How Each European Capital Got Its Name

[@General.Knowledge]

Did I make any mistakes?

[@vrenak]

Yes, the pronounciation of "Bär" is not too far from the english "bear", but very far from "bar" as you said it.

[@lolacullingham6020]

Not any I’ve noticed. People are saying you used a map of the Soviet Union for when you were explaining Moscow. 13:39 But I can’t tell.

[@joonatanmelioranski87]

Riga is the capital of Latvia

[@DarthVader161195]

Its Kyiv, not Kiev

[@lolacullingham6020]

@@DarthVader161195 There both correct.

[@lolacullingham6020]

Next you should do oldest city/town in each European Country...

[@larrywave]

Its would be interesting video 👍 But i bet he is going to say wrong year for my countrys oldest 😂

[@-wayter-8913]

Ohrid is for sure for North Macedonia 🇲🇰

[@apokyrfter413]

That would be interesting.

[@archstanton6102]

Now that is a good idea

[@spugnoxngubcux9801]

@@-wayter-8913 From what I could find, the oldest continually inhabited city in North Macedonia is Bitola, which was founded in the 4th century BCE as Heraclea Lyncestis.

[@gregcampwriter]

If this were a test, you could get a passing score by guessing "local name for a river or swamp" as the origin.

[@gunnarkvinlaug7226]

Water has always been importent for living and transport in some ways, so that is only naturaly!

[@OnlyGrafting]

Funnily enough if you look at Inverness and Aberdeen, Inver and Aber have practically the same meaning - place where river meets sea- and Ness and Deen just happen to be the names of.... Nearby rivers. A lot of places in Scotland have similar phenomenon in Gaidhlig too. Thurso, the English name of a small Scottish village/town, is called Inbhir Thurso is Gaidhligh. Inbhir being the word for Inver in Gaidhligh and meaning the same, and funnily enough Thurso has a river named Thurso nearby running into the sea by the town.

[@parkjimin-standkb-62]

Right😂

[@QemeH]

And if you knew weather it was a river/swamp name or just "the city around that castle" you'd even get quite a good score :D

[@ariversideview5775]

Rivers are quite often named after thtowns. Pleace name etymologists call them Back Formations.

[@dzilna5040]

Oh boy can't wait to see my country! "Riga is the capitol of Estonia" Me a Latvian: Sad potato noises

[@irishgirlintexas]

I wasn't aware potatoes could make sounds, sad or otherwise. Local inside joke?

[@dzilna5040]

@@irishgirlintexas Local inside joke. The joke is that we love and have a lot of potatoes. (which is true)

[@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014]

Are you a mutant that can make the sound of potato? Also I thought the Irish were the ones with the Potato

[@dzilna5040]

@@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014 The potato thing is just a joke about us Latvians loving potatoes. And yes the whole potato thing is Irish, but basically the entire region of Eastern Europe love and eat potatoes probably more than the Irish.

[@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014]

@@dzilna5040 If i remember the vodka, which is very very old was made out of potato, before the Spanish brought back from Peru

[@kona6812]

Vienna is called WIEN in German (nativ language) . This belongs to the old word Wenia originated from celto-romanesque word Vedunia, which means forestcreek. And this forestcreek is called WIEN. Starting in the west of the city and flows out into the Danube river near the city center.

[@FebyanKudrat]

In Indonesian we call it Wina from German name Wien.

[@Kameliius]

Stimmt!

[@Kameliius]

@Safwaan It's Latin. That's also what he said

[@diengowen]

@Safwaan Are you talking about Vienna cuz I’m pretty sure it’s Austrian not Italian

[@vrba243]

in croatia we call it Beč (Bech) lol

[@SpardauDebesi]

"moving to the baltic Riga is the capital of Estonia" Latvia: I'm I a JOKE to you

[@Spacey_key]

The fuck???

[@Käbimees-p1t]

igaunis pupi pupi

[@vonKrahw]

Same, wtf.

[@dragonlord1225]

That was painful to listen to🥲

[@SJPace1776]

They swapped so you folks get Talinn now.

[@planar322]

Fun fact: in northern Croatia (north from Zagreb) we like to call Zagreb - Zabreg, which could be translated "after hill". Its because we have to travel around or up the mountain Medvednica to get to Zagreb :)

[@crnimarko9198]

Хахахахаххахаха 😅

[@Slaweniskadela]

Not after, but behind hill :) Nije poslije brda nego za bregom.

[@ferretyluv]

Medvednica? Bearland?

[@emmawalton2300]

Thank you for including Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast and not just focussing on London.

[@ixion567]

FYI. Bern is only the de facto swiss capital. We do not have a de jure capital

[@thecandlemaker1329]

On the contrary, Bern is the formal capital where the government institutions are located. The actual most important city would be Zürich or Geneva for the Romands.

[@deadlive3212]

@@thecandlemaker1329 that would still make it the de facto capital, not the de jure capital

[@MaciejowPL]

Wars and Sawa legend is the most widely spread version due to Mermaid as our city symbol

[@jonatanborowicz]

Ikr, Makes me sad he didnt mention that.

[@dominikpukos7450]

Even though it's a pile of crap as an origin story. Name Warsaw is dated back to the Vršovci noble family from Czech that seeked sanctuary in Poland after they were hunted down in their own country.

[@kingdedede584]

Every friday fresh content, respect my brother

[@General.Knowledge]

Thank you for watching! :)

[@pavelsanda3149]

I think you got Bratislava completely wrong. After formation of Czechoslovakia the idea was the Slovak capital should have a Slavic sounding name, not a Hungarian or a German name. Brat means brother, slava means glory or celebration. The name of the city was basically designed to celebrate the brotherhood of Czechs and Slovaks. Břetislav has nothing to do with it, it is a completely different word with a different root. It means the one who is famous for his battle roar."

