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Is it really "impolite" that some peoples and countries have different names in different languages?

Is it really "impolite" that some peoples and countries have different names in different languages?

  • yes, it is impolite

    Votes: 2 7.7%

  • yes, it is insulting

    Votes: 2 7.7%

  • no, it is not impolite

    Votes: 12 46.2%

  • no, it is not insulting

    Votes: 11 42.3%

  • it is just the way that languages work

    Votes: 14 53.8%

  • i find it interesting that there are different names in different languages for the same country

    Votes: 12 46.2%
  • Total voters
    26
Cardinal said:
I’m not approaching it from a perspective of what is rude or offensive to them. I’m just wondering why we don’t call countries by their own names.
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Yeah, honestly, it's an interesting question. From an English perspective, it doesn't make any sense. The name of a country is a proper noun...this would be like calling some Ted when their name is Frank.

I've never really thought about it before, but in doing so now I find it to be a pretty weird practice.

Re: the OP, I'm not sure it's offensive, it's a pretty standard practice around the world....but, again, haven't thought about it before this, so I'm not aware of any complaints...
 


How to make Amerikaner :)
 
OlNate said:
Yeah, honestly, it's an interesting question. From an English perspective, it doesn't make any sense. The name of a country is a proper noun...this would be like calling some Ted when their name is Frank.

I've never really thought about it before, but in doing so now I find it to be a pretty weird practice.

Re: the OP, I'm not sure it's offensive, it's a pretty standard practice around the world....but, again, haven't thought about it before this, so I'm not aware of any complaints...
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Yeah, unless there's a historically touchy reason for wondering what the correct name is (e.g. Native Americans) it's an issue that's asking for more concern than most people can summon in light of everything else going on in their lives. But outside of that, it's just weird.
 
OlNate said:
this would be like calling some Ted when their name is Frank.
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No, it ain't. :)
As I said before:
The names of persons and the names of countries are two completely different topics, whether you may believe me or not. :)
 
Cardinal said:
it's just weird.
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For you it may be "weird".
For me it is an interesting topic.
For those who only know one single language on earth and are not interested in any other language on earth it may be "weird", of course :)
 
Rumpel said:
For you it may be "weird".
For me it is an interesting topic.
For those who only know one single language on earth and are not interested in any other language on earth it may be "weird", of course :)
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My prior posts should have made it clear that the thing I consider weird is not calling countries by their own names.
 
Cardinal said:
Yeah, unless there's a historically touchy reason for wondering what the correct name is (e.g. Native Americans) it's an issue that's asking for more concern than most people can summon in light of everything else going on in their lives. But outside of that, it's just weird.
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I never figured out why some people named Richard get called "Dick". Or how you get "Bill" from "William".
 
Also interesting: Greeks don't call their own country "Greece", they call it "Hellas" (where the terms Hellene or Hellenic comes from). I'm not sure how we came to call it Greece.
 


Let us return to the sweet Amerikaners. :) :love: (y)
 
ataraxia said:
Also interesting: Greeks don't call their own country "Greece", they call it "Hellas" (where the terms Hellene or Hellenic comes from). I'm not sure how we came to call it Greece.
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Although the answer to this is just kicking the can down the road, we get Greece from Graecia, the Roman name for Greece.
 
Cardinal said:
Although the answer to this is just kicking the can down the road, we get Greece from Graecia, the Roman name for Greece.
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Ah, interesting. Got it, thanks. I didn't know that.

They also called Switzerland Helvetia, and France was Gaul.
 
Also interesting: the Egyptians don't call their country Egypt- they call it Misr. Egypt was also just what the Romans called it.
 
So this seems to be the biggest source of our problem of calling countries by names other than what the inhabitants of those countries call it themselves: those darned Greeks and Romans just decided to make up their own names for these places, and those are the names for those places that got popularized in the west.
 
ataraxia said:
Also interesting: the Egyptians don't call their country Egypt- they call it Misr. Egypt was also just what the Romans called it.
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Aegyptus, and they got it from the Greeks: Aígyptos. That name probably stuck when Alexander The Great took over the neighborhood.
 
ataraxia said:
Ah, interesting. Got it, thanks. I didn't know that.

They also called Switzerland Helvetia, and France was Gaul.
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Don't know about Switzerland, but Gaul was...you guessed it...a Roman thing. I don't know though if the Gallic people is what they called themselves or if it's the word Caesar came up with when describing his campaign to take over Europe north of Italy.
 
