I have a question; Your country is called Deutschland, yes? You are Deutsch? So how come your country is called so many things by the rest of Europe. England says Germany France, Spain and Italy all say something that sounds like Alemania. But I think the Italians may call you Tedesco, what???? I have read that in Poland your country is called Niemcy, or something. In the baltics your country is called Vacija or Sakssamaa (My spelling is probably terrible. If you have never heard of this I can find references, I just don't want to look this up right now.) I just find this wierd that people around Europe don't even respect you enough to call your country what you call it. I understand if the mess up the spelling to fit there native tongue. All countries do that. But How do they get away with changing things so drastically. Maybe, I's just a little retarded. Just a question from a dumb redneck in Tennessee. Danke, gute nacht, Fawkes
Here's another example to clear things up for you Fawkes: This happens in any language dealing with the name of any other country I bolded some of the more interesting words. It is not a qurestion of respect or disrespect rather one of foreign language. America: Afrikaans -- Vereinigde State van Amerika Albanian -- Shtetet e Bashkuara të Amerikës Amharric -- ya-tabābarut ya-amerikā mangśtāt / Yunāytəd stets Arabic -- al-wilāyāt al-muttaHida al-amrīkīya Armenian -- Amērikayi Miatsyal Nahangnēr Azeri -- Amerika Birləşmiş Ştatları Basque -- Ameriketako Estatu Batauk Belorussian -- Zlučanyja Štaty Amèryki Bislama -- Amerika Breton -- Stadoù-Unanet Bulgarian -- Sŭedinenite Amerikanski štati Catalan -- Estats Units d'Amèrica Chechen -- amerikan tsHänatöhna štataš Chinese -- Meilijian Hezhongguo / Meiguo Chuvash -- Amerikări Pĕrlešüllĕ Štatsem Cornish -- Statys Unys Amerika Corsican -- Stati Uniti d'America Croatian -- Sjedinjene Američke Države Czech -- Spojené Státy Americké Danish -- Amerikas Forenede Stater Dhivehi -- Emerikaa Dutch -- Verenigde Staten van Amerika Esperanto -- Usono Estonian -- Amērika Ühendriigid Faroese -- Sambandsríki Amerika Farsi -- eyālāt-e mottaHedeye emrīkā / etāzūnī Finnish -- Yhdysvallat French -- États-Unis d'Amérique Frisian -- de Feriene Steaten fan Amearika Galician -- Estados Unidos de América Scottish Gaelic -- na Stàitean Aonaichte Irish Gaelic -- Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá Georgian -- Amerikis Šeert'ebuli Štatebi German -- Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika Greek -- Ēnōménes Politeíes Amerikées Hawaiian -- 'Amelika-Hui-Pu-'ia Hebrew -- Artsōt ha-Brīt šel Amerīqa Hindi -- Sãyukta Rājya Amrikā Hungarian -- Amerikai Egyesült Államok Indonesian -- Amerika Serikat Italian -- Stati Uniti d'America Icelandic -- Bandaríkin Japanese -- Amerika Gashukoku / Beikoku Kadbardian -- Amerikăm i Soedinjonnă ŠtatHăr Karakalpak -- Amerika Qurama Štatlary Kazakh -- Amerika Qūrama Štattary Kirghiz -- Amerika Košmo Štattary Komi -- Soedinjonnöj Štat'jas Amerikalön Korean -- Miguk Kurdish -- Dewletên Yekbûyî yên Amerîqayê / Amerikayê Lao -- Sahalat Æmelikā Latin -- Foederatae Civitates Americae Latvian -- Amerikas Savienotās Valstis Lithuanian -- Jungtines Amerikos Valstijos Luxembourgish -- Vereenegt State vun Amerika Maltese -- Stati Uniti ta' l-Amerika Macedonian -- Soedineti Amerikanski Državi Malay -- Amerika Syarikat Maori -- Te Hononga o Amerika Mongolian -- Amerikijn Nägdsän Uls Norwegian -- Sambandsstatane Ossetian -- Amerikäjy ] -- Iugond Štattä Papiamentu -- Merka Pashto -- Amrīkā Polish -- Stany Zjednoczone Ameryki Portuguese -- Estados Unidos da América Rhaeto-Romance -- Stadis Unids dal America Romanian -- Statele Unite de America Rundi -- Ishyirahamwe ry'ibihugu vya Amerika Russian -- Sojedinjonnyje Štaty Ameriki Sami -- Amerihká ovttastuvvan stáhtat Samoan -- Iunaite Setete o Amerika Serbian -- Sjedinjene Američke Države Sindhi -- Āmrīkā Slovak -- Spojené štáty americké Slovenian -- Združene države Amerike Somali -- Qaramada Midoobey ee Maraykanka Sotho -- Amerika Spanish -- Estados Unidos de América Swahili -- Muungano wa Nchi za Amerika Swedish -- Amerikas Förenta Staterna Tahitian -- Marite Tagalog -- Estados Unidos Tajik -- Štathoi Muttahidai Amerika Tamil -- amerikkā kuTiyaraču Thai -- Shrath Merikā Tok Pisin -- Amerika Tongan -- Pule'anga fakatahataha'o Amelika Turkish -- Amerika Birleşik Devletleri Turkmen -- Amerikanyň Birleşen Ştatlary Ukrainian -- Spolučeni Štaty Ameryky Uzbek -- Amerika Qo'shma Vietnamese -- Mỹ / Hợp chúng quốc Hoa kỳ Welsh -- Unol Daleithiau America Yiddish -- Far'eynikte Štatn Zulu -- iStetisi / iMelika
It's a matter of history. the Alemanni were a "tribe" in Southern Germany, next to what is now France, so the name stuck. Deutsch is the German word, related to "Dutch", of course. "Tedesco" is derived from "Deutsch". Saksamma is "Saxon": the people who came to England (cf Scottish Sassenach, Welsh Saesneg), It's not a matter of respect, but one of Germany's complex history.
Just as matthewh1 said. You also have to keep in mind, that until very late in history there was actually no such thing as one nation called Germany. There was Prussia, Bavaria, etc. There also was a time when Germany was like a big patchwork of individual tiny states. Even nowadays there is a strong sense of distinction between the inhabitants of Germany, which goes back to this collection of independent states. For example some Bavarians see themselves more as Bavarians than as Germans. This can especially be recognised in the dialects/variations of German (like in any other country and language of the world), and that's why I imagine learning German and talking to actual native speaking Germans might be quite the surprise To the word "Germany" itself: I presume it relates back to what the Romans called the land of the tribes living in the area that nowadays is the German Republic: Germania. As to the actual origin of "Deutsch": The word stems from Old High German "diutisc" which means "belonging to the people" and the word "Deutsch" was originally used to distinguish it from the other languages like French, Latin, etc.