The Word On Some Other People

Regular readers will recall that I recently did a series of articles about why we use the names we do for various groups of people. I stuck with names of some of the Germanic groups, as these groups are more closely related to English, which is a Germanic language. Now, I'll move on to some other groups.

Greek-For such an influential group of people, the history of this word is a bit obscure. For quite some time, these folks were known as "Hellenes," the name of a particular ancient tribe, but it seems that Aristotle began the use of "Graikhos" in place of "Hellenes." The question is, "Why?" Some linguists claim that an ancient group of people called the Illyrians (essentially the ancestors of modern Albanians) used a form of this word for the people living in and around Epirus (a Greek city), but other linguists aren't so sure, with some claiming that it came from ancient Greek settlers from a coastal town named "Graia," who then crossed over into southern Italy, there encountering the Romans. The Romans then used "Graeci" as their own word for all "Greeks." Whatever the origins of the word, Old Germanic picked up a form of the word from Latin "Graeci;" Old Greek had "Grakoi." In Old English is was "Crecas," a plural form, with the "c" pronounced with the hard sound, like "k." Gothic, another Germanic language now extinct, had "Kreks." Later in English, the "C" became "G," and the spelling was therefore altered to "Grecas," before the modern spelling was adopted. I should note that the Romans took a number of words from Greek, and eventually some of these words found their way into other languages, including English (See "Turk," below). Also, Greek is an Indo European language, related to English further down the family tree.

Hun-The Chinese called these people from central Asia "Han" (short "a," like in "father") and "Hiong-nu." Turkic groups called them "Hunyu," which seems to have been picked up by Latin as "Hunni." It would seem that English got the word from Latin, and in Old English is was "Hunas," a plural form, with the "u" being long. The Huns came roaring into Europe during the 4th and 5th Centuries, A.D., and their one leader has been famous the world over, "Attila," usually known in English with the addition of "the Hun." The Huns eventually settled down and operated out of an area in southeastern Europe, and the area therefore became known as Hungary, in English, from Latin "Hungaria, but Latin seems to have gotten the word from Greek "Oungroi." Another group of people, the Magyars, who were related to the Huns, eventually moved into this area, but the name stuck, and the country is still called Hungary and the people Hungarians, although these people don't use either term, but rather a form of Magyar for both.