ein Beitrag an Montag, 13. Januar 2025 (full moon; 1 day before the centre point, of the astronomical winter) month´s names, in different languages the Dutch ---> Netherlands -----> deutsch al Nimsa ----> Austria -------------> niemcy ----> deutsch, bzw. stumm towards y´all: A happy new year 2025.
The Old English ending was "isc" which usually became "ish" but occasionally went to "ch". So yes French is the same as "frankish" but not descended from it; parallel development
Some places use the suffix "-ite" instead, like "Brooklynite" and "Dallasite". It's more commonly used for cities, like the "-er" suffix, and has a whole host of other possible meanings, like "descendant" (Israelite), "follower" (Sunnite, Trotskyite). or even "mineral compound made from" (quartzite).
This has the consequence that English has the two separate words Israelite (meaning someone from the ancient Kingdom of Israel or earlier groups; the ancestors of the Jews pre-diaspora) and Israeli (meaning someone who is a citizen of the modern State of Israel, which was founded in 1948 and sees itself as the successor of that ancient kingdom).
There's also -ite, meaning "belonging to, originating in." It's usually used to indicate descendants of a particular person or group, such as Israelites, referring to descendants of Jacob (whereas the modern Israeli refers to any citizen of Israel regardless of ethnicity). It can also be used to refer to those belonging to a particular ideology, like the Jacobites.
People from Columbus, Ohio are officially called Columbusites, but I’ve always called them Columbusians, which I pronounce like Coal-um-BOOSH-an. The Columbusians don’t like that very much.
There's also the rare "ic", like in Icelandic. It derives from the latin "icus" (and Greek "ikos"), which means "in the manner of; pertaining to," which eventually became "ique" in French, and eventually ic in English. It still carries this meaning in words such as periodic and allergic. It's more common in denoting ethnicity and (funnily enough) language family, such as for Semitic, Turkic, or Germanic.
Please don't auto translate your videos. Literally, the spanish auto translated title is "Explicación de los sufijos demoníacos" (explanation of the demonic suffixes). I wish I could just post a screenshot.
It usually works for some of us (quality vary by the language pair and some other nuances). ___ I don't know what has come of the translation options on TH-cam nowadays, but used to be it was possible to allow suggestions and crowd sourcing.
Did you notice that German is strange in that it is shorter than Germany? This seems to be real rare, given all your examples. And fun thing is, it also works in german! Deutscher is smaller than Deutschland.
Germanus, Germania. So while the Spanish are the people of Spain and the Japanese are the people of Japan, Germany is the land of the Germans. Edit: This would also work for the English if we used the demonym "Engle" instead (as in from the Angle tribe), so England would be the land of the Engles.
I’ve always wondered why some demonyms can be used as nouns and others cannot. -an and -i can be both adjectives and nouns (an Italian/an Italian person; an Iraqi/an Iraqi person), -er just as nouns (an Icelander, but if you want to use it as an adjective it changes to an Icelandic person) and -ish and -ese just as adjectives (an Irish person, a Japanese person). Additionally, such as in the Icelandic case, the suffix changes based on what kind of word it is. Anyone have answers?
-an, from -anus (haha) could as far back as latin be used in adjectives or nouns pretty interchangably. "romanus" could be a noun or adjective. it's just never changed, even as the suffix's pronunciation has, and it can still be used that way in english and spanish and in others i presume. i guess it could have changed but the most expected thing would be for it not to. -i isnt that way, it's only mostly for adjectives, but there's a much lower familiarity with arabic, so i'm guessing people thought (subconsciously, mostly) "-i is -an but for people from approximately the middle east, and it is used the same grammatically". there was enough contact, for example via the crusades and the muslim influence on renaissance Europe, long enough ago, for this to have happened among people who didn't have a lot of sensitivity to other languages, except the elite who's sensitivity was to latin (with its -anus & those rules). since then it has had plenty of time to complete smoothing into that role. ish and ese are respectively the germanic and latin (via borrowing into late latin) versions of the proto-germanic suffix -iskos, which was only ever used for adjectives. again, it could possibly have changed, but the most expected thing was for it not to. really no idea about er, that bothers me. i think it's because i can't really think of any er demonyms i use much in english, but i speak german, where eg "berliner" can be a noun or adjective "from berlin". i reckon thats the suffix it comes from, but i don't have a sense of why it'd have changed. i will point out in late borrowings like "frankfurter" "hamburger" that it does become a different kind of noun suffix. but originally it was "frankfurter sausage" and "hamburger steak" adjectives. , it only became a noun suffix with elipsis over time. really not sure
I've seen "Japanese" used as a noun; it's identical in the singular and the plural. It's rare, but it shows up especially in writing about Japan and Japanese history.
I do want to mention that the -er suffix isn't just used for the city of New York, and the term "New Yorker" also refers to people from Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Binghamton, or anywhere else in New York State. For other examples of -er not being used for cities, there's the demonyms for the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont, which are Connecticuter, Rhode Islander, and Vermonter respectively.
True that "New Yorker" refers to residents of both the City and State; and to differentiate between the two, the other cities are referred to by their demonyms; eg., Buffalonian. To be honest, I don't know the demonyms for the other cites you mentioned. Rochesterian? Syracusan? Albanian?
@@tygrkhat4087i think albanian is already taken. albanese? but also michigander theres another -er. probably modeled on gander though the plural of geese, otherwise idk where the d comes from
How did -ese get so attached to asian places? Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Bhutanese, Taiwanese, Cantonese. Food from Bologna, Italy is called Bolognese but the people are called Bolognesi.
The portuguese denonyn for Brazil is "brasileiro ("brasileirA" for female)" (brazilian), and it literally means "someone who works with brazil", so in English it be like calling someone from Brazil a "brazilier". This comes from the fact that at the begining of portuguese colonization of Brazil they would manly use the land for the extraction of the "Pau-Brasil' (literally "Brazil-Wood... I don't know how it's actually called in English), which would've required people to cut the tree and everyting else related to the exploration of this resource (it would be used as a dye, they would turn the wood of the tree into red dye, highly apreciated in Europe at the time). Considering that at those early stages of european presence in south america/Brazil the main source of labour was the indigenous population, enslaved or employed for the working with the "Pau-Brasil", the "brasileiro" would became the word for those who were born in Brazil, regardless if they worked or not with the extraction of the tree. The thing that got me thinking in this video was actually when he said that the sufix "er" (someone who does something), because we have this ("eiro/eira) in portuguese, and is realy similar to the English sufix, although portuguese is a romance language, not germanic... but we only use this in a denonym for Brazil, all other uses are actually for jobs/professions/ocupations lol (like, farmer "fazendeiro", miner "mineiro", etc)... maybe it comes from the visigothic rule in Iberia?
