Demonym

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A demonym or gentilic is a word that denotes the members of a people or the inhabitants of a place. In English, a demonym is often the same as the name of the people's native language: e.g., the "French" (people from France). The word comes from the Greek word for 'populace' (δῆμος demos) plus the suffix -onym and was popularized in 1997 by Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in his book Labels for Locals.^[1] Despite having been appropriated by some websites, including Wikipedia, and its use by some amateur geographers^[2], the term is not widely employed or known. ^[3] Some places, particularly smaller cities and towns, may not have an established word for their residents; toponymists have a particular challenge in researching these. See also ethnonym.

1 Suffix demonyms
2 Adjectives as placenames
3 Irregular forms
4 Double forms
5 In fiction
6 Cultural problems
7 References
8 See also

[edit] Suffix demonyms

The English language uses several models to create demonyms. The most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location's name, slightly modified in some instances. These may be modelled after Late Latin, Semitic or Germanic suffixes, such as:

-(a)n (Korea→ Korean, America → American, India → Indian, San Diego → San Diegan, Rome → Roman, Malaysia → Malaysian, Lithuania → Lithuanian, Armenia → Armenian, Philadelphia → Philadelphian)
-ian Romania → Romanian, (Bermuda → Bermudian, Toronto → Torontonian, Paris → Parisian, Athens → Athenian, Ukraine → Ukrainian, Gibraltar → Gibraltarian, Wellington → Wellingtonian, Washington → Washingtonian, Canada → Canadian, Oregon → Oregonian)
-ine (Florence → Latin Florentia- → Florentine, Philistia → Philistine)
-ite (Israel → Israelite (or "Israeli", depending on the usage; see below), Seattle → Seattlelite, Wisconsin → Wisconsinite, Moscow → Latin Muscovia- → Muscovite, mostly for cities, Vancouver → Vancouverite)
-er (Quebec → Quebecer or Quebecker, New York → New Yorker, New England → New Englander, New Zealand → New Zealander, London → Londoner, Auckland → Aucklander)
-eno (Los Angeles → Angeleno or Los Angeleno), adapted from the standard Spanish suffix eño, as in Salvadoreño
-no (Filipinas {Philippines} → Filipino)
-ish (Ireland → Irish, Denmark → Danish), mostly for countries
- "-ish" is usually only proper as an adjective. Thus many common "-ish" forms have irregular demonyms. (Spain/Spanish/Spaniard; Denmark/Danish/Dane; England/English/Englishman; Judea/Jewish/Jew or Judean; Poland/Polish/Pole; Flanders/Flemish/Flem)
-ene (Damascus → Damascene)
-ard (Spain → Spaniard, Savoy → Savoyard)
-ese (Lebanon → Lebanese, China → Chinese, The Faroe Islands → Faroese, Taiwan → Taiwanese, Congo → Congolese, Vienna → Viennese, the Tyrol → Tyrolese, Sudan → Sudanese, Malta → Maltese, Calabria → Calabrese, Vietnam → Vietnamese, Japan → Japanese)
- "-ese" is sometimes considered proper only as an adjective, or to refer to the entirety. Thus, "a Chinese person" may be used in place of "a Chinese".
- Used mostly for East Asian and Francophone locations, from the similar-sounding French suffix -ais(e), which is originally from the Latin adjectival ending -ensis, designating origin from a place: thus Hispaniensis (Spanish), Danensis (Danish), etc.
-i (Iraq → Iraqi, Pakistan → Pakistani, Bengal → Bengali, Nepal → Nepali, Desh → Desi), mostly for Middle Eastern and South Asian locales and in Latinate names for the various people that ancient Romans encountered (e.g. Allemanni, Helvetii)
-ic (Hispania → Hispanic, Turk → Turkic) derives from a Latinate suffix widely used outside ethnonyms (e.g., chemical compounds) which with regard to people is mostly used adjectivally (Semite vs. Semitic, Arab/Arabian vs. Arabic) to refer to a wider ethnic or linguistic group (Turkic vs. Turkish, Finnic vs. Finnish).
-iot(e) (Cyprus → Cypriot, Phanar → Phanariote), especially for Greek locations.
-asque (Monaco → Monégasque, Menton → Mentonasque)

[edit] Adjectives as placenames

Some placenames originated as adjectives. In such cases the placename and the demonym often are the same word, sometimes specialized in form.

