Names of Countries

[lady_p_gold]

What is the origin or reason behind countries endings i.e. lots of countries end 'ia' - India, Latvia, Estonia and so on, and then there is 'istan' Pakistan, Afganistan - and of course lots of 'land' which I suppose is more understandable. Lots of these places seem to be on different continents and with no obvious connection ??????

[commoner]

don't know about ....ia but stan ... or -sthan means in Persian "home of" so I guess that sound s reasonable..........

[nickmo]

India was the Roman name for the area around the Indus River, once called Sindhu.

All info on country names at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_name_etymol ogies

[kempie]

You are, of course, using the English names for many of the countries...

Bharat, Latvijas Republika, Eesti...

[Quizmonster]

'Stan' means 'land'. So, Afghanistan = Land of the Afghans, Baluchistan = Land of the Baluchis and so on. 'Pakistan' is an exception, though the 'stan' part still means 'land'. This name was created by Choudhary Rehmat Ali, a Muslim intellectual, as long ago as 1933. He used the initial letters of the regions that finally went to make up the country at its foundation in the late 1940s. It could, in theory, have been called 'Kapistan', 'Apkistan' etc. As luck would have it, however, Pakistan meant 'Land of the Pure', so that is the combination that he chose.

[jan15]

I don't have the answer about the "ia" ending either, but I'm very curious about it. I suspect it's of Latin or Greek origin. Greek seems to use that ending for place names more than English does and more than some Romance languages do.

In Greek the accent is almost always on the "i". For example, yu-go-slah-VEE-ah.

Greek uses all the "ia" endings that either we or the locals use, such as Albania, Algeria, Anatolia, Armenia, Asia, Australia, Austria, Bavaria, Bohemia, Bolivia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, California, Cambodia, Colombia, Croatia, Dalmatia, Eritrea, Espana, Estonia, Ethopia, Galicia, Georgia, Helvetia, Iberia, Illyria, India, Indonesia, Judea, Korea, Latvia, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mesopotamia, Micronesia, Moldavia, Mongolia, Moravia, Nigeria, Nova Scotia, Persia, Polynesia, Pretoria, Prussia, Rhodesia, Romania, Russia, Sardinia, Saudi Arabia, Scandinavia, Serbia, Siberia, Slovakia, Sofia, Somalia, Syria, Valencia, Venezia, and Yugoslavia.

For places whose English name ends in "y" or "ey" (Burgundy, Calvary, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lombardy, Normandy, Saxony, Sicily, Thessaly, Turkey), the Greek name usually ends in "ia". Note that the local name for some of those also ends in "ia". This rule doesn't apply when the local name ends in another vowel. For example, Tuscany = Tuscana in Italian, Toskani in Greek.

Greek often uses the "ia" ending even when neither the English nor the local name ends in "y" or "ia", such as Alsace-Alsatia, Britain-Vretania, Brazil-Vrazilia, Burma-Virmania, Denmark-Dhania, England-Anglia, Finland-Fillandhia, France-Ghallia, Holland-Ollandhia, Iceland-Islandhia, Ireland-Irlandhia, Japan-Iaponia, Leipzig-Lipsia, Marseilles-Massalia, New Zealand-Nea Zilandhia, Norway-Norvigia, Poland-Polonia, Portugal-Portoghalia, Rhineland-Rinania, Scotland-Skotia, Sweden-Swidhia, The Ukraine-Ukrania, and Wales-Walia.