Why are Germans referred to so differently in different languages?
score:86
The Wikipedia article on this is quite detailed.
In short, Germany was never conquered by the Roman Empire, so several tribes maintained their identity as well as the Germanic language. On top of that, you have Germany's central location, out of all those factors the different names emerged based on mostly 5 different origins.
Deutsch - from the Germanic language, this is what Germans call themselves as well as most other Germanic languages (English being a notable exception). The Tysk of the Norse language also stems from this. That's also valid for Italian, as "tedesco" is derived from Þiudiskaz (of the people), the same root word of "Deutsch". Curiously, Italians then call the country "Germania", following instead the etymology in the next point.
German - from the Latin Germania, this is what Germans were called in the roman empire and thus it's pretty widespread. As this is the name the English used as well, it disseminated through English colonialism to many other languages. English also has the word Dutch, which was originally used to describe Germans, but nowadays only refers to residents of The Netherlands.
Allemagne - from the Alamanni tribe in what is today southwestern Germany. As people in the time between the collapse of the Roman empire and the creation of the Carolingian empire (ca. 500-800) mostly came in contact with one of the many Germanic tribes some names for Germany were derived from that one tribe. This term is mostly used in the regions south and west of Germany, i.e. France and Iberia, probably through the Moors it spread towards Arabia as well. Also of note is, that there is a Latin word for the tribe, which explains how it could survive in the Latin languages spoken in western Europe.
Saksa - from the Saxon tribe in northern Germany (on a modern map of Germany, they lived in Schleswig-Holstein, the northern part of Niedersachsen and the western part of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern). Same explanation as above. This mostly applies to states around the Baltic, as the Saxons had a lot of contact with tribes in this area..
Nemet - The protoslavic word for foreigner forms the final category and defines the name of Germany in many eastern European languages, their tribes came into contact with Germanic ones and the name stuck. Another theory would be, that it's named after the Nemets tribe, which I think is unlikely, due to the geography between Slavic tribes and the Nemets. The Slavs lived in eastern Germany, while the Nemets were one the westernmost Germanic tribes.
For France, this is very different. Germany remained splintered into many small states until 1871. France on the other hand was essentially formed from nothing early in the middle ages, the term Francia, later becoming France was simply natural, the name for the original inhabitants of France, the Gaul, is nowhere to be found. While Germany consisted of dozens of small states loosely arranged in the Holy Roman Empire, so the identities of the regions inhabitants from ancient times remained intact, whereas France essentially didn't exist until the beginning of the middle ages.
Upvote:5
German.Stackexchange: Is there a reason why Germany (Deutschland) is called so many different things in other European languages?
English.Stackexchange: Why does Germany's English name differ from its German name?
History.Stackexchange: Why do some countries call Germany "Alman" too?
Wikipedia: Names of Germany
Because of Germany's geographic position in the centre of Europe, as well as its long history as a non-united region of distinct tribes and states, there are many widely varying names of Germany in different languages [...]
Upvote:13
Why Germany is known in world in a diverse way?
I believe this has to do with different nature of encountering Germans when it came to other nations.
Germany has a more important strategic location than France does. France is in the Western most reach of the Continent while Germany is in the center and had more dealings with Slavs in the East, Latins in the South, Nordics in the North and Frisian/Dutch in the West. They have also traditionally dominated/or played an very important role in global affairs since ancient times. (This does not imply that France did not play a similar role).
France was a nation for most of the time ever since Franks captured Gaul but Germans were separated into small states for most part of their history until the unification of 1871, which ironically also materialized after defeating the French in Franco-Prussian war of 1870. Which is why different nations came to know them by names of different factions or tribes.
Etymology of different names for Germans
France was ruled by Franks who also conquered Other German tribes which also included a very large tribe named Alemanni who settled in Eastern Direction of Frankish realm, along the Swiss border and beyond, precisely the Alsace Lorraine region. Thus French came to know the people East of the Rhine as Allemand.
Italians call the Germans Tedeschi but it derives from Theodiscus which shares the same root as original word Deutsch. I thought it had something to do with Teutonic but that's not the case.
Dutch are Germanic people themselves and among all other Germanic languages, Dutch is closest to German. Therefore they use Duitsers which is very close to original word Deutsch.
The Slavic name Niemecki (And other variants) for Germans comes from name of yet another Germanic tribe, the Nemetes who lived in region of Lake Constance. Luboš Motl has pointed out another theory for this word which I quote:
"The Slavic word (e.g. in Czech: Němec, Německo - German, Germany) has the root meaning "mute" - which is an exaggeration of the fact that they can't speak our (Slavic) language".
But I am more inclined to believe the Nemetes theory because the theory presented by Lubos is suspiciously similar to how Arabs used to mock Non-Arabs by calling them Ajam which basically means mute. Nevertheless, Luboš Motl's theory has more evidence than the one I presented does but well someone had to present it.
The Scandinavian name Tysk for Germans is derived from old Norse word þýzkr which means the People. German word Deutsch is also derived from the root word þeudō which also means the people. Which is why Nordics call the Germans Tysk and Germany Tyskland.
A map describing the local name for Germany in different nations of Europe, Near East, Caucasus and North Africa:
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