I felt so betrayed when I found out Germany isn't called Germany in Germany

Comments

• rumschlumpel@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Take it up with your ancestors (or the English, if you have no English ancestors yourself). They started calling the Dutch “Dutch” when people in what is today The Netherlands and Germany were both called deutsch/dutch, and the English didn’t care to adjust when the distinction started to matter.

  But Germans are not much better, it’s absurd that Italian city names that aren’t at all hard to pronounce for Germans have different names in German, e.g. Torino, Milano, Roma (Turin, Mailand, Rom), and we also call Japan “Japan”, even though Japanese is one of the few languages that uses a word for Germany that is derived from “Deutschland” and “Nippon” isn’t hard to pronounce for Germans, either.

  Also, the saxons never lived in the German federal state of Saxony.

  source

  • Skunk@jlai.lu ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Also, the saxons never lived in the area of the German federal state of Saxony.

    (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

    source

    • Deconceptualist@leminal.space ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Guess what? The modern state of Saxony (aka Upper Saxony, Obersachsen) is not even contiguous with the state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen).

      Although to be somewhat fair they are connected by Sachsen-Anhalt. And basically all of northern Germany was at one point called Saxony (“Old Saxony”, Altesachsen), at least by the Romans.

      Of course history is funny; Upper Saxony wasn’t part of the medieval Duchy of Saxony that followed, despite eventually taking the name.

      (I’m mostly posting this because I wanted to figure it all out)

      source
  • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    But Germans are not much better, it’s absurd that Italian city names that aren’t at all hard to pronounce for Germans have different names in German, e.g. Torino, Milano, Roma (Turin, Mailand, Rom), …

    Nobody is better. All languages do this to an extent. The Germanized city names especially in Northern Italy also stem from the fact that they used to be under Austrian control and they claim to speak German too.

    source

    • Katrisia@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      All languages do this to an extent.

      Exactly. In Spanish, we have some ‘curious’ names for Germany and its states and cities. «Alemania» is the name of the country. «Renania-Palatinado» is Rheinland-Pfalz, Bayern got turned into «Baviera». «Colonia» is Köln, «Friburgo de Brisgovia» is Freiburg im Brisgau…

      source
    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Austrians are just as able as BRD Germans to pronounce something like Milano, though.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • hansolo@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Plus the true downgrade of Firenze to “Florence.”

    source

    • 20cello@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Naples? Rome? Venice?

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Florenz, but yeah

      source
    • NachBarcelona@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Do you perhaps mean “Florenz”?

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • froh42@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    IIRC Germany is named weirdly different around the world with names stemming from several roots.

    Deutschland, Germany, Alemania, Nemezky, Saksa,…

    source
  • teft@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Having to learn new names for countries and cities is one of the worst parts of learning a second language.

    source

    • NachBarcelona@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      lol it’s not by far

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • bstix@feddit.dk ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    “Nippon” isn’t hard to pronounce for Germans, either.

    I don’t know about that. Even if Germans are not shy of pronouncing letters wrongly (using V as F for instance), the P in Nippon makes no sense in German. It would have to be spelled with an H, to make the right sound.

    source

    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      OK. German has an H (same as English, which makes it weird that it’s written with a P in the first place) and isn’t shy about spelling reforms, either.

      source
  • MrFinnbean@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Well Germans kind of were the Holy Roman Empire so in my books they can call those cities in italy what ever they fancy.

    source
  • SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Those are good points but Torino as Turin is complicated, some folks there still call it that in dialect etc. and historically, run by the Lombards and all that.

    English is terrible at this, Venice is Venezia, if you can say pizza you can say that.

    source

    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      “Venedig” in German, even though they literally use (almost) the same sound for z as Italian …

      source
• GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Americans are slowly learning about the rest of the world.

  Better late than never.

  source

  • ThomasWilliams@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    America was originally just the name of South America, then the English lazily coined the term “North America”.

    source

    • Katrisia@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Entire nations: You cannot keep “America” for yourself. There is history, maps, books, the independence of other countries in the region called for the liberation of “America” (e.g. Simón Bolívar “the liberator of America”; “America for the Americans”; Sentimientos de la Nación: “America is free and independent of Spain and all other nations, governments, or monarchies”).

