Greece: Difference between revisions

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The historical name of Greece in Greek is '''{{Polytonic|&#7961;&#955;&#955;&#940;&#962;}}''' ''Ell&aacute;s'' {{IPA|/&#603;&#712;las/}}<!--Please note: IPA accent is written *before* the accented syllable, not after the accented vowel-->. This name is also written ''Hellas'' in English, following the [[ancient Greek|ancient]] [[Greek language|Greek]] pronunciation {{IPA|/h&#603;&#712;l:as/}}. More commonly, it is called '''&Epsilon;&lambda;&lambda;&#x03ac;&delta;&alpha;''' ''Ell&aacute;dha'' {{IPA|/&#603;&#712;laða/}} in [[modern Greek|modern]] [[Greek language|Greek]]. The mythical ancestor of the [[Greeks]] is the eponymous [[Hellen]].

The name of Greece in the European languages (English: ''Greece'', French: ''Gr&egrave;ce'', Spanish and Italian: ''Grecia'', German: ''Griechenland'', Russian: ''&#1043;&#1088;&#1077;&#1094;&#1080;&#1103;'', etc.) comes from a different root: {{Polytonic|&#915;&#961;&#945;&#953;&#954;&#x03cc972;&#962;}} ''Graikós'' (<i>via</i> Latin: ''Graecus'')

which according to [[Aristotle]] was an ancient name for the Greeks. On the other hand, the name of Greece in Middle Eastern languages (Turkish: ''Yunanistan'', Arabic: &#1610;&#1608;&#1606;&#1575;&#1606;, Hebrew: &#1497;&#1493;&#1493;&#1503;, Ancientancient Persian: ''Yaunâ'') comesderives from the Greek root {{Polytonic|&#9217992;&#969;&#957;&#943;&#945;}} = ''[[Ionia|I&#333;nía]]''. [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] is one of the few languages apart from Greek in which the name ''Hellas'' predominates.

Some Greeks prefer the name "Hellas" for the country and "Hellenes" for the people even in English. See <i>[[Hellenes]]</i> for discussion.