LogFAQs > #978642249

EclairReturns posted...

This may be an inappropriate analogy, but English-speaking folk do not typically refer to that Japanese archipelago country by its Japanese name. Similarly, the Japanese do not normally refer to their country by the name English-speaking folk have assigned to it.

Was going to point this out. Humans don't even care what other humans call themselves, or the planet as a whole. We sure as fuck aren't going to care what aliens call us.



adjl posted...

Germany's an even more pronounced example. You've got Germany in English, Deutschland in German, Allemagne in French, Tyskland in Scandavian languages, Niemcy in Polish...

The best part with Germany is that almost every name for the country comes from one of the old tribes, but each one is referring to a different tribe. It's almost like the equivalent of different foreign nations referring to the US as Virginians, Georgians, New Yorkers, and Floridians.

In a similar way, you've got "Celtic" - which isn't how any Celtic tribe would likely have referred to themselves - that was a term the Greeks called them and the Romans adopted later. We just call them that because much of modern Western culture comes from Roman sources and roots.

(And that's not even getting into "Indians" in North America...)

Humans have never really respected what other people call themselves. We just go with whatever the dominant paradigm of a given era calls people.