Country name problem

In Southwest Asia, South Asia and Central Asia, there are many place names with the word "stan", some of which are country names, such as Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan. etc.; some are regional names, such as Hindustan (also translated as Hindustan), Registan, Lorestan, Sistan, Khuzestan, Kurdistan, etc. The "Stan" type has "infiltrated" into Europe, such as the west coast of the Caspian Sea and the eastern part of the North Caucasus, with Dagestan. There are even place names of this type emerging recently, such as Tatarstan and Bash in the Russian Federation

Kortostan, etc. The Chinese translation of a few place names does not include "stan", but the original name does. Word-forming components such as Afghanistan and Baluchistan fall into this category.

The original word "stan" comes from Persian, and "-stan" is its Roman letter transliteration. The original meaning is very simple, that is, "place" and "region", which generally refers to a relatively large area. Later, with the expansion of ancient Persian political influence, the spread of Persian culture, the proliferation of Iranian-speaking ethnic groups and close interactions with other ethnic groups, the word entered other languages ??such as Hindi, Urdu and Turkic languages. The meaning of the word has expanded, the content has gradually become richer, and many similar but different extended meanings have been derived. For example, in modern times, some provinces and regions in some countries were built in places named after "...stan". Borrowing it as the name of a province or region means "province (region)". As a result, the noun forms of traditional place names, historical place names and political regions are exactly the same but the scope of reference is inconsistent. For example, Balochistan (stan) was originally the name of a region, but politically it belongs to Pakistan and Iran. Both countries have provinces with this name or containing this name. Another example is Kurdistan. As a traditional place name, the scope of reference includes parts of the territories of five countries, including Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Armenia. However, Iran has established a Kurdistan Province on its own side. This situation is not a big problem if it occurs within one country. If it occurs between two or three countries, you need to pay attention to the differences (including their spelling forms) and avoid confusion. Since some country names contain the word "stan", such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, it has gained the extended meaning of "country". By the 1990s, with the emergence of five Central Asian countries that all had "...stan" as part of their country names, this extended meaning became more prominent and attracted more attention. Some people even think that the so-called "Stan" means "country".

In short, the meaning of "Stan" is probably nothing more than "region", "province (region)" and "country". In the past, it usually referred to large geographical entities, and rarely He uses. But the situation is always developing and changing, and over time, city names also contain this element. For example, there is a city in the central and southern part of Sakakhstan called Turkestan (in the South Kazakhstan Oblast); in addition, Iran, Kazakhstan and In Pakistan, there is a town called Gulistan, but such instances are rare.

Place names containing the word "stan" generally have a long history. Such place names frequently appear in ancient Persian classics, and are even reflected in the annals of our country's history. However, some of them are recent, such as the name "Pakistan", which was only born in 1947 with the birth of the new country. It has only been half a century ago. The rest cannot be said to be ancient place names, such as the west coast of the Caspian Sea. Dagestan in the European part of the Russian Federation only had this name in the 17th century. Before that, it had never been known lightly.

As a place name, "Stan" is mostly combined with the name of an ethnic group. The meaning of the place name formed in this way is very obvious. Baluchistan (stan) means "Baluch people area", and Kurdistan means "Baluchistan". for "Kurdish areas," and so on. But it cannot be made absolute, and this situation cannot be turned into a formula and applied to all place names containing "Stan", otherwise it will be a joke. For example, the name Pakistan has nothing to do with the national name. It is based on Islamic teachings and takes the word "Bak" (which means "pure and untainted" and "pure and true". It turns out to be Islam's respect for Allah. , hymn) appended with "Stan" to form the country name, which means "the pure and pure country", which also means "the country of God". Another example is Dagestan, which is a combination of the Turkic word "Dag" (meaning "mountain") and the Persian word "stan". The full name means "mountainous country" and "mountainous area", reflecting the local geographical environment. The outstanding features have nothing to do with the ethnic names of the residents.