Other Languages
All Germanic languages other than English have a name for Austria corresponding to Österreich: Afrikaans Oostenryk, Danish Østrig, Dutch Oostenrijk, Frisian Eastenryk, and Icelandic Austurríki. Finnish Itävalta is also derived from the German name: itä means "east" and valta "state". "Austria" was adopted in most other languages, including Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Maltese, Russian, Polish, Slovene, Greek, Estonian, Turkish, and Albanian. French is an exception within the Romance group in adopting the German name, Autriche.
The Czech and Slovak languages have a peculiar name for Austria. Czech Rakousko and Slovak Rakúsko neither derived from German Österreich nor from Latin Austria. The Czech name of Rakousko, previously also Rakúsy and later Rakousy, which is still used for the states of Upper and Lower Austria (Horní a Dolní Rakousy), originates in the name of the Austrian castle and town of Raabs an der Thaya near the Czech-Austrian border, formerly also known as Ratgoz or Ratgos.
The Arabic name for Austria is an-Nimsā (النمسا). This is a borrowing (via Ottoman Turkish or Persian "نمچه" – "Nemçe") from the Slavic name for "Germans", němьci, whence Croatian Njemačka, Serbian Nemačka (Немачка), Slovene Nemčija, Czech has Německo, Slovak Nemecko, etc., all meaning "mute".
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“The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities of misunderstanding.”
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1934)
“No doubt, to a man of sense, travel offers advantages. As many languages as he has, as many friends, as many arts and trades, so many times is he a man. A foreign country is a point of comparison, wherefrom to judge his own.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)