Fatherland

Fatherland is the nation of one's "fathers", "forefathers" or "patriarchs". It can be viewed as a nationalist concept, insofar as it relates to nations. (Compare to motherland and homeland.)

Groups that refer to their native country as a "fatherland"

Groups that refer to their native country as a "fatherland" (or rather, the most corresponding term to the English word in their languages), or, arguably, associate it primarily with paternal concepts include:

• Spanish, Romans, Italians, Romanians as Patria
• the Afrikaners as Vaderland
• the Argentines as Patria
• the Albanian as Atdheu.
• the Armenians, as Hayrenik (as in the national anthem Mer Hayrenik, literally meaning Our Fatherland)
• the Belarusians as Baćkaŭščyna (Бацькаўшчына)
• the Bulgarians as Tatkovina (Татковина) and Otechestvo (Отечество)
• the Catalans as Pàtria
• the Chileans as Patria
• the Czechs as vlast or (rarely) otčina
• the Danes as fædreland
• the Esperantists as patrio, patrolando or patrujo
• the Estonians as isamaa (as in the national anthem Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm)
• the French as patrie, although they also use la mère patrie, which includes the idea of motherland.
• the Finns as isänmaa
• the Frisians as heitelân
• the Georgians as Samshoblo (სამშობლო - "[land] of parents") or Mamuli (მამული)
• the Germans, as Vaterland (as in the national anthem Das Lied der Deutschen)
• the Greeks as patris, the root word for patriotism.
• the Icelanders as föðurland literally meaning "land of the father"
• the Irish as Athartha.
• the Jews as Eretz Ha'Avot (Hebrew: ארץ האבות‎) - the literal translation is "Land of the Forefathers"
• the Kazakhs as atameken
• the Korea as 조국
• the Latvians as tēvija or tēvzeme (although dzimtene – roughly translated as "place of birth" – is more neutral and used more commonly nowadays)
• the Lithuanians as tėvynė
• the ethnic Macedonians as Tatkovina (татковина)
• the Dutch, as vaderland
• the Norwegians as fedreland
• the Oromo as Biyya Abbaa
• the Pakistanis as Vatan
• the Persians as Sarzamineh Pedari (Fatherland), Sarzamineh Madari (Motherland) or Meehan
• the Poles, as Ojczyzna (but there is also macierz, that is Motherland, although it is seldom used)
• the Portuguese, the Brazilians and all other Portuguese speakers as Pátria.
• the Provençals as "Patrìo"
• the Russians, as Otechestvo (отечество) or Otchizna (отчизна), however Rodina [ birthland ], is more common, happens to be feminine, and is typically personified as a mother (Sometimes referred to as birthland-mother). Otchizna is considered to be very formal, and typically used by government heads, whereas Rodina is more colloquial and widespread.
• the Serbs as otadžbina (отаџбина)
• the Welsh as the land of my fathers (Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau) .
• the Slovaks as vlasť, or rarely domovina.
• the Slovenes as očetnjava, although domovina (homeland) is more common.
• the Swedes as fäderneslandet, although fosterlandet is more common (meaning the land that fostered/raised a person)
• the Thais as pituphum (ปิตุภูมิ), the word is adapted from Sanskrit
• the Tibetans as pha yul (ཕ་ཡུལ་)
• the Turks as Anayurt or Anavatan which means motherland. The word's origin is the Turkish word Yurt or Vatan which means land with the Turkish word Ana which means mother attached to it as a prefix. Fatherland, as a noun, does not exist in Turkish.
• the Vietnamese as Tổ quốc
• the Ukrainians as Bat'kivshchyna (батьківщина) or, more rarely, Vitchyzna (вітчизна)

English usage and Nazi connotations

Assuming a specific Nazi usage of the term "Vaterland" (which in fact never existed), the direct English translation "fatherland" featured in news reports associated with Nazi Germany and in domestic anti-Nazi propaganda during World War II. As a result, the English word is now associated with the Nazi government of Germany (unlike in Germany itself, where the word means simply "homeland"). The word is not used often in post-World War II English unless one wishes to invoke the Nazis, or one is translating literally from a foreign language where that language's equivalent of "fatherland" does not bear Nazi connotations. The word motherland in modern English carries similar associations with the Soviet Union.

Prior to Nazism, however, the term was used throughout Germanic language countries without negative connotations (e.g. in Hermann Broch's novel The Sleepwalkers), or often to refer to their homelands much as the word "motherland" does. For example, "Wien Neêrlands Bloed", national anthem of the Netherlands between 1815 and 1932, makes extensive and conspicuous use of the parallel Dutch word. In most European countries it is still the norm to use the term "fatherland" and many would be offended if it was in any way compared with Nazism.

See also

• Homeland
• National anthem

External links

• Nationalism and Ethnicity - A Theoretical Overview
• National anthems ("Allons enfants de la Patrie", "Blühe, deutsches Vaterland")

References