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Nouns

Countries, Languages, and Demonyms

In Arcadia we have a way to generate nouns for countries, languages, and demonyms based on the name of the country. This is done by taking the stem of the country's name and adding specific suffixes:

  • Country: Add the suffix -ea to the country's stem.
  • Demonym: Add the suffix -ezhi to the country's stem.
  • Language: Add the suffix -ona to the country's stem.
  • Toponymic adjective: The toponymic adjective is formed by adding a final vowel to the stem to match the noun's class.

Examples

Stem Country Demonym Language Toponymic Adjective
grec- grecea grecezhi grecona greci
ital- italea italezhi italona itali
franc- francea francezhi francona franci
angl- anglea anglezhi anglona angli
german- germanea germanezhi germanona germani

Not all language names stem from a place or a tribe, especially conlangs. This leaves us with some language names that do not follow this pattern, such as:

  • Esperanto
  • Klingon
  • Toki Pona
  • Nahuatl
  • Tagalog
  • Ainu

In case these language names end with a vowel, they are simply borrowed as-is into Arcadia. Otherwise, we add the suffix -i to the name, as in:

  • Klingon -> klingoni
  • Nahuatl -> nahuatli
  • Tagalog -> tagalogi

We also have some countries that the name isn't a single word, or countries that there are multiple names that refer to the country and its people, such as:

  • United States of America/American
  • United Kingdom/British
  • Netherlands/Dutch
  • New Zealand/Aotearoa

For these, arcadia has a common list of country names, demonyms, and languages.