Explaining the Many Names of Germany/Deutschland/Allemagne etc.

[@Gew219]

Actually you did pronounce "Niemcy" very well, Hilbert. With just a tiny bit of foreign accent. Great job!

[@historywithhilbert]

Awesome! Thank you xD

[@yarpen26]

Just for future reference: in Polish the letter _ń_ is pronounced exactly like the Spanish _ñ._ However, you sometimes produce this sound for a regular _n,_ provided that it's followed by an _i_ and then a consonant (in which case you end up with _ñi,_ so the word "nikt" sounds like _ñikt)._ At the same time, if there's yet another vowel after _ni,_ you simply read it as _ñ,_ and so "Niemcy" is _Ñemtsy,_ "Niagara" is _Ñagara_ and so on. So, to sum up: - ń = ñ - ni + consonant = ñi + consonant - ni + vowel = ñ + vowel

[@Amulinka]

@Sowia In Polish Niemcy means both Germany and German-people.

[@NameExplain]

Sick vid bro.

[@historywithhilbert]

Thanks man!

[@BertGrink]

Hi Patrick, nice to see you here.

[@NameExplain]

Hello :)

[@Blaqjaqshellaq]

Does "sick" mean good? (I'm a bit behind the times!)

[@BertGrink]

James Matthews Much to my dismay, yes.

[@Blaqjaqshellaq]

The Latin name "Germania" presumably comes from "Herrmann," the German word for warrior, since it was Germany's warriors that Rome was most interested in! (It's also the source of the name Herrmann or Herman: the Romans suffered a rout at the hands of a chief they called Arminius, presumably the Latin version of Herman.) The name "Theudisk" would seem to be the source of "Teutonic" and "tedesco" (Italian for "German"). The name "Alemanni" sounds like "Alle manner," German for "all people," suggesting that the locals organized a big alliance to attack Gaul. "Burgundian" sounds like it comes from "burgland," or land of castles... Catalonia takes its name from "Goth land" (going back to Visigothic rule), while the Vandals invaded North Africa from Spain, causing the Arabs to call Spain "al-Andalus," so that southern Spain, the last part of the peninsula to stay under Arab rule, is now called "Andalusia." I'm a language geek!

[@tristanholderness4223]

The niemcy one is interesting as well because the germanic peoples had a term we used similarly, *walhaz which got used in the various corners of Germanic settlement to refer to the main non-Germanic group in the area (particularly those that were in some sense Roman, it doesn't seem to have been used for Slavs or Sámi) and it gives us the modern words Wales, Cornwall (or the latter bit), Walloon, Vlach/Wallachian (to refer to Romanians, having been borrowed into the South Slavic languages), as well as Gaul (which is actually unrelated to the Latin Gallia but instead is just the French reflex of the Old Frankish word that gives Dutch Waal and thence Wallonia). Both Germanic and Slavic have this pair of words for "person who speaks a language we understand" and "person who speaks a language we don't understand" but they don't correspond at all and none are attested outside of their respective branches (even the Baltic languages don't have a cognate to niemcy despite being veeeeery closely related to Slavic). It's neat seeing parallel development of a structure but completely different implementation

[@buonalaminestrina]

Fun fact: yes, it is "Germania" in Italian, but the most common adjective we use to refer to something coming from Germany is "tedesco", not "germanico" as you'd expect from the root word "Germania", and "tedesco" comes from the same root word that became "Deutschland" and those Dutch and Frisian words

[@emilboehme]

I was looking for this kind of comment since it wasn't mentionned in the video. However, my theory is that the italian word "tedesco" comes from another 'german' tribe, the teutons (or Teutoni in italian). Does this make sense?

[@peugeoten]

What about Tyskland? The Norwegian, Swedish and Danish name for Germany.

[@historywithhilbert]

Same root as Dutch and German the Duitsland to Tutsland to Tyskland. Retains the "k" from the Proto-Germanic Theudisk, but then obviously lost the rest of the syllables which are still (variably) pronounced in the other Germanic languages.

[@aerobolt256]

Martin Fosse Tyskland is probably from the same as Deutschland

[@peugeoten]

Make sense. Thanks for the reply!

[@historywithhilbert]

No worries!

[@caszuko6148]

Can you use the civil word Týskland

[@jankopransky2551]

There is a word in arabic pronounced somehow like "Nimsá". It's an arabic name for Austria, and it came to be thrue ottoman word "nemche" which meant "german/austrian/habsburg", which came there from this slavic "Němˇcˇ". Etymology

[@ramizureikat3793]

Jenn Koprzanski I always wondered why we called it nimsa and u call it austria!

[@jankopransky2551]

Probably thanks to balkan slavs or/and all those slavs sold as ghulams to north africa or taken by devširme during Ottoman times...

