A random thought about languages

The Hangout Discuss
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So.

I just had a really weird thought about languages.

So you know how in like English you call the Netherlands, Netherlands and Dutch, Dutch. But in Dutch, you call Dutch, Nederlands and the Netherlands, i cant remember.

But theres different versions for every language.

So my question is, why dont we use the name that is used in their language?

Of a persons name is said differently or has an equivalent in another lamguage, you still use the name they are called not the translated name. So why do we do this with the names of languages and countries abd places?

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There is actually a linguistic explanation for this!

The name that a country or people is referred to in their native language is an endonym and the name a country or people is referred to outside of their native language is an exonym

Most times it comes down to ease of pronunciation but it can also be a result of transliteration from one writing system to another

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For example - Germany in German (so the native language of its people) is Deutschland

However, the sounds needed to pronounce Deutschland aren’t present in Japanese, so people in Japan refer to it as Doitsu

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The Netherlands = Nederland
Dutch = Nederlands

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But from what I know, the word Dutch actually comes from old German, and means the same as Deutsch (German in German). So confusing yes, very much

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It also kinda comes down to who had contact with who because the English name for Japan came from Portuguese traders who had learned it in China

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Thanks!

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It is kind of an interesting topic (or at least I think so) so I’d def recommend checking out some more reputable sources

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This makes sense!

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