# Greece



## Aleco

I wonder... Why have almost every language 'Greece' (Or something related) as Greece's name? On Greek it isn't similar at all...

*Norwegian:
*- Hellas

*Danish:
*- Grækenland


----------



## Maja

In Serbian:

Greece - Grčka (Грчка)
Greek noun - Grk (Грк) m. / Grkinja (Гркиња) f.
Greek adj. - Grčki (Грчки) m. / Grčka (Грчка) f. / Grčko (Грчко) n.


----------



## Thomas F. O'Gara

In Chinese: xila (pronounced, more or less, see-laa). Comes from "Hellas."

Arabic: Yunan. The term is at least as old as the Koran.  I don't recall what it came from, though.  Maybe somebody else can advise.


----------



## Miguelillo 87

On spanish it's Greece.- Grecia

Greek.- Griego


----------



## Etcetera

In Russian, it sounds almost in the same way as in Spanish - Греция (Gretsiya). 
A native of Greece is called грек (grek).


----------



## optimistique

In Dutch you say: *Griekenland.

*We all say something similar, because of the Latin _Graecus _forthe Greek Hellinikos, and _Graecia_ for Hellas. Apparently, Latin has had more influence than Greek itself on its own name throughout Europe.


----------



## Samaruc

In Valencian-Catalan:

Greece: *Grècia*
Greek: *grec* (masc.sing.), *grega* (fem.sing.), *grecs* (masc.pl.), *gregues* (fem.pl.)

However, you can also find the word "*Hèl·lade*" for the continental Greece  (although it is not commonly used) and some more common adjectives like "*hel·lènic*, *hel·lenístic*...".


----------



## jazyk

Portuguese:

Greece - Grécia
Greek - grego


----------



## cherine

Thomas F. O'Gara said:
			
		

> Arabic: Yúnán. The term is at least as old as the Koran. I don't recall what it came from, though. Maybe somebody else can advise.


This is correct (I made a very slight correction to show that the "u" and the "a" are long vowels). We say al-yúnán *اليونان* for the country, al-yúnániyyún اليونانيون for the people "the Greeks", and also the first word (al-yúnán).
But there's another word for Greeks in Arabic, which by the way sounds much like the English word : al-Ighríq *الإغريق* , which is the name of the Ancient Greeks (i.e. not used for the Modern ones).
Also, for the Romans fo Byzantion (who were Greek, no?) they are ar-Rúm *الروم* .

As for the origin, I searched a bit and couldn't come to a very certain information. But I found in one of the greatest Arabic books of History, the one of Ibn Khaldun a paragraph stating the relation between the three of them (al-yúnán, al-ighríq, ar-rúm) as decendants of *Yáván* (who's mentioned in the Bible, according to the author, as a son of Yafith (?) son of Ham) whose name was arabized as yúnán, 


> وإن الشعوب الثلاثة من ولد يونان: فالاغريقيون من ولد أغريقش بن يونان، والروم من ولد رومي بن يونان، واللطينيون من ولد لطين بن يونان .​


A rough translation : the three peoples are sons of yúnán : the Greeks (ighríq) are the sons of Ighríqish son of yúnán, the Romans are sons of Romi son of yúnán, the Latins are sons of Latín son of yúnán.


* Please excuse any mis-transliteration of the names. Thank you.


----------



## Whodunit

optimistique said:
			
		

> In Dutch you say: *Griekenland.*


 
It's almost the same in German: *Griechenland* (The "ch" is pronounced like the Greek χ before an "i", I think.) Persons from Greece are "*Griechen*".


----------



## panjabigator

Hindi:  Greece (same) 
For Greek, you could say /griik/ or /yunaani/.


----------



## Grekh

I'm not quite sure but Grekh (my nickname) means "greek" in a language, but I don't remember which one.


----------



## werrr

Czech:

Greece - Řecko
Greek noun - Řek m. / Řekyně f.
Greek adj. - řecký m. / řecká f. / řecké n.

