# Nationalities not ending in "ese," "ish" or "an" (ex. Savoyard) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939 "2009-08-27T18:46:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/1 "2009-08-27T18:46:45Z")
The other thread about “The Irish, the Swedish, the Jewish” got me wondering about uncommon suffixes for denoting somebody’s nationality. Most of them are either “ish,” “ese” or “an.” Scottish, Chinese, Italian, etc. Let me just say obviously I’m referring to the **English** names for these nationalities, because of course in other languages they are going to be different. But in English, there seems to be a pretty small number of nationality names which do not fall into either the “ish,” “ese” or “an” categories. Here are the few I could come up with: Savoyard Basque Greek Turk Manx Thai Afghan Bangladeshi I’m probably forgetting some…what are the others? “Serb” doesn’t count because "S ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/2 "2009-08-27T18:51:29Z")
French Swiss Czech Welsh Cypriot Iraqi Israeli Yemeni Kazakh Pakistani ---
**Author:** ![Waffle\_Decider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/77aa72/32.png) [@Waffle\_Decider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waffle_Decider)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/3 "2009-08-27T18:52:27Z")
Cypriot. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/4 "2009-08-27T18:53:08Z")
Filipino Israeli Pakistani French Croat ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/5 "2009-08-27T18:58:01Z")
Is Jewish a nationality now? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/6 "2009-08-27T19:01:33Z")
Good God, how could I have forgotten “French?” I’m not sure if Croat counts because as I almost said at the end of the OP before hitting Submit too soon, as in “Serb,” people also say “Serbian” and “Croatian.” I’m talking about names that have no “an” form. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/7 "2009-08-27T19:08:43Z")
Basque (a nationality, even if they don’t have a country). ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/8 "2009-08-27T19:12:53Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Is Jewish a nationality now? Sure. That’s what you call people who come from the nation of Brooklyn. ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/9 "2009-08-27T19:13:25Z")
I’ve heard that Kazakhs are the ethnic group whereas Kazakhstani would be a citizen of Kazakhstan. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/10 "2009-08-27T19:15:33Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > But in English, there seems to be a pretty small number of nationality names which do not fall into either the “ish,” “ese” or “an” categories. Here are the few I could come up with: > > Afghan hmmmm looks like an “an” to me ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/11 "2009-08-27T19:17:27Z")
Dutch, or Hollander, or (more correctly) Netherlander. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/12 "2009-08-27T19:20:35Z")
Kraut, Wop, Frog, Dago, Pom, Yank, Chink, Jap. There’s loads of 'em for the casual racist. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/13 "2009-08-27T19:21:13Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > hmmmm looks like an “an” to me Kind of, but the “an” comes from the name of the country itself and is not a suffix added to a shortened form of it. I guess that one’s on the borderline. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/14 "2009-08-27T19:22:24Z")
“French” and “Welsh” are _etymologically_ -ish. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/15 "2009-08-27T19:39:00Z")
New Zealanders Monegasque ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/16 "2009-08-27T19:44:34Z")
Argentine ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/17 "2009-08-27T19:47:38Z")
From my trusty list of countries and denonymns, I count 41, which out of nearly 200 countries is about 20% of them: Azerbaijani Bahraini Bangladeshi Batswana (for Botswana) Burkinabe (for Burkina Faso) Cypriot Czech Djibouti French Greek Icelander Iraqi Israeli I-Kiribati (for Kiribati) Kosovar Kyrgyz Kuwaiti Basotho (for Lesotho) Liechensteiner Luxembourger Malagasy (for Madagascar) Montenegrin Dutch or Netherlander Kiwi (for New Zealand) Nigerien (for Niger) Omani Pakistani Filipino Qatari Seychellois Solomon Islander Somali Surinamer Swazi Swiss Tajik Thai Turkmen Uzbek Yemeni There’s a few others like ‘Lao’ which could be in there but it’s also become acceptable to say ‘Laotian’ so they probably don’t count… ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/18 "2009-08-27T19:48:58Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > The other thread about “The Irish, the Swedish, the Jewish” got me wondering about uncommon suffixes for denoting somebody’s nationality. Most of them are either “ish,” “ese” or “an.” Scottish, Chinese, Italian, etc. “Scots.” Not “Scottish.” (Yeah, I know, Scottish is probably the more common term these days, but Scots fits your OP request and I’ve been yelled at by Scots when I called them Scottish) ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/19 "2009-08-27T19:58:15Z")
It is not clear whether the OP is asking for adjectives describing a nationality, or demonyms (nouns meaning people of that nationality). E.g. Icelandic vs. Icelander. From the description it sounds like the former, because there is no such thing as “a Scottish”. But then “Turk” doesn’t fit. “Scottish”, btw, is fine as an adjective. “Scots” and “Scotch” are also used, depending on what you’re talking about. For example, the parliament is the Scottish parliament, not “Scots”. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939/20 "2009-08-27T20:05:47Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Kind of, but the “an” comes from the name of the country itself and is not a suffix added to a shortened form of it. I guess that one’s on the borderline. Then German is borderline too, isn’t it? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nationalities-not-ending-in-ese-ish-or-an-ex-savoyard/507939.md?page=2)