Why It's "American" & Not "Americanese" - How Countries' Demonyms Work
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- čas přidán 13. 05. 2024
- The Origin & Meaning Of Country's Demonyms
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▶ In this video I talk about Demonyms. Explaining what they are - a noun used to denote the natives or inhabitants of a particular country or region, differentiating them from the words or adjectives used to denote people from a specific heritage group or ethnicity. Also explaining how Demonyms work and how they are usually constructed: by adding a suffix at the end of a placename (or a variation of it), and understanding that the majority of these suffixes - used for Countries' Demonyms in English - are taken from the Germanic, Latin, Semitic, or Celtic originals. After this, we go through a worldwide view of what each country's English demonym is (through a map created by reddit user u/Far_Grass, which colour codes each type of suffix). First we go through the 'unique' suffixes used, such as the one in 'French', 'Swiss', 'Malagasy', 'Kosovar' or 'Cypriot', and then we go through the different categories, learning which countries have which suffixes in their demonyms. First those with "-ian" such as "Brazilian", then those with "-ean" such as "Korean", then "-an" where "American" or "German" are examples. Moving on the "-ese", "Portuguese" or "Chinese" for example. Then "-ish", such as "Polish", "British", "Swedish". Then "-i", "Omani", "Pakistani", etc. And finally "-er" only used nationally in "Luxembourger" and "New Zealander". As well as "-ic" for "Greenlandic" and "Icelandic". Understanding finally that there doesn't seem to be much of a criteria for the attribution of a specific type of suffix to a specific type of country name. With the only two possible criteria being what the name happens to be in English (so, what makes sense to use as a suffix for it), and what the origin of the suffix is; if it is "-ish" then it likely comes from the Germanic demonym for that specific place, with the origin being the cause for adoption.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 What is a Demonym?
00:33 Demonyms in different languages
01:28 How Demonyms work + Etymology
02:30 The construction of Demonyms
02:45 What is each country's English Demonym?
02:58 Unique Demonyms
03:46 "-ian" suffix Demonyms
03:59 "-ean" Demonyms
04:24 "-an" Demonyms
04:49 "-ese" Demonyms
04:56 "-i" Demonyms
05:10 "-ish" Demonyms
05:31 Worldwide Demonyms View
06:05 "-ic" Demonyms
06:22 "-er" Demonyms
06:58 How are Demonym suffixes chosen?
08:02 Demonym suffixes by origin
10:00 Continental & City Demonyms
10:46 Summary
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*What's another topic you'd like me to do a video on? :)*
Ley lines?
County’s/National mottos would be fun to see a video about! I think my nation of 🇨🇦 should update ours to Sea to Sea to Sea. The Arctic Ocean is becoming more navigable and it advances our interests and strengthens claims/sovereignty in a valuable area of the Arctic where there’s sure gonna be tension in the future.
Can you do european names in portuguese and what they mean, since you are Portuguese?
i suffex is used in arabic for every country and city so saying the source is farsi unlikly consedring also how arabic affected fars
Why there is a Torquay in Australia and an Orleans in America
Then there’s the case of New Zealanders being called Kiwis
Or the Dutch being called Swamp Germans, although that may be because of another thing
Colloquial terminology isn't relevant here.
@@TheSpiritombsableye kiwi is much more common though
@@hellishlycute colloquial terminology tends to be
@@TheSpiritombsableye why would colloquialisms not be relevant in linguistics anyway?
Fun Fact:
In Portuguese, the word for a Brazilian is not Brasiliano, but Brasileiro., which uses the "-eiro" suffix. This suffix denominates a line of work (Padeiro, Guerreiro, Jardineiro)
This is probably due to the fact that, originally, it designated someone who worked with brazilwood - whether extracting it or selling it - as it was the main export of Brazil during the 16th century, and would also give its name to the country.
"Brasiliano" does exist though, but it archaic and pretty exotic. The largest library of São Paulo University is called "Biblioteca Brasiliana"
@@sohopedeco does make be think it's a reference to Brasília or so
@@Liggliluff The demonym for Brasília is "brasiliense".
In my heart, we are all "brazucas" huehue
I will now refer to them as "Those who Brazil"
I think that the alternative ones (i.e. Briton, Spaniard, Fin, etc.) are used specifically for a person and are used as a noun instead of an adjective.
“He is Spanish”
“He is a Spaniard”
They’re used a lot in commentary too- “The young Spaniard...”
A teapot cannot be a Spaniard but it can be Spanish.
Spaniard sometimes feels necessary because Spanish is such a widely spoken language that it more quickly clarifies you mean a person from Spain and not something that pertains to the Spanish language.
Of course, the Spaniard way around this is to emphasize they actually tend to actually call the language Castillian, but it's hard to change word habits and choices of another language.
Some demonyms can be nouns or adjectives (an American, American food),
Some have a separate form for nouns (a Brit/Briton, British food),
Some don't really have a noun form (a Chinese person, Chinese food).
I think it's important to keep in mind that there are sometimes 2 denonyms: a noun (to refer to an inhabitant of the country) and an adjective - Spaniard/Spanish, Pole/Polish, Icelander/Icelandic.
yeah i noticed that with slovene/slovenian and croat/croatian
Something that completely baffled me.
Netherlands = Dutch
In English, Dutch used to refer all Continental Germanic people except Scandinavians, meaning modern day Netherlands, Germany and Austria. Back then, there were countless small principalities in the Holy Roman Empire that was confusing for the English to keep track of... so they were all just Dutch.
