Talk:Demonym

message: Should something be added under -ese (similar to -ish)? Bibble 21:39, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Comments

message: Surely "Australian" uses the -n model - you add 'n' to Australia. If it uses the -ian model described, the Demonym for Australia would be Australiaian? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.71.230.109 (talk) 10:49, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  RE: Suffixes - are you sure the -ian model is used for Australia? 

message: Does anyone know what the proper demonym is for Curaçao or the Netherlands Antilles?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.214.196.90 (talk) 00:33, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Curaçao or the Netherlands Antilles?

message: Residents of Bellingham are listed under the -er model as 'Hamsters'.. wut??? First off, the suffix used is -ster, not -er. Second, that sounds like slang to me. THIRD, any town which ends in 'ham' would conform to this same convention. I think it should be taken off the list. Kkeeganm (talk) 22:06, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  RE: Bellingham 

message: never heard of it. the Tasmania page lists it as "Tasmanian", which is also listed about 4 million times more on Google. I will change itHypershock (talk) 12:21, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: "Taswegian" is not a formal demonym for Tasmanians, rather it is sometimes heard in Australia as a slang term, possibly a bit derogatory, much like "Tasmaniac", which is also a somewhat humorously derogatory term. Ptilinopus (talk) 20:39, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Taswegian? Seriously? 

message: How about the countries of Niger and Nigeria, no one discussed that on the page and I feel it warrents some time.  Anyone know how the demonyms of these countries tend to be used? cullen (talk) 16:52, 5 November 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: No ambiguity here, because of their linguistic differences.  Nigeria, the English-speaking, has Nigerians, while Francophone Niger has Nigeriens.  Since the "g" is soft in French, the two demonyms sound different as well.  BurntSox (talk) 18:53, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  RE: Ambiguities 

message: 'Bosniak' is used to refer to Muslims from Bosnia, while 'Bosnian' is the general term for people from that country.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.237.117.229 (talk) 04:23, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  RE: Bosniak 

message: The section begins with this: 
: "Some peoples, especially cultures that were overwhelmed by European colonists, have no commonly accepted demonym, or have a demonym that is 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 did not 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 Dominican Republic has only a demonym-based description for a name."
This really doesn't make a lot of sense. First, the points offered contradict the claim. Iroquois, Aztec, and Maori most certainly do have accepted demonyms, and these are Iroquois, Aztec, and Maori. The second, about national demonyms, also seems flimsy: how is this condition any different from that of most cultures of the world even those that were not "overwhelmed by European colonists"? Look at France, Russia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Iran and many other examples: here there is a "demonym that is the same as the name of their (current or historical) nation". The points about Czechs and the Dominican Republic make even less sense. The Dominican Republic has no real demonym but only a demonym-based description? Wait, if there is no real demonym, how can there be a demonym-based description? And for Czech, the problem seems to be that the author is unaware that in a highly inflected language like Czech the endings will vary for part of speech. But to take three words--Čeština Česko Češi--and then argue that there's something peculiar about this and that this peculiarity is due to European colonialism makes no sense.  Lots of peoples have similar triads: Norway, Norse, Norwegian; Finland, Finn, Finnish; Turkey, Turk, Turkish. Interlingua 13:41, 22 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Problems with the Cultural Problems section 

message: I'm also a bit confused about people from Exeter being called Exonians? I'm from Exeter, UK, and never heard that in my 41 years of living there, but perhaps the article is referring to the place called Exeter in the USA? In which case this should perhaps be specified.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.30.233.45 (talk) 02:34, 2 February 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Exonians?

