Ethnonym

An ethnonym (from Ancient Greek ἔθνος (éthnos) 'nation' and ὄνομα (ónoma) 'name') is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (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).

For example, the dominant ethnic group of Germany is the Germans. The ethnonym Germans is a Latin-derived exonym used in the English language, but the Germans call themselves Deutsche, an endonym. The German people are identified by a variety of exonyms across Europe, such as Allemands (French), tedeschi (Italian), tyskar (Swedish) and Niemcy (Polish).

As a sub-field of anthroponymy, the study of ethnonyms is called ethnonymy or ethnonymics.

Ethnonyms should not be confused with demonyms, which designate all the people of a geographic territory, regardless of ethnic or linguistic divisions within its population.^[1]

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 headings for literature pertaining to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 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.^[2]

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 has been used to refer to the Romani. Other examples include Vandal, Bushman, Barbarian, and Philistine.

The ethnonyms applied to African Americans have demonstrated a greater evolution; older terms such as colored carried negative connotations and have been replaced by modern-day equivalents such as Black or African American.^{[citation needed]} Other ethnonyms such as Negro have a different status. The term was considered acceptable in its use by activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s,^[3] but other activists took a different perspective. In discussing an address in 1960 by Elijah Muhammad, 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".^[4]

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.^[5]

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; Estonia, Estonian. In English, in many cases, the name for the dominant language 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 speak "Indian",^[6] 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 is sometimes used more specifically for native, German speaking inhabitants of Austria, who have their own endonyms.

A topo-ethnonym refers to the ethnonym derived from a toponym (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), 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 studies, there are several terms that are related to ethnonyms, like the term ethnotoponym, that designates a specific toponym (placename) that is formed from an ethnonym. Many names of regions and countries are ethnotoponyms.^[7]

References

^ Roberts 2017, p. 205–220.
^ Aboriginal Rountable (1995): LCSH for ATSI People. Archived 2011-03-21 at the Wayback Machine
^ King, Martin Luther Jr.; Holloran, Peter; Luker, Ralph E.; Penny A. Russell (1 January 2005). The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Threshold of a New Decade, January 1959 – December 1960. University of California Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-520-24239-5. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
^ Message from the Wilderness of North America. A Journal for MultiMedia History article.
^ "The game of the name" (PDF). Baltimore Sun. 1994-04-03. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-05-15. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
^ Bourne, Jill; Pollard, Andrew (26 September 2002). Teaching and Learning in the Primary School. Taylor & Francis. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-203-42511-4. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
^ Room 1996, p. 39.

Sources

Coates, Richard (2021). "Some thoughts on the theoretical status of ethnonyms and demonyms". Onomastica. 65 (2): 5–19.
Roberts, Michael (2017). "The Semantics of Demonyms in English". The Semantics of Nouns. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 205–220. ISBN 978-0-19-873672-1.
Room, Adrian (1996). An Alphabetical Guide to the Language of Name Studies. Lanham and London: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810831698.
Tuite, Kevin (1995). "The declension of ethnonyms in English". Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. 21: 491–502. doi:10.3765/bls.v21i1.1420.

External links

Media related to Ethnonyms at Wikimedia Commons

[FOOTNOTERoberts2017205–220-1] Roberts 2017, p. 205–220.

[2] Aboriginal Rountable (1995): LCSH for ATSI People. Archived 2011-03-21 at the Wayback Machine

[Jr.Holloran2005-3] King, Martin Luther Jr.; Holloran, Peter; Luker, Ralph E.; Penny A. Russell (1 January 2005). The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Threshold of a New Decade, January 1959 – December 1960. University of California Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-520-24239-5. Retrieved 29 July 2013.

[4] Message from the Wilderness of North America. A Journal for MultiMedia History article.

[5] "The game of the name" (PDF). Baltimore Sun. 1994-04-03. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-05-15. Retrieved 2011-01-19.

[BournePollard2002-6] Bourne, Jill; Pollard, Andrew (26 September 2002). Teaching and Learning in the Primary School. Taylor & Francis. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-203-42511-4. Retrieved 29 July 2013.

[FOOTNOTERoom199639-7] Room 1996, p. 39.

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v t e Ethnicity
Concepts	Clan Ethnic group Ethnographic group Ethnolinguistic group Ethnonational group Ethnoreligious group Ethnographic realism Diaspora Immigration Hyphenated ethnicity Indigenous peoples In-group and out-groups Meta-ethnicity Metroethnicity Minority group Influence Monoethnicity Nation Nationality Panethnicity Polyethnicity Population Race Supraethnicity Symbolic ethnicity Tribe
Ethnology	Anthropology Ethnic studies Ethnoarchaeology Ethnobiology Ethnobotany Ethnoecology Ethnomycology Ethnozoology Ethnocinema Ethnogeology Ethnography Autoethnography Clinical Critical Institutional Netnography Online Person-centered Salvage Transidioethnography Video Ethnohistory Ethnolinguistics Ethnology Ethnomathematics Ethnostatistics Ethnomedicine Ethnomethodology Ethnomuseology Ethnomusicology Ethnophilosophy Ethnopoetics Ethnopsychopharmacology Ethnoscience Ethnosemiotics Ethnotaxonomy
Groups by region	World Contemporary ethnic groups Countries by ethnic groups Africa Americas Indigenous Canada Greenland Mexico United States Caribbean Central America South America Asia Central Asia East Asia Northern Asia South Asia Southeast Asia West Asia Australia Aboriginal groups Torres Strait Islanders Europe Oceania Indigenous European
Identity and ethnogenesis	Cross-race effect Cultural assimilation Cultural identity Demonym Development Endonym Ethnarch Ethnic flag Ethnic option Ethnic origin Ethnic religion Ethnicity in censuses Ethnofiction Ethnonym Folk religion Historical Imagined community Kinship Legendary progenitor Linguistic homeland Mores Mythomoteur Nation-building Nation state National language National myth Origin myth Pantribal sodality Statistext Tribal name Tribalism Detribalization Neotribalism White ethnic
Multiethnic society	Consociationalism Cultural appropriation Diaspora politics Dominant minority Ethnic democracy Ethnic enclave Ethnic interest group Ethnic majority Ethnic media Ethnic nationalism Ethnic pornography Ethnic theme park Ethnoburb Ethnocracy Ethnographic film Ethnographic village Ethnopluralism Indigenous rights Middleman minority Minority rights Model minority Model minority myth Multinational state
Ideology and ethnic conflict	Allophilia Ethnic bioweapon Ethnic cleansing Ethnic hatred Ethnic joke Ethnic party Ethnic penalty Ethnic slurs Ethnic stereotype Ethnic violence Ethnic riots Ethnocentrism Ethnocide Ethnofuturism Ethnosymbolism Indigenism Indigenization Nativism Separatist movements Xenocentrism Xenophilia Xenophobia
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