Saturday, January 6, 2018

My Favorite Demonyms

Your favorite what? Why, my favorite demonyms.

Heck, not even the word editor in Blogger recognizes the term. All it really is, though, is a word for a person from a certain place. You know, a North Carolinian ... a Pittsburgher ... an Englishman (I am or have been all 3 of those, by the way).

Now, those are all pretty normal. There are, however, plenty of ... um ... rather interesting ones out there. Like these ...


Countries, States & Provinces
  • Utah - Utahn
  • Yukon - Yukonian
  • Tuvalu -Tuvaluan
  • St Kitts & Nevis - Kittitian / Nevesian
  • Botswana - Motswana
  • Burundi - Umurundi
  • Lesotho - Mosotho
  • Kiribati - i-Kiribati
  • Vanuatu - Ni-Vanuatu
  • Flanders - Fleming
  • Isle of Man - Manxman 



American Cities
  • Memphis - Memphian
  • Phoenix - Phoenician
  • Annapolis - Annapolitan
  • Minneapolis - Minneapolitan
  • Indianapolis - Indianapolitan
  • Tampa - Tampanian (the alternate "Tampan" just sounds too much like a feminine hygiene product)
  • Saskatchewan - Saskatchewanian
  • Halifax - Haligonian
  • Little Rock - Little Rocker



British Cities

For some reason, the British Isles seem to have a corner on this stuff.
  • Glasgow - Glaswegian (more familiarly, a Weegie)
  • Galway - Galwegian
  • Bath - Bathonian (so, what's wrong with Bather?)
  • Cork - Corkonian (or Corker, for that matter?)
  • Devon - Devonian (though I associate this more with the Paleozoic era)
  • Exeter - Exonian
  • Oxford - Oxonian
  • Manchester - Mancunian (more familiarly, a Manc)
  • Cambridge - Cantabrigian
  • Leeds - Leodensian
  • Newcastle - Novocastrian (yup, that's the Latin translation)
  • Liverpool - Liverpudlian



Other Cities
  • Monaco - Monegasque
  • Hong Kong - Hong Konger (Hong Kongese is what I'm familiar with)
  • Prague - Praguer
  • Bucharest - Bucharester
  • Damascus - Damascene (I mostly associate this with a form of metalworking)
  • Macao - Macanese
  • Hamburg - Hamburger
  • Frankfurt - Frankfurter
  • Oslo - Oslovian
  • Corfu - Corfiot (like Cyprus/Cypriot, I guess)




More geography stuff:

2 comments:

  1. Devon - Devonian (though I associate this more with the Paleozoic era)

    If you were Devonian yourself (as I am) you would associate it with Devon.

    Also, the British Isles far from having the greatest number of these. In France just about every town has its own demonym, some obvious, like Parisien and Marseillais, others less obvious, like Bordelais, and others not obvious at all, like Stéphanois.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mea culpa. Totally Murcan (and Anglophone) blog. Interesting points you make though about the French. I believe the Italians do something similar. I'll bet there are others out there who do the same as well.

    ReplyDelete