Germany

Germany (Deutschland in German), right in the center of Europe both geographically, and at least since medieval times, also politically, has a wide variety of names. Modern Germany did not come into being until 1871 with the formation of the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm I. Before that, the name "Germany" was used in English to refer to the region where "Germans" lived, meaning the people of a certain ethnic, cultural, and linguistic stock who populated central Europe, especially those within the Holy Roman Empire.

GERMANY

Because of Germany's central location and its often chaotic history, it is referred to by several unrelated names in various languages. The English name is derived from the Latin Germania, used as early as the 3rd century BC to refer to lands east of the Rhine. The origin of the name is uncertain, though it seems to be a Gaulish term -- the Germans never referred to themselves as such. Julius Caesar, in his Commentaries on the Gallic War (c. 50-40 BC), and Tacitus, in Germania (98 AD), recognized, though crudely, the differences between the Celtic Gauls and Balgae and the Germans, seeing the latter as more barbaric and dangerous though admiring their industiousness (big surprise), among other virtues. Magna Germania came to refer to the lands east of the Rhine (modern Germany), which were for the most part only ever partially subdued. Roman expanison into Magna Germania ended with the battle of Teutoberg Forest in 9 AD. The two provinces of Germania Superior (roughtly modern-day Switzerland, Baden, and Alsace) and Germania Inferior (Belgium, Luxembourg, Flanders) remained a part of the Empire until the rise of the Franks in the 5th century.


As I said, the exact origin of the name may never be known , though many theories have been advanced. One links the name with the Old Irish [OI] gair, "neighbor," which gives the rather bland explanation that the Belgic Gauls referred to the Germans as simply a neighboring people. Jakob Grimm proposed that the name was related to OI gairm (Proto-Celtic *gar-), "battle cry," referring to their warlike nature, though this could well be a bit of 19th-century romanticism.

DEUTSCHLAND

Deutschland, the name Germans use to refer to their own country, the land of the Deutsch. This word simply means "of the people," and comes from Old High German [OHG] diutisc, from Proto-Germanic *þeudiskaz < *þeudō "people, folk." This is the same source of the name Theodoric (and hence, Dietrich, Dirk, Derek, etc.), Tolkien's character Théoden, and ultimately, of the word "Teutonic," which comes to English via the Latin name for a Germanic tribe, the Teutoni. The Proto-Indo-European root, *teuta, is the source of Irish tuath "country" and maybe even Latin totus, "whole." The word "Dutch," which refers more to people from the Netherlands, comes into English from a Low German dialect -- although the "Pennsylvania Dutch" in the US are actually of German stock, reflecting a time when the distinction was not so clear.


After the breakup of Charlemagne's Empire, Germanic-speaking Franks in Western Francia (modern France) started to refer to their language no longer as frengisk ("Frankish"), but as diutisc "folkish" in order to distinguish themselves from Romance-speaking Franks. This trend spread to Eastern Francia (roughly modern Germany) by the 10th century.

Most ther Germanic languages use a variation of this name: Scandinavian Tyskland, Dutch Duitsland, etc. East Asian languages also use this name, with Japanese Doitsu and Chinese Déguó, a pun which literally translates to "moral country."

ALLEMAGNE

In most Romance languages (French Allemagne, Spanish Alemania, Portuguese Alemanha), in several languages of the Near East (Arabic 'Almāniyā, Persian 'Ālmān, Turkish Almanya), and in various Celtic languages (Welsh Yr Almaen, Breton Alamagn), a name is used which derives from the name of the Alamanni, a Germanic tribe who had settled in the Upper Rhine Valley. Today, "Alemannic" refers to the dialect of German spoken in the Black Forest around Freiburg im Breisgau. Even the English name for German was more commonly "Almain" until the 16th century. This name was probably spread to other nations by the French.

The origin of the name Alemanni itself is disputed. It almost certainly comes from PG *Alamanniz, which can be derived two ways: It could mean "all men," referring to a confederation of tribes, or the al- part is related to Latin alius "other" and English "else," and it means "foreign men, aliens."

SAKSA

In Finnic languages (Finnish Saksa, Estonia Saksamaa), the name comes from the Saxons, who were prominent in the East along the Elbe (modern Saxony is in the former East Germany). The warlike Saxons, whom the Franks only subdued and converted after a long series of bloody conflicts, were named for the seax, the single-edged knife or sword they wielded.

NIEMCY

In most Slavic languages, the name for the Germany may be derived from a Slavic root meaning "mute" or "dumb": Polish Niemcy, Czech Německo, Ukrainian Nimeččyna, and (non-Slavic) Hungarian Némeország. According to this theory, the Slavs, who derived their own name from slovo, "word," referred to foreigners, and then specifically Germanic tribes, as nemoy, "mute, dumb, or those who cannot talk." A better but less colorful theory has this name coming from the Nemetes, a tribe mentioned by Caesar and Tacitus living in the area around modern Speyer in southwest Germany on the Rhine. Their name is probably derived from a Celtic word nemeton, "sacred space, sacred grove." The Arabic name for Austria, an-Nimsā, may also come from this name.

OTHER

In Latvian and Lithuanian, the words for Germany are Vācija and Vokietija, most likely from German Volk, "people, folk." Old Norse used the term Suðvegr, "south way," as opposed to Norðvegr, the "north way," Norway. And in Tahitian, Purutia is a variation of Prusse, the French name for Prussia.