Demonym Totally Explained

A demonym or gentilic is a word that denotes the members of a people or the inhabitants of a place. In English, the name of a people's language is often the same as this word, for example, the "French" (language or people). Some places, particularly smaller cities and towns, may not have an established word for their residents; toponymists have a particular challenge in researching these. See also ethnonym.

Suffix demonyms

The English language uses several models to create demonyms. The most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location's name. These may be modelled after Late Latin, Semitic or Germanic suffixes, such as:

-an (America → American, India → Indian, San Diego → San Diegan, Rome → Roman, Singapore → Singaporean)
-ian (Brazil → Brazilian, Toronto → Torontonian, Paris → Parisian, Athens → Athenian, Ukraine → Ukrainian, Lithuania → Lithuanian, Gibraltar → Gibraltarian)
-ine (Florence -Latin Florentia- → Florentine)
-ite (Israel → Israelite (or "Israeli," depending on the usage; see below), Moscow → Muscovite) (mostly cities)
-er (New England → New Englander, Middle East → Middle Easterner, New Zealand → New Zealander, London → Londoner)
-eno (Los Angeles → Angeleno or Los Angeleno; adapted from the standard Spanish suffix eño, as in Salvadoreño)
-ish (Britain → British, Denmark → Danish) (mostly countries)
- "-ish" is usually only proper as an adjective. Thus many common "-ish" forms have irregular demonyms. (Spain/Spanish/Spaniard; Denmark/Danish/Dane; England/English/English(wo)man; Judea/Jewish/Jew or Judean; Poland/Polish/Pole)
-iard (Spain → Spaniard, Savoy → Savoyard)
-ese (Japan → Japanese, Vienna → Viennese, the Tyrol → Tyrolese, Sudan → Sudanese, Malta → Maltese)
- "-ese" is also usually only proper as an adjective, or to refer to the entirety. Thus, "a Chinese person" or "the Chinese people" can be used in place of "a Chinese" and "the Chinese" respectively.
- Used mostly for East Asian and Francophone locations, from the similar-sounding French suffix -ais(e), which is originally from the Latin adjectival ending -ensis, designating origin from a place: thus Hispaniensis (Spanish), Danensis (Danish), etc.
-i (Iraq → Iraqi, Pakistan → Pakistani, Bengal → Bengali) (mostly Middle Eastern and South Asian locales)
-i (Allemanni, Helvetii) (Latinate plural ending applied to the many peoples they encountered)
-ic (Hispania → Hispanic, Turk → Turkic (cf. Turkish)) (a Latinate suffix widely used outside ethnonyms (for example, chemical compounds) which with regard to people is mostly used adjectivally (Semite vs. Semitic, Arab/Arabian vs. Arabic) to refer to a wider ethnic or linguistic group (Turkic vs. Turkish, Finnic vs. Finnish)).
-iot(e) (Cyprus → Cypriot, Phanar → Phanariote), especially for Greek locations.

Adjectives as placenames

Some placenames originated as adjectives. In such cases the placename and the demonym often are the same word, sometimes specialized in form.

Argentina: properly Tierra Argentina (Land of Silver) or República Argentina (Argentine Republic), from Latin argentum (silver). In English, the Spanish form Argentina is used for the country, the parallel English form Argentine as demonym and general adjective. The adjectival forms of Argentinean or Argentinian are common, acceptable alternatives.

Philippines: properly Philippine Islands (Spanish: Islas Filipinas), named for King Philip II of Spain. Here, in contrast, the English form is used for the archipelago and the Spanish masculine adjective Filipino as demonym and general adjective. This dual function is very common in French, where for example Lyonnais means either the region or an inhabitant of Lyon.

