What's the rule for which 'national identity adjective' suffix to use?
What's the rule for which 'national identity adjective' suffix to use?
[-ish] Ireland, Scotland = Irish, Scottish
[-an] Morocco, Germany = Moroccan, German
[-ese] Portugal, China = Portuguese, Chinese
What rule is at play here? 🤔
Cheers!
Netherlands = Dutch
68ReplyThe English Language, where the grammar is made up and the rules don't matter.
I can add:
[-er] New Zealander
45ReplyDemonyms don't follow any particular rules, as far as I know. I'm an "-egian" myself.
43ReplyCanada = Canadese (nuts fit in your mouth?)
38ReplyI can tell you that this is called demonym, but I don't know the answer to your question... The Wikipedia page has a long list of suffixes, but no rules: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym
34ReplyThere is no common rule. It varies by the way the language evolved over time.
Also the word you are looking for is "Demonym"
33ReplyThere are no rules in English. Ask the people from each country what they prefer
27ReplyI'm in Michigan, that makes me a Michigander. The rules are made up and the suffixes don't matter.
24ReplyPeople from Iceland are only called Icelandic because “Icish” would sound a bit silly.
21ReplyWe're all Earthicans, no need to divide it up further than that
17ReplyDenmark -> Dane
I guess that actually the other way around, Denmark : Dane's field/farm(there is a better English word for mark but can't remember)
12ReplyIt's based on what sounds best.
11ReplyFind what sounds most natural, if that can't be found, go with what sounds the least catastrophically unnatural.
10ReplyJust attach "man" to the end of all of them for maximum offence.
8ReplyAmericaneseish.
7ReplyThere is no rule. It just is whatever it is.
6ReplyPeople from Indiana are called hoosiers - this, like many things in English, doesn't have a hard and fast rule... the sounds at the end of the word certainly impact it, but there are exceptions. Just ask a Peruvian.
5ReplyThere is a Words For Granted podcast episode about that. Don't remember much tho. Have fun!
5ReplyI was literally thinking about this yesterday… what’s someone from Belgium called? I couldn’t figure out an ending to add. Belgian?
5ReplyMeanwhile there is no specific demonym for people from the united states, you can say american buy that would also include every other north and south american country
4ReplyAfghani, Pakistani,
4ReplySo Philippines is Philippinese?
2Reply