[-ish] Ireland, Scotland = Irish, Scottish
[-an] Morocco, Germany = Moroccan, German
[-ese] Portugal, China = Portuguese, Chinese
What rule is at play here? 🤔
Cheers!
The English Language, where the grammar is made up and the rules don’t matter.
I can add:
[-er] New Zealander
New Zealand -> Kiwi.
Only in the same way Australia -> Aussie, or England -> pom. Colloquial terms
When does a colloquial term become a non-colloquial? Usage by government/official contexts?
In August 2022, Minister of Immigration Michael Wood referred to 85,000 holders of recently approved New Zealand 2021 resident visas as “new Kiwis”.
Or just a different word completely. Dutch.
Pfft. The Dutch…
Booo I’ma still say New Zealish
New Zealot
for aiur
Adun toridas.
New Zealander is the least odd sounding of the lot.
New Zealandish
New Zealandan
New Zealandese?
Odd way to spell Kiwi but you do you pal
New Zealander is the least odd sounding of the lot.
New Zealandish
New Zealandan
New Zealandese?
Newfoundlander
Yeah I think if it ends in land it’ll probably be a lander.
Demonyms don’t follow any particular rules, as far as I know. I’m an “-egian” myself.
Human languages: the words are made up and the rules don’t matter.
Especially true for English.
Canada = Canadese (nuts fit in your mouth?)
Canadick
Canadish
Canadanian
Canuck is what we call ourselfs, eh?
: P
They should be Canadans
There is no common rule. It varies by the way the language evolved over time.
Also the word you are looking for is “Demonym”
I can tell you that this is called demonym, but I don’t know the answer to your question… The Wikipedia page has a long list of suffixes, but no rules: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym
The answer is that many languages import their demonyms from different foreign languages. The reason for the inconsistencies is the different, unrelated sources for words.
There are no rules in English. Ask the people from each country what they prefer
Oh there’s plenty of rules, and if you follow them you’ll be wrong because each rule has 20 exceptions you have to memorize because English isn’t a language, it’s several languages in a trench coat.
they blame the welsh.
I’m in Michigan, that makes me a Michigander. The rules are made up and the suffixes don’t matter.
I’m from South Dakota, I’m South Dakotant. It is what it is.
Do you change the emphasis? da-ko-TANT?
Emphasis still on KO
Michiguy or Michigal
If you’re from Halifax, NS, you’re a Haligonian.
I’m a Connecticutian by birth. Though I’ve also heard someone call themselves Connecticuter once or twice, but never cared for that one.
Either one seems to break a lot of normal grammar/spelling rules.
People from Iceland are only called Icelandic because “Icish” would sound a bit silly.
Icelandese.
Icelandian.
Iceland = Icelandic
Thailand != Thailandic
Thailand comes from adding the Germanic -land suffix to the demonym Thai, a common pattern for non-Indo-European places. There’s also Swaziland and Somaliland (though there is also a Somalia).
Don’t forget Englandic people.
Nah they’re Engl
And Finnlandic
And Titanic! Wait… No.
So we should call them Ices from now on?
Mmm… Icees…
I think I could get behind New Zealandic
I believe they’re properly called New Zoolanders.
As an outsider I’ll say that “Kiwi” is an awesome name for you folks.
(hope I don’t assume too much based on the instance name)
and is one that we are happy enough to use
We’re all Earthicans, no need to divide it up further than that
Terrans? Earthers?
I believe “Earthling” is traditional.
Yeah, but every ant, rat, and snake is an earthling to. That’s saying we are from the planet earth. The other terms are more about being part of the political entity of earth. If you are a Marsling, you could immigrate to become an Earthican, but you can never be an Earthling. Same for the other direction, being from earth we may some day become Martians, but can never be Marslings. Source: it’s as made up as every other part of the English language.
Fine. Human, then.
Earthling if you’re an alien with bigger guns than us.
Terran if we got bigger guns than you.
Earther if you’re a racist alien.
Hooman if you’re an alien that wants to rip us off in trade.
Aroo!
Earthricans
Denmark -> Dane
I guess that actually the other way around, Denmark : Dane’s field/farm(there is a better English word for mark but can’t remember)
Netherlands → Dutch
No wonder Euros say they don’t exist.
Dutch is such a weird one. We don’t call ourselves “Dutch” in Dutch, we call ourselves “Nederlands”. This would be something like “Netherlandish” in English. We do call Germans “Duits” though, and they call themselves “Deutsch”. Somehow in English German and Dutch got a bit messed up. The reason is probably that during the middle ages we did refer to our language as “Dietsch”, so that probably stayed around.
It’s because Germany wasn’t a unified place until not that long ago, so different neighbors came up with their own way to refer to them.
Dutch is the English name for the dominant language of the Netherlands, and in English we often name people after their language. The Netherlands is also called Holland in English, even though Holland is just the most economically-dominant sub-region of the Netherlands, and the location of its main trading ports, rather than the whole country. Which makes sense if you are an English sailor who only knows the Netherlands through its trading ports and has little need to go inland.
But we also don’t call our language “Dutch”, we call it Nederlands. It’s a relic of an old time, but actually German should be called Dutch and Dutch should be Netherlandish. It’d help a lot with the confusion of young German and Dutch people learning English for the first time haha. Would also resolve the confusion around “Pennsylvanian Dutch” being German.
Also resolve the confusion around the “dutch angle” in film… it was actually a thing that was started in Germany.
Yes, you are right. I had never put it together that Dutch and Deutch are so close, but it’s obvious now that you pointed it out. Thanks for the info.
Lol I wasn’t aware of that being a thing, here in Germany we usually only say that Bielefeld (a German city) doesn’t exist.
But isn’t Dane a noun? I thought the adjective was danish.
Yes you’re right , the Danes are Danish
Danish. Also doubles as the name of a tasty pastry.
It’s based on what sounds best.
Then explain Liverpudian or Mancunian.
They’re both aposematisms - they’re meant to be a clear signal to discourage interactions.
Nothing sounds good in those accents, so it’s anything goes.
Hence ‘Brummy’
That’s why people say Scouse and Manc (not to be confused with Manx)
Find what sounds most natural, if that can’t be found, go with what sounds the least catastrophically unnatural.
Americaneseish.
People from Indiana are called hoosiers - this, like many things in English, doesn’t have a hard and fast rule… the sounds at the end of the word certainly impact it, but there are exceptions. Just ask a Peruvian.
There is a Words For Granted podcast episode about that. Don’t remember much tho. Have fun!
Ray Belli is amazing and I’ve failed to learn so many things from his podcast because as soon as he starts speaking my mind wanders. It’s like the audio version of reading the same paragraph four times because my brain decides to think about something else while my eyes move across the page
