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- Thread starter RedRalph
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Rossiya
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Does "Allemands" also mean in French "Sacre bleu, it's zose guys from ze east again"?
TheLastOne36
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just noticed that!Interesting how other languages call it differently, like Niemcy, Allamagne etc.
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
if a French derogatory name for Germans is "hazelnuts" I would thoroughly rofl.
Mirc
Not mIRC!!!
Yeah, I didn't bother with to add multiple variants just for the spelling (and the text in brackets was definitely only for Italian, which was the latter in my post, obviously since I do know for example that French doesn't have the same kind of difference between singular and plural, in Italian being either -i or -e while in French being -s or -x).
Also in Romanian apart from the standard term - "german" there is another one: "neamt" (no way to spell that to be readable for an English speaker, but the last T is supposed to have a comma underneath and thus be read like a "ts"), but here it's not connected to any negation.
The name sure must have started somewhere, but do remember that it's used in so many languages that a possible etymology in one (or some) doesn't guarantee correctness at all. That's quite possibly connected to the Italian "tedesco".
But if it isn't, we've got 6 different word roots right here!!
- German (Germannia, Germany, Germania, German, etc)
- Alleman (Alamani, Allemania, Allemagne, etc)
- Nemci (Nemtsi, Nemci, Nemcy, Nemti, Nemeti, etc)
- Tedesco
- Tysk (?)
- Deutsch
It's pretty amazing how complicated the etymology of exonyms can be.Exonym = name used for a group or an organization by a person or a group outside it, and not by those belonging to it. Like Germany, Finland, Albania, Japan, Hungary, Greece, or the Basque people/language. Opposite to "endonym" (the name said people use to talk about themselves).
West 36
Can count up to 4
It has impressed me how many names there are for Germany. On one hand, you'd think a rather recently made country would have a common name throughout, but on the other hand, even though the area wasn't united for hundreds of years, the people and culture there did have similarities, and may have been referred to with a common term (the Holy Roman Empire, for example) that may have its roots from a much older time, or towards a particular tribe or state that existed that had been associated with the area at large as well before the union of it all.
What do people in those countries refer to themselves as?
What do people in those countries refer to themselves as?
gangleri2001
Garbage day!!!
Deutschland, Suomi, Shypqe (or something like that), Nihongo, Hellas and Euskal Herria.
Mirc
Not mIRC!!!
You forgot Magyarorszag from my list (actual name of Hungary). 
My own country had an exonym for most of its history (Wallachia), meaning in various languages: Romanian, Italian, Latin, Romance-speaking (or even shepherd or lazy man). In fact, I think Wlochy still means Italian in Polish, AFAIK. Warpus or TLO correct me if I'm wrong.
My own country had an exonym for most of its history (Wallachia), meaning in various languages: Romanian, Italian, Latin, Romance-speaking (or even shepherd or lazy man
). In fact, I think Wlochy still means Italian in Polish, AFAIK. Warpus or TLO correct me if I'm wrong. TheLastOne36
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No you are right, but we pronounce it differently, like "Vwo-hy" don't know how you call Wallachia in Romanian though...
Yeah, we're all Canadian! W00t. Even if this isn't your original meaning, our color is red.
holy king
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looks more likely connected to "deutsch" to me...
which would make a whole lot more sense geographically too.
azzaman333
meh
Troll .
potatokiosk
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How exactly is he a troll?
Yoda Power
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I agree with holy king. Tysk and deutsch seems pretty close, when you pronounce them next to each other.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
I always wondered whether the etymology was "one that speaks an unintelligible language" or derived from the name of the Germanic tribe of the "Nemetes".
Personally, I think the similarity between the name Nemci/Nemtsi/Nemti and various words meaning "mute" or "none" are simply a coincidence, and the name is derived from the tribe, but I really don't know.
No, it really means that the ancient Slavs simply didn't understand the language of the strange people they met during their expansion to the West from present day Belarus/Eastern Poland/Ukraine/Russia or from where the hell they came (this is actually a sort of a mystery to this day, there are conflicting theories about it).