_It's not so different what it seems. We just replaced Latin "gr" with Czech specialness "ř"._


----------



## Whodunit

Grekh said:
			
		

> I'm not quite sure but Grekh (my nickname) means "greek" in a language, but I don't remember which one.


 
Are you sure? I think in Russian (грех) it means "sin". The Russian word for "Greek" should be "grek" (грек).


----------



## ireney

Yunan comes from Ionia. Iota when pronounced has, sometimes a little 'Y' sound before it (Yiota i.e.). Those who got our name by the Romans who frist encountered some Hellenes (hey I'm doing my best here!) called Γραικοί (Graikoi, Graeci in Latin) from Boetia (just north of Attica-where Athens is) who migrated to Italy, call as something similar to Graecia, Graecus.

Ionia is the name Greeks gave to the coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey) which was filled with Greek city-states. Those first encounted those Hellenes chose a form of "Yunan".

I am generilising a bit of course 

We had other names too and maybe they are the reason behind "Rum" etc (I am thinking of as calling ourselves "Romioi" from "Romaioi = Romans" since, as citizens of the Byzantine Empire we were all Roman citizens and Hellenes had become (courtesy of the Church) a term meaning 'pagan' but I don't know for sure)


----------



## Chazzwozzer

Greece is *Yunanistan* in Turkish.

The suffix -istan means _home of_


----------



## Dalian

Mandarin: 希腊 (xi la), from 'Hellas'.


----------



## gorilla

Hungarian:
Greek - görög
Greece - Görögország (=Greek-country)


----------



## kanojo_

In Slovenia we say "Grčija"- Greece and "Grk"-Greek.


----------



## robbie_SWE

In Romanian: 

*Grecia* = the country
*greaca* = the language
*grecesc* = adj.
*grec (m.) grecoica (f.)* = person from Greece

In Swedish: 

*Grekland *= the country
*grekiska* = the language
*grekisk* = adj. 
*grek (m.) grekina? (f.)* = person from Greece

 robbie


----------



## janecito

Whodunit said:
			
		

> Are you sure? I think in Russian (грех) it means "sin". The Russian word for "Greek" should be "grek" (грек).



So, it all comes down to which vowel you decide to eliminate. 

*Grek*h> Grek (Грек) > Greek
*Gre*k*h *> greh (грех) > sin

I'm no too serious about this as Grekh would indeed probably be the "western" way of transcribing the Russian word грех into latin writing.


----------



## Tisia

Persian:
*يونان* (Yunan)

Finnish:
Kreikka

Tisia


----------



## amikama

Hebrew: *יוון* (_yavan_).

Yavan (Javan) is also a Biblical character - Japheth's son and Noah's grandson, mentioned in Genesis 10. Yavan (Greece) is not the only country to be named after a descendant of Noah mentioned in the very chapter. Examples: Ashkenaz (ancient name of Germany), Mizraim (Egypt), Canaan (roughly where today's Israel/Palestinian Authority), etc.


----------



## ukuca

In Turkish:
Greece: *Yunanistan*
Greek (person): *Yunanlı, Yunan, Rum*
Greek (language): *Yunanca, Rumca*


----------



## skatoulitsa

I think there was once a movement to try to change our international name from Greece to Hellas, but obviously it failed.


----------



## ireney

Skatoulitsa that's a relief! Or else we'd have to stop using "Germania", "Elvetia" (Switzerland), "Holland", "Gallia" (France) etc


----------



## Insider

In Ukrainian:

Greece: *Греція *[gretsiya]
Greek: *грек  *[grek]


----------



## parakseno

In Romanian we say...

Greece - Grecia, Elada (Elada is more often used when refering to Ancient Greece)
Greek (man) - grec, elen (the first one more often used)
Greek (men) - greci, eleni
Greek (woman) - grecoaică, elenă
Greek (women) - grecoaice, elene
Greek language - limba greacă, limba elenă, elină


(Hi hi, seems that this is my 100th post here... what nicer way to celebrate it than talking about my favourite language?!)


