Why Do Zambia & The Gambia Have Such Similar Names?
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- čas přidán 22. 10. 2018
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SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Countries That Start With Z: www.worldometer...
List Of African Countries By Area: en.wikipedia.o...
A Short History Of Zambia: www.localhistor...
Why the Name Zimbabwe?: afrolegends.co...
Cecil Rhodes: www.britannica...
Zambezi Etymology: books.google.c...
Zambia And It’s Place Named: anthony1956.blo...
The True History of the Gambia’s Bizarre Origin Story: www.atlasobscu...
The Republic of The Gambia - Introduction: www.globalsecu...
Gambia vs The Gambia: theculturetrip...
Why Do We Put ‘The’ In Front Of Gambia?: www.bbc.co.uk/...
Digya Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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So immediately after writing this video I remembered The Congo, the shortened name for the countries of Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo and the primary reason I didn’t mention it was because I forgot about it being a dumb dumb. But this shortened name has a definite article, isn’t a plural, and doesn’t represent a collection of things. Why doesn’t it sound odd?
Well maybe it’s because I already knew it referred to the river Congo, so in my head calling it just The Congo makes sense. Before making this video I didn’t know The Gambia was named after the Gambia River. And maybe The Gambia does seem so odd to us (well me anyway) because it does sound like Zambia, a name not with a definite article. Hence why they wanted that “The” at the start of The Gambia.
Anyway this all all just my personal ramblings and thought I’d leave it down here to give you guys something extra, and it’s likely someone else will mention it. Any other countries with definite artless that seem weird?
Peace!
Patrick
Too much American television and I find it funny when people get angry about it.
you also forgot The Netherlands lol.
Name Explain when i cant buy the book because i cant understand amazon im stupid i know
Love your videos keep up the great work
I think the X in xu is usually pronounced more like "sh". but I'm not an expert on this sort of thing.
No love for The Netherlands or The United States of America (or Mexico) ..... or even The Ukraine
Why do Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Papua New Guinea, and the Guinea Pig all have "Guinea" in their names?
How could you forget Guinea fowl? They're noisy enough!
That's a good question.
@Darth Cynicus does the hate flow through you?
I'm quite sure "Guinea" came from the Portuguese word for black people, but that doesn't really explain the Guinea pig eh?
Guinea means ‘south’ (I think) and used to be used as a name for Africa as a whole.
Guinea = Western Africa
why are names called names?
From latin nomen, and then that probably comes from some PIEmy-whimy wibbly-wobbly words.
@@abdallabissar I havent heard adout it
@@abdallabissar suffering
Because it is 42 and the Chinese-French border near Lake Titicaca is discovered by Rosalind Franklin
The explanation of the name name's name
Proudly Zambian (Zedian) 🇿🇲here watching.
Yesaaiii!!!!!
I like the Zedian vibe you've been going on
As for Rhodesia, it wouldn't really make sense to call it Celopolis, since that would be literally, "City of Cecil" and not "Country of Cecil".
Ceciland?
Cecilia? (no wait.. that's a portuguese given name)
@@GumSkyloard And a killer tune...
Cecilstan.
Whoosh
Love from The Gambia 🇬🇲 ❤️
Love from Zambia
That's my blessed country. The smiling coast of Africa 🌍 The Gambia 🇬🇲
binako touray.... yeah your country is blessed. I’m a Filipina based in USA... I used to work as Personal Assistant to His Excellency John Bojang, Gambian Ambassador to the USA in Washington , DC.... He’s a wonderful and intelligent boss. God bless you🙏
@@marymagnificat8567👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿
Why do Uruguay and Paraguay have such similar names?
He "Did"
Guay means from water in Guaraní. So Uruguay is the river(guai) of the painted birds (uru) for example.
SigmaTV no u
@@uhoy1488 yea me
He already did it. czcams.com/video/63GASVsnwTk/video.html
Proud zambian here! This vid was really nice
Yes it's true my country got it's name from the Zambezi River, Zambezi is a compound word in the Lunda language comprising of the words Zambe or zambi meaning God and Ezi meaning water, so in a rough translation Zambezi means Water of God.
I have that same feeling of weirdness when hearing/saying The Hague, which I think is singular as well
Edit: course The Hauge's not a country, but I felt it followed the same principle
termeownator very good example.
