List of adjectivals and demonyms for former regions

Last updated

The following is a list of adjectival forms of former regions in English and their demonymic equivalents, which denote the people or the inhabitants of these former regions.

Note: Demonyms are given in plural forms. Singular forms simply remove the final 's' or, in the case of -ese endings, are the same as the plural forms. The ending -men has feminine equivalent -women (e.g. an Irishman and a Scotswoman). The French terminations -ois / ais serve as both the singular and plural masculine; adding 'e' (-oise / aise) makes them singular feminine; 'es' (-oises / aises) makes them plural feminine. The Spanish termination "-o" usually denotes the masculine and is normally changed to feminine by dropping the "-o" and adding "-a". The plural forms are usually "-os" and "-as" respectively.

Adjectives ending -ish can be used as collective demonyms (e.g. the English, the Cornish). So can those ending in -ch / -tch (e.g. the French, the Dutch) provided they are pronounced with a 'ch' sound (e.g. the adjective Czech does not qualify).

Where an adjective is a link, the link is to the language or dialect of the same name. (Reference: Ethnologue, Languages of the World)

Many place-name adjectives and many demonyms refer also to various other things, sometimes with and sometimes without one or more additional words. (Sometimes, the use of one or more additional words is optional.) Notable examples are cheeses, cat breeds, dog breeds, and horse breeds. (See List of words derived from toponyms.)

Where an adjective is a link, the link is to the language or dialect of the same name. (Reference: Ethnologue, Languages of the World)

NameAdjective Demonym
colloquial
Abyssinia AbyssinianAbyssinians
Acadia Acadian Acadians
Akkadia Akkadian Akkadians
Aksum, Axum Aksumite, AxumiteAksumites, Axumites
Austria-Hungary Austro-HungarianAustro-Hungarians, Austrians, Hungarians
Babylonia Babylonian Babylonians
Bessarabia BessarabianBessarabians
Biafra BiafranBiafrans
Burma Burmese Burmesea
Byzantium ByzantineByzantines
Ceylon CeyloneseCeylonese
Confederate States of America Confederate, CSAConfederates"Rebels", "Rebs"
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovak, Czechb
(Czechoslovakian is incorrect, though frequent)
Czechoslovaks, Czechs, Slovaks
Dahomey DahomeyanDahomeyans
Dalmatia DalmatianDalmatians
Eastern Nigeria EasternerEasterners
Elam Elamite, Elamitic, ElamitishElamites
Etruria Etrurian, Etruscan Etruscans
Hunnic Empire Hunnic, HunnishHuns
Kampuchea KampucheanKampucheans
Katanga KatangeseKatangese
Livonia Livonian Livonians, Livs
Manchuria ManchurianManchurians
Malaya Malay, MalayanMalays, Malayans
Moldavia MoldavianMoldavians
Muscovy, MoscoviaMuscovite, MoscovianMuscovites
Papal States PapalPapalini
Parthia ParthianParthians
Pomerania PomeranianPomeranians
Prussia PrussianPrussians
Rhodesia RhodesianRhodesians
Ruthenia Ruthenian, Ruthene Ruthenians, Ruthenes, East Slavs
Rome RomanRomans
Siam SiameseSiamese
Sonargaon SonargaiyaSonargaiyas
Sudetenland SudetesSudetenlanders
Sumer Sumerian Sumerians
Soviet Union Soviet, Russian cSoviets, Russiansc
Swabia SwabianSwabians
Tartary, TartariaTartar, Tartarian Tatars, Tartars
Taurida, TavriaTauridian
Transylvania TransylvanianTransylvanians
Two Sicilies DuosicilianRegnicoli
Van Diemen's Land Van DiemonianVandemonian
Wallachia WallachianWallachians
Yugoslavia YugoslavYugoslavs"Yugos" (Derogatory, Cold War Vintage)
Zaire ZaireanZaireans
Zululand ZuluZulu, Zulus

a   Burma is also known as Myanmar.
b  "Czech" is technically incorrect here, as it is also used to distinguish Czech people from Slovaks or other ethnic groups.
c  "Russian" is technically incorrect here, as the Russian SFSR was one of fifteen Soviet Republics.

