Talk:List of adjectival and demonymic forms for countries and nations

Wiktionary information

Please check the corresponding information at http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Countries_of_the_world for consistency. Incidentally, I wish to see the tables remain in both Wikipedia and Wiktionary, regardless of claims of duplication. Wavelength 16:55, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Luxembourg adjectival

Please see Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2007_March_25#Luxembourgian_people for a discussion concerning the proper adjectival to be used for Luxembourg. Caerwine Caer’s whines 19:29, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Per that conclusion, and the sources cited in that decision, are we agreed that it ought to be changed? Bastin 22:26, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Congo: doubt

I seriously doubt the use of 'Congo' as for a person from Congo (both Congo-states). As in: "I am a Congo". Cannot find it in dictionaries etc. Known:

• Congolese,
• Bakongo (probably a people, not every Congolese), and
• "Congo people".
  

Could someone expand on this? -DePiep (talk) 17:37, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Congolese is certainly traditional. Varlaam (talk) 06:57, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Orcadian

Should Orcadians from the Orkney Islands be added to the table? Varlaam (talk) 06:57, 18 November 2009 (UTC)
And what about the various Channel Islands?

Disambig linkfarm

This page is little more than a linkfarm for disambiguation pages. It should be moved to Wiktionary, where it would properly serve as a collection of links to actual articles on the adjectivals and demonyms at issue. bd2412 T 21:43, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing. Is it worth going ahead and changing some of the links to send them somewhere other than a disambiguation page? wia (talk) 18:07, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

So long as the links conform to WP:INTDABLINK, it is not a priority. bd2412 T 19:03, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

Singapore adjectival

I just changed the adjective for Singapore from "Singapore" to "Singaporean." The cited source (CIA World Factbook) indeed lists "Singapore" as the adjective form; dictionaries do not, but rather list "Singaporean" instead. Clearly, the CIA site meant to list "Singapore" as a noun modifier—and not as an adjective in its own right—and failed to list any word as a purely adjective form. Both Dictionary.com and m-w.com list Singapore only as a noun, not as an adjective. Naturally, like most nouns, Singapore can be used as a noun modifier, which acts as an adjective (as in the title of this section). Both dictionaries also explicitly list Singaporean as a noun and an adjective. This is just a case of the CIA World Factbook having an inconsistency in its information. Holy (talk) 22:37, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

In the heading of this section, "Singapore" is a noun adjunct.

—Wavelength (talk) 23:27, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

Thanks. I didn't know that noun adjunct is another term for noun modifier. Other terms for noun modifier (according to the noun adjunct article) are attributive noun and noun pre-modifier. Holy (talk) 21:39, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

US Territories...?

US territories aren't countries or nations. Can we nix Puerto Rico and N. Marianas from the list? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:387:6:805:0:0:0:90 (talk) 15:09, 30 April 2017 (UTC)

also, "yankees, yanks, and gringos" are colloquial, not unofficial or common. --2600:387:6:805:0:0:0:90 (talk) 15:13, 30 April 2017 (UTC)

Should combining forms be listed as well?

Should combining forms be listed as well? e.g. "Sino-" for China, "Anglo-" for England, "Graeco-" for Greece, "Hispano-" for Spain. --Yejianfei (talk) 12:36, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

I would support combining forms/nationality prefixes being added. Wiktionary has a list of them here. They seem to be a form of Neoclassical compound so I've added an external link to the Wikt appendix there as well. 9³ (talk) 02:50, 6 April 2023 (UTC)

I too am in favor. —Tamfang (talk) 20:39, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Guadeloupe

Is the preferred Guadeloupe demonym Guadeloupean or Guadeloupian? The Guadeloupe article says the later. Yours aye,  Buaidh  talk contribs 20:14, 5 May 2018 (UTC) One of us needs a pair of (new) glasses! Please indicate the precise point in the Guadeloupe article where your different (latter) spelling of Guadeloupean appears . . . good luck. Yours eye, 203.196.41.161 (talk) 21:39, 15 January 2019 (UTC) Editrite!