For example, another (now a bit offensive) Czech term for the Germans is "skopčáci", literally "downhillers" or "those who came down from the hills". If you look at the map, you see that Bohemia is surrounded with mountains on all sides, so the Germans coming to the Czech-settled lowlands to sell their goods were called this way.
Well, the Slavs met with the Germanic tribes much later than Roman Gaul, Roman Britain, Roman Italy or Roman Dacia
Plus you have to take into consideration that Nemetes lived in Western Germany, along the Rhine, so the Slavs couldn't have met them first.You forgot Magyarorszag from my list (actual name of Hungary).
My own country had an exonym for most of its history (Wallachia), meaning in various languages: Romanian, Italian, Latin, Romance-speaking (or even shepherd or lazy man
Funny, in Czech, Hungary is Maďarsko and even in English the name of the tribe was Magyars, I have no idea why they call the country Hungary (which is translated to Czech as Uhersko and it's the old name for the kingdom of Hungary).
Mirc
Not mIRC!!!
Might be.
Sorry, that was just an uneducated guess of mine.Just as I expected, with the crossed-out L.
About how we pronounce it, well I just said it was an exonym.
We call it Tara Romaneasca (older variant: Teara Romaneasca). Tara/Teara <- Lat. Terra, thus the meaning of it is literally "Roman Land", "Roman country" (Romanians being one of the 3 languages - AFAIK - to still call themselves Romans)Well, again, it might very well be.
I'm not arguing since I have no arguments to bring forth and thus my opinion is completely open. But the ancient Slavs must have met other populations too, like Baltics or Byzantines (speaking Greek) on the way, why would the Germans be the first they met, and thus the first to be completely unintelligible language along the way? Yeah, that's perfectly understandable.
I considered that. The name might have been still in use by the Byzantines, who took it from the Western Roman Empire before its fall. But you're right.Well, the Slavs met with the Germanic tribes much later than Roman Gaul, Roman Britain, Roman Italy or Roman Dacia
They were far, far away from the Nemetes.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
Well, again, it might very well be.
Since most Slavic languages share this term, I deduce they started using it very early, before the fall of West Roman Empire, when the Germanic tribes were living in much of today's Central/Eastern Europe (Ostrogoths in Ukraine, for instance). Baltic peoples have some sort of a connection to Slavs and they've been (presumably) living next to each other for a very long time. Then the Germans came, nobody understood them, so they called them "mute". The term probably survived.
That's my theory, nothing official
I considered that. The name might have been still in use by the Byzantines, who took it from the Western Roman Empire before its fall. But you're right.
In Croatian, there is some offensive term for Germans related to Schwabians - don't know why.
Mirc
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Certainly makes sense.Since most Slavic languages share this term, I deduce they started using it very early, before the fall of West Roman Empire, when the Germanic tribes were living in much of today's Central/Eastern Europe (Ostrogoths in Ukraine, for instance). Baltic peoples have some sort of a connection to Slavs and they've been (presumably) living next to each other for a very long time. Then the Germans came, nobody understood them, so they called them "mute". The term probably survived.
That's my theory, nothing official
And later, after the Germans got to be called this way, other people (Hungarians and Romanians, namely) also imported the name from the Slavs. Hmm.... Here Schwabian ("şvab", read <shvab>) means "person of mixed German-Romanian descent".
So we have terms related to them too, even though they are not derogatory.I should mention that this term exists almost only in Transylvania, it's quite likely that if you go to a random guy from Bucharest who hasn't read more than an average person has, he might not know what it means. Obviously because all the intermixing between Germans and Romanians happened in Transylvania, where Germanic people (mostly Saxons) were brought over by Hungarian nobles to (colonize) the land (to bring superior building and weaponry technology, to throw the population percentages off a bit, etc).
Yoda Power
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Don't know if I posted this here before, but what the hell:
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