      The U.S. of A.: Yeah… No. I’m America now. There’s no other “America” because there’s only North America and South America, 🤷🏼‍♂️ don’t you know? And the land is The Americas because it’s two in one. Duh. Erasure? I call it freedom! 🇺🇸🦅

      source
  • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    The amazing thing is, people don’t refer to their home country by a two letter acronym.

    source

    • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      UK has entered the chat

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • ripcord@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      (Sees car with CH sticker drive by…)

      source
  • rumba@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Mostly found out as we feverishly seek out escape routes.

    source
• FishFace@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Wait till you find out that Germans have different words for all the other things we have words for, too!

  Seriously though, the names of countries are just words. There’s no reason to expect them to be the same in different languages.

  source

  • oz1sej@discuss.online ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I think it’s so funny that almost all languages have some variation of the name “Hungary”, except in Hungarian, where it’s called “Magyarország”.

    source

    • FishFace@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I believe the languages of some neighbouring countries such as Turkey resemble Magyarország more closely :)

      source
  • RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I’ve always wanted to make a map that used the native names for countries instead of their English/American names.

    source

    • FishFace@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      https://endonymmap.com/ ? :)

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • AAA@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Actually I’d argue country names are one of the examples where it would make more sense to have the same name everywhere. Why not use the countries actual name (maybe with slight adaption to the language)?

    source

    • DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      The United States of America is just a series of English words. It really wouldn’t make sense in some other languages.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • FishFace@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Why not use the German name for “chair”? Words are arbitrary. Why would you use the local inhabitants’ name for it?

      What about when a country has more than one ethnic group with more than one language, which have different names for the country? This is the case in many places. You could pick one, of course, but that’s just another arbitrary choice.

      The historical reason is that names for countries (which often develop from names for peoples) don’t always come from the a common source.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    No… I have a name. Someone talking to me in a different language doesn’t make my name different. It’s intuitive to think country names are the same.

    source

    • Sheldan@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Other languages use different characters or might not even be able to pronounce the name as they don’t have the sounds. It might be simple to think that, doesn’t make it correct.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • FishFace@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Countries aren’t people though. And depending on language and context, this does happen, and used to happen even more. Finns might refer to a David as Taavi in Finnish. John Cabot’s name in Italian was Giovanni.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It gets interesting when you hear how the Chinese call countries.

    source

    • FishFace@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Oh, it’s all interesting IMO!

      source
• El_Scapacabra@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Deutschland, sounds like what we should call Netherlands

  Until you then find out that the Netherlands is actually called “Nederland” in the Netherlands. And the reason they’d called “Dutch” in America is due to an archaic mix-up between the two nationalities.

  source

  • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It’s not really a mix-up. More a continuation of an old name for the language spoken in the Netherlands. The Dutch centuries ago called their language Diets/Duuts/Duits which means something like Germanic. This was before the countries Germany and the Netherlands existed.

    Diets is not a single language but a name for all the different regional languages spoken in the low lands also known as Middle Dutch. The name was used to differentiate the languages from the Romance languages.

    Hence why the English called the people of the low lands Dutch since the people of the low lands said they were speakers of Diets/Duuts/Duits.

    Also in the Dutch national anthem there is a line that says “Ben ik van Duitsen bloed” “I am of Dutch/Deutsche blood” which does not refer to modern day Deutschland but to what all Germanic people in the low lands, what is now present day Netherlands, would call themselves.

    source

    • zaphod@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      The Dutch centuries ago called their language Diets/Duuts/Duits which means something like Germanic.

      No, it means something like “people” or “of the people”.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    What do people from the Netherlands call themselves if not Dutch or the Dutch?

    Like, people from the United States call themselves Americans, there’s the Spanish and French.

