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Dec. 1, 2006 Ethnonyms, demonyms and similar words are a mess in the English language. An ‘ethnonym’ is a noun or adjective denoting the people of a given ethnic group. A ‘demonym’ is one denoting the people of a given place. Examples of nouns in this category of words are: Englishman, Spaniard, Dane, Swede, and Jew. The corresponding adjectives are: English, Spanish, Danish, Swedish and Jewish. In many cases, an ethnonym or demonym may be used as either an adjective or a noun: American, Mexican, Brazilian, German and Greek. The former group of adjectives has no plurals; there is no word ‘Englishes’ or ‘Spanishes’. But with a definite article, they can usually be used as plurals: the English, the Spanish, the Danish, the Swedish; but not: the Jewish. Adjectives of the latter group all have regular plurals: Americans, Mexicans, Brazilians, Germans and Greeks. Words that end in ‘-ese’ may be either plural nouns, singular nouns or adjectives: a Chinese, the Chinese, Chinese people. Some people, thinking that ‘Chinese’ is plural, actually say ‘Chinee’, for the singular. People like this are likely to say ‘Airab’ for ‘Arab’. The CIA’s World Factbook lists the demonymic nouns and adjective for each country. Just select a country on the dropdown at the URL below, and click on ‘People’ when the page appears. At ‘People’, scroll down a little and you will see ‘Nationality’. For example, for Zimbabwe, we are told that the nouns are ‘Zimbabwean(s)’ and the adjective is ‘Zimbabwean’. That seems almost self-evident, but many cannot be guessed so easily. https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html It would be simplicity itself to have a single suffix denoting the residents of a country. For example, let’s suppose we use ‘-ese’. Then we have: Francese, Portugalese, Norwayese, Swedenese, Japanese. But that would be too easy. That would take some of the fun out of life. Some countries ending in ‘-ia’ just add ‘-n’: Russian, Nigerian, Australian, Mongolian, Tanzanian. Some that end in ‘-a’, but not ‘-ia’, also add just ‘-n’: Costa Rican, Guatemalan, Tongan, Cuban, But Canadians change ‘-a’ to ‘-ian’: Canadian. Then we have countries that add ‘-i’ or drop '-a': Iraqi, Israeli, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Somali. There are quite a few that use ‘-ish’: Irish, Finnish, Turkish, Swedish. Then there are plenty of anomalous ones too: Peruvian, Icelandic, Swiss, French, Dutch, Burkinabe, Panamanian, Guamanian, It would take years and years to master all the ins and outs of names of ethnic groups and languages. So when somebody doesn’t know the demonym, we hear something like “that guy from Nepal” or “the dude that comes from Azerbaijan”. But it doesn’t end there. In the US, the names of residents of states are a big mess too. To this day I don’t know them all. What about Connecticuter, Floridian, Mainer, Michigander, New Jerseyite? And they go on and on, in sheer, mindless stupidity. Here’s the whole list for states: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855542.html Then you have all sorts of preposterous formations for names of residents of cities, foreign and domestic: Londoner, Muscovite, Cairene, Parisian, Beijingese, New Yorker, Chicagoan, Angelino, Phoenician. Compare this with the Chinese method. Just add ‘ren’ to the name of the country to produce the name of the resident of the country: Meiguo, Meiguoren—America, American(s); Faguo, Faguoren—France, Frenchman/men; Yingguo, Yingguoren—England, Englishman/men: Eluosi, Eluosiren—Russia, Russian. Chinese are actually just saying ‘France’ and ‘Franceperson(s)’, for example. ‘Ren’ applies to both sexes and is both singular and plural. So if you know the name of the country, city or ethnic group, you know all that you need to know. But, of course, then you have to learn all those thousands of Chinese characters. You just can’t win! ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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