When the Netherlands united in the 1600s and became an important rival to the English, those were the "Dutch" people the English were most concerned with and Dutch began increasingly referred to the Netherlands specifically. This also lead to the rise as German becoming a term for the non-Netherlands Germanic people becoming increasingly popular until Germany unified and German as a specific nationality became set in stone.
brit/british
dutchman/dutch
dane/danish
arab/arabic
French/Frenchman (arguably the most unwieldy and clunky demonym but I honestly can't think of a good replacement)
For places like Azerbaijan which have multiple names, the shorter one ("Azeri") is used for the ethnic group, and the longer one ("Azerbaijani") is used for all citizens of the country. Like you said this is because the country name (Azerbaijan) comes from the ethnic group (Azeri). So technically they're not interchangeable with each other
I didn't know you could say Azerbaijani. That's interesting to know
It’s kind of funny how that works. Using another example… For the Kazakhs, who have a state called Kazakhstan, and a citizen of said state is Kazakhstani. So you have (ethnic people) + (country-suffix = country) + (adjective suffix) to go from people, to place, then back to people. I think one of the major exceptions to this pattern is Bosniak, where I think this ethnic name (for the Muslim people of Bosnia) came after the state name
No, it doesn't "Azerbaijan" comes from "Atropatene", of Persia. "Azeri" is a shortening of the name, and "Azerbaijani" is another one. Both are after the name Azerbaijan.
@@CouchTomato87I was just going to mention this.
it really does connected azerbaijan means something like land that protected by holy eternal fire / fire
and azeri means fire
The Korean language has a very simple way to create demonyms. It simply adds the suffix "sa-ram," which literally means "person" to the place name. For example, America is called "mi-guk," so an American is called "mi-guk sa-ram."
Japanese does similar. they add the suffix "-jin" which also means "person". Nihonjin is a Japanese person, Amerikajin is an American etc.
and chinese uses the -ren suffix.
What about -in Suffix
@@Tmhy0 Sa-ram is pure Korean while -In is Hanja (words adapted from chinese a long time ago)
@@flatline-timer yeah it's cognate with Japanese -jin and mandarin -ren.
Monaco - Monegasque
San Marino - Sammarinese
Barbados - Barbadian and Bajan
Malaysia - Malaysian, Malayan, Malay
Isle of Man - Manx
"Malaysian" is a nationality. "Malayan" refers to the peninsula, though this is outdated. "Malay" is an ethnicity.
Monegasque sounds like it comes from French, the same as Quebecois
Liechtenstein - Liechtensteiner
I expexted barbars for barbados people
Seychelles - Seychellois
I don't know if you use it in other countries, but there is this common dad joke used especially here in the summer period, when us Danes travels on vacation.
When eating in a restaurant (in another country) and they waiter asks after the meal: "are you finish(ed)?" Then you reply "no, we are Danish" 😂😂😂
Fun fact:
During Spanish Colonial time in the Philippines only the Spanish or European descent are only called "Filipino" while the natives are called "Indio"
same for Venezuela, but that changed in the last 10 years, some people still call them like that, now they are called by their tribal names, Wayuunaiki for wayuu people, Yukpas for Yukpa poeple, Pemones for Premon tribe and so on
Not to mention that The Philippines in Spanish is Las Filipinas, named after the Spanish king at the time (King Felipe). We only got the Ph- spelling of the country when its Spanish name was translated to English (The Philippines, after the Anglicization of the King's name - Phillip).
@@marmar90000
Spanish: Las Islas Filipinas
English: The Philippine Islands
"Australian could have been Australic"
I think this is a good example of the idea that, in many cases, when using the name of the country we prefer to mutate it as little as possible. Similarly, "American" makes more sense than "Americish" or whatever else because it's just "America" plus a single letter. Obviously this principle of least mutation doesn't always hold, but I think it does in many or most cases.
Really good video! Just a small note: when it comes to Finn, Swede, Scot, Dane, Pole I would not talk of ethnicity nor alternative forms, but of nouns. Finnish, Swedish, Scottish, Danish, Polish are used exclusively as adjectives, the aforementioned ones only as nouns e.g. a Swede vs a Swedish man.
To my knowledge the outliers of French and Dutch are just a corruption of the -ish suffix. French is just a phonetic shortening that happened during the middle english period of Frankish, which is still a valid demonym of France in English; albeit dated. Dutch comes from the Middle Low German word for German (duetsch) which was also adapted into Middle English. And since at the time Dutch people were just considered northern germans (and also had the most contact with the English out of any of the Germans), the name stuck to those people.
Frankish.
Dutch is a bastardized version of the German word Deutsch, whish is Theudo-iskaz People+ish...
Czech is a loanword from Polish which is from Czech Čech which is a shortened form of Člověk(human) also why Slovaks are named Slovaks. Originally from Proto-Balto-Slavic Kelawaikas(clan child)...
A lot of the names are so old that the old rules for naming doesn't exist anymore.
That is what I heard also.
We have the Amish who were in mostly from Germany who most still are called Pennsylvania Dutch. From what I understand, they came over to the US from Rhineland-Palatinate in Southern Germany. My childhood home township now has at least 300 that have settled in the last 30 years. My mother is close to one family. I’ll have to ask now generations later if they still prefer Dutch. Their faith and lives are still Middle English which many times I envy. I wouldn’t call it simpler or easier. Just a good different. I went off topic, just wanted to add that southern German also used Dutch.
@@fulton560 Too bad the Amish don't do better at stopping sexual abuse. That really lowered my opinion on them.
@@johnnyearp52 I was more against their dog breeding in Lancaster. I would assume a lot of crime in general including abuse goes unreported or unchallenged by elders. We have the second large community in the north of my county (second largest in PA) and it could be my ignorance on the matter but I’ve never seen bruises on their faces or hands of anyone I’ve interacted with. I go there a lot just for their fudge as it’s a distance for me, so you know they are good and I do spend time in the village when I visit. You never know what happens behind closed doors though and I can see how this could happen and normalized. Of the members of the community that live near my family home I believe are independent, not a branch of another group. The only snafu I have ever heard about was in early days and one man wanted to serve the whole township and joined the fire department. He refused to give up the pager and was ex-communicated for it. So in the beginning there must have been a branch off. If there is an elder, he doesn’t live anywhere near my hometown. Thanks for raising awareness of abuse. I had not heard this before and will surely look into it.
Language use is also weird.
"Where's he from?"
"Portugal."
"What language does he speak?"
"Portuguese."
