And what about the Romance languages. They call Germany “Land of the Alemanni”, they called an entire country full of different tribes after a single Germanic tribe that lived near the French/Italian border. It’s like calling the entire country of the Netherlands Amsterdam.
Or any country really. I’d be curious to see if a chart of languages ranked on how many countries’ endonyms are also the same word in that language. But there’s definitely no language that doesn’t have exonyms.
But for real, for those who are curious: the border between Germany and Poland is effectively the border between western and eastern Europe. So to Slav people Germans lived right over there, and yet spoke something incomprehensible; so we called them “mute” (in Poland at least). If I can’t understand you you are mute to me, basically. And the word for “Germans” is the same as for “Germany”, so we call the country itself mutes 😅
The US still looking weird by calling Germany “Germany.”
And what about the Romance languages. They call Germany “Land of the Alemanni”, they called an entire country full of different tribes after a single Germanic tribe that lived near the French/Italian border. It’s like calling the entire country of the Netherlands Amsterdam.
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TYSKLAND
Not any weirder than any other English speaking country.
Or any country really. I’d be curious to see if a chart of languages ranked on how many countries’ endonyms are also the same word in that language. But there’s definitely no language that doesn’t have exonyms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endonym_and_exonym
Tbf a good chunk of Europe calls it “land of people that can’t speak” basically
Nemecko
Nemý
Never realized that.
Yeah right? When it hit me I was like hmmm
Cause they can’t!1!
But for real, for those who are curious: the border between Germany and Poland is effectively the border between western and eastern Europe. So to Slav people Germans lived right over there, and yet spoke something incomprehensible; so we called them “mute” (in Poland at least). If I can’t understand you you are mute to me, basically. And the word for “Germans” is the same as for “Germany”, so we call the country itself mutes 😅
They’re clearly thinking of the Dutch.
They can speak, they just act like they can’t in front of foreigners. I am learning “Dutch” and am 100% convinced this whole language is a hoax
About as weird as calling Nihon “Japan”.
The weirdest ones are the Finns, calling Germany Saksa.
I’m German and I feel more at home when I’m in Finland than in Sachsen.
Finnish Saksa is a reference to the Saxon tribe from Old Saxon in Northern Germany, not the current Sachsen.
What about the Portuguese! ALEMANHA for Germany
In Grench it’s Allemagne. The Alemanni were a german tribe at the rhine.
Is that the Grinch’s native language?
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Du meinst Deutschland.