----------



## cadylayne

In Italian:

Greece: Grecia
Greek: Greco


----------



## Flaminius

*Sanskrit:*
Yavana

yavana 5
    yavana m. an Ionian, Greek (or a king of the Greeks, g. kambojâdi 
    • in later times also a Muhammadan or European, any foreigner or barbarian) Mn. MBh. &c


----------



## Anatoli

In *Chinese* it's 希腊 / 希臘 Xīlà Greece, have nothing to do with any other name for Greece but its origin is *Cantonese* hei1 laap6 - transliteration for Hellas.

(sorry for the cross-post but the above is only a portion of my post in the Arabic forum)

*Japanese:*
ギリシャ - Girisha

*Korean:*

그리스 - Geuriseu (Gŭrisŭ)


You can see the written forms here (and otehr languages as well)
http://www.geonames.org/countries/GR/other-names-for-greece.html

*These questions about what a country, a company is called could be answered using Wikipedia. Not sure if the original posters actually manage to read and absorb the answers? Wictionary is another resource to find other words in  various languages.

*


----------



## Anatoli

janecito said:


> So, it all comes down to which vowel you decide to eliminate.
> 
> *Grek*h> Grek (Грек) > Greek
> *Gre*k*h *> greh (грех) > sin
> 
> I'm no too serious about this as Grekh would indeed probably be the "western" way of transcribing the Russian word грех into latin writing.



It's a consonant, not a vowel. The pronunciation of these sounds is quite different despite the English language mix-up about K and KH (Russian K and X).

K is the same as the English K but unaspairated but KH (Russian X) is a German CH, Spanish J, Sctottish Ch. "The Western way" is not only English, mind you, Germans, Dutch, Spanish have no problem distinguishing these sounds and would use different letter combinations.


----------



## albondiga

amikama said:


> Hebrew: *יוון* (_yavan_).
> 
> Yavan (Javan) is also a Biblical character - Japheth's son and Noah's grandson, mentioned in Genesis 10. Yavan (Greece) is not the only country to be named after a descendant of Noah mentioned in the very chapter. Examples: Ashkenaz (ancient name of Germany), Mizraim (Egypt), Canaan (roughly where today's Israel/Palestinian Authority), etc.



Just noting that like the Arabic, Turkish, Sanskrit, and Persian words, _Yavan_ is apparently related to _Ionian_... 

Seems that all the ancient cultures to the east of Greece use some variation of "Ionia" while the cultures to the west of Greece generally use some variation of "Greece"...

(The far eastern countries of Asia are different since they would've had less contact with Greece historcally...)


----------



## Ilmo

In *Finnish* the name of the country is *Kreikka.*
*A Greek*, man or woman, also as an adjective, is *kreikkalainen*.
It is possible to say *kreikatar* of a Greek woman, though it is not usual.
The language *Greek* is in Finnish *kreikka* (without a capital initial) or *kreikan kieli* (=the Greek language)


----------



## avalon2004

Greek obviously has a host of words for Hellenic-related things:

Greece:* Ελλάδα (Ελλάς)*_ [eládha]_
Greek language: *Ελληνικά/Ελληνική *_[eliniká]_
Greek person (male or female): *Έλληνας*_ [élinas]_
Greek woman: *Ελληνίδα *_[elinídha]_
Greece as a nation/Hellenism: *ελληνισμός *_[elinismós]_
Greek (adjective): *ελληνικός *_[elinikós]_
Greek speaking: *ελληνόφωνος *_[elinófonos]_
"Greekness": *ελληνικότητα *_[elinikótita]_


----------



## Lemminkäinen

While the name of the country is indeed *Hellas* in Norwegian as noted in the original post, the adjective and other related words have the "Greek" stem:

Greek (adj.): *gresk*
Greek - native (n.): *greker*
Greek - language (n.): *gresk*


----------



## Child_of_darkness

In polish:

Greece - Grecja
Greek language - (język) grecki
Greek man - Grek
Greek woman - Greczynka
Greek men - Grecy
Greek women - Greczynki
Grek nation/greek people - Grecy
Greek (adj.) - grecki
"Greekness" - greckość


----------



## gigi1

Thomas F. O'Gara said:


> In Chinese: xila (pronounced, more or less, see-laa). Comes from "Hellas."
> 
> Arabic: Yunan. The term is at least as old as the Koran. I don't recall what it came from, though. Maybe somebody else can advise.