message: Seychellois, a proper French demonym formation, belongs in the "Derived from other languages" section.  BurntSox (talk) 18:55, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Seychelles 

message: I added "Sarnian" as the official demonym for "from Guernsey" (Channel Island). I put it in the "derived from Latin" section. Yes, it is official: it's even the title of their second national anthem.
I know people from Guernsey and Jersey refer to one another as "donkeys" (Guernseymen), and "crapeauds" (French for toads, Jerseymen). I wasn't sure whether these should be considered demonyms or just chaffs. Boudewijn Waijers (talk) 15:32, 10 July 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Aren't they Guernésiais, Jèrriais and Sercquiais in French? Is there an English cognate? 109.78.63.239 (talk) 20:10, 3 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Guernsey 

message: Should Germany be included in the "append -(a)n" section? Of all the countries mentioned, it is the only one where nothing is appended but left out, instead. If a suffix had been appended, it would have been "Germanian", which to me sounds like someone from the tribe of old.Boudewijn Waijers (talk) 15:40, 10 July 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Germany 

message: Equestria - demonym Equestrian with a link to My Little Pony. This is clearly a joke. I'll remove it.109.78.63.239 (talk) 20:06, 3 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Equestrian? 

message: *Parma → Parmesan in English, Parmigiano in Italian, Pram'zan in emilian, while Parmense is for people born in the province of Parma, (emilian language: Arijoz)
Could be more explicit: is Arijoz the Emelian equivalent of Parmense, or something else? —Tamfang (talk) 18:57, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Arijoz 

message: : However, in American political language, Taiwanese refers only to those who are descended from the pre-People's Republic residents of the island, and therefore the correct diplomatic term for the current residents of Taiwan is "Taiwans"
This American is willing to believe the first part of the sentence, but would be amazed to hear "Taiwans" applied by an English-speaker to the people, by whatever definition!  Deleted the insertion, pending support. —Tamfang (talk) 04:16, 3 November 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Taiwan(ese) 

message: As an Australian, I have always been led to believe that New Zealander is the correct demonym, and "kiwi" is a slang term, however it's used twice in this article. My understanding is that this is equivalent to using "Aussie", and while this is a very common term, and may even be heard being used by the Prime Minister in speeches, it is still a slang term. I'm going to change these references to "kiwi" - If someone can point to an authoritative reference to the contrary, it can be changed back. Tuskah (talk) 01:33, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Kiwi? 

message: There are a number of words listed under irregulars that end in -stan that are not irregular and not demonyms. The -stan mean "land of" which is appended to the name of a people. So the country name is derived from the name of its people not the other way around. This does not apply to all -stan words. Pakistan is a created from (with various proposed meanings of Pak) there is no Pak tribe. This may be part of why Pakistani is the correct demonym not Paki (used derogatorily). Most of these should be listed under the demonyms as roots section like Finland/Finns.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.150.26.28 (talk) 20:33, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Well said. But to take it further, almost all other -istan countries/regions correctly use the name of the people as the demonym. Though common, it is incorrect to say Afghanistani, Kazakhstani, Uzbekistani etc: the correct demonym is Afghan, Kazakh, Uzbek respectively. Similarly with inhabitants of Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Baluchistan. Ptilinopus (talk) 20:50, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
replies: text:  –stani is useful for citizens of Xstan who are not ethnic X, no? —Tamfang (talk) 09:00, 23 December 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  -stans 

message: I am pretty sure most of the East Asian -eses come via Portuguese (not using the French spelling isn't a coincidence).  I got that from Lazlo Montgomery's China History Podcast, at least re: "Chinese."  I'd have to go back and find out what his source for that was, it's been a few months since I listened to that.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.250.158.55 (talk) 03:24, 17 March 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: East Asian

message: Is Wikipedian a demonym? Should it be listed? How about WP:Wikian? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dpleibovitz (talk • contribs) 02:10, 21 March 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: No, because Wikipedia is not a geographic place. Even if you want to argue that point, Wikipedian is to Wikipedia as librarian is library. tbc (talk) 13:15, 26 May 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is 'Wikipedian' a demonym? 