"Oh, what's the word for someone who speaks Portuguese?"
"LUSOPHONE!"
Those prefixes are based off of unmodified Latin names. "Lusitania" was the Roman province that roughly coincides with Central-South Portugal.
Well the word is from Latin. "Portugal" is the name in English
Here’s another one.
What’s he speaking?
English.
Where’s the language from?
England.
What’s the word for someone who speaks English?
Anglophone.
@@yakitatefreak
That one makes sense...? The only change is the "e" to "a"
I'm a native Dutch speaker and we call a man who comes from France "Fransman". "man" is the same in English, although pronouced differently, and "Frans" is the adjective for France. For the female, replacing "man" by the word for woman seems the best choice, but it would give "Fransvrouw", which, believe me, doesn't sound right. I always have to think a few seconds before I realize that the female form is just "Franse". Also worth mentioning: in Dutch, there are sometimes big differences between a male inhabitant and a female one, where mostly a second suffix -se or -isch is added. For example, a male Russian is a "Rus", but a female is "Russische"; for India: male: Indiër, female: Indische
Isn't Indische Indonesian. I am learning Dutch, so a bit confused
Similar in Swedish, "fransman" (Frenchman) and "fransyska" (Frenchwoman), which I don't know what it comes from other than possible from the older adjective for French: "fransysk", while the moden adjective is just "fransk". But there's also "fransos" and "fransös" applying to men and women respectively.
Yeah, you can have that in German too. A french man would be Franzose, and a french woman would be Französin. Though that is more the general rule in German to add -in to a word, maybe also uptone it, to make a male or historically mostly male generic specifically female. Dutch would just be Niederländer & Niederländerin for example. Lots of discussion on how to adapt that to a more modern sensibility of gender equality and spectrum beyond two sexes assigned at birth. Main problem is how to make it an evolutionary development of the language, rather than a revolutionary break in how the language fundamentally works. As it stands, this is essential for German grammar and can't just be dropped.
In Danish it's also "Franskmand" and "Normand" for Norwegian
Française > Franse vrouw
From Thailand, I think we fit the more of Krygyzstan case, because the word that means place (land) is cut; however, we used to have different suffix (Siam and Siamese), would be interesting to hear some theory.
Also Thai isn't because of Persian. It is because of the Tai people.
Nice video but you should have added the interesting case of Lesotho. The demonym is Mosotho (singular) and Basotho (plural) and the language they speak is called Sesotho. Greetings from Greece!
It’s not just them. Botswana is the same way. Bantu languages use prefixes instead of suffixes.
I personally believe that country or territory demonyms that go by singular and plural demonyms (such as Lesotho and Botswana), as well as gender demonyms (such as Saint Pierre and Miquelon), IS SILLY and stupid. That to me is not at all proper, for them being official demonyms of world places.
In fact, on 4 different CZcams videos, I have explained the different examples that I do not agree to, when it comes to certain countries and their national demonym. 🙂
Lastly, I am glad that the author did not add your weird interesting case of Lesotho, as well as ferretyluv’s similar weird case of Botswana or even the weird dumb case of Saint Pierre and Miquelon.
before independence lesotho's name was basutoland...
before independence lesotho's name was basutoland...
@Blaqjaqshellaq Because that was the English exonyme.
After independence the Sotho chose to use thier own language to form the name.
They essentialy mean the same thing "Land of the Sotho"
This is a well constructed presentation, clear and organized for maximum understanding. Will definitely be referring to it in the future 👍🏼👍🏼
Thanks!
@@General.Knowledge
It’s wrong though.
The map is incorrect. There’s no such thing as an “Afghanistanian.” There’s “Afghani” and “Farsi” but “Afghanian” isn’t a term.
Also you forgot to mention “Greek” in the “Other” category.
You gotta double check your sources man.
@@mahadaalviit’s not his map. He finds the maps for his presentation
@@DanSolo871 still need to fact check
0:55 - I can kind of understand why brazilians use "estado-unidense" instead of "americano" (although I think that here in Portugal "norte-americano" is more widely used than just "americano") but what I don't understand is why they're the only Portuguese-speaking country to use these demonyms for the following countries:
- Polónia:
BR - Polonês
PT, AO, MZ, GW, CV, ST (and probably MO too): Polaco
- Canadá:
BR - Canadense
PT, AO, MZ, GW, CV, ST (and probably MO too): Canadiano
- Israel:
BR - Israelense
PT, AO, MZ, GW, CV, ST (and probably MO too): Israelita
- Palestina
BR - Palestino
PT, AO, MZ, GW, CV, ST (and probably MO too): Palestiniano
I don't think this happens in any of the other widespread languages like English, Spanish or French.
Can confirm, Portuguese pops up a lot in Japanese as well, like their word for bread being _pàn_ like the Portuguese instead of _burédo._ Many language teachers there know Portuguese as well as English and Japan's got a lot of contact with Brazil economically and culturally.
I've always loved that we're called "Los Angelenos." 😎 It's just fun to say! It's also about the only time that the locals pronounce Los Angeles close to properly! 🤣
Lazy ones would just use Angelenos to refer to those from LA
During my time growing up in India, it was common to call the colonial era British "Britishers". Fun fact.
Bro as much as I'm watching your videos more I'm appreciating your explaining ability and animation style (it's so damn creative)
Fr
@@lucawilliams3357 is that means Francium
Thanks! :)
In the US, there are also demonyms for states. Most follow the ian/an pattern (also, Utahn for Utah), but there are variations. You pointed out New Yorker, which applies to the state and not just the city. There's also New Hampshirite, Mainer, Michigander, Hoosier for Indiana, and, of course, Masshole for Massachusetts. They're very proud of that one.
(0:45) I appreciate a CZcamsr who acknowledges that English isn't the only language. Sure, he's Portuguese, so that's almost a given. But I still want to point that out. Just because it applies to English, doesn't make it a universal thing.
It's also the same vice versa people think what they say in Spanish, Portuguese, and French somehow translates literally over to English.