[@MiroslavMydlo]

hmm he isn't wrong actually - it's true that after formation of Czechoslovakia they were searching for some slavic name for the city. And they found "Braťislava", used by followers of Ľudovít Štúr (creator of Slovak language) in 1800s. The name was partly coming from very old (~900) names Brezalauspurch, Uratislaburgium, Brecisburg and Braslav. And also Pavol Jozef Šafárik (a poet) called the city "Břetislav". They (Štúr followers) were very slavic oriented and were trying to push the idea of slavic-hood among the people so they took the name Břetislav and created "Braťislava" - i.e. "brother-glory" because it sounded slavic, mystical and people at the time would understand the name. Where the "by mistake" comes from is - Šafárik called the city Břetislav based on the name Brecisburg. He thought that this is just german version of Bracislaw/Brecislaw and that the city was maybe founded by czech ruler Břetislav I. But he was wrong

[@MurkoTheCat]

i think he got the ethymologies confused, what he said was the origin of the name pressburg iirc, which was named after svatopluk's son "preslav" (hence the czech bretislav). as in "preslav's castle" > preslavburg > presburg

[@19Szabolcs91]

This. Bratislava was a Hungarian town called Pozsony which was even the capital for a while after the Ottoman invasion. When they took it after WW1 they renamed it "Slavic brotherhood" specifically to add insult to injury to the Hungarians and Germans still living there.

[@lukasvasko99]

@@19Szabolcs91 Not really. In slavic languages there is difference between medieval Hungarian kingdom (Uhorsko) and modern Hungary - and for reason. Old kingdom was multicultural state with only a third of population wih hungarian origin. Pressburg / Poszony / Prešporok was similar with population roughly divided by hungarians, germans and slovaks, what was totaly ordinary before 1900. In times when Czechoslovakia was formed many germans and hungarians left and town became slovak by most of population. They renamed it after first known slavic chieftain braslau /preslau - and first known name of place presalauspurch. Which is in fact still the same. Bratislava, Prešporok, Pressburg, Poszony came from same origin, but in other form. Thinking that its just to make hungarians suffer for some reason is childish.

[@danvaly2256]

@@19Szabolcs91 Do Hungarians as yourself really sit there in their houses believing other countries care so much about them when really nobody really gives 2 s**ts about them? This is hilarious 😂 . We all know you were just puppets of the Germans, the true masters of that empire so calm down. Nobody takes you serious. You are the clowns of Europe.

[@NotASummoner]

Helsinki is still Helsingfors in Swedish.

[@TheBarser]

Same in Denmark, though it might have changed recently. It is a long time since I heard anyone call it helsingfors

[@thefallenangel5190]

Indeed. And I fun it little funny that Sweden, Denmark & Finland each have a city with the part "Helsing" in the start of its name. Helsingborg (Swe), Helsingör (Den), Helsingfors (Fin).

[@TheBarser]

@@thefallenangel5190 Helsingør and Helsingborg is just in front of each other and used to both be danish. The names is very old and comes from halsen = neck because it was the most narrow place (and very strategically important). Helsingør = neck beach. Helsingborg = neck castle. It is probably unrelated to Helsingfors.

[@jordinagel1184]

@@thefallenangel5190 Helsingør, Helsinborg, Helsinki, and don’t forget Hellsing Ultimate

[@Koopa3000]

@@-_pi_- Helsinki is originally the finnish name of the city, not just english.

[@EmotionalSupportCapybara]

In Greek, we still use Leukosia to refer to the capital of Cyprus. Nicosia is just the coloniser friendly version.

[@arolemaprarath3248]

Greece is so old!

[@aaronboucher60]

Wouldn’t this be the coloniser friendly one since Greece wants Cyprus back.

[@arolemaprarath3248]

@@aaronboucher60 Cyprus is Greek. Read history.

[@aaronboucher60]

@@arolemaprarath3248 I mean I did say ‘back’, but being ethnic Greek doesn’t mean they should be part of the country and it also ignores the Turkish north but I already had this debate on TikTok and aren’t doing it again. Nicosia is the capital and Greek change to that is simply incorrect, that’s not an opinion.

[@varolussalsanclar1163]

@@aaronboucher60 we call it Lefkoşa in Turkish too. Nicosia is just a made up name. Go away with your British empricist nonsense.

[@kyriljordanov2086]

Bratislava can also mean something like "glory of brotherhood" coming from the Pan-Slavism idea of Slavs i.e. Czechs and Slovaks being brothers, which having lived in both countries I believe is actually true. Buda might come from the Slavic "voda" which means water. There are hot springs there and it's on the Danube.

[@bojanstare8667]

In Pannonia have lived before Hungarian Slavs. Mostly Slovenci and Slovenci, nowadays Slovacs nad Slovenians. Buda was before forth Vode - Boden, because was under the Danube river. Pest or Pešta is new part of city on the plain place.

[@bigozimak]

I agree on both points and Pesht has to come from Peshtera, Cave.

[@sanjayshukla1441]

00:00 Introduction 00:59 Lisboa 🇵🇹 1:45 Berlin 🇩🇪 2:22 Rome 🇮🇹 3:14 Amsterdam 🇳🇱 3:26 Andorra La Vella 🇦🇩 5:01 Ankara 🇹🇷 5:21 Athens 🇬🇷 5:51 Belgrade 🇷🇸 6:03 Bern 🇨🇭 6:28 Bratislava 🇸🇰 6:45 Brussels 🇧🇪 6:58 Bucharest 🇷🇴 7:34 Budapest 🇭🇺 8:11: Chisinau 🇲🇩 8:40: Copenhagen 🇩🇰 8:54: Dublin 🇮🇪 9:12: Helsinki 🇫🇮 9:49 Kiev 🇺🇦 10:05 Ljubljana 🇸🇮 11:01 London (+ Edinburg, Cardiff, and Belfast) 🇬🇧 11:48 Luxembourg City 🇱🇺 12:15 Madrid 🇪🇸 12:44 Minsk 🇧🇾 13:17 Monaco 🇲🇨 13:38 Moscow 🇷🇺 13:59 Nicosia 🇨🇾 14:52 Oslo 🇳🇴 15:22 Paris 🇫🇷 16:00 Podgorica 🇲🇪 16:32 Prague 🇨🇿 16:54 Reykjavik 🇮🇸 17:14 Riga 🇱🇻 17:53 San Marino 🇸🇲 18:04 Sarajevo 🇧🇦 18:34 Skopje 🇲🇰 19:18 Sofia 🇧🇬 19:47 Stockholm 🇸🇪 20:12 Tallinn 🇪🇪 20:55 Tirana 🇦🇱 21:13 Vaduz 🇱🇮 21:41 Valletta 🇲🇹 22:03 Vatican City 🇻🇦 22:15 Vienna 🇦🇹 22:52 Vilnius 🇱🇹 23:06 Warsaw 🇵🇱 23:53 Pristina 🇽🇰 24:11 Zagreb 🇭🇷 24:36 Summary