See also

Related Research Articles

In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns inherently carry one value of the grammatical category called gender; the values present in a given language are called the genders of that language.

In grammar, the locative case is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the lative and separative case.

A demonym or gentilic is a word that identifies a group of people in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place. Demonyms are used to designate all people of a particular place, regardless of ethnic, linguistic, religious or other cultural differences that may exist within the population of that place. Examples of demonyms include Cochabambino, for someone from the city of Cochabamba; French for a person from France; and Swahili, for a person of the Swahili coast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oromo language</span> Cushitic language of Ethiopia and Kenya

Oromo, in the linguistic literature of the early 20th century also called Galla, is an Afroasiatic language that belongs to the Cushitic branch. It is native to the Ethiopian state of Oromia and Northern Kenya and is spoken predominantly by the Oromo people and neighboring ethnic groups in the Horn of Africa. It is used as a lingua franca particularly in the Oromia Region and northeastern Kenya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catalan grammar</span> Morphology and syntax of Catalan

Catalan grammar, the morphology and syntax of the Catalan language, is similar to the grammar of most other Romance languages. Catalan is a relatively synthetic, fusional language. Features include:

Lithuanian grammar retains many archaic features from Proto-Balto-Slavic that have been lost in other Balto-Slavic languages, and is consequently very complex.

The grammar of Old English is quite different from that of Modern English, predominantly by being much more inflected. As an old Germanic language, Old English has a morphological system that is similar to that of the Proto-Germanic reconstruction, retaining many of the inflections thought to have been common in Proto-Indo-European and also including constructions characteristic of the Germanic daughter languages such as the umlaut.

The grammar of the Polish language is characterized by a high degree of inflection, and has relatively free word order, although the dominant arrangement is subject–verb–object (SVO). There are no articles, and there is frequent dropping of subject pronouns. Distinctive features include the different treatment of masculine personal nouns in the plural, and the complex grammar of numerals and quantifiers.

The Dutch language in its modern form does not have grammatical cases, and nouns only have singular and plural forms. Many remnants of former case declensions remain in the Dutch language, but few of them are productive. One exception is the genitive case, which is still productive to a certain extent. Although in the spoken language the case system was probably in a state of collapse as early as the 16th century, cases were still prescribed in the written standard up to 1946/1947. This article describes the system in use until then. For a full description of modern Dutch grammar, see Dutch grammar. See also History of Dutch orthography.

The Lithuanian language's declension system is similar to declension systems in ancient Indo-European languages such as Sanskrit, Latin or Ancient Greek. It is one of the most complicated declension systems among modern Indo-European and modern European languages.

Standard Kannada grammar is primarily based on Keshiraja's Shabdamanidarpana which provides the fullest systematic exposition of Kannada language. The earlier grammatical works include portions of Kavirajamarga of 9th century, Kavyavalokana and Karnatakabhashabhushana both authored by Nagavarma II in first half of the 12th century.

Bihari Hindi is a variant of Hindustani, spoken in Bihar, particularly in Patna and nearby districts. It is heavily influenced by Magahi and Maithili, and subsequently by Bhojpuri. It shares more vocabulary from Maithili and Magahi as compared to Hindi.

The morphology of the Welsh language shows many characteristics perhaps unfamiliar to speakers of English or continental European languages like French or German, but has much in common with the other modern Insular Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and Breton. Welsh is a moderately inflected language. Verbs conjugate for person, tense and mood with affirmative, interrogative and negative conjugations of some verbs. A majority of prepositions inflect for person and number. There are few case inflections in Literary Welsh, being confined to certain pronouns.

Old High German is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, and adjectives must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. A set of declined forms of the same word pattern is called a declension. There are five grammatical cases in Old High German.

Catalan nouns are inflected for gender, and number. There is no case inflection. Articles and adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they refer to.