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.