• Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    4 months ago

    So which country is known by the same name to the most number of other countries?

    • sunbather@beehaw.org
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      4 months ago

      suggestions off the top of my head are countries with or near significant colonial influences, eg madagascar and indonesia seem to be pretty similar across the board

      although far from comprehensive such is the case of languages listed on wiktionarys translations dropdown on the english entries of the countries at least

      the only notable exception i spotted is the navajo name for indonesia apparently being “Kéyah Dah Ndaaʼeełí Łání” which is quite interesting and i dont really have an explanation for that discrepancy (perhaps its pronounced similarly and orthography just isnt idunno) but navajo isnt a national language anywhere anyways so it doesnt really matter for the original question

    • kronisk @lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Without thinking much about it, my guess would be the United States of America.

      Edit: my reasoning was that most countries translate USA verbatim to their language, as most replies here demonstrate.

        • kronisk @lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Translation, in order: The United States of America, The United States of America and The United States of America.

            • kronisk @lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              Remember the meme? Deutschland, Duitsland, Tyskland are all regional variations on the same name. Allemagne and Germany are completely different names for the same country. Of course every language have their own way of saying “The United States of America”, but in essence it’s the same word, the same idea. Even Japan is Japón in Spanish, Ιαπωνία in greek, and so on. No one can pronounce my name correctly if I go abroad, but most of the time there is a regional variant I can use.

              The question was what country is known “by the same name” by the most people around the world. You’re not going to find a place name that is pronounced and/or written exactly the same in every language. That’s how languages work.

        • kronisk @lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Finnish doesn’t count, having completely unrelated names for everything is like a sport to you people

          • boonhet@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            It’s not even unrelated, it’s a literal translation of “United States” to Finnish

            Similarly in Estonian sometimes we’d just call it Ühendriigid instead of Ameerika Ühendriigid

      • myplacedk@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Amerikas Forenede Stater?

        But yeah, it’s too long, we usually call it USA. Although we pronounce the letters in the local way.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Los Estados Unidos de América

        On second thought maybe as, “Those fucking Yankees”?