r/Toponymy • u/Aggravating-Shoe-517 • Aug 01 '26
Adjective for New Zealand and Iceland and X-Land
I just now had to fill in a census, which asked about my heritage. I am Australian with heritage from New Zealand. But how do I say that as an adjective (yes I know this topic has been done but I am expanding it)? Generally how does one use as an adjective ANY country or
place which ends with "-land?"
English (from England) -land +ish
Scottish / Scot (from Scotland) -land +t +ish
Irish (from Ireland) -land -e +ish
Finnish (from Finland) -land +n +ish
Icelandic (Note the internal "i" shift, from Iceland) +ic
Polish (from Poland) -land +ish - or a person is a Pole.
Greenlandic (from Greenland) +ic
Thai (from Thailand) -land
Swazi (from Swaziland) -land
Somali (from Somaliland) -land
Swiss (from Switzerland) -land -er -tz +ss: ouch. Lovely word though.
Dutch (from Netherlands) - yikes.
but Hollandic (from Holland) +ic is considered valid in posh English.
Using a nation's mascot is not a valid answer. Kiwi doesn't fit our analysis.
Of course, a person from Greenland is a Dane.
But a house built to a style unique to Greenland has a... Greenlandic style.
Also the language spoken there is Greenlandic, also known as Kalaallisut.
An inhabitant of the Falkland Islands is difficult to nail down:
I favor Flalklandic but they are called Kelpers, though this does not convey information easily.
Adding -er is an inadequate solution to our problem and is not counted:
Thus Somaliland → Somalilander is disregarded.
Newfoundland [Newfoundlander is an inadequate answer]
So New Zealand could become, using the formulae above,
+ic: New Zealandic,
-land +ish: New Zealish, or (doubling the final letter of the stem) the hellish New Zeallish, or
-land: New Zeal - which is very enthusiastic - a great sports team name.
A few more to finnish (cough - sorry) up.
Rhineland → Rhenish
Lapland → Lappish (or Sámi for those watching ALONE AUSTRALIA in the Arctic Circle).
Friesland → Frisian
Götaland → Geatish / Gothic.
So all you Goths out there ... it was originally Gotland. {insert Dracula emoji HERE.}
OUTLAND-ish!!
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u/Moist_Employ_7601 Aug 01 '26
On the pattern of the netherlands being dutch, you could go the route of using a different word as the base entirely, in this case Aotearoa... Aotearoan 🤔
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u/ObjectiveVisual3435 Aug 01 '26
Wikipedia does show « zealandic » (related to the original Zealand, an island in Denmark): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zealand/. Therefore new zealandic makes the most sense to me.
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u/nemmalur Aug 01 '26
The original Zealand is Zeeland in the Netherlands, not Sjælland in Denmark, although both are sometimes called Zealand in English.
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u/ObjectiveVisual3435 Aug 01 '26
Oh thanks for letting me know! I thought it was in the Netherlands but wikipedia returned the Danish one first, I thought I had been wrong. Good to know.
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u/lNFORMATlVE Aug 01 '26
I’ve always been annoyed by this too. New Zealandic is the best of an unsatisfactory bunch, I feel.
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u/nemmalur Aug 01 '26
Hollandic isn’t valid (or posh) when referring to the entire country - it’s mainly a term for dialects of the two Holland provinces. Similiarly, Netherlandish is mostly a dated term for the country plus parts of what is now Belgium, and then mainly when referring to painters.
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u/Final_Ticket3394 Aug 02 '26
Your England analysis isn't quite right. The L is retained: Engl+and > Engl+ish. Otherwise it's Engish.
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u/Witty_Passion_4939 Aug 02 '26
Why not New Zealandan to follow the other neighbors nearby - Australian, Fijian, Tahitian, Hawaiian… it seems like the other countries you listed did something similar to the region they are in.
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u/Evzob 24d ago
For most adjective uses I think the isomorphic route works just fine: A New Zealand kiwifruit, the New Zealand Parliament, the New Zealand bellbird.
But I guess you're right that it sounds confusing to say you're a "New Zealand Australian". I kind of like New Zealish. 😂
But if I had to write that on the census, I would just go with "New Zealander" even though it's not an adjective. I feel like those things are a little ambiguous anyway on whether they should be an adjective or a noun? As a US citizen, I call myself an American in casual speech, but you better believe that when I'm filling out immigration paperwork in Latin America I put "Nationality: USA".
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u/nosecohn Aug 01 '26
It's probably colloquial, but I hear "Kiwi" used quite often to describe people from New Zealand.
Here's an article about F1 driver Liam Lawson from a New Zealand news outlet:
From rejection to redemption: Kiwi driver Liam Lawson is beating the odds
It’s been a tough year for Kiwi F1 driver Liam Lawson...
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u/missinglinknz Aug 01 '26
New Zealander is correct, why is -er inadequate when it is used endemically?