Demonym

Categories: Types of words | Semantics

A demonym or gentilic is a word that denotes the members of a people or the inhabitants of a place. Often the name of a people's language is the same as the demonym. Some places, particularly smaller cities and towns, may not have an established demonym for their residents; toponymists have a particular challenge in researching these.

The English language uses several strategies to create demonyms. The most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location's name. These include:

-an or -ian (America -> American, Venice -> Venetian)
-ite (Vancouver -> Vancouverite, Moscow -> Muscovite) (mostly cities)
-er (London -> Londoner, Sheffield -> Sheffielder) (mostly cities)
-ish (Spain -> Spanish, Denmark -> Danish) (mostly countries)
- "-ish" is usually only proper as an adjective. Thus many common "-ish" forms have irregular demonyms. (Spain/Spanish person/Spaniard; Denmark/Danish/Dane; Judea/Jewish/Jew or Judean; Poland/Polish/Pole)
-ese (Taiwan -> Taiwanese, Vienna -> Viennese, the Tyrol -> Tyrolese) (mostly East Asian and Francophone locations, from the similar-sounding French suffix -ais, both of which are originally from the Latin adjectival ending -ensis, designating origin from a place: thus Hispaniensis (Spanish), Danensis (Danish), etc.)
-i (Iraq -> Iraqi, Bengal -> Bengali) (mostly Middle Eastern and South Asian locales)

In some cases, both the location's name and the demonym are produced by suffixation, for example England and English (derived from the Angle tribe). In some cases the derivation is concealed enough that it is no longer morphemic: France -> French.

Sometimes the name of the country is derived from the people's name (Swiss -> Switzerland, Arab -> Arabia, Croat -> Croatia, Dane -> Denmark).

In a few cases, demonyms are borrowed from other languages or adapted in a process of linguistic mutation where English demonyms are similar to those of other languages (Kosovo -> Kosovan (English demonym) -> Kosovar (Albanian demonym also used in English)).

In a few cases, the name of the country is not at all related to the name of the people (Netherlands -> Dutch), usually because the two words originate from different languages.

Demonyms can be nouns or adjectives. In many cases the noun and adjective forms are the same (Canadian/Canadian); in other cases they are different (Spaniard/Spanish, Slovene/Slovenian, Flemings/Flemish). In some of the latter cases the noun is formed by adding -man or -woman (English/Englishman/Englishwoman, the obsolete Chinese/Chinaman/Chinawoman).

Finally, some peoples, especially cultures that were overwhelmed by European colonists, have no commonly accepted demonym, or have a demonym that is the same as the name of their (current or historical) nation. Examples include Iroquois, Aztec, Maori, and Czech.

Literature and science have created a wealth of demonyms that are not directly associated with a cultural group, such as Martian for hypothetical people of Mars (credited to scientist Percival Lowell), Earthling (from the diminutive -ling) as a possible name for the people of Earth, and Lilliputians from the town of Lilliput in the satire Gulliver's Travels.

In the case of U.S. states, it is non-standard to use demonyms as adjectives (for example "Georgia peach", not "Georgian peach") except when referring to people ("Ben Franklin was Pennsylvanian.").

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Demonym

See also