Landoj kaj popoloj: Francio and usonano

Esperanto builds country names two ways. Either the root names the people and the country is built from it (franco, a French person, gives Francio), or the root names the country and the people are built with -an- (Kanado gives kanadano, a Canadian).

Nothing in a name tells you which way it runs, so learn each country with its people, as a pair.

The people come first

The root names a people, and the country is the people's land:

The people word is the base, and it is an ordinary noun in lower case; the country takes a capital:

• La francoj loĝas en Francio. - The French live in France.

A few countries end in -lando (from lando, a country) instead:

• Ŝi naskiĝis en Pollando. - She was born in Poland.

The country comes first

The root names the country, and -an- (a member of) makes its people:

Usono is the United States. Esperanto keeps Ameriko for the continent, so usonano is a citizen of the USA while amerikano can be anyone from the Americas (in everyday use it often means a US citizen too):

• Mia amiko estas usonano. - My friend is an American.

No rule decides which system a country uses. Most European peoples come first; most countries of the Americas, Africa and Oceania come first and build their people with -an-. A modern wordlist gives each country and its people side by side.

-io or -ujo

The people-first countries have two forms. Both are in use, and every Esperantist reads both:

• Mi vizitis Francion. - I visited France.
• Mi vizitis Francujon. - I visited France.
• -ujo is the form in the Fundamento: Zamenhof wrote Francujo and Germanujo.
• -io came in through later usage and is now very widely used, probably the commoner in current print.

The suffix -uj- has other work too: a container (monujo, a purse, from mono) and the Esperanto-speaking world, Esperantujo.

This page writes -io. Expect -ujo in Zamenhof and in plenty of current writing; nobody will misunderstand either.