ix900@sdccsu3.UUCP (David Sewell) (08/18/83)
This should be a more or less definitive answer. Germany goes by
several names for a good reason: the geographical area by that name
originally contained a variety of Germanic tribes with different names.
English "Germany" and French "Allemagne" go back to two Latin names,
Germanii and Alemanii, for two distinct (if I recall correctly) groups.
(I'm doing this without benefit of dictionary, so pardon creative
spelling.) "Deutschland" comes from a root related to English "Teuton."
By the same token, "English," "Anglais," etc. come from the tribe of
Angles who invaded Britain. The Gaelic term for Englishman, however, is
"Sassenach" (again, remembered spelling), from "Saxon," the other
important invading tribe. It's not really a question of "translation"
of country names, but of independent naming conventions.
If you want an example of a *really* bizarre version of the name of
a country, see what your unabridged dictionary says about where "Canada"
comes from.
David Sewell
...{ucbvax!}sdcsvax!sdccsu3!ix900