- published: 07 Nov 2014
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In ethnolinguistics, an endonym or autonym (from the Greek ἔνδον, éndon, "within" or αὐτο-, auto-, "self" and ὄνομα, ónoma, "name") is a local name for a geographical feature, and an exonym or xenonym (from the Greek: ἔξω, éxō, "out" or ξένος-, xénos, "foreign" and ὄνομα, ónoma, "name") is a foreign language name for it. Exonyms and endonyms can be names of places (toponym), ethnic groups (ethnonym), languages (glossonym), or individuals (personal name). The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names defines:
For example, China, India, Germany, Greece, Japan, Hungary and Korea are the English exonyms corresponding to the endonyms Zhongguo, Bharat, Deutschland, Hellas, Nippon (Nihon), Magyarország and Hanguk/Chosŏn, respectively.
Exonyms may derive from different roots (as in the case of Germany for Deutschland), they may be cognate words which have diverged in pronunciation or orthography, or they may be fully or partially translated from the native language. For example, London is known by the cognate exonyms Londres in Catalan, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Tagalog, Londino (Λονδίνο) in Greek, Londen in Dutch, Londra in Italian, Maltese, Romanian and Turkish, Londer in Albanian, Londýn in Czech and Slovak, Londyn in Polish, Lundúnir in Icelandic, Lontoo in Finnish, Lun Dun in Mandarin and Luân Đôn in Vietnamese. An example of a translated exonym is the name Soviet Union.