 
One of the first "tribes" that came and lived in Greece as almost is known now where called Ίωνες (Iones), I think that Yunan comes from that and yes it is pretty old (I think the Phoenicians used to call us like that) and still in those areas we are called like that. 
The western Greek comes from the other name we had Γραικοί (Greki), but I don't know which came from which (Greek -> Γραικοί or Γραικοί ->Greek)
I can't understand how the chinese one came out though (Xila (if x is pronounced ks)in greek means woods/logs)


----------



## Outsider

Thomas has written the pronunciation. It's not [ksila].


----------



## ireney

Gigi look at my post #15 in this thread. And the Chinese, if you thing of the pronunciation (this table may help you understand it a bit) comes from Hellas.

Ionians can be described as a group, not a "tribe" by the way


----------



## Nino pirosmani

In georgian: "Saberdzneti".


----------



## Cepkah

in bulgarian ''гърция'' (na latinica garcija)


----------



## gigi1

ireney said:


> Gigi look at my post #15 in this thread. And the Chinese, if you thing of the pronunciation (this table may help you understand it a bit) comes from Hellas.
> 
> Ionians can be described as a group, not a "tribe" by the way


 
I must be more careful in reading the threads  
And you are right about the tribe thing, but that's the word that came to me (group would be easier but didn't came to my mind).


----------



## Miguelillo 87

I'm surprised to see that the name of Greece in Nahuatl seems as Norweigan
Weir isn't it? 
Well the name is *Helenoyan* 

and Greek.- *Helenia *(Nationality)

About a greek thing.- it'll be.- *helenotecatl or helenatl*. depend of the thing.

I supposed the word comes form the spanish Helénico. A word also resambling a greek thing.

Does it work equal in Norweigan?

Thank you


----------



## MarX

In *Indonesian*, Greece is called *Yunani*.

*Orang Yunani*: (a) Greek (person)
*Bahasa Yunani*: Greek language

We don't have no grammatical genders. So a male and a female Greek are both *Orang Yunani*.


In *Georgian*, Greece sounds very different from every other language, eh?



MarK


----------



## deine

Lithuanian:
Graikija (country)
graikas (person-male)
graikė (person-female)
graikų kalba (Greek language)


----------



## Nizo

avalon2004 said:


> Greek obviously has a host of words for Hellenic-related things:
> 
> Greece:* Ελλάδα (Ελλάς)*_ [eládha]_
> Greek language: *Ελληνικά/Ελληνική *_[eliniká]_
> Greek person (male or female): *Έλληνας*_ [élinas]_
> Greek woman: *Ελληνίδα *_[elinídha]_
> Greece as a nation/Hellenism: *ελληνισμός *_[elinismós]_
> Greek (adjective): *ελληνικός *_[elinikós]_
> Greek speaking: *ελληνόφωνος *_[elinófonos]_
> "Greekness": *ελληνικότητα *_[elinikótita]_


 
These same words in *Esperanto* are:
Greece:  _Grekujo_ [official, traditional], _Grekio_ [common]
Greek language:  _la greka (lingvo)_
Greek person/Greek man:  _greko_
Greek woman:  _grekino_
Hellenism:  _helenismo_
Greek (adjective):  _greka_
Greek speaking:  _grekparolanta_
"Greekness":  _grekeco, heleneco_


----------



## federicoft

In Italian, as said before, it is _Grecia_ (country) and _greco_ (adjective).

However we also say _ellenico _to mean Greek or related to Greece.


----------



## Outsider

Indeed, in also Portuguese there are learned synonyms of these words, which are sometimes used in literature:

Greece = Grécia = Hélade
Greek = grego = heleno (ethnicity)
Hellenic = helénico (adjective)
Hellenistic = helenístico


----------