Like adding the L to Congolese for the eae suffix, people from Michigan call themselves Michiganders adding a D to the -er suffix. Which is even weirder than Congolese as its easy to say Michiganer compared to Congoese having the vowels O and E next to each other. Of course saying congoese is easy if you just say congo ease. But reading it im sure would confuse many people trying to read it.
I think the issue with Michiganer is probably that people might read it "Michi-gay-ner"? Because usually a_e containing words like game or gape use the ey pronunciation. Ofc if you know the root word Michigan you'd read it right, but its the same deal with Congoese, if you know the root word you'd read it Congo ease, but to avoid those less familiar with the place (and therefore wouldn't know the root words of those demonyms) from misreading, they added the d and l. This is all just a big guess on my part though.
I am half Japaner and half Brazilish and I love watching your videos, I always learn something but sooooometimes you can be a bit Britishish Carry on mate, you're one of the better Youtubists out there!!
“-er” does not actually come from the same root as someone who does something, in the case of residence it comes from Proto-Germanic *-warjaz and for occupation comes from Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz. *-warjaz means ‘inhabitant or defender’ of a place, turning into *-wari and later -er.
_Czech_ comes from Czech word _Čech,_ for some reason passing through Polish where _č_ (ch) is spelled _cz._ In Slavic languages, including Czech, this word means a male Czech person. _ch_ at the end of the word is pronounced [x], like the Greek Khi or _ch_ in the Scottish _loch._ Much like the Greek Khi in words like _choro, character, charisma,_ the Czech/Polich _ch_ became [k] in English. From what I understood, _ch_ in _French_ or _Dutch_ actually comes from _isk/isc/ish_ suffix, but has changed over time, possibly because of influences from Dutch and German, I don't really know. So these _ch_ are completely unrelated to _ch_ in _Chech._
Upon incorporation of our town a couple of decades ago, some worried that the moniker for our residences could be quite comical. You see I live in Taylorsville, UT. and the easiest demonym would be to simply add an "N". City hall was not amused and insisted on referring to us as Taylorsvillagers, but Taylorsvillens is just so much fun!
I never made the connection between uses of ish before. Surely french being different is because French probably isn't a demonym based on the name of the region France, but probably actually comes from the name of the people the region was named for (the Franks).
Okay, I’ve got a question. The -er one is usually used as a noun, specifically for a person from that place. He’s a Londoner. She’s a New Yorker. Is there an adjective form of these demonyms that can be used to describe things? For example, a house in New York is a _____ house. Is it a New Yorkian house? 🤔
As someone who grew up in New York, I've never heard of a "New Yorkian" house. It would be a ranch house, an apartment, a split level, etc. So it would be "I live in a split (level) in Oceanside, New York" or "it's an apartment in the City." The City referring to Manhattan, but if you're from Long Island anything west of Nassau County that isn't "upstate" (anything that is on the main land in the state of New York). So basically a person is a New Yorker, but any other noun that is from New York is referred to as what it is from New York. And hopefully that all makes sense. 😆
@@kirabowie "Upstate" New York is a section just north of NYC; then you get to the Hudson Valley, the Capital District and the Adirondacks. Go west from "Upstate," and you've got the Southern Tier, Central NY, the Finger Lakes Region and the Niagara Frontier. And isn't the Bronx on the "main land in the state of New York?"
@@tygrkhat4087 Are you a New Yorker? Specifically someone from Long Island? If you are then you would know that someone from Long Island refers to anything west of Nassau County as either Upstate or the City, depending on where you're going. I grew up on Long Island and this in my experience is how we refer to the rest of the state. And yes, the Bronx is on the main land. And I know there's various regions that have their own names and I've been to some of them when I was younger. In fact, I've been up and down the east coast from Maine to Florida. I've been as far north in Maine to a little island to view the puffins there, that is claimed by both the US and Canada. I'm also heading down to Key West in March. I've visited serval states with California being as far west as I've gotten, although, I do have a trip to Alaska planned this August and I've overseas too. And I know that sometimes people refer to places as one thing which can be more general than what is the official name for that place or region. 😉
@ No, I'm a New Yorker from the other side of the state; a Buffalonian. We don't like being called "upstate;" we're Western New York. And yeah, I know of the attitude of New Yorkers and Long Islanders toward every thing in the state above Westchester.
@@tygrkhat4087 I'm sorry, I had no idea! But if you look on a map the rest of New York technically is above Long Island, which is probably where that whole "upstate" thing started. Anyways, from one New Yorker to another, have a goody!! 🙂
While "Swiss" has no suffix in English and "Swiss cheese" can stand both for a specific kind of cheese and any cheese coming from Switzerland, German makes a distinction: "Schweizer Käse" ist a specific kind of cheese, "schweizerischer Käse" is any kind of cheese from Switzerland. In this case "Schweiz" gets both suffixes "-er" and "-isch" (and another "-er" required for the case in German) and is an adjective, so written with a lowercase "s" whereas Schweizer is a derivation of the country's name so it gets a capital "S". "Wiener" is German for a person from Vienna, called "Viennese" in English which curiously takes both of these forms from Italian. Does anybody know why the English use the Italian form Vienna for Wien? It's about as curious as the Germans using the Italian form Nizza for the French city of Nice.
And then there is Norway - Norwegian, where the root seemingly changes. Though from a historical perspective it's entirely regular, since "way" was "weg" at one point, but the "g" became "y" and I'm guessing the "e" was changed to "a" to reflect pronunciation perhaps. And this change simply didn't happen with the "-ian" suffix added.
