countries' names

Vampyromaniac · Apr 23, 2003, 04:41 PM

I'm curious about something.
I want to know what countries are called, in their official language.
So can ya mutli-lingual people help me out?

Example:
Spain, in spanish, is called España, pronounced "Espanya"

Thanks

AND yes, I already know what Enlgand is called in English

kinetic · Apr 23, 2003, 04:43 PM

England: pronounced En-ger-lund.

kinetic · Apr 23, 2003, 04:44 PM

Quick edit their Vampy!

DallasStar · Apr 23, 2003, 04:44 PM

Pakistan means something along the lines of "pure land" in urdu.

Vampyromaniac · Apr 23, 2003, 04:45 PM

pmsl

RIGHT when I was editing my post

Dallasstar, not really the meaning Im looking for, but rather how to say the name of the country, in its language.

dipstick · Apr 23, 2003, 05:08 PM

Greece is Ellas or Ellatha

Ryoko · Apr 23, 2003, 05:15 PM

japan:

Nippon or Nihon

(correct me if i'm wrong)

~~Asuka~~ · Apr 23, 2003, 05:20 PM

Germany is "Deutschland" (pronounced like "Doitshlahnd")

@Ryoko: correct. The land is "Nippon", but the characters are pronounced "nihon" in words like "nihongo" (Japanese)

**Asmoday** · Apr 23, 2003, 11:59 PM

Sweden is Sverige [sve-ree-je]..

merry · Apr 24, 2003, 12:03 AM

Romania is România... pronounced Ro-mâ-nee-ya, the "â" sign is the last vowel in "generation".

merry · Apr 24, 2003, 12:28 AM

Moldavia -> Moldova
Hungaria -> Madyarsag, first two "a" should be close to "o" (like fr. maman), "dy" palatized.
Poland -> Polska
Czech Republik -> Tchesko (Tcheska Republika)
Slovakia -> Slovensko
Croatia -> Hrvatska (semivowel between r and v, approx like the one in "the")
Bulgaria -> slightly different "u" (see above)

Mind that all as should be read like the final one in "America" (except where noted).

Falstaff · Apr 24, 2003, 01:20 AM

Quote:

japan:

Nippon or Nihon

(correct me if i'm wrong)

Hai! Nihongo Dijobu des

Anatawa josu!

matashita nei!

Falstaff · Apr 24, 2003, 01:29 AM

Great White North aye!

ToshiroOC · Apr 24, 2003, 01:36 AM

Spanish: Mexico (pronounced: meh-hi-koh in spanish)

shuki · Apr 24, 2003, 01:48 AM

Israel is pronounced ees-rah-el in Hebrew

nieves · Apr 24, 2003, 05:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by merry
Romania is România... pronounced Ro-mâ-nee-ya, the "â" sign is the last vowel in "generation".

It's worth mentioning that the country's name comes from the latin "Roma" (city of Rome) as the language is romanic. I added this comment because a translation usually comes with a bit of etymology. which I tried to explain, very briefly, of course, because we can go a lot deeper in that...

Vampyromaniac · Apr 29, 2003, 01:29 AM

Interesting some names are nearly the same in English, but others are completely different...
Makes me wonder where the heck the English name for some countries came from

Example: Georgia . . . not the state, but the country formerly a part of the Soviet Union
Who the heck decided to call this country "Georgia" in English??!?

~~Asuka~~ · Apr 29, 2003, 07:20 PM

Originally posted by fallang_jeff
Hai! Nihongo Dijobu des

Guess that should be "Nihongo daijoubu desu" (whereas the "ou" is a long o and the u in desu is mute)

Anatawa josu!

Anata wa ... "josu"?

matashita nei!

"ne", not "nei". What do you want to say with this?

FuNsTeR · Apr 30, 2003, 01:07 PM

the English seem to think Scotland is pronounced Scotchland

... cheeky S.O.B's

in Gaelic Scotland is = Alba
first known name given for Scotland was given to us by the romans ... Caledonia ... thus all scots are in reality Caledonians

MoinMan · Apr 30, 2003, 04:42 PM

Austria is Österreich.
I'm still thinking how to explain the pronouniciation. Perhaps some Germans could help me by that.

ptzs · Apr 30, 2003, 08:29 PM

Portugal in portuguese in pronounced Por-two-gal.

The gal part is like when you call for someone called Al but with a g before...

~~Asuka~~ · Apr 30, 2003, 08:47 PM

Originally posted by MoinMan
Austria is Österreich.
I'm still thinking how to explain the pronouniciation. Perhaps some Germans could help me by that.

Difficult, because English speakers neither know the 'Ö' sound nor the 'ei' sound nor the 'ch' sound

I'll try to explain... if you know french, the 'ö' sound is similar to the 'e' in 'le'.
The 'ei' is similar to the 'y' in 'my'.
The 'ch' is completely different from the english 'ch' (which is just a 'k' sound), it's somewhat like 'sh' without a 's' at the beginning.

Ö-s-ther-'-r-ei-ch (the s is a sharp s like in 'sience')

FuNsTeR · May 1, 2003, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ptzs
Portugal in portuguese in pronounced Por-two-gal.

The gal part is like when you call for someone called Al but with a g before...

if you were playing Us at fitba then it would be Porti- five-goals

mizzer · May 1, 2003, 08:06 AM

I always pronounce "The United States" as we-own-joo-all. I think it's Native American.

ptzs · May 1, 2003, 12:54 PM

mizzer: vietnam is pronounced we-owned-joo-yanks . Must've been the natives also.

(hey they owned the french also...so no bad feelings)

cykario · May 1, 2003, 12:58 PM

Im from Venezuela, South America and Venezuela is from little Venice

***Zardon*** · May 1, 2003, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mizzer
I always pronounce "The United States" as we-own-joo-all. I think it's Native American.