Talk:List of adjectival and demonymic forms of place names

Dakotas and Kentucky

North Dakota, South Dakota, and Kentucky missing from the list of states! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.212.162.0 (talk) 02:34, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Ottawa

I'm from ottawa, and I've never heard 'Ottawan', it has always been'person from ottawa'. How many of the rest of these are actually in common usage? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.97.145.108 (talk) 19:53, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Brussels? Lima?

I tried to edit it to add Lima (with the word "Limean") but I couldn't for the table was not shown in the edit.. Why? I couldn't even add Brussels so someone adds the apropiate word... 12:09 14/10/2006

Tionary or ipedia?

What is the point of this article? Isn't that wikipedia is not a dictionary? If you want to know about adjective form of certain nouns, consult a dictionary not an encyclopedia. -- Taku 02:24 12 Jun 2003 (UTC)~

I think the "wikipedia is not a dictionary" rule is mostly there to keep it from being merely a dictionary. Yeah, this is stuff that would be in a dictionary, but probably not in list form. Some might find it kind of handy, in case I ever wonder "What's someone from Turkmenistan called?" And obviously, it's not just for nouns (that really would be pretty excessive) - just place names. -- Wapcaplet 02:29 12 Jun 2003 (UTC)

If someone wants to move it to Wiktionary, I'd be fine with that. I would be interested in this once the basic and obvious ones are done, even if I'm not really trying to find the adjectival form of a specific place-name. If it had cities and other non-obvious ones, I think it would be an interesting list in its own right, which would make it more encyclopedic. Tuf-Kat

Where different, I added what call a person from these places. If someone knows what the guidelines are (i.e. most, though not all, that end in an a are formed by adding an n -- but is there a reason why Somalia and Argentina are different?) that could make this more encyclopedic? Tuf-Kat

These could link to lists of famous people from each country, state and city. GUllman 03:39 12 Jun 2003 (UTC)

The article can be more encyclopedic and should be so without doubt. For example, the difference between Chinaman or Chinese can be interesting to note, or how should we call people from Hong Kong or Taiwan? Are they really Chinese, the same as those from China or Hong Kongnees or Taiwanees. In officla sports game, players from Taiwan are often referred as Chinese Taipei or something. Why is that? On the other hand, the adjective form of Japan is Japanese, which is so boring and completely worthless to note in encyclopedia.

-- Taku 03:18 12 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Chinaman is derogatory (a little bit -- not as bad as chink, but still forbidden in polite conversation) so probably shouldn't be here. Some people might say a person from Iraq is called a camel-fucker, but I don't think that should be here. Tuf-Kat

Censorship? I don't see any reason that we should avoid mentioning a term that is politically sensitive. -- Taku 03:25 12 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I'm just waiting to hear about the adjectival forms for Battle Mountain, Nevada... :-) Stan 03:26 12 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Wiktionary? -- Taku

How about naming the article like Labeling of place names or something? Naming, calling and others you think of are also good. We are more interested in the discussion like above (maybe except camel-fucker). I had no idea that Chinaman is rather provocative. It is true sometimes that there is some dispute about how to call places or people. For example, some people argue that far east is a misnomer because it implicitly imposes Europe-centric point views. -- Taku

A person from London is not called a cockney but a Londoner. Cockney is a slang term referring to someone from inner-city London, not the general London area. (If I remember correctly, a cockney is someone who was born within hearing distance of the bells of particular church in the inner city and no further.) FearÉIREANN 05:43 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

BTW is someone from Connecticut really called Nutmegger? FearÉIREANN 05:47 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

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Someone from Afghanistan is an Afghan. Afghanistani is not used in the press, and is not in Oxford, Webster's, or the CIA world factbook. An afghani is a unit of currency. - Efghij 05:58 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

But it is used in the Longman dictionary (2001).. that's why I thought that it was correct. I also searched @ google.com for "Afghanistani" and there were many pages, where "Afghanistani" is used.

