What are the english language rules for deciding the terms (suffixes) for a people?
For example, those from China are Chinese. Those from Burma, Burmese. But those from India are Indians, from America, Americans, from Thailand, Thai, etc. I see some patterns put I would like to know the specific linguistic rules.
I will discuss the singular first.
For new countries/regions, the rule is if the countryname in English ends in a vowel or diphtong, the vowel/diphtong is chopped of and replaced with -ian”.
Unless, if it ends with “-ya”, or “a”. Just an “-n” is added.
If it ends with a consonant, “-an” is usually added.
If the countryname ends with “-land”, just the first part is used as is. Scott, Thai, Naga
Some countries just get an “-ish”. That is probably where the countryname entered early into Old English (where “ish”was the normal suffix), or where the countryname entered via German. Normally the last vowel cluster (or -en) is stripped before it is added.
There are many, many, many exceptions.
English, for some reason, likes regional suffixes. The East Asians are “ese” for some reason. Because we say Chinese, we break the rule for Japan, Burma, Vietnam and Siam too. Think about it, if we start a new country Durma, the people will more likely be called Durmian, unless if it is in the far east. Then they will be called Durmese.
Because we say Bolivian, we say Peruvian. These, of course, are neigbouring countries. If was not for that, we might have referred to Peruans.
That’s as close as I can get. There are just too many exceptions. Most European names are exceptions, but Dutch is the worse. We use that for the people of the Netherlands (sometimes referred to by the name of the dominant provinces Holland). Actually, Dutch is the name for what English call the Germans. Germany’s name should be Dutchland, where the Dutchians live.The Dutch should be the Netherlandians. The names Dutch/Deutsch/Teuton all have the same root. It means the simple culture (as opposed to higher Latin derived culture). Only the English use the name German (it means “barbaric”). The Romans used the name for a large group of related (then) Barbaric tribes to the north of them, which included the Anglo-Saxons. German should be the collective name for the English, Dutch, Germans and Scandinavians.
Anyway, I’m digressing. Hope I could offer something in the answer..
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