[@barbarossabartolomeu9984]

Fun fact: In Romania we call the country "Germania" and the people "germani" but we also use the term "nemți" (symilar pronunciation to the Polish word) to reffer to Germans. I belive this is because Romanian is a very neet mix of latin and slavic but also we don't have anything related to the "almanie" termen because we haven't heared about that tribe so early on. Greag video man, really love your chanel, keep it up pal. Much love.

[@lithuaniantroll8146]

In Lithuanian we call Germany "Vokietija".

[@historywithhilbert]

That is very different again xD

[@Vitalis94]

Any idea what the etymology of the word would be?

[@chris-2496]

And Vācija in Latvian. Related to Lithuanian word Vókia. Two main versions on etymology. One is that it initially referred to a tribe in southeastern Sweden - Vagoth. Take away -goth and the first part could have been vākia or vāki. Other theory is it has to do with indoeuropean word for speak - something like “u̯eku̯” words related to which were used in Latvian to say speak loudly (vēkšķēt) or loud speaker (vācelis). So that would be similar to Slavs who named Germans to say that they speak differently.

[@Blaqjaqshellaq]

Maybe it comes from "Volk"...

[@chris-2496]

James Matthews dunno, I paraphrased the entry in Latvian etymology dictionary. The guys who came up with these hypotheses were very familiar with German language so I suppose there is probably a good reason why similarity between volk and Vokia is not proposed as an explanation

[@dramallama9564]

More videos on Germany, Austria and Switzerland would be interesting :)

[@KamikazeKatze666]

Aleman^^ here: The Alemanni were not exactly a tribe of their own but groups of men from several tribes who enjoyed raiding together (whether they were outcasts or just adventurous young men might still be discussed). The name literally means "all men", and they did not have a common king but were just small groups or raiding parties loosely connected by a common language and culture. And they did not make lasting impressions because of their raids into Gaul but because they succeeded in conquering and settling an important part of the Roman Empire, the area West of the limes which is now Southwestern Germany. The dialect spoken in the Upper Rhine Valley and Northern Switzerland is still called Alemannic. The term "thiodisk" (which became "deutsch") used to mean "language of the common folk" as opposed to Latin. And while Italians call the land "Germania" the adjective used for German is "tedesco".

[@BertGrink]

Interesting connection, and quite logic actually, once you know about it.

[@cornerseeker9167]

Incredibly Italian uses the most ancient Latin word to indicate the land: Germania and the most Germanic word to indicate the people: Thiodisk->Tedesco

[@TheCessar5]

I'm Mexican and I think it will be a good change to call Germany in Spanish language as "Tedescia" or "Detescia", more common to Deutschland...

[@Antarcticite21]

I’ve always wondered why this was since I’ve noticed that Germany is different in so many languages so thanks for making this video!

[@historywithhilbert]

Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed it!

[@danielfontainha3007]

In Portuguese we call "Alemanha" which is very similar to French and Spanish names for Germany.

[@lasislasfilipinas114]

daniel fontainha Almost all Romance languages called Germany from the Alemanni tri e

[@jancz357]

you also have the name "Skopčáci" used in Czech for the germans around the Sudetenland, it means "people from the hills" roughly, because Sudetenland is composed of mountain regions almost all around the Czech boarder, so when the germans were coming to czech lands, they were coming "from the hills" :)

[@Kalmoire]

Sounds quite like one of the derogatory terms for Germans in Poland, "Szkopy", although I'd never suggest it's related to hills.

[@jancz357]

the other way to interpret "Skopčáci" is "mutton heads" but that's not historical and as you say it's derogatory, but it's quite modern, the original etymological use is the "from the hills" version

[@Altrantis]

What's with people calling Germans -head-s? The french call them "boche" which comes from "Tête de caboche" which (it's a bit complicated) means hard headed, thick, obtuse.

[@jancz357]

stereotypes exist for a reason, that's all I'll say :D

[@majstter7420]

​@@KalmoireIt is definitely derogatory if used today. But it wasn't always the case, the root is really there and they were normally called Skopčáci or Szkopy in middle ages.

[@mentino1556]

What's interesting is that in Hungarian Germans are called Német(/Németek if plural) we adapted it from slavic languages and it's root meaning mute us also present in the hungarian form since mute is Néma (Néma-Német) BUT since our language also has finno-ugric roots we have more names for Germans like Szász(/Szászok for plular) (pronounced as "Sas"/"Sasok") which, like in Finnish comes from the Saxons and to top it we also have Sváb or Schwabe/Schwab in German and Suevus in latin. We got Sváb from the Romans who lived here before us. The Suevus were a sub-tribe of the Allemane. So yeah quite interesting

[@majstter7420]

What the hell are you talking about? Sas/sasok? It literally means "eagles."

[@low-phas]

@@majstter7420 I'm sure he's referring to the way Westerners would pronounce the letter S, (but it is a bit confusing to read it as a Hungarian).

