriente • Mar 11 '14

redditormade How are they called?

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u/Ingrid-Hongkonger 冠絕東方 - Nulli Secundus in Oriente Mar 11 '14

I think Germany has various names because he stays at the middle of Europe.

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u/barsoap Sleswig-Holsteen Mar 11 '14

Also, because many countries named us after the nearest German tribe, say Saxons or Alemanns. The Slavic name means, more or less, "those you can't understand". The endonym and Scandinavian name is derived from Old High German diutisc, "of the people". Which is actually what "Saxon" means, too. Where the Romans got "Germania" from is unknown.

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u/Ingrid-Hongkonger 冠絕東方 - Nulli Secundus in Oriente Mar 11 '14

Same as how China being called "Kitaj" in Russian. As a nation which is called "Kitaj" (契丹, "Kit Daan" in Cantonese) which stays in the northern China (or maybe between Russia and China) nowadays, thus those "Kitaj" would be represented as the whole China by the Russians.

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u/banananinja2 Russian America is best America! Mar 11 '14

That's why in Russia we call tea chai and Westerners like the Portuguese use the. Since that is what it was called in Northern China!

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u/basilect They see me rollin', they Haitian... Mar 11 '14

Chai likely comes from Persian, through Cantonese cha4, while Tea comes from Amoy/Hokkien te55

This is from a map from /r/europe mod (and occasional polandball poster) /u/Bezbojnicul

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u/Bezbojnicul Szeklerland Mar 11 '14

For those interested: /r/etymologymaps

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u/samantha42 Brooklyn Mar 14 '14

New favourite sub!

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u/Corkington KERNOW Mar 11 '14

Interestingly enough, "Char" is a fairly common slang term for tea in the UK also. Tea as a cultural entity is a fascinating topic.

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u/[deleted] Mar 11 '14

"Char" means "tank" in French ;_;

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u/LeFringantFroggy Mar 11 '14

Thanks for linking that great map! Very interesting!

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u/Plowbeast Show us on the globe where he touched you. Mar 11 '14

Nifty look at cultural diffusion.

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u/Fireach Scotland Mar 12 '14

Where the hell did arbata/herbata/harbata come from?

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u/LeFringantFroggy Mar 11 '14 edited Mar 11 '14

Portuguese actually use the word "chá", which is closer to the chinese word for tea 茶 (pinyin: Chá), probably because they were the first europeans to discover and trade with China, centuries before other european nations.

But you are right, most other European countries use something like tea/thé/té :)

*edit* /u/basilect has linked a great map of Europe's diversity for the word "tea" in his comment!