Taiwanese adjectival

The table provides "Chinese" as the adjectival form for Taiwan. This seems clearly incorrect; "Taiwanese" is the proper form and, unless someone objects, I'll go ahead and change this. Thank you. 60.248.185.19 (talk) 08:19, 26 July 2018 (UTC)

References

I went ahead and cleared it up. Another reason in favor of doing this was that when referring specifically to Taiwan, as is the case in the entry, "Chinese" is rarely if ever used except in archaic cases. 60.248.185.19 (talk) 05:27, 27 July 2018 (UTC)

"Jap" has been deprecated

Perhaps current usage has become less offensive, but "Jap" for a Japanese person used to be insulting. please consider deleting it. Fwiw, I'm 83, and well recall WW II. --User Nikevich, who really ought to redefine his password. Original was rather obscure, but by today's standards, pitifully insecure. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.48.64.128 (talk) 16:25, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

I agree, and have removed it. And gone further than that: the entire "colloquial" column was unreferenced, with some entries unencyclopaedic, and a few derogatory, so I've been bold and removed it. There is still work to do here as a lot of the links are to disambiguation pages, but I'm not inclined to do any more work myself on this page. Bazza (talk) 17:23, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Britain: demonym

Considering the number of very small and even sparsely- and unpopulated islands, it seems odd that Britain, widely used, is not given its own entry. Fillkay (talk) 07:52, 22 September 2020 (UTC)

Where, or what, is Britain? Check its article and you'll see that the answer to that question is not precise. Bazza (talk) 14:23, 22 September 2020 (UTC)

English names

This article refers to countries and nations by their English name. For example, we use Germany and not Deutschland. There is certainly do need for edits like this. WWGB (talk) 11:02, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

Possible mistakes

I've reviewed this article and found a few things that look like mistakes:

1. It says that the demonym (and adjectival) for China is Chinese. Are we sure about that? I think it seems weird to say "he is a Chinese." It says the demonym for Vietnam is "Vietnamese people." That sounds better to me, and I suspect it should be "Chinese people" too.

The same question would apply to Benin, Bhutan, Burma, Congo, Faroe, French Guiana, Gabon, Guyana, Hong Kong, Japan, Lebanon, Macau, Malta, Marshall, Nepal, Portugal, Réunion, San Marino, Senegal, South Sudan, Sudan, Taiwan, Timor, and Togo.

Note that it says that for Suriname, the adjectival is Surinamese and the demonym is Surinamers. So I guess that's another option, although I've never heard anyone use the word "Chiners."

2. For Solomon Islands (which ends with an "s"), the article says the adjectival is Solomon Island (no "s") and the plural demonym is Solomon Islanders (with an "s"). That sounds right to me, and there are a bunch of other countries that fit the same pattern. But then they use the opposite pattern with McDonald Islands, for which the article says the adjectival is McDonald Islands and the plural demonym is McDonald Islander. Is that right? Note that it's listed under Heard Island and McDonald Islands.

3. The article also says the plural demonym of Sint Maarten is Sint Maartener, with no "s" at the end. Is that right? - 2603:9000:E408:4800:9527:5E49:791D:515E (talk) 19:07, 5 October 2021 (UTC)

Do not make up what you think are the right names. For example, the first from your long list is fine in the article: [1]. Bazza (talk) 20:49, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

Demonym for Vietnam?

What is the singular demonym for Vietnam? Is it Vietnamese person or just Vietnamese? Someone recently changed this article to the latter option. Although it used to have the former option, which I think was right. It seems strange to say "He is a Vietnamese." - 2603:9000:E408:4800:7C4F:10E6:C968:D1A8 (talk) 19:36, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

"Vietnamese" is fine for both the people and individuals (singular or plural); it can be referenced: [2]. The same goes for "Chinese" [3]. Bazza (talk) 20:44, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

