Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2023 February 13

= February 13 =

Navajo names of countries
It is not uncommon for a country to be known with a name unrelated to the English/international one in its own language (de:Deutschland, fi:Suomi) or in a third-party one (fr:Allemagne, fi:Ruotsi). This normally is due to long and well-established traditions of usage. But Navajo is a different case: what it has is descriptive terms coined during WW2 for code talking purposes, which have stuck, as they're in line with the toponymic customs of the language. Apparently Germany is called "the country where they wear iron hats" and Italy is "the country where they don't speak clearly".

I would have expected to find a Wikipedia article on that, but I can find very little about it on the Internet as a whole, except for a map of Europe in Reddit and a post in Quora (where I got this information from). Wiktionary has entires, but only a fraction of them provide literal translations. Does anyone know of a source that lists all those descriptive country names and what they literally mean, and indicates the extent to which they are actually used? The Navajo Wikipedia seems to stick to those names consistently, even for countries which said Reddit map labels with phonological adaptations of the English names instead. --Theurgist (talk) 00:27, 13 February 2023 (UTC)


 * seems an authoritative source (look under "names of countries")
 * Also, the "neologisms" for Albania and Cyprus, as claimed in that Reddit map, are actually direct calques. 82.166.199.42 (talk) 06:43, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
 * You can also look at the Wiktionary category wikt:Category:nv:Countries in Europe. I like Bitsiighaʼ Łichííʼí Bikéyah for Ireland, reportedly meaning "the country with a red mane". Does this refer to the relatively large number of redheads in Ireland? --Lambiam 11:04, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
 * The Navajo name for Zimbabwe, Tsé Bee Bighan Naakaii Łizhiní Bikéyah, is also an calque of the Shona name, which means 'house of stones'. As far as I can figure, the Navajo name literally means 'country of the black travelers, a house of stones'. Venezuela is Táłkááʼ Bighan Dineʼé bikéyah, 'country of the people whose houses are built on water'. —Mahāgaja · talk 11:21, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
 * (published 2019) mentions a couple and implies that they are in contemporary use. After the institution of the census and census blood quantum requirements, the method of naming outside groups also changed, shifting to names that became based more on physical descriptions and less on the nature of the kinship relationship between Navajo and non-Navajo groups. In stark contrast to the flexible nature of prior methods of incorporation, these names chronicle the initial nature of encounter—often military in nature—and reflect broader American xenophobic discourse about said groups. For example, in examining a list of Navajo names for contemporary nationalities, many of them created during World War II, the current word for Russian is Bi'éé' Daalchíi'ii, or the Ones with the Red Shirts, a reference to Communist era, Cold War relations between the United States and Russia. It mentions a couple of others and sources its translations to Young, Robert W., and William H. Morgan. 1987. The Navajo Language: A Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 15:41, 13 February 2023 (UTC)

What is "Amerna"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MHra9nIgD0 86.24.168.231 (talk) 23:37, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
 * What are you talking about? Amen-Ra? --Wrongfilter (talk) 23:47, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Maybe Amarna? 41.23.55.195 (talk) 05:41, 14 February 2023 (UTC)
 * 21 across is Amen-Ra, the "supreme Egyptian deity". Clarityfiend (talk) 07:39, 14 February 2023 (UTC)