    Are they called Netherlanders or something?

    source

    • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Well in Dutch they call themselves Nederlanders or Hollanders. Though Hollanders is only correct if they are from the provinces North-Holland or South-Holland

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • Ricaz@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Most Dutch people I met just call it Holland. We do so in Denmark as well

    source

    • starlinguk@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      “We” call it Holland because foreigners say “eh?” when we call it the Netherlands.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • rumba@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    This is what confused me so much about germany’s real name :)

    source
• Flubo@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  While it is quite common that countries have different names in other languages, germany is special because it really has a lot of very different names. Alemagne in french, germany in englisch, deutschland in german, tyskland in danish, Niemcy in poland and so on.

  There is actually a wikipedia article about it, that also explains the origin of the different names.

  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Germany

  source

  • rustydrd@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    in Lithuanian it is Vokietija, of unclear origin, but possibly from Proto-Balto-Slavic *vākyā-, meaning “those who speak loud, shout (unintelligibly)”

    DIESE ABSCHEULICHE UNTERSTELLUNG IST VOLLKOMMEN INAKZEPTABEL!

    source

    • Flubo@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      :D thats funny

      source
  • LNRDrone@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Saksa in Finnish, no clue what the origin if that is. It doesn’t even mean anything that I know of.

    source

    • chonomaiwokurae@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Sachsen, germaaninen heimo/Saksin alue nykyisessä Saksassa.

      source
    • rustydrd@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      The Saxons were a group of Germanic tribes/peoples. So similar in origin to “allemannia” (from the Alemanni tribes) and its variants in many other languages.

      source
  • SchwertImStein@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    polish*, also your capitalisation of the name in different languages is totally random

    source

    • Flubo@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Thats my Herman keybord autocorrecting some words while i try to write in english. I am too lazy to go through all the mistakes as long as one can get my point.

      source
    • Schmuppes@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Not totally random. Consistently wrong, with only “Niemcy” out of line.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
• webghost0101@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  You have it backwards.

  German in German is “Deutsch” or “Duits” in Dutch.

  Dutch in Dutch is “Nederlands” or “Niederländisch” in German.

  “Deutch” comes from an old high german word “diutisc” which meant “of the people”

  “Dutch” comes from “Diest” meaning “people’s language”

  When the Romans invaded England, they important the Latin “Germania” to refer to Germany and gradually started to use “Dutch” for the common people of the “lower countries” (Belgium and Netherlands)

  source

  • WolfLink@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Where does “Alemania” (what they call Germany in Spain) come from?

    source

    • teft@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      It comes from from french and originally from latin alamanus. There was a germanic tribe there called the the Allamani.

      source
    • Dicska@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      AFAIK French has something similar. I might be wrong, but similarly to the Holland/Netherlands (Nederlanden) story, it was named after one of the tribes in Germany (alamanni, “all men”), before the great unification.

      source
  • ThomasWilliams@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I think the term “The Nethetlands” was coined after the Reformation and Counter-Reformation when the northern provinces ,which became Lutheran, separated from the southern provinces which remained Roman Catholic.

    The country was usually referred as “Holland” (a northern province) before then.

    source
  • DonAntonioMagino@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    There’s no actual difference in meaning/etymology between ‘Diets’ and ‘Deutsch’. They’re both derived from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz, meaning ‘of the people’. Well into at least the seventeenth century, probably the eighteenth (I’m basing this off what I’ve read myself in primary sources) ‘Duits’ was still commonly used in the Netherlands as well. It was essentially part of a distiction between ‘Duits’ and ‘Waals’, where those who were ‘Waals’ were the ‘others’.

    source
• KingGimpicus@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Technically, Japan is not called Japan in Japan. Its Nippon.

  source

  • Jumbie@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    In France it’s called Japon.

    source

    • tatann@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      France also uses the world “nippon” as an adjective equivalent of “japanese”

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • hakunawazo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    In Germany Nippon is a brand of puffed rice with chocolate.
    Image

    source

    • a_postmodern_hat@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      That’s it, I’m going back to bed

      source
  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    More often Nihon than Nippon. The latter is somewhat archaic.

    Both are spelled almost the same in Japanese (kana): にほん vs. にぽん.

