-stan

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"Istan" redirects here. For the municipality in Andalusia (Spain), see Istán.

The suffix -stān (spelled ـستان in the Perso-Arabic script) is Persian for "place of", derived from the Indo-Aryan equivalent, -sthāna (pronounced [st̪ʰaːna] (स्थान in the Devanāgarī script), a cognate Sanskrit suffix with a similar meaning. In Indo-Aryan languages, sthāna is also used as a word to mean "place".

They appear in the names of many countries and regions, especially in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, areas where ancient Indo-Iranian peoples were established; in Iranian, however, it is also used more generally, as in Persian rigestan (ريگستان) 'place of sand, desert' and golestan (گلستان) 'place of roses, rose garden', Hindi/Sanskrit devasthan (place of devas, "temple"), etc. Both suffixes are of Indo-Iranian and ultimately Indo-European origin, the Proto-Indo-European root being *stā- 'stand,' which is also the source of English stand, Latin stāre, and Greek histamai (ίσταμαι), all meaning 'stand,' as well as many other words, for instance the Russian word стан (stan) meaning 'settlement' or 'semi-permanent camp' (used in reference to semi-nomadic settlements encountered in certain areas of Central Asia) or in other Slavic languages such as Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian where stan means 'apartment'. Also in Germanic languages the suffix has survived, for example in the words Stadt (German), stad (Dutch/Danish) and stêd (West Frisian), all meaning 'city'.

The suffix -stan occurs in the following names, mostly geographical or pseudo-geographical:

Contents

[edit] Continent

[edit] Subcontinent

[edit] Countries

[edit] Autonyms

[edit] Regions

[edit] Proposed names

Other proposed names include Dalitstan, Mughalstan, and other similar names that originated on the Dalitstan website.

[edit] Fictional

[edit] Satirical

  • Absurdistan — sometimes used to satirically describe a country where everything goes wrong.
  • Boratistan — name used by Kazakh press secretary Roman Vasilenko to describe an image of Kazakhstan created by Sacha Baron Cohen's character, Borat.
  • Canuckistan, Soviet Canuckistan — derogatory nickname of Canada.
  • Ethniclashistan — sometimes used satirically to describe countries in which multiple ethnic groups were thrown together, who then began fighting each other, e.g. Yugoslavia, the former Soviet Union. It was featured in the satirical The Onion newspaper in June, 2001 as being placed in the West Bank in the article Northern Irish, Serbs, Hutus Granted Homeland In West Bank (here spelled Ethniklashistan)
  • Incumbistan - introduced by columnist Mark Steyn to refer to the efforts of politicians of all parties to unite to enact rules seen as assuring their continued reelection [1].
  • Londonistan — the British capital of London was given this sobriquet by French counter-terrorism agents.
  • Londonistan (book) A book that sounds a warning about how the culture of the United Kingdom is being changed by a high concentration of immigrants.
  • Nukhavastan — fictional country created by The Onion that has nuclear weapons.
  • The three Jetlag parody travel guides contain faux ads for guides to other countries, each with a -stan reference. Molvanîa contains an ad for "Surviving Moustaschistan" (mentioning also "Carpetstan"), Phaic Tăn contains an ad for "Sherpastan", and San Sombrèro contains an ad for "Tyranistan".

[edit] Other

[edit] Citations

  1. ^ Davidson, Roderic H. (1960). "Where is the Middle East?". Foreign Affairs 38: p. 665–675. 

[edit] External links