I always wondered why "Earthling" stuck for people from Earth. Like people from this planet are baby earths or something. Why don't we call ourselves "Earthians" or "Earthites" or "Earthish?" (Although, in a few movies and TV shows, I have heard "Earthen" and "Earther" used.)
Tau Ri or Earthican. As for earthling, supposedly it started out in the pejorative sense like hireling or underling, with the idea that it's something aliens would call us as a mild insult.
I get the impression that the various suffixes get adopted according to what flows best in speech. "Londoner" probably flows better than "Londonish," "Londoni," or "Londonese."
As a Detroiter, who never actually lived in the city of Detroit, I still consider myself a Detroiter. However, Detroiters can get really sensitive over who calls who a true “Native Detroiter.” I’m not particularly concerned with those strict requirements of needing to be around a certain city in order to be considered a native of that city, (I feel like if you live in the Downriver area, then I consider you a Detroiter) For those of you who don’t know “Downriver” is the area anywhere that’s down the Detroit river. But I do understand why Detroiters are more aware of who actually KNOWS the city of Detroit and who doesn’t. Detroiters are very proud of their city, and have been calling it their home for years, so I can understand the territorial-ness of their city. Anyway, just thought that’d be interesting for some ppl. ☺️
You give "German" as an example of the "-an" suffix, but it's not clear to me that this is a suffix at all. After all, "German" is _shorter_ than "Germany".
The -y at the end of Germany is also a Latin suffix (originally -ia), and it in this case is actually applied after the -an suffix, making Germany the "land of Germans". So the country is named after the people, not the other way around. It's kind of a special case. The origin of the "Germ-" root is unclear, although etymologists have a few hypotheses that range from a Celtic word meaning "noisy" to a German word meaning "spear".
I might say "happyish", but never "runish", so not ANY verb. I am San Diegan, not a "San Diegoer". I sus oect underlying phonetic rules affecting choices of which suffixes to use, some sound better some places, others in other places.
One pattern I've noticed with demonyms is some can be used for nouns referring to the people of a place and some can not. Demonyms that end in 'an' and 'ian' can be used to refer to people. "He is an American, she is a Columbian," is fine. However, the ones that end in sibilant sounds like 'ese', 'sh', and 'ch' can not. We generally don't say, "He is a French, she is a Japanese." You can say that someone is British, but you don't say that someone is *a* British. Any thoughts on why that is?
I've noticed that too. I think for -ish, as stated in the video, it's because we tend to use -ish words more commonly as adjectives, like blueish, biggish, etc. and so sounds unnatural as a noun. Hence, we say "He is a British person", or "He is British" but never "He is a British", similarly to how we would say, "It is a blue car", or "it is blue", never "It is a blue". Words that end in -ch like French and Dutch are actually corruptions of original -ish words, like Old English Frencisc and Old Dutch Thiudisc respectively. As for -ese, I'm guessing that it sounded enough like a synonym for -ish for early English speakers that we treat them as having the same rules.
An interesting one using "ian" suffix is Newcastle as the whole word changes to presumably the Latin translation of the name then gets Ian added to become Novocastrian. Would be interesting to know how many other cities or countries substantial change like that!
Savoyard, meaning of or pertaining to Savoy. It's not necessarily "-iard", the word Spaniard was used before the country Spain existed, referring to Spania, a shortening of Hispania, the name the Romans gave to the Iberian Peninsula.
I'd argue you can't make a proper word with literally any noun and -ish, but the resulting construction, even if it's a little dodgy, will be at least word-ish.
I carried aword origin question around in my head (no idea why that one) for many years before finally googling it. Nickel. I wondered where it came from. It has an interesting origin. Maybe you can do a money name video, if you haven't already. :)
Nickel, as in the metallic element, was originally from German miners' "kupfernickel" -- literally "copper of the devil" because its ores have a similar blue/green colour associated with malachite, a valuable ore for copper. Unlike malachite, the nickel ore has to be smelted at temperatures far higher than that required for copper. The miners wanted copper, but sometimes kupfernickel ore fooled them and wasted their time. It's connection with money came much later with American and Canadian "nickels" being made from a copper/nickel alloy, much like pennies or pence being called "coppers" in the UK.
that’s intriguing, shi as a suffix is also prevalent in Sanskrit and her modern offshoots which’s used to denote “of something” E.g. Suryavanshi - of the Solar dynasty (Surya - Sun, Vansa Dynasty, Shi- the suffix)
Any idea why we may say "Spanish people", "the Spanish", but also "(the) Spaniards"? Likewise, "Polish people", "the Polish", "(the) Poles". A few more examples occur: Danish/Danes, Swedish/Swedes. But not many more. ----- Then, you have cases with just one basic form, but you may pluralise it: "Italian people", "(the) Italians"; "Greek people", "(the) Greeks"; "German people", "(the) Germans"; etc. (Except for "Greeks", all examples of pluralised forms that occur to me are for demonyms ending in "-an".) ----- Finally, some demonyms have just one form, which you cannot pluralise: "English people", "the English"; "French people", "the French"; "Portuguese people", "the Portuguese"; "Welsh people", "the Welsh"; "Iraqi people", "the Iraqi"; etc. (Apparently, these demonyms end in "-sh" - with the 4 exceptions listed earlier -, "-ch", "-ese", or "-i")
Technically, Spanish and Polish are adjectivals and Spaniards and Poles are demonyms. Adjectivals are adjectives describing relation to a place. Demonyms are nouns that can be pluralised. In English, the distinction between adjectivals and demonyms is blurred but in my language Polish every country receives an adjectival, male demonym and female demonym. Hiszpania - Spain hiszpański - Spanish Hiszpan - male Spaniard Hiszpanka - female Spaniard Polska - Poland polski - Polish Polak - male Pole Polka - female Pole
you should explain why some nationalities have more than one demonym like spanish = spaniard, polish = pole, swedish = swede, argentonian = argentine, scotish = scot, british = brit and so on.
I'm Czech :D I guess English (or the languages the word went through until it came to English) just took the root "čech" and called it a day. Or any possible suffixes somehow disappeared along the way.