Anyway, since the Oxford say that it's not Afghanistani, I can agree with you. :)

By the way, can you check what's the adjective from "Quebec"? Longman says it's Quebecois, not Quebec. webkid 12:21 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

According to Oxford, "Quebecois" is the right adjective, but not the right noun. As a noun it refers only to French-Canadian or Francophone Quebecers. - Efghij 17:01 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

See Québécois. --Menchi 22:09 23 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Added note about this. In English, the proper form is indeed "Quebec" as in, "a Quebec Doctor". See first paragraph of this Toronto Star article: [1] - Basil Fawlty 00:00, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

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This page is getting long now, and I think it's purely because of the tabular format. Can we simplify it? Deb 22:06 23 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Sure, if you want the former version, just copy+paste it. webkid 14:21 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

I tried to simplify the structure by removing some of the optional elements, thus also reducing page-size. I'm not too sure about using style-formatting instead of the [[image:wikiwhite.jpg]], as it's not visible in all browsers. -- User:Docu

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This text gives Barbados' adjective as "Barbadian", but I have a source that seems to use "Bajan", and googling seems to confirm that this is also a use. Are both valid? Tuf-Kat 09:01, Nov 10, 2003 (UTC)

According to OED, yes, there are several accepted spelling, but Barbadian is oldest and most-used (since the 18th century). There is also Badian (since 1910, just a shortening), and its variant Bajan and Bajun. --Menchi 09:14, 10 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Thanks! I've added these others in such a way that I think shows that "Barbadian" is the most common term. Tuf-Kat 09:26, Nov 10, 2003 (UTC)

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New Zealand & Maori

The entry for New Zealand currently reads "New Zealand or Maori". Perhaps I'm interpreting this incorrectly, but I don't think this is correct - "Maori" isn't an adjective for "New Zealand". "Maori" refers to one ethnic group living in New Zealand (the first, although no longer the largest) - it can't be used generally for all New Zealanders. Nor can it be used for the country's physical or geographic features, or for animals or plants - you can say "New Zealand rivers" and "New Zealand birds", but not "Maori rivers" or "Maori birds" unless you're talking about actual possession and ownership. This is true in the Maori language, too - "Maori" and "Aotearoa" ("New Zealand") are distinct words, and are not interchangable. If "Maori" is listed, it should probably be as the adjective for "Maori", not for "New Zealand". I thought I'd mention it here before doing anything, though, since someone might have a different view. -- Vardion 16:18, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

This doesn't make sense. How can New Zealand = Maori? I don't even think it's a nickname. --Menchi 16:28, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I've removed Maori from the New Zealand entry, then. -- Vardion 05:47, 8 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Well, I'm not saying anything, but the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Third Edition with New Words Supplement 2001, says that the adjectives from New Zealand are New Zealand and Maori.

It's wrong. Grutness...wha? 22:17, 14 October 2006 (UTC) (in New Zealand)

Croat

According to Dictionary:croat and several others, the word can also designate a native of Croatia. Therefore, I included it. -- User:Docu

Try telling that to some Croatian Serbs... :) The word "Croatian" can mean both ethnic Croatian and that which is from Croatia, but the shorter form is supposed to be limited only to the ethnicity. --Shallot 14:00, 31 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Ok, I wont (promissed!). A footnote or note directly before the word should do. -- User:Docu

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Can someone please fix the article such that they are all either left justified or centered? I am a comparative newbie, and as such, do not fully get the whole Wikicode.--65.2.115.25 02:59, 4 Mar 2004 (UTC)

There are <center> </center>-tags to that. According to the introduction: "In most cases, a person from these places is referred to with the same word. In cases where this is not so, this form is given after the adjective.", thus the 2nd column is usually empty. -- User:Docu

"In most cases, a person from these places is referred to with the same word. In cases where this is not so, this form is given after the adjective."

What does this really mean? Is this mean American can mean an adjective form of America and people from America? -- Taku 23:40, Mar 12, 2004 (UTC)

Yes. Tuf-Kat

Adjective denonyms of U.S. states

Is the adjective column of the U.S. state section of this really correct?? Of course, we say "Georgia peach", not "Georgian peach". 66.245.79.79 21:23, 18 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Imaginary regions

I found, at http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:SF4lCaXea9kJ:reviewmaterials.tripod.com/english/gullivers_travels.html+lilliputian+brobdingnagian+lilliputians+brobdingnagians+blefuscudian+blefuscudians+laputan+laputans&hl=en&start=1, all of these words:

