Exonym and endonym facts for kids

Have you ever wondered why we call a country one name, but the people who live there call it something else? An exonym is a name that people from one country or language use for a place, group, or language from another country. For example, we in English call the country Germany. But the people who live there call their country Deutschland. This is their endonym – the name they use for themselves and their country. They also call themselves and their language Deutsch. So, 'Germany' and 'German' are exonyms, while 'Deutschland' and 'Deutsch' are endonyms.

This happens a lot between different languages for a few interesting reasons.

Why Do Names Change?

Different Sounds

Sometimes, the sounds in a country's own name might not exist in another language. This makes it hard for people from other places to say the original name. So, they create an exonym that is easier for them to pronounce.

For instance, in Japanese, words usually don't end with many different consonant sounds. Because of this, the German word Deutsch becomes Doitsu in Japanese. Japanese also adds special endings to make it clear if they are talking about the country, the people, or the language. So, German people are Doitsujin (where -jin means people), and the German language is Doitsugo (where -go means language).

It's similar for Laos. In English, we call the country, people, and language all 'Lao'. But in Japanese, they say Raosu for the country, Raosujin for the people, and Raosugo for the language.

Different Ideas or History

Another reason for exonyms is that people from one country might have different historical ideas or associations with another place.

For example, the people of Greece call their country Hellas. But most of the world knows it as Greece. This is because the Roman Empire named the region after Magna Graecia. These were coastal areas in southern Italy where Greeks had settled long ago.

Germany has many different exonyms. It's called Allemagne in French, Niemcy in Polish, and Saksa in Finnish. This is because Germany has a long history of interacting with many other European countries. Also, the Germans were once many different tribes speaking similar languages. They only became one country in the late 1800s.

Even though the Dutch call themselves Nederlanders in their own language, English speakers call them Dutch. The word 'Dutch' is actually related to the German word Deutsch. For a long time, the words 'German' and 'Dutch' were used almost the same way. But after Germany became a unified country in the 1800s, 'German' was used for people from Germany, and 'Dutch' was used for people from the Netherlands.

In Mandarin Chinese, China is called Zhōngguó, which means "Middle Kingdom" or "Central States". But most other countries call it China. It's thought that the word 'China' came from the word Qín, which was the name of the Qin dynasty that first united China.

However, there are some exceptions. In Japanese, China is called Chūgoku, which means the same thing as the Chinese name, but uses the Japanese way of saying the Chinese characters. In Korean, it's called Jungguk for the same reason. In Russian, China is called Kitay.

Borrowing Names from Other Languages

Sometimes, a language borrows a name from another language, and that name then spreads around the world.

For example, Japan is called Nippon or Nihon in Japanese. But the word 'Japan' traveled to Europe through many different languages. Marco Polo heard about Kublai Khan sending soldiers to a place called Cipangu. This name, in Chinese characters, means "Sun's Origin".

When the Portuguese arrived in Japan in the mid-1500s, they were the first Europeans to trade directly with Japan. They called the country Japão. This name came from an old Malay word, which itself was borrowed from a southern Chinese language. That's how most other countries ended up calling the country Japan.

A few exceptions are Chinese, which calls it Rìběn (based on the Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese characters), and Korean, which calls it Ilbon (based on the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese characters).

Many European cities are called by their endonyms in most countries, like Roma (Rome), Praha (Prague), Köln (Cologne), and Napoli (Naples). But in English, these cities have different names: Rome, Prague, Cologne, and Naples. These English names were borrowed from French. Since French was the official language of England for a long time after the Norman invasion, many city names came into English through French.