what’s the combining form for:
Germany / German
The Netherlands / Dutch
Sweden / Swedish
Thanks…
Germo
Dutcho
Swedo
It’s just like Spanish.
Um, no.
Germano would be the one for German. Not Germo. That’s something a doctor would deal with.
Dutcho? C’mon. :rolleyes:
(Making up stuff isn’t exactly giving the Straight Dope)
A big ol’ list:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Transwiki:Nationality_prefixes
The prefixes derive from Latin, so the Latin names for countries may not be the same as our English names for them.
As mentioned, Germano- seems widely recognized.
Swedo- seems to be correct. (e.g., search for Swedo-Polish War)
And despite a little searching, I think Dutch is the best answer for the Netherlands. Dutch-American relationships feels as right as Sino-Japanese relationships. Of course, you could always do away with the Latin entirely and say German-Mexican Empire or Swedish-Scottish conspiracy.
What country corresponds to luso- ? I’ve never heard of that.
Portugal.
Comes from the Roman province Lusitania.
I don’t think there is a specific one for the Netherlands, based on the Anglo-Dutch wars and Franco-Dutch wars I’d guess that just ‘Dutch’ is used.
“Scando-” could also be used for Sweden, if the context effects Scandinavia as a whole.
Whoosho?
Lesser known Marx Brothers.
Looking at the list that Mr. Kobayashi cited, I’d argue about “Norwego.” My grandfather referred to himself as a “Norwegian-American,” and the “Norwegian-American Historical Society” already exists at St. Olaf College. I suspect if there were to be a war it might be the “Norse-American” war, or the “American-Norwegian” war (“American-Norse” war is awkward to pronounce, it seems to me). “Norse” plays off the Norwegian word for Norway, “Norske.”
What? No one learned the one rule of forming Spanish nouns?
Minor nitpicks here, “Norge”* is the Norwegian word for Norway. “Norske” would be “Norwegian.” Norse wouldn’t really be appliccable, as it’s a term that historically refers to all of Scandinavia, not specifically Norway.
*Tangent: Norway’s one of the few countries whose name for itself translates accurately into English. “Norge” is the contracted form of “Nord” (North) and “ge” (archaic for way, or to walk). “Norge” literally means the Northern Path or Northern Way. Travelling along the coastline of Norway was one of the major trade-routes from what’s now known as russia to England and central Europe, hence the Northern Way.
No, the “ge” part is not archaic for way or to walk, it’s the remnant of a part of the original name for the country, meaning road or way. The original ending was “vegr”, which through centuries of changing pronounciation atrophied to “ge”. So Norway is a country whose name in other languages is actually etymologically closer than in Norwegian.
It’s not on the Wikipedia list, but I would think Helveto or something would be for Swiss?
Huh, that’s weird. I was taught it was a archaic verson of, essentially “gæe” (“gå”). D’you have any sources for the vegr to ge transition? It would be curious to see.
No problem, you’ve obviously been the victim of some teacher’s folk etymology:
http://www.snl.no/Norge/navnet_Norge%252FNoreg (In Norwegian)