You'll find that your link does not actually support the use of the singular, e.g. "so a Vietnamese walks into a bar". It only gives the plural, and an adjectival usage. None of the -ese endings support the singular, nor the ones ending in -ish/-tch sounds—to my American English ears, this usage sounds totally incorrect, while other nationalities don't. I think this is because those work as collective nouns, e.g. "the English", in a way that other demonyms don't. The article currently points out this collective noun usage, but doesn't note the problem with the singular. Would love to find a source on this. ("A Chinese" would sometimes even sound racist due to particular cultural associations I have, and this would also be interesting to dig into. And "Chinaman" isn't any better, for the same reasons!) -- Phyzome (talk) 05:46, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

"A Vietnamese walks into a bar" creates the same correct phrasing as "an American walks into a bar". Perhaps you are not familiar with its use. WWGB (talk) 10:58, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

Interesting that you hear it as acceptable! A quick skim of your talk page indicates you might be coming from Australian English. Could this be a country dialect difference? I'm going to poll some friends out of curiosity to see if there's any obvious pattern. :-) -- Phyzome (talk) 05:20, 1 February 2022 (UTC)

New Zealand’s adjective

Who keeps changing New Zealand’s adjective from New Zealandic to New Zealand. “New Zealand” is the name of the country “New Zealandic” is the adjective for the country

Thanks 121.98.239.99 (talk) 05:26, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

New Zealandic is archaic. Have you ever heard Ardern described as the New Zealandic prime minister? No, neither have I. See [4]. WWGB (talk) 05:42, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

This, however, is an important question, because "New Zealand" works as an attributive ("the New Zealand Prime Minister"), but not as a predicative ("she's New Zealand" doesn't work the way "she's Australian" does). If not "New Zealandic", then is there another predicative adjective that can be used instead? --Lord of Shalott 07:58, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Interesting question. I'm not a grammar expert, so I'd be interested if a knowledgeable grammarian replied. I'll take a stab in the meantime. Informally, "Kiwi" is often used. Formally, it is "New Zealand" (e.g. "Is this wool Australian?" "No, this wool is New Zealand"), but in practice the use of a predicative adjective is often avoided (e.g. "No, this wool is from New Zealand" or "No, this is New Zealand wool" or "she is a New Zealander.") I'm happy to be enlightened if this is not correct. Nurg (talk) 08:49, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Both New Zealand and New Zealandic should be shown. 49.177.211.131 (talk) 04:42, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

Botswanan

This term should not be used on Wikipedia, even though it exists in some dictionaries, because it is not used in Botswana English. See Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Africa/Archive_1#Botswanan if interested. John (talk) 18:08, 5 October 2022 (UTC)

Türkiye

This article still includes the now-obsolete name "Turkey" for the country now officially known as "Türkiye". So what's the adjective form of that? ("Türkish"?) Meyestone (talk) 15:48, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

@Meyestone It's not obsolete. As the start of the article says, these are names in English. In English the name of the country which calls itself "Türkiye" is still "Turkey", and the adjective and demonym remain "Turkish". Bazza (talk) 16:23, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

@Bazza Hi, so I happened to see this article, which indicates that the country has in fact changed its name in English: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/2/un-registers-turkiye-as-new-country-name-for-turkey. Meyestone (talk) 16:57, 3 January 2024 (UTC)

@Meyestone: That article states what the UN is going to call the country, not what reliable sources say is the prevalent name in English. Remember that English is not a prescribed language, and just because somebody says "you must use this word from now on" doesn't mean it will be. Check respected English-language dictionaries which record usage of words in English, such as Cambridge, Collins, Merriam-Webster, or dictionary.com to see what the common name in English is for the country. Or try respected news organisations such as BBC, CNN, or Reuters. All state "Turkey" as the English-language name; some also state the official name of the country is "Republic of Türkiye", as does Wikipedia's article.

For comparison, remember that in the English language there is also Germany, not "Deutschland"; Italy, not "Italia"; Brazil, not "Brasil"; Russia, not "Россия" or "Rossiya"; Japan, not "日本" or Nihon. Bazza (talk) 17:35, 3 January 2024 (UTC)

-man

Hey, thanks for creating an informative list. I just want to point out that Chinamen, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Guernseymen, Irishmen, Jerseymen, Manxmen, Scotsmen, and Welshmen are gender-neutral, so there's no need to say woman. 49.177.211.131 (talk) 04:41, 13 January 2024 (UTC)