Very good point! So much of CZcams assumes that all the audience are American, English is the only language and data for the US is the only data of interest. Kids from other countries (like my son) watching YT in English get a warped sense of the world.
@@michaelwisniewski6047English is the most spoken language in the world across countries. It is a common second language. Spanish is the second most wide spread language. So if you want to reach many people it is a good idea to put your videos in English or Spanish.
@@johnnyearp52 Doing it in English makes sense yeah, but due to how US content often assumes everyone is from USA, and non-US content assumes the whole audience is from USA, despite the majority of the audience is not from USA, it gives a warped view of those who learn from these channels.
@@Liggliluff That is true.
És português?! Wow, já tinha perdido a esperança de encontrar um canal português de qualidade - e este, ainda que falado em inglês, cumpre o requisito com nota de honra!
An interesting example in Spanish are the 3 different demonyms for México. One is the country, one is the state, and one is the city. Mexicano/a is someone from the country, Mexiquense is someone from the state, and Mexiqueño/a is someone from the city, although this is a somewhat archaic usage as it is more common to use the more formal Capitalino/a or the slang Chilango/a for the latter.
Cool.
In São Paulo, we have "paulista" for the state, "paulistano" for the city, and "são-paulino" for the São Paulo Football Club.
And what do they call real Mexicans from the Mexica tribes? Were they left nameless after the country, the state and the city stole their original, native name?
@@jboss1073 They are called Mexicas pronounced Meshicas.
@@Latoso Very interesting, much appreciated!
Some of the city ones really get me, too.
Halifax, Nova Scotia - Haligonian
Liverpool, England - Liverpudlian
Glasgow, Scotland - Glaswegian
Jersey (I think this refers more to the Romance language the more I think about it) - Gerriais
Liverpool is Scouse not Liverpudlian
Don't forget Newcastle - Novacastrian! It seems to revert back to Latin!
"New Zealander" is rarely used, only in formal texts, as "Kiwi" is much commonly used, coming from the name of their national animal
Now I just want to call Aussies "Emus".
In Brazil, we use "Neozelandês" (the country is "Nova Zelândia".
Kiwi for us is just a fruit. 🥝
What if other countries also adopt their national fruits or animals as demonym?
@@giraffestreet It would reduce confusion if we call people of USA as bald eagles, and things from USA as "bald-eagle English" and "bald-eagle football" and so on. Then "American" would only refer to America without ambiguity.
New Zealander is used often my dude, our government refers to us by this term like all the time. Also the fruit isn't Kiwi, that's the bird, the fruit is kiwifruit, as it's a fruit that looks like the bird.
With Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, it has a little bit of an interesting demonym. It doesn’t just take -ian at the end, it loses letters in the middle and becomes Melburnian.
It's also the only time that we pronounce the 'r' 👀
some english cities are unique--manchester has mancunians, halifax has haligonians. [it goes back to their roman names...]
I think this is to maintain stress patterns in English. In Melbourne, "bourne" is deaccented and therefore shortened to a schwa vowel (bən). If that was maintained in the demonym, then the result would have three consecutive short/unstressed syllables in a row. MELbəniən. To me (an Aussie English speaker) that feels awkward, whereas the actually used version is melBӘNiən, which distributes the stresses better, and the alternate spelling "burn" helps to communicate that.
Idk, just my little theory! But there's plenty of examples in English where root words change their stress when syllables are added in the same way as this.(e.g. ANalyse, aNALysis). There's probably a formalised linguistics theory about this somewhere :)
I feel like at least for me, -ian and -ean are often pronounced differently. Chilean for example id say Chill-ay-an
That would make it -an, good catch.
Ecuador was colored the same as Chile in the map. Is it pronounced Ecuador-ay-an too?
That was also my thought, but Googling the term appeared to prove me [and you 🤓] wrong-ish.
@@sohopedeco Fair point, personally I would say "Ecuador-ee-an" so maybe im just weird
@@sohopedeco It's Ecuadorian so the map's coloured wrong.
I was thinking about this exact topic the other day! Thank you for the video!
Your videos are great! Your voice really helps me listen and learn 😊
You would think by this logic that we would be called something like Netherlandic or Netherlander but nope, we're 'Dutch. Funny thing is we call ourselves Nederlander, so Netherlander would be the proper way.
Dutch iirc comes from a misconception that the traders from Holland that the English were engaging with were Germans (i.e. Deutsch)
I suggest we replace "Dutch" people and language with Netherlandish in English.
@@mitchbart4225 LOL and give our German neighbours the "Dutch" name for the people and call their country 'Dutchland'.
This reminds me of a story when I was visiting the US as a teenager and my American friends telling me of these folks who speak a form of 'Dutch'. When they introduced me to these speakers - I quickly picked up they were speaking a variant of German (Deutsch) not Dutch (Nederlands). I replied in standard German to the folks and explained that my friends thought we were speaking the same language.
@@jgroenveld1268 Most Americans don't know that the Pennsylvania "Dutch" speak a dialect of German.
"Dutch" does indeed have the suffix "-ish" at the end.
First of all, it was the DUTCH that used the word "Dutch"; it comes from Middle Dutch "Dutsch", from Proto-W.Germ. "thiudisk", which is the euivalent of:
"thiud" (people) + "isk" (-ish). So it means "of the people", with the original Germanic demonym ("-ian","-ean","-an", and "-ese" are all Latin)
3:00 There's also:
Antarctic for Antarctica
Hush for Limberwisk
Listenbourgeoise for Listenbourg
and Greenlander for Greenland.
There is also croat for Croatia
Is that a GN reference I see?
@@Mashfi23 *sighs* Yes.
i've always been so intrigued by this too, this explains everything so well!
Thank you! I've been wondering about this for a long time. 🤓
In Norwegian, most if not all of our adjective demonyms end with -sk. Norsk, Svensk, Dansk, Tysk, Japansk, Amerikansk, Russisk ect.