message: Debated?  In what way is it debated?  This is a really confusing article -- is this the only proposed term to describe such names, or is there a competing word?  Imma change the intro to be a little clearer.
--Trentblase (talk) 06:27, 25 April 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Intro

message: New Yorker will do, I suppose, but how could one be specific? tbc (talk) 13:18, 26 May 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: "Will do"?? You might as well say "Vermonter will do" for Vermont. "New Yorker" is it. I grew up there, and that's the demonym. Also The New Yorker magazine, whose "reviews and events listings often focus on the cultural life of New York City".--Thnidu (talk) 06:41, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: @tbc i would guess your question is 'how does one distinguish between a new state resident and one of new york city', and i'm afraid i'm also unaware of a demonym that would refer to the former. Potholehotline (talk) 22:13, 16 May 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  New York City 

message: I have enabled level 3 headings so as to enable the use of links to heading placers but have retained TOC behaviour at "TOC level|2".
With edits as at 16 August 2014, "TOC level|3" enabled this TOC behaviour.
Who knows, future versions of Wikipedia may enable toggling between options. Gregkaye (talk) 08:48, 16 August 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Level 3 headings 

message: "A 'demonym' is derived from the name of a place. Examples of demonyms derived from place names include Chinese for the natives of China, Swahili for the natives of the Swahili coast, and American for the natives of the United States of America (or sometimes those of the Americas)."
Philippines = Philippine, demonym suffixation is "-in(e)" (c.f. Philippine-American War, Philippine Airlines, Philippine Army, etc.); and, less commonly but prevalent in Europe specifically in France is "Philippinean", demonym suffixation is "-(a)n".
The Philippines is unique, in that it also uses the Spanish version of Philippine: "Filipino" (masculine) and "Filipina" (feminine). The demonym suffixation for Filipino is: "(en)(in)o". 
Filipino(a), Philippine, Philippinean are all acceptable, it is a matter of choice and preference as there are no arbitrary rules regarding the use of a Philippine demonym.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Josedecura (talk • contribs) 01:36, 15 September 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: I'd say Philippine as a demonym is transferred rather than derived from Philippine as the name of the islands (etymologically an adjective derived from the name of a king of Spain). —Tamfang (talk) 06:39, 27 June 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Philippines 

message: Should there be a section for major, non-standard demonyms, such as Swiss or Welsh? IvyJohn 11:53, 17 September 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: As a Silhillian from Solihull I most definitely agree. MyTuppence (talk) 19:28, 17 September 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: I think "Sydneysider" warrants a footnote too!129.94.8.0 (talk) 06:07, 29 September 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Or "Liverpuddlian"! An interesting misnomer is calling an inhabitant of Newcastle a Novocastrian. The demonym derives from New Caster. Linguistically it should be Novocastellian. But Novocastrian it is, and must remain! Ptilinopus (talk) 21:34, 22 August 2016 (UTC)

text: I agree completely with , although I wouldn't call them "nonstandard": it sounds as if they're not the usual terms, as though they were slangy. Call them "irregular", like irregular verbs ("I ran" instead of "I runned") and irregular nouns ("children" instead of "childs"). And they are a really major component of English demonymy: England:English, France:Frenchman/Frenchwoman, Spain/Spaniard, Portugal/Portuguese, ... --Thnidu (talk) 07:18, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nonstandard? 

message: § -(a)n included the entry
* Armenia → Armenian (also "Hayastani")
"Hayastani" (Armenian: Հայաստանի) is an Armenian word, not an English one, and has no more business in this article than "colombiano" or "russkiĭ" would alongside "Colombian" and "Russian". I have deleted it.--Thnidu (talk) 06:51, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hayastani 

message: "Turkic" refers not specifically to Turkey and Turks, but to larger families of peoples and of languages, of which Turks and Turkish are but a part:
: The Turkic peoples[,] a collection of ethnic groups that live in central, eastern, northern, and western Asia as well as parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family.
I am taking it out.--Thnidu (talk) 07:23, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Turkic 

