The recent disucssion about the name of Macedonia has inspired me to reopen discussion about the names of people and places; and also to see what ATL versions people have come up with.
The (unsubstantiated!) idea that the Germanic tribes/confederations Saxons and Franks are named after their weapons, Saxe = Knife, Franca = Javelin, made me think if it would be possible to have other such names eg. Gerons from Ger = Spear, or Axons from Ax = Axe. Indeed maybe the word Ger had some influence on the name German(ic). It is currently thought that the Latin Germani is derived from Gaulish Gair meaning neighbour, though it may just be a reference to the Germanic tribes as “brotherhoods”.
The Germanic tribes tended to refer to their non-Germanic neighbours as foreigners whence we get Wales, Wallonia, Wallachia, and interestingly Gaul. Yep, Gaul is not derived from Gallia but from the Frankish Walha.
Another word often confused with meaning Gallic or Celtic is Gael. Instead Gael is derived from Goidhel (or Gwyddel in Welsh) roughly meaning pirate or raider.
The Greeks called Ireland Ierne or Iouernia which is derived from ProtoGoidelic Iveriu/Iweriu itself the root for Eire and Ireland. The Romans associated Ivernia with winter and so called it Hibernia.
The Slavic words for German (Nemtsi etc) likely derive from nemi meaning mute contrasting with slovo meaning speaking. Contrastingly barbarian comes from Ancient Greek barbaros originally meaning babbling.
The word slave comes from the word for Slav as the Romans captured a lot as Slavs as slaves.
It is interesting how names for places and languages also change across ethnolinguistic lines eg. French is a Romance language but its root label Frankish is Germanic, Bulgarian is Slavic but comes from Bulgar which was Turkic.
What similar things interest you? And what ATL versions have you created?
The (unsubstantiated!) idea that the Germanic tribes/confederations Saxons and Franks are named after their weapons, Saxe = Knife, Franca = Javelin, made me think if it would be possible to have other such names eg. Gerons from Ger = Spear, or Axons from Ax = Axe. Indeed maybe the word Ger had some influence on the name German(ic). It is currently thought that the Latin Germani is derived from Gaulish Gair meaning neighbour, though it may just be a reference to the Germanic tribes as “brotherhoods”.
The Germanic tribes tended to refer to their non-Germanic neighbours as foreigners whence we get Wales, Wallonia, Wallachia, and interestingly Gaul. Yep, Gaul is not derived from Gallia but from the Frankish Walha.
Another word often confused with meaning Gallic or Celtic is Gael. Instead Gael is derived from Goidhel (or Gwyddel in Welsh) roughly meaning pirate or raider.
The Greeks called Ireland Ierne or Iouernia which is derived from ProtoGoidelic Iveriu/Iweriu itself the root for Eire and Ireland. The Romans associated Ivernia with winter and so called it Hibernia.
The Slavic words for German (Nemtsi etc) likely derive from nemi meaning mute contrasting with slovo meaning speaking. Contrastingly barbarian comes from Ancient Greek barbaros originally meaning babbling.
The word slave comes from the word for Slav as the Romans captured a lot as Slavs as slaves.
It is interesting how names for places and languages also change across ethnolinguistic lines eg. French is a Romance language but its root label Frankish is Germanic, Bulgarian is Slavic but comes from Bulgar which was Turkic.
What similar things interest you? And what ATL versions have you created?