Why not Hellas?

I was wondering, since Greeks call there land Hellas, why is it everyone else calls it Greece? Where did that come from?

Just as in almost every other language, many countries are not referred to by what they call themselves but by what the are called in that language.

Greece - Griechenland - Grecia - Grece  (as Cywr said - all refelcting the same Latin root)

France - Frankreich - Francia (All referring not to the latin name for the land - but to the "Franks" who lived there)

Germany - Allemagne - Germania - Deutschland

Some countries are referred to by what their name means  - which then bears little relationship to the original pronunciation:

Unites States - Etats Unis - Vereinigten Staaten - Stati Uniti

It depends on when the country acquired it's name and how the various languages developed.

Well Hellenic is frequently used as a substitute for 'Greek' when describing things, but then English is like that, with multiple words for the same thing from nay different languages.

Arabic:ونان
Aromanian: G�rtsii
Bahasa Indonesia: Yunani
Bahasa Malayu: Yunani
Belarussian: Грэ́цыя
Breton: A' Ghr�ig
Bulgarian: Гърция
Catalan: Gr�cia
Czech: Řecko
Danish: Gr�kenland
Dutch: Griekenland
Esperanto: Grekio
Estonian: Greeka
Finnish: Kreikka
French: Gr�ce
German: Griechenland
Greek: Ελλάδα
Hebrew: יוון
Icelandic: Grikkland
Interlingua: Grecia
Italian: Grecia
Latin: Graecia
Lithuanian: Graikija
Low German: Grekenland
Luxembourgish: Griichenland
Minnan: Hi-lia̍p
Norwegian (Riksmal): Hellas
Polish: Grecja
Portuguese: Gr�cia
Romanian: Grecia
Russian: Греция
Serbian:Грчка
Slovenian: Grčija
Spanish: Grecia
Swedish: Grekland
Thai: ประเทศกร$ 37;ซ
Toki Pona: ma Elena
Tok Pisin: Gris
Ukrainian: Греція
Welsh: Gwlad Groeg

Yes, the wise men of the Netherlands speak many languages

Originally posted by MixcoatlToltecahtecuhtli Arabic:ونان Aromanian: G�rtsii Bahasa Indonesia: Yunani Bahasa Malayu: Yunani Belarussian: Грэ́цыя Breton: A' Ghr�ig Bulgarian: Гърция Catalan: Gr�cia Czech: Řecko Danish: Gr�kenland Dutch: Griekenland Esperanto: Grekio Estonian: Greeka Finnish: Kreikka French: Gr�ce German: Griechenland Greek: ������ Hebrew: יוון Icelandic: Grikkland Interlingua: Grecia Italian: Grecia Latin: Graecia Lithuanian: Graikija Low German: Grekenland Luxembourgish: Griichenland Minnan: Hi-lia̍p Norwegian (Riksmal): Hellas Polish: Grecja Portuguese: Gr�cia Romanian: Grecia Russian: Греция Serbian:Грчка Slovenian: Grčija Spanish: Grecia Swedish: Grekland Thai: ประเทศกร$ 37;ซ Toki Pona: ma Elena Tok Pisin: Gris Ukrainian: Греція Welsh: Gwlad Groeg

 

Actually, the etymology of the name "Greek" (Graeci in Roman) goes back to the first actual Greeks the Romans encountered. The Greeks always called themselves "Hellenes", but the Romans applied the specific name "Greek" to all those that spoke a similar language to the Graeci they encountered and thous it prevailed (seing that Latin has heavily influenced most European languages).

Most eastern languages are using the root -yon- which comes from the Persian Yunon (IIRC)  which is a paraphrase of the Greek Ionian.

So, both the easteners and the westeners are using the name of a single Greek tribe to describe all the Hellenes.

Don't forget Rum, Roumaios, which is  what the Ottomans formally used to refer to all  Greek Orthodox Christians.

this has gone through a meaning shift begining with meaning the Greek Orthodox Christian areas of the Ottoman empire, and  today to specifically mean only Greeks. EG the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is called "Rum Fener" (fener coming from Phanar or lighthouse from the district it is located). Turkey today insists Rum means Greek and Greek only and make a point that the Rum mean only Greeks even if it had a broader meaning in the past. So there is a kind of politically based circumscribed meaning of the word to refelct a policy of limiting a minority insitution namely the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate whcih is actually the longest continually operating institution -- of any kind -- in all of Turkey.

So in the discussion about names you have to include rum, with Romaic being a known dialect of Kione Greek and indeed consideration at the foundign of Greece a compatative root for the official name. Greek identity writers and foreign anthroplogists and historians often spoke of the struggle between the Hellenic (mainland) and Romaic (cosmopolitan) dual identities of modern century Greece. Greek refugees from Asia Minor (1923) and the Black sea (1913) brought in a huge romaic culture including a 19th centruy commerical and maritime dominace of the eastern med.

so not only are they called Ionian i.e.yunan by Easterners encountring Greeks on the black sea and Antatolia, and Greeks by those who first encountered the Graea in Italy, and Hellene from the classical age self nomination, they are also Romoais/Rum from the Byzantine age.

if you are curious look up the definition of the language Romaic or its predicessor , the "koine." Not incidently koine and its derivative romaic became the modern Greek language called (demotic Greek or demotiki).

lastly although rumania, and romani (the gypsy language) also come from the same root in roman they are not directly related.
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Edited by aero

Arabic:�����

Fixed, pronounced Yunan(not Yunnan, thats chinese) which means Greece, for greek nationals its "������"

I think its a corruption of the english/latin(?) word "Ionian".

Originally posted by MixcoatlToltecahtecuhtli Portuguese: Gr�cia

Actually, it's Gr�cia. Just a minor correction. The people are grego(s) and grega(s). There are also the adjective hel�nico and the noun H�lade, but are especially used only in academic contexts.