An ethnonym () is a
name applied to a given
ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories:
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
s (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or
endonyms (whose name is created and used by the ethnic group itself).
As an example, the largest ethnic group in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
is Germans. The ethnonym ''Germans'' is a
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
-derived exonym used in the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...
. Conversely, the Germans call themselves the , an endonym. The German people are identified by a variety of exonyms across Europe, such as (
French), (
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
), (
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
) and (
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
).
As a sub-field of
anthroponymy, the study of ethnonyms is called ethnonymy or ethnonymics.
Ethnonyms should not be confused with
demonyms
A demonym (; ) or gentilic () is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, ...
, distinctive terms that designate all people related to a specific territory, regardless of any ethnic, religious, linguistic or some other distinctions that may exist within the population of that territory.
Variations
Numerous ethnonyms can apply to the same ethnic or racial group, with various levels of recognition, acceptance and use. The State Library of South Australia contemplated this issue when considering
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
headings for literature pertaining to
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
. Some 20 different ethnonyms were considered as potential Library of Congress headings, but it was recommended that only a fraction of them be employed for the purposes of cataloguing.
Change over time
Ethnonyms can change in character over time; while originally socially acceptable, they may
come to be considered offensive. For instance, the term
gypsy
The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
has been used to refer to the
Romani
Romani may refer to:
Ethnicities
* Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia
** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule
* Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
. Other examples include
Vandal
The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century.
The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...
,
Bushman,
Barbarian, and
Philistine.
The ethnonyms applied to
African Americans have demonstrated a greater evolution; older terms such as ''
colored
''Colored'' (or ''coloured'') is a racial descriptor historically used in the United States during the Jim Crow Era to refer to an African American. In many places, it may be considered a slur, though it has taken on a special meaning in Sout ...
'' carried negative connotations and have been replaced by modern-day equivalents such as Black or ''
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
''. Other ethnonyms such as ''
Negro
In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...
'' have a different status. The term was considered acceptable in its use by activists such as
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
in the 1960s,
but other activists took a different perspective. In discussing an address in 1960 by
Elijah Muhammad
Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Robert Poole; October 7, 1897 – February 25, 1975) was an African American religious leader, black separatist, and self-proclaimed Messenger of Allah, who led the Nation of Islam (NOI) from 1934 until his deat ...
, it was stated "to the Muslims, terms like Negro and colored are labels created by white people to negate the past greatness of the black race".
Four decades later, a similar difference of opinion remains. In 2006, one commentator suggested that the term Negro is outdated or offensive in many quarters; similarly, the word "colored" still appears in the name of the
NAACP, or National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
In such contexts, ethnonyms are susceptible to the phenomenon of the
euphemism treadmill
A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes ...
.
Morphology and typology
In English, ethnonyms are generally formulated through suffixation; most ethnonyms for toponyms ending in ''-a'' are formed by adding ''-n'': ''Bulgaria,
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
''; ''Estonia,
Estonian''. In English, in many cases, the name for the dominant
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
of a group is identical to their English-language ethnonym; the French speak French, the Germans speak German. This is sometimes erroneously overgeneralized; it may be assumed that people from
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
speak "Indian",
despite there being no language in India which is called by that name.
Generally, any group of people may have numerous ethnonyms, associated with the political affiliation with a state or a province, with geographical landmark, with the language, or another distinct feature. Ethnonym may be a compound word related to origin or usage.
A ''polito-ethnonym'' indicates that name originated from the political affiliation, like when the
polysemic term ''
Austrians
, pop = 8–8.5 million
, regions = 7,427,759
, region1 =
, pop1 = 684,184
, ref1 =
, region2 =
, pop2 = 345,620
, ref2 =
, region3 =
, pop3 = 197,990
, ref3 ...
'' is sometimes used more specifically for native, German speaking inhabitants of
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, who have their own endonyms.
A ''topo-ethnonym'' refers to the ethnonym derived from a
toponym
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
(name of a geographical locality, placename), like when the
polysemic term ''Montenegrins'', which was originally used for the inhabitants of the geographical area of the ''Black Mountain'' (
Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = M ...
), acquired an additional ethnonymic use, designating modern
ethnic Montenegrins, who have their own distinct endonyms. Classical geographers frequently used ''topo-ethnonyms'' (ethnonyms formed from toponyms) as substitute for ethnonyms in general descriptions, or for unknown endonyms.
Compound terminology is widely used in professional literature to discriminate semantics of the terms.
Related terms
In
onomastic
Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. An '' orthonym'' is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study.
Onomastics can be helpful in data mining, ...
studies, there are several terms that are related to ethnonyms, like the term ''ethnotoponym'', that designates a specific
toponym
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
(placename) that is formed from an ethnonym. Many names of regions and countries are ''ethnotoponyms''.
See also
*
-onym
The suffix ''-onym'' (from grc, ὄνυμα / name) is a bound morpheme, that is attached to the end of a root word, thus forming a new compound word that designates a particular ''class'' of names. In linguistic terminology, compound words t ...
*
diaspora studies
Diaspora studies is an academic field established in the late 20th century to study dispersed ethnic populations, which are often termed diaspora peoples. The usage of the term diaspora carries the connotation of forced resettlement, due to e ...
*
hyphenated American
*
statistext
A statistext is a demographic category that is artificially contrived in pursuit of a political or ideological goal, particularly when categories are created that respondents would not otherwise apply to themselves. This 1993 publication is based o ...
*
onomastics
*
Confessionym
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
External links
*
{{Authority control
Types of words