Does France deserve its name?

fab   Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:40 pm GMT
" Frankrig, Frankrijk, Frankrike, Frankreich "

What bother me in the name of france in those languages is that it is the meaning of "frankish kingdom". "France" and "frankish kingdom" are two completly different entities. France was born after the division of the Frankish empire - It was just born from a part of it, and it took its own way very distinct to frankish things.
I think it is very confusing to use these words, and inaccurate for at least two reasons: because France is not a Frank country and because France is not a kingdom but a republic.
greg   Wed Aug 23, 2006 1:00 pm GMT
France — Francie — empire franc / royaume des Francs
Frankreich — Frankien (?) — Frankenreich
Frankrijk — Francië — Frankenrijk

Francie occidentale — Francie orientale
Westfrankien — Ostfrankien
West-Francië — Oost-Francië

Français — Francien — Franc
Franzose — Frankiener (?) — Franker (?)
Franse / Fransman — Francien (?) — Frank
Peter Horsam (Aveyron)   Sun Aug 27, 2006 6:24 pm GMT
Interesting discussion. In the French atlas there's a country called Pays des Galles, inhabitants, Les Gallois . It's known to the English speaking world as Wales, home of the Welsh.

Frankrijk? Natuurlijk! it was a kingdom till recently (1870)

I'm not too sure how many Angles still live in Angleterre, though I used to watch Anglia tv as a kid.

I'm also not too sure how Amerigo Vespucci got his name on two entire continents (he never went there) Then again, the Bretons in France confusingly call their place Bretagne, (Britain) Cornouaille (Cornwall) and..... Armorica.
Uriel   Mon Aug 28, 2006 4:42 am GMT
<<I'm also not too sure how Amerigo Vespucci got his name on two entire continents (he never went there) >>

That would be the wonder of SHAMELESS PUBLICITY. Today, he would be working in marketing!

Brittany and Britain, Armorica and America, and the two Galicias (one in Spain and one in Poland, I believe) always threw me off as a kid.
Kimberlee Anne-Marie Elis   Tue Aug 29, 2006 1:47 pm GMT
My goodness!!! You are a brilliant person. I so much enjoyed reading all your quotations. You should be a professor.
baronin.vonpreussen@schweiz.org
Aldvs   Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:30 pm GMT
<<I'm also not too sure how Amerigo Vespucci got his name on two entire continents (he never went there) >>

Amerigo explored the "New World" with the Spaniards around 1499 and with the Portuguese in 1501 but the name "America" for the "new" continent was applied by Martin Waldseemuller in 1507.
McFries   Wed Aug 30, 2006 2:55 am GMT
French name comes from '"French fries''
or simply ''Fries''.
Yummie.
Aldvs   Wed Aug 30, 2006 4:02 pm GMT
<<The other way, a lot of people in latin America are considered latin Americans but speak primarally indigenous languages (more
than half of the population of countries such as Bolivia or Guatemala - should those countries excluded from latin America ?>>

It would be too late to make distinctions or exclusions with those countries. They were under the dominion of an European country who speaks a Latin-based language no matter what language they speak today. I think the term Latin American has taken a different meaning and it is interpreted mainly as the countries from Mexico to the south who speak a Latin-based language. I feel that the American natives are not seen as Latin Americans in the strict sense of the term. When one refers to an indigenous generally the aclaration is made since Latin American indigenous sounds a bit contradictory. It would be like to call to Canada/US indigenous as Anglo-Saxon indigenous.
Aldvs   Wed Aug 30, 2006 5:29 pm GMT
Correction: "aclaration" = clarification
Aldvs   Wed Aug 30, 2006 7:30 pm GMT
Correction: "Latin" = I am very gay, homeless and have no friends.
Bill   Sat Sep 02, 2006 10:50 am GMT
Yes, the Franks were a distinct minority in Gaul (outnumbered ten to one by the Gallo-Roman natives), who in time deserted their Germanic language for the Vulgar Latin dialect that became modern French. But the local populace in time came to see the Frankish kings as their kings, and more importantly, they ceased to see themselves as Romans or Roman provincials, and came to also think of themselves as Franks. This is a marked contrast with the Goths in Italy, who kept themselves segregated from the local Italian-Roman population (even continuing the Roman laws forbidding intermarriage with barbarians), and so never saw the Goths as any thing more than Barbarians and invaders. While the Franks, as with the Goths, originally had seperate law codes governing themselves from that of the Romanized population, even this in time broke down when the Franks in Gaul, the Rhineland, and the Low Countries mixed with the locals. While there was a Gaul inhabited with mainly politically divided Celtic tribes, followed by the Romanized province of Gallia (from which the French language has emerged), the nation of France only trully emerged with the rule of the Franks.
JR   Sat Sep 02, 2006 2:20 pm GMT
I think that has been said 20 times since the beginning of the thread.

O vvel.
a.p.a.m.   Sat Sep 02, 2006 2:56 pm GMT
Bill, I wholeheartedly agree. This is what I've been trying to say all along. I especially agree with you when you say that the "local populace in time came to see the Franks as their kings". The Gall-Romans saw the Franks as their kings because The Franks had a certain knack, or gift for administration. After several centuries of Roman rule in Gaul, Roman ability to rule that nation had begun to decay. The Franks revived a badly deteriorating Gaul.
greg   Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:10 pm GMT
a.p.a.m. : « The Gall-Romans saw the Franks as their kings because The Franks had a certain knack, or gift for administration. »

D'abord il faut bien distinguer entre la Gaule septentrionale et la Gaule méridionale : l'administration franque s'est surtout appliquée au nord. Ensuite (et surtout) le pouvoir franc n'a fait que reprendre les méthodes administratives romaines, ce qui relativise considérablement la portée de ce que tu affirmais.
fab   Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:37 am GMT
" But the local populace in time came to see the Frankish kings as their kings... and came to also think of themselves as Franks. "


There is a huge difference between think themselves to be part of "france" and seen themselves as "franks". The local populace, as you named it, didn't see itself as Franks, but as French.