(Redirected from Exonym)
An 'exonym' is a
name for a place that is not used within that place by the local inhabitants, 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 an 'endonym' or 'autonym'. 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, or may be
cognate words which have diverged in
pronunciation or
orthography. For example,
London is known as ''Londres'' in French,
Spanish and
Portuguese; ''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), though it is spelled the same in all three languages.
Exonyms can also be divided into native and borrowed (i.e., from a third language). For example, Slovenian uses the native exonyms ''Dunaj'' (Vienna) and ''Benetke'' (Venice), but the exonyms ''Kijev'' (Kyiv) and ''Vilna'' (Vilnius), borrowed from Russian and German, respectively.
Tendencies in the development of exonyms
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),
Tirana (Tiranë),
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''.
Most productively, the
Germanic invaders of the
Roman Empire apparently encountered a
Latin-speaking
Celtic tribe named the ''
Volcae'' 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''. Sometimes, nicknames or pejorative appellations became standard exonyms; 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''. The
Serbian word is homophonous to the Russian but is spelled "Nemci", while the
Croatian word has adopted the form of "Nijemci".
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,
Roma people prefer that term over exonyms like ''Gypsy'' (from
Egypt), or the French term ''bohème'' (from
Bohemia), or the Spanish term ''flamenco'' (from
Flanders). 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/Gdansk), 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. 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:
★ In 1985 the government of
Côte d'Ivoire requested that the country's French name be used in all languages instead of exonyms such as ''Ivory Coast'', so that Côte d'Ivoire is now the official English name of that country in the
United Nations and the
International Olympic Committee (see
Name of Côte d'Ivoire).
★ The
Ukrainian government maintains that the capital of Ukraine should be called ''Kyiv'' in English because it considers the traditional English exonym
Kiev to be derived from the Russian name ''Kiyev (Киев)'' (see
Kiev or Kyiv?).
★ The
Belarusian government argues that the endonym ''Belarus'' should be used in all languages and has been rather successful in English, where the former exonym ''Byelorussia'', still used with reference to the
Soviet Republic, has virtually died out, whereas in other languages exonyms like German , Danish , Swedish , Dutch , Icelandic (all literally 'White Russia') or French are still much more common than ''Belarus'' (see
History of the name Belarus).
★ In 1989 the military regime of Burma requested that the English name of the country be
Myanmar, with ''Myanma'' as the adjective of the country and ''Bamar'' as the name of the inhabitants (see
Explanation of the names of Burma/Myanmar).
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 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 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'' that became the city's name only in 1919.
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.
List of English endonyms for peoples
| Exonym | Endonym |
|---|
| Albanian | Shqiptarë ("Eagles") |
| Arabs | al-`Arab (in Arabic, العرب) |
| Argentinian(s) or Argentines | Argentinos |
| Armenians | Hayer |
| Berbers | Amazigh (singular), Imazighen (plural), spelt as Amaziγ (Imaziγen) |
| Basque | Euskaldunak |
| Brazilian(s) | Brasileiro(s) |
| Catalan(s), Catalonian(s) | Català (singular), Catalans (plural). "Catalonian" refers to persons, and "Catalan" refers to objects related with Catalonia. |
| Cherokee(s) | Tsalagi |
| Cheyenne(s) | Tsistsista ("People") |
| Chinese | Zhōngguó rén (中国人 (simpl.) 中國人 (trad.), "People of the Middle Kingdom") ''or'' Huá rén (華人) |
| Cornish | Kernowek, Kernewek, Curnoack |
| Croats | Hrvati |
| Czechs | Češi |
| Danes | Danskere |
| Dutch | Nederlanders ("Lowlanders") |
| Ecuadorians | Ecuatorianos ("Equatorians") |
| Ancient Egyptians | rmţ km·t ("People of the Black Land") |
| Modern Egyptians | (Egyptian Vernacular) (مصريين) |
| Eskimo | Inuit or Yupik (both meaning "People"; two distinct but related groups) |
| Estonians | eestlased |
| Etruscans | Rasenna |
| 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") |
| Georgians | Kartveli Eri (ქართველი ერი) or Kartvelebi (ქართველები) |
| Germans | Deutsche |
| Greeks | Έλληνες (Ellines, Hellènes) |
| Greenlanders | Kalaallit in Greenlandic |
| Gypsies | Roma, Sinti |
| 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[Sumerian Lexicon v.3. John A. Halloran. sumerian.org. (2006, 2007)][''HittLang.pdf''. Oriental Institute at University of Chicago. 352pp. (1998, 2007)] |
| 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 | Yehūdīm (יהודים) |
| South Koreans | Hanguksaram (한국사람) or Hangugin (한국인/韓國人) |
| North Koreans | Chosŏnsaram (조선사람) |
| Lapps | sámit or sápmelaččat |
| Lithuanians | Lietuviai |
| Mohawk(s) | Kanienkeha ("Flint people") |
| Mordvins | Erzya and Moksha (Two closely related peoples with two separate literary languages,) |
| Moroccan | Maghrabi (مغربي) ("Westerners") |
