An etymology question

[The Last Conformist]

I would have thought 'scandiphile' or 'scandophile'.

The intended reference is to the Swedish province of Skåne, in Latin Scania.

While the Goths and Vandals rampaged through but eventually left Italy, I am under the impression that the Lombards (Langobards if you prefer) had a massive impact on the gene pool, in fact genetically dominating at least Northern Italy. The Byzantines, whose genes became a mix of Roman and Near East peoples, reasserted dominance into Southern Italy, radically changing the gene pool there as well. Eventually, the Romans were just outbred by the more fecund recent arrivals to their peninsula.

That's simply not true.

 

[Gladi]

Bright day
Last Conformist, zou seem rather educated on subject, could you than say what would it be for my people? And point out flaws in my sig.

 

[MCdread]

I don't know. During the decline of the Roman Empire there was a severe decline in the population of the Italian peninsula, and many northern Italians seem to share physical features similar to that of Germans.

But when the roman era took off, the people from northern Italy were gauls, and their descendants continued in the area of course. The ancestors of people like Pompeius or Cicero were perhaps gauls.
I don't know about english, but in some other languages italians are sometimes also nicknamed as transalpines.

 

[jonatas]

They're Latin compound forms of ethnonyms. Since the (Neo-)Latin for "German" is germanus, it ought be "germanophile".

.

yes, but the "phile" would be greek, wouldn't it?

 

[Marla_Singer]

yes, but the "phile" would be greek, wouldn't it?

Indeed, all those words come from the French, but as English people are too arrogant to admit a French root to their language they always say it's latin... which is not only. That kind of words are always exactly the same in French, as it's the case for all words of a pseudo-scientific origin. Guess it used to sound cool to use French words in the past.

More seriously, it comes obviously from the Latin... and I'm sure that the prefix used to talk about Germany is germano-, not allo-. Allo- means other. You can find it in allopathy, allotropy, allophone, etc...

 

[Babbler]

Found an interesting article on the subject:

... you lack an appreciation of the philological niceties. There is no necessary correspondence between a nation's name for itself and the name outsiders bestow upon it. This is especially true when the nation or people is very old. In ancient times, when international affairs consisted chiefly of heaving rocks at the tribe over the hill, a people's name for itself was often the local equivalent of "us folks" or "the people," while its name for foreigners was generally some variant on "those frog-faced heathens" or, more kindly, "the gang over yonder." Naturally, the gang over yonder called itself "the people" in its own language while reserving another term for the cretins down the pike.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_162.html

 

[The Last Conformist]

Bright day
Last Conformist, zou seem rather educated on subject, could you than say what would it be for my people? And point out flaws in my sig.

I do not know any Latin, Neo- or otherwise, name of Czechia, but there'd be bohemo- for Bohemian and moravo- for Moravian. As far as English is concerned, however, I suppose we'd go by the example of "Czechoslovakia", and use czecho-, yielding for instance "czechophile" for "friend of Czechs".

Senatus et Populus Que Europaeus is redundant; both et and que mean "and". You should say either senatus et populus europaeus or senatus populusque europaeus (notice that populusque is written as one word). I'd go with the later, since its closer to the traditional Senatus Populusque Romanus.

@jonatas: The element "-phile" is indeed of Greek origin. But it was borrowed into Latin already in Antiquity and has been used to form new Latin words ever since, much like we in English form new words of Latin material; eg, the word "international" consists entirely of Latin morphemes, but exists in Latin only as a very late loan from English - Classical and Medieval Latin never knew a form internationalis. Of course, some of these productive Latin elements in English, like "-phile", are ultimately of Greek origin (and some of them came into Greek from yet other languages ...).

 

[The Last Conformist]

Indeed, all those words come from the French, but as English people are too arrogant to admit a French root to their language they always say it's latin... which is not only. That kind of words are always exactly the same in French, as it's the case for all words of a pseudo-scientific origin. Guess it used to sound cool to use French words in the past.

It should always be remembered that French was the official language of England for a few centuries.

 

[Akka]

yes, but the "phile" would be greek, wouldn't it?

Yup, from "philos", "to like".
(BTW, how can you write a character in a non-latin font on a HTML page ? The copy-and-paste I usually do is quite tiresome, I'd like to get a Alt+xxx combination if possible...)

 

[Marla_Singer]

(BTW, how can you write a character in a non-latin font on a HTML page ? The copy-and-paste I usually do is quite tiresome, I'd like to get a Alt+xxx combination if possible...)

　　根据党的十六大和十六届四中全会精神，为进一步加强党的执政能力建设，全面推进党的建设新的伟大工程，确保党始终走在时代前列，更好地肩负起历史使命，中央决定，从２００５年１月开始，用一年半左右的时间，在全党开展以实践“三个代表”重要思想为主要内容的保持共产党员先进性教育活动。

　　一、开展先进性教育活动的重要性和必要性

　　中国共产党是在一个拥有１３亿人口的大国执政的马克思主义政党。我们党在中国执政，是历史的选择、人民的选择。进一步为人民执好政、掌好权，是时代的要求、人民的要求。党成立８０多年来，团结和带领人民取得了革命、建设、改革的伟大胜利。这一历程，是党代表中国先进生产力的发展要求、代表中国先进文化的前进方向、代表中国最广大人民的根本利益的历程，是始终保持党的先进性的历程。在新的历史条件下，继续保持党的先进性，关系党执政能力的提高和执政地位的巩固，关系党和人民事业的兴旺发达和国家的长治久安。

 

[Marla_Singer]

No seriously I dunno Akka.

I've just copied and pasted a story from the People's daily about the fourth of the 16 sessions Plenary Session planned by the party about education... or something like that.

 

[raen]

Does anyone know some of the less common ones? What is it for Italians? I'll be very disappointed if its something to do with Romans, because current ethnic Italians are mainly descended from the people who destroyed Rome.

For Portugal is "Luso", because "Lusitanos" tribe that started to "form" Portugal. Portuguese ancesters.

 

[Steph]

Is allo- used as a prefix meaning "German" in any other French words? It's annoyingly similar to Graeco-Latin allo- "other", as in "allophone".

Never seen "allo", we use germanophone or germanophile

 

[Erik Mesoy]

There is a Vatican council whose sole job it is to meet yearly and determine the proper Latin names for current concepts such as "computer" and "baby-sitter". They produce about 20 words each year.

Ahh yes, The Economist ran an article on them, mentioning the hilariously long compunds that were translations of the following words:
1st place: Wet T-shirt contest
Runner-up: Sushi