Names For
Because of Germany's geographic position in the centre of Europe and its long history as a disunited region of distinct tribes and states, there are many widely-varying names of Germany in different languages, perhaps more than for any other European nation: for example, in German the country is known as Deutschland , in French as Allemagne , and in Polish as Niemcy .
List of names divided into groups
In general, the names for Germany can be arranged in six main groups according to their origin:
Other forms:
- Tahitian language: Purutia (also Heremani ) – a corruption of Prusse , the French name for the German Kingdom of Prussia.
- Lower Sorbian language: bawory or bawery (in older or dialectal use) – from the name of the Bavarian tribe.
- Old Norse: Suðrvegr – literally "south way" (cf. Norway)
- Navajo: Béésh Bich’ahii Bikéyah ("Metal Cap-wearer Land"), originating with the code talkers in reference to Stahlhelm -wearing German soldiers during World War II.
Names from diutisc
The name Deutschland and the other similar-sounding names above are derived from the Old High German diutisc , or similar variants from Proto-Germanic *Þeudiskaz , which originally meant "of the people". This in turn comes from a Germanic word meaning "folk" (leading to Old High German diot , Middle High German diet ), and was used to differentiate between the speakers of Germanic languages and those who spoke Celtic or Romance languages. These words come from * teuta , the Proto-Indo-European word for "people" (Lithuanian tauto , Old Irish tuath , Old English þeod ).
Also the Italian for "German", tedesco (variants: todesco , tudesco , todisco ) comes from the same Old High German root, although not the name for "Germany" ( Germania ).
The opposite of diutisc was Old High German wal(a)hisc or walesc , meaning foreign, from the Celtic tribe of the Volcae. In German, welsch is still used to mean foreign, and in particular of Southern origin; in English the word was used to describe the "Welsh" and the name stuck. (It is also used in several other European regions where Germanic peoples came into contact with non-Germanic cultures, including Wallonia (Belgium), Valais (Switzerland), and Wallachia (Romania), as well as the "-wall" of Cornwall.)
The Germanic language which diutisc most likely comes from is West Frankish, a language which died out a long time ago and which there is hardly any written evidence for today. This was the Germanic dialect used in the early Middle Ages, spoken by the Franks in Western Francia, i.e. in the region which is now France. The word is only known from the Latin form theodiscus . Until the 8th century the Franks called their language frengisk ; however, when the Franks moved their political and cultural centre to the area where France now is, the term frengisk became ambiguous, as in the West Francian territory some Franks spoke Latin, some vulgar Latin and some theodisc . For this reason a new word was needed to help differentiate between them. Thus the word theodisc evolved from the Germanic word theoda (the people) with the Latin suffix -iscus , to mean "belonging to the people", i.e. the people's language.
In Eastern Francia, roughly the area where Germany now is, it seems that the new word was taken on by the people only slowly, over the centuries: in central Eastern Francia the word frengisk was used for a lot longer, as there was no need for people to distinguish themselves from the distant Franks. The word diutsch and other variants were only used by people to describe themselves, at first as an alternative term, from about the 10th century. It was used, for example, in the Sachsenspiegel, a legal code, written in Middle Low German in about 1220:
(Every German land has its Graf: Saxony, Bavaria, Franken and Swabia).
The Teutoni, a tribe with a name which probably came from the same root, did, through Latin, ultimately give birth to the English words "Teuton" (first found in 1530) for the adjective German, (as in the Teutonic Knights, a military religious order, and the Teutonic Cross) and "Teuton" (noun), attested from 1833.
East Asian names
The Chinese name is probably a phonetic approximation of the German proper adjective. The Vietnamese name is based on the Chinese name. The Japanese name is a phonetic approximation of the Dutch proper adjective. The Korean name is based on the Japanese name. This is explained in detail below:
Chinese and Vietnamese
The common Chinese name (Traditional: 德國 , Simplified: 德国 , Pinyin: Déguó ) is a combination of the short form of 德意志 déyìzhì , which approximates the German pronunciation of Deutsch ‘German’, plus 國 guó ‘country’.
The Vietnamese name Đức is the Vietnamese pronunciation ( đức ) of the Chinese character 德 that appears in the Chinese name.
Japanese
Japanese language ドイツ ( doitsu ) is an approximation of the Dutch word duits meaning ‘German’.
It was earlier written with the Sino-Japanese character compound 獨逸 (whose 獨 has since been simplified to 独 ), but has been largely superseded by the above-mentioned katakana ドイツ . The character 独 is sometimes used in compounds, for example 独文 ( dokubun ) meaning ‘German literature’, or as an abbreviation, such as in 独日関係 ( dokunichi kankei , German-Japanese relations ? ) .
Korean
The (South) Korean name Dogil (hangul: 독일 ) is the Korean pronunciation of the former Japanese name (see previous section). The compound coined by the Japanese was adapted into Korean, so its characters 獨逸 are not pronounced do+itsu as in Japanese, but dok+il = Dogil .
The official North Korean name toich'willandŭ (MR; hangul: 도이췰란드 ) approximates the German pronunciation of Deutschland .
Use of the Chinese name (in its Korean pronunciation deokguk , hangul: 덕국 ) is attested for the early 20th century. It is now uncommon.
Names from Germania
The name Germany and the other similar-sounding names above are derived from the Latin Germania , of the 3rd century BC, a word of uncertain origin. The name appears to be a Gaulish term, and there is no evidence that it was ever used by the Germanic tribes themselves. Julius Caesar was the first to use Germanus in writing when describing tribes in north-eastern Gaul in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico ; he records that four northern Belgic tribes, namely, the Condrusi, Eburones, Caeraesi and Paemani, were collectively known as Germani. In 98, Tacitus wrote Germania (the Latin title was actually: De Origine et situ Germanorum ), an ethnographic work on the diverse set of Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire. Unlike Caesar, Tacitus claims that the name Germani was first applied to the Tungri tribe. The Tungri name is thought to the endonym of the exonym Eburones .
Whether the northern Belgae were Celts or Germanic tribes occupied 19th century and early 20th century historians. Caesar claims that most of the northern Belgae were descended from tribes who had long ago crossed the Rhine from Germania. However many tribal names and personal names or titles recorded are identifiably Celtic. It seems likely that the northern Belgae, due to their intense contacts with the Gaulish south, were largely influenced by this southern culture. Tribal names were 'qualifications' and could have been translated or given by the Gauls and picked up by Caesar. Perhaps they were Germanic people who had adopted Gaulish titles or names. The Belgians were a political alliance of southern Celtic and northern Germanic tribes. In any case, the Romans were not precise in their ethnography of northern barbarians: by "German(ic)" Caesar meant "originating east of the Rhine". Tacitus wrote in his book Germania : "The Treveri and Nervii affectionate very much their German origin, stating that this noble blood separates them from all comparison (with the Gauls) and the Gaulish laziness" . This implies that the northern Belgians were indeed Germanic speakers.
The OED2 records theories about
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