Exonym and endonym

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An exonym (from Greek ἔξω exo = out; ὄνομα onoma = name) is a name for a place that is not used within that place by the local inhabitants (neither in the official language of the state nor in local languages[1]), or a name for a people or language that is not used by the people or language to which it refers. The name used by the people or locals themselves is called endonym, autonym (from Greek ἔνδον endon = within or αὐτό auto = self and ὄνομα onoma = name), or self-appellation. For example, Deutschland is an endonym; Germany is an English exonym for the same place; and Allemagne is a French exonym. Similarly, Spanish is an exonym for the name of the language; speakers of Spanish use español or castellano. In the Spanish language, inglés is an exonym for either an English male person or the English language.

Exonyms may derive from distinct roots as in the case of Deutschland, Germany and Allemagne mentioned above, they may be cognate words which have diverged in pronunciation or orthography, or they may be fully or partially translated from the native language. For example, London is known as Londres in French, Spanish and Portuguese, Londino in Greek, Londen in Dutch, Londra in Italian, Romanian and Turkish, Londýn in Czech and Slovak, Londyn in Polish, Lundúnir in Icelandic, and Lontoo in Finnish. Some languages use the same spelling as the endonym but change the pronunciation, thus making it an exonym. The English and German pronunciations of Paris, for example, are different from the French one (where the s is silent in modern French), though it is spelled the same in all three languages. An example of a translated exonym is the Soviet Union.[1]

Exonyms can also be divided into native and borrowed (i.e., from a third language). For example, Slovene uses the native exonyms Dunaj (Danube) and Benetke (Venice), but the exonyms Kijev (Kyiv) and Vilna (Vilnius), borrowed from Russian and German, respectively.

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[edit] Tendencies in the development of exonyms

Byzantium, a.k.a. Constantinople, a.k.a. Istanbul
Byzantium, a.k.a. Constantinople, a.k.a. Istanbul

Exonyms develop for places of special significance for speakers of the language of the exonym. Consequently, most European capitals have English exonyms, e.g. Athens (Αθήνα/Athína), Belgrade (Београд/Beograd), Bucharest (Bucureşti), Brussels (Bruxelles, Brussel), Copenhagen (København), Moscow (Москва/Moskva), Nicosia (Λευκωσία/Lefkosía), Prague (Praha), Rome (Roma), Vienna (Wien) or Warsaw (Warszawa). For places considered to be of lesser significance, attempts to reproduce local names have been made in English since the time of the Crusades. Livorno, to take an instance, was Leghorn because it was an Italian port essential to English merchants and, by the 18th century, to the British navy. Not far away, a minor port on the same sea like Rapallo never received an exonym.

In earlier times, the name of the first tribe or village encountered became the exonym for the whole people beyond. Thus, the Romans used the tribal name of Graecus (Greek), the Russians used the village name of Chechen, medieval Europeans took the tribal name Tatar as emblematic for the whole Mongolic confederation (and then confused it with Tartarus, a word for Hell, to produce Tartar), and the Magyar invaders were equated to the 500 years earlier Hunnish invaders in the same territory, and were appellated Hungarians.

The Germanic invaders of the Roman Empire applied the word "Walha" to foreigners they encountered and this evolved in West Germanic languages as a generic name for all non-Germanic speakers; thence, the names Wallachia, Vlachs, Wallonia, Walloons, Wales, Wallasey, and even the Polish name for Italy, Włochy. Standard folk etymology has it that the Slavic peoples erroneously referred to the Germanic Europeans as "mute", as their languages were incompatible, and the Russian word for Germans even today is still that, nemtsy (немцы). The Serbian word is homophonous to the Russian but is spelled "Nemci", while the Croatian and Romanian languages have adopted the forms "Nijemci" and "Nemţi" respectively. This etymology is unreliable at best and it is more likely that the Slavic exonym derives from the Nemetes, an ancient German tribe mentioned by Tacitus and Julius Caesar. It is worth pointing out, though, that the meaning of "Slavs" and "Slavic" comes most probably from the slavic word "Slovo" (hence "sloveni"), meaning "word"/"speaking"/"speech". In this context, the way Slavic people address Germanic people - "mute" - as opposed to themselves - "the speaking people" - certainly makes sense.