Argentina: properly Tierra Argentina (Land of Silver) or República Argentina (Argentine Republic), from Latin argentum (silver). In English, the Spanish form Argentina is used for the country, the parallel English form Argentine as demonym and general adjective. The adjectival forms of Argentinean or Argentinian are less common, but acceptable alternatives.^[4]
Philippines: properly Philippine Islands (Spanish: Islas Filipinas), named for King Philip II of Spain. Here, in contrast, the English form is used to mean of or relating to the Philippines, whereas the Spanish masculine adjective Filipino is used for the same meanings and for the national language and as the demonym, in other words as the general adjective. The English plural is Filipinos and the Spanish feminine Filipina is also used in English for women.

This dual function is very common in French, where for example Lyonnais means either the region or an inhabitant of Lyon.

[edit] Irregular forms

There are many irregular demonyms for recently formed entities, such as those in the New World. There are other demonyms which are borrowed from the native or another language.

In some cases, both the location's name and the demonym are produced by suffixation, for example England and English and English(wo)man (derived from the Angle tribe). In some cases the derivation is concealed enough that it is no longer morphemic: France → French (or Frenchman/Frenchwoman) or Flanders → Flemish or Wales → Welsh.

In some of the latter cases the noun is formed by adding -man or -woman (English/Englishman/Englishwoman; Irish/Irishman/Irishwoman; Chinese/Chinese man/Chinese woman, versus the archaic or derogatory terms Chinaman/Chinawoman).

From Latin or Latinization

Exeter, → Exonian
Halifax, → Haligonian
Manchester → Mancunian (Mancunia)
Melbourne, Victoria → Melburnian (Melburnia)
Newcastle → Novocastrian (Novum Castrum)
University of Cambridge → Cantabrigian
University of Oxford → Oxonian
Karachi (Pakistan) → Karachitie

From native or other languages

Bosnia → Bosniak (from the Bosnian demonym Bošnjak)
Burkina Faso → Burkinabé
Colchester → Colcestrian
Glasgow → Glaswegian (local dialect)
Karnataka → Kannadiga (from the local demonym)
Kosovo → Kosovar (Albanian)
Liverpool → Liverpudlian
- Hartlepool → Hartlepudlian
Lviv → Leopolitan
Mumbai, India → Mumbaikar (either gender), Mumbaikars
Naples → Neapolitan
Netherlands → Dutch (from Middle Dutch Dietsch; see Netherlands (terminology))
Pegswood → Pegswardian

Irregular singular forms

Arabia → Arab
Croatia → Croat
Denmark → Dane (generic Danish)
Flanders → Fleming (generic Flemish)
Slovenia → Slovene
Spain → Spaniard
Sweden → Swede
Switzerland → Switzer (from German Schweizer, "a Swiss man")
Thailand → Thai

New World forms

In the case of most Canadian provinces and territories and U.S. states, it is unusual to use demonyms as attributive adjectives (for example "Manitoba maple", not "Manitoban maple"); thus they are generally used only predicatively ("Ben Franklin was Pennsylvanian") or substantively ("Eight Virginians have become Presidents of the United States.") There are some exceptions – the attributive adjective for Alaska is widely held to be Alaskan and in addition, to a less than universal degree, exceptions exist especially with respect to Alberta (Albertan), Texas (Texan) and Hawaii (Hawaiian).

A resident of the U.S. state of Indiana is known as a Hoosier.

According to Webster's New International Dictionary, 1993, a person who is a native or resident of Connecticut is a "Connecticuter," although many prefer the more graceful "Connecticutian." Nutmegger is also used.

