A reader passes along this puzzle:
Find cases where the name of inhabitants of a city, region, or country in English has nothing to do etymologically with the name of that geographic entity in English. The most prominent example of this would be Rio de Janeiro and "Carioca." Interestingly, the inhabitants of the state of Rio de Janeiro are called "fluminense." Besides these examples, I only know one other major South American city with a similar name pair.
Clearly, something like "Liverpudlian" won’t qualify. It turns out those Liverpudlians have a nickname "Scousers" but I am really after the primary name (there is no "Rio-de-Janeirenhos" -– you have to use Carioca). In any event, the list that immediately comes to mind is pretty limited, but I am sure there are plenty of those around. I expect for instance that it is common in Brazil, so some Brazilian may pitch in. In any case, I don't think the definition should be very restrictive, because that way we could learn about interesting cases.
Any thoughts? I can think of one example -- involving the name for the inhabitants of a country -- that should be pretty obvious, but I can't think of others.
But as for what you can think of, Professor Volokh, all I'm
thinking of are minority groups in a region, like the Hmong in Vietnam or the Masai in Kenya, but I doubt that's what you're thinking of.
Now, do Hoosiers count?
tarheels
downeasters
knickerbockers
sooners
...too easy.
Actually, place names are sort of interesting in general, since some long lost languages are only left as place names (Illiyrian was one, if memory serves).
That's easy -- UKian (pronounced "Ookian").
Madagascar - Malagasy
Stoners / Vancouver :)
Also from Brazil, though I'm not sure this is quite as good an example, are the people of Rio Grande do Sul. They are, of course, refered to as Gauchos. While failure to recognize this fact will certainly cost you a number of friendships (they're passionate about their status as gauchos), I thik this term might be more encompassing than people from Rio Grande do Sul might lead you to believe. I think, but I'm not sure, that the word can be properly used to refer to a group of "cowboy" like people from the more general southern regions of Brazil, not necessarily just the people of RGS.
I believe it is "Masshole"
Just kidding.
I thought it was UKer, as in "that guy is a total UKer."
Only slightly more seriously,
(1) isn't someone from Holland (rather than some other part of the Netherlands) still called a Hollander?
(2) presumably Ireland is named for the Irish, whereas the Icelanders are named after Iceland.
(3) Is there anything to be made of the Hellenes/Greeks thing?
We will have WORDS! Actually, I thought it was "Bostonian" for anyone inside 128. If you're from the Cape, I guess you would be a Cape Codder (which is a drink...?); if you're from Western Mass, you're just from Western Mass.
No, this is just one type of Belgian. The other type is Flemish (Vlamingen).
I'd have guessed it was pronounced "YOO-kian."
I kinda like the sound of "Irelandic" (by analogy to Icelandic) but I don't think it's going to catch on.
Sunderland (UK) - Macam
Tyneside (UK) - Geordie
Naples - Neopolitan
Also, "Georgians"--I know it doesn't count, since we call the country "Georgia." But it's not even close.
Cambodia--Khmer (Though 'Cambodian' is also used; perhaps more often?)
Ottoman Empire--Turks (Though my newspaper may be a bit old.)
Israel--Zionist-Imperialist Pig
And isn't there a country whose people are called Cheese Eating Surrender Monkies? I'm blanking on it.
If you're an American, a Yankee is someone who lives north of the Mason-Dixon line.
If you live north of the Mason-Dixon line, a Yankee is someone who lives in New England.
If you live in New England, a Yankee is someone who lives in Vermont.
If you live in Vermont, a Yankee is someone who lives in the Green Mountains.
If you live in the Green Mountains, a Yankee is someone who eats apple pie for breakfast.
If you live in the Green Mountains and eat apple pie for breakfast, a Yankee is someone who eats it with a knife.
:)
I'm hoping some baseball fanatic can help me with this one.
I realize that my hometown example is well short of the personal descriptor having "nothing to do" with the place name, but nonetheless...: you omitted the in-between example of "Cantabrigian" for those of us lucky enough to hail from Cambridge, Mass.
I would like to bristle at being called a Bostonian, if I could always remember to.