When it comes to personal demonyms, they tend to end with -er, though -ing is also common with -e and -mann being less common. People from Jemen as far as I know are known as «Jemenitt» so -itt would be the least common.
Some countries have several, for instance, Ireland has three personal demonyms; «Ire», «Irlender» and «Irlending»
Norwegian would be «Norsk» and «Nordmann».
Funny enough, the Holy See's adjective demonym would be «Vatikansk» but it doesn't have a personal demonym. If you're from the Vatican City, we would say exactly that. "From the Vatican State" (Fra Vatikanstaten) :P
Another brilliant video. Well done!
I really liked this video, you are improving!
The word Argentina actually is a demonym in Spanish, probably because it originated as an adjective before becoming the name for the place. So an Argentinian woman is an "argentina", and that gets changed to "argentino" for men... "Argentino" can also be a given name for men, just to make it extra confusing.
It's probably why Argentine is also used in English, it's closer to how it works originally with the one word being stretched as much as possible, it's also probably how we'll end up referring to non-binary people judging by how the terminology is currently evolving.
Your assessment on the "i" demonym was 100% correct👍 that's the rule in Persian grammar you just add an i to any region. Simple.
In Spanish, that -í became the rule for pretty much all Arab/Muslim countries. Marroquí, Jordaní, etc
Some demonyms require extra syllables or sounds in order to pronounce more easily. For instance, "Panama...NIAN", and "Kongo...LESE". Also, we have "Wyoming-ites", as well as the history of when followers of Charles Manson were called, "Manson-ites". Even common names use demonyms, like "transvest-ite", or "typ-ist". Then there is the "buttin-sky". I think it depends on which way tends to sound right to the general public and is easiest to pronounce. Also, sometimes, the root word is changed before the demonym, like "DEN-mark" become "DAN-ish".
In Hebrew, the only demonyms are "i" (masculine) and "it" (feminine). So for example, a Portuguese man would be "portugazi" and a Portuguese woman would be "portugazit".
Also, demonyms are not limited to location, and are used for ethnic groups and even religious groups. I believe a demonym can be used to name any collective group of people.
Intriguing.
In Indonesian language we will usually just put the word "orang" (person) before using our language for the city/country/region/continent/planet => orang Amerika, orang India, orang Italia, orang Eropa, orang Asia, orang Jepang, orang Indonesia, orang Portugis, orang Brazil, orang Finlandia, orang Denmark, orang Mars.
the word orangutan literally means 'jungle person'...
@@Blaqjaqshellaq Yes, although it's a shortened form of "orang" + "hutan". We can also put adjectives like "orang gila" (crazy person), "orang bodoh" (stupid person).
A clockwork orang.
@@stellabrando9308 Kubrick would be proud.
Anecdotally I’d point out most Americans I know use Quebecer over Québécois. I noticed a lean towards the latter when speaking with younger people and the former with an older crowd.
Hungarian often gets rid of suffixes instead of adding them. Németország becomes Német, Magyarország becomes Magyar, Spanyolország becomes Spanyol.
Another common thing is adding ‘-i’. Kína becomes Kínai, Argentína becomes Argentínai, Ausztria becomes Austriai.
I was literally just thinking of 'Vancouverite' when you mentioned the city demonyms!
I've always liked some of the British city demonyms. Manchester is Mancunian (not sure I spelled it right), Liverpool is Liverpudlian, and then there's Halifax (in Canada, not sure about the one in Yorkshire) which is Haligonian. You can also refer to Vatican City as Vaticano, which is kind of unique
Liverpudlian is tying in usage with Scouse. I've never heard anyone from Newcastle called anything but a Geordie, nor anyone from Sunderland anything but a Mackem.
I'm from Sheffield, and as well as being a Sheffielder people are starting to reclaim Deedar which was an insult based on how we pronounce the second person pronoun.
@@stalfithrildi5366 Interesting! I did my degree in Sheffield and never once heard "Deedar". I was under the impression Scouse was a specific type of Liverpudlian from the docks. I've also heard Monkey Hanger for Hartlepool, but I don't think that counts as an official demonym and might be insulting (I know the story behind it, but not how Hartlepool feels about it)
Cool video! 👍🏻 Demonyms in Spanish language are also curious; my favorite ones are:
- Sri Lanka 🇱🇰: esrilanqués o ceilanés.
- Países Bajos 🇳🇱: neerlandés.
- Reino Unido 🇬🇧: británico.
- Estados Unidos 🇺🇸: estadounidense.
And some Spanish cities 🇪🇸 have also difficult demonyms:
- Ciudad Rodrigo: mirobrigense
- Badajoz: pacense
- Huesca: oscense
- Valladolid: vallisoletano
- Jaén: jienense
- Teruel: turolense
And more… 😁😁😁
Some demonyms of Spanish cities follow Latin (Roman) names
I like Brazilian ones as well: paulista, carioca and so on
Mexico City: Chilangos 💀💀💀
Cadiz: gaditano
Huelva: onubense
San Sebastián: donostiarra because in basque the city is called donstia (completely unrelated to saint Sebastian, who the city is currently named after)
Fascinating subject! You should look up some British regional demonyms. Some are hilarious, e.g. people from Hartlepool are called "monkey hangers". 🤣
That seems more like a nickname, rather than a true demonym.
@@arjaygeeone strange genuine demonym is the one for people from Plymouth- that being janner.
@@williamfitzgerald2007 That seems more like a nickname, too. Can't that be used for anyone from the West Country?
Official vs unofficial demonyms are quite distinctive.
For example, where I grew up, which is Mooroolbark, a suburb in Victoria, Australia, the demonym is Mooroolbarker but we shorten it to just Barker.
I know why, but interesting they’re not called “Hartepudlians.”
As a Thai the amount of time someone called me "Thailandish", "Thailander", or "Taiwanese" is innumerable.
Maybe I missed it, but it seems you haven't discussed the respective origins of the unique suffixes.