    日本 could be either, but most often Nihon.

    source
  • samus12345@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Not technically, it just plain isn’t called Japan.

    source
• NachBarcelona@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  i really wonder where you are from

  source
• Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Just wait til’ you hear about what they call Japan in Japan.

  source

  • X@piefed.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Nihon-koku or Nippon-koku

    source
• DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Fun fact:

  You might know China as 中国

  But Chinatown is not China 中国 + Town 城

  I never heard of any Chinese diaspora use 中国城

  It’s always 唐人街 Tang-People Street, Tang referring to China’s most powerful dynasty, or 華埠 Hua-City, Hua also refers to Chinese people, it’s actually a character in the official name of both PRC 中华人民共和国 (in simplified) and ROC 中華民國 (in traditional)

  Overseas Chinese is typically not referred as 中国人 but as 華人 (Hua People)

  Chinese Americans are not really referred to as “Americans” but the emphasis is put on the Citizenship, rather than being an “American”

  Like in 美籍華人 which Google Translate says is “Chinese American”, but really transliterates to “Hua (meaning ethnic Chinese) Person with American Citizenship”

  To emphasis on the “American-ness” I’d have to use 華裔美國人 which transliterates to “American of Hua (aka: Chinese) Ethnicity”, which I think would sound really weird and I think I’d get weird looks if I use the term 美國人 (American), so I probably would never call myself an “American” in front of Chinese-speaking people, but use 美籍華人 instead.

  (Sort of like code-switching. I call myself American in front of other Americans to fit in, but call myself 華人 (ethnic Chinese person) to other ethnic Chinese so I could also fit in.)

  source
• JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  In Spanish Germany is Alemánia. Just to add more confusion to this topic.

  source
• 7uWqKj@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Likewise, Germans feel betrayed when they find out that you don’t call your country Deppendorf

  source
• jjpamsterdam@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  There’s many such examples, just off the top of my head: Hungary, Finland, Greece, Georgia, Egypt and Japan.

  source
• SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  and Japan is is not Japan in Japan.

  source
• falseWhite@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  This might also be mind-blowing for you: “The USA” and America are not called “the USA” and “America” in most other languages either.

  source
• netvor@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  What’s Germany? You mean Německo?

  source
• FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I’m a Newfoundlander. My sister felt betrayed when she found out that what we call turnips, most people call rutabegas

  source
• Mothra@mander.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Wait until you learn about Japan

  source
• ji59@hilariouschaos.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  As someone from Czech Republic, I am not surprised. There are sometimes huge differences between country names in czech and English. And the closer the country is, the bigger the difference.

  For the German speaking countries eng - ger - cze: Germany - Deutschland - Německo Austria - Österreich - Rakousko Switzerland - Sweiz - Švýcarsko

  Other examples (eng - cze): Czech - Česko Slovakia - Slovensko Slovenia - Slovinsko Greece - Řecko Georgia - Gruzie Spain - Španělsko Greenland - Grónsko Hungary - Maďarsko Croatia - Chorvatsko

  source
• Nangijala@feddit.dk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I have another mindblowing fact for you: in Germany, the v is an f and the w is a v.

  source
• Jaybird@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  In the Netherlands, we don’t call out country The Netherlands.

  We call it: “Nederland”. Completely different.

  source
• mechoman444@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  And the country of Georgia isn’t called Georgia either!

  And lets not even get into named country’s in Sub-Saharan Africa.

  source
• Quilotoa@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Ah, but Canada is Canada. More or less consistent around the world. One of the few countries that is.

  source
• Thorry@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Wait till you find out what Japan is actually called.

  source
• blinfabian@feddit.nl ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  to fix it:

  🇳🇱Netherland, where Netherlanders live is Netherlands

  🇩🇪Dutchland, where Dutchlanders live is Dutch

  source
• mcz@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  There isn’t called there when you are there. It’s called here there.

  source
• melsaskca@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I believe trump will be renaming it due to his ancestry.

  source
• Perspectivist@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Saksa in finnish. And Finland is Suomi in finnish.

  source
• kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Wait’ll you hear about Japan.

  source
• thatradomguy@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  BMW ❌️ BMV ✅️

  source