Probably has to do with recency, when Czechoslovakia existed it would have been Czechoslovakian or Czechoslovak, then when it became the Czech Republic that probably lended to the lack of alteration of the demonym. Before that it would have been Bohemian or whatever depending on the region, and Czech would just have been an ethnicity, which doesn't always get a suffix in English (e.g. Breton, Ainu, Dogon are all unaltered).
Don’t forget Englishman, Frenchman, Dutchman... Maybe German and Human could fit with those as well. Spaniard and Kiwi are fun, Swede is cool, Czech is concise, we are all Earthlings, hello Hoosiers in Indiana, and more
The “-ine” in “Argentine” and “Levantine” always confuse me bc they’re always pronounced /in/ or /ain/ (I’m too lazy to type out small cap i). Funnily enough though “Florentine” is clearly /ain/ though.
I live in Los Angeles. I'm an Angeleno. I'm also a Californian and an American. And a Human. And a Mammal. I live on Earth, so I'm an Earthling, or an Earther. For those of other planets, Mercurian, Venusian or Venerian, Martian, Jovian, Saturnian or Kronian, Uranian, Neptunian or Poseidean, Plutonian, Quaoarian, Sednian, Orcean, Haumean, Eridian. Other than Earth, the adjectives (which become nouns) all end in n. Erotian--I was hoping that would be Erotic, but nooo.
And there's Burkinabe for Burkina Faso and I-Kiribati for Kiribati. Kuwaiti, Qatari, Bahraini, Emirati, Omani, Yemeni, Pakistani...then to Nepali. Not Arab, not Muslim, but still in there.
Weird that there is no demonym for people from the UK - "UKian?" - sometimes you want to refer to the whole country, not say "English" or "British". Hence "Brexit" should have been "UKexit". Same for the USA. I am loath to call people from the US "Americans" as Canadians and Chileans are too. "USaians" doesn't work.
There's a Chinese You Tuber lady who makes me laugh saying how hard English is to learn.. In Chinese, the just say ren (person) and the name of the country.
I personally dislike how a person/thing relating to Lebanon is called Lebanese… I hear Arabic “Lubnānī” (Lebanani) more often, and it fits with all of the other -i endings.
Suggest a topic for next Monday's video!
umm uhh affixes
ein Beitrag an Montag, 13. Januar 2025 (full moon; 1 day before the centre point, of the astronomical winter)
month´s names, in different languages
the Dutch ---> Netherlands -----> deutsch
al Nimsa ----> Austria -------------> niemcy ----> deutsch, bzw. stumm
towards y´all: A happy new year 2025.
Gym leader names or maybe slags for GTA like Wasted, Busted, Brown Bread and Nicked?
Why is there "golden" but not "bluen" or "greenen"?
Ref.: General Knowledge, "Why It's #American & Not #Americanese - *How Countries Demonyms Work* ?" (2023)
Total guess, stab in the dark: "French" is probably a corruption of "Frankish"
"Franz-ish"?
Frencish ("Frankish") -> French; Welish ("Walish") -> Welsh; Scottish -> Scotch.
In German (Frankish, kinda) French is Französisch - collapse the middle syllable and you get something that sounds like Frantsh (Franch)
The Old English ending was "isc" which usually became "ish" but occasionally went to "ch". So yes French is the same as "frankish" but not descended from it; parallel development
Frankish went to Frenċisċ (whicj pronunciation changes over time) before becoming French
Some places use the suffix "-ite" instead, like "Brooklynite" and "Dallasite". It's more commonly used for cities, like the "-er" suffix, and has a whole host of other possible meanings, like "descendant" (Israelite), "follower" (Sunnite, Trotskyite). or even "mineral compound made from" (quartzite).
I also thought of "-ite", specifically because of "Vancouverite", which would fall into the city category that you mentioned.
The "-ite" suffix is used for residents of three U.S. states: New Hampshirite, Wisconsinite and Wyomingite.
Also yemenite
This has the consequence that English has the two separate words Israelite (meaning someone from the ancient Kingdom of Israel or earlier groups; the ancestors of the Jews pre-diaspora) and Israeli (meaning someone who is a citizen of the modern State of Israel, which was founded in 1948 and sees itself as the successor of that ancient kingdom).
The oldest examples I could think of would be Canaanite and Israelite
There's also -ite, meaning "belonging to, originating in." It's usually used to indicate descendants of a particular person or group, such as Israelites, referring to descendants of Jacob (whereas the modern Israeli refers to any citizen of Israel regardless of ethnicity). It can also be used to refer to those belonging to a particular ideology, like the Jacobites.
People from Columbus, Ohio are officially called Columbusites, but I’ve always called them Columbusians, which I pronounce like Coal-um-BOOSH-an. The Columbusians don’t like that very much.
I only just learned, from coverage of the fires, that you call people from Los Angeles "Los Angelenos."
Or just Angeleno.
Because the original full name of the city would take too long to say…
(El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Rio Porciuncula)…
Missed opportunity to call them the Lost Angels
The Spanish were the worst at naming things.
There's also the rare "ic", like in Icelandic. It derives from the latin "icus" (and Greek "ikos"), which means "in the manner of; pertaining to," which eventually became "ique" in French, and eventually ic in English. It still carries this meaning in words such as periodic and allergic. It's more common in denoting ethnicity and (funnily enough) language family, such as for Semitic, Turkic, or Germanic.
Please don't auto translate your videos. Literally, the spanish auto translated title is "Explicación de los sufijos demoníacos" (explanation of the demonic suffixes). I wish I could just post a screenshot.
It usually works for some of us (quality vary by the language pair and some other nuances).
___
I don't know what has come of the translation options on TH-cam nowadays, but used to be it was possible to allow suggestions and crowd sourcing.
HE can't not translate them, it's automatic and random
You forgot to mention the -ic suffix.
-ic also comes from Germanic -ics, and is primarily used for Iceland and Greenland; Icelandic and Greenlandic.
I’ve also heard Netherlandic before
And linguistic/geographical groups like Turkic and Baltic!
and Thicc
But that's not the name of the people.
@@blew1tand slavic
Did you notice that German is strange in that it is shorter than Germany? This seems to be real rare, given all your examples. And fun thing is, it also works in german! Deutscher is smaller than Deutschland.