When I was stationed in the FRG back in the day I tried to spechen Deutsch to the 'rades. So Deutschland. When among Americans it was Germany or the FRG.

When my wife and I visited Wales we never spoke that hot mess of consonants... ;)

Those folks don't have much love for the English and it showed- our rental with it's English plates- however once they heard our accents they were MUCH friendlier... :)

I've found that be polite gets polite, if not time to move along... ✌️
 
notquiteright said:
When I was stationed in the FRG back in the day I tried to spechen Deutsch to the 'rades. So Deutschland. When among Americans it was Germany or the FRG.

When my wife and I visited Wales we never spoke that hot mess of consonants... ;)

Those folks don't have much love for the English and it showed- our rental with it's English plates- however once they heard our accents they were MUCH friendlier... :)

I've found that be polite gets polite, if not time to move along... ✌️
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I had a friend who visited Montreal a few years ago- right before they were going to have a referendum on independence for Quebec. He walked into a department store looking for a shirt, and asked the salesperson what the price of a certain shirt was. The salesperson turned around and, in perfect English, told him "sorry, I don't speak English".
 
Cardinal said:
Don't know about Switzerland, but Gaul was...you guessed it...a Roman thing. I don't know though if the Gallic people is what they called themselves or if it's the word Caesar came up with when describing his campaign to take over Europe north of Italy.
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The word was around long before Caeser.
 
Rumpel said:
I understand. :)
It is a fine region.
And I have learned to say "Thank you" in the Basque language there.
Which goes like: "Eskerrik asko!" :)
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Interesting thing about the Basque language: it is the only non-Indo-European language spoken in Europe:

"Origin of the Basques - Wikipedia
The origin of the Basques and the Basque language is a controversial topic that has given rise to numerous hypotheses. Modern Basque, a descendant or close relative of Aquitanian and Proto-Basque, is the only Pre-Indo-European language that is extant in western Europe. The Basques have therefore long been supposed to be a remnant of a pre-Indo-European population of Europe.
The main hypotheses about the origin of the Basques are:
  • Native origin, the mainstream theory, according to which the Basque language would have developed over the millennia entirely between the north of the Iberian Peninsula and the current south of France, without the possibility of finding any kind of relationship between the Basque language and other modern languages in other regions.
  • Basque-Iberism theorizes the existence of a kinship between the Basque and the Iberian language, and therefore between their speakers.
  • Caucasian origin theorizes that the Basque language and the languages of the Caucasus may have a direct relation, explaining why they share some linguistic typologies absent in the Indo-European languages."

Origin of the Basques - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Cardinal said:
Don't know about Switzerland, but Gaul was...you guessed it...a Roman thing. I don't know though if the Gallic people is what they called themselves or if it's the word Caesar came up with when describing his campaign to take over Europe north of Italy.
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Gaul was the name of a region and the collective name the Romans used for the people who lived there. The major tribes of Gaul were the Belgae, Helvetii and Aquitani (in addition there were a bunch of lesser ones that Caesar mentions).

I expect that those groups wouldn’t have considered themselves Gauls but would have identifed with the tribes they were members of.
 
ataraxia said:
I had a friend who visited Montreal a few years ago- right before they were going to have a referendum on independence for Quebec. He walked into a department store looking for a shirt, and asked the salesperson what the price of a certain shirt was. The salesperson turned around and, in perfect English, told him "sorry, I don't speak English".
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That reminds me:
In France I once said in near-perfect French: "I don't speak French .."
I do speak French, but I was just too lazy for it there and then. :)

It is always practical to know how to say: "I do not speak .... X .... or Z ...." in many languages. :)
 
Loulit01 said:
The word was around long before Caeser.
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Actually it's really not so straight forward, and I'm a little confused as it pertains to the modern word for France. The English word "Gaul" comes from the Germanic word Walhaz. The word for the Gallic people that Caesar referred to was indeed coined by the Romans or the Greeks. Though if we follow the typical pattern, the Romans probably got it from the Greeks. The word that the Gallic people had for themselves was the Celtae.
 
Cardinal said:
Although the answer to this is just kicking the can down the road, we get Greece from Graecia, the Roman name for Greece.
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I do not think that knowing the origin of a practice is useless, "just kicking the can down the road". I find the origin of words interesting and educational. From what you posted above, and what you have proven to know about words, I believe you do as well.
 
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