Why is South Africa abbreviated ZA?

[Little_Nemo]

I just saw a reference to somebody being born in Johannesburg, ZA, which confused me. I knew there was a major city called Johannesburg in South Africa but I didn’t think South Africa would be abbreviated as ZA.

So I goggled around. I found there is not a Johannesburg in Zambia or Zimbabwe or Zanzibar. And I found that South Africa is in fact abbreviated ZA. It’s from the Dutch spelling Zuid-Afrika.

Which… still doesn’t make a lot of sense. South Africa has eleven official languages and Dutch is not one of them. (In case you’re wondering the name of the country in Afrikaans is Suid-Afrika.)

So why did South Africa become ZA back in 1974 when they were handing out the abbreviations? Was it seen as an easy way to avoid a conflict with Saudi Arabia (the country that got SA)?

[Weisshund]

Zuid-Afrika

Dutch for South Africa

[Weisshund]

and yes, it would conflict with saudi arabia

[Bullitt]

And ZAF is its 3-letter abbreviation, for ISO 3166.

[Bullitt]

The countries whose abbreviations differ from their English name are interesting, e.g.,

DE, DEU: Germany
CH, CHE: Switzerland
HR, HRV: Croatia

ISO 3166-1

[jz78817]

@Bullitt

The countries whose abbreviations differ from their English name are interesting, e.g.,

DE, DEU: Germany
CH, CHE: Switzerland
HR, HRV: Croatia
ISO 3166-1 - Wikipedia

it makes sense if you don’t expect country names to be isolingual.

Germany: Bundesrepublik Deutschland DE
Switzerland: Confoederatio Helvetica CH
Croatia: Republika Hrvatska HR

[Bullitt]

Yes I’m aware what they stand for. It’s interesting from an English language perspective, like ZA is.

[Little_Nemo]

Are there any other countries that had their name abbreviated in a language that wasn’t either English or their country’s language?

[Little_Nemo]

@Weisshund

and yes, it would conflict with saudi arabia

Was that actually an issue that was raised in 1974?

[UDS]

@Little_Nemo

Which… still doesn’t make a lot of sense. South Africa has eleven official languages and Dutch is not one of them. (In case you’re wondering the name of the country in Afrikaans is Suid-Afrika.)

Dutch is not an official language of South Africa, but it used to be. I believe the “ZA” code was assigned to South Africa (as an international licence plate identifier) in the 1920s, when Dutch was still an official language. SA, which would be the obvious abbreviation based on the country’s name in Afrikaans or English, was already in use (as a code for the Saarland, then under League of Nations administration) so they went with ZA.

[Captain_Amazing]

Dutch was an official language of South Africa from 1909 to 1983. As of 1925, “Dutch” included Afrikaans.

[UDS]

@Little_Nemo

Are there any other countries that had their name abbreviated in a language that wasn’t either English or their country’s language?

Well, Switzerland has already been mentioned; the “CH” code abbreviation is from Latin. Ethiopia used AOI (“Africa Orientale Italiana”) for a couple of decades after it ceased to be occupied or run by Italy. “GRO” for Greenland is based on Danish; the official language is Greenlandic. “MA” for Morocco comes from French; the official languages are Arabic and Berber.

“SMOM” is used on vehicles licensed by the Order of Malta; it’s from the English name of the Order, although the official language is Latin and the working language is Italian.

[Bullitt]

@Little_Nemo

Are there any other countries that had their name abbreviated in a language that wasn’t either English or their country’s language?

There is TCD: Chad [note: République du Tchad (French)]

I posted a list in the trivia game thread, http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20169030&postcount=34658

[eschereal]

I have to wonder if the Magyars are either peevish or bemused by what the rest of the world calls them and their country.

[pulykamell]

@eschereal

I have to wonder if the Magyars are either peevish or bemused by what the rest of the world calls them and their country.

Not that I could tell. They are more than familiar with their Latin name Hungaria. There’s even roads in Budapest named after it (a big section of the large ring road is named Hungária körút) and it shows up in business names.

[Novelty_Bobble]

In English I’ve never seen ZA for South Africa. RSA would be far more common (Republc of South Africa)

[jtur88]

A few more come to mind: DZ = Algeria, from the Berber name Al-dzayer, the etymology of its modern name . Also ES = Spain (Espana);

Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania were originally EAK, EAU and EAT, for “East Africa xxx”

Jordan used to be HKJ, for Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

There are so many countries beginning with C, and very few with R, Republica de Chile uses RCH

[Colophon]

The Dutch/Afrikaans spelling for South Africa used to be “Zuid Afrika”, as you can see on this 1910 postage stamp.

Nowadays it is “Suid-Afrika”. I’m not sure when that changed, exactly, but perhaps a South African would know.

This site says “On 1910-05-31, they united to form the Union of South Africa (Afrikaans: Unie van Zuid-Afrika, but the Afrikaans spelling was changed from Zuid to Suid a few years later).”

[Colophon]

Wikipedia:

As a result of Afrikaans merging Dutch consonants ⟨z⟩ and ⟨s⟩ to a single sound [s], spelt ⟨s⟩, the use of ⟨z⟩ in Afrikaans is confined to words of non-Dutch origin, such as Zoeloe (“Zulu”) and zero, or country names like Zambië (“Zambia”), while use of ⟨z⟩ is preserved only in Dutch place names in South Africa like Zonnebloem and Zeerust.

However, although Suid-Afrika (“South Africa”) is used in Afrikaans rather than Zuid-Afrika as in Dutch, South Africa adopted “ZA” as its international vehicle registration code in 1936, which later became the country’s ISO country code, with .za becoming the country’s internet domain.

[gnoitall]

@eschereal

I have to wonder if the Magyars are either peevish or bemused by what the rest of the world calls them and their country.

It’s true that you’re not yourself when you’re Hungary.