[@chronikhiles]

Appreciate it!

[@sanjayshukla1441]

@@chronikhiles Thanks

[@Oxy_J_YT]

San Marino flag is wrong

[@sanjayshukla1441]

@@Oxy_J_YT Thanks for pointing the mistake. Note it's correct now.

[@sikiwitit3551]

Thank you so much

[@19Szabolcs91]

Fun fact: Budapest, after the unification of the 3 towns was briefly called Pest-buda, but I guess they figured it's a pain to pronounce so they changed it to Budapest.

[@guiorgy]

In case anybody is also curious about other countries, the capital of Georgia, "Tbilisi", comes from the word თბილი (Tbili), which translates to "warm". According to a legend, a Georgian king stumbled onto a hot spring with healing properties while hunting, and thus ordered the construction of a city and named it aftet the hot waters there

[@bjornreal4952]

Hi General Knowlegde! i love your videoes and i watch them more then one times! I love everyting about geography and i think your the best youtuber ever!

[@General.Knowledge]

Thanks!

[@arolemaprarath3248]

@@General.Knowledge Turkey is Asian!

[@bjornreal4952]

@@arolemaprarath3248 not all. Istanbul is spliting Europe snd Asia so a Istanbul is in Europe

[@arolemaprarath3248]

@@bjornreal4952 Yes but Turkey culturally is Arab not European.

[@Sofus.]

Applause 👏 for including all the flags 😎

[@apmoy70]

RE Nicosia 14:00 The Greek name Λευκωσία comes from the abundance of Sandstone in the area, a rock which was called in Byzantine Greek λευκή οὐσία (white material) > Λευκοὐσία (with crasis) > Λευκωσία. The exonym Nicosia comes from the Orthodox monastery of st. Nicholas, a prominent landmark in 11th-12th c. Cyprus, and when the Lusignan conquered the island and established a crusader kingdom, they moved the capital from Salamis (called Constantia by then, after the Byzantine emperor Constantius II who rebuilt it in AD mid-4th c.) to Nicosia. Nicosia comes from Νικόλαος + οἶκος = House of Nicholas.

[@LathaMate1]

As a Scotsman I appreciate you not overlooking Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, earned a like

[@ruicorreia6373]

he's not from England, so he knows those are countries as well ;)

[@voxveritas333]

@@ruicorreia6373 they're all "English" or "British" to us.

[@davidtompa7564]

Great video in general, I would just like to mention a mistake all english speakers make, in Hungarian "cs" is like "ch" in English, if we were to say it like you we would write Vienna like Beksz or Bex, not Bécs. Not a big mistake but funny for me to hear xd

[@General.Knowledge]

Thanks!

[@beak3669]

Szeged or Seged ( Polish speakers )

[@AndreiBerezin]

They do it because they dont care. They dont take time to know the right way, just say whatever comes to mind and expect us to recognize the word.

[@tomasborovics7206]

@@beak3669 Szeged

[@romeufrancisco7041]

Man, you certainly ventured right into a storm. You are fearless! I mean, everyone who lives in one of those countries will have something to say concerning the correct pronounciation of their capital city name, not to mention its origins. Europe is just so complex, but it had to be done, right? Good job!

[@AndreiBerezin]

And every other time he pronounces them wrong. English speakers are absolutely uncapable of saying Slavic names. They ALWAYS put the stress wrong. Including VLADimir instead of VladEEmir.

[@module79l28]

@@AndreiBerezin - That would be true if he was a native English speaker but he's not, he's portuguese. ; )

[@richielelas]

Not sure if this is the case for any other cities, but the Irish name for Dublin is completely different. Baile Átha Cliath means "the town of the hurdle ford." "Baile" and "Átha" are pretty common in other towns too for the same reason. Also, your pronunciation of Béal Feirste was pretty good! You don't pronounce the a in Béal and you do pronounce the second e in Feirste, otherwise spot on. 👍🏻 By the way, since you mentioned swamps being so common, not the capital but Ireland's second biggest city Cork comes from the Irish Corcaigh, meaning marsh.

[@nirfz]

About Ljubliana: it wasn't just in the middle ages known as Laibach with german speakers. Until 1918 Slovenia was part of Austria(-Hungary later on) and german speakers lived there. (a big part of Slovenia was part of the duchy/crownland of Styria, Steiermark in german, which is a federal state of austria today. And the part in Slovenia is still called stajerska i think) Even today people in casual talking in southern austria refer to it as Laibach (because it's easier to say for native german speakers than Ljubliana. Same with Maribor -> Marburg.) The "bach" in Laibach refers to a small stream or creek. As for "Lai" it's far streched but: one southern part of austria extensively uses "Lei" in their language (which sounds the same as Lai in german) and it means just or only. So the german Laibach could mean: "just a little stream".

[@streips]

Oh, General Knowledge! How I love watching your shows, and thank you for every single one of them. Just one note, if I may. I live in Latvia, and so I was looking forward to your discussion of my capital city's name. And when you came to it, and Latvia was highlighted on your map, you said that Riga was the capital of Estonia. You did Estonia separately later vis-a-vis Tallinn. That was a bit of a stab in my heart. But your stuff is great, and so I forgive you. :)

[@TheGeographyBible]

Love these videos! I genuinely learn more from videos like this than school!