Germanus, Germania. So while the Spanish are the people of Spain and the Japanese are the people of Japan, Germany is the land of the Germans.
Edit: This would also work for the English if we used the demonym "Engle" instead (as in from the Angle tribe), so England would be the land of the Engles.
Your videos always bring so much positivity and good mood. Thank you for your humorous talent and bright energy!🥂🟣🥦
I’ve always wondered why some demonyms can be used as nouns and others cannot. -an and -i can be both adjectives and nouns (an Italian/an Italian person; an Iraqi/an Iraqi person), -er just as nouns (an Icelander, but if you want to use it as an adjective it changes to an Icelandic person) and -ish and -ese just as adjectives (an Irish person, a Japanese person). Additionally, such as in the Icelandic case, the suffix changes based on what kind of word it is. Anyone have answers?
-an, from -anus (haha) could as far back as latin be used in adjectives or nouns pretty interchangably. "romanus" could be a noun or adjective. it's just never changed, even as the suffix's pronunciation has, and it can still be used that way in english and spanish and in others i presume. i guess it could have changed but the most expected thing would be for it not to.
-i isnt that way, it's only mostly for adjectives, but there's a much lower familiarity with arabic, so i'm guessing people thought (subconsciously, mostly) "-i is -an but for people from approximately the middle east, and it is used the same grammatically". there was enough contact, for example via the crusades and the muslim influence on renaissance Europe, long enough ago, for this to have happened among people who didn't have a lot of sensitivity to other languages, except the elite who's sensitivity was to latin (with its -anus & those rules). since then it has had plenty of time to complete smoothing into that role.
ish and ese are respectively the germanic and latin (via borrowing into late latin) versions of the proto-germanic suffix -iskos, which was only ever used for adjectives. again, it could possibly have changed, but the most expected thing was for it not to.
really no idea about er, that bothers me. i think it's because i can't really think of any er demonyms i use much in english, but i speak german, where eg "berliner" can be a noun or adjective "from berlin". i reckon thats the suffix it comes from, but i don't have a sense of why it'd have changed. i will point out in late borrowings like "frankfurter" "hamburger" that it does become a different kind of noun suffix. but originally it was "frankfurter sausage" and "hamburger steak" adjectives. , it only became a noun suffix with elipsis over time. really not sure
I've seen "Japanese" used as a noun; it's identical in the singular and the plural. It's rare, but it shows up especially in writing about Japan and Japanese history.
I often use "ish" as a stand alone word that's synonymous to "kinda"
'I love you ... ish'
I do want to mention that the -er suffix isn't just used for the city of New York, and the term "New Yorker" also refers to people from Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Binghamton, or anywhere else in New York State. For other examples of -er not being used for cities, there's the demonyms for the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont, which are Connecticuter, Rhode Islander, and Vermonter respectively.
True that "New Yorker" refers to residents of both the City and State; and to differentiate between the two, the other cities are referred to by their demonyms; eg., Buffalonian. To be honest, I don't know the demonyms for the other cites you mentioned. Rochesterian? Syracusan? Albanian?
@@tygrkhat4087i think albanian is already taken. albanese?
but also michigander theres another -er. probably modeled on gander though the plural of geese, otherwise idk where the d comes from
@@user-ze7sj4qy6qRochesterian works, but yeah, not Albanian (taken already.) Could maybe work to say it Al-buh-NEE-an, and spell it Albanyan?
@@tygrkhat4087 US already has "Georgians", now you're gonna have "Albanians" too? At least call them Albanese or something.
How did -ese get so attached to asian places? Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Bhutanese, Taiwanese, Cantonese. Food from Bologna, Italy is called Bolognese but the people are called Bolognesi.
The portuguese denonyn for Brazil is "brasileiro ("brasileirA" for female)" (brazilian), and it literally means "someone who works with brazil", so in English it be like calling someone from Brazil a "brazilier". This comes from the fact that at the begining of portuguese colonization of Brazil they would manly use the land for the extraction of the "Pau-Brasil' (literally "Brazil-Wood... I don't know how it's actually called in English), which would've required people to cut the tree and everyting else related to the exploration of this resource (it would be used as a dye, they would turn the wood of the tree into red dye, highly apreciated in Europe at the time). Considering that at those early stages of european presence in south america/Brazil the main source of labour was the indigenous population, enslaved or employed for the working with the "Pau-Brasil", the "brasileiro" would became the word for those who were born in Brazil, regardless if they worked or not with the extraction of the tree.
The thing that got me thinking in this video was actually when he said that the sufix "er" (someone who does something), because we have this ("eiro/eira) in portuguese, and is realy similar to the English sufix, although portuguese is a romance language, not germanic... but we only use this in a denonym for Brazil, all other uses are actually for jobs/professions/ocupations lol (like, farmer "fazendeiro", miner "mineiro", etc)... maybe it comes from the visigothic rule in Iberia?
Like adding the L to Congolese for the eae suffix, people from Michigan call themselves Michiganders adding a D to the -er suffix. Which is even weirder than Congolese as its easy to say Michiganer compared to Congoese having the vowels O and E next to each other. Of course saying congoese is easy if you just say congo ease. But reading it im sure would confuse many people trying to read it.
I think the issue with Michiganer is probably that people might read it "Michi-gay-ner"? Because usually a_e containing words like game or gape use the ey pronunciation. Ofc if you know the root word Michigan you'd read it right, but its the same deal with Congoese, if you know the root word you'd read it Congo ease, but to avoid those less familiar with the place (and therefore wouldn't know the root words of those demonyms) from misreading, they added the d and l. This is all just a big guess on my part though.
would love to see a map of the most commonly used one of these
I am half Japaner and half Brazilish and I love watching your videos, I always learn something but sooooometimes you can be a bit Britishish
Carry on mate, you're one of the better Youtubists out there!!
Spanish has a similar variety of demonymic suffixes: Mexican, Puertorriqueño, Costarricense, Guatamateco.
If I remember correctly, the demonym "Guatemalteco" originates from the Nahuatl/Nawat - tec prefix that indicates belonging to a certain place.
is it really ok to call New Zealander Kiwis? I genuinely didn't know!
Ja, it's dandy.
Definitely!
