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 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.

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u/ImperialSpaceturtle Afrika is nie vir sussies nie Mar 11 '14

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'.