[@warpedreality7988]

Quality content, keep it up

[@historywithhilbert]

Thanks man"

[@Vitalis94]

As for Slavic name, there is also that theory about Nemeti tribe that you hinted in the video. Although the easy way would be assume just what you said in the video - it makes sense, as Slavs are calling themselfs "people of the word". Slovo in Slovianin translates to a word, thus, you have two groups - people that speak the same words, and mutes that do not. As I've mentioned, there is that crazy theory which is now impossible to prove, and if it would happen, it would really shake our view about ancient history. Now, it states that Suevi weren't Germanic, but were Slavs. That "ue" part of the name corresponds with Polish and Sorbian "Ł" or English "W". So, Suevi were supposedly Slavic speaking at first, but then after migrations of Germanics out of Scandinavia, became Germanized. Also, Suevi lived on the right side of the Rhine, which would again come from (G)ren/Granica, which means border, as it was a border river between them and Romans. Now, while granica/grenica was indeed a Slavic loanword into Germanic languages, hence German "Grenze", Dutch "grens", etc. it seems really dubious. But yeah, Suevi were just next to Nemeti tribe, so it makes (kinda) sense, you know? Now, I'm not saying that this theory is true, but if it would be, now, it would change everything we know about ancient Germania. :P I guess we will never be able to prove that one theory though.

[@historywithhilbert]

That's a really interesting theory - if a little far fetched. Thanks for sharing this!

[@DevilDaz17]

I agree that the theory is pretty farfetched. The Nemetes were in modern day France(Lorraine). It is not sure whether they were Germanic or Celtic, but probably the latter, since their name means holy, blessed in Gaulish. It is impossible, that the Suevi, now considering themselves a germanic tribe, had still contact with the slavs after the great migration. The Suevi, incorporating many other germanic tribes, such as the Alamanni and Vangiones later on were always mentioned as germanic in Ceasar's writings. Therefore, it is pretty unlikely, that the Suevi were using the name of a small celtic tribe for most germanic ones, and if your theory were to be true, to pass on that ethnonym to the slavs, even though they were now separrated by other istvaeonic tribes and probably didn't even speak the same language.

[@Vitalis94]

I agree, it's very far fetched. If any ancient tribes were to pass as Slavs, it would be most certainly Veneti. Although most German historians dissagree with this, saying that they passed the name from ancient Veneti to the "newcoming" Slavs, it's most likely. Germanic tribes that were bordering Slavic peoples in the middle ages were Franks, Saxons and Thuringians, while Goths that were actually near ancient Veneti were long gone. You could argue that Goths could've passed the name to other tribes, but then, even Scandinavians, the ones that had trading contacts with southern Baltic for ages, used it. Hell, even Anglo-Saxons did. I'm no historian and no doubt someone will correct me if I'm mistaken.

[@DevilDaz17]

Hey, I'm also not a historian or anything. It's good to theorise from time to time. I didn't want to offend or oppose you in any way whatsover, I just wanted to join in the conversation. And frankly, your knowledge is kind of remarkable as well. :)

[@UthruilSlawson]

Vitalis Hey. That theory is very far fetched. Polish pronounciation of the letter Ł as an English W is very very modern, and we're talking not even a 100 years. Before it was pronounced like the Russian hard L (no cyrillic alphabet on my phone and you cannot write that in English but linguists should know what I'm talking about :p) so I would doubt based solely on that,that this theory is true. Cheers y'all!

[@Jerbod2]

I love how you keep including Frisian in here, a language that has had quite a bit of history and ahould get more acknowledgement.

[@Leo-vr3bg]

The name for Pennsylvania dutch is Dietsch, which ties back to the middle Germanic word you were referring to.

[@historywithhilbert]

That Contra Guy ahhh interesting! :)

[@krisbaeyens4221]

Diets is a Belgian dialect in the neighbourhood of the town of Eupen bordering the Belgian & Dutch Limburg provinces, the German speaking parts of Belgium and the Walloon speaking province of Liège. Its is a mixture of Dutch/Limburgisch, German and French dialects.

[@LuvBorderCollies]

The Amish originated in Switzerland as part of the Anabaptist movement.

[@Stumdra]

It is actually Deitsch. It is how the standard German word Deutsch is pronounced in many Southern German dialects, e.g. in my native dialect Swabian and also Palatine German which is one of the sources of Pennsylvania Dutch.

[@seppeldiseppsepp]

id like to add that the german pronounciation of "Volk" is actually much closer to the dutch pronounciation, than to your german pronounciation

[@rasmusn.e.m1064]

basically "v" = /f/

[@PeterAuto1]

to make thinks Complicated "v" has two variations [f] and [v] for example Volk[Folk] Vase[Vase] Vulkan[Vulkan] Vogel[Fogel]...

[@rasmusn.e.m1064]

True, but not in this case. The point of my comment was to specify what seppldiseppsepp meant by their comment, as I do not find its contents to be correct as such. To be honest, I would think the pronunciation used in the video is strictly not "much closer to the Dutch pronunciation", as a dark L would be used in this context by the Dutch. Dark L is never used in Standard German.