Irregular forms

In some cases, both the location's name and the demonym are produced by suffixation, for example England and English and English(wo)man (derived from the Angle tribe). In some cases the derivation is concealed enough that it's no longer morphemic: France → French or Flanders → Flemish.
   A native of Halifax, Nova Scotia is called a Haligonian for reasons unclear to many residents, prompting confusion, noted uncommonly in various articles mistaking them as Halifaxians. However residents of the Halifax Regional Municipality are not considered Haligonian because the term wasn't adopted outside the community of Halifax. However a native of Dartmouth Nova Scotia which is within the Halifax Regional Municipality is called a Dartmouthian. A native of Colchester, UK is called a Colcestrian, without the h present in the name of the town. Another example is the name of the natives of Pegswood in Northumberland, England, which is 'Pegswardian', another irregular demonym. Inhabitants of some other English towns have demonyms derived from their archaic Latin names, such as Manchester - Mancunian. A native of Melbourne, Victoria is a Melburnian, from a fanciful Latization of the city's name, "Melburnia".
   A native of Liverpool is called a Liverpudlian, apparently from puddle, as, in the days before the rapid growth of Liverpool, a visitor once remarked that the city wasn't large enough to be called a pool, and was more of a puddle. However, they're sometimes called Scousers.
   Often the singular name for one of the people is the base form, and the country name, if it exists, is derived therefrom (Switzer (derived from the German Schweizer, "a Swiss man") → Switzerland, Arab → Arabia, Croat → Croatia, Dane → Denmark).
   In a few cases, demonyms are recent borrowings from other languages or adapted in a process of linguistic mutation where English demonyms are similar to those of other languages (Kosovo → Kosovan (English demonym) → Kosovar (Albanian demonym also used in English), Bosnian Muslim → Bosniak (based on the Bosnian demonym Bošnjak)).
   In a few cases, the name of the country isn't at all related to the name of the people (Netherlands → Dutch), usually because the two words originate from different languages. Or in this example, English uses a term derived from Middle Dutch (Dietsch) which is considered archaic in the contemporary Dutch language (see Netherlands (terminology)).
   In the case of most Canadian provinces and territories and U.S. states, it's unusual to use demonyms as attributive adjectives (for example "Manitoba maple", not "Manitoban maple"); thus they're generally used only predicatively ("Ben Franklin was Pennsylvanian") or substantively ("Eight Virginians have become President of the United States.") There are some exceptions - the attributive adjective for Alaska is widely held to be Alaskan and in addition, to a less-than-universal degree exceptions exist especially with respect to Alberta (Albertan), Texas (Texan) and Hawaii (Hawaiian). In the case of someone from Newcastle, the term Novocastrian is used. In this case, the demonym once again comes from the Latin for the city, Novum Castrum.
   In the case of someone from Sydney in New South Wales, it's standard to use the demonym Sydneysider.
   Demonyms can be nouns or adjectives. In many cases the noun and adjective forms are the same (Canadian/Canadian); in other cases they're different (Spaniard/Spanish, Slovene/Slovenian, Flemings/Flemish).
   In some of the latter cases the noun is formed by adding -man or -woman (English/Englishman/Englishwoman, Irish/Irishman/Irishwoman, Chinese/Chinese man/Chinese woman, versus the archaic or derogatory terms Chinaman/Chinawoman).
   An inhabitant of the U.S. state of Michigan is commonly known as a Michigander, though the more regular alternative Michiganian is increasingly used.
   A resident of the U.S. state of Indiana is known as a Hoosier, and of Connecticut, a Nutmegger.
   It is generally held that a native of Western Australia is a West Australian, the rationale possibly being that a qualifier within an adjectival phrase is better expressed as an appositional noun. The currency of “West Australian” is supported by the existence of a major newspaper of the same name.
   A resident of the U.S. state of Maryland is known as a Marylander. This word is pronounced with 3 syllables "mare-land-er" not "mary-land-er." A resident of the state of New York is known as a New Yorker.
   A resident of the U.S. state of Wisconsin is known as a Wisconsinite.
   A resident of the city of Cambridge, Mass. (or Cambridge, England) is known as a Cantabrigian.
   A resident of Washington, DC is a Washingtonian.

Double forms

Some regions and populaces also have double forms, as the concepts of nation and state are diverging once more. Hence, one whose genetic ancestors were from Britain is a Briton, whereas one with a passport from the country is considered British. The Franks settled France, but the citizens are French. This may be the case for states which were formed or dissolved relatively recently. As in the examples below, another reason for double forms of demonyms may be in relation to historical, cultural or religious issues.

Greek gods but Ode on a Grecian Urn - Greek may apply to anything connected with Greece, but Grecian is restricted to ancient culture.

Norse gods but Norwegian - Norwegian being the ordinary adjective for Norway, but Norse being generally used to describe ancient Scandinavian culture.

Israelite but Israeli - Israelite pertaining to the ancient tribes and kingdom of Israel; Israeli pertaining to the modern nation of the same name. Due to the flexibility of the international system, the opposite is often also true, where one word might apply to multiple groups. The U.S. Department of State states that 98% of the Austrian population is ethnically German, while the CIA World Factbook contradicts this by saying Austrians are a separate group (see Various terms used for Germans). A child born in the United States to a Turkish family would be considered American, both by law, and by much of the general populace; however if the child had been born in Germany, the law, and many of the people, would consider him a Turk. Some countries go so far as to explicitly recognize a difference between citizenship and nationality, for example, Russia.

In fiction

Literature and science have created a wealth of demonyms that are not directly associated with a cultural group, such as Martian for hypothetical people of Mars (credited to scientist Percival Lowell), Earthling (from the diminutive -ling, ultimately from Old English -ing meaning 'descendant') as a possible name for the people of Earth (as also "Terran" and "Terrene" and "terrestrial"), and Lilliputians from the island of Lilliput in the satire Gulliver's Travels.

Cultural problems

Some peoples, especially cultures that were overwhelmed by European colonists, have no commonly accepted demonym, or have a demonym that's the same as the name of their (current or historical) nation. Examples include Iroquois, Aztec, Māori, and Czech. Such peoples' native languages often have differentiated forms that simply didn't survive the transfer to English. In Czech, for example, the language is Čeština, the nation is Česko or Česká republika, and the people are Češi.
The demonym for citizens of the United States of America suffers a similar problem, because "American" ambiguously refers to both the USA and to the American continent. United Statian is awkward in English, but it exists in Spanish (estadounidense), French (étatsunien(ne)), Portuguese (estado-unidense or estadunidense), Italian (statunitense), and also in Interlingua (statounitese). US American (for the noun) and US-American (when used as a compound modifier preceding a noun) is another option, and is a common demonym in German (US-Amerikaner). Latin Americans (who are the most affected by this use of American) also have yanqui (Yankee) and the euphemism norteamericano/norte-americano (North American, which includes the USA, Mexico, Canada, and several other countries). Frank Lloyd Wright proposed Usonian, similar to the Esperanto noun Usonano and adjective usona (from Usono, the name for the country). In the spirit of Sydneysider, Statesider is also a possibility. See main article: Use of the word American. 2007 Miss Teen USA contestant Caitlin Upton, who gained international notoriety for her indecipherable response to a question posed to her during the national pageant, referred to the people of the United States as "U.S. Americans."

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