Names From Slavic Regions
The Slavic exonym nemets, nemtsy derives from Protoslavic němьcь, pl. němьci, 'a foreigner' (from adjective němъ 'mute' and suffix -ьcь). It literally means a mute or a dumb, but then interpreted as those who can't speak like us; a foreigner. Interestingly, one of the etymologies of the word Slav derives it from slovo, meaning word or speech. In this view, Slavs would call themselves the speaking people, as opposed to their Germanic neighbors, the mutes (a similar idea lies behind Greek barbaros, barbarian). At first němьci may have been used for any non-Slav foreigners, later narrowed to just Germans. The plural form became the country name in Polish Niemcy and Silesian Ńymcy. In others languages the country name derives from adjective němьcьska (zemja) meaning 'German (land)' (f.i. Czech Německo). Belarusian Нямеччына (Nyamyecchyna) and Ukrainian Німеччина (Nimecchyna) are also from němьcь but with the help of suffix -ina.
Another theory claims that Nemtsy derives form the Rhine-based, Germanic tribe of Nemetes mentioned by Caesar and Tacitus. But this etymology is dubious from phonological (nemetes could not become Slavic němьcь) and geographical point of view.
Also the Russian for "German", Немецкий (Nemetskiy) comes from the same Slavic root, although not the name for "Germany" (Германия, Germaniya).
Over time, the Slavic exonym had been passed on to some non-Slavic languages. The Hungarian name for Germany is Németország (from the stem Német-). The popular Romanian name for German is neamț, used alongside the official term, german, which was borrowed from Latin. The Arabic name for Austria النمسا an-Nimsā was borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish and Persian word for Austria, "نمچه" – "Nemçe", from one of the Balkan Slavic languages (in the 16–17th centuries Austria was the biggest German-speaking country bordering on the Ottoman Empire).
Read more about this topic: Names Of Germany
Famous quotes containing the words names and/or regions:
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