[@TheRealOtakuako]

Are you doing other state capitals? E.g. Asian, American, African and Oceanic countries?

[@kanishkchoudhary9992]

you forgot Antarctica

[@diengowen]

Dude you forgot the Martian countries

[@matejmamba2546]

No

[@Alfadanz_]

I love how he wonders why a province was not included in the country list, and then he adds capital of a breakaway province anyway. Good job

[@dragonlord1225]

He also did explain it for the Uk provinces, so it's just fair.

[@bojanstare8667]

@@dragonlord1225 Province has had meaning of state in Roman empire. Empire was collection of states. Same as in Austro-Hungarian empire. Emperior has titled also as king of Chech, Lombardian, Hungarian, Slavonian etc.

[@junhongyuen423]

"Moscow" proceeds to show the entire soviet union

[@Admin-gm3lc]

He still lives in the 80s

[@sakanig]

@@Admin-gm3lc 1922

[@muchamad613]

That thing made me unsubscribe

[@Spacey_key]

Fun Fact about germany name in Polish: In Polish we call Germany "Niemcy" which may comes from word "Niemy" and we use "Niemy" to call someone who can't speak LOL

[@MurkoTheCat]

same with other western slavic languages (nemci in sk/cz) the story says, that when the OG slavs met the germans they couldnt understand a word being said, so they thought the germans were deaf/mute

[@andreikoto4810]

@@MurkoTheCat It's exactly the same in Russian, "not us/can't speak" two words sounding the same, and we call german people "nemci".

[@hildegunstvonmythenmetz625]

Unfortunately we don't have a cool name for Poland in German, it's just "Polen" so basically the same. Aren't the names if Sweden and Switzerland really similar in Polish?

[@Spacey_key]

@@hildegunstvonmythenmetz625 yeah they are

[@bojanstare8667]

@@MurkoTheCat Not just western but also south Slavs. Nemci or Njemci.

[@matesafranka6110]

TL;DW: Every city ever is named some variation of "fort by the river"

[@supernt7852]

or swamp

[@user-serzhant]

If you are not sure how to pronounce something correctly, it is best to write this word in Google Translate and listen to how it is pronounced. I understand that Slavic worlds are difficult for others to pronounce. The letter C is not K in some of our languages with the Latin alphabet. In pronunciation, it looks more like TC, but only together and harder is it worth listening to in the words themselves in order to understand. Therefore, Podgorica is read as "Podgoritca". In Polish letter combination sz reads like sh and cz reads like ch. So it is a Warshawa. And thank you for video.

[@Unbrutal_Rawr]

Ironically, when writing "tc" you also confused the Latin "c" with the Cyrillic "c". "tc" would be "тк" in Cyrillic; what you need to express "ц" is "ts".

[@frtzkng]

Thanks, Romance languages, for coming up with this extremely contrived way of using C and QU just to avoid using the letter K And then there are the Celtics, who use C for /k/ everywhere

[@Unbrutal_Rawr]

@@frtzkng You have a very teleocentric view of history and language. Nobody came up with this. It's the result of what used to be the Latin [kw] consonant (articulated together) simplifying to [k] in speech, while the QU spelling remained. This happened regardless of the following vowel in France and Romania, to a lesser extent in Spain, and to an even lesser extent in Italy. Even earlier, [k] followed by [i] or [e] changed to the cheese-sound. For a while after this process took hold, people were experimenting with using different methods to represent [k] followed by [i] or [e]. Sometimes they used K, sometimes QU, and sometimes CH. In Italy and Romania the latter spelling won out, and in Spain and France the middle one. Sardinian escaped the cheese-sound shift so it has a lot of [k] compared to all other Romance languages. But it still doesn't have a standard orthography and some people use K in words like _ki_ "who" and _kentu_ "hundred" while others use CH (and Medieval Sardinian mainly used QU). And the reason Latin used QU instead of CU to spell [kw] because it ultimately received the alphabet from Phoenician, and in Phoenician C and Q and K represented three different sounds, which were all pronounced the same in Latin, but with different vowels after them: [ke:], [ku:] and [ka:]. Since writing was traditional to the point of being mnemonic, they kept on using three different letters depending on which vowel was part of the letter name. Eventually they realised the KA thing was stupid but kept QU to represent the single consonant [kw] as opposed to CU [ku]. The Celts didn't have the [kw] consonant so eventually they dropped Q altogether.

[@mihamhassan6206]

You did a great job....now we want this kind of vedio for all other countries of Asia and Africa and Americas

[@user975bg]

You got Sofia right. It comes from a Byzantine basilica, dedicated to “Holy Sophia” or “The Holy Wisdom of God” - the same name as the famous Istanbul church. This church still stands today and is operational! The reason the city got this name is that the church (being a large building on a hill) was visible from a long distance, and served as a waypoint when travelers asked nearby villagers for directions. The villagers directed them to “Sofia” meaning the church, but the name stuck to the city as well (which at the time was reduced to little more than a village).

[@ekosh6266]

Wdym Istanbul. It's holy Sophia from Constantinople.

[@billpolychronidis7805]

That famous Chinese wall

[@TREYXIII]

@@ekosh6266 it’s İstanbul now buddy :) 🥵🇹🇷

[@someguysomeone3543]

Really interesting Btw the "sz" in polish makes a "sh" sound, and ä in German makes a English e sound or Æ/æ.

[@littlerave86]

lolwut? The German ä sounds close to the "ai" in fair. The English e sound is the same as the German i, which is not at all anything like ä.

[@someguysomeone3543]

@@littlerave86 I meant it as it's close to the english word for Bear. Plus the e and a in english can make the same sound sometimes.

