# Indian



## Outsider

There's an ongoing discussion on the Spanish forum about the ambiguity and possible impropriety of the word _indio_. One of the problems is that it's used both for Native Americans and for the inhabitants of India. In English, this also happens with the word "Indian". 
How many other languages have this problem, and how do they solve it?


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## Vanda

> How many other languages have this problem, and how do they solve it?


 
Our most respectable dictionary gives three terms referring to the inhabitant of India: índio, hindú, indiano (so, the problem as on the discussion remains). We use *indiano *in order to avoid mixing up with our native _índios_.


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## Whodunit

We don't know about such a confusion in German. 

Indian (Native American) = *Indianer*
Indian (man from India) = *Inder*


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## Dalian

In Chinese, we don't have such confusion either.

American Indian: 印第安人
Indian Indian: 印度人


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## Anna Più

Hi Outsider,
In Catalan we have only one word for both. It's "indi (m)/ índia(f)", and we need to specificate wich we refer to, if the context doesn't help us. 

If you want to have a look to a Catalan entrance for "indi", here is a reference. 

Salut!
A+


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## cyanista

Outsider said:
			
		

> How many other languages have this problem, and how do they solve it?



Russian has *индеец*(m)/*индианка*(f) for Native Americans and* индиец*(m)/*индийка*(f) for natives of India.


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## Ilmo

In Finnish we have no problem or confusion about it.
"*intiaani*" means an American Indian though we know, of course, that Mr. Kolumbus committed an error. The word cannot be used as an adjective but can be the first part of a compound.
"*intialainen*" means, except a citizen of India, also almost anybody living in the Indian peninsula. The word is used also as an adjective.


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## Outsider

Vanda said:
			
		

> Our most respectable dictionary gives three terms referring to the inhabitant of India: índio, hindú, indiano (so, the problem as on the discussion remains).


In Portugal, no one calls an inhabitant of India _índio_, at least nowadays; it's always _indiano_. _Índio_ is used exclusively for Native Americans.


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## Roi Marphille

Outsider said:
			
		

> In Portugal, no one calls an inhabitant of India _índio_, at least nowadays; it's always _indiano_. _Índio_ is used exclusively for Native Americans.


it's curious, an _indiano_ in Castilian (indià in Catalan) is the name given to people who went to America (spc. in Cuba) to trade with textiles (commonly), sugar, cotton...or slaves...and came back to homeland very rich. They usually liked to show up their richness and hired good architects to built their brand new houses. They were very very rich. Many of big and beautiful houses from beg. of XXth Century in Barcelona city or the Catalan coast are from them.


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## Outsider

That's interesting! Now I understand why Spanish speakers never used the word to refer to the people of India.


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## amikama

No problem in Hebrew as well:

Native American = אינדיאני (_indiani_)
Native of India = הודי (_hodi_)


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## Mutichou

In French, we have the same word for both, "indien".
But the word "amérindien" is sometimes used for native Americans.


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## Jana337

Czech is confusion-free:
Indián (America)
Ind (India)

Jana


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## elroy

No confusion in Arabic:

native of India: هندي _(hindi)_
native American: هندي أحمر _(hindi ahmar)_

The latter literally means "red Indian."


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## SpiceMan

No such problem in Japanese
インド人　(indojin) for a native of India
先住民　(senshuumin) for native americans, meaning literally aborigine

I'd also like to point out that aborigine in English refers only to _people_ (at least according to Merriam-Webster), unlike Spanish' aborigen which can mean plants, animals, etc. besides people


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## panjabigator

Well, the term India is actually foreign to begin with!  The word came from the river found in Pakistan, locally known as Sindhu (where the southern most Pakistani province Sindh is).  Anyway, the Persians soon came and renamed it Hind, and all Indians (regardless of relgion) were hindu.  Then in some way/shape/form the name became India for the British.  Meanwhile, with Indians (or at least North Indians), there are two common terms used:  Bhaarat and Hindustaan.  Bhaarat came from the name of a legendary king, and Hindustaan from the words Hindu (Indian) and sthaan (land).  But now, it is 100% inacceptable to use the word Hindu in English to refer to a generic Indian.  That is why it is kind of uncomfortable for me in Spanish to say "Soy hindu" because Im not!


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## alby

No confusion in Croatian:
Native American - *Indijanac*
Native of India - *Indijac*

Nataša


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## Tennis

its very clear in vietnamese
Native American: Người da đỏ
A man from India: Người Ấn Độ


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## Perseas

In *Greek* it's clear too.
Native American: Ινδιάνος [inði'anos]
A man from India: Ινδός [in'ðos]


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## symposium

In Italian we call "indiano/indiani" the inhabitants of India, we use the Spanish words "indio/indios" or, less often, the Italian words "amerindio/amerindi" for the native peoples of Latin America, but we still call "indiano/indiani" the native peoples of North America.


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## AndrasBP

Hungarian:

Native of India:    *indiai*
Native American:    *indián*

It seems that apart from English and Romance languages, there's no confusion at all. 
Maybe it has to with the fact that the confusion was "created" in Romance-speaking countries.


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## KalAlbè

In Haitian Creole there's no confusion:

Native of India: *Endyen*
Native American: *Endyen Ameriken*


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## nimak

cyanista said:


> Russian has *индеец*(m)/*индианка*(f) for Native Americans and* индиец*(m)/*индийка*(f) for natives of India.



In *Macedonian* it is similar to Russian:

_Native American:_
Индијанец (Indijanec) [indi'janɛʦ] m.
Индијанка (Indijanka) [indi'jaŋka] f.
индијански (indijanski) [indi'janski] adj.
_
Native of India:_
Индиец (Indiec) ['indiɛʦ] m.
Индијка (Indijka) ['indijka] f.
индиски (indiski) ['indiski] adj.


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