Dear MEL Topic Readers,
What do countries call themselves? The stories behind their original names
A little over 8.2 billion people live in 200 or so states in the world. English and Chinese are the only languages that are spoken by more than one billion people while as many as 7,000 other languages are spoken across the world. However, most countries are called by English names, such as Japan, China, and India even though they are locally called Nihon or Nippon, Zhongguo, and Bharat respectively in their languages. In Africa, many names of the 54 countries are rooted in colonial history or European or Arabian traders. But locally, South Africa is called Mzans and Egypt calls itself Masr in Arabic. In Europe, Germany is called Deutschland, Spain is Espana, and Finland is Suomi in their languages. In 2021, Turkey changed its identification to Turkiye to better represent its culture, civilization, and values of the nation, and also to avoid being confused with the bird turkey. Will there be a rename movement to reflect historical and cultural identities?
Read the article and learn what some countries are called locally.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/21/what-do-countries-call-themselves-the-stories-behind-their-original-names
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