As for French, I could imagine that in old english times they called them "Frankish" (which would fit the germanic origin suffix), which then shortened into Frænksh (like Welsh, which started as Welish) and eventually French.
if country names were consistent with thailand -> thai, finland -> finn, poland -> pole, scotland -> scot, then we would call people in greenland "green" and people in iceland "ice"
The timing of this video is magical as I watch a video about Bankoker just yesterday 😂
Cool video!
Very helpful video
Thanks!
Actually the Demonyon of Quebec in English is Quebecer but it never used any more
This is interesting, and kind of makes sense now. Being a South East Asian with East Asian ancestry, I grew up thinking that the -ese demonym is used mostly for the Oriental races/nationalities, but then there are a few exceptions such as Lebanese, Sudanese, and Portuguese of course, which always sounded oriental or Chinese to me, now I know why.
Interesting though, I come from a Malaysian state called Penang and the residents are called Penangites. Now I've learnt that a Vancouver resident is called a Vancourite, good to know 😅
Very good point you made!
Very interesting video. However I do find some of the central Asian demonyms kinda odd. Specifically why single out Kyrgyzstan as “Kyrgyz” when Kyrgyzstani could be used, like in the case of the others (Uzbekistani, kazakhstani) which in their own right are kinda odd, as usually the demonym for the the ethnicities are used (Uzbek, Kazakh) and “Kyrgyz” also refers to the ethnicity of the people of Kyrgyzstan. Also Afghanistan could also end in i, as afghani or afghanistani. Just food for thought
Thank you, I came to the comments to say most of the central asian ones are just wrong since the suffix Stan simply means land of. So the countries names. Are the demonyms plus land of, at the end. (The exception being Pakistan sort of). Which is exactly what he has down for Thailand and Kyrgyzstan. Kazakh, Turkmen and Uzbek are all equally as valid as Kyrgyz.
As a Kyrgyz person I want to indicate the difference between Kyrgyz and Kyrgyzstani. Just like Uzbek, Kazakh and other central Asian etnicities, Kyrgyz is a name of ethnicity. Kyrgyzstani is a demonym for people living in Kyrgyzstan. We have similar differentiation in Kyrgyz language, separating Koreans, Russians, Ukrainians, Uighurs, Dungans and others who was born in Kyrgyzstan from Kyrgyz born anywhere in the world.
It's interesting to see that many of the suffixes have direct parallels between English and Spanish (-ese to -és/-esa, -an to -ano/-ana, -ic to -ico/-ica) but the usage of one suffix or another does not always match (Chinese, but Chino not Chinés; Macedonian but Macedonio not Macedoniano; Jamaican but Jamaiquino not Jamaicano)
In general, the English endings match more the ones we have in Portuguese than with Spanish.
I always find it extremely weird to say "indio" for someone from India in Spanish, because in Portuguese we use "indiano". "Índio" for us are only the Native Americans.
The reason is because:
-ean,-ian,-an all share a common Latin root: -anus, which turns a verb into an adjective [in its later form, could turn any to adj.]
-ese all share a common Latin root: -ensis, which was the general demonym suffix
-ic share a common Latin root: -icus, which turns a noun to an adjective
However: -ish is the only one from Old English, "isch"
Yes, the English -ese coincides with the Italian -ese (e.g. Inglese), Spanish -és (e.g. Inglés), French -ais (e.g. Anglais), and Portuguese -ês (e.g. Inglês), which are themselves derived from the Latin -ensem / -ensis 😊
@@marmar90000 Curiously enough, it seems like Spanish imported the suffix twice, as -és/-esa and as -ense
Great video. Congrats
Muscovite, Mancunian, Liverpudlian (and don't tell me the "pool" became a "puddle"!), Dundonian, Novocastrian (via Latin) and Cantabrigian (same) always struck me as unlikely "popular choices" for citizens of these places.
Trying to understand how some English words are pronounced or to find a rule that covers the demonyms presented here can drive someone crazy!
Greetings from Greece and thank you for another entertaining video! ( also "name" in Greek is "onoma" not "onuma" :) )
Even in Ancient Greek? The pronunciation might be different back then, and the word certainly doesn't come from Modern Greek.
"Greek" vs "Greece" is another unique demonym rule in English.
@@sohopedeco - Even in Ancient Greek. ‘Onomasticon’ for a dictionary of names comes from the same source.
Onamae wa?
"όνυμα" is "name" in the Aeolian (αιολική) dialect of Ancient Greek. This is where the suffix -onym (-ώνυμο in Modern Greek, in words like επώνυμο, πατρώνυμο, ψευδώνυμο) comes from.
In PH, we normally use eño/ano for city/province demonym (e.g. Manileño for Manila, Cebuano for Cebu, Davaoeño for Davao).
Yes there are common denomym in the Philippines but in our region of Calabarzon, Laguna is for Laguense instead of Lagueno and Quezon is for Quezonian
Yes, from Latin "-anus"
I always wanted someone to explain this
That was interesting!
As far as I know and remember demonym "Francian" was commonly used in Medieval Ages
Funnily enough, "French" does indeed have the suffix "-ish", but it started being read "ch" even though the word was originally supposed to be pronounced "sh": the reason it was spelled like that was because of French itself.
Its from the word in OE, "Frencisc", pronounced /frentʃiʃ/
Eu ia adorar ver esse vídeo sobre gentílicos em Português e também com as diferenças entre Portugal e Brasil
A confusing aspect of this is that some nationalities, to an indicate a person is of a nationality, you can just say "an Italian" or "a German" but for other nationalities it sounds incomplete to a native English speaker without adding man/woman/person etc. like "an English person" or "a Japanese person" for reasons I really do not know.
Just a point; Quebecois has started to refer to the Francophone, mostly French descendant people of Quebec in Canadian English. Quebecker is generally used to refer to the anglophones of Quebec and a general term for all people from the province.
Newfoundland & Labrador has 3 demonyms. Labradorian, Newfie and Newfoundlander. The latter could refer to someone from either Labrador or the island, and the other 2 are specific to each.
You could start using something like "waterdog" for the whole province. 😂
I don't think the nickname-y demonyms should count for this purpose. So Kiwi out or Newfie would be out.