[@littlerave86]

@@someguysomeone3543 Well, you didn't mention bear. With English you have to be very precise with your examples because it has no rules for pronunciation whatsoever. Just replace the b with an f and the pronunciation of "ea" becomes e instead of ä. Or, worse case, you don't even have to do anything, i.e. verb tear (tare) vs. noun tear (teer).

[@voxveritas333]

@@littlerave86 ain't English a bitch? LOL. must drive foreigners mad. It's hard even for us. that's why spelling bees are so interesting.

[@littlerave86]

@@voxveritas333 Oh, well ... every language has it's bitchy sides.

[@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014]

Berlin named after Slavic languages should really had pissed of hitler if he knew it haha

[@Gntlmn96]

Nicosia is still Lefkoşa in Turkish. Tallinn was called Reval for some time, there were even some British-Russian meetings there in 1908. Helsinki is still Helsingfors in Swedish

[@mariajoaoferrazdeabreu150]

Always learning with this channel! Congrats!

[@lynoska1951]

btw Switzerland has no capital

[@midou3299]

The meaning of Paris is actually simpler : It's named after the local Gaul tribe Parisii.

[@Unbrutal_Rawr]

Well spotted. It _was_ known as _Lū̆tētia_ (Parīsiōrum) "swampland of the Parisii" in Latin, but the "swampland" part didn't survive - who knows, maybe the locals had already drained their swamp by the middle ages? 🙂Since it's the name of the tribe that survives, the interesting part is where that comes from. It looks like ot comes from Gaulish _*parios_ "cauldron", so basically Parisians were gourmets already in prehistoric times, but everybody else thought them and their cutlery weird, and so called them "cauldron-folk" 😃

[@Fummy007]

Athena is much older than the city of Athens. the city isnt even mentioned in the Odyssey but Athene sure is.

[@RMJurgen998]

Athens already existed in the Mycenaean period, centuries before Homer... and I don't think that the Odyssey is the most relevant work for the matter, I'm pretty sure that Athens is mentioned in the Iliad by the way.

[@jasoncallow860]

You could make an argument for every settlement in europe that people have been using sites since the ice age; people settle in places where the land is favourable, especially near rivers

[@kirby8225]

2:02 'Bär' is pronounced pretty much the same as 'Bear' in english, not 'Bahr'

[@gunnarkvinlaug7226]

Would make sence since English is a Germanic language!

[@SkeleterYT]

As Berliner I can say, Berlin and Brandenburg are normally really swampy. Thats why Germania - Hitlers big dream super city - could never have been build or would have been very very expensive to do because the buildings would sink in. In Templehof is a very big stone from that time to measure the sinking.

[@zoltankiss2943]

Bratislava's official name in Kingdom of Hungary was Pozsony before 1919, and used to be Hungary's capital cca. between 1526-1848. Obviously, the Austrians use Pressburg for themselves.

[@frantisekiv5512]

King Stefan I around the year 1000 issued coins with the inscription PRESLAVA CIV - STEPHANUS REX. The name Bratislava was a return to the oldest known names - Preslava - Breslava - Brezalauspurc. ...

[@fraso7331]

A gret video again. And no mistake, but you left out some very interesting explanation.

[@dustgreylynx]

Minsk/Menesk derived most probably not from the river Menka, but from the Slavic word meneti meaning to exchange/trade. So basically similar as Copenhagen

[@muchamad613]

Yeah sure, this is a coincidence that there's a river Mienka and the city on that river is called Miensk.

[@herbertherbertic6223]

@@muchamad613 How did the river get the name?

[@muchamad613]

@@herbertherbertic6223 we're talking about lord knows how long before the writing systems developed in the region. It could be derived from Indo-European *min-, with meaning 'to pass (by)'. It could be from the root *men- (small, junior), as there is 'menkas' in Lithuanian with the same meaning, and 'minus' in Latin.

[@Brugar18]

To add more about Lithuanian capitol Vilnius: Legends say that the Grand Duke Gediminas once had a dream where he saw an Iron Wolf howling on the hill and he tried to find out what this dream meant, he asked Lizdeika his seer what this dream of his meant and reached the conclusion that it meant that the city known as Vilnius should be built.

[@michaeld-21]

3:39 so that's why it's called Andorra-the-old (Andorre-la-Vieille) in French !

[@luisricardolozadaamaya670]

Yea, it is also called ´Andorra la Vieja´ in Castillian

[@marcodiepold8620]

Are you Alsacien?

[@mtth6758]

Caerdydd is the actual name of Cymru (Wales)’s capital, Cardiff is the given English translation officially recognised by the British government as the capitals name, Welsh speakers will argue otherwise and rightfully so

[@beisenherg1343]

Pro tip, C in slavic languages is almost always pronounced as ts

[@fredericchopin4821]

I love your channel so much

[@OnlyInMelsele]

In Dutch/Flemish the two letters O and E together make the same sound as OO in English. So Broeksel is pronounced Brooksel (In English)

[@fassko]

Thank you for such great video. Just one error when refferencing Riga you told that it is in Estonia not in Latvia. I’m just myself from Latvia. :)

[@jorge6207]

Fun fact: Latvia is said Letónia in Portuguese, so sometimes Letónia e Estónia gets mixed in brain...

[@supermiro200]

Every slavic city or town ending with -va or -wa, means there was a river or a body of water near by

[@Croat955]

I live in croatia in city Karlovac which has 4 rivers

[@Dac_DT_MKD]

Not in Macedonian though. We have many towns that have rivers go through them and they don't end with "-va", exception being the town Gostivar, which the river Vardar goes through (and the source of the river is close to the town).

[@jordinagel1184]

@@Dac_DT_MKD that’s not what he’s saying though. He didn’t say “Every place that has a river ends in -va,” he said “Every place that ends in -va has a river.” You haven’t actually contradicted his point in any way.

[@lamebubblesflysohigh]

not true... "va" can also have possessive meaning (that town or the original settlement that evolved into that city was owned by someone)

[@lamebubblesflysohigh]

@@jordinagel1184 maybe that is because vast majority of settlements that evolved into cities were build on river banks?

