I just repost from reddit. dont have background on this
Comment on Just figured out why so many exonyms.
prenatal_confusion@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Grumpus_Maximus@thelemmy.club 3 weeks ago kata1yst@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
@prenatal_confusion@feddit.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Germany?wprov=sfla1
This meme is in reference to “Deutschland” / “Deutsch” / “Deutsche”, which translates exactly as the meme implies.
HowdyLemmy@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
:(
skibidi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Das Deutsch ~ ‘The people’ Deutschland ~ ‘Land of the people’
It happens in many languages, whatever words are used for the main group generally translate best to just ‘people’ if you adopt their perspective. In English, Deutsch/Deutscher would probably be translated as ‘The German people’ or ‘Germans’, but the Germans themselves aren’t going to call themselves ‘The German People’, they’ll just call themselves ‘People’ and the English are ‘die Engländer’.
But you have to make this distinction, otherwise Deutsch means ‘people’ and English, French, Italian, American, Swedish, etc. also all mean ‘people’ - but they are talking about different things.