Meaning of country names.

Well, I would start my 'career' in this forum with a simple quiz. There is a state in the Europe, and in the EU, where there is a city, the written name of which in their language literally means "The Castle of the Ash-Monkeys".
Tell me te state and tell me the city.

Aschaffenburg, Germany. The written name, because they pronuncate the City name a bit different - with pressure on "schaf"-part, instead of "asch"-part. Originally it was Ascaphaburc, by the location of the Castle. During the yearhundreds it has changed to produce such strange result.

Originally posted by ulrich von hutten Originally posted by parakaru Well, I would start my 'career' in this forum with a simple quiz. There is a state in the Europe, and in the EU, where there is a city, the written name of which in their language literally means "The Castle of the Ash-Monkeys". Tell me te state and tell me the city. well ,your careerstar seems not to be acompanied by a good star, cause your translation was totaly wrong. Aschaffenburg must be translated in to Ass-Monkey Castle. And have you ever heared about the lovely Jacob Sisters,who had a chart-breaker with the song :Auf dem wege nach Aschaffenburg ,da brannten alle Affen durch -means On way the way to A** Monkey Castly ,the escape of the monkeys was vastly..

It seems like I should have given you German-English dictionary for Xmas.
"Asch-Affen-Bug" of course means "castle of the ash-monkeys", while the term "ass-monkey-castle" you propose would correctly be translated as "Arsch-Affen-Burg".
Considering the town is somewhere in the deep south of Germany that might have been the original meaning, and the "r" might have been dropped sometime in the past.

Originally posted by mongke Originally posted by Winterhaze13 There is a funny story about the origin of Canada. When Jacques Cartier came to Canada he mistook the world "Kanata", as being a native nation like the ojibwa, but the native who he was talking to was refering to a village. So the word "Kanata", which eventually evolved into Canada means village. Nice story I think.   Yeah as far as I am concerned Canada is a village compared to the US.

which we also own .. and gonna sell it soon

Mexico means " in the middle of the moon ".

to ulrich von hutten:
"well ,your careerstar seems not to be acompanied by a good star, cause your translation was totaly wrong. Aschaffenburg must be translated in to Ass-Monkey Castle. "

Well, Komnenos has answered already good enough. And whilest i had my own schooltime in a school, especially centered on the german language, i think, i know well enough the difference between asch and arsch   

But it was interesting point about the Jacobs-Sisters. Really never heard about them. By the strophe you have given, seems to be a funny song.

Originally posted by Temujin the town however has to be pronounced A-schaffenburg and not Asch-affenburg, the Asch and affen thing is just coincidence.

Well, as i said, "the written name".

Originally posted by Cyrus Shahmiri Iran: [Airyana=Airia(Aryan)+Ana(way)] = Land of Aryans Afghanistan: [Afghan(Shout) + Istan(Land)] = Land of people who speak loudly Pakistan: [Pak(Pure) + Istan(Land)] = Land of Pure (Muslims) India: [Hindustan=Hindu(Sindh) + Istan(Land)] = Land of people who live beside Sindh (Indus) river Georgia: [Gorgistan=Gorj(?)+ Istan(Land)] = Land of Gorjs Tajikistan: [Taj(Crown) + ik(Head) + Istan(Land)] = Land of people who wear crown on their head Azerbaijan: [Azerbaigan=Azer(Fire)+Baigan(Place)] = Land of Fire Armenia: [Aramnistan=Aramn(Peace)+Istan(Land)] = Land of Peace

According to legend the leader of the Armenians was a man by the name of Hayk, whom the Armenians regard as their tribal father and therefore call themselves r “hay” (hay), i.e. the sons of Hayk, and their country Hayastan (the country of Hayk). Another more scientific explanation about the naming of the Armenian people is based on the original tribes which make up the presentday Armenian population. . The local people who lived in the area at the time of the arrival of the Indo-European tribes were called the Arme-Shupria people (the people of King Arame). The invading Indo-Europeans called themselves the Hayatsa people and came in time to dominate the Armenian highland and assimilate the Arme-Shuprias. Based on the names of these two people, the Armenians called themselves by the name of the dominant tribal name, i.e. “Hay” and the country Hayastan, while their neighbours called them by their old name: Armenians and their country Armenia. Another theory simply suggests that the name Armenian is a corruption of “Aryan men”, the name given by the natives to the newly arrived Indo-Europeans.

http://www.armenica.org/cgi-bin/history/en/getHistory.cgi? 1=999=9=23==1=3=A


Edited by armenica

Hellas: [Ellas= El (=light) + las (=stone) = land of light

AH! Most of this forum is a battle ground between the Macedonian and the Greek! My background is Persian and as far as I recall, Alexander is called "Esscandar-e- Maghdooni" in Persian ... which literally means Alexander of Macedonia! and farther more ... Mejmoon (Meymoon) meaning �monkey� as you would say is a Mecedonian word... well it's not! It's a Persian word ... Perhaps the Macedonians picked it up during their campaign in Iran from the Persian people... and to my fellow Iranian friend, Cyrus Shahmiri, what's all that non-sense about Macedonia being Egypt? I think it's all made up... anyway... I hope that everyone stop this stupid conflict between nations in here ... after all Alexander was not as glorious a character as they have made him... he was practically the Hitler of the ancient world... he was the first to burn many cities and books in Iran while he slaughtered Thousands of people. I would be ashamed to say that he was even related to any of my ancestors.