Re: Finno-Ugric languages

-----Original Message-----
From: Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
To: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG <CONLANG@...>
Date: Sunday, September 20, 1998 7:50 PM
Subject: Re: Finno-Ugric languages


>Sally Caves wrote:
>> At one time, however, the Magyars must have been associated with the
Huns.
>> Who applied, and when, the name *Hun*gary?
>
>Related question: why is it that some nations have a name which carries
>over pretty well into other languages (e.g.,
>Spain/Espan~a/Espaigne/Espanha, etc.), while others have totally
>different, and unrelated, names in different languages (e.g.,
>Germany/Deutschland/Alemania)?  I suppose part of it might be different
>peoples living in the same country (e.g., Angles --> England, Saxons -->
>Susanach (the Irish Gaelic name)), but why didn't other nations respect
>the names given by the people thereof, for example, why don't we call
>Germany Dutchland?  And why are the Netherlanders also called Dutch?  Is
>"Dutch" related to _Deutsch_?  And why did we add -land to some nations,
>such as Ireland < Eire, but not to others, e.g., not "Spainland"?
>
Like most of you, I live in the U.S.  When our Army took over what is now
Arizona from Mexico, it ran into 2 tribes.  One tribe was nomads and avoided
the Army.  The other tribe had villages and couldn't avoid the Army, so the
Army spoke with that tribe and asked it 2 questions:

"What are the people of your tribe called?"
The answer (in that tribe's language) was "People".

"What are the people of that other tribe called?"
The answer (in that same language) was "Enemy".

So Navaho really means People, and Apache really means Enemy.

I live in the Puget Sound country.  The Indians here call themselves Siwash.
They didn't have a tribal name for themselves when they first met whites,
and the first whites they met were French trappers who called them what
French trappers always called Indians.  But the Puget Sound Indians adopted
it as their tribal name, since they had nothing else to call themselves.

"Siwash" is imperfectly pronounced French for "Savages".

--Tommie