I think most of us Kiwis prefer "Kiwi" over "New Zealander"
@@callumc9426That's why you get left off maps.
“-er” does not actually come from the same root as someone who does something, in the case of residence it comes from Proto-Germanic *-warjaz and for occupation comes from Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz. *-warjaz means ‘inhabitant or defender’ of a place, turning into *-wari and later -er.
French, Dutch, and Czech all end in -ch. Is it a secret suffix or just a coincidence?
_Czech_ comes from Czech word _Čech,_ for some reason passing through Polish where _č_ (ch) is spelled _cz._ In Slavic languages, including Czech, this word means a male Czech person. _ch_ at the end of the word is pronounced [x], like the Greek Khi or _ch_ in the Scottish _loch._ Much like the Greek Khi in words like _choro, character, charisma,_ the Czech/Polich _ch_ became [k] in English.
From what I understood, _ch_ in _French_ or _Dutch_ actually comes from _isk/isc/ish_ suffix, but has changed over time, possibly because of influences from Dutch and German, I don't really know. So these _ch_ are completely unrelated to _ch_ in _Chech._
Each of your videos is a little piece of magic. Keep inspiring us with your creations!🤸🚴👑
Ooh! Talk about Finnish suffixes!
Upon incorporation of our town a couple of decades ago, some worried that the moniker for our residences could be quite comical. You see I live in Taylorsville, UT. and the easiest demonym would be to simply add an "N". City hall was not amused and insisted on referring to us as Taylorsvillagers, but Taylorsvillens is just so much fun!
I never made the connection between uses of ish before.
Surely french being different is because French probably isn't a demonym based on the name of the region France, but probably actually comes from the name of the people the region was named for (the Franks).
The Gaul of some people!
Okay, I’ve got a question. The -er one is usually used as a noun, specifically for a person from that place. He’s a Londoner. She’s a New Yorker. Is there an adjective form of these demonyms that can be used to describe things?
For example, a house in New York is a _____ house. Is it a New Yorkian house? 🤔
As someone who grew up in New York, I've never heard of a "New Yorkian" house. It would be a ranch house, an apartment, a split level, etc. So it would be "I live in a split (level) in Oceanside, New York" or "it's an apartment in the City." The City referring to Manhattan, but if you're from Long Island anything west of Nassau County that isn't "upstate" (anything that is on the main land in the state of New York). So basically a person is a New Yorker, but any other noun that is from New York is referred to as what it is from New York. And hopefully that all makes sense. 😆
@@kirabowie "Upstate" New York is a section just north of NYC; then you get to the Hudson Valley, the Capital District and the Adirondacks. Go west from "Upstate," and you've got the Southern Tier, Central NY, the Finger Lakes Region and the Niagara Frontier. And isn't the Bronx on the "main land in the state of New York?"
@@tygrkhat4087 Are you a New Yorker? Specifically someone from Long Island? If you are then you would know that someone from Long Island refers to anything west of Nassau County as either Upstate or the City, depending on where you're going. I grew up on Long Island and this in my experience is how we refer to the rest of the state. And yes, the Bronx is on the main land. And I know there's various regions that have their own names and I've been to some of them when I was younger. In fact, I've been up and down the east coast from Maine to Florida. I've been as far north in Maine to a little island to view the puffins there, that is claimed by both the US and Canada. I'm also heading down to Key West in March. I've visited serval states with California being as far west as I've gotten, although, I do have a trip to Alaska planned this August and I've overseas too. And I know that sometimes people refer to places as one thing which can be more general than what is the official name for that place or region. 😉
@ No, I'm a New Yorker from the other side of the state; a Buffalonian. We don't like being called "upstate;" we're Western New York. And yeah, I know of the attitude of New Yorkers and Long Islanders toward every thing in the state above Westchester.
@@tygrkhat4087 I'm sorry, I had no idea! But if you look on a map the rest of New York technically is above Long Island, which is probably where that whole "upstate" thing started. Anyways, from one New Yorker to another, have a goody!! 🙂
-ish is from germanic *-iskaz
While "Swiss" has no suffix in English and "Swiss cheese" can stand both for a specific kind of cheese and any cheese coming from Switzerland, German makes a distinction:
"Schweizer Käse" ist a specific kind of cheese, "schweizerischer Käse" is any kind of cheese from Switzerland.
In this case "Schweiz" gets both suffixes "-er" and "-isch" (and another "-er" required for the case in German) and is an adjective, so written with a lowercase "s" whereas Schweizer is a derivation of the country's name so it gets a capital "S".
"Wiener" is German for a person from Vienna, called "Viennese" in English which curiously takes both of these forms from Italian. Does anybody know why the English use the Italian form Vienna for Wien? It's about as curious as the Germans using the Italian form Nizza for the French city of Nice.
And then there is Norway - Norwegian, where the root seemingly changes. Though from a historical perspective it's entirely regular, since "way" was "weg" at one point, but the "g" became "y" and I'm guessing the "e" was changed to "a" to reflect pronunciation perhaps. And this change simply didn't happen with the "-ian" suffix added.
Love your work, Patrick. Are you aware that through the start of the show you said "denonym", and on and off until the end? It's a tricky one!
I always wondered why "Earthling" stuck for people from Earth. Like people from this planet are baby earths or something.
Why don't we call ourselves "Earthians" or "Earthites" or "Earthish?" (Although, in a few movies and TV shows, I have heard "Earthen" and "Earther" used.)
Tau Ri or Earthican. As for earthling, supposedly it started out in the pejorative sense like hireling or underling, with the idea that it's something aliens would call us as a mild insult.
I suppose we kind of are the seeds of Earth, if we plan to terraform other planets to be similar to Earth. Interesting.
I get the impression that the various suffixes get adopted according to what flows best in speech. "Londoner" probably flows better than "Londonish," "Londoni," or "Londonese."