message: There seems to be an entire group of demonyms omitted - those with the suffix -man (and by extension -woman). Just because there is a  current trend to political correctness and gender equality is no reason to ignore/omit an entire class of demonym suffices that has definite historic, and in some places, current, usage. Particularly in the British Isles this suffix is/was used, specifically for the personal noun form of the demonym (the language noun and adjectival form being different). (The sometimes substituted "-person" never really gained traction in this context.) Thus (Personal demonym / adjectival form):
*Englishman / English
*Welshman / Welsh
*Irishman / Irish
*Cornishman / Cornish
*Yorkshireman
*Jerseyman
*Guernseyman
*Kentishman / Kentish
*Chinaman / Chinese (the -man usage today is both obsolete and somewhat derogatory)
*Scotsman / Scottish/Scots (the noun Scot is probably more current; the adjective Scotch never properly applied to the people, only the beverage.)
*Ulsterman
*Kerryman
*Frenchman / French
*Dutchman / Dutch
I am sure there are a number of others. Incidentally, Turkmen (and historically, Turkoman) does not belong in this class, as the -men/-man ending has a different linguistic derivation not related to English. Ptilinopus (talk) 21:44, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: I added many of these to the Ethnic demonyms section. Feel free to add a new separate section though, or to add ones I've missed to the "ethnic" section. — ★Parsa ☞ talk 04:27, 9 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  -man 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Someone who doesn't understand what a demonym is ravaged the former section called "Ethnonyms as Demonyms." They changed the demonym to a simple adjective. For instance Kurdistan once listed the demonym as "Kurd." It was later change to "Kurdish." One would never say "He is a Kurdish." You would say "He is a Kurd" or "He is Kurdish." In a similar way, Arabia now has "Arabic." This one is clearly wrong as that does not describe a person generally. It should be Arab. — ★Parsa ☞ talk 03:07, 9 April 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: I tried to fix it a bit, and attached an orphaned section. — ★Parsa ☞ talk 04:24, 9 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ethic demonyms ravaged 

message: Someone or something from Perak is actually Perakese. - (119.224.80.18 (talk) 11:25, 15 June 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Perak. 

message: As it stands, the first line of this article gives a cited (but not online) definition of demonym as a name for a people derived from the name of that particular place. The next paragraph goes on to give Kiwi as an example, which is, of course, nothing to do with the name of New Zealand: the term is taken from the local wildlife. Which is right?31.185.45.1 (talk) 11:27, 17 July 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: Kiwi is an informal demonym for New Zealander, a person from New Zealand. I removed it from the lead. It already exists further down in the informal section. Akld guy (talk) 20:02, 7 April 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: i'm with you @ 31.185.45.1, i don't see that demonyms are always based on the place name, for example 'hoosier' to refer to folks from indiana should by all rights be a demonym Potholehotline (talk) 02:26, 9 December 2018 (UTC)
replies: text:  Hoosier has been in the list for a very long time, in the "Non-standard examples" section under "Formal". Please take care to look in the correct section before attempting to add an entry. Akld guy (talk) 02:50, 9 December 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: @Akld guyi checked my contributions page and found no evidence that i had added an entry for 'hoosier'. you wanna tell me what you're talking about? Potholehotline (talk) 19:56, 9 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Kiwi" as an example 

message: This article is a mess because the entries are listed by suffix, examples -ian, -anian, -nian, -in(e), -ite. Counter-intuitively, the reader must first know the correct suffix, or else is forced to search through each section. It is also causing editors to add entries in inappropriate sections because they perceive that the entry is missing. Thus we have many countries with duplicate entries; Argentina has 3, at least a dozen others have 2.
How about we simply list countries alphabetically, then the same with towns and cities, and so on. I am willing to do this, but want to know whether the present listing by suffix serves some purpose that I can't see at this stage. Akld guy (talk) 20:16, 7 April 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: If you want a reference table, how about creating List of adjectival and demonymic forms of place names and removing most of them from the article?  Seems to me the point of an article like Demonym is to define the concept and give a small selection of examples of the different ways in which demonyms are formed. —Tamfang (talk) 01:24, 8 April 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: My edit of a few minutes ago moved lists of demonyms up from See also to sections of their own, placed more prominently near the start of the article. This article is more of a technical description of demonyms and their suffixes and variations. Akld guy (talk) 19:34, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Re-write needed 

