-stan

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  Countries whose name in English has the suffix -stan; and
  other countries that have first-level divisions whose names in English have the suffix -stan.

The suffix -stan (Persian: ـستان‎, romanizedstân after a vowel; estân or istân after a consonant) has the meaning of "a place abounding in"[1] or "a place where anything abounds"[2] in Persian language. It appears in the names of many regions in Iran, Afghanistan, and Central and South Asia, as well as in the Caucasus and Russia.

Etymology and cognates[edit]

The suffix -stan is analogous to the suffix -land, present in many country and location names. The suffix is also used more generally, as in Persian rigestân (ریگستان) "place of sand, desert", golestân (گلستان) "place of flowers, garden", gurestân (گورستان) "graveyard, cemetery", Hindustân (هندوستان) "land of the Hindu People" (India).

Originally an independent noun, this morpheme evolved into a suffix by virtue of appearing frequently as the last part in nominal compounds. It is of Indo-Iranian and ultimately Indo-European origin: it is cognate with Sanskrit sthā́na (Devanagari: Sanskrit: स्थान [stʰaːnɐ]), meaning "the act of standing", from which many further meanings derive, including "place, location; abode, dwelling", and ultimately descends from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sthāna-.[3]

Countries[edit]

In addition, the native name of Armenia is Hayastan. Haya- comes from Hayk, the patriarchal founder of the Armenian nation.

Some of these nations were also known with the Latinate suffix -ia during their time as Soviet republics: Turkmenistan was frequently Turkmenia, Kyrgyzstan often Kirghizia, and even Uzbekistan was very rarely Uzbekia.[4][5]

Administrative divisions[edit]

Country Sub-national unit Capital Area km² Population Den. /km² Type
 Iran Golestan Gorgan 20,367 km² 1,777,014 87/km km² Provinces of Iran
Khuzestan Ahvaz 64,055 km² 4,531,720 71/km²
Kurdistan Sanandaj 29,137 km² 1,603,011 55/km²
Lorestan Khorramabad 28,294 km² 1,716,527 61/km²
Sistan and Baluchestan Zahedan 181,785 km² 2,775,014 15/km²
 Pakistan  Balochistan Quetta 247,190 km² 12,344,408 36/km2 Province of Pakistan
 Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit 72,971 km² 1,800,000 19/km2 Autonomous Region of Pakistan
 Russia  Bashkortostan Ufa 143,600 km² 4,072,292 28.36/km² Republics of Russia
 Dagestan Makhachkala 50,300 km² 2,910,249 57.86/km²
 Tatarstan Kazan 68,000 km² 3,786,488 55.68/km²
 Azerbaijan Gobustan Gobustan 1,369.4 km² 37,137 27/km² Administrative divisions of Azerbaijan
 Kazakhstan Turkistan Turkistan 117,249 km2 2,685,009 23/km² Regions of Kazakhstan
 Uzbekistan  Karakalpakstan Nukus 164,900 km² 1,711,800 7.5/km² An autonomous republic within Uzbekistan
 Iraq  Kurdistan Erbil (Hewlêr) 78,736 km² 5,500,000 Autonomous region of Iraq
 Afghanistan Nuristan Parun 9,225.0 km² 140,900 15/km² Province of Afghanistan

Subdivisions[edit]

In Afghanistan[edit]

  1. ^ Various places share this name.

In Armenia[edit]

In Iran[edit]

  1. ^ Various places share this name.
  2. ^ In the Persian language, Shahrestan is also a common noun that means "county". It is in the names of the counties of Iran.

In Pakistan[edit]

In Tajikistan[edit]

In other countries[edit]

Regions[edit]

Proposed names[edit]

Fictional[edit]

Other[edit]