As a Detroiter, who never actually lived in the city of Detroit, I still consider myself a Detroiter. However, Detroiters can get really sensitive over who calls who a true “Native Detroiter.” I’m not particularly concerned with those strict requirements of needing to be around a certain city in order to be considered a native of that city, (I feel like if you live in the Downriver area, then I consider you a Detroiter) For those of you who don’t know “Downriver” is the area anywhere that’s down the Detroit river. But I do understand why Detroiters are more aware of who actually KNOWS the city of Detroit and who doesn’t. Detroiters are very proud of their city, and have been calling it their home for years, so I can understand the territorial-ness of their city. Anyway, just thought that’d be interesting for some ppl. ☺️
That's as ridiculous as claiming to be an Earthling despite never having lived on Earth🤦♀️
You give "German" as an example of the "-an" suffix, but it's not clear to me that this is a suffix at all. After all, "German" is _shorter_ than "Germany".
At one point it was germanic and germanium
It’s called Germany because the land is German-y!
@@soilmicrobe German-ia
@@jonahblock and now Germanic has much broader meaning, and most of us get to learn about germanium in chemistry...
The -y at the end of Germany is also a Latin suffix (originally -ia), and it in this case is actually applied after the -an suffix, making Germany the "land of Germans". So the country is named after the people, not the other way around. It's kind of a special case.
The origin of the "Germ-" root is unclear, although etymologists have a few hypotheses that range from a Celtic word meaning "noisy" to a German word meaning "spear".
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Since when did he use his face in videos?! I love it, feels so much just, better? Peak
He’s been mixing it up for quite a while now. Some segments are still animated. Pretty sure all the Monday ones are his face, though. :)
I might say "happyish", but never "runish", so not ANY verb. I am San Diegan, not a "San Diegoer". I sus oect underlying phonetic rules affecting choices of which suffixes to use, some sound better some places, others in other places.
I started off as a Coloradan, was a Seattleite and a Warshingtonian for years, and I've been a Socorroan for about 28 years now!
I started off as an Earthling ... and I'm still an Earthling.
@@halfsourlizard9319 Cool! I'm a Turtle Islander and a Terran/Gaian as well!
@@halfsourlizard9319 I accept Terran and Earther as well as Earthling :)
One pattern I've noticed with demonyms is some can be used for nouns referring to the people of a place and some can not.
Demonyms that end in 'an' and 'ian' can be used to refer to people. "He is an American, she is a Columbian," is fine.
However, the ones that end in sibilant sounds like 'ese', 'sh', and 'ch' can not. We generally don't say, "He is a French, she is a Japanese." You can say that someone is British, but you don't say that someone is *a* British.
Any thoughts on why that is?
I've noticed that too. I think for -ish, as stated in the video, it's because we tend to use -ish words more commonly as adjectives, like blueish, biggish, etc. and so sounds unnatural as a noun. Hence, we say "He is a British person", or "He is British" but never "He is a British", similarly to how we would say, "It is a blue car", or "it is blue", never "It is a blue". Words that end in -ch like French and Dutch are actually corruptions of original -ish words, like Old English Frencisc and Old Dutch Thiudisc respectively. As for -ese, I'm guessing that it sounded enough like a synonym for -ish for early English speakers that we treat them as having the same rules.
An interesting one using "ian" suffix is Newcastle as the whole word changes to presumably the Latin translation of the name then gets Ian added to become Novocastrian. Would be interesting to know how many other cities or countries substantial change like that!
Natives of Halifax, NS are Haligonians, and Liverpudlian for those from Liverpool.
Where do the names ‘Mancunian’ and ‘Glaswegian’ for people from Manchester and Glasgow respectively come from?
Nice video. Is Portugal the only non-East-Asian country that gets the -ese suffix?
You mentioned one that I have become fond of, though not in the same context. -ish. As in "I'll be home about 730-ish. " 😁
I was waiting for "Spaniard." Where does that demonym come from? I've never heard of any " -iard" nationalities.
Savoyard, meaning of or pertaining to Savoy. It's not necessarily "-iard", the word Spaniard was used before the country Spain existed, referring to Spania, a shortening of Hispania, the name the Romans gave to the Iberian Peninsula.
The most likely who get which suffixes is most likely which sounds better phonetically
Good morning mate!
I'd argue you can't make a proper word with literally any noun and -ish, but the resulting construction, even if it's a little dodgy, will be at least word-ish.
I carried aword origin question around in my head (no idea why that one) for many years before finally googling it. Nickel. I wondered where it came from. It has an interesting origin. Maybe you can do a money name video, if you haven't already. :)
Nickel, as in the metallic element, was originally from German miners' "kupfernickel" -- literally "copper of the devil" because its ores have a similar blue/green colour associated with malachite, a valuable ore for copper. Unlike malachite, the nickel ore has to be smelted at temperatures far higher than that required for copper. The miners wanted copper, but sometimes kupfernickel ore fooled them and wasted their time. It's connection with money came much later with American and Canadian "nickels" being made from a copper/nickel alloy, much like pennies or pence being called "coppers" in the UK.
The demonym for Yerevan, Armenia is Yerevantsi (in English). The same suffix goes for most other cities in Armenia.
that’s intriguing, shi as a suffix is also prevalent in Sanskrit and her modern offshoots which’s used to denote “of something” E.g. Suryavanshi - of the Solar dynasty (Surya - Sun, Vansa Dynasty, Shi- the suffix)
Any idea why we may say "Spanish people", "the Spanish", but also "(the) Spaniards"?
Likewise, "Polish people", "the Polish", "(the) Poles".
A few more examples occur: Danish/Danes, Swedish/Swedes. But not many more.
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Then, you have cases with just one basic form, but you may pluralise it: "Italian people", "(the) Italians"; "Greek people", "(the) Greeks"; "German people", "(the) Germans"; etc.
(Except for "Greeks", all examples of pluralised forms that occur to me are for demonyms ending in "-an".)
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Finally, some demonyms have just one form, which you cannot pluralise: "English people", "the English"; "French people", "the French"; "Portuguese people", "the Portuguese"; "Welsh people", "the Welsh"; "Iraqi people", "the Iraqi"; etc.
(Apparently, these demonyms end in "-sh" - with the 4 exceptions listed earlier -, "-ch", "-ese", or "-i")
Technically, Spanish and Polish are adjectivals and Spaniards and Poles are demonyms. Adjectivals are adjectives describing relation to a place. Demonyms are nouns that can be pluralised. In English, the distinction between adjectivals and demonyms is blurred but in my language Polish every country receives an adjectival, male demonym and female demonym.