Do you actually call yourselves 'Cantabrigians'? If I'm writing to someone at Harvard, can I just write 'Cantab.' on the envelope? Do people living around Miami U. in Ohio call themselves 'Oxonians'? Are you the Cambridge that had all that Kim Philby trouble, or was that the other one?
Well, technically, they became the 'Highlanders' for a year or two before becoming the Yankees. And if you are going to get picky about a team over reaching with the nickname, I can assure there were quite a few Patriots not from New England...
Sure, there are Patriots outside of New England. But there are Patriots /in/ NE, too. 'Yankee,' on the other hand, doesn't describe a New Yorker. 'Knickerbockers' had already been used. But I don't think that left the team with no choices.
But, as the baseball people will tell you, you should NEVER refer to a Sox fan as a Yankee. ::Shuddders::
London (UK) - cockneys (short for "cockney gits")
Islenos--Residents of St. Bernard parish, Louisiana who are descendants of migrants from the Canary Islands.
Creoles
Gullahs or Geechee(African Americans of West African descent in the low country of Georgia and South Carolina where rice cultivation--and malaria--was prevalent in the 18th and 19th centuries)
Because the name of the city in Russian is Moskva.
Re: Naples - Neopolitan
Those are related (Naples < Neapolis). Also I suspect "Madagascar and Malgasy" are related words. Maybe the former was how some inattentive European explorer heard some word like the latter?
So I leave it to the linguists.
I believe that "Khmer" more properly refers to the major ethnic group of Cambodia, whereas "Cambodian" refers to anyone who is an inhabitant of the country regardless of ethnicity/race. This is similar to the situation in Kazakhstan, where "Kazakh" is used for members of the ethnic group and "Kazakhstani" is used for any inhabitant of the country: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Kazakhstan#Kazakhs_and_Kazakhstanis_.28terminology.29 (Remove the space to make the URL work.)
Residents of Pittsburgh sometimes are called something like "younzers." (IIRC, it derives from the "mispronunciation" of a place, perhaps the river there.)
Oh, and I learned a new word from my quick research. "Demonym"!
it's my experience that Indians refer to themselves as Indians.
Actually, "yinzers" derives from the Pittsburgh slang for "you guys," which would be written "you'uns" but pronounced something like "yinz," as in "yinz guys gwan dahntahn ta catch da Pahrts game at PNC Park? Dey're sellin Arn City Beer for two dawlers today."
On a similar note, the pejorative Pittsburghese word for "person of Slavic descent" is "hunkie," which comports with the challenge at hand.
While all of these may be nicknames for people from various states, I think most can be distinguished from something like "Hoosier," which is the only widely accepted way to refer to people from Indiana. A quick Google search reveals that the terms "Ohioan," "Oklahoman," and "North Carolinian" are widely used. The word "Indianan" exists, but is not accepted by Indiana residents as the proper way to refer to people from Indiana. Hoosiers presume that anyone who says "Indianan" doesn't know anything about Indiana.
Confess! You're really the Librarian, aren't you?
* I'm glad my ancestors didn't come from Crete.
True, but as a nickname against the official "uruguayos". On the other hand there is no alternative for Buenos Aires porteños.
But Hawaiians do not often refer to themselves, in aggregate, as Kanakas, although whites used to do so in the 19th century.
In Hawaii, a Hawaiian is someone descended from the original inhabitants, often specified as Native Hawaiian. The more ancestrally conscious of them now usually refer to themselves as Kanaka Maoli.
It is a solecism to refer to residents of the islands who do not claim native blood as Hawaiians. We are people with no name.
My newspaper refers to all inhabitants collectively as 'Hawaii residents.'
In street speech, people are usually identified as locals (anybody not tainted with white blood), local haole (white born in the islands) or haole (white from somewhere else).
It gets even more complicated. Local haoles from long-established haole families like to call themselves kamaaina (literally, child of the land, born here); although anybody of any ancestry born here is entitled to call himself kamaaina.
Possession of a Hawaii state drivers license entitles you to 'kamaaina discount' even if you are not kamaaina.
It gets even more complicated than that. Each ethnic group has a name: Pake (Chinese); AJA (American of Japanese Ancestry); kotonk (AJA born on the Mainland; Potagee (Portuguese) and several others.
Santa Barbarians
An escalabitano comes from Santarém, Pará.
A soteropolitano is from Salvador, Bahia.
