Hey guys, have u noticed that "Germany" has a completely different spell in other foreign languages?
Portuguese: Alemanha
Italian: Germania
French: Allemagne
English: Germany
German: Deutschland
Why is that? they're all European languages from countries that have known german people very well, there's no reason to do this no-sense translation lol
2007-12-13 06:08:19 · 13 answers · asked by Irlandesaaa 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Yes and Tyskland in Swedish and niemieck in Polish.
The Alemanni were a German tribe who invaded the Empire c. 200.German means the man with the spear.Niemieck means people of little education in Polish.
There were large numbers of different german tribes and different traditions had different names for them.
Check out the Polish for Italian, and compare it with one of the two provinces of Romania
2007-12-13 06:22:11 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Germany and variants comes from the Latin Germania, the origin of which is unclear, but was the name the Romans had for part of what is now Germany.
Allemagne and variants probably comes from "all men" (Alle Männer in modern German) meaning a land of many tribes - in Roman times there were numerous distinct tribes who had arrived in Germany mainly from areas further east.
Deutschland and variants comes from the Old High German diutisc, meaning "of the people", ie "our country".
Remember that these names are not translations - tribes often had different names for their neighbours, rather than simply using the name the neighbours used for themselves. For example a tribe to the north of an area might call their neighbours "the southerners", whereas the southern tribe might call themselves "the mountain folk" - clearly this is going to result in wildly different names for the same people/country, even if the tribal languages were similar, which of course wasn't always the case.
2007-12-13 14:37:30 · answer #2 · answered by Graham I 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
The origin has already been covered so I won't repeat it. I just want to add a small thing:
While the country is called Germania in Italian the language is called tedesco (or lingua tedesca) and not only the language but also the people - tedesco = a German (man).
2007-12-13 15:27:41 · answer #3 · answered by Martin S 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In Norwegian, it's Tyskland.
The Chinese term is derived from the German name for Germany: De guo - å¾·å½ã
In Turkish: Almanya
The Italian and Latin name is from the Greek name ÎεÏμανία [Germania] for Germany?
click on link below and click on different languages.
2007-12-13 21:41:24 · answer #4 · answered by bryan_q 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are familiar with the concept of the evolution of languages?
Why should a Spaniard call AlemanÃa "Germany"? This is the English name for it! All languages evolved differently, whether by a mixture of other languages or through their own inception. Your question is very simplistic and can easily be answered by basic research.
2007-12-13 15:05:07 · answer #5 · answered by Mannie मञ्जुला 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You forgot Tedesco - which is Italian.
The word German comes from the Latin Germanus, which might originate from the Old Irish (Celtic) word for neighbour - gair. Interestingly enough previous names for this area were Almain and Dutch.
2007-12-14 05:02:17 · answer #6 · answered by cymry3jones 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well that is like asking why Germans...who speak German, have a different word for cheese than French people who speak French!
We all have different languages in Europe...including different wrds for various countries....lol..and why are you my twin?
2007-12-13 14:12:40 · answer #7 · answered by Daisyhill 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The above poster with the mountain folk etc has it right.
Finns call Germany "Saksa", in other words "Saxony".
2007-12-13 14:44:45 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's probably just a way to put the word germ so that it works in every language!!! ah ah lol
2007-12-13 14:12:09 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
The same applies to the other countries in europe.
2007-12-13 14:11:59 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