Try its official Dutch name: 's Gravenhage, which is an archaic way of saying 'the count's bush' in Dutch. Eventually the actual name became such a chore to say, even to us Dutch folk, so we started saying 'Den Haag' or just 'the bush' (with a weird obsolete case ending on the article). The same happened to another relatively large city in the Netherlands, Den Bosch (in English 'the forest'), whose full name is longer ( ' 's Hertogenbosch' or 'the Duke's forest')
In Spanish is "La Habana" but in English is just "Havana".
Still doesn't beat Truth or Consequences (a town in New Mexico, US) in wierdness. How often do you see "or" in a name, eh?
@@masterimbecile Or King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Just outside of Philadelphia.
It's pronounced Zam_bay_zi
Woah I've never been this early!
Great vid btw
Lavender Sheep thank you!
What your here
I just bought your book with the link in hardback. I'm excited to read it and to support this channel!
Thank you Simon, I hope you enjoy!
"Zambia and the Gambia"
Sounds like the coolest rock band name ever
Here is an interesting one. I think it would be great if you made it:
*Why do Thessaly and Thessaloniki have such similar names?*
Alex The Nationalist named after Phillip II daughter who was named after a victory where the Thessalian cavalry were important
Thessaly and Sicily also are similar
There is actually more than just the country names . We also have one name that is both in Gambia and Zambia. That name Is KUNDA.
X in Chinese is like "Sh" in sheet. So Xu sounds very roughly like shoe (if you ignore the fact that the u is more like ü in German).
Other "odd" ones you may see are Q ("ch" in cheese) vs. Ch ("tr" in train), as well as Z ("ds" in hands) vs. Zh (rhymes with orange) vs. C ("ts" in bats).
As an English person, why do you pronounce "Z" as "zee" and not "zed"?
I do too we have been westernized lol
Just ordered your book! Can’t wait to read it!
Hint, if you want to know how to pronounce a foreign word, go to google translate, select English and convert to the language you want to pronounce in. So if you put "Xu" into English, and select translate into Chinese, hit the speaker in Chinese and it will say it for you properly (it sounds a little like "Shoe" in this case, but with a very short vowel.)
That's my beautiful home the Gambia
I’m from The Gambia but I don’t thinks it’s shape is at all weird there are plenty of countries around the world with much weirder borders
Am Zambian to be honest I don't see the similarity abt these two countries
But I hv owes wished to visit the Gambia ever since I found out that my country has a similar country name on the Atlas
No similarities at all completely different cultures I hope people don’t confuse that am from Zambia too. hope to visit maybe as well
I was always curious...why are the maps have bad quality? I recommend you to search good maps in 'the blank atlas' as a mapper.
It’s a style.
Your videos are so good!!
Etymology comparisons for the following, please?
1. Nassau & Bissau
2. Guinea-Bissau & Papua New Guinea
3. Papua Island & Papua New Guinea
4. Switzerland & Swaziland
5. Togo & Tonga
Thanks ahead! 😉
nice suggestions but Swaziland changed it's name in order to not sound like Switzerland
I think of it as "The Republic of The Gambia [River]"
Also don't forget that El Salvador has a definite article. I remember that my teacher said in spanish that it is part of the name and you can't contract it by saying "Soy del Salvador." The correct way to say it is "Soy de El Salvador."
Love from Zambia
i never noticed that.
Wouldn't "The Gambia" be the plural of "The Gambium", so would match the other countries you said were groups of things.
Devvy Nully tf is gambium you pissed me of, is Gambia or gambian or gambie or gambien😤🙄😂
So what's a gambium? How many are there?
@@Shesfantaa hahaha is Gambian
“I forgot I don’t have thumbs” -Patrick Foote, 2018
Zambia here watching
1:12 You said the names don't share an ETYMOLOGICAL root, but I misheard you and thought you were saying they are not connected at all.
But they do. Zambia was Northern Rhodesia, while Zimbabwe was Southern Rhodesia. The two Rhodesias (until their dissolution in the late 20th century) were one of those few countries named after a person, and more specially, Cecil Rhodes and Simon Bolivar were the only TWO people with TWO countries named after them).
VIDEO SUGGESTION: Which countries are named after people?
Hi, im really sorry but i cant afford patron, i watch all of your videos and love your channel, but I really want to know how "Qatar" got its name, its the only country that starts with the letter Q and why is that?
Don’t forget Namibia, too! 🇳🇦
At 1:11 I don't know why it annoys me so much, but my God, you are British, 'z' is pronounced 'zed' not 'zee'. But otherwise, great video.