[@Jojogrec]

Although the words making up the name of Stockholm was explained, the story of why that name was chosen wasn't included in the video. I don't remember the specifics off the top of my head but there was some people who had transported logs by letting them float down the river/lake and some of them ended up on a small island in the area where Stockholm was then built.

[@davidgarrido1291]

"La Vella" in Andorra means °the old one" in catalan, not "the town". That would be "La Vila"

[@deadlive3212]

3:51

[@bruhroof]

great video!

[@teethgrinder83]

Really appreciate you going through the capitals of the other 3 home countries in the UK and not just London-thanks! 👍

[@europhile6548]

Eh ... 4

[@teethgrinder83]

@@europhile6548 "other three" implying one has already been done, 1+3 =4

[@axolotlmex9546]

You did well, good video :)

[@d0nutwaffle]

Warszawa would be something more akin to "varshava"

[@LelouchLamperouge235]

3:11 "I'm gonna mispronounce all the foreign words btw. " Yes I already noticed your pronunciation of the river Spree by that time :D

[@jroyggz]

You should do how each US state capital got their name that would be cool

[@adensecabbage7881]

I was always told that vienna came from Via Gehenna because it is the place where Pontius Pilate died

[@alihorda]

Bratislava was originally called Pozsony (just to clarify, during old times under Hungarian kingdom)

[@881terror]

Balaton was also called Blatnograd what in slavic languages means mud castle - Balaton Principality. Esztergom is from Slavic word ostrigat what means cut hair. Buda and Pest in slavic languages means waking fist. In Hungary are 6000 slavic names of rivers, cities mountains. Just to clarify, during old times under Slavic principalities.

[@Boeremans1985]

Well done!

[@koba2140]

"Bär" is pronounced "Bear" not "Bar", but thanks, good to know the origin of Berlin's name.

[@bojanstare8667]

Berlin has Sorbian name. From nation in Lusathia.

[@tomasvrabec1845]

Just to add for anyone interested: Prague or Praha has a connection to the word Prah. That word also means dust and the entrance into a house (not that common today as a word) .

[@yuslaven89]

We in Serbia call your capital "Prag". In Serbian word "prag" is still in use meaning doorstep.

[@jerzyblinowski5177]

Rather, I think that the name of the Czech capital comes from the same root as the Polish verb 'prażyć' or dialectal 'próżyć' which means 'to burn', 'to bake', 'to toast' or the Polish adjective 'próżny' which means 'empty' (such as after the trees have been burnt). In the past, in Poland, the word 'praga' or 'praha' meant an area devoid of trees by means of fire.

[@MrChuckya]

I understand that it's hard to pronounce everything correctly, but you've been doing this for a long enough time to know that Slavic villages are most likely not pronounced with a Portuguese pronunciation :)

[@AgentTasmania]

And yet there's the joke of Portuguese being spanish with a slavic accent

[@diogorodrigues747]

@@AgentTasmania That is a phonetic coincidence because Standard European Portuguese is a stress-timed language (and I say "Standard" because that actually depends a lot on your regional dialect), therefore some syllables are reduced and, because of that, when Portuguese speak fast they seem using consonant clusters (a.k.a. Slavic). Portuguese also has some phonetic similarities with Russian or Polish like the rolling "r" or nasal sounds. However, there is a huge difference. Portuguese is a vowel language, just like any other Romance language, and it has 14 different vowel sounds and 22 consonant sounds (less than the 26 of English). However, Slavic languages are consonant languages, with very few vowel sounds and lots of consonant sounds, as well as consonant clusters. That's why the prononciation of foreign languages from a Portuguese person doesn't sound Slavic at all...

[@radomirkwasniewski7745]

Try pronouncing Portuguese cities correctly bruv. If it's not your native language then it's gonna be hard.

[@MrChuckya]

@@radomirkwasniewski7745 You're right. But that's not my point. A simple google search is enough to let you know that the "c" i Podgorica is pronounced "ts". Like I said, he's been doing this for quite some time. It is thus expected that some efforts have been made.

[@Gameflyer001]

@@AgentTasmania also heard of Portuguese being referred to as "Russian-accented Spanish".

[@LobTheAppleJuiceBoy]

17:14 bro that's Latvia,but I think you might have confused it because of the Portuguese name for Latvia(Letônia) which sounds a lot like Estonia.

[@joshuaidugboe214]

Do oldest book from each culture/country

[@MissSlovakia2]

6:31 Bratislava: you mentioned just one theory, but there are about three of them, how the city got it's name. Around 900 it was probably owned by the (originally) Lower Pannonian prince Braslav (Bräslav, Brazlaw) - or by a magnate of the same name - who was a vassal of Bavaria (Germany). Earlier, it was thought that Bräslav was the person who gave the town Bratislava its German name Brezalauspurc (see 907), later Pressburg. Nowadays, it is assumed that Pressburg/Brezalauspurc is a distortion of Predeslausburg, a name derived from Predslav, who was (according to some historians) the ruler of Bratislava around 900 and the 3rd son of the Great Moravian king Svätopluk. Fun fact: Bratislava is also a girl's name (but I don't know any girl with this name) and around the 1918 it was thought the name of the city will be Wilsonovo (Wilson's city) - it had to be named after the US president Woodrow Wilson as a thankyou for his fight for the freedom for the nations among the Europe, especially the small ones in Austro-Hungarian empire.

[@DelijeSerbia]

There is a reason why Pristina wa not on the list, thats because it is not a capital city.

[@JoseFernandes-js7ep]

He put Pristina almost in the end because he forgot it

[@chronikhiles]

Nice try Serbian guy.

[@noellavella919]

Valletta was initially constructed on a peninsula called "Xebb ir-Ras" or Sciberras (with a family living there and owning land eventually getting the surname). "Xebb" meaning young (though we typically use the feminine version only "xebba" to refer to young girl) and "ras" meaning head. Just a small note, when an "ħ" follows the letter "g" they become one letter "għ" which we don't pronounce. Very interesting video ❤️ Really enjoyed it!