Hiszpania - Spain
hiszpański - Spanish
Hiszpan - male Spaniard
Hiszpanka - female Spaniard
Polska - Poland
polski - Polish
Polak - male Pole
Polka - female Pole
you should explain why some nationalities have more than one demonym like spanish = spaniard, polish = pole, swedish = swede, argentonian = argentine, scotish = scot, british = brit and so on.
I would argue that "French" and "Dutch" *_do_* use one of the standard suffixes, "-ish".
Whar about ic in Icelandic?
I'd guess that it's also from the Germanic "-ics"
Actually, it's Latin! Stemming from the word "ikus," meaning in the manner of or pertaining to.
I'm Czech :D I guess English (or the languages the word went through until it came to English) just took the root "čech" and called it a day. Or any possible suffixes somehow disappeared along the way.
Probably has to do with recency, when Czechoslovakia existed it would have been Czechoslovakian or Czechoslovak, then when it became the Czech Republic that probably lended to the lack of alteration of the demonym. Before that it would have been Bohemian or whatever depending on the region, and Czech would just have been an ethnicity, which doesn't always get a suffix in English (e.g. Breton, Ainu, Dogon are all unaltered).
czechish
@@xezmakorewarriah Czecher would probably be a better one Czechish.
@@CiaraNíShúilleabháin1990 nahh sounds too german
@@CiaraNíShúilleabháin1990 Chancellor of the ex-Czecher. Sounds like a movie title, I'd watch it.
-ish as a demonym suffix sounds so noncommittal. “Is he from England?” “Ehhh… he’s English.” Well what is he then!?
Don’t forget Englishman, Frenchman, Dutchman... Maybe German and Human could fit with those as well. Spaniard and Kiwi are fun, Swede is cool, Czech is concise, we are all Earthlings, hello Hoosiers in Indiana, and more
Are you sure we're all Earthlings? 🦎👽
You forgot about "Ite" for demonyms like "Brooklynite"
The “-ine” in “Argentine” and “Levantine” always confuse me bc they’re always pronounced /in/ or /ain/ (I’m too lazy to type out small cap i). Funnily enough though “Florentine” is clearly /ain/ though.
Germany does not have an -a ending, but 'Germania' does.
I live in Los Angeles. I'm an Angeleno. I'm also a Californian and an American. And a Human. And a Mammal.
I live on Earth, so I'm an Earthling, or an Earther. For those of other planets, Mercurian, Venusian or Venerian, Martian, Jovian, Saturnian or Kronian, Uranian, Neptunian or Poseidean, Plutonian, Quaoarian, Sednian, Orcean, Haumean, Eridian. Other than Earth, the adjectives (which become nouns) all end in n. Erotian--I was hoping that would be Erotic, but nooo.
Then there are some oddball names. A person of Rio de Janeiro is a Carioca.
And there's Burkinabe for Burkina Faso and I-Kiribati for Kiribati.
Kuwaiti, Qatari, Bahraini, Emirati, Omani, Yemeni, Pakistani...then to Nepali. Not Arab, not Muslim, but still in there.
so, why do Manchester and Liverpool get weird versions of the "-ian." Mancunian? Liverpudlian?
-er might also be from latin -arius
What about ~egian/~wegian such as Glaswegian (person from Glasgow) and the informal Taswegian (person from Tasmania)
This video really puckers my pertaining to.
Could "rubbish" be a demonym? Like, from the Rubicon? Or maybe from Akron, Ohio ("the rubber city")?
Romanian has just 2 suffixes for this "-an" and "-ez" (add -ă to either for feminine geder). At least I can't think of any others
Wisconsin - Wisconsonite. I can't think of another geographic "ite". Lots of minerals, however, and probably places named after minerals.
Wyoming has the -ite suffix as well; the demonym for there is Wyomingite. New Hampshire has it too with the demonym New Hampshirite.
When I was a kid, my parents had friends who came from Wisconsin and I always thought "Wisconsinese" sounded better.
The beginning 💀
Woooooow
When did you get a face?
I'm not sure Texas was the best example of a small region. It's larger and more diverse than many countries.
They should change that one planet's name to Your Pertaining To.
Consonant clusters in Slavic languages. You know--prz, dz, cz, sz, and such as found in Polish. They are in many other related languages.
Those aren't consonant clusters but digraphs;
CZ = CH
SZ = SH
RZ = ZH
DZ = DZ
PRZ is 2 sounds.
I live in a town called Leesburg so I guess we’d be leesburgers
Weird that there is no demonym for people from the UK - "UKian?" - sometimes you want to refer to the whole country, not say "English" or "British". Hence "Brexit" should have been "UKexit". Same for the USA. I am loath to call people from the US "Americans" as Canadians and Chileans are too. "USaians" doesn't work.
crazy way to start a video
7:02 kiwi is a nickname
What about -sider? As in I'm a Sydneysider.
There's a Chinese You Tuber lady who makes me laugh saying how hard English is to learn.. In Chinese, the just say ren (person) and the name of the country.
It's funny about "pertaining to" because of deuterostomes
Could -ch come from -isch like -ish does4?
Chinese is way easier with its demonyms. It is always [place name]+人.
English has a small pool of choices for demonym suffixes?
Because Chinian and Japanian or Chinish or Japanish don’t sound easy.
There is an us behind us all.
Greek! Unless you're George W. Bush then its "Greecian". Remember him?
Coming up with alien names for D&D…
Start with N’k V’nsable…
You forgot to mention the -ite suffix.
Like Elamite
I personally dislike how a person/thing relating to Lebanon is called Lebanese… I hear Arabic “Lubnānī” (Lebanani) more often, and it fits with all of the other -i endings.
I dislike that the plural of 'bus' is spelt like 'fuses' ... Tough titties, in both cases ...
Uranus
Denmarkians are called Danes.
Do you have trouble pronouncing demonym?
Lmao when you said a bird from Albania I thought you meant a woman
Hi Patrick
my favorite is SHGRIMP
There is also -ite.
Glaswegian? Why the weg?
699th like.
someone will like this video for the 700th time. AMAZING!
You forgot -ite
Davie504: Philippinian 🇵🇭