Trav'ling Canuck
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- Joined
- Feb 7, 2018
- Messages
- 3,479
This conversation makes me wonder what percentage of cultures are known to history by names they gave themselves, versus how many are known by names given to them by others? I'm guessing the scale is tilted towards the latter.
Even in Europe, the English call the inhabitants east of the Rhine "Germans", which I believe is what the Romans called one particular group of the people who lived in that area, rather than anything close to "Deutsche" (and English is supposedly part of the same language group). For some reason, despite French being a Romantic language, in France they don't use the old Latin term and instead call those people "Allemands" (on a good day), probably another sub group named from afar. I'm scared to ask what Poles call them.
Dig deep enough, and I wouldn't be surprised to find some of these roughly translated at some long ago time to "those ***** who keep stealing our boars".
Even in Europe, the English call the inhabitants east of the Rhine "Germans", which I believe is what the Romans called one particular group of the people who lived in that area, rather than anything close to "Deutsche" (and English is supposedly part of the same language group). For some reason, despite French being a Romantic language, in France they don't use the old Latin term and instead call those people "Allemands" (on a good day), probably another sub group named from afar. I'm scared to ask what Poles call them.
Dig deep enough, and I wouldn't be surprised to find some of these roughly translated at some long ago time to "those ***** who keep stealing our boars".