[@shenmueshen9458]

are 'vase' and 'vulkan' from latin origin by any chance? that could explain it

[@grimreaper7968]

in the suabian dialect vulkan is pronounced [F]ulkan

[@siestatime4638]

Interestingly the "Pennsylvania Dutch" (German speaking Mennonites in the USA) call the non-German speaking Americans "the English".

[@historywithhilbert]

Oh really? That is interesting! Probably because (I believe at least) the two largest groups were either German or English speaking so those in America not speaking Pennsylvania Dutch had to be English in their view. Maybe.

[@Blublod]

History With Hilbert - it's actually the more conservative Amish, a branch of the Mennonites, that call those outside their order the "English", meaning the Americans, although the Pennsylvania Dutch are just as American as the Yankees, the Southeners, Blacks, Latins, American Indians, and everybody else that calls the US home.

[@iainhedley1413]

I'm from the area and have some distant family who still speak it, it's also pretty interesting that Pennsylvania Dutch refers to itself as "Deitsch"

[@12tanuha21]

Pennsyvania Dutch also have nothing to do with the current dutch, but is a mix of south german dialects. It is an error of the english translation

[@CTRLerSupport]

As a Plautdietsch Mennonite, can confirm most other people here in Canada and the U.S. are referred to as "English People" in our native tongue. Even though in my community most other residents are of Dutch heritage they still get referred to as "Engelande".

[@alexandermunin6693]

"It is no nation we inhabit, but a language. Make no mistake; our native tongue is our true fatherland." -Emil Cioran

[@Pirate3World]

unification without Austria*

[@MaxAmSax]

Ra Friction came here to write that 👌 1871 was excluding Austria

[@snowmyr]

MaxAmSax came here to find the guy who caught this and reply to their comment. But you beat me to it so I'll reply to you instead.

[@MrSafa61]

I guess I am too late to the party so. Just wanted to comment that I am too late to say anything so guess I will just do that: I am late

[@KheptlaxaXonu]

Austrians aren't Germans.

[@tuxedosteve1904]

@@KheptlaxaXonu tell that to the german question.

[@jmaaybraak]

Well done, sir. As an American of German descent, I love learning any and everything there is to know about my ancestral homeland. Thank you.

[@Hyonyx]

J May i hope u come visit Germany one day ^^

[@jmaaybraak]

Queen Diana oh wow, i would love to! thanks for reaching out!

[@rosskwolfe]

This is something I've wondered for a while. Thank you.

[@LustWaffel]

Hi Hilbert, as a Finnish speaker I got curious about the etymology of the Finnish name for Germany or rather where it originated from and what I saw was that it came from Hansiatic trade so the name is surprisingly new. Unfortunately I have no idea if we had any word for Germans before that tho. Also word Saksa also was used to mean "trader" since most traders were calling themselves "Sachsen" Also as a extra fact Finnish word for gibberish is Siansaksa so pig german

[@historywithhilbert]

Aaaah that is interesting that it has a link to trade and the Hanseatic League as it makes sense that those were the Germans they interacted with :)

[@PisauraXTX]

Finland probably would not have had any contact with Germans before the medieval Hanseatic traders, so it makes sense that the name originated in that time. Finns probably first had contact with speakers of Low German, which was the predominant language in the northern third of modern-day Germany as well as an important trade language of the Baltic Sea at the time. It is interesting that those traders still referred to themselves as Saxons, because at the time, the name Saxony had shifted from the old Stem Duchy of Saxony to the area that is now the Free State of Saxony.

[@larrywave]

on semmonenkin teoria että suomalainen yläluokka ennen ruotsin vallan aikaa olisi ollut saksalais peräistä :D

[@JanoTuotanto]

+larrywave Ei ennen ruotsin vallan aikaa, vaan Ruotsin vallan ajan alussa. Monet porvari- ja ritarisuvut olivat saksalaisten kauppiaiden ja palkkasoturien perua. Ruotsalaisuudella ei ollut Suomessa juuri vaikutusta ennen 1700-lukua. Sen takia sulla ei ole unstaisin paraplyy pyksön vikkassa aber Regenschirm im Hosentasche am Mittwochs

[@larrywave]

JanoTuotanto kuinka olet niin varma ettei ennen ruotsin vallan aikaa ole ollut 🤔

[@Luisung01]

I read somewhere that the Alemanni may have been a confederation of Germanic tribes and not just one group. The name itself was a latinization of an old Germannic name which I can't say but it was a cognate with the modern English phrase 'All men' and suggesting a confederation or alliance of different groups.

[@starhawck]

Bulgarians use both the latin sounding "Germania"(for the country) and "Germanci" (for the people in it), but we also use the slavic "Niemcy" or "Nemci" (for the people of the country), but that's now, in the past all kinds of different variations were used. The words "Nem" or "Niam", are "mute", in bulgarian.

[@historywithhilbert]

Interesting that both are used!