I think if you made up a bunch of place names there would probably a lot of agreement with the made up demonyms people come up with.
What I’m saying is there probably are some rules, but they’re likely vague and hard to pin down, and due to the wide variety of demonym types, it becomes even harder to figure out. I’m guessing it’s probably something native speakers just get because it “sounds right”. Like “the big red ball” vs “the red big ball”
As a native speaker i did feel like a few of these were off, like kazakhstani when I’ve been told to say Kazakh (my keyboard also says that)
@@Shinathenyeah, for all of the Central Asian -stans (save Pakistan) I'd just take the stan off for the noun, although maybe that conveys ethnic group instead of nationality
@@ben1468 oh yeah I never thought about the ethnic group
In Swedish, all of the denonym adjectives seem to end with suffixes -sk or -isk.
There's a lot of variety in the corresponding nouns though.
Not sure if someone mentioned this already but ‘Finn’ is spelled with 2 n’s. Love the video! ❤
As a Filipino, Philippinese would sound odd and Philippinean would sound holy.
"Phillippine", like "Argentine", would sound okay.
@@sohopedecothat would sound not right in some form
@@t.i.34163:31hmmm.... well.....
This makes me wonder how one would go about creating fictional demonyms without actually creating an entirely new language. I am working on fictional worlds for my stories, but I don’t want to create a whole language for it. I know I’ll need to do some work on languages to figure out naming conventions and I guess this goes with that, but it does make me curious how I should handle this.
Same reason I clicked on this video. Was wondering whether to add 'an' 'ian' or 'ese' to my fictional people and wasn't sure which to go with, in case I was breaking a rule of some sort
@@Bookstar28an / Ian seems to be the most universal, carrying the least "baggage" from history. That's what we use as adjectives when we name newly discovered stars or galaxies - for example.
TU ÉS DE PORTUGAL? EU AMO OS TEUS VÍDEOS, SOU MUITO TEU FÃ!!!!!
This is very interesting! I did not know all about demonyms. I mean, I knew they were used--duh!!--but not about the formation or such.
I'm not sure that ian and ean are pronounced the same. If it's ian, the emphasis is before the suffix as in CanAdian. but if it's ean the emphasis is on the 'e' as in AndEan. I, myself, am a Canadistani. Okay, not really but you can use a different suffix and be understood.
My favourites have to be the ones for British places: Brummie, Weegie, Monkey Hanger, Geordie, Janner, Mudhead, Jack...
I would love a video on city demonyms, like a part 2 to this one
I think that would be great because I live in a Belgian city called "Mechelen" and were're called "Maneblussers", which rouchly translates into "Moon extinguishers". All kids in Mechelen know the story:
In Mechelen there is a famous tower, de Sint-Romboutstoren, and I think somewhere in the 1600's it was one of those special nights that the moon turns red and a drunken man saw the tower and the red moon behind it so he yelled that the tower was on fire and soon, many people gathered to take water and climb into the tower to put out the fire but eventually they realized it was just the moon and there was nothing wrong with the fire.
And so, centuries later this name is still used and there is even a beer brewed in the city called "Maneblusser".
5:33, heads up "Finn" is spelt with 2 N's like the language, Finnish
At least here in the US (from what I've heard), we usually pronounce Chilean as "chuh-lay-an" with the "chuh" part emphasized or as "chil-ay-an" with less or no emphasis, and not as "chil-ee-an," so it's a little different from the others on the "ean" list. I'm not sure if its like that in other English speaking places. That's just a little detail I wanted to add!
Edit to adjust the pronunciation a bit to be more accurate and to fix a couple of grammar issues.
Completely agree! (Not from US)
An interesting aspect of this that really affects these names in English is that most of what you call demonyms are actually exonyms. A demonym is what a group calls themselves, an exonym is what other people call that group. For instance, "German" is the English exonym, because the Germans use the demonym "Deutsch." This explains why there is so much variation between what other languages call different people and residents. "American" and "British" are true demonyms, since that is what the people call themselves. But "French" and "Dutch" are exonyms since the people call themselves "Français" and "Nederlander" respectively. "Kazakh," "Azeri," and "Afghani" are closer to being true demonyms since that's much closer to what the people call themselves. So are things like "Pole," "Finn," and "Scot."
"French" is from old English "frencisc"("Frankish"), demonym of "Franca"("Frank") sharing the origin with "Français", thus not an exonym. It seems the only exonym for France still in use (other than "France" or "Frank") is Greek Γαλλία ("Gallia").
A demonym is the name for the people and things from one place no matter who named it - the opposite of an exonym, which you defined correctly, would be an endonym (named from outside vs. named from the inside). "French" as an exonym at least roots in the same word as the endonym "Français" - the people of the Francs. "Finnish" on the other hand is quite far from "Suomalainen" how the Finnish call themselves. You have to differentiate between the adjective for example "a polish person/object" and the noun "a pole". These might differ more or less from eachother.
@@markusd.3426 The antonym of 'exonym' ("external name") or 'xenonym'("foreign name") is 'endonym'("internal name") or 'autonym'("self name"), rather than 'demonym'("people name"). "French" is an endonym because France is natively 'France' by francophones.
I wonder why Luxembourgish only refers to the language then and isn't used for people who live in Luxembourg. Also, where do weird city demonyms like Glaswegian come from? I'm sure they developed because they're easier to say than Glasgowian or similar stuff, but what are their origins. Do we know?
*Mancunian comes from the Latin name for Manchester (Mancunium) - similarly Oxonian (Oxford), Cantabrigian (Cambridge). (Manchuria is in China)
@@hotdatedave Oh yeah, wait. I actually know that. I've watched The Manchurian Candidate (1962) after all. Must've mixed something up there.
And yeah, I could've probably figured out that Mancunian has Latin origins.
And after some quick research Glaswegian is also clear now.