A resident of São Vicente, São Paulo is a calunga.
The tricordiano is from Três Corações, Minas Gerais.
A grapiúna can be found in Itabuna, Bahia.
Mineiros are from Minas Gerais state.
A paulista comes from the state of São Paulo.
A paulistano is from the city of São Paulo.
A person of Brazilian nationality is a brasileiro.
If he lives in Brasília, Distrito Federal (the capital),
he is also a brasiliense.
Capixabas are sometimes called espírito-santenses.
The country of "Pele" and "Garrincha" did not disappoint!
Garrincha was a mageense (from the town of Pau Grande
in the municipality of Magé, Rio de Janeiro.)
Given that prior to WWI, Croatia was a part of Austria-Hungary, that's not a surprise.
Actually, in Spanish, Bonairense is the proper (though only used formally) name for the Buenos Aires porteños
Uruguayos are called Orientales because Uruguay was called the Banda Oriental (roughly the Eastern shore) in colonial times, being on the eastern bank of the Rio de la Plata River, as opossed to the rest of Argentina, to which it belonged during the Spanish domination. The official name of Uruguay is "Republica Oriental de Uruguay" (the Eastern Republic of Uruguay), yet there is no Western Republic of Uruguay.
Are you from Indiana, or next door from Illannoying?
Someone from Holland in The Netherlands) is Dutch.
Around here, a Hollander is someone from Holland, Michigan(at least if they're ethnically Dutch).
And my Dad's ancestors are Pomeranians?
Belmont -> Belmonster
What's the word for someone from the county and borough of Queens?
Are you all sure there is no connection between Rio de Janiero and Cariocan?
The CIA world factbook is pretty good about the words for countries and their inhabitants. (It's perfect for middle school reports!) It says that the nationality of a citizen of Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides) is Ni-Vanuatu and of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay is Uruguayan.
There is a clear rule across a lot of these names (not all). In some countries there is a people, and the ancestral land is named for them. the Eire comprised of Irish have their country Ireland. In Iceland, as far from that as you can get, you have a barren rock discovered by Vikings, some of whom settled there.
In many cases you have a two-level construction. The ethnic Azeries have a country Azerbaijan in which other ethnicities live with them. All together they are the Azerbaijanis. The distinction is pretty logical.
Many of the "stan" countries follow the general pattern of the Eire in Ireland, except local language makes use of -stan instead of -land.
The original example of "fluminense" makes perfect sense for anyone who recalls high school Latin. I am suspecting that the term fluminense reflects Jesuits referring to people from Ria as "river inhabitants" orperhaps "people of the flood-plain, either of which would not have leap far to get to fluminense.
jim: Hellene comes from the Greek word for Greece (Hellas or Hellada, which in the actual Greek has no initial H), so I'm not sure that would qualify.
Kevin McG: When I was stationed in Athens, we used to poke fun at our colleagues in Crete by calling them Cretans while they were there, and ex-Cretians once they transferred elsewhere.
New Hampshirites and Wyomingites.
I suppose one could try the same for Connecticut, but it would not be for the thick-of-tongue.
Boyd: Heh. Well then, I guess I'd rather my ancestors were in Crete than from Crete.
To name a couple, American for United States is not right. First, American DOES refer to the region where they are from (just a much larger portion). Second, there is a word, Unitedstatian. It's just not often used.
The Shanghai example is bad, too, because Shanghai is also known as "hu", so it is just another name. The name of the area used to be "hu", so that is why it is called that...just like how "canton" is also known as "yue," etc.
Porteños obviously refers to the "port" that is Buenos Aires. Indeed, I'd suspect that it was called El Puerto de Buenos Aires (the Port of Good Winds) because the "city" was probably just built around the port. Again, not sure this would (should) count.
By 1979, there was not much difference between living in Cambodia and being Khmer. Despite what Noam Chomsky said at the time.
This actually raises an interesting (if hypothetical and potentially silly) question: If we ever encounter extraterrestrials, what name will we go by? Earthlings? Humans? Terrans?
In the fictional world of "Star Trek," people from Earth are called humans. In the mirror universe (as found in "Mirror, Mirror" and episodes in Deep Space Nine and Enterprise), people from Earth are called terrans.
I suppose it is food for thought.