# דנמרק  ?  דניה



## Zeevdovtarnegolet

Which is more common?


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## Ambassador Charles

דנמרק is. Never seen 'דניה' my whole life to be honest...


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## Zeevdovtarnegolet

LOL denya struck me as odd.


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## origumi

דניה was popular in the past but today mainly דנמרק. Like פולין vs. פולניה. For שוויץ vs. שוויצריה, both are still up-to-date.


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## Zeevdovtarnegolet

denya is kind of cute though lol


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## origumi

Zeevdovtarnegolet said:


> denya is kind of cute though lol


It's not a Hebrew invention, many Slavic languages, Hungarian, Greek and other call it Dania.


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## Zeevdovtarnegolet

Ah I see  I still prefer Dania - Denya too


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## Egmont

origumi said:


> דניה was popular in the past but today mainly דנמרק...


Here's a link to an eBay sale of a copy of Shakespeare's _Hamlet: Prince of Denmark_  in Hebrew, published by Tarshish (Jerusalem) in 1942. The third photo,  about halfway down the Web page, shows the book's title page. It uses  דנמרק. So, that form was at least in some use 70 years ago.


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## Ambassador Charles

Virtually no one uses דניה.


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## origumi

Ambassador Charles said:


> Virtually no one uses דניה.


Well, some do:
http://lib.cet.ac.il/pages/item.asp?item=15845
<< link removed >>
 
(the second is a commercial site, I hope the moderators will not get mad at me)


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## Ambassador Charles

When I said 'virtually no one', I meant that the usage is so rare, it can be dismissed as non-used.


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## Omerik

origumi said:


> דניה was popular in the past but today mainly דנמרק. Like פולין vs. פולניה. For שוויץ vs. שוויצריה, both are still up-to-date.


I don't necessarily agree.
I think it's a bit different in every case.

שוויץ is the most popular, but שוויצריה could be acceptable, I think.

פולין is indeed, again, the most popular as well, but פולניה will be used, in my opinion, as some kind of a "nickname", perhaps with affection, or as deliberately trying to speak "as in old times" - which is unlike שוויצריה, where I don't notice such connotation (as a native speaker) - perhaps others do.

דנמרק is the *only* term used in Hebrew today. דניה indeed sounds too strange, the only time I ever heard it was by a guy who wasn't born in Israel. I only found out that it's possible to call it דניה when I was about 12-14 years old I think, and if you tell someone you're going to דניה it might take him a few seconds (or more) to understand what you're talking about.


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## scriptum

Ambassador Charles said:


> Virtually no one uses דניה.


 דניה happens to be the name of a street and a district in Haifa.


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## origumi

scriptum said:


> דניה happens to be the name of a street and a district in Haifa.


I think that Denya Street and the neighborhood (formally Hod Hacarmel) in Haifa, like Ramat Denya in Jerusalem and probably more - are named after the construction company Denya Cebus that built them.

Not sure where this company got its name - whether it's related somehow to Denmark.


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## scriptum

origumi said:


> I think that Denya Street and the neighborhood (formally Hod Hacarmel) in Haifa, like Ramat Denya in Jerusalem and probably more - are named after the construction company Denya Cebus that built them.
> 
> Not sure where this company got its name - whether it's related somehow to Denmark.


Ah. I understand now how come there is a Liberia street in a Denya district.


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## Tamar

There's also a kibuts called Denya. And I'm pretty sure I once knew a girl called Denya. 
Never really understood where that name came from and what it meant...


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## origumi

Tamar said:


> There's also a kibuts called Denya.


Dan? Dalia? Dgania? No Denya.



> I once knew a girl called Denya


Could be feminine form of Dan, or based on non-Hebrew (Slavic?) Dunia, or both.

הלכה דוניה לקיבוץ
ופגשה שם בחלוץ
דוניה דוניה דוניה דוניתי
את אוהבת רק אותי


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