What is the difference between endonym and exonym?
An exonym is a name given to something by an outsider while an endonym is given by an insider. Exonyms typically happen as a result of three different things: sensory observations, pronunciation differences, and language differences.
Is America an exonym?
It is contrasted with an exonym, which is a place name in the language of people who are not native to that place. For example, “America” is an exonym given to continent by a German cartographer, Martin Waldseemüller, who had never been there, and who named it for another European cartographer, Amerigo Vespucci.
Is Japan an exonym?
The word Japan is an exonym, and is used (in one form or another) by many languages. The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon ( にっぽん) and Nihon ( にほん). They are both written in Japanese using the kanji 日本.
Is Germany an exonym?
“Germany” is the English exonym for Deutschland, but in other languages Germany is known as Alemania (Spanish), Kelemania (Hawaiian), Allemagne (French), Saksa (Finnish), Germania (Italian, but Tedesco for German), Tyskland (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish), Germania (Latin, Romanian), Alemanha (Portuguese), Almanya ( …
Is England an exonym?
An exonym is the opposite, the “outer name”, as it is known to foreigners, outsiders or in different languages. A simple example is England.
Is WA an insult?
Wa’ is no longer used officially but is sometimes used as a contemptuous meaning in the Chinese Republic, Korean Republic and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. To stress the sense of contempt, Wako in China and Wenomu in the South and North Korea are used.
Why is Japan not called Nippon?
The origin of the name Japan is not certain, but researchers say it probably came from the Malayan ″Japung″ or the Chinese ″Riben,″ meaning roughly land of the rising sun. Historians say the Japanese called their country Yamato in its early history, and they began using Nippon around the seventh century.
What was Japan called in 1492?
During the third-century Three Kingdoms period, before the name of Dai Nippon Teikoku (literally “Great Japan(ese) Empire”) came into use, Japan was known as Wa (倭) or Wakoku (倭國)….Contemporary Non-CJK names.
| Language | Contemporary name for Japan (romanization) |
|---|---|
| Vietnamese | Nhật Bản |
What is the meaning of endonym?
A name used by a group or category of people to refer to themselves or their language, as opposed to a name given to them by other groups. For example, Deutschen is the endonym of a people known in English as German and Mapuche is the endonym for the people referred to by outsiders as Araucanos.
What are endonyms and exonyms of language names?
In the case of endonyms and exonyms of language names (glossonyms), Chinese, German, and Dutch, for example, are English-language exonyms for the languages that are endonymously known as Zhōngwén ( 中文 ), Deutsch, and Nederlands, respectively. By their relation to endonyms, all exonyms can be divided in three main categories:
What is the endonym project?
The Endonym Project is an effort to collect as many endonyms as possible and showcase the data in interesting ways. What are your endonyms? Click here to participate in The Endonym Project Allow location access to continue…
What are the difficulties with endonyms?
Other difficulties with endonyms have to do with pronunciation, spelling, and word category. The endonym may include sounds and spellings that are highly unfamiliar to speakers of other languages, making appropriate usage difficult if not impossible for an outsider.