[@starhawck]

We also use the derogetory term "Shvabi", which i think we got either from the communist era regime or it is older. Which i also think is derived from the tribe of the "Suebi" or the historical region of germany "Schwaben". But generally, as almost anyone else in the world, we look up to germans and respect them, not just because we were allies in both world wars, but because they are a no nonsense, harworking, disciplined and efficient people.

[@Vitalis94]

+Alex Yanakiev Poles use "Szwabi" as a derogatory term as well. As far as I know, it's because there were many people from Schwaben that migrated to Poland for work in XIX century. No wonder why it's an insult, just imagine how poor must those people have been, to migrate to Poland, even poorer region than Germany itself. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Schwabians were for most of the history looked down upon by other Germans. Mostly for their dialect, though.

[@FirefoxisredExplorerisblueGoog]

Are you saying that there were German people who migrated to Poland and didn't try to annex it? No wonder the Germans looked down upon the Schwabians!

[@Vitalis94]

+Firefox is red, Explorer is blue. Google+ sucks and Chrome does too. Seriously though, most of pre XIX century migrations of Germans to Poland was peaceful. Poland was heavily forested, unpopulated area in the middle ages - That's why Polish rulers actually invited Germans to settle in. I mean, every duke would love to have those sweet proffessional craftsmen who knew newest technologies. I mean, civilization and inventions travelled mostly from west to east (especially before XIX century, as by then, there were also some inventions made in the east), that's also why most of the Polish terminology regarding building and cities comes from German, as Slavs were mostly using wood as their primary building material, and it were Germans that brought the bricks to Poland and began to make proper (non wooden) cities. Hell, even Kraków was mostly German speaking city up untill XV century, although it began as Slavic settlement. Germans living in Poland never caused any problems before the rise of nationalism. During the Swedish Deludge, mostly German speaking Danzig sided with Poland and most of Danzigers even considered themself "German speaking Poles". Speaking of Danzig, it's golden age was when the city was connected to Polish trade - after the partitions that connection to Vistula was severed and city never was as prominent as it was under Polish rule. Then we have the case of Germans in Latvia and Estonia, that were very pro-Polish and who even Polonized very quickly. It's very complex subject and I could talk about it for ages, but I will spare you that pain. :P

[@JK03011997]

Swedish: Tyskland no idea where this comes from, can only guess it might be a weird form of Theudisk as well :D BTW if you are interested here is another fun German sentence: "Bismark biss Mark, bis Mark Bismark biss".

[@historywithhilbert]

Tyskland has the same root as Dutch and German the Duitsland to Tutsland to Tyskland. Retains the "k" from the Proto-Germanic Theudisk, but then obviously lost the rest of the syllables which are still (variably) pronounced in the other Germanic languages.

[@newslayer]

hilbert I have a suggestion for you, do a video about the indo-europeans

[@historywithhilbert]

Nice one! I'll look into it :)

[@newslayer]

ok and how many days does it take to make one video 😌😌

[@navigatorofnone]

one other reason for germany' many names is, because it is an old community within the continent. therefore more tribes would know if it's existence. unlike other languages that are of recent discoveries, thus fewer people know of it.

[@jtarkov3533]

You named Caesar correctly. Instant sub :)))

[@thomasspicer4130]

great video ☺ very interesting the meaning of the Polish word for Germany reminds me of the origin of the word welsh coined by the anglo-saxons to mean stranger or foreigner probably simply because they were non germanic .

[@roylandmaines299]

In Arabic, Germany's called Almania and Austria is called An-Nimsa, which is just how one pronounces al-nimsa. It probably has to do with the ottoman empire for why call Austria such.

[@wiizzpl4718]

I know why we call germany "Niemcy" it's created from two words : "Niemy" and "Obcy" "Niemy" means that someone can't speaker "Obcy" means streanger So "Niemcy" means Streanger who can't speak. Something simmilar is with "Słowianie" (Slavs). And it's created from also 2 words "Słowo" means word And "Wianie" but there is no word in eanglish so but it simply said it means wind/windy. Btw. In Polish there is only one way you can say each word we read every letter (exceptions and double/trippleletters exists)

The most polish word is the word of "Żółć"

[@wiizzpl4718]

Pfffffff chyba raczej K***a

[@alghul66]

Czyli brzydcy, wysocy, łowcy, krótcy, wąscy to wszystko obcy😂 daruj sobie te turbolechicka amatorszczyznę słowotwórcza i nie przeginaj. Ktoś jest niemy czyli ci Niemcy, ktoś jest wysoki czyli ci wysocy. Po prostu nie dorabiał ideologii tam gdzie jej nie ma. Nawiasem mówiąc, ludzie, lud - theodisc to nasz cudzy czyli obcy. I tu można doszukiwać się skojarzeń, które jednak nie weszły do opisu Niemców

[@robertotpf1931]

