Why do different countries have different names for countries?

Question

If it's Deutschland, why do we say Germany?
If it's Espana, why do we say Spain?
Sverige...Sweden?
etc....
Shouldn't these words be universal??

I know I know...but Germany for Deutschland? That's just ridiculous! And many aren't that hard to pronounce...

Answer 1

When tribes first encountered each other they gave each other a name. These names come from their own languages not the language of the people they are naming.

The word "Germany" itself comes from the Latin "Germania".

"Latin: Germanus, first attested in writings of Julius Caesar, who used Germani to designate a group of tribes in northeastern Gaul, origin unknown, probably the name of an individual tribe. It is perhaps of Gaulish (Celtic) origin, perhaps originally meaning "noisy" (cf. Old Irish garim "to shout") or "neighbor" (cf. Old Irish gair "neighbor"). The earlier Eng. word was Almain or Dutch. "

You can see that in a language the neighbours of the tribe that spoke that language sometimes have a special name which had/ still has a meaning but the further you go away from the tribe's homeland the names become universal (and bland).

For example: In Irish "England" is "Sasana" and "Scotland" is "Albain" but America is "Meiriceá" and Spain is "An Spáinn".

In Estonian: "Sweden" is "Rootsi" and Russia is "Venemaa" but "America" is "Ameerika" and "Italy" is "Itaalia".

If you research what all these special names mean it will tell you an immense amount about how the different tribes interacted and what they thought of each other.

The Estonians call the Russians "the boat people" and the French "The people who suddenly fall on their bums". <--- Not a joke!!

The English word "Welsh" means "non-Germanic foreigner" or sometimes in more negative terms "traitor". The Welsh term for themselves mean "compatriots". The Welsh see another Welshman as a comrade but the Anglo-Saxons see them as foreigners.

Answer 2

Piimaskoholaad gave an excellent answer already, I only want to add this:

the term "German" comes from 2 words: "ger" (the long spear you would throw to kill) and "man".
It was the description of "Man with the long spear".

Of course this was only used by those tribes who called their neighbours "men with long spears". Some other tribes elsewhere came up with different names for their neighbours, and of course they did so in their own language.

Like the slavic people met some "germen" and found they were weird, they could not speak. Of course these foreign men could speak, but not the slavic language. So they remained silent. The slavic then called them "the silent ones", and to this day the czech word for "german" is "the silent ones".

The word "almand" and all its versions stems from a misunderstanding. When this tribe was met by their eastern and southern neighbours, and they asked something like "who are you", the germanics would answer "wir sind alle mann", meaning something like "what you see is our complete team/group/all men".
Literally "all men".
The celtic neighbours (at that time living south and east of the Allemannen) thought that this was their name, and so they called them "Allemannen" (the endings differ of course, due to the changes in all romanic languages sine 2000 years).

You could go on and on, every name for a tribe was given either by the people themselves or their neighbours.

But beware: some names are also meant as insults! For example: the native tribe of Inuit was called "raw meat eaters" by other native Americans, and it was not meant nicely. The word is "Eskimo".

Do not call an Inuit by that name, it is like calling a black person by the forbidden "n" word.

Same about "Lapp" for the people in the High North of Sweden and Norway. The skandinavians call them "Lapp" and the region they are living in "Lappland', but that is not nice! They call themselves Sami and their land Samland (swed) and Sameland (norw).

And I could go on and on and on....

one last maybe: "finn" means light-colourd, bright, and it might refer to the blond hair and light skin of finnish people. But they call their own land not Finland but Suomi!!!!!

Answer 3

I think...it's just that we can't quite pronounce the others perfectly....I mean...it'll seriously be a 'bit**' to try to say Deutschland....or Sverige...instead of just Germany and Sweden....

Answer 4

no, they will never be. The reason is that different countries speak different languages. Different languages so they pronounce things differently. Ok, im Polish, from Poland, but in Polish you don't say " im from Poland" you say "Polska". Not everyone needs to adapt to the English language, they all have their own way of refering to themselves. Hope i helped.

Answer 5

well, maybe because deutschland sounds like douche land in american english.

and espana sounds like spandex in american english.

and how would anyone pronounce sverige without hurting themselves?

Answer 6

because that's just english...in other languages, they are also called differently. in filipino, germany would be alemanya and spain would be espanya, philippines is pilipinas...it all depends on the language :D

Answer 7

well as other people were sayng ...it would be hard for them to be universal ... like how do the japanese say japan ... or chinese china .... it would be hard