White settlers in South Africa thought the Khoi-San natives gabbled nonsense syllables, so they called them Hottentots. Two millennia earlier, the Greeks thought all non-Greek speakers spoke gibberish like bar-bar-bar, so they called them all barbarians, which eventually gave rise to the exonym Berber.

In the late 20th century the use of exonyms often became controversial. Groups often prefer that outsiders avoid exonyms where they have come to be used in a pejorative way; for example, Romani people prefer that term over exonyms like Gypsy (from Egypt), or the French term bohème (from Bohemia), or the Spanish term flamenco (from Flanders).[2] People may also seek to avoid exonyms due to historical sensitivities, as in the case of German names for Polish and Czech places which used to be ethnically or politically German (e.g. Danzig/Gdańsk), much like Russian placenames being used for locations once under its control (e.g. Kiev/Kyiv).

In recent years, geographers have sought to reduce the use of exonyms to avoid these kind of problems. For example, it is now common for Spanish speakers to refer to the Turkish capital as Ankara rather than use the Spanish exonym Angora, still in use for types of cat, goat and rabbit.

But according to the United Nations Statistics Division: "Time has, however, shown that initial ambitious attempts to rapidly decrease the number of exonyms were over-optimistic and not possible to realise in the intended way. The reason would appear to be that many exonyms have become common words in a language and can be seen as part of the language’s cultural heritage."

In English, attempts to skirt a familiar exonym in order to accurately reproduce an endonym often appear pretentious, a device used to comic effect in E.F. Benson's novels concerning Miss Mapp and Lucia.

Other difficulties with endonyms have to do with pronunciation, spelling and word category. The endonym may include sounds which are highly unfamiliar to speakers of other languages, making appropriate usage difficult if not impossible for an outsider. Over the years, phonetic changes may happen to the endonym either in the original language or the borrowing language, thus changing an endonym into an exonym (as in the case of Paris previously mentioned, where the s was formerly pronounced in French). In many cases no standardized spelling is available either because the language itself is unwritten (even unanalyzed) or because there are competing non-standard spellings. Use of a misspelled endonym is perhaps more problematic than the respectful use of an existing exonym. Finally, an endonym may be simply a plural noun and does not extend itself to adjectival usage in another language like English which has a propensity to use the adjectives for describing culture and language. The attempt to use the endonym thus has a bizarre-sounding result.

The name for a language and a people are often different terms, of course, which is a complication for an outsider.

Sometimes the government of a country tries to endorse the use of an endonym instead of traditional exonyms outside the country:

[edit] Confusion with renaming

Exonyms and endonyms must not be confused with the results of geographical renaming as in the case of Saint Petersburg, which became Petrograd in 1914, Leningrad in 1924, and Saint Petersburg (Санкт-Петербург - Sankt-Peterburg) again in 1991. In this case, although St Petersburg has a German etymology, this was never a German exonym for the city between 1914 and 1991, just as Nieuw Amsterdam, the Dutch name of New York City until 1664, is not its Dutch exonym.

The old place names outdated after renaming are afterwards often used as historicisms. Consequently, even today one would talk about the Siege of Leningrad, not the Siege of St. Petersburg, because at that time (1941-1944) the city was called Leningrad. Likewise, one would say that Immanuel Kant was born in Königsberg in 1724, not in Kaliningrad, as it has been called since 1946. Sometimes, however, historical names are deliberately not used because of nationalist tendencies to linguistically lay claim to a city's past. As a case in point, the Slovakian article on the 1805 Peace of Pressburg does not use either of the city's names then in use (the Slovakian Prešporok or the official, that is German, Pressburg), but today's name Bratislava, which became the city's name only in 1919. It's interesting that for two months (in 1918) the name of Bratislava was Wilson city (the Slovakian Wilsonovo mesto) in honor of Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eighth President of the United States.

