from where does germany get its name?

Question

the germans call their own country deutschland. the french call it allemand. we call it germany. how come these names dont even sound a bit similar to each other?

Answer 1

1. German: from "germania" a name the Romans gave the land North of the Alps. Not quite clear why, but there is some reference to the Germanic word "Ger" meaning spear: every man wore a spear apparently. The Roman historian Publius Cornelius "Tacitus" (the silent one) wrote in his book "Germania" (De origine et situ Germanorum) some descriptions of the people there. 2000 years ago or so. In that he describes them as very frugal and hard working people, perhaps to show his Roman fellows how he despised the decadence of their life style.

2. Deutschland from the name of the emperor Theoderich, people under his rule became theodisk, then "deutsch" and the land where they lived became "Deutschland"

3. Allemands is what the French call the Germans, most probably because one of the Germanic tribes called themselves the Allemannen.

Other countries call Germany by different names, eg Vietnamese Duc, or Hungarian nemetorszag, but don't ask me why.

The Yahoo spell check by the way suggest to change the word Deutschland to Disneyland. At least we all know the reason for that!!!

Answer 2

Deutschland is from Deutsch or Deutscher a word to Germans identify themselves. allemand comes from the french reference to some Germans as the aleman tribe. The English reference of Germany is from Germania (Italian for Germany)

Answer 3

Germany: Known in ancient times as Tronges, the country of the Tungri, a Latin word signifying "speakers"; but the Romans afterward gave it the name of Germanus, meaning "neighbors," originally bestowed by the Gauls

Answer 4

French and German have completely different roots when it comes to their language. English is a mix between both. It's understandable that both pronounce it differently.

Answer 5

There are many germs there.