Thursday, October 13, 2016

City Demonyms

Demonyms refer to the people of a place. English uses different suffixes for the residents of cities. Here are examples:

-ite Lisbonite, Vancouverite, Denverite, Seoulite, Tokyoite
-ian Parisian, Budapestian, Bangkokian, Madridian, Bostonian
-er Praguer, Berliner, Dubliner, New Yorker, Hamburger
-an Hanoian, Nairobian, Mumbaian, Chicagoan, Miamian

Here is a list of irregular city demonyms:

Warsaw-Varsovian Moscow-Muscovite Los Angeles-Los Angelino Liverpool-Liverpudlian
Manchester-Mancunian Florence-Fiorentine Venice-Venetian Naples-Neapolitan
Athens-Athenian Sydney-Sydneysider Glasgow-Glaswegian New Orleans-Orleanian
Cambridge-Cantabrigian Oxford-Oxonian Damascus-Damascene Aberdeen-Aberdonian
Oslo-Oslovian Cairo-Cairene New Castle-Novocastrian Halifax-Haligonian

English doesn't have a single suffix for city demonyms. However, the suffix -an occurs with cities that end with a vowel sound and -er, -ian and -ite with words that end with a consonant sound.  English also has a number of irregular city demonyms.




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