The name Madras, now Chennai, may be a special case. When the city was first settled by Englishmen, in the early 1600s, both names were in use. Possibly they referred to different villages which were fused into the new settlement. In any case, Madras became the exonym, while more recently, Chennai became the endonym.

Likewise, Istanbul is still called Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολη) in Greek, despite the name having been changed in Turkish (and other languages) between 1923 and 1930.

[edit] Orthographic exonymy in languages with phonetic spelling

There are at least three known languages in Europe in which the use of seeming exonyms (in terms of spelling but not necessarily pronunciation) for places and people is actually the norm and not an exception: Latvian, Lithuanian and Serbian, all having Latin-based script, transcribe foreign proper names whenever necessary, including those originally written in Latin script. The reasons are the respective nations' preference for their own consistent phonetic spelling and the need to add native inflectional endings to most nouns. The resulting advantage is that reading and spelling in these languages remain easy (knowledge of how to spell any unadapted foreign words is not required); a disadvantage is that foreigners may erroneously complain that their names have been "misspelled". In reality, the phonetic transcription is often more correct: e.g., Varšava, Varšuva, Varšava (in Latvian, Lithuanian and Serbian, respectively), with [v] and [ʃ], is phonetically closer to the original Polish Warszawa than the English Warsaw [wɔːrsɒː].