[@reglementme6321]

Bruxelles (French) or Brussel (Dutch) from Broeksel , the ‘oe’ is pronounced ‘oo in English like ‘look, boek, ect.

[@kyriakou8098]

Small mistake, the Cypriot capital is still called Lefkosia in Greek or Lefkoşa in Turkish, Nicosia was never a name used by the local population. If I'm not mistaken it's an Anglicanised corruption of the name that was used when the island was colonished by the British empire.

[@ETools.]

"thank you Lithuania for having normal ethymology for your city." *sad Dutch noises.* (keep it going)

[@berniechro4341]

Buda is a male name, and apparently at the time of Attila it was very popular. ETA: It is still a male name used to this day. And after an extensive research I found that it was Attila's little brother hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buda_(keresztn%C3%A9v)

[@deltatango6793]

I loved the Warsaw story!

[@madmatt2028]

I agree, not often you hear a story about a mermaid far inland

[@deltatango6793]

@@madmatt2028 well, he was a fisherman

[@SvensssonboiMapping]

8:49 In Swedish Copenhagen is called "Köpenhamn" which literly means "Buy-a-seaport". "Köp-en-hamn"

[@Infrared01]

Just a tip, in English, the "s" and "z" at the end of words is pronounced as written, not "sh." I believe you're doing it because it is different in Portuguese, but I just figured I'd point that out.

[@andreigusila8256]

😄 Reading Chisinau as "Cheese-now" is very funny. It should be read as "Ki-shi-now".

[@extraditori6604]

Kishinyov

[@andreigusila8256]

@@extraditori6604 I am speaking about native, original name of the city. The adaptation in your language doesn't matter at all.

[@diego-rwix]

Instead of apologizing for the mispronunciation, you should learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) it is used by Wikipedia entries. That way you wouldn't make so many mistakes.

[@maciejlehr4874]

Eh. You likely wouldn't be able to accurately read Chinese with the IPA either.

[@diego-rwix]

@@maciejlehr4874 I don't see the use of knowing how to read Chinese in order to pronounce correctly Chisinau or Podgorica. It was a video about European capitals, not Chinese ones.

[@maciejlehr4874]

@UCQIBZeBkIL2KfWoW8eSljdQ I was just using any language as an example. What I tried to say is that even if you're familiar with the whole IPA you likely still wouldn't be able to pronounce very many things without lots of practice.

[@diego-rwix]

@@maciejlehr4874 I'm not saying that he has to be an expert in the clicking sounds of Xhosa just to pronounce correctly individual and basic words like the ones cited above.

[@littlerave86]

@@diego-rwix Individual and "basic" words aren't at all basic to pronounce if all your life you only spoke a language that doesn't even use half of that word's sounds. Your vocal chords are not trained to form these kinds of sounds and without a lot of practice, they likely won't ever be if you didn't train them while you grew up. That said, especially in the case of names, he should at least try to get an idea on how they are pronounced, e.g. Liechtenstein's Vaduz is pronounced "Fahdoots", which sounds completely odd (even for me as a German, because the word itself looks so ungerman) but is just basic German pronunciation and would most likely be easy to find out if you tried; whether you can then pronounce it correctly is another story. So, while he could clearly put some more effort into proper pronunciation, you can hear he speaks English with an accent already and that's a language he's spoken for years and thus clearly has an idea on how to pronounce the words but still isn't able to so I wouldn't expect him to master completely foreign pronunciations even if he tried hard. Also I do not think the phonetics alphabet will be of that much use if you don't put in a lot of effort on learning it, there's an armada of symbols, descriptions don't make sense if you're not familiar with phonology and aural medical terminology and if you don't have the chance to hear the sounds, it's a wasted effort. I did a short course on the IPA back in my younger school days but that wouldn't have helped me speaking completely foreign words much. What really gives you an idea is simply hearing the words spoken, that's the best you get.

[@adamrafieljuanil4085]

Moldova being coloured brown after Oslo’s entry at around 15:22 Edit: Also browned again on 22:53 at Vilnius’ entry.

[@voxveritas333]

I remember when our maps called it Moldavia.

[@alengrm7488]

10:05 The problem with the Ljubovid theorie is that Ljubljana was(and still mostly is) called Lublana(by the locals and by the people from other parts of Slovenia). LJ was added in the 18th century by Jernej Kopitar's new language reforms and the offical name stuck around till this day. Even Czechs, Slovaks and Poles actually still use a variation of the name Lublana(Czech: Lublaň, Polish: Lublana)

[@borivojetravica569]

Polje koje se ljubi, zemlja koja se voli - Grad koji se voli.

[@jonatanborowicz]

I always thought the name derived from the slavic meaning ”being loved” in feminine form. Ljubav, lubic, ljublju, she is loved, ona je ”ljubljana” but I suppose I got it all wrong.

[@borivojetravica569]

@@jonatanborowicz not all wrong...is not person, woman ...is the land, city who loved here

[@bojanstare8667]

@@borivojetravica569 Pole, kdo bo tebe lubil? Zemla, katero imam rad, mesto katerega imam rad. Ne turi svojih Balkanskih štosov. Srbske hegemonije je konec.

[@bojanstare8667]

@@jonatanborowicz Yes at all. In origin is name Lublana, what means town under the rounded hill (obel hrib). Also in Russia have a lot of such names with the same meaning. lj and nj combination were Serbs ambition to united all nation of south Slavs in one nation. Of course Serbian. We have more in common with western Slavs.

[@tomasduris3642]

As u asked, Bratislava could be from the name of Bretislav however, in every slavic language - Bratislava (Brat i slava) literally means "Brother and Glory", so i suppose that is much more likely...