Florida → Floridian
Maryland → Marylander (sometimes pronounced /ˈmɛrləndɚ/ "mare-lund-er" instead of /ˈmɛrəˌləndɚ/ "ma-ry-land-er")
Michigan → Michigander or Michiganian
New York → New Yorker
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania → Pittsburgher
Sydney → Sydneysider
Western Australia → West Australian^[5]

[edit] Double forms

Some regions and populaces also have double forms, as the concepts of nation and state are diverging once more. Hence, one whose genetic ancestors were from Britain is a Briton, whereas one with a passport from the country is considered British. The Franks settled France, but the citizens are French. This may be the case for states which were formed or dissolved relatively recently. As in the examples below, another reason for double forms of demonyms may be in relation to historical, cultural or religious issues.

Greek gods but Ode on a Grecian Urn – Greek may apply to anything connected with Greece, but Grecian is restricted to ancient culture (and Grecian Formula).

Norse gods but Norwegian – Norwegian being the ordinary adjective for Norway, but Norse being generally used to describe ancient Scandinavian culture.

Israelite but Israeli – Israelite pertaining to the ancient tribes and kingdom of Israel; Israeli pertaining to the modern nation of the same name.

Due to the flexibility of the international system, the opposite is often also true, where one word might apply to multiple groups. The U.S. Department of State states that 98 percent of the Austrian population is ethnically German^[6], while the CIA World Factbook contradicts this assertion by saying Austrians are a separate group (see Various terms used for Germans)^[7]. A child born in the United States to a Turkish family would be considered American, both by law, and by much of the general populace; however, if the child had been born in Germany, the law, and many of the people, would consider him a Turk. Some countries go so far as to explicitly recognize a difference between citizenship and nationality, e.g., Russia.

[edit] In fiction

Literature and science have created a wealth of demonyms that are not directly associated with a cultural group, such as Martian for hypothetical people of Mars (credited to scientist Percival Lowell), Earthling (from the diminutive -ling, ultimately from Old English -ing meaning 'descendant') as a possible name for the people of Earth (as also "Terran" and "Terrene" and "terrestrial"), and Lilliputians from the island of Lilliput in the satire Gulliver's Travels. Some of these, like Venusian for a putative resident of Venus, are technically incorrect; to conform with the name, they should be Venerians.

[edit] Cultural problems

Some peoples, especially cultures that were overwhelmed by European colonists, have no commonly accepted demonym, or have a demonym that is the same as the name of their (current or historical) nation. Examples include Iroquois, Aztec, Māori, and Czech. Such peoples' native languages often have differentiated forms that simply did not survive the transfer to English. In Czech, for example, the language is Čeština, the nation is Česko or Česká republika, and the people are Češi.

The demonym for citizens of the United States of America suffers a similar problem, because "American" may ambiguously refer to both the USA and North and South America. United Statian is awkward in English, but it exists in Spanish (estadounidense), French (étatsunien(ne)), Portuguese (estado-unidense or estadunidense), Italian (statunitense), and also in Interlingua (statounitese). US American (for the noun) and US-American (when used as a compound modifier preceding a noun) is another option, and is a common demonym in German (US-Amerikaner), though almost unheard of in English. Latin Americans (who are the most affected by this use of American) also have yanqui (Yankee) and the euphemism norteamericano/norte-americano (North American, which includes the USA, Mexico, Canada, and several other countries). Frank Lloyd Wright proposed Usonian (which was taken over into Esperanto: country Usono, demonym Usonano, adjective usona). In the spirit of Sydneysider, Statesider is also a possibility. See main article: Use of the word American.

The 2007 Miss Teen USA contestant Caitlin Upton, who gained international notoriety for her otherwise nonsensical response to a question posed during the pageant, referred to the people of the United States as "U.S. Americans."

The demonyms for the Caribbean nations Dominican Republic and Dominica, though pronounced differently, are spelled the same way, Dominican. The former country's demonym is the ordinary English adjective "dominican", stressed on the second syllable. The demonym for Dominica, like the name of the country, is stressed on the third syllable: [ˌdɒmɪˈniːkən].

[edit] References

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