To add insult to injury, what they call it, Deutschland, sounds like what we should call Netherlands
to fix it:
🇳🇱Netherland, where Netherlanders live is Netherlands
🇩🇪Dutchland, where Dutchlanders live is Dutch
I felt so betrayed when I found out Germany isn't called Germany in Germany
Submitted 3 days ago by Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Comments
blinfabian@feddit.nl 3 days ago
Perspectivist@feddit.uk 3 days ago
Saksa in finnish. And Finland is Suomi in finnish.
Dicska@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Or Németország in Hungarian. And Hungary is Magyarország in Hungarian. Ország just means country, so they’re just “German country” and “Hungarian country”, literally.
Most slavic countries also call Germany Německo or the like.
This happens when there’s no fast global media when you meet a new nation, and you can’t copy someone else’s homework to come up with a name for them. Or when you copy someone else’s homework, instead of actually asking a member of that nation.
Rubanski@discuss.tchncs.de 3 days ago
Nemetor sounds like a LOTR character
FishFace@piefed.social 3 days ago
The first time the inhabitants of what is now Germany and what is now Hungary met, there were no nations at all. People have been communicating and trading with those from far-off lands for longer than the concept of nation even existed, which is a major contributor to why these names are so different.
belastend@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
ITT: people learning about endonyms and exonyms.
blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
What about the Swamp Germans
markgoldman@lemmy.world 2 days ago
How it called?
bryndos@fedia.io 3 days ago
Apparently even Tacitus said it was a made up name. It seems like it might have originally applied to lands west of the Rhine, or some tribe living there in Roman times. So it might have applied to as much of modern Netherlands and Belgium as to modern Deutschland.
Don't forget the 'Heiliges Römisches Reich' though - that always seemed a bit contrived.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
It’s interesting how countries have names that we just don’t use. To be fair, the UK calls it Germany, too, at least the BBC does. And not just their .com (American) site, which still uses English rather than American English (e.g. honour instead of “honor,” centre instead of “center,” and other minor spelling differences… to stranger ones like manoeuvre vs “maneuver” and so on), so that tells me they call Deutschland “Germany” in the UK as well. Even the English Wikipedia (which covers English and American English) says the official name of the country is “The Federal Republic of Germany”.
We call Turkiye “Turkey”, I guess because the name of the bird is more familiar and easier to type?
What we call Japan, people who live there say Nihon (or Nippon). But what they write is 日本, but I don’t know how to make my keyboard (or computer) produce those symbols without copying and pasting them. It’s easy to remember these symbols. One looks like a skyscraper (like in Tokyo) and the other looks like clouds around the peak of Mt Fuji, together representing the manmade and natural beauty of the country. It might be coincidence that those glyphs look like that, though.
Let’s take it a step further, shall we? So we were talking about countries that call themselves something other than what you (I’m assuming American) call them. There are companies that do it, too, but other than having extra words and symbols at the end, it’s mostly pronunciation… and I only have two examples. There may be more. The first one is Nokia, which people try to pronounce like it’s Korean or Japanese. It’s not, it’s Finnish (from Finland, one of the places Vikings come from). That’s why they’re so sturdy. It’s not just a meme. Anyway, while it’s fine for you to call it “No-kia,” like you’re saying you don’t drive a Kia, the Finns pronounce it “Knock-ya.” Like, throw a Nokia at you and “knock-ya” TF out!
Going back to Japan, the Japanese language is made up of glyphs which represent the syllables that make up the spoken language. Japanese is both simpler and more complex than you might think. So 日本 means Nihon, or Ni and Hon. Maybe you see where this is going… Hon isn’t pronounced like it rhymes with Don, it instead rhymes with “bone.” So to say 日本, you say “Ni” (knee) “hon” (hone). Those are the sounds represented by those glyphs. Now say “Honda.” You probably said it wrong. 本田 is pronounced “Hon” (hone) “da” (duh). Of course, if you say “Hone-duh” to car guys, they’ll look at you like you’re a fool, because no one outside of Japan pronounces it that way, even at the dealer. And you won’t score home field points by going to the dealer and pronouncing it correctly. (Of course, when they speak to leadership in Japan, if they ever do, you bet your ass they’re saying it right. But outside of Japanese corporate, they’re pronouncing it the way you always have.)
Does any of this even matter? No, not really. It’s trivia, which means it’s fun to know but not exactly useful to know, in most situations. German people will likely tell you they are German, not that they are Deutsch. Then again, Germans are far nicer than their rough language would imply (you can thank Rammstein for making you think it’s rough in the first place, especially if you’re Gen X or Millennial). They would just as soon you say hello as hallo (German for hello), though I will almost always use “auf widersehen” over goodbye, because goodbye sounds more formal. “Auf widersehen” translates to “Until next time.” Compare that with the Japanese “さようなら” (sayonara), which means “farewell.” Three languages, the other two translate to “goodbye,” but they all actually mean different things. This is why learning some of your more common phrases in other languages helps. I’d much rather say “auf widersehen” to someone I’m going to see again tomorrow rather than “goodbye.” And as much as I’d love to tell my boss さようなら… well, it’s just not the appropriate parting phrase.
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
日 is sun and 本 is origin (in this case), which lines up with the western moniker for Japan as the land of the rising sun.
Also I’d say that goodbye is a decent enough translation for sayonara. I can’t remember the last time I said goodbye in English (instead of bye or see you), and seems almost as formal and final as farewell, which seems almost outdated at this point. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually used that in my entire life.
Triumph@fedia.io 3 days ago
Let me tell you about the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Thorry@feddit.org 3 days ago
Wait till you find out what Japan is actually called.
alsimoneau@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
And Greece