《闲话英伦》-原来「英国」有这么多种叫法？！

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The other thing I often hear, in some of the old war movies, you hear some soldiers say "Blighty".

Yes, that's a really old historic slang. And it's always used by soldiers in the First and Second World Wars, and it just means Britain. So they would say "go home to Blighty".

So it means the country.

It means the country.

Go home to Blighty.

Yeah. And that actually comes from Urdu.

乌尔都语？

Yeah.

Okay.

It's the Urdu word for foreign land, "Vilayati" .

For foreign land. That's a bit weird to go home to foreign land.

Well. If you think about it, this was the era when Britain ruled India.

So if they were speaking, Hindustani, Hindi or Urdu, then probably people in India would say "Vilayati" .

Oh. It's like go back to your own...

Over there.

Over there. Okay, go back to the foreign land, foreign land to us, I see.

Yeah.

See. In Chinese we also have different names for the country, for example, it was like什么此生无悔入华夏，华夏，对吧? 

Oh, yeah.

So, we have a lot of those as well.

Yeah, it's the same as in English. They mostly used in sort of poetic.

Poetic, more literary, historical.

Yeah.

Okay. And what about Wales?  Wales has his own language, right? 

Yes. They speak Welsh.

Which is an impossible-to-learn language.

It is very, very difficult.

Do you understand Welsh?

No.

It's a completely different language.

It's a completely different language. The grammar is completely different. The words are completely different. If you lived in Wales, then you would have to learn Welsh at school up to about 16,  it's a compulsory subject, but most English people don't speak Welsh.

Okay. But where does the name Wales come from?

Well. It comes from the old English word for foreigner.

Okay. So basically English and just saying "over there, they are foreigners".  

Yeah.

Okay.

The actual Welsh name for the country is Cymru.

Yeah, this is completely different from the word Wales.

It is. And there are a number of people who are calling for Cymru to be used instead of Wales because they know Wales originally meant.

Yeah. I wouldn't want to be living in a place that is internationally known as the foreign land.

Exactly.

Yeah. What about Scotland?

Well. Scotland comes from the Latin word for the tribes that live north of Hadrian's Wall.

Hadrian's Wall, 就是这个哈德良长城.

Yeah.

I remember once reading somewhere, you know, in Game of Thrones,在《权游》里面, the wall那个绝境长城就说是it was originally based on Hadrian's Wall.

It was based on Hadrian's Wall.

Okay, then all those living outside that would be referring to the Scottish people.

Yeah.

Or the Scottie.

The Scottie. Oh, that sounds cute, Scottie.

So Hadrian's Wall was the limit of Roman control. So the Romans conquered England and Wales, but they did not go beyond Hadrian's wall. They did not conquer the whole of Scotland.

There is one thing that I'm always a little bit confused about, is the word Gaelic or Celtic, what do they refer to?  Is it Scotland or?

Gaelic refers to the language.

The Gaelic language? 

Yeah. So you have Scottish Gaelic and you have Irish Gaelic.

Oh, okay. That's why. Because sometimes I see it, it’s linked with Scottish people sometimes it’s linked with Irish people.

Yeah. But Celtic refers to more the culture or the people.

The people of Ireland.

Ireland and also Scotland.

Ah, I see.

So you talk about Celtic character or Celtic culture, Celtic music, Celtic stories.  

I see.

So, for example in Scottish Gaelic, Scotland is known as Alba,

Alba?

Yeah. 

A-l-b-a? So it doesn't mean... and it just means that land, Alba.

Yeah. So for example BBC in Scotland is also known as BBC Alba, because the BBC actually do make TV shows in Scottish Gaelic.

Scottish Gaelic, I see.

Yeah. But there's also another word for Scotland.  This is Caledonia.

Oh, this is I've heard. Caledonia, is it also like a poetic name?

It is a poetic name. It's the Latin name of the area used by the Romans. So for example, the train that goes from London to Edinburgh is called the Caledonian express.

I always wondered what that is.

Yeah. So you might see it, if you go to Scotland, you might see some shops or literature and they will use the word Caledonia.

I see. So finally let's wrap up with Northern Ireland.

Yes. Now Northern Ireland is, I won't go into the history, because it's very, very complicated.

I actually explained the history a little bit when I was talking about the Derry Girls.

Okay.

I talked about the Troubles.

Yes, so I would say if you're interested listen to that podcast, because it's a very, very complicated story.

对那一段历史感兴趣的, 可以听听我们之前的那个【璐璐荐剧】. 有一次说到《德里女孩》, 我特别说了 the Troubles between Northern Ireland now is Northern Ireland and also Ireland, the independent country.

Yeah. The reason why I say this is because you gotta be very careful with the terms. For example, Northern Ireland is the political name of the area, but some people might call it Ulster.

Ulster. I've heard about that.

So Ulster was the historic northern province and that included Northern Ireland and parts of the republic of Ireland.

So in Northern Ireland I would say you gotta be quite sensitive about the names. But I would say you have to be sensitive about the names for all of the countries in the UK.

All of the nations.

All of the nations. The reason for that is that people are very proud of where they come from.

So if you call a Scottish person English, they might get quite annoyed, they might get quite upset.

Yeah, I think this is something that's very very different and also we know that Scotland has always been... do like the referendum and all that. Like in China you might be from say Hubei and he might be from Hebei, but you go like we're all Chinese here. But it does become a lot more sensitive in the UK, because this has been something that's always been talked about.

Exactly. So all of these nations are to a certain extent somewhat separate from England. So England is just one nation in the United Kingdom. Scotland has its own laws, it has its own government.

Yeah. Has its own language.

Has its own language, as same as Wales.

Alright.  And before we make the matter even more confusing, we're gonna wrap up here. If you have any questions, have any comments, leave us a comment in the comment section. Thank you for coming to the show, 安澜.

Thank you, 璐璐. Thanks, everyone.

We'll see you next time.

Bye.

Bye. 

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