  • Absurdistan – sometimes used to satirically describe a country where everything goes wrong
  • Ancapistan – a name (often satirically) given to an imaginary anarcho-capitalist country or society
  • Bimaristan – a kind of hospital in medieval Persia and the medieval Islamic world
  • Bradistan – a moniker for Bradford, England, owing to its large population of Pakistani worker migrants
  • Canuckistan (full name being The People's Republic of Soviet Canuckistan) – epithet for Canada, used by Pat Buchanan on 31 October 2002, on his television show on MSNBC in which he denounced Canadians as anti-American and the country as a haven for terrorists. He was reacting to Canadian criticisms of US security measures regarding Arab Canadians[11]
  • Cavaquistan (Cavaquistão in Portuguese) – a name coined after the former Portuguese President and Prime-Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva, referring to the regions of Portugal where he achieved landslide victories in the elections held in the late 1980s and early 1990s (especially in the Viseu District[12]); intended pun with Kazakhstan (Cazaquistão in Portuguese[13])
  • Dalitstan.org – a Dalit advocacy website active until mid-2006,[14] one of 18 websites that were blocked by the Indian government to check for hate messages following the 2006 Mumbai train bombings.[15]
  • Dondestan – an album by Robert Wyatt. Sounds like Spanish: "¿Dónde están?", lit.'Where are they?'.
  • Españistán, from España (Spain), humorous expression of the country as a traditional and banana-republic.
  • Extremistan and Mediocristan – used by author Nassim Nicholas Taleb to illustrate concepts of black swan theory in The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
  • Filmistan – a film-production company
  • Fondukistan or Fondoqestān – an early medieval settlement and Buddhist monastery in Afghanistan
  • Gazimestan – name of a monument commemorating the historical Battle of Kosovo
  • Hamastan – a concept of a Palestinian Islamic government with Sharia as law
  • Iranistan – a pseudo-orientalist mansion built for P. T. Barnum in 1848 in Connecticut
  • Islamistan – means 'Land of Islam', used in various contexts
  • Londonistan – French counter-terrorism agents gave the British/English capital of London this sobriquet. Sometimes used derogatorily to refer to the large immigrant, especially Muslim, population in London.
  • Muristan – a complex of streets and shops in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem
  • New Yorkistan – the title of the cover art for the 10 December 2001 edition of The New Yorker magazine
    • The New Yorkistan map itself included various districts ending in -stan, e.g., Bronxistan, Cold Turkeystan, Fuhgeddabouditstan, Gaymenistan, Taxistan, Youdontunderstandistan, etc.
  • Paganistan – the pagan/neo-pagan community of Minneapolis-Saint Paul in Minnesota[16]
  • Quebecistan – a term coined by Barbara Kay in 2006
  • Registan – a UNESCO World Heritage Site in central Samarkand, Uzbekistan
  • Sarvestan – a Sasanian-era palace in the Iranian province of Sarvestan
  • Shabestan – an underground space, usually found in traditional architecture of mosques, houses, and schools in ancient Persia
  • Shahrestan (several meanings)
  • Skateistan – a skateboarding/educational organization based in Kabul, Afghanistan

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Hayyim, Sulayman (1892), "ستان", New Persian-English Dictionary, 2, Tehran: Librairie imprimerie Béroukhim, p. 30 Quote= ستان (p. V2-0030) ستان (۲) Suffix meaning 'a place abounding in'. Ex. گلستان a flower or rose-garden. Syn. زار See گازار Note. This suffix is pronounced stan or setan after a vowel, as in بوستان boostan, a garden, and هندوستان hendoostan, India; and estan after a consonant. Ex. گلستان golestan, and ترکستان torkestan. However, for poetic license, after a consonant also, it may be pronounced setan. Ex. گلستان golsetan
  2. ^ Steingass, Francis Joseph, "ستان", A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary, p. 655, stān (after a vowel), istān (after a consonant), Place where anything abounds, as ḵẖurmāstān, A palm-grove, gulistān, A flower-garden, &c.
  3. ^ Macdonell, Arthur Anthony. A practical Sanskrit dictionary with transliteration, accentuation, and etymological analysis throughout. London: Oxford University Press, 1929 – University of Chicago
  4. ^ Google Ngram Uzbekia, Kirgizia, Turkmenia, Tajikia
  5. ^ Becker, Seymour (2004). Russia's Protectorates in Central Asia: Bukhara and Khiva, 1865–1924. Routledge. p. 553. ISBN 1-134-33582-2. As early as June 1920, Lenin had toyed with the idea of dividing Russian Turkestan into three national regions: Uzbekia, Kirgizia and Turkmenia.
  6. ^ "Turmoil in the North East: The demand for Bangalistan". SabrangIndia. 28 January 2020. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  7. ^ "Lebanese solution " 15 Jul 1978 " The Spectator Archive". The Spectator Archive.
  8. ^ "Lojbnaistan". lojban wiki. 4 November 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  9. ^ Cowan, John Waldemar (1997). "1". The Complete Lojban Language (First ed.). Fairfax, VA, USA: The Logical Language Group. p. 3. ISBN 0-9660283-0-9.
  10. ^ Stuart, Keith (31 May 2019). "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare returns to tread a moral minefield". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  11. ^ Allan, Chantal (2009). Bomb Canada: And Other Unkind Remarks in the American Media. Athabasca University Press. pp. 84–85. ISBN 978-1-897425-49-7. soviet%20canuckistan%20arab%20canadians.
  12. ^ "Cavaquistão continua irredutível e a votar laranja ("Cavaquistan remains unyielding and voting orange") (in Portuguese)". Visão. 6 October 2019.
  13. ^ Carla Fernandes (2016). Multimodality and Performance. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-4438-9465-4.
  14. ^ Dibyesh Anand (15 October 2011). Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 34–. ISBN 978-0-230-36263-5.
  15. ^ "Govt blocks 18 sites to check hate messages". The Times of India. 19 July 2006. Archived from the original on 27 May 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  16. ^ Pizza, Murphy (2009). "Schism as midwife: how conflict aided the birth of a contemporary Pagan community". In Lewis, James R.; Lewis, Sarah M. (eds.). Sacred schisms: how religions divide (PDF). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 249–261. ISBN 978-0-511-58071-0. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2011. [...] the Pagan community of the Minnesota Twin Cities, otherwise known by members as 'Paganistan.'

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]