Blefuscudian (adjective)
Blefuscudians 
Brobdingnagian (adjective)
Brobdingnagians
Laputan (adjective)
Laputans
Lilliputian (adjective)
Lilliputians

Wavelength 23:59, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

The page just mentioned has also "Luggnagg" (place name) and "Struldbrugs" (its demonym). Wavelength 01:37, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

A better use

The adjectives should each be in the opening paragraph of the appropriate article, where they will be of some use to the reader, and this poor orphan kitten can be put in a gunnysack and taken to the river... --Wetman 02:52, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

This reference list can save time for:

• a person reading or writing about word derivation as a linguistic phenomenon;
• a person reading or writing about comparative statistics about several peoples or places;
• and a person reading or writing about a competition among people, individually or collectively, from several places. Wavelength 18:31, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Lunians

I'm pretty sure we don't need demonyms for uninhabited places. Dystopos 5 July 2005 23:44 (UTC)

Kazakhstani, Kyrgyzstani, etc.

How come the other forms such as Kazakh, Kyrgyz or Kirgiz, Uzbek, Turkmen, etc. are not listed alongside Kazakhstani, Kyrgyzstani, etc.?

Unless I'm mistaken, "Kazakh" is an ethnicity and "Kazakhstani" is a nationality. Hence you can be a Kazakhstani without being a Kazakh, and vice-versa. Aridd (talk) 10:05, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Actually, the ethnic name has generally been adopted as the demonym of the country, regardless of ethnicity. The -stani endings are not generally used except for Pakistan - where the "Pak" prefix dies not denote a people, but the adjective "pure". Ptilinopus (talk) 13:50, 24 August 2016 (UTC)

Chappaqua

Now that she lives in Westchester, Hillary Clinton asked a really intelligent question: what is (or would be) the demonym for Chappaqua? Would it be "Chappaquan?" Eddieuny 04:51, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Unsourced

I added an {{unsourced}} tag because there's no way to determine if these are correct. The one I'm looking at in particular is Singapore. "Singaporean" only refers to people? That's not the only way it's used in a lot of places. I see Singaporean all over the place and not just referring to people. How are we to know that's correct? —Wknight94 (talk) 05:14, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

I am not sure how the adjectives in the middle column are used. If they are not demonyms, what are they? I don't think anybody says “Now which public transport are you talking about, the Seoulite one?” or “This place looks fairly Seoulite.”—Wikipeditor 20:20, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Singaporean?

See my last section... Also, check out Wiktionary:Singaporean which says anything related to Singapore can be called Singaporean. So I'll just go ahead and change that one... —Wknight94 (talk) 05:31, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Help! [How to edit the tables?]

How do you edit the tables in this? - THE GREAT GAVINI {T-C} 07:16, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Each is in a template, to prevent the article becoming oversized. So, when you edit the article, you'll see (for example) that the template under the "Continents" heading is {{Continental adjectivals and demonyms}}. Hence Template:Continental adjectivals and demonyms would be the page you'd want to edit if you wanted to contribute to the "Continents" section. Similarly for the other sections and their templates. Hope this helps!  Regards, David Kernow 10:02, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, got it now - I was typing in {{City adjectivals and demonyms}} instead of Tempate:City adjectivals and demonyms. - THE GREAT GAVINI {T-C} 07:38, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

anguilla

the adjective form of Anguilla is not anguillan but anguillian. i am sure of this but do not know how to edit tables like the one in this article. can someone please make the correction? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jdw58 (talk • contribs)

Done – thanks for spotting!  David Kernow 03:55, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion#More_demonyms

Maybe someone can make links for the demonyms listed at Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion#More_demonyms. Wavelength 08:08, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Honolulan

Who added Honolulan? There is no such thing. It doesn't exist and the closest you'll hear is Oahuans, but even with that you don't hear much unlike Mauians or Molokaians of which we use a lot. They do have references in Hawaiian for more specific places in the HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. Mamoahina 22:49, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Luxembourg adjectival

Please see Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2007_March_25#Luxembourgian_people for a discussion concerning the proper adjectival to be used for Luxembourg. Caerwine Caer’s whines 19:29, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Kelper

I used to read "Kelper" as a demonym of the Falkland/Malvinas Islands. But in the table it doesn't appear. In that table you can read "Falkland Islanders" there instead of "Falklanders" or "Malvinenses".

