List of adjectival and demonymic forms for countries and nations
The following is a list of adjectival and demonymic forms of countries and nations in English and their demonymic equivalents. A country adjective describes something as being from that country, for example, "Italian cuisine" is "cuisine of Italy". A country demonym denotes the people or the inhabitants of or from there; for example, "Germans" are people of or from Germany.
Demonyms are given in plural forms. Singular forms simply remove the final s or, in the case of -ese endings, are the same as the plural forms. The ending -men has feminine equivalent -women (e.g. Irishman, Scotswoman). The French terminations -ois / -ais serve as both the singular and plural masculine; adding e (-oise / -aise) makes them singular feminine; es (-oises / -aises) makes them plural feminine. The Spanish and Portuguese termination -o usually denotes the masculine, and is normally changed to feminine by dropping the -o and adding -a. The plural forms are usually -os and -as respectively.
Adjectives ending in -ish can be used as collective demonyms (e.g. "the English", "the Cornish"). So can those ending in -ch / -tch (e.g. "the French", "the Dutch") provided they are pronounced with a 'ch' sound (e.g. the adjective Czech does not qualify).
Many place-name adjectives and many demonyms are also used for various other things, sometimes with and sometimes without one or more additional words. (Sometimes, the use of one or more additional words is optional.) Notable examples are cuisines, cheeses, cat breeds, dog breeds, and horse breeds. (See List of words derived from toponyms.)
In cases where two or more adjectival forms are given, there is often a subtle difference in usage between the two. This is particularly the case with Central Asian countries, where one form tends to relate to the nation and the other tends to relate to the predominant ethnic group (e.g. Uzbek is primarily an ethnicity, Uzbekistani relates to citizens of Uzbekistan).
List
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See also
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- Demonym
- List of adjectival and demonymic forms of place names
- List of adjectivals and demonyms for astronomical bodies
- List of adjectivals and demonyms for continental regions
- List of adjectival and demonymic forms for countries and nations
- List of adjectivals and demonyms for Australia
- List of adjectivals and demonyms for Canada
- List of adjectivals and demonyms for Cuba
- List of adjectivals and demonyms for India
- List of adjectivals and demonyms for Malaysia
- List of adjectivals and demonyms for Mexico
- List of adjectivals and demonyms for New Zealand
- List of adjectivals and demonyms for the Philippines
- List of adjectivals and demonyms for the United States
- List of adjectivals and demonyms for cities
- List of adjectivals and demonyms for former regions
- List of adjectivals and demonyms for fictional regions
- List of adjectival and demonymic forms of place names
Notes
edit- ^ Antarctica is the southernmost continent and not a country. The Antarctic Treaty System governs Antarctica, the Southern Ocean, and all territory south of the 60th parallel south.
- ^ The Republic of Cabo Verde was formerly known as Cape Verde.
- ^ a b The third syllable of Dominican (from Dominica) is stressed.
- ^ a b The second syllable of Dominican (from the Dominican Republic) is stressed.
- ^ East Timor is now officially known as the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.
- ^ Eswatini was formerly known as Swaziland.
- ^ The European Union is a politico-economic union of sovereign states.
- ^ a b The demonym European may be used to designate either a citizen of a member state of the European Union or a resident of the greater European continent.
- ^ There is no adjective or demonym that distinguishes the Republic of Ireland from the entire island of Ireland. When distinction from Northern Ireland is necessary, the colloquial Southern Irish or Southerner is sometimes used; some people may find this offensive, and others may find it equally offensive in not distinguishing the Republic of Ireland from the island. As an alternative, an adjectival phrase may be used—for instance, "a law of the Republic of Ireland"—or, as a last resort, the name "Republic of Ireland" may be used as if it were an adjective (as in "a Republic of Ireland law").
- ^ The Ivory Coast is now officially known as the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire.
- ^ The official name of Myanmar is the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, although the nation is still sometimes referred to as Burma.
- ^ The official name of Russia is the Russian Federation.
- ^ This entity is formally known as Republic of China (ROC), which ruled Mainland China from 1912 to 1949 and Taiwan since 1945, was previously a member of the United Nations (UN) until 1971. Many countries do not recognize the legitimacy of the ROC and instead recognize the People's Republic of China (PRC) as sole legitimate government of "China". Taiwan, Penghu and the ROC-controlled territories are also claimed by the PRC as its 23rd province. See also One China and Political status of Taiwan for various viewpoints.
- ^ The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste was formerly known as East Timor.
- ^ a b Citizens of the United States of America are known as Americans, although any resident of the Americas may share this demonym. Many other names for United States citizens have been proposed to avoid confusion.
References
edit- ^ "Argentinian | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary". Archived from the original on 2018-03-09. Retrieved 2018-03-09.
- ^ "Nationalities | EF | Global Site". www.ef.com. Archived from the original on 2019-07-21. Retrieved 2019-07-21.
- ^ a b "Dictionary – Singapore / Singaporean". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 28 February 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
- ^ a b "Dictionary – Singapore". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 28 June 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
- ^ "Africa :: Somalia — The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". www.cia.gov. Archived from the original on 1 July 2014. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
External links
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