Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4

Author Topic: A lot of real countries have Dwarf Fortress style names if you translate them...  (Read 7106 times)

Ampersand

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile

I suppose it depends on which name for Switzer is possibly related to the old high german word, suedan, or "To burn"

The actual local name for Switzerland would be Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft in German. I guess if you go by the supposed etymology, it would have the extremly dwarven name of "The Confederation of Burning."

Also, since Iran comes from the same root word as Aryan, the name probably means something closer to "Land of the Noble people."
« Last Edit: February 05, 2011, 05:19:36 pm by Ampersand »
Logged
!!&!!

NW_Kohaku

  • Bay Watcher
  • [ETHIC:SCIENCE_FOR_FUN: REQUIRED]
    • View Profile

Barbados - "Bearded Ones"...
Logged
Personally, I like [DF] because after climbing the damned learning cliff, I'm too elitist to consider not liking it.
"And no Frankenstein-esque body part stitching?"
"Not yet"

Improved Farming
Class Warfare

Darvi

  • Bay Watcher
  • <Cript> Darvi is my wifi.
    • View Profile

I always thought Switzerland was named after sweat. After all, in a swiss sauna they all talk Schwitzerdeutsch *rimshot*
Logged

scriver

  • Bay Watcher
  • City streets ain't got much pity
    • View Profile

Isn't "switz" deroved from the (possibly Latin version) name of the Germanic tribe that once lived there? Of course, I guess it must have meant something too.. But still, "Land of the [whatever it meant] people would be more correct, no?
Logged
Love, scriver~

Askot Bokbondeler

  • Bay Watcher
  • please line up orderly
    • View Profile

portugal(beautifull port in the map) actually means port of... port
the medieval county of portus calem was named after it's biggest city, wich was the port of cale, wich in turn was named after the city of cale, a neighbouring town that presumably started out as a celtic vilage. cale derived from cala, the celtic name for port...

brazil was named after "pau brazil" portuguese for "ember stick". red wood is the tupi name for caesalpinia echinata

Il Palazzo

  • Bay Watcher
  • And lo, the Dude did abide. And it was good.
    • View Profile

Man, the translation for Slovakia and Slovenia is really bad, if not derogatory.
Logged

Tellemurius

  • Bay Watcher
  • Positively insane Tech Thaumaturgist
    • View Profile

Land of Polans

well thats highly original >.>

Ampersand

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile

Isn't "switz" deroved from the (possibly Latin version) name of the Germanic tribe that once lived there? Of course, I guess it must have meant something too.. But still, "Land of the [whatever it meant] people would be more correct, no?

The gaulish tribe that lived in the area were the Helvetii.

Man, the translation for Slovakia and Slovenia is really bad, if not derogatory.

This is because, when the Ottoman Turks began selling rowing slaves to Europeans, the first slaves they put on the market were Slavs. The English word Slave is a corruption of the Turkish pronunciation of Slav.
Logged
!!&!!

Duntada Man

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile

Only one person noticed the "Bearded Ones." island?

The only one more dwarvenly than that is "Ancient Bearded."
Logged
Girlinhat: The biggest issue seems to be size.  A 1x1 room would allow for maximum child desecration.

Ampersand

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile

Also, calling the Americas, North and south Amerigo misses the point. Amerigo is just some italian guy's name after all. The question is what the name means. It boils down to 'Ruler of the Home.' Because the names are feminized, the proper names would be 'North and South Mistress of the Home.'
Logged
!!&!!

scriver

  • Bay Watcher
  • City streets ain't got much pity
    • View Profile

So I finally got to take a look at the map (Wrote the above post on my phone yesterday). What I can't really figure out though, is whether or not it's using the English word or the name in the nation's language? It seems to me as if he's alternating between it. Of course, a lot of country names are simply bastardisations of the name in the original language, so maybe I'm just a bit confused. Norway and Sweden, for example, have their English names translated rather than their native ones. And I also insist "Sweden" would be better translated as "Of One's Own People", with an optional "Land" in front of it. ;)
On the other hand, Finland being "Land" only makes sense if it's "Soumi" being translated instead of "Finland", though (I seem to recall this already being said, but I guess there's no harm in repeating it)


Isn't "switz" deroved from the (possibly Latin version) name of the Germanic tribe that once lived there? Of course, I guess it must have meant something too.. But still, "Land of the [whatever it meant] people would be more correct, no?

