Megalocerus t1_j6gn5xl wrote on January 30, 2023 at 4:27 AM

Reply to comment by justlookingforajob1 in ELI5: How do they come up with names for countries in foreign languages? by bentobam

Florence, which is Firenze in Italian, is called Florence and variants in other countries because when Julius Caesar settled men there it was called "Florentia". "Germany" comes from the Latin as well. Switzerland in some contexts is "Confoederatio Helvetica", again from the Latin, but then there are 4 languages used there. Switzerland comes from the name of one of the original provinces, Schwyz.

US states like Kansas and Arkansas are named for rivers named for native tribes, much modified. Arkansas got passed through French. Canada was a misunderstanding; it seems to have been named for the Huron word for "settlement" (Kanata) based on directions Cartier was given to Stadacona (later Quebec.)

Japan may have been given its name based on the name the Chinese (Riben) or the Malaysians (Japung) called it, both referring to the land to the East (Land of the Rising Sun.) The Japanese changed from calling it Yamato to calling it Nippon.

StudioDroid t1_j6hpfoe wrote on January 30, 2023 at 12:16 PM

Even weirder is that the common pronunciation of Kansas is "can sass" and Arkansas is "Ark an saw"

fairmountvewe t1_j6i0iqj wrote on January 30, 2023 at 1:59 PM

What? Well colour me embarrassed. I been saying saying “Can Saw” and “R Can Sass” ever since that one guy in a bar got all pi$$y at me…..

Megalocerus t1_j6lians wrote on January 31, 2023 at 4:10 AM

I believe it's because Arkansas came through the French and Kansas did not.

cookerg t1_j6gxh5o wrote on January 30, 2023 at 6:08 AM

OP is asking why the names are different in different languages.

BitScout t1_j6h4srw wrote on January 30, 2023 at 7:37 AM

For Germany it's because of the different tribes. The Allemans next to France (Allemagne), the Saxons in the northeast (Saksa in Finnish), etc.