One important detail is that in Italian, despite the countrys name being Germania, the nationality name is "tedesco", which apparently comes from Tyusk as well. Also, it seems like the Allamani were placed much further to the north on the map, they were present in the deep south of current Germany as well as the Austrian Tyrol and Switzerland, thus giving origin to Swiss German, as well as the Tyrolean and Allemanisch dialects and the Alsatian language

[@gammamaster1894]

Just to note even though Hungarian is related to both Finnish and Estonian the Hungarian for Germany isn’t from Saxons instead it is Németország (ország meaning country) which considering Hungarian isn’t a Slavic language is probably a borrowing from Polish

[@mcswordfish]

In Gaelic, we call Germany "A' Ghearmailt" (the "a" meaning The because we lack an indefinite article), essentially a Gaelicised loanword from English. However, we call England "Sasainn" and an Englishman "Sasannach" - both are derived from Saxon. Some people think that "Sasannach" is a pejorative term, but it's not. If you want a Gaelic-derived pejorative for those from the far-south, you use the word "Jessie" - a great Glaswegian insult to call someone a softie. It literally means "Southerner", from the Gaelic word "Deas" (pronounced jays - short syllable), meaning "South".

[@rolandfelice6198]

Very informative. I had taken a break from your videos but with this video I've activated the notification bell. You've reignited my interest in European affairs, Thanks.

[@GurtBFroe1]

Interestingly enough, in English, we still use the words "Teutonic" and "Teuton" for things of historic interest.

[@entwistlefromthewho]

In Wales we call Germany 'yr Almean' - 'the Germany', obviously a cognate with Alamanni. We call the English 'Sais' (Saxons).

[@qwertylello]

I really love your videos, you deserve more subscribers. Your style reminds me of WonderWhy

[@historywithhilbert]

Thanks very much!

[@Phrenotopia]

Great video! A few centuries ago, the English did differentiate between "High Dutch" i.e. German, and "Low Dutch", i.e. Dutch possible including Low German.

[@MonsieurDean]

Would you say it's common for people to think "Deustchland" is where the Dutch are from?

[@LuvBorderCollies]

Common for ignorant people and there is millions of them.

[@sergical5]

I'm bi-lingual and have wondered about this for the longest time. So interesting! Thanks mate haha

[@mrhose3577]

¡Gracias por usar la bandera del imperio español, considerado que nosotros en Latinoamérica también hablamos Castellano (español) y no solo la bandera de españa! (¡Básicamente, gracias por incluirnos a todos los hispanoparlantes!) :) Thank you for using the flag of the Spanish empire, considering us in Latin America who also speak Castilian (Spanish) and not only the flag of Spain! (Basically, thank you for including all of us Spanish-speakers!) :)

[@DarkVeghetta]

In Romania, we call Germany 'Germania' - literally the exact same word as in Latin, except that we pronounce the 'g' slightly differently. This is pretty normal, as Romanian is a romance language. However, likely due to mild slavic influences on our language, we normally call the German people, 'nemți' (can apply to Austrians as well, but it's more likely someone would use 'austrieci' there). Interestingly, there is a 'germani' term, but it's mostly used in scientific fields, referring to German tribes.

[@Dracopol]

Germany is called Tyskland in Sweden. In Serbia, the Serbians call the country "Germania" but in Croatia, the Croats, who speak almost the same language as the Serbs, use the Slavic metaphor for foreigners and call the country "Njemačka" (pronounced Nyemachka).

[@12345678900987659101]

You should do a video on the little known Amish and similar groups. They're commonly referred to as Pennsylvania Dutch.

[@jorge6207]

The Alamanii actually called themselves Suebi, so there was a slight possibility of Germany being called Suebelande in French, and Suebalândia in Portuguese. Thank god for ethnocentrism.

[@Hay1hiho]

Tyskland. Nice video once again!

[@schlagi1]

I‘m not sure if I misheard, but you mention towards the beginning of the video that the unification of Germany ocurred in 1871, mainly between Prussia and Austria. That is not quite correct,Austria had been excluded from that union, they had actually been at war shortly before (the battle of Königgrätz in 1866 being the climax of that war).

[@hazzmati]

You are correct the only time they were unified was from 1939-1945 and then never again.

[@Artur_M.]

The other weird thing about "Niemcy" is that it means both Germany and Germans. I think it's the only such case in Polish. There are some other country names which seem to originally be also names of the peoples, like Węgry (Hungary), Włochy (Italy), and Prusy (Prussia), but in modern Polish we have separate words for Hungarians (Węgrzy), Italians (Włosi), Old Prussians (Prusowie) and German Prussians (Prusacy).

[@razvanalbu2104]

In Romanian we call it Germania as well like the Italians, we are speaking a Romance language too

[@leod-sigefast]

The stem of Deutschland, Deutsch, is from the Germanic (the linguistic group, not the country) for people. As an English etymology studier and Old English learner, the akin word is Theed (meaning the people, the folk, the nation). So if English, and I really wish it had, stuck close to its true English roots, rather than swill in the trough of Latin, it would call Germany - Theedland, which is related to all its other Germanic brothers' tongues.