--201.213.101.32 (talk) 13:34, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

ISTR that a Kelper is someone who gathers seaweed for a living (which is/was done on the Falklands, but also elsewhere, such as the Channel Islands). Don't know whether or not it is a demonym for the Falklands, but could it have meant the occupation in the sources you read? Grutness...wha? 00:00, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

United Kingdom regions?

Reading this article just now made me realise: why is there not a section for regions of the United Kingdom? It's all very well that British municipalities have a mention, but not counties or singificant areas of those counties. I can think of several myself, and I'll give some examples to find out whether it be advisable to add such a section.

Deeside - Deesider (person)
Merseyside - Merseysider (person)
Shropshire - Salopian (person and adjective; may get confused with Shrewsbury demonym)
Devon - Devonian (person)
Flintshire - Flintshirean (person and adjective; not so sure about this one, though)
Kent - Kentish (adjective)

RJL (talk) 20:20, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Irish slur undetected for one year

How is it possible that the vandalism "drunk" has been undetected since May 2006?! And how is it possible that it was obviously inadvertently added by a respected editor in this edit?! --Espoo (talk) 07:46, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Just noticed it was in the template and only 3 days old --Espoo (talk) 07:53, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Christchurch NZ ?

it's quite a big place, but I have never heard it , will investigate Feroshki (talk) 03:12, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Typo

Zcatecano/-a should be Zacatecano/-a NoWay555 (talk) 00:50, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

Spelling Error

South Ossetian (the country name) should be South Ossetia.

Ivory Coast

Hey, it's missing Ivory Coast. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.241.153.36 (talk) 14:21, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

It's under 'Côte d'Ivoire'. — kwami (talk) 06:16, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

New South Wales

I would contest the claim that 'New South Welsh' is the adjectival form. It is never described as the New South Welsh government or New South Welsh climate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.171.160.71 (talk) 01:37, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

Bamar

I believe Bamar is an ethnic group, not a demonym for all of Burma / Myanmar. Ethan Mitchell (talk) 01:54, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

German -burg cities

Where does the idea come from that German cities ending in -burg have the suffix -ian added? The normal demonym would add -er. A person from Hamburg is indeed a Hamburger(!), one from Brandenburg is a Brandenburger, and so on. The same would apply to Luxembourg in English/German (in French the suffix -eois would be added). The -ian ending is utterly contrived, IMHO. Ptilinopus (talk) 13:58, 24 August 2016 (UTC)

Tasmanians

'Inbreds' is a bit harsh. Accurate, but harsh.Moretonbaychestnut (talk) 08:02, 22 April 2017 (UTC)

Oceania

What is the adjective of Oceania? Is it Oceanian or Oceanic or just Oceania? Oceanian cannot be found in a lot of dictionaries, Oceanic is rarely used, I saw a lot of sports articles use "Oceania Championship". So, which one is correct? Bobbie73 (talk) 09:57, 25 July 2017 (UTC)

Australian adjectival forms: attributive vs. predicative

Although "Queensland" as an adjective is fine for attributive use (e.g. "the Queensland woman"), it doesn't work for predicative use (you can't say "the woman is Queensland" in the way you'd say "the woman is Victorian"). Is there a predicative adjective for Queenslanders? Logically by analogy with England/English and Poland/Polish it seems like it should be "Queenslish" ("the woman is Queenslish"), but that just sounds silly.

Similarly "Northern Territory" is listed as the adjective, but has the same issue; besides, wouldn't "Northern Territorian" work perfectly well as the adjective, both attributive and predicative? Any thoughts? --Greenwoodtree 03:30, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

Andalusia

The Name of Andalusia is not of Greco-Roman origin. ♆ CUSH ♆ 09:20, 18 November 2021 (UTC)

Brandenburg

This article lists "Brandenburgish" as the adjective for Brandenburg (see here). At least in German, the use of "Märkisch" is quite common as an alternative (see here, here (in German) and here (in German)). I would propose adding this to the table, though I'm not sure where best to place it. Lagustus (talk) 14:57, 13 July 2023 (UTC)