[edit] List of English exonyms for peoples

Exonym Endonym
Albanian Shqiptarë ("Eagles")
Arabs al-`Arab (in Arabic, العرب)
Argentinian(s) or Argentines Argentinos
Armenians Hayer (Հայեր)
Austrians Österreicher
Berbers Amazigh (singular), Imazighen (plural), spelt as Amaziγ (Imaziγen)
Basque Euskaldunak
Bosnian Bosanci i Hercegovci
Brazilian(s) Brasileiro(s)
Bulgarians Българи (Bǎlgari)
Byzantine(s) (Eastern Roman Empire) Rhomaioi (Greek: Ρωμαιοι) ("Romans")
Catalan(s), Català (singular), Catalans (plural).
Chechen(s) Noxçuo (singular), Noxçi (plural)
Cherokee(s) Aniyunwiya
Cheyenne(s) Tsistsista ("People")
Chilean(s) Chileno (masc.)/Chilena (fem.)
Chinese Zhōngguó rén (中国人 (simpl.) 中國人 (trad.), "People of the Middle's country") or Huá rén (华人 simpl., 華人trad.)
Cornish Kernowek, Kernewek, Curnoack
Croats Hrvati
Czechs Češi
Danes Danskere
Indian Deshi
Dutch Nederlanders ("Lowlanders")
Ecuadorians Ecuatorianos ("Equatorians")
Ancient Egyptians rmţ km·t ("People of the Black Land")
Modern Egyptians Maṣreyyīn (Egyptian Vernacular) (مصريين)
Eskimo (west Alaska and Russian Far East) Yup'ik (meaning "People")
Eskimo (east Alaska, Canada, and Greenland) Inuit (meaning "People")
Estonians eestlased
Etruscans Rasenna
Faroese Føroyingar
Filipino Pilipino, Pinoy (informal, the suffix -oy denoting a diminutive or term of endearment)
Finns suomalaiset (root: suomalais-, singular suomalainen "a Finn")
French Français ("Francish")
Fula or Fulani singular: Pullo ; plural: Fulɓe
Gaels Gaeilge ("Gaeil")
Georgians Kartveli Eri (ქართველი ერი) or Kartvelebi (ქართველები)
Germans Deutsche
Greeks Έλληνες (Ellines, Hellènes)
Greenlanders Kalaallit in Greenlandic
Gypsies Romani people
Hawaiians Kānaka maoli
Hittite, Hittites, Hittish Neshumanash (Ne·esh·umana·ash: "This-many twinsom-one", where umun in Emesal: "fellow"), Neshumnesh (Ne·esh·umin·esh: "This-many twinsoms-many") for its kinsfolk; Hattic: Neshili (Ne·esh·ili: "This-many-ish") for its speech and speakers[3][4]
Hungarians Magyarok
Icelanders Íslendingar
The Iroquois Haudenosaunee ("The League of Peace and Power")
Israelis Yiśrā'elīm (ישראלים)
Japanese Nihonjin (日本人, E. "Sunspringfolk", L. "Solorigopuo")
Jews Hebrew: singular: Yehūdī (יְהוּדִי); plural: Yehūdīm (יְהוּדִים)
Ladino: singular: Djudio (ג׳ודיו); plural: Djudios (ג׳ודיוס)
Yiddish: singular: Yid (ייִד); plural: Yidn (ייִדן)
South Koreans Hanguksaram (한국사람) or Hangugin (한국인/韓國人)
North Koreans Chosŏnsaram (조선사람)
Lapps sámit or sápmelaččat
Lithuanians Lietuviai
Malay Orang Melayu (اورڠ ملايو)
Mexicans Mexicano (Male) Mexicana (Female)
Mohawk(s) Kanienkeha ("Flint people")
Mordvins Erzya and Moksha (Two closely related peoples with two separate literary languages,)
Moroccan Maghrabi (مغربي) ("Westerners")
Nicaraguan Nicaragüense, Nicoya, Nica
Norwegians Nordmenn ("North men")
Papago tribe Tohono O'odham ("People of the Desert")
Persians Īrānīān (in Persian, ايرانيان)
Poles Polacy ("Plainsmen")
Portuguese Portugueses
Puerto Ricans puertorriqueños, riqueños, puertorros (informal), boricua (Lokono "The one of the Altive Lord's land")
Russians (noun and adjective) Русский (Rússkiy - male), Русская (Rússkaya - female), Русские (Rússkiye - plural)
Romanians Români
Quechua Runa ("People")
Serbs Срби/Srbi
Seri people Comcaac (phonetically [koŋˈkɑːk]); singular: Cmiique (phonetically [ˈkw̃ĩːkːɛ])
Sioux Dakota or Lakota ("Allies")
Slovaks Slováci
Slovenes, Slovenians Slovenci
Spanish, Spaniards Españoles
Sumerians Un[ga] Sangi[ga] (Un[·ga] Sang·ngi[·ga]: "Folk [such of the] Head-black [such]")[3]
Swedes Svenskar
Swiss Schweizer (German) / Suisses (French) / Svizzeri (Italian) / Schwiizer, Schwyzer (Swiss German); all derived from the name of the canton of Schwyz
Szeklers Székely
Thais คนไทย (Khon Thai)
Tibetans bodpa
Turks Türkler
Ukrainians Ukrayintsi (in Ukrainian Українці)
Venezuelans Venezolanos
Vlachs Român/Rumân Romanian; Armân/Rumân Aromanian; Rumân/Rumâr Istro-Romanians ("Romans")
Welsh Cymry

List of English exonyms for German toponyms

[edit] List of creators of exonyms

Exonym Creator
Byzantine Empire Hieronymus Wolf, popularized by Montesquieu
Sumer Akkadians