[@jacksoncabot9179]

Hilbert, you are clearly very knowledgeable and you put a lot of effort into your videos. Great stuff. However, I really recommend you solidify your scripts. Make sure what you say flows nicely in an organized and grammatically sound way. Avoid run-ons and digressions mid-sentence. I really like your content and I think you deserve a much bigger audience than you currently get. I want to help you expand

[@n0lain]

I hoped you would cover Tyskland and Þýskaland, since they derive from Deutschland but sound different

[@angelooo6091]

Nice Video I was kinda happy because I'm German and slightly English so it's nice to learn a little about my home P.S Great video Hilbert

[@usernamesample8386]

You're german

[@angelooo6091]

The Patriotic Australian yes Four generations ago we came to US From Germany

[@seethrough_treeshrew]

In Italian the name of the country is indeed Germania, but (to complicate things) the people and the language are called tedesco. It has the same latin root as deutsch (theodiscus)

[@yorgunsamuray]

Turkish name is Almanya. In the past, in the Ottoman era, for German speakers we used "Nemçe" a loan from Slavic. Meanwhile Chinese and Japanese took the name from Deutschland, most probably their first contact was late, after the unification. Japanese: ドイツ (Doitsu) and Chinese 徳国 (Deguo). Japanese contact with the Dutch were much earlier and the term they use "Oranda" (オランダ) probably comes from the Portuguese, whom they met around the same time.

[@HUNdAntae]

In Hungarian german (people and language) is "német", Germany is "Németország". Austrian is "osztrák" or "labanc"(archaic, pejorative) while germanic peoples who live in the territory of (Historic) Hungary are "szászok"(saxons), "svábok" (schwabs), "bajorok" (bavarians) -"(o)k" is suffix for plural.

[@Schnitz13]

Btw, your pronunciation of the Polish name for Germany is spot on.

[@persimmon93]

In North Korean: Do uwi chi laen du. In South Korean: dok il.

[@Dracopol]

3:26 "Theudisk" or "the People" had an equivalent in Old English as well, but BOTH came to mean the native language (as opposed to Latin). This was used in Latin too. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodiscus

[@SionTJobbins]

Welsh word for Germany is 'Yr Almaen' (the Germany - don't know why the definite article is used, but same with Yr Eidal, Italy, too). Welsh word for English is 'Saeson' which is from the 'Saxons'. England is called 'Lloegr' which is probably the name of the territory, or part of the territory of what is now England before the English (Anglo-Saxons) arrived in 5th century. There's no consensus on the etymology of 'Lloegr'.

[@jascvideorambles3369]

I have always thought that the Romance names for Germany (Alemania, Allemange, Germani, etc) where all derived from the Latin name Germania. Is it possible that Julius Cesar named the region Germania based on the name of the Alemanni?

[@nealsterling8151]

Nice Video!

[@tamasmarcuis4455]

The Scots language has three different names for Germany. But they are all variants of the ones here. There was another but it might just be a nickname for a German person. "Diskie". One place I saw it was the lyrics for a very old folk song.

[@hildegard2002]

Great vid, just that the german Volk is pronounced Folk.

[@ahmass9342]

Interestingly in Arabic Germany is Almania & Austria is Namsa!

[@chirhoiota885]

Liked and subscribbled :) Very interesting.

[@au9parsec]

The Saxophone is the Saxons most faverite musical instrument.

[@cedrickropp]

Funnily enough the words deutsch evolved from like diudisc, theodisk apparently meant something like people or our people. This makes the deutschen Volkswagen, the people’s people‘s car. That means that the tradition in Germany of naming things by just calling them what they are or describing them without an ounce of creativity goes back to the times of ?Charlemange? ?Karlmann? ?Karl der große? ?Carl the Great? or however you call him. In my mind the best and most metal name of any historical figure belongs to him, the Nazis and other Nationalist groups called him Der Sachsen Schlächter, which is The Saxon Butcher or The Saxon Massacrerer in English.

[@UCUCUC27]

this is fun stuff i wonder if its possible to make a language based on german like tolkin did?

[@MrJarl66]

So can it be that the tribe name(by the romans)Teutonic, can mean something like "the people"? Awesome channel, bye the way..seen many vids :)

[@PkMnNeWb]

Tyskland, which is used by Scandinavians as a name for Germany is also derived from "Theudisk"

[@lardonirridesco5200]

Germany - large, in the middle, full of tribes and surrounded by lots of neighbours. Hence the many names

[@MonkeySimius]

I had no idea that the Spanish called it Alemania. I was always curious if Deutsch and Dutch had similar roots or if they were completely different words that just happened to look similar. Now I know. Thanks.

[@gerdforster883]

The Nahua word for Germany used to be Teutontlālpan, though nowadays the spanish "Alemania" seems to have replaced it for the most part.