message: What are the sources or citation for Tyrolese being the chosen as the correct demonym for that region of Austria (and Italy)?
The Wikipedia article for Tyrolean even lists that as the demonym over Tyrolese, and in terms of personal experience from Austria Tyrolean (or Tyrolian depending on spending) is almost always used.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:1458:202:1C:0:0:102:FD0 (talk) 20:13, 8 May 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tyrol - Tyrolese, Tyrolean or Tyrolian 

message: I noticed that most city demonyms are expressed in the plural, whereas other places (country, state, etc.) are expressed in the more conventional singular form. Is there a particular reason for this? If so, the article should explain it. Otherwise, a massive change is required removing all those plurals for the sake of consistency.
Of course, if a plural is used then the word can only be used as a noun, whereas demonyms are usually used as both nouns and adjectives, especially when applied not to a people but to _things_ from a place (e.g. European car, Parisian night life). PabloStraub (talk) 01:51, 27 August 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  City demonyms in plural form? 

message: I propose that Indianan be removed from the suffixation list.  It is not an official or commonly-used demonym, and the current entry reads "Indiana → Indianans (more commonly Hoosiers below)."  In 2017 the U.S. Government Publishing Office Style Manual was updated to reflect the use of Hoosier as the official demonym.  I propose that documentation of historical demonym use is more appropriate for the individual Wikipedia articles.Saccarte (talk) 18:28, 31 July 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removal of "Indianan" from the States and Provinces list under the Suffixation subsection 

message: I suggest these guidelines for the treatment of demonyms:
1. If an article about a place is in language X, the corresponding demonym or demonyms should be in that language and they need not be labeled. For example, an article in English about Paris, France, should list Parisian, which need not be labeled English.
2. It is debatable whether an article in language X should list demonyms in languages other than language X. At present, many do. For example, in the article in English for Valladolid, Spain, the only demonym shown is vallisoletano, which is Spanish (and not even labeled as such). In my opinion, only English demonyms should appear in articles in English, and so on. (The English demonym for Valladolid, Spain, by the way, is Vallisoletan, which should appear in the article in English for that city).
3. All demonyms should be in the singular form. At the moment, certain articles give them in the singular and others in the plural. S. Valkemirer (talk) 01:16, 13 August 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  The need to uniformize the treatment of demonyms 

message: "Often the demonyn for a [subnational place] is simply the name of the place used as an adjective. For example, Kennewick Man."
Was this some kind of joke?? Kennewick Man is not a DEMONYM!(?!) Kennewick Man refers to the 10,000 year old (or so) skeletal remains of one individual person! It is the exact same formula as Java Man (found in Java), Peking Man (found in Peking), and Neanderthal Man (found in Neanderthal, or Neander Valley, Germany). 
This ought to be removed... Firejuggler86 (talk) 19:33, 16 October 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Kennewick Man 

message: People from the Island of Man are called Manx.  It’s the only ‘-x’ demonym AFAIK and should be included here.  For its uniqueness, if nothing else. 2601:CA:8400:2F40:5421:1F79:1A77:5600 (talk) 18:12, 19 April 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Manx 

message: I noticed a couple of nations were missing. SOme of these are Niger and New Zealand. LuigiIsSuppreme989🌀 (talk) 17:06, 26 May 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Some Nations are missing 

message: At the end of the article we have a completely unsourced, short section called Other languages. This is English language Wikipedia, so the section seems both unnecessary and inappropriate. It is also obviously unlikely to ever be anything like complete. I propose deleting that section, unless someone can justify its existence here, AND provide some sourcing. HiLo48 (talk) 23:34, 7 March 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: Done. HiLo48 (talk) 03:55, 17 April 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Abolish the Other languages section