Why Don’t We Use Native Names For Other Countries?
Anything ending in “land” or “ia” is typically an exonym
Recently, the nation of Turkey politely asked the rest of the world if they would refer to them from now on as the Republic of Türkiye. Türkiye, they said, is more natural and closer to their native name for their homeland. When the request came in, most people agreed to go along with it. Why not? It seemed like a reasonable request. This recent change raises an obvious question. Why don’t we use native names for countries more often? Not only do English speakers often completely ignore the native tongue of other countries, but English also has a bad habit of completely changing or butchering national names.
A native name for a country is known as an endonym, while a foreign name for a country that differs from the native one is called an exonym.
Some of the biggest differences between English names for countries and the native names for countries include:
- Japan → Nippon
- India → Bharat
- Finland → Suomi
- China → Zhōngguó
- Germany → Deutschland
- Austria → Österreich
So why do we use these names rather than the native names? How difficult would…