"modelled after Galwegian (Galway), itself modelled after Norwegian"
Luxemburgers 😉
The example at the beginning of "British" and "Briton" being used for the UK shows the difference between adjectival demonyms and noun demonyms. "British" is an adjective while "Briton" is a noun, eg. "The British man is from Britain, he is a Briton."
where did Liverpudlian come from?
What would it be for Wales and Cuba?
Keep up the good work!
JIM ❤
Cubewelican
Welsh and Cuban...?
Sometimes the dominion seems to originate from the local dominion itself. For example: Israeli comes from the Hebrew word ישראלי which is pronounced Israeli
Well, not exactly: the suffix "-i" in English is indeed of Semitic origin, though probably through Arabic instead of through Hebrew.
And therefore when they say "Israeli" it is a coincidence that in Hebrew it is "Israeli" as well
@@jameeztherandomguy5418 But it's not a coincidence. As you said, it comes from Semitic languages (not Persian like stated in the video), and is used mainly as a demonym for countries speaking those languages, although the words for many of those countries don't use the -i suffix....
@@adrianblake8876
I mean that it is a coincedence that America uses "-i" for Israeli. For example, it doesn't say "Arabi" although they're semitic.
My point was, "-i" is from Semitic languages, and it is coincidental that we say "Israeli" as the Israelis say it.
@@jameeztherandomguy5418 1. English is not exclusive to America, 2. The video stated demonyms sharing names across languages is NOT a coincidence. It doesn't have to, but when they're similar, it's not...
Examples from Hebrew, which uses the -i for EVERY demonym. There's also a -ni, which is used when the place ends in a vowel. Like "americani" "marokani" (moroccan) and "koreani", all examples sound "coincidentally" like they were borrowed from English, similar to "portugezi" (instead of the straightforward "portugali" which the academy insists on)
And there's also "italki", from "italic" (borrowed when Greek was the lingua franca)...
3. If it's JUST a coincidence, why not go with "Israelean" or "Israelite" (like the English bible translations)!?
@@adrianblake8876
yeah youre right
The most unique demonym I know of is for people from the US state of Indiana. They’re known as Hoosiers!
Mexico City: Chilangos
Espito Santo:
Capixabas
Yeah, I reckon fundamentally folks just called the people from a given place something and it either caught on or it didn't, so it makes sense that it's pretty inconsistent since it's probably ultimately down to individual whims.
In french for example, i can't think of any example where we respect the "-i" suffix of persian origgin : we say irakien (sort of like iraqian), not iraqi, etc. Our most three common suffixes are -ois (chinois, luxembourgeois, suédois..), -ais (islandais, groenlandais, portugais..) and -ien (italien, malien). Sometimes also we use the foreign word (espagnol for español, instead of calling them espagnais for example). So, same sort of rules as english, but totally different groups.
What about "allemand"? Is this ending unique in French? As a German I have to ask this! And for not respecting the Persian -i ending: Iraq is Irak in French so the "i" in irakien get's still added it just is not enough. In German we do the same thing and squeeze in the "i" Irak -> irakisch. But a person from Iraq we would actually call an "Iraki" - You in French?
@@markusd.3426 You are totally right, i had forgotten about that one. I heard that "Allemand" comes from the Alamans german tribe who settled in France after the Roman Empire collapse. It seems that many countries picked up different names for the germanic people : In finnish, germany is "Saksa", in russian it's Nyementski from the Niemen river, etc. Passionating really.
@@markusd.3426 Oh and of course "French" comes from the Franks, another germanic tribe who also settled in France (for good).
@@olivierpelvin
Wow, I never knew that! In my native language, we call Germans "Nemetsner", probably from Russian, as our language has a boatload of Russian borrowings [that are unneeded]
The reason that French has no "-i" suffix is because English borrowed them from the Semitic languages. That is their general demonym.
Im pretty sure it’s called Portuginies
- ishowspeed 😂
Nah it's ports of geese
U.S.A should really be Statesian, as it was before American became more popular. The term American actually applies to anyone from the Americas, whether it be North, South or continental isles. Many, especially in South American countries find the use of the term American solely to identify those of the U.S.A, quite insulting.
Cry harder
Technically Since Christopher Columbus Discovered The USA, It Should Be Called Christophia (First Name Because It’s Currently Named After The Guy Who Falsely Claimed To Have First Discovered The Land, Amergio Vespucci)
But Statesian could also refer to Mexico, you know, the United Mexican States.
Everybody knows what people mean when they say American, trust me, nobody expects you to mean someone from Argentina when you say that. Same as when someone says America, everyone knows what they mean. Especially since the continents are called North America and South America and when talking about both of them they are referred to as the Americas, which all diferentiates it from just America.
@@bz7672 The name Mexico hadn't already been adopted by two separate continents and millions of people.
Pretty sure we’re fine with American mainly meaning USA. Like, say if a large chunk of Europe united into a European Federation, I could easily see European shifting to more specifically from the European Federation, well states not in the EF would slowly shift to not using European, or maybe an alternative like Continental European vs European. Just some random thoughts/ideas though.
Bom trabalho com este video.
I found out about this word just a hour ago and suddenly this video, bro can you read my mind?
Demonyms in German are very much different. German - Deutsch, French - Französisch, Italian - Italienisch, Polish - Polnisch. So the ending syllabe "-isch" is pretty dominant. There are other methods to build demonyms too.
In Irish we use the suffix -ach for broad consonant demonyms and -each for slender consonant demonyms. These depend on the last vowel. Broad:A, O or U. Slender: I or E. Éireannach - Irishman, Sasanach - Englishman, Breathnach - Welshman (Also the surname Walsh), Síneach - Chinese man, Spáinneach - Spaniard.
As you get to the demonyms of smaller locals, some do not follow the general rules. For instance; a native of Halifax is a Haligonian; if you're from Liverpool, you're a Liverpudlian; if you're from the Isle of Man, you're Manx; and a resident of Phoenix is a Phoenecian.
Thank you, my parents are from Barbados i often say “bajan” its technically “barbadian” exacto like you asked ive always wondered why?