This is an old revision of this page, as edited by II 3 Shot II(talk | contribs) at 10:04, 8 October 2018(→Table: Added colloquial term for citizens of Afghanistan -- "Afghani", while formally the name of the countries currency, is widely misused as a demonym. The suffix -i Is the proper suffix for the other 6 Persian-influenced countries people whose name ends with the suffix -stan. It is most likely misused by most english speaking individuals who are unaware that Afghanistans currency instead utilizes the suffix -i.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 10:04, 8 October 2018 by II 3 Shot II(talk | contribs)(→Table: Added colloquial term for citizens of Afghanistan -- "Afghani", while formally the name of the countries currency, is widely misused as a demonym. The suffix -i Is the proper suffix for the other 6 Persian-influenced countries people whose name ends with the suffix -stan. It is most likely misused by most english speaking individuals who are unaware that Afghanistans currency instead utilizes the suffix -i.)
The following is a list of adjectival and demonymic forms of countries and nations in Englishand their demonymic equivalents. A country adjective describes something as being from that country, for example, "Italian cuisine" is "cuisine of Italy". A country demonym denotes the people or the inhabitants of or from there, for example, "Germans" are people of or from Germany.
Note: Demonyms are given in plural forms. Singular forms simply remove the final s or, in the case of -ese endings, are the same as the plural forms.
The ending -men has feminine equivalent -women (e.g. an Irishman and a Scotswoman). The French terminations -ois / -ais serve as both the singular and plural masculine; adding e (-oise / -aise) makes them singular feminine; es (-oises / -aises) makes them plural feminine. The Spanish and Portuguese terminations -o usually denotes the masculine and is normally changed to feminine by dropping the -o and adding -a. The plural forms are usually -os and -as respectively.
Adjectives ending in -ish can be used as collective demonyms (e.g. the English, the Cornish). So can those ending in -ch / -tch (e.g. the French, the Dutch) provided they are pronounced with a 'ch' sound (e.g. the adjective Czech does not qualify).
Many place-name adjectives and many demonyms refer also to various other things, sometimes with and sometimes without one or more additional words. (Sometimes, the use of one or more additional words is optional.) Notable examples are cuisines, cheeses, cat breeds, dog breeds, and horse breeds. (See List of words derived from toponyms.)
Note - in cases where two or more adjectival forms are given, there is often a subtle difference in usage between the two. This is particularly the case with Central Asian countries where one form tends to relate to the nation and the other often relates to the predominant ethnic group (e.g., Uzbek is primarily an ethnicity, Uzbekistani relates to citizens of Uzbekistan).
In addition, several countries have a large number of sub-names for their citizens in the form of nicknames for people of certain different areas; these are usually related to something typical of the area. In Puerto Rico for example, people who come from the town of Bayamón are referred to as "Cowboy(s)" or "Cowgirl(s)"; those from Caguas are referred to as "Criollo(s)" or "Criolla(s)". Except in cases such as Spain, in which sub-names have been used interchangeably by others, sub-names belonging to some areas in a country are not listed here.
^There is no adjective or demonym that distinguishes the Republic of Ireland from the entire island of Ireland. When distinction from Northern Ireland is necessary, the colloquial Southern Irish or Southerner is sometimes used; some people in the Republic of Ireland may find this offensive, though others in Northern Ireland may find it equally offensive in not distinguishing the Republic of Ireland from the island. As an alternative, an adjectival phrase may be used—for instance, "a law of the Republic of Ireland"—or, as a last resort, the name "Republic of Ireland" may be used as if it were an adjective (as in "a Republic of Ireland law").
^The nickname Yankee originally applied to residents of New England. During the American Civil War, the term was expanded to include any supporter of the Union cause and was then shortened to "Yanks" and its usage widened, especially in many Commonwealth countries, to refer to all denizens of the US.