| Norwegians | Nordmenn ("North men") |
| 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 | Русские, Russcjè |
| Romanians | Români |
| Quechua | Runa ("People") |
| Serbs | Срби/Srbi |
| Seri people | Comcaac (phonetically ); singular: Cmiique (phonetically ) |
| 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]") |
| Swedes | Svenskar |
| Swiss | Schweizer (German) / Suisses (French) / Svizzeri (Italian) / Schwiizer, Schwyzer (Swiss German); all derived from the name of the canton of Schwyz |
| Turks | Türkler |
| Venezuelans | Venezolanos |
| Vlachs | Român/Rumân Romanian; Armân/Rumân Aromanian; Rumân/Rumâr Istro-Romanians ("Romans") |
List of English exonyms for German toponyms
List of creators of exonyms
List of country endonyms
| Exonym | Endonym |
|---|
| Algeria | al-Jazā’ir (الجزائر) ("The Islands") |
| Armenia | Hayastan (Հայաստան: "the land of Haik"); see ''Armenia: Origin of the name'' |
| Aztec Empire | Mexìcâ (Mexihcah) or Tenochca |
| Bhutan | Druk Yul ("Dragon Land" in Dzongkha) |
| The Byzantine Empire | Romania (Pωμανια). Derived from the "Roman Empire". |
| China | Zhōngguó (中国 (simpl.), 中國 (trad.)) ("Central Kingdom"); see ''Names of China'' |
| Croatia | Hrvatska |
| Czech Republic | Česká republika |
| 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 in Estonian |
| Finland | Suomi in Finnish |
| Georgia | Sakartvelo (საქართველო); see ''Georgia (country): Origin of the name'' |
| Germany | Deutschland; see ''Names for Germany'' |
| Greece | Elás (Ελλάς) or Eládha (Ελλάδα) |
| Greenland | Kalaallit Nunaat in Greenlandic ("Land of the Greenlanders") |
| 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] |
| Israel | Yiśrā'el (ישראל) |
| Italy | Italia |
| Japan | Nippon / Nihon (日本, E. "Sunspring, L. "Solorigo"; 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'' |
| Lithuania | Lietuva in Lithuanian |
| Maldives | Dhivehi raajj'e ("The Islands of Dhivehi People" in Dhivehi language; see ''History of the Maldives'') |
| Montenegro | Crna Gora / Црна Гора ("black mountain" in Serbian; see ''History of Montenegro: Etymology'') |
| Morocco | al-Maghrib (المغرب)("The West" in Arabic; see also ''Maghrib'' and ''Maghreb'') |
| Namibia | Namibië in Afrikaans |
| Norway | Norge in Bokmål Norwegian and Noreg in Nynorsk Norwegian |
| Persia | Īrān (in Persian, ايران) (The Land of Aryans) |
| Poland | Polska |
| Philippines | Pilipinas (in Tagalog) ([King] "Philip's" [Islands]) |
| Romania | România |
| Serbia | Србија/Srbija |
| Slovakia | Slovensko |
| Slovenia | Slovenija |
| South Africa | Suid-Afrika in Afrikaans |
| Spain | España in Spanish and Galician; Espanya in Catalan and Valencian; Espainia in Basque; Espanha in Aranese |
| 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 |
| Sweden | Sverige |
| Switzerland | Schweiz German, Suisse French, Svizzera Italian, and Svizra Romansh, represent the endonym in the four official languages of Switzerland; Helvetia, the Latin name, used in some cases (on coins, for instance) to avoid favouring one of the four languages. |
| Syria | Suria (سوريا) |
| Thailand | ประเทศไทย (Prathet Thai) |
| Tibet | བོད་ (Böd) |
| Turkey | Türkiye |
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 | Krung Thep (กรุงเทพ) |
| 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 |
| Canton | 廣州 = “expansive prefecture”: Gwong2 Jau1 (Cantonese Yale), Guǎngzhōu (Mandarin pinyin) |
| 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 |
| Judæa | Yehūdāh (יהודה) |
| Lusatia | Lausitz (German) / Łužica (Upper Sorbian) / Łužyca (Lower Sorbian) / Łużyce (Polish) / Lužice (Czech) |
| Macau / Macao | 澳門: Ou3 Mun4 (Cantonese Jyutping), Àomén (Mandarin pinyin); Maa3 Gaau1 (Cantonese Jyutping) is commonly used.
|
| Moldavia | Moldova |
| Moravia | Morava |
| Navarre | Nafarroa (Basque), Navarra (Spanish); Basque Nafarroa → Spanish Navarra → French Navarre → English Navarre—just adapted pronunciation, not different roots |
| Samogitia | Žemaitija in Lithuanian, Žemaitėjė in Samogitian |
| Silesia | Ślonsk (Silesian) / Śląsk (Polish) / Slezsko (Czech) / Schlesien (German) |
| Transylvania | Ardeal/Transilvania (Romanian) / Siebenbürgen (German) / Erdély (Hungarian) / Siedmiogród (Polish) |
| Wallachia | Valahia |
References
See also
★
Romanian exonyms
★
German exonyms
★
Icelandic exonyms
★
German names for Central European towns
★
List of English exonyms for German toponyms
★
-onym
★
List of adjectival forms of place names
★
Names of European cities in different languages
★
List of European exonyms
★
Names of Asian cities in different languages
★
List of cities in the Americas with alternative names
★
List of countries and capitals in native languages
★
List of alternative country names
★
List of country names in various languages
★
List of Latin place names in Europe
★
List of European regions with alternative names
★
List of European rivers with alternative names
★
List of traditional Greek place names
★
Place names in Irish
★
Shibboleth
External links
★
UN document discussing exonyms (PDF)
★
2006 UN document discussing exonyms (PDF)
★
Jacek Wesołowski's Place Names in Europe, featuring endonyms and exonyms for many cities
★
"Does Juliet's Rose, by Any Other Name, Smell as Sweet?" by Verónica Albin.
★
Looking up in exonym database
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