Countries/Nationalities
Introduction
It gets a little bit tricky with countries and nationalties. Some countries are derived from the name of the people whilst others derive the name for the people from the country. But compared to other languages, the Esperanto systems is still relatively easy to go over.
Keyomi estas el Ĉinujo. Ŝi estas ĉinino kaj ŝia gepatra lingvo estas la ĉina.
List of Country Names in Esperanto
We’ve put together a list of country names in Esperanto.
1st Category: people → country
Some countries derive their name from the name of the people. Zamenhof put the countries of the so called old world in this category (Europe, Asia, countries of classical antiquity). There are some exceptions, for example countries that end in -lando (see below).
The noun for citizens ends with -o. We add -ujo/-io to the word stem (here: ĉin-) for the country and -a for the adjective.
- Example:
- ĉino → Ĉinujo/Ĉinio, ĉina
| Country -ujo | Citizen -o | Adjectives -a | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aŭstrujo/Austrio | aŭstro | aŭstra | Austria/Austrian/Austrian |
| Britujo/Britio | brito | brita | Great Britain/Briton/British |
| Germanujo/Germanio | germano | germana | Germany/German/German |
Info
The syllables -ujo and -io are equally accepted as endings for country names, but note that there are countries that only end in -io (see below). The term for citizens of these countries is formed differently which can lead to confusion.
- Example:
- Ĉinujo/Ĉinio → ĉino
- Ĉilio → ĉiliano (not:
ĉilo)
2nd Category: country → people
Some countries derive the name of the people from the country name. Zamenhof put the so called new world countries in this category (the Americas, Australia, Oceania and many African countries).
The name of the country ends with -o. We add -ano to the word stem (here: ĉili-) for the citizen and -a to form the adjective.
- Example:
- Ĉilio → ĉiliano, ĉilia
| Country -o | Citizen -ano | Adjective -a | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aŭstralio | aŭstraliano | aŭstralia | Australia/Australian/Australian |
| Kubo | kubano | kuba | Cuba/Cuban/Cuban |
| Usono | usonano | usona | USA/American/American |
The following continents also belong to this category: Eŭropo, Afriko, Ameriko, Azio, Oceanio.
- Example:
- Eŭropo → eŭropano, eŭropaEurope → European, European
Countries with -lando
Countries that end in -lando (Irlando) don’t usually fit into a category.
| Country -o | Citizen -ano | Adjective -a | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Irlando | irlandano | irlanda | Irland/Irish people/Irish |
| Islando | islandano | islanda | Iceland/Icelanders/Icelandic |
| Nederlando | nederlandano | nederlanda | Netherlands/Dutch person/Dutch |
Some countries originally ended with -ujo. However, over time the ending changed to -lando (probably due to the influence of the English language), the adjective and noun are still formed according to the pattern of the first category. This includes the following countries:
| Country -lando | Citizen -o | Adjective -a | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finnlando | finno | finna | Finland/Finish person/Finish |
| Pollando | polo | pola | Poland/Polish person/Polish |
| Skotlando | skoto | skota | Scotland/Scott, Scottish person/Scottish |
| Svislando | sviso | svisa | Switzerland/Swiss person/Swiss |
| Tajlando | tajo | taja | Thailand/Thailander, Thai/Thai |