[edit] List of country exonyms

Exonym Endonym
Albania Shqipëria
Algeria al-Jazā’ir (الجزائر) ("The Islands")
Armenia Hayastan (Հայաստան: "the land of Haik"); see Armenia: Origin of the name
Austria Österreich
Aztec Empire Mexìcâ (Mexihcah) or Tenochca
Bahrain al-Baḥrayn (البحرين)
Belarus Byelarus' (Беларусь)
Bhutan Druk Yul ("Dragon Land")
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosna i Hercegovina
Brazil Brasil
Bulgaria България (Bălgariya)
The Byzantine Empire Romania (Pωμανια). Derived from the "Roman Empire".
Cambodia Prâteh Kâmpŭchea (ប្រទេសកម្ពុជា) (but "Kingdom of Cambodia" is the current official name in English)
China Zhōngguó (中国 (simpl.), 中國 (trad.)) ("Central Kingdom"); see Names of China
Croatia Hrvatska
Czech Republic Česká republika, short form Česko (Czechia)
Ancient Egypt km·t ("The Black Land")
Modern Egypt Miṣr (مصر) in Arabic, Maṣr in Egyptian dialect; means "a country" or "a state"
Estonia Eesti
Finland Suomi
Georgia Sakartvelo (საქართველო); see Georgia (country): Origin of the name
Germany Deutschland; see Names for Germany
Greece Ellás (Ελλάς) or Elládha (Ελλάδα)
Greenland Kalaallit Nunaat ("Land of the Greenlanders")
Hindustan Bhārat (भारत) in Hindi, but India is officially recognized too; see Origin of India's name; also Hindustan [Indian endonym]
Holland Nederland ("low land") "The Netherlands" is the formal English name, but Holland, the name of a region of the Netherlands, is used colloquially in English to refer to the whole country.
Hungary Magyarország ("Magyar Land")
Inca Empire Tawantinsuyu ("Four Corners")
India Bhārat (भारत) in Hindi, but India is officially recognized too; see Origin of India's name; also Hindustan [Indian endonym]
Iraq al-ʕiˈrɑːq (العراق - al-`Irāq) (ʕ for `ayn consonant, not present in English)
Israel Yiśrā'el (ישראל)
Italy Italia
Japan Nihon (also:Nippon) (日本, see Names of Japan)
Jordan al-Urdunn (الأردنّ)
Korea Chosŏn (Joseon) (조선 / 朝鮮) in North Korea and Hanguk (한국 / 韓國) in South Korea, but Goryeo (고려 / 高麗), the source of Korea, is used as neutral name for Korea; see Names of Korea
Lebanon Lubnān (لبنان)
Libya Lībiyā (ليبيا)
Lithuania Lietuva
Maldives Dhivehi raajj'e ("The Islands of Dhivehi People" in Dhivehi language; see History of the Maldives)
Mauritania Mūrītāniyā (موريتانيا‎)
Montenegro Crna Gora / Црна Гора ("black mountain" in Serbian; see History of Montenegro: Etymology)
Morocco al-Maghrib (المغرب al-Maġrib)("The West" in Arabic; see also Maghrib and Maghreb)
Namibia Namibië
Norway Norge in Bokmål Norwegian and Noreg in Nynorsk Norwegian
Oman ʕumān or [`Umān] (عمان) (ʕ for `ayn consonant, not present in English)
Palestine Filasṭīn (فلسطين)
Persia Īrān (ايران) (The Land of Aryans)
Poland Polska
Philippines Pilipinas (in Tagalog) ([King] "Philip's" [Islands])
Romania România
Qatar Qaṭar (قطر)
Russia Rossiya (Россия)
Saudi Arabia al-ʕarabiyya as-Suʕūdiyya (العربية السعودية - al-`Arabiyya as-Su`ūdiyya) (ʕ for `ayn consonant, not present in English)
Serbia Србија/Srbija
Singapore Malay: Singapura (سيڠاڤورا)
Chinese: 新加坡 (Xīnjiāpō)
Tamil: சிங்கப்பூர் (Cingkappūr)
Slovakia Slovensko
Slovenia Slovenija
South Africa Suid-Afrika in Afrikaans
Spain Spanish and Galician: España
Catalan: Espanya
Basque: Espainia
Aranese: Espanha
Sudan as-Sūdān (السودان)
Sumer Kengi (Ki·en·gi: "Land [of the] lord-cultu[r]al/couthly"), Kengir (Ki·en·gir(>kiri): "Land [of the] lord-kithly(>nosely)"); ennen: lords[3]
Sweden Sverige
Switzerland German: Schweiz
French: Suisse
Italian: Svizzera
Romansh: Svizra
Latin: Helvetia - used in some cases (on coins, for instance) to avoid favouring one of the four languages.
Syria Sūriyā (سوريا)
Thailand ประเทศไทย (Prathet Thai)
Tunisia Tūnis (تونس)
Turkey Türkiye
Ukraine Ukrayina (Україна)
Wales Cymru
Yemen al-Yaman (اليمن)

