The world is considering renaming United States on their maps. As the indigenous people discovered and explored the land thousands of years before the first Europeans, it's fitting that they should do it. Many nations made up the area. Is there any name that would be representitive of all?

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[–] 46 points 2 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago

    the name of the continent and the country in English both come from the "explorer." might as well go all the way and have the continent of Turtle Island and the country of the United States of Turtle Island assuming we're renaming the existing country and not a new union of First Nations

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  • [–] 36 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    kʷədub swatixʷtəd

    Means stolen land in Lushootseed. But, any native language, or all native languages would be acceptable.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Any pointer to an audio-file for that phrase?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    The Internet says this is the phonetic pronunciation

    kwuh-doob swah-tee-hw-tuhd

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    We can abbreviate it to K-Dub! Or maybe kʷə for those either have an expanded keyboard or are willing to copy-paste or find the superscript tool in whatever app they’re using or whatever. Kind of like how people shorten the country’s full name to America or the USA or the U.S.

    (edited)

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  • [–] 30 points 2 months ago* (7 children)

    I love* how — in true stupid fashion — they’re naming things after America, which isn’t even the country’s name. We’re the United States of America, just one of several countries located on the North American continental plate.

    That said in answer to your question that is a tough one because there are so many unrelated language families in NA. I’d probably pick something either Algonkian or iriquoian. Nituskeenan means “our land” in Cree, for example, and sounds kinda cool.

    * I do not love this.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    While as an American (the continent) I find that annoying, their country name IS America. For example, these are some other countries full names:

    • Republic of the United States of Brazil (until 1930, now it's Federative Republic of Brazil)
    • Kingdom of Spain
    • Argentine Republic
    • United States of Venezuela
    • Oriental Republic of Uruguay

    Etc, a lot of countries have a long name that explains what type of government they run and then the actual name of the country, the United States of Venezuela is a country named Venezuela that was formed by a coalition of states, I know nothing of Venezuela but because of its name I can imagine states have some autonomy in their ruling. And similarly United States of America is a country named America that was formed by a coalition of states, they just decided to name their country after the continent they're in making life difficult for the future generations.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    While here in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, we apparently shortened it to just the type of government, like we're the only kingdom or something.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    AFAIK UK is the only country that's named "United Kingdom of something" and it's shorter than Great Britain and Northern Ireland, so it doesn't need disambiguation.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago

    Wouldn’t it be poetic if the rest of the countries on these continents ‘maliciously complied’ by going all-in adopting the term “American”?

    “American tacos” and “American Cerveza” sold with the Mexican flag on it, “American bacon”, “American Whiskey” and “American maple syrup” with the Canadian flag, etc.

    Leave the population of USA orphaned without a collective name for themselves.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Yes but to play devil's advocate, no other country uses "America" in their name and the word is synonymous with the USA in English.

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  • [–] 25 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    There's an argument that could be made for Iroquoia or Haudenosaunee. The Iroquois Confederacy was an alliance of five different native tribes who cooperated and jointly made decisions for hundreds of years before European colonists arrived, and that confederacy did serve as a point of reference when the earliest drafts of the Constitution were being written.

    That said, the US is absolutely massive and there are way too many tribes with different languages and cultures. No one word is going to be a good fit for everything.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    A lot of indigenous in Australia have adopted "Country" - there's small c country, which is the standard geographical meaning eg: Australia as a whole, then there's big C Country, which basically means "this place where we have gathered for this occasion" (hence Welcome to Country, which has the bonus of making dickhead recidivists foam at the mouth and fall over themselves demonstrating their own poor literacy skills)

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  • [–] 23 points 2 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 17 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Another user said 'Turtle Island' - I'm voting for that too! I just love that name to bits! 🥰🐢🤗

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  • [–] 30 points 2 months ago (9 children)
  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    But they asked about a name for the whole country

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  • [–] 17 points 2 months ago* (2 children)

    This is an example showing there isn't a concept of a whole country to stsrt from because it was split into separate groups that were not united.

    There were also a lot of different languages. It would be like asking for a European named for Europe.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    There were also a lot of different languages. It would be like asking for a European named for Europe.

    To offer something of a counterpoint: is there any European language that doesn't call Europe some variation of "Europa"? Europe has dozens of languages that developed in relative isolation, but a fairly consistent name for the continent was pushed into all of them.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago

    More info: The term did not originally refer to a unified continent but was gradually expanded by Greek geographers and historians like Herodotus to distinguish the western lands from Asia and Libya (Africa). It was not until the Middle Ages and the Carolingian Renaissance that "Europe" solidified as a distinct cultural and political identity linked to Christianity and the former Western Roman Empire, evolving from a vague regional descriptor into the modern continental concept.

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  • [–] 26 points 2 months ago
    [–] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 16 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Not really, as far as I know there was no concept of this land/continent as a whole so nobody had a name for the whole thing.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago

    People's Democratic Republic of North America

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    How about Federal United Corporation of Kingdom States

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago*

    Hmmm... I love the shape of the idea. But I'm not sure it would be fair to give it a name based on an indigenous word right as the stupidity levels are hitting new peaks.

    It feels like the Glass Cliff kinda.

    Whatever name is chosen, it should make sure to put the blame squarely on the right people.

    edit: after the revolution though, an indigenous word would be a great choice.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    Fuck Trump in any native american language will suffice

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    Shit hole.

    I believe it's Native American or something?

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    chicago means stinky onion or something.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (3 children)

    San Diego means a whale's vagina or something

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    pretty sure it means saint diego and is just spanish and not a native american term.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    In English, it is Saint James.

    Strangely enough, both James and Diego are linguistic descendants of Jacob. Each has its own tortured history of pronunciation changes over the last 2 or 3 millennia.

    Yacob = Jacobus = Jacomus = James

    Yacob = Iago = Diego

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    How about Americ-anus?

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    How do you say shit hole in Iroquois?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago* (3 children)

    New England.

    Canada's Head.

    Mexico's Hair.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    You go get unanimous agreement, and then we'll talk.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Dumbfuckistan

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  • [–] -1 points 2 months ago

    Shit Stain.

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