Popular name

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People's name , also ethnonym , is a name for a people . In linguistics , a distinction is made as to whether it is a self- or self-name ( autonym ) of a people or a foreign name ( xenonym ) for a people.

Education and Issues

While personal names are rated positively, external names are often perceived as derogatory ( ethnophaulisms , for example Gypsies for Sinti and Roma ). Sometimes, however, foreign terms with a rather negative connotation, for example Polish Niemiec from niemy (mute), are accepted in the majority for Germans . Historical German xenonyms are e.g. B. Welsche , Wenden , Raizen and Böhm ' for Austrians with Czech family names. A historical autonym is e.g. B. German Austrians . Some foreign terms refer only to the language, for example Polish Niemiec from niemy (mute) for German or the ancient Greek term barbarians .

A phenomenon is the naming of a people with a term that summarizes several groups of people that only existed until late antiquity , e.g. B. English Germans ( Germanic ) for Germans. A xenonym does not always match the name of a country, for example Italian Tedeschi and Germania (German and Germany), see also the etymology of the term German . A common phenomenon is the naming of a people according to subgroups, e.g. B. French Allemands (German) and Spanish Alemanes after the Alemanni or Estonian Sakslased and Finnish Saksalaiset after the Saxons . Historical xenonyms are the Latin names used by the Roman historian Tacitus for the first time in his writing De origine et situ Germanorum for groups of people for whom there are no written autonyms.

See also