[edit] List of geographical region exonyms

Exonym Endonym
Amoy 厦门: Ē-mn̂g (Amoy vernacular POJ), Xiàmén (Mandarin pinyin)
Andalusia Andalucía (from Arabic al-Andalus, derived from Latin vandalus after the Germanic Vandals who settled in Hispania Baetica with the collapse of Roman rule. The Arabic term was given by the Arabs to their Spanish possessions after Islamic conquest — not really an exonym, just the old Spanish pronunciation, in fact still pronounced that way by many Andalusians)
Bangkok กรุงเทพฯ (Krung Thep)
Basque Country Euskadi (Basque), País Vasco (Spanish), Vascongadas (Spanish, before the 1970s, not in use today; also as adjective: "Provincias Vascongadas")
Bavaria Bayern
Bohemia (derived from Boiohaemum, Germanic for "the home of the Boii," a Celtic people) Čechy, not to mix with Česko, short name for Czechia (Czech Republic).
Bosnia Bosna
Canton (simplified Chinese: 广州; traditional Chinese: 廣州; pinyin: Guǎngzhōu ; Jyutping : Gwong²zau¹)
Carinthia Kärnten
Carpathians Romanian: Carpaţi; Polish:Karpaty, Czech, and Slovak: Karpaty; Ukrainian: Карпати (Karpáty); Russian: Карпаты (Karpáty); German: Karpaten; Serbian: Karpati / Карпати; Hungarian: Kárpátok
Castile Castilla: same word with different pronunciation, English uses French name — not an exonym
Catalonia Catalunya (Catalan), Cataluña (Spanish): not really an exonym, just the formal "Latinized" version, created by Catalans themselves when writing in Latin
Caucasus Kavkaz (Кавка́з in Russian)
Crimea (in Ukrainian Крим - Krym, in Russian Крым - Krym, in Crimean Tatar Qırım)
Herzegovina Hercegovina
Hong Kong 香港 (Yale (Cantonese): Hēunggóng, Pinyin (Mandarin): Xiānggǎng)
Judæa Yehūdāh (יהודה)
Lusatia Lausitz (German) / Łužica (Upper Sorbian) / Łužyca (Lower Sorbian) / Łużyce (Polish) / Lužice (Czech)
Macau / Macao 澳門: Ou3 Mun4 (Cantonese Jyutping), 澳门 Àomén (Mandarin Pinyin); Maa3 Gaau1 (Cantonese Jyutping) is commonly used.
See also: Names of Macau
Moldavia Romanian: Moldova
Moravia Morava
Navarre Nafarroa (Basque), Navarra (Spanish); Basque Nafarroa → Spanish Navarra → French Navarre → English Navarre — just adapted pronunciation, not different roots
Oporto Porto. Oporto comes from "O Porto" which is portuguese for "The [city] Porto".
Samogitia Žemaitija in Lithuanian, Žemaitėjė in Samogitian
Siberia Sibir' (Сиби́рь) in Russian
Silesia Ślonsk (Silesian) / Śląsk (Polish) / Slezsko (Czech) / Schlesien (German)
Styria Steiermark (German)
Tibet བོད་ (Böd in Tibetan), 西藏 (Xīzàng in Chinese), 吐博 Tǔbó (historical Chinese, used by some Tibetans when speaking Chinese)
Transylvania Ardeal/Transilvania (Romanian) / Siebenbürgen (German) / Erdély (Hungarian) / Siedmiogród (Polish)
Transnistria Romanian: Transnistria ; Pridnestrovie (Приднестровье in Russian)
Urals Ural (in Russian: Ура́л)
Wallachia Ţara Românească / Muntenia / Valahia (Romanian)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b UN document discussing exonyms (PDF)
  2. ^ Alin Dosoftei, Names of the Romani people
  3. ^ a b c Sumerian Lexicon v.3. John A. Halloran. sumerian.org. (2006, 2007)
  4. ^ HittLang.pdf. Oriental Institute at University of Chicago. 352pp. (1998, 2007)

[edit] External links