Editing Endonym and exonym (section)

== Exonyms as pejoratives ==
{{more citations needed section|date=July 2020}}

Matisoff wrote, "A group's autonym is often egocentric, equating the name of the people with 'mankind in general,' or the name of the language with 'human speech'."<ref name=":1" />{{rp|5}}

In [[Basque language|Basque]], the term ''{{lang|eu|erdara/erdera}}'' is used for speakers of any language other than Basque (usually Spanish or French).

Many millennia earlier, the Greeks thought that all non-Greeks were uncultured and so called them "[[barbarian]]s", which eventually [[Berber (name)|gave rise]] to the exonym "[[Berber people|Berber]]".

=== Slavic people ===
Exonyms often describe others as "foreign-speaking", "non-speaking", or "nonsense-speaking". One example is the [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] term for the Germans, {{lang|sla|{{wikt-lang|en|Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/němьcь|nemtsi}}}}, possibly deriving from plural of {{lang|sla|{{wikt-lang|en|Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/němъ|nemy}}}} ("mute"); standard etymology<ref>{{Cite book |last=Townson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5dNRAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA78 |title=Mother-tongue and Fatherland: Language and Politics in German |year=1992 |isbn=9780719034398 |page=78| publisher=Manchester University Press }}</ref> has it that the [[Slav]]ic peoples referred to their Germanic neighbors as "mutes" because they could not speak the "language". The term survives to this day in the Slavic languages (e.g. [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] німці (nimtsi); [[Russian language|Russian]] немцы (nemtsy), [[Slovene language|Slovene]] Nemčija), and was borrowed into [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Romanian language|Romanian]], and [[Ottoman Turkish]] (in which case it referred specifically to [[Austria]]).

One of the more prominent theories regarding the origin of the term "[[Slav]]" suggests that it comes from the Slavic root {{lang|sla|{{wikt-lang|en|Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/slovo|slovo}}}} (hence "[[Slovakia]]" and "[[Slovenia]]" for example), meaning 'word' or 'speech'. In this context, the [[Slavs]] are describing Germanic people as "mutes"—in contrast to themselves, "the speaking ones".{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

=== Native Americans ===
The most common names of several [[indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous American]] tribes derive from pejorative exonyms. The name "[[Apache]]" most likely derives from a [[Zuni language|Zuni]] word meaning "enemy". The name "[[Sioux]]", an abbreviated form of {{lang|fr|Nadouessioux}}, most likely derived from a [[Proto-Algonquian language|Proto-Algonquian]] term, {{lang|alg|*-a·towe·}} ('foreign-speaking).<ref>{{Cite web |last=d'Errico |first=Peter |date=2005 |title=Native American Indian Studies – A Note on Names |url=https://www.umass.edu/legal/derrico/name.html |access-date=2020-10-07 |publisher=University of Massachusetts}}</ref> The name "[[Comanche]]" comes from the [[Ute language|Ute]] word {{lang|com-Latn|kɨmantsi}} meaning "enemy, stranger".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sapir |first=Edward |title=The Collected Works of Edward Sapir |publisher=Mouton deGruyter |year=1992 |editor-last=Bright |editor-first=William |location=Berlin |chapter=Southern Paiute Dictionary}}</ref> The [[Ancestral Puebloans]] are also known as the "Anasazi", a [[Navajo language|Navajo]] word meaning "ancient enemies", and contemporary [[Puebloans]] discourage the use of the exonym.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cordell |first1=Linda |title=Archaeology of the Southwest |last2=McBrinn |first2=Maxine |date=2012 |edition=3}}</ref><ref name="UNCO">{{Cite web |title=Puebloan Culture |url=http://hewit.unco.edu/DOHIST/puebloan/begin.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100709073248/http://hewit.unco.edu/dohist/puebloan/begin.htm |archive-date=2010-07-09 |publisher=University of Northern Colorado}}</ref>

Various Native-American autonyms are sometimes explained to English readers as having literal translations of "original people" or "normal people", with implicit contrast to other first nations as not original or not normal.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|5}}