I mean:

English

Russian

French? (how did this happen? France --> French?!?)

Chinese

And someone from Afghanistan is an Afghan? How did the word get shorter not longer? 🤔

Also, why is a person from India called an Indian, but the language is called Hindi? This breaks my brain…

Philippines --> Filipino? They just saw the “Ph” and decided to use an “F”? 🤔

Okay idk how language even works anymore…

[This is an open discusssion thread on languages and their quirks…]

  • hddsx@lemmy.caEnglish
    4·
    16 hours ago

    We didn’t. 中國likely became the most common name with 中華民國（present day commonly known as Taiwan). What you now know as China is 中華人民共和國, so 中國 carries on. During dynasty periods that was not the common name.

    China comes from sina/sino. I don’t remember where this comes from. Sanskrit?

    • 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦@ttrpg.networkEnglish
      2·
      7 hours ago

      Uh… 中国(Zhongguo) was first used in the Western Zhou period, over 3000 years ago. Other words like 诸夏(Zhuxia), 诸华 (Zhuhua), 天下 (Tianxia), 华夏 (Huaxia), 神州 (Shenzhou), 九州 (Jiuzhou), and assorted combinations or variations of these were used off and on over the time as well. (None of which sound like “China” naturally.) 大清国 (Daqing Guo) was used the Qing before they were overthrown and the Republic, and later the People’s Republic, took the country over again.

      • hddsx@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        5 hours ago

        It wasn’t common though. Like everyone calls it 中國 now. Not so back then. China has fragmented and reunited many times

    • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyzEnglish
      3·
      2 hours ago

      China comes from sina/sino. I don’t remember where this comes from. Sanskrit?

      Odds are that both were independently borrowed from Sanskrit चीन / Cīna:

      • China: Sanskrit, then Persian, Portuguese, English. By then Portuguese likely still had the [tʃ] “tch” sound.
      • Sina: Sanskrit, then Persian, Arabic, Greek, Latin, English. Arabic converted Sanskrit [tɕ] into [sˤ], then Greek into [s].

      Note: dunno in English but at least in Latin “Sina” (often Sinae, the plural) refers specifically to southern China. The north is typically called Serica (roughly “of the silk”).