The gaulish tribe that lived in the area were the Helvetii.
Yes, I glanced over some wikipedia article and it seems "switz" originates from the/a name of a region (which in itself is theorised to derived from "to burn", or a word having to do with burning, so I guess is the map is correct in that), not the people.
Oh, and yeah, Gaulish. The nerd in me writhes in disappointment and shame over that little slip.
Logged
Love, scriver~

Lysabild

  • Bay Watcher
  • Eidora Terminus Imperii Romani
    • View Profile
    • My Steam!

So I finally got to take a look at the map (Wrote the above post on my phone yesterday). What I can't really figure out though, is whether or not it's using the English word or the name in the nation's language? It seems to me as if he's alternating between it. Of course, a lot of country names are simply bastardisations of the name in the original language, so maybe I'm just a bit confused. Norway and Sweden, for example, have their English names translated rather than their native ones. And I also insist "Sweden" would be better translated as "Of One's Own People", with an optional "Land" in front of it. ;)
On the other hand, Finland being "Land" only makes sense if it's "Soumi" being translated instead of "Finland", though (I seem to recall this already being said, but I guess there's no harm in repeating it)

Norway is right, Norge, Nordhvegr means The North Way, but if you read up and saw my post you would see what Sverige means, because it's not Of One's Own People :)
Logged

scriver

  • Bay Watcher
  • City streets ain't got much pity
    • View Profile

I'm Swedish ;)
However, you're assuming "Svea" doesn't mean anything, which it of course does; the origin for Swede (and Svear) is hypothesised to mean "one's own people". Thus, Sweden would be "[land/realm/substantive referring to them living there] Of One's Own People". Sverige would as well, though with a clearly stated, rather than implied, "realm" bound into the word.
Norge I might very well be wrong about, though. I simply assumed the "rge" was the same as in Sverige, which (as you know) would have made it "the Northern Realm".
Logged
Love, scriver~

Il Palazzo

  • Bay Watcher
  • And lo, the Dude did abide. And it was good.
    • View Profile

Man, the translation for Slovakia and Slovenia is really bad, if not derogatory.

This is because, when the Ottoman Turks began selling rowing slaves to Europeans, the first slaves they put on the market were Slavs. The English word Slave is a corruption of the Turkish pronunciation of Slav.
Yeah, that is true, but the name of a country does not reflect the corruption of the original word. As some people already said, this map likes to jump between the interpretations - from the Anglophone's perspective, and the one native to any given country - seemingly randomly.
Slovakians and Slovenians of course did not give a damn about the word "slave", when they were deciding to name their countries.
When you look at the etymology of the word "slavic", you'll notice that it's just meaning "of words", or just "speaking the same language", as contrasted with e.g. the Greek idea of barbarians - i.e.those who don't speak our language. It's practically the same as Scriver's explanation of Sweden's name's origins - one's own people, reflecting the earliest source of division between people, that is language.

All in all, I'll just chime in with the general consensus, that this map is quite a nice project, however not researched properly.
Logged

TolyK

  • Bay Watcher
  • Nowan Ilfideme
    • View Profile

Речь Посполитая - Public Word/Communal Government/Public Duty
My country was part of this before.
My country's name means "White Russia", well kinda.
Logged
My Mafia Stats
just do whatevery tolyK and blame it as a bastard mod
Shakerag: Who are you personally suspicious of?
At this point?  TolyK.
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4