Just figured out why so many exonyms.
Submitted 4 days ago by
Grumpus_Maximus@thelemmy.club to historymemes@piefed.social
https://thelemmy.club/pictrs/image/0c9ca50f-4a21-4b14-8464-825a6631bc4a.png
Comments
prenatal_confusion@feddit.org 3 days ago
skibidi@lemmy.world 3 days 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.
Grumpus_Maximus@thelemmy.club 3 days ago I just repost from reddit. dont have background on this
kata1yst@sh.itjust.works 3 days 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 days ago
:(
AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 3 days ago
The Roma do that as well: their demonym means “men” in Romani.
Rothe@piefed.social 3 days ago
Same with “inuit”.
AccoSpoot1@lemmy.world 3 days ago
You wouldn’t believe how often that’s happened.
raman_klogius@ani.social 3 days ago
Better than the Poles calling everyone else mute
Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 3 days ago
That’s like half of us Slavs doing it.
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 3 days ago
No everyone, just the Germans. And Italians are the hairy ones for some reason.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Perhaps the reason is the hair and also Romans never made it anywhere close to Poland and were too busy fighting themselves by the time Poland was exposed to them (thanks to the Germans putting them on mute for everyone to the east), otherwise they might have been called something like “legions of assholes”.
halfapage@lemmy.world 3 days ago
they what
Akasazh@lemmy.world 3 days ago
in Polish [the word for Germany] is Niemcy, from the Proto-Slavic *němьcь, meaning speechless, since German is not mutually intelligible with Slavic languages;
Zwiebel@feddit.org 4 days ago
Truly one of the countries of all time
resipsaloquitur@lemmy.cafe 9 hours ago
Lake Nyasa.