[@slavikmishcheriakov2832]

you're right about the capital of Ukraine. Official story tells that it was named after Kyi (Кий in Cyrillic), legendary founder of the city and local ruler. Thats why city is named Kyiv (Ukrainian transcription, actual version) not Kiev (Russian transcription, outdated version) It may be hard for English speaker to feel the difference between Ukrainian "и" and Russian "и" but it exists :). Something like sheep vs ship, sheet vs sh*t Also, please-please, don't mix Rus/Ruthenia and Russia (10:01 "early stages of Russia"). Never. It may be confusing for Latin-based languages becuase Moscow duchy took Greek name of Rus for their teritory. In the same time there was Ruthenian Voivodeship (Latin: Palatinatus russiae) in Kingdom of Poland. And local people (in Western Ukraine) called themselves Ruthenians till 20 century. So using Russia for Rus/Ruthenia is the same as using England for describing Scottish or Irish teritories. From linguistic point of view it makes sense, but from historical/political points it's absolutely incorrect. As a conclusion - Kyiv not Kiev, Russia and Rus/Ruthenia is not the same from modern perspective.

[@ariversideview5775]

Edinburgh means Stronghold or fort of Edwin. Burgh is an old English word meaning stronghold or fort and Edwin was a King of the Anglo/Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.

[@francescofilippi2824]

Apparently Roma used to have a secret name that only the elite knew because with this the city was spiritually protected

[@Unbrutal_Rawr]

Which is a good story to come up with if you don't want your enemies to use your city's actual name in magical incantations, but everyone who's anyone knows your city's actual name. The ancient Italics believed that if you knew the name of a town's tutelary deity, you could pray for your own gods to defeat it; after they did, you would successfully take the city.

[@Pannenkoekenplantje]

A slight correction on the Dutch "oe" sound in Broek. It's one sound instead of pronouncing the o and e both. It's almost the same sound as the English "oo" sound: book is boek, foot is voet, etc. The words sound the same in both languages, but the writing is different.

[@OtakuVonBismarck21]

20:45 Wasn't Tallinn for most of it's history called Reval?

[@kailahmann1823]

Officially until the first Estonian independence in 1918, but both names have coexisted for a very long time, not even completely separated by the language.

[@Methalec1985]

When it comes to Oslo, in Norwegian, "os" is the outlet of a river. For instance, the old Norwegian name for Trondheim is Nidaros. The name of the river running through Trondheim is named Nidelven (Nid River). Old archaeological finds have found that the town was first settled at the outlet of the river running into the ocean. Nidaros therefore means: At the outlet of the river Nid. Oslo has a similar meaning. "lo" has been interpreted as a field near water. Therefore, Oslo can also mean: The field near the outlet of the river.

[@kasper41291]

Faroe islands you forgot, though a part of the danish Commonwealth, it is a country separate from denmark

[@Halal_Lettuce]

He also forgot Gibraltar.

[@lolacullingham6020]

@@Halal_Lettuce That’s a British Territory. Not a capital city.

[@Halal_Lettuce]

@@lolacullingham6020 It’s more complicated than a territory, if Cardiff and Edinburgh was included under British capitals, then Gibraltar should’ve been included, it even has its own flag (🇬🇮).

[@lolacullingham6020]

@@Halal_Lettuce it’s not consider as a capital city.

[@qwetyjk]

Ankara: I'm European.

[@EdinMike]

It’s “Edinburgh” not Edinboro 😋 but I think our name is more a mixture of Pict and Celtic, so the stories say ! Who knows !

[@ericlanglois3782]

I was unaware that the bronze age Picts had a language that wasn't Celtic... I just assumed they were a Celtic tribe and thus spoke a Celtic language but your statement made me look into it and for that I thank you.

[@altafybrickbester]

Can u continue this I liked it

[@victordatsiuk]

9:49 It's Kyiv, not Kiev

[@Enceladus2106]

Kiev isn’t wrong, but I do prefer the name Kyiv too.

[@Svyatilische]

В английском верны оба варианта с точки зрения лексикона, и это не принимается за ошибку, ибо название "Kyiv" было принято совсем недавно.

[@kostia3463]

@@Enceladus2106 Kiev is Russian variant,we aren’t Russians,so we call it Kyiv(Київ)

[@Enceladus2106]

@@kostia3463 I mean, Florence is also the French name for Firenze, but we still keep calling it that even though Italians aren’t French. As I said I prefer Kyiv and I understand why Ukrainians would prefer it, but Kiev isn’t legally officially wrong.

[@marcusgaius]

@@kostia3463 Киев is Russian, Kiev isn't.

[@GerLeahy]

Dublin is the anglicised version of Dubh Linn (black pool). The Irish for Dublin is Baile Átha Cliath, which translates as ford of hurdles and was the bridging point on the River Liffey.

[@autarchprinceps]

Saying a city is named after it's river or mythological founder, or the other way around, really isn't explaining how it got its name. I mean Romulus is most likely named after Rome, but even if it were the other way around, that still doesn't tell you the meaning of the word root, it's just a step on the way of the naming process. There is an original meaning behind every name, even if some are lost to time.

[@ShahjahanMasood]

I never thought about it like that. Thats an interesting point of view

[@kaloarepo288]

I think in the case of Rome it was named after the river -the root word 'stroma' is related to English "stream' German "strom' and means 'to flow" -also present in Greek words like rheumatism and diarrhoea and the rivers Strymon,Rhone and Rhine.Rome was built on the river and not right on the sea to protect it from sea invaders and pirates.

[@Unbrutal_Rawr]

@@kaloarepo288 If the name was from that root, the city would be called _Frūma._

[@kaloarepo288]

@@Unbrutal_Rawr Look up the difference between centum and satem proto Indo-European languages of which proto Latin was a part to see all the sound shifts and other linguistic phenomena that happened in all these evolving ancient languages .

[@Unbrutal_Rawr]

@@kaloarepo288 No need; I already know the difference, and it's completely irrelevant.

[@hypercarspotters1227]

„Bern“ supposedly also has origins in the celtic word for „marsh/swamp“, just like Berlin.