What is the difference? For example, in Russian culture, Russia is referred to as the “Motherland”, whereas in German culture, Germany is often referred to as the “Fatherland”. Is there a reason for the different genders representing those particular countries?
The spanish call their country the mother fatherland (madre patria). you can’t do any better than that.
IANA German, but as far as I know, referring to “Vaterland” in Germany is not considered a Good Thing. Once I wrote a piece about a German friend and was kindlky requested by him to remove all the reference to Vaterland, because of the connotations with the past.
As to the OP: I would not know. In Dutch it is “vaderland”, although “moederland” is also used. It is always “moedertaal”, though (mother-tongue).
Bad spelling:
Einigreichts und Rechts und Freiheit unter das Vaterland… isn’t that from the German national anthem? Maybe WEST German national anthem (did they change post-reunification?).
While neither term is really used in Ireland, the country is often represented in poetry and music as a woman. Probably something to do with our national oedipus complex and unhealthy fixation with the Virgin Mary.
I’ve only heard either term used in the USA twice.
“Motherland” in the Village People’s 70’s disco hit In The Navy; and “Fatherland” once in Wisconsin, in a heavily German-ancestry neighborhood–a linguistic artifact.
Otherwise, the term seems to be “Homeland”.
Patria can be translated to “fatherland”, but as used above, it is more properly translated to “country”.
from http://www.foreignword.com/
patria sustantivo femenino
native land; fatherland
madre patria mother country
luchar por la patria to fight for one’s country
MODISMO:hacer patria to fly the flag (informal)
patria adoptiva adopted country
patria chica home town; home area
Slight hijack, but in keeping with the topic, sort of:
Fans of alternative history would probably enjoy the book Fatherland. It was also made into a
movie.
Sorry I didn’t have anything interesting to add to the thread.
No, we didn’t. It indeed used to be the West German national anthem, and now it’s the national anthem of the reunified Germany. It’s the third stanza to the Deutschlandlied whose first stanza is the ill-fated Deutschland ueber Alles one, but the third and only the third stanza is the one sung today.
Many Germans indeed hate the term Vaterland, but there has been an everlasting discussion here for years on whether Germans should be more patriotic than they are. Many say no, because of the country’s past; the conservatives say yes, as other nations, and they sometimes do use Vaterland, but generally it’s a term you would try to avoid. The lyrics to the anthem, btw, date back to the 1840s or so, when there was no German national state.
As for the OP, I’d just like to add that I’ve heard Motherland used to refer to the homeland of a colonial power, in contrast to the colonies. As for Russia, WWII is know there as the Great Patriotic War; I don’t speak any Russian, but the German translation of Russian term gives “patriotic” as “vaterlaendisch.” Strikes me as surprising, because allegories of nations mostly are female (although this might just be a result of many of them ending in -a in Latin). It’s interesting that the Romans derived their term from “father” too, although the most common words they had for “state” (res publica, civitas) were female, just as the name of Rome itself.
Summary: I don’t have any idea, but it’s a really good question.
Feminine in form does not equal female in meaning. For instance, agricola means “farmer” and nauta means “sailor”. They have the same declension as Roma, pecunia (“money”) and femina (“woman”) but that doesn’t mean all farmers and sailors were women.
That is the way “madre patria” is used. In Spanish-American countries it means Spain. Note that “patria” (like “patriarch” and similar words) derives from “pater”, Latin for “father” and cannot be used to mean “country” in general terms but only “country from which a person is from”, i.e. “fatherland”.