[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Alemães

[Günther Böhm]

Mauricio Norenberg schrieb:

> Here in Brazil, Germans are called "Alemães".
> Germany is Alemanha.
> A german citizien is called "alemão".
> I'm really curious about the origin of this.


Hello Mauricio,
there you are not alone with your Portuguese ancestors:
The French say 'Allemands' and the Spanish 'Alemanes'. The word came 
from France, a direct neighbour of Germany, to Spain and Portugal and 
derives from the 'Alamannen', a  Germanic federation of tribes 
(originally part of the Suebian federation of tribes) which settled on 
both banks of the upper Rhine from where they peacefully infiltrated 
Switzerland. 'Alamannen' simply means 'all men'. And since the western 
neighbours of the Alamannen were Franks, another Germanic tribe (which 
adopted the Roman language and became French), they didn't use the 
general and rather theoretical name 'Germanen' but the more practical 
and defining one of the neighbouring tribe.

Traditionally, the German dialects of the upper Rhine, Baden, 
Württemberg, a greater part of Bavaria and of western Austria, of 
Luxemburg and Switzerland are called 'Alemannisch'.

Günther