Zambezi means River of God in the Lunda language. Zambia is a short cut given by our founding father Kenneth Kaunda.
Love my country zambia 🇿🇲
I see Zambia 🇿🇲 I click!
As a Gambian I always wondered why my country was called THE GAMBIA
"The" seems to be in country's names that has an adjective or common noun like United, Federal, French, Czech, Kingdom, Republic, etc.
"Z" is pronounced as "zed" (you should know this man, you're British)
Figure he looked at his viewing figures and has enough of a higher percentage of US viewers to warrant just saying "zee". I had to look it up myself a good while back after hearing it multiple times in shows and films and asking, "Zed? Who's Zed?" And then Bruce Willis answered back, "Zed's dead, baby".
I'll never understand zed. That'd be like calling the letter S "sed".
@@zeroeffortmemesBelieve it's a holdover from the Latin ¿and Greek? Zeta, therefore it makes more sense than "zee", in my opinion at least...
@b phillip I was under the impression that every English speaking country other than the US, and as you pointed out, sometimes Canada, use "zed" and not "zee", and that we Americans are fairly unique in that regard...
I always remember a school master (school teacher) called Mr Beret (sounds like a cap) who left to be a missionary and I could not remember whether he went to The Gambia or Zambia, I think it was the latter.
You should do Zambia and Nambia too! ;)
It's Namibia
No similarity there dear it's Namibia and not Nambia
No such thing as Nambia
There are a few other places that have "the" in their name, at least unofficially, and aren't plural. Like the Yukon, the Congo, the Hague, the Bronx and sometimes, the Sudan, the Ukraine, and the Crimea. The Yukon and Congo are also rivers too, if that has any relation.
Fake etymology just for fun: "ambia" means river and G and Z at the start of a word mean "north" and "south" respectively, so the countries would be North River and South River :)
I am the great son of Zambia
im from Zambia thanks for this!!!!
Actually in german, a lot of countrys have an article in their Name (beside official names like "The Republic of....... etc.").
The german articles are:
- "Der" (male) it's pronounced like "Dare"
- "Die" (female) it's pronounced like "Dee"
- "Das" (neutral) it's pronounced like "Duss"
There is:
- Die Schweiz (Switzerland)
- Der Kosovo (Kosovo)
- Die Niederlande (The Netherlands)
- Der Iran (Iran)
- Der Irak (Iraq)
- Der Jemen (Yemen)
- Die Türkei (Turky)
- Der Kongo (Congo)
- Der Libanon (Lebanon)
- Die Mongolei (Mongolia)
- Die Antarktis (Antarctica)
and these are just to name a few...
About the definate article in the Gambia, it is worth to note that other languages tend to use "The" in their name while dropping it in the official english name... i know arab countries tend to do this, especially if the name refers to things or the name is arabic in origin:
Al-ardon = the Jordan, also named after the Jordan river
Al-iraq = the Iraq, origins debatable
Al-morroco = the morroco, lit the west lands
Al-ajazaer = the algeria, lit the islands
And suadi arabia is generally refered to as El-suadia (the suadi) in informal speech
Could this be the case for the gambia?
Char zy
That's not the case with The Gambia. To begin with Gambia isn't even Arab country.
3:21 El Salvador also uses the article 'the"
There was The Flambia, but it was annexed by Wakanda.
Pipe2DevNull Wakambia
That's fake.
Busted
Putting a The in front of things often works when something is a one and only thing, like you couldn't possibly be talking about something else.
Subsequently, all areas named after those iconic things adopt the definitive article too.
The Yukon, The Ukraine, etc.
The Gambia is named after *The* Gambia.
Thanks lots. 💖
I'm Canadian, we have provinces and territories should we be called The Canada or The Canadas/The Canada's.
Why do cow meat, pig meat or lamp meat have different names (beef, pork, mutton etc.)? Where does this comes from?
ZEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!
1:53 We also have a Zambeze river between Texas and Mexico.
Zambezi name might have originated from the word nzambi a word for God in Lunda who are situated in the area where the source of the river is..
Here's something I've always wondered, what's the link between 'cancer' (the disease) and a crab (like constellation)?
El Salvador also has a definitive article in its short name, "El".
Gambia 🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
You would think, he would do an explain on Zambia and Zimbabwe (next to each other)
U got i the gambia wrong , i am from the gambia. the gambia come from one Surname Call kambi, when the White people came to the gambia they found one and asked what is the name of this place the answered kambiaya ,this is how the name gambia came out.i can't explain everything true text message.