[@serjorahmormont6124]

As an interesting addition: the Italian word for "German" is "tedesco", which relates back to "theudisk"

[@irfaanrahim4523]

in Zulu: uJalimane is Germany, isiJalimane is the German language and umJalimane (sing.) or abaJalimane (plu.) for the German people.

[@lucian8351]

It is not mute,, it is deaf but you got everything else right for the Slavic version of Germany.

[@OPVSNOVVM]

Ottomans used to call Austria "Nemche", as mentioned in other comments. Interestingly, though, Russians still call it "Nemtze", as far as I know.

[@dice3000]

There is a 5th name for Germany - Vokietija/Vacija (in Lithuanian/Latvian) as you can see in this map upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Germany_Name_European_Languages.svg . The name comes from slave groups which ran away from the Roman empire and settled in regions around Bavaria. Proto-baltic tribes lived somewhere north near the Baltic sea before moving east and probably carried this name.

[@karlakirkpatrick8927]

thank you when I was younger I heard this but couldn't until now thanks

[@marcchef98]

Theudisk is actually pronounced with the thorn sound, the thorn sound was very common in Proto-Germanic but only English and Icelandic dit keep it, in Dutch it mostly change in to /t/ in Frisian in to /d/ in the early middle ages like Low-German(Saxon) , in old-Norse / Viking language it was used until the very end of the viking age (I don't know when or why high-German(standard German) lost the thorn sound). (I'm sorry for my bad English, daarom hieronder in het Nederlands:) Theudisk werd eigenlijk uitgesproken met een thorn klank. De thorn klank was eigenlijk best gebruikelijk in het Proto-Germaans, maar alleen het Engels en het IJslands hebben het behouden, in het Nederlands veranderde het vooral in /t/ , in het Fries in een /d/ aan het begin van de middel eeuwen net als in het Nederduits(Saksisch), en in Oud-Noors / Viking-taal bleef het gebruikt tot het einde van het viking-tijdperk. (van het Hoogduits(standaard Duits) weet ik niet wanneer en hoe het de thorn klank verloor)

[@Shantari]

3:30 Theudisk. Could this be where the Swedish name Tyskland comes from? I'm thinking especially since we refer to Germans as Tyskar and the German language as Tyska.

[@luizfellipe3291]

Just for note: The Spanish "Alemania" can also be seen in Portuguese(Alemanha)

[@JerryCrow]

In finland we have a bad habit of calling a country by their first contact names. For example "estonia" is "viro" in finnish, as the northern most province is "virumaa". The proper word for the dutch is "alankomaat" ie the low countries, but the language is "hollanti", and everyone calls the country hollanti for holland. Saksa is for saxony. Sweden is "ruotsi" and i presume it comes from the same place as the rus befor kieva. But austria is the east reich, itävalta.

[@ioanus1010]

In swiss german we sometimes refer to germans as "schwobe" comming from swabians.

[@fisebilillah4406]

Yes, "nijem" means mute, in contrast to "Sloven" which comes from the word "slovo" which means letter. Slavs called the Germans mute because they could not understand them. But that is only one theory regarding Slavic name, other theory suggests that it comes from the word "slava" which, at least amongst South Slavs, today means glory, but could have meant more like honour before, which is also quite plausible since honour holds great importance amongst Slavs to this day.

[@quetaquenya6418]

The Nordic languages use a variety of the word Deutsch which is Tysk, and we call the country Tyskland (may vary in spelling between languages)

[@Michael-wn4jj]

Adventure writer Karl May gave himself the orientalic name Kara Ben Nemsi.

[@jayclawwit6489]

In the Philippines, we call Germany, Alemanya.

[@RattusYu]

In Philippines, we call it Alemanya.

[@sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh3349]

Kasi nanggaling sa Spanish word ginaya natin

[@UKDrilla]

In Wales we call it “Yr Almaen”

[@dietrauringkursschmiede7160]

Alemanni or Alemannen or Alamannen (transl. "all-men") were not a tribe, but a loose confederation of many different tribes that wanted to invade south-western Germany. The majority of them being of the Swabian tribe.

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

Very interesting. TBH I was wondering if the Dutch "Duitsland" was a "sneaky" contraction of De Uitsland (the country - according to Google Translate - not enough coffee yet); or De Buitenlandse (the foreign) or Het Buitenland (the foreign country) - or a mixture of the three! Given the Netherlands' lousy luck with foreigners over the centuries, an equivalent to the ancient Greek βάρβαροι could be expected!

[@stefanatliorvaldsson3563]

Þýskaland p.s. great video

[@historywithhilbert]

Thanks man!

[@tamerofhorses2200]

Stefán Atli Þorvaldsson I guess that also comes from Theudisk as well

[@kingjut638]

Tyskland

[@thomassugg3422]

Nice video

[@historywithhilbert]

Thanks man!

[@galaxywitchking7062]

Just found your channel and its amazing. I love history and the research you do is very accurate. Would like to collaborate with you ir you want