Wonderful video :-0
Zee..... zed
A lot of wrongs. I am a Gambian. The main reason why we have the definite articles is: when packages were sent to the Gambia, it was mistakenly sent to Zambia. hence they introduced "The" in the name of our country just to distinguish it from Zambia.
If you are on Twitter checkout the Hashtag #MeetZambia and Fall in Love with the Country!
I still want to know why dab is both a dance move and a drug thing!
My home town is named "The Dalles" i would love to hear how that fits in. I will also say it is not prodounced dallas like a lot unfamilliar people think.
No similarity about the two countries at all, no links or same culture or language connection at all. Hope people don’t confuse the two at all. I’m from Zambia 🇿🇲 and love Africa!
Etymologically speaking - no connection at all and no "similarities" at all. Period. The rest is coincidence or convention, both defying logic by definition. You should reserve your energy for more important things.
Zambia is derived from the Zambezi river which means The Waters of God.
GOD in Zambian languages is NZAMBE, NZAMBI, NYAMBE
Water in Zambian languages is Menzi, Manzi , Amenshi
In actual sense Zambians means Children of God
Sgambia is Corsican for Samba & sgambio is exchange or trading post.
1:07 it's zed
I was never confused about theses
Here is what even most Zambians won't know
Zambia got its name from Zambezi River with its river source in Ikelengi in Mwinilunga district of North Western province.
The habitants of the area where the source is located(who span through Congo, Angola and Zambia) they have an expression nzambi enzi which literally means God has come.
Kalonga ka nzambi which means River of God.
nZambi is a name of god not to sure if its God or a god, but from that we can see how Zambezi is river of God or god river
Zamb - ia can be written as God-ia lol in short, Zambia means "Land of God"
They both got their names from the river , zambia go its name from zambezi while Gambia from the Gambia
Zambezi came from the Luvale word Yambeji which means land of water.
You said zee? I hate the sound of zed, which I thought you'd say because you mentioned you live in the UK, but you said zee, like me. I live in the US, and I got lucky. I even said "Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, ZEE!" and it worked. I must have powers. It worked for other things too. In a game, I wanted the dice to land on a 6, so I sad "lucky" 7 times (because 7 is the most common lucky number), and than said 6. Sucess!!
Edit: Z is the best letter.
1:37
you know who he looks like
YOU KNOW WHO HE LOOKS LIKE
🇿🇲🇿🇲🇿🇲🇿🇲🇿🇲 Zambia...
Interesting
I have not watched the video but judging from his previous videos, I am going to assume these two names have no etymological connection between them. And now I will watch the video to see whether I am right or wrong.
I live near a town in england that is is called rhodesia
Look at Jambi province in Indonesia.
I am from Zambia...🇿🇲
what's the connection with latvia and latin? and i know that you won't read this because you only take inspiration from patrion.
why do i have that feeling i've seen this video already
You should do the etymology of etymology
The Netherlands also has "The". But plural etc as you say.
Speaking of which, why is the country called The Netherlands and Holland but the people there are Dutch?
3:20 What avout the Netherlands?
It's name is singular (and thus without the "the") in Dutch, so I guess it's not really the same
@Its AFakeMun The name wasn't always singular, and the full name still isn't. The full name is "Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden" ("The Kingdom of the Netherlands"). In the 17th and 18th century (between the independence from Spain, and the France occupancy), it was called "De Republiek de Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden" ("The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands"). I bet the current English name for the country was derived from the old name.
Why does Mauritius and Mauritania similar names ?
I heard rhodisian ridgebacks were breed to defend villiages agsinst lions but was unfamilia with where "rhodesia" was. If it was a city provence or extinct country.
The United Kingdom isn’t multiple kingdoms though. It’s multiple countries within a single kingdom.
Ahem. The united kingdom is actually called the United kingdom of *great britain and northern ireland*. I'd've thought someone all about names would understand the full name of the country they're from
Also, it's "The United States of America".
As in Ham, from the Hamites
Please do the bible city name of Philippians and the country of the Philippines. Thanks :)
John Feraren Philippians are the Christian people of Philippi (named after Philip II of Macedon) while yung Philippines is from King Philip II of Spain.
Almost every country in africa is named after a river, almost every country in the world in the main land is.
If you look far enough probably every name has it's etymological roots on rivers.
Half of those are also named black.. actually pretty much half of the people in the world are named black after a river.